Page 32 of The Ruler
For fifty-four days, I’d managed to keep Pearl and Magni separated, but one thing was certain – he was no longer the man I had known. Before Laura’s disappearance he had been respected as the greatest warrior in our country; now he was nothing but a sad joke. People were laughing at him and pointing fingers, saying he was so bad in bed that his wife ran away to be with a Momsiboy. There was no greater insult, and it had become impossible for Magni to go out without things ending in fights constantly.
If Pearl ran into Magni without me to protect her, I wasn’t sure how far he would take his interrogation of her. He might hurt her badly to get his answers.
“Find her,” I roared at the guards and ran to our private chambers. Pearl wasn’t there either. Nor was she in the kitchen or Boulder’s room.
I barged into Magni’s room and gave a sigh of relief when I found him sprawled on the bed, snoring.
Where the fuck is she?
A guard came running up the stairs just as I exited Magni’s room.
“The councilwoman is in the garden,” he exclaimed. “Do you want me to get her for you?”
“No, I’ll get her myself,” I barked and took the steps two at a time.
Pearl looked completely untroubled when I found her kneeling down and smelling some flowers while talking to a gardener.
“Are you completely insane?” I roared at her, my voice steady but my heart trembling.
She looked back at me and sighed.
“How many times did I tell you that I can’t keep you safe if you leave my side? And what the fuck are you doing talking tohimfor?” I pointed to the older gardener, who looked absolutely mortified.
“Calm down, Lord Khan,” she said and rose to her full height. “I was bored so I went to get some fresh air, and I had questions about these flowers.”
“Come here.” In my anger, I grabbed her wrist and forced her with me.
“You’re hurting me,” she complained behind me, but I was beyond caring and pushed her into a corner where a few hedges made for privacy. A gardener who had been trimming the hedges scurried away and left his equipment behind in his hurry.
“I warned you! Do you want me to fuckingchainyou? Huh?”
She tried pulling out of my tight grasp. “No.”
“Is that what it takes for you to get into your head that you’re not safe unless you’re with me?”
“No.” She pressed her lips together.
Still holding her wrist in an iron grip, I bent down and picked up a flexible organizer from the gardener’s supply box. “You know what, until you accept that you follow me and not the other way around, I’ll fucking tie you to my side.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Pearl breathed in indignation and tried to stop me when I wrapped the large band around us and pressed the flexi logo on the side. The flexi-band adjusted in size, squeezing us together.
“There, now you’re not going anywhere,” I declared.
Pearl was a head smaller than me, and the band that sat around my hips reached around her belly. It didn’t hurt me so I assumed it didn’t hurt her either.
We were fighting about her reckless behavior when Christina and Boulder interrupted us.
We probably looked like two crazy people tied together like that, but I didn’t care. My biggest concern at the moment was that I needed to keep the infuriating, argumentative blonde next to me safe, and if it took teaching her a lesson that she would never forget – then I was man enough to do it.
“What’s going on?” they asked with amusement.
“I’m sick and tired of her running away,” I stated firmly. “I can’t protect her when she constantly wanders off and I have important work to do.”
“He wanted to chain me like a dog!” Pearl cried out. “Like a dog.”
“But I didn’t, did I?”
She pointed to the flexi-band. “Oh, so you think this is any better?”
