Once Upon a Time (Calluvia's Royalty 3)

Rohan’s hand stroked his back, the touch warm and comforting. “It’s been four thousand years, Jamil. Nowadays, even most Tai’Lehrians don’t know that the High Hronthar is the reason why unbonded people are outlawed. People’s memory is short. Our ancestors founded a colony away from Calluvia and just wanted to stay under the radar. We moved on. We didn’t think that after all this time, the High Hronthar would care about us enough to destroy what’s left of our reputation.”

Jamil nuzzled Rohan’s chest, wondering why the Order’s interest in the rebels had been reignited. For centuries, few people on Calluvia had spoken about the rebels, but it had changed in the past few years. Rebels were blamed for people’s disappearances and deaths, unidentified attacks and sexual assaults. People were scared of the rebels now—scared and angry with them. Jamil had been one of those people just a year ago.

“But why?” Jamil murmured. “Why would the Order drag the rebels into the spotlight again? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to want people to forget about the rebels and the reason they rebelled in the first place?” He paused, considering and discarding possibilities. “It only makes sense if their spies on Tai’Lehr have learned something that made the Order worry. Possibly something that changed in the past few years? Something that made them fear the Tai’Lehrians?”

When he looked up, he found Rohan watching him with a fixated, intense look.

Jamil frowned a little. “What?”

Rohan smiled at him, his thumb stroking Jamil’s bottom lip, his black eyes hooded. “I like watching you think. You’re so pretty when you think. I mean, you’re always pretty, but when you think, you always purse your lips into the cutest pout—”

Laughing, Jamil glared at him half-heartedly. “Are you serious? Did you even hear what I said?”

Rohan chuckled. “I heard you. And you’re absolutely right.”

Jamil raised his eyebrows expectantly when Rohan didn’t say anything else. “And?”

Rohan frowned, something like hesitation flickering in his eyes.

At last, he said,

“There’s something I didn’t tell you.”

Chapter 18

“What do you mean?” Jamil said, sitting up.

Sighing, Rohan sat up, too. He ran a hand over his face, wondering how to tell him.

He looked back at Jamil and lost his train of thought for a moment when he saw Jamil worrying his lips. They still looked kind of swollen—used—from their earlier activities. The sight was more distracting than it should have been.

This wasn’t the time to let himself be distracted.

It was time to come clean.

Averting his gaze from Jamil, Rohan began speaking.

“Tai’Lehrians are tired,” he said. “Tired of hiding, tired of forging bonding certificates and living in fear of discovery, since we’re hiding in plain sight. Over the past few decades, there appeared movements that wanted us to come clean to the Council and demand lawful status—or failing that, an independence from Calluvia.” Rohan’s lips twitched. “You could say the rebels have rebel movements now too. Those radical groups thought that enough time had passed since the rebels left Calluvia. They insisted that the Council wouldn’t consider us criminals if we came clean and proved that we weren’t dangerous. But the governor of the colony, Lord Tai’Lehr, was as conservative as his predecessors. He wasn’t convinced that approaching the Council would accomplish anything besides war.”

Jamil opened his mouth to say something but seemed to think better of it and allowed Rohan to continue.

“But a few years ago, the old governor died and his son inherited the title. The new Lord Tai’Lehr agreed to listen to those radical groups and has been eventually swayed to their point of view. So for the past few years, the governor and the Tai’Lehrian Senate have been putting together a strategy for their eventual appeal to the Calluvian Council. Although their plans weren’t widely known, they weren’t exactly secret. It’s possible that the High Hronthar learned of them.” If High Hronthar learned about their plans, the monks were unlikely to be happy. Tai’Lehrians’ recognition as lawful citizens would destabilize the whole Calluvian society, shake the foundation of the High Hronthar’s power if the Bonding Law became optional. The High Hronthar obviously couldn’t allow it.

He could feel Jamil’s confusion. “But why didn’t you suspect the High Hronthar from the beginning? It seems so obvious now.”

Rohan shook his head. “Since the assassination attempts on Warrehn coincided with the start of the anti-rebel campaign on Calluvia, we obviously thought it was all Dalatteya’s work: that she was trying to finish the job she started years ago, and failing that, she wanted to discredit Warrehn’s only allies. We didn’t know that Dalatteya was just a pawn of the High Hronthar.”

A wrinkle appeared between Jamil’s elegant brows, his lips pursing. Rohan felt a fresh wave of affection. He really liked watching Jamil think. He liked watching Jamil, period. Everything about him was so elegant, exquisite, and lovely that it was difficult to look away from him. Even sitting on the bed completely naked, Jamil exuded so much poise, Rohan felt like a brute in comparison. A brute who was allowed for some reason to put his paws all over that perfection. A brute who was allowed to sully such loveliness with his cock.