Although veterinary technician Carlton is violently allergic to cats, he loves them with an undying passion, enough to tolerate miserable symptoms to keep working with the felines in the San Maribal Zoo. The cheetahs especially fascinate him. Then he meets a mysterious stranger who is evasive about why he’s in the zoo -- nude and after hours! This man tells Carl there’s a cat inside him wanting to get out. That sounds really crazy, and the suggested way to make it happen even crazier ... but exciting.<br><br>Zyl is a member of the ancient shifter tribe, or Were-Kind. His people are working to enforce humane treatment of animals and save endangered species. Hearing of a planned raid by an extreme animal rights group to free the denizens of zoos, they realize this will a real catastrophe. Joining forces with regular humans to avert the problem will mean “coming out” as the powerful beings they are. Again, a potential disaster.<br><br>Attracted to Carlton against his better judgment, Zyl teams up with the vet tech he meets under awkward circumstances only to discover a valuable ally and a soul mate.

Catastrophe

He’d expected to learn his next task tonight as he passed along what he’d found out so far from the other cats at the zoo. Each species had a kind of universal mind, where every member had a slight telepathic link to all the others and to the group as a unit. They were worried. At this zoo, while none of them were mistreated, captivity still chafed. They missed distant homes and contact with the rest of the dwindling numbers of their kind.


As he sped along, Zyl’s thoughts drifted back to his recent encounter with the human at the zoo. Although he could not pin it down, he sensed something different about the man. The stranger seemed to see, hear, and notice far too much.


Chapter 4