Unchained (Men in Chains 3)

Marius held Shayna close. Even though she could siphon his increased power and levitate alongside him, he didn’t want to let her go.

He smiled as he met Gabriel’s gaze. “What happens next? Because I have a feeling this is only the beginning. Am I right in thinking you probably already have a government ready to fall into place?”

Gabriel nodded. “And a new set of laws. We’re adding a representative Senate as well. Corruption will always be part of our world, as it is on human earth, but we need a law-making body to at least hem in the unsavory elements. We must either dismantle the Ancestral Council or set different regulations in place on who can serve and how they get there—maybe by Senate appointment. And yes, I know, bribery will take a lot of people far. But if we’re careful, we’ll see some progress that will protect not just our own civilization”—here he shifted his gaze to Shayna and nodded—“but the human world as well.”

“So I’m curious,” Shayna began. “How do you plan to create the Senate? Will there be a voting process or do you already have a group of ‘elders’”—she used air quotes—“who will be choosing the first candidates? And is this based on geography and cavern systems, or something else?”

When all the men started chuckling, she drew away from Marius enough to ask him with raised brows, “Are my questions inappropriate?”

He laughed. “As usual, you just have so many of them.” He gestured to the arena. “And the timing might be a little off.”

Shayna lifted a brow. “Oh, I see what you mean. Me and my damn curiosity. And would you look at the size of this cavern. And Marius, you won’t believe what’s below. There were dozens, maybe hundreds of rooms, like an enormous office building.”

Gabriel said, “Yes, there are hundreds of rooms below, possibly thousands. I’ve had my men checking. There’s a massive dormitory where the slaves who run Daniel’s organization live. This was the heart of his operation, right here, and you were absolutely right, Shayna, about the women being separated out of the Dark Cave system based on IQ tests. The smartest landed here. And yes, I can see that you have a few more questions you’d like to ask about Daniel’s operation, but I have a question for you, if you’ll allow it.”

Shayna loved questions. “Of course.”

He glanced at Marius and his expression softened. Do I have your permission?

Marius knew what Gabriel meant to ask, and for some reason he was okay with it. He’d have to open the dialogue with Shayna soon enough, but he thought it might be a good thing for her to understand that he wasn’t the only one who valued her.

He nodded and Gabriel shifted his gaze back to Shayna. “Here goes. Do you think we might be able to persuade you to stay in our world?”

Marius felt Shayna grow very still in his arms, a pensiveness that brought his own heart to thudding heavily. She turned to Marius. “I think that’s something Marius and I need to discuss, probably at some length. Do I want to stay? Part of me does, absolutely. But should I stay? That is another question entirely.”

Rumy smiled. “You’d be so welcome in our world. I want you to know that. We’ve kept our world separate from yours because of Daniel and because we need to find a way to govern ourselves better before we tackle a serious connection with the human world. But we’ve always had humans who’ve come to live here, to be with us, to embrace our cavern-based society. So please don’t feel like you’d be the only one. You’re not. Besides the women you met at my villa”—he jerked his thumb in Lucian and Adrien’s direction—“just look at these two.”

Adrien nodded. “And I hope you’ll have a chance to speak with Lily before you make a final decision.”

“Claire as well,” Lucian added. “They’ve both heard a lot about you and want to meet you.”

“I’d like that,” Shayna said. She then smiled. “I might even have a few questions for them. Imagine.” Because she laughed, the men joined her.

With the arena now cleared out except for the cleaning crews, neither Marius nor Shayna could resist taking a quick tour of the extensive network of administrative rooms below. Marius kept them in altered flight the whole time so that they could pass through walls with ease.

When he reached the extensive dining hall, thousands of women were there celebrating the demise of Daniel’s operation. Rumy had already taken charge and had flown in dozens of cases of champagne for the event. Paper cups might not have been as elegant as glass flutes, but it didn’t matter. Daniel was dead.

Rumy promised to meet up with Marius and his brothers, as well as their women, for a shared meal. They needed their own celebration for what had begun as a terrible ordeal four hundred years ago and was now at an end.

* * *

After having seen the full scope of Daniel’s Himalayan infrastructure, Shayna held tight to Marius as he flew her back to the Pharaoh system. She felt changed in a way she really didn’t understand, except that Marius’s power had taken her over. She’d even shifted into altered flight for a few seconds all on her own.

As he touched down in their guest suite and she caught the scent of the ancient tablets, she didn’t know what she should be feeling. Mostly she felt dull, as though all the terrible things that had just happened along with the visual impact of the battle in the arena had laid a veil over her mind and heart.

“I’m feeling so strange, Marius.” She stepped off his booted foot, enjoying the cool feel of the tile beneath her now bare feet. She was safe with Marius. No one could get to her here anymore. Only Daniel had been able to, but he was dead now as well as his powerful sons.

She felt beneath her arm then turned her back to Marius. “Can you get this out of me?”

“With pleasure.”

Marius had to us a sharp knife and it hurt like hell, but Shayna was relieved when the device was out of her. Of course, she healed up in a few seconds because of Marius’s power, but she finally felt as though the last of the connections to Daniel had been broken.

She could breathe. “I guess I just can’t believe it’s over. All of it. Finished.”

Without thinking, she moved into the room with her computer and a few of the clay tablets spread out on the adjacent worktable. Marius followed, though he remained in the doorway, leaning his shoulder against the stone surface. She knew he was watching her and waiting, but she couldn’t exactly figure out which thought to have first.

She crossed to the tablet broken on the floor and picked up the pieces, cradling them in her arms. She turned to Marius to make her confession. “Absolutely without thinking, when Daniel showed up I threw this at him. But they’re really heavy. It missed him by two feet and landed in front of him.”