Born of Defiance

Little had the stupid bitch known, Jayne’s own grandmother was a full-blooded Andarion. It was why her hair was black and she was so tall. And it’d been just such prejudice that had forced her grandmother from her homeworld and made Jayne’s father the angry criminal he was.

Feeling for Talyn and knowing he had to be even more nervous on his first day than the others, Jayne had gone over to him.

“Hi.”

He’d glanced up at her with a frown that said he wasn’t sure why she was talking to him.

“I need your name so I can mark you as present.”

Instead of speaking and exposing his tiny fangs, he’d pulled his name tag from his shirt and handed it to her.

“Talon Batter?” She’d intentionally mispronounced it to force him to speak.

His eyes full of patience, he’d shaken his head. “Tah-lean BAH-tour.” His little high-pitched voice had barely been a purred whisper as he rolled his l and r like only a native Andarion speaker could.

Jayne had held her hand out to him. “I’m Miss Erixour. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Talyn.”

Cocking his head in an adorable fashion, he’d stared at her hand as if he wasn’t sure what to do with it. Which made sense, since Andarions didn’t greet each other that way.

Jayne had dropped her arm as she was called away to assist with other students. But over the next few weeks, her heart had broken more and more for the boy who was ignored at best and mocked at worst.

Talyn never spoke. To anyone. He just glared out at the world with a procacious gaze and tolerated the meanness so that no one at their school would call Galene about his behavior and get his mother into trouble at work.

Months had gone by with Jayne wondering about his parents, and why they’d so cruelly put him in a Hyshian school, until the day when word had come that Talyn’s mother had been severely injured in an attack on the Andarion tizirah. As Jayne helped him pack his bag to go home, she’d finally seen real vulnerability inside him. He’d been so afraid, his little hands had trembled.

“She’ll be fine, Talyn.”

Still, stark terror and grief had glowed deep in his white eyes. It had stunned her how well he’d managed emotions that had to be tearing him up inside.

When the office had called to say his great-grandmother was there to take him home with her, Jayne had thought nothing more as she sent him to the front.

Hours later, she’d been on her way to her transport when she happened to glance to the side doors, out of habit to double check their room entrance. Talyn was there, huddled behind a set of bushes, with his books spread around him as he did his homework.

Scowling, she’d gone over to him. “Talyn? What are you still doing here? I thought your great-grandmother picked you up hours ago.”

When he met her gaze, his young eyes had betrayed the bitter agony inside his heart. “My gre paran came while I was getting in her transport, and said that he doesn’t want a mongrel dog tainting his home and making it smell. He pulled me out and made my gre yaya leave me here.”

Jayne was aghast at the cruelty. “She just left you in the parking lot?”

He nodded without emotion.

“Why didn’t you come back to class?”

He’d sighed heavily. “I tried, but there was no one to check me in again. The office secretary said that I couldn’t do it without an adult and that I wasn’t supposed to be on campus without being checked in. She told me if I didn’t go, she’d call security. And I didn’t want to get into trouble, so I hid here.”

Tears had scalded her throat as she imagined how the poor boy must feel after being so cruelly abandoned. So much for Hyshians being a compassionate race. Bastards. “Who else can I call to come get you?”

Swallowing hard, he looked up with tears in his eyes. “I’ll just wait for my mama. She’ll come for me when she can.”

Jayne had knelt down beside him. “Baby, your mother’s in surgery. She can’t come.”

“She’ll come. She will. I’ll wait here for her so she can find me and won’t be worried.”

Cupping his cheek, she did her best to understand his situation. As crazy as her family had been, she’d always had someone she could rely on. Someone who would come for her. Even in jail. “Talyn, I can’t leave you here alone, overnight. It’s not safe. You’ll freeze. Don’t you have anyone else to call?”

He’d shaken his head. “It’s just me and my mama. We don’t need anyone else.”

In that moment, she’d decided to take him home with her. She knew better than to call the authorities. There was no telling what Hyshians might do to a lone Andarion male. Even a boy. While they’d been currently at peace, they’d fought enough in the past that some Hyshians harbored a profound hatred of his species. In spite of his Andarion heritage, Talyn was a gentle soul, and the last thing she’d wanted was for anyone to hurt him.