Lion And The Falcon (Furry United Coalition) (3 page)

It might have made him abnormal in some guy
’s eyes that he rejected, nicely of course, their advances, but he really had no other choice. It bothered him that none of the women he ever met ever seemed interested in anything deeper.
Doesn’t anyone want to get to know the real me? To see the man below the handsome veneer?

Despite their shallow interest, he still
bestowed a bright smile on the cheerful female manning the reception desk for the FUC office. “Hello, Lisa.”

“
Good morning, Dr. Manners.”

“Please,
I’ve told you before to call me Nolan. Doctor makes me sound so old.”

She blushed and fluttered her lashes. “Oh, I couldn’t.
”

“But I insist.”

“Okay…Nolan.” She giggled.

“And how are you doing today?”

Again, she turned pink. “
Great. Thanks so much for asking.”

Okay, so he purposely turned on the charm.
He didn’t want to appear rude. “Anything pressing I should know about?”

“Just the usual.”
Which could mean anything from nothing going on to alligators in the sewer. Lisa’s answer never wavered, the sign of a good receptionist.

The phone on her desk buzzed. “Uh
—oh, that’s the board room. I better answer it.” She lifted the receiver and said, “Hello.” Then, “Right away,” before hanging up with a sheepish grin, which she pointed in his direction. “That was Kloe. Somehow, it slipped my mind to mention they’re all waiting for you in the meeting room.”

C
hecking his watch, Nolan groaned. Darn it. He was really late. Again. “I’d better get going.”

Off he went
up the hall, making sure to flash a grin at Beatrice who practically swooned in delight. He strode into the meeting-in-progress, hoping against hope no one would notice his tardy arrival. Yeah, right.

All conversation ceased as more than a half dozen eyes veered his way, but it was the sneeringly said, “I see Sylvester finally arrived,” that r
uffled the hair of his mane.

Tossing his golden strands back, he did his best to appear apologetic.
“Sorry I’m late. I was unavoidably detained. I hope I didn’t miss too much.”

“Detained
, or distracted by a mirror,” he heard in a low mutter from someone he didn’t recognize.

With a shake of her matronly head, Kloe spoke. “So nice of you to join us
, Nolan. I was beginning to wonder if some of our patients took a turn for the worse.”

“Not since I was in touch with them in the last half hour.” He’d called the
safe house staff on his way over. Difficulties arriving on time didn’t mean he shirked his responsibilities.

Miranda, very much pregnant and still as energetic as ever
, bounced in her seat. “Hi, Nolan. We were just getting started. Come sit beside me. I saved you a seat.”

She patted the chair beside her and he wanted to groan. There was a reason only Chase
, her husband, sat close by. Before pregnancy, Miranda had enough energy to power a small town. Pregnant? Good grief, the woman turned into a nonstop chatterbox with absolutely no boundaries and an insatiable, sometimes deadly, urge for carrot cake.

However,
latecomers couldn’t be picky, and the seat beside her was the only one available, limiting his options. Sliding into the chair, he tried to ignore the rapier stare of the woman across from him, a woman he’d never met, but who obviously knew something of him given her rude remarks. What he couldn’t figure out was her instant dislike of him. Then again, given she smelled like some species of bird and he was a lion, he could probably chalk the animosity to an instinctual thing.

It still rankled
, though, especially when she tossed a scornful look his way. He fought an urge to stick out his tongue and focused on Kloe’s words.

“
Now that we’re all here, let’s get down to business. We received more reports last night via our contact in the police department of monster sightings. So far, the cops are treating the calls as pranks. Lucky for us, they’re assuming what people saw were wild animals or folks in costume, but we can’t keep letting this happen. It’s only a matter of time before someone catches one of the escaped victims, who are proving to be less than discreet. We can’t let the normals discover our secret.”

Humans plus the knowledge that shape
-shifters existed among them equaled a very bad idea. No one disagreed with that. Look at what happened to the poor alien who landed years ago, a messenger for his race looking to see if Earth wanted to sign a trade treaty. The American government still refused to apologize to the Hlin’unger nation for the testing they’d put the poor guy through. It wasn’t just the Martians who apparently held a fetish for anal probes. Thankfully, the galaxy travelers weren’t the violent sort or Earth would have ended up a pile of galactic dust by now. Needless to say, Earth didn’t get invited into the Galactic version of the United Nations.

“Computer mapping of the sightings shows they’ve spread out and have infested all corners of the city and even some of the suburbs. They’re not going to be easy to find. We need mo
re agents,” Jessie, their office geek, announced without looking up from her laptop.

“
Haven’t the reinforcements arrived yet?” Mason asked, twirling a honey donut around his finger, probably to annoy his brother who stared at the pastry with hunger even though he had a plateful in front of him. Darned bears, they hated sharing sweets.

Kloe cleared her throat and shifted in her seat.
“About the reinforcements. Apparently, the escaped projects aren’t the only problem plaguing our citizens right now. Out west, they’re dealing with a sudden explosion in giant rats, which they’re still struggling to identify as the regular or shape-shifting variety. Up north, our Canadian friends are caught up in a Sasquatch crisis. The sea folk are dealing with an oil spill. And as for our avian counterparts, while I am unsure of the reason, they haven’t been able to spare us the air troops we’d hoped for.”

“So what did we get?”
Viktor asked with his usual bluntness.

“Me.”

The one word, spoken with quiet confidence, of course came from the lady sitting across from Nolan. He took a moment to study her as she stood to address the group.

Tall, real tall, and thin, she didn’t have the curves
Nolan preferred. The avian agent sported a muscled leanness from her wiry arms—shown off in a short sleeve black shirt—to her boyishly slim hips from which her black cargo pants hung. Her long black hair, held back in a tight ponytail, highlighted an equally angular face with sharp lips, a straight nose, and no-nonsense, aqua eyes. Not classically pretty, she possessed presence and exuded arrogance. A real ball buster, he’d wager, and totally not his type. He preferred his woman petite, soft, and unable to hurt him. He got enough grief from his mother and other female relatives, enough that he saw no reason to put up with it in his personal life as well.

“My name is Clarice
Tertius, ASS agent with a specialty in hunting. I was assigned by my department to assist you in your search. I can provide avian support as well as ground having trained in tracking.”

A throat cleared.
“No offense, but how is one bird supposed to help us locate a dozen missing psychos?”

“They’re not psychos,” Nolan objected.

Viktor’s hard gaze pinned him. “The last one we caught was chewing on its own tail. If that’s not crazy then I’d hate to see what you think crazy is.”

Nolan
spread his hands as if apologizing for them. “It’s not their fault. The toxin the mastermind injected them with is affecting their cognitive abilities.”

“So in other words, lizard guy over there is right,” interrupted Clarice. “They’re nuts.”

“Sick.”

“Either way,
Sylvester, they need to be found and brought in. Not only for their own good, but the good of everyone.”

“
I think at this point, given their violent tendencies, we should be shooting them on sight,” Viktor advanced. Not surprising, given the croc’s solution to every problem involved guns.

Lucky for him
, even Renee couldn’t let her mate’s suggestion go by without objection. “We can’t do that. It’s not their fault. Nolan is right about that.”

“But we also can’t let them keep running around destroying the city and scaring the locals,” Miranda added without her usual giggle. “Sorry, Nolan
, but Viktor and Clarice are correct in that respect. If we can’t capture them, then we need to stop them, even if it means deadly force. I’d volunteer to help, but until junior here GETS OUT!
”—
she yelled the last bit to her protruding bell
y—
“then you’re stuck with second best.” Someone was getting testy as her pregnancy entered the final stage.

Viktor cleared his throat.

“Sorry, old partner. I meant third best.”

Mason coughed.

Miranda twitched her nose in his direction and he slouched in his chair. “Something wrong, dear brother in law?”

“Nope, just something caught in my throat.”

“Thought so. As I was saying, I’d like to help, but since I can’t, you’ll have to make do with the chickadee.”

“Excuse me?
Did you just dis me, rabbit?” The avian agent turned her rapier glare on Miranda.

“Just telling it like it is,
birdy
.” Miranda’s sweet tone didn’t fool anyone for a minute; however, the newcomer apparently didn’t know better. Nolan wondered if he should duck for cover.

“Are you trying to tell me that you think you’re better than me?”
Her thin brows arched up and a sneer stretched Clarice’s lips. “Let me guess, your floppy ears are trained in kung fu. Do you slap your prey silly with the fuzzy tips until they fall over begging for mercy? Or tickle them with your fur?”

Miranda’s eyes narrowed dangerously.
“Ooh, if I could unleash my furry beast, you wouldn’t be laughing, Tweety.”

“Watch what you call me, fluffy bunny.”

“I’ll show you fluffy!” Miranda’s mood swung from irritable to violent in a second and it took Chase throwing an arm in front of her to keep her from leaping from her seat.

With his f
ace sporting a weary expression, Chase rumbled, “I wouldn’t antagonize her if I were you, Ms. Tertius. Her favorite bakery didn’t have her usual morning carrot muffins so she’s a little on edge. And, despite her advanced condition, she’s still quite dangerous.”

“
Oh, are you talking about the bakery up the street? That would be my fault. I bought those muffins to feed to the pigeons in the park.” Clarice smiled and a minor moment of chaos erupted as even Chase couldn’t halt his wife from sprinting over the table with more agility than a pregnant woman should be capable of. Luckily, Mason, used to his sister-in-law’s antics, caught Miranda and only let out one girlish squeal as she kneed him in the groin. Chase, with his face set in a forbearing expression, scooped up his screaming wife and set her on her feet behind his massive frame, blocking her from going after the taunting ASS agent. It didn’t stop the threats, though.

“I’m going to clip your wings, Tweety! Pluck your feathers. Pull—”
Her imaginative yells of retribution cut off short as her phone beeped and she paused to look at the screen. Miranda squealed, “Ooh, the bakery just texted me. My muffins are ready.”

Off she bounced
, and Chase sighed. “We’ll be back after she’s stuffed her face.”

“Don’t hurry, teddy,” Clarice taunted.

Everyone winced as the big grizzly turned to face their temporary avian aide. “If I were you, I’d stay far, far away once the baby is born. You don’t want to mess with my floppy-eared menace. She’s got big teeth.”

Nolan could tell Clarice didn’t understand, but those who knew Miranda? Yeah, they’d
probably place bets on the outcome.

Silence and order more or less returned
. Kloe, who tended to not get involved with Miranda these days, preferring to let Chase handle his wife, pushed her reading glasses up on her nose and cleared her throat. “Yes, so where were we?”

“Discussing the fact we might need to use deadly force if we can’t take the missing subjects
quietly.” Victor, never one to let outbursts ruffle his cool demeanor, picked up where they left off.

“I object. They’re people. Just give me a chance. I’m sure there must be a way to help them
,” Nolan spoke up in their defense.

“
Your objection is noted, but sorry, doctor, I fear the agents are right. We can’t allow them to keep terrorizing the city. All in favor of deadly force?”

Okay, so his jutting lower lip might have appeared childish as the voices overruled his
, but they didn’t understand. He’d taken an oath, an oath to heal and protect. Sure, he might lead the life of careless bachelor and spoiled son of the biggest pride around, but at heart, Nolan was a healer. Helping others was what he did. Guilt riddled him that he’d not done more for the victims when they were under his care. As it was, feeling as if he failed them, he fought an urge to not have a tantrum like Miranda.