Hunting. Stalking. Finding. Seeing. Silent...I had to be silent, the dark covering me with its blanket of secret, my eyes using what light to aid me in the hunt. I could hear my prey, shifting from foot to foot, not nervous, but almost content in what it did. Male...my nose filling with the testosterone and mating juices from a romp recently. Amazed that they got any sleep once they hit maturity.

Silent...one step in line with the next, the ground under me cold, and unforgiving of a creak. Still, I had been over this before. I knew each groan, each moan, and each creak. Where the supports gave way and where they held firm. It was the rule of a predator to know her territory, it meant life or death.

My prey sighed gently, but it had nothing to do with me, he was still completely oblivious to my presence. Of course, he never sensed me or my companion. He, though wasn't a predator, he was a medicine man, one that liked to stick me with sharp points filled with drugs to keep us healthy. Said our wild sides didn't get enough of the nutrients they needed. Let us hunt the boar, deer, and other animals on planets and we wouldn't need of needles.

My tongue ran over the long fangs in my mouth, a habit most creatures picked up when their teeth hang out of their mouth, of course, even when they didn't, the feeling of smooth length was almost calming. The taste of dinner filled my mouth, a tasteless meat that had come from our last hunt planet side, but hopefully, the next would be soon, locked up on a ship isn't good for one's physique.

A sound made me stop, a merry little laugh that hurt my sensitive ears, the shadows engulfing me as I slid under the steps. Down them came the little machine girl, hair bouncing as the smell of strawberries followed close behind. She rounded the corner and slid inside the disinfectant filled room, the cleanest on my metal home and the only one I had a decent distaste for. Still, we would remain on it for better or worse. Besides, the little girl loved her new home, her new family.

Mouths met as they greeted one another, amazed they had energy left after all the noise from earlier. Still, the medicine man told her he still had stuff to do and then he'd come to bed. She sighed before leaving, her shadow just barely covering my own as she proceeded back up the stairs.

Slowly I emerged from my hiding spot, the medicine man turning from the entrance as he worked over a piece of paper. He was calculating, reading off things he needed when we landed again. None the wiser of my presence as I eased my body into the room, hugging tight to the one wall and the floor.

I could smell his blood that flowed in his veins, hear his heartbeat like the cadence of a drum, and my alert eyes watched the way he fidgeted. His mind was hard at work, trying to get the courage to ask his Alpha for more supplies than he first thought, images of yelling and fighting running over the others...of mating with the girl and maybe starting a family. Pups always made things difficult.

One step....two steps...easy as can be, I can almost touch his hand as it lay at his side. One bite and blood would flow over my tongue, a rich red that made me long for another hunt. Still, as I opened my fanged mouth, I let myself go relaxing into the predator I can become. Just one...

"Batha." I heard my name as I let my long tongue roll over the doctor's hand, sending him into a state of complete shock, my laughter echoing in his head.

'Tag, you're it.' I replied in his head as my sleek body slid out of the room, past Cat who just shrugged her shoulders. One day, he'd learn that I wasn't anything to be afraid of. Of course, that would require me to stop torturing him.....