“Yeah, he’d yield. He was a bad cut of steak left on the open grill too long, though—the general’s teeth wouldn’t be enough to do the job.”

“Do I smell like wild places, still?”Sergei laughed softly and ruffled his hair. “I’d have to compare. And monitor that. Refine my assessment over the next years…”“Ranch has plenty of spare dung. I’ll be sure to roll in it regularly.” Teeth scraped his arm, nipped his skin gently.“I always knew the Alliance was decadent. I intend to see just how decadent.”

“What is it about humans that make us so prone to prejudice?”Blue arches one of his unnaturally colored eyebrows and looks up to meet my gaze. “If we didn’t form prejudices, we wouldn’t be learning from our environment, you dolt. It’s an animal instinct. If a porcupine’s quill gets stuck in your hand once, you won’t be likely to go grabbing it again soon, right?”

“Me and my insatiable curiosity. If there's any justice in the world, I was a very good cat in a past life.”

“The woman trembled, eyes wide as she stared at the bluff. Her teeth pressed against her lower lip hard enough he wouldn’t have been surprised to see blood. Devyn recognized the building hysteria. His chest tightened; he’d seen like expressions all too often and it opened a raw, bleeding hurt in his chest.”

“Do I wish you would’ve left him a long time ago? Hell yeah. But there’s something to be said for someone brave enough to take on that kind of darkness alone.”

“If you do the job badly enough, sometimes you don't get asked to do it again.”