Feral King
Page 23
“I run half the gang! More than half the gang, like I started before Kat came along! If we break up –” She paused. He could see misgivings finally cloud her face, but she shook that off. “I can beat them.”
Back off a little, Frosty decided. “Did I tell you Elon has three queens now? They live with him. Libre calls it his harem. But Elon says when he broke up with the first one, he stayed friends and kept her on the job. She stays in his apartment for protection. That way the other girls don’t kill her. Queen bitch makes enemies.”
“Kat managed.”
“Kat was the original Boobzilla, Panic. She likes them. Do you?”
“Boobzilla?”
“The girls’ fighting captains, each vying to be the meanest girl on the block. Fuckette and the rest. The ones Kat rode herd on.”
“I can take them,” Panic claimed, looking at her own reflection uneasily.
Frosty refrained from reminding her that she couldn’t, not now. “Panic, how many friends do you have among the girls?”
“Some!”
This point he needed to hammer home, leaning dispassionately on the door jamb. “Baby, girls follow a leader they like. But you don’t like them.”
“You can just tell them to obey me!”
Now she was pissing him off. “I won’t do that. Baby, who made me leader of this gang?”
“I did, damn you! Then Germy, Hotwire, Kat, Maz, Jake!”
Frosty shook his head. “You don’t get it.”
She spun to confront him directly, hands clutching the counter edge as though prepared to spring at him. “Don’t get what!”
“You didn’t make me king. And I don’t want you as my queen. I want you to stay my girlfriend.”
“But I want both! I deserve both!”
He nodded minutely. “If you must. I won’t hand it to you. Earn it. But baby, I’d rather you didn’t.” With that, he swung through the kitchen and out onto the balcony to let her stew on her own.
He gazed out over his domain and gloried in the day’s final lemony sunbeams. A few kids wandered the street in the gathering gloom below, orderly, peaceful. This evening Manhattan smelled surprisingly clean, damp and earthy. Spring seemed to throb with new life and new possibilities even in the city canyons. He needed to secure new food supplies. A leadership squabble among the girls was a royal nuisance.
Maybe Panic would figure out how to become queen, as he became king. He’d given her enough hints.
No one gave him the gang. He took it.
But how he was going to feed and protect them next, that was a real problem.
From the Author
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed Feral King! What a nice couple, huh? Frosty and Panic survived the brutal winter, and carried several hundred others along with them, quite an accomplishment!
Hard as that was, life only gets tougher in spring. There’s no food left to glean from the apartments of Manhattan.
Can Panic lead the girls and children to grow food? Can she win Frosty’s backing as queen?
Can Frosty master the gang wars as desperation mounts?
Meanwhile their most implacable foe prospers in warm weather – disease.
Will help ever come?
Face the height of the Starve with Panic and Frosty in Feral Queen, coming January 2020. Preorder now!
Best wishes,
Ginger Booth
P.S. Can’t wait? Ava’s story after the Starve begins with Feral Recruit. Or try the box set Feral America Begins, which includes Feral Recruit and Ebola Day, the prequel where Ava meets Frosty.
If you enjoyed the book, please review. Thank you!
Join my reader group to receive free prequels, news, etc. including Ebola Day, the months leading up to Feral King.
Girl meets boy. New York falls.
Before the Ebola epidemic, before the Starve, Ava Panic is a lonely teen. Then she meets handsome Cade at her karate dojo, and her life changes overnight. Ava finally belongs. The mean streets are their playground.
Ebola Day is also available for purchase.
Also by Ginger Booth
Feral Starve: Frosty and Panic
Feral King
Feral Queen (Jan 2020)
Feral Rats (Mar 2020)
Calm Act Feral America: Ava Panic
Feral Recruit
Feral Agent
Feral Courier
Feral Carolina
Feral America Begins: Books 1-2 & Prequel
Short Prequels
Civilly Disobedient (Dee)
Dust of Kansas (Emmett)
Road to Humble Texas (Kayden)
Ebola Day (Ava & Cade)
Calm Act Genesis (box set)
Calm Act, Books 1-4 : Dee Baker
End Game
Project Reunion
Martial Lawless
Tsunami Wake
The Calm Act Books 1-3 (box set)
Thrive Space Colony Adventures
Skyship Thrive
Spaceship Thrive
Interplanetary Thrive
Starship Thrive
Ringship Prosper
Power to Thrive (reader group exclusive)
Nonfiction:
Indoor Salad: How to Grow Vegetables Indoors
Acknowledgments
I’m deeply grateful to my test readers. The team for Feral King included Michelle Cyzauskas, Gerry Ford, Jim Hunt, Fred Oelrich, Karen Reinertsen, Barton Schindel, Jim Seals, and WMH Cheryl. Thank you so much for your time and insights, and most importantly for your friendship, and urging me on.
Thanks as well to the advance review copy readers, who read the almost-final manuscript, ready to write reviews for launch day.
And thank you, for reading my book. Without you, I couldn't do what I do. I really appreciate that you give my work a chance. Drop me a line! I respond personally to all messages.
Ginger Booth
ginger@gingerbooth.com