Mariana looked at him. His eyes were warm, his expression unreadable. Something in her chest tightened. Not recognition. Not memory. Something older. Something that felt like a word on the tip of her tongue, a name she had known once and forgotten.
She looked away.
"The bond does not require her consent to exist," Kiro said. "It requires her consent to activate. That is a different matter."
"It is the only matter that matters," Mariana said. "You are telling me that I am bound to six men by a magic I did not choose. Fine. I cannot change that. But you are also telling me that I must accept you as my primary mate. That I must let you speak for the others. That I must sit on a throne I never asked for and rule a realm I did not know existed four days ago. That is not a bond. That is a cla
