Because of the way Keris had been conceived, their father and paternal grandmother had always been lukewarm at best toward him. And their mother had pushed Keris hard to be the ultimate soldier, so that she could show them all that her bloodline was as good as the royal lineage she had denied to the Hauk progeny. It was why she’d named Keris after their Hauk ancestor who’d founded The League.

My sons will be legends, too…

Her constant demands on his brother and incessant bitching had been such that they’d embedded a vicious cruel streak in Keris’s heart. Something that had worsened anytime Keris drank or took drugs. Fain, alone, had been able to calm Keris’s rages. But after Fain had been disowned, Keris’s violence and cruelty had escalated. He’d acted as if he was afraid of meeting the same fate.

And he’d turned all that anger at their parents, whom he couldn’t attack, to his youngest brother – as if it was somehow Hauk’s fault Fain had chosen to be with a human over them.

But even before that, Keris had resented Hauk for the fact that Hauk had “shamed” them all when he’d been depledged after the pod accident that had left him scarred and humiliated by Jullien’s lies.

With the exception of Fain, from that day forward, his entire family had seen him as deformed and lacking.

Useless.

Worthless.

Embarrassing.

So much so, that only Fain had visited him the entire time he’d been in the hospital’s burn ward. Dutifully, Fain had watched over him as if he felt responsible for it and for Hauk.

To this day, even though Fain had never mentioned it, Hauk was sure Fain had paid for his surgeries and treatments. Had it been up to their parents, his mother would have left him to die.

Hauk didn’t blame her for that. It was, after all, the Andarion way. If you weren’t strong enough to survive, you were better off dead.

To this day, Keris’s first words to him when he’d finally come home from the hospital were carved in the bitterest part of his heart. “I hope that hybrid bastard kissed you before he fucked you in the ass. You should have died like a warrior in that crash. Not been dragged to safety like a human bitch by a worthless mutant dog.”

Fain had gone for Keris’s throat. But for their mother’s quick actions, Fain would have most likely killed Keris for it. But it hadn’t erased the scar those words had seared into Hauk’s heart.

Whenever Keris had been sober, he was the fun-loving, surly brother Hauk remembered growing up with. But the moment any drug touched his system… the stopgap was removed, and out came a monster even Dariana had feared.