Born of Betrayal (21 page)

“This is bad, Storm.”

Resting her chin against her folded hands, she nodded. “You've no idea.”

Her dread-filled tone made the hair on the back of his neck rise. “What?”

“Talyn killed Chrisen and Merrell. He tore them apart in Ring matches after they were tried and found guilty of attempted murder on Felicia, and plotting against Cairistiona. He's also the one who brought in Eriadne, single-handedly. I mean, Morra and Qory and Ryn helped him, but he was the sole Andarion on the raid. He's the one who personally arrested her and was here on this station when Nyran's mother, Parisa, was killed. Nyran vowed to see him in his grave over their deaths. And Eriadne … if she ever lays hands to him, she'll gut him.”

Fain hesitated before he told her something he'd never breathed a word of. Not to anyone.

Ever.

“You know she's why my father lost his legs.”

“Excuse me?” she breathed.

Fain swallowed and took a moment before he revealed the best-kept Hauk family secret of all time. Something not even Dancer knew. He'd only been told because of what had happened with him and Galene. It'd been his father's final blow to Fain's ego and was what had caused his father to hate him so incredibly much.

“
For these worthless bastards you shit out, I gave up my legs? I should have let Eriadne kill them and kept my body intact!”

Fain winced as he forced that memory aside and explained it to Galene. “Because my father shamed Eriadne's family by sleeping with my mother while he was pledged to Cairistiona, Eriadne offered him a choice—he could give up the lives of any son he fathered with my mother or the legs he stood so proudly upon. Since he was a War Hauk, Eriadne couldn't legally demand his life or imprison him without a major shitstorm, but that was her offer to him. It's why he hates my mother so much. Why he's so bitter and mean to everyone around him.”

“I thought he lost them in battle.”

“That's the lie Eriadne forced us to tell. He had to sign a nondisclosure and agree to say they were lost in a battle with The Tavali. And it's why the Anatoles have had such a hard-on for my generation. Why they had Dariana marry Keris, and then kill him, and why they went after Dancer. It's partly why I didn't fight harder to stay with you. I kept thinking that if I stayed, one day they'd hold our child over my head, and I'd be like my paka, hating my sons for what they cost me.”

“You could
never
be like your father.”

Maybe, but there were times when he heard his father's words in his mouth, and thoughts in his head. Times when he felt that same level of bitterness toward the universe. It seemed the harder he tried to run from it, the quicker he came back to the gates where he started. “I just wanted the feud between my family and the eton Anatoles to stop.”

He pressed her hand closer to his cheek and savored the warm comfort. “Gods, it's so unfair that we have to make the hardest decisions when we're so young. And then spend the rest of our years living with the consequences of them.”

She let out a bitter half laugh. “You think you'd make better decisions when you're older? I don't know about you, but I still screw up routinely.”

He laughed, then gave her a light kiss.

Until their reality returned. “They're going to be coming for us.”

“I don't care about that,” Fain assured her. “They can come for me. But you're right. Eriadne won't rest until she holds Talyn's head in her hands.”

Jumping as if startled, Galene looked down at her link. A tiny smile lit her face before she held it up to him. It was a picture of Talyn, Gavarian, Vega, and War in the kids' bedroom in their condo. She pressed the message button.

“Night, Paka!” War and Vega said in unison. “Our brothers put us to bed and locked us in. See you tomorrow!”

Vega blew him a kiss, then rolled over to snuggle her little brother.

Talyn stood up and angled his link toward himself. “Just letting you know they're well fed, in bed, and safe, and we're heading to our rooms. Well, I'm heading to mine. Vari's probably going to troll slag—”

“Bite it, you smug, giant asshole,” Gavarian snapped from off camera.

Talyn flashed a boyish grin that exposed his fangs. “Goodnight, Mum. 'Night, Hauk.” The transmission ended with him threatening and teasing Gavarian as they left the kids' condo.

“Are they always like that?”

She nodded. “It's good, though. Vari's the first one Talyn's age who's ever treated him like a friend or brother. Until Vari started hanging out with him, he was always so serious and stern. Like you whenever you were without Dancer. It's good for him to be teased and to laugh like a normal young male.”

Made sense. Most wingmen shared that close bond, since they were responsible for each other's lives in battle.

Sadly, Fain had never known that. As an Andarion soldier, his last name and lineage had kept him apart from his peers. No one wanted to be a team member with a Hauk.

They only wanted to show them up.

And speaking of …

“I want to check something with that transmission. I'll be back in a little bit.”

“Be careful.”

He treasured those words as he left the commcen and headed toward the housing area. While he walked, old memories burned raw. He saw his parents fighting as he'd ducked and covered from their vicious hostility in Keris's room. Things had always gone nuclear around Keris's birthday.

But nothing compared to this fight.

“This is all your fault! You brought your lesser genes and tainted my blood with it and you see, you
see
what you've done!”

“Me? Don't you dare blame this on
my
family! Not when it was your worthless ancestor who just handed the throne of Andaria away! Who does that? A fool! Hauks have been idiots from the very beginning of our history and now you see what it's gotten you?”

“Yes, I do! A bitch for a wife and three pussies for sons!”

In their room, away from their fighting parents, Keris had turned on Fain then and seized him so fast, he hadn't even had time to defend himself before his brother had struck him so hard, it'd dazed him. “This is all your fault! They're going to hate me even more because you had to go and fuck a human whore! I hate you!” Furious, his brother had rained down blows faster than he could fight back.

Dancer had run to protect him, but Keris had lifted his brother from his feet and body-slammed him into the wall.

Then, he'd dragged Fain out of the room by his hair. Everything after that had happened in rapid succession. The screaming and shouting.

In the end, Fain only remembered Keris holding him down while his mother marked him as an Outcast, and then being shoved half-naked and bleeding out the door and told to never bother them again.

Dancer had snuck through the bedroom window with a backpack for the two of them. “I'm coming with you.”

Stunned and aching, he'd stared at his brother who was still healing from his own surgeries that had been caused by Chrisen's treachery and now Keris's abuse, and choked on his tears. Dancer had looked more like a small child than a half-grown Andarion male. “You can't, Dancer. You have to stay.”

“Not with
them
. They're all nuts. You're the only one I have I can rely on. You know that.”

Sadly, he did.

Scared for his little brother, he'd pulled Dancer into his arms and hugged him, then kissed his head. “C'mon. I'll take you to Yaya Hauk's. But you can't come with me. I don't have any place to stay. And you still need medical care.”

“I don't want to be here without you, Fain. I won't survive on my own.”

“That's Keris's bullshit, D. You're a hell of a lot stronger than they know. I'd put you at my back a thousand times faster than I ever would Keris. Screw his military badges and honors. You're more War Hauk than anyone in our family. Never let them tell you otherwise. And don't worry. I'll never be far away from you. You need me, I'll always come.”

How he wished he'd made that promise to Galene and Talyn. And how simple it'd seemed then.

The reality …

“Hey, Fain.”

He paused as he almost collided with Morra. Damn, she was the tiniest thing he'd ever known. “Hey, sorry. I didn't see you there.”

She flashed an adorable grin. “Yeah, I know. It's the frog thing. We adapted to blend in with our environments.”

“I thought that was chameleons.”

“Nah, I'm more original. And harder to see.” She winked at him.

Laughing, he shook his head as Jayne joined them and handed something to Morra. “What are you two up to?” he asked them.

“On our way to see Galene.” Jayne tilted her head as she frowned up at him. “Are you okay? You have that look Hauk gets whenever he's worried about something, but doesn't want anyone to know.”

Jayne had lived with her Trisani husband for too long. She was beginning to pick up on Hadrian's same psychic abilities.

“I'm fine.”

Morra passed a droll stare to Jayne. “He's not fine.”

“Yeah.” She met Fain's gaze. “Don't worry. We know what's going on. I was on my way to tell Lena that Hadrian and the kids are secured. I can't reach Nyk right now as he and a crew of my compatriots are in a sector where they dare not transmit. I tried to get through to the palace, but all I got was Cairie's staff. For an obvious reason, I didn't dare leave a message.”

He cursed under his breath. “You have any idea where Jullien trotted off to?”

She shook her head. “He went underground years and years ago, after The League approved a death warrant on him, issuer unknown. To the point, some say he's dead and buried in a hole on some backwater outpost in an unmarked grave. And let's face it, he wasn't a warrior or survivalist, by any means. I don't think he ever tied his own shoes or buttoned his own pants. Cairie got a birthday card from him that first year, but nothing afterward. He hasn't touched his accounts or sent any kind of message in a decade. Basically, he's been little more than a ghost since he handed Kiara over to Nyk's enemies, and Nyk promised to paint the walls with his brain matter should he ever invade Nyk's personal space again.”

“You think he took refuge with Eriadne?”

“Who knows with those two? Like her, Jullien was always a slimy little bastard. I've heard she blames him for his cousins' deaths. So much so that she's the one who contracted for his life with The League. Other reports claim that they've been seen together for years. Personally, I don't know what to believe. If he is alive, he has to be shacked up with family. The gods know no female would have him. Not without his titles and inheritance.”

Fain gaped. “Wait … his parents couldn't pull The League kill warrant?”

“They tried to block it, but couldn't. When all was said and done, Jullien was the direct cause of the abduction and near murder of Kiara, who at that time was the Gourish princess, and is currently the future queen of Andaria and Triosa. Even though Cairie's the reigning Andarion monarch, The League stepped in and let the order for Jullien's execution stand. Since he's no longer heir to either empire, his parents couldn't say shit to stop it. They'd have to reinstate him, and that they won't do for fear of him going after Nyk again to get the throne. So if any bounty hunter or League assassin comes across Jullien, he's dead. And if Nyk ever lays eyes on him again … he won't even be a fond memory.”

Fain grimaced. “What level warrant is it?”

“Thrill-kill.”

His grimace turned to a wince. Thrill-kill meant the issuer wanted Jullien violently tortured before death—with proof of it before payment—and his remains desecrated. While he was no fan of Jullien's, a thrill-kill warrant against a prince who was incapable of protecting himself was harsh. And the fact that neither of his parents would reinstate him to protect him from it was even harsher.

All hail Andaria.

And that was why Fain had left their empire when he did. They were a cutthroat race, and the Anatoles were the worst of them. It was that very ruthlessness that had made him leave Galene in order to protect her from such atrocities.

Morra frowned at him. “Why are you so interested in Jullien, anyway?”

“Weird transmission came through. Just trying to make sense of things that don't quite fit together. And I'll breathe a lot better when Dancer's here and I can lay eyes on him.”

Jayne nodded. “Yeah. I'm only now starting to breathe again after I heard from Hadrian. Nothing's more terrifying than to know you've got family in harm's way and to not be able to get to them.”

Fain caught the strange expression on Morra's face. “Where's your family?”

“Qory's with Chayden. Nyk's headed in here. Talyn's in for the night, I'm here with Jayne and on my way to see Galene.”

Now it was his turn to scowl. “Pardon?”

“My father was murdered when I was a girl. My mother died when I was a teen. All the family I have is Sentella.”

Fain felt bad for the Phrixian. “Sorry.”

She offered him a kind smile. “You didn't know, handsome. It's all good. Truth never offends me. I'll always take the bitterest truth over a sugared lie any day.”

“Woman after my own heart. And speaking of, I won't keep you two from Galene. There's something I need to check on.”

Jayne hesitated. “Don't worry, Fain. Sentella's got your back.”

“Thanks. Appreciate it.” He watched as they walked off. While he believed Jayne without a doubt, the problem was, he didn't know who had their backs in this fight.

The way it was looking, The Tavali were about to hang them all out to dry.

Even him. And there was nothing he could do to save the very ones he loved most.