Rebel Kato (Shifters of the Primus Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

not looking even more bashful, I focus on the indignity of the whole experience and let myself wear the anger on my face instead. Seriously though. He claims me? What kind of bullshit is that. He’s going to be claiming a swollen pair of balls if he doesn’t figure out how to talk properly to me.
    I growl under my breath. Angry thoughts. Think angry thoughts.
    I spare a glance at Kato, realizing how much of my thoughts must be showing on my face. His grin is even wider, his slightly pointed canines showing. I realize I am repeatedly smoothing a loose strand of hair and force myself to stop.
    I look out the window and see clouds and. . . A tree? I’ve watched a lot of movies from old Earth, and I know there were no trees this big. The top of the tree is a wooden bowl that points up to the sky. Some sort of green liquid pools in the top, catching the sunlight. I crane my neck, looking down. There’s nothing but a few of the scattered trees, fading farther from view until their bases disappear in a blue fog of atmosphere. How big are these things?
    When we’ve landed and the hatch opens, I’m greeted by a sight more alien than I could have imagined. A twisting series of wooden bridges and platforms stretches as far as I can see in every direction. Bits of cloud float beneath and above us. The trees are like pillars meant to keep the sky from falling; no matter where I look, I see only the ever-climbing expanse of branches and twisted root-like structures that web between them. I’m met by an immediate sense of vertigo, having never experienced heights on the ship and especially having never seen so much open space.
    I feel myself totter backwards but someone cradles me to their body. Kato. He gently straightens me and when he’s sure I have my balance, he releases me. “Welcome to Jektan, capital city of the Umani Clan.”
    I see shirtless and even nude Umani males swinging on vines between buildings above and below me. A few platforms away, two males hack another down with curved blades. When they finish, they pick up the pieces and toss them over the edge of the platform as casually as if they are throwing away trash.
    Kato puts a hand on my shoulder and leads me forward. We move to the outer edge of the wooden platform we landed on. Kato grabs me tightly by the waist and then smirks.
    I hear Mira gasp as a warrior grabs her as well.
    Without warning, Kato leaps from the platform and into the clouds.
    Unfortunately, I scream like a little girl. My hair whips and the wind rages in my ears. It feels like my stomach is somewhere back on the platform where we jumped off. My legs are kicking wildly. And then I see Kato reach forward and grab what looks like a vine. A normal vine like the ones I’ve seen in vids on Earth would have snapped under our weight, but this vine holds. Somehow, Kato holds too, despite what must be one serious case of rope-burn.
    We slow to an only mildly terrifying speed and then he kicks his legs and we are flying forward and falling again. Trees blur upward as we fall, branches whipping past us, sometimes dangerously close. Somewhere in the distance I hear Mira screaming too. Just when I’m about to puke up the ration cubes I had for breakfast, we swing from a vine and come to a soft landing on a wooden platform. It’s carved with ornate symbols and inlaid with a sparkling green metal.
    My hair's a mess and I feel my head spinning. “You guys have space ships but haven’t figured out elevators yet?”
    Kato grins and gestures to a perfectly normal looking elevator attached to the nearest tree. I swat at him, surprising myself a little with my boldness.
    He laughs. “I like a female with fire.”
    My anger melts away a little bit when I see the way he looks at me. Just a little, though. I still want to hit him a few more times, but I think it would hurt my hand more than it would hurt him.
    While he leads me toward a wooden building bigger than any I saw during our fall, I start to think