Page 5 of Saved By the Servali

Kamau wrinkled his nose. The Leopardine smelled of heat. Female arousal.

Not my Queen. Not my scent to enjoy. How can these other males seem so stoic and unswayed, unbothered?

“We do not need distractions,” he hissed under his breath.

“There was an initial scan on a shuttle with that serial number, only about ten minutes before it had its coordinates changed—and there was no documentation for a change of coordinates. Someone on the MWIP staff had to do this manually, by hand,” Layla said excitedly, showing the tablet to Rupex and then holding it out towards the others clustered around her. “But I don’t even recognize...”

“It was for the Pantherite Province.” Ardol frowned, slicking back his mussed wave of carefully cultivated fur.

“Wait, where is that? I thought I knew all the major planetary chains of Felix Orbus,” Layla protested.

“Could we have a geography lesson later?” Talos growled. “The irregularity of a coordinate change—”

“Wait!” Ardol stole Layla’s tablet with a panicked expression. “Don’t shoot! The initial filing requests oxygenation and pressurization checks!”

Everyone froze. Even a cub would know that meant living beings were on the second shuttle.

“Pantherite Province. Derelict shuttle. Improper paperwork. Um,” Layla cleared her throat. “Does anyone else have a feeling that this adds up to something bad? Like ‘human females being trafficked’ bad?”

“But the coordinates were changed to reach a ship,ourship, not the Pantherite Provinces!” Rupex protested, the captain reaching for his much smaller bride.

“Someone at the MIPG overrode those coordinates with only minutes to spare. Probably one of the women inside the shuttle—and they just entered our coordinates.”

“But how would they know our coordinates? Something doesn’t add up,” Talos’ quiet voice was brittle.

“The math doesn’t matter. There are probably humans on board. We have to help them, Talos,” Wendy whispered, hands on her middle.

“Or it’s some sort of trap,” Talos argued. “Raiders. They are from the Sapien System—no offense, my love,” he gave Wendy a guilty look.

She shrugged. “Believe me, I know how horrible humans can be. But if there are bad people on that shuttle, you and Rupex will protect us from the threat,” Wendy said staunchly. “Oh, and Ardol and Kamau, too.”

Of course, I’m the afterthought.Kamau gripped his pan harder and hefted it to his shoulder.

“I’m getting Marcus and Skyla,” Layla ran to the intercom panel on the wall. “We should all meet down in the shuttle bay.”

“Ah. No. As the captain of this ship, I order all Queens and cubs to the interior quarters on A Deck until further notice. All Knights and Kings will meet the shuttle.”

“You’re going to terrify them,” Jaxson sauntered in. The big, rangy Canid never seemed ill at ease.

“We have two human Knights aboard the vessel. They can welcome the new lifeforms with us—if there are any.”

“Or if they’re still alive,” Marcus, the graying Leonid medic, came in with a frown on his face as he stared at his own tablet. “Got your images of the shuttle, Layla. That doesn’t look like it would survive a gentle trip to Mars, let alone an intergalactic jump. We should prepare to locate and notify next of kin.”

Kamau dropped his stance slightly. He didn’t know which was worse, the feeling of adrenaline flooding him, preparing him to battle some sort of space mercenaries from the depraved Sapien System (well, his father always said it was depraved, but his father had never met a human in his life) or the sick dread of opening the shuttle and finding dead and decomposing bodies of Queens like Layla, Jade, and Wendy, the pretty, tiny, furless beings he’d come to love and admire.

“This is all my fault,” he muttered, the words out before he was aware they were even in his mind. “I wanted all those supplies from Sapien-Three.”

“That’s not a fault!” Wendy said, reaching for him with a comforting hand. “You want to take care of us. You have a big heart, Kamau.”

He felt a little better. “Thank you, Wendy.”

Rupex cleared his throat. “That’s sweet, Wendy. Now go! You and Layla find Jade and get the cubs into the nursery. It’s the most secure area.”

Kamau watched the flurry of activity, noticing with immature envy that Rupex stopped to kiss Layla for all he was worth while Talos did the same with Wendy in the hall.

“Dax. Skyla. Can you bring a couple of the transport cots down here? Hm? Best case scenario, we have folks to put into quarantine. Worst case...” Marcus walked toward the shuttle bay, speaking to the human and Canid who had become his part-time assistants.

Kamau hung back.

---