Starlit Throne - Chapter 2: Pointed Ears and Shattered Glass
Second Version - English
Rating: M/E
Genres: Romantasy | Sci-Fi | Slow Burn | Space Opera | Fated Mates
Summary:
Cassia Harper thought her biggest struggles were making rent, keeping up with Brighton’s fashion scene, and selling enough handmade crafts to help her family. But when a mysterious, brooding soldier-for-hire with pointed ears crashes into her life, everything changes.
Her past isn’t what she thought. The father she barely remembers wasn’t just some distant traveler and the pin she wears every day? Not just an antique!
Now, with assassins on her trail and a protector who refuses to claim her (even though the tension between them is scorching), Cassia has to decide: will she run from her destiny or rise to it?
Expect:
🔥 Slow-burn with intense tension (and several many very hot payoffs 😏)
🐺 Cosmic pointed-eared protector (who knows she’s his mate but refuses to act on it... at first)
👑 Galactic politics
🌌 A space opera filled with action, smut & drama
🛸 Brighton, UK meets the stars
The window exploded. Cassia dropped her needle, startled out of the quiet world she had created for herself. It clattered against the worktable and then to the floor, joining the chaos of her tiny Brighton workshop. She whirled around in time to see a tall figure crash through the glass, landing with impossible grace among the fabric scraps and half-finished crafts. Cassia stumbled backward, nearly toppling into a shelf of fabric dye as her mind scrambled to understand.
Just moments before, the scene had been a different kind of chaos. Bundles of silk and wool hung from the ceiling in colorful clusters. Buttons, beads, and spools of thread made the floor a veritable minefield of tripping hazards. Even Cassia's bed, a lumpy old thing in the corner, was buried under sewing projects that never seemed to get finished. Despite the clutter, Cassia had found a certain peace there, surrounded by the tools of her trade. The evening rain tapping softly against the windows was a lullaby, lulling her into a sense of security.
She had been working on a new design, something delicate and different, and her mind was far from anything like breaking glass and strange intruders. But now, her world was shattered, and she struggled to make sense of the chaos before her.
The figure moved, rising from a defensive crouch, silver-grey eyes scanning the room with predatory intent. He was tall, imposing, but something more than human. Cassia's breath caught as she noticed the pointed ears and subtle lupine features that seemed both alien and eerily familiar. She tried to speak, but words failed her.
Beads rolled across the floor, a small, useless army scattering away from the scene. Her gaze flickered over them, a momentary distraction from the shock of the stranger now standing in her workshop. He seemed to disregard everything, except for one detail that held his full attention.
"That pin—where did you get it?" he demanded, his voice a sharp contrast to the gentle chaos of the room. There was a clipped, military edge to it, each word as precise as a command.
Cassia followed his gaze to the antique pin fastened to her collar, an heirloom she had worn so long it felt like part of her skin. Her mind raced to catch up with the impossibility of the situation. Who was this man? What did he want with her pin? The questions swirled in her mind like the fabrics and dyes around her feet.
"I—I made it," she stammered, her voice unsure as it tumbled out. "I make everything in here. Even the broken glass, apparently." Her attempt at humor was dry, an automatic defense against the rising panic. But before the words had fully formed, she saw movement from the corner of her eye.
Figures appeared at the broken window, silhouetted against the night. They moved with an unnaturally fluid precision, slipping into the room with an eerie silence that made Cassia's heart lurch. Any illusion of safety shattered further as she realized the window had been just the beginning. Danger closed in around her, and the stranger who had crashed into her world was suddenly the least impossible thing she had to face.
They came through the window like wraiths, sleek and silent and deadly. Cassia barely had time to blink before the figures surrounded her, moving with an impossible precision that made her heart pound. "Stay behind me," the stranger growled, already interposing himself between her and the intruders. Cassia stumbled back, clutching her makeshift weapon as she watched in horror.
The first assassin lunged, brandishing a blade that glowed with an otherworldly light. The room filled with strange shadows, turning the familiar chaos into an alien battlefield. Cassia’s breath caught as the tall man who had crashed into her world now seemed to stand as its only defense.
Dain met the attacker with a practiced efficiency that spoke of years in battle. His movements were sharp, precise, and Cassia saw him twist the assassin's momentum back against them, sending the figure sprawling. He turned to her, urgency burning in his eyes.
"Move!" he barked, a command more than a plea. Cassia scrambled back, her grip tight on the fabric scissors she held as though they could protect her from these creatures of darkness. She had never felt more out of place in her own home, and yet the desperate adrenaline coursing through her veins felt strangely right.
Another assassin slipped past Dain, racing toward her with frightening speed. Cassia braced herself, raising the scissors with trembling hands, a futile gesture against the looming threat. But just as the blade arced toward her, the pin at her collar flared with brilliant blue light.
The force of it was staggering. Cassia gasped as the assassin's weapon glanced off an invisible barrier inches from her chest. Her heart hammered, torn between terror and an electrifying relief. The pin, that old, familiar piece, felt suddenly foreign and alive. It pulsed against her skin, its glow intense enough to rival the rain-soaked night.
Everything seemed to freeze in the light. Cassia’s world stopped as she stared at the impossible protection the pin offered. The warmth spread through her, not just from the pin but from the unexpected safety it provided. For a moment, even the assassins hesitated, the unnatural glow blinding in its intensity.
Dain did not hesitate. The sudden flare gave him the opening he needed. He dispatched one of the attackers with swift brutality, his movements taking on a primal fluidity. There was nothing human in the way he moved, more beast than man as the fight continued to spiral out of control.
Cassia could only watch as Dain fought, her mind racing to keep up with the reality shattering around her. The remaining assassins pressed their attack, but Dain met them with a strength and speed that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. His silver-grey eyes flashed amber, and his lupine features seemed to sharpen with each brutal strike.
It was over in a blur, the final figure crumpling as Cassia blinked away the searing light. Her breath came ragged, heart pounding in her chest as she tried to make sense of it all. The workshop lay in ruins, glass and craft supplies strewn like the debris of her now fractured world.
Dain stood amidst the chaos, scanning the room for further threats, his senses as heightened as they were when he first crashed through the window. Slowly, he turned back to her, and Cassia saw more than just a warrior in his gaze. There was something deeper there, something that pulled at the edges of her confusion and fear.
She looked down at the pin that had saved her, its glow now faded to the familiar tarnished metal she had known her whole life. Cassia's hands trembled as she reached for it, half expecting it to flare again. But it remained still and cool, the warmth and light a memory burned into her skin. She lifted her eyes to Dain, the unasked questions already forming on her lips.
It looked like a hurricane had hit. The workshop was chaos, even by Cassia's generous standards. Glass and fabric and feathers and dyes—it was hard to tell where the attack ended and her usual mess began. She stood in the middle of it all, frozen and small, her mind struggling to process the impossible.
The window gaped open, rain spraying in like an unwelcome guest. Chairs lay on their sides, and every surface was buried under the debris of the fight and her life. Cassia didn't move, hardly breathed, as she stared at the pin in her trembling hand. It had returned to its tarnished metal, innocent and unassuming, like nothing strange or magical had ever happened. But Cassia knew better.
"What just happened?" she finally managed, the words spilling out before she even realized she'd spoken them. "Who are you? What is this?" Her voice shook, a thin thread of sound in the wreckage. She looked at Dain, still unable to fully comprehend the creature who had crashed into her world.
Dain approached cautiously, his posture alert but not threatening. He scanned the workshop like a soldier evaluating the aftermath of a battle. There was a methodical efficiency to it, a sharp contrast to the swirling confusion inside Cassia's head.
"My name is Dain," he said, his voice carrying the weight of unspoken truths. "I was sent to protect you." He gestured toward the pin, the small, significant piece that had changed everything. "That's not just a family heirloom. It's a powerful artifact from a distant galaxy—your father's galaxy."
Cassia blinked, the words hitting her like the shattering glass. Father's galaxy. Her mouth opened, but the enormity of what he said choked the questions before they formed. She felt like she'd stepped into someone else's story, a strange and foreign tale that had nothing to do with the careful world she had stitched together.
Dain's gaze held hers, steady and unyielding. "You are the target of a dangerous plot," he continued, every word deliberate, as though speaking to someone in shock. "Your uncle sees you as a threat to his power. There will be more assassins. You're not safe here anymore."
Cassia's mind reeled, fighting against the impossible truths he offered. The pin felt heavier than it ever had, like the weight of her entire past and future was pulling at it. "Uncle? My father?" she finally burst out, a jumble of disbelief and confusion. "Why would they—why me?"
"You have a choice to make," Dain said, cutting through her questions with a clarity that was almost cruel. "Stay in this world you know and likely die, or come with me and embrace a destiny you never knew was yours."
His words expanded the room and collapsed it all at once. The chaos around her suddenly seemed like the smallest part of the disorder she faced. Cassia looked at the ruins of her workshop, the tangible pieces of the life she'd thought was her own. Her hands were steady now, touching the pin as though trying to pull certainty from its cold surface.
The rain whispered in, a soft and relentless reminder that the world didn't pause, even for this. Cassia stood amidst the wreckage, caught between everything she had ever known and a future that felt like a stranger. Her decision loomed as large as the sky, and in that moment, she was just a girl in a broken room, wondering how to begin.