Varek

Pax survived Terrafeara by learning three rules: keep your head down, never trust the Crown, and never need anyone badly enough to let them destroy you.

For ten years, he's built a life in the shadows of the city-smuggling Riftborn to safety through hidden tunnels, trading favours to stay alive, and keeping his distance from the rebellion that nearly ruined him. Especially from Commander Varek Zathrian.

Varek is feared across Terrafeara: a powerful Nyxerian rebel leader with silver eyes, deadly instincts, and a talent for uncovering the truth. He's also Pax's fated mate... and the male responsible for the death of Pax's husband.

But when unrest spreads through the city and the Queen tightens her grip on Riftborn, survival becomes impossible alone. Forced into close quarters once more, Pax and Varek are dragged back into each other's orbit-through old grief, impossible desire, and a bond neither of them can escape.

As whispers grow of dangerous rift anomalies, fractured worlds, and a war that could change Terrafeara forever, Pax must decide whether fate is a curse meant to break him... or the one thing strong enough to help him fight back.

Because some bonds were never meant to be denied.