Ehlian dragged his palms over Hayce’s toned chest. “Are you?”
Hayce’s only response was to flip him onto his stomach, stealing the breath from his lungs as his lips found the shadowed hollow between Ehlian’s legs once more.
Chapter 24
Much, much later, Ehlian rested his head on Hayce’s chest. Now that the pleasure had drained from his body, everything felt startlingly real. Not in a bad way. There was no panic, no doubt. Not about this, at least. This was exactly what he wanted. But he still felt like an intruder amid the flawless display of wealth around him.
Hayce traced soft fingertips along his arm. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.” Ehlian didn’t want to voice his insecurities. “Apart from the awful things your brother told me about you. What am I getting myself into…”
Hayce glanced down at him. “Want to share the memory?”
Ehlian did. He gathered the fragments of that afternoon as sharply as he could and sent them through a temporary telepathic link.
After a moment, Hayce tilted Ehlian’s chin up, pressing a few soft kisses to his lips. “You handled it well.”
The praise tore through him, even stirring the faded scar of the pack bond.
“It was the other way around, wasn’t it?” Ehlian whispered, though he already knew the answer. “He was talking about himself, not you.”
“He’s been spreading the same lies to everyone else.”
Ehlian blinked up at him curiously. “So you could always fight your father off during training?”
“That’s the most important thing you want to know?” Hayce gave him a flat look, but answered anyway. “No. That part is true. None of us could.”
Despite the ease in Hayce’s voice, something unsettling coursed through his power, something darker he wasn’t able to hide.
“And that still bothers you?” Ehlian asked, confused.
“No, it never did. I loved my father… still do,” Hayce said. “But I don’t remember every part of my childhood fondly. Maybe that’s the only thing Sandar and I agree on. My father’s care was… misplaced. He was hard on all of us with endless training and unreasonable demands, but he believed he was doing what was best. Either way, he helped me survive prison.”
“But that misplaced care didn’t change you the way it changed Sandar.”
“There was nothing to change,” Hayce said. “His feud with Father only intensified it, but he’d always had that darker part of him. We all knew it, but it was family, and we turned a blind eye. His way of handling inconvenient things has always been…” Hayce stretched his neck slightly, as though dredging up an unpleasant memory, “undeniably twisted.”
His mouth falling slightly ajar, Ehlian traced the faint scar along Hayce’s neck with his eyes. “He did that to you?”
“He always saw me as a rival, not a brother, and tried to assert dominance,” Hayce said, stretching his neck again. “I was fifteen. I didn’t understand it at the time. He was firstborn, and by tradition he should’ve been my mentor, but he pushed me down at every turn. Used to call me… daddy’s little golden pet.” Hayce let out a huff of laughter, as if finding the insult ridiculous now. “That time wasn’t easy. I looked up to him. He was my brother after all, and I tried to please him. Took me a while tosee that nothing I did would ever earn his respect. I think he started resenting me more when he could no longer find a hold on me.” Hayce paused. “I won’t deny, years later, it was tempting to challenge him for his title, but I stayed out of the way. Losing it was his own doing. Father eventually began to consider Sandar unfit to inherit the empire, and though he never said it outright, it became an open secret in our family he was considering me instead.”
“That’s why Sandar sent that Apex after him?” Ehlian asked.
“It was a disturbingly easy and efficient method, but by using an Apex, he doomed himself too.” Hayce said. “Once you enter their circle and know of their existence, you’re bound. You’re not only obliged to keep their secrets but also to keep them satisfied to protect your own, especially if you’ve used them as weapons. And Sandar paid a steep price to keep his secret hidden. Up until a few months ago, he was still paying off his debt.”
“He could’ve sent that Apex after me too,” Ehlian said, each word sinking in slowly. Gods, maybe for the first time he truly understood the cruelty of their breakup… Hayce’s fear of Ehlian getting hurt.
“He’d grown paranoid that someone was watching and following him, so he didn’t dare risk it.” Hayce said. “And he wasn’t wrong. He was watched closely.”
Another wave of unease slid through Hayce’s power, an old worry that hadn’t quite faded. “It’s a miracle Calia managed to extract evidence without Sandar noticing. She took a considerable risk.”
Ehlian pressed a kiss to Hayce’s chest. “She’s not as intimidating as I first thought, but I wouldn’t want to be her enemy.”
“Yeah,” Hayce nodded seriously. “She took a considerable risk going to you as well.”
Ehlian tsked. “I’m not that bad.”
Hayce grabbed theVairbox and took out the holowatch, locking it around Ehlian’s wrist. “It suits you.”
