Fragile Desires (18+) (GxG)

Seventy-Four | Really Good People

I was six when I sat in on my first business meeting.

My class was off on a field trip, giggling and petting fuzzy pandas, while I sat in a too-big chair at a conference table, next to my father.

My tiny hand scribbled furiously in a notebook, writing down notes of the meeting with barely recognizable handwriting.

There was never a party for my eighth birthday.

Instead, my father had a gun range set up in the backyard of his estate.

Over cake and ice cream, I learned the weight of a weapon in my hand—how a clip adds a pound or how to properly shoot different guns.

But thirteen...

Thirteen was the year my childhood truly fractured.

Witnessing a man who had betrayed my father get shot right between his eyes.

I still remember the sunset that day—how the air lingered with the smell of metallic blood or how my hands trembled with uneasiness.

And ironically enough, at fifteen I had shot the same gun myself, killing someone with my own bare hands.

That's when the world shifted, when the pieces of my shattered existence began to form themselves into a new, hardened me.

It was the start of the path that would lead me to Riva, to be the heir to the throne.

A promise was made then, etched precisely into my head.

No love, no weakness, no children to inherit these horrible duties.

No child would bear the burden I had.

Yet, here I stand.

Engaged to a Queen, a woman who may one day require an heir.

Every rule I set for myself, shattered.

But for her, Azura Montclaire, I would break them all again and again.

For her, there are no lines I wouldn't cross.

No price I wouldn't pay.

- Ren

♛Chapter Seventy-Four: Really Good People♛

"She's going to be okay."

Click. Click.

"The doctor sounded hopeful."

Click. Click.

"He's also world-renowned, so she's in good hands."

Click. Click.

But the clicking of my heels instantly halted in my ears, pausing my pacing as soon as the elevator doors dinged open.

"You got her?"

It was the first thing I had said.

The first three words I had uttered since the last three words I had said to Azura.