Born of Fire Read Online Free

his city, its bright, glaring rays making his light-sensitive Ritadarion eyes water in protest.
    He hated the day, the heat, the noise—the light that hid none of the street’s ugliness.
    Even though he lived in the best district of Broma, all he had to do was travel three blocks over and he’d see enough homeless, impoverished people to twist his stomach raw. He’d done his best to forget his past, but it just didn’t seem possible. Every time he thought he’d managed to bury that shit so deep it could never rise up, something or someone always brought it back to him with sharp, crisp brutality.
    Disgusted, he entered his oversized apartment. He had too many other problems to deal with and he was really too tired to think.
    He shrugged his jacket off and tossed it over his black leather sofa before picking up the remote to lower the blinds against the bright sunlight.
    He leaned his head against the cool, metal slats and sighed. Never in his life had he been more repulsed. Nykyrian was in love with Kiara Zamir and her father was out to crucify them.
    Why wouldn’t Nykyrian listen to him and return her before it was too late? What kind of fool with a price on his head fell in love with a princess from a planet that wanted him dead?
    Syn rubbed at the sudden throb in his temples,repulsed by his friend’s devotion to a woman who would be the death of them all.
    What an idiot. Women were treacherous. All of them. And Kiara had already shown her true colors. The moment she’d seen them for what they were—what their pasts had made them—she’d vomited and cursed them, just like everyone else.
    Lying
harita
.
    But then, having been stupid enough once to think that a woman could see through his past to the person he’d become, he understood Nykyrian’s idiocy better than he wanted to.
    Yet it was all a lie. No one escaped their past. No matter how hard they tried.
    Men were blind fools and women weakened the soul and stole the heart. Then when they had both in their possession, they stomped them into the ground.
    Bitches
.
    Unable to stand it, he went to his bar and grabbed a glass and a bottle of the strongest whisky he had. As he poured it, his gaze fell to the stuffed animal and photo frame of his son.
    Paden . . .
    He winced in misery as bitter memories tore through him.
    Mara, listen to me. I’m not my father. I would
never
hurt you.
    No, you’re worse than your father. At least he stayed in the gutter where he belonged. You . . . you made me believe the lies you told. That you were decent and respectable. You said your father was a businessman. You bastard!
His wife had raked him with a sneer so filled with hatred that it was forever branded in his memory.
How could I have ever let you into my life?
    I would never hurt you or Paden. Please, listen to me.
    She’d slapped him so hard, the blow had split his lip. If anyone else had dared that, he’d have cut them in half. But like a pathetic nothing, he’d taken it from her.
    Get out! I’ve already called the enforcers to arrest you. If I ever see you again, so help me, I’ll shoot you myself!
    This from the woman he’d lived to make happy. The woman he’d given everything to. His heart. His soul. His life.
    In the end, it didn’t matter that he’d treated her like royalty and would have sold his soul for a single rose to make her smile. Mara had betrayed him and taken everything he’d ever cared about for no other reason than his father had been a first-rank bastard and Syn, rather than lying down and dying, had fought to make a better life for himself.
    It had never mattered to him that he was shit to the world. He was used to that. It was the day he’d become shit to his wife and son that had ruined him.
    All he’d ever wanted was for one person to not blame him for his parentage. One woman who could look at him like he was a man and not a monster out to hurt her.
    Then he’d asked the dumbest, most pathetic question of his life.
Did you ever