The people of Sha-Ka-Ra were used to them wandering in and out of their town, and found it amusing that their shodan had managed to domesticate such a wild breed. All of which wouldn't matter to his lifemate, whose disbelief stemmed from a different reason. He still had to try.

"Shank belongs to my sister," he told Brittany. "She raised him from a baby when she was but a child herself, so he is completely tame."

"If he's hers, what's he doing here?"

"It was a game from when we were young. I would lure him here with treats so she could not find him. It became a habit with him. He still comes here expecting treats."

"I-I hope you had some on hand to give him," she said, her voice still apprehensive.

"He is content with petting instead."

He sat down cross-legged on the floor next to the fembair. It immediately curled its large, supple body around him. He scratched behind its ears, under its chin. Purring began immediately.

"Come here," he told Brittany. A glance at her showed that she was adamantly shaking her head. "Come here," he repeated in a tone that would have made any Sha-Ka'ani woman jump to obey, but not his lifemate. "We are going to remove your fear of this feline," he explained more calmly.

"Just remove the cat instead," she suggested.

Martha scoffed at her. "You think it's an illusion. Since when can illusions hurt?"

That caused Brittany to frown. Dalden took advantage of her confusion to point out, "Can you not hear the sound of his contentment?"

She couldn't help but hear it purring so loudly it rumbled about the room. She abruptly left the bed, marched determinedly toward him, and squatted down next to Dalden, though still several feet from Shanelle's pet. He unbalanced her, and tugged her into his lap to bring her closer to Shank. She still didn't take her eyes from the fembair, not once, and her body was stiff with fear despite her determination. Courage his woman had, to charge ahead, fear or not.

He took her hand, guided it to the top of Shank's head, and left it there. She didn't pull it away. And having touched the animal, she now wanted to examine it fully. She lifted the heavy head, stared into the big blue eyes, measured the length of the two four-inch fangs.

"Sabertooths are extinct," she finally said in an awe-filled voice.

He knew not what she was talking about. Martha did and merely replied, "On your planet they are."

"Nor did they ever grow this big," Brittany said.

"Careful, doll, or you might convince yourself you're in a new world."

Brittany made a low growl and shot to her feet. "I know what you've done. You found this place and have somehow kept the rest of the world from hearing about it. What is it, something in the water here that makes the people and animals grow exceptionally large? Or genetic engineering? Have you actually tampered with nature here?"

Whether he could have answered her or not, Dalden knew those questions weren't for him. Whenever she came up with a new nonreality, it was Martha she accused with it. Never him. To accuse him would mean she would have to discuss with him her disbelief.

They had both been reluctant to do that, to "rock the boat," as Martha would put it. But perhaps it was time for that boat to sink. It was becoming painful, knowing that although she wanted to be with him, she wanted to be with who she insisted he was, not who he really was.

He needed advice from someone who had long dealt with an off-worlder.

He went to find his father.

« ^ »

"WHERE'S HE GOING?" BRITTANY ASKED MARTHA WHEN Dalden abruptly left the room.

"Probably off to kill something. Warriors tend to do that when they get frustrated."

"Something?"

"Don't Sound so horrified, I was joking. But you, my girl, are going to have to start looking at this from his point of view. Every time You scoff at something we show you, you are scoffing at him. Every time you Come up with One of your excuses, you're saying he isn't real. How do you think that makes him feel?

"If he's brainwashed into believing all this, then it probably upsets him, but that's your fault, not mine. If he's just a really good actor playing his part, then I'll allow he might be frustrated that he's not convincing enough. But if you people would just figure out already that I'm never going to be convinced that you've brought me to another world in another star system, then he and I can both stop suffering with feelings we don't need to be feeling."

A big sigh. "Do you really want to be taken home and never see him again? Not that he'd allow it, but is that how you see this ending?"

"Why does that have to separate us? You admit the truth, I hopefully agree it's a necessary project for some greater good, and he and I can still be together-can't we?"

"The females in this society live with the males, not the other way around. For you to have him, you have to live here, in his world.

"Oh, I get it. Nothing else has worked, so now you're going to, to try using him specifically? The emotional angle? If I don't fall in line I lose him?"

"Your blood pressure is rising, kiddo."

"I have normal blood pressure!"

"Amazing how you humanoids can work yourselves into a snit without even half trying, and all on your lonesome. It makes my heart bleed, watching the way you struggle with so many conflicting emotions."

"According to you, you don't have a heart to bleed."

"Sector burn then, same thing."

Brittany made a sound of disgust and turned away from the door Dalden had left through. She didn't know why she continued to talk, or rather argue, with Martha, a faceless voice. The, woman put new meaning into single-mindedness. Either that, or she was the head honcho in charge of the whole project, and everyone else was just window dressing.

Come to think of it, Dalden had never really tried to convince her. He was just there, to comfort and soothe, to distract, to keep her mind off chaotic thoughts, to give her some peace. And if that, was going to change now, she imagined she would go nuts within a month.

She finally noticed that the "prehistoric monster" was still in the room. God, it was too huge, as big as a horse. But she knew that genetic engineering could double the size of a creature.

Could it be done again? And again? Until the result was something monstrous like this? Yet it was beautiful, sleek, well-proportioned, and probably graceful if it didn't have slippery floors to deal with.

Ironically, she really liked cats. She'd had several as pets when she was a child, and had one the apartment when she first moved in, until it escaped out the door one day and never returned. That Jan turned out to be allergic to them was the only reason she hadn't gotten another yet. But she had planned to get a whole menagerie of them when she built her own home and had more room. But this one wasn't natural: it was a freak of experiments-or nature. And those fangs…

"Now you're being silly," Martha said, monitoring Brittany's edging backward away from the cat. "If that animal was the least bit dangerous to you, Dalden wouldn't have left you alone with it."

That was likely very true. He did seem to put great importance in protecting her. She decided she could safely ignore the beast.

However it was created, it probably was a pet like they claimed.

But then Martha added, "There are more than just this one roaming the castle. Tedra and Challen both keep them as pets as well, so you'll come across more of them. Try not to run the other way when you see one coming."