Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Damn it, Luame, pull back! I’m supposed to be your favorite!
“Why did they have to die?” Edric pounced.
I snorted. “I believe I already gave my speech about sycophantic worms. Those shits are the lowest of the low. They should be called trash-shifters because they morph from shitbags to week-old diapers left roasting in the sun. They got everything they deserve and—”
“Fuck them!” Badr exploded. “Why did you kill my brother? Why did you kill Castor!”
I clamped hard on my mouth, nails digging into my cheeks. “Hphm hmh gghph!”
Badr surged off the dais, ready and willing to tear my hands off.
“Hey!” Orion set three more letters on fire. “Do you think we’re messing around? Answer him or the whole box and everything in it is dust.”
“Why did you kill my brother!” Badr was a man unhinged. Running at me, golden eyes red and wild, claws ripping through his nail beds, frenzy overtaking his voice. “Why!”
He fell on me, wrestling my arms and straining to pry them off. I fought, kicked, and threw myself back. Badr tore them free.
“Because he ruined my life!” I screamed in Badr’s face, blowing his brows high. “He took everything good, and right, and perfect in my world and he ripped it away! Because of him I lost my friends, my dad, my family, and the only person I’ve ever loved!”
Badr lurched back. His gaping jaw would’ve been comical, if there was anything left in this stupid, miserable world to smile about.
“Because of that self-righteous, never-wrong, slavishly noble prick, I HAVE NOTHING! I. AM. NOTHING! HE DESTROYED EVERYTHING!”
Deep, pressing, smothering silence reached down the throats of everyone in the room, and squeezed. They all gaped at me goggle-eyed and pale like they were choking—even blessed Ava. For once, her smirk was gone.
“That— That’s not— That can’t be—” Badr looked like he might faint.
A move I didn’t recommend, because the minute he went down, I was kicking the shit out of his unconscious body—promise to Luame or no.
Tears soaked my face. I never wanted to talk about this. Never! “Fuck you, you monster! You really are brothers. What the hell kind of twisted seed is your son-of-a-bitch father carrying in that wrinkled sack!”
Badr flinched like I slapped him. Like he had no idea how this turned around on him.
“Hey, Badr, man,” a soft voice said. “Maybe back off of her.”
“What?” Badr cried. “Her? You’re all worried about her now?” Suddenly, he was shouting. “Are you fucking serious right now? She’s lying! I knew my brother. He would never do any of those things. He didn’t even know her before that night!”
I glared at him with all the hatred festering in my soul. “Castor barged into my life, and dominated every aspect of it since I was twelve years old. He ripped my heart out of my chest, and bound it to him with chains made of my stolen freewill. The fact that you didn’t know that... proves you never knew Castor at all.”
“You’re a liar!” he roared, showering me in spittle.
“Badr,” Ava cried.
“Tell the truth!” Grasping the chair arms, he shook it—wood, me, and all—rattling my bones like marbles in a pouch.
“Badr!”
“My brother was a good man! He never touched you! He never hurt you!”
Head bouncing around on my shoulders, I caught a glimpse of the clock and the final ticking seconds of my ten minutes. Lips parting, I whispered, “Castor hurt me worse than anyone ever has or ever could. Because of him, I lost the only good thing in my life.” Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Because of him, she’s gone. Forever.”
“It’s not true!”
“Badr, get off her. Get off!”
Hands grabbed his arms and shoulders and pried him off. Badr was thrown none-too-gently across the room. He tripped over the step to the dais and collapsed on the floor. He didn’t get up.
He didn’t move.
Nyx and Paxton dropped down next to him, checking on their friend.
“Guys, come on,” Nyx called. The tide had turned in the room, and everyone felt it. “No matter what Castor did, she still murdered him in cold blood in front of thousands of witnesses. If he was so evil and horrible, why didn’t she tell someone what he was doing to her?”
Crash!
“You mean like my parents did, alpha boy?” Tracy toppled the chair jumping up. “When an alpha made my father give him the deed to our home for free. Those shit cops said our home was too nice for the likes of us in the first place. We lived in a shelter for three years!”
“Exactly.”
“So arrogant.”
“Clueless.”
“Have no idea what the rest of us deal with.”
Nyx rocked back in the face of their disdain. Oh yes, this wasn’t going the way they thought at all.
“All right,” Orion shouted, breaking through the noise. “Maybe most of us didn’t know Castor as well as we thought we did, and maybe you all are happy to condemn him to never receiving justice based on the word of a liar and murderer.