The little boy I loved to distraction blinked slowly and turned to look his cousin by marriage straight in the eye. “When I grow up, you’ll be the first person I hunt.”
Daciana cackled with glee. “See?” She snorted as she lifted the blaster higher, aimed at Iven’s head. “You have no idea who you’re dealing with, human.”
“I’m getting tired of listening to this bullshit, lady.” One of the men dressed as a S.W.A.T. officer lifted the end of his rifle, pointed it at me. “You didn’t pay us enough to listen to a fucking speech.”
Pay them enough? They were what then? Human mercenaries disguised as police?
Daciana, wife of Pridon of Everis, grumbled then shrugged. “Fine. Get on with it.” She smiled at Brody. “Make sure the boy is dead.”
She turned around and walked out of the room.
“Sar, we doing this?” one of the men asked. “I fucking hate doing kids.”
“I’ll do it,” Sar shifted his weight, lowered his rifle to point it at Brody.
“Brody, now!” Iven shouted.
Brody threw his body into mine, took me down at the knees and flung his body on top of mine where I sprawled on the floor.
Bullets flew.
Glass shattered. I saw a flash of fur, heard one of the men scream as Alexander the Great’s familiar screeching echoed through the room.
Where the hell had the cat come from?
“Move! Move!” Brody shoved me in the direction of one of the art tables. We scrambled on our hands and knees. When we were close enough, Brody reached up and pulled the table down onto its side and ushered me behind it. “Go. Stay down.”
I huddled with him behind the table, shocked to the core. “Brody? What? How are you…?” I didn’t know how to ask a six-year-old boy why he was acting like a trained soldier four times his age.
“Iven taught us. He’s been teaching us what to do.”
“The whole class?”
“Uh-huh.” He peaked his head over the top of the table and grinned like he was having fun. “Father told me about beasts.” His voice was filled with awe, admiration, as he watched whatever was going on, on the other side of our makeshift blockade.
“He did?”
“Yeah. He said they were the best fighters in the universe.” He ducked just in time to avoid being hit by a flying mercenary whose lifeless body slammed into the wall behind us before sliding into a lump on the floor.
I expected Brody to be terrified. Panicked.
Like me.
But then I realized that wasn’t exactly true of me either, not with Iven here. In fact, I had no doubt every single one of the bad guys was going to end up on the wrong side of the dirt, and that Brody and I would be just fine.
Because my mate was a Warlord. A beast.
I smiled and flipped around so I could peek over the edge of the table, too.
Alexander the Great prowled past and launched himself at one of the three men still fighting. The bastard never stood a chance. The cat had him on the ground, his throat shredded, before the man took two steps. And he was still a kitten.
Brody was watching as well. “Told you he was coming.”
“How did he know?”
“We talk to each other inside our brains.”
“Even when he’s home and you’re at school?”
