I clung to him.

He’d stopped walking but I couldn’t let go yet. I gripped him as though he might turn to dust in my arms.

This all felt like lucid dreaming.

How could something as wonderful as he be?

He set me down. My feet met the floor.

I ran my hands over his damaged chest. The skin already closed. The wounds were big and ugly, but not gaping. “You’re going to be okay?”

“Will heal,” he said, but something about his voice made my gaze shift to his.

His features set hard and closed.

I swallowed. Of course . He had every reason to be furious with me. I deserved a little wrath.

The blocking me out of his expressions I couldn’t take.

Of all the beautiful things about him, the thing I loved most was the way he let me in.

“I meant what I said, you’ve won. No more bases.” I stroked his chest.

Wouldn’t he just look at me properly?

“You’ve won it all,” I whispered, and brushed myself up against him. “Just take me to our cave, and I’ll show you.”

He removed my touch from him. “Must fulfill ritual first. Have bargain.”

The bitter edge to his voice chilled me.

“Have accept final quest.”

I cleared my throat. The Baratican’s were so committed to their deals. “Okay.”

He released my hand.

I placed it back to his chest where it belonged. “No need to wait, preform the final quest now.”

He was about to tell me who I was to him.

His brow furrowed, a slip in his shield.

Didn’t he expect that?

Had he thought that I’d find a sneaky way to delay?

Macca’s silence proved that even the resourceful super computer realized there was no way out of this now.

“It’s okay, there’s no wrong answer, only the truth.”

He stared at me. “Do see you.”

Did he? I swallowed, and my chest clenched. As a breedable uterus?

“Do see you, La La. Beyond mate.”

My fingers curled into his chest. Hope swung through me.

“Thor see La La say true—honesty, sincerity, feelings, commitment, not free shared.”

A falling sensation slammed into me. Like stepping into a void.

His honest face stared at me. “See La La have false affection.”

My hand flew to my chest.

“La La not care Thor. Want only leave. Want only go.” His nostrils flared with his last statement.

“Thor, I…” But what could I say? That it hadn’t been true at one time?

Hurt built below my ribs.

“See you, La La—false sayer.” He leaned closer and his attention, always warm on me, contained icicles. “Deal breaker.”

I flinched. Those words from him were more terrible than any curse. “I’m so sorry…”

He didn’t respond, but his gaze moved faster and faster over me. As though he truly did perceive me, and did not like what he saw.

I shuddered, and a sob hiccupped through me.

Oh, god. There were a thousand punishments I’d rather take than the expression he wore. A thousand tortures that wouldn’t be as cruel as this man who looked at me as though I were heaven, who touched me as though I were dreams come true, looking at me this way.

He glanced at my tears. “La La, know how make false ouch.”

I gasped, and cried harder. Hadn’t I before? Hadn’t I faked pain to manipulate him?

He wasn’t stupid.

His jaw hardened. Now he didn’t trust anything from me, not even my tears. “Summon ship, La La.”

“What?” I straightened, shock halting my tears. No…

He stepped back from me. “Thor not mate you.”

No . He couldn’t .

My insides twisted with agony.

He couldn’t break up with me. It shouldn’t be possible.

Nausea churned through me.

He was genetically, biologically, compelled to want me.

Could he hate me enough to resist?

I sucked in air, shaking my head.

No . He’d already bonded with me. He’d never have another mate. If we weren’t together, he’d be alone forever.

“Summon ship,” he repeated, fists closing. “Go, La La. Go.”

A wound burst inside me. Apparently eternal loneliness was preferable to me.

What the fuck had I done?

“Hold yourself, Leila. The spare drone has already collected the pallets and comes for you.”

I trembled and each twitch wrenched the hole inside me wider, spilling out more pain. The cave turned to a haze around me and it was like looking and talking through thick venomous fog. “It’s on its way.”

He nodded in one sharp movement, but didn’t leave.

He was going to stand there and see me gone.

Make sure he was truly rid of me.

I couldn’t take another second seeing him. I turned around, and did as Macca said—held myself. Held my arms crossed over my chest as though my vital organs were falling out.

Had I always been so completely unlovable?

Was this why…

The drone glided into the cave. The hatch whirled open. I stumbled over to it and scrambled through the opening into the tight cargo hold inside.

The door lowered after me, but not before I caught a glimpse of him, standing there straight and stoic.

A warrior not mine.

Was this why everyone let me go?