Page 9 of Princess (Marinah and the Apocalypse #5)

King

Marinah handled taking a back seat better than expected.

It impressed me because I didn’t know if I could have done it.

The upcoming negotiation was important, and even I thought she would be better at it.

My patience wasn’t the best, especially since she became pregnant.

My outward calm for her sake was getting harder to maintain.

I wanted to wrap her in cotton, take her to the safest place I could find, and sit on her until our child was born.

I, fortunately, understood it wouldn’t happen unless I wanted my head separated from my shoulders with a bloody mess to show for it.

We eventually heard back from Landan about our offer.

His message had been short and to the point.

His people weren’t coming, and they wouldn’t send their children either.

I liked the man, but I didn’t agree with him.

He said he would reconsider if things got worse, or if we received intelligence that a large-scale takeover was imminent.

For now, his people were well-protected, and the Shadow Warriors stationed among them were on high alert.

Marinah had spent most of the previous evening discussing how to handle the people arriving from the other outposts. I could see in her eyes that staying away was hard, but she knew the less information we gave President Barnes about our child, the better.

The outposts were sending four people total. We couldn’t trust a single one of them.

I understood their desire to remain independent, but we didn’t control Landan; we simply helped protect him and the outposts he’d aligned with. The ones who made foolhardy choices cost lives, and this wasn’t the first time, but it might be the most horrific.

Unleashing newly created hellhounds to slaughter innocent children burned inside me like a blast furnace.

They said we were the monsters.

They were wrong.

We had spent months crafting the citadel as a multipurpose facade, carefully designing it to reveal only a limited picture of our resources. But Knet had changed everything.

His betrayal was almost impossible to fathom, and whenever I thought about it, rage burned deep. He had been one of my Shadow Warriors. A man I trusted.

He gave our secrets to President Barnes out of jealousy, and for that he would die.

It would be a slow, painful death, and even that wasn’t good enough for him.

Marinah wanted the pleasure of killing him herself, but I wasn’t sure I could hold back if I got to him first. I didn’t think any of our guards could.

His death was imminent, and when it came, one of us would receive the gift of ending his miserable life.

In the meantime, Marinah made sweeping changes to our security.

Our strongholds on the southern end of the island had been altered, and anything that could be moved had been relocated.

This included setting up some of the tunnels with explosives and not using them to hide our people.

The changes were almost complete, but until they were finished, we weren’t fully protected.

And that meant we were still vulnerable. Knet’s knowledge of our security measures could be our downfall.

Losing Labyrinth hadn’t just been painful; it had been a blow to our defenses too.

Beyond the loss of a friend, he had been vital to our operations.

He was a man of many talents. Nokita was good with anything mechanical, but if Labyrinth needed to take over for him, he could.

Same went for helping Axel in medical. Labyrinth couldn’t perform complex surgery, but he could keep a man alive until help came.

He had many talents, and I’d taken advantage of all of them. Now he was gone.

Marinah had to choose someone to take his place, even though it would be nearly impossible to find someone as good. She’d been dragging her feet because she was still struggling with his loss.

I needed to push her on it again.

And she wouldn’t like it.

I turned a corner just as Beck came around from the opposite direction. We nearly collided.

“The plane is on schedule,” he said. “They’ll arrive within the hour.”

“I’ll find Marinah and let her know,” I replied.

Beck gave a sharp nod before spinning on his heel and heading back the way he came.

I found my mate in the practice gym with Ruth and Togg?

That stopped me. I thought she had reassigned Togg to the southern part of the island.

“I’ll leave the plans to both of you,” Marinah said when she saw me. She turned to Ruth. “Togg is in charge. If he says you’re endangering anyone, I’ll pull the plug on this. Understood?”

“Yes, understood,” Ruth nodded eagerly.

Had the hellion misled Marinah again? The child could turn on a dime. One minute she agreed to something, and the next, she was endangering the people around her. Marinah had more trust in her than I was willing to give.

And Togg?

I had thought his punishment was over. But if she had stuck him with Ruth, that meant he had done something else.

Yet, he didn’t seem bothered.

In fact, he looked almost eager to get started on whatever Marinah had planned.

“One hour,” I said when she approached.

“Good,” she replied, her tone unreadable. Then, as if something had just clicked into place, her expression shifted. “I have an idea.”

“I’m all ears.”

That made her smile.

“I want to gag and bind Mrs. Barnacle and parade her in front of whoever exits that plane.”

I blinked. “Is there a reason?”

She looped her arm through mine and led me from the gym. “Of course I have a reason,” she said, just a hint of irritation slipping into her voice. “One, I want them to report that she’s alive in case one or more of them is feeding information back to Barnes.”

I raised a brow. “And the second reason?”

“I’m getting no enjoyment over the next few hours, and I like fucking with her and I could care less if it’s petty,” Marinah said, her voice laced with amusement.

“She’s doing a horrible job sorting the laundry, and she isn’t getting lunch today.

Combined with no food, making her visible to our visitors should take her down a peg or two.

If the people coming in aren’t reporting back to Barnes, they still need to know we have her and that we stole her from under the Federation’s nose. ”

“Why gag her?”

“I don’t want her telling them anything. No secret hand signals, no dramatic pleas, nothing.”

I grinned. “I like it.”

She stopped mid-step, turned, and kissed me.

“I thought you might,” she murmured when she pulled back.

I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her as close as her growing stomach allowed. “I’ll have to agree with you more often.”

She smirked. “I like it when you agree, but I love it when you don’t. There’s something satisfying about dragging that stubborn streak out of you. Gives me the warm fuzzies.”

I kissed her again, lingering just long enough to taste the smugness on her lips.

“I’m sorry you won’t be there today,” I said when we finally pulled apart.

“I’ll be listening,” she said, and the way she said it gave me pause.

“Through the vent,” she clarified. “Nokita has been working on it. He’ll stay with me, and if I need you to shift tactics, he’ll interrupt.”

I chuckled. Only a few months ago, she had been fighting the idea of being in charge. Now, there was no holding her back.

We continued walking, but before we rounded the next corner, a blood-curdling scream echoed down the hall.

I turned toward the sound ready to charge in that direction, but Marinah caught my arm.

“No worries,” she said, completely unbothered. “The bitch has just been informed she’s not getting lunch.”

I snorted.

“I, however, am starving,” she added. “Let’s grab a quick meal before the performance starts with the outpost delegation.”

At this point, everything Marinah did revolved around food. Axel had sworn she wasn’t carrying twins, but I wasn’t entirely convinced.

We picked up two meals and took them to our room. Marinah ate with gusto, but she looked tired.

“Lie with me for a minute,” I said after we finished our meals.

She didn’t argue. She lay next to me, and I slowly began massaging her shoulders.

She moved to the side so I could reach her back.

Our sex life had been interesting with her new shape, but it had slowed during the past two weeks due to how tired she was at the end of the day.

I hated to see her exhausted, and the last thing I would do was add to it.

I didn’t mind simply having her close. Touching her like this was also special.

She moaned when I hit a sore spot. I worked the kinks out of her muscles, and her hand slipped down and rubbed my crotch.

My hand slipped between her thighs, my palm pressing against her. Her hips thrust against me, and I kissed her. She moved faster and moaned again, adding pressure to my hardness. I wasn’t a teenage boy in danger of coming in my pants, and it felt good, but giving her pleasure felt better.

She growled into my mouth, and a moment later, her back arched.

I pulled away slightly and simply watched her. When she finally opened her eyes, she gave me a soft smile.

“What about you?” she said.

“I can wait. If we keep our guests waiting, they might become aggravated.”

“I don’t care,” she said, reaching her hand toward me again.

I stopped her pursuit. “Yes, you do. You’re beautiful when you come. Thank you.”

Her cheeks pinkened, and I repositioned her so she was lying with her back against me. My hand went to our child, and I gently rubbed her belly.

“I love you,” she said.

“I love you both.”