Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1712 - 154 : A Tiny Voice

*Kryzen*

“Status report, General,” I said in a low voice, the sound bordering on a growl as I leveled Drius with a hard look.

Drius nodded and stood from the long table to make his way over to a map. “Our men have been patrolling along the southern border of our kingdom, Your Majesty,” he said, pointing to the lower portion of the large map tacked to the wall. “We have seen the numbers of protestors grow since the last time we sent soldiers there.”

I felt my teeth grind together at the news. This wasn’t good. At this rate, we would need to send more ruthless forces to deal with the issue.

We had been at peace for so many years. I supposed it was only a matter of time before something like this happened. I just wished it didn’t have to be now when we already had so many other things to attend to.

Although, I imagined I could only be expected to be more busy from here on out. I was already regretting that I had been overwhelmed by finding time to instruct my son in magic wielding while juggling all the meetings and errands that needed to be done.

That was the least of my concerns at the moment.

“Has their leader been identified yet?” I asked tersely, resisting the urge to grip the edge of the table with fury.

Drius shook his head regretfully. “Not yet, Your Majesty,” he said. “But we do have some leads to some potentials. We are hoping to narrow it down and have a few of them brought in for interrogation sometime this week.”

“See to it that it is done immediately,” I demanded immediately. “I don’t care what has to be moved around to see it done, General. Do not fail me.”

I met Drius’ gaze unflinchingly. Over the last several years, he easily proved his worth as our top general multiple times over. While we were generally living in a time of peace, there were still the occasional spats and rise in crime that he saw dealt with efficiently.

Our kingdom was in a general state of peace largely because of him.

This was our biggest threat since Malphas’ fall. While I trusted Drius to do what was right for the kingdom, I wasn’t going to take any chances.

The rest of the people in the meeting room started to murmur their concerns. I slammed my hand on the table. Hard. “If anyone has objections to this plan, I suggest you voice them in a tone we can all hear.”

A tense silence settled over the entire meeting room. I resisted the urge to run a hand over my face tiredly. It was the middle of the night. It would have been great to just postpone this meeting for the morning, but it couldn’t wait. We would likely have to send men out to the southern borders at dawn.

I was leveling each of my men with a dangerous look when the doors to the large meeting room creaked open.

I turned my glare to the door, prepared to yell at whoever dared to interrupt an important meeting when a tiny, frightened voice met my ears. “Daddy?” 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

My anger immediately melted away. I was on my feet in less than a second, my heavy chair creaking against the room’s tiled floor. “Emberly,” I said. “What are you doing up? You should be in bed.”

The heavy wood door opened all the way, revealing my little daughter standing in the doorway. She was in a thin ruffly nightgown with lace on the hem. Her wavy hair was mussed with sleep, but her eyes were wide and very much awake. She took a tentative step back as she looked around at all the undoubtedly scary-looking men in the room.

Protectiveness and concern flowed through me. Emberly was an extremely well-behaved child, and she knew better than to disrupt one of Daddy’s meetings.

Something had to be very wrong.

I approached Emberly quickly and kneeled in front of her. She immediately wrapped her arms around my neck, shaking slightly.

“Shh,” I soothed her gently, rubbing her back. “Whatever is the matter, sweetheart?”

She was quiet for a moment, biting her lower lip and staring at the floor. She adjusted slightly in my hold.

My heart broke at the obvious fear quaking through her. “Shh, it’s alright, you can tell me,” I urged. “Tell Daddy so he can make it better.”

Emberly swallowed thickly before meeting my gaze. “I had a nightmare,” she said, her eyes shifting away from mine with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Daddy. I know we aren’t allowed in here without your permission, but...”

“You did the right thing by finding me,” I told Emberly firmly. I scooped her up in my arms quickly, causing her to squeak.

Under normal circumstances, I would have scolded Emberly for coming in there. What she said was very true. She and Sulien were not allowed in that room unless given permission. Ever since Malphas used dreams to control Briella, we took nightmares very seriously in our family.

If this had been any other time, I would have told Emberly to go and find her mother, but that was an impossibility at the moment. Briella was in Celestial Valley for the next couple of days. Kai and Lillian’s wedding was fast approaching, and it sounded like the planning was stressing poor Lillian out. Briella carved out a couple of days in her busy schedule to travel out there to help her future sister-in-law.

That, of course, left me to solo-parent, which was quite a feat when trying to juggle all of my other various responsibilities. I was exhausted by the end of the day, but I refused to allow one of the nursemaids to tuck my children in at night.

I might not have been able to spend more than an hour with them each day, but I was going to at least get them ready for bed at night. Oftentimes, I had to do so quickly before returning to my kingly duties, but it was worth it to see them smile up at me sleepily as I situated the covers around their tiny bodies.

I tucked Emberly against my chest and carried her over to the meeting table. A few of the men couldn’t contain their appalled expressions as they realized that my six-year-old daughter would be joining us. I narrowed my eyes at them, causing them to quickly lower their heads in submission. They knew better than to question their king.

I was fortunate that it was Emberly who came to find me and not Sulien. If my rambunctious son had come in, I would have had to excuse myself to help him find one of the nursemaids since he wasn’t quite well-behaved enough to sit quietly while the meeting commenced.

I knew that my more soft-spoken daughter would be on her best behavior.

I sat back down at the head of the table and settled little Emberly on my lap. She snuggled against my chest, leaning back. I was thankful that she seemed much more relaxed now. I wound one arm around her and used my other to pull the stack of reports toward me so I could give them a quick once-over.

“The rise in crime in the southern villages can’t be a coincidence,” I stated firmly. I lifted my eyes to stare each of my men down, finally stopping to meet Drius’ gaze. “I believe that the protests are related. The timing is too perfect.”

I noticed Drius clench his jaw, his eyes flashing angrily. It was obvious that he knew I was right. “What would you like to suggest, Your Majesty?” he asked.

I frowned heavily. “We’ve no choice but to act more ruthlessly,” I announced. “We’ve broken up a couple of these protests already. That should have served as an adequate warning. We’ll have to resort to something more forceful.”

Drius nodded once. He knew that I meant we would have to use magic. Using our otherworldly forms of defense was a last resort. I didn’t enjoy using our abilities against our people, especially those who couldn’t wield magic themselves.

Unfortunately, we were left with no other option. I couldn’t allow these protests to continue. Warnings from our fiercest soldiers clearly weren’t enough.

I slid my hands over Emberly’s ears. “I want those bastards taken care of,” I said firmly. “Send our strongest magic-wielding soldiers at dawn. We’re putting a stop to these protests.”

After hammering out a few more details, I dismissed my men, ending the meeting. Emberly turned in my lap to look at me with wide eyes. “Are there bad guys coming for us, Daddy?”

I cursed at myself inwardly and brushed some hair away from her eyes. “No, sweetheart,” I cooed. “The bad guys are far away. We’re just sending Uncle Drius and some other guys to ask them to stop doing bad things.”

That wasn’t technically a lie. We would be asking with some strong, painful forces, but I wasn’t going to tell Emberly that.

I wrapped my arms around her before standing up. “Why don’t we get you some hot chocolate?” I asked, carrying my daughter out of the dim meeting room and down the hall to the kitchen.

Emberly nodded against my chest, her face buried in my shirt. She was clearly still upset, which made my plan even more appropriate.

It was late, so only a couple of kitchen staff were there, prepping for breakfast the next morning. They immediately offered to make the little princess a hot chocolate, but I waved them off, wanting to take care of my daughter myself.

I set Emberly on the counter, her little legs dangling over the edge, and started heating up some milk.

As we waited for the milk to heat, I put my arms on either side of my daughter, surrounding her with my warmth. “Would you like to tell me about your nightmare, Emberly?”

Emberly’s lower lip trembled for a moment before she nodded bravely. “Mommy didn’t come home from her trip.”

I cradled the side of her face with one hand, my thumb brushing against her cheekbone. “I promise you Mommy will come back,” I said. At the uncertainty in her eyes, I raised an eyebrow. “Don’t you trust me?” I asked her.

Emberly nodded hesitantly.

“Mommy is too strong to be kept away from us for too long,” I said soothingly. “And she loves us too much.”

That seemed to cheer Emberly a bit, but she still looked uncertain, making me frown.

Briella and I both worried that Emberly subconsciously remembered Malphas kidnapping her mother. She had been a mature baby and seemed to understand complex things that happened around her. It made sense that she could remember traumatic events like her mother’s disappearance.

I cuddled Emberly close while she sipped on her hot chocolate. She had a raging sweet tooth, so the drink seemed to calm her down immensely. Her eyes were drooping when she was about halfway through the warm beverage. I kissed her forehead before setting the cup aside and carrying her up to her bedroom.

Emberly was already asleep by the time I nudged her door open and settled her beneath the covers. She sighed tiredly. I sat at the edge of her bed for a little while, not wanting her to wake up alone. I waited until her breathing was even and slow, signaling that she had drifted into a deeper sleep.

I carefully stood from the bed after giving my daughter one more kiss on the forehead. I smoothed her hair back and made certain she was completely swaddled in her blanket before I carefully exited the room.

Before I shut the door, I heard her tiny voice murmur, “Thank you, Daddy.”