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  “Gaire!” I exclaimed, giving her a long hug before leaning back with my hands braced on her forearms.

  “Heard you were back in the caves.” The older woman grinned, her eyes sparkling. “I hoped I’d run into my best nurse.”

  A doctor, she’d trained me in nursing years ago, and I’d worked in her clinic since. This woman was like a second mother to me.

  “I’m sorry…about your sister,” she said, her smile falling. When she hugged me again, her long, silver hair brushed my face. “But I’m grateful you made it back to us safely.”

  “Let’s get together for a cup of cava soon.”

  “Of course.” Gaire started down the hall, her stethoscope in hand. She must be late for a shift. She called over her shoulder, “Send me a com message.”

  After calling out agreement, I hurried in the opposite direction for my meeting with Fen and the other company commanders in a cave we’d converted into an office, with a broad, rustic table and stools.

  I took Selina’s—no, my—place at the head of the table and remained standing while my commanders stared up at me. “As General Fen no doubt informed you, the Regime has sent an army our way.”

  “They won’t defeat us,” one of my younger commanders said. Brash, he’d go out there and take them on alone, if I let him.

  “We’ve grown,” I said. “And learned since they drove us from the smaller caves.” I looked to General Fen. “Jag—the cat shifter mercenary I arrived with—and I were able to work our way around the army. They’re huge, at least twice our number. But they’re moving slowly, since they’re loaded down with supplies. Unfortunately, this tells me they’re preparing for a long haul.”

  “You think they intend to surround us and close off our supply lines?” General Fen said. “Eliminate our means of survival.”

  It had worked last time, at the smaller caves. We’d barely escaped with our lives.

  The Regime didn’t know that we’d learned since then. Deep down below the network of caves, we’d discovered an enormous lake. With that and our gardens and animals, we’d have enough food and water to last us many lifetimes. “Let them camp outside our gate. If we wanted to, we could wait them out forever. Starve them. And harass them with midnight raids, picking away at their number, their supplies, their confidence. Scare them. They’ll never get past our defenses.”

  “I’d rather attack,” another commander said. “Eliminate the threat.”

  “So would I,” I said. “Which means we need to come up with a plan.”

  At my nod, General Fen stood. “Here’s what I think we should do…”

  Hours later, I dragged myself back to Selina’s quarters, which I’d taken for my own. I changed my clothes, ate the food Selina’s attendant left for me, and then dropped onto the bed. Worn out from days of travel and stress, I still couldn’t sleep. All I could think about was Herc. Alone. Out in the desert somewhere. Hurt. Maybe calling for me. The thought wrenched my insides sideways.

  I missed him, missed his touch. If only I could go find him and make sure he was safe.

  Then, my thoughts tumbled into memories of my sister. I curled onto my side and cried, deep, gulping, wretched sobs that I hadn’t dared release until now, when I was alone.

  My body spent, I still hiccupped, and my stinging tears soaked through my pillow.

  I lay awake well into the night.

  Morning found me rising from the bed early. I’d gotten used to waking at dawn for my nursing shifts here and at the Regime compound. I doubted that would ever change.

  After bathing, I dressed and strolled around Selina’s room. Seeing her things only heightened my pain.

  I missed my sister. The gap of her loss would never be filled. Why did war always take those we loved?

  I fingered a painting that pictured me, Selina, and Mom together, sitting in the gardens behind our residence in the city, back when I was a child and it had seemed life would always be carefree. Placing it carefully back on the rough table lining one wall, I moved on to a small piece of gypsa, one of the few things we’d been able to take with us when we fled, because it could be stuffed into a pocket. Holding the gypsa brought a sad smile to my lips. The rock was my last tangible reminder of Father, before the Regime had him murdered to enable Torsos’s pursuit of my mother. At that stage, we’d trusted the Medians and believed Father had died of natural causes, not, as we later discovered, because the deadly essence of the snilisch beetle had been incrementally added to his food each day, causing his organs to gradually fail, as he withered before our eyes.

  The public beheading of my Mother, when she rejected Torsos’s grand offer of marriage, broke the last of our childish trust in the alien intruders.

  I ran my fingers over the remaining sharp edges of the crystal, that pain engraving my memories. When we were twelve, Father had taken us mining for precious stones. While we’d mostly found worthless rocks, we had unearthed a small line of the ruby-red stone. Father helped us chip out chunks, which we’d taken home and tumbled to smooth the outer surface.

  I’d been devastated when I lost my piece as we fled the city.

  But now, I had Selina’s.

  Cradling it in my hand, I stared down at it through watery eyes. With a heavy sigh, I closed my fist around it, squeezing so tight it pricked my skin.

  A bang on the door made me jump. I dropped the gypsa back onto the table and whirled to face the door. “Yes?”

  “Your Highness?” Petre, Selina’s personal attendant called out.

  I’d tried to permanently dismiss her, because I did not need assistance in my rooms. But she’d begged me to let her stay. Said she felt lost without anyone to serve. I’d decided to leave it for now, but find her other work inside the caves.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “The man you told General Fen to watch for has arrived.”

  Herc!

  Heart in my throat, I flew to the door and pulled it open.

  No Herc. Just Petre.

  “Where is he?” I peered around her, as if he could be hiding behind her petite frame.

  She stared at the floor. “He was…detained.”

  “What?” I grabbed her upper arms to still her fidgeting. “Where is he? Tell me.”

  “They took him to a cell.” She wrung her hands. “They said he was vicious, shifting from a man to a lion, then back again. He wouldn’t listen, and the situation was getting dangerous, so they had no choice but to sedate him.”

  “Sedate him,” I shrieked. “They locked him up?” I held in my anger, because there was no need to direct it at Petre. But I’d give General Fen a shouting he’d never forget. “Tell me what happened.” I wanted to rush down the hall, not stopping until I reached our small prison.

  “They said he approached the gate and demanded to see you.”

  “I told the officers he was coming.”

  “He didn’t identify himself. Not at first. And I guess he got…agitated.”

  Speeding back inside my new quarters, I grabbed a light jacket from the closet. It was cool in the cells, which were located far below, in the deeper caves. “I must go to him.”

  “Of course.” Turning, she hurried down the hall, and I followed.

  I heard him bellowing before I saw him. If they’d made him suffer…there’d be no end to my wrath.

  Turning to Petre, I said, “Go.”

  She pouted, and I could see her deciding if she dared drum up enough guts to challenge my command, because she had to be curious. But her shoulders fell. Good girl. Feet heavy, she walked back in the direction we’d come from.

  Running down the sloping chamber, I rounded a corner and approached a guard on duty.

  “Maya!” Herc’s hoarse call echoed around me. My heart clenched at the thought he’d been yelling my name so long he was losing his voice.

  Acid churned through my belly. What had they done to him?

  “Release him,” I told the guard.

  “He’s dangerous,” the man sai
d. He scratched his head and darted his gaze toward one of the cells. “I was told not to let anyone near him. It took six guys and three darts of PennerB to put him down. He might still hurt someone.”

  “Give me the key.” Anger must have charged through my voice, because the guard jumped. I held out my hand.

  “Of course,” he said meekly. His gaze flicked up before darting away. “Your Highness.”

  A first for me: I was finally grateful for the title.

  Key in hand, I approached the cell where they’d locked my bondmate away. My muscles tensed beneath my skin, and I rubbed my arms to chase away goosebumps.

  As I inserted the key into the lock, Herc turned his head, and his eyes met mine through the barred grille. Such anguish in his amber gaze.

  As if he thought we’d lost each other forever.

  “Maya,” he said in a harsh whisper.

  I thrust open the door and ran to the low bunk, dropping to the floor beside him. My forehead pressed against his shoulder, I closed my eyes and took in his scent. His warmth. The rush I got whenever I was near him.

  He struggled to sit up, and I helped him. Settling on the bunk beside him, I wrapped my arms around his waist, pressing myself into his side.

  The guard gaped at us from the doorway. “He’s…Are you all right, Your Highness?”

  Herc faced me, frowning. “Highness?”

  “Get the antidote,” I told the guard. “Quickly.” The Regime developed Penner to target those in command when they’d attacked our other cave home. Working on ways to halt and reverse the drug’s toxic effect, we’d invented our own version of the powerful poison. It wouldn’t kill those injected, but the symptoms it caused could linger for days. The antidote we created halted the drug in its tracks.

  He scurried away and returned in no time with a syringe, stretching his arm to tentatively hand it to me. He left, fleeing into the outer corridor.

  “Herc,” I said briskly. “I need to give you a shot.”

  “No lab work,” he slurred. When he wavered, I eased him back down onto the bunk.

  Leaning over him, I cupped his face. “Look at me.”

  He blinked fast and then stared up with dilated pupils. “Maya?”

  “Yes, it’s me, love. I’m going to help you.”

  His hand rose, and he stroked my cheek. “I trust you.”

  The vulnerability in his words wrenched my heart right through my chest. Why had the guards used PennerB? Developed to take down a viper, who knew how it would interact with a shifter’s metabolism?

  “I’ve got medicine that will counter the effect of the PennerB,” I said. “But I have to give it by injection.”

  His eyes never leaving mine, he shoved back his sleeve, exposing his arm.

  I made quick work of the shot, and my knees shook with relief when I saw his eyes clearing. He palmed his face and rubbed. Then sat up again on the side of the bunk.

  “Fuck. What was that shit they gave me?”

  I snickered through my tears. “Bad stuff, huh? We might not have laser drones, but we’ve perfected medication over the past few years. This one comes in handy with the vipers.”

  He cocked his head. “Easier than straddling the beast with a knife, huh?”

  Smiling for the first time since he made me leave him, I tumbled into his open arms, which wrapped me close, as if he planned to never let go. “A thousand times better.”

  #

  “So. Your Highness?” Herc said some time later.

  Rolling over to face him on my bed, I stroked his chest with my fingertips. Talk was important but being with my bondmate had been even more vital.

  “Selina was our queen,” I said.

  His face clouded. “I’m sorry. You know I—”

  “It’s okay.” I took a deep breath, eager to finally explain. “She became queen after my mother was murdered.” I looked up at him and sighed. “Now, it’s my role.”

  “This is what you tried to tell me in the desert.”

  “And in the caves. But the time never felt right. I mean, how do you tell someone something like that?” Lowering my gaze, my fingers stalled while tracing his tattoo. “I thought I’d lose you.”

  He growled. “No way in all seven hells that will ever happen.”

  My heart sang.

  “You were my enemy at first,” I said.

  He lifted my chin, and his amber eyes twinkled. “Was I ever truly your enemy? From our first touch, we proved we would be so much more.”

  I let my smile shine through.

  He was right. We’d been everything for each other from the moment we met.

  Pulling his head down, I kissed him. Welcomed his touch.

  Despite the enemy camped on our doorstep, the upcoming battle, and the need to make sure his shifter crew was safe, we’d be okay.

  Because we’d face whatever came our way. Together.

  Would you like to read a sneak peek at Book 2 in the CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR Series? Scroll ahead, because we’ve shared Chapter One of ENGAGE!

  Books by Laney Kaye & Christina Wilder

  CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR

  ESCAPE, Herc & Maya

  ENGAGE, Leo & Janie

  ENSNARE, Khal & Lyrie

  ENDINGS, Jag & Aren

  Books by Laney Kaye

  THE LURE OF THE MER: HOOK

  THE LURE OF THE MER: LINE

  coming from The Wild Rose Press, Spring 2019

  Books by Christina Wilder

  MY BIG FAT POMPEII ROMANCE

  Find it now on Amazon

  DRAGON MATED Novella Series

  December, 2018

  CAPTURED BY A DRAGON

  HUNTED BY A DRAGON

  CLAIMED BY A DRAGON

  CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENGAGE

  Chapter One

  Janie

  W hen you hack into the Regime’s computer mainframe, there’s a chance you’ll wind up dead. Especially when you trigger alarms while downloading data onto a small drive you’ve since slid into your pocket.

  I stood trembling while Kinaert—a guard who’d been friendly to me up until this moment—pressed his laser pistol against my head, a snarl of rage on his face.

  “They’re experimenting on people,” I hissed, still unable to believe what I’d found hidden inside an innocuous document entitled, Cat’s Play. Cat’s Play, my ass. “Don’t you understand?”

  Maybe he’d let me go if he did.

  “I got three rug rats to support now that my old lady moved out, so I need this job.” He gouged the pistol into my temple hard enough to leave a dent. “No need to understand anything beyond that, Janie.”

  Janie. Always before, I’d been Dr. Hartlin, someone he respected. After all, I’d stitched his wounds on more than one occasion, and given him tonics whenever he’d overdone it at the sleaze-easies.

  As if he thought I’d escape, he backed me over to the office chair parked in front of my desk.

  “Sit,” he said. “They woke up the C.O. He’ll tell me what to do with you soon.” The threat in his voice kept me from bolting. That, and the fact that his hand shook. One wrong move, and my brain matter would be sprayed across the far wall.

  I was in a shitload of trouble. I’d spied where I shouldn’t have, and now I’d pay. Maybe with my life.

  But the compound’s snide Commanding Officer, Smithton—the C.O. for short—didn’t seem clever enough for a project like Cat’s Play, which meant someone above him must be running the show. And I had a good idea who. That data I’d found was complex. Well-researched. To my dismay, I’d discovered they were planning to…well, those involved had been working on this project for a long time. Six months or more.

  Had they brought the mercenary shifters to our planet for this purpose all along and not for the official reason they’d given—to hunt down Resistance fighters?

  I stared down with blurry eyes at the paperwork I’d printed out, now lying strewn across my desk. If only I hadn’t been bored during my overnight shif
t at the clinic and gotten curious. Then I wouldn’t have looked at the routine blood work file I’d discovered and seen how vastly different the results were from my own.

  Nothing good ever came from snooping inside the bowels of the Regime’s mainframe at four in the morning.

  “Do you realize what they’re doing to the mercenary shifters we hired from Aaidar?” I glared up at Kinaert. “Let alone what they’re doing to the Resistance fighters they’ve captured?”

  They hadn’t named anyone specifically, using Child 1, Woman 1, and Off-World subject 1 instead. But each fake name equaled a victim. Someone they had no problem harming.

  This project was inhumane. Treachery of the worst order. Hurting our fellow mankind was bad enough, but breaking our treaty with Aaidar could endanger the entire galaxy.

  “Told you, not my problem,” Kinaert said, leaning against the wall. He nudged his head toward the door. “Soon they’ll haul you to the jail and then we’ll see what happens to people who pry into things they’re better off leaving alone.”

  When my computer abruptly shut down, alarms had blared throughout the building. Kinaert, who’d been on duty with me tonight, had barged into my office, his gun drawn. He’d quickly shouted into his com, “Got her.”

  His com cheeped now, indicating an incoming message. I jumped as he frowned and listened.

  “No problem, Sir,” he said, his flinty gaze landing on me. He waved his pistol my way. “Come on, get up. We’re taking a little walk.” He grabbed my arm as he strode past and hauled me to my feet before I could rise under my own steam. Door wrenched open, he shoved me through with his pistol pressed against my spine. “Don’t even think about trying to get away. I’ll pulverize your spine if you do. Don’t think I won’t.”

  I couldn’t prevent my shiver. While I’d give my life to save a patient, I wanted to live, too.