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“I would never take anything from you that I was not willing to return,” he swore in a low, honeyed rumble.
And hell, I wanted his help, his body, and the idea of our future together. But right then, every other desire blacked out in the liquid heat of pleasure.
“Then,” I whispered, “then give me everything.”
And when his mouth sank down on my dick, his throat constricting around the tip, I cried out. Held on. Decided that he was it for me, and I wouldn’t have a single day without him. Not one more.
CHAPTER16
VORIAN
Our future.
Beau’s and mine.
In the end, it was an easy decision, the one to kill my brother.
I would do anything to protect Beau and the child. Our child. Perhaps my father had no intention of following through on his promise—he rarely did—but something about Beau’s demeanor when he’d asked for my... sample... had told me he knew what he was about.
I could—and did—trust Beau in a way I had trusted no one else in my life.
And for that, I would give everything.
For weeks, we drifted in uncertainty, where nothing was good or bad. It was the best I’d come to hope for in life, but now, well... everything was different. There might be a future to hope for, and there was Beau to protect.
Word about Kaelum’s arrival in our star system rushed through the city like a summer storm, crashing over us all with urgency. By the time his ship landed, the throne room was packed full of sweaty, smelly, angry warriors.
Angry with Kaelum.
My brother had made Crux’s job too easy by remaining out of contact so long. By asking no one’s help or opinion. Xyren appeared unusually stern, even for a man who had never looked on me with anything but contempt.
Kaelum arrived in the throne room, resplendent with the attention of his mate at his side and full of a confidence I had never seen in him. He stood so straight, chin high, and informed the king that he had lost only two of the seventeen humans he had taken, and that there was a future possible with humanity, but only by diplomacy, not force.
As someone who had grown up with Crux, I could not see it. Still, his words painted a pretty picture, and for a moment I hoped. Hoped that the king and the warriors would listen to him and hear his new plans.
Hoped that Crux could not force a challenge with this new, kingly Kaelum.
But of course, my hope was wasted.
My father met my eye steadily as he named the prince traitor and insisted he be removed. And that was my cue, my moment to choose: Beau or Kaelum.
And that choice was no choice at all.
“You still put the future of our people in danger for your own selfish whims,” I interrupted the court, and when everyone turned to stare at me, I straightened my back and tried to radiate confidence I did not feel. I felt like nothing so much as a doll, posed by Crux, his words inserted into my mouth. “You cannot be a prince of our people unless you put them first, because we cannot risk a king who thinks first of his cock, and only second of us.”
Ironic, really. I challenged him for thinking with his cock because I was thinking with... well, it wasn’t really that, was it? I wasn’t thinking of stolen breathless moments, or at least not solely those. I was thinking of Beau’s sweet face, his golden hair, and his sunny outlook, even when I was at my worst. The way his eyes sparkled when he looked at me—Me, Vorian the Bastard!
Before Beau, no one had ever looked on me with an expression kinder than the gentle apathy of the priests of Lyr.
For Beau, I would do this thing.
I stepped forward to stand opposite my brother and met his eye. “I challenge you, Kaelum. Prove your worth here in front of our people, or lose your place as our prince.”
His mate moved to intervene, and for a moment, I worried that this disaster would have me fighting a tiny weaponless human, and my muscles tried to lock up and refuse. But my brother was a warrior, and his mate was not. Kaelum knew that to ignore my challenge was worse than death.
“You monster,” my mother cried. No. Kaelum’s mother. Not mine. Never mine. “You would truly take awaymy son.”
Her only son.
