CHAPTER 1

Kris

Keep the Princess safe at all costs.

That was my unofficial mission on the Earth colony planet Lycia.My main mission was to help beef up security and keep the planet safe.But the Prime Regent of the planet, everyone knew, was most worried about his daughter.

That was why I and hundreds of others of the Canis Guard were aboard this transport ship, bound for that planet where humans and lycanthropes had settled five decades ago.I sat by a window, occasionally glancing at the stars outside, but mostly focused on where I was going and what I'd do there.I looked at my data glass, ran a finger over the options and commands on one side, and called up a scan of the planet from orbit—and someone I would meet, or at least get to see, when I got there.

Lycia was a beautiful planet.But the most beautiful thing about it was the daughter of the head of its government.Tara Landon, the blonde artist daughter of the man presently running the planet, looked like her genteel upbringing.She was beautiful and refined, wore her hair long, and seemed to like to wear white, or at least she wore white in every scan I'd seen of her.It made her seem almost like something out of a storybook.The idea of actual "royalty" had been left behind generations ago, when all humans and all of my kind still lived on Earth.What the image of having a "royalty" did, was make it seem that much more romantic to come to settle and live on a planet light-years from home.

I swiped my screen to another section of my briefing, and in place of the images of Tara were old scans from decades ago about the beings who had made the early years of the colony hard.

The Soorns.They came from unknown space where no one from Earth had been because they knew the Soorns were there.We didn't know much about them.Those we had met were nasty bastards and had laid a claim on the planet we'd named Lycia at about the same time as Earth did, and they weren't interested in negotiating.I looked at one of them on my glass:a humanoid-type being with no hair anywhere on its body, pointed ears, and skin that shone like bituminous coal or polished leather.They just had an unfriendly look about them.

Moreover, what the Soorns did was unfriendly.They seemed hostile to everything, not just humans.The Soorns had learned to weaponize the artificial mutation of other creatures.They took animals and genetically engineered them into monsters designed and programmed for battle.The vids that I saw from old skirmishes with them on Lycia showed them with reptilian beasts the size of horses with fangs and claws that could shred opponents' battle armor and dig grooves in the bodies of vehicles.The recordings actually showed these creatures biting people's weapons in two.We Canis Guard, the elite lycanthrope security and peacekeeping force of Colonial Earth, were trained to be wolves without fear, but facing something like that in combat was enough to make the bravest heart shudder just a little.What would they throw at us the next time we met?

I noted proudly, though, that it was the ferocity of the Canis Guard, alongside the human Earth Alliance, that finally saw off the Soorns and left Lycia to be colonized only by Earth.The Canis Guard's motto, I quietly recited to myself, was, Wolves in all body, wolves in all heart.If we turned and ran, it was only to circle back around and do battle again.

For the last five decades, Lycia had watched the part of the galaxy where the Soorns lived.Using long-range telescopes and multi-spectral scanners, they had held that sector under surveillance.They'd begun to find evidence of Soorn ships around lifeless planets and in asteroid belts and Oort clouds of frozen bodies—perfect places to watch without necessarily being seen.They would appear as glints, shadows, and blips, and the way they vanished as quickly as they were spotted, it was only the increased sophistication of Lycia's equipment that had picked them up at all.It became a kind of arms race of surveillance and detection—but it got the attention of the Regency and the Houses of Nobles and Urbans that ran the colony.

That was why Lycia sent for reinforcements, especially new members of the Canis Guard who'd given the Soorns such a fight and handed them their ebony asses the last time.That was where I came in—I and the hundreds of other lycanthropes in our sleeveless uniforms, on our way to Lycia aboard this ship.We were fully expecting the same kind of battle that had been waged on that planet half a century ago.I felt it in the rows of seats around me—my fellow wolf men and women, trained and prepared, set to go into action the minute we made planet-fall if need be.

I swiped my glass to show me just two scans, one of the planet—and one close-up of Tara Landon.And my eyes lingered a bit more on the blonde Princess than the sphere of the planet where she lived.

*****

Like all seats of government, the official buildings of the city of Leto and the property they rested on were meant to impress you with what important places they were. Surrounded by perfectly kept groves of trees, color-splashed and perfectly tended gardens; were shiny buildings of artificial ivory and polished marble, the offices of Lycia's bureaucracy.The lawmaking place, the building of the Houses of Nobles and Urbans, was a grand rotunda on one side of the biggest courtyard in the city.On the other side was a sprawling marble-and-glass, ivy-covered Regency mansion where the Prime Regent and his family lived.Rows of seats were set up in the courtyard with a stage and podium in front of them.The rest of the newly recruited Canis Guards and I sat in those seats with some other members who'd been on Lycia for a while and had been invited to welcome the newcomers.We all looked out towards the podium where the Prime Regent stood.At either side of the stage stood Guards in dress uniform with gold braids across their chests.In other chairs behind him were dignitaries including Martin Brunson, the Alpha Commander of the Canis Guard for this planet, also in dress uniform; other Colonial VIPs—and Tara Landon.

Prime Regent Landon gave his welcoming address to us recruits.Listening to him, I mostly watched Tara.The Princess—dressed in white and warm tones of off-white—looked very refined and just as beautiful as her scans.I could only guess that if I could get closer to her, she'd be even more beautiful. What would she think of me? I wondered.I wasn't vain, but the females I'd been with—humans and lycanthropes—had always liked what they saw in me.I wore my dark hair as long as regulations would allow, almost but not quite to my shoulders, and kept my mustache and goatee carefully trimmed.Females, and some admiring males that I'd met, had always appreciated my looks and my trained, well-worked out body.But what would Tara think?

Daniel Landon, a tall man with threads of grey in his sandy blond hair, finished his speech and stated his appreciation and respect for those of us who had come to join our fellow Guards in what he called "a time of great vigilance for us all."He expressed his confidence in how we would carry out our duties in the days ahead and keep Lycia, the city of Leto, and the colony safe.The part about keeping Tara safe went unsaid, but I noticed her stiffening and straightening up more just then.The Prime Regent was divorced and Tara's mother had left Lycia and gone back to Earth, and Landon supposedly had tried to persuade Tara to go with her.In a way, I was glad that he'd failed.It might have meant that the Princess was stubborn and hard to deal with.But she would be the most interesting thing I'd have to protect.

At the end of the speech, everyone in uniform stood and applauded, and those sitting behind the Prime Regent, including Tara, did likewise.The people on stage stepped down into the courtyard.Now would be the "meet and greet" part of the reception.

As everyone mingled around, I kept my eyes on Tara and her father, who were flanked by those two Guards from the ends of the stage.I made my way through the crowd, shaking hands and making greetings, and in between I kept watching Tara and hoping she might turn her attention to me.Instead, I saw her attention going to someone else.

Through the crowd from the opposite direction came a couple of other Guards who had the Princess in their sights as much as I did.One of them was maybe half a head taller than the other.He had brown hair, lighter than mine, slick but not oily, and a regulation-short growth of beard that showed off his firm, square jawline.He was a no-nonsense-looking sort of handsome guy.His manner said he was a natural leader and was used to being in charge at all times, including private times.With this guy, I thought, a female always knew who was boss—and who would take care of her.

But then there was his friend.This other one had darker hair on his head and just a shadow of growth on his face, and a look that was a little more relaxed than his buddy.He was a bit more boyish looking, the way that people sometimes said I was, but some intuition told me that this guy was always at the taller one's side, that the two of them were a unit, a team.At least that was my first impression about this pair.First impressions can be wrong, but something told me I'd gotten the measure of these two at first glance.I'd spent enough time around other Guards to be able to size them up pretty quickly.

A hand clapped my shoulder.I whirled around to see who was trying to cut in with me for Tara's attention.A smiling reporter with a holographic scanning stick said, "Hey, I want to get some scans of the Princess with some of the Guards.Do you mind?"

Knowing he was no competition, I relaxed.Actually he wanted to do me exactly the favor I needed."Sure," I replied, and let him lead me and a few other guys who were following him to where the Princess and those two others were standing.Her father and Commander Brunson stood by, looking on.

The tall Guard addressed the reporter."Can we help you?"

"Can I get some scans of you and your friend and these guys with the Princess?"The reporter held up his wand-like gadget.

"Better ask the Princess herself," the tall one said.Then he asked Tara, "How about it?"

I thought Tara, underneath the polite graciousness one would expect of her, seemed a little bored and fidgety when she answered, "Of course not.It's what I live for."And she put on her best camera-ready smile."Please, go right ahead.Gather round, guys."

With a hand on her hip and that smile, she was ready for business.So, with the Prime Regent and the Alpha Commander still watching, we all stood around Tara, and I made a point of getting myself in as close to her and the two guys that I'd first spotted her with as I could.I managed to get myself right next to her, with those two on the other side of her.Good job, Kris, I thought.

While the reporter aimed his holographic stick at us and got the shots he wanted, I looked out past him into the throng of other Guards and dignitaries and noticed a server, a thin and nondescript sort of guy, with a tray of drinks, circulating among them.For some reason my instincts zeroed in on him.Maybe it was only that he seemed to have just suddenly appeared from nowhere.But these guys always appeared and slipped away efficiently, not making their presence known except to do their job.I didn't know why, but I had a feeling that if I'd been in my wolf shape at this moment, my ears would have pricked up at the sight of him.

As soon as the reporter was done, he thanked us and headed over to the Prime Regent for another photo op, and the other Guards who'd walked over with us dispersed.I took my chance right then.

Offering one hand to Tara and showing her my own best smile, I said, "How do you do, Princess?I'm Kris Tynan."

Tara shook my hand as graciously as she'd posed for the reporter."How do you do, Kris?"She gestured to the other two Guards, who had stayed right with her."Have you met Subcommander Nick Travis and Lieutenant Lon Black?"

Examining them a little more closely, I noted that they both outranked me.Subcommander Nick had three claws on the upper left breast of his uniform and Lieutenant Lon had two.I hadn't earned my first wolf claw—yet.

"Subcommander.Lieutenant.Good to meet you," I acknowledged.

"Right out of the Academy, then, Kris?" Nick guessed.

"Yes, Sir," I replied."Grateful for the assignment and ready to work."

"Good," said Nick."Fall in line, mind on your duty, you'll do fine."

"We need every fang and claw we can get here right now," said Lon.

"Agreed, Sir," I said.And directly to Tara, I said, "We'll get the job done for you, Princess."

She actually blushed a little bit at that.Nick and Lon watched me addressing her as if they were sizing me up the way I'd done them, which would not have surprised me.With lycanthropes around a female, assuming they were the type to want females, there was always an undercurrent of competition.

Tara took one step away and looked to a spot on one side of the courtyard."If you boys will excuse me, I think I see my friend, the Upper Secretary, over there."She waved, and the three of us looked in the direction she was looking, where a prim-looking young woman stood next to the serving guy, taking a glass from his tray.She waved in Tara's direction.

Waving to the other young woman, Tara said to Nick and Lon, "Please excuse me, won't you?"And to me she said, "Welcome to Lycia, Kris.I'm sure you'll do a fine job for us."

Tara moved off towards her friend.The three of us watched her go, and Nick said to me, "Yes, welcome to Lycia.You will do a good job."

I gave Nick a glance and a respectful nod.I could tell he was subtly keeping me in my place.

Another friendly-sounding voice said, "I'm sorry if you found my daughter a bit abrupt just then.She's a bit restless today."

Coming up from behind Kris and Lon was the Prime Regent himself, flanked by Commander Brunson.I was being addressed by the leader of the planet, the Commander in Chief of all of us, and right with him was the leader of the Canis Guard for the colony!Instinctively, I stiffened up and put on my most formal, respectful air, and I sensed Kris and Lon doing the same.We were in the presence of the two men who outranked everyone.

Nick and Lon made a saluting nod and I did the same.We all acknowledged the two men."Mr. Prime Regent.Commander, Sir."

The Prime Regent was cordial and welcoming."With our present security measures in place," he explained, "Tara is confined to the Regency Manor and not allowed to leave the property, not even with an armed escort.I've insisted on that.My daughter is a very sociable young woman who likes to come and go as she pleases.I don't mind telling you we had quite a bit of a go-round about that.Headstrong young women can put up a bit of an argument when they don't get their own way."His smile was warm and kind, a smile not from discipline but concern.With a whole planet to worry about, as everyone knew, what worried Daniel Landon the most was his little girl's safety.

"It's for the best, Sir," said Nick."We won't let anything happen to her."

I took a glance back in the direction where Tara went.She was across the courtyard, chatting with her friend in front of a row of very well-pruned trees, identical to the row at the far end of the area.Off to the side stood the serving guy, his empty tray tucked under one arm, looking over the courtyard.Everything was normal and sociable…

…until it wasn't.

"What the hell?" I whispered to myself at the sight of the leaves falling from the trees—not changing, just falling.The trees were shedding their leaves like a wolf shedding his fur.Tara and her friend noticed it too.The Upper Secretary looked up into the shower of green from overhead, and Tara held out her hand to catch some of the leaves like a little girl catching snowflakes.I kept my eyes on them while all around me was a chorus of curious voices.

A moment later came a rumbling and cracking sound, and the trunks of the trees twisted and convulsed.My squint turned to a hard clench of my brow.The trees became like a human having a seizure.The fur broke out on the back of my neck as the trees changed their shape.Their limbs turned to something more like arms.Arms!The arms of the trees stretched out like a man coming out of a deep sleep—and there was another evil-sounding crack and rumble as the bottoms of the tree trunks pulled themselves up from the grass and the soil—revealing roots that now moved like legs.Legs!

Tara grabbed her friend and they started to move quickly away from the unbelievable sight of trees that had become moving, walking creatures.The chorus of voices around me turned from wondering to shouting and screaming.Instantly, I morphed into my wolf shape, swapping my human body for my furred canine head and form.All the other Guards in the courtyard did likewise, and among the voices of human alarm were now the growls and yips of dozens of lycanthropes.

Everything broke out into frantic motion.I looked over my shoulder at the far end of the courtyard, where the trees had also transformed and torn themselves out of the ground.They lurched forward like zombies in an old Earth movie, and people scattered.Commander Brunson shouted orders and the Guards all around me whipped out their two-guns—the standard Canis Guard weapon, energy sword at one end, particle beam weapon at the other.I spun around to where I was looking before.The mobile trees on that end loomed over Tara and her friend, reaching out with their impossibly moving limbs and angling down at the two women.Nick and Lon had broken into a run past me and headed right for the Princess.Nick fired shots from the beam end of his two-gun, which burst and sparked off the bark-covered "bodies" that threatened the Princess, while Lon had turned on the blade end of his own weapon and was charging forth with his energy sword raised, ready to slice through any limb that came near Tara.

Behind me, through the din, Commander Brunson bellowed out to people that I wasn't looking at, "You, get the Prime Regent and the other civilians indoors!The rest of you—attack!"

But something else had caught my attention.That server was still over there—talking into a comm unit on his wrist.My wolf hearing, though much sharper than a human's ears, couldn't make out what he was saying in the noise.But then he ran out of the courtyard towards the legislative rotunda—and I could no longer hear what the Commander was saying over my own instincts shouting in my head, Get him!

I took off and wove around panicked humans and my own mates, and tore out into the street just off the courtyard.That server, still carrying his tray, ran towards the big dome of the lawmakers, passing from the pavement onto the grass.Fast as he was, I was still faster, and I closed half the distance between us in seconds, shouting out in my deepened wolf voice, "You!You there!Stop!"

The man looked over his shoulder as I came shooting like a missile at him, but didn't slow down.In another second I got close enough to him to reach out and grab him by the collar.As if sensing how near I was, the server suddenly whipped around and swung his metal tray hard at me, connecting with my head and sending me flying.Tumbling onto the grass, I heard his footfalls speeding away and grunted angrily.I rolled to a crouch and saw my quarry speeding from the grass to the mosaic pavement surrounding the rotunda, and launched myself, growling, back at him again.

He wasn't heading directly for the dome of the legislative Houses.Instead he ran around the arc of the rotunda in the direction of the landing lot.He must have a speeder parked there, ready for his getaway, I guessed.But who was this guy, why was he running away, and where was he going?Just as we came into view of the landing lot and the rows of speeders parked there, I got near my quarry again—only this time I didn't reach out to grab him.Instead I leapt and tackled him.

The fleeing server made an "Oof!" sound as I connected with the middle of his back.He lost his grip on the tray and it whirled away and clattered on the pavement.We hit the pavement, and he surprised me by struggling against me with strength greater than a human—but not as great as my wolf form.We rolled around on the ground and he battered at me with his fists.I growled, a warning that I'd do worse than tackle him if he kept resisting.After another roll, I got him pinned down, and he looked up at me with wild eyes—and in the grasp of my paws, his body changed!

My quarry's pale human skin turned black and shiny.His hair disappeared and his ears turned to points.Not loosening my grip on him, I still reeled back in shock at whom and what it was I had just caught.

"Damn!" I shouted."You're a Soorn!"

He took advantage of my startled reaction and slammed upward with the palm of one hand, connecting hard with my chest, knocking me back on my bottom and giving himself a chance to scramble to his feet.With a long, angry growl, I leapt up again, and before he could break into another run, the hard swing of my paw connected with his face.He landed hard on the pavement and didn't move again.

I stood over the unconscious figure crumpled before me.I licked my chops and whined, studying what I had just brought down, and a tingle went down the fur of my back.

"Damn," I repeated, more softly."You're a Soorn."

Gathering my wits again, I picked up the alien and slung him over my shoulder, and walked back with him to the courtyard.

*****

Entering the courtyard again with the alien over my shoulder was like walking into Hell.Everywhere was thick, grey, eye-stinging smoke.The place was littered with the fallen, flaming limbs of the animated trees, and blasted and splintered pieces of trunks.Guards moved about, slicing their blades through some of the branches.They had set their weapons as torches to cut down their attackers.An animal instinct inside me felt like a pre-sentient wolf in a forest fire.My stomach sank at the sight of those broken trunks heaving and the severed, burning limbs twitching, as if they were the parts of an animal, cut off and set afire.The unconscious figure that I carried should have something to say about all this, once we got him talking.

As if on cue, Nick Travis and Lon Black came striding out of a wall of smoke and stopped in their tracks at the sight of me and the one I was carrying.Their wolf ears stood up and the noses in their wolf snouts flared.

Pointing at the alien, Lon yelped, "That's not…!"

"It is," I said.

Growling, Nick said, "Get him inside the Estate House.The Commander and the Prime Regent are there; they'll need to see this."

I followed Nick and Lon through the infernal place the courtyard had become.As we passed, other Guards stopped, gaped, and whined at what I was carrying.I didn't blame them one bit.

In the entrance hall of the Regency Mansion we found Commander Brunson, Prime Regent Daniel Landon, Tara, and her Upper Secretary friend with a group of Guards who had come inside with them.The Commander was talking to someone, probably the High Alpha Command, on his comm unit, and the Prime Regent held Tara in his arms.She was shaken and I didn't blame her any more than I did my mates outside.But the biggest shock was in store for all of them when I walked in with Nick and Lon—and dumped my prisoner on the floor.

At the sight of the alien, all voices stopped except for the Commander saying something about making a further report later.All eyes turned to the figure at my feet.Tara gasped.

The Princess, surprisingly, was the first to step forward and find her voice."I…I've only read about them.And seen old scans from fifty years ago.He actually is one."She seemed more amazed than scared as she studied him.

Commander Brunson called, "Princess!Be careful; don't get too close!Someone stop the Princess!"

Nick came around me, Lon at his side as always, and took Tara by the shoulders, holding her in place."Princess, you should stay back," he said.

"Yes, don't get near him.You don't know what he could do if he wakes up," Lon warned.

And I silently agreed with both of them.The Soorns had just done an unpredictable thing, weaponizing plant life, and we didn't know what else we could expect from this one.

It was our job, all of us Canis Guards, to protect the civilians of the colony from these bastards.But the uppermost thing on my mind right now—and, I was sure, on the minds of Sub-Commander Travis and Lieutenant Black—was the safety of Princess Tara Landon.

Nothing—nothing—must happen to her.