to tell you everything before when you asked. You know about the mating and that Roan and I were a couple on our home world.”
Sulen nodded.
“I reached out to my friend and she told me to come here. She’d help me with my baby and do what she could.”
Amelie deliberately left Scarlett’s name out.
“Is this friend the one who helped you falsify your records to gain residency here?” Sulen asked.
His awareness of the truth was there in his eyes but she gave him all of it. “Yeah. I didn’t know what else to do and had nowhere to go. I was here on a visitor’s visa at the time.”
“So you lied,” he interrupted.
This time, Amelie pulled free from his embrace and slid to sit on the sofa beside him. “Yes. My friend had access to your hormones as I mentioned.”
“If she had access, the person would have had to be someone at a clinic I went to. I came here a few years ago due to an emergency and injury.” He frowned as if in thought. “I had to be rendered unconscious for a simple laceration and broken arm. I wasn’t exactly thinking clearly due to the pain but agreed.”
“Please don’t be angry with her. I was desperate and she was trying to help.”
Sulen reached up and gripped her chin, turning her face to the side. His gaze narrowed on the marks. “She gave you my hormone and cut you to create the impression of bonding scars on your neck.”
His fingers glided over the two slashing lines at the base of her throat. “Yes. No. It was an accident. We’d decided against doing it but I tripped. A stupid accident and my hand landed on the injector.”
“I felt the bond. When you did it, I was returning from a—.” He broke off then pressed a hand to his chest. “I felt something ignite here. I knew what it was instantly but knew it wasn’t possible.”
“We had no idea that would happen. Sca—my friend assumed it would change my scent or something. All we’d heard was that Gerelins can tell if you’re bonded. She...we didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
Amelie knew it sounded awful. It sounded awful to her saying it aloud but if he could only understand how desperate she’d been back then. Worry for her unborn baby, worry for herself, every choice had weighed heavy on her mind.
“You bonded with an unknown male to stay here and gave yourself a background to explain your child,” he included.
“It was supposed to be on official forms only. Then it just made sense to stick with the story.”
“After the bond was in place, something happened a few months later.”
Amelie flinched and started to get up. The memory of what he referred to made her ill. Sulen caught her hand. “What’s wrong?”
Amelie squeezed his fingers, her pulse leaping erratically beneath his touch. “It never entered my mind that Roan would find me. He came here on a routine visit with the ambassador and saw me outside the house. When he realized I was still pregnant with his child, he exploded. So much rage. He attacked me, kicking my stomach over and over.”
Sulen surged to his feet and grabbed her shoulders. “He what?!”
A lump lodged in her throat when she tried to speak. Tears hovered but Amelie blinked them back determinedly. Sulen pulled her in close and held her. His chin rested on the top of her head and his palms smoothed up and down her back in a reassuring caress.
“He kicked me,” she choked out. “He kicked me and I could tell when I started bleeding, he got excited because he thought he’d made me lose the baby.”
“And you almost died?” Sulen murmured.
They were swaying together in place and it was the most reassuring embrace Amelie had ever been in. His solid hold helped her to settle. “Yes. Sca—my friend is an amazing medic. The best but even she thought Fleur and I were too far gone to save. I remember being surrounded by darkness and then I saw this golden burst of energy welling inside me. Scarlett says my vitals began improving immediately when I arrived at the medical center.”
“I thought I was going to lose you.”
Something in the way he said that caught her attention. Amelie jerked and leaned back. He was staring at her with longing and frustration. “What do you mean?”
“I was asleep when I suddenly felt you slipping away, the bond quickly unraveling. At first, I was angry, thinking