Chapter Eleven

Cassius' POV

The insistent pounding of my fist against the sturdy oak door reverberated down the corridor. I could feel the menacing growl building in my chest, but I willed Dante's flashes of aggression back into submission. For now.

"Enter," a clipped voice finally called out.

I didn't wait for any further preamble before throwing the door open and striding into the dimly-lit study. Julian was bent over the aged mahogany desk, quill in hand as he scrawled notations onto a piece of vellum. So engrossed in his work that he didn't immediately look up at my abrupt entrance.

"We have a problem," I stated in a tone that brokered no arguments.

Only then did Julian's piercing amber eyes flick up to meet my own. A muscle feathered along his strong jaw, but he remained otherwise impassive as he set his writing aside.

"What did the little wildcat do this time?" he asked, a hint of resignation in his deep voice.

I clenched and unclenched my fist, feeling the pads of my fingers elongate with the barely-restrained prick of claws emerging. A clear sign of how deeply this "problem" with Talia was managing to get under my skin in a way nothing else could of late.

"She knows," I growled out lowly. "Or at least has pieced together disturbing fragments of what her presence in this compound truly represents to our cause."

Julian arched one thick brow inquisitively. We'd been comrades in arms long enough for him to sense when I was legitimately shaken rather than simply posturing my dominance as alpha. This was undoubtedly one of those rare moments my carefully guarded exterior had cracked.

"How?" was his only terse response, pushing back from the desk to give me his full, focused attention.

I shook my head tautly, jaw muscles bunching. "What does it matter? The fact is, loose lips within these walls have risked compromising everything I've set into motion regarding her."

Stalking over to the low-burning fireplace, I braced my hands on the majestic oak mantle as I tried to regain some semblance of control over my spiraling thoughts. Over the errant craving to simply barge back to Talia's chambers and make her understand the severity of her transgressions through...persuasive means.

"Perhaps it's time to reevaluate involving the girl so deeply in affairs she cannot begin to comprehend," Julian ventured, ever the rational voice meant to counter my more impulsive alpha streaks. "Her human limitations--"

"Don't you dare insult her competence by citing her mortality," I snarled over my shoulder, emerald sparks flashing in my eyes as I turned to face him once more. "She's more than proven herself possessed of a resilience and spirit that shames most of the subordinates in our midst."

Julian held up his hands in a placating gesture, undeterred by my bristling anger. "Easy, brother. I meant no disrespect to your...mate's indomitable fire. Merely that no matter how brightshe burns, she is still an outsider to our most sacrosanct customs and codes."

He rose then in one sinuous movement, slowly closing the distance between us as I visibly wrestled with maintaining control over the storm echoing through my consciousness. Over the insistent, animalistic part of me that railed against the very idea of Talia being anything less than my revered equal for all eternity.

"All the more reason you cannot allow fleeting temperance or moment of vulnerability to cost you everything," Julian continued in that low, steadying cadence. "If she has uncovered our stratagem, then perhaps it is a sign the universe is testing your commitment to your path as alpha."

His knowing look bored into me as the double meaning became clear. The path I'd finally allowed myself to accept by acknowledging Talia as my mate. My other half who would walk beside me as this harsh new reality took shape.

"And how do you propose I respond to such a...test?" I bit out, tamping down the flare of instinct that made me want to lash out at the very idea of denying the woman's role at my side. "Tucking her back into some gilded cage will only risk fueling her defiance further, no matter how smotheringly I attempt to shelter her."

Julian's mouth curved into a wolfish half-smile as he dipped his chin conspiratorially. "Then explain to her the burden she has agreed to undertake simply by accepting her destiny as your mate. Make her understand her role in solidifying your strength when the blades are inevitably drawn against us."

My brow furrowed as I absorbed the weight of his words. He was right - I could no longer coddle Talia or dole out information

____________

Talia's POV

The heavy oak door creaked open with an ominous groan, like the Tell-tale beating of a guilty heart. I didn't bother looking up from where I sat rigid on the edge of the plush mattress, hands clenched into white-knuckled fists atop the duvet cover.

I knew who my visitor was without needing to see the imposing silhouette blotting out the corridor's dim glow. That same electrically-charged tension Cassius' presence always radiated was already snaking tendrils of awareness across my skin. Raising every fine hair on my body in a response that somehow mingled unease with...arousal.

Dammit, no. I couldn't allow myself to be so easily disarmed by his rugged magnetism tonight. Not when deceptions and psychological warfare tactics seemed to lurk behind every shadowed corner in this place. My nails bit stinging crescents into my palms as I silently steadied my resolve.

"You can dispense with the theatrics and elaborate pretext for why you've come," I said in a tone much more blasé than I felt as his footsteps crossed the threshold. "It's obvious we both know the real reason you felt the need to darken my doorway."

There was a pregnant pause before that deep, aristocratic rumble washed over me like a tidal caress.

"You never did pull your punches, did you, little huntress?" A hint of dark amusement tinged Cassius' words as he moved further into the plush bedroom suite. "Very well then, I'll indulge your brazen demands for forthrightness..."

I finally looked up to find him looming over me, stripped of his suit jacket with the crisp white sleeves of his dress shirt rolled up to his elbows. An utterly disarming portrait of casual virility that caused an involuntary tremor to ricochet through my core.

Those blazing onyx eyes pinned me to the bed without mercy or preamble.

"You're right, there's no more need for evasions where you're concerned," Cassius stated bluntly. "You are my mate - the other half of my existence bound to me by the most ancient cosmic forces. A union forged across bloodlines to solidify a new empire rising from the ashes of the old."

I opened my mouth to protest the utter insanity of his words, as I'd done so many times before. But Cassius simply charged ahead, taking my silence as tacit permission to unleash the torrent of truth he clearly intended to drown me with.

"Everything I have done - every commitment and effort exerted - has been with the purpose of cementing our cosmic alliance under my protection." His large, calloused hand cupped the nape of my neck in a shockingly tender gesture. "Including securing your sister's medical treatment and long-term care in order to put your mind at ease about remaining firmly in my sphere."

My breath hitched at the unexpected sincerity burning in those depthless obsidian pools. The way possessiveness and veneration seemed to wage war in each heated caress of his thumb against the sensitive skin below my ear.

"You...you arrogant, manipulative bastard," I managed to choke out in a strained whisper, caught between the disparate urges to either flee or melt boneless into his overwhelming presence. "You think ensuring Ruby's health is some bargaining chip to make me complicit in your twisted agenda?"

A low, thrumming chuckle vibrated against the pulse point he was brazenly skimming with those full lips. "I think your willful fight is one of the most tantalizing things about you, my feisty mate. Among the many reasons the cosmos selected your spirit to be the for to reforge my legacy's future."

With a deft tug, Cassius pulled me flush against the scorching wall of his powerful frame. His calloused fingers threaded through my tousled hair as he angled my face up to fully drink in the undisguised desire blazing in his gaze.

"You will embrace your role in this renaissance, Talia," he stated in a hoarse growl brimming with subdued dominance. "And in doing so, you will come to finally understand the honor and reverence in which I hold you. The reverence you deserve as my mate...the revered mother of a new imperial bloodline."

A shocked exhalation escaped my lips as the weight of his proclamation slammed into me with the force of a battering ram. I'd known - or at least suspected - that these clandestine plans surrounding me had fertility implications. But to hear Cassius state his intentions so baldly still felt overwhelming.

Before I could find words to protest, to rail against the audacity of his assumptions, his mouth crashed over mine in a searing, devouring kiss. A shockwave of molten need detonated low in my belly as Cassius plundered the velvety depths with artful intensity. I whimpered against the slick slide of his questing tongue tasting every secret crevice of my yielding mouth.

My fingers clawed at the crisp linen of his shirt, bunching helplessly into fists like an anchor amidst the clawing tide threatening to sweep me hopelessly under.