She ran through the events of the last couple of decades. What else had Drake lied about? “Do you remember when my uncles were taken by the Kurjans?” Sam, Logan, and Garrett had all been kidnapped at one point and tortured mercilessly before they’d escaped. “You told me at the time that you had no idea they’d been taken. Was that the truth?”
“No,” Drake said. “I knew where they were, and I knew who was torturing them. My father was one of the people questioning them.”
“So you lied to me,” she said.
“Only because I had to. You don’t understand the way war works.”
“Nobody understands the way war works.” She threw her hands up. “The whole point of our connection was we wouldn’t be at war, that we would trust each other and be honest.”
For years, Paxton had been warning her that Drake was lying and that he wasn’t the person she wanted him to be, the person she needed him to be. “I don’t know what my path is,” she muttered. “I do know that we’re supposed to find peace together.”
Drake reclaimed his glass and swallowed the rest of the Scotch. “I do know your path. You’re going to be my queen.”
“What if I don’t want to be queen?” She stood, ready to fight.
His gaze was cold. Frozen. “Irrelevant. I would prefer to have your acquiescence, but I don’t need it.”
“Are you truly so unfeeling?”
He sighed as if annoyed she didn’t understand him. “This is who I am. My path has always been clear. I knew I would lead the Kurjan nation, and I knew I would take down the Realm, from within if necessary.”
“Lying to me through the years, even when we were kids, was an acceptable way for you to do that.” It was strange, but his betrayal hurt. She had thought they were friends. He had known they were enemies.
“Sit down,” he ordered.
She sat, trying to find some sort of way to get through to him. “I won’t be forced into a mating.”
If anything, he looked bored. “You’ll be forced in any direction I want you to go. It is completely up to you what kind of life you have with my people. You can be queen and have all the freedom, riches, friends you want, or you can be queen and be kept in a nice little gilded cage. It is up to you, but you will give me sons.”
Her mouth went dry. There was nothing soft or relenting about him. Worse yet, there didn’t seem to be any emotion. He’d never shown a lot as they’d been growing up, but she had figured that was just since he was out of his element in the dreamworld. She now realized he’d been far nicer there.
The door opened, and Vero and Hunter, disguised as a Kurjan, strode into the room. “How could you not tell me?” Vero asked, his voice a low rumble of anger.
She turned to keep him fully in her sights. She’d only met him in dreamworlds, and he’d always seemed pretty mellow. He was anything but that right now.
“I didn’t think you needed to know,” Drake said.
Vero just stared at him, and for a moment, Hope thought he might take a shot at Drake. “Well, you’re a fucking bastard.”
She caught her breath. So much for those two being on the same page.
Drake glanced at Hunter.
Hope was very careful not to look at her cousin. She couldn’t give him away, so she kept her focus on Vero. “What’s going on?” she asked.
Rage mottled Vero’s handsome face. “I have a brother.”
“Not for long,” Drake said. “As soon as we announce this mating, I’m going to spend a good few days with him. There isn’t going to be anything left, I promise.”
Hope looked at Drake and then Vero. “What do you mean you have a brother?”
It was Hunter who spoke. “Apparently Paxton’s true father was a Kurjan named Talt. He was also Vero’s father.”
Hope’s world spun away and came back. “Wait, what? Pax is a Kurjan?”
Chapter Thirty
Hope couldn’t breathe as she looked at the males around her. “Pax is not a Kurjan.” That was impossible; Drake was just messing with them all. “He can go in the sun. He doesn’t look anything like a Kurjan.”
Drake smiled, and the sight was not pleasant. “Apparently our scientists were hard at work pursuing more than one avenue with their research. Paxton’s mother was taken during the last war. A few demonesses were experimented upon. It was a dangerous and new type of in vitro fertilization, because Talt had not yet mated Vero’s mother. Most of the females died, but Paxton’s mother lived.”
“She must’ve been terrified,” Hope whispered, horror filling her.
“Yes,” Drake said. “But according to the journal, she was more frightened of the demon nation than of us. So when she discovered she was pregnant, she followed orders.”
Hope sat back in her chair, feeling as if she might fall. “So, how?” None of this made any sense.
Vero shook his head. “I can’t believe it. I remember my father as being cruel, but I didn’t think even he’d do something like this.” He looked at Hope. “Apparently they genetically altered Paxton in the womb, so he would look mostly demon like his mother. They made the Kurjan genes dormant until...” He swallowed.
“He was hit by those darts?” Hope asked, her eyes widening. “Those were meant for Paxton, not for me.” That’s why the drug had disappeared from her system while it had seemed to take hold in Paxton’s. It was all unbelievable. “What was Talt’s grand plan?”
Drake shrugged. “From what I’ve read, the plan was for Paxton’s mother to raise him in the demon nation, train and guide him, so we’d have somebody on the inside. It was brilliant, really. But then a few years in, apparently she changed her mind.”
“Of course she changed her mind,” Hope said. “She saw how people should live and how women should be treated. No doubt she knew instantly she didn’t want her son growing up in your environment.”
“That’s what it looks like,” Vero said, tapping the leather-bound book in his hand. “They ordered her death, and Paelotin followed through.”
Hope’s mind spun. “So Paelotin was working with the Kurjans from the beginning?”
“Yes. He was paid a fortune,” Drake said.
“When did you find out?” Hunter asked Drake directly.
Drake looked at Vero and then glanced at Hope before turning to stare at Hunter. “I discovered Talt’s journal about ten years ago.”
Vero took a step back, his blue eyes widening and his shoulders squaring. “You discovered I had a brother a decade ago?”
“You don’t have a brother,” Drake returned quickly. “Paxton Phoenix is not your brother. Biologically, you may share a sperm donor, but considering he’s going to be dead before next week, I wouldn’t get too attached.”
“I just saw him,” Vero said. “I don’t think he’s going to survive the next couple of hours. You’ve shot him full of too many of those darts.”
“That would be unfortunate,” Drake said. “But it took that much of the drug to awaken the Kurjan genes. He needs to be half Kurjan before I kill him. I want to take him into the sun and show him how much it hurts. He’s always made fun of me for not liking the sun—it’s time for him to feel her bite.”