AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I nodded slowly. Anton had hinted something along the same lines, but I’d been reluctant to mix personal matters with business. I didn’t want Ravena thinking my interest in her was due to her contacts and wealth. But my people were suffering, and I had a duty to uphold.
“I cannot promise you a positive outcome, but I will ask. Keep in mind that your materials are common,” I said, cautiously.
“We are aware,” Boros conceded, “and we are ready to undersell anyone… within reason.”
“Very well,” I said.
The conversation continued for a short while longer before I could finally take my leave.
“Magnar, if I may,” Boros said as we rose to exit the chamber. “I would like a private word with you.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, but nodded my assent. Boros’ sons cast wary glances at him. He gestured with his head for them to go on, all would be fine. And it would be. The boys were foolish to fear I’d attack their father in his own home. As per Braxian law, you couldn’t disrespect or harm a host after he had welcomed you within his house, extended the basic hospitalities to you, and you had accepted them. Magnar or not, such shameful action would result in banishment and even execution based on the gravity of the offense.
Once the door closed behind his youngest son, I raised an inquisitive brow at him.
“I will go straight to the point,” Boros said, his voice firm but non-threatening. “As all the others, I’m aware you’re eliminating the Fifteen, one by one.”
My jaw clenched, and my eyes hardened. I couldn’t believe he’d bring this up so bluntly. What did he have in mind?
“I do not dispute your right to seek vengeance. The day you issue your challenge, I will accept it, and fight.” He lifted his chin proudly, holding my gaze without flinching. “Your quarrel is with me. When I fall—and we both know I will—I only request that you do not extend your wrath to my sons and my clan.”
“Why the fuck should I care about your request?” I snarled.
“Because they are innocent!” Boros snapped. “They’ve done nothing to you.”
“Lissy had done nothing to you. That didn’t stop you!” I yelled. My hands fisted, and I took two menacing steps towards him, forcing myself to go no further.
His light-brown eyes darkened as he leveled me with a hard glare. “Your sonhad done nothing to you. Did that stop you?”
Shock, disbelief, and a stabbing pain coursed through me at the cruel, but all too true, words. Blinded by rage, I rushed him. Grabbing him by the throat, I slammed him against the wall. Boros hissed but didn’t resist or attempt to fight back. Arms hanging by his side, he held my furious gaze, unwavering. Did he have a death wish?
Is he trying to entrap me?
“Nice try, Grumar,” I snarled in his face. “You will not have me executed for breaking hosting laws.”
He recoiled. The genuine shock and outrage on his face threw me.
“I can have witnesses come in to confirm that I renounce my host privileges,” Boros said in a voice hard enough to cut stone.
I released his neck with a brutal shove and took a few steps away from him. He straightened, stretched his neck, and rubbed the skin where a print of my hand had already started to appear.
“You think you’re the only one who’s been haunted ever since that wretched day?” Boros asked, his eyes filling with shame and sorrow. “Do you think I take pride in being counted among the Fifteen? Did it ever cross your mind that just likeyou, some ofusalso didn’t want any part of what happened that day? That we’d been forced into acting against our will by order of our sires? I didn’t want to go to your house to begin with. My father threatened to banish me. And when I tried to cut short,your fatherordered me to go on longer because it wasn’t enough. You were there!” he shouted, pointing an angry finger at me. “You saw it with your own eyes.”
I blinked, my mind reluctantly going back to that day. The boys laughing, jeering, shouting encouragements at the one fucking my Lissy, some of them stroking their cocks in anticipation. And then Boros and Niklas, faces drawn, jaws clenched, and hands fisted.
Neither had wanted to be there.
Yes, I’d been there. And now that he’d brought it back to my attention, I distinctly remembered hearing my father asking Boros if he were a cock lover that he’d be done after three pumps; to get back in there and fuck her like a man. I’d been too lost in my own grief to acknowledge his.
But he’d still fucked her. Shouldn’t Lissy be avenged of that?
And you let all of them fuck her, then killed your own son. Who will avenge them of you?
Head spinning, stomach churning, I turned away from him, staring at the trophies on his walls without seeing them. The silence stretched between us until Boros broke it with a soft voice.
“What we’ve done cannot be undone,” he said. “We can only try to prevent it from ever happening again by changing the laws, as you have, and by raising our sons to be better than we were. I will not fight your right to vengeance, but please, do not bring more innocents into this.”
My back still turned to him, I gave him a sharp nod and marched towards the closed door. I opened it to find his clan assembled outside, their expressions tense and fearful. Their gazes shifted over my shoulder, seeking their leader behind. When Boros walked out unscathed, a few of them sighed audibly while all faces lightened with relief.
