Page 36 of My Pleasure

“Don’t hurt Auntie!” Keran exploded.

Brennus actually took a step back. “I would never in a million lifetimes hurt Meryn.” He knelt down. “I would rip both my arms off before I would ever even think to strike her.”

Keran ran behind Hunter.

Hunter stood in front of Keran, facing Brennus, blocking the small boy from the room. “Son, I was going to wait, but I need to know. Why would you think Brennus would hurt his niece?”

“That’s what uncles do! They hurt you.”

“Oh no, please no,” Kiera whispered.

Amelia wrapped an arm around her and suddenly Kiera felt her strength renewed.

Nicol began to cry and the queen held her close. “Real uncles don’t hurt you,” Queen Aleksandra said. “They may technically be related to you by blood, but real family doesn’t hurt you.”

Kiera nodded her thanks to Amelia and walked over to stand by Keran, pulling him into the curve of her body. “We have Hunter now, you don’t have to worry about me, he’s here for us both.”

Keran took a long, shuddering breath. “He said we were useless and it would be better if we were gone.” He stepped forward, taking Kiera with him so he could look at Brennus and Hunter. “We wouldn’t get a lot of food. Just enough so no one would think we were starving. Just enough clothes so we weren’t freezing. He would test us all the time, to see how much magic we had. When he didn’t like the results he would hit us, but never where anyone could see.” He looked up at Hunter. “I took as much for Nicol as I could.”

Nicol was hiccuping in the queen’s arms. “He always got hurt, for me. It was my fault!”

Brennus stood his face like a thundercloud. “The entire city is a cesspool!” he exploded.

“Now, Brennus, they aren’t all bad,” Queen Aleksandra chided. “Just the ones in charge.”

Kiera felt her insides shaking. She was so angry she felt tears dripping off her face. “Why take them? Why take them if he didn’t want them? I could have made it work somehow.”

Cord cleared his throat. “I do not mean to interject myself where I have no business, but I feel it would be remiss of me not to ask. Did your parents leave behind a trust at all? Most paranormals have them.”

Kiera froze. “He would have told us.”

Amelia walked over and rubbed her arm soothingly. “Would he?”

Keran walked over to Brennus and handed him the bracelet. “If I can ask for anything with this, can I make my fake uncle go away?”

Brennus blinked, then began to grin. “Son, you keep the bracelet, I’ll do that for free.” He rubbed his hands together. “Doran has been bored lately, he might want to come along.”

Queen Aleksandra rolled her eyes. “And you all wonder where little Meryn’s violent streak comes from.”

Brennus looked proud. “Oh, I know exactly where she gets it from.”

Keran held the bracelet to his chest. “Auntie would help?”

Amelia snorted. “She’d take great pleasure in hurting an asshole like that.”

Keran thought things over. “She’s having a baby, if it would make her happy, maybe she can deal with him.”

Brennus clapped him on the shoulder. “Kiera, you and Hunter are newly mated. Would you like to leave him here with us for a while?”

Keran smiled shyly. “Can I come visit later? My new grandma and grandpa want us to stay with them.”

Brennus nodded sagely. “You’re a good lad, looking after your grandparents. But don’t forget about us, okay?”

Keran shook his head. “We won’t, will we Nicol?”

Nicol squeezed the queen tight. “I wanna come back too.”

Queen Aleksandra returned the girl’s hug. “Oh dear, now I don’t want to let them go so they can shop.”