A shadow moved in the doorway, and my heart sank. I didn’t need to turn around to know who it was.

"Why?" Ace’s voice was low, gravelly, but it sliced through the quiet like a blade.

I exhaled slowly, not wanting to wake Liam. My hands rested on my knees as I stood, deliberately taking my time before facing him. "Why what?" I asked softly, though I already knew the answer.

His form filled the doorway, his presence almost suffocating. His jaw was tight, his shoulders tense. "Why didn’t you tell me about him?" His voice trembled, barely controlled.

My stomach twisted, and I met his piercing gaze. "I tried, Ace. After that night, I called. I searched. I asked everyone who might have known where you went. But you left the city, disappeared like a ghost. What was I supposed to do?"

"You tried?" he hissed, stepping closer, his fists clenching at his sides.

~♤~

Ace Callahan

The descendant of Xalaria and the rightful heir to the throne, moves like a ghost through the shadows of Earth. Abandoning his war-torn planet to evade his tyrannical father—a ruler thirsty for his blood—Ace hides from the hunters dispatched to track him down. Though adept at blending into the human world, his solitude shatters when someone travels through the threads of time, arriving with a singular purpose: to find him.

Zephyr Vance

A hardened single mother with nothing to lose, is abducted by an unknown faction. They force her into an impossible mission—to locate and capture the one man she swore to hate forever: Ace Callahan. Her assignment is a mystery, but her disdain for Ace burns as fiercely as her will to protect her child.

When their paths finally cross, it’s not the reunion either expected. Mistrust clouds Ace’s judgment, and in a flash of instinct and fury, he knocks Zephyr unconscious, binding her as his captive. Awakening in chains, Zephyr finds herself thrust into Ace’s world—not as his equal, but as his reluctant slave.

Tangled in Time: Kidnapped by My Alien Boyfriend

I wandered the halls again, heart heavy, eyes scanning for any sign of Zephyr. It had been days, and each moment felt like I was drowning in a sea of regret. I didn’t know how much longer I could keep this up. My body was drained, my mind exhausted from replaying the same mistakes over and over agai...

22.