Secrets of the Blossom

Chapter 10

Huai En watches in disinterest as his father tucks in a sleeping Xue Lianqing. He supposes that if he had been younger, he might have been jealous of the tenderness that his father showed the girl, but the days when his father evoked any sort of emotion from him has long since passed. Huai En tosses the Jin Ledger, which had been found with the girl, at his father's feet.

"I brought you what you asked for." Huai En says then turns to leave.

He feels a wave of energy pass and the doors are slammed in front of him just as he reaches them. Huai En turns an angry face back to his father.

"A male omega will not be a suitable marriage for you. Especially one who is now penniless and without connections." His father says calmly. "How could I let you go down such a shameful path?"

"Hypocritical." Huai En answers. "Was it not more shameful to have an affair with another's concubine?"

His father chooses to ignore this slight on his own character. "Have you forgotten that I have already arranged a marriage for you when you were a child?"

"I never agreed to that marriage." Huai En bites out.

"The barbarians are willing to marry off their beloved princess to you. It will forge an alliance between their tribes and our sect. They have many powerful soldiers that would help me win against the emperor. If you like that boy so much, I will consider letting you take him as a concubine once the marriage pact is sealed." His father says.

Huai En scoffs at this, "If you need the barbarian's help so much why don't you marry the princess yourself? Then you can take your own concubines from among their tribes as well. My mother has been dead for nineteen years, there's nothing to stop you."

"Do you want to die?" His father says as he uses a wave of energy to fling a heavy bowl at Huai En's head. Huai En easily dodges it but while he is distracted his father moves across the room in a flash and takes Huai En by the throat. He shoves Huai En against the door.

Huai En tries to remove the man's hand from his throat with both of his, but his father is too strong even now. "You said you would set me free when I got the job done."

"The Job isn't done; you haven't avenged your mother yet. How can you talk about freedom? All so you can be with the son of the people that killed her family. How dare you. You should get ready to marry the princess." His father growls.

Huai En tries to draw his sword, but his father easily pushes it back into its scabbard with his other hand. For a minute Huai En thinks his father might really strangle him to death this time, but there is a sob behind them. Huai En's father releases him and he gasps in a breath.

Xue Lianqing has woken up. "Where is this, where am I?" She cries.

"Qingqing, you're awake." Huai En's father goes to the girl. He lays a hand on her shoulder, but she shies away from him. He strokes her hair in a comforting gesture. "It's all right Qingqing, you are safe now."

"I want my family, I want my gege." Xue Lianqing continues to cry.

"Those people are not your family," Huai En's father says, almost losing his temper with the child. Then he takes a breath and says more calmly. "We are your family. I loved your aunt very much and I will take care of you now in her honor."

Xue Lianqing's eyes grow wide at this. She stops crying but Huai En can see she is very afraid of them. His father seems not to notice this, taking the girl's calmer demeanor to mean she has been comforted by his words.

In the same quiet tone of voice that he had used on the girl he tells Huai En he will stay here until he agrees to the arranged marriage. He makes a gesture and Huai En is hit with a wave of energy. He feels the world around him go black. When he awakes, he is on his own bed, but his arms and legs are shackled to ring bolts in the wall. It seems his father won't let him escape easily.