Free Born of Legend by Sherrilyn Kenyon Page B

away, he ground his teeth. “The harsh things they said about me cut to the bone. It wasn’t like I had any delusions where I fell in my mother’s affections, but damn. It’s another thing to actually hear her hatred of me spoken out loud to someone else. To hear her planning to put me back in prison when I’d just gotten out. I couldn’t take it. And I lashed out in a bad way.”
    He drew a ragged breath. “So to answer your question, I don’t know why I did it. Jealousy. Fear. Pain. Hatred. Rage. A part of me wanted to hurt all of them as much as they’d hurt me. There are a thousand reasons that don’t make sense when you step back and look at them, and I admit it. It just didn’t seem right that Nyk showed up after all those years, and took what little I had from me. That he had the beautiful wife and child, after both of my fiancées had killed themselves rather than become engaged to me. That he was a paid ruthless killer, an assassin who had murdered his own adoptive father and over a thousand innocent League victims, male and female, and yet our parents respected him , were proud to call him son, and were disgusted by me when they’d never even bothered to learn the most basic thing about me. That no one could love me for any reason. In the end, I realized that fair has nothing to do with anything. Life just is pain and it hates us all equally.”
    â€œAnd sometimes it surprises you.”
    â€œYeah,” he scoffed. “But never in a good way.”
    â€œNever?” She arched her brow.
    â€œNot in my experience.”
    Ushara narrowed her gaze at him. “Well maybe it’s time for your experiences to change.”
    â€œHow so?”
    â€œBy your actions, it went to hell. Maybe by your actions, it’ll get better.”
    Jullien snorted bitterly. “Doubtful.”
    â€œNever say never.”
    â€œNever,” he said stubbornly.
    Impishly, and to prove her point, Ushara leaned in and pulled his head down to kiss those beguiling lips.
    Jullien growled at the unexpected taste as her tongue swept against his. Heat coursed through him at the first kiss he’d ever been given freely. Unable to believe it, he was completely stunned as his head spun.
    Pulling back, she nipped his chin and smiled up at him as she pressed his glasses into his hand. “As I said, it’s time for your luck to change.”
    And with that, she left him hard and horny.
    Breathless and stunned, Jullien followed her to the door and watched that sexy, seductive walk until she vanished from his sight.
    He bit his lip as he imagined what it would be like to actually make love to a female like her.
    Don’t even go there.
    But he couldn’t help it. All he’d ever wanted was a single loving hand to touch him.
    Just once in his worthless, godforsaken life.
    It was why he kept the old photo of his parents on his link. To remind himself that while his parents had raised him with only scorn, hatred, and distaste in their eyes whenever they looked at him that he had at least been conceived in love. In the very beginning, before his birth, he’d been wanted by them both.
    â€œIt should have been you who died! Why my Nykyrian? Why not you!”
    â€œSince the moment of your birth, you’ve been nothing but a bitter disappointment to me. How I wish you’d been stillborn or had died rather than see you grown into the disgrace you are. No wonder your mother lies in a drugged stupor. I hope she never comes out to face the reality of what she birthed.”
    Wincing, Jullien rubbed at the scar on his forehead and tried to blot out the memory of his parents’ hatred.
    â€œYou’re a hard bastard to kill. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why can’t you die already?”
    Just like his mother screaming at him that he should have died in Nyk’s place when he was a small boy, he’d never forget the look on Merrell’s face