Whirlwind Revolution (12 page)

“Then don’t act like one and ditch your guards.” I saw his hips move, signaling me he was going to attack. Sure enough, he kicked out with his right foot, which I easily deflected, jabbing him in the chest. He winced and took a step back. “They don’t hit you that hard, do they?”

“No,” he wheezed, understanding filling his eyes. “And from what I already know about you, you wouldn’t hit full force to prove a point or during sparring.”

“No.” I used his momentary distraction to kick his feet out from under him. But he didn’t go down, catching himself with one hand and flipping himself back to his feet. “Impressive. You have quicker reflexes than the felines I’ve sparred with before. Use them.”

“How?” he asked as he dodged my punch.

“Like that. Good. Don’t attack. You might have trained to handle yourself but your job is
not
to take out the threat. You job is to
lead
.” I kicked out at his ribs, and he didn’t get out of the way in time, but he did move to minimize the blow. “Excellent. You can’t get out of every hit but you can minimize the damage until your guards or help shows up. That’s what
you
have to worry about. Staying alive until help arrives. You don’t put yourself in harm’s way for
anyone
.”

“A King leads by example. I can’t expect my people to fight and not be willing to myself. I
won’t
be my father, throwing everyone in front of me so I can get away.” The pain in his voice at his family’s betrayal and worry he’d turn out like them was heartbreaking. But now wasn’t the time to let that distract me. It would ruin the lesson. He ducked another kick but the next punch I landed to his jaw.

“You’re not him. He would let cannon fodder get trampled. I’m not saying to throw
babies
at an attacker, your grace. I’m demanding that you keep yourself alive because your people need
you
. I can’t think a single person in this room wouldn’t gladly give their lives to save you because it’s not just
your life
on the line. It’s the foundation of your people, their leader. You fall and so do they, chaos ensuing while someone scrambles to pick up the pieces.”

“No leader is so important that they’re not replaceable,” he seethed as he tried to punch me. I moved slightly so he didn’t land it and caught his arm instead, yanking it around to his back and moving my left arm around his chest so he was trapped against me.

“And if I was a vampire I have prime access to your throat,” I hissed against his neck. “You’re dead. And who takes over? Any cousins left?”

“Dozens,” he snarled as he struggled against me. I let him go, not wanting him to look bad in front of everyone, but simply to prove my point. “
Any
of them could take my place.”

“And the grief your people would feel at the loss of their leader?” I faked left and clipped his shoulder with a right jab, while knocking his feet out again. I went down with him, pinning him to the mat. “Your family sucks, and I’m
sorry
they’ve tried to or plotted to kill you, but there are people here who love you, need you.”

“You’ve made your point,” he panted, still always the fighter and trying to get out of my hold.

“You’re flexible. Don’t pull against me. Flip our positions.” He nodded and moved his right knee between my legs as his left hooked around my hips, and he used the momentum to roll us. “Good, but I still have your hands. Get them free. What would make me let go of your hands?” He tried to slam his head into my face and I couldn’t protect myself and keep my hold on him. “Nice. You’re good, fast, adaptable, and able to take a hit.

“No one’s pushed you to where you might be, embarrassed by the position they’d put you in to show you what else you’ve needed to know.” Just to prove my point, I pushed up with my legs and flung him off me. I easily rolled to my feet and tackled him to the mats, face down so I could use my larger build to my advantage. “None of your Royal Guard would risk putting you in this position, submissive, under them like this, for fear of offending you.”

“And you don’t fear that?” he taunted. “You don’t
care
about embarrassing me?”

“Not when what you could learn from it could save your life.
Fuck getting embarrassed
. We’ve
all
had our asses handed to us. Now how do you get out of this before a shifter’s hand changes into something deadly or they reach for an object to bash your head in.”

“The only thing that pops into my mind is cheating,” he answered, flinching.

“So? You think someone trying to kill you cares about the rules? Fucking use
whatever
you have to.” I was throwing gas on the situation, but again, his life was more important than my own embarrassment.

Torr squirmed under me, purring as he pushed his ass suggestively against me. Several people in the room chuckled and made cat calls.

“Good play but wrong audience,” I growled as I jumped off him, smacking his ass hard as I did. “Might not work with a gay man, and I egged you into it so definitely not with me. But you got the point so good.”

“Yeah, rubbing against an attacker is a great strategy,” someone shouted. I pointed to the guy and waved him forward. He glanced at Torr who nodded he should.

“Straight?” I asked, knowing the answer.

“What does that matter?” He shrugged but then nodded.

“The point is to throw off an attacker. They expect pain or tears and you give them something they don’t foresee. All you need is seconds for them be distracted to get the upper hand or get free.” I waved him forward. “Pin me.”

“After you tried to make my King look bad in front of everyone? Yeah, I’ll kick your ass,” he growled. I dodged several punches, pissing him off until he got desperate and lunged for me.

I let him take me down. The demonstration only worked if people got to see it. Once he got me to the mat and pinned me, I smiled up at him.

“Yeah, yeah, rub yourself against me. I got this.”

“Oh, kiddo, I’ve got other moves,” I moaned, raising my head to kiss him. He flinched, pulling back just enough for the opening I needed. I kneed him in the groin and rolled us, elbowing him in the face and knocking him out before he could even react. “And that’s my point. You not only have to be prepared for everything in a real fight but willing to go further than your attacker when you’re fighting for your life.”

“He’s going to be
so
pissed when he wakes up,” Samantha groaned, trying to hide a smirk.

“He’ll get over it,” another guard said and shrugged. “That was helpful. I think we need more unstructured fighting techniques like that with the war we have ahead. The humans are revolted by us. We should use that if we’re ever trapped or cornered. Personally, I’m impressed the King could think so quickly on his feet and turn an attack into something sexual. I would
never
have been ready for that.

“That’s not trying to embarrass him. That lesson might have just saved his life one day.” He gave me a deep nod of gratitude before focusing on Torr. “And we all
would
die for you, your grace. Not because of your title, but because the man you are. You
are
the best person to lead the felines and someone else might take the title but not your place. We need the best to survive as a people. I’d give my life to save yours because it will keep all felines alive.”

“Thank you, Abram. I will take that to heart and think on it,” Torr conceded as he dipped his head to the man. “I don’t doubt any of the Royal Guards’ hearts or dedication. I simply don’t want to be the cost of lives because there’s some antiquated belief that my life is worth all others.”

“How about we just all train hard and plan smart for the future and no one dies?” Konrad offered. A few of us shot him a look that clearly said that was impossible, but no one wanted to say the words.

Lots of lessons learned in the course of a sparring match. Mission accomplished.

But I still had a few private issues to work out with Torr. “Let’s take another hour to keep working in private,” I suggested to him, trying to keep my tone even.

“I’d appreciate that. All of us would benefit with individual time with such a warrior,” he agreed, waving everyone else away.

He was still watching the door as the last person left but I was already almost to him. Shoving him up against the wall, I pinned his arms over his head and snarled in his face. “You
ever
scare me like that again and a demonstration won’t be what you get,” I promised. I saw deep fear in his eyes and realized the one thing I’d never wanted from him just came true. “I’m not going to hurt you. I was in fear
for you
!”

“What?” he gasped, snapping back to the conversation instead of my aggressive move.

I repeated it but then continued, “I won’t
ever
hurt you, Torr.”

“You can’t promise that.” He turned his face away from me, but I grabbed his chin and forced him to look back at me.

“Yeah, I can, because I care, okay? I might say something stupid and hurt your feelings but I will never, ever, not for any reason
hurt you
.” I mashed my mouth down to his as I slipped my hand in his athletic pants. He moaned against my mouth and thrust his hips against me. “Don’t ever sneak out on me like that again, Torr. I was sent here to protect you.
Let me.
”

“Samantha and my Royal Guard were with me. I felt bad for being selfish and demanding your attention last night when you should have been healing. I wanted you to rest.”

“You don’t make those kinds of decisions anymore.” I ignored how he flinched against me and continued, “Your job is to make the decisions for your people and help all paranormals with what’s to come.
My job
is to keep you safe. Do you get that now? Have I made my point?”

“You’re a stranger to me!”
he bellowed in my face.

And I think I finally understood what the real problem was. “And how can you trust me when your own family was going to let you be killed or tried themselves, right?”

“Yes.” It was barely a whisper but at the same time the power behind the admission echoed in the room.

“Because they saw Prince or King Torrance when they looked at you. I see Torr. Samantha sees Torr.
We
care about you. Not your fucking title. The people in here today care about you. Embrace that. People who
choose
to love you do, and not simply because they’re your blood.”

He sighed as he slumped against me. “I’ll try but it’s not some switch I can just flip, Hadley.”

“All we can do is try, babe.” I brushed my lips over his as I kept up my attentions to his cock. “Did I hurt you sparring? Is there anywhere I need to kiss better?”

“No, but you should fuck me to show me you still want me after I was rubbing all against you and it did nothing for you.” Nice guilt trip. Fuck, he even went so far as to stick out his bottom lip.

“Would you really want me to stop you in front of most of your guards and fuck you silly?” He looked away, answering me without saying a word. I was intentionally crude, so his answer didn’t hurt me—but I knew if I hadn’t been, his answer would have been the same.

He was never going to acknowledge me publically, and I was just going to have to accept that.

“When’s your next meeting?”

He slowly looked back at me, licking his lips. “I have an hour.”

“Then you better get cleaned up,” I teased as I let his cock go. He whimpered and kept moving his hips. I was pushing him, and I knew it, but I had needs too.

Like needing to hear he wanted me.

“Fine but I hope you join me in the shower and
fuck me silly
,” he purred as he eyed over my body like his favorite meal.

“Oh yeah.” I let him go and smacked his ass hard when he turned away. Then I chased him out of the room and to his room, barking after him that I was going to kick him for the cheap shot he pulled in sparring.

Yeah, we both knew that wasn’t why but let him keep up appearances. He was a new King after all.

* * * *

After dinner, the call was made to all the prides again with all the local leaders gathered at their residences. A lot of details were decided and everyone seemed to understand that the most important thing was making sure no one broke their normal patterns and risked alerting the humans.

Everyone had bought burner phones already so there were alternative ways to communicate after new numbers were traded and arrangements were made to get everyone the felines program for fooling the humans. It was a very productive, organized call that made me proud of Torr.

And for the next few days there were dozens of meetings like that. Most times it was a chain link of three-way calls on cell phones so the quality was crap and they couldn’t put it on speaker so we were all straining to hear.

Hearing more wasn’t always a plus. Every time there was a meeting or people walked into that main room being used strategically for planning, their heart rate picked up. I knew no one ever showed up to play poker or what not but it didn’t settle my own worries that we were doing the right things to keep people safe.