Darren squared up to his brother and met his eye. “Blayze—”
“You were,” Blayze said, nodding to the gowns. “You were with Aelanna.”
Lero stepped closer, his expression as sharp as Darren’s pins. “Did something happen?”
“She asked me to alter the hems, that’s all. Nothing improper happened.” It was half a lie.Is this where he was at now, lying to his brothers?
Lero’s anger rose. “You kissed her.”
Blayze made a strangled noise. “Darren!”
Darren exhaled, long and slow. “It just happened.” It sounded a lame excuse, even to him.
Blayze threw his hands up.
Lero rounded on him. “Blayze, don’t say anything.”
Blayze flashed defiance. “We’re leaving for Drypso tomorrow — Drypso — and Darren’s out here kissing the girl earmarked for Ohirins,” he snapped.
Darren’s voice dropped to a warning growl. “Enough.”But it was true.
Not hiding his frustration, Blayze clamped his mouth shut and folded his arms.
Lero stepped right into Darren’s space, eyes searching his face with that middle-brother intensity that always saw too much.
“Darren,” he said quietly, “tell me the truth. Do you care for her?”
Darren’s breath caught in his throat. It choked him and he looked away.What if he faced the problem, if he admitted it? To himself, as a minimum, and to his brothers.His shoulders slumped in defeat, and he opened his mouth to reply, but Lero cut across him.
“You do.” Lero’s voice had softened.
Blayze sank onto the bunk. “Son of a lizard! We’re dead. We’re all dead.”
Darren scrubbed a hand over his face. His brothers were one more reason he had to face up to what he’d done, if itimpacted them. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
“But it did,” Lero said. “And now we have to deal with it.”
Blayze groaned into his hands. “Crukugs is going to smell it on you. He’s going to know. He’s going to—”
“He won’t touch her,” Darren said, voice low and lethal.
Both brothers went still.
Lero nodded slowly. “So that’s where we are.”
Blayze looked between them, face pale. “Are we really doing this? We’re going to defy High Command for a female?”
Darren met his gaze. “Not for a female. For Aelanna.”
His brothers stared at him for a long time.
Feeling like a condemned man, Darren sank onto the edge of the bed, exhaustion pulling at him. His whole body ached and his heart felt like it was trying to beat its way out of his chest. He hungered to be in Aelanna’s arms, body and soul.
Lero sat beside him. “We’ll figure it out. After all, Blayze and I might have the same problem.”
Darren stared at him, at the rare moment of brutal honesty from his brother.
“I’m not letting her go,” he muttered under his breath.
