Run away from here

Orion's Pov:

"Still," she said, and her voice was softer now, less certain, "it's not fair for people to be ruled by a foreigner. You can't just do it. "

The words hit me like a physical blow, not because they were harsh, but because I could hear the conflict in her voice.

She was trying to hold onto her objections, but her heart was wavering.

"I understand," I said, and I meant it completely. "And hereafter, I give up my ways of being a conqueror and tyrant, if that is what you want, Stella."

Her eyes widened in shock, and the dagger in her hand trembled slightly.

I don't think she had expected me to make such an offer, to be willing to change the very foundation of who I was.

"For you, I'll do anything," I continued, my voice dropping to an intimate whisper. "Please give me a chance."

The weapon in her hand wavered, and I saw her internal struggle written clearly across her beautiful features.

Part of her wanted to believe me, wanted to accept what I was offering.

But another part was still fighting, still afraid.

Slowly, so slowly it seemed to take an eternity, she lowered the dagger until it hung at her side.

But instead of the acceptance I hoped for, her next words cut me deeper than any blade could have.

"Just leave!" she said, her voice breaking slightly on the words. "Don't come back to my kingdom again. Because tomorrow my father is planning to execute you in front of the people."

The revelation hit me like a thunderbolt. An execution. In front of the people.

A public display meant to send a message about what happened to those who threatened the kingdom's peace.

But even as the implications sank in, I realized something else. Something that made my heart race with a different kind of excitement.

She was warning me. She was telling me to run.

Which meant that even though she hadn't agreed to our mating bond, even though she was sending me away, she didn't want me to die.

And that explained everything. The lack of guards in the dungeon. The easy escape. The unlocked doors.

She had orchestrated all of it, had made it possible for me to break free so that I could flee before her father's executioner could claim my head.

My brilliant, complicated, beautiful princess had been playing a game after all.

Not to trap me, but to save me.

"I'll leave for now," I said, unable to keep the warmth from my voice as I looked at her. "But I'll be back for you."

It wasn't a threat. It was a promise.

She opened her mouth as if to protest, but I was already moving toward the window.

I had lingered here long enough, and if she was right about her father's plans, I needed to collect Ricky and Shawn and get us all out of the castle before dawn.

The journey back through the castle corridors was as easy as the journey up had been.

No guards challenged me, no alarms were raised. It was as if the entire castle was conspiring to help me escape, just as Stella had planned.

I found Ricky and Shawn still in their cells, both of them pacing nervously and clearly expecting the worst when they saw me return.

"We're leaving," I said simply, producing the keys I had taken from the unconscious guard. "Now."

They didn't ask questions.

Within minutes, we were all free and making our way back through the castle. The same corridors that had seemed so elegant on my way up now felt like a maze we needed to navigate quickly and quietly.

But luck—or Stella's planning—held. We encountered no one as we made our way to the castle's outer walls, and the gates that should have been heavily guarded stood mysteriously unattended.

Our horses were exactly where we had left them when we were first captured, as if they had been waiting patiently for our return.

Within minutes, we were mounted and riding hard toward the kingdom's border, the castle growing smaller behind us with each stride.

But even as we put distance between ourselves and potential pursuit, I couldn't stop thinking about Stella.

The way she had looked when I explained my true motivations. The conflict I had seen in her eyes.

The tremor in her voice when she told me to leave.

She had feelings for me. I was certain of it now. The mating bond was working on her just as strongly as it was working on me, pulling us together despite every rational reason to stay apart.

"So what's the plan now?" Ricky called over the sound of hoofbeats as we crested a hill that gave us a clear view of the road ahead.

I turned in my saddle to look back at the castle one more time, its towers silhouetted against the star-filled sky.

Somewhere in those walls was the woman who held my heart, the woman who was destined to be mine.

"We're not leaving the kingdom," I said, my voice carrying all the determination I felt. "Not until I make Stella confess her love for me. Not until I make her my mate and take her to Valdris and make her my empress."

Ricky and Shawn exchanged a look that clearly said they thought I was becoming something else of my nature.

And maybe I had.

Maybe falling in love with a princess who represented everything I had supposedly stood against was a form of madness.

But if so, it was a madness I embraced completely.

Because I had seen the truth in Stella's eyes tonight.

Beneath all her protests and objections, beneath her fear of what I represented, she felt the same pull I did. The same desperate need. The same inevitable certainty that we belonged together.

She just needed time to accept it.

And I had nothing but time.