I NEED A HERO (𝓒𝓞𝓜𝓟𝓛𝓔𝓣𝓔)

CHAPTER THREE

Tau Zuberi had made his way to Sekani Prass' official vehicle. While she finished tying up the loose ends of the mess that had so nearly ended badly, he slid into the passenger seat and waited, mentally recapping the events leading to this moment.

It had only been thirty-six hours since Tau had arrived in Simaliki. He had intended to contact Sekani Prass the morning after he arrived, but as he was grabbing breakfast from a vendor he had caught sight of a Hrax thug that he had seen in the Roki capital. As the punk was connected to the case he had come to Simaliki to follow, there was no way he was going to ignore such a fortuitous event - he had gone into surveillance mode and followed the Hrax for the next several hours.

As he watched, the thug had collected several companions, including a vicious looking Tav wearing gear that marked him as a probable soldier-for-hire. The parade of criminals eventually led him to the industrial complex and the abandoned warehouse, where they were soon joined by a large number of trained mercenaries. With his quarry inside, he had settled in a high vantage point and pulled out his night vision equipped binoculars to watch, wondering what was going on.

When he saw the car pull in, he thought at first it was more criminals, until he saw them start reconnaissance. A stray breeze brought a whiff of scent - female, exotic and sweet - that had his whiskers flicking forward in interest. After a few moments, he recognized a familiar nuance in their formation and actions that had him checking their vehicle more closely, unsurprised to find unobtrusive emergency lights. Who had called the cops, he wondered?

He waited. His presence here wasn't in an official capacity and would only complicate matters. So he continued to watch as one figure scaled the side of the building - certainly cat, most likely Tav. Again came that enticing whiff of female. As he watched her creep across the roof, he had to admit that she was extremely proficient. Something else was tugging at him, but it wouldn't settle enough for him to get it.

He saw the other cop - a Mota - come around the corner, and make for the open dock door. He moved his attention to the one on the roof, crouched by the skylight. A tingle of alarm set his hackles rising, and he caught the multiple lines of the laser sights converging on the man in the dock out of the corner of his eye just as the woman went crashing through the skylight.

As the firefight erupted he realized finally that it was a setup - a deliberate ambush to draw the police officers to their death. He had come out of his crouch with a roar and had been immediately slowed and frustrated by the necessity of climbing down from his vantage point. Reaching roof level he ran for the warehouse, jumping to the roof and sprinting for the other skylight at top speed. He had dropped into the fight full on enraged.

The fight was a bit of a blur, due to his high adrenalin. When enraged a male Roki operated mostly on instinct and gained greater strength and a higher pain threshold. Even severe injury would not slow them. But even in that state, he recalled enough of the woman's actions to appreciate her strength, courage and fierceness. It was not until the abrupt end, as he stood and let the adrenalin drain away that he found himself staring.

She was beautiful, from the tip of her neat wide-set ears surrounded by sleek coffee and cream hair to her tawny dark spotted coat and her long elegant tail. Not only was she slim, strong and graceful but also - wonder of wonders - at least six feet tall. He stood, staring and waiting for his breathing to slow, drawing in her unusual, exotic, enticing scent with each breath. He was still a bit out of it when she called off the cop from arresting him. Thanking her was automatic, her reaction was puzzling.

Obviously he had gotten off on the wrong foot, but he was not certain just how. Perhaps he had been too informal. Yet she didn't seem, even on minimal acquaintance, to be a stickler for such things. It was a poser, but it was the type of thing he would have normally let go, chalking it up to experience, except for one thing - every instinct he possessed had gone into full alert for this woman - and that had never happened before.