Page 25 of Lover Forbidden (The Black Dagger Brotherhood #23)
“That was fucking stupid,” came the gritted response.
“On so many levels. You may have survived the night— alone , in the goddamn field—but now we gotta contend with the Shuli shit. The punishment for an ahstrux nohtrum if he fails to perform his duty is clear. I can have the male killed. Right now.”
“You won’t do that, though.”
A cold wave blew out across the room to him, and the words that followed made his balls tighten. “Won’t I.”
“No,” he said in the same tone. “It would be unfair. If Shuli fucked me off, that’s one thing, but that’s not what happened. And as for killing me instead, you’d have to tell your mate you offed her only son. Pretty sure that’ll leave you sleeping on the couch for a couple hundred years.”
The armchair creaked as his father leaned forward, plugging his elbows on his knees. For a split second, L.W. considered taking a step back. Even though the male was supposed to be blind, you’d swear those eyes were not just focused on you… they were burning a hole through your flesh and bone.
“You have all the answers, then.”
“No, I just know that you’re not going to kill an innocent male.
” L.W. focused on the black diamond that sat on the middle finger of that right hand.
“And if anyone calls you on not ordering the hit, you’re the King, right?
You’ll just change the rules to suit yourself or maybe bury the naysayers. That’s the way it works, isn’t it.”
There was a long silence, and he could tell the dog was uneasy with the vibe in the room. George moved his body closer to his master’s feet, and he kept his muzzle lowered like he didn’t want to chance being in the line of fire.
That imperial head shook slowly, the hard face showing no emotion at all. “You don’t have any idea how anything works.”
The rage that was never far below L.W.’s surface flared up. “How would you know what I think or what I know. We’re strangers, you and me. Linked by biology, nothing more.”
More with the jaw shit, like Wrath was chewing his own molars to stubs. “Look, I realize the last three decades were hard—”
“You don’t know shit about what life has been like here—”
“Do you think I was on a fucking vacation.” That autocratic voice cracked like a whip, and then the King rose to his feet. “You think I chose what fucking happened?”
Oh, so we’re going to do this, huh. Fucking fine.
L.W. jerked forward on his hips. “I know you weren’t supposed to go out that night. But you did, and you fucked everybody by making the choice that suited you.”
The laughter was low and nasty. “Just like what you did to Shuli last night. Guess that biology runs real deep, doesn’t it.”
As L.W. locked his own set of teeth, he deliberately unhinged his chin.
“I’m out of here.” He wheeled around. “I’ve said what I need to say—”
“If this happens again, I’m taking you off rotation. You’re out in the field with Shuli or you can stay the fuck home.”
L.W. glared over his shoulder. “I’m not a teenager you can ground. And I’m not on your rotation anymore—I quit.”
That expression got so dark it had its own gravitational pull. “Why are you so fucking determined to fight everything.”
“There’s a war going on out there. It’s what we all need to do.”
“Not if you’re fighting the wrong people.”
L.W. went over to the door, and when he hit the knob, the thing refused to turn. “Let me out.”
“You’re breaking your mahmen ’s heart, you know that.”
He looked back across the Audience Room. “Naw, that was your job. All I had to do was watch her suffer and hate you for it for all these years.”
He tried the knob again.
Before he could holler something about broken hinges and flying wood, his father growled, “I might have hurt her by accident, but you’re doing it on purpose now. Be as angry with me as you want. She doesn’t deserve it, though. She never did.”
L.W. yanked at the knob. Then he lowered his head and told himself to shut his fucking mouth—
“I grew up in the cold shadow of your throne. There was no time for anybody or anything else, other than worshipping the ghost of you.”
“Don’t blame her for what she had to do—and she was keeping the power structure in place for you. She never knew I was coming back. Everything was done to give you the chance to lead—”
“I didn’t ask for that fucking favor.” He pulled at the door again and then sent another glare back toward the fireplace and the armchairs.
“And bull shit she did it for me. All that crap about ruling was the only way to be close to you. She sacrificed all that time and energy for herself and the memory of her dead fucking hellren , her one true love. It had nothing to do with me. None of it.”
“Yes, it did—”
“You weren’t here! So quit with the recap of all the years you were gone.
” He jabbed a finger at the center of his own chest. “ I was here, I lived through it, all the Brothers dragging themselves around, my mahmen weeping herself to sleep every day—for thirty fucking years it was a goddamn wake around here. And now you’re back, and everybody’s soooo happy.
Well, I’m not, because I don’t need you in my life and I remember all too clearly what everybody seems to have forgotten.
You made a decision and you fucked us all.
The fact that you’ve returned doesn’t change that math. ”
He thought of the moment he’d seen his father actually standing in the study at the mansion. The great male, back from the dead.
There had been a spontaneous embrace between them. But it had been the lost and scared child who’d hugged the hero he’d needed to believe his father had been.
Not the grown-ass adult who knew better.
“Now, I’m telling you ,” he snapped. “If you don’t order them to open this fucking door, I’m going to break it down.”
“So much hate in you,” Wrath said roughly. “And you’re missing the point.”
“Really? Tell me what I got wrong, Dad .”
“I didn’t set that bomb, son. Lash did.”
L.W. finally felt the door give way. As he stepped out, he tossed over his shoulder, “Don’t worry. I hate him, too.”