Chapter 337

Bane was standing at the fire roasting the meat the way they liked. Several of the boys stood close watching him. The boys were all half-dressed and damp. Two were towel drying their hair as we came out. Bane must have made them clean up after the hunt.

“They figured we’d know why the boy had my mark on him after you reacted so strongly to seeing it. Aryn finally asked me,” Bane said. “I told him while we hunted. I am his male breeder. The women used me to make him and I never knew. We are family now, all of us.”

The boys looked pleased at the phrase. They were being claimed as family by strong warriors. They knew what that term meant to my men, so it was not taken lightly. It was a term for ultimate trust and protection.

“The world is not what it seems,” one of the young men said softly. “You have been to the mountains. You talk to the administrators and they do what you ask. Can you tell us what you know?”

The boy was perceptive and bright. The world wasn’t