four long limbs braced with tension as his tail curved around him, aiding his balance the side of the cliff. His nostrils flared, and a low growl rattled from his chest. He felt his long, blade-like claws slide out from his four paws and the fingertips of all four of his hands, wanting nothing more than to bury them in the flesh of the aliens invading his planet. Lips pulled from large fangs as he issued his warning, his angry roar echoing through the canyon.
Let the strangers hear it and tremble. Let them cower in their settlement.
They would find no mercy or kindness on this planet. Inara Tahli would destroy them if he did not.
Chapter 3
It was as she feared. It was just barely a step up from a closet. Charlie grimaced as she stepped inside her assigned quarters. The bed filled most of the space, with barely enough room for a small wash station on a wall in one corner. Throwing her pack on the bed, she turned around to get a feel for what she had to work with. Without a closet or trunk in sight, there had to be storage somewhere.
Facing the opposite wall, her eyes ran along the empty space as she followed what appeared to be the outline of several flat panels. Charlie leaned forward and brushed her fingertips over one in the lightest of touches. She flinched as a drawer slid out abruptly.
That’s… different.
Craning her head, she peered into it. Empty. It was nothing more than a long, narrow drawer for storage. Her eyebrows flew up as she examined the drawer. Her accommodations on Earth never had such seamless and sensitive tech. Tapping the drawer, it slid shut once more. She counted a total of four panels on the wall. That was more storage than she had expected, although the drawers weren’t particularly spacious. Turning around again, the foot of the bed had a similar panel that was much larger. She could only assume it was for her to stow her gear.
Looking around the sterile gray room, she tried to look on the bright side. At least it was warm, and she wasn’t squished into it with Doug. The powers that be had decided to allow them to have the remainder of the day to get settled. Charlie spared a passing glance at her pack before plopping on the bed beside it. She would unpack later.
Allowing her eyes to roam the walls, her attention settled on the darkened smart glass on the wall beside her bed. Her eyebrows rose. The quality of technology throughout the entire colony seemed to be top of the line. The smart glass on her wall was small, but she couldn’t complain. It was still larger than anything she had on Earth. All she had been able to afford was a fifteen-year-old mounted viewscreen that had eventually replaced the ancient smart TVs when developers could go no further with them.
Reaching up, Charlie tapped on the glass and was rewarded as it immediately cleared, showing the scenery beyond the colony dome. No doubt there were surveillance units on the colony walls recording the outside view. Probably from a vid feed near her location. She recognized the steep rock formations of the nearby canyon.
The gray and white stones and the bluish-green plant life weren’t what that most would call particularly inspiring, but as she watched shadows play along the cliff, Charlie decided that she liked it. With the muted color of the landscape, shadows seemed to bleed into each other and take a life of their own. She knew it was all an optical illusion of course but…
She froze and cocked her head as a large, inky shadow shifted and expanded away from the rock before sinking back into the collected shadows.
What the fuck was that?
With a jerk, she sat up, staring at the screen. Her heartbeat thundered in her ears, just beneath which she was aware of the loud whoosh of her breath in that utter stillness as she stared at the rocks.
She wasn’t crazy. There was something there.
That was no random shift of light through the brush. Something large had to have made that shadow. A shiver stole over her as she recalled the way she’d felt watched. She was certain that her imagination blew it out of proportion, but that same feeling crept over her.
“I’m safe within the walls,” she whispered to herself, seeking any small amount of reassurance. And she would remain safe.