Chapter 59 Cat´s tail baby
She smiled when she realized what I meant. “The bond is damaged, but now that he is back, it will repair itself.”
“So kill him now?”
She shot me a glare. I wasn’t dumb enough to kill one of her precious babies right in front of her. If there was one thing Ocio was known for, it was her wrath. Seaman everywhere knew of her tumultuous nature. Her eyes glowed blue, and a snarl twisted her pretty mouth. “I’ll gut you like the fish you are.”
With a push of my tail, I powered toward the surface, grabbed the side of the lake, and hoisted myself out. My fin smoothly unfused into legs, and the scales receded as I made it to my feet.
My goddess was never on my side.
let my eyes rove over the dining hall, searching for my gloriously angry mate. Balthazar, the leader of the Faction of Beasts and his second in
command, Edur, sat across from me.
“Thanks for not telling her what happened,” I said.
“I’m not sure it was beneficial.” Balthazar took a bite of that mulch fungus he called food.
“You stated your opinion on the matter, Balthazar. The ramifications of my actions are my weight to bear.” Balthazar might have never gotten me out of that forsaken prison on the edge of the universe. Maleene would have died trying to help me escape. I’d rather she hated me than endanger herself in one of her fits.
“How’s it feel to be free?”
“Would be better if my mate would quit busting my balls, but I can't say I haven’t earned that one. How bad was it?”
“She almost died.” It was a weird type of relief that he was just as blunt as he’d always been. At least some things didn’t change on me. “Referee 74 saved her life. I only know what the rumors say. You know Mal, she doesn’t talk about things.”
No. She wouldn’t have told anyone. Just like she didn’t tell me when Hunter Pylo attacked her while I was on a mission at sea. “What are the rumors?”
“She’d kept the hysterics at bay a long time, but she attacked Phio in Fable.”
I glanced over across the room to the spinosaurus that I’d had one too many run-ins with for us both to still be alive. “I’m not sure who I would expect to win between those two.”
“Phio says he watched her bond break. He knew she wasn’t of sound mind.” Balthazar shook his head. “He tried to keep her occupied to protect
—” Balthazar took a deep breath. I knew that expression. The same one he wore when he needed to at least pretend he was diplomatic. “You need to talk to Mal.”
“Where does the referee come in?”
“Ref 74 was fresh out of the academy and was the responding officer. She contained Mal, and then Mal disappeared for six months.”
“You lost my mate for six months,” I snarled at him.
“Not exactly. I have it under good authority that Mal was living with the Ref while she developed a potion to manage the symptoms of the hysterics.”
“No shit?” That was world-changing. It wasn’t common, but the hysterics were a serious ailment. Most people solved that problem with a self- induced death sentence. Or another beast put the woman out of her misery. My eyes slid to Phio. I probably owed that bastard a beer.
“The woman is a miracle worker. The beast community is a completely different place now.”
“Yeah.” I chuckled, pulling out the paperwork she’d given me. “She’s… something.”
Balthazar took a look at the papers. “Did you know about this, Edur?” “No. But it doesn’t surprise me.”
“Why haven’t you recruited her yet?” I asked. Balthazar was quick to offer a role to any witch we could. We needed more of them on our side. The beast wars where mages and beasts killed each other were over, but the tension was still teeming. She was a perfect fit here. “She’s a perfect replacement for Esmerey.”
“That is not an option.” Balthazar handed everything back to me. “I was just glad it was Ref 74 who got Mal. Not Hunter Pylo.”
“He should be dead,” I growled, stabbing my fish dinner hard enough to crack the plate. Everything went wrong on that mission. I jumped from the
water and almost had him in my jaws when that bastard shoved his partner in front of me instead.
Our one chance to kill him where he had no power, and I blew it. One chance to take my pound of flesh for what he did to Maleene went up into smoke. Then, of course, I got slapped with the murder of a referee. If it wasn’t for Balthazar, I’d still be rotting in that cell.
“Sorry, it took so long to get you out. It wasn’t easy getting those charges dropped.”
If I hadn’t gotten caught, it wouldn’t have been an issue. “That’s my fault.”
“We needed a referee to sign that they thought the death was justified.” “The dragon?” Only a beast would understand.
“Ref 74,” Edur spoke up. “We paid someone to give her the files for the appeal instead of anyone else. They usually don’t give her anything controversial.”
“She doesn’t fit their narrative. She’s a real referee.”
We needed someone hiding us from the human eye, and we needed someone upholding the peace. We didn’t need to be murdered in our homes for breathing wrong. The problem was that all the first set of referees were hunters; the classes taught by hunters, and the program was overseen by hunters. The program didn’t do what it was supposed to. It put more regulations into place, but people with power had ways around rules.
“I like her. We met at the restaurant. She’s calm like an ancient and comfortable in her role. She doesn’t react out of fear.” I nodded as I thought about my assessment. “And I owe her a thank you for taking care of Mal.”
“She’ll just say she’s doing her job.” Edur smiled a goofy grin.
“She is a hell of a firecracker, tugging a dragon around by the dick behind her.” I scanned the room again, hoping Maleene appeared while we’d been talking. “Speaking of women tugging beasts by the dick, where is Maleene?” A bad feeling gurgled in my gut. “I need to find her.”
Balthazar casually tipped his chin, giving me quiet permission to leave. That was the cool thing about him. He was THE alpha, but he didn’t verbalize his power over me, he just humbly let me go.
I went up to the apartment, but she wasn’t there. I could smell that she’d been there recently and followed the trail to the main road. This bitch thought she could run away from me.