Freeing the Beasts

A Hybrid Trilogy

Aleera Anaya Ceres

Freeing the Beasts

A Hybrid Trilogy

Copyright 2018 Aleera Anaya Ceres

All Rights Reserved

Cover by Imagine Ink Designs

No portion of this book may be reproduced without written permission from the author. Any unauthorized use of any portion of the book is prohibited.

This book is a work of fiction. Any names, places, characters, events, and/or incidents are the products of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Disclaimer: This book is a reverse harem romance and as such contains scenes that may not be suitable for those younger than the age of 18.

Acknowledgments

This book is for you.

For the fans who have followed this story and who have shown it so much love.

Thank you. You mean so much to me.

Chapter One

The air was tainted with smoke and the tips of flickering flames of angry fire. Gunshots rang out, each piercing bullet that resonated around the clearing was no match to the pounding of my own heart. Bodies became a blur around me, both of the living and dead. My whole body throbbed in the aftermath of the battle between us and the hybrids, but that pain became nothing, dissipating entirely as I gazed upon one hybrid in particular.

This hybrid was different than the rest. Smaller, with fur that looked newly groomed and shining and brown eyes that looked at me with gentleness.

Eyes that I recognized.

The eyes of my mother.

“Mom?”

Her ears perked up and she let out a grunt, as if she’d tried to form a word. My mother. My mother, who had been kidnapped when she’d gone beyond the walls of our kingdom to follow me. My mother, who I thought to be captive of the Ruined City. My mother, who was taken to the Hybrid Laboratory. My mother, who was now a hybrid.

I let my bow and arrow fall to the ground. I nearly fell as well but somehow, I managed to keep myself upright. Ever since she’d been taken, my mind had conjured up image after image of all the terrible things that could have happened to her. But I never could have imagined this.

I never could have imagined that my mother would become one of the creatures that had broken our world so long ago.

I placed my hand out in front of me, palm open. My mother looked at it, almost with uncertainty before she walked forward and pressed her forehead against my skin. I ran my fingers through the roots of her fur. It was coarse and thick beneath my calloused fingertips. She nudged me with her muzzle. A muzzle. My mom had a muzzle now. It was long and her whole body was bear-like in appearance. Nose elongated and leathery, teeth wide, sharp and dangerous.

But she wasn’t dangerous. Not to me. She’d just taken down the leader of the hybrid creatures to save me from getting killed.

“Mom, who did this to you?”

She let out a low growling noise almost as if she’d meant to answer me. “Keanna!” There was the shout of my name and before I could blink, strong hands were shoving me away. I nearly tripped over my own feet but righted myself easily enough, turning just in time to see Akir pointing a large gun straight at my mom’s face.

“Akir, don’t!” I shouted. He ignored me and in my adrenaline rush, I did the only thing I could think of doing. I charged.

In my mind I heard River’s instructive voice, telling me about feet placement and the angles of my upper body. I crouched low as I ran, and the surprise of the impact from my body colliding with his, knocked Akir to the ground. Our feet tangled as we both went to the dirt. I fell on top of him with a grunt and he let out a curse as his gun was knocked sideways.

His glare at me was mutinous. In a quick, swift motion, Akir flipped me over so I was beneath him. The press of his body was hard and warm against mine for a fraction of a second before he was standing up, whirling his gun again.

Cursing, I jumped up and stepped in front of my mom. He would not shoot me to get to her.

Akir was covered in black ash and dirt. Bright blood was prominent on his face, dripping down the length of his beard. His eyes looked red, the fire reflecting in his blue depths. There was anger etched deep into the lines of his scowl. But there was something else there as well. Worry.

“What are you doing, lass?” He ground out tightly.

“You can’t kill her,” I shouted firmly.

He cocked his gun. “Like hell I can’t.” His finger tightened slightly on the trigger as he aimed. “Move aside before that thing kills you!”

“Akir, please just listen to me!”

I wasn’t sure what exactly I’d be telling him, what words I could say that would make all of this seem less crazy. Less like a fantasy and more like the reality of the Broken World we lived in. But my fiancée gave pause at my words. Almost as if he’d listen to me. As if he’d believe anything and everything I had to say.

I sighed my relief and opened my mouth to speak…

When all at once, every remaining hybrid roared.

Their cries were a violent screeching that shook the sky. The sound was a dangerous symphony, their voices rising in painful song that sent a chill down the entirety of my back. I whipped around and Akir pulled me towards him, strong arm wrapping around my stomach to hold me in place against his chest. I didn’t feel his usual heat in that touch. I felt nothing but worry as I watched my mother join in, letting loose animalistic sounds, one after the other.

She began whimpering first and looked to me, her brown eyes wide and frightened. I knew then that something was terribly wrong.

Suddenly, in quick violent movements, she began pawing away at her face, growling as she began running her face against the dirt. She looked like a demon possessed as she thrashed around uncontrollably, painfully. She screeched and cried, enormous paws flattening out her ears.

“Something’s wrong,” I cried out. I tried taking a step forward but Akir held me firmly.

“Look, lass,” he said in my ear.

I looked up and gasped. All of the screeching hybrids were suddenly dashing away from the melee of the battle, running towards the tree lines and disappearing completely. As if they were answering some call they couldn’t ignore. And my mother appeared to be fighting that call with every fiber.

Her movements were jerky as she struggled around on the ground, almost as if she were trying to physically push aside some hybrid instinct that threatened to override who she was. And she could fight it. I knew she could. She was a Ferguson and we Ferguson’s did not break beneath the conquering pressure of these creatures.

She could do it.

I knew she could.

But when my mother stood on her back paws and cried out, I knew that I was wrong.

She couldn’t.

In an instant, her entire being seemed to change and the eyes that had looked on me with such tenderness just a moment ago, vanished entirely into something else and she truly became a hybrid.

She began swinging her paws around at anyone that dared get too near. Men suddenly came at her from every angle, pointing guns, metal spears with electric ends and bombs. She cried out her rage at their proximity and made a move to deliver death blows…

And then the net went over her.

She fell to the ground, more from surprise than anything else, and growled as a smoke bomb was thrown in front of her face, exploding into a dense cloud of gray. The men got to work around her, rushing to hammer the net down and keep her in place.

The smoke cleared quickly, revealing her form beneath. She had gone more still and her brown eyes darted to me. She was herself again.

And then Akir was letting me go, rushing towards her to help his men. The end of his gun pointed straight at her face and I had no other choice. I threw myself over her body, between them.

Akir appeared startled by the sudden move and lowered his gun a fraction before tightening his grip on it. I wondered briefly how angry he’d be with me later, since I’d undermined him in front of his people. But that didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now except saving my mother from death.

“Move.” Akir demanded tightly.

I looked him in the eyes and didn’t blink. “No.”

“Do I need to shoot you to get to that beast, lass?” His voice didn’t make me doubt that he would. But his eyes were what gave him away. He didn’t have it in him to shoot me. Not even to save his men from what he thought was a monster. And that was when I realized, with a sudden jolt, that he hadn’t been lying earlier when he’d told me he loved me.

“You can’t shoot her, Akir.” I said firmly.

He lowered his weapon. There was resignation on his face. And anger. We could get into that later, though.

Around him, his men seemed to snicker in disapproval at me. I ignored them and looked only at Akir. At my fiancée and hoped that he would ignore the men around him. Ignore his people. For me.

“Akir,” I whispered. He looked at me with uncertainty. I knew what truth would give him pause. Give them all pause. I only hoped they would believe me. “I know what they’ve done to the royals.”

Chapter Two

Akir blinked. It was the only surprise he’d show before he finally lowered his weapon to his side, letting it dangle almost helplessly. His men quieted down, the snickers and judgment they had been aiming at me the entire time vanished.

My fiancée’s gaze darted between me and my mother. Of course, in his eyes she was just a beast he’d meant to kill. It was almost as if he were reading the truth there. As if he could see what it was I was about to tell him.

Believe me, I sent up a silent prayer to the gods that he would as I slowly stood and spread my arms out at my sides. My heart beat in terrible rhythms but my voice was firm and my expression strong as I looked him and all of his men in the eyes. Even if he didn’t believe me, I would protect her at all costs. Even if I had to kill Akir to do it.

“She’s my mother,” I confessed.

A heartbeat passed. Then two. Then three.

Akir stared at me. His men stared at me. And no one said anything. I counted the beats that passed, held my breath as I waited. They all seemed to be awaiting their leader’s reaction. I was waiting for his reaction.

Then, he took a step forward...and another...and another until he was in front of me. I loosed the breath that was caught at the back of my throat. His eyes were soft as they looked at me. He believed me. A smile touched the corners of my lips. He believed me.

But my illusion shattered when his eyes suddenly flared angrily. His hand went to the back of my head to tug at the roots of my hair. I cried out from surprise as he began pulling me away from his men and away from my mother. Just like that, the violence emanated from him once more. Before me wasn’t the Akir I’d come to care about but the Ruined City prick I hated.

“Let go of me, you bastard!” I screamed as he pulled me away from the group and to an empty spot further away from them. If privacy was what he wanted, he was in for disappointment because I had no intention of biting back my anger in soft whispered arguments.

“Is this some kind of a joke to you, lass?” He pulled hard enough that it hurt.

I struggled against him and clawed at his hand. “Let me go, you bastard!”

So he did, nearly pushing me away as if I disgusted him. I stumbled back, my hand rubbing the back of my head a brief moment before I marched forward again. My hands tightened into fists and I knew he was eyeing the movement, anticipating what I would do. He could easily deflect my blows.

I didn’t care.

I let my hand fly to his face. He caught my wrist inches from his cheek and snarled, as if he had won. But grabbing my wrist was far from winning. In a swift move, I brought my knee high up between his legs. The grunt he gave was satisfaction enough for me.

Pulling away from him, I didn’t bother giving him a moment to compose himself. He doubled over, nearly dropping the gun to the ground, and placed his hand over his groin and wheezed.

“Don’t you ever pull me around like that again,” I threatened. “Or you’ll wake up one morning with an important piece missing.”

Akir coughed and stood to his full height to glare at me. His nostrils were flaring as he took me in. I’d only succeeded in making him angrier. “Stop playing fucking games with me, lass.” He demanded gruffly.

“This isn’t a game!” I shouted.

“Then why the hell are you treating it like one? Claiming that thing is your mother. Are you insane? Has the smoke gotten into your pretty little head?”

I let out a shout and shoved him in the chest. “Don’t talk down at me!”

“Then stop lying.”

“I’m not!” I screamed. The camp went silent a moment. Even the sounds of my hybrid mother’s grunting ceased. They’d listen into our conversation now but I didn’t care. All I wanted was for Akir, for my fiancée to believe me. I was desperate for it. For him to believe in me.

“You’re trying to tell me that the thing that killed my people—the thing that killed Helga—is your mother?” His voice was low and menacing and sent a tremble of fear through me.

“My mother didn’t kill Helga, Akir.” I said softly. Was that why he was so reluctant to believe? I’d overheard Cole say that Helga and Akir had been together before me. She’d been his guard as well and the reality of her death was settling in his heart.

I understood those raw wounds too well. For River had been killed in the battle against those things. River, the one who had been by my side since we were children. We played together, ran together and trained together. As we got older, I had more duties as princess and he’d trained to be my guard but we never grew apart. The relationship between us never wavered, never faltered.

I’d been his first kiss. The moment played so vividly in my mind now. And all I would have left of my guard were memories.

River was dead.

I swallowed the rising lump in my throat and reached for Akir. Not to harm him, but to hold his trembling arm in my hand. “It’s hard to explain,” I whispered. “But you have to believe me. I know she’s my mother. I don’t know how to prove it but it’s true, Akir. It’s true.”

He looked down at me and I watched the anger slowly fade from his face. That, however, didn’t stop him from hardening his gaze. “I can’t make sense of any of this.”

“Neither can I,” I confessed.

“Helga is dead.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I know you loved her—”

“You don’t know anything, lass. I didn’t love her. Not like I love you. But I did care about her. And now she’s dead.”

I felt the tears prickling the backs of my eyelids. “River is dead, too.” It hurt to say those words aloud. It meant they were real and more than anything, I wished that this was a dream.

Akir reached a hand out to cup my cheek and run the rough pad of his thumb against the curve of it as if he’d meant to catch my tears. “Strength, my queen. Show them the strength of victory even in utter defeat. Later, there will be time for tears.”

His words struck a chord in me. I bit back my emotions and nodded firmly. He was right. It was a lesson I was sure they drilled into every Royal at birth. Show no emotion, show no weakness. If you did, it just made it easier for the masses to hurt you.

So I did what was expected of me and held my head high and turned back to Akir’s men—to my men, for they would be my people as well—and walked back over to them. I looked at each and every one of them silently. Some stared at me straight on, others averted their gazes.

“You will not harm her,” I said finally. “Because she is my mother.” Cries of outrage rang out around us. They didn’t believe it. They wanted proof. They wanted revenge.

Beside me, Akir said nothing. I didn’t expect him to. It was another test, a test to prove that I could handle these people. A test to prove that I was worthy as his future queen.

“I can’t explain it. I’m not a scientist but I know what they’re doing with the missing royals and this,” I pointed at my mother. Heat shamed my cheeks at using her, at displaying her like this but I needed them to believe me. “This is what they are doing to our royalty. They are taking them from their homes and degrading their bodies and turning them into monsters.” The men had gone quiet as they listened to me. To my speech. “And those monsters came here today and they killed our friends, they killed the ones we loved.” My voice cracked with emotion but this time, I didn’t bother swallowing it back. They would hear me roar. “And I swear to you that I will do all that’s in my power to find out who is doing this to our people and when I find him…” I smiled in a way I’d never done before and I knew from the way they flinched back, that I’d won. “We will tear them apart.”

Their shouts erupted into a chorus all around me. Their cheers filled me with confidence, chasing away the doubts and worry that threatened to suffocated my insides. Sighing, I bent down so I was looking into my mother’s eyes. They were widened slightly in surprise. I wanted to chuckle, to tell her that I was just as surprised as she was by these turn off events.

“Keanna! Princess Keanna!”

I stood abruptly at the shouting of my name and turned in time to see Kael rushing towards me. He pushed through the crowd and my chest nearly dropped with relief. Like everyone else, he was covered in ash and dirt. Blood dripped down his temple and to his chin and his clothes were stained and tattered as if he’d barely missed the swipe of a beast.

I ran to him and threw myself into his arms, holding him tightly. His hands were gentle on my back and I felt a sob begin to rise in my chest. He was alive. Kael was alive. I pulled away to look up into his dark eyes. Something was wrong.

My heart plummeted. “Is it Lex?” I asked fearfully.

He shook his head. “Lex is fine. He’s fine.”

The breath left my lungs and I managed to swallow. “Then what is it?”

“It’s River, princess. River’s alive.”

Chapter Three

“On the count of three!” Akir shouted. The men prepared themselves, adjusting their legs and arms. “One!”’ I was among them, just as bruised and bloody as they were. “Two!” We were determined. Me more than them. “Three! Lift!” We grunted as we all in unison lifted the massive body of the dead hybrid. As soon as its body was up, Kael and Lex were underneath it, gently but quickly pulling River’s body from there. As soon as he was out, we dropped the beast and I was rushing to Kael’s side, bending down to see.

Kael was was quick, frantic as he checked River’s pulse, assessing the damage over his body. I tried not to look. I didn’t want to. But my eyes were drawn to his mangled limbs. Blood. So much blood. I didn’t know how to separate the wholeness of him from the flesh and blood. I didn’t know where he began or ended anymore. This body was new. It was broken.

“How is he?” I asked, though I wasn’t sure I wanted to know the answer.

“His leg’s been crushed,” Kael replied tightly. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked at it. Blood was spurting out at an incredible rate. “We need to hurry or else he won’t survive.” Kael ripped the hem of his sweater off and began tying it around River’s left leg, just below the knee. As soon as he tightened the knot into place, River’s body jerked.

I let out a startled cry as he began thrashing around on the ground. He screamed and heaved his pain and as he died, the knot came undone again. “Keanna!” He shrieked my name and the sound sent a frightening jolt through me. “Ke—Ke—” all of a sudden, his body tensed up, chest arched to the sky and the cords on his neck standing out painfully.

Kael jumped into action, retying the material of his sweater into a knot to stop the blood flow. But it didn’t seem to do anything. River kept spasming and his face had gone a very pale shade.

“Help him!” I shrieked.

“He’s lost too much blood! He’s going into shock!”

I watched with total helplessness as River’s entire body convulsed as if he were being thoroughly shocked with electricity. And then suddenly, it stopped. His body fell back to the ground. He was immobile, his bloody face growing paler. And he wasn’t breathing.

Kael let out a curse, his hands fingering River’s neck to check for a pulse. Then, Kael bent his body over him, placing his palms just over his chest and began pumping away. He paused only to tilt River’s head up and press his lips to my guard’s, blowing air into his mouth before he pumped away again.

Oh gods. My head spun as I watched. River. River. Kael was pushing up against his chest because his heart had stopped beating. River was dead. But he couldn’t be...he couldn’t!

“Come on, Riv.” Kael muttered as he pumped. “Come on!”

I felt the pressure building in my chest all over again. I felt the pain tear open again, raw and exposed. It hurt to breathe, to watch this unfold before me. To lose River all over again.

But still I hoped.

“Don’t die,” I pleaded. “I need you, Riv.”

As if my words struck something in him, as if my words had guided his soul back into his body, River’s chest lifted as he suddenly sucked in one painful and long breath. Kael removed his hands to hold the back of his head as he coughed.

“River, can you hear me?” Kael asked gently.

River opened his dark eyes and set them on me. “Keanna,” he whispered, his voice low and slightly croaking just before he closed his eyes into unconsciousness.

“We need to get out of here.” Kael laid his head gently on the ground again, eyes wandering to his leg wound. “He won’t survive if we do. He needs blood and…” he cut off, his eyes staring down worriedly at his mangled leg.

“And what?” Akir asked, his voice ever-calm.

I knew we had an audience. I knew some of Akir’s men were watching, the others lifting up their own dead and injured. Lex was beside me but I barely felt his presence. Not when my gaze was entirely focused on River.

Kael looked up at Akir. “His leg is beyond saving.”

I choked down the sob that threatened to rip out of me, my eyes traveling straight to the limb in question. He would lose his leg. They’d have to cut it off. Sadness rippled through me but I dutifully pushed it away. I could not be sad. I had to be strong for River, for everyone. Besides, I’d have River without his leg rather than dead.

“We have to go now.” Kael urged. “The supplies in my medical kit aren’t enough to save him. We need to go back to the city.”

Akir gave him a tight nod and turned to his men. “It’s time to go,” he ordered. “Now.”

They burst into action, rushing as if their heels were on fire. Maybe they were just eager to get away. Happy that we were leaving this awful place, putting as much distance between us and the hybrids.

My stomach lurched as I thought of the hybrids. I stood up and looked down at River. I felt so torn. I didn’t want to leave his side. It hurt to even think about leaving him alone. But he wouldn’t be, I had to remind myself. Kael was with him. Gentle, capable Kael who had saved his life. Lex was still crouching on the ground as well.

“Look after him,” I whispered.

Kael didn’t need to look up from his task to confirm. I knew he’d heard. And I knew he would. “Help me carry him to the van, Lex.” He ordered firmly. “Gently but quickly.”

“We’ve got this, red.” Lex said without looking up at me. Instead, he began following Kael’s orders, gripping onto River’s body to pick him up.

I swallowed past the tightness in my throat and turned to Akir. He read what I wanted by looking at my expression apparently because he jerked his head to the side and began walking, leaving me to follow.

We walked over to my mother, still trapped and guarded beneath the net. She looked at me with her wide eyes as we approached, confusion and worry in her depths. She lay incredibly still, afraid that if she moved, one of the men would shoot her.

I glared at them and at their alert guns. “Release her,” I commanded.

They stiffened and glared, obviously angry at my sudden order and tone. They made no move to obey. I frowned.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, lass.” Akir said softly.

I whirled around to glare at him. “What the hell do you mean?”

He looked at me surely, unwavering while the men around him shuffled uncomfortably like cowards. “If what you say is true and they’ve turned the royals into hybrids, it’s best if she’s kept locked away.”

The earlier rage I’d felt directed at him resurfaced once more and I nearly growled at him. “She’s not a gods damned prisoner!”

His glare was equally frightening as my own, but not enough to have my knees quaking. “She’s not a house pet either, lass.”

My skin prickled defensively at his harsh words. “Of course she’s not,” I responded tightly “She’s my mother.”

“She is also a hybrid,” he pointed out, his voice dropping an octave as if he didn’t want to offend me or as if he were talking to a wounded animal. It made me want to punch him in the nose. My hands tightened into fists with that desire. His eyes follow the movement and he raised a brow. “Calm the fire, lass. What I mean is that we don’t know the extent of the damage they’ve done to her. We don’t know what the side effects are or how she will react. We need to keep everyone safe.”

Logically, I knew he was right. I knew he was doing what was best for everyone and were this anyone else, I would have agreed. But this was my mother. How could I lock her up? How could I do that to her?

“We can stand here and argue about it all day if you want.” Akir said casually. “Or we can hurry up and put her in the back of the van and leave before River dies.”

His words jolted me like a shock of electricity running through my veins. “Fine,” I agreed reluctantly. “But if I see one scratch on her then I promise you this,” I stepped forward so that our bodies were but a whisper apart, “I will kill you first.”

The side of Akir’s lip twitched upward. “I would expect nothing less, princess.”

***

They didn’t take the net off of my mother. I glared at them but looked at her apologetically. Her eyes were wide and frightened but something in them told me that she understood why they had to do it. Dead bodies were piled into one van. Among them, Helga. She’d had no pulse, we’d been too late for her. I only hoped that we wouldn’t be too late for River.

He was in and out of consciousness. I found I preferred him to be silent because I couldn’t bear the sound of his screaming, the sound of his pain. It was agonizing. Kael worked furiously with a speed and determination I’d never seen from him before. He used what he could to bind his leg tightly.

“He needs a blood transfusion,” he urged. “The ride is long. He won’t survive without one.”

I looked at my guard. Already his face was pale, too pale and sweating, his lips cracked. He looked like a phantom of the River I knew.

I swallowed the tightness in my throat. “Take my blood,” I offered, holding out my arm to him. He looked at me with a startled expression. “If blood is what you need, take mine. Take all of it if you must, but save him.”

Kael shook his head. “It’s not that simple.”

“The hell it isn’t!” I shouted, thrusting my arm forward once again. “Take it.”

“I cannot, princess. Not without knowing your blood type.”

I lowered my arm. “Blood type?”

“We all have a blood type. I cannot put your blood into him without knowing either of your blood types. If you aren’t compatible, it could harm him more than help.”

My head spun. “Then how are we supposed to help him?”

“He’s type O positive. Keanna is A positive.” Akir’s deep voice drawled from the back of the van. We all turned to him with raised brows. He was looking at me. “You cannot give him your blood, lass.”

I turned back to Kael for confirmation. The healer was looking at Akir with a slight bit of surprise. “He’s right,” he agreed finally. “You cannot give him your blood.”

“I can!” Desperation was beginning to tighten its grip around me, threatening suffocation.

“You can’t.” Akir said darkly. “But I can.”

We all startled at that. It was Lex, who’d been entirely too quiet up until now, who broke the startled silence. “I didn’t even know blood had a type. So how do you know this?”

Akir climbed into the van and began pulling his jacket off. He dropped it to the floor and went to sit next to an unconscious River. He didn’t even spare Lex a glance when he replied, “Some of us are smarter than you.” Before Lex could come up with a retort, he was thrusting his arm in Kael’s direction and saying, “You’ll recall we took blood samples when you arrived at the Ruined City and ran analysis. I’m O positive. Give him my blood.”

Kael looked into Akir’s eyes for merely a moment, communicating silently before he got to work. He began pulling things out of the medical kit. Needles, bags, disinfectant… The supplies became a blur in my mind as he started connecting needles to tubes to bags. I had to look away when he stuck a needle through Akir and River’s arms.

Lex looked away as well and his light brown eyes found my own. He gifted me with a small smirk as if he meant to make me feel better, and asked, “Did you know blood had a type?”

My choked laugh came out more like a sigh. “I didn’t,” I confessed. “He didn’t even take my blood in the Ruined City.” Then again, he’d spied on me quite extensively before our engagement was announced. He probably already knew what it was. “We’re probably like cavemen compared to them.”

He let out a small bout of quiet laughter and I studied him. I hadn’t gotten a chance to do so, not with everything that had been going on. He, like all of us, was covered in ash and dirt and blood. The blood on his face obviously wasn’t his but seemed to have splattered and stayed there. He appeared unharmed and I almost would have believe he was perfectly okay if I hadn’t noticed the slight wincing he did when he laughed or the way he seemed to lean towards his right side.

“Let’s have a look, then.” I demanded, reaching my hands forward to grab the hem of his shirt.

He flinched. “I’m fine,” he said tightly. I raised an eyebrow at him with disbelief and he laughed, wincing as he did so. “Okay, I’m not fine but I’m not dying, either.”

As soon as the words escaped his mouth he clamped his lips shut, his eyes darting over to glance at River. It was bad form to mention death at a sick bed and the very word made my heart clench but I reminded myself that I had to be strong. So, I brushed the words aside as if I were brushing aside specks of dust and lifted Lex’s shirt up.

The shot wound he’d received from Braxtyn Murtaugh had been stitched up by Kael the night before but the battle with the hybrids had caused it to tear. Blood had seeped out to stain his dirty clothes.

“It really doesn’t hurt that ba—sst—” he winced when I pressed the cloth of his shirt to his wound, attempting to clean it.

I raised my eyebrow. “You were saying?”

“Fine,” he admitted slowly, “it hurts, but it’s not as bad as what other people have suffered so I won’t complain about it, red. And I don’t want you worrying, either.”

“Just let me help you.” I dabbed at his wound again despite his protests. He didn’t wince this time. This time he gripped my wrist tightly with one hand, and with his other, he pressed his finger against my chin to lift my gaze up to his.

“Red, it’s fine,” he whispered.

The tears were prickling behind my eyelids now. I swallowed the thick emotion that caught in my throat but the action still didn’t push it down. I still wanted to cry. “Please, Lex. Let me feel useful.”

He looked at me a moment longer, his gaze softening each passing second. I knew he’d understand my need to be useful. Hadn’t he just confessed to me the night before that he felt he had nothing to offer me? How strange that I was now suddenly in his own shoes, feeling pathetic and worthless. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in over my head. I had no idea how to help River, how to help my mother. I had no idea how to stop these hybrid attacks and I certainly had no idea who was behind them.

So, I needed to keep my hands busy. It would help me. It would prevent me from wallowing in self pity and helplessness. I needed it more than he knew.

Finally, Lex gave a slow nod and sat back against the wall of the van and let me work.

***

It was minutes later that Braxtyn jumped into the van with such a force that rattled us all in our seats. We turned to look at him with surprise. I tried not to lunge for him, to drag my nails down his stupid face. My hatred for him was now burning deep. If I hadn’t trusted him when I met him, I trusted him even less now.

He’d been the one to shoot Lex. He’d been the one to hold me back as I’d rushed for River in an attempt to save him from a beast. Because of him, River was dying. Because of him.

I glared. Lex glared. Even Kael, whose head was bent over River’s arm, taking the needle out, glared. Akir stood up. Kael had already taken the needle out of his arm only seconds before. He took one look at his younger brother and asked, “What’s wrong?”

Braxtyn didn’t spare any of us a glance. His face was all hard lines and anger. “It’s Cole,” he said gravely. “He’s missing.”

Chapter Four

Cole wasn’t among the dead.

Akir searched every face frantically trying to find that of his youngest brother. But he wasn’t there. And he wasn’t among the living, either.

Because Cole was missing.

I knew his pain. I knew what it was to lose someone you loved. I knew that helplessness soaring through him. I saw the panic in his eyes when he looked at me, blue depths pleading. I had to suck in a breath and resist the urge to run to him and take him in my arms. Instead, I grabbed my bow and arrows and took to the woods with Akir and some of his men at my heels.

I left behind the stench of smoke and was enveloped in the soft breeze of pine and familiarity. In these woods, bow and arrow cocked and ready to fly, I became what I was used to. I became what I was comfortable with.

In the woods, I became the huntress.

I studied the tracks left behind. Paw prints disturbed the earth and sent a sliver of fear to my chest. There weren’t any human tracks near them. Nothing to hint that Cole had followed. Nothing to hint that he’d been taken. There was no blood left behind. No tire tracks. But still I followed the breadcrumbs the hybrids had left behind.

It would lead us to their lair, I’d bet anything I owned on it. It would lead us to the lab and lead us to the one behind these attacks.

Akir seemed to realize what I had. “Stop,” he commanded. “Everybody, stop.”

We all froze and turned to look at him. He looked at me and gone was the earlier panic in his expression. Gone was that helplessness and in its place was now the determined, hard leader I knew.

“We have to go back,” he said.

I stared wide eyed at him. “What do you mean?”

“We need to leave. We need to go back to the Ruined City. We can’t follow these tracks.”

His men looked at him with unease. I was the only one brave enough to question him. “Why not?”

Anger blazed like a blue flame in his eyes. “You saw what those things did, how many men they killed. We have no idea what we’re walking in to. It could be a trap. I will not risk what few men we have left.”

Then he nodded at his men and they turned and headed back for camp.

And I had no choice but to follow, even if every fiber urged to turn back around despite knowing he was right.

When I caught up to Akir, my weapon was lowered, and I reached for his arm. “Are you sure?” I asked with uncertainty. “He’s your brother…”

“I know he is,” he responded tightly and so low that I had to strain to hear him. “But I cannot risk the many for the few.”

Those words struck me like an arrow through my flesh. They were the mantra of every royal. And the hardest thing any would have to go through. To save his people, he would have to leave behind his brother.

And I knew that the decision would be his own personal beast, tormenting him forever.

****

We drove like hell. We’d already wasted too much time at the campsite and we needed to get back to the Ruined City to treat the wounded. To treat River.

His face had become thin and wraith-like. Gone was the sun-kissed bronze and in its place, a ghost of the man I loved. Pale skin, blueing lips and a face covered in sweat. He shivered for what felt like hours, thrashing in and out of consciousness and pain. His mangled leg would soon be infected if they didn’t cut it off.

I dreaded the moment they’d do it.

I knew the likelihood of surviving was slim. And in the Broken World, we had no technology advanced enough that would guarantee his survival. I could only hope and pray to whatever gods that were listening to save my guard.

I’d give them anything if only they’d let him live.

His cries of agony filled the back of the van. I wanted to cover my ears and block it out but I knew that act would make me nothing more than a coward. So I listened, each cry falling onto my shoulders, weighing me down heavier and heavier with each passing moment.

I was sitting in the front seat next to Akir. Kael had made me. He’d claimed he needed the space to work, to care for River. But I knew he’d only done it to spare me.

Akir was driving. His hands were wound tightly on the steering wheel. I could see the whites of his knuckles and the tension coiling off of him like a living, pulsing thing. If I could make him feel better, I would. I’d take his hand in mine and share our grief. But it would do nothing. Nothing would ever calm that storm inside him, the doubt. Nothing but the truth, anyway.

So when we arrived at the Ruined City moments later, I was hopping out of the vehicle before he safely parked. I ran to the back just as the other vans pulled up beside us. Everyone began unloading, Akir hopped out to start barking out orders to his people.

My heart was torn in two directions as I watched them carefully pull River from the back as well as my hybrid mother from the other car. I couldn’t go to them both. And I couldn’t leave them alone. I feared that if I did, it’d be the last time I’d see them.

“Go.” Akir appeared beside me, his fingers feathering across my wrist before pulling away. I tore my gaze from my mother’s brown eyes to look up at him. His own face was a hard mask, but his eyes seemed defeated. “Go with River. I will look after your mom.”

My throat tightened, my hand reaching for his as if by their own volition, fingers slipping into the spaces between his own. “You’re sure?”

He looked down at me then. His piercing eyes nearly burned my own with the intensity. He was covered in ash and blood and he side of his lip twitched up into a mocking smile. And never before had he looked so beautiful.

I stood on my tiptoes on impulse, my hand splayed against his hard chest, and I pressed my lips lightly to his. It was a soft and innocent kiss that made me crave the texture and taste of his tongue against my own. But I pulled back, feeling the thunderous beat of his heart against my palm.

“Thank you,” I whispered.

I looked at my mother one last time to find her staring between me and Akir with wide eyes. As if she couldn’t quite believe what she’d just witnessed. I gave her a look that said “I’ll explain later,” before turning and following Kael, Lex and River.

****

“We need to operate now.” Kael was saying urgently.

A cacophony of sound assaulted my every nerve, wiring it to alertness. But I couldn’t think. I didn’t know how to help. Not now. Not like this.

As soon as they’d laid River’s body onto the bed, he’d woken up, screaming. He thrashed around in a panic, crying out incoherent things. It was as if he was delirious, the pain of the fever searing directly into his brain.

“Hold him down!” Kael commanded.

Swallowing the rising bile and panic in my throat, I ran to River’s side and held him down with my upper body. Lex was frantically looking around until he found what he needed. He came back with rope and I moved just as he began tying it around River’s upper body to keep him still.

Kael was working on disinfecting the tools. My heart dropped to the pit of my stomach at the sight of the saw, sharp and threatening. Water began to pool beneath my tongue, my stomach churned as he went over to River with all of the supplies.

“Lex, hold down his good leg.” Kael pointed as he retrieved a long piece of wood. Lex did as he was told and Kael went to the front of River. “River,” he called out to be heard beyond the screams, “I need you to bite down on this.” He slipped the wood between River’s teeth. Then he went back to his injured leg and lifted the saw.

The room around me started spinning, spots danced across my vision. I felt the bile rising up, up… but I swallowed it back down. I had to be strong. Strong.

“This is going to hurt.” Kael affirmed as he set the saw just below River’s knee.

My heart thundered faster and faster.

“Bite down,” Kael commanded.

Then he began to saw.

And all I could hear were River’s muffled screams.

****

I was drenched in his blood. Dark crimson staining my clothes, already stiffening against me. The stench was overwhelmingly nauseating. I felt as though I’d never get used to it, used to the cooppery tang, used to the screams, used to the pain.

I’d had to hold him down, had to help Kael patch him up. I had to spend hours listening to his screams of agony turning on and off again like a Ruined City lightbulb. The pain was too awful to bear so he’d close his eyes, giving into the darkness only to wake up and live the pain all over again.

My insides churned throughout it all, threatening to rise up and spill over. I pushed the sensation down, even when all I wanted to do was hurl my guts up at the sight of his torn flesh being mutilated even further.

I was glad when it was over.

Glad when River survived the procedure.

“He’ll be fine now,” Kael assured me quietly. Funny, I didn’t feel reassured. “The worst is over with. I’ll need to monitor him so he doesn’t catch infection or fever.” He took one look at me, his dark eyes softening. “Go get some rest.”

His own face looked haggard; he was probably more tired than I was but I didn’t argue. My hands were still shaking. I nodded absently to him and to Lex, who was breathing heavily against a wall, and set my eyes on River. His chest rose and fell in a steady rhythm. I should stay. I should stay and make sure he survived the night…

“Go to your mom, red.” Lex said a little breathlessly. “If his condition changes, I’ll go find you.”

I gave him a tight nod and turned around before I could change my mind.

And I left.

****

“They’ve already taken blood samples from her. They’re going to run an analysis on it and let us know what they find. Maybe there’ll be a way to reverse what they did to her.”

Akir’s voice rumbled out of the lab room. He spoke in tired tones and I could almost hear the sag in his shoulders. The defeat in his words. It broke my heart, made me want to gather him into my arms and hold them there. Maybe we could find comfort in each other, if only for a brief moment.

I was about to step through the doorway and do just that when a harsher voice froze me in my tracks.

“What does it matter?” Braxtyn snapped angrily. “Our brother is missing and instead of gathering soldiers to go and look for him, you’re here studying the hybrid queen.”

Akir sighed rather loudly. “You saw what those hybrids did to our camp, to our men. I will not risk their lives unnecessarily. Not until we have a better understanding of what’s going on here.”

Braxtyn scoffed and the empty worry inside me ignited into the hatred I felt for him once more. I’d eavesdropped on one conversation he’d taken part in already. Did I really want to suffer through another one? Did I really want to listen in on his cruel words once again? Maybe not. But I damn well wasn’t going to walk into that room just yet.

“We were caught off guard. We can go back and tear up that lab and find our brother.”

I heard his desperation. He was repeating words that I’d heard before, words that had come from the lips of my own brothers. We’d had this exact conversation regarding the beasts. And Akir was doing what my father would have done. Protecting his people.

“No, Brax.” Akir said with finality.

I heard Braxtyn’s angry scoff. “If only you cared so much about our family as you do for her.”

The silence that followed seemed painfully infinite. I couldn’t see Akir’s form but I imagined what he looked like in that moment. Tense, tight, a scowl pulling over his face. And then he spoke, “What,” his voice was menacingly low, “is that supposed to mean?”

“You know damn well what it means, brother.”

“I don’t. Explain it to me.”

I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear his explanation. I already knew what he thought of me.

“Ever since your engagement was announced, your whole life has been about Princess Keanna and Princess Keanna only. You dropped everything to rush to the hybrid lab for her. But now that our own brother has been captured, you don’t want to risk the men? It’s bullshit.”

Akir was silent a long moment again. His silence frightened me much more than his next words did.

“If I cared more about my fiancée than I did about my brothers, you’d be dead by now.”

I froze and risked a peek in the threshold. Akir’s arms were crossed against the wide expanse of his chest and he was staring down his brother angrily. Braxtyn’s hands were tightened into fists at his sides and I didn’t misread his stance, his body poised to throw a punch at any given moment.

“If I cared more about her than I did you, I would have pummeled you to the ground for what you did to my queen. You all think I didn’t notice?” He gestured at his brother’s bruised face. “You all think I’m such a fool? No, brother, do not mistake me for one. Because if I cared more about her than I do for you, I would have shot you myself for hurting her.”

“I didn’t—”

“Don’t fucking lie to me.” He interrupted. “I saw the wound on her cheek. I saw Lex’s bruised knuckles and I certainly saw your fucked up face. Don’t stand there and lie to me.”

Braxtyn had the good grace to flush. “She was the one who—”

My fiancée held up a hand to silence him. “I don’t give a damn who started it. Don’t be a child. Princess Keanna is going to be your queen, whether you like her or not and you will treat her with the respect she’s owed. Do you understand me?”

Braxtyn’s face twisted into rage. He was so different from his brother, so different in manner and even in anger, they looked nothing alike. “Fuck your queen,” he practically spat.

There was enough hatred packed into his words that Akir was on him in a second, pushing him back and pressing his forearm against his throat. There was a clattering as in their struggle, they knocked aside a rolling table with tools.

I burst into the room then, just as Akir held his brother up against the wall and choked him. I rushed to his side. There was an urge me in that wanted to let Braxtyn suffer for all that he’d done, so I made no move to pull Akir away. A part of me knew anyway that this was his brother and he would never seriously harm him, no matter how angry he was with him.

Braxtyn’s face had gone red as he struggled against his brother’s strong hold.

“Akir,” I whispered softly, a warning.

Finally, he let go and his brother slumped against the wall, clutching his neck and coughing. He shot me a glare through the tears clouding his eyes. I glared right back. Akir took a slow step away from him, probably more to compose himself, to avoid reaching out for him and attacking once more. Though I wouldn’t blame him for it if he did so.

“Come to see the show?” Braxtyn sneered in my direction.

I scoffed and turned to Akir, to study his face. It was set in angry lines, nostrils flaring. And I noticed, just beyond the very large room, there was an enormous cage and inside of it, my mother.

My heart lurched at the sight of her locked in an iron prison but I hardened my gaze. I would not let emotion show and most definitely not in front of Braxtyn Murtaugh. But he seemed to read me anyway because he let out a derisive snort that made me curl my hands into too tight fists.

“You want to hit me, princess?” He smiled cruelly. “Go ahead.” He let his arms widen at his sides. Prey, fresh for the taking. And my hands itched to move so badly. To knock the smile from his face.

“It’s what you deserve,” I said tightly. “For what you did to Lex. For what you did to River.”

He blinked at those last words with disbelief. “I didn’t do anything to your precious River.”

My rage boiled molten hot to my core. “Because of you he’s lying in bed without a leg. Because you held me back from saving him. You let him get mauled.”

Braxtyn’s eyebrows drew at a tight line, just before he threw his head back and roared with laughter. The sound coiled my insides into knots. “Is that what you think? That I held you back so that River would die?” He laughed again, the sound harsh and guttural.

“I wouldn’t be surprised. You let your own father get taken so it shouldn’t matter what happens to River, right?”

His face shut down entirely. A cold type of rage passed over him, so icy it chilled me down to the marrow of my bones. “I saved your ass from death and you’re accusing me?”

I scoffed. “Saved me? Is that what you’re calling it?” The rage burned hotter and hotter until it was impossible to contain. I refused to believe that he’d been trying to save me. I refused to believe there was good in him. how could there be when he’d shot at Lex? When he shot at me? When his father had coincidentally been taken while he hadn’t? When River was lying in a hospital bed without a leg when I could have saved him from that fate?

“You don’t have to believe me—”

“I don’t.”

He practically growled. “Fuck you!”

“Brax,” Akir warned in a deadly tone.

“No!” He shouted. “You can do what you want. Stay here, pant after your princess, give out bullshit orders, but I’m going to find Cole!”

“No you’re not.” Akir’s tone was halting but still Braxtyn straightened up and started to walk past him. “I gave you an order.”

“Fuck your orders.”

Before I blinked, Akir was on his brother again, pulling him by the back of the shirt. And before I could even register what was happening, Akir’s fist was slamming against his brother’s cheek and Braxtyn was falling to the floor.

My mother growled uncomfortably from within her cage. I didn’t blame her.

“Get out of here, Keanna.” Akir growled at me, the sound so animal-like that it frightened me.

“But…” I looked to my mother. Did I really want to leave her alone while they fought it out? What if, gods forbid, Braxtyn won the fight? What if he decided to harm my mother?

A shiver ran down the length of my entire spine as Braxtyn slowly stood up, shaking his shoulders out. He assumed a fighting stance, fingers curling. A smile splayed on his face and it was cruel, chilling thing.

“I’ll look after her, lass.” Akir pressed his hand to the lower part of my back and gave me a shove. “Now leave.”

I didn’t dare turn my back to them. Instead I began my slow exit, feet shuffling as I walked backwards. Akir was holding his own fists up.

And I left just as they swung at one another.

****

I soaked in the tub. The silence and the steam was enough to threaten suffocation, it was enough to nearly have me drowning in my emotions. But I pushed them down, lathered them off. What good would it be to cry? Everything had already gone to shit and crying wouldn’t right them.

Neither would soaking in the luxurious bath of Akir’s room, but it didn’t matter.

I’d needed to wash River’s blood from my body. I’d needed to get rid of the ash and the dirt. But that wouldn’t get rid of my memories. No matter how badly I wished it.

My hair was clean. My body was too. I’d drained the dirty water and refilled it to the rim to lay there, my arms resting against the edges of the tub, my head leaning luxuriously back. The warmth of the water soothed my aching wounds and joints. But it did nothing to soothe my aching mind.

The bathroom door creaked open. I didn’t open my eyes. Instead I listened intently to the soft footfalls on the white tile floors approaching me. Only when they stopped did I open my eyes to find Lex standing at the foot of the tub, staring at me.

He’d obviously cleaned up, for there was no trace of ash or blood on him. His eyes lingered just where the swells of my breasts peeked out from the water, and then his gaze ran lower still to beneath the surface.

I stood up then, letting the water slide down over my body like a tantalizing waterfall. I heard his breath hitch.

“Is everything okay?” I asked cautiously. “Is it River?” How much more heartbreak could I take?

Lex visibly swallowed. His eyes were glued on every expanse of my naked flesh and then he looked into my eyes. “He’s fine, little red. Recovering quite nicely.”

“Oh,” I loosed a breath of relief and then reached for a towel hanging on the rack. Before my fingers grasped it, Lex was walking forward.

“Don’t get out on my account.” He smiled in his all too familiar way. The sarcasm was there, pushing away whatever else he might be feeling after our tiring day. It relaxed me, had me smiling back at him.

I lowered myself into the tub once more, letting my limbs stretch out in front of me. I watched through half-lidded eyes as Lex kneeled before the end of the tub, his chest pressing up against the rim of it. His eyes dipped into the water, to gaze heavily at my body.
The side of my lip twitched into a small smile and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to tease him, if only slightly. I let my knees come up and part, giving him a full view of my center. The look in his eyes, the sudden flaring to life had me wet instantly. Lex took his bottom lip between his teeth and I felt emboldened by the gesture.

“Care to join me?” I offered with a smile.

Lex whooshed out a breath then smiled widely at me. “I’d rather watch, if that’s alright with you?”

I felt my cheeks flame at that suggestion. But the teasing glint in his dark eyes had me facing the challenge. Slowly, leisurely, I reached for the bar of soap. He watched my every move, my careful and precise moves. Everything I did was deliberate then. I ran the bar of soap across my chest, letting it slide down the valley between my breasts.

I kept my eyes on him as I moved. It was sensual. It was empowering. The flare in his eyes, the hitching of his breath seemed to bring me to life. It made me brave.

I took the soap and rubbed it slowly across my breast, imagining it was him who was touching me instead. The thought had me gasping, my lips parting to form an erotic sound, my head leaning back against the rim of the tub. I stared at him as I let my finger flick over my pebbling nipple.

The feeling was ecstacy.

“Enjoying yourself, red?” He rasped.

I smirked, enjoying the slow workings of his throat as he swallowed. “Immensely,” I replied.

Lex gifted me with a full toothed smile that had my heart beating faster, that had my knees shaking. It was a lazy sarcasm laced with just the right amount of seduction. For a moment I forgot that I was supposed to be the seducer. That I was supposed to be the one tantalizing him.

I regained control by widening my knees apart. His eyes darted down briefly before looking back up at me. I let the soap slide down my body, let it trail a path down my chest and dip into the water, down my stomach and just below my navel. I paused there, smirking at him again.

“You’re sure you don’t want to join? Don’t want to help?”

“Positive,” he breathed heavily. “Continue, red.”

I smiled and dipped the soap lower. Giving up the pretense that I was washing myself, I let it sink to the bottom of the tub but my hand didn’t rush to pick it up. I kept my hand there, just over my femininity. And then I let my finger run down my clit and I gasped, arching back in the water.

His breath hitched, and I could make out the frantic pulse of his heartbeat at his neck. His tongue darted out to lick his lips as he kept his gaze on my face. And the heat in his eyes spurred me on. Vivid images of his body covering my own assaulted my every waking sense. I dipped a finger between my folds slowly, lifting my hips and gasping at the very movement. I inserted another finger and began moving my hand, imagining it was him. Imagining it was his own fingers teasing me, driving me over that edge.

The heat swirled around my mind in a drunken haze. I gasped and writhed against myself, using one hand to pleasure me and the other to slide up my side and up to grip my breast in my own hand.

“Lex,” I whispered, my voice a breathy rasp.

“Red,” his voice mirrored my own, his eyelids lowered as he looked at my face, at the obvious passion I was gifting him with. One arm was leisurely resting along the rim of the tub and the other was blocked from my view but what I saw and heard had my entire body shaking, my every nerve wired high, desperate for release. I heard the sliding of a zipper, the rustling of clothes and then the erotic sound of slapping flesh. His arm was moving back and forth as watched me, his movements perfectly in sync with my own rhythm.

I gasped as I thrust my hips higher, dug my fingers in deeper. Lex’s fingers gripped the edge of the tub tighter, he leaned forward, quickening his movements, a fire burning deep in his eyes.

“Lex,” I was breathless now. Desperate, hanging on by a simple thread.

“Red,” he groaned, pressing himself tighter against the porcelain bath. “Come for me, little red,” he pleaded desperately.

The tone of his voice sent me spiralling.

I ran my hand over my clit, teasing it just before the sensation hit me with full force. I fell out of control, screaming out his name as the orgasm shook through me. My entire body trembled but before I could regain control of my senses, before I could wrap my head around anything, I felt Lex’s arms around me.

“I need you, red.” He pulled me from the the water, holding me against his chest with surprising strength. I barely had time to gasp at the sudden cold or at his sudden moves because between one second and the next, he was kissing me.

His lips were desperate and demanding, mouth opening against my own. His tongue invaded my every sense, making my head reel. And then he was moving and I was clinging to him as if to avoid drowning. He walked us out of the bathroom and into the bedroom.

He didn’t break our kiss as he laid me across the silk sheets, leaning me over so he could delve deeper into my mouth. And I wanted every bit of him. My heart was thundering as I gripped the lapels of his jacket, pulling him closer. The roughness of his clothes pressed against my sensitive core and I was desperate for there to be nothing between us at all.

I broke apart long enough to push the jacket from his shoulders. He helped, his movements quick as he tossed it aside. I reached for the hem of his shirt, lifting it over his head and tossing that to the side as well. His chest was bared before me and I took a heartbeat to admire him, to admire his lithe form. He was different than the others, waist slim and there was no shadowing of muscle rippling down his abdomen but that didn’t matter. It didn’t make him any less beautiful. It didn’t make me want him any less.

Besides, the real prize were his arms. Strong, perfectly formed.

His hands were suddenly gripping my wrists, bringing them high above my head. “Hang on, red.” He whispered, letting me go so I could grasp the headboard myself. “And don’t let go.”

I had no time to reply because just like that, his lips were on my own again, tongue diving into to tease and torture the inside of my mouth. I could scarcely breathe, but who needed air anyway? I didn’t need it when I was burning from the inside out, when he was making me feel such delightful agony. And I never wanted it to stop.

He tore his mouth from mine to suck in a breath. And then he was landing open mouthed kisses to the side of my mouth, trailing a pathway of them along my jaw. His tongue seemed to connect the spaces between my freckles with such desperation, it was as if he’d waited his whole life to do it. I shivered at the sensation, gripping the headboard tighter the further down he traveled. My neck became victim to his ministrations, his tongue hot and wet against every area of sensitive flesh. He nipped and kissed his way down to my collarbone, down the valley between my breasts.

His hands didn’t spare me, either. His calluses were rough against the soft skin at my sides, thumbs stopping just beneath my breasts. My breath hitched at the movement, at the anticipation. And when I felt the hot rasp of his tongue against my nipple, I buckled, my hips rising up to bump into his firm body.

My core grazed against the rough material of jeans and I groaned in frustration. Didn’t he know how much I needed him? I rubbed myself against him, hips grinding. He tore his mouth from my pink nub to chuckle against my skin.

“Impatient little thing,” he muttered.

I groaned in response. Damn straight. I wanted him. I wanted to feel him inside me, to feel the delicious movements he had to offer that would send me falling straight into an abyss. I needed him.

“Lex,” my voice, strangely, sounded like a plea. And I was sure he was relishing in the sound.

“Is this what you want?”

I cried out when the heel of his hand pressed tightly against my mound, the sensation that followed rocketed through every inch of me.

“Yes, Lex,” I panted.

“It’s what I want, too.” His fingers teased me, parted my folds to run the tip along the edge of my seam. I cried out, lifting them up for better access but as I did, he pulled away. I growled my frustration and he chuckled, dipping his fingers in again. This time, he slid them in deeper, stretching my inner walls around him. I bit my bottom lip against the movement, grinding my hips against his hand. He stilled suddenly. “Gods, red, do that again. Please.” He swirled his fingers inside me once more and I lost all thought, gave in to the feeling. My hands gripped tightly at the headboard as he moved against me, I threw my head back, giving him a perfect glimpse of the arc of my slender throat. “Yes,” he hissed and I bit down on my lip once more. The action seemed to spur him on, leading him towards a different direction rather than my immediate release. He was trying to drag this on longer, to tease and leave me panting. He removed his fingers from me and I cried my protest.

“Don’t worry, little red,” he reassured, pressing a kiss to my stomach, his lips moving lower and lower still. “I’ll make it all better, I promise.”

My reply was lost within my cries as he placed his lips right into my center. My hips came up but he held me steady at the hips as his tongue laved me up. His warmth was inside me, moving in delicious torture that had me thrusting my hips harder against his mouth. His lips and tongue were experts, pleasuring me with every lick and rasp of his tongue. And then his mouth closed around that little nub and he suckled…

“Lex!” I shouted his name out to the ceiling as my orgasm crashed down on me like a powerful wave. My knuckles were white, the palms of my hand in pain as I held onto the headboard for dear life as he drove me over that peak.

I shuddered in the aftermath of it, my every nerve more sensitive than before. He removed his mouth from me and leaned up to look into my eyes. A teasing smile glinted on his lips and his eyes seemed to dance with sarcasm. I wasn’t sure I myself had the energy for a clever retort, not with what he’d just done, not with how quickly and expertly he’d managed that.

“I need you now,” he whispered, gliding up my body. One hand went to the waistband of his jeans to pull them down his thighs. He didn’t give me a chance to look, to observe because he was positioning himself at my entrance. I felt the warmth of his tip nudge my entrance. I lifted my hips, feeling him slide into me a fraction.

“What are you waiting for?” I smirked, breathless.

And then he thrust to the hilt inside of me, causing the sarcastic look to fly from my face entirely and be replaced by a much more pleasurable one.

“Gods, red,” he rocked his hips against mine. “Make that face again.” He thrust and I gasped at the sensation. How was this possible? How was I still feeling the pleasure of every inch of him inside me? He kept thrusting, his fingers digging into the skin at my waist. I met him thrust for thrust, crying out everytime our skin slapped together. Each cry and gasp had him moving faster, harder against me until I felt myself reach that edge once more. I clung to him, crying out as another oragasm came over me. I went slack, sighing as the sensation faded. Lex thrust and then tensed. He let out a fierce cry as he pulled out of me, his hand gripping his erection to slide up and down it just before the warmth of his cum spilt onto the inside of my thigh.

He fell away from me to lay on his back at my side. Our breathing rose together, heavy and hitching until falling into the steadiest of rhythms. I hadn’t realized how much I’d needed that distraction. How much I’d needed to forget about the pain if only momentarily.

Lex stirred and stood up. I watched with lazy eyes as he adjusted his pants and mumbled a quick “be right back” and rushed to the bathroom only to emerge moments later with a wet wash rag. He came up beside me again and gently began washing away the mess at my thighs. When he finished, he went to dispose of the rag and then came back to lay beside me.

His arms opened and I snuggled into him. Just a moment. Just a moment of relaxation before I had to go back. I wanted to bathe in this bliss, in the aftermath of our lovemaking.

“What was that all about?” I asked quietly.

Lex kissed the top of my head. “What?”

I elbowed him and he hissed. “You know what.”

He chuckled and pulled me tighter against him. “I just thought you wouldn’t want me to come inside of you.”

I twisted so I was looking up in his face. “Why would you think that?”

He shrugged a shoulder, pushing away a stray strand of hair from my cheek. “Because, well, I just assumed—and please don’t hurt me for it—that would be an honor reserved for Akir only.”

I furrowed my brows. “Why?”

He sighed loudly. “Because, red, you’re the princess and he’s the king. He’s your fiancée. You’ll need an heir, right?”

I tensed a fraction. An heir. I hadn’t really given it much thought. I’d been too carried away by passion, too reckless. But of course, Lex was right. As his queen, it’d be expected of me to give the Ruined City as well as my own kingdom an heir. If I didn’t, then Braxtyn would inherit the throne.

“I wouldn’t want to risk your reign by being reckless.”

I snorted. “You? Reckless? Never!”

“I’ve been known to do a reckless thing or two…”

I laughed and relished in it because that feeling, I knew, wouldn’t last long.

Chapter Five

My head lolled with the heavy weight of sleep threatening to pull me into darkness. I fought it as hard as I could but my eyelids protested, slamming closed. I felt as though I hadn’t gotten a decent night’s sleep in so long. And my brain was still trying to fight it but my body was shutting down on its own, River’s steady breathing the lullaby that eventually pulled me under…

Then a crash woke me up.

I jolted up in my chair, hands reaching for my bow and arrow on instinct before I was even fully awake. When the fog lifted from my vision, I looked to the source of the noise and dropped my weapons instantly.

River was sprawled across the floor, his every breath hitching painfully. He was groaning, struggling to get up alone. I was at his side in an instant, silent as I pulled him up. With a bit of a struggle, I helped him to the bed again and took a step back. He dropped the back of his head to the mounds of pillows. My breath halted in my lungs as I observed him.

His face was pale and covered with fat drops of precipitation. Shadows darkened in circles around his eyes like markings of ash, and the whites of his eyes were burning red. His dark hair was a tangled mess and his clothes were covered in his own dried blood. One leg was sprawled out before him, the other was merely a stump, covered in gauze.

“Keanna.” I heard his audible gulp. My gaze softened and my heart fragmented into a million pieces when he turned to look at me.

Broken.

It’s the word I’d use to describe his expression.

“I’m here.” My voice cracked and I cleared my throat. I had to be strong for him.

He looked down at his missing leg. “I didn’t—” he choked off, swallowed and went again. “I felt it.”

“Felt what?” I asked softly.

His fingers waved through the empty space where his leg should be. And I knew what he meant.

“It felt so real, I thought that the pain had been just a dream.”

I wish I had the words to reassure him. I didn’t.

“River,”

He jerked his gaze to me and I faltered. He smiled, a cold dead twist of his lips. “Are you going to tell me that I’ll be okay? That it’ll be fine?” He asked bitterly.

It’s exactly what I’d intended on saying but after he repeated my thoughts, I realized how infinitely silly that sounded. So instead, I opted for sarcasm. “I was going to tell you that you stink, actually.”

He blinked at my words and I offered him a wide smile.

“Take your shirt off and I’ll help you get cleaned up.”

He paused a long moment before letting out a sigh and pulled his shirt over his shoulders.

I kept myself busy so it wouldn’t give me time to feel sorry for him. He’d read it in my eyes in an instant and I didn’t want that broken expression to tain his face again.

So I filled up a bucket with warm water from a nearby sink and tossed in a rag. When I turned to take it back to his bedside, his shirt was already off and he was pulling his pants from his hips slowly, hissing when the cut off material passed over his knee.

I tried not to stare.

I set the bucket down on the floor. “Ready, then?” I asked as I twisted the water from the rag. River nodded tightly and I got to work, wiping the blood from his body as if that could erase the traces of pain.

I worked in silence for a long while, letting River absorb his situation, letting him think. Finally, he broke it. “I remember the pain.” I stilled a brief moment before I began wiping him down again. “I remember feeling its teeth sinking into my skin.” I pushed aside the image that surfaced of him shoving me away only to be caught in the hybrid’s grip. “I remember my last thought, before darkness took over, was of you. I remember thinking that if I died saving your life then I had lived the life I was meant to live.”

I dropped the rag. “River…”

“Get out, Keanna.” His voice cracked. And when he turned to look at me, my heart rebuilt its shattered pieces only to implode once more.

“River…”

“I said get out!” He shouted. His eyes filled with tears the free fell down his cheeks. “Get out!”

My throat tightened but I swallowed it down. Guilt was a heavy thing in the center of my chest. Before he could demand it of me again, I turned and fled.

***

My eyes were burning, my throat felt constricted as if it wouldn’t allow any more air into my lungs. I gasped, a sound that was more like a sob as I blindly ran through the hallways Akir’s home.

And I came to an abrupt halt when I ran into a hard wall. Looking up, I found dark eyes focusing intently on me.

“Kael,” I blinked several times.

“Princess Keanna,” his brows furrowed. “Are you alright?”

I swallowed past the knot. “Yeah, um,” I waved at emptiness behind me. “River’s awake.”

Kael looked at me and I was sure he was also looking entirely through me as well. “I’m going to go check his injuries. Will you wait in my room until I get back?”

“I—uh—” words wouldn’t come.

Kael smiled warmly. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. And you needn’t feel worry. I’ll find Lex to keep River company before I come back. Last door on the left.”

***

It was hard to breathe. My chest felt constricted beneath the pressure of the reality around me. I couldn’t sit still because of it. I paced back and forth in Kael’s small room like an animal in a cage. My fists clenched and unclenched.

I’d never get that look from my mind The look etched into River’s features was one I’d never seen before. A look of pure hatred.

I waited for what felt like hours until I finally heard the click of a door. I whirled to see Kael coming through, closing it behind him.

I loosed a breath. “River?”

“He’s as fine as he can be under the circumstances.”

“He didn’t want me there.” My voice was a quivering mess, on the edge of breaking.

Kael’s gaze softened knowingly and he walked over to the bed. “Why don’t you have a seat, princess?” He pat the edge of it.

I didn’t want to sit. I wanted to resume pacing. I wanted to curse and yell and break something. In the end, I took a seat, Kael following after me once I was perched comfortably.

He turned to me, our knees touching. “River has suffered a great deal.”

On my behalf. I wonder if those words flittered through Kael’s mind the way they did mine.

“He will be in a very weak place until he can come to terms with his injury.” His injury. He wouldn’t even have an injury were it not for me. Kael read the guilt in my eyes.

“It is not your fault, princess.”

“But if he hadn’t been with me—”

“We all came with you willingly,” he interrupted gently. “That is not your fault.”

I felt the tears prickle at the backs of my eyelids but ferociously blinked them back.

Kael threaded his fingers through mine and pulled me close by the back of my head, burying my face into his chest. “You’re exhausted, princess,” he whispered against my hair. His hand began moving in gentle massage motions across my back. “Does it get so tiring? Having to be strong all the time?” I sucked in a stinging breath and Kael pulled me closer. “It’s okay to cry sometimes. Go ahead. No one but me will know.”

I’d fought it too hard already. I’d held back for so long already. I’d been strong for the people. I’d been strong for everyone when all I’d wanted to do was break down. And Kael’s words seemed to tip me over until I was spilling the tears I’d so desperately wanted to this entire time.

A sob wrenched out of me. It was foreign and my body tried to reject it, tried to push it back down. Strangled cries came out of me and all Kael did was pull me closer still, rubbing a big hand across my back as if to comfort. His kisses landed on top of my head and the warmth of them spread throughout my entire body. The tears fell like water down my cheeks, sobs finally tearing through me freely. I let them come this time. I let myself be held as I brought out all my pain, all of the pain I’d felt since everything happened, stumbled out of control.

I freed the beast inside me that had threatened to claw itself out since I’d found out about my engagement, since my mother had been lost, since everything.

When my emotions finally subsided and I felt raw and aching, I looked up at Kael. He was staring softly down at me. Like he understood. I suppose he always had. He’d always understood the pain that was inside of me.

“You do not have to bear so many burdens alone, princess.” He reached down to cup my face, the pad of his thumb wiping away a falling tear. My breath caught at the movement and I sighed luxuriously when he bent down to kiss away another tear. And suddenly his lips and tongue were kissing them all away, trailing down the wet pathways on the curves of my cheeks. “Allow me to lift the burden from your shoulders.” His breath was warm against my skin, causing me to shiver.

My voice was breathless when I replied. “Yes.”

It was all the permission he needed. He let his fingers slip into my hair as he slowly pulled me down to the bed so I was sprawled on my back and he was just above me. My heart thundered in my chest and he must of heard it because his fingers trailed down my side in a calming movement.

“Relax,” he assured. “Let me take care of you.”

I managed a nod and then he was pulling the clothes from my body. His movements were soft and gentle and slow. As if he were drawing out the anticipation by taking his time. As if he had all the time in the world to appreciate me.

I kicked off my shoes as his fingers began undoing the buttons of my pants. He pulled them down, sliding down the length of my legs as he pulled the material over one leg then the other. And then I was bare before him and he paused, taking me in. His dark eyes burned holes through me, made my face flush.

“You’re so beautiful, princess,” he whispered just before he bent down, hands firm on the backs of my knees, and lifted them up. He pressed a kiss to the skin just below my knee and that small bit of contact sent a fire raging through my blood. And then his lips were traveling up to the inner part of my thighs. “So soft,” he continued, tongue flicking out to lick my flesh. “So warm,” I held my breath as he went higher. His fingers seemed to caress my every inch. No part of me was left untouched. I arched into him, loving the feel of his hands on my body.

And then he was kissing my stomach and up between the valley of my breasts.

His weight covered me and I found myself opening my legs wider for him. The barrier of clothes between us was too much. It was too madening, to stay still beneath his slow, torturous movements.

And then he was lifting up, pulling the soft sweater from his body to toss it off to the side. I watched with heightened anticipation as he unzipped his own pants and pulled them off until he was naked above me. I held my breath then let it loose.

Kael smiled, if a little shyly. Then, he bent back down to take my mouth in his. His tongue pried apart my lips and began slow ministrations. I moaned against his mouth when I felt his tip against my opening.

And then, for some madenning reason, Lex’s words slashed through my mind and I tore my mouth from Kael’s to breathe.

He smoothed out my curls, looking down at me with concern. “Princess?”

“I—I—” words left me. And all I could picture was Lex’s mouth forming those words. An heir. But how did I even bring that up?

“Are you well?”

“I’m fine,” I answered a little too quickly. He raised a brow at me and I let out another breath. “It’s just that—I don’t—I mean, I—” I cut off quickly then said in a rush. “I need to produce an heir.”

Kael blinked at me, obviously surprised at my sudden burst.

I sighed. “I mean I’m the princess. I need to produce an heir with Akir. I hadn’t really thought about it before but Lex mentioned it earlier. He said that if—if I got pregnant then people may question my child’s reign and he wanted to assure that didn’t happen. And he’s right I just…” I paused. “I just wanted to let you know.”

Kael’s eyes were thoughtful. Finally he said, “Princess, do you want a child?”

His question caught me off guard and I found myself thinking heavily on it. A child. With Akir. I could imagine it now. A little boy with hair as wild as mine and with the ferocity of his father. I was surprised at how easily I could imagine it. At how quickly the thought and image came into my mind.

“That’d be nice…” I said slowly.

Kael nodded. “Do you wish for me to stop, princess? I will not do anything you don’t wish of me. You know that.”

I bit my lip, noted how his gaze flickered to the movement and let it go slowly. “I want you to stay,” I whispered breathlessly. “I want you to make love to me.”

“That, my princess, I can oblige.”

“But no baby,” I reminded him gently.

“No baby.” He agreed before he bent and pressed an open mouthed kiss to my throat.

My insides melted at the contact, at the feel of his tongue against my skin. He murmured soft words against me as he explored my body. His hands traveled the length beneath my thighs, his hands were gentle but firm in their demands as they went under to cup my ass. He squeezed and I groaned, arching my hips up.

He pressed kisses to the side of my neck and up to my jaw, following a slow pathway until his lips met my own and, hungry, I devoured him entirely. Groaning, my hands flew to the back of his neck to pull him closer, as if we could never be close enough. I took and let myself be taken.

He bent me over his forearm to delve deeper into my mouth. And I clung to him, starving for whatever he could give me. His body was luxuriously warm, radiating onto me, making me burn hot with desire. My nails raked across the muscles of his brown skin, causing him to groan, his body to tense. He held me close, one hand at my back, the other softly curving down my hip.

I was burning.

I thrust my hips up to urge him on but his kisses sprinkled slowly down on me. He was drawing it out. He was making me crazy, making me want him so desperately I wanted to cry.

His hand went up to the underside of my breast where his thumb flicked against my hard nipple. I cried out, my hips lifting off the bed. And then he was flicking it again. And again. My head was already spinning, my body wound tightly on that edge and all I wanted to do was fall…

And then I felt the tip of him at my entrance, sliding just over my clit and I cried out. And when he pushed inside me slowly, I thrust my hips up to take him to the hilt. That thrust triggered my orgasm immediately. I clung tightly to his body, nails raking over his wide back as my entire body spun out of control. And he began his slow thrusting, his movements torturous as I came back from the fall to meet him thrust for thrust.

My body was still sensitive, my skin felt raw. My fingernails dug into the skin at his shoulders and his own were holding tightly to my hips, rolling against mine, pressing up against my sensitivity, bringing me to that edge once more.

Then I was rolling him on the bed and he went willingly, lying on his back, still hard inside me above him. I braced my hands against his chest and rocked my hips. He threw his head back against the pillows, groaning and digging his hands into the material of the blankets. And I rolled and rocked, changing the pace to my own until he was panting beneath me. Then, in a quick move, he lifted my hips from his erection and gave one last cry as he spilled his seed against the skin of my thigh.

***

“I need to talk to you. Now.” I burst through the door of River’s resting room. He was sitting up against his pillows, empty eyes staring up at the ceiling. Lex was seated in the chair next to him but stood up upon my entrance. “Can you give us a minute, please?” I asked him.

Lex didn’t question or comment. He nodded and left, closing the door softly behind him. Once he was gone, my eyes bore into my guard’s.

“What do you want?” He asked emotionlessly.

“I want to ring your neck right about now. That’s what I want.” I retorted sarcastically. River rolled his eyes and for a moment, hope flared inside me that he didn’t completely hate me. “But what I want more than that,” I began as I stepped a little further into the room at the foot of the bed, “is to know why you hate me so much.”

River blinked at me. “Hate you?”

“Yes, hate me.” I put my hands on my hips. I needed movement. I needed to do something but mostly I needed him to not know how my hands were shaking, how nervous I was. “I mean, I have a pretty good idea of the why but I’d still like to hear you say it to my face.”

River sat up straighter, wincing and groaning as he did so. I resisted the urge to rush to his side and help him up. I just observed with a heavy heart.

“I don’t hate you, Keanna,” he said once he was situated comfortably. “I hate myself.”

I dropped my hands to my sides at that. My heart lurched and tears prickled painfully behind my eyelids but I pushed them away. I’d already done enough crying. “Why would you hate yourself?”

His hands gripped the blankets as he groaned. “Because I can no longer be your guard. And I hate myself for it.”

“What?”

He looked at me, eyes burning. “Look me in the eyes, Keanna, and tell me you still want me as your guard. Convince me I’ll be able to protect you now that I’m a gods’ damned cripple.” He gestured violently at his missing limb. “Tell me I’m not half a man. Tell me that I’ll be able to do my duty to you.” He caught me off guard so I remained silent and he snorted. “Exactly,” he snapped as if his point were already proven. “I couldn’t kill that beast myself. I let it take a part of me with it. What makes you think I deserve to remain by your side and in your service?”

I couldn’t hold myself back any longer. I rushed to the side of his bed, kneeling beside him to take his hand in mine. He just yanked it away from me.

“I don’t deserve your comfort.”

I glared. “No. What you deserve is a punch to your thick skull. Seriously, Riv? Do you even hear what you’re saying?” He opened his mouth to speak but on impulse, I reached out to yank his ear. “I’m not finished talking, don’t interrupt. Do you realize what you’re doing? You’re letting a minor setback bring you down.”

“Minor setback?” River screeched. “Keanna, look at me! I lost my damn leg!”

“Do you remember all of those sword lessons we went through?” I asked suddenly, surprising him.

“Yes,” he answered slowly and cautiously.

“And do you remember what you told me when I hold and swing a sword?”

“I told you that the sword is like an extra limb,” his voice shook. “To think of it as an extension of yourself rather than something separate from your body.”

I nodded. “And how many times have we dropped swords in training battles or in hunts?”

“Dozens.”

“And even when we lost that special extension to ourselves, we always found a way around that inconvenience. If we didn’t have a sword, we looked for a rock. You taught me that even if we lost that part of ourselves, we can always find something to help us win.”

River blinked and then took a deep breath. “Keanna, I don’t think this is the same thing.”

I reached for his hand again, threading my fingers through his and gripping him tightly. This time he didn’t pull away. “It is. Your leg was just an extension, just another part of you. And I know you can get through this. You can find something to replace it and I know you can win. Do you know how I know that?”

He gulped. “How?”

“Because I love you, River. I have loved you since we were children. And I knew, I always knew you would be there to protect me. And I know that you will still do that. Don’t give up on yourself. Because if you do,” I looked at him with tears swimming in my eyes, “then you give up on us.”

He let a long breath out. I seemed to have shocked him speechless. He was just staring at me, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to say. “You love me?” He asked finally.

“I always have.” I answered honestly.

“I...I didn’t know.”

I rolled my eyes. “Of course you didn’t. That’s not something one goes around admitting.”

He snorted. “It’s something everyone goes around admitting. You’re just too stubborn to realize that.”

“Well, I thought you were in love with the baker’s daughter so I kept my mouth shut.”

River threw his head back and laughed. The sound rebuilt me, made me want to smile. “The baker’s daughter? What would make you think that?”

I pinched him and he yelped. “I caught you two sleeping together. By the river. Remember?”

He stroked his chin in thought and I pinched him again. He laughed, pushing my hand away. “Okay, okay, I remember. But why were you spying on us?”

My face heated. That, I didn’t have a good explanation for. “You were acting so strange that week that I knew something was up. I followed you and had the pleasure of watching you lose your virginity.” I chortled, covering a hand over my mouth as the memory of that day came back to me.

River’s face went red. “How did you know I was a virgin?” He demanded.

I snorted. “You followed me around all day, every day. It didn’t seem like you had time for other activities. I was right. Except that day you did.”

He blushed a shade darker and lowered his head. “You know,” he whispered, “I was just preparing myself in case you and I—” he broke off and looked up at me again. “I wanted to have experience because I hoped that one day you’d want to—” he looked away, coughing.

“How very romantic of  you.” I muttered sarcastically. “You could have told me that sooner.”

“Who did you—I mean, with who—?”

I laughed. “The minute you and the baker’s daughter finished, I ran into town to sleep with the blacksmith’s son.”

River blanched and began choking. I laughed as I slammed my palm, not too gently, across his back.

“I thought we were competing and I didn’t want to get left behind.” I shrugged, lowering my hand.

River glared. “I always knew he was in love with you.” He paused, looking me over. “He treated you right, at least?” There was that edge of protectiveness in his voice and I swore my heart leapt for joy at the sound of it.

I smiled slyly. “He was the perfect gentlemen.” River snorted, prompting me to add with a hint of sarcasm, “I bet you would have shown me a better time, if the baker’s daughter’s screams were of any indication…”

“I would have,” he said with surety. “And I still could.”

Those words blanketed over us, giving us both pause. I held my breath, face heating as I let them sink over me, sink over my skin like the caressings of a gentle promise. “I can’t wait to test that theory,” I replied.

River smiled and it was much like his old self that hope flared through me entirely. Yes, we could work this minor setback out. I was sure of it.

“Once I’m back on my feet, princess,” he said sarcastically. “You’ll get to see firsthand exactly what I did to make the baker’s daughter scream that way.”

Chapter Six

We fell into a daily routine until weeks seemed to pass in the blink of an eye. River had healed, though was still hurting. He spent hours of every day training to walk again with the help of a prosthetic leg that Akir had had built for him. Lex and Kael were learning all that they could from Ruined City officials. Everything from technology to weaponry. Akir worked along his scientists day and night trying to find a cure for what had happened to my mother.

And she was only getting worse. The first few days I could catch glimpses of her inside that hybrid body. But she was slowly deteriorating. I didn’t want to believe it, not at first, but the longer she remained this way, the more she lost herself. I knew that soon, my mother would likely be gone and in her place an actual hybrid. The kind that ate human flesh and destroyed. Many times already she’d lost herself, blinking once only to disappear and become a raving animal in front of us.

My heart broke for her every time.

Akir swore up and down that they were doing all they could. But they weren’t doing enough.

I tried to stay strong. I tried to have faith in their science. But a part of me knew that it was hopeless. That they would find nothing. Which was why I’d decided that I was leaving. I knew that the answers we desperately wanted wouldn’t be found here but in the Hybrid Laboratory.

And I planned on getting them.

I plotted out my escape route all day. If Akir knew, he would never allow it. He would scream at me and we’d argue, maybe throw a few slaps and then we’d fall into bed where he’d fuck me roughly as if he were imparting punishment for my insubordination. And when we were done, we’d do it all over again.

It had already happened many times. I’d argued that we had to go back to the lab. He just glared at me and said he would not risk his men, that they’d find the answers here in the Ruined City. I thought he was just pissed that I’d agreed with Braxtyn for once.

I still didn’t trust his younger brother or his reasoning for wanting to go back to the lab. He claimed he wanted to find Cole. I resisted the urge to tell him that Cole was either dead or a hybrid by now. But I didn’t want to take Akir’s hope away, either. I could tell that he still held out hope that maybe he was still out there even though the logical part of him said otherwise.

I knew I couldn’t count on him or his troops to get to the lab. No, I had to do this on my own. It would be my stealth mission. A big group would have alerted the hybrids, anyway.

So that night, I packed a bag while Akir was with his scientists. Packing gave me a sense of deja vu, reminded me of when I was running away from my own home to find my mother. I couldn’t afford to mess up this time around.

This time, I’d get it right.

“What are you doing?”

I yelped and whirled around to find Lex by the bedroom door. Shit. I’d been too concentrated that I hadn’t paid attention to the door. I opened my mouth to lie but Lex was eyeing my bag and my face. I knew he wouldn’t believe me, anyway.

“I’m leaving.” I whispered.

He raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms against his chest. “Without saying goodbye?”

“I’m coming back. Don’t worry.”

“You’re going to the Hybrid Laboratory, aren’t you?” There was no accusation in his voice. Just excited curiosity.

“Yes.”

He nodded, uncrossed his arms and said, “I’m going with you.”

“Absolutely not.” I turned back to my bag and zipped it up then hoisted it onto my shoulder, turning back to him.

He was frowning. “I didn’t ask your permission, red.”

“I don’t care. You aren’t going.”

He snickered. “I wonder how your beloved fiancée would feel, knowing you were about to rush off to the Hybrid Lab without backup…”

I clenched my hands into fists. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Try me.”

***

“You’re a bastard, you know that?” I whispered harshly.

“You said that already.” Lex replied quietly, looking around the corner to make sure the coast was clear. When it was, he walked forward with me following close behind. “But the way I see it, you wouldn’t be able to get out without me, anyway.”

I flipped him off instead of replying. Of course, he was right. While he’d spent the last few weeks learning how to drive and use weaponry, I’d been overseeing scientists and River’s recovery. There would have been no way for me to get out of here in a car.

We approached a rusted old truck and I hopped into the front seat while Lex hopped into the driver’s side and stuck the key into the ignition.

“I’ve been practicing on this baby and you’re going to need my expertise.” He ran a hand slowly across the steering wheel, staring adoringly at it.

I rolled my eyes. “Do you need a minute alone with the vehicle?”

Lex chuckled. “Jealous that another lady has caught my eye?”

I would have kicked him if the small expanse of space would have allowed it. Instead, I pulled an arrow from my quiver and polished it across my shirt until it shone. And when something banged loudly on the side of the truck, I was too slow to reach for my bow before I felt the cold press of a gun barrel against my temple.

“Going somewhere?” A deep voice whispered.

Lex’s hands tightened against the steering wheel.

My fear echoed in the pounding of my chest but I kept a neutral expression as I slowly turned to look into Braxtyn’s face. He kept his gun pointed at me but he wasn’t smiling. The bastard. He opened the door and jumped in next to me, closing it behind him.

“Can we help you?” I asked seriously.

Braxtyn smiled cruelly at me. “I know where you’re going,” he said. “And I’m going with you.”

I blinked and shared a look with Lex, even with the gun staring me in the face. I turned back to him. “Now why on earth would you want to do that?”

Braxtyn shrugged. “Because if you don’t, I’ll either shoot you or tell my big brother where you’re going.”

Threatened. Twice within the same hour. It was unbelievable! I glared at him. I didn’t trust him. And I would rather face Akir’s wrath rather than go on this journey with Braxtyn Murtaugh at my side.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have time. My mother’s clock was ticking.

“I don’t trust you,” I said.

Braxtyn snorted. “I don’t trust you either, princess. But we both want the same thing, don’t we?”

Lex was the one who answered for me. “And what is that?”

“To get our loved ones back.”

I stared at him. There were dark shadows under his eyes, his hair was a mess and the shadowings of a beard was prominent along his jaw. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in weeks. Or maybe the guilt was eating him alive.

I still believed he was a traitor to his blood.

And I didn’t want him coming on this journey with us. Lest we find his knife in our backs.

But the invisible clock counting down my mother’s days taunted me within my own head. And I knew I had no other choice.

“Fine,” I decided and Braxtyn smiled, leaning back in his seat. “Drive, Lex.”

***

The drive was silent and tense. I made a point to pretend and ignore Braxtyn, though I had a dagger gripped tightly in my hand, ready to pierce into his skin at any given moment. He kept his gun in his own hand, keeping the appearance that it hung lazily from his fingers but I noticed the tenseness in his posture, the way his eyes kept darting to glance at me. I noticed everything.

Finally, he broke the silence. “Do your other men know where you’re off to?”

They didn’t. But he didn’t need to know that. Maybe he thought it’d make killing us that much easier. “Of course they do,” I lied with ease.

He side eyed me then lapsed into silence.

Bastard.

I hadn’t told Kael and River where I’d be because I knew they’d disagree with me. I knew River, in his hobbling, unstable state would want to come with us and I couldn’t put him through hell. Not again. He’d be livid when I went back but I’d deal with that later.

“Out of all of them I’d thought you’d at least choose the healer.” Braxtyn went on to say.

“And why is that?” I asked from between clenched teeth, though I was sure I didn’t want to hear his answer.

“It makes the most sense. You can’t very well travel with a cripple. And this fool,” he jerked his gaze in Lex’s direction, “will only get you caught in a trap. My brother would never have come with you. His sense of duty to our people and the weird possessiveness he has over you wouldn’t allow it. The healer seemed to be the logical choice.”

Lex laughed. “My ‘falling into a trap’ days are over, man.”

Braxtyn barked out a laugh. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

“How did you even know where we were going?” I asked, gripping my knife tighter. He was a suspicious person.

“I heard you and followed you. Not that hard, really.” He winked at my suddenly flushed expression. “You are incredibly easy to read, country queen.”

I pressed a hand to my chest and fluttered my eyelashes. “I’m ‘queen’ now? I thought I was nothing but a country whore.”

“If you’re expecting me to apologize for that, I won’t.”

“I don’t want your apology.” I snapped. “And even if you did apologize, I’d tell you where you could shove it.”

He smirked at me and in that moment, he looked so much like his brother that it infuriated me.

“Stop looking at me,” I growled without meaning to.

That comment only caused him to smirk even more. “Why?” His voice dropped dangerously low. “Do I remind you of Akir?”

And then I felt his warm hand touch my knee, palm seeming to brand me through the material of my jeans. My dagger pressed up against his throat faster than he could blink, digging deep into his skin. A thin trail of blood ran down his neck and to the top of his shirt.

“Don’t touch me.”

Braxtyn chuckled and removed his hand from my leg at once. As soon as he did, I lowered the knife back to my side.

“Calm your fire, country queen.” He said, settling back into his seat. “I wouldn’t touch you even if you begged me to.” He smiled, looked me up and down before closing his eyes. “You aren’t my type.”

Bastard.

***

“I don’t trust him.” Lex whispered.

My gaze shot to Braxtyn but I doubted he could hear over the cackling of the fire. “I don’t either.” I didn’t let my eyes stray away from the man in question. He wasn’t looking at us, though. His own gaze was fixated intently at the flickering flames. And I wondered if the ghosts of this place were haunting him the way they threatened to haunt me.

We were in the same clearing we’d been in last time.

Blood still tainted the grass. I wondered if he was thinking about Cole, wondering if they were traces of his blood, traces of his younger brother.

“We don’t really need him with us, do we?” Lex asked warily.

“No. But I couldn’t risk him going to Akir. My mom’s getting worse by the hour, Lex. I needed to come here.”

Lex ran a hand over my arm in comfort. “I’m not questioning your decision, red.”

I sighed and gave him a tight nod. “Thanks for being here with me.”

He gifted me with a small smile. “Anytime, little red. Now try and get some rest. I’ll be right back.” He stood up and walked well within my range of sight.

“Don’t get caught in a trap!” I called out.

He feigned laughter and disappeared.

Then I was alone with Braxtyn. And his eyes were suddenly on mine, causing me to tense up a little tighter and grip my bow and arrow closer. He snickered.

“You and I are the same, little lass.”

My heart stopped beating for a fraction of a second. A dull pang sounded in the center of my chest that could have been guilt. I pushed it aside, telling myself that this had needed to be done. Akir would thank me later. But even so, that ache did not ease.

“How so?”

“Look at where we are, what we were forced to do.” He gestured around the clearing. “We’ve been forced to go behind our king’s back to save our people.”

“Ha. Akir is no king of mine,” I pointed out unkindly. “I don’t have to take orders from him. I take orders from my father.” Then again, I didn’t really listen to him, either. But Braxtyn didn’t need to know that. “Akir is my fiancée,” I went on. “He does not control me.”

Braxtyn’s brows furrowed into a glare. “How your parents handle a savage like you is beyond my comprehension. Female royalty in the Ruined City  aren’t meant to have so much freedom.”

My rage bubbled to the surface and came out in the form of a snort. “Seems kind of hypocritical, don’t you think? Your women can participate in orgies and walk around naked but the royal women cannot?”

“Oh, they can,” he assured. “Only if their husband allows it. Their freedom is not a facade, however their king and his wishes and desires must always come first.”

“How misogynistic,” I snapped. “Also, if Akir thinks I’m going to bend to his will and jump when he commands it, I think it’d be better to end the engagement now.”

Braxtyn laughed harshly. “How selfish you are, little queen. You should know by now that royalty does not marry for love. They marry for convenience. You would doom your people to war with the Ruined City all because you do not want to follow my brother’s orders? Then again, that’s what got you into this mess in the first place.”

My fingers tightened around my arrow. I didn’t want to let his words ring in my mind but they did. Because they were true. I’d doomed my mother because of my inability to follow orders.

“No one owns me,” I said tightly.

Braxtyn smiled at me and it made a cold feeling trickle down the back of my neck and the length of my spine.

“You can believe what you wish. But you cannot deny the obvious: we are the same, you and I. Angry and alone. How many times did we beg Akir to come here and he did not listen? We both know the answers are in that lab. He’s just too weak to accept it.”

Akir was not weak. He was being cautious and overly so. That did not make him weak, to think of his people, to want to keep them safe. To prevent more deaths at the jaws of the hybrids. I understood. As king and as queen, no decision was an easy one. Everything was a double edged sword, ready to impale you as soon as you walked towards to the tip. It was why I had come. To take that doubt off his shoulders and to set things right again. To lessen his own burden. And to save everyone.

And the consequences of royal actions was something Braxtyn couldn’t quite seem to comprehend. He would have charged into the lab with his people, not caring who died in the process because to him, the end justified the means.

It was why Akir would always be a better ruler than him. Because Akir cared. And that was probably why Braxtyn seemed to hate him so much.

I looked him in the eye when I replied, “We are nothing alike.”

***

The building was as intact as it could be. A structure made of stone and metal, white paint chipped to reveal gray underneath. There was a fence surrounding the property that was barrelled down into the smushed grass.

“I was expecting something more...sinister.” Lex mused quietly from our hiding place in the treeline. “Lightning flashing, dark clouds rolling in the distance and an unknown mad scientist rubbing his hands together as his plot falls into place.”

Braxtyn and I looked at him. Then at each other. “Lex,” I whispered, “what?”

He shrugged a shoulder. “I’ve raided plenty of old buildings in abandoned cities. They have things called books and televisions. I spent hours watching a horror movie once I figured out how to work the damn thing. Didn’t sleep for a week afterwards.”

“You should have brought the healer.” Braxtyn mumbled, turning back to the building.

We lapsed into silence and took in the building, every angle, every possible entry point. I wasn’t sure what happened now. There were no signs of life from within, no noise even. But what were we going to do? I still didn’t trust Braxtyn enough to waltz in by his side. This could all still be a trap to murder Lex and I and who would be the wiser? We’d told no one where we were going. he could easily murder us here and go back to the Ruined City and overthrow his brother if he wanted to.

I notched an arrow into my bow.

Whatever his plan was, I had one of my own. And I wasn’t going to make it easy on him.

“Let’s go,” I demanded.

And we ventured out to the building.

To the Hybrid Laboratory.

Chapter Seven

All the lights were off. Luckily, illumination shone in from the busted out windows, beckoning us down long hallways. The place was definitely ominous, with white walls that threatened to suffocate me entirely.

I kept my weapon poised. My fingers and palms itched in anticipation of what was to come. Unfortunately, everything was entirely too quiet. It was disconcerting. I swore I could hear the pounding of my own heart echoing across the walls.

“Empty,” Lex whispered and even that sounded harsh around us. He winced almost as soon as the word was out of his mouth.

“I think we should split up.” Braxtyn suggested quietly.

Lex and I shared a look. If there was one thing we didn’t want to do, it was split up. Why would he want that anyway? Because it’d make it easier for him to off us, for sure. So we’d be helpless away from each other. No. There was safety in numbers.

I opened my mouth to tell him where he could shove that idea when my feet froze beneath me. My heart dropped to the pit of my chest as my gaze locked just at the end of the hallway. There, just a few feet before us was a hybrid.

Lex and Braxtyn froze at my sides, hands tightening against their own weapons. I held my breath. The thing was frozen, staring at us with dark eyes. I wondered briefly which royal was before me now or if perhaps, it wasn’t a royal at all but someone else entirely? And how had it been so silent? How had we not noticed it before?

“Back up slowly,” I commanded. I eased my foot back, sliding it across the tiled floor beneath me. They obeyed, going as slowly as I was, careful not to make any sudden moves.

And then an alarm blared all around us, the sound wafting out of speakers high in the corners of the walls. The sound seemed to jolt the hybrid to life. It jerked its head back and roared.

“Run!” I screamed.

We whipped around and zipped down the hall just as the creature rushed towards us. Each roar seemed to bring it closer to us and the scars on my back pulsed as if in warning. Braxtyn ran ahead of both Lex and I, and then he came to a sudden halt before us. I nearly tripped as he whipped around, his fury filled gaze distracting me. The breath left my body in a painful exhale as he reached a big arm out and yanked my arm forward. I flew to his chest and then he was pushing me behind him quickly, yelling at Lex to hurry. I whirled around in time to see Braxtyn grab hold of a tall metal cabinet and pull.

The piece of furniture came crashing down, blocking the hybrid’s pathway. Braxtyn jerked on my arm. “Run!” He screamed, pulling me alongside him.

I was already out of breath. My chest on fire, lungs heaving but still I ran. I didn’t turn around to know that the hybrid had jumped over the cabinet. Braxtyn’s actions had bought us time, but very little.

We turned corners and I fought to think beyond my panic, to come up with a plan. But Lex was way ahead of me. “There!” He shouted, pointing towards a door at the end of the hallway. Braxtyn was already rushing for it, reaching for the handle and pulling it open.

I stopped just at the threshold and turned to see Lex. He was running towards us but the hybrid was just a few feet behind him. I screamed his name, holding out my hand to him. His face was set in tight panic as he ran and he was nearly to the door. He was so close…

And then I was hauled backwards through the entrance and Braxtyn was closing the door tightly, locking Lex out.

The hybrid’s growl was loud from the outside while Lex’s scream was muffled. And then there was silence. Braxtyn’s body was pressed up against the door, his fist tightened around the doorknob.

I was on him in a second. My fists pounding against his hard back in my rage. “You fucking bastard!” I screeched. My breathing had grown erratic. Lex. Oh, gods, Lex. I knew what he’d intended the moment he’d decided to come with us but to be so sneaky? To lock Lex out?

I pulled back and lifted my bow and arrow, aiming it straight at his chest.

He turned slowly to me, his frown growing more prominent by the second. He eyed the bow and arrow like he would a minor inconvenience. “I just saved our lives,” he said darkly.

“You just killed Lex.” I felt the tears trail down my cheeks as the words escaped my mouth without meaning to. I hadn’t wanted to show him weakness. But the hybrids were taking everything from me and Braxtyn was helping them along.

“I saved us. Ungrateful little queen.”

“He could have made it!” My fingers trembled but I couldn’t seem to let the arrow fly.

“Not without bringing that thing down on us.”

“You’re a bastard,” I spat. “You’ll do anything to save your own skin. Even if that means throwing everyone else to the hybrids to get what you want.”

He frowned. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I’ll do anything to get what I want and I’ll kill anyone who stands in the way of that. Your friend stood in my way and I will not regret my decision.”

A sob wrenched out of my chest like a battle cry and I let loose the arrow. But his tense body had been expecting it. He moved to the side and it bounded off the metal door, falling to the floor. He didn’t give me a chance to grab another. He was pulling me towards him and whipping me around to slam my body against the door. I cried out as he pressed himself against me. His forearm was tight against my throat as he pinned me. He lowered his head and his breath was nothing but a whisper of dangerous warmth near my lips.

“I don’t expect you to understand, country queen,” he said menacingly. “I will do whatever it takes to get what I want.”

“Get off me.” I jerked against him.

“You’d be dead without me,” he went on as if I hadn’t even spoken. “This is the second time I’ve saved your life. Next time, I expect a little more gratitude.”

“I’ll never thank you for murdering my friends!” I spat.

He pushed me back against the door. His movements were rough and painful but I bit back my cries to glare at him. The tears wouldn’t stop coming, wouldn’t stop falling down my cheeks. A sob choked out of me. And another. And another. Until soon, I was crying freely, not able to hold the tears back. It didn’t seem to matter that Braxtyn was in front of me, that even as I tried to reel the tears in, they spilled forth.

Braxtyn loosened his hold on me, lowering his arm from my neck. My fists found his chest and pounded out my rage. “You killed him!”

“He wouldn’t have made it, lass,” he whispered quietly.

“You don’t know that!” I hit him again.

And then he was pulling me to his chest by the back of the head. My hands were between us and flattened against him as his arms went around me to hold me close. He smelt of Akir and on instinct, my body curled into his. I sobbed into the crook of his neck.

His fingers dug tightly into the roots of my hair while his hand rubbed circles around my back. His chest hitched up and down against my own. “I’m sorry, lass,” he whispered against the top of my head. “But I have to save my brother.”

His words jolted me to my senses, had me remembering that he was not Akir. Akir would have never done what Braxtyn had. He would have never let Lex die without first giving him a chance to live.

I pulled away quickly and turned, wiping the tears from my eyes. I’d embarrassed myself enough already. Every instinct in my body wanted to rip Braxtyn to shreds where he stood. But he could easily overpower me. I had to be smart about this. We couldn’t split up. That wasn’t an option. So I had to tolerate him if only for a little while longer before all of this could end.

I sniffled one last time and then demanded, “Let’s go.”

***

I tried ignoring the pain in my chest as I caught sight of the blood in the hallway. I held my head high and walked past it, ignoring the fact that the blood seemed to stop halfway. I couldn’t think about Lex. Couldn’t think about what had happened to him or if he was still alive or if they had turned him into a hybrid. If it was the latter, I vowed I’d save him.

My bow and arrow were poised. There would be no more running this time. This time I’d face those creatures bravely and I’d kill them if necessary. I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to murder the royals but it would seem I’d have no other choice.

So as we went on, I kept a sharp eye out for anything abnormal, for any signs of trouble. Surprisingly, there was none. There was no noise and that caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand unpleasantly.

We went up a stairway and then another until we found an opened door. Braxtyn gestured towards it with his head. I nodded back and we stepped forward together into a room with bright white walls and monitors. Lights blinked above us and black and white screens showed the laboratory both on the outside and the inside. The room was wide and I stopped in my tracks beside Braxtyn.

Because it was hard to miss that there was another person in the room, fingers running across keyboards, eyes glued to the screens. He swivelled around in his chair and gifted us both with a familiar, warm smile.

“Glad you could join the party.”

Braxtyn froze in his place. “But...you…”

“A shock to see me, is it?” He stood from his chair. He was wearing tight jeans and a t-shirt, so different from the last attire I’d seen on him. “Thought I was dead, did you?”

“Cole,” I whispered.

Braxtyn’s younger brother smiled warmly in my direction. “Princess, what a lovely surprise.”

Braxtyn was frozen in his shock. Whatever he’d expected when coming to the lab, it obviously hadn’t been this. For a brief moment, shame heated my cheeks. I’d been so adamant in my decision to not trust Braxtyn that I’d overlooked their younger brother completely. He’d been too naive, I’d said. Obviously not.

“It was you,” I said breathlessly.

“Ding, ding, ding,” Cole mocked loudly. His smile was wide, nonchalant. “And the prize goes to Keanna Ferguson! How very observant of you, your Highness.”

Braxtyn took a step forward. “What is the meaning of this, Cole? Why are you here?” My heart clenched. He was obviously in denial. How would he take this? This obvious betrayal?

Cole rolled his eyes. “And I thought Akir was the dumbest brother. Really, Brax, what does it look like?”

“You’ve been turning the royals into hybrids,” I accused.

“You are on a roll today, princess.”

“Why, though?” I narrowed my eyes at him. My bow and arrow were tight in my palms. Loosing one straight would end all of our troubles. But not yet. I had to figure out why. Why would Cole betray his own family?

“I thought that would be obvious.” Cole shrugged and plopped himself back into his chair. “You want a back story? It’s not that complicated. I have no stories of revenge to tell. You see, all I’ve ever wanted was power.”

“Cole,” Braxtyn snapped impatiently. “You are a prince. What power could you possibly need[1]?”

Cole smiled. “The youngest prince,” he corrected. “Third in line to the throne. I could have dealt with those odds. It would have been so easy to off all of you and claim the Ruined City for my own. But then your engagement to Akir was announced,” he nodded in my direction. “And we’d heard stories of you in our kingdom. Stories of the mighty Huntress. Of the brave daughter of the Hybrid King Ferguson. It was rumored you were very beautiful and fearless.” I flushed, despite myself. “I knew it wouldn’t be long before you came, before my brother Akir would claim his birthright. Before he got you with child.” My hand involuntarily went to my stomach. Cole followed the movement with his eyes briefly before flicking back to my face. “My hopes of claiming the throne dwindled. But then I thought, huh, only a little man dreams of something so simple as claiming one kingdom. What if I were to claim them all?” He leaned back in his chair as if it were a throne.

“You can’t possibly claim the Broken World for your own, Cole.” Braxtyn said furiously. It was as if he was trying to convince his brother of the impossibilities rather than reprimand him. And that made me nervous.

Cole smiled widely. “Not alone, no. Alone it’s an impossible feat[2]. I’d need an army. But who would back me? The youngest of three, the fuck up of the family? The one no one could ever take seriously? The one who was always overlooked?” He gestured at himself.

“So you decided to use hybrids,” I added.

He nodded vigorously. “Brilliant, don’t you think? It was so easy, too. All I had to do was come to the lab with a few loyal men and everything I needed to know was on these computers. For so long, we’d thought the scientists of old had experimented on bears and made them insane but that wasn’t the case.” He was rambling now and I could make out the crazy glint in his eyes, the psychotic glow that I hadn’t noticed before, that I’d passed off as naivety. “Cross genetics,” he went on, “is what they called it. They basically took the DNA of animals and reformed them so they’d be compatible with human DNA and made us more. Of course, there are many other complexities in the science but that’s the basis.”

One shot to the chest and he’d be dead. But I needed the cure. I needed to know how to reverse the effects. I opened my mouth to pose the question but Braxtyn was taking another step forward so that his back was to me. I could see his entire body trembling.

“Our father—”

“I had to get him out of the way along with the other royals. Me and my men stole a few dirt bikes to guide father along the way to snatch them up.”

“How have the hybrids not turned on you yet?” I asked, though I feared I already knew the answer.

“They react to high frequencies and I can control them that way. Besides, they start to lose their human selves the longer they’re in their hybrid bodies.”

I recalled weeks ago during the battle, how all of a sudden the hybrids let out ferocious roars and ran away. My mother had been thrashing around, fighting off some call only she could hear. It had been Cole all along. He’d led them to us. His people were dead because of him. And all because he’d been the overlooked sibling? I would feel no sympathy for him.

“Enough with that,” I whispered and notched my arrow, drawing the string back to point it at his heart. His eyes flickered to it and he smiled. Rage boiled hot within me. I was close to erupting. “I have only one question for you now and that’s: how do you turn them back?”

“Stand down, lass.” Braxtyn whispered harshly to me, holding out his arm.

I ignored him. “How do you change them back, Cole?”

“Now why on earth would I tell you that?”

“Because if you don’t, this arrow will fly straight to your heart.”

He threw his head back and roared with laughter. “You don’t want to do that, princess. And before you ask ‘why  not’, let me direct you to these screens.” He gestured at the monitors behind him, turning in his chair to stare at one in particular.

Cautiously, I edged forward, close enough to see what he was gesturing at. I sucked in a breath. “Lex,” I whispered, feeling the tears prickle behind my eyelids. I shoved them away. Lex was alive. He was on screen and appeared to be in a room of some sort. I could tell he was hurt because he kept pressure against his abdomen. He was leaning against a door helplessly.

“Look, princess.” Cole pointed to another screen. This one showed the image of a hybrid wandering down a hallway. “These doors are automatic. That means I can open them from here and your precious Lex would no longer have protection against the beast.”

I swiveled around and touched the tip of my arrow against his forehead. “I’ll kill you before your finger touches that button.”

He smiled and I knew he wasn’t afraid. That only made everything worse. And a wild, savage part of me thought that I should kill him anyway. That I should just go ahead and let my arrow fly. His finger hovered over the button, over the button that could doom Lex. And how could I let that happen? How could I let him suffer?

The answer was there. It was in my many lectures, in my training. It was the reason Akir had not come here and it was the reason I had. Because the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few. And I would gladly die here alongside Lex if that only meant I’d find the cure that would save everyone else.

I heard my mother’s voice clearly in my mind and I understood that sometimes, what needed to be done was never the easiest decision or even the one your heart told you to make. It was why she’d pushed me on Akir. She hadn’t wanted to, but our people had depended on it. Not because of the hybrids, because they hadn’t yet had time to come into play but because we needed reinforcements. We’d needed protection and the needs of our people had been way more important than my feelings.

My thoughts flashed back to Akir, and all that he was doing. If we died here today, I’d have died not telling him that I love him, too.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to no one in particular, but also to everyone, just before I let the arrow fly.

But Braxtyn was shoving me just as I let the string loose, causing my arrow to wobble and land in Cole’s shoulder. He let out a cry, slamming his hand down onto the button. My heart dropped as I watched on the monitor, as I watched the door open. Lex had been leaning too heavily on it and fell back into the hallway. Straight in the line of vision of the hybrid.

I pulled another arrow out and aimed it at Braxtyn. But he wasn’t paying any attention to me. He was looking directly at Cole. “I have a question, brother.” His breathing was erratic, his words shaking.

Cole let out a painful laugh, clutching his shoulder. The arrow protruded from it and blood was gushing out. “Ask away, Brax.”

“The day you took our father, why didn’t you take me as well?” His voice sounded like he desperately wanted to know the answer.

Cole didn’t pause. He held tightly to his shoulder with one hand and with the other, broke the arrow in half. He screamed, dropped the broken piece and laughed. “I don’t know.” He pulled the rest of the arrow out in one quick, painful motion. “I assumed they would suspect you of foul play and off you themselves, saving me the trouble of having to kill my own brother.”

Braxtyn staggered back a step. “You would have killed me? Truly?”

Cole laughed again, slumping back in his chair. I saw his hand slowly going into his pocket and tensed. I took a few steps away from Braxtyn, putting space between us so he wouldn’t have the time to run towards me as I killed his brother. I wouldn’t have him ruining my chances again. Not this time.

“Of course I’d kill you. You mean nothing to me. And you know too much, besides.”

I thought I could hear Braxtyn’s heart break from here. His face changed into rage and betrayal and heartbreak. “You’re my brother,” Braxtyn said. “I came back for you. To find you.”

Cole pulled something out of his pocket. “That was your mistake,” he said and revealed the object. It was long and thin, like a metal pencil with a button on the end. “May your death be swift,” Cole said and pressed the button.

Nothing happened. Not at first. And then we heard it. The shrieking of hybrids and the crashing of objects. I looked at the monitor. Dozens of the creatures seemed to pour out from doorways, charging like wild boars. I glanced to Lex. He was running from one, but how long until the others caught up to him?

“Your Lex awaits you,” Cole smiled at me. “Go save him, princess. He might fall into a trap if you don’t.”

White rage swept across my vision. There was a possibility we would die here all because of him. Nearly blind with fury, I shot my arrow. It flew strong and sure, landing with a loud thwack straight into his chest.

The arrow pinned him to the chair and immediately, blood rained down his shirt and out his mouth. He let out gasping noises. It took me a moment to clear away the fog in my brain and realize that they weren’t gasps, but words.

“...didn’...think...you’d shoot...weak…” He gasped and choked on his own blood.

He hadn’t thought I’d shoot, he’d thought I’d be weak. He thought that, to save Lex, I’d ignore him and run into a crowd of hybrids to get myself killed. Because my heart always, selfishly, came first. It was what had got us into this mess in the first place. I’d put myself before my people, before my family. I’d thrown away every lesson for my own personal gain.

And I’d never make that mistake again.

I was the Huntress, only not the one he’d expected.

“You killed him,” Braxtyn whispered in his shock.

“He’s not dead yet,” I pointed out with bitterness. Cole was still struggling for breath, choking and gurgling painfully.

“You bitch,” Braxtyn dropped to his knees in front of his youngest brother and gripped the arrow at his chest, pulling it out. This only caused the blood to flow faster. Braxtyn’s shoulders racked up and down as he sobbed. Blood spurted all over him but he didn’t seem to care. “You killed him. You killed him.”

I didn’t have the time to feel sorry for him, to feel an ache in my chest at what I’d done. Lex needed me.

I didn’t bother with a goodbye as I whirled around and ran out of the room.

Chapter Eight

I had no other weapons save for my bow, arrows and a bomb in my pocket. I was saving that for a special occasion. My feet skipped steps as I practically hurtled down the stairs. I reached the bottom floor and rounded the corner, only to slam hard into Lex.

I skidded to the floor in surprise that lasted momentarily because he was hauling me up by the arm and tugging me along the hallway. He held tightly to my hand, threading his fingers through mine as we ran. I didn’t chance a glance backwards, I didn’t have to. Not when their breath seemed to burn the hairs on the back of our necks. Close, so close.

Lex pulled me to a stop. Just ahead there were more hybrids coming towards us. We were surrounded. We were going to die. I gave his hand a tight squeeze before pulling away and reaching into my back pocket for a bomb. I had only one and had to decide which direction to throw it in. Even if I threw it, the blast would knock us off our feet. We had to be prepared.

I lifted my arm up, preparing to put my entire body and all of my strength into this, into what could very well be my last moment…

And there was a crash as the wall seemed to cave in. Lex pulled me to his chest as if he’d meant to protect me, pulling me away from the enormous truck that had driven through the wall and rammed against the hybrids behind us, pinning them.

The smoke of plaster cleared and I glanced up in time to see the driver’s side door open and Kael emerge from it. His face was grave and my eyes grew wider when I saw what he wielded in his hands. He let out a fierce cry as he aimed his gun at the hybrids and let bullets rain down in a thunderous wave of light and sound.

The passenger’s side door opened and I nearly staggered as River jumped down from the seat, wielding his own sword. He stood tall and proud, it was almost impossible to tell he was wearing a prosthetic leg beneath his jeans.

The sight of them, of both of them had my heart thundering with new hope. With a cry, I turned to the approaching hybrids and threw the bomb with all my might, whirling around to yell, “Duck!”

I yanked on Lex’s hand, pulling him towards the vehicle, jumping to slide across the dented hood and land on the other side just as the bomb exploded behind us. I covered my ears to drown out the sound of the blast. Debris rained on us, chunks of wood slamming into my body so hard, I was sure I’d be bruised.

When silence followed, I stood slowly with Lex at my side. The smoke cleared up to reveal the hybrids. They weren’t exactly dead; their bodies twitched on the ground. I let out a breath of relief and turned with a smile on my face that died instantly when I saw who was behind the steering wheel.

Akir opened the door and stepped out, slamming it behind him. His face was grave and angry as he took me in from head to toe, his eyes lingering too long on my face as if he meant to count every freckle to make sure they were still intact. He took Lex in, eyes burning with rage. I half expected him to chew me out right then and there. To my surprise, it wasn’t him who did it.

Kael stepped on top of the hood of the car, stomping on it with heavy boots as he walked over and jumped down in front of me. My healer pulled me towards him by the arm and for the first time since I’d met him, there was rage aligned on his every feature.

“What the hell were you thinking?” He shouted, hand tightening painfully on my upper arm.

“Uh…” I was so dumbfounded by his sudden anger, at his sudden aggression that I was at a loss for words.

“You left us behind with nothing but a gods damned note?”

A note? I hadn’t left a note! I resisted the urge to turn and glare at Lex. I should have known he was going to pull something like that. But I couldn’t find the energy to be angry at him. Not when his note had saved our lives.

“Of all the irresponsible, childish, pigheaded—”

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my voice finally cracking with emotion and exhaustion.

Kael cut off his angry rant by biting down hard on his bottom lip. His face never softened, he looked as though he still had so much left to say to me but instead, he pulled me tightly to his chest, holding me there by the back of my head. I wrapped my arms around him and fought back the urge to sob.

“I was worried about you, princess,” he whispered against the top of my head.

“I’m sorry,” I said again. “But I had to come here. I had to get the cure.” I finally sobbed, feeling my chest tighten painfully. “And I failed. I failed.”

“It’s alright, lass,” Akir said.

I pulled away from Kael to look at my fiancée. His eyes were soft, even if the rest of his face was all hard lines. I could see the anger in him, but I could also read the pity there just as easily. And that hurt more than his anger did.

“We can’t stay here,” River limped forward. I noticed him wince but he ignored his own pain, putting on a hardened expression. “How many more hybrids are here?” He asked urgently.

I pulled away from Kael but stuck to his side, finding comfort in the warmth of his hand on my lower back.

“I’m not sure,” I answered, looking around at the half-dead ones around us. “Dozens, maybe? They were all over the place.”

“And without a cure…” Lex let the sentence trail off, letting the weight of it settle into place.

I looked at Akir. There was no cure and his father could be here somewhere. His father could be any one of these hybrids laying around. Killing them would mean killing the king, if we hadn’t done so already. Could he live with that decision, if it came to that?

“If they attack, shoot to kill.” Akir said darkly, answering my unasked question for me.

We all gave him a tight nod and started forward. I waited a beat to fall into walking rhythm with my fiancée. He stared straight ahead, his weapon poised dangerously. He didn’t say a word.

“Akir…”

“You could have fucking trusted me, lass.” Was all he said before walking ahead, leaving me to rush and catch up with him.

“The needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few,” I recited. His fists tightened on his weapons but he said nothing so I pressed on. “We needed a cure, Akir. I didn’t find one but I also needed to stop this.”

“You could have died,” he replied tightly.

“And it wouldn’t have mattered, as long as I stopped another hybrid war.”

Akir stopped so abruptly, I nearly tripped on my own feet. I turned to raise a brow at him. He was glaring at me. “Wouldn’t have mattered?” He repeated. “Wouldn’t have mattered to who?”

Kael, Lex and River stopped just in front of us and half turned to see why we were standing there. My cheeks heated under their scrutiny. Everyone except Lex was pissed at me, so it seemed. And here I thought I’d done something heroic. That I’d come to get the cure and even though that had failed, I’d killed the psychopath who’d started it all again.

“Our people needed this to end, Akir.”

“Do you think that makes it easier?” He asked menacingly. “Do you think it’s easy knowing that as king, I failed? That I put my people in danger? It isn’t fucking easy, princess, thinking I was going to lose you, too.”

I felt the breath leave me entirely. He’d lost nearly everyone. What it must have been like for him? His mother dead. His father gone. Braxtyn and I gone to deal with the hybrid threat. Cole dead…

Cole.

I placed my hand on his arm, stopping him. “Akir, there’s something you should know…”

Before I could get the rest out, there was an unmistakable growl that had us snapping up, tightening our grips on our weapons. A hybrid emerged from around the corner and I felt my feet freeze at the sight of it.

“Holy gods above,” Lex whispered.

The thing was massive. As big as a truck, with scarred flesh and dangerous rows of sharp teeth. Its blackened lip pulled up into a sneer as it laid familiar blue eyes on us. I tensed, fingers reaching for my bow and notching an arrow. Akir was in front of me and I heard the sudden painful inhalation of a breath.

“Father…” he whispered, so low I almost didn’t hear it.

The hybrid—the king—started forward slowly. I stepped back, pulling Akir by the back of his jacket. He went willingly but kept his gaze straight ahead. Straight into the eyes of his father.

“Back away slowly,” River commanded in a stern, low voice.

The king stilled, ears flattening across his thick head. I wondered if he recognized his son. If he was still there, somewhere, inside the beast, begging for release. Or if he was too far gone, more beast than man. I didn’t know if I wanted to find out.

“Father…” Akir whispered again. I wondered if he felt the sudden urge to leap before his king, if all earlier rules of ‘shoot to kill’ still applied here. I wanted to ask, but to break the silence seemed like a dangerous thing. Besides, without a cure it was hopeless. There was no way to save his father or my mother. Putting them down seemed like a mercy.

I drew the string back on my bow and aimed. Akir glanced down at me with cold eyes. “Shoot to kill?” I asked quietly. It broke my heart. I’d killed his brother and I’d be willing to kill his father too, for the good of all of us here. Maybe the real beast was me.

His blue eyes were like chips of ice that took me in, took in my form, my ready stance. He swallowed. I knew how painful this was. Knew we’d barely be able to live with ourselves later. But it had to be done. We were royalty, after all, and our people came before our own needs and wants.

Akir looked at his father one last time. “Shoot to kill,” he whispered firmly.

And then his father attacked. As if those hostile words had awoken something in him, he charged at us with full force. The sight of his big body thundering down the hallway nearly crippled me but I fired.

The arrow embedded itself in his shoulder. He gave a screeching cry of anger and seemed to move faster. I realized we could not outrun him. We would have to stand and fight.

The other seemed to realize this, too, because they pulled out their weapons and spread out quickly. River, holding his sword in a tight grip, was in front of the rest of us, ready to charge ahead. My heart tumbled at the sight. I couldn’t lose him again. I couldn’t lose any of them. There had to be a better way. There had to be something other than blood and bullets.

The king roared and Kael shot, his weapon emanating bright yellow light and sound. The bullets wounded him, caused him to slow down but he did not stop as he made a swipe for River. But River dodged, wincing as he put too much pressure, too fast on his prosthetic leg. He twirled, bringing his sword down in an arc, slicing through the side of the hybrid.

He screeched and River pulled away, stepping back just as Akir came forward, brandishing his own weapon. I could see the tenseness in his shoulders, see the pain in his every move as he began shooting close-range at his father. The bullets went into his thick, furry shoulders. Blood spilled forth and it only seemed to make him angrier. He stood on his back paws to his full height and was quick to swipe his claws towards his son.

I gasped when his nails raked over Akir’s chest, tearing his skin. Akir fell to his knees.

“No!” I pulled an arrow out and shot one out. It went through his eye, causing him to drop back to all four’s and let out a roar that stood the hairs on  my arms up. I rushed forward recklessly, grabbing Akir by the back of the jacket and tugging. He fell to his ass, chest heaving every painful breath. His chest was soaked in blood and I prayed he wouldn’t die on me, too.

“Help me,” I hissed between my teeth at Lex. He rushed forward, gripping Akir under the armpits and pulled him away from his father and all the way back to the mangled truck to lean him up against it.

Kael and River fought at the king, jabbing left and right. I bent down to Akir’s level while Lex watched my back.

“Akir,” I lifted his head up.

“I’m fine, lass,” he growled, pushing me away. “It’s just a scratch.” As if to prove his point, he stood on wobbly legs but I didn’t miss how he winced or struggled to stay upright. It was more than just a scratch and he knew it. “But it’s a good thing you brought me to the truck.” He turned, grunting as he opened the driver’s side door. “Seeing you earlier distracted me.” He pulled out a bag and turned, dropping it to the floor and bending over to unzip it. “I forgot to grab this.” He reached in and pulled out a bomb. “They seem to be the only things powerful enough to take hybrids down.” He winced. “This is our last one, lass.” I went to take it from him but he pulled his hand back, tightening his fist around it. “I have to do it,” he said firmly.

I stared at him incredulously. “You can barely stand.”

He shook his head. “He’s my father.”

I wanted to argue. I needed to, but now was not the time. I turned. Everything around me seemed to happen so slowly. River was bleeding at the temple and the king took a swipe at him. He fell back, twisting and falling down. His knees buckled. The fight was too much too soon for him, for his injury. He pulled his knee up to his chest and gave out a cry. Kael rushed to protect him, using his own body as a shield. Gone were his bullets and gun. He wrenched the sword from River and turned to attack. He didn’t know how to brandish it, but he was fierce just the same.

I swallowed. “Make it count,” was all I said before I stood up and offered my hand.

He blinked at me before taking my hand and stood up. He looked to both me and Lex. “I’ll need a distraction.”

Lex smiled. “That, I can manage.”

“Keanna, help get River out of there.”

I nodded and we both rushed forward. I reached River as Kael lunged further to the right, getting creature’s attention away from us. My eyes seemed to move everywhere at once, from Kael thrusting the sword forward, to Akir sneaking his way behind his father.

“Riv, let’s get you to the truck,” I urged as I helped lift him to a standing position. He hobbled, hissing as he leaned into me. There was still fight left in his eyes.

“I’m not going to run away or hide, Keanna,” he breathed heavily into my ear. “I’ll go down with all of you or not at all.”

“Stubborn ass,” I mumbled as I began pulling him further away from where he’d fallen. Until he froze, refusing to budge any more. I knew that despite my protests, he wouldn’t go further so I let him go, let him preserve his dignity and stand on his own and then I turned back to the battle.

The hybrid swiped at Kael, knocking the sword from his hand where it flew, clattering to the ground. Kael fell to the floor on his back and I cried out as the hybrid hovered over him, readying his paw to take a swipe…

And then there was the loud blaring of a horn and Lex’s voice screaming over it. “Hey hybrid! Come here you ugly mother…” He jumped down from the truck and rushed forward, waving his arms over his head.

It was a moment’s distraction, but it was all Akir needed. The hybrid had froze and lifted its head to look up at Lex and then Akir was jumping onto his father’s back and latching on. The king jerked his head back and let out a deafening roar, bucking to try and knock Akir off.

But Akir held tightly around his neck, I could see the bomb in his hands, could see him moving as if he meant to shove it down the beast’s throat.

Then he let go and with a fierce jerk of his back, Akir was flying off of the hybrid and landing on the ground. he wasted no time, standing up. I could see no hesitation there in his gaze. I could see nothing but sorrow as Akir reached his arm back, ready to throw the bomb. I held my breath, watching, waiting for it to be over but before the device left his hand, he was being tackled to the ground. The bomb slipped from his fingers and rolled away as he found himself pinned under the heavy weight of Braxtyn. His brother held him down, forearm against his throat.

“Brax,” Akir tried to get up but his brother kept him pinned down.

“Don’t kill him. He’s our father.”

Akir tried to get up, tried to call out a warning but it was too late. The king was behind Brax, jaws coming down on his arm and hauling him backwards. Braxtyn screamed as he was hauled through the air and slammed into the ground. His father loomed over him, angry jaws gaping open. Braxtyn screamed.

Everything after was a blur of moving bodies. Akir jumped up and ran to his brother’s aid. I gasped, a sob already heaving it’s way out of my chest. But Akir was fast and it was as there was some silent communication between him and the others. He rolled on the ground, landing in a crouch just below his father, putting himself as a barrier between the hybrid and his younger brother. And then Lex was kicking the fallen sword towards him. It slid harshly against the tiles, the hilt straight into Akir’s awaiting palm.

He gripped it tightly and in one swift move, rammed it up into his father’s neck. He let out a fierce cry as he twisted the sword. Blood dripped down onto his face, painting his skin like that of a warrior.

He pulled it out with a cry and back away just as his father fell to the floor.

Dead.

There was silence for a long stretch of time. Our breaths hitched harshly and I wasn’t exactly sure why no one spoke. If we were waiting for more of them to appear. If we were waiting for Akir to say something, to let what just happened sink in. He’d killed his father to protect his brother.

Braxtyn scrambled up and Akir followed much more slowly. Blood covered nearly every inch of them. Their father’s blood. Brax looked down at his hands, at his palms before tightening them into fists. And then he was on his brother, swinging a punch that landed square on Akir’s jaw. I made a move to go forward but Kael was beside me, holding tightly to my waist in warning.

“You killed him!” Braxtyn shouted, throwing another punch. Akir dropped the sword and held his hands up, blocking his brother’s blows. “You killed him! You son of a bitch, you killed our father!” He hit and hit until his arms seemed to weaken. Akir lowered his arms and Braxtyn shoved him softly, keeping his palms splayed against his chest. “You killed him,” he sobbed.

And then Akir was pulling his brother towards him in a crushing hug. The sight was too intimate, too sad to bear but I couldn’t bring myself to look away. Akir held his brother to him by the back of the neck. Braxtyn’s shoulders shook as he sobbed into his older brother’s chest.

“He would have killed you,” Akir said. “I couldn’t let him. I couldn’t.”

Together, they grieved. I gave them a few minutes of silence before I reached for River. I needed someone solid, someone to help me hold onto reality. He leaned his heavy weight on me but I didn’t mind it.

The brothers finally broke apart. Braxtyn didn’t meet any one of our gazes.

“We need to leave,” I said tightly. “Now.”

Akir nodded his agreement.

Braxtyn finally looked up. “We need to destroy this place first.” He looked down at his father, gulping. “He was the last one. I saw it on the cameras. We need to destroy everything here so that no one else can ever bring the hybrids back.”

All the information, gone. No more hybrids meant we could finally live free, free of our fear of them. They would be no more.

I nodded. “Let’s do it.”

***

It took but a few moments. A few moments to set the building on fire and watch it spread. When it was big enough, we walked outside and stood, watching the flames engulf the lab entirely and flicker towards the darkening sky.

The bodies had been left in there. We had no way to know who they were, anyway. It wasn’t like we could take them back to their families. Not as hybrids. So this was the closest thing to a funeral we could give them.

We wouldn’t be going back to the other clans with this information, with what had transpired here. What were the odds that they’d believe us, anyway? It hurt, knowing they’d have no body to mourn, that the disappearance of their leaders was a total mystery. But it was for the best.

We watched the building begin to crumble, watched it fall to ashen pieces. River was leaning against me for support. He was trying to be strong but I knew his leg was paining him.

“Was this all for nothing?” I wondered aloud. The flames crackled, filling the spaces between the silence that followed.

Finally, it was Lex who answered. “No,” he said with surety. “We destroyed a great evil.”

I sighed. “Even if we didn’t find the cure, at least we found out who was behind it all.” I had hoped that if I said those words out loud, that I’d actually believe them. But all they left me was a hopeless feeling in my chest.

“Who was behind it?” Akir asked.

I tensed. I hadn’t had the chance to tell him. Hadn’t told him that it was his own brother who had wreaked havoc and destruction on our already Broken World. Braxtyn and I shared a look and for once, we were in complete understanding.

I took a deep breath because what I was about to say sure wasn’t going to be easy. I recounted the events to Akir. I told him who had been behind the attacks, told him what his brother had done. His breath hitched but once the entire time but otherwise his face remained entirely impassive. Hard lines and planes as he stared at the fire. Orange and yellow glow of light flickered against his face. He stared at the flames long after I finished telling him the story.

Finally, he asked, “He’s dead?”

I gulped. “Yes.”

“Who killed him?”

I realized I’d left that part out. Left him out from hearing the pain of his brother’s death. Of knowing that I was the one who killed him. Would he hate me for it? Would he hate me for the phantom stains I carried on my hands?

“I did.”

I jerked my head to look at Braxtyn, at his false confession. But he wasn’t looking at me. He was looking at Akir and his eyes were mirrored hard lines, daring to be questioned.

Akir didn’t, though. He didn’t question his brother. He believed him, nodded and looked back to the fire.

Braxtyn looked at me then, our gazes locking. I had a million questions I wanted to ask him in that moment but I knew he wouldn’t answer them now. Maybe not ever. So I let it be. He was saving his brother from a terrible knowledge. And he was saving me as well.

Braxtyn Murtaugh was not a man I admired. He wasn’t kingly or compassionate. He was ruthless and angry and willing to do whatever it took and take down whoever got in his way, for the sake of what he believed in. But in that moment, something shifted between us. Our relationship was suddenly changed as he lifted a heavy weight from my own shoulders and onto his.

I knew it would be a bumpy road ahead. We all needed time to heal. We needed time to think on our next steps. We’d all lost something. And we had to be prepared to get back up again. To slay those beasts, no matter how hard and move forward.

We waited a few hours more until the flames died down and there was nothing left but the charred remnants of the lab before us. A gust of wind blew ash at our feet. We stared down at it a moment longer.

“We should go,” I suggested quietly. We needed to get  back. I needed to see my mom before we had to do the inevitable. We couldn’t keep her in a cage and we couldn’t set her loose, either. I knew what we had to do and it was not going to be easy. “I’d like to see my mom,” I confessed. Holding back my feelings now, after everything we’d been through, seemed silly. We’d seen each other at our worst. What was a few more moments of honesty? “I’d like to say goodbye before she loses herself.” My voice cracked with emotion and I cleared my throat.

“Goodbye?” Braxtyn asked.

I nodded. “We’ll have to—” I paused, shaking my head. The words were too hard to say out loud. “Without a cure, it’s hopeless.”

Braxtyn reached into his back pocket. “Princess,” he pulled something out. A black, plastic stick that I didn’t recognize. “There is a cure.”

We all froze and stared at him. “Don’t lie,” I gasped. I couldn’t bear it. Couldn’t bear the heartbreak if it wasn’t true.

He shook his head. “I searched through the computer and I found it. Cole had it the entire time so I downloaded it. The cure is here.” He handed the thing—the cure— to his brother. “Your mother can live, lass.”

Chapter Nine

It took a few hours to get back to the city. The minute we got there, Akir and Braxtyn hopped out of the vehicle and went to their lab, to give the cure to their scientists. They never looked back at me once.

They would need time. Both of them. I couldn’t imagine their anger, their desperation. It was why Braxtyn had tackled Akir to the ground, had tried to prevent him from killing their father in the first place. Why he’d been so angry afterwards. Because he’d had the cure the whole time. But now their father was gone. And they’d never get the chance to see him again.

I was ridden with guilt at the thought. That my mother would get the cure, that she’d become human again while they lost their father and brother in one day. I felt so guilty, that I couldn’t even go see her, days after we had already arrived.

I had no idea if they’d given her the cure, if the information Braxtyn had downloaded from Cole’s computer was even valuable. I shut myself in, away from everyone. Akir hadn’t bothered to come see me, too busy running his kingdom, speaking with his brother and avoiding me. I wondered if it would hurt him to look in my eyes, to know that I was the lucky one in this entire situation. I knew it would hurt me.

So I stayed in, taking a room far away from Akir’s. A servant brought me all my meals but otherwise, I saw no one. Kael had knocked at the door and tried coaxing me out from the other side. When I didn’t reply, he gave me no information, no news. Instead, he’d left.

It wasn’t until a week later that the door to my room opened. I looked up from the bed to see River limping in. He closed the door behind him and leaned heavily on a wooden cane. I blinked at it and then back at him.

He shrugged. “Kael insists I use it for the time being. Of course, he also insists that I stay in bed but I’m tired of being coddled.”

I sat up, scooting to the edge of the bed and letting my legs dangle down. “How are you feeling?” I asked, eyeing his legs. He wore jeans and at first glance, everything seemed perfectly normal. But I knew better.

“Tired of being treated like a damn cripple.” He grunted as he walked forward and took a seat next to me.

“No more self pity?” I asked with a tinge of tired sarcasm.

“A little self pity is healthy,” he retorted. “And let me ask you this, Keanna, what the hell are you doing?”

I blinked at him. “Excuse me?”

He gave me a stern look. “What the hell are you doing? It’s been a week and you’re still locked up in here. Why?”

I shrugged, suddenly finding the strings on the quilt beneath me much more interesting. Then I felt the painful tug at my ear and snapped up, swatting River’s  hand away. “Ow!”

He glared at me. “You’re shunning your duties, your Highness.”

“Blah,” I stuck my tongue out. “Royalty can do whatever the fuck they want.”

He rolled his eyes. “I’m sure your mother would disagree.”

The mention of my mother had me tensing up all over again. But River knew me so well, was atune to my every reaction. “Keanna,” he whispered.

And because I couldn’t take it, couldn’t take the sadness in his voice, I groaned, flinging myself back onto the pillows. “I’ve made a giant mess of things, haven’t I?”

“Afraid so.”

I groaned again. “I can’t go out there, Riv. I can’t look at Akir, I can’t look at any of them knowing that they’ll never have their king again while I get to have my mother. How is that fair?”

“Would you rather your mother be dead?”

I sat up ramrod straight to glare at him. “Of course not,” I snapped. “But the guilt is eating me alive. What if we would have waited a bit longer? What if we wouldn’t have attacked? What if Braxtyn had shown up sooner to let us know? Their dad would be alive right now.”

River sighed and slowly leaned his cane against the side of the bed and stretched his legs out in front of him. “What if,” he began. “What if Kael couldn’t have saved me?” I opened my mouth to reply but he cut me off, voice rising slightly. “What if Akir died at his father’s hand? What if Cole hadn’t been born bitter and crazy? What if Lex had never left a note in the first place?”

My face heated. “What’s your point?”

“My point is you can’t live your life according to ‘what if’s’, Keanna. Because the reality is different. Things happened and we can’t change what they did and why would you want to? We wouldn’t even be who we are without everything that happened to us. Would you really want to change it?”

I picked at the strings on the blankets for a brief second. “Are you saying that you wouldn’t give anything to get your leg back?” I nodded at his prosthetic one.

He reached a hand over and pat his knee. “I can’t say I won’t miss it. But I lost it saving your life.” He looked at me then and there was a burning intensity in his dark gaze that heated me all over. “I’d gladly lose any part of me if it meant you got to live another day. So to answer your question, no, I would not change anything.”

The tears fell down my cheeks before I even felt them at the backs of my eyelids. I swiped them away with annoyance. “The others may not think the same.”

River smiled and reached a hand out to ruffle my curls. “You’ll never know unless you talk to them. Besides, we both know what Kael will say…”

I smiled and we said in unison, “We all went with you willingly.” I burst out laughing, feeling the pain and a bit of the guilt ease with the action.

“I think it’s time for you to emerge, Princess.” River’s fingers passed over mine, a tickle of feeling against my skin.

I knew he was right, knew that I had to face the masses someday. If I was to be married to Akir, if he still wanted to, if I wanted to, I was going to have to face his people. My people. I needed to show them, to show him that I was capable. The time for self pity was over.

“Thank you,” I whispered, letting my fingers thread through his.

“I live to serve, your Highness,” he joked.

I rolled my eyes. “If you live to serve, then come here.” I tugged lightly at his hand. “I’m not ready to leave just yet.” River smiled at me as I pulled him down to the mattress so his body covered my own. “Besides,” I added with a smirk, “you still haven’t shown me what you did to make the baker’s daughter scream so much.”

He chuckled, placing his palms on either side of my head to keep himself upright. His dark curls fell over his forehead and I reached up to brush a lock aside, my hand lingering. His breath on the skin of my wrist was warm and comforting.

“Keanna,” he whispered against my flesh. The sound of my name on his lips made a shiver slide slowly down my spine. He flexed his arms, the cords and muscles moving. I smiled and turned my head to press a kiss against his wrist. He groaned. “Keanna, are you sure?” He asked with uncertainty. I saw the doubt cloud his eyes and there was fear there as well. “I’m not—I mean, do you want to? I’m not exactly what I once was…”

I putt a finger to his lips, silencing him, then leaned up to show him just how much I wanted him. Our lips touched, my own parting his to taste and feel the texture of his tongue. The warmth of our breaths mingled, urged me on. I nipped and sucked, causing River to groan. When I felt his hand slip to my lower back, I pressed myself up against him, putting pressure to my core.

I broke away gasping. “You know I’ll never stop wanting you.” I slid my hands down the front of his chest as he held me in place. I let them roam over his shirt, down his sides, to his hips. I stilled there, locking gazes with him. “This,” I rubbed my hand down his thigh, the one holding the prosthetic leg. “This changes nothing, Riv.”

He gulped and just like that, he was kissing me, pushing me against the mounds of pillows to settle his weight over me. I welcomed his heavy warmth, parting my thighs as he settled between them.

He bent down low to press a warm kiss to my lips. More. I wanted more. But then his mouth was dipping lower, pressing opened mouth kisses to my throat. I fell apart in his arms, groaning at the sensations he was causing, at the way his mouth warmed me down to my very core. I lifted my hips up to meet his, feeling the restrictions of clothing press up against me, causing me momentary relief.

His hands slid up my shirt, teasing at the skin around my stomach, the calluses on his fingertips were rough against the softness of my own skin and I welcomed the scrape of it. My shirt lifted with his movements, slow, so slowly he pulled it from my body, tossing it aside. I was bared before him and his eyes darkened as if he were seeing me for the first time. As if he couldn’t quite believe that I was under him, my body so responsive as his fingers traveled higher to skim across my nipples.

Our relationship had always been princess and her guard. But it had been more than that. We’d been best friends. Our relationship had been about flirtation, about knowing each other more deeply than we knew ourselves. And it was about competition. It was so simple, what we shared and ever since we’d started our journey to come to the Ruined City, the boundaries of our relationship had changed immensely.

Maybe it was because all the other males around me. Maybe River had strived to compete since day one. But flirtation became something more. We suddenly had the boldness, the courage to take what we’d wanted all along.

And River took.

His head dipped again to press a kiss down to my collar bone, mouth moving lower, slower as if he had all the time in the world. He was dragging out the foreplay. He knew I wanted him, knew my thighs were screaming as I grinded harshly into him. But still he took his time to savour every bit of me. He moved lower, tongue flicking out to brush against my nipple. I groaned at the brief contact. More. I wanted more. My fingers found my way to his hair, nails scraping against his scalp. His chest rumbled with deep laughter a second before his tongue was out again, the warm rasp of it against my breasts, tightening my nipples to a painful peak. He went from one to the other, showing both equal love. He kissed and teased and explored, hands raking over the entirety of my exposed skin.

And then his hands went to the waistband of my jeans and I jerked up as if that could serve to get him to move faster. It only served in him torturing me, in him teasing as was his nature. His fingers undid the button, slid the zipper down. I adjusted my body, frantically helping him to pull them past my hips and over my legs until I kicked them off completely. Then he was settled over me again, palming my hips, trailing circles against my skin with his thumbs. His body went lower, he kissed his way down my stomach, tongue dipping into my belly button briefly before traveling lower. I sucked in a breath, feeling my face heat with desperate arousal when his tongue, warm and wet and welcoming, slid slowly down my folds.

I cried out, writhing against him but he held me in place, pushing my hips tightly against the mattress to keep me still. It was torture. It was wonderful. “Don’t move,” he commanded in soft tones. “Try and keep very still.”

I was panting with want. “You’re not the boss of me,” I gasped.

I didn’t have to look at him to know he was smiling. “I will be soon enough,” he said just before his mouth closed over my clit. I screamed, my hips flying up to meet the movements of his tongue but he held me in place, pushing my body down.

I groaned, flinging a hand over my forehead, not quite knowing what to do, not quite knowing how to move. His tongue left me only to be replaced by his fingers. He slid a finger up my folds to tease my clit. I arched into him, pressing myself tighter against him, desperate for release. But just as soon as I felt pleasure there, he was moving, separating my folds to stick his fingers inside. I felt myself stretching, felt the pleasure of his him moving against my inner walls.

I was wet, panting and desperate. I jerked my hips up. I needed him. He had no idea how much I needed him. Or maybe he did. Maybe that’s why he was torturing me, teasing the orgasm out of me slowly.

It was coming. I could feel it rising as his fingers moved against me, as he began hauling me up. My body went tight, waiting for that drop… I dug my hands into the blankets, arched up and waited for the orgasm to wash over me, to drop me into bliss. But just like that the feeling was gone as River stopped touching me.

Letting out a cry, my eyes flew open to find him staring at me, a smirk on his lips. “Not yet,” he rasped. Groaning, I watched as he reached for the hem of his shirt and pulled it over his shoulders, tossing it aside. “Not yet,” he repeated as he dipped down and resumed his torture once more.

I screamed his name, digging my hands into his curls. His mouth tortured and teased, fingers stretching me. I moved my hips against his hand, crying out as I felt the sharp rasp of his teeth against my most sensitive area. I felt it coming again, felt the waves of pleasure start to descend on me. My thighs clenched tightly around his head to keep him in place, but just before I could fall into bliss, he stopped. Again.

“Damn it,” I cursed, going limp again.

River chuckled. “Not yet,” he whispered like a dark promise. “But soon.” And then he was standing up, leaving me to my own feverish desires as he stood from the bed and undid his own pants, pulling them over his legs, tugging off his boots and everything.

I watched through half-lidded eyes, admiring every bit of him. His hair was curled and plastered against his temples with sweat. The panes of his chest were so delicious, my tongue darted out to lick my bottom lip. Ridges and bumps of muscle decorated his skin. Lean hips, strong thighs. I looked down at the one normal leg and then to the other, to where the silver of metal began just below his knee. It was an intricate design, made to look like any other leg. And I didn’t, for once, doubt his strength.

“Come here,” River crooked his finger at me. His face was bright red, the only indication that he was as aroused as I was. Well, that and his erection that stood high to his stomach. I slid off the bed and went to him, feeling my knees wobble. My body still hummed. I was still desperate to be touched, to feel him.

He granted my wish, taking my arms to guide me gently over to the wall. If there was one thing I knew about River, it was that he relished in movement. He could not keep still in one place too long. And I was ever grateful when he palmed my center again just as he took my mouth in his.

The wall behind me was cold in contrast to my feverish body. I clung to him, wrapping my arms around his neck. There was nothing awkward about this. Nothing awkward about this position. Pure instinct drove us.

His palms parted my thighs and I widened so he fit between me. I felt his erection against my stomach, smooth and hard and wet. And I wanted him inside me. My fingers found him and stroked up his length. He jerked against me, tearing his lips from mine to drop his head on my shoulder. He groaned into the crook of my neck.

“Now?” I asked.

“Yes,” he rasped and I let him go to enjoy the feel of his tip press against my clit. He felt smooth and my head swirled with desire. His hands went to my ass, palms firm against me. I prepared for what I knew was coming, spreading my legs as he lifted me high against the wall and then wrapping them around his waist. I waited for him to slam into me, to feel him fast and hard.

But he took his time, sliding his dick slowly into me.

And then he began moving. His body pressed tightly against mine, my back hard against the wall. I slid up with each powerful, slow thrust. My nails raked down his shoulders and onto his back.

Every thrust lifted me higher, higher. I felt it coming and I wondered if he would torture me again. If he would pull out just as I was finding my peak of pleasure. But this time, when the orgasm came, he kept moving. And after so long of being tortured, when I finally found my release, it was like nothing I’d ever felt. It was powerful. It was ecstacy. I threw my head back, banging it against the wall, my thighs and legs tightening against him as best as I could.

He held me up with one hand, the other palming the wall by my head as he continued his own slow thrusts. I came down from my high, riding him until he, too, found his pleasure in me.

When our cries died down and our breaths mingled, our hearts beating together in an erratic rhythm of the aftermath, I brushed aside a lock of his hair and chuckled. “So that’s what the baker’s daughter went on about.”

***

“Go to the lab,” River ordered. “There’s something in there you need to see.”

It was why he had gone to my room in the first place. He didn’t tell me what was there. I tried not to feel worry, but anxiousness spread through me like a poison. I was sure Akir would be there. I only hoped he would have good news for me. I didn’t want to dwell on the bad. Could the cure not have worked? Would we, in the end, have to put my mother down like an animal? The thought nearly had me tripping over my own feet as I ran to the lab.

I arrived and paused a brief second outside the door, trying to regather my wits, my calm. After taking a deep breath, I opened the door and stepped through, expecting to see Akir with his scientists and a hybrid in a cage.

What I got instead froze me in my tracks. A sob wrenched out of my throat and the tears sprang to my eyes immediately.

She was sitting in a rolly chair, a blanket thrown over her shoulders. She held it tightly to her body but was stretching her long bare legs out in front of her, wiggling her toes. As if she’d never seen them before or as if she’d missed them dearly. Her long brown hair was unbound and unbrushed, so unlike her. But still, it filled me with happiness.

“Mom,” I rushed to her and dropped to my knees before the chair. And just like that, we were in each other’s embrace. The tears we cried were for each other, for what had happened, for what we’d lost but overall, because she was back. “I thought I’d lost you,” I sobbed.

“Keanna,” she pressed a kiss to my forehead and palmed my cheeks, looking into my eyes. “My brave little girl.”

“I’m so sorry, mom.” She swiped away a tear from my cheek as soon as it fell. “Because of me you were captured…”

“Ssh,” she silenced me. “It’s over now. I’m here and that’s all that matters. I have you to thank for that, as well as Akir Murtaugh.”

As if the mention of his name had summoned him, Akir appeared in the doorway. I wasn’t sure how I knew he was there. Perhaps it was the sudden chill over my arms, as if my body was quite attune to him. I turned slowly, not missing my mother’s sly smile before I faced my fiancée.

I felt my heart thunder nervously. “Akir,” I whispered.

He looked as dangerous as ever. He wasn’t wearing his favored leather jacket. Instead, he wore a simple white T-shirt, under which I could see the gauze wrapped around his chest. Sudden guilt filled me. He’d been hurt and I’d locked myself in my room out of fear.

Slowly, I stood and walked over to him quite tentatively. I stopped when we were close enough to touch. “You did it,” I wiped another stubborn tear from my cheek, tilted my chin up. “You brought her back.”

He dipped his chin in a nod then looked over my shoulder at my mom. “Food, clothes and a bath are being prepared, your Highness.”

My mother sighed with relief. “Thank you, King Murtaugh.”

He gifted her with a rare smile. “Please, Majesty, call me ‘Akir’.”

My mother laughed and I stared at him incredulously. He could be charming. Who knew?

“I could just call you ‘son’.” I turned sharply to see her sly smile. What was going on? Since when had my mother been sarcastic and sly? And since when had Akir exuded charm and charisma? He was the grumpiest person I knew. “You are to be married to my daughter, after all.”

“That remains to be seen,” Akir replied coolly. I felt the blood drain from my face. What? I turned to glare up at him but he still hadn’t given me a glance. “If you’d follow me, Majesty, my brother Braxtyn is waiting to escort you to your chambers. Our servants are at your disposal, of course.” He went over to her and offered her his arm. She smiled and took it, tucking it into the crook of his elbow.

She gave me a scolding look as they passed. “And you thought the Ruined City was full of savages.” Her eyes bore into mine as if to say ‘shame on you’.

Shame on me indeed.

They left the room, Akir passing her off to a waiting Braxtyn, who also didn’t spare me a glance as he led my mother away. I felt my heart lurch but there would be plenty of time to talk to her later. Plenty of time to ask her all I wanted to know.

For now, I had to deal with Akir. I had to talk to him. I’d ignored him too long already.

He was leaning against the door frame of the room, arms crossed against his wide chest almost as if he were waiting for me to say something. Anything.

What I wanted to say wasn’t what came out of my mouth. “What was that bullshit all about?”

He raised his scarred eyebrow in questioning. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean, brave little lass.”

His mocking words curled around me, only serving to infuriate me. “You’re such a bastard.” I tightened my hands into fists. “I mean about you pretending to be charming.”

“Pretending? Lass, I don’t have to pretend. I am charming.”

“Ugh,” I stormed forward and gave him a shove against his chest. He grunted but didn’t budge. I remembered too late his injuries but I wouldn’t baby him. “I hope that hurt,” I snapped.

“More than you know, lass.”

I suddenly froze. What the hell was I doing? Arguing with him had become such a norm for me that I didn’t know when to stop. Suddenly, we weren’t talking about the pain of his injury anymore. We weren’t talking about his injury at all.

Shame heated my cheeks. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. It hurt. My guilt still hadn’t eased.

Akir read the change of moods and reached his palm out to my cheek, trailing circles against it with his thumb. “It’s alright, lass.”

“It’s not, though. Your father is gone and my mother is here. I’m sorry. I’m sorry I ran away from the responsibilities here. From helping you.”

Something in his eyes softened. “The Ruined City is not your responsibility.”

That remains to be seen.

I didn’t understand. Did he not want me anymore? The thought that he didn’t want to marry me was staggering and it hurt more than I ever thought it would. I crossed my arms over my chest, as if that could act as a barrier between me and this man, whatever he was.

“I thought it was. At least, now that your father is gone and you are king.”

He shrugged. “Now that my father is officially gone, there is nothing that forces us to wed. Your parents would be disappointed, of course. But there is no longer the threat of hybrids looming and our clans are no longer enemies. Marriage is unnecessary.”

My face heated. Isn’t this what I wanted? It was why this had all started in the first place. I hadn’t wanted marriage and he was giving me a way out. So why did my heart break at the idea of never being beside him? Of never waking up in that room he’d redecorated for me?

“Are you saying these things because of River, Kael and Lex?” I asked softly and I hated how defeated my voice sounded. How quiet I’d gotten. I cleared my throat and tilted my head up in defiance. “Is it because I’ve been with them?”

Akir chuckled. “Of course not, lass. I’d thought you’d notice by now that the Ruined City is full of polyamorous people. Were you to be my queen, I’d have let you love and fuck whoever you want because you’d still be mine. The fact is, that you never wanted to be queen of the Ruined City. I went along with it because they were my father’s wishes. Now, he is not here and I can do what I please. You should rejoice. You will no longer be tied to a bastard like me.”

Something in me snapped. I slapped him. He didn’t see it coming, didn’t stop me this time. And he didn’t stop me when my fists found his chest and began pounding. I didn’t care that he was hurt. I didn’t care that I may have been making it worse. All I cared about was my rage. How dare he? How dare he? I know I’d said it before, I’d told him I wasn’t sure. I’d told him there was no way he could love me. I’d done everything I could to push him away and it had finally happened. Only, I wasn’t happy with it.

Because I wanted to stay.

I wanted to be his queen.

“I love you!” I stopped suddenly, letting my hands fall to my sides. I looked up at him, at his wide eyes. I’d caught him off guard with my confession. “I think I loved you the moment I knew you hadn’t taken my mom. I loved you the moment I saw that you’d decorated your room for me. I didn’t realize it before, but I know now. I know now that I love you. And if you will accept me and all my flaws, if you don’t mind that my heart also loves River and Kael and Lex, if you’ll accept that I love all of you, then I’ll gladly be your queen.”

Akir smiled slowly. He bent down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “You know I was only joking?” He whispered against the top of my head before backing away.

I blinked at him. “What?”

He shrugged. “I was joking about not marrying you anymore.”

My face flooded the color of my hair. “You bastard!” I punched him in the chest again only to feel his arms wrap around my arms a moment later.

“How could you ever think I’d want to be rid of you?” He laughed and kissed the top of my head. “You’re stuck with me, Queen Keanna. Forever.”

***

“You look...happy.”

I froze my humming and turned slowly. Braxtyn was in a shadowy corner of a hallway, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed against his chest. He looked like a leper, waiting there. I kept that comment to myself though.

For once, he wasn’t looking at me with disdain or even hatred. The prince was looking at me with curiosity, head tilted slightly to the side. He looked relaxed, as relaxed as he could be under the circumstances. There still seemed to be a heavy weight on his shoulders that I didn’t think would lift anytime soon. Then again, I didn’t expect it to. We all needed time to heal. Whether that be with each other or individually, I couldn’t be certain. But after all that had happened between Braxtyn and I, he would always find a friend in me.

“I am,” I replied.

He nodded once and unfurled his big frame from the wall, stepping out into the dim light. “I suppose that’s to be expected. You got your mother back, after all.”

Guilt hit me in the chest once again. “Braxtyn, I’m sorry about your father. And I’m sorry about Cole.”

He held his hand up and I bit my bottom lip. “Don’t,” he ground out. It wasn’t exactly angry sounding, but it wasn’t happy either. There was a haunted look in his blue eyes. I wondered how long he’d have it. If it’d ever go away. “I don’t want to talk about that right now. Or ever. It is my burden to bear.”

“Fair enough.”

We stared at each other in silence for a long while. Finally Braxtyn broke it, “You’ll be going back to your clan now, I assume? Wedding preparations and all that?”

I nodded firmly. “To respect both cultures and traditions there will be two ceremonies. One at home and one here in the Ruined City.”

“Has my brother told you about Ruined City marriage traditions?”

I shook my head. We hadn’t exactly gotten to that part yet. I was sure I wouldn’t even be involved in planning, anyway. Not with my mother back and her brain on overload. She was going to be ecstatic.

Braxtyn smiled and something about the gestured curled my stomach unpleasantly. “Before the marriage ceremony, the bride is required to eat the raw bloody heart of a wild boar. If she can eat the whole thing without vomiting, she is worthy of her betrothed. If not, the engagement is called off.”

My eyes widened and I took a staggering step back. “You can’t be serious,” I gasped, my hands tightening at my sides. What a barbaric and disgusting tradition.

Braxtyn’s smile grew wider. “I’m not,” he said. Then he leaned down and whispered, “But I fooled you.” Just before walking away.

I stared after him. So many oddities in one day were making me dizzy. My mother was alive. Akir was charming and Braxtyn had a sense of humor.

I smiled to myself and turned to walk away, feeling a bit lighter in my steps. Yes, we weren’t exactly friends but we’d come to some type of an understanding. It had been there since he’d lied to Akir, had told his brother that he’d been the one to kill Cole. A secret that would haunt us both, no doubt. But he’d done it for a reason. And it would be something we’d both share.

Until the very end.

Epilogue

Five months later…

“Pull back,” River whispered. “Slowly.”

“You’re distracting me,” I grumbled.

“Pull. Back.”

I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath and drew the string. The target was the furthest I’ve ever tried. The bull’s eye was nothing but a tiny dot yards away. But I had complete faith that I could hit it. Ignoring River’s incessant instruction, I let the arrow fly. It soared straight through the air. We waited a heartbeat and then two until we heard the thwack as it embedded into the target.

River squinted his eyes and then whistled low, turning to me. “Bull’s eye.” he said with admiration.

I snorted. “You doubted I’d hit it?”

“I knew you’d hit it. But it still surprises me that you can do anything in your condition.”

“Ha!” I reached for another arrow and shot it towards our target without really looking at it. I knew it would hit it. It did everytime. And I was just getting better each practice.

“What the hell are you doing, Keanna?”

My mother’s voice had me jerking to the direction it had come from and quickly hiding my bow behind my back. Too late. She’d seen it. She stormed over to me, Kael trailing quietly behind her. He, too, was frowning at me. Damn.

As soon as she came before me, she snatched the bow and quiver of arrows from behind me and tossed them to River. My guard was chuckling but made no move to get between me and my mother. This was a situation he would not get involved in. The traitor.

“You’ll ruin your dress!” My mother exclaimed. “Besides, you can’t train in your condition!”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not crippled, mom. And I’m not running around either. Stop hovering.”

Kael offered up a stern look. “Princess, you need to take things a bit easier.”

I threw my hands up with exasperation. They were both entirely too insufferable. “I’m fine! Besides, I can do what I want. It is my wedding day, after all.”

My mother glared and I knew another lecture was coming along. There were always lectures. Her being a hybrid and changing back had changed nothing, so it seemed. Not that I complained too much. “First of all, a princess does not raise her voice. And second, it may be your wedding day but that does not give you leave to dirty the dress Maudey made you. Thirdly, you are pregnant. So please stop making me worry.”

I put a hand against the swell of my stomach and felt a small stirring there. The dress I wore had been designed specifically to show off the life I had growing inside me. It was white, though only the gods knew why my mother insist I wear it in that color when there was obviously nothing pure about me anymore. It was lined with gold trimming, a band around my neck holding the cloth in place as it pooled down to my ankles. It was backless. That, at least, I’d insisted. I wanted to show off the three pink, fleshy scars that rained from my shoulder down to my hip. Proof of what I’d endured.

I pulled my mom to me and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Mom, please don’t forget that I am royalty,” I pulled away and smirked in a way I knew would drive her insane, “and I can do whatever I want.”

River choked on his own laugh and tried to reel it back in, too late. My mother turned to glare at him.

Kael moved beside me and placed a hand over my stomach. He smiled and I returned it.

I remembered so clearly the day I’d found out I was pregnant. Kael had been the first to know, of course. Being a healer made it so much easier for him. And he had to surprise me by telling me he’d suspected it all along. Apparently I’d been pregnant since we went into that hybrid den and hadn’t even realized it. Then again, it shouldn’t have been surprising.

I’d told Akir that same day, albeit nervously. We’d arrived at my home weeks after our ordeal. He’d left Braxtyn in charge a brief while as he escorted us all back safely. I’d told him before we said goodbye, before he’d had to go back to his kingdom and make preparations for our wedding.

He’d froze and I was terrified for a split second. Terrified of his reaction. But he’d place his hand against my stomach, smaller then, and smiled before gifting me with a bruising kiss that said more than words ever could. “I love you, lass,” he whispered. “Do not forget.”

And he’d left.

We hadn’t seen each other since. I missed him. But my mother had kept me entirely too busy with planning for both the baby and the wedding that I hadn’t had time to ponder on it. And when I wasn’t planning, I was studying. I was going to be queen, after all, and that required a whole different set of skills I hadn’t yet covered. In between, I was usually at check-up’s with Kael or sneaking in whatever training I could with my beloved guard.

My guard had recovered tremendously. He no longer needed a cane to walk and when he did walk, he seemed like his old self. He no longer limped or had trouble carrying weapons or even fighting. Kael had helped him through with physical therapy for a few months until River had deemed himself ready to resume his old duties as my protector.

Pretty soon, I wouldn’t need him to protect me at all. I’d already told him and he’d taken it well after I explained to him that my child would need a bodyguard once she was born…

We’d all taken up new responsibilities after everything that had happened. Kael was now the clan’s highest ranking physician. When I moved to the Ruined City to take my place as queen, he’d go with me and would be the physician for the city. And Lex…

“They’re here!”

Speak of the devil. I turned to see Lex running towards our little group. He approached and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously at the net thrown over his shoulder.

When we got back to my village, I had half expected Lex to say his goodbye’s and to travel the world, to settle his wandering soul. He’d surprised me by staying.

“I’ve seen all there is to see,” he’d smiled at me. “And now it’s time to live something new.”

And just like that, I’d had them all at my side.

“Please tell me you didn’t get caught in another trap.” I demanded, placing my hands on my hips.

Lex rolled his eyes. He was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. “I don’t get caught in traps anymore, you’ll recall.” I did recall but sometimes old habits died hard. Still, he’d surprised us all. I’d officially named him a huntsman, not caring that it wasn’t really an official title. Lex seemed content enough to have it. “Anyway, they’re here.”

My heart pounded. Akir was here. It was time.

I felt sudden nervousness. My palms became sweaty and I had to wipe them on the sides of my dress. I took a deep breath and looked from face to face. “Do I look fine?”

My mother smiled but the men froze. “Fine?” River asked somewhat incredulously.

Lex smiled wide and comforting. “You’re beautiful, red.”

Kael nodded. “Extremely so, princess.”

I flushed.

Then my brothers showed up. I still couldn’t tell any of them apart. They raised their eyebrows at me. “Your guests are waiting at the gate,” one of them said. “Are we going to leave them out there?”

“Of course not!” My mother snapped into motion. “You all go greet them. Keanna, come with me.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me away.

***

“What’s this about?” I asked as she sat me down at her vanity table.

My reflection stared back at me. Maude had worked a miracle on my hair. She was almost as talented with a brush and makeup as Helga had been. My curls had been swept up with hundreds of pins to pile on top of my head. She’d threaded the strands through with glittering pearls and a few curls hung loose around my temples and down the back of my neck.

I watched through the reflection as my mother went to retrieve a box from her bed, opened it and pulled out a necklace and brought it back over to me.

“This was a wedding present,” she said as she reached over to put it around my neck, securing the clasp. The necklace was familiar. A connection of Celtic knots that settled at my breastbone. It had been the proof that she’d been taken. Except the clasp had been broken and Akir’s men had taken it away from me when I first arrived at the Ruined City months ago. I hadn’t seen it since.

“He gave it back,” I touched the pendant.

“Of course he did. But now I’m giving it to you.” She pressed a kiss to my temple. “And I wanted to talk to you before...before you go off to get married…”

I turned so I was facing her. “You don’t have to explain what goes where or what to expect in the bedchamber. As you can see, I’m already well versed.” I gestured at my swollen stomach.

She rolled her eyes. “That’s not what I was going to say.” She sniffled and swiped her hand over her eyes. “Blast it, now I’m crying.” She sat up straighter, regal as she always was and with a jolt, I’d realized where I’d gotten it from. I’d always thought I took after my father in most ways. Reckless, loud, even in looks we were similar. But it was in that moment that I realized for the first time, I was as queenly as my mother. “I never apologized to you, Keanna.”

I blinked. “What?”

“I never apologized for that last conversation we had, months ago. You were begging for me to listen, begging that I hear you and all I did was brush you aside as if your feelings didn’t matter.” She took my hand. “I want you to know that they do matter. so very much. No one would have been able to do what you’ve done. You secured an alliance with the Ruined City and not just because of the marriage but because you helped them as much as they helped us. The people there admire you. Do you know what they call you?”

I groaned. “I’m not sure I want to know…”

She playfully swatted my arm. “They call you The Huntress. Of course, they call you a lot of things. The Hybrid Queen, as well. The point is, they see you as a ruler. And I wanted to let you know that I’m proud of you.”

I felt the tears well my own eyes but I held them back. Maudey had done my makeup and I didn’t want to ruin it with waterworks. “That means a lot, mom,” I confessed.

She smiled widely, composing herself. “Now,” she clapped her hands together. “Are you ready to get married?”

***

A pathway of white and pink flowers led up to the altar. An altar that stood beneath a canopy of swinging greenery and lit candles that appeared to be floating as if by magic. Akir stood there, at the end of the walkway with his brother by his side.

I imagined this day many times. Imagined the day I would see him again and my heart nearly stopped beating at the sight. He looked even more handsome, if that were at all possible. It was like seeing him again for the first time, seeing him in all his danger. He wore no black leather or jeans. Instead, he was decked out in our clan’s traditional colors of red, green and brown.

My gaze barely flicked to Braxtyn, staying on my fiancée. And when he turned and saw me, the blue of his eyes heated. We locked gazes, words and heat and desire passing between us, unspoken. And then his gaze went further down, to take in the swell of my stomach and something in him seemed to physically soften.

I wondered if his spies had taken pictures in the months we’d been apart. If he’d already seen the growing of my belly, of our child inside me. Or was this the first time? It certainly seemed that way, the way his eyes glossed over.

I took a deep breath and took a step forward. My feet were bare, the petals soft against them as I made my steady way down the long walkway. Our entire village was here to witness my marriage, to finally see the people of the Ruined City for themselves.

Akir had brought people of his own. They seemed so out of place here, with their tight jeans, leather, piercings and tattoos. But somehow, it all felt strangely right.

My family sat at the front near the altar. My father was sniffing loudly and my brothers, I could hear, were letting out soft snickers. I fought back the urge to flip them the finger. I’d get them back later and it would be entirely too sweet. Lex and Kael sat with them at the front while River stood near the altar, hand on his sword, eyes alert for any threat.

When I finally made it to the end, I turned to face my fiancée. “Hello, lass,” he winked.

I smiled and then the ceremony began.

Strips of cloth were tied around our joined hands in colors of red and brown and black and gray to signify the unity of not only us, but of our clans as well. My father had resided over this part of the ceremony, giving us his king’s blessing on our union. Finally when it was over, the cloths draped to the floor and Akir and I just stared at each other.

Married. We were married now.

My father cleared his throat. “What are you waiting for, King Murtaugh?” He asked gruffly. “You can kiss your bride now.”

Akir smiled darkly and it curled my toes. Then he was reaching for me just as I reached for him and then we were embracing and his mouth was on mine. The rough scraping of his beard was so familiar, our mouths worked together as if they’d hadn’t been separated at all, as if they remembered every single detail.

And then he was pulling away slightly, touching the tips of our noses together. “My queen,” his breath was a warm whisper against my lips. “I’ve missed you.”

***

The ceremony was bright and uplifting. They danced and revelled. It wasn’t much compared to Ruined City parties. There was no bonfires, no strobe lights, no booming music or orgies. The village danced while Akir and I watched from our table after the feast.

River stood behind me, his body still entirely too tense. I didn’t bother saying anything. I knew he wouldn’t relax until after the wedding. Still, I felt the occasional brush of his hand against my shoulder and cheek and the action brought me comfort.

My father was dancing with my mother, the scars on his face bright red. He twirled and dipped her. My brothers were huddled together at a nearby table, their gazes often shifting up and going to Maudey, who was going around clearing plates or serving more heaps of food to the guests. And I noticed that they weren’t the only ones with their gazes locked on my mother’s lady’s maid. Braxtyn’s eyes kept flickering over her form, his gaze dark and low. And if I hadn’t been well versed in the desires burning deep in the blue of Akir’s eyes, I wouldn’t have known that Braxtyn was looking at Maude the way Akir often looked at me. There would be drama there, I was sure of it.

Kael was sitting at a table, smiling as he watched Lex stand up and steal my mom from my father, twirling her round and round. I laughed at his open happiness. I’d been terrified, so terrified that everything between us would change. I feared I’d lose them, that they wouldn’t want to stay. That they wouldn’t want to be with me after my marriage. But they had stayed. Because a part of them belonged to me just as I belonged to them. They were all by my side. We were together.

And I couldn’t think of any other better way to be.

The End

About the author

Aleera Anaya Ceres is an Irish-Latina romance enthusiast who loves reading, drawing, mermaids, movies and heavy fangirling. A proud Slytherin from Kansas, she currently lives in Mexico with her husband and son. Author of the Blood Novels, you can find her on her

 facebook page: Facebook.com/AleeraAnayaCeres

or on twitter: Twitter.com/Aleera_Ceres

Other books by Aleera Anaya Ceres

The Blood Novels:

Blood Drug

My Master

Last Hope

The Hybrid Trilogy:

Braving the Beasts

Escaping the Beasts

Freeing the Beasts

Turn the page to get a sneak peek at Blood Drug!

[1]Cole "always overlooked. never taken seriously. they believed he would never amount to anything. etc etc.

[2]is that how this shit is spelled?