Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

beautiful.
     
    Laughing Kat was a goddess.
     
    She looked up at him, still smiling. "I'm sorry. Did you hear me yell?" She held up the largest of the four, a male. The cubs had cinnamon-colored reddish coats and white undersides and a funny kink in the end of their tails. "He's trying to prove he's fiercer than his three sisters, and nipped my finger pretty hard, didn't you baby?"
     
    When she bent her forehead to rub it against the cub's, Bastien suddenly understood exactly why the creature started purring. He'd purr himself if he could get her to rub his belly.
     
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    "They're beautiful," he said, and meant it. "I've never seen panther cubs before. Are they—I mean—"
     
    She laughed again, but this time her laughter held a note of bitterness. "No, they're not shapeshifters. These are full panthers. And for a while, it was touch and go whether anybody would ever see a Florida panther cub again, the way the humans were murdering them."
     
    "Poachers?" He sat on the floor, cautiously held out a hand to the two cubs nearest him.
    One of them ignored him completely and began to wash her face with one tiny paw, while the other slunk into stalking mode, jumped on his hand, and ferociously attacked his shirt sleeve.
     
    "No, not poachers, although we have to fight them now, too. Believe it or not, it was perfectly legal to hunt these incredible animals as recently as 1967, when the U.S.
    Department of the Interior listed them as endangered. Damn near too late, too. They were hunted to near extinction by around 1955." She leaned back against the wall and stretched.
     
    Bastien tried not to be distracted by how long her legs were. "But they're doing better now?"
     
    She nodded, face still grim. "Better. Still not good enough. An agreement with the Texas cougar coalition back in ninety-five helped. We introduced eight female Texas cougars into our panther population to help with the potential inbreeding issue."
     
    The male cub curled up on her lap and fell asleep, and Kat absently scratched his ears.
    "Better and better, still not optimal. Plus, we're stuck with more of the Texas females than we ever wanted," she said bitterly.
     
    The change in her tone puzzled him. "I thought they were important to your own cats?"
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    Kat blinked, then seemed to realize what she'd said. "Oh, never mind. I was thinking of entirely another type of Texas cat that's shown up here. One named Fallon, to be precise."
     
    He raised an eyebrow, and she responded to his unspoken question. "We… imported several Texas females ourselves, for similar reasons," she said, not meeting his eyes.
    "One in particular, Fallon, doesn't have much respect for anybody who's not a purebred, and she's not shy about showing it. Unfortunately, Ethan took her to mate, so…"
     
    As her voice trailed off, he read the truth between the lines. Fallon was an evil bitch who rubbed Kat's nose in her shortcomings at every opportunity. Figuratively speaking.
    Suddenly, his hands itched to stroke Kat's hair, to offer comfort of some kind.
     
    Again, not a damn bit like him.
     
    The delight Kat had shown while playing with the cubs evaporated, and she stood up abruptly. "I'll show you to your room, and we can get started in the morning. We'll certainly have a lot to talk about with Ethan, from what I hear about the big meeting tonight."
     
    He gently disengaged the cub's teeth from his sleeve and set it on the floor, then stood as well. Kat stopped, inches in front of him, and stood as if trapped. The room shrank around them, and he felt his throat drying up as he looked down into her eyes yet again.
    "Kat? I—"
     
    "Door," she blurted out. "You're blocking the door."
     
    "Oh. Sorry. Door." He moved aside and, for the second time that evening, she fled from him.
     
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    He smiled slowly as, he watched her. If he'd been a predator, the sight of her flight would have incited him to the hunt. He took his time before following her down the hall, waiting for the urgent hardening of his body to subside. "We may be in trouble, Lady Kat," he murmured to himself. The cubs on the floor gazed sleepily up at him. "Because I'm suddenly feeling very predatory."
     
    Alaric shimmered into mist and soared away from the ranger's cottage, disturbed by what he'd sensed from the