Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 46078 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 154(@300wpm)
“Azlan did what he could out in the pride land,” Kain says. “But many died. Sometimes they were left out, already too badly wounded to save, or sometimes an injury would lead to an infection we had no way to cure. My formative years growing from cub to man were spent struggling to live and seeing many fail that same struggle.”
They are certainly doing much better now than they were. The pride land is still a very basic place to live, but there is impressive tech, compared to my asteroid home. Especially the ships.
“How did you get the ships?”
He looks at me as if he’d half forgotten I existed and laughs.
“We stole them. Azlan, Nyan, Skol, and I cut off our manes and crept into the city one night dressed as females. There is a mighty shipyard beneath the city, you may not have seen it. We crept in, and we each stole one ship each, not knowing at the time that they were designed to function as one. But when we did find that out, it made sense. We’ve always survived together.”
It sounds like he misses his brothers. None of them have followed him here to the throne. I know for a fact Azlan has no interest in becoming the new Leonidas. I wonder if they might just let him languish here, a mad king on his father’s throne.
“Can I tell you a secret?” Kain glances over at me, then lets out a little laugh at the fact he is worrying about telling me anything at all. “Of course I can. You are caged.”
I nod with a little smirk of agreement.
“I am not even interested in females,” he says. “I prefer to lay with males. For a while, I thought that was part of the reason my father rejected me, but it was not. He never knew that about me. He never knew anything about me.”
“So why did you take the females?”
Kain shrugs. “Tradition?”
“But the cubs…”
“They hid the bloody cubs, from what I hear. I didn’t want that to happen, but the guards were following Leonidas’ old protocols, and so…” He shrugs. “This is what tradition gets you.”
“Then why didn’t you just order the females released…”
“Why didn’t you do this… why didn’t you do that?” Kain puts on a high-pitched whining voice that I suppose is meant to be me. “You ask a lot of annoying questions.”
“Sorry,” I say, not wanting to push Kain too hard. He is being useful to me, even if he doesn’t intend to be. “I have learned more about Azlan from you than he ever told me.”
Kain smirks, pleased that he has managed to do something his brother would not like. “Azlan would not want you to feel sorry for him. He fears being perceived as weak, and for good reason. The survival of others has always depended on him.”
I am beginning to understand the dynamics here so much more deeply. Azlan isn’t only an older brother to Kain, Nyan, and Skol. He has been in loco parentis for years, the father they never had. “That’s why the three of you came to get him from the asteroid. You wanted him back with you.”
“I want him here,” Kain says. “On this throne. But he doesn’t want the throne. He didn’t want to do what had to be done. He wanted to flee his true nature, to outcross his bloodline, to become something different through his progeny. He wanted to abandon our world, and us.”
“Taking me might not have been the best way to go about…”
Kain shrugs. “If I have you, he will come. He has to come.”
There is a note of slight desperation in that last sentence.
WUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUBWUWB
Almost as if on cue, there is a deep rumbling. The entire stronghold shakes, and outside the windows, I can see the view of the city obscured by clouds of dust being thrown up as something very large descends.
“That’s the ship landing,” Kain says, starting up from his throne with excitement. “He’s here. They’re here! Guards! Let them in!”
He’s as excited as a cub at the prospect of a fresh meat treat, practically dancing in place atop the dais. If I hadn’t heard all his murderous plans, I would think he was simply happy to welcome his brother.
Within minutes, the doors at the end of the hall open. Azlan strides in. Nyan and Skol flank him on either side, and behind them is a phalanx of alpha guards who frankly look confused as to who they want to aid. Kain’s instability is obvious to all who come into contact with him.
“AZLAN!” he shouts my mate’s name. “See what I have done!” Kain declares, his arms wide as he bows and gestures to his dead, stuffed father.
“Kain, get off that throne and release Ava. NOW!” Azlan roars with the authority of a true alpha. He sounds angry. Very fucking angry, and very unimpressed.