This story is set in the same "world" as LadyDragon623's stories about werefolk, vampires, fae and other supernatural creatures.

I have her express permission to use the "world" and characters she has mentioned in her stories if I feel they would fit into this story.

Callista Sorrens sat in the back of the bar, watching the crowd on the dance floor and the people near the bar. She'd picked this place and this evening because the sound level was bearable compared to what it would be like on a Friday or Saturday night.

She noticed the tall, yet sleek pale skinned male with long auburn hair as he entered the bar and looked around the place. She'd never seen him in person, but she recognized him as Hamish Thomas from the pictures they had exchanged through their phones a few days ago.

Hamish continued to scan the room, then spotted her in the small booth near the back of the room not far from the bar's tiny office.

To say that he stalked toward the table where she was sitting would be an understatement, he was damn near on the prowl.

She chuckled as he approached the booth, then waved him over and told him to take a seat.

Hamish would be her first lieutenant in the pride she intended to form in the next week or so, once the land issue was finalized. What the other people in the bar didn't know was that both Callista and Hamish were werefolk, specifically were-cats, Callista a Bengal tiger, Hamish a lion.

Both of them had been watching the various entry points to Seattle, primarily the shipping docks and the rail yards, but they had also talked to someone who had been involved in the trucking industry and knew many of the stopping points they used in the city and the local area.

That someone was the next person to enter the semi-dark interior of the bar and they also took a moment to look around the bar.

Callista nodded, then waved enough that the new guy noticed and made his way to their booth, taking a seat next to Hamish.

"Heya, Paul, what can you tell us?" Callista was a rather brusque person, especially when it came to doing business in places like this one.

Paul Fielding shrugged, then spoke, "My friends in the industry have said that there have been a half dozen or so stowaways on rigs coming into the city over the last three months, stowaways who were able, without any tools present, to rip open crates and steal food items.

"I actually went so far as to verify the remarks, getting nods and confirmations from seven different drivers and some of their partners."

"No tools to use, but strong enough to rip open heavy wooden or even steel crates? Damn, that's bloody strong!" gasped Hamish.

Callista nodded, then asked, "Is it possible that anyone might have connected that strength to the stowaway in each case being a were?"

Paul sat there, thinking for a minute before he replied, "I'm not sure, honestly, Callista. They might have thought each one was just a big guy."

Callista nodded again and enquired, "Have you managed to find any of the stowaways from these trucks?"

Hamish shook his head, he was still surprised at what he had heard, "What about the ones that came in on the ships over the last six months?"

Paul sighed, then answered them, "I've found some of the truck stowaways, they were hiding in an abandoned warehouse not far from the location where the drivers pulled off to secure rooms for themselves before making the actual deliveries on those nights.

"As for the shipboard ones, I don't have any firm info, but a dock worker I know from the Gulf War said he spotted something like a dozen folks in shabby clothing, some of it almost falling off the person, lurking near a hut that used to be used as excess storage but had been cleared out about five years ago when the dock association contracted with a specific trucking line to have items taken to warehouses in the city.

"That hut is maybe ten feet by fifteen, with a seven foot ceiling at most, made of heavy wood that's been worn down by the years."

Callista smiled for a moment, then looked toward the doorway as a very big man entered, walked to their booth and sat down on the bench beside her. She grinned and hugged the man, then kissed him as she greeted him, "Mmmm, Ed, I'm glad you were able to make it."

The three of them quickly brought Ed up to date, who then added his two cents, "I actually managed to get down on the dockside and wandered around for a few hours in the evening last night. Imagine my surprise when I was approached by several people near that old hut.

"Well, like everyone else up to that point, I had only thought they were people trying to get here from bad situations or some such, based on what I could see of the condition of some of their clothing and the battered and bruised appearance some of them couldn't hide.

"It changed pretty damn fast, though, when the biggest guy in the group actually leaned forward and sniffed in my direction, then growled in a low rumble that was very similar to a large cat before shifting right in front of me into the biggest jaguar I've ever seen anywhere.

"The rest of the group then shifted, also into cat forms but of varying sizes, from not quite as big as the first one down to about bobcat size.

"I found myself surrounded by these folks, who then demanded to know why I was there. I told them it was simple curiosity, then stated that I intended them no harm. In fact, if they were willing to accept help, I told them I knew someone who could find us all a home."

Callista giggled as she looked at him, "I'm assuming you meant me with the finding everyone a home bit?"

Ed grinned, answering her, "Yes, I did, I know you've been working on a deal of some sort for an isolated bit of land for us."

Callista leaned back in the soft leather cushion as she replied, "Isolated is very accurate, the place I'm considering is an abandoned mine with a few shabby buildings that likely wouldn't last through a nasty winter, which we know happens around here every now and then."

Hamish looked off in the distance for a minute or two as the others at the table sat there quietly, then he turned back to look at them as he spoke, "So we take these folks in as members of our new pride, which will likely have its home in the place you mentioned, Callie."

Callista nodded, "If Ed felt it was good to give them that offer of safety and a home, I'll stand by it, Hamish."

Ed snuggled closer to Callista as he spoke again, "I actually heard the stories of a few of those people that I found by that hut. Let me just say that these people felt they had no choice but to leave, they'd lost their homes, their families, everything they had ever known. One was as a result of a huge fire triggered by an earthquake, she was the only member of her family to escape from the ensuing destruction.

"Another was the result of a war between two drug cartels/families, I suppose, and he happened to be in their way. From what he told me, the leader of one group gave orders to "leave no one behind, erase them all from existence". He was out of sight in a field behind a large tree.

"A third was one of only a few survivors after a "crazy" person came into their community on a rampage that left seventeen dead, dozens injured and the crazy person shot by police snipers who took up positions on nearby buildings and determined the best location for the shot.

"The girl in that case, she watched this guy as he shot her two brothers, her father, her mother and her maternal grandmother. She is, to this time, still unsure as to how she managed to avoid being hit by a stray bullet when the rest of her family was dying right in front of her.

"Another was a girl who left southern China after some sickness or other wiped out her family and most of her community.

"A fifth told how she had been abducted almost nine years ago from Hawaii and had been living in a secluded village somewhere in northern Thailand or possibly western Cambodia or southern Laos. She was kept as a sex slave for the people running the place.

"One day, about three weeks ago, she was left unattended for a while and took advantage of it to escape. She ran off into the jungle, trying to get as far away from their camp as she could. How she managed to survive before she was found by someone heading to one of the ports.

"She managed to sneak onto one of the big ships, then hide in a corner of one of the holds throughout the journey to here.

"The other three, one of those being the big one that became the jaguar, chose not to tell me what had brought them there."

Paul still found it hard to believe these people were not like others, but had the ability to change their shapes at will. Yet he had known Callista and Ed for nearly two years now, and he had no reason to doubt what he was hearing, even the shocking tales Ed had just delivered.

Paul shrugged, saying, "I managed to find the group that had used the big trucks to get here and then had hidden in that abandoned warehouse about a mile or so from where most of the truckers had stopped briefly to make their arrangements for somewhere to sleep.

"There were eight people in this group, and I had no choice but to believe what I was seeing when one changed into what looked like a mountain lion and ripped into the half-eaten carcass of a cow. At least, I think it was a cow, it wasn't easy to tell, I didn't get close to it.

"Let me just say that I was bloody shocked, then even more so when another one growled from directly behind me.

"Like Ed did, I mentioned the possibility that they could have a home with you, Callista. I couldn't deny what I had seen, it was all too real.

"I spent a few hours just interacting with them that morning, and four of them told me stories that were similar to the ones Ed mentioned just now. The stories weren't exactly the same, but the fact that each of them had been through some kind of hell to get here was quite clear."

Callista curled up in the corner of the thick leather bench seat, sighing as she listened to what Ed and Paul had said. Each of these people were people like her, people who needed the chance to be able to live without fear of being hunted, harmed or kidnapped.

They needed the opportunity to be able to live wild and free, like the cats that were their alternate forms.