Harper
"Valerius Lycaster. First in line, once." He paused a beat. "Before Lucas put me in a cell with a contaminated suit and a story about recovery."
And five years of things rearranged themselves. The command stitched into his spine. The old names still loyal. A brother who didn't just want him gone, he wanted him erased. You don't burn that kind of effort on a spare Alpha. You burn it on a throne.
"That's why your whole life sounded like a war," I said quietly. "Because it was one."
He didn't answer. He didn't have to.
"So why does Joe care. Why send a man to keep a Lycaster prince away from a pile of Fenris rubble at any cost."
For the first time he looked at me, and there was something almost like uncertainty in it, which on Vane was about as rare as snow in a furnace.
"I don'
