Barbaric

Chapter Five

(Delkele's POV)

This had to be the most awkward moment in all my years of life, and that was saying something. Princess Emylle had arrived about thirty minutes ago, and after Elphes gave me another...look, I was escorting her down the halls to the room I had prepared for her. Now don't get me wrong, Emylle was a gorgeous woman with dark brown skin and long, curly blonde hair that fell past her waist, and eyes that were a cool shade of seafoam green, not to mention her body was curvaceous in all the right places. However...my heart already belonged to someone else, someone I hadn't had a chance to talk to since I returned back to my planet. Not that it would matter, because even if Jox wasn't in the picture, my body would never react to Emylle. No, my whole life I was attracted more to the male physique than the soft, curvy body of a woman.

I just...I don't know, I never really cared for women in a romantic way before, and part of me wonders if it was because my mother treated me so cruelly. Hell, even Delra was cruel to me on a daily basis, even though I was the only family she had left.

So it wasn't that big of a surprise I was attracted to men.

"It is quite beautiful here," Emylle's voice dragged me out of my head, causing me to glance down at her with furrowed brows as she stared outside of the large floor-to-ceiling windows in the hallway to her room.

"It's just sand," I muttered, feeling insanely awkward as she looked up at me with those light green eyes, "nothing too fancy. I bet it's...fancier on Eter."

Emylle chuckled, her laugh light and airy as she placed a small hand over her mouth. "Goodness no. It feels almost like a hospital with all its pristine whiteness. I actually like the sand here. It's much softer than the hard, rocky surface of my planet."

I pursed my lips together and said nothing, purely because, well, I didn't know what to say. I wasn't really one for conversation, and even when I was with Jox, I didn't really say much. And Emylle didn't seem to mind for my lack of continuing the conversation, for she merely smiled at me and continued to follow me down the hallway, her heals clicking on the wooden surface of the floor.

And even with those heals, I noticed, she barely even reached my chest, she was so short. She was a tiny little thing, and to me, it looked like she would fly away if the wind was too strong. Were all the people from Eter so...fragile looking?

"You know, if you keep thinking as hard as you are, you may overload your brain."

I felt my cheeks warm as I pulled out of my head and stared at Emylle, embarrassment welling in my chest as I cleared my throat and averted my gaze. "I apologize. I'm not really good at...conversing with others."

Emylle gave me a warm smile and stopped walking once we approached her room. "That's quite alright. I'm a bit introverted myself, since I was practically sheltered my entire life. My brothers thought that I was too fragile to be let out in the cold, cruel world, so I never really had a chance to learn how to talk properly with others." She patted my upper arms, her hands so much softer than any Narakkan woman's. "So don't feel embarrassed if you don't know what to say, ok?"

I cleared my throat and nodded my head awkwardly, before I pointed to the wooden door that led to the room I prepared her. "Ah, this is the room you will be staying in. I hope it's adequate enough for someone such as yourself. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask any of the staff."

Emylle tilted her head, causing her blonde hair to spill over her dark, exposed shoulders. "Can I not just come to you myself? I'm to be your wife soon, after all."

I blinked, staring down at her, biting the inside of my cheek. "Um...I-I guess you can. Just...I do have stuff to catch up on and fix."

"Oh so this is the infamous Princess Emylle."

Emylle and I turned at the new voice, and I wanted to sigh in annoyance as my sister Delra sauntered over to us, her cruel crimson eyes glued to the woman in front of me, her hands on her hips. "Delra. What are you doing here? I thought you were busy terrorizing the marketplace." I muttered, watching my sisters eyes snap to me as a scowl formed on her face.

"I was until I caught word that your fiancée was in town. Decided I should see for myself, the woman willing to marry a man like you." I tried not to let my face crack at her cruel words, and instead, looked down at Emylle.

"I'll have some of the staff help you get settled into your room. If you need me, I'll be in my study. Delra, come with me please."

Delra pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest as she began following me back to my study, my anger rising enough that I slammed the door behind us once we made it to my destination. I whirled around on her and pinned her with a glare. "What the hell were you hoping to accomplish, Delra? Huh? I understand you have a grudge against me since mother chose me to rule over you, but don't you dare risk a possible alliance with the strongest planet in our galaxy because you're still butthurt. I don't care who the hell you think you are, but you need to be reminded that I am your king and you are to respect me."

Delra rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, jutting her hip to the side as she glared at me, teeth grinding. "I was supposed to be the one to rule, you know. After all, I'm the firstborn child. I'm just wondering why you agreed to marry Emylle. I mean, aren't men more of your taste, than women?" She uncrossed her arms and took a step closer to me, causing me to tense as she got in my face, our eyes nearly level. "I'm just saying, brother, the only one who will ruin this alliance is you and your inability to get it up for her."

I growled and went to grab her, but she took a step back with a damn smug look on her face as my body shook with rage at the audacity of this woman. And I was angry, oh yes I was seething...but I knew better than to attack her, even though I really, really wanted to. So instead, I wiped the rage off my face and regarded her with the calm collected mask I usually wore as I crossed my arms over my chest, my gaze flickering over to the door. "Leave. I've got important work I need to finish and I don't need some, second best, to distract me."

It was Delra's turn to growl, however, she was smart enough to leave without much issue. Well, other than the fact that she slammed my door so hard, a couple of pictures fell right off of the wall. And once she was gone, I leaned up against my desk and let out a tired sigh, my anger switching to sorrow as I dragged my hand down my face.

I didn't understand why she hated me so much. My whole childhood was her causing me misery and for what? Because mother wanted me to rule rather than her? I don't understand, I mean, being a king wasn't all glamor and luxurious as everyone else made it seem. There was a lot of work that came with ruling over an entire planet, and most of the time, we had no time to ourselves. So why did Delra want that? She was free to do whatever the hell she wanted, with whoever she wanted. Hell, she could marry for love if she wanted to. And here I was, stuck in an engagement I didn't even want, with a woman I wasn't even in love with.

She had it easy. I was envious of that, yet all she wanted to do was make my life like hell over a position I really didn't want. If I wasn't king, I wouldn't have to marry a woman I didn't love. If I wasn't king, I wouldn't be blamed for everything that went wrong on Naraka, nor would I have to deal with stopping the multitude of wars before they even began. I would be free. I could marry whoever the hell I wanted, love whoever I wanted. And what I wanted, was Jox. Not Emylle.

A/N: Oof, what a brat sister Delkele has. I wonder why she's so mean O.O. And Emylle is so sweet and understanding with Delkele, which I honestly think he needs in his life. Too bad he's in love with someone else O.O

And there you go, first five chapters of Barbaric are finally up! Updates should happen on Mondays, so keep an eye on that. But again, yay on finally getting to their story! I have so much in store for them, so this should be fun XP