Page 28 of Ruled By Their Desires

“Okay.” She blew out a breath and nodded, not sure what this was all about, but she knew her father, he’d get to it if he thought he needed to. He didn’t so she stood. She’d had enough for one conversation. “I’m err going to eat and see mum. We done here?” He gave her a nod. “Great, I’ll be at dinner tonight as usual, first night back ritual. I’ll let you know my plans then.” Getting out of the seat she went to him, hugging him. “I’m sorry I upset you by not coming home sooner. So much was going on there, I couldn’t leave until I had that intel but I’m really glad to be back.” He kissed the top of her head.

“I’m glad your back too Winona. It was too long Moon. Please don’t do that again, my heart won’t take it and the Cyborgs after what you just did will be on the war path to get to you. The FHA need to sort out their shit and fast, or its going to get them killed and anyone with them.”

“I know and I promise.”

She left while she could, before she started with the tears and headed to the kitchens for food, fortifying herself for a dressing down of epic proportions from her mother that was coming next. He’d used his native name for her. First Daughter. It always caused her to have pride in who they were. Her people. A reminder of her position amongst them too. He was right in time, she’d need someone to take her place leading them, like she would have to take his. It weighed heavily on her as she spotted her mother serving breakfast.

Her mom tore a few strips off her none too happy, but she’d not expected her to be. She’d made promises and not kept them, that was a big no no in her family.

And eventually she got to eat with her ears still ringing.

Her quad had forgiven her far more easily. Sitting alone, she tried to ignore what her father had said but it wasn’t working as she finished off her food and closed her eyes listening to the life around her. Even so, the shadow that crossed her vision just annoyed the shit out of her, until it sat down and that royally pissed her off completely.

Could she have no peace. Not even for a few hours?

There was no ignoring it, but she did her best to anyway. Drinking her coffee, she opened her eyes and looked out over the people eating, getting ready for their day.

“Not talking then?” he eventually asked.

“God, haven’t we done enough? What do you want Marcus. I’m not up for this shit. I don’t want it.”

He shrugged. “Just to talk.”

She shook her head, still not looking at him. “We haven’t ‘talked’ since I was twelve years old. And since then, the few times we’ve spoken through my father or the quad, and recently in person, you only ever tell me. And like I keep getting told, there’s a difference.”

“I thought we’d got passed that in the last few weeks and keep finding we haven’t.” He sounded annoyed.

“No. Well you do what you want even though it annoys me. That’s not me ‘getting passed’ anything.”

“Aren’t you tired of this Moon?” he sounded sad.

She wondered if it had been him who’d come into her room finding her with Comet. It didn’t matter, she stood and was honest with him. “Yeah, I fucking tired of it. Look, I’m only interested in getting back to normal. That’s me and my quad, doing our thing. You doing yours and we never meet. I’ll admit, for a moment or two back there, I was caught up in the moment. Then, it was gone, and reality resurfaced. Life turns on a dime and just as well really, don’t you think? So, lets stick to those rules we had cos this, doesn’t work for me.”

She got up walking off, dumping her mug in the wash, her rubbish in the bin and staking her tray. As she turned, Sarah walked in. Spotting her, she headed in her direction then looked beyond her and changed that direction walking straight for Marcus. Moon huffed walking out. Exactly what she’d been talking about.

She needed to purge and went looking for her uncles.

She found them training, exactly where she expected to. This was their routine and she’d fitted right into it. Training with her uncles, her quad, was always an intense experience and she was only too glad to see them all back to normal. After warming up, she joined them starting with knife work, working on attack and defence, throwing and hitting moving targets. Then they took apart the vid of her in that cell, detailing what she could have done better. She agreed and they started again. Each of them coming at her hard.

They often drew an audience when they trained, people coming and going wanting to see what a human in the team would look like or to check out how good they were or to pick up some tips. It wasn’t a deterrent or interfered in her concentration. Her focus was all on surviving and what that would take. Her uncles never made any allowances for her and she never took any. They pushed her hard, always had, making her strong enough to fight KC’s. Distraction happened in the field and letting it distract you got you killed. You had to be aware of everything but still be able to fight. They pushed her and she pushed back.

Not physically she couldn’t, but she had other skills. She was lighter, faster on her feet, more agile. She’d learnt to read them before they moved, you couldn’t tell by actually looking at them but the air around them seemed to move and it served her well. She didn’t use her real knives but weighted blunt ones. Taking them off guard wasn’t easy, but she used unpredictability not logic to strike and strike again.

Back-flipping off Spike, catching him in the chin, she threw herself at Comet climbing him stabbing him in the neck before kissing him and riding him down, spinning out to catch Crash with a fake move at his tendon following up by a hit to his groin. His ‘fuck’ had them all grinning. That left Hawk. He knew her the best and he grinned at her waiting to see what she’d do.

She did what she rarely did, she let him grab her. His surprise was his undoing. She caressed his face and he stopped thinking. He was a guy after all. Then flicked her hand and a knife appeared in it as she tapped his stem. He dropped her. And she laughed at his face shrugging. The other’s grinning with her.

“Whatever works right?”

He scowled at her. “That won’t work in the field, don’t try it.”

“I know, I won’t. Promise.”

Then they worked on hand to hand. Or in her case, avoiding it and getting out of it if she was caught.

Taking a break, she shook out her limbs drinking water catching her breath watching Crash and Spike go at it, Hawk and Comet giving instruction from the side. It was one of her favourite training areas. One of the smaller dojos. The base had several on different levels, but this was her preferred one. Sitting down stretching out she watched her quad do what they did best. It had been too long since she’d had this level of sparring. She wasn’t at her best and not as fine tunned as she should be. They’d been right about that. She was slower too. She could feel and see it. It was the reason she’d struggled on that mission. She needed to get back to Cyborg fitness and fast. She was a liability until then and knew it.

They moved like muscular men, in their 30s. But it belayed the truth.

---