Back aboard the Raptor 600, Slate reluctantly made his way to the bedroom suite that loosely held the Emperor.

Rex had been placed on the lowest possible security hold, with only two guards outside his doorway and no lock on the door. The only thing that was keeping the Emperor within the bedroom suite was his own sense of moral authority.

To leave the bedroom without permission from the Prime Warrior would mean that the Emperor thought he was wrongfully blamed for the crime he had just committed.

This was absolutely not the case. Rex was not challenging the fact that he had done a very bad thing. He was, in fact, horrified of his own actions and was sitting on the floor with his head in his hands.

The door opened and the Prime warrior walked in.

“Father.” Slate called out.

“Son.” The Emperor did not look up from his seated position, his head still resting on his raised knees. “What is going to happen to me?”

“Nothing at the moment, Father.” Slate sighed.

He didn’t have to say it but they both knew that there would be ramifications for the Emperor’s actions. What those ramifications were, not even Slate could comfortably predict.

He gritted his teeth as he looked at his father’s abject miserable stance.

The most powerful man in the galaxy had been reduced to this sniveling mess of a weakling. What had happened to his father?

“How—how is Fatima?” Rex asked, his voice dropping to almost a whisper.

“How do you think she is?” Slate’s mouth hardened. “She just lost half her face.”

The Emperor sobbed into his hands.

“I didn’t mean to do it. I was just so angry that she would cheat on me. I didn’t—I didn’t realize I had transformed partially into a blood bat and my claws had extruded.”

“Father…” Slate choked down his fury. “Why would your first reaction be that she cheated on you?”

He was the Prime Warrior, judge, jury, and executioner of the royal family. He had to get through this part without losing control of his emotions.

“Have you thought about the possibility that maybe the reason why your little girl changed into a mermaid is because YOU are also HALF-MERFOLK???”

For a moment, Rex said nothing.

Of course he knew his mother was a mermaid, but the important thing was that HE was not and had never been a merman.

Having a mother who was a mermaid hadn’t stopped him from becoming a full-fledged blood bat! It had also not stopped Jason and Jared from becoming full blood bats!

Everyone knew that only the blood bats bred true and anyone else who did not become a blood bat was someone else’s child, borne out of wedlock.

“Father.” Slate gritted his teeth. “Did you know that Jason and Jared are not only blood bats, they are ALSO mermen?”

“What???” Rex raised his head and stared at his son.

“That’s right, Father. Since you are half-merfolk and their mother is full mer, the twins and Ariana are three-fourths mer! The chance of them being mer is far greater than the chance that they would be blood bats!”

“But blood bats breed true!” Rex spat.

Then, as if chanting an old tired mantra, Rex rubbed his head, muttering to himself.

“Blood bats breed true. Blood bats breed true.” He continued to mumble to himself.

“I am a full blood bat. I am full blood bat. My children cannot be anything other than full blood bats.”

“Pshahh!” Slate cursed. “How is it possible for you to be so smart in so many subjects and areas, and so ignorant in the basic biology of genetics? We’re not living in the dark ages!”

Slate turned away, unable to gaze upon the man who he resembled so much. He tried again to reason with his father.

“The twins and Ariana are genetically far more merfolk than they are blood bats. It would be strange if they didn’t have mer abilities.”

“But blood bats breed true!”

“And they do, for the most part.” Slate agreed. “The twins fly around in the sky with the rest of us on their bat wings. But Father, they can also swim in the oceans with the rest of their merfolk while I cannot join my maternal wolf pack because I am unable to transform into a wolf.”

“Son, you should be proud of your blood bat origins.”

Slate threw up his arms. “Father, I am! But that should not prevent me from being proud of my maternal genes as well!”

He took a deep breath. He was not here to pick a fight or cause a scene with his father. He had a job to do.

“Father. I am here to inform you that you will remain in this suite for the duration of the time that it takes for the wedding to take place.”

“The wedding!” Rex looked up at his son. He had completely forgotten about the wedding.

“Yes. The wedding.” Slate sighed. “You will be allowed to join the wedding, but only for half an hour, after which you will be escorted back to this suite for the duration of time that we will be here on Marakaran.”

Rex stared at his son. He should have been upset that Slate was ordering him to be under house-arrest, but he could not help feeling a sudden surge of pride in the fact that this was the voice of the Prime Warrior speaking to him.

This was his youngest son, doing his job as a Prime Warrior.

With a nod, he indicated his abeyance. At the very least, Slate was allowing him to be at the wedding, if only for a short while.

Slate turned on his heels and left without a backward glance.

He was unsure what to do with Father after the wedding, but he was comforted in knowing that whatever it was, it would be put to a vote.

He and his brothers would chip in their thoughts and come out with a solution that would make the most sense for everyone involved.