An hour later, Oliver stood in front of the polished glass of a tank and wanted to curl up in a ball and hide his nose under his tail, for a week. He studied the purplish brown of his coat and the rusty splotches marring it, and then looked away.

  Not even those familiar with his wolf form were going to recognize him—especially after Tallie had gotten done with matting his fur. The creature in the glass looked like he’d been hiding out in the waste disposal unit of something too unspaceworthy to fly.

  A shudder rippled his fur, and he looked at the girl and her father. They looked back, studying the disguise for any flaws. When they saw him watching them, the girl’s father spoke.

  “Now, try and look like the worst-tempered mongrel anyone could have the misfortune to meet,” the wolf instructed, and Oliver gave him a wide-eyed look.

  The guy sighed. “Look. If I wanted frightened puppy, I’d have brought a shrink ray, but since we don’t have one of those, I need savage mongrel, okay?”

  Oliver laid his ears back and curled his lip. Tallie leaned in and looked him in the eye.

  “If you can’t do better than that,” the child whispered sweetly, “I’m going to rinse all this out, dip you in fuchsia and make you smell like you got dunked in a perfumery.”

  Whether it was the proximity of her face, the expression in her eyes, or what she was suggesting, Oliver couldn’t tell, but he gave a snarl that shook the walls, and snapped at her face. She was faster than he’d seen in the corridor, pulling her face out of range, and wrapping both hands around his muzzle to clamp his jaws shut.

  “That’s my boy,” she cooed, and Oliver rumbled in reply.

  He shook his head, trying to shake her loose, but claws spiked warningly around his nose, and he stilled. Her father shook his head.

  “You know I’m going to have to muzzle you, now, don’t you?”

  Oliver froze, the human part of his mind scrabbling for dominance over the dominant wolf. He knew it was for the best, but the wolf side of him? Apart from hating having its fur in a mess, it had a real problem with restraints.

  Fortunately, he was facing another wolf, and one who’d obviously had practice in muzzling his own kind—and Oliver didn’t want to know where he’d found that skill necessary. The guy straddled Oliver’s back, and slid the muzzle over his head, as Tallie slid her hands clear.

  The little minx didn’t nick a single hair, even though he felt her claws leaving indents in his skin.

  Her father held onto the muzzle and Oliver wondered what was coming next. The royal purple collar with rhinestone studs and the lavender bow was almost too much.

  “You know kids and their pets,” the man on his back intoned. “It doesn’t matter how ugly a dog is, once a kid’s set her heart on him…”

  That’s only going to work if there’s a pound somewhere close by, Oliver thought, and even then only if…

  He stopped mid-thought, catching sight of the leash, and dropped to his belly with a shocked whimper. Tallie stopped mid turn.

  “What? It’s not that bad.”

  You don’t have to wear it, Oliver thought, and she gave him a teasing smile.

  “I don’t know what you’re worried about. It’s not like we’re gonna take photos and show them to your friends…”

  She stopped and looked at her dad, and Oliver was grateful when the man hurried to reply.

  “No, Tallie. We are not…” He paused and Oliver heard something slide over cloth, as though the guy were checking his mobile or his tablet or something. “We have to move. Can you let Joelene know we’re coming through?”

  “Gotcha.” Tallie took the lead and collar with her, and the guy kept a firm pressure on Oliver’s ribs.

  “She’s a brat,” he said, when the girl was out of earshot, and patted Oliver’s neck, “but she’s got a good heart. I need you to come with me and not argue. Okay?”

  Oliver flicked his ears, and didn’t move when the guy unhooked his legs and stood beside him. It was all he could do not to go racing out the door to find the nearest loamy piece of soil and roll in it, but he managed. The man breathed a sigh of relief.

  “My name’s Chitin. I don’t normally give an introduction, but with what we’re about to put you through, you deserve it. Besides, you can use it on any Odyssey operatives you come across, and call me if you’re in trouble. I’m from the Edge Wolves.”

  Oliver’s ears pricked. The Edge Wolves. He knew them—but only by reputation. Their remediation work on Earth was renowned… They were also renegades, the dreamers of half a dozen packs, who broke their pack affiliations to join together and make the Earth their sole concern. There were many threads that made them one.

  “The Observatory was my part of that,” Chitin explained, “and Tallie, Odyssey, and Florey helped make it happen.”

  He led the way to the back of the storage shed. “I’m going to take you through to the back of Stray’s Haven. You know it?”

  Oliver stiffened. There wasn’t a single person in Lunar One who didn’t know the local pound. Stray’s Haven had been built during the Separation, when werewolves had been discovered and imprisoned. Strays had been set up ostensibly for lost dogs, but it had been a conduit for wolves to be smuggled off the moon.

  Once things had settled, it had gone back to being a haven for lost animals.

  Oliver gave a growling ‘wuff’, but he kept his head down and his tail partly tucked to show he wasn’t happy. Chitin ruffled his fur, again.

  “I know,” he said sympathetically, “but we’ll get you out of here, okay? And we’ll make sure your partner makes it, too.”

  It was the best news Oliver had heard all day, and he swished his tail once in acknowledgment. Chitin gave him a thoughtful look, and opened a panel in the back of the storage shed wall.

  “Through you go,” he instructed, ushering Oliver into the gap.

  Oliver trotted forward, sliding a glance up at him as he passed. If he’d been paying more attention, he wouldn’t have taken a single step, but by the time he registered the bars and concrete floor, Chitin had slid the wall closed between them, leaving him alone.

  Oliver turned around, and leapt for the space that had been behind him. He impacted with the wall, and dropped to all fours, letting his wolf instincts take over and trotting the length and breadth of the cell. He scented the floor, the bars, every inch of the crevice where the floor met the walls.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  Pacing up and down his cell, he let his humanity sink into the wolf’s restlessness, and wondered whether Chitin and the girl would really come. He would even welcome the purple monstrosities they wanted him to wear.

  His fifth circuit was interrupted by a flurry of movement at the door, and a young woman’s fractious tones.

  “It just can’t be any dog, dad. You know that!”

  Tallie, Oliver thought, and his wolf curled its lip. If she thinks…

  He listened as she progressed along the pens, finally bothering to put a location to the different dog scents around him. They were useful in tracking her progress down the aisle. Eager yaps interrupted his thoughts, as did Chitin’s encouraging tones.

  “That one looks cute, sweetie.”

  Sweetie, huh… That’s not what he’d call her… Oliver trotted along the bars and then circled to the center of the cell where he’d get a good look of the pair of them. He listened as they dithered their way closer, discussing every dog in between.

  Ugh! Why are they taking so long…

  “Because there are now three contracts on your head, and that last sighting of you means every exit to the rear corridors and the Reserve is being watched,” Florey snapped in his head, “and because I need to map a path of lowest risk.”

  “I need to get to Lewis,” Oliver replied, the human slipping into place over the wolf in the blink of an eye.

  “No. You don’t,” Florey said, and panic rose.

  “I can’t leave him!”

  “Of course not, but you’re not going back to get him. Li got in touch and told me what your chances were of getting back to Doc’s without interception.”

  Oliver sat. “Let me guess…”

  “With the extra contracts out, your chances of getting five feet past any door leading to a public corridor are decidedly slim…except in the disguise you’re in, now.”

  Oliver gave Florey credit. She wasn’t laughing. He stayed silent as she continued.

  “I decided I could do without the compromise,” she said. “It’s a good thing some of Doc’s patients have people who care for them. A florist’s delivery goes uncommented.”

  The anxiety left Oliver in a rush and he flopped down on the floor with a heavy sigh.

  “How much extra do I owe you?”

  “It’ll be on the bill, but you should be more concerned with Li. He says you owe him one more.”

  Oliver pushed himself back onto his haunches. “He what?”

  “You heard,” Florey replied, “and he may have a point, as much as I hate to admit it.”

  While Oliver digested that news, she changed the subject. “The pick-up went without a hitch, by the way, and the patient will meet us at the warehouse.”

  Oliver gave a sigh of relief. “Thank you,” he began, but Tallie’s voice interrupted him before he could say anymore.

  “That one, daddy!”

  Oliver jerked his head toward her voice, and flattened his ears, letting out a loud rumble at the sight of the purple collar and lead. Growling at those monstrosities wasn’t hard, but looking like he was savage got harder when he saw the expression on Chitin’s face.

  The other were was doing the best impression of an appalled father Oliver had ever seen.

  He scrambled to his feet, head down, lips curled back to show his teeth and feet braced, snarling like his life depended on it. It was enough to bring the kennel attendant running.

  “Oh, no. Not that one, sweetheart. We have a muzzle on him for a reason.”

  Oliver was impressed. The woman had never seen him before in her life…and she pretended she knew him well.

  “In fact, I don’t know what we’re going to do with him,” she murmured. “Last spacer we offered him to, said he’d make a good meal once they got through fattening him up…and was angry we wouldn’t let them take him. Said we’d be lucky to move him at all.

  She let out a soft sigh.

  “I hate to admit it, but I think he might have had a point.”

  Oliver turned in a small circle, scratched his feet like he’d just dropped dung and gave them the perfect wolf’s ass before stalking toward the back wall and dropping his nose to snuff along its base.

  “I like him!” Tallie declared. “He’s… He’s…”

  “Very rude,” the woman supplied, sounding mortified as Oliver sprayed the wall to mark it.

  “No, he’s perfect!” the girl told her.

  “Uh…sweetheart,” Chitin started, “can we talk about this?”

  “No. You’d only try to change my mind,” Tallie argued. Her voice softened, “…and I love him, already…”

  “You would,” her father grumbled, glaring at the wolf.

  “You do?” the woman asked, and Oliver looked over in time to see Tallie nod, her young face earnest.

  “Yes, I do. He’s perfect.”

  “Your mother is going to have a fit,” Chitin told her, and Tallie wrapped her hand around his.

  “But she said I could have any one I wanted.” The girl shifted her attention to Oliver, “and I want him.”

  “But he’s dirty,” Chitin argued.

  “He’s only just come in. We were hoping to get him to relax a bit before we tried to give him…” The woman lowered her voice, “a B. A. T. H.”

  Oliver tilted his head, as though he didn’t understand her spelling. He flicked his ears forward as though their voices intrigued him, and then snapped them back again the minute they looked over.

  “See?” Tallie exclaimed, “He was listening.”

  She bounced on the spot, laying her other hand on her father’s arm. “Pleeeeease, daddy. He’s the one I want. He’s got… He’s got—”

  “A bad attitude,” the woman said reprovingly, as Oliver stood and growled at them.

  “…character!” Tallie finished determinedly. “He’s got character…like me.”

  “Well, he’s got something like you,” Chitin conceded, and it was all Oliver could do not to laugh at the look on Tallie’s face.

  The man gave a long-suffering sigh. “Fine! We’ll take him, but only…” he added, raising a hand to still Tallie’s yip of excitement, “…only if you can get the collar and leash on him.”

  The kennel keeper looked alarmed. “But…I can’t let you go in there…with him!”

  Oliver rumbled in agreement, but Tallie slipped the keys from the woman’s hand, and darted away as she found the one marked with the same color as the lock on the door. Chitin caught the look on the woman’s face, and shrugged.

  “She’s very determined,” he told her, and the woman pressed her lips together.

  Oliver could only imagine what she was trying not to say, but he kept his eyes on Tallie, as any half-wild dog would.

  The child slipped through the gate, the collar and leash kept down by her side.

  “Now, who’s a good boy?” she said.

  Oliver growled, and the girl frowned at him. Claws schnicked out of her fingers, and her face took on a distinctly feline cast.

  “Now, you and I aren’t going to have any problems, are we?” she purred, and sensing another predator, the wolf in him started back.

  Oliver let the response through, allowing the wolf to back up as Tallie advanced. He was still surprised when she dropped to all fours, morphing into a very large cat. Purring loudly, she approached, ignoring his ferocious growl.

  Catching his eyes in hers, Tallie slunk into his mind. Oliver blinked, and the cat was on him. Growing impossibly large, it leapt, knocking his mental self onto its side and closing its jaws over his throat. In his mind, Tallie’s growl shook mountains as he struggled to breathe.

  Outside, Oliver froze, and the cat wound her way along him, rubbing her side against his, and then circling back to look at him. Inside, she shook him once, let him go, and stepped out of his head. When the child caught his gaze again, there was no mistaking the monster lurking in her eyes.

  Oliver watched as her figure blurred, and Tallie the girl stood and looked at him. Her garments were in the same tidy condition they’d been in when she changed, and the collar and lead dangled from her hand.

  “Sit!” she commanded, and Oliver’s butt hit the ground.

  “Can… Can she do that?” came the astounded question from in front of the cage.

  “She just did.” Chitin sounded amused.

  For his part, Oliver didn’t know what to think. His wolf was in awe of the great cat before it. Shock and terror warred with rampant curiosity as to where he fitted in her pack…and even if he could.

  He didn’t move as she slid the collar around his throat and clipped the lead to it.

  “Heel!” she commanded.

  Oliver heard iron and didn’t care.

  Dominant, my ass, he thought, and realized she hadn’t demanded he submit. She’d just expected him to obey.

  Cats go for alliances, the girl told him, and sounded much older than the fourteen she looked.

  Sixteen, she hissed.

  Oliver caught a glimpse of a snarling cat, and flinched. There was no sign in his head, of the spoilt little rich kid she was portraying in the kennel proper.

  It’s a useful image to have, she told him, even if I’d rather just be me.

  For a moment, Oliver wondered who that was, and then he didn’t. She walked him through the cage door, and the woman led them to reception, uncertainty in her expression.

  “As long as you’re sure,” she told them, and Chitin shrugged.

  He tilted his head as if studying Oliver’s mangy form.

  “I’m sure we’ll come to some understanding,” he added, letting a growl lace the edge of his words.

  Oliver glanced up at him, lowering his head and tail, but not taking his eyes from the big were’s face.

  “See?” Chitin asked, and the woman relaxed.

  “Yes. Well, perhaps you are the best people to take care of him,” she conceded and pulled out the paperwork.

  Oliver stayed tense and alert on the end of the leash, but he hung close to Tallie’s legs. His wolf found the young cat fascinating.

  She nudged him with her knee and he sat.

  “Good boy.”

  The woman shook her head. “Well, you’ve got a way with them. I’ll give you that.”

  Oliver wondered if she knew what he really was, and then decided he didn’t want to know. As far as he was concerned, the fewer people who knew the truth the better.