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He'll be back,I reassure myself and Kayo gives me a smile before all the men leave.
There's silence for a minute and I think all of us are convincing ourselves our mates will be back. Bazin breaks the silence when he begins crying again.
"I know." Nicole sing-songs at him over Grace's shoulder. "Too much sadness, right? Let's go see your aunt Keri."
"We're going to Keri's while they're in the meeting, so you can see her cavern," Grace tells me.
That does cheer me up some. When we walk into Keri's, she throws her arms around me, pulling me in tight.
"I still can't believe you're here," she says. "I thought I'd have to wait a year for you once I found out you were Kayo's mate. When I heard you and Kayo were missing..." She shakes her head. "I was so scared, Leah."
"Imagine how I felt." I chuckle.
"What happened?"
I look at Grace, and her eyebrows are raised, waiting for the answer to that question too. Yesterday, when they'd asked, I told them I didn't want to ruin the bonding ceremony, that I would tell them later. I guess later is now.
"Maybe we can at least sit while she tells us," Nicole suggests.
"Crap. I'm sorry." Keri chuckles. "Welcome to my home, Leah."
Once we're seated, I tell them everything that happened from the moment I left the processing center until I woke up in a dark cavern with Kayo waiting there with a dress for me to wear. Anything else beyond that is for Kayo and I.
"It's all my fault," Keri says low.
"I knew you would think that," I state. "But none of it was. It was all the President. He knew exactly what he was going to do the entire time. I'm sure it's not the first time either. Half the people in that institution are probably there because he needs them away from people because they know too much."
"We're all together now." Grace smiles. "That's all that matters. We thought we were getting sacrificed." She looks at Keri, and then me. "And Leah thought she was getting kidnapped by a monster. But here we are."
I laugh. "I guess I just wasn't meant for that thirty-day period." But then my thoughts turn somber, and I quietly ask, "Will we be accepted?"
"I won't lie and say it will be easy," Nicole admits. "No one would dare say anything around our family, but I'm sure there are things being discussed in certain circles. I'm sure some are wondering, doubting. Almost all the women down here went through the period, having decided to stay without knowing what was in wait for them, so to some it will seem like you didn't have to go through what they did to get here, and they'll resent you for it. Some of the Grounders will resent Kayo for what they see as having it easier than them. People don't know the truth of what happened, not completely. They don't know the hardships you and Kayo faced, nor should you feel compelled to tell them. That's yours and Kayo's story, and belongs to no one else. The village knows the basics and it's all they need to know unless you give them more."
"Will people come to our bonding ceremony?" I question.
"Most will, even if it's with judgment in their hearts. But at the end of the day, and especially on that day, all that matters is you and Kayo, the joining of you and him."
"I want to wait to have it. Until after everything is decided."
Grace nods. "That's understandable. Although, I hope this meeting can resolve everything."
"Linc was pissed he had to leave our bed for this meeting." Keri chuckles. "Said he was considering beating the President to death for that alone."
"Everything will go well up there," Nicole says. "I'm sure of it."
I try to let her certainty bleed into me, but instead, I look at my sisters, my nephew now sleeping in Grace's arms, and at Nicole laughing at something I didn't even hear because I'm getting too deep into my own mind. I look at these people and all I can wonder is if I've brought chaos to them.
Or worse.
Chapter 11
"There is no negotiating when you are refusing to return Leah to us," their President says.
Every time, every single time, her name passes his lips, I imagine a new way to kill him. Each time it gets more vivid, and far more violent. I'm not too sure that the next time I won't blink and realize I've launched myself across the table and actually done it. Oh, he acts like the twelve men at his back protect him, as if they could possibly stop me if I became determined to peel his flesh from his bones, but deep down, I know that he knows his life is in our hands. It's in the way his eyes widened when my father entered the room, his three sons behind him, nine males behind us. My father brought twelve, just like the president did, but we could slit all their throats before their eyes had even finished widening in shock.
The only reason we hesitate is because we know what consequences it would bring. My father told us when we were on our way up here that the objective was to see if the vice president and cabinet could be made to see sense, because clearly the President would not. I turn my gaze to them now, his vice president, watching us with her wide, fearful eyes. His cabinet, two males and a female, are able to hide their nerves better, only swallowing loudly every few minutes and their eyes darting to us whenever our chairs so much as creak.
I don’t know what’s going through their heads, but it’s clear that the President entered this room with only one thing on his mind. Leah. He’s been demanding I hand over my mate from the moment we all sat down, saying the humans would not stand for one of their own being kidnapped and held hostage by a monster. When my father told him handing over his daughter in law was not an option and that she'd chosen to stay with me, and in our village, the president had said he wanted to hear that from her himself, in this office. My father denied thatrequestas well, stating that the President couldn't be trusted. The President clenched his teeth so hard at the comment that I heard his molars grind in his mouth. Then, he'd uttered his last words, that now hang in the air between our party and theirs, that there would be no negotiating unless Leah was given to them.
