Skin Walkers - King Read Free

ONE MORE,” King bellowed calmly, his eyes scanning for his next victim.  He wasn’t surprised to see that his challenge had lit a fire among the ranks of women.  They’d steeled themselves, prepared for the worst, and part of him wasn’t so sure now that his next drop-out wouldn’t be a male. 
    “CRUISE! ”  King turned toward the rank of officers standing in line with his L.T.
    “Aye, Master Chief,” the man rushed forward.
    “Get them running.  Don’t come back until you have my second quitter.”
    “Aye aye, Master Chief.”  Cruise turned to the platoon to command, “PLATOON, ON ME.  FALL IN!”
    The cadence of their feet as they jogged away was as familiar to King as the beating of his own  heart.  When the crew was no longer in sight, he exhaled his breath on a growl as he plowed a strong hand into his shorn, black, hair.
    “Bad day, Master Chief?”
    He turned to eye his second-in-command.  “That obvious, Kenrick?”
    “Is it the women?”
    King dropped his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered sarcastically, “That obvious, Kenrick?”
    “I feel your pain, Master Chief.  No woman of mine would ever set foot on a battlefield.”
    King dropped his hand and smirked, “Then we have that in common.”
    Kenrick rubbed at the back of his neck, “Seems our crews are getting worse and worse.”
    “There are no bad crews,” King snapped, “only bad leaders.”
    “MASTER CHIEF!” A shout came from his office across the yard.  “CALL, SIR.”
    He nodded at his second in dismissal and made his way to the steel barracks that comprised his office.  Striding inside, his assistant exited.
    “ What!” was how he answered when he picked up the phone on his desk.
    “King Mulholland.  Good to hear your voice , old friend.”
    “Who’s this?”
    “Monroe.”
    The blood in King’s veins turned to ice.
    “I’m calling to see if you’re sick of playing soldier.  You ready to fight in a real war?”
    He’d been dreading this day.  Even as the most lethal and efficient killer on the face of the earth, he still prayed Monroe StoneCrow would never call to cash in on the “debt” King owed.  “War?”  He disguised his trepidation.  “What do you need, Crow?”
    “I’ve sent the coordinates to your e-mail.”  Four more words and then the line went dead.  “Time to come home.”
    Shit!   King hung up the phone and let his head fall back on his shoulders as he eyed the ceiling of his office.  He knew from past experience that there were two places a Walker didn’t want to be, in his enemy’s sights, and in Monroe StoneCrow’s debt.  Now, he’d most likely be in both and all because one day, too many years ago to count, Monroe StoneCrow had saved King’s life.
    Grateful at the time, King had assumed it was simply one soldier saving another.  He’d been wrong.  Monroe StoneCrow had confronted him with the revelation that he’d known about King’s true identity.  King had been making plans to kill Monroe and dispose of the body when Monroe had not only stated, but proved that he too was of King’s kind.  A Skin Walker.
    As a child, King didn’t know what was wrong with him, just that he was different .  It wasn’t until his adolescence that he’d discovered his ability to shift.  As an orphan he’d been passed from foster home to foster home.  When he was confident enough in his abilities and was able to control his shifts, he joined the Marines as soon as it was legally permissible.  It was where he’d met Monroe and where he’d learned the true potential of his abilities.
    Unlike King, Monroe had been raised by his parents, his Walker parents.  With knowledge that had been passed down, Monroe taught King all that he knew about their kind.
    Skin Walkers existed in five differing stages; each more skilled and powerful than the next.  Like their ancestors, all Walkers had the ability to shape-shift, but in varying degrees. 
    Stage one