MEET TREVYN, KING OF PAIN

It’s taken two years to finish King of Pain: Interstellar Rescue Series Book 5, the latest novel in my SFR series. And it all began with Trevyn Dar, the book’s alien hero.

Trevyn is Thrane, one of a race of telepaths feared throughout the galaxy for their history of bloody conquest and brutal use of their psy talents. Worse, he was once a Hunter, part of a family of hired killers that terrorized the galaxy.

We first met Trevyn in Trouble in Mind: Interstellar Rescue Series Book 2, where he was one of two alien brothers hunting the boy Jack, son of Ethan and Asia. We learned that Trevyn is Gabriel Cruz’s half-brother, not a true villain at all, really, but a victim of his older brother Kinnian’s abuse. Throughout that book, he tried to mitigate Kinnian’s violence in whatever way he could, and, in the end, [spoiler alert] he helped rescue the heroine, Lana, and together he and Gabriel killed Kinnian.

He made a reappearance in Not Fade Away: Interstellar Rescue Series Book 4, by which time he’d taken over the family starship, renamed it the Blood’s Honor, and signed on to work for the Interstellar Council for Abolition and Rescue. It hadn’t been easy, but he was trying to distance himself from the past imposed on him by his father, the Butcher of Four Systems, and his brother Kinnian.

Trevyn Dar, troubled hero of King of Pain

The problem is that Trevyn still carries a lot of weight from a childhood of abuse and ridicule, and tons of guilt from his years trying (and failing) to curb the worst of Kinnian’s bloodthirst. He’s ripe for a serious reckoning with his past, and the emotional healing that only love can bring. It means he must return to his home planet of Thrane, tangle with and defeat some heavy villains, and bond with the love of his life. That journey is at the heart of King of Pain.

From the time I first conceived of the brothers Trevyn and Kinnian for Trouble in Mind, I modeled Trevyn on Boromir’s younger brother Faramir from Tolkien’s LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy. When you meet Faramir outside the context of his family (and particularly his father, Denethor), it’s clear he’s a hero—loyal, brave, worthy. His men love him and follow him without question. But Denethor can see none of these qualities; he’s verbally abusive and dismissive, respecting only the older son Boromir. Boromir is kind to his younger brother, but he’s not around to protect him from the madness of their father. Such a lot there to inspire!

So, of course, I took all that inspiration and twisted it. What if Trevyn’s father wasn’t insane, just insanely cruel? And expected the same from his sons? Kinnian, the older son, is cut from the same cloth, learning his lessons in brutality eagerly. But Trevyn, from a young age, is more sensitive and suffers under first his father’s, then his brother’s, savagery. Like Faramir, however, he bears up under all that abuse and emerges from it stronger. He is, at his core, unbreakable.

My heroine, Lael, is immediately attracted to that strength and determination in Trevyn. He never gives up, no matter what his enemies or the icy, mountainous planet of Thrane throw at him, and long before the mating bond begins to form, Lael admires and respects this Thrane from the once-hated House of Dar.

King of Pain: Interstellar Rescue Series Book 5 is in revisions now and the cover is being designed. I hope to publish in December. Take a look at the blurb:

One planet, two worlds. And only Fate could unite them.

Trevyn Dar was once a Hunter of Thrane, feared throughout the galaxy as son of the Butcher of Four Systems and brother of a commander of the murderous Blood Legion. But he clawed his way free of that bloody legacy to find his true path, as captain of a ship serving the anti-slavery goals of the Interstellar Council of Abolition and Rescue.

Lael Saphora is Hinarr, shapeshifter, sharing her skin with a snow cat Companion, but, like all her people, hated, hunted, and oppressed because she lacks the telepathic skills of the genetic Thranes of her home planet. Since she witnessed the brutal death of her father as a child, Lael has been fighting for her people. She leads the Uprising, a movement dedicated to overthrowing the iron grip of the Thrane Ruling Houses.

When Trevyn receives unusual orders from Rescue to seize a ship smuggling weapons for slavers, he discovers the darkly compelling Lael at the helm—no slaver, but a political prisoner, whose extradition to Thrane means torture and certain execution. His journey to uncover what’s behind her false arrest takes him back to a home planet he had hoped to never see again, reveals an ugly conspiracy at the center of an organization he had made his new home, and rips open old wounds. But Trevyn and Lael share a common past, and, ultimately, only love can heal two hearts broken by an ancient pain.

Cheers, Donna