Nestan, Linnea, and Dirim’s parents joined the rest of the negotiating party in the large war room near the top of the mountain. It was deep within the thick walls but far from the main living space of the Vilkas, ensuring that the pack wouldn’t overreact to any Draqons walking around their home.

Just as they were sitting down to begin speaking, the heavy wooden doors to the large room opened, and the Katu leader, Debj’an, stepped in. She was in human form and accompanied by a large, black panther and three very uncertain Vilkan escorts. Debj’an wore a black sleeveless dress cut high around her neck, highlighting her golden skin and sharp features.

Gerrit stood, obviously struggling to hold back his surprise at seeing yet another enemy clan inside his mountain, and began to offer a welcome, but the Katu leader held up a hand, silencing him. “I am here in good faith. I have no desire to be involved in the affairs of Draqons or Vilkas, especially should they be engaging in war. However, we have been persuaded to assist in the trading of Kladian young problem here on Kladuu.”

“You have?” Gerrit asked, brows rising.

Nestan felt the Katu leader’s searing gaze land on him. She nodded. “Your friend spoke very wisely about survival to me. After much consideration, I’ve realized he was right. Survival means allying against our enemies. Together.”

All eyes landed on Nestan, and for a moment he wanted to run, to leave the politics to the politicians and return to his small room. However, the prickly shifter who ruled Clan Katu had been kind to him when she could have abandoned them to die. So, he mustered up all his strength and squeezed Linnea’s hand, which bolstered him before he stood.

“Thank you, Debj’an,” he said, nodding sharply at the Katu leader, who stared at him with her glittering, golden eyes.

Linnea placed her hand on the small of his back. It was a simple touch, the sort of thing mates and couples did all the time, and it brought him a kind of comfort he hadn’t expected. Her touch reassured him that he was not the scared boy who grew up under the dominance of a father who outweighed and out-punched him. Now he was the man who had saved a Draqon baby and a human woman and had convinced the elusive Katu to join in peace negotiations.

“We are grateful for your assistance,” Gerrit said, recovering before Debj’an turned back to face him. “I am Gerrit, Alpha of Clan Vilka, and I welcome you to our home.”

As everyone sat around the large, wooden table, Nestan was struck by the similarities between the Kladians, but tensions in the room ran high. It had been generations since peace existed between the Vilkas and Draqons, and with the addition of Clan Katu, everyone’s awareness of the potential danger was heightened. Should someone here decide to attack, although such a thing would certainly be a death sentence, the leaders of three powerful clans would be wiped out.

Nestan took Linnea’s hand with a grateful smile.

Debj’an took the seat between him and a dumbfounded Maxsym. The panther accompanying her sat on the ground next to her chair, easily seeing over the edge of the table, his large, golden eyes taking in the rest of the room.

Gerrit placed both hands on the table and began speaking without preamble. “Firstly, we need to discuss an issue which has affected all of our clans. While I know meetings like this are usually conducted with much ceremony and pompous displays, I don’t believe any of us are interested in that. My clan and I are distraught over learning that a former clan member, my father’s half-brother, has been engaged in flesh trade and stealing humans from Earth.”

Zayd slammed a fist down on the table. “It’s a Vilka? A Vilka has been kidnapping people?”

Gerrit nodded with embarrassment. “It appears that not only has he been engaging in flesh trade, but has been working with a very high-ranking military official on Earth. We believe he has been selling our trapped young in exchange for the humans.”

Debj’an, Zayd, and Maxsym all began speaking at the same time. Anger and frustration filled the room, overwhelming Nestan with the cacophony of emotions.

“Enough!” Rayner shouted above the fray. “We will get nowhere arguing amongst ourselves. This is a real threat to all Kladians.”

Maxsym leaned back in his chair and interlaced his fingers over his chest. Glittering green eyes looked around the room with a squint. “How do you know this?”

“We have nothing concrete,” Gerrit said.

Before he could continue, Linnea’s soft voice broke through the aggressive energy of the room. “I snuck here aboard a slaver ship.” Everyone instantly fell silent. “I came to Kladuu looking for my sister, Jude, and the only way I knew to follow her was to infiltrate the flesh trade. While I was there, I heard some of Savas’s men talking about an arrangement they had made with Commander Gideon. He’s the leader of the American Corporation’s galactic military fleet. He’s ruthless. Fanatical. And if he’s involved then we have a problem.”

“Gideon,” Zayd hissed. The words sounded like a curse on his lips.

“When I arrived on Kladuu, I witnessed not only the imprisonment of Dirim but also another clan they were working with.” Linnea looked at Nestan for a moment, hesitancy in her eyes.

He wasn’t sure what to say, he was the son of the man who had committed these horrors. He was complicit in them by blood. But he probably knew more about the underground arrangement than anyone else. “Savas has been working with the Hylas,” he announced.

He could have sworn he heard the flapping of wings even though none of the Draqons had shifted.

“The Hylas have always been secretive,” Gerrit continued. “While we were at their city recently, my mate and I witnessed firsthand that they are not only partaking in the flesh trade, they are exploiting those who are sold for sex.”

“How is it we haven’t heard of this?” Maxsym asked.

Gerrit’s eyes were steady on the Draqon Swarm Master. “You’re hearing of it now.”

“If it was known that the Hylas were working with this trader, then such information should have been shared with the rest of the clans,” Zayd said.

Gerrit’s jaw tightened, and Nestan knew his cousin well enough to know that while his skills in diplomacy were well-trained, he was not without a breaking point. Taking a deep breath, Nestan decided that if there was ever a moment to declare himself a man worthy of someone like Linnea—a man unlike his father—then it was now.

“Anything Gerrit may have seen at the Vydal is certainly second to the acts of my father,” he stated, sitting up and straightening his back. Black and golden eyes snapped to him, and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe, but Linnea’s hand in his and his absolute belief that his father had to be stopped kept him speaking. “The Hylas can’t be trusted. They are taking men and women through the flesh trade not only for their pleasures but also for manual labor. The Hylas have been trading with my father since he split from the Vilkan pack six months ago. But I believe it’s been going on for some time before that, and from what I have seen, there’s no reason to believe they will stop.”

“There’s supposed to be a treaty between the Vilkas and Hylas,” Debj’an said.

“There is,” Gerrit replied. “But the Hylas have broken that agreement in more ways than one, and the most important has been their complacency in Savas’s crimes.”

“What’s to be done?” Zayd’s gruff voice scratched across the massive table like an assault. “If you can’t stop your own clan members from committing crimes, what’s to make us believe you can stop the Hylas?”

“That is precisely why you are here.” Gerrit leaned back in his chair. “This is not a war we can wage on our own. The Hylas are powerful, and while they may be untrustworthy, we all are still in need of their assistance in one specific matter.”

Debj’an leaned forward. Her long, black hair fell over her shoulders, and for a moment, Nestan was sure he could see her fangs peeking out from beneath her top lip. “Our young.” The woman minced no words, bringing to the forefront of the conversation the issue no one wanted to face directly. “The clans of Kladuu had been losing their children, and the only clan with any solution has declared themselves the enemy by aligning with a flesh trader and betrayer.”

Gerrit looked at Jude, who nodded and handed him a dark red bag. Rising, he placed the bag on the table. “During my last meeting with the Hylas, they promised medicine for members of our clan who were pregnant, which would ensure their children were born with the ability to shift between the two forms.” He opened the red bag and pulled out three boxes. “However, as the problem we are facing is not only for the Vilkas, we feel it would be wrong to keep this medicine for only ourselves.”

Gerrit opened the box, showing the gray powder which would be used to concoct the necessary medicine. “In the spirit of peace, I have split the medication three ways. I hope this gesture will prove our dedication to Kladians as a whole, not just to one clan versus another.”

Jude stood and took two boxes. Walking around the table, she handed one first to Debj’an and the other to Zayd.

Zayd held the small box in his hands, turning it back and forth as if unsure of what he was looking at.

“What would you have in exchange?” Maxsym asked. The Swarm Master had not shifted position, unfazed by Gerrit’s gesture of peace and betraying no emotion as to his thoughts on the issues of flesh trading, the trapped youth, or the humans.

Nestan took an immediate dislike to the man, sure that someone who displayed such disdain for his Alpha in this moment of reconciliation could not be trusted.

“We ask nothing in exchange.” Gerrit replaced his box into the bag and closed it before sitting down. “We hope that you will join us in defending Kladuu against any human invasion, because if Savas is trading shifters with this Commander Gideon, then there is nothing stopping him from selling our location to the human military. Savas is an enemy to us all. As he is the one with the alliance with the humans, I believe it’s essential we attack his stronghold and destroy the flesh trade before it becomes more firmly established on our planet.”

Debj’an’s hand closed around the box in front of her. The golden hue of her eyes faded and was replaced with a warm brown. “My daughter is pregnant. Your man, Nestan, saved her life. He says you’re not like the rebel Vilkas who live by the cliffs of Sandiv. He tells me you’re honorable. This gesture to split the medicine tells me he speaks the truth. That you would share this medicine with the Katu is more important to our people than any display of power or agreements made in words. But if we are to assist you with Savas, then you must also help us in securing access to the rest of the medication we so desperately need without having to supplicate ourselves to the Hylas. They have wielded power on this planet for too long.”

Gerrit nodded, but before he could respond, Zayd said, “This box means little to me.” Placing it on the table, he pushed it away from himself. “You and your people have been responsible for the deaths of thousands of Draqons. Why should I believe anything you say? Perhaps this is merely the ashes of our people.”

Nestan leaned forward with a growl. “We are not that different. I know you hate us because I hate you. There’s no reason why we should work together. Other than that boy right there.” He pointed to Dirim who had fallen asleep in his father’s arms. “That boy was a prisoner, and I saved him. I don’t need your thanks or empty gestures. What I need is to make sure that my father never hurts another Kladian the way he hurt Dirim again. If the medication doesn’t mean anything to you, fine. If peace doesn’t mean anything to you, fine. But if you care even a drop for that boy and others like him then you will help us stop this.”

His words hung in the air, echoing around the large room with the intensity of his emotions. He was certain he’d spoken out of turn, but when he glanced at Gerrit, he received a wink and a nod. Perhaps the Draqon leader merely needed to be spoken to with the same gruffness with which he spoke.

Suddenly, Maxsym leaned his head back and laughed. It was a splintering sound that broke the tension between the clans. “Zayd, I don’t think I’ve heard anyone speak to you that way since Sotu died.”

Zayd’s face tightened, and his eyes grew blacker, but Maxsym ignored his obvious fury. “You will need a new mate soon. Perhaps this Nestan would be good for you. He has the strength to balance out your bullheaded ways.”

Nestan couldn’t believe that the Swarm Master would speak to Zayd this way in front of other clan leaders, to display such disrespect to an Alpha would be considered treason among the Vilkas. But the Draqon woman who said she was Zayd’s sister-in-law chuckled, and even Zayd seemed to relax at the aggressive admonishment Maxsym gave.

Rayner pulled out a vidscreen and tapped on it, bringing up a holomap of Kladuu. It showed the Sandiv cliffs where Savas lived, the jungles where the Katu reigned, the high snow-capped peaks of the Draqon hive, and the Vilkas’ mountain in the center. “If we are going to attack, we need to do it soon.”

Zayd grunted, and a puff of smoke came from his nostrils. “Then we best decide on a plan of attack. First, we kill this Savas traitor then we shall align against the Hylas. Once and for all.”