Chimera and the Cat Burglar (FUC Academy #46)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Willy Tagger had never been more hissed off in his life. Okay, he was being dramatic, but as he strutted across the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy’s auditorium floor, he knew he didn’t deserve his dedicated seat on the right side of the front row. It was within arm’s reach of Boo Bombay, the sexiest feline shifter he’d ever laid eyes on, who just happened to be the high-school sweetheart that he’d ghosted.

It had been a dick move. Now, she wouldn’t look at him, and he deserved that. But her ramrod spine and the object she was clicking inside her pocket proved her irritation and let him know she’d spotted him.

He swiped a bead of sweat from his brow.

He was her hated ex, her nemesis, and the one person she’d claw apart if she could. At least, he’d imagined how much she loathed him a hundred times.

He jiggled his leg to the tempo of “Back to December,” which he sang in his head, remembering when he and Boo were a couple, a past that he’d ruined and one he shouldn’t be focusing on. His Academy graduation hinged on him passing Forensics 101, in which he currently held a D on a good day.

He squirmed against his restrictive seat. No matter how he tried, this close to Boo, he couldn’t peel his gaze away from her mocha glow while thinking about what she’d been up to these past four years. Her cat-shaped, lime-colored eyes tempted him to stare. Even if she wouldn’t acknowledge him with much more than a subtle turn of her head.

She’d matured, rounded curves replacing the sleek angles of her youth. For certain, she was beautiful before, but now, even more so in his eyes.

Did he smell vanilla, bergamot, and jasmine perfume?

His heart squeezed though he pushed any rising feelings down. A relationship like the one that had been stolen from them was as moot as dead, fallen leaves and pruned apples returning to skeletal trees.

Still, he took in every nuance of her body. The cat shifter wore a Marty McFly jean jacket over a leopard print dress, the material shimmering from the overhead lighting. She’d cinched her hair into a neat bun, and he trailed his gaze down the length of her body. Her black ankle boots gave her a kick-ass appearance and did all sorts of twisted things to Willy’s otherwise nonchalant facade.

Doomed. Yep, she was distracting to the point of failing the after-discussion quiz.

Luckily, Willy had escaped bumping into Boo over the past four years, and he cursed his acute scenting abilities, which homed in on her lip-licking pheromones.

The microphone squealed, pulling Willy out of his reverie.

“Welcome, cadets. We’ll get started as soon as Agent Zeb Earhart arrives.” Llama shifter Alyce Cooper, the director of the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy—FUCN’A for short—stood at the podium, rapping manicured nails on the microphone’s neck.

She wore a lavender skirt and a white top, highlighting her ebony skin. Her updo and immaculate edges framed her face. Her intense gaze highlighted the intelligence Alyce was known for.

Willy held the highest regard for his mentor and sat taller.

Boo shifted in her seat, and the air stirring from the overhead register blew her scent in his direction a second time.

He steeled himself as a wave of heat plunged through his belly and set up shop in his dual dicks. Damn. He didn’t want to allow his experimented-upon body to shift and expose his desire for the woman he’d never stopped thirsting for, even in his dreams. Not that he’d let that embarrassing thing happen. He could control himself.

He crossed his left ankle over his right thigh, proving to himself that he’d mastered his abilities, including preventing his body from succumbing to the effect Boo had on his body and, if he was honest, his heart.

Ba boom ba boom ba boom . His heart ached, and he wished he could turn back time, return to that senior year in high school when he’d fallen in love and thought he and Boo would be together forever.

It was a pipe dream now.

Loving Boo was a once-in-a-lifetime feeling, which he’d tossed aside to become a FUC agent. That was before the jailed mad scientist DIC—Dr. Icabod Crick—had kidnapped and experimented on him. Now he needed to pass Forensics 101, and then he’d charge into his future as an international FUC agent. He’d get out of town as soon as he endured this symposium that had zip to do with his class.

Life was always throwing obstacles in the way of his dreams, which was why Willy wore running shoes and was fit enough for hurdles.

“Please welcome FUC Agent Zeb Earhart.” Alyce clapped.

The crowd mimicked her excitement and welcome, including Willy, who slapped his palms together a few beats.

If Alyce gave an order, Willy wasn’t about to challenge the llama shifter. She’d been responsible for saving his life once upon a time. Also, a FUC agent rarely shared an artifact before delivering it to its museum of origin, in this case, the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Willy could only hope to turn his interest in historical finds of the furry kind into reality. He was, after all, a history buff, spurred on by movie characters like Indiana Jones and Nathan Drake.

“If you’ll all take your seats, we’ll get started.” The only unruly thing about the impeccably dressed agent was the mass of waves on top of his head. He placed the cloaked item on a raised pedestal and hovered his hand over the scarlet velvet cover.

Willy studied what lay hidden beneath the cloak. It was two feet tall and cylindrical. He tasted the musty sands of forgotten caverns, shivered from the chill of underground tombs, and felt the heart-thudding excitement of finding an artifact like the one sitting center stage.

As an experimented-on gorilla shifter—colloquially called a Lump, although Willy preferred chimera—he had heightened senses similar to felines, like detecting movement in low light, an acute sense of hearing and smell, and a sense of touch enhanced by long whiskers that protruded from his face and other places when he shifted. It all allowed him to hunt effectively at dawn and dusk.

Those attributes could have brought him further in his forensics class if he’d been allowed by the instructor to use his abilities instead of adhering to required forensic facts. “There are other courses that allow you to embrace your animal side,” the instructor had said. “But in this one, we’re focusing on good old-fashioned brainpower only.”

The agent wasn’t a chimera, but the shifter did possess acute hunting abilities.

Will crossed his arms and extended his legs, placing one ankle over the other. This show-n-tell was all right. His forensic class was the toughest of them all, and a break from the class, or rather from stressing about passing the class, was what he needed to brighten his outlook.

He couldn’t deny that Boo certainly took his mind off the stress.

Failing wasn’t an option, and he wouldn’t accept it.

Not after he’d failed Boo.

She wouldn’t even look at him.

Boo was on the edge of her seat, leaning inward, now fiddling with the stone on the necklace that hung around her neck and focusing on the presentation instead of him.

He wished he was as focused.

The agent adjusted the microphone and removed the cover from the object.

The blinding violet aura surrounding the item forced Willy to shield his eyes, but that didn’t stop them from tearing up. It also didn’t keep his skin from popping up quarter-inch gooseflesh, most likely some genetic attribute DIC had plucked from an avian shifter and injected into his new DNA.

Something was happening to him.

Fuckin’ A.

Willy glanced behind him to the audience. He scented the air, searching for the acrid scent of adrenaline wafting from the other cadets. He turned his ears, listening for increased breathing.

Not a single newbie seemed to be affected like he was.

Well, except for Boo. She grabbed her neck and started hacking as if she were going to yack out a hairball front-row center.

His protectiveness over her sparked, sending an electrical jolt down his spine to his phantom tail. Willy scooted closer to the cadet separating them, nudged the nose-twitching capybara shifter to trade places STAT, and took up his new perch next to his ex. “Do you need water? What can I do to help?”

As if Boo had seen a ghost, her round emerald eyes lit up, and she swallowed hard, looking at him. “I’m okay, and not your problem.”

Willy fought his expression from twisting up at her rejection as she jumped up and headed toward the next row behind him.

He kicked himself for believing she’d want him to be near her or help her. She hated him, and he deserved her ire. Despite knowing this, he still couldn’t help but feel her revulsion also had something to do with the monster he’d become. Sure, he was in full human form now, but everyone knew what he looked like shifted. Although he’d accepted how his gorilla looks had morphed to become more tigerish, he was sure not everyone had.

Luckily for him, his drive to protect Boo didn’t send him into a tailspin. He remained seated, but he watched her out of the corner of his eye as she grabbed a free seat not too far from him.

She’s fine, he reminded himself. She’d survived without him for four years, and she’d be okay after he was long gone, when his dreams of becoming a FUC agent took him to faraway places.

He hung his head briefly before forcing himself to focus on the display.

Zeb tapped on the microphone, testing it before starting the presentation, a wide grin displaying the man’s pride when he held up the artifact.

From where Willy sat, the artifact resembled a golden phallus. However, focusing on the object through the nearly blinding aura, he could make out the legless elongated torso and the dome-headed feline.

“I located the statue inside an Egyptian cavern, and it’s believed to represent the goddess Bastet from the third millennium B.C. It contains feline properties of wisdom, intelligence, and independence, as noted by the intricate hieroglyph carvings.” Zeb pointed to the engraving that marched up and down the exterior.

Willy noticed a heart-shaped divot under the cat’s chin, like something was missing.

Boo raised her hand toward the ceiling. “Is it true that anyone without feline ancestry is cursed after touching the item? Is that why you’re wearing what I suspect are leaded gloves?”

Willy narrowed his gaze at Boo, a memory of her teen years rising. Her family owned the Willow Wisp Museum. They specialized in feline artifacts, so it didn’t surprise him that she’d know unique details he didn’t.

His lip curved upward, and his pulse kicked up.

“I’m wearing gloves to protect the item and can’t verify if it’s magical or cursed.” He glanced around the room, adding a chuckle before continuing. “However, it is rumored that Bastet was the goddess of wet dreams.”

What was with this agent? His comment was lewd, but most agents seemed charmed by him. Worse? Boo seemed captivated by the man who was not only buff but also—if Willy was honest—as good-looking as James Bond and any of the actors who’d played him in the movies.

The crowd’s murmurs turned to giggles just as the overhead lights went dark.

Willy blinked, his eyes adjusting quickly to darkness. He could make out the agent standing beside the glowing Bastet artifact. But as the agent stood, waiting for the lights to come back on, the artifact floated.

What was happening?

The traveling violet aura surrounding the moving statue caught Willy off guard. He realized someone was stealing the artifact. He moved without thinking, without saying anything. His voice lay trapped behind his lips, but his feet were already on the ground, chasing after the suspected thief, who threw open the exit door and bolted into the night.

Willy was close behind the thief. The sound of stealthy footsteps disappeared around the exterior corner of the auditorium. Before Willy could decide whether or not to shift, his body exploded out of his clothes, tiger-like pads landing on the solid concrete walk that snaked around the campus. He paid no mind to his insignificant nymph wings, but he used his puma tail to balance as he gave chase.

The speed of the culprit took Willy by surprise as they skirted the Academy lake at the fringe of the campus. As a Lump, he could transform his head, and he did so now, allowing him to speak. “Stop, thief! Stop now!”

The shadowy figure put even more distance between them.

Willy yowled as he scented the air, inhaling the powerful fragrance of feline pheromones, which had mixed with the sour taste of adrenaline flooding his veins. He realized the statue could be dripping with an intoxicating, mind-controlling scent that had him licking his lips.

The dim lighting from an overhead lamp post cast a brief glow on the figure he chased as they rounded the lake, and the thief disappeared into the row of academy housing.

Close… Willy was so close that gooseflesh blanketed his skin, but he couldn’t identify the robber.

Dodging and weaving, Willy made his way down the row of houses. When he popped out to the other side, coming upon a grassy quad, he thought he’d been given the slip until he spotted depressions in the grass, which he suspected were footprints.

Willy dug his claws against the spongy surface, finding purchase just as a sinister shape darted into his view. The chimera leveraged his hind legs and propelled himself into the air. The thief was within reach.

Willy would be labeled the hero of the day. He would pass his class or, at least, earn credit for recognizing the faintest of clues and his quick-thinking heroic actions, which all FUC agents shared.

He sank his pads into rounded shoulders, and the two tumbled onto the sloped portion of the Academy landscaping. He ignored the familiarity of the womanly figure under him. How her furry curves melted against his when they rolled, her landing on top of him and then the two trading places as they continued down to the bottom of the slope. How he’d missed connecting with another feline shifter, something he hadn’t realized he needed until now.

He retracted the nails that pinned the culprit under him when they came to rest where another walkway met the lawn.

“I’ve got you, thief! There’s no escaping Willy Tagger.”

“What in the rats’ hell, Willy? Get off me. Get off me now!”

Boo?

The moment Boo’s strong yet sweet voice reached his ears, his face heated from embarrassment, and he sat back on his haunches. He held his paws in the air, surrendered to his novice mistake, and quickly transformed into his human form. “I’m sorry. I swear I thought you were the shifter who stole the artifact.”

“Me? I was tracking the thief. I’d have him if you hadn’t gotten in my way.” Her big round eyes took in his partial nudity—the shredded clothes he wore hanging on but covering nearly nothing—pausing on his maleness. “How did you even know it was being stolen?”

He covered himself. Although nudity was a shifter thing, Willy felt, well, vulnerable in Boo’s presence. DIC had changed him in more ways than physical. “When the lights went out, I saw the artifact being lifted and moved.”

“How?”

“I saw the purple aura.”

“That’s impossible,” she breathed. “Only a feline shifter can see it.”

“I’m no longer a gorilla shifter, as you saw. I’m a chimera. I’m more feline-based, more like the big cats, but that may change. Which is why I noted a thief with feline attributes making off with the artifact.”

Boo huffed and smoothed her hair. “Well, you’re not wrong about the thief being feline, and it’s not surprising. The artifact leaks feline scents like toxic catnip. It’s irresistible to cats and cat shifters, but it has other qualities, which, in the wrong hands, could be deadly.”

Willy considered her words. “Well, what other feline shifters were in the FUCN’A auditorium? If we’ve deduced that the thief is feline, then I’d guess the agents have already figured that out, too. All eyes could be on the two of us for stealing the artifact, but I whiffed a smelly cat, so obviously there were at least three—me, you, and the thief.”

Boo hissed as she glanced around the nightscape, a lamp illuminating the quad in gray tones. “We’re key witnesses, but I can’t get involved, and you know why. If anyone finds out about my past, I’ll get expelled, possibly sent to prison. I’ll never prove to my mother that I’m more than a gravedigger.”

He nodded grimly. Willy had promised Boo he’d protect his knowledge of her teenage past, and that would never change. “Your secrets are safe with me.”

A flashlight beam roamed over the duo before landing on Boo’s face. Agent Earhart—Zeb—stood over them, a hand balled at his side, his chest pumping from running, his sharp gaze demanding answers as he asked, “What secrets?”