Marked for Danger by Jennifer Leeland Read Free Book Online Page B

her. The rage had been a joke men told to keep women from cheating on them. To find out that he'd been so wrong for so long was difficult to face, much less put into words.
    Princess Sera's forehead wrinkled with worry. “Shaun?"
    "He needed me. That's all,” Shaun said. “The rage is a surge of adrenaline, and I defused it.” When Xandros turned his head and stared at Shaun, the man met his gaze steadily. “Xandros and I understand each other, I think."
    Did they? How many men had Xandros fucked? He could count them on one hand, and none of them had been Nyral males. They'd been submissives, and Xandros dominated them. The fucking was just part of it.
    This? This was different. What was their connection? “You've fucked her."
    Shaun's gaze slid away. “We used each other."
    Xandros should have been angry or jealous...something. Instead, he accepted Shaun's role in Carina's past. It still didn't explain why Shaun posed no threat to Xandros's primitive rage response. He had some connection to all this, some part to play that Xandros didn't understand. “Why didn't you mark her?"
    Shaun glared at him. “Because to mark her would expose what she was. The Brotherhood has no idea she's a Nyral female.” He clenched his fists. “And judging by your rage, I'd say they've discovered it."
    Fuck. He tried to shoulder past Shaun to leave, to find her, to save her. Once again, Shaun stopped him. “We have to work together to save her."
    Xandros tightened his lips and met the man's intense stare. “I might kill you."
    "You won't kill me,” Shaun said steadily.
    "Shaun,” the princess said quietly, “are you in love with this man?"
    "No. He isn't for me, Princess. He belongs to her.” Gently, Shaun brushed back a stray strand of hair from Xandros's forehead. Then, he turned to look at Leo and the princess. “But this is what I'm meant to do."
    Leo shook his head. “This isn't about you, Shaun."
    "I left them, Leo,” he said calmly. “I walked away, never looked back. Aron and Finn were in the same boat I was in before you saved me. I could have rescued them, brought them home the way you did."
    Xandros heard the pain, the guilt in Shaun's voice, and he couldn't stand it. Xandros had never given a rat's ass about another man's guilt, another man's burden, but it ate at his gut that Shaun would blame himself for something out of his control. It had been a long time since he'd had a friend, someone he truly cared about. It was odd that Shaun had come back into his life and filled that role.
    He gripped Shaun's shoulder and held it. Shaun glanced at him but talked to Leo. “Instead, I hid. I was afraid of what people would say, how they would judge me because I let you dominate me."
    "No one knows about that,” Leo insisted.
    "They do,” Shaun said firmly. “It was inevitable.” He shifted beneath Xandros's touch. “Xandros is like me. He is exiled from our people, and the only way back is unacceptable to him. Just as it was to me."
    Xandros stared at him. “I chose this path, Shaun. You didn't."
    Shaun's hazel eyes were bright. “How many times did you petition the council to let you come back?"
    Twenty-eight times. The number popped into Xandros's mind. He'd tried to come back, go straight. He'd longed for home, for his people. But the stigma of being Anton Ivanovitch's son would never be gone. “So what? I chose to walk away. No one blackmailed me."
    "Didn't they?” Shaun stared at him. “Your father's betrayal was well-known. Didn't most people assume you were just as guilty even though you were four when he sold those secrets to the Primarians?"
    "My father paid his debt."
    Shaun nodded. “Sure he did. He did his time with the Mistresses. They broke him until he was a good little submissive."
    "Shut the fuck up, Shaun."
    "And everyone taunted you, judged you as his son. Your mother was dead, and your father was broken. What choice did you have, Xandros Jasper?” Shaun's voice was relentless.
    "We don't