Page 105 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

“Let’s do it, Dad,” Carnal said quietly.

Free looked at Charming. “Go wake the elders. Tell them I said to get every able-bodied fighter ready to go to Farsuitwail. We leave in an hour.”

Charming whirled around for the steps but Carnal pulled him to a stop. “Go to Dandy first. Tell her to look for Easy at the gate. She can ride with him. My crew will look after her.”

Charming looked confused. “She’s not a fighter.”

Carnal’s expression softened. “She deserves to be first to know. There’s no point in debating whether or not she should go. I don’t think anything could keep her from going.” He looked at Rosie. “You’ll understand when you find your mate.”

When Carnal released Charming, he took the steps to the attic room four at a time and was gone in a flash.

Free had cringed and looked at Carnal apologetically. “Glad you thought of that. I would have felt bad later to know she’d heard at the same time, in the same way as everybody else. My thoughts must be scattered. I’m counting on you to keep me straight.” He reached out and squeezed Carnal’s shoulder.

Next Free turned his attention to Rosie and said, “Get dressed. You’re going to help us get the humans ready.” He looked at Carnal. “Make your crew responsible for getting everybody in rotation to the gate and ready to go in an hour. Trainees, too.”

“Trainees?” Carnal scowled.

“We’ll put them on patrol north of the city. It’ll be their job to make sure that, if there are any Rautt sympathizers, they don’t get a message out. After you get your crew ready, go to the city. Find out where the mayor lives. Get him up and let him know that we’re taking the fight to the Rautt today. Get him to come up with a plan for waking the humans who know how to use the weapons and getting them ready to go by early morning. With luck, the rain will continue and make the morning dark longer. Chances are, since the Rautt have never been attacked, they don’t even have guards posted.”

“Somebody in Farsuitwail is in contact with them.”

“But it’s apparently somebody who doesn’t know about the humans’ plan to attack or the Rautt would have already come to destroy the facilities and kill a new generation of educated humans.”

Carnal nodded, looking like he’d gained a valuable insight. “All the humans don’t know. They don’t even trust each other.”

“By the time you have a plan in place with the mayor, we’ll have the trainees watching the north of the city. Take the mayor to City Hall and wait for us there. We’ll meet at the park.”

“I’ll take Rosie with me. She can help manage the humans.”

Rosie looked at Serene. “Who’s going to watch the kids at the Weavers’ Barn?”

Serene was clearly touched at Rosie’s concern. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll be leaving more people behind this time because it’s a bigger risk. Mothers of the really young, the disabled, there will be people to take care of them.”

“Okay, then.” Rosie hurried to get ready. As Carnal passed his own room on the way to Crave’s room, where he’d been staying intermittently, he ducked in, and grabbed Rosie as she was hurriedly pulling on her riding clothes. He kissed her like his life depended on it, then said, “You’re riding with me, little demon. I’ll be back for you in fifteen minutes.”

“But…”

“Mine. Rosie.”

“Yeah. We established that last night, but…”

“Fifteen minutes.”

He let her go and moved so fast he practically vanished, taking his warmth with him.

“Bossy,” she yelled after him.

Carnal never said anything he didn’t mean. To him fifteen minutes meant exactly that, not a second more or less. Rosie barely had time to wash the sleep out of her eyes and brush her teeth before Carnal had returned to pull her downstairs.

“Mom!” he yelled on the way down. “She needs something to keep the rain off. She’s fragile.”

“I’m not fragile,” Rosie protested, but he ignored her. She supposed she needed to keep up pretenses and pretend that she was. After all, her cover was that she was human.

They stopped at the closed door to Free’s and Serene’s bedroom. Abruptly the door opened. “I have this. It hasn’t been worn since it was rewaxed.” Serene shoved a duster at Rosie. It was split in the back for riding. It was big on her, of course, but would do a fine job of keeping her covered. It also had a hood with a rope string she could tie under her chin.

“Yeah,” Carnal said. “It’ll do.”

“What about the rest of you?” Rosie asked. “It’s cold out there. And with the rain…”