The Alpha King (25 page)

Turning back to face Rico, Tal decided to have it out with Blaze later about the secrets. He'd thought they'd been doing so much better and were actually building towards something. Apparently he was the only one building towards anything. Blaze was still being his high-handed, domineering, controlling Alpha King self. Tal would have to let the older man know that, while he didn't mind being dominated in the bedroom, he'd be damned if he'd let Blaze dominate him outside of it as well. Alpha King or not.

"Because their names are Trenton and Tuvarion Versuthion, Your Highness. We checked into their backgrounds, and their files, and they're your biological brothers. They were stolen away from your family home on Volantic the morning of your parents' death and sold into a slave camp," Rico explained, his eyes downcast, his voice filled with compassion.

Tal appreciated the compassion and sympathy the guard showed him, hearing sadness in Rico's tone. Tal felt pretty sure it wasn't just because his younger brothers had been kidnapped. Rico had a story and he could fully understand what Tal experienced. Tal's heart seized in his chest. He had younger brothers? How the fuck did he not know? How the fuck could he have forgotten? How could they even be sure the two young men were related to him? Maybe they were imposters and had just heard about Tal being mated to Blaze and were looking to cash in. Yeah, that made a lot more sense than the idea Tal had two younger siblings he'd completely forgotten. He swallowed the lump of tears threatening to spill forth and felt his very essence begin to shake.

Tal blinked stupidly in shock, blocking out the words of surprise being tossed around the room by the other members and tried to make sense of what Rico just told him. He had two younger brothers who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery? If true, something had to be wrong with him because he couldn't remember them. Emotions he couldn't control rolled over him and he started to shake, which made Blaze growl. Confusion, anger at himself, grief at what his brothers had experienced, fear they would hate him, and a renewed sense of grief at the realization he'd lost his entire biological family all in one day.

Yep, life had pretty much screwed him over… again.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"Leave us!" Blaze roared and the room quickly emptied.

Blaze looked down at his small mate shaking like a leaf. "Talk to me, baby," he whispered.

Gods, he hated Tal had found out the way he had. He didn't want his mate to feel the way he did at this moment. Blaze would do anything in his power to spare his man the pain of knowing his younger brothers were imprisoned on a slave ship, being forced to endure all manner of things.

He discovered Tal to be upset, in shock, amazed… the swirling, disjointed thoughts and images the smaller man sent him through their mating link informed him of that much.

Leaning forward, Blaze kissed Tal's forehead and closed his eyes. "Please talk to me, Tal," he pleaded, choking slightly on the need to ask for anything.

But his mate hurt and he needed to talk, and Blaze would do whatever he had to do to get the man to do so.

"I don't remember them," Tal whispered brokenly. "Why don't I remember them?" Tal looked up, his eyes filled with tears, his voice soft, shaky and broken with emotion.

Blaze's heart clenched in his chest and the breath stopped in his lungs. The last time he'd seen such an expression on his mate's face it had been in the clinic after his attack. Blaze had vowed to never see that look on his mate's face again and he had failed.

"Who? Your parents or your brothers?" Blaze questioned his voice rough with emotion.

He pulled the smaller man closer to his chest, rubbing his pregnant belly gently in an attempt to soothe him.

Tal sniffled. "Any of them. All of them," he burst out with frustration.

The emotions rolling off his mate had Blaze roughly shoving his wolf back. The animal sensed its mate's upset, anger, and hurt and it wanted to get free and rip to shreds the person who had caused its mate to feel that way. Since they weren't positive who the culprits were, the wolf had no one to seek out and go after, and for that reason the animal would just go around and unnecessarily frighten and antagonize anyone and everyone in an attempt to get revenge for its mate.

"I can't remember anything about any of them," Tal said.

Blaze released a deep breath and his wolf backed off slowly in order to listen and understand what had Tal so upset, what so distressed him. Tal didn't remember his biological siblings, but the tears racing down his cheeks implied something more going on. Blaze's wolf snarled and snapped, whining when Blaze pushed him back harder. He needed to be there emotionally for Tal. He couldn't try to fix the wrong, even if it pained him not to do so. He needed to figure out Tal's heartbreak and maybe in that he could find some way to encourage and uplift him. Hopefully.

"I don't even remember my parents having other children. All I remember is the day they died. They sent me next door to the neighbor's and told me to stay there until they got back. They were really upset. I don't remember their faces just their voices. My mom kissed my forehead and my dad hugged me and told me to be a good boy. They're just blurry shapes to me. They never came back. Three days later the neighbor I was staying with told me my parents had died, right before she called the GPA and they picked me up. I lived in the GPA group home for a few days before my adoptive parents appeared out of the blue and took me home." Tal lowered his eyes in sadness.

Blaze hated how Tal struggled to remember the horrible moment in his childhood. Blaze rubbed his mate's back and wondered exactly what to tell him. What could he say in the face of his man's distress and lost memory? How could he fix it and make it better? Why did he have a strong memory of his father on the phone with an Edifician couple telling them to adopt a young Vermithian male? He'd watched the video with his father telling him about Wendiford and Markaela Sothsberg hundreds of times, but the current visual imagery played in his head like he'd actually been there, in the room with his father when he wired money and information to the couple on the phone. Someone else had been in the room with the former Alpha King, but Blaze couldn't recall who. His father had paced the room back and forth and Blaze tried to bring up the image of the other person who had also been there. No clear picture came forth, the other body was nothing but a blur, but Blaze knew someone else had been with his father.

He wracked his brain and finally decided helping Tal remember his family would probably be the best way to proceed. Help Tal remember, let him know he hadn't failed anyone and even more than that, find the younger brothers Tal couldn't remember. Once he'd done that he could go through the rest of his father's things, things he'd overlooked before, and find out everything he could about his father's involvement with Tal's parents. Perhaps he would also remember who the other man had been. The smell of snake suddenly filled Blaze's nostrils, disappearing just as quickly and he gave himself a mental shake. He needed to focus on Tal, everything else could wait.

"They were probably trying to go out and find your brothers. How old were you when this happened?" Blaze asked before he kissed Tal's temple, breathing in deeply to replace the scent of snake with the sweet scent of his mate.

"Six," Tal whispered then collapsed against Blaze's chest and sobbed.

The sound of Talon's grief ripped a hole through Blaze's heart and he swallowed thickly, trying to hold back his own tears. He couldn't recall the last time he'd heard something so devastating and the fact the sound came from his mate did not make it better.

"Sshhh," Blaze soothed, "you were six. Of course it's hard for you to remember. You were practically a baby, and then with it being a traumatic experience no one really expects you to remember everything." He hoped he said the right things and gently tried to probe Talon's mind for a better understanding of his thoughts.

He rarely invaded Tal's mind, but it usually remained open to Blaze. However, it seemed as if Tal didn't want to remember the incident, and Blaze couldn't really sense anything at all through their link.

Tal shook his head, and Blaze stopped attempting to probe his mate's mind, and violating his privacy. But with Talon refusing to excuse or forgive himself for some misdeed he couldn't be held responsible for, Blaze would have to do something soon.

"No, how could I forget my younger brothers? I'm the oldest, right? I was supposed to protect them, keep them safe, make sure they were cared for and especially never, ever forget them!" Tal pressed his face into Blaze's chest and sobbed harshly.

Blaze held Tal tightly and soothed the younger man, loosening his embrace when Tal calmed down.

Tal pushed against Blaze's chest until he could get to his feet. Tal grabbed the folder holding the information about his brothers and held it close. His eyes were wide, filled with grief, horror, and a steely resolve. Determination filled Blaze, too. Whatever his mate asked of him, he would do.

"Find them, Blaze. Find my brothers and bring them back to me. I'll never be at peace until we're reunited and I can see them. So I can remember and be the brother I should have been. Please, my mate, my king, my alpha, my husband, my love," Tal whispered, but Blaze heard him nonetheless.

His heart pounded furiously in his chest before he stood up and gathered his mate in his arms. They had never really discussed their feelings for each other, neither of them giving voice to the emotion thrumming through their veins. The emotion propelled them to continue giving their all to each other. Tal might have mumbled his confession, but Blaze heard it nonetheless and knew nothing but intense relief. His man loved him.

"Please find them Blaze," Tal pleaded, clutching the front of Blaze's shirt.

"I will, my love. I promise," Blaze vowed with sincerity.

He lifted his man in his arms and carried him back to their bedroom, letting him cry on his shoulder the entire way.

* * * *

"So, you're saying they've discovered the other two Versuthion boys?" Torqran asked, glaring at Lorthander.

He was surrounded by incompetent fools. How the fuck had he become the leader of a bunch of idiots? Weren't they supposed to improve with a skilled leader? The thought left a nasty taste in him mouth, like an already moldy pan of Zeelithian Rhumbar pie. With an angry hiss, Torqran swept his hand across the top of his desk, feeling a sort of sick satisfaction when he heard the crash and destruction of millions of maluis worth of GPA equipment. He stepped back, and with a narrowed gaze, watched Lorthander bend over and begin picking up all the ruined pieces.

"How the hell did they know where those boys were, Thander?" he asked quietly, seeking any tiny bit of indication that would implicate the man, the only one he truly trusted, of betraying him. When Lorthander's shoulders didn't tense and his hands didn't hesitate, Torqran decided his suspicion of his lover was misplaced.

"I don't know, Torq. Perhaps we should interrogate those here in the compound a little more thoroughly, just to make sure that no one here is a spy for the Tumarons," Lorthander suggested.

Torqran nodded."You are very wise, Thander. Meanwhile, I should call Bryce and let him know the time to grab the fucking breeder Vermithian and dispose of him draws extremely close," Torqran stated, turning to contact the Elder.

* * * *

Sadness filled Lorthander's being, bile rising in his throat when he stared at his lover's back. His eyes filled with unshed tears but he immediately blinked them back. For once he counted himself grateful for Torqran's preoccupation. Lorthander pulled out the package he'd received from the Epsilon days before.

He'd been shocked to find out his Tumaron contact's real status, but his fear the Elder wouldn't be able to put a stop to things before the Vermithian got killed led him to question the other man. The Elder's reassurance he could handle things, with or without royal guards or backup, had pushed Lorthander to ask for more information. It took pointing out that Lorthander essentially had to betray his mate for a family he'd never met, before the Elder revealed his Epsilon nature. Lorthander had almost collapsed from the relief pulsing through him.

He would save the Vermtihian brothers, maybe not directly but with his help they were going to be saved. It wouldn't be full restitution for what he'd done to the Tumaron prince, the young man's screams and tears still haunted him, but perhaps it would be a step in alleviating his guilt. He'd felt honored the Elder had revealed his true status in the Tumaron pack, especially when he'd been ordered to keep silent about it, which had led Lorthander to take his help one step forward. Reaching forward slightly, he placed the small, undetectable recording device under the edge of Torqran's desk then stood to his full height and turned to walk out.

CHAPTER TWENTY

"Whoa," Josie breathed.

Her eyes had widened with the beginning of his story, and now blinked in stupefaction. "So wait, are you telling me you have two younger brothers you don't remember who were kidnapped and sold into slavery the night your parents were killed?"

Tal nodded and took a sip of the fragrant black rose tea. Blaze had brought him back to their suite of rooms where he'd made slow, passionate love to him, effectively refocusing his attention from the past, to the present, before bathing him in their luxurious bathtub. He'd then brought Tal back into the bedroom and laid him down upon the bed where he'd been ordered to stay and relax for the rest of the day. Blaze left to go prepare for the rescue mission for Tal's two younger brothers. Brothers. Tal's mind still spun with the knowledge he had two younger siblings who had not been as fortunate as he to be adopted by a wonderful family, but had instead been kidnapped and sold into slavery.