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Evangeline shook her head again. “Louella, Ahn’hudin isn’t perfect, but it’s not terrible. Change for the better can be made, but it will have to happen incrementally and both of you will have to compromise. Baby steps, Louella, baby steps.”
“It’s not fair!” Louella protested.
“Life’s not fair,” Evangeline agreed. “I’m going to let you think things through. Call me after you’ve spoken with Yas’kihn again.”
The screen went dark. Frustrated, Louella let loose with a scream of rage.
Chapter24
Three days passed before Louella had any conversation with Yas’kihn. During that time she stewed, she argued with herself, she cried and shouted, and she found herself admitting how lonely she felt. He entered the royal family’s quarters looking every inch the emperor.
Extending his hand toward her, he ordered, “Come with me.”
“Jax?” she said in a soft voice as she approached him and settled her palm against his.
His big paw closed over her much smaller hand in a grip at once gentle and unbreakable. He turned and started walking, towing Louella along. Jarvis fell into step behind them.
“Jax, what’s going on?”
He did not answer. He led her to the throne room where a smaller version of the emperor’s throne had been placed next to the emperor’s throne. Louella gaped.
“Sit,” he commanded.
Louella climbed into the throne and rubbed her hands up and down the chair’s padded arms. Soft cushions cradled her body. She looked at him in silent inquiry.
“You felt demeaned before. Will you feel so on this seat?” he asked.
Eyes shining with tears, she shook her head. With her mouth covered by a trembling hand, she said, “Jax, this is amazing. I can’t believe you did this!”
He nodded and sat on his throne. He waved his hand. The tall double doors to the imperial audience room opened to admit a parade of females, all either Ahn’hudi or hybrid.
“Jax, what is this?” Louella asked.
He ignored her and addressed the females assembled in the room. “All of you are mated. You comprise a majority of the adult females within the capital city. The empress consort has questions for you. Answer her with candor. Honesty will not be punished.”
“Jax?” Louella whispered.
He fixed her with an inscrutable stare and said, “Ask them if they are mistreated. Ask them if they are content.”
She looked at the females. They all looked nervous and none looked willing to volunteer to be the first to speak. Summoning her courage, she pointed at a female in a navy blue gown and said, “You in the dark blue, please come here.”
The female approached, gaze focused on her toes, and sank to her knees in front of the empress consort.
To put the Ahn’hudi female at ease, Louella pitched her voice to that soft, caring, and authoritative tone she’d used as a nurse. “What’s your name?”
“Alfanith, my lady,” the female replied in so quiet a tone Louella had to lean forward to hear her.
“How long have you been mated, Alfanith?”
“Seventy-three years, my lady.”
How long do these people live? And will I now live that long, too?Louella’s eyes narrowed. “Has your mate ever struck you?”
The female’s expression turned fearful.
“The emperor commanded you to answer me truthfully,” Louella reminded her gently.
“I disobeyed my mates one time. They spanked me.”
