Weird. He had no explanation for that. Other than gross paranoia. Maybe I need to take up Jullien's drug habit. For the first time in his life, he was beginning to understand why his cousin had the problems he did. 'Cause right now, he didn't want to face any part of this reality.

Barnabas narrowed his gaze on his brother as Jax shut and locked the door. "What are you doing?"

"Wanted to see if you needed any backup with the spoiled little punk."

"No. I've got it." But as soon as his younger brother neared him, Barnabas backhanded him.

Hissing, Jax wiped at the blood on his lips. "What the h.e.l.l?"

"That little punk overheard your report to the Eudorans about his family and their habits and you almost outed us. Are you completely stupid?"

"How did he hear it?"

"h.e.l.l if I know. Let this be a warning to you. He's not his sa or Quin. Don't underestimate that little knttr. He's smarter than he looks. Our only saving grace is that he's lazier than s.h.i.t, and more trusting than a newborn babe. No one takes him seriously. Thank G.o.d. If he'd had an ounce of anyone's trust or any concept that someone might actually not like him, they'd be searching for you right now."

"They're not?"

Barnabas shook his head. "I talked him down and put it to rest. Just be more careful and make sure you know where he is before you send any more reports to your contacts. And for the love of the G.o.ds, use a secured line next time." He moved to pour himself another drink. "So how did it go?"

"Perfect. They have no problem leaving you in as a governor once we do this. You help them take out Newell and put down any residual rebellion, and the throne's all yours."

"And what about you, theren?"

"What, what about me?"

"Have you a problem with my being on the throne in Newell's place?"

"The only thing I have a problem with is the fact that Newell left me and my platoon for dead before he signed the Eudoran truce. I haven't forgotten that. Payback's a b.i.t.c.h. And this b.i.t.c.h wants to see him and his entire brood in the ground."

CHAPTER 3.

Bastien slowed as he neared the cold, sterile room where Alura's family had already gathered. He'd been out on a long patrol with his sister when the emergency call had come in that his wife was in the hospital.

Lil took his hand to let him know she was with him as they entered the herd of stern-faced Wyldestarrins. As typical, Ember ignored him completely. Huddled between her sisters, he couldn't see anything more than the top of her head.

Cinder's wife, Tasi, was the first one to greet him. She stepped forward with a sad smile. "Hey, Bas."

"What happened?"

Tasi glanced to Lil before she met his gaze. Her brown eyes showed the depth of her sympathy. "She went to her doctor's appointment for her checkup and they admitted her."

"Okay..." He waited for her to continue.

Brandon came forward. "The doctor wants to speak to you, burr."

When Lil started to go with him, Brandon stopped her. "He wanted a private consultation."

"No," she said firmly. "I'm not leaving my theren alone for something this important. He needs family with him."

"We're his family."

Lil swept a disdainful grimace around the group. "Tasi I'll grant you. The rest ... you've treated him like s.h.i.t and I'm not about to abandon him to your cruelty." She put her arm around Bastien's waist. "He's my kogur-theren. I'll personally cut the throat of anyone who hurts him."

Those words brought a lump to his throat. While they might fight ninety percent of the time themselves, he could always count on his brother and sister to be there when he needed them. It was why he loved his family so much.

They were a.s.sholes. But they were loyal a.s.sholes.

The commander stepped back and allowed him to enter the room with Lil in tow.

Alura sat in the bed with a tear-streaked face. Her mother was at her side, holding her hand. The moment Alura saw him, she burst into tears.

"Wow, Bas, still charming every woman you meet, I see," Lil said under her breath.

He grimaced over his shoulder at his sister's facetious humor. Feeling awkward and unsure, he went to Alura so that he could offer her a hug. "What happened?" he asked her mother.

She didn't answer.

Instead, the doctor came forward. He glanced to Lil. "This is a private family matter."

Lil took on her full regal haughty stature as she raked the doctor with a quelling sneer that would have impressed even their mother. "I am family, Doctor, and unless you wish to spend the rest of your career washing out bedpans, you will take an entirely new tone with me and speak to me only when I allow it and end all such sentences with 'Zyl Latessa.' Understood?"

He swallowed audibly as he realized what he'd just done. And to whom. "Yes, Zyl Latessa."

"Very good. Now, answer my theren's question and remember that he, too, is a crowned member of the royal family."

"Yes, Zyl Latessa." Visibly trembling, the doctor turned toward Bastien, then remembered that he wasn't supposed to have his back to Lil.

Bastien would have been amused if he wasn't concerned about Alura and irritated at Lil for showing her a.s.s right now. "It's fine, Doctor. I'm not one for protocol. I'm just worried about my wife."

"I lost the baby, Bastien." Alura clutched at him and wailed.

The doctor nodded. "I'm so sorry, Latenn. But she should be able to conceive again." And with that, he beat a hasty retreat.

Alura continued to wail in his arms.

"Sh, Alura. It'll be okay."

"No, it won't." Sobs racked her body. "You'll divorce me now. I know you will. You only married me because of the baby!"

His jaw went slack at her accusation. The same one that was mirrored in her mother's gaze. And by the smirk on Lil's face, he could tell that his sister expected him to agree.

But that wasn't him. And he d.a.m.n sure wasn't about to kick her while she was down.

"No ... I'm not a cad, Alura. I took a vow to you, before the G.o.ds, and I will stand by it." Those words shocked her mother.

And p.i.s.sed his sister off to no end.

Alura pulled back with a ragged breath so that she could stare up at him to see if he was lying. "You will?"

He wiped at the tears on her beautiful face and nodded. "Of course. I'm not going to leave you in your hour of need. I'm not a total a.s.s. Just a partial one."

That only made her cry harder as she clutched at his uniform.

For the first time since Ember had broken up with him, Charlotte looked at him with something other than contempt. If he didn't know better, he might even think that his mother-in-law finally approved of him again.

Alura trembled and wiped her nose on his shirt. "I love you, Bastien."

"I know." He kissed the top of her head, wishing he felt the same for her. Wishing even more that he could bring himself to lie and say the words back to her like she wanted him to. But no matter how hard he tried, they stuck in his craw.

It was a growing wall between them that he barely touched her. Rarely went home. He still hadn't moved his things from his barracks to the house he'd bought for Alura and the baby. Since he was Gyron Force and they were at war, it was an easy excuse that he was needed for their late-night patrols, and that he was required to stay on base in case they had to scramble for emergency attacks.

He kept telling himself that in time he'd grow to love her. His parents had started out that way-an arranged political marriage between two empires. Now the two of them were best friends and loved each other dearly.

Had he not met Ember, it was what he'd been destined for. His father had been in the middle of negotiations to marry him off to an heiress for the Ritadarion Empire so that Bastien would have been a ruler in his own right. In fact, he would have been married to her by now.

Ember had changed his whole life.

"Bas?"

He met Lil's gaze.

She tapped her wrist, and it was only then that he realized his own arm was buzzing with an alert. "It's a scramble. We have to get back to base."

"Okay." He wiped the remainder of the tears from Alura's cheeks and kissed her lips. "I'll be home as soon as the attack's over to check on you."

"Thank you."

Nodding, he said his good-byes and followed his sister from the room to see that Ember and her sisters had already gone to answer the call. As he and his sister left, Lil cast a censuring glare at him.

"You're really not planning to divorce her now?"

"Don't start on me, Lil."

"C'mon ... you're putting on a brave face. But even I can tell you're not happy in this marriage. Divorce her already."

"Meant what I said before the priest. Through good times and bad. I'm here for the long haul."

"You're an idiot. And I hope for your sake that she's as loyal to you."

"-Then I overheard Bastien talking to his uncle, Jackson. He had no idea that I could hear them, plotting his parents' murders."

"She's f.u.c.king lying!" Bastien shot to his feet, intending to kill his wife. Had he not been in restraints and surrounded by half a dozen armed guards, he would have torn out Alura's treacherous throat with his bare hands.

"Lock him in the box!" Alia Mureaux, the Overseer of Justice who ran the Trigon Court where Bastien was being tried for the murders of his parents and siblings, came to her feet. Her face was flushed bright red from the anger that made her dark brown eyes protrude. As a longtime friend of both his parents, she was as disgusted and upset by this trial as he was.

And she'd cut him no slack from the beginning. Because, like the rest of the Nine Worlds, she was convinced Bastien was guilty.

Something not helped by the fact that the media continued to run photos of him being arrested while covered in their blood. Worse, Alura kept giving interviews where she cried about how he'd done her wrong, telling everyone she was the victim, and spilling all manner of bulls.h.i.t lies about him. How anyone could believe her, he had no idea.

Yet they did.

No one remembered a single act of kindness he'd ever done. Her lies and the willingness of fools to believe them overrode all else.

Shaking in rage, Bastien cried out at the injustice as the guards hauled him to the small, enclosed, soundproof cage. He'd had no time to grieve. To process. He hadn't even been allowed to attend the funerals.

Please let me wake up from this nightmare!

But the horror refused to end. All it did was get worse and worse.

The guards shoved him inside, slamming his head against the gla.s.s before they shut and locked the door. Unshed tears choked him as he struggled to find his balance and regain his footing while his hands were still shackled behind his back. From his new cage, he could see and hear the trial, but no one could hear him.

Not that it mattered. No one had listened to a single thing he'd had to say.

Even now, he couldn't believe what had happened. One minute, he'd been in the shower at the royal palace, where he'd decided to stay for the night.

Pregnant with her first child, Lil had been too sick to go back to base after dinner with their parents, so as her wingman, Bastien had stayed dutifully by her side-even though she'd been shrieking at him over something he'd done to p.i.s.s her off. Strange that he couldn't even recall what it was now.

All he remembered were her final words to him.

You're a selfish a.s.s, Bastien! When are you going to grow up?

Furious, he'd gone to shower and relax. Everything had been normal. Just another day. He'd been planning to link up with friends to watch a game in his parents' media room and bet on it.

But before he could finish rinsing out his hair, he'd heard a crash. The kind that left your heart in your throat because you knew it didn't sound right.

Even so, he'd started to ignore it, thinking the guards would check it out, but something had told him to pull his pants on and go investigate it himself.

He'd been headed for Lil's room when he pa.s.sed by Quin's. The door was partially open-something Quin never did. Since childhood, his brother had always acted as if an open door would make for the manifestation of some hallway monster that would come in and devour them all. It was something they'd fought over repeatedly.

Bastien had seen his sister-in-law's body on the bedroom floor first.

Then his nephew's.

Quin had looked up from where an a.s.sa.s.sin had him kneeling on the ground to meet Bastien's gaze as Bastien reached for his blaster, only to remember he was unarmed.

"Run!" Quin had shouted an instant before the a.s.sa.s.sin pulled the trigger.

While Bastien had seen a number of bodies in his career and had been standing next to friends who'd been killed in battle-had taken countless wounds himself-it was not the same as the pain that racked him that night. The pain that went screaming through his soul when he heard that blaster fire and his brother fall silent.