Sereya came to Kantenan as Roemary’s companion and has spent years being polished, composed, and cruel enough to keep the only belonging she has ever had.
Gol-Vett Dhomhes, the most dangerous male on the planet, sees through that performance in thirty seconds, despite telling everyone a male could control what happens when he meets his fated mate.
The moment she steps onto the ramp, his body proves him wrong in front of witnesses, yet he does not push; he asks, he waits, and he tells her she does not have to speak to Roemary first.
That ordinary permission nearly undoes her, until she overhears something she was never meant to hear and knows that telling him will cost everything she has spent years protecting.
A bombed landing platform, a search someone is deliberately obstructing, and a friend who says her real name in a bright, crowded room leave the woman who survived by making herself smaller finally seen.
