T’mari delivers her resignation and a quiet plea: how does a once-equal officer navigate love and loyalty after her bondmate becomes High Lord? W’ren listens—and answers with approval, strategy, and a reminder not to lose herself completely to Earth.
A diplomatic evening veers into emergency as Matt juggles the formal expectations of leadership and the urgent demands of family and farm life. As V’ren medics race to save lives, Matt reaffirms that power isn’t about reverence—it’s about presence, grit, and refusing to let anyone bleed alone.
Matt Marmaduke greets Amazon’s incoming team with blunt clarity, assigning roles, acknowledging hidden agendas, and reminding every newcomer that the Freehold protects both V’ren and human lives. In one meeting, alliances are formed, boundaries are set, and the work of integration begins.
What began as a diplomatic walk-through became a moment of myth and permanence. On the deck of a refugee ship, Matthew Marmaduke received not just fealty, but family. House T’all rose from near dissolution, sealed by blood, bound by name, and recognized by a High Lord Earth never saw coming.
At 1 PM in Chicago, Amazon’s executive leadership faces a growing truth—Matt Marmaduke is no longer a variable in their equation. He’s the new constant. With V’ren translation tech, galactic trade points, and sovereign alliances on the table, one thing is clear: he’s not playing their game—he’s building his own.
T’monn stared out the window, the Missouri night rolling past in streaks of dark and light.
“If you told them to leave,” she said, “they would. But most would rather stay.”
Matt didn’t answer right away. The red demon called Pickup growled beneath them, chasing its own headlights through the gravel dark.
“They’re not going anywhere,” he said. “This is home now.”
Matt and T’mari face the cameras for the first time since the V’ren’s unplanned arrival. She offers grace, he offers grounded reassurance—and when the first silly question lands, he sighs, answers, and moves on. It’s diplomacy, Freehold-style: do the work, absorb the nonsense, keep the mission on track.