10 #2
Belinda gave him an amused glance before focusing on Benson.
“But all of the women here are electric dragons and some have mated into this family. They’re engineering it.
They figured out that their bloodline is like a herd mentality and that is why the Gurren family is so reclusive, always living at this compound. It’s required, yes?”
Darren’s face went pale. “No.”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, hating to burst this bubble for him, but he was going to find out taking over. “There’s more to it.”
“Shut your mouth,” Grandfather hissed.
“Or what?” I mocked. I picked him up and held him off the ground, people gasping as I did it with ease when he was so much bigger than me.
“You break the women of this family. She was fucking broken. You trained her like canines other nations have as fucking pets!” I threw him into the stone wall before Eloise took his head as she remembered the trauma we suffered.
Darren moved in front of me, tears in his eyes. “What? What are you even saying?”
I swallowed loudly. “She did it to me. She used to shock me when I acted unseemly.” I watched as he gradually put the pieces together and he slowly fell to his knees and let out a sob.
Because he now understood how I learned to control Eloise as a very young child before I started working with Belinda. My mother would shock me.
She would shock me with her electrical power so Eloise hid.
So she didn’t change forms and only Iris came out.
So she didn’t even show the streaks in my hair before I even knew to glamour them like now.
Eloise just hid so we didn’t feel pain.
From our own mother.
Like how other nations trained their pets.
And because it was how she was raised.
I turned back on Grandfather. “You raise the women of this family like docile, perfect pets by shocking them into submission and obedience. You make the men of this family mate electric dragons so you can carry on the sick practice and control the family like property. But she got free and that ruined everything. Your ownership over her because you couldn’t—”
“She should have obeyed like—”
Part of his arm was gone before anyone could react. I ripped it off at the elbow, just snapped it off and then used Iris’s fire to close the wound so it couldn’t be reattached no matter how amazing the healer or medicinal dragon.
And then, just to make sure the retribution couldn’t be undone, Iris and I burned his detached arm to ash. People screamed and I saw several drop out of the corner of my eye, but I ignored it. Grandfather was too in shock to register the pain or pass out yet.
“She was your child to love and you broke her!” I roared, my power shattering windows and probably more as I lost control.
“And then you lied to the world about all of it while leaving me there with a broken mother who didn’t protect me against the royal family knowing it would happen!
Wanting it to happen as punishment for both of us!
“You twisted her mind and she didn’t know how to be a person but a pet.
She just obeyed and now I have to deal with that and you did it!
You did it to both of us.” I curled my lip at him.
“That’s for breaking your own children and…
” I trailed off when the shock wore off enough and he started screaming.
Then I just chuckled probably scaring people more.
Good.
He passed out and I had eyes for one other person and she rightfully looked terrified.
“Do not ever appear in front of me, and if I ever find out you shock another woman—another person in this family, you will get worse. The only reason you are spared is I would bet anything you were the victim before you were the monster.”
I saw it in her eyes—the dead look. The haunted, pained look of someone who suffered abuse beyond what there were words for.
“The gods will judge you for allowing it to happen to your daughter and not telling the world the truth to save her,” I bit out, not just giving her a free pass. “You will deserve every second of your punishment for not being stronger no matter what he did to you first.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” she rasped. “He did worse if I didn’t and I couldn’t escape.”
I pointed to Darren. “Your salvation was right fucking here! He would have burned it all down if he’d known. Don’t give me that—” I shut my mouth. There was no point in trying to argue logic or reason with people who were locked in their own pain or could ever defend what they’d done.
And honestly, I couldn’t be rational or reasonable given how it had affected me. I hadn’t been there. Maybe she’d done what she could. Maybe she’d never been alone with Darren, or he’d threatened to hurt Darren if she’d ever told him.
I didn’t know.
I also didn’t care. The past couldn’t be changed, and the gods would punish her.
I just wanted Grandfather gone as a threat to Darren.
Every family like this had a charter that very clearly stated that the head of the family had to be “whole,” meaning their dragon had to be fully functional and in top shape.
Missing part of an arm would not qualify as that.
I spit on Grandfather just to appease Eloise since she wanted him dead and to take a wing. I reminded her that it wasn’t his dragon’s fault and not being able to fly would be worse than death to us.
Yeah, but she thought he deserved worse than death.
She probably wasn’t wrong.
I glanced out at the stunned and scared faces. “No more of this madness. It is against the law—it’s fucking child abuse. There is no court that wouldn’t convict that. You are out of your minds if you think shocking the female children of this family to be docile and obedient isn’t child abuse!”
A man not far from me grabbed a woman by him and spun her to face him. “Has someone in my family hurt you?” His face went pale when she didn’t answer. “No, that’s—how could you not tell me?”
“Your mother said you all knew and it was what it was to be a Gurren woman,” she whispered, looking scared. “It’s why my dragon won’t get pregnant. Your mother said it will be a matter of time before I realize it’s what’s best—that all the mates come around and fall in line.”
“By the gods,” Darren choked out as he stood. Then he looked at me. “I need to borrow one of the tiger investigators. I have to—I can’t just ignore this.”
“You would end the family if you outed this,” one of the elders snapped. “How we handle our family is our business.”
“Oh, the child abuse laws have been in place for decades and you cannot say it was standard if you only did it to the girls,” I practically purred. “And you’re looking at the one who would decide the case in the end after all of your appeals.”
“Yes, well, we also have what you did here tonight to tell people too,” he threw right back.
“Bad call,” Belinda chuckled as Darren moved in a flash and punched the elder.
Yeah, I saw that coming too.
“I have diplomatic immunity, and even my harshest critics would forgive me for what I did if they learned he broke his daughter and she was so twisted she shocked me as a child and that’s probably why my father sent me away because she was so fucking crazy,” I lied through my teeth, not seeing any truth dragons there.
Everyone froze.
I smirked at several of the elders of the family.
“You don’t think that could be a reason?
The Heir of Thovudin was being abused and there’s no divorce for royals, it’s in the laws even, because it would be a national security level of instability for the government.
So the king realizes the queen is fucking nuts after she births a child and they never have another.
“And I find all this out after their death and he admits it.” I pointed to Grandfather.
“When my uncle takes over to save all the women here and future females of the family. And… You think anyone will actually not be on my side this time? Even I think everyone will be on my side for once, especially with all the wins I’ve had recently. ”
They did too. It was all over their faces.
“The queen and her party leave, but then the compound is locked down,” Darren ordered.
“We figure out who was involved and get answers before deciding how to proceed. I’m ordering everyone as the head of this family not to shock anyone for any fucking reason other than self-defense. Is that understood?”
Some people didn’t like it, but being head of the family meant something and it was clear that Darren was in charge… And of probably a lot more than I understood.
He cupped my face and kissed my forehead. “Go. I have things here, I promise. I might not be able to fly to you this week, but I won’t miss the meetings.”
“Whatever you need. I’m here for you too.”
He hugged me to him tightly, almost like when I’d survived the assignation attempt. “You are a miracle from the gods. Never forget that.”
I snuggled against him, enjoying the moment and soaking up his love after another too-hard realization.
“Oh yeah, she’s a fucking miracle,” a male voice mocked. “She just ripped off Great-Grandfather’s arm with a smile. More like the queen’s a fucking psychopath.”
The air in the room went razor-sharp tense, but I simply swallowed a chuckle as I pulled away from Darren. I moved over to the man, my dragons enjoying when he looked nervous.
I leaned in and studied him. “You just learned that every woman here has been getting shocked like animals to ‘correct’ their behavior and train them. Again—like animals—and you’re focused on what I did to the person who was in charge of it all?
” I blinked at him. “Yeah, I’m not the psycho here.
” I snorted. “Definitely not the only one at least.”