THE DEFINITION OF PEACE

Chapter 36: A Welcome Visitor

Dawn was painting the sky in rich hues of reds and oranges as Feral drove home. He yawned again.

‘Crud, am I beat!’ He thought as he pulled into his parking spot under his apartment some ten minutes later.

The only thing on his mind when he unlocked his door was taking a much needed shower and going to bed. Locking the front door and not turning on any lights.....he didn’t need them....he began peeling off his sticky flight suit on his way to his bedroom. He’d almost reached the bedroom door when he froze.

A familiar scent lingered on the air. He took a deeper sniff and groaned in pleasure. How had he forgotten she would be here? Smiling to himself, he continued to strip his clothes off as he entered his bedroom.

Laying sound asleep in his bed was Sheara. Her beautiful blond locks were spread over his pillow catching the rising sun peeking through a crack in his bedroom curtains.

Smiling tenderly down at her, he decided not to wake her and turned to the bathroom. Closing the door, he turned on the shower. He sighed in pleasure as the hot water soothed tired muscles. He reached for the soap and began to work it through his coat.

Suddenly there was a draft at his back. Before he could turn, a pair of beautiful arms wrapped themselves around his waist and luscious curves with a pregnant belly pressed against his back.

“Good morning, beloved,” a throaty voice said making his blood heat.

“Morning to you, my love. How was your flight,” he murmured, turning in her arms and depositing a kiss on her forehead.

“It was boring, uncomfortable, and long!” She said impishly, nipping his chin.

“Oh really, then perhaps you need some excitement,” he purred hotly.

“Maybe.....”

It was the longest shower he’d ever taken but he never noticed until the water ran cold.

“Well, that’s one way to douse a wonderful afterglow,” Sheara smirked, ruefully as she shivered, stepping out quickly to dry and get warm again.

“Don’t worry, we have plenty of time to stoke the fire again and enjoy many more afterglows,” he promised wickedly as he too dried then the two of them returned to the bed for more play time.

It wasn’t until nearly lunch time before the two drifted into deep sleep in each other’s arms. Hours passed before they woke sometime after five in the evening.

“Hmm, I’m hungry,” Sheara said, yawning then sitting up to stretch.

Feral’s eyes lingered over her beautiful body as he continued to lay there, totally contented. She smiled down at him then leaned over and gave him a kiss.

“Come on you! I mean it I’m starving!” She insisted, giving him a playful shake then climbed off the bed to make for the bathroom.

Sighing and stretching himself, Feral finally sat up and left the bed to get his cell phone. He called in a dinner order then went into the bathroom after Sheara departed and headed for her suitcases.

When he came out, shaved and ready to get dressed, Sheara was dressed in a comfortable pantsuit and loafers. “I have to get to the office. At least my desk won’t be groaning under paperwork as Steele will have cleared the most important stuff for me since I didn’t come in as planned. He’s turned into an incredibly efficient second in command, much to my pleasure,” he commented as he dressed in a clean flight suit.

She blinked in surprise at his attire. “That’s not your uniform.”

“It is for the hunting I’ve been doing.”

“Oh yes, you told me that. How was last night’s hunt?” She asked as they went into the living room to sit and wait for dinner to arrive.

“We got Hard Drive and, unfortunately, my team got a little hungry so Viper never made to a cell,” he said with a shrug.

She arched an eyebrow at him. “Forgot to eat before going out?”

“Well, I did eat but my teams had been out for hours so.......”

“They were hungry. Oh, Ulysses, that shouldn’t have happened,” she scolded him lightly.

He looked a little chastened, “yeah, I know. In our defense, this was our first time using our primitive forms for something other than hunting food. Trust me, the conditions last night were unusual and I’m surprised we didn’t go into blood lust and take out our companions. I never told the two officers nor the SWAT Kats, just how close they came to being on the menu,” he sighed and shook his head, “our primitive sides are very scary and I’ve learned a valuable lesson. This shouldn’t happen again unless the circumstances cause it, like being attacked and hurt.”

She shook her head in concern. “That’s not very comforting. We’re not supposed to be a danger to our fellow Kats. What happened to you and the others could very well happen to our fellow alters elsewhere. We better warn them or we’ll be treated with as much fear as your omegas are now,” she warned.

Feral’s eyebrows rose. Now that he’d never considered. What she said was very sobering and could very well happen if they weren’t more careful. “I’m sorry, you are very right about that and I could kick myself for not considering it.”

“At least you’ve learned it before it could snowball into a nightmare we couldn’t recover from. It makes me shudder with fear at what could happen to us. We might be exiled from our homes or worse, killed as a dangerous creature,” she said fearfully.

“Easy love. Consider this our wake up call. Since I’m responsible for writing the report on last night’s activities, I’ll just not go into detail about how Viper died. Though, I hate writing an incomplete report, you’re right about the danger. I’m not covering it up but I am going to down play it enough to prevent serious repercussions toward all alters. We’ll just have to learn to ensure we aren’t a threat by taking proper precautions. No one knows what it takes to control our primitive sides but ourselves so its our responsibility alone to insure we aren’t a danger to Katkind,” he said seriously, already thinking about how he’d write the report and the calls he needed to make to all alters.

Sheara relaxed and sighed. She was very grateful Ulysses had heeded her warning. The alternative was too terrible to think about. He was right, though, if this hadn’t happened in a more or less controlled environment, they wouldn’t have learned they had a problem and what she’d predicted would have come true in so many terrible ways.

“Ulysses, I’d be happy to contact the others since you’re very busy and I have nothing to do but sit around,” she suggested.

He smiled at her. “That’s a wonderful idea, Sheara. Thank you. I have to debrief the SWAT Kats at seven and my teams arrive for the evening hunt at eight so I wouldn’t have had time tonight anyway.”

“Good, I’m glad to be of use......oh....sounds like dinner is here!” She said excitedly when the doorbell rung.

“I’ll get it! You go on into the kitchen and I’ll bring it there,” he said rising to answer the door.

She got up as well and headed to the kitchen. She’d made herself a meal when she’d arrived earlier in the day so knew where the dishes were stored. She was setting the table when he came in carrying several bags smelling heavenly.

“Hmmm, smells delicious. Hope you ordered plenty,”she said as she helped him serve it up.

“Of course! Seconds of everything,” he smiled as he sat down next to her and they dug into their food hungrily.

An hour later, he left for the office after giving her a deeply passionate kiss.

“Good luck, Ulysses and return to me safely,” she murmured warmly.

“I will do my best, love. See you later,” he said in parting then left the apartment.

She sighed, checked the time and calculated the different time zones before beginning the many calls she had to make to her fellow alters.

Author’s Note: Yeah, I could have made a very steamy, sex scene but I hadn’t planned on this being mature. It is a bit gory and could be teen (?). Do you think I need to change the rating?