Page 23 of Shadow

King stared at me for what felt like an eternity, his expression unreadable as indecision flickered in his eyes. Finally, his features settled, and he decided I wasn’t worth whatever thoughts had been troubling him. Without a word, he stood abruptly and walked out of the room. On his way out, he spoke briefly to the guard at the door before disappearing down the hall.

I sat at the table, staring at the remnants of breakfast, debating my next move. After a few minutes, I went to the door, hoping to return to my room, but one of the guards stepped in front of me, blocking the way. His stern expression said all I needed to know. I wasn’t going anywhere.

With no options, I paced the room, my frustration mounting. King could’ve at least given me some kind of instruction before vanishing. I was about a second away fromripping out a handful of my own hair and stirring it into his uneaten food when the door swung open again.

King strode in, followed by none other than the oversized buffoon who had first tried to kill me and then upended me over his shoulder. His majesty had called him Boot. The nickname fit. It must have been where he stored his brain, because it certainly wasn’t in his head. Boot didn’t look any happier seeing me than I was seeing him.

King stopped in front of me, his towering frame forcing me to tilt my head back slightly to meet his gaze. For the first time, I appreciated that I didn’t need to crane my neck as much as I usually did with men. There was something oddly comforting about being with someone taller, something my last wannabe boyfriend hadn’t provided.

“Boot is now your personal trainer,” King announced without preamble. “He’ll be working with you six hours a day to make improvements.”

My mouth dropped open, and I caught myself just in time to snap it shut before I looked like a complete fool.

“You’re not serious.” My gaze darted to Boot, whose expression of horror confirmed that King was very serious.

“Boot has his orders, and now you have yours,” King replied curtly. He turned to Boot with a no-nonsense glare. “Take her back to her room and make sure she changes into something better suited for combat training.”

Combat training? Had he really just saidcombat training? The man had clearly lost his half-baked monster mind.

“I’m here to broker a treaty,” I sputtered, incredulous. “Not to learn how to fight.”

Boot shifted uncomfortably, his massive shoulders slumping in clear resignation to his fate. Of all the people in this place, why did it have to be Boot?

King’s gaze locked onto mine, his tone sharp. “I’ll negotiate when I have a warrior to deal with. I asked the Federation for a woman, and instead, I got a defense secretary who couldn’t walk a straight line without tripping over her feet. If I strike a deal with you and you don’t survive, how can I trust your people to uphold their word?”

The weight of his words pressed down on me, but I kept my expression neutral. The truth was, I wasn’t sure King should trust my people even if I did survive, but that was a revelation I planned to keep to myself. Without his cooperation, humanity was doomed. He might have talked about how effective my father had been at killing hellhounds, but I had my doubts. It had taken three soldiers to bring down a single beast, and when the hounds had first invaded, they had come by the hundreds of thousands. If their teeth and claws hadn’t torn you apart, their venom had done the rest.

I crossed my arms and tilted my head. “And I’m supposed to trust the man who left me to bake alive in a sauna and then hauled me around like a sack of grain?” My voice dripped with sarcasm, a weak attempt to delay the inevitable.

To my surprise, King’s lips twitched as though suppressing a smile. “Training you is his punishment for those questionable decisions. He wants the punishment to end, so he’ll do his best. Killing you or letting you die would seal his fate. His life is now tied to yours.”

My mouth fell open, but words failed me. I took a deep breath, realizing I had no choice but to play along.Oy vey.

Chapter Ten

King

Marinah stormed out of the room, her frustration tangible. A disgruntled Boot trailed behind her like a shadow. Too bad for him. If Marinah had died in the hot room, he would have forfeited his life. Then, he had broken protocol by bringing his wife and son to this location against my explicit orders, a breach that could very well have warranted another death sentence if I had deemed it necessary. However, I understood the reality of his situation. His wife was a notorious handful, and with another baby on the way, I was inclined to show leniency. Killing Boot over this indiscretion would have served no real purpose.

Oddly enough, seeing him carry Marinah into the room hadn’t sparked the same irritation that flared up when other men interacted with her. Boot was non-threatening, which was precisely why I had assigned him to her detail in the first place. His beast hadn’t manifested until after his twenty-first birthday, far later than most, and even then, he wasn’t a typical Shadow Warrior. He was more than capable of killing, his beast ensured that, but he lacked the exhilaration most of us felt in the act. Death didn’t stir the same thrill in him, which made him a rarity among our kind.

Even my beast, usually bristling at any man’s proximity to Marinah, remained calm in Boot’s presence. Perhaps whatever issue Beast had before resolved itself. Marinah had been under my scrutiny all week. Despite her frustrations, she had been respectful to her guards. Her curiosity about her environment was evident, but it seemed driven by wonder, not espionage. When she was outside, there was genuine joy on her face, like a child discovering something new. She didn’t act like the spy we knew she was.

Still, I needed her out of my way for the next few hours. First, I had an unavoidable meeting to handle, one that would leave me itching to break something. After that, I’d inspect the fields and visit some of the outlying homes where mated Shadow Warriors resided. Mating was a volatile time for our species. The frenzy could last up to a year before a warrior tolerated another man near his mate. But during that year, they were at their peak as fighters. A mate gave them something worth returning home to.

∞∞∞

The round table was a heavy slab of scarred wood, its surface marred by years of use and countless arguments. It didn’t so much as tremble when I drove my knife an inch into its battered surface. Mine was the last blade to pierce the wood, signaling the start of the meeting. Around the table, the Warriors, my personal guard, met my gaze briefly, their trust in my ability to control Beast and not take off their heads, no matter how angry I got, was implicit.

Beck sat to my right, his blue eyes angry, his perpetual scowl firmly in place. Next to him was Labyrinth, a giant of a man with one blue eye and one green, a unique feature oftenovershadowed by his sheer size. Nokita, the youngest among us, sat beside him. His full blue eyes gleamed with youthful intensity, a stark contrast to his ever-running mouth. He was still growing into his beast and had yet to learn the discipline the rest of us had mastered, or pretended to.

Axel, the group’s oddity, rounded out the five of us. As a pacifist in a world of warriors, Axel’s calm demeanor and sharp intellect were an asset. He was our doctor, the one who patched us up when our battles went too far, and he did so with quiet competence that none of us questioned. I suspected Axel had greater control over his beast than the rest of us combined. His ability to keep it suppressed, no matter the circumstances, was astounding.

Our recent meetings had been about Knet, a perpetual thorn in my side. His insubordination and arrogance constantly pushed the limits of my patience. I had voted to kill him twice and was voted down. I could have overridden it, but his usefulness, barely, had kept him alive.

Today, however, Knet wasn’t the focus of our discussion. Marinah was.

“You shouldn’t have brought the female here,” Beck said, breaking the silence. He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, his gaze darting around the table with barely contained fury.

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