Free The Truth About Kadenburg by T. E. Ridener Page A

did Lorcan think he was to judge
Arnold for the way he’d raised Presley? He couldn’t help the scoff that left
his lips as he cocked his head to the side, his eyes staying on Lorcan’s.
    “You know, Lorcan,” he started. “I’m well aware that
the way I’ve brought up Presley is less than conventional. But I want you to keep
in mind that I’m trying to prevent history from repeating itself. I don’t want her to be mixed up in the ways of our kind. She’s never even had the
urge to shift and as far as I’m concerned, she’ll never have a reason to feel
the urge.”
    “How do you know?” Lorcan argued as he shifted his
weight from one foot to the other, crossing his arms over his chest. “How do
you know she’s never had that urge? How can you be so sure that she’s not felt
the shudder, Arnold? Maybe it’s confused her before; that overwhelming need to
break free from the restraints of human flesh. Maybe she’s been suffering in
silence over the lack of feeling whole. Conventional or not, keeping her in
the dark about being one of us is wrong. She deserves to know.”
    “ You’re wrong,” Arnold stated as his eyes
narrowed on the boy. “You’re only saying that because Presley’s never
expressed interest in you. It kills you that you have to honor the laws of
Urseth and wait for her to recognize you as more than just a friend,” Arnold
rolled his green hues before he reached for the gear shift.
    “Wait,” Lorcan’s hand suddenly clasped over his as the
younger male stretched his arm through the window. “You’re right. It does
kill me because I’ve never wanted anyone as much as I want her,” he confessed.
    Arnold’s gaze hardened as he stared at Lorcan’s hand
resting over his and he flexed his jawline. “I’m going to count to three and
if you ain’t moved your hand by then, you’re losing some fingers.”
    “Listen to me,” Lorcan demanded through clenched
teeth. “I know you don’t want her to end up like her mother. I get it. But
you see what shape she’s in already, Arnold. A human did that to her.
I would never hurt her.”
    Arnold was quiet for a moment as he allowed Lorcan’s
words to simmer in his mind. He honestly didn’t have time for this. It had
always been intended that two of the offspring from the next generation of
Kadenburg Ursithropes would continue the lineage, but only if the female
was willing. That arrangement had been made before everything happened.
    It had been voiced by both Richard Bamey and Pierce
Carroll that if Caroline bore a daughter, she would be encouraged to pursue
Liam or Lorcan. It didn’t quite work out that way. After Pierce’s death,
Caroline refused to rear her daughter in the ways of the Ursithropes and she
ignored her fiancé’s wishes of continuing the bloodline. A part of Arnold felt
like he was betraying her if he carried through without her blessing.
    “A guy said that to me once about my sister,” Arnold
responded as he glanced at Lorcan while gripping the boy’s hand and pulling it
away from his own. “He lied.”
    Lorcan barely had a chance to step away from the truck
before Arnold put it into gear and sped off.

 
    Eight
     
    P resley hugged her arms around herself as her
bare feet trekked along the worn down dirt path. It was a shortcut she
remembered from her childhood that eventually led to the abandoned hospital she
was born in. The medical facility was the only thing Kadenburg had managed to
upgrade since its founding over two hundred years ago.
    Presley was born in that hospital, from what Uncle
Arnold said. She was one of the last babies to be delivered before they
transferred to the other side of town. She wasn’t even sure why she was going
towards that place, of all the places she could go right now. The only thing
she was sure of was that she needed to get as far away from Lorcan Bamey’s
house as she could.
    I can’t believe I broke into his home, she
thought as she moved her fingers through her golden