Page 17 of Fixation of the Mind

After about a minute, I put my hand down. Maria narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, reminding me of her daughter, as she screeched, “You know I’m the head seat of the council, right?!” She shook her head as her hands moved to her hips, but I was finding it hard to care. Rin was stuck to my side like she needed me next to her, and I was all too happy to oblige.

I don’t give a shit, I almost said out loud. That would only cause more problems for Rin, and I wanted to get rid of problems so she would choose to stay with us. Yes, a choice was better than chains, right? But we always needed a back-up plan, and chains weren't so bad. I could have Ravi order the most comfortable kind.

Maria broke through my thoughts with a clap. “Hey, listen up!” I held in my need to tell her to shut the fuck up as I slowly pulled my eyes away from Rin.

“Layrin is the last descendant of the Rose family, which overrules your externus claim.” My body and mind froze, stunned and confused by the information she had just laid out like it was old news. I remembered that when I made my claim, she had barely batted an eye. That meant she knew that it was a high possibility that Rin was the Rose family heir before we even came in the building.

“I’ll keep that little claim to myself.” She winked. “Who knows what the others would do with that information.” I immediately wanted to growl at her, threaten her, but Rin’s fingers touched my hand, so I let the threat go… for now. “Plus, you need to get your head in the game since we decided she needs to be trained for the ‘test.’ If she passes, she will officially become the head of the Rose family.” Maria’s words were being heard, but I was still trying to wrap my head around all the life-changing information. I had a bad feeling she wasn't done yet. Not with her viper smile, fangs out, shining at me.

“Your uncle graciously offered you as her trainer for the next three months, and Layrin has accepted.” She bit out that last part, but not before my heart sank into my stomach. Bile rose up, threatening to be set free by the visions of my brothers and I doing to Layrin what was done to us. No. We can't do that. I won't do it. Not to her. Anyone but her.

Cool fingers cupped my cheeks, shaking me out of my thoughts as she turned my face toward her. Rin used her soul-piercing gray eyes to capture mine, to free me from my tormented mind. It filled my heart up again to see her searching my eyes with a concerned expression. She still cares. Even if she hates us, she still cares… and that’s a doorway back in.

I took a few ragged breaths, calming everything in my head and heart down, when she turned to Maria and said, “Done here?” When Maria nodded, Rin slid her arm into mine and squeezed hard enough for her nails to dig in, reminding me where we were. “We're going. Got a lot to do.”

“Yes. Yes, you do,” Maria replied. Leaning against a wall, she watched us with a scrupulous look. “Ambros, I’m also giving you permission for the evidence you wanted to see.”

That wasn't as important right now, so I nodded, neither Rin or I looked back as we walked out the way we had come. All the doors were opened for us, and the room with the AI assistant was dark.

“Do you need me to drive?”

Her soft, strong voice caught me off guard, and I stopped in front of the car to look at her, really look at her. The corners of her eyes wrinkled, her gorgeous plump mouth slightly parted, letting puffs of her sweet air escape her. “No. I need to think, and driving will help me focus.”

She nodded, and I pulled open her door, waiting for her to get in before I closed it and jogged around to the driver’s side. I looked at her again, and a surge of pride filled me. She had her first meeting with the council, and she was perfectly fine.

“I feel like I need to tell you that I tried really hard, but I couldn't fight them off when they took my blood.” The disappointment in her voice only angered me. She should be disappointed in us or angry at that damn council, not at herself.

Slowly turning forward, I gripped the wheel, wanting it to bend as my teeth ground together. At this rate, I was no longer going to have teeth. I pushed the start button, and the engine roared, mimicking the lion inside of me wanting to scream out. I reined the temptation in as I put the car into gear and growled, “Tell. Me. Everything.”

I would catalog each and every infraction, and once everything was said and done, I would make sure they paid the price for what they had done. No one would escape the Ambros brothers' wrath.

By the time we pulled up the driveway, I wanted to turn around and burn down the building. How dare they fucking look at her, let alone viciously question her, savagely restrain her, and steal the liquid life from her veins!

“Hey, I’m okay. Other than being judgy and stealing my blood, they weren’t as bad as I envisioned they would be. In fact, everyone was more curious than anything—everyone but your uncle, that is.” She crossed her arms, shoving them into her sides. “That man is an asshole, just saying.”

My chest tightened as a barking laugh came out at her assessment. Don’t get me wrong, I would rather have my nails ripped off one by one than have the two of them in the same room, but Rin had a way with words that calmed my troubled soul.

“Yes. That man is the fucking worst.”

As our chuckles wound down, our eyes met and something serious fell over us. Gone were our smiles and laughter, and what filled the space was hesitation and disbelief.

She was the dead family's heir. The Rose heir. She was guaranteed a seat at the table if we could train her well. It was all so unbelievable.

The fact that she was at an orphanage... How Foedus didn’t find her, I had no idea. Did they even try to find her, or did they write her off as a loss? What happened to her family? I had never learned much about the Rose family since they were a dead line before we joined, but I was very interested now.

We looked over at the front door when a bang sounded. Ravi ran out the door with Roux following closely behind. I knew they would be on board once we explained, willing to do anything to help Rin, but what if she didn’t pass, even with our help?

Shaking those thoughts from my head, I unbuckled and got out of the car at the speed of light. Facing off with my brothers, I called out, “No questions out here. We’re going to come in and discuss everything.”

Ravi’s face turned into a full-on pout, but he yanked open Rin’s door before he basically climbed into the seat on top of her. “You don’t know how worried Roux has been—pacing all over the house, making a mess, and even trying to redecorate, which means some things inside are broken. He’s been going crazy!”

Roux glanced at me, greeting me with a nod before rolling his eyes at our loud-mouth, overly dramatic brother.

Yeah, all that seemed like a Ravi thing to do.

“Roux! How could you? Ye of little faith?” Her teasing voice said to Roux, and his arms strained in their crossed state. His lips turned down into a frown as Ravi started to giggle, snuggling into Rin like she was an oversized teddy bear.

“That's right! I, however, didn't doubt you for a second! Now, Rion… Well, there were some doubts thrown his way.” He pointed at me, and I narrowed my eyes on him.

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