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Soon, she promised herself.
She would deal with that feathery bitch soon enough. No one fucked with Alexandra Tollman – and that was on her grandmother’s good name.
Chapter 14
Rane
“Filthy, disgusting, whore!”
Glass shattered against the wall as his mother raged. She had been going on for some time now, and only seemed to be getting more heated. Her fury was accompanied by the throbbing pain in Rane’s body. The many bruises and broken bones were a gift from Orza and Kirs. A rather standard punishment from his mother. Binding him in place and letting them beat him into submission. Not one he’d endured in some time, admittedly. Maybe that was why the pain was so acute today.
The cracked ribs made it hard to breathe, one swollen eye was hazy with blood from the wound on his head that cracked the shafts of at least three of his feathers, leaving the tattered remnants of one to dangle lifelessly in front of his face. His body was covered in marks. Aching bruises from their fists and stinging abrasions from their scales.
Nothing that couldn’t be fixed in a medscanner and some feather repair. And it would be. Later. After his mother decided he’d been in pain for long enough. Or she had no choice because he had a game or otherwise had to be seen by other people.
It had been a couple days since he’d been ripped away from Sandy. He’d been receiving Orza and Kirs’ hospitality intermittently in that time. His mother had even kept him out of practice. Just from previous experience, he was sure his mother had told his team that he’d needed to rehab for his plethora of addictions. Or maybe she was telling them that he’d run off with some loose females again – though that excuse might not work anymore seeing as how he had a mate now.
Well, an unmated mate, but he still had her.
He hoped.
That was what really hurt. More than the physical pain. He could take the abuse. He could bear the punches. It was not knowing what was happening to Sandy that was driving him mad. Surely, they wouldn’t be so low as to treat her the same way, right?
He couldn’t say they wouldn’t. He didn’t know. It was that not knowing that was tearing him up inside. He’d rather bear the physical blows.
He’d finally been dragged out of the basement room his mother used for his punishments, wrists bound behind him with magcuffs, and forced onto his knees, Orza and Kirs held him there with their hands on his shoulders, tails swiping a hissing threat against the hard stone. He wasn’t allowed up until his mother gave permission, and she was too busy raging, destroying everything within her grasp, to explain why he was here or what she was even mad about.
Thanks to her raving though, it didn’t take him long to figure out.
“Do you know what that disrespectful wench did?!” She yelled, turning on him with fury blazing in her eyes, perfectly manicured claws shining in the light of her office. “That utterly disgusting-”
“Oh, are we talking about me now?”
Heels clicked against the marble floor. Confident and strong. Rane turned his head as Sandy came striding into the office like she owned it. She hadn’t been here before. The door hadn’t been opened for her. She did it herself.
And now she was here, looking down her cute, stubby human nose at Elffa. It had only been a few days since he last saw her, but the difference was startling. And confusing.
Her clothes had been delivered. She wasn’t wearing her brown skirts or sophisticated blouses. Now, she was dressed so differently, he could barely even comprehend it.
Her short hair was pushed over, offsetting the center part, held back by a bright clip with vibrant wings like that of some kind of insect. Her loose shirt was white, with short sleeves, but it stopped under her breasts, baring her entire belly, including the jeweled piece at her naval. She had shorts on, a pink sort of orange, that were poofy and loose, but didn’t even reach her midthigh, revealing her long, lovely legs. Yellow suspenders held them up, cute pins decorating one of the straps. She had on socks up past her knees, and bright orange heels. Over it all, she had on a white, oversized jacket that hung off her shoulders, with a nonsense pattern of overlapping squares in a variety of colors of yellow and green dotted with smaller black squares in the soft inner lining.
She was chewing something, popping it, one hand on her hip, nails sparkling with a bright orange color, looking at his mother with a doleful glare.
“You disgusting-”
“Shut it, Elffa,” she cut her off, fearless and powerful.
Rane just stared. All his pains fading in absolute stunned surprise at the way Sandy – sweet, little human Sandy – was ordering his mother around as if this were her home.
“Sandy?” Rane breathed, confused.
She turned to him, and her expression softened. Just for a second. Then, it sharpened again as she glared at Orza and Kirs.
“And I thought I told you two not to be in my presence anymore. You smell like wet socks, and you look like roadkill. Get out.”
The two ratchi males growled, their tails lashing in anger-
-but they obeyed!
