Page 81 of Gladiators of the Vagabond Boxset

Now Kitan threw back his head and let out an angry laugh.

“As if I could? I’m a prisoner behind these walls, Dad.

” He spread out his arms to encompass the room.

“It’s a cage. It’s always been a cage. You can tell yourself I’m in the lap of luxury, that I want for nothing, but you know it’s not true. ”

He rose to his feet now, all appearance of insolence and relaxation gone.

I saw the real, honest pain he held inside of him.

I saw it plainly on his face. “You gave me to the monastery the moment I was weaned—I was a baby! Do you know how they raise us in here? Do you know what they did to me?” His voice was so full of anguish and anger that no one seemed to know how to respond. His mother just stared, her mouth open.

I moved, getting out of my chair so that I could grab Kitan’s hand with the one not clutching my knife, offering him support. This way, I couldn’t see Kest, but I could better read the expressions on his parents’ faces. They didn’t look sorry; they just seemed angry that he had ruined their plans.

“They mean to break us; we are slaves,” Kitan said more softly now.

“You signed a contract and handed me over to the monastery in exchange for money. You didn’t care what happened to me after that.

Well, let me tell you, they tortured me.

They forced me to shift so much, so often, that I’d bleed.

We are not revered here, not by our trainers or our caretakers.

We are the prop that serves to keep them in power! ”

I felt ill just hearing those words—at the thought of Kitan as a small child raised within these walls.

Forced to endure the things he described, I couldn’t imagine what he’d gone through.

It was horrifying, and I hoped that his parents would hear these words and change their attitudes.

Only, one look at their faces told me otherwise.

Patan shook his head, frowning angrily. “It’s only that way if you don’t cooperate. It’s a sacrifice you make for the sake of your family.”

His mother pinched her lips tighter before silencing her mate again with a hand on his wrist. “You think I didn’t sacrifice?

Birthing kit after kit in the hope of having another like you?

” She said the words with such derision that Kitan flinched, and a sound alerted me to the fact that maybe Kest had too.

“I see you can’t be reasoned with. You’ll always be the ungrateful kit that you are. Fine, then. Don’t cooperate and see what it will net you,” the woman said with such coldness that I felt cut to the marrow. How could such a woman have given birth to a son as sweet and wonderful as Kitan?

The two got up from their seats to face off against Kitan.

Standing there, I could no longer see the similarities.

Sure, they might physically resemble one another somewhat, but that was only skin-deep.

Kitan’s parents were cold, greedy people who didn’t mind stepping on the backs of others to get what they wanted.

Just like the priests of the Suleantran Order, they benefited and gained power from using a shifter like Kitan to elevate their status.

When both of them just turned and stalked out of the room without a backward glance, I sighed in relief.

I understood much better now why Kitan had run away, why he had feared coming back here, and why he never talked about his family.

They were terrible people—just as greedy and mean as the pirates I’d grown up with.

I was startled from my thoughts when Kitan spoke again, not to me, but to his brother, who hadn’t yet left for some reason. “What do you want, Kest? Convince me to cooperate so more prestige falls to our family?”

There was a silence for a few more beats, and then the other Sune male moved around the table toward the door.

His posture was as regal and precise as that of their father, making Kest seem the polar opposite of Kitan’s irreverent lean against the table.

Everything about Kitan was angry, insolent, and rebellious.

I noticed that the scrap of blue silk was gone from Kest’s belt, though; he had it clenched in his left fist, clutching it so tightly that the knuckles on his hand had turned white.

His back to us, as if he couldn’t bear to look Kitan in the eye, I saw his shoulders move slightly when he paused at the exit.

With his free hand, he pressed against the door, as if he were about to exit but then changed his mind.

Turning, he looked at last at us, golden eyes glittering.

“Tell me, brother, did they really torture you?”

Kitan tightened his arm around my shoulder a little, tugging me in between his legs as he rested against the table.

“Every day,” he said after a pause, tilting his head to the side to press it to the top of my crown, his breath ruffling my hair.

“Every single day here was torture, and it wasn’t because I didn’t cooperate. ”

His voice was heavy with remembered pain.

“I tried really hard at first. I didn’t know why they treated me the way they did.

I wanted to do better, to make them proud.

They don’t care about that, though. They want blind obedience.

” With a shuddering breath, he added, “Kest… you’ve got to know I tried.

I thought if I did well, that Mom and Dad would take me home, that they would love me.

That if I shifted enough, fast enough, they’d be proud. ”

When Kest shuddered, his brows lowering and his expression shuttering, I knew that he was recalling similar sentiments of his own. “And so you saw a chance and took it. You ran. You couldn’t make them proud or make them love you, so you hit them where it hurt the most.”

“No,” Kitan denied immediately. “It was never about hurting them, or you and my siblings. But why would I stay here, when all I faced was pain? When I had no choices in anything? I took a chance to be free, to be my own person.”

Kest curled his lips, exposing the sharper canine teeth the Sune had compared to humans. I wasn’t sure if the expression was meant to indicate anger or derision, but it didn’t seem like it was meant as something positive. Then, he turned and slammed out of the door without another word.

In the silence that followed, we both stared at the door.

“I wonder, is it locked now or not?” Kitan said at last, and he dashed off, pressing his hand against the panel.

When it became clear that it wasn’t going to budge for him, he sighed and turned to me, then started grinning almost immediately.

“You fierce little thing, were you prepared to defend me with that tiny little knife?”

Oh, I’d almost forgotten that I was holding the blade, but since it was the truth, I shrugged. “Yeah, so? Someone here has to.” At his warm smile, I bent down and tucked the knife into my boot before heading his way. “Let me try the door. Maybe they didn’t think to block me.”

Of course, there was no such luck, which meant there was a guard at the door who’d blocked access as soon as Kest had left. That was a depressing thought, but we’d figure it out—eventually.