Page 122 of King of Pride

Rose frowned and picked it up.

“What the hell…?”

She stared at the screen, realizing that the notifications were coming from news outlets.

There were so many that they nearly filled the entire display.

Curiosity got the better of her. She opened the first alert and found an article about Maverick. A video was embedded near the top of the page.

Rose frowned as she tapped it.

The video began playing.

She barely registered the headline before the image on the screen made her freeze.

Her heart stopped.

It was Maverick.

But not the Maverick she knew.

The video showed a little boy, perhaps nine or ten years old, standing in front of a camera.

Rose stared at the screen, unable to look away.

That was Maverick.

Her Maverick.

As a child.

His face was familiar, but everything else about him looked painfully different.

He was frighteningly thin. His cheeks were hollow, and his small limbs looked almost skeletal beneath his oversized clothes. His eyes were sunken, his skin pale, his entire body carrying the signs of a child who had been neglected for far too long.

Rose’s breath caught.

She stared at the screen, unable to process what she was seeing.

The video had been posted from Augustus’s Instagram account.

On the screen, Maverick was sitting on the ground with several dogs crowding around him. A small piece of food rested in his trembling hands, but before he could bring it to his mouth, one of the dogs snatched it away.

Maverick didn't fight it.

He simply reached for another piece.

Again, the dogs took it.

He tried again.

His hands were shaking as he desperately reached for whatever scraps he could find, his movements becoming increasingly frantic as though he hadn't eaten in days.

Rose’s chest tightened.

Then a man’s voice suddenly thundered from behind the camera.

“What the fuck is wrong with you, boy?”