“Sorry to disappoint you.” His father’s rant continued for several minutes as he described, in great detail, the sympathetic looks and concerned questioning he’d been forced to endure at the Prime’s palace this evening. I rubbed the back of my neck, doing my best to ignore the tight ball of rage that spun and whirred in my gut every time I was forced to look at the man who had sired me.
“Don’t let it happen again. You are a Zakar.”
He didn’t bother saying goodbye, or asking how I felt. He didn’t care. He expected me to survive, to do better, to live up to the family name.
For years I’d listened to his tirades. They hadn’t made my pulse race or my heart ache for a very long time. Not since I was still in the academy had I allowed my father to upset my emotional equilibrium. But tonight I sank into the nearest empty chair at the conference table and placed my head in my hands.
Hate. Rage. Anger. Shame. Love. They twisted and churned in my chest until I couldn’t breathe.
* * *
Conrav
Amanda lay in my arms, her breath a caress of heat across my chest. Her head was tucked under my chin, her naked body pressed to mine as I held her.
My mate.
I’d waited for her for years, prayed to the gods that Grigg would one day be ready to summon her, to claim her.
I was a senior officer. I was eligible for a bride of my own, but every time I considered the option all I could see was Grigg lost and truly alone. He was not my brother by blood, but he was a brother by choice and I could not abandon him in this any more than he was able to walk away from a wounded warrior on the field of battle.
The agony racing through my body was his, the new connection with our mate, the emotional ties of our collars, broadcast Grigg’s pain as clearly as if he stood next to me, breaking into pieces.
In seconds our mate stirred as well, her quick intake of breath and the hand that fluttered to cover her heart proof that she felt his pain as well. Our bond was strong, stronger than I would have believed possible after just one claiming.
“What’s wrong?” Her voice was a whisper and she tensed, but did not pull free of my embrace. “Grigg.”
“Yes, Grigg.” I sighed, kissing our mate on the forehead and reluctantly releasing her to roll out of bed. “If I had one guess, I’d say he just spoke to his father.”
She sat up in bed, gloriously naked and so beautiful I couldn’t tear my gaze from her flesh even as I stumbled to pull on my discarded uniform.
“His father?” Amanda pulled the blanket up to cover her breasts, her dark hair a wild tumble falling past her shoulders. Even Grigg’s pain was not enough to prevent my cock from rising to attention at the sight.
“General Zakar. He’s on the Prime council.”
“But—” She rubbed at her chest, as if she were truly in pain. “I don’t understand.”
Dressed now, I walked back to the bed and leaned down to place a gentle kiss on her soft, pink lips. Gods, she was so exquisite, and mine. Mine and Grigg’s, and right now that asshole needed me. “Go back to sleep, mate. I’ll take care of it.”
She watched me leave with a bite of anger in her eyes, fire that I welcomed. She was going to need it if she were to survive this mating between us. Grigg had become volatile, his need to control both excited and terrified me. I had no qualms fucking our mate to Grigg’s exact specifications. The fact that he’d ordered me to fuck her, to fill her with my seed—and first—had been a shock, an honor so great that I’d never once ever even imagined a scenario where our firstborn child would truly belong to both of us. We would have no way to know, now or ever, who truly fathered any of our children. The honor and generosity of that act humbled me, even as Grigg’s dominant behavior toward me caused a jumbled mixture of acceptance and confusion in my mind.
He’d always been brash, impulsive, arrogant and a bit wild. I’d loved that about him, been on many adventures, fought beside him in many battles. But I’d never shared his bed, never shared a woman and felt his absolute need for control. He’d never extended his iron control to me, and I was shocked to discover that I found it—stimulating. Fuck, our mate certainly enjoyed it as well.
I found Grigg exactly where I expected him to be, in the Core, his one true sanctuary. Alone.
Motherfucker was always alone.
He didn’t look in my direction as I entered. A work pad lay flat and untouched on the table before him, filled, I was sure, with a hundred reports, requests and items that required his approval. He sat at the round table and looked at none of it, his gaze cold and empty as he stared at a monitor filled with the deep emptiness of space just outside our ship. If I couldn’t still feel the pain and anger coming through my collar, I might have believed his façade. He’d become very good at hiding his true self.
“I’m guessing your father was his usual charming self?” I took the seat to Grigg’s right and waited. “How is he today?”
The silence stretched for long minutes, but I didn’t push, just put my feet up on the table, my hands behind my he
ad and waited for the explosion.
“Get your fucking feet off my table.”
“That good, huh?”