Blaise smacked Falcyn on the chest. “Don’t worry, he’s part Charonte. Hand him some barbecue sauce and he’s happy.”
Falcyn passed such an irritable scowl at Blaise that even though he was blind, Blaise felt it and shrank back – not in fear, but from common sense.
“He’s not Charonte,” Max said drily. “That would be too easy an excuse for him, and there really isn’t one. He’s just an irritable bastard… Much like Savitar.”
Savitar arched his brow. “I save your ass and you take a swipe at me? Really?”
“I’d apologize, but you hate insincerity more than you do insults.”
“Yeah, I do.” Savitar eyed the council members. “Well, we know where the dragons stand and where the wolves are officially…” He looked at Vane for confirmation on their stance.
Vane cut a vicious glare at his litter mate, Dare. “Officially, the Kattalakis Lykos, both Arcadian and Katagaria, consider Max a brother. We have no issue with him and vote that the mark be stricken.”
“I second that,” Fury concurred. “And I hope you choke on it, Dare. It and my furry ass.”
Dare took a step forward, but his sister caught him and kept him from doing something profoundly stupid. Like attacking his brothers in front of the Omegrion and Savitar.
Savitar turned his attention to the other Kattalakis Drakos, who was standing with Dare and Star. Tall and dark, the Katagari Regis favored Fang more than the others.
His ebony eyes flashed as he considered his response. After a few seconds, he pulled the silver dragon pendant from his neck and looked down at it resting in his palm. “I grew up with stories about the Dragonbane and how he killed the first Arcadian in cold, vicious blood, and started our war of species. My father impressed upon me that we were never to be such animals. That we should strive to find the human in us, even when it seemed buried and lost.” He glanced to Dare and Star. “I’m thinking that my father was wrong. We should have embraced the Drakos more than that so-called humanity.”
Darion came forward to lay his pendant in Illarion’s hand. “I vote to remove the mark and I cede my seat at the council to the rightful heir. You are the one made from Prince Eumon’s blood, not my family. It’s only right that you should be the one making the laws for our people.”
Illarion shook his head. I can’t take this.
Darion held his hands up and stepped back. “You are Regis, Stra Drago. I refuse my seat. I have no right to it.”
Savitar glanced around to the rest of the Omegrion members. “For the sake of brevity, I’m assuming the rest of you concur. Is there anyone who objects?”
Dante Pontis, the Katagaria panther Regis, held his hand up. With long dark hair he wore in a ponytail, he was the epitome of a disgruntled predator. “I’m not protesting, but I have a question.” He turned toward Maxis. “Why were you marked originally?”
Max shrugged with a nonchalance he really didn’t feel. “I’m an asshole.”
Dante grinned. “While, as a fellow asshole myself, I can respect that, care to elaborate?”
“The council mood back then was a lot different. They were still raw and pissed off from being held in a cage and experimented on. They’d just been told about the curse the Fates had handed down, that we couldn’t choose our mates. They’d be assigned to us, whether we wanted them or not, and that the Fates had decreed eternal war between our species.”
And human rationale was new to the animals, Illarion inserted. They were angry and lashing out at everyone, especially my brother and I.
Max nodded. “When they started to attack me, I reacted as any drakomas would. I told them to fuck themselves and attacked back.”
Savitar snorted disdainfully. “Talk about putting lipstick on a pig… You are allowed to say that you reacted badly.”
“All right, I reacted badly.”
“Yeah, that’s an exaggeration,” Savitar said under his breath.
Max feigned indignation. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s been a million years since I last exaggerated about anything.”
Savitar rolled his eyes.
“Anyway,” Max continued. “I lost my temper over their accusations and…” He pointed up at the ceiling. “You can still see some of the marks where the fighting broke out and we almost burned down the building.”
“That’s where I reacted badly.” Savitar flashed a fake smile. “As a result, Max was condemned and I was in no mood to refute or acquit their unanimous decision. We all had a very bad day.”
“And I’ve had a few more,” Max whispered loudly.
“Yeah. Sorry about that.” Savitar crossed his arms over his chest.
“Wow,” Dante said in a sarcastic tone. “Sounds like the mood I was in when I mounted my brother’s hide to the wall of my club.”
Savitar nodded. “Basically… So, we are all in accord?”
“Yes.” Fury flashed a devilish grin. “Dare is an asshole and nobody likes him, at all.”