Fighting Kat

by PJ Schnyder

  “Come again?” Oh hey, she and Dev were back on the same wavelength.

  Confused.

  “The German Shepherd Dog breed was chosen for the Kx9 program for certain innate qualities, loyalty amongst them.” The officer took speaking to them in turns, including the admiral in his discussion. “Because of the genetic enhancements to the breed, the dogs have proven to be extremely independent in their behavior until they imprint on a specific individual. The Kx9 units aren’t assigned a handler, they choose.”

  He chose me.

  Oh, no. Now wait a minute.

  “Normally the dogs are returned to the Kx9 kennels and assessed prior to introducing them to handler candidates. This situation is unusual. Still, I’ve recorded my report and will let them know Kx9-8775 will not be returning to the kennels.”

  “He’s not staying here.” Contrary to her statement, the German Shepherd Dog in question remained leaning heavily against her side.

  The officer blinked. “You don’t have a choice.”

  “He’s military. He’s a working dog. He needs to be out on missions with a soldier who knows how to work him.” All true things and she didn’t fit any of those requirements. “He needs somebody who actually likes him.”

  “If we take him back, he’ll either try to find a way back to you”—the potential havoc or tragedy associated was not worth considering—”or he’ll pine away again from the separation.”

  She’d just put a lot of effort into getting him onto his feet.

  Time to point out the insanely huge elephant in the room. “I’m a cat. I don’t think anyone here doesn’t know about it at this point. He’s a dog.”

  Said out loud, her argument sounded incredibly stupid.

  The officer shrugged. “Look lady, this is one hell of a complicated situation. My job is simple. I make recommendations based on the best interest of the dog. Kx9-8775 is imprinted on you and here he stays. I let higher ranks figure out the details.”

  Well, that explained why the man held the position he had. Simple is as simple does. Must be nice.

  “This isn’t Noah’s Ark.” Dev began at the same time the admiral said, “Arrangements will be made...”

  They both looked at each other.

  “I have a great bottle of scotch to go with those contract negotiations, Admiral.”

  “I’ll have my galley whip up some snacks to go with it.”

  Wait, they couldn’t be serious. She glanced down at Max. He looked back at her.

  Denial. She’d never been one to pursue an exercise in futility.

  “If you drool on my underwear, you’re sleeping with Chester.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “You’re taking all of this extremely well.”

  Kaitlyn glanced back as Rygard followed her into the medical bay. “I’m not in chains. Max isn’t in a crate. Neither of us is being shipped back to the Terran solar system against our will. I’ll call it a win.”

  “Some people tend to trust the military.” Rygard’s voice was quiet. Not the dangerously soft tone he took on when he was angry, something new.

  She turned to face him, putting some thought into what she wanted to say. “The military is for you. You have a lot invested in it, I get that.”

  Once upon a time, all she’d ever dreamed of was being a commissioned officer conducting scientific research on a battle cruiser just like the one cradling Dev’s ship in her hold.

  Her dreams had shattered with the hiss of a hypo gun and the virus changing her genetic code.

  “I do believe you could be one of the really good officers. The ones who actually uphold the code of honor and integrity they built the corps around. We need you in the service to counteract the negative influences.”

  Rygard tilted his head toward her with an upraised eyebrow. “Negative influences?”

  “Idiots, bullies and arrogant bastards, to be specific.”

  A grin spread across his face. “There’s my girl.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I was trying to be sincere here. You really can do some good in the service. You’re at home with your men. Seeing you with your team and within your reporting structure gives me a little faith in the service. The admiral is a good man too.”

  “So far as I can tell, yes he is.”

  “It’d be a completely different story if Petrico-Calin had his way.” She frowned. “I’d have had to take some drastic measures and the military would not be as happy with me.”

  No way would she have allowed the man to take her back to Terra.

  “He’d have had you locked in a glass cube for testing.” Rygard ground out the words. “Over my dead body.”

  “Well, the story is different now.”

  “Thanks to Boggle slipping in the full set of reports. He really is a good man.”

  Kaitlyn nodded.

  Rygard stepped across the space separating them, sliding a hand around her waist. “And you are an ambassador now. A very important personage.”

  She grimaced. “Headed on a babysitting run to get the...Baihunens back home. Who knows how it’s going to go?”

  “It’ll be an interesting run.”

  “You’ve only got half your team with you.” She searched his face. “Are you really okay with Petrico-Calin taking the rest of your men back to Terra? You sure they won’t end up in glass cubes too?”

  Rygard’s expression darkened, but he set his jaw. “The admiral agreed the men had been through enough. I trust him to honor his word. Hopefully, the labs can find a way to reverse the changes since it’s so new to all of them. If not, they probably won’t be allowed to continue in service.”

  No use giving false hope.

  “Virus already had a full progression through each of them. The same reason they’re not infectious is the same reason there’s little chance to reverse the changes.” She paused. “Hope, but don’t set them up for a second round of crushing. They’ve already beat the odds by surviving the mutation. It’s been more than a week now. The changes have progressed and will keep evolving for some of them. They’re going to want to separate the larger species like DeSarto. He could kill a man before he realized it.”

  She paused. She’d almost hurt her fellow cadets when she’d first escaped. Later, there’d been a few close calls with Durn and Specs too when she’d first come aboard. The crew could’ve hated her. Instead, Durn had started sparring with her. The sparring and timing drills had helped her learn her body’s limits.

  “Your men are going to need friendly faces.” She had them. “I’ll send on all the data I’ve got, have Boggle check in on their progress. Maybe I can help with their acclimation.”

  “No doubt.” Rygard dropped a kiss on his forehead. “They owe their lives to you. And you’re a pretty incredible example of ‘life goes on.’”

  “Am I?” Somehow the solid backbone she’d had out in the main cargo bay was turning to jelly. Her chest tightened. “And you’re okay with me the way I am? You know I can’t go back to being human.”

  “It’s been too long.” Rygard agreed.

  She shook her head. Then paused. “Well, it has been too long. But that’s not what I meant.”

  They’d all changed down in the Colosseum. The animal she’d become to survive had taken physical form, but it had roots deeper in her psyche.

  “You saw combat before I met you. You killed.” Rygard hooked his free hand under her chin and turned her face toward his. “They were all controlled missions. In and out. You were never immersed for that long. Dev never signed your crew on for a full out battle, much less a prolonged war. What you went through, every soldier does eventually.”

  “You helped keep me from turning into a monster.”

  At least, figuratively speaking. No saving the physical reality
.

  “I helped you find your own code, so you could go forward with as little regret possible. It’s the only way to live with yourself.”

  How many memories did he have? The Colosseum hadn’t changed him as much. What kind of wars had he fought to live through that hell and come out steady?

  “There’s still a lot I don’t know about you.”

  He chuckled, caressed the line of her jaw until she leaned into his palm. “There hasn’t been a lot of time up ’til now. Should be a pretty quiet trip out to the Baihunen’s. What did you want to know first?”

  She lifted her hands, rested them on either side of his waist. “I had questions. I swear I did.”

  “Yeah?” He breathed his question across her lips.

  So close, his eyes filled with heat and darkness. Not the scary kind of darkness, no, the good kind.

  “I forget.”

  “You’ll remember later.” His hands stroked the length of her body.

  “Max still needs...”

  “He does. He’s being looked over by the Kx9 specialist. He won’t need you for a little while.”

  Well, then. “I need you.”

  He kissed her, unhurried and undeniable.

  She let herself melt into him, her entire body pressed against his. His arms wrapped around her, secure and strong. For a moment, she was lost in his kiss, the taste of him, the musk of his scent filling her with every gasped breath.

  When he released her, she undressed in a flurry, unsealed her ship suit and tossed her boots. He did the same. When their bodies met again, skin against skin, his kisses became fiercer, more possessive. And she met his with the strength of her own desire, hungrily devouring his mouth.

  His strong hands gripped her behind, lifted her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and let her head fall back as he buried his face in her breasts. He drew hot kisses across the underside of each breast and then ran his tongue around first one nipple and then the other. When the heat of his mouth closed over a nipple, she cried out.

  He suckled, each soft tug drawing pleasure out of her. As he continued, he gripped her bottom with his hands, massaged and pinched a little. She was growing wet, aching with need.

  “I can’t wait.” Her words came out in little pants.

  He released her nipple, nuzzled between her breasts. “No?”

  She swallowed hard. “Not a second longer.”

  His hands tightened on her bottom, lifted. The tip of his penis nudged at her entrance and she gasped. He caught and held her with his gaze, intensely focused as he slowly pushed inside her.

  She let out a noise, something. Might have been a word. Really, not.

  “You are so tight, feel so good.” He groaned. “Hold on, sweetness.”

  She held on with everything she had, too taken by the pleasure of him filling her to find words. He must have bent his knees. Somehow he withdrew almost completely, and then slid back inside her. He did it again, and again. Every stroke brought him deeper.

  He picked up the pace, driving into her harder, until her breasts bounced. He caught one nipple in his mouth and she dug her fingertips into his shoulders, curling over him as her inner muscles clenched. His mouth let go of her nipple and he buried his head into the nape of her neck as he plunged deeper and deeper inside her, his hands gripping her hips hard.

  “Rygard!” She was coming, desperately needed him to come with her.

  Her orgasm ripped through her as a coarse cry exploded from him.

  A moment later, his hands eased their grip on her. “I need to let you down. Don’t think we’re going to make it to your bunk.”

  She could feel the muscles of his torso quivering, could only imagine how he was still standing much less holding her up too. She unhooked her ankles and tested her own legs as he lowered her.

  Trembly, but they’d hold her.

  She stumbled with him to her bunk. Took a moment to nab a few wipes to clean themselves up until they had the energy to make it into a shower. He lay down and drew her with him, tucking her in against his side with her head pillowed on his chest. He even reached above their heads and grabbed her light blanket from one of her cubbies, pulling it over the both of them.

  “Rygard?” She whispered his name against his chest, barely able to hear her own voice over the pounding of their heartbeats.

  “Hmm?”

  “I remembered one of my questions.”

  Chuckling, he rolled to one side and pulled her in against his chest. “Ask.”

  “This thing between us. It’s not temporary.”

  “That’s not a question.”

  “I still need to ask.”

  The smile faded from his face. She didn’t look down, wouldn’t turn away from the truth of his answer. Her heart trembled.

  He cupped her face with his free hand, his eyes dark and somber. “I’m here, sweetness, with you. Doesn’t matter how much distance the next mission puts between us. We’re going to make this work.”

  Relief swept through her and she wrapped her arms around him, held him tight.

  He murmured soft words into her hair. “I know. We don’t have to say it out loud. I know.”

  * * * * *

  Will he be able to forget her, or will he turn against her?

  Find out how it all began with Hunting Kat by PJ Schnyder—available now!

  Hunting Kat

  As a mercenary, Kat Darah doesn’t have to pass for a normal human. On the edge of the solar system, she’s just another biped. Most of the time.

  Nearing the end of his military tour, Lt. Christopher Rygard debates the idea of hanging up his uniform for good. Looking for answers at the bottom of a glass of scotch, he meets Kat. One shared night of mutual desire seems harmless. But when their tryst is interrupted by attackers hunting Rygard, Kat must reveal her other form, the predator beneath the human façade.

  Together they embark on a dangerous mission—a race against time to meet the enemy’s demands, while trying to deny the passion between them. Rygard is faced with a terrible choice in the face of duty: Report the existence of a human turned shape-shifter. Or forget he ever met her.

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  About the Author

  Born and raised in the Northeast, PJ Schnyder spent her childhood pretending to study for the SATs by reading every fantasy and sci-fi novel she could borrow from the local and school libraries. She scored fairly high in the verbal portion.

  She was introduced to the wonderful world of romance a decade later by her best friend at an anime convention in Seattle.

  She now lives somewhere temperate watching the seasons go by with her dogs and super-stealthy ninja kitty, writing her stories.

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  ISBN-13: 9781426897771

  FIGHTING KAT

  Copyright © 2014 by PJ Schnyder

  Edited by Kerri Buckley

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, tran
smitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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