And that is her son. Effing figures. She'd probably had him beat Fain's records just for spite.

Feeling like an idiot, he rubbed at his sore jaw. No wonder they called the kid the Iron Hammer. He definitely hit like one.

Disgusted with himself for how he'd behaved toward them, he sighed at his own childishness. He should have recognized the Hammer. How could he have been so stupid as to not realize who Talyn was?

But that thought ended as he noticed the date on the boy's graduation certificate.

If that was correct...

Carefully, he scanned the doc.u.ment more closely. It was only partially filled out because it was missing Talyn's paternal lineage.

All of his father's heritage.

For that matter, Batur was her family name. And now that he looked closer at the photos of Talyn as a boy, Fain realized how much Talyn favored his nephew Darice. How much Talyn looked like him and Dancer.

Then his gaze went to Talyn's caste code that was listed on his certificates. -12-6. The b.a.s.t.a.r.d son of a disinherited male. That slammed into him like a cheap kick to his stones.

Ah, s.h.i.t.

He stiffened as he sensed a presence behind him. Turning, he saw Talyn there in his Andarion battlesuit. Talyn, who was the same exact height and build he was.

The boy's gaze went past Fain to the diploma before he called out. "Hey, Ma! Dad just figured out how to do the math to calculate my age and date of conception. He's having some kind of apoplexy over it. I think you need to come in here before he p.i.s.ses on your floor. And if he does, I did not do it, so don't yell at me for it. And I will not clean it up."

Fain couldn't breathe as Talyn confirmed his fears.

I have a son.

A beautiful, strong, grown son.

Stunned and awed, and feeling like a total a.s.shole, he reached to touch the bruise he'd given Talyn yesterday during their fight.

His white eyes filled with hatred, Talyn pulled back and licked at the scab on his lip from another blow Fain had gifted him with. "Don't touch me."

Dressed in her uniform, Galene hesitated in the doorway. No wonder she'd shot him. It all made even more sense now.

Completely aghast, Fain stared at her. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried, and you told me to shush... that you didn't have time for me. You were busy."

Fain winced at the memory of her hurt expression that day in the locker room before she'd stormed out, only to return a few minutes later to confront him with Merrell's lies.

"That was what you came to tell me?" he asked her.

"Yeah. Congratulations, Fain. You're a father."

And how had he thanked her for her precious gift? He'd allowed her to believe that he was in love with another female. That he'd shamed her with a human lover. "No wonder you shoved me into that auditorium." He shook his head. "You still should have told me."

"Why? So that I'd be forced to marry a male in love with someone else? A human, no less. Call me provincial, but I wanted better than that."

Fain twisted the ring on his pinkie around with his thumb. Fate had seriously f.u.c.ked him over.

No, fate had f.u.c.ked all of them over.

"I'm so sorry, Galene."

"I'm not the one you need to apologize to." Her gaze went to Talyn.

His features were absolute stone.

Fain wanted to embrace him. It was a physical ache inside him to touch a son he'd never thought to have, but it was painfully obvious that Talyn wanted him to die on the spot. "I'm sorry, Talyn."

"There are some things sorry doesn't fix, old man. This is definitely one of them."

"I know. Believe me, I know." His heart shattering, Fain blinked against the tears that choked him as he thought about everything they'd all been deprived of. The years that the three of them should have been a family.

I have a son...

A child he'd never been able to hold and soothe. A son he'd never taught to fight or protect himself. One he knew absolutely nothing about. Bitter, aching regret choked him hard.

Talyn met his mother's gaze. "I'll give you two the room."

As he started past her, Galene touched his arm. "Are you okay, baby?"

"I'm fine, Matarra."

Galene winced. That wasn't true and she knew it. But it was the best she'd get out of him. Talyn never showed anyone his emotions. His childhood had been too brutal for that.

Without another word, her son headed for his room.

Her heart hammering, she watched as Fain scanned the other photos of Talyn over the years. Their son had been a beautiful child. Overachiever to the extreme.

But then, Talyn had been forced to be three times better at everything he did to be seen as half as good as others.

Fain met her gaze again. "I don't know what upsets me more. The number of times I made money off Talyn's wins, or the times I lost money betting someone would gut him in the Ring."

"Don't even talk to me about that, Fain. Or I will kill you where you stand. You've no idea how much I hated him fighting for a prestige that should have been his at birth. How many times I've paced a waiting room floor, praying he'd live through the injuries he'd sustained because he had no future without battling for it. And even then, he was never given his due, because he never had a fully Vested lineage backing him." She clenched her teeth and glared at him. "d.a.m.n you for that."

Fain choked on the pain inside his heart. As a boy, he'd thought to trade his own life and future to save Dancer's. Instead, that "n.o.ble" action had cost his son his.

Galene's and Talyn's futures were not supposed to have been part of the bargain he'd made with Chrisen and Merrell Anatole to keep Dancer and Keris safe. Nothing had turned out the way it should have.

And never had he hated himself more.

"I can imagine what you've been through."

"No, Fain. You can't. Not really. You were always so popular. Everyone loved and adored you. Worshiped the ground the mighty War Hauk tread upon... Our son has never known that. Most decent, self-respecting Andarions won't socialize with him. At all. Even as an officer, he wasn't allowed to shower in the same barracks area as any Vested soldier. The only female who will have anything to do with him is a paid companion he has set up in his condo, across town. I had to send him to school with Hyshians because our race wouldn't allow him to attend an Andarion school with a broken lineage. Every door he reached for was brutally slammed, not in his face, but on his little hands."

He winced in response, and well he should.

"The Hyshian and human children weren't allowed to play with him because he was Andarion. And the Andarion children weren't allowed to talk to him because he was the b.a.s.t.a.r.d of an Outcast father. Do you know he was even too humiliated to tell me that he'd finally broken down and paid for a mistress? Had he not been coldly shot down by his own commander who hated you and almost killed, I'd have never known he had that much in his life."

She jerked her chin toward his awards and articles. "Even though he was and is the most celebrated fighter in Ring history, her agency still refused to allow Talyn to have a full contract with her. He had to take on more fights to buy it out or lose her to a fully Vested male. And you never want to know what the cost of that contract was. It still boggles my mind and fills me with fury."

Fain ground his teeth. Every Andarion mistress and her agency that he'd ever heard of, or known, would have sold their souls to make a lifelong pact with a military officer. Especially one who held the second highest rank in their armada, and wasn't fifty years old with it. Not to mention the fact that, as Galene had said, Talyn Batur was an intergalactic champion regaled by every known world who followed the Andarion Ring sport.

It sickened him to think of what his child had gone through because of him.

"If I'd had any inkling, Stormy, I would have busted h.e.l.l wide open to provide for both of you."

She let out a weary sigh. "It doesn't matter now, does it? We can't go back. And we both had a guilty hand in ruining our son's life."

"I don't know." He gestured at the trophies and awards on the shelves and wall. "You look like you've done an amazing job with him."

Galene looked away. Tears filled her eyes as she tried not to remember the past. "Every day, I ask myself if I could have done more. If I should have done more."

Fain gave her a hard, harsh stare. "You're a much better mother than I ever had. At least you loved him. Protected him. You didn't eject him from your house and make him an Outcast who didn't dare step foot in any Andarion territory without a death sentence hanging over his head."

Galene swallowed at those words. Funny, she'd never thought of Fain that way. For all these years, he'd been a target for her hatred. She had never really considered how hard it'd been for him to be alone, without lineage.

Mostly because she hadn't cared. She'd wanted his life to be lived in total misery. Wanted him to pay brutally for leaving her.

For leaving Talyn, and causing her baby harm.

Now that she knew he had, it didn't make her feel better as she'd thought it would.

It, too, made her sad.

"Having raised Talyn, I will never understand how my parents did me the way they did. Or what yours did to you. There's no way I could ever hurt him. Not intentionally."

"As I said, you're a much better mother than any I know. He was lucky to have you. The only thing he got shafted in was the father department, and for that I am so incredibly sorry."

"Commander?"

They both turned as Talyn rejoined them.

He handed a link to his mother. "There's been another attack."

Flinching, she took the link from him and left the room to answer the call.

Awkward silence filled the air between them as Talyn stared a brittle hole through him.

What did someone say to a grown child they'd never known they had?

All of a sudden, Fain had a whole new respect for Nykyrian, who'd been faced with this when his ex had dropped Thia on him, out of the blue.

Uncomfortable, he cleared his throat. "Your mom said that you have a female?"

Talyn continued to stare at him, without comment.

"Does she have a name?"

"Yes."

Fain winced at the fact that Talyn had no intention of making this any easier on him. "And it is...?"

A full and very slow minute went by before he answered. "Felicia."

"It's a beautiful name."

And still he glared at him. d.a.m.n. Forget Talyn's martial skills. That cold stare alone could let blood.

"How long have the two of you-"

"I don't talk about my personal life with strangers."

Wounded and hurt, Fain nodded as he remembered reading that in a few different articles over the years. It was something the media had beaten Talyn up over. The Iron Hammer didn't show his face in the Ring, or out of it. Nor did he speak of anything other than his matches. He kept everyone at arm's length. The most the media had dragged out of him was that he liked to rock climb and camp on weekends. And that was if they could ever get an interview with him at all.

"Is there anything I can say to you that would end with us at least on friendly terms?"

"You're dying with a painful, terminal disease and only have a few hours to live might work."

Fain let out a tired "heh" with that. "Aren't you at least curious about me?"

Talyn snorted. "Not really."

"You've no questions whatsoever?"

"He's never asked any questions about you or your family," Galene said as she rejoined them. "Not even your name."

Fain didn't know why, but that hurt more than anything. "I see. We'll keep this strictly military, then. I'll stay out of both your ways, and you can contact me whenever you need me to relay orders to the Phrixians. Darling Cruel the Caronese emperor you can deal with directly. He has no problem taking orders from a female, as Jayne has bossed him around for years, and broke him in when he was young. If you need to contact one of his commanders, you can text me and I'll forward the orders. Most of the Tavali shouldn't have any problem with you. If they do give you any trouble, forward their names and I'll tell you who they answer to. You can easily deal with their four primary commanders, and if it helps, Ryn Cruel Darling's older brother is the son of Hermione Dane. She's the leader of the Wasturnum, and she sits at the head of the UTC."

Galene arched a brow. "UTC?"

"Universal Tavali Council. She goes by Kirren, and you will need that name to get through to her. It's her call sign, reserved only for those closest to her. All the Tavali operate that way. It's how we keep outsiders and spies from knowing anything about us."

Talyn narrowed his gaze on him. "What name do you use? Faithless?"

Fain let the insult go. "I don't. Nor do I answer to anyone. I'm what's called a Rogue."

"And that is?"

He returned Talyn's glare with an equally cold look. "Someone with no family or individual National allegiance. What Andarions affectionately call an Outcast, only the Tavali don't try to kill us on sight. They just use us when they need cannon fodder or decoys, and we pay a yearly fee directly to the UTC, instead of a t.i.thing fee to a National Presidium."

Galene glanced away as she caught the pain that flashed into Fain's eyes. She shouldn't care.

At all. And yet she did.

Because I used to love him.