Free Hunting the She-Cat by Jacki Bentley Page B

life is scarred by
violence and the unjust death of my mother.”
    The pressing reason he needed to clear
her name was because the Prime Minister thought she was Tryth’s
offspring. Tryth’s blood children had been declared dangerous,
flawed because of his blood-thirty evil actions and the reliability
that he passed it on in his descendants.
    “What are you thinking?” she
asked.
    “Why did you lie to me when I came to
your office?”
    “You mean when I denied being a
shapeshifter? I … lied because my mother told me to deny my blood
to strangers. She said I’d end up under a microscope. Well, those
were not her words.”
    He grimaced. “Yes, I suppose she
softened it for a child. But you nailed it well. From the research
we’ve done, these human earthlings are an inquisitive
species.”
    “Are Eliavans less ruthless natured
than Earth humans?”
    He thought a moment. “No. Not really.
More advanced, a few thousand years more evolved, but we are, in
some ways, even more the blood-thirsty predators.”
    Driving the troubling thoughts of what
he had to do from his mind for now, he moved in and kissed her
softly. He wanted it to be a healing comforting kiss. But,
unfortunately he’d not had much experience with those kind of
kisses. It soon evolved to something more. To a man and woman
kiss.
    “Give me your necklace,” he
ordered.
    “What? Why?”
    “It needs to be off your neck, so you
are not found so easily again. ”
    “But you just showed me how to open it
after so many years of wondering if it did open.”
    He smiled at her childish
tone.
    “I do,” she snapped. “I want to keep
it. It’s all I have of my mother.” But she was automatically
pulling it around and working the clasp. He helped her and took it
off her.
    “You can’t wear it anymore. I will
remove the picture and copy it for you before I destroy
it.”
    “What about yours?”
    “Mine?”
    “Yes, yours. It will need to go also if
you stay here with me.”
    He shook his head. “Mine is hardwired
into my skin. Can’t remove it.” She looked alarmed. “But I can get
permission to stay here. No one is hunting me. I’ve served Eliava
well.”
    “You would stay then? Live
here?”
    “Yes.” No need to admit that he might
not be welcome at work after this. But he had no taste for a
mission that required he blindly destroy an innocent female. “I can
go back and forth. Listen to me, if we take this course you can
never see Eliava. Not for many years anyway. Until the legend of
the lost she-cat child who may be a royal dies away.”
    “Fine, this is my home. I have no
problem with not flying through the dark of space. And I never
envied the royals here. They seem like nice people in a huge public
fish bowl.”
    “Apt description. You would live in a
fish bowl as you say on Eliava.”
    “No way.” She snuggled into his arms
and he made love to her again, long and leisurely this
time.

Chapter Nine

    As soon as Lugar began his next
evening’s security patrol, he realized Sneal had been close to
Misha’s cabin. Walking in this area. Recently. The scent was fresh.
Fresh enough he could be lurking near here even now. He stilled,
scanning the woods with narrowed eyes.
    “Bet you neglected to tell the female
you’ve come to kill her.”
    The voice was about ten meters east.
Morning sunlight filtered through the trees making a visual hard to
come by. But he knew Sneal was in cat form.
    “You explain to her that if she’d not
gone missing you would not have benefited with a better life,”
Sneal demanded.
    “My circumstances with working for
Tryth’s brother had nothing to do with her and everything to do
with Tryth’s disappearance. Tryth hated my father because he spoke
out about how evil Tryth was. What brings you here, Sneal? Thought
my orders were clear enough.”
    Still in human form, the other Eliavan,
Zeff, stepped out of the wood, showing himself but remained silent.
From the rigid and disgusted look of Zeff, his loyalties