“Kingth?”My voice was foreign, distorted.
“I’m here,” he said softly.
“Dith we win?”
“Yes, we won,” he assured me.
Wet stickiness dripped down my face.It wasn’t sweat, I knew that much.I looked at my hands, massive, clawed appendages coated in blood.They didn’t work right as I tried to flex them, slowly tightening and releasing my grip.
My lisping voice suddenly made sense as my tongue ran over my sharp, oversized fangs.Dried blood crusted my lips, and the coppery taste lingered.I tilted my head down, the motion sluggish and heavy, just as King grunted.
“I’m taller,” I thought, giggling at the absurd observation.The sound that came out of me was more like a dog retching than laughter.
King’s expression shifted from weird to downright unnerved.He was covered in blood, too.An odd impulse struck me.I wanted to lick him.No.Bad Nova.
My gaze wandered over the battlefield.Federation bodies lay scattered, some twitching, others deathly still.Blood and gore painted the ground, limbs strewn about like discarded toys.It took me a moment to realize most of the limbs weren’t attached to bodies.
A horrifying thought struck me.Had I been eating them?
Ms.Beast screamed inside me, her anguish ripping through my mind.Something was terribly wrong.A searing pain spread through my body, beginning at my waist and heading in two separate directions until my toes cramped at the same time as my fingers.I couldn’t see or hear.
I had no time to figure out what was happening because my world collapsed into darkness.
Chapter Twenty-One
King
I paced outside Axel’s office, my boots grinding into the stone floor.He’d kicked me out and blocked the door with a heavy bar an hour ago, leaving me to stew in frustration.I could still bust through, and it took everything I had not to.
Mate,Beast rumbled inside me, as the bond pulled so tight I could barely breathe.
I shot a glare at the closed door, anger surging as I debated again whether to break it down.The infirmary bustled around me, medical teams treating injured Warriors and islanders, but I barely registered it.My focus was solely on Marinah.
Earlier, after the fighting stopped, Marinah hadn’t reverted to her Beast.She remained in her Nova form, her massive figure radiating raw power.I’d approached her cautiously, keeping my movements slow.It took several tense minutes before she stopped tearing dead Federation soldiers apart.
When awareness finally returned to her eyes, I saw the confusion and horror flicker across her face.She didn’t know what she’d done.A moment later, she toppled over.
At first, I thought she’d shift back, but her form stayed locked in Nova.Blood coated her from head to toe, most of it from the enemy she’d annihilated, but as I looked closer, I realized it wasn’t all theirs.It took precious seconds to find the source of her injuries.She’d been shot in multiple places.
That’s when I picked her up, no small feat, and rushed her to Axel’s infirmary.Before he threw me out of the room, he identified two bullet wounds, one in her shoulder, the other in her side, as well as a knife puncture on her opposite side.
Now I sat here, useless, replaying the scene in my mind.
I’d come out of the fight with nothing more than a bullet graze and a knife slash to my arm, with two furious kids in tow.Ruth and Che had been fuming after I left them with another Warrior.I’d told him to sit on them if necessary and warned him that his life depended on keeping the children safe.The groaning Federation soldier I’d dumped next to them barely crossed my mind.
When I reached Marinah’s side, she was still standing in death.It didn’t stop her, and she systematically tore the dead apart with brutal efficiency.The soldiers never stood a chance.Once she went Nova, they didn’t even know what hit them.
And then, she collapsed.The scene played in my mind over and over.
All I could do now was wait.
Beck was in charge of rounding up prisoners.We’d managed to disable one U.S.ship in the bay, and Nokita was already overseeing salvage operations.The Federation had transferred their personnel from the ship before it left our coast, and for that, I was relieved.Slaughtering a mass of people or trying to imprison them wasn’t something I wanted to deal with.The soldiers on the island who hadn’t been killed were already going to be enough of a headache.
We’d gotten lucky with another ship as it tried to retreat.Our fighters sank it just as it left our waters.The spoils weren’t bad either: thirty new Jeeps with mounted artillery and smaller Federation boats.
They hadn’t used planes this time, but they’d learn from that mistake.I couldn’t shake the feeling that this strike was just a test.Whether it was or not, one thing was clear: the Federation was coming for us, and we needed to end this before they found a way around our defenses.There were too many unknowns.It was a dangerous position to be in.
I glanced at the door, wondering what was taking so long.
