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ADRIC followed his father’s storming progress out of the Hall with resignation. He hadn’t expected the man to change, but in a new world...If one didn’t adapt, one died out.
The old ways his father embraced so tightly would get him and those that still followed him little in the demon world. Adric didn’t give a damn for his father or mother, but those young born to that branch of the Adrastos deserved far better.
His father was one of the first out the door. Adric and Rion were close behind. Adric wanted to put some necessary distance between himself and the older male. Before he said or did something he’d regret.
He was a leader; one his people admired. He was not going to stoop to his father’s level with threats and anger. That was not his way.
The crowd was tightening around them and yelling for answers to the questions that had plagued them all.
War came. There was no doubt about that. It was up to the leaders to decide how to protect the masses. Why didn’t his father understand the gravity of the situation they were all in? Even the Goddess of their people was terrified.
Not to mention the Laquazzeana. If they feared the wars, why didn’t his father? Did he think he was that untouchable?
Arrogance—that was Adric’s only answer.
His father charged through the gathered crowd, demanding passage.
Most got out of his way.
A flash of gray caught Adric’s attention. Gray wasn’t a first choice attire in their culture. It was usually reserved for servants of the lesser Houses, and had always been that way. Gray was an easy dye to make, after all. Easy and cheap.
Maybe it was the hair that caught him, as well. There was certainly a lot of it and bright red. Easily as red as Lana or Nora’s. Or his brother Aodhan’s mate, Mallory’s. Mallory actually had hair that same vibrant red. Mallory had once been human, though.
The female in gray cried out as his father stormed past her. Instead of getting out of the far larger male’s path, she fell to her knees in front of him. The crowd had forced her forward and she was too damned small to keep on her feet. Adric’s breath caught.
She clutched something tightly to her chest as she yelled out again.
Her yell froze his soul. It was filled with such pain and...fear. His father screamed at her and she covered whatever she held with her upper body. His father kept screaming, kept going, intent on walking through who he probably saw as just a servant girl in his way.
Adric ran for her.
It was too late; his father’s momentum sent the girl tumbling down the stone steps in front of them.
People screamed. Hands reached for the girl, but she jerked herself to her feet. Her fear battered at him.
A little dog ran through the crowd. Was that what she had been holding so protectively? Her puppy?
It made sense. Especially when she took off after the creature. The crowd was so surprised they parted and let her through, even though she was obviously injured.
The crowd swelled shut behind her, leaving Adric cut off from her completely.
He cursed and looked at his father. Anger greater than any other he had ever felt filled him.
He pulled his sword. The crowd around them hushed as he stepped closer to the male who’d fathered him. He placed the blade at his sire’s throat. “You struck a young, vulnerable, defenseless female for what? Not moving out of your way fast enough? Our females are to be protected. All of them. Explain yourself!”
His father’s surprise was there, and was echoed on the faces of Adric’s brothers who’d moved to surround them when Adric had pulled his sword. “She was just a common servant.”
His anger tripled. Adric would never forget the fear he’d felt from her as she’d fallen. Or forget how she had looked as her body had struck the stone steps. “If I needed not to find her now, I would be throwing you down these steps myself. Go, Father. And know that this between us is not yet finished! I will be claiming a mate’s right as soon as I am able. As soon as I find her. She is not a servant! She is my Rajni!”
“It is noted, brother.” His eldest brother Aodhan was there and he used his own sword to lower Adric’s. He handed Adric the bag the girl had dropped. Adric took it and inhaled his female’s scent for the first time, as emotions filled him. “Let us find your female, brother. Rion and Theo will deal with our sire and the way he treated her.”
The man on Aodhan’s left was the highest justice in their Kind. Adric knew if it was warranted, Theo would render an appropriate judgment against his father for his mistreatment of the girl.
Adric was already following in the path the girl had taken.
He was not stopping until he found her.