Heathen

|26|

"It's alright, Tiny. The Emperor is just here to offer a solution. Just listen to him, alright? There is no pressure for you to decide right away, alright?" Voice calm and even, Barre's words make me nod my head.

He always knows what to say to reassure me.

Taking a deep breath, I address the elephant in the room, or should I say the Emperor in the room. I sit across from him in a large chair. Before I can settle, Barre comes over and picks me up with one arm, taking my seat and nestling me in his lap.

Calm reassurance washes over me, and I'm now 95% ready to talk with the plante's leader.

"Elodie, as you know, Locanas admitted guilt and wants to be punished. As you also know, us Rytarians do not take such a crime lightly. If it were up to me or your mate, Locanas's head would be hanging over the castle gates, showing every male here what we do to rapists."

I shutter at his words, wanting to escape this conversation already.

Barre narrows his eyes.

"Easy. My mate does not like violence."

The emperor releases an exasperated sound.

"I am just saying what both of us were thinking." He defends himself, holding his hands up, each knuckle decorated with a ring. His nails are short but elegantly rounded, painted a deep blue color.

I look up at my mate, confirming that he agrees with the Emperor's thoughts. He bites the inside of his cheek, but he doesn't disagree. I turn my head down. The thought of someone's head being torn off freaks me out. The more I consider it, the more queasy I get.

"See what you did? She is too delicate for this."

"I am not! I'm fine!" I'm really not, but I hate being treated like a piece of glass.

They're both silent for a while before I clear my throat.

"Go on." I encourage, and the Emperor nods his head reluctantly.

"Well, I want to launch an investigation into who told Locanas this false information about females. Obviously, in the wrong hands, this information has led to you being attacked. I don't want a repeat of that. Locanas was too naive and uneducated to know better. While I want to gladly end his life, I can't exactly do this until we find out who told him these lies. I need him alive, but I don't want him in the city, or anywhere near the humans we've brought here. So, I have thought of a solution I would like you to consider."

His reasoning makes sense, and I can't explain the pain in my gut, even as Barre's arms tighten around me.

"We have a distant continent, far from our main land, it is covered in mountains, it's called Kalinda, and it is where we once mined for precious metals, the most important being malikondite. Once our society panicked over the loss of females, this metal was no longer mined as it once was, because it wasn't needed anymore. The main thing we used it for was translation devices. We didn't think we needed anymore because..."

"Because the population wouldn't continue." I finish his sentence for him.

The Emperor nods solemnly, staying quiet for a pause before continuing.

"Now that we have lots of females in need of translation devices, we need to continue harvesting the malikondite. The only thing is that it is very secluded. So, I have been thinking of a solution, and I think I have found it with our predicament."

Barre caresses my neck, pulling my t-shirt back to look at the mark on the soft spot between my throat and neck. He grins. It's so sexy, I'm almost too distracted to keep my mind on track.