"My place is with my mother."
Cairistiona smiled proudly. "Spoken like a true Andarion." Her gaze returned to Galene. "If you can refrain from slaughtering the father of your child, we shall proceed as if none of this has happened. Is that acceptable?"
"Yes, Majesty."
"Cairistiona."
Galene hesitated before she spoke again. "Cairistiona ... I'm assuming you'll want me to step down as--"
"No. I'd like to see you continue on as the commander of our combined forces. You are still the most qualified to lead us. And I'd feel much more confident with you at the helm than a commander from one of the other nations."
"It will be my honor, Ma ... Matarra?"
Cairistiona smiled in approval. "Very good. And have no fear that I will tell Fain about his child. That is your place." She sighed heavily. "For now, I will say that the additional guard is to make sure the two of you don't attack him. However, there are certain advantages our precious little lorina will have as a tiziran. I'm sure both of you will want them for him. When you're both ready, let me know and I will make a public announcement for Talyn."
Galene inclined her head to her. "Thank you. For everything."
"Don't thank me yet, Lena. This has all the earmarks for disaster. We are at war with The League. If we lose, all of us will pay with our lives. We have committed treason against the organization that has reigned over all our worlds for the last five hundred years. May the gods be with us all." Then, she cut her transmission.
Indeed. Galene turned toward her son. "Funny, this was not how I saw the day going in my mind when I woke up this morning."
Talyn laughed. "Nor I."
Her gaze softened as she digested his new place in their world. It was more than deserved and she couldn't have wished better for him. "Tiziran Talyn. It has a beautiful ring to it."
He scoffed at her words. "I'm not a tiziran, Matarra. This changes nothing."
"It changes everything. It silences all those bastards who have mocked you for being a lack-Vest. All those spiteful bitches who have turned their noses up whenever you've glanced their way and they learned you held only my lineage. I can't wait to see them choke on their own bile when they hear this news."
And still he shook his head with blatant disregard. "I've never cared what they thought of me."
That was sadly true and she knew it. But he had cared what they thought of her. She'd mopped too many tears from his beautiful face when he'd been a small child. Had tended too many bloody noses from the fights he'd been in with those who had called her whore and worse.
And she'd seen the silent hurt in his teenaged eyes when females had viciously spurned him because he had no paternal lineage. Only his mother's broken one. They had been so incredibly cruel to him.
Even his military rank had been viciously stripped from him at one time because of Fain and his family's feud with the Anatoles.
He'd suffered so much as a direct result of what his father had done. For Fain abandoning them. That, more than anything, was what she hated Fain for. She could handle her own humiliation. She'd chosen her path with her own free will.
It was what had been unjustly given to Talyn that burned bitterest.
What her son had been forced to endure that made her crave vengeance from his father. Her proud, precious baby had deserved none of it.
Tears choked her. "You have ever been my brave champion." When everyone else had abandoned her, Talyn had stayed by her side. Ever the dutiful son.
Maybe not verbally. He did have his father's limited fuse, and a smart mouth capable of lethal sarcasm that had tested her temper and restraint on many occasions.
But his heart had always been loyal. Always loving.
Always ferocious. Her fierce little lorina.
"You deserve to be a tiziran."
"Titles mean nothing to me. You know that."
Only his rank as her adjutant had ever mattered to him. He'd worked insanely hard to achieve his rank as fast as possible so that he could be with her and watch over her. Something that had been twice as hard for him since he'd lacked his father's prestigious military lineage and had been under the direct command of his father's childhood enemies.
It was why he'd been forced to become a prizefighter for the Andarion Ring as a mere boy. With every title he'd earned, his military rank was supposed to advance to match his proven martial skills. Yet he'd had so many boulders hurled at him that unlike other Andarions, it hadn't happened the way it should have.
But even without his father's lineage, even with her being harder on him than she was on her other soldiers, he'd risen to become one of the youngest officers in the Andarion military. Had attained his current rank at an age when most were only beginning their obligatory service. Had risked literally life and limb to keep them all safe.
He had done her proud.
"You may think nothing of those things, Talyn. However, that's not true of others, and I know how much you want to marry and start your own family."
He looked away, but not before she saw the bitter yearning that lived inside him for something he'd been denied all these years.
"Exactly. I do know you, my son. As tiziran, you will have your choice now of any female who meets your fancy."
He scoffed at her words. "If I wasn't good enough for them without a royal title, I damn sure don't want them because of it. Besides, I love my Felicia. I'm grateful and lucky to have her in my life."
Galene bit back a scoff at his words. While she adored Felicia for taking care of Talyn whenever he was allowed liberty, she knew the truth.
Felicia was still a paid companion--a contracted mistress who lacked full lineage, too. One Talyn had been forced to pay top dollar to keep in a style that was unheard of for others of Felicia's birth standing. And the unfair terms of Felicia's original contract still sickened Galene. No other Andarion male would have been forced to sign such a travesty, or spend the credits Talyn did for her services.
Or to buy out her contract from her agency, as he'd been forced to do. Galene flinched as she remembered that particular nightmare, and what it'd cost Talyn.
But because of her and Fain, Talyn's social standing ranked below even that of a slave's. It didn't matter how many fighting titles he'd earned. How many citations and awards he gained as a military hero. He was still unable to legally marry.
Even a paid companion.
Worse? Only one companion brokerage in all of Andaria had been willing to contract with him at all. The rest had rudely slammed their doors in his face, leaving him with no other options for a female in his life.
Title and lineage were all that mattered to their race. The purer the lineage, the better, and the more choices an Andarion had.
Had Fain married her as he was supposed to, Talyn would have had all the pride and dignity of a military prince. Instead, Fain had abandoned them and taken his lineage with him.
But now that Fain had a new family lineage, Talyn might be able to salvage the rest of his future. "Your father's blood gives you everything I never could."
"You've given me the only things that matter."
Cupping his cheek, she shook her head. "You should have married long ago. We should be planning the Endurance for your eldest child by now."
He rolled his eyes at her. "I don't need a wife nagging me. I have a viciously overprotective mother for that."
Before she could respond, her office door pulsed open. She glanced past Talyn's shoulder to see the arrogant beast himself entering without being announced. Her lips curled involuntarily.
Talyn pulled her against his chest and held her so that she couldn't attack Fain again. "Don't kill him," he whispered in her ear. "Cairistiona won't forgive you that."
Laughing, she hugged him close. "All right." She kissed his cheek before she let go.
"I'll be just outside." Talyn passed a threatening glare to Fain. "Call me if you need anything, Commander."
"I will, Talyn. Thank you." Forcing hersel
f to remain calm, she faced Fain. "What are you doing here?"
Grimacing in distaste, Fain watched Talyn until the door was closed behind him. "You just can't keep your hands off him, can you?"
Galene arched a brow at the jealousy she heard in that deep, sexy tone of his, and couldn't resist egging it on. "You should have been in here a few minutes ago when I was physically spanking his little ass. I think you would have enjoyed it. I know I did."
He twisted his lips up in disgust. "You really live with him?"
"Yes. I have for years."
"And what? Do you have to burp him after you feed him, too?"
"I've been known to."
Fain gaped. Even though he tried not to judge others, he was nauseated by her and her lifestyle choices. How could she be so flagrant with a boy almost half her age? Did she have no dignity whatsoever?
"What happened to you, Galene?"
"I was stripped of my family and forced to live homeless on the street. You?"
That took some of the fire out of him. "I never meant to hurt you."
She gave him an arch stare. "Wow. If the damage you did me was without effort, I shudder at what you could do if you actually applied yourself. What did you think would happen when you left me for a human? That my parents would throw me a parade? Send flowers and celebrate the shame of it?"
"I assumed you'd pledge another male. Merrell or Chrisen Anatole. Actually."
Shivering at two names that revolted her, Galene looked away as old memories flared. Had she not been pregnant ... had Fain not been disowned over a human ... she might have survived the scandal. But once her pregnancy showed and after his mother had publicly disavowed him as a traitor to their race, no family would accept her. Not while she carried a lack-Vest baby of an Outcast father.
And no matter how much better her life would have been, she couldn't bring herself to destroy her child. Nor could she have given him up. Not with what happened to abandoned Andarion children. She'd refused to save herself by sacrificing Talyn. His conception had been her stupid mistake.
Not his.
While she regretted every minute she'd ever known Fain Hauk, she'd never once regretted Talyn in her life. No matter how hard or awful it'd been, one look at his precious face had made everything worth it.
"Well?" Fain asked. "Why didn't you marry Merrell?"
"Aside from the fact he was psychotic and cruel, Merrell wanted nothing socially acceptable to do with me after you left. I was a pariah to everyone, Fain. So deformed, they all claimed, that I drove the high-caste male I was pledged to into the arms of a pathetic human female.... Instead of shoving you into that auditorium, I should have killed you where you stood. That would have saved my social status, and that is my sole regret in life."
"Really? That's all you regret?"
She laughed bitterly. "You're right. I do have one more."
"And that is?"
"That I didn't aim at your head on your arrival."
CHAPTER 3
Talyn drew up short as he left his mother's office to find his "uncle" waiting in the secretary's lounge. A few inches shorter than him, Dancer looked a lot like his father. Enough that it made him want to punch the bastard out where he stood.
But unlike his father, his uncle had red, glowing eyes, instead of the typical Andarion white.
It was a rare genetic defect that caused Dancer's eyes to glow red like that. One that meant his uncle was overly possessive and loyal to his female and family. A trait that was inside Talyn, too. Ironic, really, as that was a genetic mutation most Andarion females would sell their souls to have in their males.
And here all but Felicia had rudely turned him away.
If they only knew his true heritage....
Dancer raked him with a less than complimentary stare. One that turned into a stern frown as he finally focused on Talyn's features, which were very similar to both his own and Fain's.
Just as Dancer opened his mouth to speak, a tall Hyshian female swept into the office with a bright smile.
One Talyn returned immediately as she grabbed him into a fierce bear hug. At least she made his day better since she was like a second mother to him. "Jaynie? What are you doing here?"
Her back to Dancer, she cupped his face in her hands. "I heard Lena shot Fain on his arrival and had to tel-ass immediately to see for myself." She frowned as she saw the bruise on his eye and split lip, courtesy of his father. "What happened to my sexy baby?"
Talyn shrugged nonchalantly. "Same as ever. I bumped into a fist."
Tsking, she continued to examine his face. "I thought you retired from Ring fighting?"
"I did. But not from asshole fighting.... So how's Hadrian and the kids?"
She snorted. "All good. Sway's been nagging me to let him go camping with you again. I don't know what the two of you did last time, but he really enjoyed it."
"Traded porn mostly. You know ... typical guy stuff. Kid gets tired of swimming in the mostly estrogen pool."
Chucking him on the arm, she laughed.
"You two know each other?"
Turning around, Jayne finally realized Dancer was in the room. "Hey, sweetie! I didn't see you there. Why you hiding in a corner?"
He jerked his chin at Talyn. "Keeping my eye on him."
She laughed. "I must have missed one hell of a party."
"That you did," Hauk said drily. "Fain failed to explain to us exactly what a powder keg the commander would be. We were extremely ill prepared for her hot reception."
She turned back toward Talyn. "So, I have to know. Fain refused to tell me. What is this prank your mother supposedly pulled on him in school?"
"Mother?" Dancer asked incredulously.
Talyn ignored him. "On their graduation day, she shoved him naked into an auditorium full of witnesses."
She covered her mouth with her hand. "No, she didn't."
He nodded.
"Why does she hate him so much?"
"They were pledged," Dancer answered. "She's the one Fain left for Omira."
Jayne sucked her breath in. "Damn, Hauk. Why didn't you tell me that before I stuck them back together?"
"I had no idea until Fain opened the door on our arrival here. I was just a kid when he was disinherited. I didn't know anything about a previous pledge ... but, in retrospect, his embarrassing a Batur and breaking pledge with that prestigious lineage explains a lot about my mother's unforgiving hostility toward him." Dancer narrowed his suspicious gaze on Talyn. "I'm surprised your father married your mother, given that."
Talyn had to force himself not to roll his eyes at his uncle's dense stupidity.
"Lena's not married," Jayne said before Talyn could stop her. "She's never been married that I know of."
Dancer went pale as he mentally did the math and realized who Talyn's father had to be.
"Yeah," Talyn said drily. "So glad I inherited my intelligence from my mother's side of the family."
Seeing the look on Dancer's face, Jayne scowled. "What?"
Dancer looked sick as he struggled to accept the bitter truth. "Why didn't she say something?"
"To whom?" Talyn asked defensively. "Who in your family would have given a single shit?"
Dancer raked a hand through his braids. "Does my mother know?"
"Know what?" Jayne asked. "What do you two know that I don't?"
Crossing his arms over his chest, Dancer jerked his chin at Talyn. "That he's my nephew."
She snorted derisively. "Impossible. Keris would have been..." Her voice trailed off as she finally put it together. "Oh my God, no wonder she shot him. I'm just surprised she didn't go for his head."
Talyn scoffed. "I'm surprised she didn't go for his crotch. It explains why he was holding a helmet there when he came off the ship. She must not have changed much since her youth."
Dancer approached him slowly. "I knew you looked like Fain. But damn ... I just thought that was why she'd picked you for a lover."
He screwed his face up i
n painful distaste. "That's my mother you're talking about. Do you mind?"
Dancer laughed. "No. No wonder you attacked us like you did. You were protecting your mother." He tried to pull him into a hug, but Talyn shoved him back.
His uncle took the rejection in stride. "Fain's going to shit when he finds out. I can't believe he has a son."
Jayne's evil laughter joined his. "Who's going to tell him?"
Stepping back, Dancer shook his head. "Not me." He reached to cup Talyn's cheek in his hand so that he could examine his features.
Talyn slapped his hand away. "I'm not your whore, giakon. Get your hands off me."
Again, Dancer shrugged his insult away. "The guilt from this is going to destroy Fain."
"Good." Talyn stepped out of his uncle's reach. "I hope he chokes on it."
"Careful. That's my brother you're talking about, and he's a good male. He's stood by me when no one else has."
"Nice to know he can be loyal to someone. The gods know, he never showed that side of his character to my mother."
Jayne came between them. "Whoa, guys. Breathe and stop before you say something you're going to regret. You both are entitled to your feelings. But Dancer, you don't know how hard their lives have been. I love every one of you. You're my family. That being said, Fain hurt them. Badly. And Talyn ... you've no idea what your father's been through. Trust me. Fate got him back. With interest. He hasn't lived a fairy tale, either. There's a reason he's in a Tavali uniform."
"And I don't really give a shit, Aunt Jayne."
The door to his mother's office opened. His father came storming out.
Fain curled his lip at Talyn, then turned his attention to Jayne and Dancer. "I cannot work with that..." His voice trailed off into a choked sound as he gestured at the door. "She's impossible!"
Talyn grabbed him. "Did you hurt her feelings? What did you say to her?"
As his father went to punch him, Dancer came between them. "Stop it! Both of you!"
"Talyn!"
He froze at his mother's sharp tone and withdrew from the fight.
"Yeah, you better keep walking, whelp."
"Fain!" Dancer snapped through gritted teeth. "Bite it!"
He held his hands up in surrender. "Call Nyk. I'm out of this." With long, furious strides, he quit the office.