“You work for us. Brass is a seasoned officer of the NSO, I know him well and he has my complete trust. He’s not newly free or unstable. He’s highly intelligent and it’s a joint operation.” He relaxed slightly. “That means your team and ours will work together but Brass is in total charge of my males. Understood?”

“Yeah.” Tim still looked angry. “I got it.”

“Good.” Justice met and held the gazes of the four men who were leaving the NSO. “Be safe and you take your orders from Brass as if I were speaking. Understood?”

“Yes,” they agreed in unison.

Wrath turned and left the office. His friend followed closely behind until they were outside. They both paused, waiting for further orders.

“Shadow is a good name.”

“So is Wrath.” His friend grinned. “I knew you’d pick something kinder but you have strength and a strong sense of justice. It is too bad that name was already taken.”

“Wrath suits my purpose. We’ll find the humans who hurt our people and bring them in to pay for their crimes.”

A scent drew their attention as a female Species neared the office. She smiled and her gaze wandered over Wrath from head to foot. She paused next to him, peered into his eyes and softly purred.

“Hello.”

He didn’t know what to say but Shadow came to his rescue. “We’re leaving with the human task force. We don’t have time to socialize.”

The female’s smile faded. “Good luck. You both are very brave.” She walked inside the building.

Wrath relaxed and met Shadow’s eyes. “I’m glad there won’t be females where we’re going.”

Shadow nodded. “They are drawn to your looks and strength.”

“I need more time to heal before I even consider sharing sex with one of them. I’ll be happy to be away from here for a while.”

His friend reached out and gripped his shoulder. “We share that in common.”

Both of them remembered being drugged while hooked to machines and the horror of their seed being forced from their bodies. Wrath shivered from the vile memories and the uncertainty of what had been done to the sperm taken from them. Some of it had been sold and shipped to other countries, where scientists planned to use human female surrogates to birth human/Species hybrids to be sold to the rich as exotic pets. The thought of them succeeding made rage burn inside his soul.

Shadow’s eyes narrowed as they stared at each other. “We’ll capture the ones who hurt our kind and bring them to justice. You are thinking about what I do so often but you heard what the NSO doctors said. They are doubtful any children were produced from our stolen seed. The drugs used on us damage the sperm and nature has a way of only making it viable when we are highly aroused. They are pretty certain it only seems to survive inside a living female when we put it there. They said they would have heard about any babies put up for sale on the black market, even if it is in Europe.”

Wrath relaxed, comforted by the words. “We’ll make all of them pay for what they’ve done to our kind.”

“Yes, we will.” Shadow released him.

Chapter One

“You aren’t really going to eat that, are you?” Lauren curled her lip, staring with horrified fascination at what sat on her friend’s plate. “It looks like someone slaughtered a salad with all that green and red.”

Her best friend, Amanda, laughed. “It’s the latest diet trend. It looks like hell but I’m supposed to lose twenty pounds a month if I eat this every day.”

Lauren pushed a stray lock of blonde hair behind one ear. “I’d lose that much too if I had to try to choke that crap down. I wouldn’t eat.” She sighed. “I know all about diets and I think I’ve tried them all. Trust me, that isn’t going to work. The only way I can lose a few pounds is by downing water and exercising until I can’t breathe.”

“You only need to drop thirty pounds.” Amanda pouted. “I need to lose twice that much. This spinach salad and hot sauce thing is supposed to work. I want to have a shape again.”

“You and I both have that already.” Lauren winked. “Round is a shape. Look, I am tired of being unhappy because my butt doesn’t fit into the same jeans I wore when I was fourteen and I’ve got love handles. I enjoy eating and detest starving. It sucks being hungry all the time. Those diets just made me miserable, hungry, and depressed.” She pointed at the burger on her plate and used her other hand to push it closer to her friend. “Take a bite. You know you really want to. Eat a fry. Live a little and save yourself from misery. You’ll enjoy my food way more than yours.”

“I haven’t had anyone ask me out in two months, Lauren. Two whole months. You’ve got big boobs, the long hair, and pretty blue eyes going for you. And you’re short. You are cute to men even with the excess weight.”

“Yeah. Men are just breaking down my door.” She snorted. “I just must not be home when they do it. No one is still there when I get off work. They have to be skilled carpenters too because they are amazing at fixing any damage they did to get in.”

“That one man asked you out last week and he was cute.”

“Cute? He reminded me of a puppet with his frizzy red hair and the unibrow.”

“At least you got asked out by someone.” Amanda sighed. “I’d love a puppet type myself. You could have so taken him home to keep. I bet he’s into cuddling.”