Page 30 of Stripe Theory

“Several plans, actually.” She pulled up their accumulated data. “They want to control shifter evolution? Fine. Let’s show them what real evolution looks like. Maya, can you?—”

“Already texting every shifter clan in my contacts.” Maya’s fingers tapped away on her phone. “Hunter is coordinating with the security teams. And your parents just sent over their complete research archives.”

“My brilliant, paranoid parents who back up everything.” Alora grinned. “Genesis Corp thought they could isolate us, but they just proved exactly why diversity matters. Every clan they targeted, every researcher they threatened – they’re all sharing data now. Working together.”

“Some species shouldn’t mix?” She gestured at their war room where human scientists worked seamlessly alongside shifter tacticians. “Look how well that turned out for them.”

Rehan’s hand found hers again, tiger-warm and steady. “We still need a way to protect the research. They’ll keep coming.”

“Good thing I have an idea about that too.” Alora squeezed his hand before spinning back to her workstation. “Remember how I said the purple smoke was an accident last time?”

“Should I be concerned that you sound excited about this?”

“Probably.” She pulled up building schematics. “But I promise this won’t stain everyone’s clothes. Probably. Maya, how do you feel about turning the entire building’s ventilation system into a delivery system for my newest containment formula?”

Maya’s grin turned predatory. “I feel like I should start recording this for posterity.”

The next hour passed in a blur of preparation and coordination. Alora directed teams in setting up her “improved” security measures, trying not to get distracted by how Rehankept finding excuses to stay close. His protective hovering should have been annoying. Instead, it felt... right.

“You know,” she commented while measuring chemicals, “when I imagined working with shifters, I really didn’t expect this many explosions. Or corporate raids. Or...” She gestured vaguely at him. “You.”

“Disappointed?” His voice carried that rumbling undertone that did things to her concentration.

“Hardly.” She kept her eyes on her work, afraid her expression would give too much away. “Though I could do with fewer death threats and evil monologues.”

“But then how would you show off your talent for irritating corporate villains?”

“I do have a gift for it, don’t I?” She grinned up at him, then immediately wished she hadn’t. His answering smile, complete with a flash of fang, made her heart do completely unprofessional things.

Maya’s voice cut through their moment. “If you two are done making eyes at each other, we’ve got incoming. Multiple vehicles, heavily armed. Looks like Genesis Corp called for backup.”

“Good.” Alora checked her calculations one final time. “Let them come. I’ve got a few more scientific principles to demonstrate.”

“You’re enjoying this far too much,” Rehan noted.

“Says the man who growled at three different security guards for looking at me wrong.”

“They were suspicious.”

“They work for us.”

Their bickering was interrupted by the building’s security alarms. Genesis Corp forces had breached the outer perimeter, exactly as planned.

“Ready?” Rehan asked, his voice carrying notes of both question and promise that made her stomach flip in a decidedly unscientific way.

Alora looked at their gathered allies – Maya’s fierce determination, Hunter’s strategic focus, her own team’s unwavering loyalty. Humans and shifters united, proving exactly what their enemies feared most.

Maya caught her eye across the room and mouthed “Kiss him.” Alora pretended to be suddenly fascinated by her monitor settings, ignoring both her friend’s grin and the way her cheeks heated. There would be time for testing interspecies attraction hypotheses later. Right now, they had a world to save.

Through the windows, she watched Genesis Corp’s forces approach, their black vehicles gleaming in the afternoon sun.

“Some species shouldn’t mix?” Alora smiled as she typed in the final command sequence, hyperaware of Rehan’s protective presence beside her. His hand found her shoulder, steady and warm, as she hit enter. “Watch us.”

At this moment, watching their combined teams move into position, Alora knew they’d already won the most important fight. Not against Genesis Corp’s weapons or their outdated ideology, but against the fear of difference itself.

Though maybe, just maybe, victory would require more close-quarters tactical planning with a certain tiger shifter. For science, naturally.

After all, she had a hypothesis about interspecies attraction that needed thorough testing. Multiple trials. Extensive documentation.

---