Ruins of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #3) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,24

real. She can’t be my mate because that would mean I got fucking played from the beginning.”

“Or Aria’s your mate, and that is why she’s perfect to you because she’s flawed, Knox. The need to be around her isn’t primal to the rest of us, and you’re fighting that urge to claim her even now. The scent of her blood, the call of her womb, we felt it and have resisted it. You? You’re in a war to defy those impulses, which we all are feeling the closer she gets to her time. Only one of us is fighting our beast to remain in control, and that’s you, brother. Don’t make Aria into your enemy because she’s not wrong. She is very powerful. Whatever she is, they made her to rule this world.”

Knox snorted, pushing the hair away from my face. His mouth lowered, brushing against my forehead softly. “Whatever she is, she is mine. That isn’t changing, Brander.”

“I know you don’t want my advice, but here it is anyway. Marry Aria. Claim her as your Queen and claim her throne before she rises because when she does, and she will, well, the king takes the queen, and that is one rule within the Nine Realms that no one can argue. She’s an unwed Hecate witch, and we both know what that means better than she does. Claim her, marry her, and then do whatever the fuck you want with her, but do it soon, brother. She’s about to come into her power, and when she does, only the laws will prevent her from ending the world in her fury. We caused that fury. So don’t let her fucking rise without a king at her side to harness her rage and protect the Nine Realms. If nothing else, you’ll be ahead of damage control before it’s a fucking problem.”

I couldn’t even blink at what he’d just stated. Brander was on the asshole list. Hell, they all were. I was going to eat their fucking faces and laugh while doing it! Bastards! Did they really think I’d marry Knox and allow that to happen? I would have to claim the throne, and the only way to challenge the high queen was to place a crown on my head and announce my intention to take it by force, which wasn’t happening!

Knox brushed his fingers over my cheek before his lips touched against my forehead again. I groaned, wanting to push him away but unable to even lift my arm. He swept the hair away from my face, lifting my lips to take in the damage, and Brander snorted as if shocked at how far I would go to protect my family.

That answer was very simple.

All the way.

I’d sell my soul to the devil himself to protect my family. Considering who held me and what he intended to do with me, I was pretty sure Knox was the devil incarnate, and I was his current chew toy. That was a disaster given the present conversation and the fact that he hadn’t disavowed or argued with Brander this time.

Chapter Seven

Knox

I watched as Aria slipped from the tent, scanning her surroundings before moving to a tree and folding her body beneath it to sit. I fisted my hands at my sides, needing to offer comfort but knowing she wouldn’t take it from me. I’d tried soothing her the last few nights when she’d awoken amidst a nightmare. Her sorrow-filled screams ripped me apart, but the moment I touched her, they’d only grown louder.

She ached and probably hated me, and I didn’t fucking blame her. I couldn’t stand myself either. Her words about my family had cut deeper than anything else had since discovering my wife’s corpse on our bed. I’d lashed out, hurting her badly, needing to make her words stop, yet needing to hear the horrid lies whispered from her pretty lips, meant to rip me apart inside and out.

If I admitted Liliana wasn’t my perfect mate, it meant this war and everything I’d done had been for nothing. It suggested my entire life had been a lie, and the family I’d loved and mourned hadn’t been mine. I couldn’t believe that they weren’t real. Sven was mine. I felt his loss to this day. His death had ripped me apart. Each of his thousand deaths had torn me open anew, ripping me to shreds while disease ravaged his tiny body in my arms as I held him.

Aria felt right, but her timing was