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scarred,
the Beast, not the mellow, healed Shareem sitting before them.
    That is, Calder was somewhat mellowed. He could still
be unpredictable.
    Like now. Calder stood, pulling Katarina up beside him, and
started to leave without a word.
    Katarina smiled as she looked back. “Nice to meet you,
Elisa.” She waved before Calder more or less dragged her out of the bar and
into the night.
    “Don’t mind Calder,” Braden said to Elisa. “He was a lab
experiment gone wrong. Makes him touchy.”
    Elisa’s brows drew together in that cute, puzzled look.
“What does that mean, ‘a lab experiment gone wrong’?”
    “It means he spent an awful lot of time alone,” Braden said,
his humor fading. “Way too damn much time, until Katarina came along. I love
her for what she’s done for Calder, I truly do. But Calder’s still not much for
etiquette. Or crowds.”
    “Speaking of crowds.” Ky wrapped his arm around Brianne
again. “Let’s get the fuck out of this one.”
    Ky’s eyes were still blue from that spectacular kiss with
Brianne. Ky wanted to go home and fuck, with both Brianne and Aiden.
    Braden didn’t really understand that threesome, but it made
them happy so Braden lived with it. Besides, a happy Ky was a hell of a lot
easier to put up with than Ky pissed off and lonely.
    There were a few more Shareem-human couples. Rio and Nella
lived now on Ariel, a planet much more forward-thinking than Bor Narga, that
was for sure. Nella had sneaked Rio off with her, risking arrest, because while
Ariel had no problem with Shareem, it was still illegal to take them off Bor
Narga.
    Braden guessed the Bor Nargans feared some other planet
might propagate a Shareem army or something stupid like that. Bor Narga was
ruled by paranoid, frigid bitches. How Brianne managed to be so loving coming
from that family, Braden didn’t know.
    Rees and Talan kept to themselves a lot, for which Braden
didn’t blame Rees. Talan was gorgeous and willing to experiment with Rees.
Research was never so good.
    Rylan and Maia lived in the back of beyond, out in the
mountains beyond the sand sea, where Rylan made singing spheres. They hid out
there because Maia was Shareem—the only female ever created. Rylan didn’t want
to risk her getting caught, and Braden was good with that. DNAmo had given Maia
a rough time, and then there was her whole twenty years in suspended animation
to get over.
    Eland and Jeanne—they’d met right after DNAmo had fallen,
and had been partying together ever since. Fun kids.
    Aiden and Ky left, both with arms around Brianne. Heading
home for some satisfying heat. Good luck to them.
    This left Elisa alone with Braden. A damn good situation.
    Elisa trained her brown gaze directly on Braden. “Now that
everyone’s gone and we can speak freely,” she began in her soft librarian
voice. “Please tell me, Braden—why were you looking up details on cargo
transports on my library computer?”

Chapter Four
     
    Braden didn’t move. Even his eyes didn’t flicker, but Elisa
sensed she’d thrown a question at him on which he hadn’t been instructed how to
answer.
    Did he think she hadn’t paid attention? Elisa knew every
single thing that went on in her library, who looked up what and when and for
how long. Braden had come in there for more than research on his friend’s
singing spheres, and she wanted to know what.
    Patron privacy was one thing, but she refused to let her
library be a hub for someone else’s schemes. Shareem weren’t supposed to be
able to break the law. They were docile, tame, nonviolent. Unable to commit
crimes or break rules.
    But she was learning they would bend the hell out of the
rules when they wanted to.
    Braden’s shoulder brushed hers as he shrugged. “You pulled
up the data for me, remember? It was about singing spheres.”
    True, and the answer worked around the lie.
    Elisa turned her glass on the table. “I had a call last
week, from the Ministry of Transport. They told me they’d