Page 28 of Beast

“I’m gaining confidence.”

“Yes.”His gaze swept over me with obvious appreciation.“You are.”

We were in the middle of a war, planning an assault on a heavily armed enemy, and yet, King’s praise made me want to jump up and down like a child.He understood me more than I realized.He got what I was going through when it came to figuring out my capabilities, and that connection gave me a boost of confidence I hadn’t known I needed.

We made it back to camp before the others, but it wasn’t long before Axel and Garret arrived.They said all the right things as they unpacked their bags, but something about the way they carried themselves put me on edge.It was subtle, but it was there.What bothered me more was that King didn’t seem to notice.I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.I trusted Axel implicitly, but Garret?Not as far as I could throw him.

Axel and Garret began unloading their haul, spreading out their finds for us to inspect.

“It wasn’t as much as we’d hoped,” Axel admitted, “but at least they hadn’t been picked completely clean.We also found a buried grocery store with canned goods.No one’s entered it since the bombings.It’s a goldmine.”

He looked at Garret in a way that made my stomach churn, like there was a private conversation happening between them that I wasn’t privy to.Garret snapped his gaze away and addressed me without fully meeting my eyes.

“Once this is over, I’ll bring a larger team to transport everything we found.It’ll supplement our food stores and help us prepare for winter.”

I didn’t say anything, just nodded, but I couldn’t help the protective feeling rising in me for Axel.Something was going on, and it was eating at me.

Before Axel and Garret could even settle in with MREs for dinner, Beck and Labyrinth arrived, bickering as they entered.

“It was once an hour,” Labyrinth said defensively.

“He took at least seven breaks.That’s more than once an hour,” Beck growled back.

“He didn’t go all the way to the latrine on three of them.Those don’t count,” Labyrinth argued, throwing his hands up.

Beck’s irritation boiled over, and his voice rose.“When you’re on guard duty, you don’t leave your post.Ever.People die when the guard doesn’t do his job.”

Labyrinth crossed his arms defiantly.“If you gotta go, you gotta go.”

“Then piss in your pants,” Beck shot back like a hammer.“You don’t abandon your position for any reason.”

“Okay, boys,” I said, keeping my face straight even though the usually quiet, serene Labyrinth was clearly baiting Beck.He’d been doing it more and more lately, testing the limits of the other man’s patience.“Why don’t you eat and get rid of the hangries?”

Of King’s guard, Labyrinth was the one most unknown to me.The different color of his eyes always gave me pause.Add in his goliath size and calm demeanor, and he was more than just a mystery.I rarely saw his playful side like now.Sometimes he defended me in meetings, and at other times he rejected my thoughts.His comment about temper tantrums the night before had surprised me and hit home just a little more because I hadn’t expected it from him.

Beck I understood.Nokita was also easy to read, and his antics were legend.I could even understand Cabel.He wasn’t the newest guard, but he was the newest to me.Axel was simply my friend.But Labyrinth… He’d easily deferred to me when we were held by the Federation, but I simply didn’t know him like I knew the others.I wanted to question King about him, but that would bring on the mating rage, so I couldn’t.

Two sets of eyes drilled into me and brought me out of my wool gathering.I couldn’t help the grin that slid into my expression.“Or not,” I added with mock innocence, throwing in a dramatic shiver for effect.

Of course, King growled over my shoulder, his warning clear to the men for daring to look at me like that.Sheesh, his overprotectiveness could be exhausting.

Surprisingly, Labyrinth and Beck finally shook off their bickering and joined the group.Even more surprisingly, Labyrinth winked at me when King wasn’t looking, and Beck just grumbled under his breath as he began his report.

“The tents hold supplies.We didn’t spot extra weapons, which is good news.The bad news is a hundred more hellhounds came in today.The containers are full now.The guards switch out every five hours, but they’re lax and sloppy.”

Labyrinth grabbed the stick King had used earlier to draw maps in the dirt and started sketching the layout again.“The hellhounds are locked in with a simple slide bar.That’s all that keeps them contained.The problem is, with all four cars full, one beam won’t hold.We’ll need at least two.If they get even one container open, it will be much harder for us to accomplish the mission.”

He glanced at Beck before delivering the other news, and Beck’s gaze shifted briefly to King.“They’re using whistles or something similar.It’s a sound frequency that controls the hellhounds.The closer the hounds got to the soldiers, the louder the buzz.It’s irritating, but it doesn’t affect us.”

Something sparked in my memory.“Could they be playing with sound waves?That’s what they hit us with when we were trying to leave Washington.”

Beck nodded.“Well, whatever they’re using now works.We need to get our hands on one of those whistles.”

The meeting broke up after that.We all needed rest for what was coming.King took the first watch, leaving me to lie down and try to settle my thoughts.Beck and Labyrinth were snoring in unison, and Axel and Garret were huddled in the corner, talking in voices so low even my Warrior-enhanced hearing couldn’t make out their words.

I pulled my rifle close on one side and my sword on the other.A few hours of solid sleep was all I needed to be ready.Tomorrow, we would fight.

I slept until King gently shook me awake.

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