Chapter Ten
THE JOURNEY WAS ALMOST complete and Stoan was... content. Happy, perhaps, though he was not familiar enough with the emotion to easily identify it. When he looked at Reina, he wanted to smile. When she was hungry, he fed her. When she was tired, he shooed her off to bed. On this little yacht, away from the rest of Tarni, the rest of the Consortium, hope began to take root.
She’d not chosen him, not taken him into her arms or kissed him as he dreamed of kissing her. But neither had she avoided him as he’d feared she would after the disastrous first hour on the ship. Perhaps one day she would grow to care for him as he was caring for her. If she never loved him... well, there were worse fates.
Maybe denyai didn’t need love. A couple bound by the hands of fate was stronger than
