Warriors of Poseidon 04 - Atlantis Unmasked

most Atlanteans don‟t seem to be big on brains. I can see you‟re going to be different.”
     
    “Marie?” Grace felt like she was a step behind. She‟d thought from the excerpt on TV
    that Ethan and Kat were the ones engaged. “Who‟s Marie?”
     
    “We‟ll fill you in on that later, I promise,” Alexios said. “Right now, I think the best thing to do is tell them what happened here last night and see what they can get out of our prisoner.”
     
    The moment of levity faded, and Bastien nodded. “Ethan can find out.”
     
    As Grace led the way back inside the fort, she noticed that Bastien gave Alexios a quick, hard hug. “How have you been, my friend?”
     
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    She snuck a glance at Alexios, curious to hear his response. But he caught her looking, because he was staring right at her, his face grim.
     
    “Not good,” Alexios said. “Not good at all.”

Chapter 19
    Grace stiffened her spine and led them through the courtyard to the prisoner‟s cell. Tiny told her that one of his men had relieved Donaldson, and then he headed off to do whatever it was he did. Sam still hadn‟t called in yet today, and Tiny was hanging around until he heard otherwise from Sam.
     
    They reached the cell, and Grace nodded to the guard that he could go.
     
    “Good luck. This one‟s a piece of work,” he said, disgusted.
     
    The shifter was yelling obscenities and banging something metal against the walls. The noise was so loud that Grace wasn‟t sure he‟d be able to hear them call out to him.
     
    “Do you want me to unlock the door?” She directed the question to Alexios, not particularly caring if it were proper hierarchy or not. Ethan might be the alpha panther, but Alexios was the one who‟d had her back the night before.
     
    Alexios held out one hand for the keys. “I‟ll do it. You can delegate to me, until your ribs heal up a little.”
     
    She smiled a little at the reminder of their earlier conversation, and she handed him the keys. He was right. If the shifter came fast and hard at whoever opened the door, they were better off if it were Alexios, Bastien, or one of the shifters.
     
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    “Sometimes it sucks to be the only human in a roomful of superheroes,” she said, only half joking.
     
    Kat shot a narrow-eyed glance her way. “Oh, honey. You have no idea how much I agree with that.”
     
    Kat didn‟t elaborate, but Grace noticed that Bastien reached out and briefly touched his fiancée‟s shoulder. Another story there, probably. Maybe she‟d even get to hear it one day.
     
    But not today.
     
    Alexios fitted the key in the lock and looked at Ethan. Bastien and Kat moved back out of the way, as did Grace. Ethan stepped closer to the door and then nodded.
     
    “We‟re coming in,” Alexios shouted. “Back away from the door.”
     
    There was a moment of silence, and then the shouting and banging started again, more loudly than ever. Ethan‟s face hardened, and then he tilted his head back and let loose with a huge roaring sound that Grace had never before heard come from a man‟s throat.
     
    She knew where she had heard it before, though. She‟d heard it last night, coming from those panthers.
     
    The silence was immediate, and the noise didn‟t start up again.
     
    “That‟s better,” Ethan said. Then, his voice growing until it filled the entire corridor, he continued. “I am Ethan, alpha of the Big Cypress pride, and I‟m coming in, so you‟d better back the hell away from this door.”
     
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    Ethan nodded again, and Alexios turned the key in the lock and swung the door open.
     
    Grace had to admit the prisoner was nothing like what she expected. He‟d been somehow larger and more imposing in her memory. Perhaps because she‟d seen the cat first, and the unconscious and battered man after.
     
    Still, the man huddling at the back of the room, snarling and hissing at them even though he was in human form, wasn‟t exactly a sweet little kitty cat, either.
     
    “I know him,” Ethan said. “I can‟t believe it. He‟s not part of my pride, but his grandmother is. He mostly hangs out with a bunch of college kids in Miami. He has never hurt anyone before, ever, as far as I know.”
     
    Ethan stepped into the room, and the man hurled himself into a corner, cringing and snarling