Renegade (The Captive Series Book 2) (26 page)

Braith was frozen, he couldn’t move
through the shock that gripped him. “Where were you all that time?”
Arianna asked softly.

“Hiding with our servants. It was dumb
luck that I was caught, that I was forced back to that hellhole.
They had presumed me dead, though the guards had been honest with
father and told them that they had not seen me. They assumed that I
had either died before the raid, or that I had been somewhere else
and died later; they felt it unlikely that I was able to survive,
and stay hidden, on my own. I was in a village that had been deemed
a possible traitorous threat when it was raided, my servants, my
family was killed. If Jericho hadn’t been with them I probably
would have been killed also, but even after all our years apart, he
recognized me.”

“Blood knows blood,” Braith said
softly. Arianna shuddered.

“He’s the reason I’m still
alive.”

“Does he know what happened to our
mother?”

Melinda swallowed heavily, Ashby was
becoming edgier. “I hid it from him at first, but when he wanted to
bring me back to the palace I refused to go. I was afraid of
father, of what he would do to me. I became hysterical when he
insisted that I was to return, when he tried to force me back I
spilled the story in my panic. I told him why I could not return.
He is the only other one that knows.

“He told me to tell father that I had
seen nothing the day our mother was killed; that the servants had
taken me out shopping that day, and only found mother’s body that
night. I was to tell them that I hadn’t returned to the palace
because I was uncertain of how to get there, and fearful of
wandering too far from the only home I’d ever known. He told me to
keep quiet no matter what, but that he had to take me back. The
other guards had seen me; there was no way that he could let me go
without looking suspicious. Father would continue to hunt me until
I was uncovered again, and he would probably kill me when he did
find me. But if I went back on my own I would be able to keep my
knowledge of events quiet. No matter how angry and resentful I was
I had no choice but to return. All I could do was hope to escape
one day.”

“Jack knew about this,” Braith grated.
“The whole time.”

“Jack?” Ashby asked in
surprise.

“Jericho,” Arianna answered when Braith
remained silent. He was furious. Furious that his father had done
this, furious that his siblings had kept him in the dark for so
long, furious that he had stood by his father’s side, and been a
pawn in all of their lies and treacheries for so long. He
understood their reasons why they hadn’t told him, but he wanted to
throttle them all for their duplicity. It would not continue any
longer. He may not be his father’s heir anymore, but he was still a
prince, he was still the next in line. He would rule. He would set
right all of the wrongs that he had so blindly followed. “When
Jericho came to live with us in the forest, he changed his name to
Jack. It’s what we know him as.”

“It’s who he is,” Braith grated.
Arianna glanced up at him in surprise, her eyes wide, her mouth
parted slightly. Her hands were firm in his grasp, warm, and oh so
very fragile. “It’s who he’s been since he encountered Melinda. It
was only six years ago that he was able to break free and
officially become Jack, officially allow that other side of him to
come out. He left that palace with no intention of ever coming back
again.”

The betrayal was knifing, and far
deeper than he had ever expected it to be. When Jack had taken
Arianna, Braith had known that Jack had changed, that he was not
the brother he had known, but Jack had not been that brother for
far longer than Braith had ever suspected. Arianna leaned against
him; she released his hand to wrap her arm around his waist,
holding him closer to her. Her forehead rested against his chest,
he could feel her aching hurt and knew that it was for him. He
wanted to be resentful of her sympathy, but he couldn’t be, not
when she was so wonderfully good at easing his hurt.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he
demanded.

“Because we were trying to keep you
safe. No matter how little you knew our mother, your sense of duty,
your sense of responsibility, your sense of honor would have driven
you to go after father, and he would have killed you. We wanted to
wait, to bide our time until we thought that there might actually
be a chance to take father down.”

“And you believe that time is
now?”

Melinda’s grey eyes flickered, sadness
crept slowly into them. “You are a powerful ally, but no, I didn’t
think this was the right time. None of us did. But it’s been thrust
upon us at this point, and I don’t think there is any way to change
the flow of this tide. Not anymore.”

“Were you ever going to tell
me?”

“One day. We weren’t entirely sure
when, we were just waiting for the right moment. None of us
expected you to fall in love with a human, your blood slave, and to
have her be one of the prominent figures of the resistance no less.
How could any of us have seen that coming?”

Braith was silent for a long moment. He
took strength in Arianna’s presence, and unwavering love and
loyalty, but it could not ease the betrayal festering inside of
him. He had thought that Caleb and Natasha were the deceitful and
manipulative ones, apparently he was wrong. It seemed they were all
dark and twisted in their own ways; they had all held and kept
their secrets from each other.

“What a wonderful and trusting family
we are,” he drawled sarcastically.

“We were only trying to keep everyone
as safe as possible,” Melinda said softly. “If father had known
anything…” Her voice trailed off, horror filled her gaze as she
shook her head. “Awful, it would have been awful.”

Braith silently agreed, but he wasn’t
willing to concede anything to her yet. In fact, he didn’t want to
speak to her at all right now. “Your father used the war as an
excuse to kill your mother, and probably Melinda, but why?” Arianna
asked quietly.

“Because he didn’t use the war as an
excuse to kill our mother, he used it as an excuse to start the
war.” Arianna jumped slightly in surprise, but Braith had sensed
Jack’s steady approach a few minutes ago.

Braith turned slowly toward his brother
as he pushed Arianna gently toward the wall. He could not stop his
instinctual urge to protect her from the people that had entered
the room. Even before she uttered the word dad, he knew immediately
which one of the hardened, disbelieving, angry men was her
father.

And the man was mad enough to
kill.

CHAPTER
16

Aria tried to take a step toward her
father, but Braith held her tight. The muscles in his ridged arms
clamped against her, the hard muscles of his body rippled beneath
his clothes. She had not missed the fact that Braith had turned
her, putting her in a more secure position, using his body to
defend hers.

But there was no need for him to
protect her. This was her father, her family. And as she watched
William and Daniel slipped into the room behind Jack and her
father. “It’s ok Braith,” she whispered.

“Wait,” he hissed; his voice low and
commanding. She frowned at him, but did not fight against his hold.
He was thrown off balance right now; he needed her with him in
order to keep himself steady. Otherwise he might hurt someone in
this room, someone she cared about, someone he cared
about.

“You told him everything?” Jack asked
softly.

Melinda nodded; she stepped closer to
Ashby as she eyed Aria’s family wearily. Melinda didn’t trust her
own kind, and it was more than apparent she didn’t trust humans
either. Especially rebel humans. “Can I untie him now?” she
inquired of Braith, her voice wavering slightly. He remained
unmoving, his eyes dark and intense. “We can’t take you down
Braith; all of us combined probably couldn’t take you
down.”

“He knows that, and that’s not what
he’s worried about. That’s never what he’s worried about anymore,”
Jack said softly.

“Then what!?” Melinda demanded, her
composure beginning to unravel. She was frustrated, angry that
Ashby was still being restrained. “What Braith, what do you
want!?”

Jack’s gaze came slowly to Aria, she
frowned fiercely back at him. “He can protect himself, but if one
of us, just one gets by him…”

“You don’t have to fear my family
Braith, they won’t hurt me,” Aria said softly, reassuringly. She
ran her hands up and down his arms, looking to soothe him. “And you
don’t have to fear yours.”

“Don’t I?”

She shook her head, standing on tiptoe
she pulled him down to her to make sure that he could hear her, but
no one else could. “If they wanted to hurt you they would have done
so by now. They may have kept things from you, but even you admit
you were in the wrong place at the wrong time when you were
blinded. None of them meant for you to be hurt, in fact they’ve
been trying to protect you for a long time. Anyone of them could
have killed you in that palace if they had really wanted to. Jack
could have hurt me in the forest, rather than giving me back to
you.”

“I’m not risking your life,” he
growled.

“You won’t be,” she promised. “Just let
her untie Ashby, Braith. I couldn’t stand to see you like that
either. They haven’t earned your trust Braith, not yet, but you
haven’t earned theirs either.”

His jaw clenched, a muscle jumped in
his cheek. For a brief moment his arms tightened on her, and then,
ever so slowly, his grip relaxed. “Untie him,” he ordered briskly.
“But I will kill you both if you come anywhere near
her.”

Melinda stared at Aria for a long
moment, her eyes wide with surprise and thanks. Then she turned
swiftly to Ashby, her fingers flew deftly over the knots. Aria
refused to look at her family; she could feel their shocked,
horrified gazes; she didn’t have to see them. Ashby’s hands came
forward; he rubbed his wrists together as Melinda untied his
ankles.

As the last of the ropes fell away,
they embraced tightly, clinging to one another. Aria’s heart went
out to them, her hands clenched tighter on Braith. She needed him
so much, needed his embrace and touch and security. She wanted to
run from here with him, and her family, but she had a feeling that
wasn’t going to happen for a very long time, if ever. There was
something changing inside of Braith, something evolving and growing
within him that frightened her. She wanted to cling to him, to
never let him go. She wanted to stay grounded with him forever, but
it wasn’t going to happen. Not if whatever was going on inside of
him was any indication.

She’d been well aware of the fact that
he’d had no solid plan for them when they’d fled those caves. He
had a plan now, or at least he had some idea of what he intended to
do. The only problem was that his plan was going to terrify her,
and it was going to leave her out, of that much she was
certain.

“Aria?”

She turned slowly toward her family,
trying hard to keep her tears, and fear, at bay. Her father was
watching them intently, his head turned slightly to the side as he
inspected her. He was normally clean shaven, but he had a couple
days worth of growth shadowing his strong jaw. His hair was dark
auburn like hers, and William’s, but recently it had started to
become streaked with strands of white that also shadowed his beard.
His eyes were a bright, piercing green that had never failed to pin
her to the spot and make her squirm. Time had etched lines around
his eyes and mouth, but he was still a handsome man. Especially
when he smiled, which wasn’t very often, and certainly wasn’t
now.

She wanted to go to him, to all of
them, but Braith’s tension was too high. “I’m ok dad,
really.”

She offered him a tremulous smile that
did nothing to soothe the tension humming through him. His gaze
traveled slowly to Braith. Hatred simmered in his gaze, but there
was also confusion and disbelief. “This is the prince?” he
inquired.

Aria rested her hand on Braith’s chest,
trying to soothe the anger she felt rapidly building in him. She
knew it was not going to be easy, but her family would have to
learn to trust him as they had learned to trust Jack. And Braith
was going to have to learn to trust someone besides her.

“One of them,” Braith replied in a low
growl. “The youngest one is standing in front of you.”

Her father’s eyes darted briefly to
Jack, but he didn’t acknowledge Braith’s words. “You’re the one
that claimed my daughter as a blood slave; you’re the one that took
her this time also.”

“Yes.”

Fury flashed across her father’s face.
William and Daniel’s eyes widened, but they did not radiate the
hatred her father did. “You held her, you tortured her…”

“I have told you many times that I was
not tortured in there!” Aria interrupted sharply.

“I saw the bite marks!” her father
snapped.

Aria blinked in surprise. Her hands
tightened on Braith’s arms, not to comfort him this time, but
because she needed his strength. “Everything I gave, I gave
willingly,” she said softly, truthfully.

“Like hell!”