Page 88 of Moon Kissed

“That— That’s not— That can’t be—” Badr looked like he might faint.

A move I didn’t recommend, because the minute he went down, I was kicking the shit out of his unconscious body—promise to Luame or no.

Tears soaked my face. I never wanted to talk about this. Never! “Fuck you, you monster! You really are brothers. What the hell kind of twisted seed is your son-of-a-bitch father carrying in that wrinkled sack!”

Badr flinched like I slapped him. Like he had no idea how this turned around on him.

“Hey, Badr, man,” a soft voice said. “Maybe back off of her.”

“What?” Badr cried. “Her? You’re all worried about her now?” Suddenly, he was shouting. “Are you fucking serious right now? She’s lying! I knew my brother. He would never do any of those things. He didn’t even know her before that night!”

I glared at him with all the hatred festering in my soul. “Castor barged into my life, and dominated every aspect of it since I was twelve years old. He ripped my heart out of my chest, and bound it to him with chains made of my stolen freewill. The fact that you didn’t know that... proves you never knew Castor at all.”

“You’re a liar!” he roared, showering me in spittle.

“Badr,” Ava cried.

“Tell the truth!” Grasping the chair arms, he shook it—wood, me, and all—rattling my bones like marbles in a pouch.

“Badr!”

“My brother was a good man! He never touched you! He never hurt you!”

Head bouncing around on my shoulders, I caught a glimpse of the clock and the final ticking seconds of my ten minutes. Lips parting, I whispered, “Castor hurt me worse than anyone ever has or ever could. Because of him, I lost the only good thing in my life.” Tears rolled down my cheeks. “Because of him, she’s gone. Forever.”

“It’s not true!”

“Badr, get off her. Get off!”

Hands grabbed his arms and shoulders and pried him off. Badr was thrown none-too-gently across the room. He tripped over the step to the dais and collapsed on the floor. He didn’t get up.

He didn’t move.

Nyx and Paxton dropped down next to him, checking on their friend.

“Guys, come on,” Nyx called. The tide had turned in the room, and everyone felt it. “No matter what Castor did, she still murdered him in cold blood in front of thousands of witnesses. If he was so evil and horrible, why didn’t she tell someone what he was doing to her?”

Crash!

“You mean like my parents did, alpha boy?” Tracy toppled the chair jumping up. “When an alpha made my father give him the deed to our home for free. Those shit cops said our home was too nice for the likes of us in the first place. We lived in a shelter for three years!”

“Exactly.”

“So arrogant.”

“Clueless.”

“Have no idea what the rest of us deal with.”

Nyx rocked back in the face of their disdain. Oh yes, this wasn’t going the way they thought at all.

“All right,” Orion shouted, breaking through the noise. “Maybe most of us didn’t know Castor as well as we thought we did, and maybe you all are happy to condemn him to never receiving justice based on the word of a liar and murderer.

“But what about Nia?”

One name, and silence fell again.

“What about Holly and Mr. Hall? What about the pathetic, sycophantic worms she wants to crush under her boots— Oh, wait, that’s all of you.”

---