The Spare And The Heir Novels & Stories

"There might… there might be one avenue. A loophole. An interpretation so archaic, so rarely considered, it’s practically forgotten." Damien’s head snapped up. "What loophole?" "The Heir Clause," Franklin said slowly, choosing his words with deliberate care, "specifies a 'direct, legitimate heir of the body born to the Principal Beneficiary or his lawful spouse.'" My breath hitched. "Born." The word was a physical blow. Damien flinched almost imperceptibly.

The moment my mother in-law uttered that word, I coughed so hard and almost choked on the food I was eating. The Heir reveal is like a ritual that every legitimate son of the Seattle's must partake in to be legible for a part in the will of Mr Seattle. This was like a dream come true for Kai since he was the only one without a child amongst his brothers and to add to his joy, he's the first to have a male child.

“This is huge!” “Okay. Now lie down. I just said not to make it weird. Don’t act weird when he gets home. Just act normal, or he will know. Spade is like having a fifth sense.” “Right.” She dropped her head to the pillow and turned to me. “So, he’s a—” “Yeah. He has more rights than—” “Okay. Enough. Now you’re acting weird. Anyway, Lex’s heir is worth 50B, but Spade doesn’t seem to care about money. After I told him about it, he just joked about whether he would give me an heir or not.”

“They want me dead at all costs. They must have thought I was hiding in the palace.” Zack's face turned pale. “Do you think that your father has declared the spare redemption?” “That seems to be the case,” I muttered. “In fact I would be shocked if he didn't.” “I'm sorry, what are you guys talking about? What’s a spare redemption?” Lina asked. “It’s an old law in the Lycan world,” I explained. “If the heir fails to rule, if any of his remaining children or anyone can bring the head of the failure, he would automatically become king.”

As I headed downstairs, I could already hear everyone teasing him behind me. Our friend group was surprisingly diverse. Several of us came from wealthy families, but Mel was the only one who actually acted like it. Lyall came from even more money as the Alpha's heir, but years of training had taught him that leadership meant serving the pack, not being served by it. The music grew louder as I approached the bar. "Another round?" the bartender asked with a wink. I nodded. Within minutes, six freshly made drinks sat neatly arranged on a tray. "Need help carrying those?" he asked nervously.

"Thank God you were so pigheaded. Otherwise, I might've actually married you—a fraud. "Now, even if you got down on your knees and begged me to marry you, I wouldn't be interested. The man I'm marrying is Arthur. He's the real heir to the Harrison family. As for you—" She looked me up and down, her eyes filled with contempt. "No matter how capable you think you are, you're still getting thrown out." My mom let out a cold snort. "Look at you now. If you'd just listened to us from the start, you wouldn't have ended up with everyone turning against you."

I have always been a stickler for the rules. In elementary school, our class holds an election for class president. The teacher ignores the vote and appoints the principal's son instead. I follow the school's rule that whoever receives the majority vote should win, gather all 42 students, and take the election straight to the principal's office to redo the vote. When I grow up and start working, my boss hands me a thousand-dollar expense receipt and orders me to file a ten-thousand-dollar reimbursement claim. I refuse, as it violates company policy. The manager laughs. "Here, whatever the boss says goes. Learn to bend when you can, or the company may decide it needs someone more obedien

Brett smiled at Maven as if waiting for Maven to solve this tricky problem. Maven was surprised that Brett assigned this task to her. They made the plan to set Brett up, but he was too smart to fall for it. “It’s not that easy to fool the minotaurs. I can’t do it at my level. Anyway, now that you have Philip in your hands, why don’t you speak to them?” Brett nodded. He knew that he had to take charge of this matter. As the heir of the Spade family, his position was higher than Maven's. It would be unreasonable not to make an appearance.

Frankly, he was boring and useless, much like my older brother. I was really interested in speaking with his younger brother. All royal families were the same: there was the heir, and the spare. The heir was showered with the praise and attention and power, and the spare faded into the background. Once the heir started having children of their own, the spare was nothing more than a distant memory.

Lyra laughed weakly. “He smiled.” That one word carried enough disgust to poison the air. “He said, ‘The first daughter. The one worth keeping.’” Elena’s expression didn’t change. Only her eyes did. Lyra’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Then I asked what that made me.” The rain tapped softly against the balcony railing. Lyra looked at Elena with a face full of old humiliation and new grief. “He said, ‘You? You’re the spare. And if you keep failing me, even spares can be discarded.’”