Dean shrugged one shoulder. “It doesn’t really make a difference what you want to call this form. Earthlings and Sadirians are genetically almost identical, unlike you Centaurans, who only look Sadirian. Well, sometimes.”
Serac felt his hackles rise, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. Dean was baiting him. But Serac wasn’t the impulsive thug he used to be.
“You said you’d found a prize,” Serac said.
“I have.”
“Convince me of its worth. You have three minutes.”
Dean smirked and even chuckled. “So in charge. And here I’d heard that you were bowing to a Lyrian lately.” Dean’s lip curled as he said the word. “When you and I worked together, you bowed to no one.”
Except my conscience—and even that took too long.
“Two minutes left,” Serac said.
“Fine. I’ve encountered a life form on this planet that seems completely harmless. They’re small, furred, with four legs—like most Earth wildlife. The humans call them cats. The Earthlings think they’ve domesticated them.”
“You don’t agree.”
“No,” Dean said. “At best, the cats allow humans to cohabitate with them. They’re extraordinary creatures. I was attacked by half a dozen of them recently. They were harboring a toxin in their claws and bite that required almost an hour in a purification chamber for my body to purge.”
For Dean to have needed so much time in the healing chamber, the toxin had to have been particularly problematic for his physiology.
“So, what?” Serac said. “You’ve called me here to intimidate them for you? Maybe rough them up a little?”
“I plan to capture some,” Dean said.
“And you need me for that.”
“Need? No.” A muscle in Dean’s jaw flexed and his smirk disappeared. “I’m providing you with an opportunity. Don’t be so stupid that you can’t see it.”
A growl built low in Serac’s throat. He forced it down.
“These creatures are valuable enough that a Sadirian was trying to harvest a DNA sample from them for the Coalition’s scientists,” Dean said.
Serac snorted. “Sadirians will take DNA from anything. They’re obsessive about collecting it.”
“True, but this Sadirian was working with a Vegan.”
That prompted a quick intake of breath that Serac couldn’t quite hide. Dean’s smirk returned.
“I thought that might catch your attention,” Dean said.
Serac had heard rumors that the Vegans had made an appearance during the Battle of Sadr-4. He’d dismissed it as propaganda from the Coalition of Planets in its effort to maintain their control over most of the sentients in the galaxy.
It had to be a lie meant to scare everyone into staying within their rule. Their High Council had been obliterated and their entire home system destroyed.
Serac clenched his fists as he thought of his people’s role in that. The air around him grew colder.
“Vegans are a myth,” he said.
“Believe what you will. But know that the DNA of these Earth cats is a high prize—as are the creatures themselves.”
“If you want their DNA, why not get it yourself?” Serac asked. “You must have had some available, given that they bit you.”
“The samples were tainted by my body’s immune response.” Dean went on, his voice rising with excitement. “These creatures are unlike anything you’ve ever encountered. Some of them seem docile while others are outright murderous. And they can switch from one state to the next without giving any sign to their change in temperament.”
“Sounds like you have much in common,” Serac said.
Dean snorted. “I’m willing to let our past remain in the past. Together, we can capture these animals and market them as vicious guardian beasts. Imagine if we, too, could win their favor and then provide them as pets throughout the galaxy? One moment, the beast is calmly resting upon its beloved owner’s lap. The next, it’s sprung to attack. We can modify its natural microbiome to make its bite and scratch even more dangerous.”
“These all sound like stories for the hearth fires,” Serac said.
Dean scowled. “I am not plying you with children’s tales. Vegans are real. Cats are real.”
“Then capture one and sell it. You don’t need me.”
“If it were that simple, I wouldn’t have called you in the first place. We need someone who understands them. Someone who can control them and teach us how to induce their docile state. And I’ve found the perfect Earthling to help us. She just needs some convincing.”
Dean was talking about abducting a sentient. And from what Serac knew of the Scorpiian, he would absolutely go through with his plan.
The hairs on Serac’s nape rose again. His zyln grew more alert within, the sense of impending danger growing.
“The human who lives in this dwelling runs a place called a ‘pet parlor.’ Her name is Kimmy and she is a specialist in controlling animals—including cats.”
Cygnus-X, he’s planning to do this now.
“If we can acquire her, she will enable us to capture the cats and train them,” Dean said. “We just need to persuade her to assist us.”
Serac knew what Dean had in mind when he spoke of “persuading” sentients. Serac wouldn’t be part of it. And he couldn’t let this happen.
“Your plan has one obstacle,” he said.
“And what is that?”
Serac’s zyln rose up in him, energy coursing through his body as it began the change.
“Me.”
2
A piercing howl woke Kimmy from her sound sleep. At first, she thought it was a continuation of her amazing dream—a lovely side-effect of reading the latest paranormal shifter romance in her favorite series right before bed.
But then she heard the unmistakable growls and barks of dogs fighting. Real dogs. And something sounded off about one of them.
She threw off the pile of comforters and quilts she’d buried herself beneath and flung herself out of bed. The floor was freezing, and for the millionth time she wished she could stand sleeping in socks—or really anything more than a long nightshirt and undies.
“Cold, cold, cold,” she chanted, hopping on one foot, then the other as she scrambled for her oversized, fur-lined house-boots.
She grabbed her glasses and pushed them onto her face. After fumbling for the lights in the hallway, she ran downstairs, then grabbed a coat in the kitchen and pulled it on.
As she headed out the back door, she picked up her broom, just in case. She had a way with animals, but these dogs sounded…
Enormous. Oh my God, they’re huge.
And they weren’t dogs. Not like any she’d seen before.
She froze on her back porch, trying to make sense of what she was seeing, wondering if she was still dreaming.
At first, she thought they might be wolves. But wolves weren’t so big.
They also didn’t glow.
Or have tentacles.
The larger animal had five enormous eyes on its face, making it look like a cross between a wolf and a bug. The tentacles rippling along its back added to the…not-wolfness of it. That and the purple and green fur covering its body.