(Okay an update for my fans (read as one fan) Enjoy! I will update again as and when I can. There were no reviews to the last chapter so I will reply to none here)

Galen was angry. This wasn't exactly surprising. Since that joke of a half- brother Gryphon had shown up, he was constantly riled up. He paced his room moodily trying not to think about that home-wrecker. As usual he failed miserably. "I have a right to be angry" he told his reflection as if trying to convince it and himself that this was true. But there was a nagging voice in the back of his head. One that pleaded with him to think it through logically. He wasn't always like this. Bitterness had changed him, made the formerly calm, sweet, gentle shifter unstable. He'd grown cold and isolated even shutting Keller his shifter lover out.

'That's Gryphon's fault' he tried again to convince himself, but he knew better. Nobody was making him act this way. He'd let himself get over-run with grief and anger. 'Think it through clearly. Your father chose openly to sleep with another shifter. She had no supernatural powers above commonplace shifting that could have forced him to do so. You can't blame the temptation for the sin' his mind begged. But if it wasn't Gryphon's fault and their father chose his family over Galen's that meant he didn't love Galen either. He'd happily dropped him and his mother like unimportant rubbish to go with Gryphon's mother.

Something inside Galen tore and a cascade of held back tears flooded forth. It wasn't Gryphon's fault. It was his. He wasn't good enough to keep his father's interest. And why should he be. Spoilt, brattish Galen. Only son of a royal family. Well until now. No special skills besides morphing. When it came down to it Galen was nothing special. He was nothing more than a big title with an attitude problem to match.

Galen understood now why he loathed Gryphon so much. Gryphon was everything he wasn't. Older, stronger, more mature. Gryphon was intelligent. A mathematical genius. A whiz with anything technical. He was Galen but better. And worst of all his shifter form, the golden eagle had been Galen's dream. He'd always wanted to be a bird. But by saving Keller. By rushing into a change before he was ready, he'd landed himself with this awkward grounded form. Sure leopards had speed and grace but what was grace compared to the freedom of flight?