“Not helping. I still feel like an ass. Gah… why didn’t I ever shut up about it?”

Fain let out a heavy sigh. “It’s okay, Darling. Nero’s right. If Dancer had really minded, you wouldn’t be breathing. If he likes you, he takes most things in stride.” He looked back to Sumi and continued their conversation. “Anyway, while Keris was never brother of the year, he wasn’t so bad until Dariana got him hooked on experimental drugs. Those brought out the absolute worst in him.”

She remembered Dancer and Darice talking about that. “What exactly did she give him?”

A sad, tormented light darkened his gaze. “Like Dancer, he was stralen. Though his came and went. Probably because he was so bipolar. Keris and Dari didn’t sleep together until unification so she didn’t know what she was getting herself into, in that regard.”

“Dancer says it doesn’t really do anything to his personality, other than make him hyperprotective… right?”

Fain snorted. “Yeah, and as long as he trusts you, that’s not a problem at all.”

Fear pierced her as she tried not to remember Avin’s viciousness. “What do you mean?”

The expression on Fain’s face was cold and pain-filled. “Dariana wasn’t faithful to my brother. She lied under pledge, and when you’re stralen, your senses are even higher than normal.”

“Meaning?”

“Keris could tell whenever she’d screwed someone else, and it drove him into severe rage-mode.”

Sumi covered her mouth with her hand as the horror of that washed through her. Poor Keris. No wonder it tore Fain up so much. It was one thing he could definitely relate to. “Why didn’t she stop cheating on him?”

His gaze filled with agony, Fain twisted Omira’s ring on his finger. “I don’t know, Sumi. I’ve never understood infidelity. But I understand why it made Keris crazy and accusatory. Terrified he would kill her for it, Dariana started spiking his food with different things, trying to keep him calm and lower his adrenaline, vasopressin, and testosterone levels. It’s why she never conceived a baby while he was alive. The drugs had him too messed up. Half the time, he couldn’t even get an erection.”

Nero sucked his breath in sharply.

Sumi frowned at him. “What?”

Nero winced. “Sorry. Involuntary reaction. You do not want to sexually frustrate an Andarion male.”

“Why?”

Fain let out an evil laugh. “It causes a form of rabid insanity with us. Once we hit puberty, we need a regular chemical release.”

“Which is why they’re good at handling things themselves,” Darling added with a snicker.

Fain threw his controller at him.

“What?” Darling asked innocently as he knocked the controller to the floor. “We all know the stories about you guys.”

“Shut up, human.”