LORDOSIS (BOOK 1) (COMPLETE)

LORDOSIS Chapter 21

"Kaylan another bride has been sent. Do you want me to do the same with this one as the others?" Manu asked.

Kaylan didn't even acknowledge him.

"Come young lady we will find you a room for the night and prepare you for your freedom. He means no offence. It is just his mothers cruel way of reminding him he is a widow and a failure in her eyes by securing new wives for him," Manu said to the young woman sent to Kaylan as a gift.

Kaylan went back to reading pretending to be engrossed in the book but in face he in his mind he was reliving every moment he had spent with his wife. He had just at the part where she had told the other women that she wasn't in love with him and felt again the pain of her rebuff as sharp as he had that day.

"Hello brother," Layton called from across the room. It had been two years since his last visit.

Kaylan looked up and could not close his mind quick enough before his brother used their link to check on him. He in turn looked to his brother and felt his brother's reaction to his pain. Layton felt unjustly lucky for still having a wife he loved more than life itself and feeling the absence of his Tahira from his brothers heart was like black void that could never be filled.

"Dear brother," Layton said as he walked across the room and pulled Kaylan into his arms. Kaylan's tried not to cry but his strength gave out, his heart breaking again as his felt his brothers willingness to absorb some of the pain. They stayed in an embrace for a long time as Kaylan let him comfort him and he in turn comforted his brother who broke down in tears also at feeling his twin's pain.

Layton felt regret for the way he treated his brothers wife on their first meeting, he instantly took the higher ground as the alpha male and chastised her as an omega. He would never be able to apologise and explain that she had caught him at a bad time having recently been chastised by his mother he had lashed out undeservedly at her. His brother had challenged him over it and Layton had thought it impossible to love someone so soon, they were after all strangers in an arranged marriage but when his brother opened his mind and shared his feelings he was astonished to recognise the bond he had with his own wife. He was to apologise but unfortunately their mother had ceased that opportunity to poison her sons mind and heart.

Layton felt it was his fault as his brother would have never been so open had he not thought to prove his love and in doing so lose it. He felt Tahira's blood on his hands and that of his brothers unborn children as though they were his own and in moments of solitude he allow the guilt to crush him and wished that he had been quick enough to sacrifice himself that night instead of standing by and watching in horror as his brother rocked his wife's dead body in his arms for hours under the moon, begging for a pardon from the gods and his own life be forsaken. He remembered his brother kissing his wife over and over begging for her to come back to life. The faces of the people as his brother carried her body back through the city to their home. People wailing and throwing themselves to the floor when they realised who he was carrying.

She was loved not just by his brother but by everyone and with the spell broken Manu was released from the prison their mother had created for him and just in time to see Kaylan carry his wife back to their room. Manu screamed like the others and ran pulling her from Kaylans arms; he tried to bring her back to life begging every god he could name to help. There was no help and Manu was as broken by this as his brother. He had wanted to steal Tahira away to protect her from their mother and received punishment via solitude for just thinking it whilst their mother was within reach of his mind. She would have heard it as loud as an echo.

Manu had sent Layton messages in relation to his brother's health. He was still not speaking, still in mourning and was no longer paying homage to the moon. He would lock himself away in the darkness at night so he could not see it. He had burn all books that even bore referenced to it. He shunned the moon and it god. Manu was concerned this would provoke the gods and a plague would befall the city. Layton was here to try to help his brother but also to remind him that he had responsibilities towards his nephews and that could not be ignored.