Page 26 of Breed

“But he’s not normal.”

She repeats those words, with a darker intonation.

“What’s so abnormal about him?”

“His eyes, alpha. They’re dark as night. They thought he was blind when he was born, but he’s never shown any sign of not being able to see. He barely speaks. He just looks at you with that hollow gaze, and he…”

“I’ve heard enough,” Thorn growls. “The nursery can expect a complete review.”

That is a dire threat from an alpha, even I know that.

“But we don’t have to take him back?”

“No. I will keep him here.”

She sighs with relief. She may lose her job, but she will not have to deal with me anymore.

Thorn ends the call and puts the tablet down. He turns to me and crooks a finger. “Come here.”

I do as he tells me, mostly hoping there will be more cake. He reaches out for me, takes my hands in his, and makes me look at him directly. He doesn’t seem to mind my dark eyes. He doesn’t seem to mind anything about me at all, not my filthy condition, or my roughened, sick scales. He looks at me as if I am a very, very good thing. The feeling of being regarded positively by a creature as powerful as the alpha is life changing.

“You’re not strange,” he tells me. “You’re exactly what a saurian should be. We are descended from hunters, not talkers.”

“They don’t like my eyes.”

“That’s their failing. Not yours. There’s nothing wrong with you. You are perfect.”

Hearing those words, I start to cry. I did not know that words like that could be said to me. I did not know that anybody could even think about me that way.

Thorn allowed me to grow up in his home. He raised me, in a manner of speaking. That is why Thorn will always have my loyalty. When he asked me to go undercover, work my way up Wrath’s organization, and help him bring it down from the inside, I could only say yes. I was thrilled to have a chance to repay him for all his kindness.

I never expected to discover that Wrath was not simply the evil creature he was made out to be. I never thought the situation would become so complicated. I owe my life to Alpha Thorn. But I think I might owe my future to Wrath.

6 THE BIG CITY

Lettie

I’m in the tunnel, moving through it with an increasing sense of excitement. I know Shan will hunt me down when he finds me missing. I have to find the captains as quickly as possible. Fortunately, the city is a known quantity to me. I pored over the surveillance maps we made. I looked out over it from the port windows. I paid special attention to the information the scanners showed. I know exactly where Sullivan is kept, and I even know that there’s a servant's entrance that can be used to get in.

Moving through the city without being seen is not easy. It is a somewhat busy place, but fortunately most of the saurians are far too consumed with their own business to notice me shuffling along. I have shaped the garment I stole from Shan up and over my head like a hood.

I think some of them think I am an ambulatory trash bag. Most of them don’t look at me twice. I’m not part of what they expect to see, and so they do not see me. Saurians in Grave City seem busy. They rush from place to place with intense expressions, thinking of what, I do not know. I get the impression that anything outside their immediate sphere of influence is immediately ignored as being not their problem.

I do not know what they are so busy with, but it seems to be all consuming. There’s not a lot of recreation going on. There are serious saurians doing serious things. Maybe that’s just how this species is. Maybe they take themselves impossibly seriously.

I don’t have time to delve into the depths of saurian society right now. I know what I need to know, and that is that they don’t care about strange little humans scuttling along their paths.

I make a beeline for the alpha’s house, following the mental map I have studied over and over again. I know there’s a certain amount of security. I also know about the servant’s entrance. Alpha Thorn is not often the subject of attack, at least not directly. I don’t think even Wrath has the nerve to walk in and face him directly.

I stick to the shadows. I hide in the crevices. I move only when it seems nobody has noticed or seen me — and I make it all the way to the servant’s entrance. It’s almost too easy. I half expect to be nabbed on the way in, but I find myself in a kitchen that is largely empty aside from a couple of saurians in dresses who are tending large steaming pots of what I’d guess is meat.

They don’t expect to see me, and so they don’t. I make my way to the nearest staircase and I stealth up it. This is a big building, and I know there’s a decent chance that I’m going to be caught before I find Sullivan. The halls are wide and decorative, with polished stone and the sorts of accoutrements you get in houses of power. It is bright and it feels nice. Much nicer than the underground Shan, Wrath, and the others live inside. It feels like a home for the good guys — though come to think of it, I’ve never been in a building for the good guys that had any good guys in it at all.

I pass trinkets and statuettes and other trappings of wealth that make my fingers itch with the desire to snatch them up. Piracy has become something of a habit, if I’m to be honest. The things on display here would all sell instantly at any one of a number of fences. I just don’t have anything to hold it in. Should have bought a bag with me. Oh well. Next time, maybe.

“Sullivan?” I try whispering her name, not really expecting her to reply. It’s more like a sort of magical-thinking homing beam, a hope that I’ll find her if my intention to find her is strong enough.

And then I smell something.

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