Page 123 of King of Pride

Rose flinched.

A wooden stick came crashing down across the boy’s back.

Maverick cried out and crumpled to the ground, the little food he had been clutching scattering across the floor. A red welt immediately rose across his thin back.

Rose’s hand flew to her mouth.

“No…”

A laugh came from behind the camera.

The footage shook as whoever was holding it moved closer before setting the camera down against a nearby surface.

The angle changed, but Rose could still see everything.

A younger Augustus stepped into the frame, laughing as Albert stood over the terrified boy.

“You disgusting little beast!” Albert shouted.

He raised the stick again.

“How can you behave like this? You’re eating with dogs?! You’re acting like a damn monster!”

The stick came down again.

Maverick curled into himself, throwing his arms over his head as he desperately tried to protect himself.

Another strike.

Then another.

Albert didn't stop.

He kept beating the little boy as though he weren't a child at all. As though there were no human being beneath the stick. As though Maverick didn't feel every blow.

Rose’s vision blurred.

Tears spilled down her cheeks before she even realized she was crying.

Her fingers tightened around the phone, her hand trembling so badly she nearly dropped it.

“No…”

The word came out broken.

She couldn't look away.

Every time the stick came down, something inside her seemed to splinter with it.

That little boy was Maverick.

The man who now towered over everyone around him. The man who never showed weakness, who carried himself with such ruthless confidence that people were afraid to even meet his eyes.

He had once been this small.

This helpless.

This completely alone.