Ka'Cit's Haven (Riv’s Sanctuary #3)

The phekkers moved quickly because of how they walked together.

Other shoppers simply moved out of the way when an impenetrable block was travelling in the other direction.

Was he going mad?

He was sure he’d heard…

But the more he stared at the Niftrills, he noticed the Niftrill in the center didn’t seem to be walking with the others. As a matter of fact, he seemed to be trying to break the formation and head in the opposite direction, to no avail because the others had formed a wall around him.

“—noht whit yoo gahys!”

Phek.

The one in the center squirmed and fought. In the scuffle, and for only a second, he caught sight of something.

A face covering. One like Riv wore.

His entire body froze and only his life organ gave a huge thump.

It was one of the humans; he just knew it.

It wasn’t Riv’s mate, and it certainly wasn’t Sohut’s—Sohut’s Clee-yo was taller than that.

It had to be that other human female.

The one he’d seen only once.

She was a little thing, he remembered, almost the size of a Niftrill.

A glance back down the street to where Riv and his mate were standing, and he saw that Riv’s mate was frantic. She was shouting, her gaze searching, and her eyes were leaking fluid down her face.

He didn’t need to be the smartest Merssi to put together what must have happened, but he didn’t have time to go to Riv to tell him he’d seen where the human was—rather, it seemed, the direction in which she’d been taken.

Without so much of a second thought, Ka’Cit gripped the rail surrounding the stall and launched himself over it, extending his claws to slow himself down as he clung to the side of the building.

Niftrill worked on cargo ships and if they thought she was one of them, they were going to force the human into the ship to fulfill their work obligation. They might not even realize she wasn’t one of them till it was too late.

They weren’t so good in the eyesight department.

He’d have to go after her himself.

5

Ka’Cit cursed underneath his breath.

The Niftrills moved quickly.

He hadn’t intended to approach them, not until he’d seen an opening, but he also hadn’t planned for a human to get caught between them.

He was hoping that once they broke formation at the dock, he could snatch the human, return her to Riv and somehow get back to the ship before it took off.

He still needed to find and speak to that Niftrill.

But there was no catching up to them now.

There’d been no delay before they entered the ship.

No stopping to load crates or boxes, and he realized why that was. This was only the second group of Niftrills working for this ship. There was another group already there who’d done all the loading and unloading before this second group arrived.