Page 117 of The Mentor
“She’s still nothing but a child and it doesn’t matter if she gave permission. He fucking knew the rules and the punishment for breaking them.” Magni had stopped pacing and was now standing with his hands on his hips.
Pearl spoke up. “You’re forgetting that Willow isn’t one of your females. The normal rules of the Northlands don’t apply to Willow. Her body is her own and she is free to kiss any boys she chooses to.”
Magni scowled at Pearl and growled in the back of his throat.
“Kya, Archer, and I will take it from here. The rest of you go back to enjoying the day,” Khan said in a voice full of authority and pointed to Willow and Solomon. “You two are coming with us to the office.”
Magni narrowed his eyes and pointed to Solomon. “You’d better not go easy on him.”
“We’ll find an appropriate punishment,” Khan said and placed a calming hand on his brother’s shoulder.
The anger finally seemed to ease out of Magni a little, but he still frowned at Khan. “Okay, but just don’t let them talk you into one of their fucking love circles.” He spat on the ground like the very concept offended him.
“I promise,” Khan said solemnly and led the way to the office with me and Willow right behind him. Willow was slightly taller than me but clung to me like the scared child she was. Archer walked in with Solomon, and closed the door behind them.
“Who wants to tell me what happened?” Khan said and sat on the edge of the desk.
Willow’s crying picked up again, and Solomon kept his head down.
“Tell us what happened, Solo,” Khan ordered.
The confident and proud young man had been reduced to a boy scared out of his mind, and his voice broke when he finally spoke.
“Nothing happened.”
Khan stood up from the table, took one step forward, and smacked the youngster on his cheek. “Don’t you ever fucking lie to me,” he said with disgust.
A large red mark formed on Solomon’s face, but the young man didn’t whine like Sky had done when she was being punished in this office.
“Have you kissed other girls?”
Solomon shook his head.
“And is this the first time you kissed Willow?” Khan asked with a hard expression on his face.
“No,” Solomon admitted.
“How many times did you kiss her?” he asked.
“Four.”
I tightened my grip around Willow when her crying intensified.
“Have you done more than kissing?” Khan asked. “Did you two have sex?”
“Nooo,” Solomon cried out. “Nothing like that. She’s only twelve.”
“And you’re only fourteen,” Archer said harshly. “That’s old enough to know the consequences of your actions.”
“Please don’t kill me.” Solomon sucked in his lips, grimacing in fear.
“Did anyone really get killed for touching a female?” I asked softly. My words made Willow cry even harder.
Both Khan and Archer gave me a grim look. “It’s rare,” Khan said. “Most men understand why we have the rules and they have heard enough stories to know we take them seriously.
“I grew up with a guy named King. He was a good man but he touched another man’s wife, and had his throat slit because of it.
“Last week I almost killed one of my guards for undressing Pearl with his eyes.”
