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My warriors dispersed with obedient quickness. It felt good to finally have people acknowledge my authority again. After days with Gahn Thaleo’s men and Zuh-Tephanie fighting me, and now Lerokan’s mouthiness, I’d felt as if I were no longer Gahn at all.
“Don’t want witnesses when I best you, older brother?” Lerokan choked out. My lips twitched, and I tightened my grip, wanting to strangle that hideous smile right out of him.
“Tell me,” I hissed, getting so close that our noses nearly touched. “Tell me how you won your mate.”
Lerokan’s sight stars pulsed, and then, somehow, despite the force I applied to his stupid neck, he laughed. Clearly, I needed to squeeze a little harder.
But I didn’t. Because I wanted,needed, him to speak and answer my question. My foolish younger brother was the only man in the Deep Sky who had won his human mate. I hated that fact with every taut fibre of my being. Hated him for besting me in this.
“Ah, I see,” he grunted. “You sent the men away because you did not want to admit she has not accepted you and beg for my help in front of them. It is-” He stopped to cough, his throat convulsing under my fingers. “It is a little late, brother. She already said it in front of everyone. She is not your Gahnala.”
My breath heaved. For a moment, I worried I’d lose control and that I really would snap his neck. I did not need to be reminded of what had just happened. Her words had been harder than Thaleo’s arrow. Even worse was the shame that had coursed through me afterwards. She had not only rejected me yet again, but this time in front of my men. I was supposed to be the strongest, the cleverest, theking.
And I could not even control one tiny female.
“Answer my question,” I hissed savagely, “before I toss you out of my hall with nothing to catch you but the sharp fangs of the rocks below.”
Lerokan tsked. “I do not think killing me will help your sorry cause.” His eyes narrowed, his smile disappearing. “You did not see your mate’s look of hateful disapproval when you grabbed me by the throat.But I did.”
As if burned, I snatched my hand away, stumbling backwards. I whirled desperately, searching for Zuh-Tephanie.Look, see? I let him go. But she was not there.
No one was.
No one but my brother, rubbing at his throat.
“Cursed skies, Errok. You nearly tore my head off, there. I do not know how I will manage to fight through the pain you’ve caused to pleasure my pretty mate tonight.”
“It is not my fault your neck is so weak,” I snapped. I knew that he was goading me, and I knew that I was weak for falling into it, but I could not help it. I was half-crazed with need for a mate who did not want me and Lerokan reminding me of that fact every other moment made me feel like my skull was about to explode.
“You still have not answered me. Tell me how you won your mate,” I growled.
Lerokan stopped rubbing his neck and gave me an odd look.
I knew exactly what the look meant.
He was shocked, maybe even disturbed, by the reedy, panicked note of weakness that had wormed its hateful way into my words. I was no longer commanding him.
I was begging him.
Skies alive, if I have to endure Little Lerokan’s pity on top of my mate’s then I will hurl myself off this ledge myself.
To my immense relief, a look of pity never came to his face. Instead, he gave me one of his characteristic cavalier expressions.
“I have no answer for you, brother. I did not even have the Vrika’s mate bond upon me when I began to feel love for Priya. It was the same for her, of course, since the new women do not feel the Vrika’s bond.”
“But clearly, she feels a love bond for you now,” I said. Priya smiled at him. She let him touch her. And, bizarrely, she seemed to care not a whit about all his absurdness and shortcomings.
“Yes,” he said simply, his voice hard. Hard as a claim. “She does.”
“So, in short, you are telling me that you have no idea how you won her?” I muttered, staring into the fire.
“Please. Clearly, she could not resist my numerous charms. Charms I am afraid that you do not possess.”
I wish I’d ripped his head off after all.
I was getting nowhere with Lerokan. Nowhere apart from the sprawling lands of insanity, that is.I should have known talking to him would be useless.
Without another word to the loathsome man who somehow shared my blood, I grabbed Zuh-Tephanie’s pack and then stalked from the hall. There was only one person I wanted to be around, even if she was the origin of every one of my misfortunes.
