Page 10

Marinah

King proved that sex with him was better than killing hellhounds three times over. Once before the shower and twice afterward. I’d never felt this close to another soul. King was playful, intense, and incredibly sexy.

After our amazing night, we slept in until right before noon. Beck’s relentless pounding on the door dragged us grumpily from the bed.

The thing about Beck? I wasn’t even sure he liked me. I didn’t expect the reverence I’d seen in his eyes after I nearly unmanned him, but I did expect more than a cursory grunt. He wasn’t rude, but he didn’t exactly engage with me either. I’ve been returning the favor, but the whole situation just feels awkward whenever he’s around.

King led Beck to the table in the next room while I busied myself in the kitchen, preparing a meal.

Famished didn’t even begin to describe how I felt. My stomach growled, reminding me that I’d gone far too long without food. But words like hungry, ravenous, and starving didn’t seem to cut it either. No, it felt more like my large intestine was eating my small intestine, and there really should be a word for that.

Food on the island was one of my favorite things about my new life. The fact that I could eat whatever I wanted, usually meat, and never gain weight didn’t hurt either.

“Marinah,” King called from behind me just as I lifted a large pan to the stovetop. I glanced over my shoulder.

“I need you to sit with me and Beck so he can explain a few things.” King’s tone was entirely too serious. My stomach clenched, and the happiness from killing hellhounds and continuous rounds of sex took a backseat.

I followed him into the other room. He pulled out the chair closest to his and scooted it even closer before motioning for me to sit. With a sigh, I took his offering and realized I was now a solid five feet away from Beck.

King took the seat beside me and grabbed my hand. I glanced down at our clasped fingers and squeezed.

“Go ahead,” King said to Beck.

Without so much as a glance in my direction, Beck spoke to King, keeping eye contact for a few seconds, then breaking it. But it was like I wasn’t in the room.

“The Federation wants proof of life, and they want to question you via Morse code.” He paused, waiting for me to acknowledge what he’d said.

I nodded stiffly, but he wasn’t looking at me, so he didn’t see it. “Okay,” I said aloud.

He continued, “We believe the hellhounds from the island are heading to the U.S. We have no idea why. The Federation has reported run-ins with large packs of hounds, many coming from the coastal waters.”

“That makes no sense,” I said. “Why would they leave here and go there? And an even bigger question, do they walk, swim?” A low growl rumbled up from my chest as my frustration spilled over.

Beck shot me a quick glance before shifting his focus back to King, whose grip on my hand tightened slightly.

“We believe the Federation has reconnected with one of their satellites,” Beck continued.

I jumped up, my chair scraping loudly against the floor. “Why the hell would they do that?”

“Marinah,” King said softly. “Breathe.”

He was right. Ms. Beast was on the verge of breaking free. I clenched my fists and fought her back to a low simmer. She would need to wait for another chance to push me around.

Taking two steps closer to Beck, I tried to apologize, but Beck’s chair flew backward as he leapt to his feet, putting more distance between us. King’s low growl sounded at the same time, rumbling through the room in warning.

I glanced back at him and realized, belatedly, that I’d forgotten about the mating frenzy.

“My bad,” I said sheepishly, taking a step back. Turning to King, I placed a quick kiss on his cheek before sitting down again.

“Why would the Federation mess with a satellite when they know the consequences?” I asked, directing my question to King this time.

Radio, microwaves, infrared, gamma rays, and ultraviolet waves all attracted hellhounds. Only an idiot would use any of those.

“The Federation’s goal,” King explained carefully, “is to control the world. They don’t care about individual people. They’ve been experimenting with ways to keep their signals undetectable, but our guess is they’ve failed. It’s why the hellhounds are heading to the U.S. The Federation attracted them with their stupid games.”

“It’s not like there’s much world to control,” I said sharply, not wanting to think worse of my government.

“They’ve convinced you that other countries in the world were wiped out, but it’s not true,” King replied. “We’ve had communications from Australia, the UK, and parts of Russia. The U.S. isn’t the only country in this hemisphere either. There are decent-sized populations in Canada and Mexico.”

I stared at King, stunned. I tried to wrap my head around it. Months ago, to my horror, he’d explained how the hellhounds originated. Then he told me the Federation had tried to kill him numerous times. Their evil nature was slowly sinking in, and it was becoming harder and harder to deny it.

The Federation enticing hellhounds to the U.S. made my stomach churn. This meant my entire analytics job had been a lie, starting with the information they’d fed me from the beginning.

I shook my head. It wasn’t quite denial, but I was seriously struggling.

King wasn’t finished. “The Federation turned the U.S. into what communist Cuba was before the war. They controlled everything from what you ate to what you read with spoon-fed lies from the very beginning. They’ve brainwashed the surviving humans under their authority by using fear to control them. Fear of hellhounds, fear of other humans not under their fist, and fear of Shadow Warriors.” His irises darkened, and his gaze pressed down on me. “It’s all a lie, Marinah.”

I closed my eyes, struggling to calm the raging storm building within me. King had no reason to lie. I was one of them now, one of the Shadow Warriors. I’d had doubts about my analytics job but was too afraid to confide in anyone. Everything King told me only substantiated those doubts. The world I thought I knew crumbled a little more under the weight of the truth.

When I opened my eyes, King was sitting in silence, giving me the space to sort through my spiraling thoughts.

“They really tried to kill you?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said simply. “And they tried to kill you.”

“What do I do?” The question felt enormous, and the new me, the Warrior, hated that I even asked. Shadow Warrior. Kill enemy. Thanks, Ms. Obvious.

My beast gave a small, pointed grumble and jabbed at my kidneys to punctuate her opinion.

“You answer their questions correctly, make them think you’re on their side, and then you return,” Beck said.

I looked at King. The same answer was in his eyes.

“Without you?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

“Yes.”

A wave of fury hit so hard I almost fell from my chair. “No.” The word forced through the red fog filling my vision.

“I’ll meet you at the citadel,” Beck told King.

His voice had grown distant. It was the last thing I heard before Ms. Beast surged forward, taking over.

“You need to run, Marinah,” King said, but I didn’t wait for him.

I bolted from the room, charging toward the shore, needing to put miles between me and the pain I felt.

My country’s corruption was too much to ignore, but I’d never seen proof. In so many ways, King had tried to show me, and I hid from the truth, not wanting to believe my country could be so malicious. I was a fool. I needed to listen to King with an open mind and see it for myself.

And now, I had to return there without my mate.

If they discovered I was a Shadow Warrior, they’d kill me. Or worse, study me like a lab rat. The thought sent a shiver down my spine.

I didn’t know if I could do it.

Kill hellhounds. Kill Federation.

So easy for her to say.

Even if I killed all our enemies, I’d have to do it without King at my side. The thought hurt more than I wanted to admit. What hurt worse was that he was willing to let me go.

The sound of feet in the sand and the warmth that rippled across my skin told me King had caught up. He ran a few feet behind me in human form.

“Shift,” I told him.

“I don’t want my post-shift anger to be part of this conversation,” he replied calmly.

With a growl of frustration, I shifted instead. The shirt I’d been wearing when I went into beast form was shredded inside the house, and I was naked from the waist up, but I didn’t care. No one had been on this beach since we arrived six weeks ago.

King reached for my hand, his touch reassuring me, and we walked back toward the house, now miles away.

“Start at the beginning,” I said. “Tell me everything. I’m done being in the dark.”

My world reeled even further as he spoke. Rage built, and I wasn’t sure it would ever leave.

∞∞∞

We returned to the citadel the next morning. The only bright moment came from the sound of small feet pattering through one of the cavernous hallways before Che barreled into me. I twirled him around in a huge hug, his laughter warming a part of me that had been cold all morning.

“My brother should be born soon! Axel says within three days.” He held up three small fingers, his face glowing with excitement, and I couldn’t help but grin wider.

I wiped tears from my eyes and placed him on his feet before squatting to his level. “You’ll be the best brother ever.”

“Che?” a voice called from the hallway he’d just run from.

“Mom! It’s Marinah! She came to play!” he yelled back, his excitement infectious.

Maylin appeared, her belly round and uncomfortable as she waddled into the foyer. I smiled, but her eyes went straight to King. Without hesitation, she moved toward him, her gait awkward, and launched herself into his arms. Tears streamed down her face as she clung to him.

I might have felt sorry for her. I might have taken a moment to remind myself that King was her rock right now, that she was pregnant and vulnerable.

But Ms. Beast had other ideas.

The shift came so fast it barely registered. Raw strength mixed with fury ripped through me.

“Marinah!” King’s voice boomed as he stepped between us, placing Maylin behind him.

Kill.

Ms. Beast didn’t like King protecting this female. My hand swiped out before I could stop, leaving a furrow of claw marks across his neck and shoulder.

“Wow. You’re like my dad,” Che said from behind me, his voice filled with awe, completely unaware of how dangerous I was at that moment. “I didn’t know girls could be Shadow Warriors.”

Nokita rounded the corner like his tail was on fire, grabbing Maylin and pushing her farther behind him. “I’ve got her,” he told King.

No. Eat woman.

“Marinah!” King shouted.

It partially snapped me out of the haze that fogged my mind.

“Can you teach me how to do that?” Che asked innocently, his curiosity piercing the red fog.

It was the combination of both voices that returned my control. I am Marinah. I do not eat my friends. In beast form, it was so much harder, but I yanked Ms. Beast back, forcing her to accept my will, even as she fought me every step of the way.

“It’s the mating rage,” King said, his tone calmer now. “Breathe deeply. She’s gone.”

Ms. Beast pushed back hard, the pain ripping through me, but I didn’t relent. I am in charge, not her.

“I’m okay,” I told King through clenched teeth, breathing deeply as I forced her into submission. She retreated reluctantly, shredding her way into the warm cave somewhere deep in my gut.

I turned to Che, his wide eyes filled with excitement rather than fear.

“Sorry, kiddo. I’m still learning,” I said, my voice soft now that I’d shifted back.

He smiled, blissfully unaware that I’d almost ripped his mother’s head off. “I’ll go check on my mom. You scared her, and you shouldn’t do that while she’s carrying my brother.”

Out of the mouths of babes.

“That wasn’t nice of me, and I’m truly sorry,” I said.

Che darted forward and threw his arms around my neck. “Don’t leave without playing with me first. I got a new truck.”

“That’s a deal,” I said, hugging him back.

Che ran off, and I turned to King with a sheepish look. “So that’s what all that ‘mating rage’ stuff is about?”

“That’s it,” he replied with a grin. “The news that we have a female Shadow Warrior will spread like wildfire.”

“Shit,” I muttered. “That isn’t good.”

“We’ll keep it contained to the citadel until we’re ready to let everyone know,” he assured me. “We don’t want the Federation discovering your secret until the timing is right.”

“Thank you,” I said before King pulled me in for a kiss.

“You’re sexy when you’re jealous,” he murmured against my lips.

“Get a room after the call,” Beck said from farther down the hallway. He turned around and disappeared.

“Work,” I muttered. We had work to do.

The room with the Morse code machine was small, almost claustrophobic. King and I had gone over everything, and I knew exactly what needed to be said.

He guided me to sit across the table from Beck, which was a wise move. I now understood what King meant about not touching the opposite sex unless they were a child or too old to be a threat. Pregnant mothers were now firmly on the do-not-touch list, too.

King sat beside me while Beck connected the machine to the electricity. There were two machines, one for receiving and one for sending. Beck glanced at his watch, though I only caught it from the corner of my eye.

The tension in the room made me acutely aware of everything, especially the lingering effects of the mating rage. I would be taking it much more seriously from now on.

Beck tapped on the machine, and then we waited.

A minute later, the receiving machine clacked to life.

“They want to know the first name of your father’s mother,” Beck said, his voice neutral as little lines formed on the paper.

“Eddy,” I said immediately.

A few minutes passed.

Then: “Her dog’s name?”

I smiled at the memory of the tiny ball of fluff from my childhood. “Quibbles.”

We waited again. I glanced nervously at King, but he just shrugged, his calm demeanor infuriatingly unshaken.

The receiving machine clattered.

“You’re to return to the Federation,” Beck announced, as though it were expected. It was. That didn’t mean I liked it.

“A plane will come for you tomorrow,” he added.

“No,” King said firmly. “Tell them she’ll arrive in one of our planes with one hundred Shadow Warriors ready to fight hellhounds.”

We’d talked about this plan before but hearing him say it aloud was different. This was the reason I’d come to the island, the culmination of everything I’d been hoping for. I should have been elated.

Instead, I felt a heavy knot of dread forming in my gut.

Ms. Beast didn’t like it either. She stomped her metaphorical feet in frustration, twisting my insides in protest.

Beck tapped out the message, and we waited again.

“They need you back tomorrow,” Beck said after reading the next reply.

“Three days,” King said, his tone unyielding. “They can wait three days.”