Arik grinned.
“You cannot come into my home and steal me and my mate!” Fury swept through him. His father’s temper had always sparked something in him, but this was bigger than even those moments.
“She’s not your mate. Breal is!” Arik’s fury bubbled out, like it always did when confronted.
When he was a kid, it would intimidate Erzo. Now it just made him even more furious. How dare he send clan members, and Breal, of all beings, to come get him. And take them both by force from the space station.
Erzo raised as much as he could on the bed to face his father, almost pleased to tell the old beast that he wasn’t available for whatever scheme his father was working for the clan. “Not since I took the oath with Polly.”
“You did what?” Arik bellowed.
“I already took the oath with Polly. She is mine. You cannot change that.”
“You will not destroy what I’ve been working on for twenty years because you bedded a Terran!”
“I’m not yours to command,” Erzo countered.
“As long as I breathe, you are part of this clan, and you will do what I say!”
“I’m not a part of this clan.” Erzo hadn’t been a part of this clan for a very long time, and he didn’t want to be a part of it.
He never had.
This was why he left. Beyond anything else, it was this. The arrogance. The need to dominate everything. His father’s need to control his existence. All for the sake of the clan, with no regard for those actually in the clan.
Like his own offspring. Erzo was never more than a pawn for his father, and he left because he couldn’t stand being controlled by someone else’s whims.
“You’re my spawn, you?—"
“Don’t waste your breath, Father. My brother has never understood the importance of the clan.”
Erzo glared at his older brother, Tellis as he walked into the room. Barely resembling the male he knew when he left, Tellis had doubled in size, thick and meaty. Even his tail had amassed girth. Still the same dark skin like their father, but he certainly wasn’t of the same slender build he had in their youth.
“Wow, the years have been hearty for you,” Erzo said.
“I serve my clan,” Tellis said. “Unlike you.”
“I never wanted to serve the clan,” Erzo replied.
“That has always been clear,” Tellis snarled.
He glared at his sibling. “And what has the clan lost without my devotion? Nothing. This clan grows without me. You don’t need me.”
Tellis raised a blaster and aimed it at Erzo. “You’re not wrong.”
Erzo stared back at Tellis. “Threaten me while I’m tied down. What honor you have,” he spat at his brother.
Tellis moved closer. “My honor is not in question. Yours, however.” He took aim again with his blaster.
“End that foolishness,” Arik said, gesturing to Tellis. “He has more value alive.”
“For who?” Tellis asked, not quite lowering the weapon. Not aiming directly at Erzo’s head anymore, but not lowering it fully, either.
“Me,” Arik snapped. “Now.” He gestured to the weapon.
Tellis glared at Arik as he put away his blaster. “There is nothing he can do that I cannot.”
“You cannot mate with Breal,” Arik replied.
