Have Tail, Will Travel

by Nancey Cummings

“Give me that. It does not concern you,” Amity said, lunging for the paper.

  “It has my name. And the kits.” He flipped through the pages, unwilling to believe what he read. “Is this a court order to surrender custody?”

  Unbelievable. She came to take the kits. Everything she said about being near the people who held her heart meant nothing.

  Anger boiled up in him. He squeezed the document in his fist as if he could strangle the life out of it. Claws extended, ready to shred the offending papers.

  “Let me see that,” Kal said, snatching the document away. “This can’t be legitimate.”

  But it was. The Interstellar Union logo and seal of Talmar sat right there on the cover.

  Merit prowled toward Amity, unsure what he intended to do, but keen to make her suffer.

  “It is not what you think,” Amity said, backing away. She pressed her ears down in a sign of submission.

  “Really? Because it looks like you snuck away to use a court order to steal the kits from me,” he said. The timeline was too tight. She had to have left with the intention of seeking custody and went to the courts immediately. Nothing on Talmar ever moved swiftly without greasing the wheels with monetary contributions. To work so quickly, Amity had to have spent a small fortune on bribes.

  Coming back for the funeral was only an excuse. That is why she sold her business and prepared to move. She had been planning it all along.

  The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. Red tinted the edges of his vision. He would do anything for the kits. Anything. This arrogant, irritating female would not take them from him. A distant voice cautioned that attacking Amity would prove her point that he was unfit. He needed to remain calm, but all he could feel was the overwhelming sorrow of losing Dare and Clarity.

  They were his. His.

  A hand on his arm wrist caught his attention. He snarled at the human female but did not pull away. Her eyes went wide, but he caught no scent of fear, unlike the female who angered him. The stink of fear rolled off her in nauseating waves.

  Unafraid, the female brushed the back of her hand along his jaw. The act soothed him and the red of the bloodlust receded.

  “It’s okay,” she murmured. “It’ll be fine. They can’t enforce this out of IU space. Corra is independent, remember?”

  “Yes.” He remembered. Amity could try her legal tricks but no authority on Corra would enforce an IU court order without cause. “She can’t take them unless she can show they are in danger,” he said.

  “Correct, and they’re right as rain. This is worthless paper here,” his mate said. She flipped through the pages, then paused. Her brows pulled together in that adorable confused look she got. He didn’t get to see it often.

  “But, how did you know about the cavern?” She shoved the paper toward Amity. “Explain this. How did you know? Who snitched!” Her voice grew louder.

  Amity grabbed the legal document and ripped in two with her claws. The tattered pages fell to the mud. “Enough. This is not what it seems.”

  “Seems to me like you had a spy feeding you information that you could use to steal custody,” Kal said.

  Merit found himself in the unusual position of calming his mate. His tail wrapped around her wrist, drawing her back to him.

  “Who was it?” Kal demanded.

  Merit knew the answer. “Serene.” The one person who Amity counted as a friend.

  “Yes,” Amity agreed.

  “I never liked her,” Kal muttered as the tip of his tail rubbed the inside of her wrist.

  “Explain yourself,” Merit said.

  “I hate this place,” Amity replied.

  “Then you made a poor decision in relocating.” His ears pressed back in frustration. His sister was always contrary.

  “This planet is wild and dangerous and on the edge of nowhere. It took my brother and his mate. I tried but I could not make you see how foolish it is to live here! There is a good reason the government has to bribe people to settle here. What planet gives away arable land?”

  “It is an empty world. The population–”

  “Was massacred by monsters! Everyone has to live their life around the storms. What kind of place has to zone for safety, so people are not eaten by…by…whatever the hell those things are.”

  “Mutant spiders,” Kal offered.

  Amity gave a derisive sniff. “Who thinks that this is a good place to build a future? Who could possibly decide that this hellish planet is the place they want to raise their kits? My brother, that’s who. You,” she said, waving to Merit, “were always traveling from place to place. I never worried about you putting down roots and taking a mate, but Prospect wouldn’t be reasonable. I told him it was a bad idea to settle here, but he did not listen. He never listened. And now my nightmare happened, and this place took him.”

  Her chest heaved with emotion. She glanced down, breaking eye contact. “I was scared it would take what is left of my family. Scared it would take away everything I love. So, I used what Serene told me to take the kits to Talmar. I thought you would come, too, and then everyone would be safe.”

  Merit had several things he wanted to say but failed to see the best place to start. “I have told you why I cannot return to Talmar.”

  “I knew you were determined but I was stubborn,” she said.

  “And you appealed to the courts. You had to have known I would fight it.”

  “I hoped…” Amity growled in frustration. The rain had flattened her hair to her forehead. “I thought I could scare you. Intimidate you somehow.”

  “Me?” He could scarcely believe his sister would be so foolish.

  “I changed my mind.” Amity flicked her ears, hopeful. “We are both too stubborn. Everyone I care for is here. I realized I had to be the one to bend, so here I will stay.”

  Merit sniffed at her hubris. She confessed to a massive betrayal but wanted forgiveness because she changed her mind at the last moment.

  Kal moved to Amity, offering shelter under her umbrella. His sister stood stiffly until Kal offered a hug. “You’re a massive bitch sometimes, and I’m not even sure why I like you.”

  “You are not upset?” Amity blinked with disbelief.

  “What you tried to do was underhanded and sneaky, so I’m not thrilled, but I’ll get over it. I’d really like to get out of the rain and find some lunch,” Kal said.

  “And you?” Amity turned to Merit.

  He scratched his ear, gathering his thoughts. “If you changed your mind, why did you not destroy the court order instead of hauling it all the way here?”

  “I don’t know, Merit. Not every action is logical,” Amity said.

  “But why did you change your mind?” Had she really changed it or was this another part of her manipulation?

  Amity muttered something.

  “I didn’t catch that,” he said.

  “I said I missed you, idiot. I missed the kits. I missed the noise, Kalini and her endless questions and everything.” Amity’s ears flicked. “I realized I would rather be here with my family than safe and alone on Talmar.”

  He grunted at her words, understanding. He had lived for years alone, drifting from job to job and never putting down roots. Prospect and his growing family drew Merit to Drac. After nearly a year of life with the kits, he could not go back to being alone. He needed their noise and chaos and joy as sure he needed the sunlight.

  He didn’t like what Amity did he understood the need to keep those he loved safe.

  “You should have told me,” he said.

  “I did. Several times.”

  “No, you tried to guilt me into returning to Talmar. You did not listen to my reasons, and you did not respect my decision.”

  “If I had shared my burden, would it have made a difference?”

  He wanted to tell her yes, that her fears would have swayed him, but he knew that to be untrue. As unsafe as Amity felt on Corra, he felt the same on Talmar. “Perhaps not. I am stubborn. Come, ther

e’s no sense standing in the rain.”

  “Do you think Prospect knew what he was doing?” he asked.

  Her ears went up. “Yes.”

  His brother played a long, long game. Prospect named Merit as guardian, despite Amity being the obvious choice. That decision forced Merit to put down roots, ending his years of drifting from post to post. Merit had always come back to Prospect, Reason, and the kits, but he never stayed for long. Then Amity. Then Kal. Their little family grew bit by bit.

  Their family had been broken on Talmar. Prospect rebuilt them. Gave them more than they knew to ask for.

  Kal shook folded the umbrella and shook it out. Droplets clung to her dark hair. His mate. He never expected to love her or for her to occupy so much of his heart, yet now he couldn’t remember what it was to be without her. Prospect gave him that.

  His brother’s gift would warm his heart until the light left him.

  Kal touched his wrist lightly. “Just like that? We’re cool with her shenanigans?”

  Merit watched as his sister, dressed inappropriately for the cold season and wet from the rain, climbed into the vehicle.

  “Just like that,” he said.

  Epilogue

  Kalini

  Five Years Later

  “Aunt Amity, if you’re not going to help, get out of my kitchen.” Dare did not pause as the neat, precise, and swift chops of his knife, made quick work of the pile of vegetables.

  Amity moved to put the dish of roasted bitter sprouts back into the oven.

  “Do not,” Dare said, not looking up from his work.

  “They are underdone.” Amity’s tail flicked with unease.

  “Because you always overcook them until they’re a pile of mush and too bitter. Now leave them alone.”

  She lifted the lid of a pot on the stove, nose wrinkled. “This requires more salt,” she said, grabbing the salt cellar.

  Dare grabbed the salt cellar from her hands. “Out. Now.”

  Kal handed Amity a stack of dishes. “You can help me set the table,” she said.

  “That is a kit’s job.” Her eyes narrowed. “This is your fault.”

  Once Amity’s words might have hurt Kal’s feeling, but she knew her sister-in-law hated to be ordered about.

  “Actually, I think it’s your fault. You’re the reason Dare loves to cook.” And was a bossy beast in the kitchen, but she kept that thought to herself. Kal loaded up a tray with a pitcher of lemonade and glasses.

  “He is very talented for one his age. He’ll make a great chef,” she said in more placid tones, her ego soothed.

  Just fifteen, Dare proclaimed the kitchen his and cooked nearly every family meal. He worked some mornings at Amity’s cafe, waiting tables, but everyone knew he wanted to cook. Merit forbade it until he finished school and Amity agreed. This only ramped up Dare’s possessiveness in their home kitchen.

  “He certainly has the ego of a great chef,” Kal said. Amity nodded, setting the plates on the patio table.

  The mild day was a much-needed break from the midsummer heat. Kal wanted to be outside to enjoy the weather before the oppressive heat returned. Of course, any day out in the sunshine was a good day in her books.

  “Oh, we need place settings for two more. Ulmer and Brin are coming for dinner,” Kal said.

  Amity’s ears went back. “If you are trying to play matchmaker, I am not amused. I will have words with my brother when he returns.”

  Merit had been gone for three days in the field. Improvements in the communication system allowed him to call home every day to touch base and let her know he was unharmed. Still, she missed him. Three days was too long. Any night she slept alone was too long without him.

  “Relax. Clarity invited them,” Kal said. At thirteen, Clarity was boy crazy and infatuated with the Corravian pair. Kal liked Ulmer and Brin but had to get her head around the fact that a traditional Corravian marriage was two men and one woman. It came down to biology, basically. Pregnancy required two sperm donors. Males often formed partnerships with close friends to be co-husbands before they found a wife. Ulmer and Birn had partnered up a few years ago but were still on the market.

  Kal knew they had their eye on Amity. Everyone knew, but Amity seemed completely uninterested. Clarity, however, had a huge, age-inappropriate crush.

  “Oh, if that is the case, I look forward to it,” Amity said. Her tail had a sway that Kal had never seen before. Was Amity actually interested?

  “You could do worse,” she said. “There’s no one more hardworking with an eye for detail than Ulmer.”

  “Birn makes me laugh.” Amity’s cheeks darkening for a moment and she turned her head away.

  “Ah.” Kal didn’t want to tease. Her relationship with Amity had improved over time. They were hardly close friends, but Kal grew to admire how dedicated and loyal Amity was to those she cared about. “We need serviettes and silverware.”

  Amity nodded briskly. “I’ve sure Dare will have dishes ready to come out soon. I will check.”

  Strong arms lifted Kal and tossed her over a broad set of shoulders like a sack of potatoes. Upside down, the ground bounced, and the blood rushed to her head. She didn’t have to twist to see who snatched her. She knew.

  “Set me down, Sigald.”

  “Sorry. I’ve been sent to retrieve you,” he said.

  Only one person would dare order Sigald to abscond with her. “Merit’s home? Let me down. I can walk.”

  “My way is faster.” He crossed the yard in no time. A familiar vehicle and figure waited in the front of the house. He dumped Kal into Merit’s waiting arms.

  “Good job,” Merit said, “Now go home to your mate.”

  “How has she been?” Sigald asked Kal. Currently at the end of her second pregnancy, Belith was ready to pop at any day now.

  “Cranky. Tired. Her feet hurt and her back hurts,” Kal said.

  Sigald nodded. “I will distract her by rubbing her feet.”

  “Bring the twins over if she goes into the labor. Or you just want some quiet time.” The twins were three years old and a two-person, blue wrecking crew. Kal adored them.

  “I am sure you will see us soon,” he said, departing with a wave.

  Merit buried his nose into her hair and rumbled happily. “That will be you one day.”

  “I don’t need a baby,” she said. After her birth control shot expired, she took a wait-and-see attitude toward pregnancy. If it happened, it happened. She already had her happiness with her man and two teenage kits.

  “But if I want a kit?”

  “Do you really or is it something you think you should want?” Tal and humans could breed. That fact had been well established for a few generations.

  “I think it’s something I want with you,” he said, mouth pressed to her ear. He licked the spot just behind her ear, the spot that always drove her wild.

  Kal squirmed in his arms. “I think you need a shower. I also think that if we hurry, we won’t be late for dinner.”

  They were late for dinner.

  Thank you for reading.

  I hope you enjoyed Merit and Kalini’s story. They were a blast to write. So much fun, in fact, that my planned 35k word outline ballooned into 60k. Characters kept introducing themselves. Ulmer and Birn were an unexpected surprise, and I suspect they might have a story of their own. I’m on the fence if that story involves Amity or not.

  Corra might look a bit familiar. It is the same world that I used in Delivered to the Aliens. I got excited by the idea of further exploring a post-environmental disaster planet, with mail-order-brides. Why not? The book also takes place in the same universe as my Alpha Aliens of Fremm stories, which is the planet Sigald and Belith are from.

  Up next is a Warlord Bride book. I can’t tell you much, but we’re going to see a grown-up Reven.

  Also Available by Nancey

  Warriors of Sangrin (With Starr Huntress)

  Paax

  Kalen

  Mylomon