Chapter 28

Rane

“Rane, seriously. Enough.”

“One more drill.”

“No. Enough.” Sal’s voice was hard, bearing no further argument.

Rane, clenching his teeth, looked back at him. He was sweating. Panting. Crest fully raised. He wasn’t the only one either. The entire team was floating around, looking at him. They were all exhausted from the last two and a half marks of practice.

Rane glanced down, throat tight. But Sandy wasn’t there yet.

How long did it take to restore her fertility? Had something gone wrong?

Sal floated over, getting right in his face. Rane had no choice but to focus back on him, brow furrowed with worry and irritation.

What was taking her so long?

“What is with you, Rane?”

“I just want to practice.”

Sal snarled, pulling back.

Rane saw the punch coming but did nothing to stop or block it. The blow lacked power, as Sal was as fatigued as the others, but it got the point across as Rane grunted, head jerking to the side. It wasn’t very painful, but it definitely throbbed as he looked back at the team captain.

“If you have something to say, just say it!” Sal snapped, crest fully up in his rage.

Rane’s own was practically pulling at his scalp, it was so high. “What? You’re willing to hear me now?!”

“I was always willing to hear you, you ungrateful shit!”

Rane dodged the next punch, countering with his own that slammed right into Sal’s shoulder.

“Should we stop them?” One of the others asked as they grappled.

“Nah. This is healthy. This needed to happen.”

They were mocking him at this point, but he was too angry to care. The world narrowed. He couldn’t even see Sal’s face anymore. All he felt was this overwhelming frustration and helplessness that had nowhere to go except out. He landed probably as many blows as he took – both dulled by exhaustion but still numerous despite that.

Rane wasn’t sure who threw the last one. He just found himself finally focusing back on his captain and longtime friend, face and body all aching and throbbing, blood trickling from his nose as Sal wiped some from his lip. The two glared at each other, too tired to keep going, but still facing the wall that now existed between them.

No. That wall had been there for a long time. Meticulously laid brick by brick by his mother until now it seemed too high to climb and too thick to break through.

“Give up, you shit?” Sal asked, panting.

“ Sereei ,” he returned, just as out of breath.

“What in the greatest good is wrong with you lately, eh? You finally going through puberty or something?”

“What’s it to you?”

Sal gaped at him, eye twitching. “Are you serious?!”

“Just can’t see why you suddenly start caring now.”

“Agh!”

Sal charged him again, punching him hard enough to fly back. He was caught by Cole and Zell who each grabbed an arm and pushed him back up. Sal was already there, grabbing him by the chest straps, yanking him close with a furious snarl.

“You say that to me!? After everything I’ve done for you?!”

“For me?” Rane laughed in his face. “What have you done for me?”

“You-”

“What have you ever done for me?! ” He grabbed Sal by the wrists, pushing back against him. “Huh? Have you ever even thought to try to help me?!”

“That’s all I’ve ever done for you!”

“No! You help the team. You help my mother. You help yourself! You and everyone else here don’t actually care about me! You care about how bad I make you look!”

“You’re a grown male, Rane!”

“I’m not, actually!” Rane laughed. “I’ve never been considered ‘grown’, and I find it hilarious that you all just accept that. None of you ever thought to question it, did you!?”

“What?”

Crack!

Rane slammed his head forward, cracking his forehead into Sal’s nose. He heard it crunch and Sal lost his grip on him. Rane pushed himself up, then around, then down, past his teammates. He flew to the exit.

Sandy still wasn’t there.

His gut clenched. Something was definitely wrong.

His teammates were calling out for him, but he ran from them. Again. Though the reason couldn’t be more different this time.

Maybe she was waiting outside the locker room.

But she wasn’t there.

Maybe she had misunderstood what he said, and she had gone to wait somewhere in the stands or in his private box – though he couldn’t imagine her doing that. But, of course, she wasn’t in any of those places either.

He knew she wasn’t there. But he had to look. Or maybe he just needed to wait for a while, and she would reappear. This could just be taking longer than they expected.

But when he left the stadium, thinking maybe she was waiting for him outside, he came up short. There were Orza and Kirs. Both of them waiting by his private hover. Neither of them said anything. They didn’t even try to come grab him.

Because they didn’t need to.

They knew he would come to them now.

“Rane!”

He looked back. There was his team. Had they been following after him this whole time? Trying to catch up to him. They were determined.

Couldn’t imagine why, really.

He faced forward again. Orza had stepped to the side, allowing the door to open. Their expressions were as closed off and hostile as ever, but he could read something there. He knew what they were saying without a word.

Rane walked to the hover. He spared neither of them a glance as he stepped inside. He turned back to see his team. They had closed the distance and were now standing where he had just been, looking at him with expressions ranging from angry to confused.

The hover lifted off the ground, turned from the stadium, and bore him away. He felt strangely like he was going to his own execution as he sat back.

“Where is Sandy?”

No response but silence. Rane didn’t really expect an answer from either of them, but he had to try to ask anyway.

“If either of you have hurt her, I’m going to rip your skin off one scale at a time.”

Nothing.

Rane didn’t try again. He just waited. He had a horrible feeling he was going to find out soon. He would deal with whatever his mother was doing now. So long as Sandy was safe, so long as they hadn’t hurt her, he could deal with anything.

The ride was tense and silent aside from those two questions. Orza and Kirs didn’t even say anything when they pulled the hover up in front of the manor. They simply pressed a button, opening the door, allowing him to walk out.

They caught up to him halfway up the steps. They didn’t grab him, just flanked him on either side, as he went up through the main doors. When he would have climbed those steps to get to his mother’s office, where he assumed he would go, they finally took hold of him. Each one grabbing a shoulder and turning him down a different hall.

He knew exactly where they were going from there. The place his mother liked to keep him locked up – the basement punishment room. It’s where he had been when Sandy had gotten control over the house last time.

He supposed he was going to be there until she succeeded again.

That didn’t bother him. He spent a lot of time there, especially before Sandy got there. It was practically his second room. There wasn’t really anything special about it. The room was just a basic one with four walls and a drain in the floor. That came in handy when his mother remembered to send Orza or Kirs to hose him down or when they needed to clean up blood after beating him unconscious. Multipurpose.

But when the door opened and he was shoved inside, his heart dropped.

“Sandy,” he breathed.

His little human female was silent again. Looking at him with an impassive expression that did well at hiding how afraid she must be.

But not completely because she was on her knees, hands magcuffed behind her back, hair clutched in his mother’s fist forcing her head up. Her shoes were off, and he saw the dusting of bruises along her arms where Orza and Kirs had grabbed her.

He would kill them.

No matter what it cost him, he would kill them for hurting her like this.

Elffa smiled at him when one of the duo shoved him to his own knees. They grabbed his arms, jerking them back, as they pushed his shoulders down. Forcing him into a position of supplication in front of his mother.

From here, he caught sight of the shine of metal in her hand. The hand not holding Sandy was clutching a long, thin knife. The sight made him freeze.

Elffa twisted it. Letting him have a good look.

“Practice ran long today, son. Were you perhaps waiting for your little whore to return from the clinic. Hm?”

He followed Sandy’s lead and said nothing. Biting his tongue so hard it bled in an effort to keep from demanding she get that thing away from her.

“Sad to say, she didn’t make it.” Elffa lifted the knife, smiling. “It was a good attempt though. I almost missed the clause that if she got pregnant before mating you, that adulthood would automatically be conferred upon her. Very sneaky. You’re getting more clever. But unfortunately for you, that just means I have to get more restrictive.”

“Don’t kill her!” Rane broke, blurting out the words as his fear for his female overrode his attempt at keeping his mouth shut.

Elffa laughed. “I’m not going to kill her. That would ruin the entire reason I brought her. If I killed your mate right before your eyes, at best you’d become useless to me. At worst, you might just take yourself out entirely. And that would be a waste.”

Sandy’s icy fa?ade broke. Her gaze darted over to Elffa, then back to him. Something like concern quickly hidden.

Did she not know? Male telfay lived for their females. His mother was absolutely right. If something happened to her, he wouldn’t be able to survive her loss. If they were mated, he might die there on the spot the moment he realized she was gone. The shock of despair and pain was often too much for a male to bear.

But since they weren’t mated, it would probably just render him near vegetative. He would still be there, still alive and capable of thought, but he wouldn’t want to be anymore. He would lose all his drive and desire if Sandy wasn’t there.

Is that what was happening now? Was Elffa threatening Sandy to remind him that she owned and controlled him?

“Don’t be crude, Rane,” she gave him a look, as though disappointed in the direction his thoughts had taken. “That’s not what this is. I already said I’m not going to kill her.”

“Why am I here then?” Sandy asked, her voice completely stable and strong. “What was the reason you even brought me here?”

“To be Rane’s mate, of course.”

“But why? What does that buy you?”

Elffa chuckled, tapping the flat of her blade against her thigh. “So, you found the law about immigrant parents being granted adult status, but not the one about legal limits on adult guardianship?”

Rane frowned. “Limits? What limits? You’ve taken even my ability to appeal. You have total control over me!”

“Yes.” She sighed. “But only for another three years. In three years, you’ll be thirty-five. Which will automatically transfer your case to a higher tribunal for review.”

He did know that, in fact. Back when he once believed he could fight against his mother, he’d looked up the laws surrounding guardianship. But he figured it wouldn’t matter after the smear campaign that his mother had taken him through all his life. Everyone would know that he was a drug and alcohol addicted sex fiend who couldn’t be trusted to take care of himself. That wouldn’t change just because his case was moved up to a higher tribunal.

Unless…

He stared at his mother, understanding dawning. “It’s already gone to a higher tribunal. You meant the highest tribunal.”

Elffa gave him a look that might have been pride. “It seems my son might have inherited some of my intelligence after all. Local tribunals oversee initial adulthood cases. Higher tribunals take over for regional or complex cases. Which yours is. And has been for the last fifteen years. Your fame, your notoriety, the fact that you’ve been denied further appeals, means that you have already been overseen by a higher tribunal. Which means, when you reach thirty-five, the only place left to go is the highest tribunal.”

Rane laughed, but it was a sound without humor. “And you don’t have any friends on the highest tribunal, do you?”

“Unfortunately not,” she agreed with a sad sigh. “There’s a chance, no matter how small, that my efforts will have failed, and they will approve your right of adulthood. I can’t leave this up to chance. Luckily, I have a solution.”

“How am I a solution?” Sandy asked. “He’s still going to age up in three years.”

“Yes. But you won’t, will you?” Elffa leaned over, smiling at her. “You see, your age is in human years, which are much smaller than ours. Furthermore, Rane, as a consequence of having been under adult guardianship for over ten years, is not allowed to be an adult guardian by himself. If his mate was already an adult and you had young, he’d be allowed to be their father, of course. But if he mates someone now, even if he is cleared for adulthood at this very moment, he won’t be allowed to be your guardian. That will go to the next trusted relative. Me.”

“That won’t happen!” Rane swore, struggling against Orza and Kirs. But he couldn’t stop the twisting fear in his belly because his mother looked so self-satisfied.

“It will,” she promised. “I might have let you continue to live your life for a bit longer. You were doing such a good job of making yourselves look foolish, you didn’t need me. But then Drevor betrayed me, and you actually made a plan that could have gotten you away from me. So, you’ve done this to yourself.”

She raised the knife, pulling harder on Sandy’s hair. Jerking her upright.

“Don’t hurt her!” Rane roared, Orza and Kirs’ claws dug into his flesh, drawing blood.

Elffa smiled and turned, slashing the knife across Sandy’s shoulder. Bright red blood welled to the surface. It dripped down her chest, staining her pale purple shirt.

“Open his mouth,” Elffa ordered.

Rane struggled. He tried fighting them. Understanding, in an instant, what they were about to do. But they already had him under their control.

Orza took both of his arms and yanked against them with his knee in his back, controlling his body, as Kirs grabbed his face, digging into it with his blunt claws, and forcing his jaws open. Rane tried to bite him. To force his lips shut.

Elffa swiped her hand up through Sandy’s blood, gathering it in her hand.

She approached him with such a sweet, victorious smile.

“Don’t worry, my son,” she laughed. “I’ll take good care of your mate. And if you do exactly as I command, I’ll even let you visit her on occasion.”

Rane let out a wordless roar of horrified denial but couldn’t stop his mother from slapping her bloody hand over his open mouth. Nor could he prevent Sandy’s blood from being smeared against his lips. Onto his tongue. All in his mouth.

Elffa stepped back and Kirs this time forced his jaw shut, covering his mouth, keeping him from spitting anything out.

Too late.

That was her taste on his tongue. Sweat and hot and overwhelming. He couldn’t stop himself from swallowing. Not that it mattered. All that was necessary was the taste.

Rane couldn’t properly describe what was happening to him. There was a rushing in his ears, a pounding in his chest, a cramping in his belly. There was heat. Spreading from his guts up into his brain, down to his rapidly hardening cock. The world narrowed, and all he could see was Sandy there, staring at him with wide, surprised eyes.

Someone was saying something, but he couldn’t make out the words.

It didn’t matter. He needed his female. The power of the mating bond snapping into place robbed him of any other thought or concern. He just needed her. So deeply. So strongly. It felt like his body was being ripped apart.

He stood, staggering her way. Entranced by those big, green eyes in that delightfully human shaped face. He wanted to fall into them and drown.

He had to have her. The need was a fiery brand incinerating him from the inside out. His cock hurt , his balls throbbing. He needed his female.

She was there. On her knees. Hands behind her. Looking up at him with surprise. A hint of fear.

He reached for her.