"There is that." Syn made sure he was comfortable and rechecked all the bandages and medication. Then, he handed Ture a buzzer. "Should you need anything, press that."
"Thank you."
Syn gave a curt nod before he left the room.
Alone, Ture wasn't sure what to make of all this. In all honesty, it scared him. People weren't kind as a rule, and they were cruel to him in particular. That he expected.
Even though he appeared to be safe, there was a part of him waiting for this to be some kind of sick joke. He wouldn't put anything past an emperor who'd ascended the throne by viciously assassinating his uncle, and one whose last name was Cruel.
CHAPTER 2
Ture woke up at the sound of a light knock. "Enter."
Dressed in brown pants and a bright green leather jacket, Maris came into the room carrying a tray in his hands. The instant he stepped inside, the lights turned on to a dim glow. He moved to set it down on the table by the bed. "I know Syn has you hooked up, but thought you might like something tasty to eat and drink."
Ture ground his teeth as he pushed himself up. He was still in a great deal of pain. "Thank you. How long have I slept?"
"Two days."
Ture gasped. With the heavy drapes closed, he couldn't tell if it was day or night outside. "What time is it?"
"Early evening."
He couldn't believe it. "I had no idea."
Maris poured him a cup of hot chocolate then added a bit of cream. "Don't worry. Syn, Darling, Zarya and I both have been checking in from time to time to make sure you were all right."
Ture took the cup from his hands. "That's actually disturbing to know all of you have been in here and I haven't been the wiser."
Maris gave him a devilish grin. "Did you know that you are absolutely gorgeous when you sleep? And you have the lightest little snore. It's actually quite adorable."
Heat crept over his face as those dark eyes teased him with humor. No matter how you cut it, Maris was the sexiest man he'd ever seen. There was so much magnetism to him.
Such an intriguing blend of boyish charm and lethal predator. Most of the time, Maris was relaxed and exuberant. Yet even so, he was always searching with his gaze as if to reassure himself that no assassin had crept in. And he definitely had a warrior's lope.
Head down, gaze intent.
Something Ture's body reacted to with an embarrassing intensity. Lifting his knee slightly to disguise his interest, Ture cleared his throat. "So what food did you bring?"
"An assortment of sandwiches. Since I didn't know what you liked, I thought it the best compromise." Maris pulled the silver lid from the plate and held it out to Ture.
A shudder went through Ture as he accidentally brushed his hand against Maris's. He refused to let Maris know how aroused he was at his mere presence. No good could come of that. "This is more than I can eat. Would you like to share?"
Maris wrinkled his nose playfully. "Sugar, I never pass on food. My mother used to say that I came out of her starving, and practically assaulted the doctor who delivered me to get a bottle from him."
"Really?"
Maris nodded as he daintily picked up one of the small sandwiches and took a bite.
The way Maris savored the food made Ture smile. "You do know what I do for a living, don't you?"
"Not a clue. Zarya never told me."
Ture swallowed his bite. "I'm a chef."
He arched an intrigued brow. "Seriously?"
Ture nodded.
His dark eyes danced with happiness as he slid onto the bed beside Ture. "Ooo, sugar...wherever do you work?"
"Angericos on Fifth, downtown."
Maris gasped. "That's you? I love that place. Eat there all the time...at least when I can get a reservation. Your restaurant is always booked. Even Darling has trouble getting in."
Ture blushed at the compliments. "I try my best not to suck at my job."
"Baby, you succeed admirably." Maris reached for a napkin as the door opened to admit Syn.
He pulled up short at the sight of them together. Then he narrowed a grimace at Maris. "Did you wake him?"
"If I say yes, will you spank me?"
Syn rolled his eyes. "You are terrible, Mari."
Maris scooted off the bed to make room for Syn to check Ture's vitals. "Can't help it. I had too many brothers to annoy. Now it's just hardwired into me to be a major bitch."
Ture frowned. He knew one of Maris's brothers much better than he wanted to. "How many brothers do you have?"
"Eight. Would you like one? I've been trying to give a couple of them away for years now."
He ignored the question. "Any sisters?"
"No. The gods decided not to be so cruel as to throw a girl into that den of testosterone. Then again, maybe they did. I was born into it, after all."
Unsure as to what to say to that, Ture met Syn's dark gaze. "How about you?"
"I had a sister. She died a long time ago."
"I'm sorry, Syn. I lost mine, too, when I was a teen. I still miss her."
Syn patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry for your loss, too."
Awkward silence filled the room until Syn finished his review. "You're making good progress. Tomorrow, we need to get you up and moving. I'll schedule a physical therapist for the afternoon. And my surgeon friend will be by day after tomorrow to look over your hand. I've already sent him the scans. He thinks you'll have a full recovery."
Ture felt a rush of excitement at those words. "Thank you, Syn. Seriously."
"No problem. Now you two stay out of trouble and rest for tonight." He turned toward Maris. "And that means you, Mari. I know you haven't slept for two days and you're still healing, too."
Maris gave him a very sarcastic military salute.
Syn ignored it and left them.
"You haven't slept?"
Maris looked away. He started not to answer-- that was his standard mode of operation around others-- but for some reason the truth came out before he could stop it. "I don't sleep well on my best days. And battle always brings out the worst in me."
"How so?"
Memories surged with a vicious bite as he relived battles he wished to the gods he'd never fought. It was hard knowing the beast that lived inside him-- knowing what he was capable of when pushed into a corner. Nothing made him sicker than some of the things war and his family had forced him to do in his past. "Have you ever killed anyone?"
Ture shook his head.
"It's not like you see in movies or programs. It's gory and scary. Disgusting and horrifying. Seeing the look on their faces and in their eyes that moment when they realize their life is over. . . . And every time you send someone to their grave, a part of you goes with them."
"Then why do you do it?"
Maris felt his throat tighten. "I stopped fighting for myself a long time ago. But as much as I despise killing, I hate losing someone I love a lot more. How, with all my training and skills, can I stand back and let the ones I love most risk or lose their lives and do nothing for them?"
Ture nodded sympathetically. "I get it. So how old were you the first time you killed someone?"
Maris flinched at the horror of that nightmare. "Seventeen."
Ture gaped at the age. "You were a child."
"Not on Phrixus. I was in my second year of obligatory military service."
"It was a battle then?"
He shook his head. "Phrixians are not like other races. We have a very screwed up system of government. And one of the things that greatly differentiates us from others-- we have no police force."
"I don't understand. Who enforces the law?"
"The citizens. My people believe that if you can't defend yourself and those who fall under your protection, then we don't need your DNA in our gene pool. We take survival of the fittest to its extreme. But that being said, we mostly leave each other alone because we know how highly trained and armed everyone is. The only time someone is attacked is when they're seen as weak."
"My younger brother. I was late picking him up for my father."
Ture winced at the pain he heard in Maris's voice. "Thank the gods you were there."
Maris let out a bitter laugh. "Yeah, but that was the reason he was attacked in the first place."
"You've lost me again."
There was so much agony in those dark eyes that it made Ture's tear up for him. "They thought my brother was me since they'd been told that was where I'd be at that designated time. Had I been on time, my brother wouldn't have been beat to a pulp."
His jaw went slack. It would be hard enough to have your brother attacked. To then find out it was supposed to be you . . . How awful. "Why did they go after you?"
"Swabbing the gene pool." Maris looked away as he remembered the laughter and mockery that had been shoved down his throat.
"You're a pathetic waste. I should have cut out your heart when you were born, instead of wasting family resources on you." Maris could still see the hatred in his father's eyes as he'd sneered that at him.
He met Ture's gaze and tried to keep the bitterness from his voice. "It'd gotten out that I'd had trouble sustaining an erection in a whorehouse with a woman. And such a thing is considered shameful and considered a grave mark against my family and their honor."
"You're kidding."
Maris shook his head. "Erectile dysfunction is deemed a capital offense in our empire."
Ture was appalled by what he described. "They would really kill someone for that?"
Maris nodded. "By the time I arrived, my little brother was barely alive from their vicious assault. The fury inside me was terrifying. And I unleashed every ounce of it onto the three hulking men who were standing over him. I didn't even realize what I'd done until they were in pieces on the ground and I was vomiting against the wall."
Ture took his hand into his and held it tight. "I am so sorry. I can't believe anyone would do such a thing for such a stupid reason. Who sent them after you?"
My father. Maris tightened his hand around Ture's as the answer echoed in his head. To this day, he couldn't bring himself to say that out loud. It was something he'd never told a single soul.
Not even Darling.
The saddest part? His father had bragged about it to Maris when he'd returned home, carrying an almost dead Safir in his arms.
A smile had spread across his father's face as he saw them. "I've never been prouder of you, boy. Here we all thought we'd be burying a defective woman in an unmarked grave tonight. Instead, you've come home redeemed and wearing the blood of three of my best soldiers. Good job, Maris. You've restored our honor."
It was the only time in his life his father had praised him. But what had sickened him even more was the fact that his father hadn't cared that he put Safir in danger. Barely more than a child, Safir was considered collateral damage to their father and family.
Just like him.
Sighing, he did his best to bury that memory. "It doesn't matter. Three men were dead over something ridiculous."
Ture pulled him into his arms and held him. "I'm sorry, Mari. But I'm glad you're still here."
Maris patted him on the back. "Some days, I am, too." Closing his eyes, he breathed in the scent of Ture's warm body. He might have gone soft on the female whore who'd ratted him out to his father, but that was definitely not his problem right now.
Ture set him on fire.
And all that did was remind him why his body was rife with such demanding need. He hadn't been with anyone in over two years. First had been his need to find Darling after the Caronese Resistance had taken him captive. Nothing else had mattered during the months they'd searched. And sex had been the last thing on his mind. Then, Darling had been found in a condition that made both Ture's and Zarya's combined look like a picnic. The torture and humiliation Darling had suffered at the hands of people who'd been his allies had left him psychotic.
Maris had been so occupied with saving Darling's life and sanity that he'd forgone any other need. Besides, it didn't matter. He was in love with Darling and while he might have relationships with other men, they always left him feeling hollow.
Those men weren't Darling.
Yet as he held Ture, that old need to be in love with someone who could physically love him back surged. Just once in his life, he wanted to go to bed with someone whose happiness meant more to him than his own. He would give anything if he could feel toward a lover one tenth of what he felt for Darling.
Just for one heartbeat.
But it wasn't meant to be.
He'd accepted that a long time ago. Darling would always be heterosexual. Nothing would ever change that, and his best friend would die before sleeping with him.
Why can't I walk away from Darling?
Honestly, he'd tried. He'd gone from one man to another, hoping, aching that one of them would find a way into his jaded heart.
And every one of them had disappointed him, and left him with scars that were deeper and uglier than the ones marring his body.
But as he breathed Ture in, that part of him that he hated most surged forward. Hope was a fickle whore, and he hated the fact that he was her bitch.
You've walked this path a million times, Mari.
Only Darling was Darling. Everyone else was a poor substitution.
Clenching his teeth against the wave of pain, Maris pulled back and got up. He wouldn't mourn something he couldn't change. Forget hope.
He was, and would forever be, Darling's bitch.
Ture scowled as he watched Maris clean up the food he'd brought. There was a darkness to him now that Ture didn't understand. A thick wall of sadness.
Zarya's stories of Maris went through his head. Like him, Zarya didn't trust easily. She was extremely suspicious and cautious.
Yet Maris had won her over with little effort. She idolized this man. Originally, Ture had dismissed all her stories as hero worship and delusions. He'd never dreamed that a man like Maris actually existed.
A king among princes.
Someone who wouldn't hesitate to protect what he loved. A man capable of putting the needs of others above his own. Such beasts were as rare as the fabled iksen that was said to only come out of its cave once every thousand years.
Now that Ture had found one, he wanted to hold on to it for awhile. But even as that thought went through him, he knew the truth.
Love never lasted. People betrayed. And lovers inevitably disappointed each other.
What if they didn't?
Ture tried to squelch that treacherous thought. He didn't want to have hope. Hope had never been kind to him.
Ever.
Still, he couldn't help but wonder if Maris could ever be as loyal to him as he'd been to Zarya and Darling. If Maris could hold his heart in his hand and not shatter it.
CHAPTER 3
Maris froze as he heard a knock on the door that connected his room to Ture's. In the last two weeks while Ture had been here, he'd never once knocked. Had something happened?
More frightened by that thought than he should be, he crossed the room and opened the door. Ture stood on the other side, looking gorgeous, but sheepish. "Is something wrong?"
"I can't believe I'm admitting this . . . I can't sleep and I'm lonely."
Maris smiled in understanding. He often suffered from that, too. Before Zarya, he'd always had Darling to console him on those nights. They'd stay up for hours, gaming and joking.
Now, he had Hauk for an opponent, but only so long as Hauk wasn't with a woman. Though lately, Hauk had been in a dry spell that would rival Maris's.
"You want to come in?"
A blush spread over Ture's face.
Maris smiled. "I don't expect you to get naked, hon. We're friends."
He snorted. "I don't have many of those."
"Well, you have one in me." Maris stepped back so that he could enter.
; Ture was still hesitant. For the last two weeks, he'd purposefully kept a large distance between him and Maris. He knew better than to be attracted to the friend of a friend, especially one who was as beloved as Maris was to Zarya. If they were to become involved and it didn't work out, it would be awkward for all of them.
That was the last thing he wanted.
But tonight was the anniversary of his sister's death, and he couldn't breathe from the memories and pain of her loss. He just needed something to distract his thoughts for a little while.
Biting his lip, he headed for the small settee that was in the center of Mari's sitting room. "Wow," he breathed, looking around at the elegant and spacious area. "And I thought my room was huge."
Maris smiled. "This is the queen's chambers. Rather fitting, all things considered."
Ture laughed as he sat down. "How did you end up here?"
"When Darling took power, he had me moved from my small room on the guest wing to this one so that I'd be closer to his chambers, which are just down the hall now."
"I'll bet that raised a few eyebrows."
Maris went to the breakfast bar on the far wall and poured him a cup of tea then brought it to him. There was an adorable twinkle in his eyes as he wrinkled his nose. "Still does. Even with him married, half the staff and most of the CDS still believe he's really gay and just pretending to be Zarya's husband."
Ture took the cup from his hand. "So if you have the queen's chambers, where does Zarya stay?"
"In Darling's room. Before the League kidnapped you two, he was bad about letting her out of his sight. Now . . . I'm not sure he allows her to go to the bathroom without him."
"Yes, but I like that about him."
Maris sat down on the other side of the coffee table, on a comfortable stuffed chair. He reached for his own cup of tea. "Do you want to talk about what's on your mind?"
Ture glanced away as he felt tears pricking his eyes. "My little sister died of cancer when I was a teen, and. . . ." He broke off, unable to finish the sentence. "I still can't believe she's gone."
Maris moved to kneel next to him. He placed a kind hand on Ture's knee. "I'm very sorry."
Ture swallowed against the painful lump in his throat. "It's so hard, you know? She was the only member of my family who really loved me. The only one who didn't judge me."
"Was she your only sibling?"
"No, I have an asshole brother who comes around whenever he needs a favor or money."
Maris scoffed. "Asshole brothers I know a lot about."
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