Bad Penny
--The Prologue Penny broke away from curling her eyelashes to turn up the volume on her stereo. A heavy, repetitive beat thudded from the tinny speakers. Her brother had gotten her into hip-hop, and so far, it was her favorite kind of music yet....
Reconnect Part IV
The silver Lamborghini entered DeKalb, Illinois, just past midnight. Veronica was the driver, her husband dozing in the passenger seat. Her blue eyes shifted focus to the GPS display and then back to the road. DeKalb was nearly a ghost town at this...
Pull Your Weight
_If you would have done the work, it wouldn't have come to this, Alan._ Alan hated to think that Coal, husky dog and tenured professor, was right about his failings. In more paranoid moments lying in bed, Alan suffered the idea that Professor Coal...
Her Son's Pokemon
Cleaning up after a teenage son was no mean feat. Johanna was used to the effort and didn't mind it very much; the company was nice. A widow since just after the birth of her son, she had never remarried, instead dedicating her life to her boy. When he...
Strictly Business Part II
Areum looked over the mockups with what seemed careless glances. No detail escaped her, but she had such an eye for quality that she could analyze media with a computer-like quality. She set down the tablet, folded her paws over her lap, and nodded...
Ryan's Sweet and Sour Experience
The truck rolled smoothly onto the lot, its engine only idling. The gray-chinned wolf behind the wheel backed the trailer into the loading bay and stopped with four inches of room left. There had been a time when backing up a trailer seemed impossible....
Crudux Cruo
The Hall of Epiphany. Desmond had been here before, but not in the flesh. The voice of the Dreaming God, Tchernobog - it commanded him firmly yet with what Desmond could interpret only as a godly love to come, and in his dreams he saw glimpses of the...
Paying Dues
The smell inside of the tour bus had been a mildly musky, male smell with a touch of housekeeping. Pine-Sol on the vinyl floors, Febreeze on the bedding and carpet, but still noticeably male, the smell of Kahnso and his masculine musk. In sharp...
Bet Your Ass
Santiago muscled past Tamati on his way to the fridge. Purely domination, and Tamati knew it as well as Santiago did. What excused it was the grin on the dog's face and the grin the fox gave back. Friendly competition with a side of testosterone...
Sunny's Seat
Sunny was a celebrity, but he never expected to be recognized at a grocery store. At least, not openly. The people who watched his streams were very loyal and thirsty, but usually too shy to actually greet their hero face to face. That was why the...
Reconnect Part V
Kahnso's eyes opened in the dark. For a moment he believed he was back in his own bed, that the road trip consuming the last few days had been only a dream. His wife was snuggled beside him, a warm bulk in the cool bedroom, her snore familiar and...
Grass and Ass
The stench of pot was hardly the worst smell in the bathroom. Diego thought it actually improved things a little bit in there, but Diego tended to think pot improved most situations. It made stressful moments calmer, made calmer moments downright...