MARINAH STOMPS FROM the room with an unhappy Boot trailing her. Too bad. He brought his woman and son to this location against my direct orders and he could face death if I decide it just punishment. I do, however, understand what a pain in the butt his wife is and with another baby on the way I’m unwilling to kill Boot over the incident. Funny that seeing him carry Marinah into the room didn’t bother me like it did when the other men touched her or looked at her. Boot is non-threatening, which is why I had him on this detail to begin with. His beast didn’t come on him until after his twenty-first birthday and even then, he wasn’t a typical Shadow Warrior with the normal propensity to fight anything and everything. Oh, he’s more than capable of killing, he just misses the joy component when he holds death in his hands.
His behavior also didn’t bother my beast, so maybe whatever Beast’s problem was before, it’s now settled and he’ll behave and not try to kill every man who gets near Marinah. I’ve watched her all week. Even when she’s unhappy, she’s respectful to her guards. She examines her environment, but it’s more about being in awe of her surroundings than gathering information. You can see the joy on her face when she’s outside. She doesn’t act like a spy even though we know she is.
Right now, I need Ms. Church out of my hair for a few more hours. First, I have an unavoidable meeting. Afterward, I’ll feel like busting heads, so I plan to check on our fields and some of the outlying homes where married Shadow Warriors have taken up residence. Mating is a difficult time for our species, and it can take years of mating frenzy before a warrior can handle a man around his women. The upside is during those years, the warriors are the best fighters. They have someone to come home to.
The round table is a thick slab of scarred wood that doesn’t so much as shake when my knife sinks an inch into the marred surface. My knife is the last to go in and means the meeting is brought to order. The men look at me, meeting my eyes, trusting that I can control Beast and be with them on equal ground.
Beast rumbles as he always does, but I pull him back and join eyes with each man in turn. Beck sits on my right, his blue eyes intense, his usual scowl in place. Next to him is Labyrinth, who has the unique gift of one blue and one green eye. His size is so intimidating most people never notice, though. Nokita, the talker of the bunch, has the customary full blue eyes we’re known for. As the youngest of our brotherhood, he’s still growing into his beast. Axel, the sanest of us all, is an oddity as a pacifist in a world of war. I suspect he controls his beast more than I’m capable of, but he’s a sneaky devil and shows his intelligence by never making brother Warriors aware of his abilities. He’s the doctor of monsters and his meek behavior allows him to treat us in even the worst of circumstances.
Knet has been a problem we’ve had numerous meetings about because he continues to push his luck. He wants to be one of my guards and a lot of other things to go along with it. I’ve voted to kill him twice. But Knet is not on today’s agenda, Marinah holds the spotlight.
“You shouldn’t have brought the female here,” Beck throws out. He’s sitting back in his chair in his customary manner—arms crossed, narrowed eyes circling the room.
I look to Nokita, who sits next to him. “If the woman can help pave our way with humans so we can work together, I say give her a chance.” He throws Beck a side eye and Beck gives a low growl, which everyone ignores.
My gaze settles on Labyrinth. “Humans are the problem and this woman is human. We can negotiate with her all we want, but that doesn’t mean her government will honor the treaty.”
Axel has the floor next. “We don’t kill women if we can help it and we didn’t bring her here to slaughter her on arrival. The humans may not abide by any agreement we make with her but is that really her fault? You,” he looks at me and raises his finger, “got exactly what you asked for, so why are we grumbling now?”
“Does everyone feel better?” I ask with more patience than I feel.
“Better?” asks Beck, his biceps bulging over my tone to the point of almost tearing the sleeves of his shirt.
“Yes, better,” I growl, my voice rising. “The woman stays, no one touches her, and we see where it leads. Right now, we’re killing time as we gather more intel. And time is essential.”
Beck leans forward slowly, bringing his hands to the table and placing them flat, palms down. “If you don’t intend to listen to us, why are we here?” he grumbles and this time Beast takes notice of his tone and stare. I fight the K-5, pushing it back with concentration.
“We’re here,” I say while trying to hold my temper, “because I’m sick of the whining about the woman. The decision to bring her here was unanimous. We have bigger problems and I don’t want to hear any more grumbling or I’ll start knocking heads.” I give one final glance around the room. “Are we finished?”
Slowly, members of our council remove their blades from the table and rise. I take mine out last and slip it in my side holster. “I’m going riding and I want privacy.” I leave the men and head outside to my bike.
Beck follows because he’s a stubborn cuss and doesn’t care if I need a break. I take off revving the bike loudly, shifting gears and picking up speed. Beck is silent, which is fine by me. We travel the coastline of Peninsula Varadero until we hit the main coastal road that leads to Havana. After thirty minutes, we come to one of our agricultural areas. Men and women work in the fields while children attend lessons each day. The climate here is conducive to year-around growing and we’re stockpiling food as fast as we can plant and cultivate. Everyone works and pulls their weight. No excuses.
We’ve set up a tribunal for the humans when they have conflicts. It consists of three humans and three Warriors with my vote standing in a tie. For Warriors, we adhere to stricter rules and don’t expect the humans to follow them. With our beasts’ violent natures, it’s important that we monitor ourselves much more closely than we monitor humans on the island. We know our history and we will never allow self-destruction to annihilate us again. We can have the best of both worlds and I plan to prove it.
I stop my bike and climb off while Beck stays on his and waits.
Cabel, one of my elite guards who was recently married, moves in our direction. “King,” he says when he draws closer. His eyes remain down while his wife stops about ten feet behind him and stays there.
“How’s married life, Cabel?” I don’t look directly at his wife, just keep her in my peripheral vision. The last thing I want to do is kill Cabel if he attacks due to his recent mating. He’s my size, but I have no doubt of the outcome if we battled and he wouldn’t be walking away in one piece. His hair is dirty blond and he carries our signature blue eyes with a slightly rounder face than mine. I’ve placed him in charge of our food supply until his beast calms or we go back to war.
When we came to earth hundreds of years ago, my ancestors chose farming as a non-violent way for us to assimilate into the human population. Our own planet was destroyed because of our violent nature and those who survived knew they had to make changes. Farming was that change. We were a carnivorous animal and changing our diet to mostly fruits and vegetables helped tame our beasts. Many of the men think farming is now beneath them because our true natures have returned. I think we can be both. Yes, we could survive off animal protein, but humans cannot.
“Marriage is good for me,” he answers with a quick glance behind him at his wife. He immediately moves the discussion to our crops. “We should have a high yield this harvest. More than enough to fill the storage bunkers for another year.”
I look out over the fields of green vegetables for as far as my eyes can see. “We may be feeding additional humans soon.”
“You planning to help the Federation?” I hear the rumble in his voice. It’s how we all feel. Betraying us and killing Greystone was the worst possible thing the humans could do after we saved them.
“I haven’t made up my mind. They sent Church’s daughter to bargain.”
He whistles. “I didn’t know he had a daughter.”
I continue examining the fields close to us. “She’s not exactly a child, and she’s most definitely her father’s daughter she just doesn’t know it. Boot is training her to fight. It gives me time before I make up my mind about the Federation.”
“If you decide not to help the humans, you should keep her here. We owe it to Church.”
I mull over his words. The Federation is doomed without our help. Marinah would survive if she stayed behind. “We do owe him, but that might not save his daughter.”
His eyes meet mine for a split second. Not long enough for Beast to take offense, however. “He died for us and a debt is a debt,” he says stubbornly. The thing about Cabel is that he will always have his say and then he will back me even if we’re on opposite sides. Before he mated, he was my number two, now Beck is filling the number one and two positions while we wait for Cabel.
I rub two fingers across the scar on my cheek. “She’ll be judged by her own actions. We have no idea if she can be trusted. The blood running through her veins will not save her if she intends to betray us.” My words are firm and he doesn’t argue even though I’m fully aware he doesn’t agree with me. The man has been out of combat too long. “Are you training?” I ask when his squirrely attitude finally dawns on me. The tint of red that creeps up his neck is answer enough. “Do I need to remove you from this detail?” It’s the last thing I want to do but he needs to keep his fighting edge.
“I’ll train tonight.”
“And tomorrow and each day after that. You also need to increase your meat intake.” There is no room for misunderstanding in my voice. We need farmers, but our best warriors need to remain lethal. Our fathers, who were lifetime farmers, died when we first began helping humans in the war. They didn’t remember what it was like to allow their beasts to rule and they had trouble killing. We won’t go back to what we were. The new world needs fighting monsters and we will be at the top of the food chain. Mating causes problems and sometimes the women don’t understand our volatile nature during the long process. If Cabel hasn’t been eating meat or training, he’s having trouble controlling himself, which isn’t good, but I’ll deal with it if it becomes a further problem. I change the subject. “How are the herds?
Shadow Warriors now require meat.
“We have three new calves as of this morning. We’re expecting about twenty more. The chicks are producing better and the pigs are getting fat and lazy. A new litter of ten was born yesterday. All survived.”
“I’ll come by next week to inspect them.”
“Maybe you should bring Church’s daughter.”
He said it low, but Beast didn’t like his tone. My fist plows into his jaw with a satisfying crunch. His wife runs forward but Cabel rolls and places his hand out to stop her. “Stay back,” he grumbles as he picks himself up from the dirt. His wife stops in her tracks and turns her angry expression on me. She’s a feisty Cuban woman and her current attitude proves she might not be the brightest one.
“Lower your eyes, woman,” Cabel reprimands harshly.
Her demeanor stays the same, though her gaze shies away. “He has no right to strike you,” she says in stilted English.
“He had every right. Go back to the field and check on the group of children we left weeding the carrots.”
“You will be eating those carrots and nothing else for a week,” she replies before storming off.
Cabel gains his feet. “I meant no disrespect. I think we can coexist with humans. Showing them they’re capable of rebuilding their world may not be a bad thing, but I will always defer to your judgment. I meant no disrespect,” he repeats.
When I struck him, Beast whispered I should kill him. That’s Beast. To him, everything can be solved with murder. I shake my head and pull him back with a few deep breaths, regaining my legendary control. “I may need to kill her. It will be a sure thing if I give her a guided tour of our supplies and harvest.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Go make peace with your woman. The last thing any of us need is another Maylin or you living off carrots.”
He laughs and the mood shifts. Boot’s wife, Maylin, is a handful. I walk back to my bike, where Beck waits with his stoic frown on full display. “Do you need me to kill Cabel?”
That’s the problem with Beck. He’s too much like Beast. For both of them the only way to solve a problem is by killing it. Beck needs to learn to knock a head sideways without death as a correlating factor. “No, and if you touch him without my consent, the human will have two trainers.”
He replies with a grunt.
With a slight grimace, I can’t help wondering how badly the first day for Boot is going.