Page 68 of Carnal: The Beast Who Loved Me

Rosie nodded. Thorn’s glare pulled her attention. She blinked at him, wondering how much he’d have to have been hurt by humans to maintain that level of hatred for so long, even against those who were strangers and innocent of his grievance, not to mention trying to help.

“I’d like to begin the discussion by saying that the one thing that’s off the table is doing nothing. Doing nothing is a death sentence for Exiled. Right now we have a fairly large group of humans being kept where we can watch them while we decide what to do next, but the clock is ticking.”

“And whose fault is that?” Thorn said. “I don’t remember getting a say in that, Free.”

“Are you listening?” Rosie said to Thorn. “If Free didn’t take steps to interrupt the course of things as planned, in a matter of weeks you would have been wiped from memory. It would be as if you’d never existed. Free is trying to find a way around that!”

Serene reached out and gave Rosie’s hand a little squeeze. She was apparently impressed that their houseguest was acting protective of Free and willing to challenge Thorn’s unreasonable response.

For the next few hours the group debated every aspect and angle of what might happen if they did exactly as Free suggested and what might happen if they modified parts of the plan. In the end they agreed on one thing, that doing nothing simply wasn’t an option.

Serene’s head angled ever so slightly toward the front door. A couple of minutes later, Charming stood in the kitchen doorway. When his eyes cast over the group assembled around the table, he didn’t try to mask his surprise that Rosie was present. He was still staring at her, when his father said, “What are people saying?”

Charming drug his gaze away from Rosie. “That something happened in the city. That we’re in some kind of danger from the humans. That we’re holding the mayor and a bunch of officials in their headquarters while you talk it out.”

Free nodded. For hearsay it was both concise and fairly accurate.

“Go to bed. By tomorrow we’ll be ready to share our thoughts.”

Charming looked at Rosie one more time before backing away and turning to go. She wiggled her head back and forth slightly hoping he’d take that to mean, “Tell you later.” No one in the kitchen thought he wouldn’t hear the rest of the discussion, but no one believed he’d repeat what he heard either.

They were in the final stages of mapping out the logistics of how such a monumental upheaval might be accomplished, should they decide to proceed with Free’s plan or a modified version.

Sky turned to Rosie. “What do you see as the biggest problem?”

Rosie met Sky’s eyes. “Sexual math.” She looked around the table. “There are more single males than females. The men, um, human males, who want to be married and find there are no available women, will not be receptive to easy relations between hybrids and humans. Resentment could fester and be a source of discontent among humans.”

Cage pursed his lips, then smiled. “We’re good at sharing.”

Rosie’s eyes widened before she shut down her look of shock. “Sharing?” she almost squeaked.

“We could encourage our young men to form households of three, two of ours with one human female. Would that solve the equation?”

“They would do that?” Rosie asked, trying not to sound provincial.

When she looked at Free, he gave a slight shrug as if to say, “Sure. Why not?”

“The chicklets would be lining up to audition,” Breaker said. Everyone at the table chuckled except for Thorn and Rosie.

“I’m not sure the humans would accept that solution,” Rosie said.

“I’ll bet they’d like that better than a shortage of available brides,” offered Sky.

Rosie pursed her lips, considering. “Maybe,” she said slowly. “Hard to predict how they’ll react. I don’t really know anything about their culture.”

“Is the concept completely alien to humans?” Serene asked.

“Well, no,” Rosie replied. “It’s been done in places and at times that presented similar math problems.”

“Well, then,” Breaker offered. “That’s settled.”

Rosie thought it was far from settled, but she felt like it was her place to find holes in plan or logic, not argue societal mores. She tried picturing herself with two husbands in a variety of situations and just couldn’t make the images or the logistics work out successfully.

“Next problem,” Free said.

Rosie pulled herself out of her imaginary wanderings when she realized Free was speaking to her. Everyone was watching her with varying degrees of expectation.

“If possible, you need to integrate the inner city without displacing anyone from their homes,” she said.

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