The Almighty Dominance

Alex took a slow breath and sipped his wine. "Can I ask you something?"

Logan chuckled, refilling his glass from the bottle he pulled from his space ring. "Sure, anything. We've got all night."

"Between your family's revenge and the comfortable life you've built here," Alex asked, "which one really matters more?"

He wasn't asking out of curiosity-it was personal.

He was a king now. He could live peacefully, without the ghosts of old grudges.

He'd been too young to remember his parents, too young to truly feel the bond everyone said he'd lost.

He had to admit—his bond with his master ran deeper than blood, deeper than anything he had ever felt for his own parents.

And now that he sat on the throne, he sometimes wondered if it was better to bury the past-to stop chasing vengeance and start living.

Logan laughed again, louder this time, then leaned forward and poured more wine into Alex's cup.

"Good question. A damn good question."

He stared into the crimson swirl of his glass, eyes softening.

"I've thought about that for a long time," he said quietly. "My family have a big estate back in Prussia-bigger than most people can imagine."

"But it's empty. No laughter. No voices. Just walls and echoes. Here, I live in a small house, but it's full. My wife, my kids, people who matter."

He looked up, a faint smile tugging at his lips. "So if you asked me now, I'd say this life is better. I'd rather stay here, in this poor country, where I'm happy and well-fed, than go back to that hollow palace."

"But if there's a way to get my revenge-without losing all this-I'd take it."

Alex nodded slowly. He understood. Maybe he felt the same. Maybe he too wanted to forget revenge, rule in peace, and finally breathe.

"Next question," Alex said after a pause. "You've had... what, dozens of wives? Hundreds of mistresses? Out of all of them, how many did you actually love?"

Logan froze. His eyes flickered with something raw.

He took another drink-long, heavy, deliberate. Then he sighed, as if the answer had been buried inside him for years, waiting to crawl out.

"I've loved hundreds-all of them," Logan said with a faint smile, though his eyes carried a tired ache.

Alex whistled. "That's impressive."

"Out of hundreds, only two or three ever truly loved

"So you're

least the interest is still

you pity me?" he

lot of beautiful women look at me like I'm dessert-like I'm their sugar daddy. I've got money. I've

my power, for a life with fewer teeth marks. But do they come because they love

treat us like cash machines, like we don't have hearts. We see it. We feel it. They're faking everything. And we pretend to enjoy it. The truth is, we feel empty-surrounded by hundreds of people, yet not one truly loves us." Alex let out a long breath. He knew that feeling all too well. When he first became king, women from every state had

wealth, not him. No one had ever loved the man beneath the crown. That was why he'd walked

leaving everything behind and living as himself, he hadn't found anyone who truly

twice. Sophia hadn't worked out. And Josephine... she'd loved Charles.

here. I never told them

don't want revenge anymore. But if I

"Why?" Alex asked.

things you'll never see here," Logan said,

wars they don't

with

build ships leave

space You'd

best-with your

just the king of the poorest country on earth. A big fish

what the world really looks like? Don't you

him a dry look. "I already met

"Oh? And?"

"She married my enemy."

you

and grinned, his tone deep and honest. "That's the romance of being a man. You fight, you fall, you

limits. Then you

sharp, his words cutting through the air. "But you can only do that while you're young. When you're old, regret hits

left home, why you never saw the world when you had the chance. That's what being a

thought. Then something in him shifted-like a light breaking through fog. His

clarity

frees the heart, heaven and man become

had been coiled and restrained suddenly expanded, no longer afraid,