Page 27

Marinah

They were laughing at me, and I couldn’t blame them.

I could not lead thousands of men, scratch that, Shadow Warriors. I had no idea what I was doing. The entire meeting replayed in my head. They were like children, and I couldn’t believe I was supposed to point them in a direction and tell them what to do.

Stupid.

And King had been doing this for years.

Nokita had offhandedly mentioned Cosway as I left the room, and it reminded me I needed to check on her. I started my search and eventually gave up and asked one of the door guards. He pointed me to the outside courtyard, where I found her playing with the kittens.

“Pretty butterfly,” she said when she noticed me.

She was a pretty butterfly herself now. Soap, water, and good food had transformed her. She looked younger, and someone had even worked on her teeth. I guessed her to be in her mid-twenties. “Hi, Cosway. Do you mind if I join you and play with the kittens?”

She pushed the calico in my direction, and I caught him before he could scamper off. “He likes the pretty butterfly.”

“I like him,” I said, cradling the little guy in my arms. He started purring the moment I scratched his soft, round belly.

“You keep him. He is yours,” she said simply.

It was more than I’d heard her say since we found her. “King might not agree with you. I don’t think he likes cats.”

She snapped her fingers, her expression turning serious. “King no say.”

I thought about it. “You know what? You’re right. Yes, I want this little,” I tipped the precious bundle over to adjust my hold, “girl. Are you sure you don’t mind?”

I should have realized the kitten was a girl since calicos usually were. I guessed I’d been around too many men lately; everything defaulted to male. It would be nice to have another female in my life.

“Pretty butterfly needs kiddie,” she said with conviction.

I lifted the little gal and stared into her blue eyes. “You need a name. I’ll think about it, and when I come for you, I’ll have something that works.”

∞∞∞

The next two weeks were more of the same. During our morning meetings, I felt like an idiot. No, an imposter. I was being stubborn by not asking King for help. Deep down, I wanted him to take this back. If I did a horrible job, maybe he’d reconsider. It was a ridiculous plan, but it was all I had to get myself out of this mess.

The biggest news came from Axel, who had managed to replicate the whistles. “Their frequency makes it impossible for the human ear to hear. It also has little to no effect on Shadow Warriors besides annoyance,” he explained, looking at me with a smile. “Frequency was too much for poor Labyrinth’s brain to handle.” He added a friendly smirk for Labyrinth.

The Goliath only grunted.

For reasons I couldn’t explain, his smirk irritated me, but I pushed it aside and focused on the good news. “Is it possible to give one to every human on the island?” I asked, hopeful.

“We should have more than enough within ninety days,” he replied.

“What about the outposts?” I pressed. They needed them just as much as we did.

“I sent the prototype, and they’re making their own.”

He kept looking at me, and I placed my hands in front of me as though warding him off. “What?” I grumbled. He was acting weird.

Axel looked away, but I caught the grin tugging at his lips.

“What is this about?” I demanded, looking around the table. “You don’t get to pretend something isn’t up.”

The men were pointedly staring. At me. They wanted to laugh. I could see it in their barely contained lip twitches. I’d had just about enough.

Kill , Ms. Beast whispered in my mind, louder than ever. It felt like the Nova transformation had put her on steroids.

Maybe, I told her.

Beck leaned forward, his eyes intense, and that’s when I lost it. It felt strange too. Ms. Beast pushed the K-5, forcing my shift. It was a stronger dose than she’d ever used. If I completely lost control, someone would die. These were my friends. Okay, irritating friends. I shoved back against the K-5 and forced Ms. Beast into her hidey hole somewhere deep inside me. But that didn’t stop my rage.

I glared at Beck. “If I were you, I would lower your eyes.”

He blinked, unmoving.

“Now!” I shouted. My hands clenched, and I wanted nothing more than to wrap them around his throat. No, better yet, I wanted to tear it out.

All eyes at the table, including King’s, dropped.

Why was he doing this? King hadn’t made me look away from him after we mated. It was hard not to grab him and shake him until he conceded and took this crap back. If I stayed in that room a second longer, I was going to remove someone’s head. They were driving me insane. Without saying another word, I stormed out.

I was waiting for King in our room when he finally decided to make an appearance. He walked in calmly, kissed my cheek, and sat at the table where we ate. I stayed on the bed, facing him.

“Would you like to talk about it?” he asked calmly.

For once, there wasn’t a hint of a grin or teasing in his expression. His tone didn’t ruffle my feathers, and that alone caught me off guard.

My main problem was that I’d refused to ask King questions about what was expected of me, and we’d barely spoken at all. The weight on my shoulders seemed to pile higher each day. I wasn’t sleeping, and I knew there were things I should have been doing. King always stayed busy, constantly putting out fires. For fuck sake, the island ran smoothly under his leadership, and he should be the one in charge. Right now, I felt like a complete failure.

More than anything, I wanted to curl into a ball and cry. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” I said, barely holding back the tears.

His soft smile calmed me. “You’re doing great.”

That ridiculous response made me angry again. He didn’t get to brush this off so easily. “Bull. And what’s with the eye thing? Why were they all staring at me?”

“They’re trying to force alpha tendencies on you,” he said matter-of-factly.

“What? Why?”

“It’s something about being the strongest. It took me nine or ten days to feel it. I went berserk at one point, and several men had to pull me off Beck.”

Oh, that was rich. “You didn’t think this was important information to share?” I demanded.

He tilted his head, and his blue eyes held mine as he spoke. “I can’t help you if you won’t help yourself. Finding the balance as a leader takes time. I made plenty of mistakes in the beginning. The men need security, and one thing I learned was to be decisive in my commands, even if I had no idea what I was doing.”

He got up from the chair and walked over to me. “When you stop fighting who you are, this will get easier.”

I bent forward, resting my head against his stomach. “I don’t want this,” I murmured.

His fingers threaded gently through my braids, lulling me into a false sense of comfort. And then he dropped the bomb. “I think you do.”

My head snapped up so fast it should have yanked out an entire braid. “How can you say that?”

His comforting smile disarmed me. “You hate authority, especially mine. You’re a natural at giving orders and making sure everything runs like a well-oiled machine. You have no fear, even when you should. Your only obstacle is Marinah the weak. Once you let her go, everything will fall into place.”

Marinah the weak. He hit the nail on the head. I’d spent so much time hiding from life, from challenges, from responsibility. I was weak.

“You don’t miss the old me?” I asked quietly.

His smile turned wolfish. “Not in the least.”

“No fair,” I whispered.

King took my hand, pulling me up from the bed. His arms circled me as he gazed deep into my eyes. Ms. Beast didn’t protest, and I felt a wave of relief. “You are not weak,” he said before kissing me. He was wrong because by the time he finished, my knees could barely hold me.

“Can we forget about who leads and who looks into my eyes for now?” I murmured.

“Your wish is my command,” he said with a grin.

I wanted to complain about his choice of words, but then his hands found the sensitive area beneath my breasts. A woman shouldn’t complain when a man was making her feel so good. “I have something for you,” he whispered. I needed him to stop talking and move his hands higher.

Instead, they dropped, and he left me standing there while he rummaged in our closet. He returned with a bag and placed it on the bed. “I found these in the city when I went scavenging.”

I looked inside the bag, and tears immediately welled up. Boots. And not just any boots.

Doc Martens. Size nine. Camouflage.

He’d found these while he was angry with me.

“You like them?” he asked softly.

“I like them,” I said, my voice trembling. “And I love you.” I wiped away a tear as my lips quivered. Then I remembered my gift for King. It was stupid, really, and nothing compared to these boots. “I have something for you too,” I said hesitantly.

He was going to hate it.

I rummaged in the nightstand drawer and pulled out a small bag. Handing it to him, I watched nervously as he opened it.

King pulled out the silver chains. They were from a novelty store, cheap metal that probably wouldn’t last. As he fully removed the necklaces, he could see the charms at the ends. Script writing. One said KING, the other QUEEN.

My embarrassment grew as he stared at them silently. Then he lifted his head, and I saw pure love in his expression. “Come here,” he whispered.

I stepped into his arms, and he held me tightly, rocking gently from side to side.

“I’ll wear mine if you wear yours,” he said softly into my hair.

I pushed back slightly, and he placed the necklace around my throat. It took him a few seconds to work the clasp. When his hands dropped, he pressed the word QUEEN lightly into my skin with his finger before handing me his necklace. I secured it, turned the clasp to the back, and pressed his KING into his skin in return.

That’s when a multicolored blur caught my eye. The kitten leapt onto the bed and then bolted off just as quickly. King noticed too. “Was that a cat?”

I nodded. If he wanted decisive, I’d give him decisive. “She’s my cat. Her name is Callie, and she’ll be staying in our room from now on.”

Without batting an eye, King turned his attention from the cat to the boots on the bed. “I’ve had this fantasy,” he said.

“A fantasy?” I asked skeptically.

“Take off your clothes and put on the boots.”

I laughed. “You’re crazy.”

But King wasn’t laughing, and the heat in his gaze sent a wave of desire rolling from my toes to every sensitive part of my body. Slowly, I did exactly as he asked. If my mate wanted me in nothing but Doc Martens, that’s what he’d get.

He stripped off his clothes too, and a minute later, we stood facing each other, me in my Doc Martens and necklace, him in his necklace. My mate. The man who loved me.

His eyes, hot and unrelenting, traveled over me. He stepped forward, lifted the charm at the end of my necklace, and kissed it.

“You are my queen. I love you,” he said possessively.