tabby

Only the three of us and our parents mattered. No one else registered on my consciousness if it wasn’t job related. Even I was mystified as to why I said anything. It must be the boredom getting to me.
As a panther, I was used to hours spent alone, watching and waiting for my prey to lead me to the next piece of information I needed. But this... sitting on my ass, surrounded by students twenty-four seven, unable to have any peace and quiet, not doing anything to further our case, tested my patience like nothing else.
“I don’t know what crawled up your asshole, but if she wants to be part of FUC, then she needs to grow some balls, right, Arin?”
The corners of Arin’s mouth turned down, and for a moment I thought he would disagree with Bae. But true to form, at least on matters relating to women, Arin shrugged his shoulders. “Agreed. Anyone else would have walked right in and continued to climb like they’d planned.”
I understood their point of view, really I did, but maybe I wasn’t the only one who had their head up their ass. Had they not noticed how smart she was? How, despite being in the tech program, she slunk around the campus like a predator feline? Who cared if she backed away from climbing with them? I, for one, didn’t care even if my stomach had clenched in anticipation of seeing her reaction to Bae’s challenge.
It wasn’t like her refusal was unexpected. Or maybe my brothers-in-arms hadn’t noticed how the students reacted to us? Students that didn’t quiver with fear or move out of our way were too busy throwing themselves at us, trying to get in good with Team Jones, either to score a night in our beds or a spot on our team. Not one of them would have come in and climbed like they would have if my teammates and I weren’t here.
“Besides,” Bae, my brother, reasoned, “we came here to be on our own. Without students. Who cares if we ran off one student?”
Argh. I banged my head against the brick wall. Bae was right. We came to be alone, and any student who would have stayed, outside of possibly her, would have wanted to climb with us, pestering us with questions about their missions. To avoid that, we would have run off anyone. So why did I care if some poor girl’s feelings got hurt? She didn’t mean a thing to me. It wasn’t like I would spend time thinking about her silvery-blue hair or the way her tank top showcased her lush curves. Who cared if she hated us—me? Women were a means to the end for me when I could no longer abstain. Not something to be worried or thought about. Nothing good ever came from a relationship.
“Fuck it.” I jumped to my feet, adjusted the rope through my carabiner, and threw myself over the side of the walling, running down it Aussie style.
“Heck yeah,” I heard Arin shout as I passed him.
Bae fist pumped the air while wearing a shit-eating grin. “That’s what I’m talking about. There’s the asshole Kasim that we know and love.”
I gave him the finger as I bounced past, drawing laughter, which lifted the weight I wore on my shoulders. This was exactly what we needed. A little laughter and some relaxation.
By the time I landed on my feet at the bottom of the wall, my heart pounded from the rush. It was almost enough to wipe the memory of the hurt on the pretty pussy’s face, but not quite.
“Coming down.”
I looked up to see Bae and Arin race down the wall.
“Race you to the top,” I shouted and began the climb again, knowing that even with my head start, I’d have to boogie if I wanted to beat Bae and his Asian black bear genes.
After an hour of climbing and racing down the wall, we called it quits. We wore a sheen of sweat and were breathing hard. Nothing like a good workout to get the blood pumping and the brain firing on all cylinders.
“I’m ready for a fruit and nut smoothie back at the den. Anyone else?”
Bae and I wrinkled our noses behind Arin’s back. Fruit was not what my body craved. Instead, it called out for a large juicy steak, nearly raw. Just cooked enough to warm the meat and leave some grill marks. Yum. But Arin loved smoothies and always tried to entice me and Bae into drinking them, telling us how good they were for our bodies. Oh, the joy of being teammates and roommates with a health nut. “Fine, but only if I can have a steak with it.”
Arin grinned and stuck out his fist. “Deal.”
The night air raised goosebumps on my skin as we meandered through the campus back to our den. The crispness of the air filled my lungs, making me feel alive. Even in my human black skin instead of my panther fur, I blended into the shadows during the day, but it was at night I excelled, putting my stealth into action.
“Any idea when the code will be broken on those files we found?” I asked Arin. While we were first and foremost FUC agents, Arin also had some computer skills, making him our de facto tech guy. FUC kept offering us a permanent one, but we declined at every turn. The three of us were a team. That was it, end of story. No one need apply.
Arin slung his arm around my shoulders. I ground my teeth but didn’t shrug him off. Even after years of knowing Arin, having someone who wasn’t of my immediate adopted family touch me still made my skin tingle and itch. A predator through and through, I preferred to be alone... or at least on the outside looking in.
“I don’t know, but I’ll bug Mr. Silva again tomorrow when I’m in the tech lab.” The disappointment and frustration in Arin’s voice only added to