The human dropped his fingers from his hair. “Nope. I’m just trying to figure out how we’re going to finish this clubhouse to meet the deadline. I kept telling Mr. North that nobody can build something this size in just a few months. We have all the framing up but we still have a lot to do.”

“What will it take?” Slade sighed. He knew the answer already—more money to hire more men to work around the clock.

“I think we’ll make it but just pray for good weather. One bad storm front and we’re screwed. It will set us back.”

“Then what is the problem?”

The human hesitated. “We’ve been having a few issues of really bad luck.”

“Such as?” Slade cocked his eyebrow.

Richard bit his lip. “Someone has been screwing with the site.”

Slade tensed with alarm. “What kind of problems? What is going on? Why am I only hearing about this now?”

“I believed at first the stuff going wrong was just accidental. The crews are working seven days a week in twelve-hour shifts. I thought maybe one or two of them made mistakes because they were tired but it keeps happening. I’m beginning to think it’s not so innocent. This morning one of the guys got hurt because one of the ladders was messed with. He’s fine but we were lucky it broke immediately. It could have killed him if he’d climbed higher or worked on the third level. I inspected the ladder and determined someone purposely damaged it.”

“You should have informed me before now.” Slade lifted his phone. “I’ll send a few officers down there to keep an eye out. That should dissuade anyone from doing more harm.”

“Thanks.”

Slade nodded. He had been afraid something bad would happen. There were groups out there who would enjoy nothing more than to cause trouble. Having hundreds of humans at Reservation invited a way for some of them to sneak onto the property to give them the opportunity to do harm.

“I’ll order more security on all the working sites. I don’t want anyone to get hurt or be killed.” His finger had barely touched the numbers when the office door jerked open loudly. Tiger rushed inside.

“Slade? We have a problem.”

Slade studied Tiger. They had become good friends after they’d been freed from captivity. They had lived and roomed together with other males in a remote motel for the months that had followed until the New Species Homeland had been opened.

“What is it?”

“We’re missing human males.”

“How many?” Slade grabbed his radio, dropped the phone, and rose to his feet quickly.

“There are exactly fourteen males unaccounted for and we’re missing two work trucks. Just as you ordered, we count heads every hour and from last one, that’s how many disappeared. I talked to both gates and they didn’t leave. They are still here somewhere.”

“Son of a bitch,” Slade growled. “Attention,” he demanded into the radio, rushing for the door. “We have fourteen human males in two trucks unaccounted for. Find them quickly.”

Slade sprinted for one of the Jeeps with Tiger following. “Where do you think they would have gone?”

“I don’t know.” Tiger jumped in the passenger seat. “But we’ll find them.”

“Slade?” The voice on their radios spoke.

“He’s with me.” Tiger used his own radio to answer. “What is it?”

“Two trucks passed one of the security guards about twenty minutes ago, heading for the wild zone. It wasn’t questioned because a crew had been scheduled to go work on the electrical system along the security walls out that way. We double-checked and they weren’t sent out there yet. Whoever was spotted there shouldn’t have been in the area without an escort by our officers but the human guards didn’t know that.”

“Shit,” Slade growled. “Trisha is out there.”

Tiger groaned. “Why would she be? It’s not safe. Have you lost your mind? I thought we’d decided to set her up on the top floor of the hotel and have the access limited.”

“Plans were changed.”

“Is there a reason for that? A human has no business out there. The males have marked their territory and wouldn’t welcome her there despite her being female.”

Slade hesitated. “You could say that.”

“What is she doing out there? No humans are allowed inside the wild zone. How did you talk them into allowing her into their territory? They’ve become really territorial and they’d have smelled her pretty quickly.”

“Trisha is carrying my child. She’s living in cabin six.”

“Child?” Tiger gasped.

Slade nodded, punched the gas, and turned the wheel hard. “She’s pregnant by me. Justice sent her here to conceal her from the humans during her pregnancy. Very few of us know of her condition.”

“Son of a bitch.” Tiger seemed stunned. “So you’re going to be a daddy. Shit. You got her pregnant. What did she do to make that happen?”

“It was natural.”

“Shit,” Tiger growled again. “We can get them pregnant? Somebody should have told us that. I guess I better cancel my date with the woman from the city who inspects construction. I sure don’t want to be a daddy too. My life is hard enough to deal with on my own but a mate and child?” He shook his head. “Not interested.”

Slade shot him a surprised look. “I didn’t know you were attracted to humans. I thought you believed they were too fragile.”