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connection she shared with Huw.
    All she found was a bleak blackness. The resulting pain was soul deep.
    What did you expect? The man is hundreds of thousands of kilometers away on the main planet. He’s at that party for Wulf and Mel—probably has some Prime sex surrogate on his arm. Later, he’ll go home and have sex with her … she’s Prime. You’re not.
    Jealousy. Anger. Grief. The emotions overwhelmed Nadia. She closed her eyes, well aware A’tem watched her curiously.
    “Nadia…” A’tem’s soft voice and light touch on her back brought her outside of herself. “You okay? You looked deadly there for a moment. I sensed … more rage in you than before. Then sadness … you were so deeply sad.”
    Dammit. I won’t let whatever in the hell this connection is turn me into a weepy woman pining for a man.
    “Not rage … fighting mad. There’s a difference.” That the mad was not only aimed at the enemy, but also at Huw “stubborn as a jackass” Caradoc and the thought of him having sex with a woman who wasn’t her … well, A’tem didn’t need to know that.
    Her lips twisted into a parody of a smile. “I’m fine. Let’s finish setting up the perimeter defenses. I could use some food, and my arm needs some further attention.”
    Nadia was back in control again. She didn’t need to touch Huw’s mind to do her job, to protect her soldiers. She was a goddamn decorated Alliance officer.
    And soon the enemy, the Prime, and Huw “blind as a fricking bat” Caradoc would learn there was nothing more deadly than a pissed off Siberian female who could trace her ancestry back to the early days of Terran history when Attila the Hun had ruled all of Asia and parts of Europe.

Chapter 2
    Cejuru Prime, Premier Caradoc’s Ballroom
    The ivory, gold, and black circular-shaped Caradoc family ballroom was crowded, so crowded that the yellow-liveried servants had opened the doors to the terrace that lined the outside curve of the house.
    Mel inhaled deeply; she could smell the flowers growing on the terraced gardens that bordered one small arc of the porch. The same gardens she and Wulf’s mother Beria had picked flowers from for tonight’s dinner tables now had armed guards hidden among the blooms in case any of the rebel faction decided to crash the party. The rest of the terrace was built for defense and faced a deep drop to a rock-strewn river that swept to the distant moonlit ocean. It was a breathtaking view and one she’d like to enjoy with Wulf, but that was not what they were there for. Their job was to mingle with the tall Prime males in their dark formal wear and the few ladies in their brightly colored gowns.
    She hated mingling, hated crowds. Crowds provided too many chances for people to shove up against you and stab you in the back.
    No one, however, had managed to make it close enough to her to do any sort of damage. Wulf, her overprotective gemat , had scared most people off. He’d glared and growled more tonight than he had since he first pulled her out of his ship’s maintenance tunnel traps.
    “Melina,” Wulf whispered against her ear, “let’s leave. I must see what you have on under that dress.”
    Her Prime mate and the man she shared command with over the Gold Squadron, and the heir-apparent to the ruler of Cejuru solar system, slid his hand down her mostly naked back to cup her rear. His sharp inhalation made her smile. He now realized she wore nothing underneath the skintight creation.
    “You are in so much trouble, gemate lubha .” Wulf patted her bottom and slid his arm around her waist, where he massaged her through the thin, silky fabric.
    “You love this dress.” Mel turned into his big, warm, well-muscled body. He looked very handsome in his dark suit with a pristine white collarless shirt closed at the top with a jeweled pin featuring his family’s royal crest. She traced the wolf-like creature on the pin and brushed a kiss over his chiseled jaw. “And you especially