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  CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR

  - ENGAGE -

  (A Sci-Fi Alien Romance, Book 2)

  Leo & Janie

  Christina Wilder

  &

  Laney Kaye

  Leo

  Dr. Janie Hartlin could’ve been the woman of my dreams—hells, she is the woman of my dreams—but I clawed my way through life on the streets, and now I have nothing to offer her but a share of my bedroll, military rations, and the life of a guns, fangs, and claws-for-hire mercenary.

  I didn’t need the hot-as-hells buzz of our awesome three-part bond to prove that Janie’s the only woman for me. The question is, am I the man for her?

  Janie

  Regime soldiers are hot on my heels with laser guns pointed at my back. I snooped into their secret project and discovered they’re engineering a shifter army they’ll use to exterminate the Resistance. Curiosity killed the cat, right? Or, in my case, the cougar. Because, eight years younger than me, Leo is the cat shifter of my wildest fantasies.

  Fleeing across a desert is more exercise than any girl needs. Falling into an armor spider nest only makes things worse. Until Leo rescues me. One touch, and my body’s on fire.

  By Laney Kaye & Christina Wilder

  CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR

  ESCAPE

  ENGAGE

  ENSNARE

  ENDINGS

  By Christina Wilder

  MY BIG FAT POMPEII ROMANCE

  Legally Blonde meets Gladiator in this

  romantic comedy with a historical twist

  DRAGON MATED

  A Steamy, Funny Novella Series

  December, 2018

  CAPTURED BY A DRAGON

  HUNTED BY A DRAGON

  CLAIMED BY A DRAGON

  By Laney Kaye

  THE LURE OF THE MER: HOOK

  THE LURE OF THE MER: LINE

  Erotic novella series from

  The Wild Rose Press, Spring 2019

  CAT SHIFTERS OF AAIDAR: ENGAGE

  Copyright © 2018 Christina Wilder & Laney Kaye

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be used or

  reproduced in any manner whatsoever without

  written permission except in the case of brief quotations

  embodied in critical articles or reviews. This book

  is a work of fiction. Names, characters, events,

  and incidents are a product of the

  Author’s imagination. Any resemblance to an actual person,

  living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ASIN: B07HYBKLQW

  Acknowledgments

  For Taylor, who cheerleads and chastises with equal enthusiasm.

  With special thanks to Anne Raven, Elena, Lindsay Landgraf Hess, and Lacie Thorne for their unblushing input and advice, and with gratitude to all my critique partners, whether they worked on this story or others.

  ~ Laney

  Thanks to my husband and family, who’ve never stopped believing I could do this. Your encouragement means the world to me.

  To my critique partners, who offer solid advice, laughter, and endless support. I couldn’t have done this without you, ladies. And to all the other authors whose words I’ve studied. You’ve shown me how to better my craft and take my writing to the next level. Thanks.

  ~ Christina

  Special thanks to Black Canvas for cover design.

  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 shift 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.

  Outside, I blinked at the harsh compound halolights invading my eyes and squinted around. Ahead, the large sirdar wall winked in the glare. It encircled the compound and kept Resistance fighters out—and everyone else locked inside. A low pulse throbbed through my bones, generat
ed by the activated laserblade fence. Previously it’d been undetectable, but since the Resistance prisoners escaped several days ago, the current had been increased until it now gave off a sickening, white-noise vibration. If you got too close, the fence would slice you in two in seconds.

  “Open the gate!” someone shouted from one of the towers.

  A group returning from an early morning desert sweep?

  “Go,” Kinaert said gruffly. He prodded his pistol into my right flank, making my breath wheeze out of me from pain. His hand waved toward the path leading to the prison section of the compound, where they must’ve built some temporary cells after the prison exploded. Otherwise, where would they lock me up? “Stop dawdling.”

  With fear churning like a sandstorm inside me, I moved forward, but stopped to let a group of soldiers pass. They shoved each other and joked, and, from the reek of munga and rum clouding around them, it was clear they’d been out enjoying their free time at the sleaze-easies.

  The low hum dimmed as the laserblade containment system winked off in this part of the compound and the smallest section of the sirdar fence started to swing inward.

  While Kinaert commiserated with the soldiers—something about extra shifts of guard duty, plus longer treks in the desert to round up insurgents—I scanned the area. Other than this group of men, there was no one else around.

  Did I dare?

  No choice.

  The second Kinaert’s pistol shifted lower on my back, revealing his distraction, I ran for it, darting around the group of soldiers, aiming for the small door that was already closing after letting in a battalion of soldiers.

  I needed to find Maya and Herc and tell them what I’d discovered. My friend, Maya, had been a nurse in the clinic. I’d thought she worked for the Regime, like me. But then she left the compound, heading north across the desert. There was nothing in that direction except the Resistance stronghold—so I’d heard. Herc, the alpha of the cat shifters, had followed, intent on protecting her despite the orders of his Regime employers.

  I only suspected Maya was somehow aligned with the Resistance, but I had to take the chance. My odds were better with the Resistance than in a Regime prison.

  I pushed for speed as shouts rang out, and my heart thundered in my chest.

  The door creaked as the gap narrowed.

  Damn, I wasn’t going to make it!

  Pulse fluttering like an armatote caught in a trap, I drew closer, straining with everything inside me to reach the gate.

  “Don’t shoot,” Kinaert shouted from too close behind me. I swear, I could almost feel his hand slamming down on my shoulder. “The C.O. wants traitors taken alive. But don’t let her get through the gate!”

  I ran faster and reached the opening before it clicked shut, sliding my arm and then the rest of my body through the slim gap. It banged shut and locked, but I didn’t stop to make sure no one else was on my tail. The laserblade fence would be activated soon—and I’d be fried to a crisp trying to escape through it.

  I dashed forward. With my footsteps pounding the ground, I couldn’t hear any hum that might tell me if the fence had been turned back on, but, in truth, I didn’t know whether there would be an immediate noise, or if the generator would work up to it. Silent, but still deadly. I had to bank on the fact that Commander Smithton had complained recently about how long it took to reboot the laserblades each time they were disengaged. Minutes, if I remembered correctly.

  It was a risk I had to take. Death by laserblade? Or death by whatever waited for me inside the compound? At least the fence would be fast. Whoever was running the DNA experiments would silence me forever to keep me from telling anyone about the horror I’d discovered. And, from rumors I’d heard around the compound, there were worse things they could do before killing me.

  Invisible to the naked eye, only the narrow trench dug around the compound’s perimeter indicated where the laserblade fence operated.

  With a burst of speed, I jumped, thrusting my chest forward. Not bad for someone with no athletic ability. Terror made a wonderful motivator.

  I cleared the trench and tumbled onto the sand on the other side. Scrambling to my feet, I patted my body, unable to believe I’d made it past the fence before it turned me into a bigger version of the charred armatotes littering the ground on this side of the trench.

  The rise of a low, throbbing pulsation—and Kinaert and the semi-drunk group of soldiers standing a short distance away from me, cursing—told me I’d barely made it out in time.

  With the middle fingers of both hands lifted, and a wide grin on my face, I backed away from the compound.

  Hoping I’d find freedom somewhere in the desert.

  But when the soldiers lifted their guns, I dove sideways. Thuds sounded, and the ground where I’d recently been standing came under heavy fire. Sand scattered into the air and rocks pinged around me.

  Great.

  In minutes, they’d disarm the fence and grab me, determined to bring me back for questioning. Or execution. Or maybe they’d give me to the scientists working on the shifters and Resistance fighters; a new mouse for their Cat’s Play experiment.

  I dashed around a dune and headed out into the desert, my feet bogging down in the sand already. Pushing myself hard, I headed north.

  My breathing soon chugged from between my pinched lips, creating white bursts in the chilly air.

  Really should’ve worked out more.

  Or worked out some.

  While I was unsure of the exact location of the Resistance headquarters, from the whispers I’d heard around the compound, it lay somewhere in this direction.

  Thankfully, part of my initial orientation included lessons in the general area and indigenous species. As a city girl, I’d be lost without that knowledge.

  It was going to take all my energy and attention to make it to the Resistance without being eaten by a viper. I’d have to avoid them, because I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fight them off. As a civilian doctor, I was not a soldier. Sure, they encouraged us to participate in basic military training, because we lived on the edge of Resistance territory, but I’d avoided it, partly due to a lack of interest, mostly due to the fact that I was so incredibly busy at the clinic.

  I also knew I’d need to travel at night and sleep during the day, avoiding the worst of the desert heat.

  With dawn cresting the horizon, I’d have to find a place to hide soon.

  The other thing they’d mentioned was to take in plenty of water. Which was another big problem, since I had nothing to drink. But I’d heard of hidden oases in the desert, and I’d find them. I couldn’t be the first person to cross this area without supplies, and I’d make it, just like they had.

  While telling myself all this helped me feel a bit more confident, my body still shook. It wasn’t like I had much choice. Die in the desert from starvation and dehydration or face possible torture back at the compound.

  At least out here, I could fight for my survival.

  Shouts rang out behind me, making me pick up my speed. I floundered up a dune with sweat pouring down my face, and pushed myself to hurry down the other side, my feet sinking into sand, making them drag.

  Gods, this was torture already, and the sun hadn’t yet fully risen.

  But, with the cloud cover blocking out the fading stars and partly eclipsing the moons, it would be a challenge for the soldiers to see me. Bonus.

  Hard for me to see where I walked, however, but I’d somehow deal.

  That’s what I got for choosing to become the hunted.

  The roar of motors made goosebumps pebble on my spine. With my head start, maybe I could—okay, probably not—outdistance the soldiers on foot, but if they tracked me on runners, my odds had taken a sudden dive. I’d be soldier-bait in no time.

  I ran for a short distance, but exhaustion soon slowed my steps to a limping jog, then to a walk.

  Whenever the sound of runners headed in my direction, I flattened myself on the sand in w
hatever depression I could find. Their lights would sweep over the area, but somehow miss me in the gloom.

  I doubted they’d miss me for long.

  Fear made me tremble. How was I going to escape capture?

  Overhead, a creature screamed, making me jump and dash ahead a few steps forward, before I slowed again. Had the sound been a broad-winged scree?

  Because I was of mixed race—half Median, thanks to the father I hated, half Glian on my dead mother’s side—I’d paid more attention during the lessons about this planet than those about the Regime.

  My knowledge barely scratched the surface, but I knew the screes hunted at night. They ate vipers, which was a good thing. And they didn’t enjoy human flesh, an even better thing.

  If they kept the vipers away, they could scream all they wanted.

  A scratching-scurrying noise came from my left. I froze, my teeth chattering in my skull, before hurrying forward again. Whatever it was tracked me, moving parallel to my steps as I sped north.

  Was this soldier playing a deadly game of catch, or something even more fearsome?

  Something heavy dropped on my shoulder, and my heart jolted against my ribs as if it hoped to escape. Cold sweat flashed across my body.

  I screamed as claws dug through my skin.

  Spinning wildly, I tried to shake off the creature clinging to my back, but it wouldn’t let go. I beat at it, hitting scaly flesh that rippled. A high-pitched squeal burst past my ear, and my wail joined in with the creature’s.