Page 9

King

The death of my Warriors hit hard. They’d given their lives fighting for these people. Marinah had changed me when it came to my hatred for humans, narrowing it to the ones who deserved killing. Missy being with Beck had helped, too. After the Federation betrayed the Shadow Warriors and killed my uncle, who was our leader at the time, my hatred had consumed me. But not all humans were the same. I reminded myself of that again.

I looked at the freshly tilled earth holding nearly one hundred people and seethed. Marinah wiped away tears, and my anger flared hotter. How could anyone kill children in cold blood? When I found the ones responsible, I wouldn’t be asking them for answers. I would make sure they suffered.

We left the outpost in the early evening, following the trail left by the hellhounds and soldiers. They had a two-day head start, but it wouldn’t be enough to save them.

At midnight, I called a halt. Garret was struggling, though he wouldn’t admit it. He knew I’d been serious when I said we’d leave him behind, and he wasn’t about to test me. Marinah, despite the sleep she’d had on the plane, was dragging too. It was time to stop, eat, and rest for a few hours.

We didn’t shift back to human. We needed to be ready for anything, whether it was hellhounds or Federation soldiers. Labyrinth took the first watch. I unrolled my sleeping bag next to Marinah’s, watching her while she ate an MRE without complaint.

When she finished, she adjusted her sleeping bag closer to mine and lay down in my arms. “Dinner was horrible,” she whispered. “If this is what courting looks like, you learned from the wrong person.”

That was the Marinah I knew and loved. “I must’ve missed the courting memo.” I slid my hand across her hip and gave her a small pinch. “If we were alone, I’d go straight for your pants.”

Her soft giggle broke through the blood rage simmering inside me, calming it for a moment. I pulled her closer, her scent filling my lungs and calming me further. She nestled her cheek against my arm and closed her eyes. Minutes later, I followed her into sleep.

“Time to rise and shine,” Beck said sometime later. It was still dark, but the moon had shifted, and I knew several hours had passed.

“Please kill Beck; I’m too tired to do it myself,” Marinah groaned.

I rubbed my jaw against hers, our teeth gently clinking together. It was the best we could manage in this form. We ate quickly, packed, and were back on the trail within twenty minutes. About an hour after sunrise, the Federation soldiers’ trail split from the hellhounds’, leaving us completely perplexed.

“Over here,” Labyrinth called and pointed downward once we joined him. “There are several soldiers following the hellhounds. The others went north.”

“Are we splitting up?” Marinah asked.

“No.” I bent down, examining the tracks more closely. Three distinct sets of human footprints were on top of the hellhound tracks, clearly showing they were following the herd. My biggest question was how they were keeping the hounds from attacking them. “We’re going after the main unit of soldiers. That’s where their leader is, and that’s who I ultimately want. Stay alert. We’re gaining on them.”

We picked up the pace, and Garret managed to stay with us, though his breathing grew heavier. I was guessing he’d been military, likely special forces. He carried himself like a soldier. Marinah tucked in behind me, and we ran single file for hours, the landscape slowly changing as we moved farther north.

Eventually, we encountered a scatter of buildings. We stopped for a water break at one that provided a bit of shade. A faded, crumbling sign revealed it had once been a post office.

Garret gasped for air. “Leave me,” he said after a few minutes of trying to catch his breath.

Marinah glanced between us but kept her opinion to herself.

“We’ll break for an hour and see where you’re at then,” I told him.

He collapsed where he stood. Once he was sitting, he pulled out his sleeping bag and flopped down on top of it. After a quick gulp of water, he was out cold. The rest of us ate our MREs. Labyrinth, who had stubbornly stayed on guard duty during our last rest, nodded off. Beck took perimeter watch.

“Are you holding up?” I asked Marinah after we’d eaten.

“As long as exhaustion doesn’t count, yes. And don’t go all He-Man on me. You’re exhausted too.”

I raised an eyebrow. “He-Man?”

Her massive jaws twitched, clearly holding back laughter. “Your He-Man, or human side, thinks you need to act tough. Your Warrior side just wants death for your enemies. Your mate, however, disregards both sides because she knows when her man is tired.”

She had no idea how beautiful her Warrior side was. I’d lived with my own for so long that, after accepting my Beast, I never gave much thought to how I looked in this form beyond flat-out terrifying. But Marinah made me see it differently. She made me appreciate the beauty in a form designed for death and destruction. Each line, each muscle, every deadly claw, and every sharp tooth had the symmetry of a perfect killing machine.

“Since my mate is calling the shots, I’ll rest my eyes,” I said. And think about Marinah, I added silently.

She patted my colossal head and wrapped her strong, hairy arms around me.

The next thing I knew, Beck was waking us. It was time to move.

“I can keep going,” Garret said after testing his legs with a few stretches.

The terrain grew rougher as the elevation rose. The rolling hills slowed our progress, but that was fine; it slowed the Federation too. They hadn’t even tried to cover their tracks, and from the looks of it, they’d used this trail repeatedly. Or someone had.

What bothered me most was the eerie absence of hellhounds. We hadn’t seen any in the area, and it didn’t sit right.

The thought had barely crossed my mind when Nokita spotted six hounds in the distance. “Stay back,” I told Garret firmly. “We’re protected, and you’re not. If you get scratched or bitten, I won’t wait around for you to die before moving on.”

For the first time, Garret objected. “I’ve killed my fair share of hounds, and nothing you say will stop me from fighting.”

“Your death is on you,” I snapped.

As a team, we charged up the trail toward the hounds. Marinah stayed a few feet behind me, her sharp eyes scanning for her target. The moment she locked onto the one she wanted, a low growl rumbled from her throat, and she launched herself into the fight.

When it came to hellhounds, Marinah could handle herself. I focused on the big one in front of me and his closest ally. With a burst of adrenaline and pure instinct, I tore into them, determined to end this fight quickly.