Chapter 12: King

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.