House of the Cat

By reading any further, you are
stating that you are at least 18 years of age. If you are under the age of
18, it is necessary to exit this site.

An Excerpt From: HOUSE OF THE CAT

Copyright © SHELLEY MUNRO, 2009

All Rights Reserved, Ellora's Cave Publishing,
Inc.

Chapter One

 "I don't care if Camryn's your sister.
She's an alcoholic, and I swear she's overdoing the prescription drugs as
well. I don't trust her near our son."

"She loves Luke," Max said.

"Last time Camryn baby-sat, she let Luke
wander onto the racetrack. She was blind drunk."

Her sister-in-law's angry
words brought Camryn O'Sullivan to an abrupt
stop. She wavered on unsteady legs, not wasted but experiencing a buzz and
blissful ignorance of the true state of her life. She smothered a giggle,
slapping her hand over her quivering lips. Okay, she'd had drinks. Lots of
drinks in pretty colors. Teeny umbrellas to match.

"What do you want me to do?
I can't throw her out. She's my twin sister. She doesn't have anyone else."

A hit! Camryn
screwed her eyes shut, protecting herself against the onslaught of pain.
No, she didn't want to think about Gabriel, about being alone. How much it
hurt. Max couldn't make her leave. He wouldn't.

She had nowhere else to go.

"Max, it's almost two years
since Gabriel's death. Camryn's not improving.
She needs help. More than we can give her."

Silence fell, but Ellen's
words throbbed like the harping notes of a badly played violin. They hurt
her head and brought forth a wave of indignation. She didn't need help. She
needed Gabriel, dammit. Only her husband's
presence would belay the paralyzing guilt she carried with her every day.

A rough masculine sigh
sounded. "Love, you're right. Camryn needs help,
but she doesn't see it. Until she realizes, all we can do is be here for
her. She has to want change."

"Fine, and meantime Camryn drags us down with her. I found her smoking
inside the stables this afternoon. She reeked of alcohol. Other people have
noticed. She won jockey of the year two years running, but have you noticed
she's not getting the rides she was a year ago? Camryn
has real aptitude with horses, the gift you both have, and she's throwing
it away."

A direct hit. Ellen's
words sliced with precision, ripping open wounds barely scabbed. The agony
hit instantaneously, ferocious and heart-stopping. Silent tears ran down Camryn's face, and she staggered against the door.
Invisible bands clamped around her ribs. Camryn
gasped hoarsely, the last of the drunken buzz bleeding away as she
attempted to breathe. She wanted to rock away the pain, the guilt that came
from knowing Gabriel would never return.

The wind caught the door,
slamming it shut and the murmur of voices from the kitchen stopped
abruptly.

No, not here. She couldn't
fall apart here. Camryn fumbled with the handle,
increasingly desperate when footsteps neared.

"Camryn?
Is that you?" Her twin brother's baritone sounded in the passage not far
from where she teetered.

Camryn
finally managed to coordinate brain and hands. The door opened. She
stumbled into the winter air. The bite of the wind brought a shiver, an
increase to her misery. Whiskey. She needed a drink. And maybe one of those
little yellow pills the nice doctor had prescribed to help her sleep.
Anything to escape the horrid truth. She hadn't meant to leave Luke alone.
She loved her nephew. He raced about, so fast on his feet, and the
sleepless nights had taken their toll. She'd fallen asleep in Gabriel's
favorite chair.

Luke loved horses. No surprise
since his father bred and trained racehorses. She and Max had lived and
breathed horses since they were Luke's age. Camryn
lurched along the muddy track leading to the cottage at the back of the
main house.

Really, she didn't need
help. If Gabriel returned things would improve. She could kick the alcohol
any time she wanted. A few pills to lift her mood. Camryn
didn't need them either. She needed Gabriel.

Camryn
burst into her cottage, tracking mud across the tile floor. She staggered
through the cluttered kitchen and into the dining room where she'd
instructed her brother and his workers to place Gabriel's chair. Camryn slumped into the big, masculine chair and
pressed her nose against the cool leather. The faint scent of lavender soap
and whiskey filled her senses, and a surge of tears blurred her vision. The
chair didn't smell of Gabriel anymore.

It smelled of her.

Camryn
crawled onto the chair properly, ignoring the muddy boots on her feet. She
curled into a tight ball, her thin shoulders shaking with the force of her
sobs. The cruel truth hit then. Gabriel wouldn't be coming home. He would
never come home. Gabriel was dead, and it was all her fault.

* * * * *

"This plan will work." Yep
pulled on his jacket and fastened it securely against the cold. "I feel it
in ma bones."

Kaya
smirked at her crewmate, her chin-length blue hair swinging against high
cheekbones. She tugged Yep's ponytail. "Your
bones are sometimes wrong. My research is, however, correct."

Ryman Coppersmith, captain
of the Indefatigable, ignored
them both. He'd already made his decision. He intended to win the
hell-horse race on Ornum or at least beat his
brother Talor and win their private bet. By the
time the race ended, Ry hoped he'd be on the way
to clearing his name of murder charges. Talor
knew the identity of the murderer, but for some reason had never spoken
out, preferring to see Ry exiled instead. Ry scowled. He wanted to go home and openly walk
through the streets without fear of capture. He wanted to embrace his
sisters, visit his mother's grave. It was time.

After research on Kaya's part, they'd found the stud farm easily enough.
They landed the tender in an empty paddock and emerged to the bite of an
icy-cool wind and full darkness.

Ry
sniffed the air before striding in the direction of the stud farm. Trees.
Grass. Mud. Animals. Every breath he took contained a new scent. The needs
of the cat jumped to the fore and a low rumble eased from him. "Go ahead,"
he muttered to his crew. "I will shift." He knew he sounded curt, but the
urgent need to run thrummed through him, even greater than his desire for a
woman, and that was bad enough. Blood surged to his cock, the sharp
sensation both painful and frustrating. No available woman and he refused
to fukk any of his crew.

Kaya
and Yep melted into the darkness while Mogens,
who attracted attention because of his changeable skin color, stayed with
the tender. Nanu and Jannike
presently orbited Earth in the Indefatigable, hopefully remaining
undetected.

Inhaling deep, Ry ripped off his jacket and shirt and let the feline
claim him. Trews and boots melted into his body,
replaced by black fur. His bones lengthened and shifted,
tendons and muscles reforming to the cat. His color vision faded, his
surroundings turning to shades of black and white. Ry
dropped to all fours and padded across the moist grass, long tail swishing.

As always, a sense of
aggravation followed him. Ry knew nothing of his
feline background, had never met another of his species. In one pain-filled
evening, when he'd thought he might die, he'd turned into a black feline
without warning. He'd yowled his panic so loud his
shipmates had come running. Ry grinned at the
memory. He'd scared them half to death. Although funny now, his unexpected
shift into a powerful black cat had been bloody terrifying.

For all of them.

With help from Mogens, the man who'd become their seer and part of the
crew, Ry had finally
transformed back, bearing a new cat tattoo on his biceps as a souvenir and
his shirt in tatters. Weirdly, his trews had
survived the transformation. Talk about a learning experience. And he was
still learning the foibles of his species. The not knowing scared him. It
made him wonder if there had been something else inside the bag they'd
found with him as a baby. As a child he'd asked, but his foster father had
told him the bag contained clothes.

The low voices and footsteps
of his crew were clearly audible. Ry twitched his
nose and prowled after them, annoyed with their casual approach. A sharp
feline bark reminded them to reduce the noise. Ry
broke into a lope, savoring the play of muscles long confined in humanoid
form. The wind ruffled his fur while mud splashed his legs and belly.

When he neared the center of
the farm where the owners lived, white post and rail fences carved the land
into paddocks. Ry leaped over the nearest, his
heart pumping with the physical exertion. An animal snorted, springing into
action and galloping from the spot where Ry had
frozen in place.

A horse. The Earth
counterpart of a hell-horse.

Ry
crept along the fence line not wanting to alarm more animals or attract
attention. Once clear, he sped up, muscles moving powerfully, every sense
alert. Ry caught the rustle of a small creature
in a hedgerow, the tentative neighs of two horses at the far end of a
paddock. The chill wind continued to ruffle his fur, the heavy moisture in
the air indicating impending rain. Great. Ry
hated to get wet. His pace increased to a gallop as he followed the track
running between the paddocks.

Ahead, light bled from behind
screened windows. According to the information Yep and Kaya
had uncovered, the trainer lived with his wife and child. Ry regretted any anguish the trainer's departure would
cause and had penned a note, explaining the situation to his family.
Hopefully the Earthlings could decipher the universal language. Ry slipped into the shadows and stalked closer, every
sense alert for danger.

A cough over to his left
grabbed his attention. Ry stilled, whiskers
twitching. The sharp scent of sweat and unwashed body caught the back of
his throat. The cough sounded again. A figure staggered from a dim-lit
porch and wove toward the rails of the nearest paddock. Ry's
tension eased. The trainer. He recognized the coat the man wore since it
appeared in the photo Yep and Kaya had found
during their research on the flight to Earth. A lucky break.

Ry
padded closer, placing himself near enough to watch without giving away his
presence. He needed to wait for the crew to move into position for the
snatch to go smoothly. The man appeared short, about Kaya's
height, but solid. His reek said he didn't care much for personal hygiene.
His stench didn't bother the horses. Two plodded over to him and one
nuzzled his shoulder. The man smoothed his hand over the horse's neck. The
other horse nickered. The man stroked it and the creatures moved away. Soft
footsteps dragged his attention from the man.

Yep indicated the man with a
jerk of his head. "He waits for us to extract him and take him on the
adventure of his life."

Ry
stared, unable to see much despite his superior eyesight. The man wore a
cover over his head, obscuring his features from sight. Ry's
nose twitched at the objectionable odor coming from the man, the air thick
with liquor fumes.

Yep seemed to sense Ry's doubts and sought to reassure. "The man's a
champion trainer," he whispered. "Nanu and I
attended the races two cycles ago. This man trained five of the twelve
winners. Several place getters. Man's natural with the four-legged
creatures. Hell-horses should respond to him in the way same."

And if they didn't? Fukk, he hated this planet. The cold seeped right to
his bones and the promised rain arrived in a slow drizzle. Ry quaked, attempting to shake off the water without
audible noise. Didn't work. Miserable, he shivered, ears flicking while
irritation built.

"Aw, frag
it," Yep swore. "He's moving."

The man intended to seek
shelter. Maybe he wasn't as far-gone as Ry
suspected.

Yep slipped after him. Ry followed with a grumbling sigh, watching the staggering
figure with disfavor while he twitched his whiskers. The ground sucked at
his paws, the slippery footing making their mission difficult.

The crew moved in, silent
signals passing between them until they stood in position. Yep and Kaya converged from opposite sides, springing and
disabling the man in well-practiced synchronicity. Kaya
pulled the special cloth impregnated with a potion the seer had made from
her pocket and pressed it to his nose. The man went limp immediately, and
Yep slung the bulky figure over his shoulder before striding in the
direction of the tender. Kaya darted up to the
shelter and shoved Ry's note under the door
before joining Yep.

Ry
followed, loping along the muddy track. In a burst of speed, he passed his
crew, trying to outrun the returning desire for a woman. It came out of
nowhere, unbidden.

Unwanted, the need gripped
him with such powerful intensity he stopped in his tracks. Damn, he'd
thought he'd manage for a few more weeks.

Ry
tried to ignore the urgent need crawling through his veins. The
out-of-control sensation had intensified during the past few months,
affecting his sleep. The constant need for a woman made his temper
uncertain, although so far he'd managed to hold things together. Ry knew his desire was escalating to dangerous levels.
His attempts to manage what he presumed were feline traits and part of his
heritage brought a bark of ironic laughter. Ry
suspected the seer saw his turmoil. The others would realize the tenuous
hold he had over his feline too if he didn't do something fast. Of course
he'd continue with the search for his people, but meantime he'd have to
break down and find a woman to travel with them during their voyage to take
the edge off his sexual needs. Hopefully the woman's presence would slow
the downward spiral into the mysterious world of the feline.

The world he didn't
understand because he didn't know where he came from or who he was.

Ry
galloped to the tender and shifted smoothly. His naked chest gleamed with
moisture and rivulets of mud, his heart thudded hard and erratic. Inside, Ry ignored his shirt and jacket, preferring to sanitize
back on the Indy before he
redressed.

"Everything okay?" Mogens asked.

"Yeah." Ry
wanted to lash out at the seer's scrutiny, tired of it. He let out a vicious
growl. Ry wanted to laugh at Mogens'
undignified scramble to put distance between them but didn't have it in
him. "The crew won't be long. Mission accomplished." The tension inside
ratcheted sharply upward. Ry gritted his teeth,
wanting to hit someone. Silently, he calculated how long the flight back to
the planet Ornum would take, how quickly he could
find a woman. The idea of sinking into the warmth of a female, of licking
her fragrant skin and losing himself in the plain rawness of sex brought an
uncontrollable surge of arousal. His cock drew painfully tight, and Ry wheezed through the throbbing ache. He wished he
knew what ailed him, why the feline refused to settle even with the
suppressant Mogens had made for him.

Footsteps thudded on the
tender ramp. Kaya and Yep clattered inside with
Yep still carrying the man over his shoulder. He dumped him on the nearest
chair and strapped him in for safety. The unconscious human slumped
forward, face hidden by the head covering. A noxious smell still emanated
from him, the stench compounded in the confined quarters of the tender.

"All aboard." Mogens sealed the entrance. A throaty roar indicated
Yep had started up the thrusters, and secs later,
they lifted off.

Ry
slumped onto his chair and closed his eyes, battling with the compulsion to
grab Kaya, who sat next to him. He took a deep
breath. A mistake since he almost drowned in her feminine pheromones. He
tipped back his head and growled, the catlike yowl
full of fury. Kaya's eyes widened and she jumped
to her feet, staring at Ry with something akin to
horror.

"Good girl, watch the man
for me," Mogens said, pretending nothing out of
the ordinary had occurred. "I'll sit there. I want to have a word with Ry."

Ry
stirred uneasily. He'd never done that before. Gripping the edges of his
chair, he fought for control, Kaya's scent heavy
in the air. If anything, her surge of terror and adrenaline intensified the
desire filling his body with savage need. Kaya
shifted her weight, drawing his attention. Rich female musk filled every
inhalation, along with the stink of the horse trainer. His gaze slid from
the slumped figure back to Kaya. An intense
shiver racked his body, and Ry closed his eyes,
struggling to remain seated. The loss of one sense served to intensify the
others, and he hurriedly opened his eyes again.

"Seer, do you have more of
the slumber drug?" Ry had to force the words out,
past jutting canines. They emerged in a growled hiss, almost
unintelligible. He tried again. "Slumber drug." The words were little more
than a feral snarl.

Luckily the seer seemed to
understand. "I have more." He frowned, a ribbon of black swirling across
his bare arms and face. It combined with the white of his skin to darken
his complexion.

Good, Ry
thought, panting heavily. His chest rose and fell rapidly, the shallow
breaths still dragging in too much in the way of sensory input. Mogens knew, as he'd feared, sensed his desperation.

Heat. Intense, it seared his
body, bringing a torturous shudder. He had to rid himself of the inferno inside,
needed sex so bad.

So bad.

Ry
blinked, sweat pouring down his face. It plastered his dark hair to his
head until it hung in wet tendrils.

"Dose me. Now. Don't want to
hurt." A high-pitched growl erupted, echoing in the tender. He gripped the
edges of the seat he sat on even though his fingers had bled to claws. "Kaya." Fukk, never forgive
himself if he hurt one of his crew. They were his friends. Family. They
knew his secrets, were loyal to him, to each other. Ry
snarled, trembling on the cusp of a shift to feline. "Mogens,"
he gritted out.

"I'm not sure how it will
react--"

"Do it." An order.

Mogens
stood and strode to his satchel. He rummaged through and drew out another
of the impregnated cloths they'd used to subdue the human. The seer
returned, his face dark black with worry as he glanced at Ry with compassion. "Are you sure?"

The pity made Ry spit with fury. The solid walls of the tender
rattled with his bark of anger. In lieu of a reply, Ry
reached up and grabbed the cloth. He pressed it to his nose, gagging at the
herbal reek. His instinctive reaction was to remove the pad, but Mogens grasped his hand and held it in place. Gradually
the world blurred. His arms and legs refused to support his body. Ry slumped over, his world turning black.

* * * * *

Camryn
woke to the sensation of the floor shuddering. Her head vibrated in time.
Damn whiskey kicked like a mule. A groan escaped, the sound barely
registering. Her eyes flickered, the glare intense. A jagged slice of pain
cut across her temples. Everything ached, even her eyes. She stopped trying
to open them and her world stopped spinning. Cautiously, she catalogued her
body for aches and pains.

Dry.

Her mouth felt like a dusty
paddock during the middle of a severe drought. And her tongue--heck, that felt
too thick and furry to fit inside her mouth. She moved her arms, or
attempted to, but they stuck fast against her sides. Her heart thudded, an
erratic beat of fear. Her brother. He'd told her--told her yesterday she had
to stop drinking. If she didn't...

What had he done?

She struggled,
hyperventilating in fear. He wouldn't. He couldn't.

For her
own good, he'd said. Yeah, easy for him. He had a wife, a child.
They were a family. A unit. She had nothing to live for. Not now.

Camryn
forced her eyes open, her heart drumming like the thunder of horses' hooves
during a race. Her gaze lit on a large black shape on the floor. Camryn carefully closed her eyes and moved her head in
a cautious shake, wincing at the sharp throb. When she opened her eyes
again, the object came into focus. A large black cat lay on the floor near
her. It stared at her with its green eyes. Its mouth lay open and sharp
white teeth glittered in the bright light. Camryn
swallowed. A dream. No, a nightmare. She wasn't awake.

Maybe Max was right--she'd
started drinking too much alcohol.

The cat stood, stretched
just like her mother's used to, extending front legs and sticking its butt
in the air. Then it prowled toward her, black tail swishing from
side-to-side. A panicked whimper escaped Camryn.
She wanted to flee but couldn't move.

Not her arms or legs.

Trapped.

The cat stalked closer until
she felt the creature's hot breath through the denim of her old jeans where
her brother's heavy coat had fallen away. The cat let out a sharp, fierce
grunt, raising the hairs on her arms into a distinct prickle. Camryn whimpered, the cry weak
and thready. The cat moved closer still. It
opened its huge maw, globules of saliva clearly visible. Oh heck. This was
no dream. It intended to eat her. Camryn
struggled fiercely, a ripple of pure terror pouring from her parched
throat.

The thud of running feet
sounded and two people burst into the room. Camryn's
eyes widened and she screamed again. And again. The black leopard bit her
on the leg, the sharp pain silencing her scream abruptly.

They stared at each other
before weird jabbers commenced, sounding like Chinese mixed with lots of
clicks and guttural sounds too rapid for her to even start to understand.

Camryn
whimpered when they approached and halted by the leopard. Fear, stark and
real, pummeled her. She let out another cry when they moved closer in a
collective step.

People. A loose term. Real
loose.

One appeared female and had
bright electric blue hair and...and pointy ears. Her flashing eyes and rigid
jaw brought a warrior to mind. The tight-fitting trousers and brown tunic
top, plus the huge number of weapons strapped on her slender yet muscular
body confirmed the impression. The other was the palest person she'd ever
seen. Everything about him seemed white. Totally colorless. Apart from his
eyes. They were the palest violet and focused intently on her. While she
gaped at the male--at least the bulge at his groin suggested the masculine
gender--he changed color. Streaks of black swirled through the white, mixing
to a slate gray. The black kept appearing in long ribbons across the part
of his chest she could see until his skin and hair gleamed deep ebony. His
eyes remained the same eerie violet.

Camryn's
gaze traveled to the black leopard. It sat on its haunches between the
warrior and the creepy changing man. Changing Man carried a satchel in his
hand. After snapping several clicks at the other beings, he pulled a glass
jar from the bag. He opened it and tipped the contents onto the palm of his
black hand. He frowned at them, white ribbons of color suddenly swirling
across his chest. His head dipped in a satisfied nod, and the things on his
hand wriggled like fat scarlet caterpillars.

She moaned softly. God, this
wasn't a nightmare. These weren't the orderlies at the clinic where Max had
threatened to send her. They were aliens. Aliens. Her heart pounded,
leaping against her breast. Camryn started to
struggle. Not even a warning snarl from the leopard stopped her fear
escalating into outright panic. With another grunt and three rapid clicks,
the warrior approached her. She grasped Camryn's
head and held her still. Changing Man picked up one bright red caterpillar
between gray fingers and shoved it in her ear.

Sharp pain. Intense. Worse
than even the most evil hangover. The caterpillar crawled down her ear
canal. She heard the crunching sounds when it attached itself somewhere
inside. Her head rang, agony slicing across her temples. She moaned, her
strength sapped and no contest for the warrior's superior power. The warrior
held Camryn's head, suddenly forcing it in the
opposite direction, baring her other ear for the same abuse. Anguished
tears slipped down her face. She sobbed, but that didn't stop Changing Man
from forcing a caterpillar in her other ear. Camryn
felt every slither when it crawled inside. The pain felt just as intense,
the crunching sound deafening while the caterpillar ate into her head.

"Gabriel," she whispered,
realizing she'd landed in hell. Gabriel wouldn't be here. Only she had
sinned enough to gain entrance to hell.

"Stop crying," the warrior
woman snapped, her blue hair flying around her
head in a halo. "Can you understand us now?"

She could, but nausea
tiptoed through her stomach. Camryn's entire body
shuddered with the depths of her misery. She'd heard hell was fiery hot,
but ice enclosed her heart, her body. Nothing had changed. She still missed
Gabriel.

The woman bent, tipped Camryn's head back and struck her face with the palm of
her hand. Camryn jerked back, stopping her crying
mid-sob.

"Stop cryin'
and hold still while I take the seat harness off you."

"Keep still, child,"
Changing Man soothed. "We intend you no harm."

Something in his calm violet
eyes told her he spoke the truth. Maybe they didn't intend to cut her up
for experiments. Camryn cast a quick glance at
the leopard and her anxiety ramped up again. The feline looked as if it
would devour her in a few bites, gobble her up until nothing remained.

"And him?" she croaked,
heart fluttering like the starter's flag in a stiff breeze.

"Ry,
back up and leave the woman alone. Shift." The changing man didn't seem
frightened of the kitty at all.

Camryn
held still while the warrior released the restraints holding her in place.
Her attention remained on the black leopard. She didn't like the way it stared
at her. The leopard curled its top lip and twitched its whiskers. Then, as
she watched, the leopard started to blur. The warrior pulled the harness
away. Camryn blinked, her spine slamming against
the back of the chair. Tension seeped through her, finding an outlet in
clawed hands, gripping the edge of her chair. Under her horrified gaze, the
leopard transformed to a man wearing tight black trousers and knee-length
black boots. Tall and muscular with a wild mass of black hair falling down
to his shoulders. A green gaze pinned her in place, studying her just as
intently as she examined him. Her heart did a crazy flip, slowing and
suddenly galloping into a frenzied beat. For the first time since she'd met
Gabriel, she looked at a man in a sexual way, even if fear tinged the
curiosity.

The muscles in his chest
rippled when he moved, the skin the color of burnished copper. A tattoo of
a cat decorated one biceps, so real Camryn
wondered if it might spring to life in the same swift manner the leopard
had transformed to a man. The man's trousers clung to his long, muscular
legs and slim hips. The bulge in his groin proclaimed his maleness without
a shred of doubt.

"You've got clothes on," she
blurted. Mortified color spread to her face when she realized what she'd
said. In all the books she'd read about shapeshifters
they'd ended up naked after their change. When he'd morphed, his lower half
remained covered.

"I could always take them
off," he said in a husky voice.

They stared at each other,
the moment so intense Camryn forgot they weren't
alone. Spellbound, she studied his very masculine body, his musculature and
his heavily fringed green eyes. She blinked when he stepped closer, and
again when he squatted in front of her to cup her cheek with one calloused
hand.

"You're female." His sigh
sounded like a purr, and it dragged every receptor on her body to high
alert. Her breasts pulled tight, the hard points dragging across the cotton
cups of her bra with every rapid breath. In breathless anticipation, she
waited for his next move even as part of her rebelled at the unwanted
feelings coursing through her body. This wasn't right. These people had
kidnapped her. She shouldn't--she refused--they'd given her something, made
her react to this man, this animal.

Camryn
sprang to her feet and squeezed past him, fear lending her speed and
agility. She leapt for the open doorway and ran down a short passage before
coming to an abrupt halt. Whoa. Whoa! This was not happening.

"Where am I?" Camryn stared in stupefied horror at the vast blackness
in front of her. A man--at least she thought it was a man because he seemed
relatively normal with his black ponytail--flew the spacecraft. He'd turned
on hearing her question and stared with something akin to shock.

"We're orbiting Earth, waiting
to meet up with the Indefatigable," the man said.

"It's a woman," the warrior
said in disgust. "You kidnapped the wrong one."

"No crap." The pilot's bushy
eyebrows squeezed together in a scowl when he looked over his shoulder
again. "No, we kidnapped a man. He wore the same coat as the man in our
depictions."

Camryn
said nothing, backing away from the fierce man. They'd kidnapped her
because she'd taken her brother's coat to ward off the cold? Her head
throbbed and her ears felt tender. At least the caterpillars had ceased
their wriggling. She hated to think what they were doing inside her head.

"We seemed to have kidnapped
a woman masquerading as a man." The warrior glared at the pilot. "You
stuffed up."

"We had a depiction of the
man in that coat." The pilot pointed at her.

Camryn
studied the view through the huge port, thoughts bouncing through her mind.
The pilot had taken both hands off the controls. She couldn't see any
traffic but surely he should watch for obstacles?

Gabriel...

Tears welled in her eyes. A
raging thirst made her swallow but nothing encouraged saliva. God, she
needed a drink. Bad. She stepped back and bumped into a muscular and warm
naked chest.

"Turn around," Changing Man
said. "We'll take her back and find the right man this time. The real horse
trainer."

Belatedly it occurred to Camryn they were talking about Max. "No!" she cried.
"No, you can't take Max. He has a wife and a child. They need him." Her
heart pounded anew. They couldn't take Max. God, she was such a screwup. No one would miss her. "Take me instead. I'll
do anything. Anything at all." Without Gabriel, she was nothing. It didn't
matter what they did to her. She didn't have a life to wreck while Max...Max
had everything to live for. His family. His business. The success starting
to come his way. Owners demanded his training skills while they ran in
their haste to escape her. "Take me," she repeated.

"Our goal is to win," the
warrior said, her words directed to the half-naked man. "Captain, that's
the whole point."

A hand grasped her shoulder.
"You're right. Yep, turn back."

"No, wait," Changing Man
raised his right hand in a stop gesture. His violet eyes seemed to drill
into hers. She trembled under the close attention because it felt as if he
stared into her soul. "What if this is fate? I read the night skies while I
waited for your return. They spoke of change and opportunity."

The warrior snorted. "Which could mean anything. Things are always changing."

"True," Cat Man said,
although he didn't sound as disbelieving as the warrior.

"We'll have to take her back
and get the right one," the warrior persisted.

It had become crowded in the
front of the ship, and Camryn realized she had
nowhere left to run. "Leave my brother alone." Unfortunately, her order
emerged in a scared, girly voice. A fine tremor slid through her body.

"Let's be sensible about
this," Changing Man said. "Return to the rear of the tender and let us
discuss what can be done."

Camryn
saw Cat Man's quick nod of assent.

"Send Jannike
a message. Tell her we have a delay. Return to the same landing space," he
said.

The pilot nodded and flipped
several buttons, taking Cat Man's orders in his stride. Camryn
frowned. If Cat Man was in charge she didn't rate her chance of survival.
His expression bore such hunger and the color of his eyes darkened each
time he stared at her. The speculation, the sheer lust in his gaze made
nerves shriek. Camryn backed away slowly. She
bumped into the changing man and the warrior and at once felt marginally safer.

Changing Man reached for her
with his pearly-gray hand. He clasped her forearm in a gentle manner. "This
way, my dear."

Camryn
couldn't help it. Visions of Red Riding Hood rushed to mind. Wrong fairy
tale but the principle remained the same. Sharp teeth were better for
eating red meat. They intended to kidnap her brother. God, she couldn't let
them. She turned to Cat Man, took a deep breath. "Please, you can't take my
brother. You can't."

"Child, we need him,"
Changing Man said. "He has expertise we require."

"What expertise?" There must
be a way to save Max from the aliens.

"We require a horse
trainer," Cat Man said. Once again he'd moved close, and she hadn't noticed
until their bodies touched.

She flinched at the
electrical surge that zapped the length of her body and edged away with a
soft gasp. Camryn forced herself to concentrate.
"I can train horses."

"You?" the warrior asked
with a sneer.

"Yes," Camryn
said, resisting the urge to shuffle her feet. Cat Man had stepped into her
space again, leaving her nowhere to move. "I'm a jockey. I ride horses for
a living, and I know how to train them. Take me with you. I can do it.
Leave my brother with his family. Please."