“Absurd,” Erzo said, his voice laced with conviction. “You stand as a leader, equal if not superior to those ensconced in their high chairs of command. These past years, you’ve guided your people with a strength and wisdom that rivals any of them.”
“They won’t listen. Arik is pushing the arrangement,” Breal said.
Erzo felt a jolt, a sharp contrast to the numbing shots of their childhood games. “He can’t be serious. We were just kids, barely twelve, when they planned that. I haven’t been home in five years.”
It wasn’t about scoring a hit or winning a round anymore. Now, the stakes were different. It was about their lives and futures, tangled in the expectations of their clans. Erzo shouldn’t be surprised that his father was stepping in to assert himself in a time of weakness. Because what else would a Charro do? Be compassionate? Never. Not a Charro. Not when there was profit.
Breal’s eyes flickered with unspoken emotions. “It was a game back then, Erzo. But now, they’re playing for keeps. They expect you to mate with me. Then a male would control Clan Dona.”
“And Clan Kovat,” Erzo whispered. “You’re serious. That’s what this is about? Having a male lead the clans?”
“I know,” she said. “I cannot change their minds, either. Not alone.”
He let out a heavy sigh, a sound laden with years of buried feelings. Memories of his father, Arik, and her father, Hornse, striking a deal during their childhood lingered in his mind, a pact sealed in shadows and expectations. When Erzo turned his back on that life, on those suffocating clan walls, he never imagined the arrangement would rear its head again.
His departure had been an act of defiance, a refusal to be shackled by a fate not of his choosing. The thought of being bound to Breal by their fathers’ cold, calculating designs betrayed everything he believed in. And Breal, too, was a victim of this cruel game, her own desires and choices stripped away. Erzo knew she never yearned for such a forced union any more than he did. Their bond was born of friendship and freedom, not chains forged by clan mandates.
“We could always run,” Erzo suggested, half-joking, yet half-serious.
Breal’s smile was sad, yet there was a flicker of the old fire in her gaze. “And spend our lives dodging more than just blaster shots?”
Her soft but steely voice was laced with tension and memories, mirroring the games of their youth. But now, the playfulness was edged with the harsh realities of adult life, their choices no longer their own, their paths dictated by the whims of the elders.
As he stared into the communicator screen, Erzo couldn’t help but feel the pull of their past. When they were kids, it was fun to team up. Or to fight each other.
Now the game had changed, but the players remained the same, bound by history and a future slipping out of their control.
His memories brought up that fateful day. He remembered standing next to Breal, both of them panting and laughing, their youthful faces flushed with the thrill of the game. But the laughter had died in their throats when they overheard Arik and Hornse.
“She’s an asset, that’s for sure,” Arik said.
“She’ll be your asset soon enough,” Hornse replied.
Erzo’s eyes had met Breal’s, a shared confusion flickering between them. “Are you adopting her?” he had asked Arik, his young mind unable to comprehend the true meaning behind the words.
The dismissive laughter from Arik still rang in his ears, the way he and Hornse had talked over them as if they were invisible. “Kids,” Arik had scoffed. “They understand nothing.”
Erzo’s grip tightened on the communicator as the memory continued to unfold. Erzo’s older brother, Tellis, had approached them, shaking his head and laughing softly. Where Erzo had bright green skin and a thick tail, Tellis’s tail was thinner, and his skin was more like a deep forest green. He resembled their father. Erzo took after his mother or would have if she were still alive.
“What are you laughing at?” Breal asked. She was never a fan of Tellis.
“You two are so stupid,” Tellis said.
“We are not! You’re just a jerk.” She picked up her blaster and aimed it at Tellis.
Tellis arched an eyebrow. “You gonna shoot me, Breal?”
“I could.”
“Doubt it,” Tellis said.
Her finger trembled on the trigger.
“Besides, why would you shoot your future brother?” Tellis asked.
She shook her head. “What do you mean? You’re not my brother.”
“I will be when you two are mated.”
