Lara held Ares’ gaze, searching his eyes as though she could peel apart every carefully guarded word and expose the truth hidden beneath them.

Most men faltered under her scrutiny. Powerful men. Dangerous men. Kings of empires who trembled ever so slightly when she looked too deeply.

But Ares did not look away.

His dark eyes locked onto hers with a fierce intensity that made her chest tighten. There was something raw in them tonight—something unguarded. A storm barely restrained behind cold composure.

For the first time in two lifetimes, Lara found herself unable to hold someone’s gaze for long.

Her breath caught.

She looked down briefly, fingers curling against the fabric of her dress before forcing herself to meet his eyes again.

"Ares..." she said softly, almost carefully, as though afraid the wrong words would shatter something fragile between them. "Marriage is not a contract people enter lightly. It’s a lifetime commitment."

The room fell silent except for Shay’s faint breathing nearby.

"If you’re only marrying me because of Shay..." Lara continued, her voice quieter now, "then it isn’t right."

The words struck harder than she intended.

But she demanded more. If she married someone, she wanted to the man to be totally devoted to her, just like Alaric did.

A flicker of disappointment crossed Ares’ face before he turned away, his gaze settling on the little girl asleep on the bed. It was subtle—so subtle most people would have missed it.

But Lara saw.

He was hiding his disappointment.

Ares let out a slow breath. "So that’s what you think of me?"

Lara’s heart tightened. "I didn’t mean—"

"You think I’d tie my entire life to someone out of obligation?" His voice remained calm, but there was a dangerous edge beneath it. "That I would put my name beside yours merely because of responsibility?"

"Ares—"

"Do you really believe I’m that noble?"

The bitterness in his laugh startled her.

He turned back toward her then, and the full force of his emotions hit her all at once.

Oh goodness.

Why was he looking at her like that?

Like she was the answer to a puzzle he had spent years trying to solve.

Like she had already become something vital to him before he even realized it.

Like he liked her. No, not just like but love her.

Lara who was sitting on the bed, instinctively leaned back, overwhelmed by the intensity pouring from him.

Ares noticed.

His jaw tightened.

"Or," he said after a long pause, his voice suddenly quieter, "is there someone else?"

The question settled heavily between them, thick enough to steal the air from the room.

And then, unbidden, a face surfaced in his mind.

Major Aquilo Vibora.

Ares’ jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.

He had investigated him.

Every man connected to Lara had been thoroughly looked into, but Aquilo Vibora’s name had appeared too many times in the reports for Ares to ignore.

A decorated military officer. Special operations. Highly respected.

And always near Lara.

The files had detailed the periods when Larissa Reyes trained under his supervision as a cadet. After that, she had volunteered repeatedly for humanitarian missions in the disaster-stricken southern regions—to help the civilians caught in the crossfire between the military and the insurgents.

Aquilo Vibora had been assigned to several of them.

Ares remembered reading the reports late into the night, each line feeding a growing irritation he could neither explain nor suppress.

Major Vibora saved Ms. Reyes when she accidentally fell into a hunter’s trap.

Major Vibora personally extracted Ms. Reyes during an armed encounter.

Major Vibora sustained injuries while shielding Ms. Reyes from crossfire.

The words burned in his memory.

In more than one mission, Aquilo Vibora had saved her life.

And somehow, that fact alone stirred something ugly inside Ares’ chest.

Jealousy. Sharp and unreasonable. The kind he had no right to feel. Yet he felt it all the same.

The memory alone made something dark coil inside his chest.

Lara froze.

For a moment, the world around her faded.

Someone she loved.

There had only ever been one man.

One impossible man who belonged to another life... another time... another version of herself that no longer existed.

A love buried so deeply in her soul that even now, remembering it hurt.

But that Chapter was over.

Gone.

Dead with the past she could never return to. But she had no regrets because every memory was a beautiful one worth cherishing in two lifetimes.

Her lashes lowered as sadness flickered across her face.

Ares watched every second of it, and each moment of silence felt like a blade twisting deeper into his chest.

"No one," she whispered.

But the sadness in her voice lingered long after the words faded.

Ares felt his chest tighten.

If there was truly no one, then why did she look like this?

Why did her eyes carry the grief of someone who had loved deeply... and lost?

A dangerous thought crossed his mind.

Is it unrequited love?

The possibility should have pleased him. If her heart belonged to someone unreachable, someone who could never return her feelings, then Ares still had a chance.

He should have felt relieved.

Instead, an unfamiliar irritation settled inside him.

He had seen the look in Aquilo’s eyes everytime he looked at Lara. It was the look of someone smitten.

Could it be the man in her dreams? Alaric?

Ares slowly rose to his feet.

He deliberately took a step back, putting distance between them before he did something reckless—like pull her into his arms and demand she stop looking so heartbreakingly sad over another man.

"Sorry," he said quietly. "I was too hasty."

His voice had softened completely now, stripped of the pressure from earlier.

"I might have scared you."

The gentleness in his tone caught Lara off guard.

It brushed against her heart like a feather—light, careful, yet impossible to ignore.

"No," Lara said quickly, looking up at him. "You didn’t."

Her fingers tightened slightly at her side before she continued softly, "Just... give me a little more time."

For a second, silence filled the room.

Then Ares exhaled slowly, relief loosening the tension in his chest.

She had not rejected him. To anyone else, those words might have sounded uncertain. But to Ares, they were hope.

And hope was enough.

The next time he asked her, he would not leave room for hesitation.

He would do it properly. Grandly.

An unforgettable proposal.

In a way that would make it impossible for her to refuse him.