Page 4 of Warrior

“I saw her once or twice,” he admitted.“Those were difficult years.I fought my dad at every turn and made his life hell.”

That didn’t sound like the King I knew.“Why?”

He shrugged.“Angry at the world.”His eyes shifted, the deep blue darkening to black.“I wanted to be a normal kid, not a monster.It was my uncle who set me on the right path.You may have heard of Greystone.”

“Greystone was your uncle?”I asked, the pieces clicking into place.It made sense.The Federation had always wondered where King came from and how he had taken over so quickly after Greystone’s death.

“Yes,” he replied, the one word held grief.“Greystone was my uncle.”

“My father respected him greatly,” I said, recalling the rare occasions my father spoke of him.

“Greystone respected your father too,” King said.“They were friends, and my uncle greatly mourned his death.”

Greystone died six months after my dad.Unlike my father, he wasn’t killed by hellhounds.

“Humans killed him,” I said softly, the sadness in my voice matching the weight of the memory.It had been a big deal.I remembered soldiers celebrating, thinking that with Greystone gone, the Shadow Warriors would finally fall to their knees.

What they hadn’t expected was King.Within days, he took over, and his savageness forced the Federation to change its course.A month later, the peace treaty was signed.

“The Federation betrayed my uncle, and then they killed him,” King said, anger sparking in his voice.

That anger caused a twitch in my beast, but I yanked her back, forcing her down again.No!You will not win.She receded, and I celebrated my small victory with an internal happy dance.

I cupped King’s jaw, rising onto my tiptoes to press a gentle kiss on his lips.“I’m so sorry for what they did to your uncle,” I whispered.

Our eyes met briefly, and in that moment, I saw so much in his gaze.It held pain, strength, and an unshakable loyalty.

“You’re not one of them, Marinah,” he said quietly.“You’re one of us.”

I hadn’t fully accepted what I’d become.Confusion and conflict churned inside me.It was a tangle of emotions I couldn’t sort.Was this good?Bad?Both?I couldn’t tell.It felt like I was trapped in a nightmare, one I couldn’t wake up from.And even if I did, what would I find?Normalcy was a joke in a world where hellhounds hunted and killed everything they got their hands on.

These thoughts always brought me back to my father.King had told me my mom was descended from one of the female warriors who first landed here when they arrived.My father must have known what she was.My own history confirmed it.They became vegetarians after I was born.Even King said it was a way to keep the beast from manifesting.

I thought back to the beginning of puberty, when my mom sat me down forthe talk.While other girls gotthe sex talk,I gotthe control talk.

“You need to control your anger,” she’d told me lovingly, but there was something else she didn’t say.

Looking back, I didn’t think I’d been all that angry as a teenager at least not compared to how I felt now with so many unanswered questions.It only took a stray thought for me to go into fury mode.My hormones felt like a raging storm, and I was barely hanging on to a thin string in a hurricane.

“Do your people know what I am?”I asked, the question spilling out before I could stop it.It was a ridiculous worry, but I felt awkward, unsure of where I fit in this new world.

King took my hand and led me out of the infirmary for the first time since I shifted.“Your people,” he admonished gently.“My personal guard knows,” he said.“They’re all part of my council and will only speak under my direction.The others only know that you were injured and have been recuperating.”

“What about Che and his mother?”

“Same.They’re human.We’ll have a council session tomorrow to decide how to proceed.”

We turned down another hallway, and King led me to a door I hadn’t noticed before.He opened it and guided me through.On the other side, three Shadow Warriors stood together a few feet away.They came to attention the moment they saw King.

He gently pulled me forward so I was standing in front of him, his hands resting protectively on my shoulders.“Marinah,” he said in the soft, low voice he used with me now, “may I introduce you to my personal guard.”

The men kept their eyes averted, and I immediately recognized them from the first trip in the car.I’d also seen them around over the past months.Minus Boot.The thought hit hard, and pain slid through me.I forced myself to pull my beast back in.

“This is Nokita,” King began.

He was a younger Shadow Warrior, maybe an inch shorter than King.He stepped forward, and I noticed the same signature blue eyes.Cargo pants on his legs and leather straps over his bare chest.He nodded; his gaze fixed downward.The whole no-eye-contact rule had taken on a new meaning now, especially with the low grumbling inside me that started whenever King or Axel met my gaze.

“Labyrinth,” King continued.

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