"Lover At Last" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ward, J.R.)

Wrath inhaled long and slow through his noseтАФand caught a whole lot of no bad juju: there was no evidence to suggest the guy was being duplicitous or not wanting to do the work.

And he had a point.

тАЬI appreciate the insight,тАЭ Wrath said. тАЬBut IтАЩm not going to bow to the past. I refuse to. And if I had doubts about the male in question, I wouldnтАЩt be doing this.тАЭ

тАЬHow do the other Brothers feel?тАЭ

тАЬThatтАЩs none of your business.тАЭ In fact, he hadnтАЩt broached this idea with them yet. After all, why bother if there was no possibility of moving forward. Tohr and Beth were the only ones who knew exactly how far he was prepared to take this. тАЬHow long will it take you to make it legal?тАЭ

тАЬI can have everything drawn up by dawn tomorrowтАФnightfall at the latest.тАЭ

тАЬDo it.тАЭ Wrath made a fist and banged it onto the arm of the throne. тАЬDo it now.тАЭ

тАЬAs you wish, my lord.тАЭ

There was a rustle of fine clothing, as if the male were bowing, and then more padding feet before one half of the double doors opened and shut.

Wrath stared off into the nothingness he was provided by his blind eyes.

Dangerous times was right. And frankly, the smart thing to do was add more Brothers, not think of reasons not toтАФalthough the counter-argument to that was, if those three boys were willing to fight alongside them without being inducted, why bother?

But fuck that. It was old-school to want to honor someone who had put his life on the line so your own could continue.

The real issue, even apart from the laws, howeverтАжwas, What would the others think?

That was more likely to put the kibosh on this than any legal snafu.



As night fell hours later, Qhuinn lay naked in tangled sheets, neither his body nor his mind at rest, even as he slept.

In his dream, he was back at the side of the road, walking off from his familyтАЩs house. He had a duffel over one shoulder, a proclamation of disinheritance shoved into his waistband, and a wallet that was eleven dollars away from being empty.

Everything was crystal clearтАФnothing denatured due to memoryтАЩs faulty playback: from the humid summer night to the sound of his New Rocks on the pebbles at the shoulderтАжto the fact that he was aware he had nothing in his future.

He had nowhere to go. No home to return to.

No prospects. Not even a past anymore.

When the car pulled in behind him, he knew it was John and BlayтАФ

Except, no. It was not his friends. It was death in the form of four males in black robes who streamed out of four doors and swarmed around him.

An Honor Guard. Sent by his father to beat him for dishonoring the familyтАЩs name.

How ironic. One would assume that knifing a sociopath whoтАЩd been trying to rape your buddy would be considered a good thing. But not when the assailant was your perfect first cousin.

In slow motion, Qhuinn sank down into his fighting stance, prepared to meet the attack. There were no eyes to look directly into, no faces to noteтАФand there was a reason for that: The fact that the robes obscured their identities was supposed to make the person whoтАЩd transgressed feel as though all of society was disapproving of the actions he had taken.