everything that was happening. He glanced up often, saw himself on the screen.
“But I promise you, I will be ruthless with you if you don’t begin to talk.”
He was noble. Rich. A spoiled son of a wealthy family. And my mate’s distant cousin. I took a moment to think of the royal family tree. Queen Celene’s mother had one sister, Zetta. She had a son, Coburt, now known as Lord Wyse. Lord Wyse and his mate had Radella. When Queen Celene disappeared decades ago, Radella moved into the palace with her mate, Danoth. A few years later, they had a son. Pawl. The little fucker before me.
It seemed the evil didn’t fall too far from the tree, for I’d grown to hate Pawl’s grandfather, Lord Wyse, Inspector Optimi of the Optimus unit, who I now suspected of trying not just to arrest and interrogate my mate but murder her in cold blood. My mother, with her dying breath, had given him up.
He was my enemy. An enemy to all Alera, and yet he held one of the most powerful positions in the land.
He would kill Faith—and her sisters—if given the chance. He’d had several now, and fortunately, they had not been successful.
My purpose in life changed the moment my mother confessed her sins and then died in my arms. My one goal now was to make sure Faith was safe. My mother had tried to poison my mate, the female I loved beyond all thought or reason, and then confessed her sins as my father lay dead in Faith’s stead.
I’d lost everything in a matter of moments. My family. My honor. The wealth and status of the Jax family would be stripped from us. Even if I did not spend the rest of my life rotting in a prison cell, I would be a disgrace to the entire planet. The only Jax who remained alive, to carry the burden of my mother’s sins. All of Alera would judge me for my bloodline, if not for my deeds.
And Faith. Fuck, my heart ached for my mate. My cock longed to sink into her warmth, to fill her again with my seed as she came, milking it from my balls. She deserved more than just a skilled fuck and a male whose soul was not stained by such a terrible legacy. And children who wouldn’t be tainted. She was a fucking princess. While she was not direct heir to the throne—Trinity would become queen after their mother—she was royal through and through.
I was not worthy of Faith. But I could protect her. And that is what I would do—at all costs. If that meant torture and murder of the lying bastard before me—her fucking cousin—then I would bury my disgust and do what was necessary. I was not a killer, I was a noble, a man of business and law.
But for Faith, exceptions must be made. I didn’t give a shit if Pawl’s murder was recorded for the queen’s guard to discover. My life was over without her. As long as she was safe, nothing mattered.
“Where is Queen Celene?” I sat in a chair facing the young idiot, watching his gaze as he looked at me with the eyes of a liar and a cheat. They narrowed as I reclined in my chair, arms crossed, completely at ease as far as he could see. Inside, I seethed with the need to rip his head from his shoulders and unleash the pain within me as violence against my enemies.
That didn’t work well when one of those enemies was my own mother.
Fuck me. Pawl may be the grandson of a traitor, but I was the son of one as well.
“I told you, I don’t know,” he repeated. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”
Lies. Lies. Lies. I sighed and lifted a comm sphere from my pocket. Holding it into the air, I activated the holographic images I had stored there for this purpose and made sure to hold it up to be clearly within line of sight of the recording device on the wall.
As soon as I had walked away from Faith I’d made the call to Nix to ensure her safety. But the moment I watched the assassin’s arrival and stepped foot off Jax property, I’d been on a mission. Get to the truth, to the mastermind. My mother, while guilty, had been a pawn. Just like Zel. I’d known where to go, to dig. I’d paid some very large bribes to some lower level members of the Optimus unit who didn’t care for Lord Wyse’s style of leadership, but I’d finally found what I needed—Lord Wyse’s orders to Pawl, giving him instructions just a few weeks ago to leave the planet and go where?
Earth.
Coincidence? No.
I played the recording, watched Pawl’s eyes widen as he realized exactly what I had found. Not only did it prove his guilt, but his father, Danoth, had been with him when he received the order from Lord Wyse. It seemed evil ran in the family.
In the comms, there had been no mention of the queen by name, no direct orders, nothing substantial. Nothing I could take to Princess Trinity or the Optimus unit that was strong enough evidence to take down their leader.
But I knew. I knew, and I wasn’t above breaking the law to protect what was mine. Faith. For her, I’d kill a thousand males just like this one.
“I don’t think you understand me, Pawl.” I leaned forward, slipping the holographic comm back into the pocket of one of my best tunic jackets. I looked like I’d just come from the palace. Well-dressed. Powerful. Connected. It was all part of my plan, even though I hadn’t slept since I’d walked out of the Jax mansion and out of Faith’s life.
I didn’t expect her to forgive me. I’d left Faith with my parents’ dead bodies—fuck, had it really happened? Any moment now, I expected the news of what had happened last night in my family home to spread like a wildfire. Announcements would be made, my family shame exposed to the world, my family name worthless after hundreds—no thousands—of years of loyal service to the queen and her royal bloodline.
All because my mother wanted more.
More. More money. Power. Prestige. Status.
Now she was dead and had nothing. Not only was I, her precious son, not going to be a powerful ruler, I would be a penniless orphan and an outcast once my mother’s treachery became known. I could only imagine what had occurred inside that dining room once Nix and the other guards arrived to find my mother and father lying dead in the dining room, and my mate, tear-streaked and broken, kneeling beside them.
I left the Jax mansion knowing Faith would be safe, protected by Trinity and all her royal power, by the warriors Nix and Leo, and by Leo’s father. I knew that what I planned would place Faith in danger. And I didn’t want her to see me like this—desperate and angry and willing to kill. I’d lost my entire family, my parents, my home, my life. I would not see Faith fall. I could give her up, save her from the monster these traitors forced me to become, but I would not risk her life, or expose her to the kind of evil pulsing through the veins of the coward before me.
I’d yet to hear anything through the news sources of my family’s downfall, but it was only a matter of time. The truth would come out and I would be ruined.
Before then, I intended to make sure that Faith—and her family—were out of danger, even if I had to cut Pawl into pieces to do it.
“Faith Herakles is my mate. So let me be clear. I will let you sit in your own piss and feces for days. I will flay the flesh from your body one small strip at a time as I kill you and smile when you scream. I will let you rot, tied to that chair, as maggots eat out your eyes. I will do the same to your traitorous parents.”
“Wait. Wait!” he said, tugging at his restraints. “My mother has nothing to do with this. She’s innocent. Weak. She’s been content to live in the palace and throw parties, but nothing more. Please, I beg you to believe me. My
