Chapter 268: Meeting the Beast Emperor (2)

Kane glanced at the half-open door, then back at her.

"I’m prepared for whatever version of a welcome he has decided to give."

Marisa finally turned her head enough to meet his eyes fully.

"Remember what I told you on the road. He will measure first. He will not try to end you on the first meeting unless you force his hand. Survive the measurement cleanly and the packs start watching differently. Fail, and the underground becomes permanent. There is no third option that leaves you free to walk out of these halls on your own terms."

"I remember."

"Do more than remember. Act like it. Short answers. No speeches. No unnecessary challenges unless you are certain you can back them with blood. He respects nerve. He does not respect noise."

Kane gave a small nod.

"Short answers. No speeches. I can do that."

Marisa held his gaze a moment longer, as if checking for any sign of bravado that would get them both killed, then looked back toward the doorway.

Footsteps sounded from the chamber beyond, heavy, unhurried, belonging to something much larger than the soldiers who had escorted them.

The distant moans and chains continued without pause, as if the presence of the emperor changed nothing about the work being done in the surrounding rooms.

Marisa straightened almost imperceptibly.

Kane’s hand rested lightly on Mjoldr’s haft, though he didn’t lift the weapon.

The air in the corner of the underground hall seemed to thicken, pressure building the way it did before a storm.

A broad shadow moved across the light spilling from the half-open door.

Then the figure entered.

Grathak stepped into view.

Kane’s eyes widened at the figure.

He was ten feet tall.

His body looked like it had been built for war and then used without rest, thick muscle layered over a frame that could break gates, dark fur covering heavy shoulders and arms, a bear’s broad face marked by old, pale scars.

Whatever Kane had imagined when he pictured meeting the emperor of Berakamon, the reality was already worse.

The creature standing in the doorway carried the bulk of a human body thrice and stood taller than anyone Kane had faced since arriving in this world.

The underground chamber seemed smaller simply because he occupied it. The air itself felt heavier, as if the stone had learned to bow around him over the decades.

Every bit of confidence Kane had carried down the stairs didn’t vanish, but it faltered hard.

If it came to a true fight here and now, with no space to maneuver and no time to prepare, he was no longer certain he could win.

The system stayed quiet, offering no comforting numbers, no easy assessment. Some things were too large for clean calculations.

Grathak’s red eyes did not go to Kane first.

They locked on Marisa.

He crossed the short distance in two long strides, the stone floor seeming to take his enormous weight without protest or crack.

He leaned down, massive head lowering until his muzzle was at the side of her neck, and dragged his tongue slowly over her skin, tasting her, scenting her, claiming the air around her after whatever time they had been apart.

The gesture was intimate and possessive in a way that had nothing to do with sibling affection.

Marisa didn’t flinch.

She stood perfectly still and let it happen, eyes fixed on some middle distance, body held under rigid control.

"Where were you, sister?" Grathak’s voice was a deep, rough rumble that vibrated in the chest more than the ears.

It filled the chamber the way water fills a drowned room.

Marisa’s answer came calm and even, as if a ten-foot emperor was not currently tasting her pulse.

"I was accompanying the barbarian."

Grathak’s hand rose, thick fingers tangling in her long black hair and tightening just enough to tilt her head to the angle he wanted.

He inhaled again, longer this time, drawing her scent deep.

"Why do you smell like him?"

Marisa’s breath hitched, small, almost hidden, but not hidden enough.

Grathak noticed. Of course he noticed.

His red eyes narrowed with something darker and older than simple anger.

The kind of attention that had kept an empire under one claw for two hundred years.

Marisa smoothed her expression back to indifference before he could press the reaction further.

Her voice stayed level.

"I accompanied him to avoid unnecessary fights on the road. The packs are restless. Mutants are pushing farther south than they should. An outsider walking alone would have drawn blood before he reached the outer markers. I chose the cleaner path. Fewer bodies. Less noise for you to clean up later."

Grathak’s grip in her hair loosened a fraction.

He still didn’t look at Kane. His entire focus remained on the sister who had returned carrying another male’s scent.

"Was he worth it?"

"That is for you to decide, brother."

A slow, wide grin split Grathak’s scarred muzzle, showing teeth that could close around a man’s torso.

Then he threw his head back and let out a roar of laughter that shook dust from the ceiling beams and made the oil lamps flicker.

The sound rolled through the underground hall, cutting over the distant moans and chains for a long moment.

When the laughter finally faded, he opened his mouth wider, teeth bared, and leaned in as if he meant to bite down on the junction of Marisa’s neck and shoulder, testing, threatening, reminding her exactly what the old tradition could look like if he ever stopped waiting.

Kane stepped forward.

The movement was deliberate.

He didn’t reach for Mjoldr yet. He simply closed some of the absurd distance and spoke, voice flat and carrying cleanly through the chamber.

"I believe we are here to discuss matters of empires and demons. Not whatever you are doing with her."

The laughter died as if cut by a blade.

Grathak stopped.

He released Marisa’s hair, straightened to his full height, and turned.

The movement was unhurried, almost lazy, yet the air in the chamber seemed to compress under the simple act of the emperor giving Kane his full attention.

Red eyes settled on the human.

For a long moment, the only sound was the distant, ongoing noise of the lower pens.

"...Barbarian."