He should have left his brother to rot in the old Queen’s prison.

Of course, then he’d have been responsible for Selma.

Kesh suppressed a shudder at the thought of claiming his brother’s mate as his own and refocused on the current cluster-fuck at hand.

The girl was huddled at the edge of the dais, seemingly too scared of him to try and run away yet clearly not in any hurry to get closer either, and when he tore his gaze from her to address the sorry demon who’d brought him this nightmare, he found the rest of the throne room empty, save the guard.

“Where the fuck did he go?” he snarled at his guard, getting to his feet to take up pursuit. The Breeder stumbled another step back at the sudden movement, lost her balance—and fell down with a hard thump.

Without thought, Kesh took the stairs in one leap, kneeling by her side to cradle her head in his hand as he ensured she wasn’t hurt.

“Get away from me!” she hissed, cringing away from his touch. She pushed herself along the rug, scrambling to put distance between them.

“He left, your Highness,” the guard said.

“I can fucking see that,” Kesh growled, irritation flaring in his veins both at the renewed smell of the Breeder’s fear and his own inability to hunt down the demon who dropped her off. He had questions—but the girl was obviously not in a good state. And his first priority was to calm her down.

“Curse it all,” he muttered, finally straightening up and taking a couple of steps back, putting enough space between himself and the girl to hopefully calm her down. If she was an unmarked Breeder, she’d be able to see his true form. Even if she’d been among demons before—which her scent suggested—he knew he would be frightening, his features much less human than most lowly demons’.

“Is she truly a Breeder, my Lord?” the guard asked, the note of longing in his voice unmistakable. Kesh rolled his eyes—at least it’d be easy enough to find a man willing to mate her.

“Yes,” he bit out. “And you will tell no one. Understand? We don’t need the entire territory to be distracted.”

“I would never,” the man said, sounding more than a little aghast at the suggestion he might betray his Prince.

Kesh sighed, shooting him a glance over his shoulder. He’d hand-picked every single man in his service. He knew they would never betray their loyalty to him.

“My Lord...” the guard began.