Starlit Throne - Chapter 5: Hidden in Plain Sight
English Version
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
I was sitting in a stolen Terran-wheeled oldie, bleeding into the seat, trying not to look at the woman next to me like she was the answer to every question I’d stopped asking a long time ago.
The silence between us hummed with unspoken words and unspent tension. I kept my eyes on the road, knuckles white on the steering wheel. Every bump sent a jolt through my side where the blade had caught me—not deep enough to kill, but enough to remind me that I wasn’t at full strength.
Cassia—my mate—kept glancing at me from the passenger seat. She hadn’t said much since we hotwired the car. Not that I blamed her.
She couldn’t possibly be my mate. Yet, every single cell in my engineered body said she was.
She didn’t know what I was. Or what she was. Or that the universe had just tilted on its axis and pointed us at each other.
She didn’t know that I was supposed to hand her over.
And she never would.
“You’re bleeding,” she said finally, holding out a bottle of water. “I mean, still.”
I took it, our fingers brushing for a second. Heat shot through me. Her touch shouldn’t have felt like that. Not when I was already fighting the urge to pull over and— No.
Focus.
I drank and handed it back with a grunt. “It’s healing.”
“Not fast enough,” she muttered, but didn’t press.
We drove in silence for a few more minutes before she asked, cautiously, “Do I at least get to know your name?”
I glanced at her, then back at the road. “Dain.”
“Dain,” she repeated, like she was tasting the word. “Right. I’m Cassia. But you probably already knew that, huh?”
I didn’t answer. She didn’t need to know how deep the surveillance had gone. Not now. Maybe not ever.
“You said you were here to protect me,” she said. “Why?”
I hesitated. “Because you’re in danger.”
Not a lie. Just not the full story.
She leaned back, arms crossed. “You’re really good at the mysterious protector thing.”
That almost made me smile. Almost.
I took the next turn, and light caught on the chain around her neck. Something glinted.
My heart stopped.
I looked again, and light caught on the chain again.
A pin.
No, the pin…
Imperial. Royal. Marked with a crest I hadn’t seen since the fall of the High House.
“What is that?” I said, my voice lower than I intended.
I knew what it was. Yet I asked as if I wanted to forget the pin then and there.
Cassia looked down. “It’s from my dad. My mom gave it to me on my twentieth. Why?”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.
My pulse thundered in my ears. She had no idea what that symbol meant. What it would tell anyone who recognized it.
“Hide it,” I said sharply.
She blinked. “What?”
I met her eyes. “Tuck it away. Don’t let anyone see it.”
She hesitated. “But why—”
“It’s for your safety,” I said, voice clipped. “Please.”
After a beat, she nodded and slipped the chain beneath her jumper. The absence of the pin’s shine made the car feel darker, heavier.
She watched me for a few more seconds, then looked out the window. She didn’t believe me. Not entirely.
But she trusted me enough to listen.
We drove the rest of the way in silence.
By the time we reached the cliffs near Seven Sisters, dawn was nearing us, and shadows would be upon us faster than ever. The wind had picked up again, tugging at Cassia’s hair as she stepped out of the car.
She looked around, clearly unimpressed. “There’s... nothing here.”
“Exactly,” I said, walking to the edge of the slope. My side still ached, but it was manageable.
Cassia joined me. “So, where’s this ship of yours? Invisible spaceship? You going to say ‘open sesame’ or something?”
Despite myself, I chuckled.
I lifted my wrist and tapped a button on the cuff hidden beneath my sleeve.
The air shimmered.
A sleek dark form began to emerge, rising like a mirage from the earth. Cloaked in a projection field.
Cassia gasped. “Holy shit. Like Star Trek.”
The ship stood silent and waiting. My only home for the last five years.
“Welcome aboard,” I said, not looking at her. “Let’s get inside before the rest of your welcoming party shows up.”
Glossary – Chapter 5
Hummed – Made a low, steady sound. (Zumbaba, emitía un sonido bajo y constante.)
Knuckles – The joints of your fingers where they meet your hand. (Nudillos.)
Hotwire – Start a car without a key, usually by bypassing the ignition. (Arrancar un coche sin llave, forzando el sistema.)
Axis – An imaginary line around which something rotates. (Eje.)
Urge – A strong desire or impulse. (Impulso, deseo fuerte.)
Crest – A symbol representing a family or authority. (Emblema, escudo de una familia o poder.)
Shimmered – Shined with a soft, wavering light. (Brilló tenuemente, con luz ondulante.)
Projection field – A type of cloaking or camouflage using light and energy. (Campo de proyección o camuflaje tecnológico.)