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Chapter Twelve

"Time Grows Short"

By

Furry Sith Lord

Merrik sniffed loudly as he sat at the boardroom table in an office of C.I.Z.A. Leggo was hunched over his toy tiger from his Tail Waggin Meal. He had grabbed a bottle of White Out and was using the brush to try and paint the tiger white.

Seated around the table were the remaining board members of C.I.Z.A. and they sat in silence as they glared at the mess Leggo was making as he attempted, poorly, to paint his toy white. Leonidas and Layla were the only of the 5 members that were missing.

"Where did you get that?" Merrik whispered nervously as he tried to remain calm as he tried to ignore the glaring looks.

"I found it on a desk and borrowed it. I'll return it." Leggo said as he hunched over the toy tiger and continued to paint the toy as the White Out was being sprayed all over the desk.

"Stop it! You're pissing them off." Merrik whisper shouted but Leggo ignored him. Finally, Leonidas entered with Layla training behind him. They both looked at Leggo and Layle dropped the folders she was carrying then scrambled to pick them up as Leonidas rubbed his temples.

"Who gave him the paint?" Leonidas growled at the board members but they mumbled to each other hoping someone would know the answer.

"He found it," Merrik remarked and this brought more disgruntled murmurs from the group.

"Leggo," Leonidas tried saying calmly as he ground his teeth. "We're going to call your husband... wouldn't you like to talk to him? I'll buy you another Tail Waggin Meal." He said sourly.

"Really?" Leggo asked as he sat up straight and the brush attached to the cap fell on the table causing more of the White Out to spill on it. Leonidas forced himself to smile and he spoke to Leggo as if he were a small cub.

"Of course, but first we need to talk to your husband."

"OK but only cuz I want to show him this." Leggo said as he held the partially painted tiger in his paws and the White Out was smeared on his fingers and pads.

Leonidas dialed a number and Lou appeared on the monitor that hung on the wall for conference calls. He glared then his eyes widened slightly as he saw his husband wave bashfully with paint on his paws. This made Lou cross his arms across his chest.

"Hello Leggo, what have you got there?" Lou asked sternly as he pretended to ignore the others while they were in hos focus the whole time.

"Look, it's a tiger! I'm painting ot white for Tyger." Leggo replied proudly.

"Amazing. But, you're making a mess. Bring it home and I'll get a professional to paint it up to look just like Tyger."

"But I wanna do it," Leggo whined.

"I know Bae, but if you make a mistake it will make it look ugly and Tyger will have his feelings hurt. You don't want that do you?" Lou asked patiently.

"No,"

"Then bring it home and once it's finished I'll brag to Tyger that it was your idea and you did it yourself." Lou said.

"But that's a lie." Leggo protested.

"A tinsy tiny one just to stop Tyger from being sad. AND I'll get a Tail Wagging Meal that has a lion in it so Lyon can have one too." Lou added hoping Lego would buy into it. He was more worried about Leggo's feelings.

"Really?!?! OK now you're talking." Leggo said as his expression brightened.

"If you're finished perhaps we can get back to business." Leonidas replied sourly as he glared at Lou and Lou glared back.

"I hope you're proud of yourself. By sending in Bear you have completely undermined our operation. If you were hoping to help the humans... you just cut their throats and are watching them die." Leonidas said sternly.

"Oh?" Lou replied his voice explained he was not convinced by what was just said.

"Considering he was a former agent we can definitively confirm how dangerous he is." Layla said and she immediately glared as Lou patted his mouth yawning.

"Thank you Layla but let the Alphas talk." Leonidas said dismissively and she blushed as she saw Lou grinning.

"Well.... what shall we talk about?" Lou asked .

"To start off with why you sent one of the most dangerous species off to join the humans. I can see you taking issue with us," Leonidas started.

"Taking issue?!" Lou interrupted. "You will find that your slave... er assistant kicking my husband in his balls is more than just merely taking issue"

"Come on, alpha to alpha," Leonidas whispered as he leaned in towards the screen. "But he had it coming, don't you think."

"Excuse me?" Lou replied exasperated.

"Alright, we'll make her beg for your forgiveness IF it can help heal some wounds so we can work together." Leonidas said.

"Excuse me?! But I do not beg." Layla remarked and the old lion stared at her menacingly.

"My nuts still hurt..... ow." Leggo tried to sound pitiful as he tried to hide a smile. Merrik elbowed him in his ribs as he cleared his throat.

"Look, you'll sing The Battle Hymn of The Government, naked, if I tell you to." Leonidas whispered to Layla as she gritted her teeth.

"You see, my deer," Lou smirked as he said that. "I happen to hold all the cards here and you need to work with me or you'll have no way to influence the humans. The trouble is that I really don't need you so you have very little chance of influencing me." Lou explained.

"That is not exactly true. There is a little tidbit that we know and you do not. A real game changer in fact." Leonidas replied smugly.

"Oh? And what is that exactly?" Lou asked unconvinced.

"The government is tired of waiting and they have decided to go ahead with the invasion unless we can convince them that we can handle the humans." Leonidas stated.

"Already?! What threat are they? The news media is having a field day with them and an attack will ruin their coverage." Merrik said.

"The fact that the humans are humiliating the species they captured by making them pets makes the government look weak. The weakness has many wondering if the government can even protect species anymore.

The government feels they need a show of force in order to maintain their superiority. Now if I can give them a better plan that the government could use to make it look as if it was their idea and that they are still effective then we might be able to deal with the humans without any bloodshed." Leonidas explained as a hush fell over everyone. Lou stared unflinching as he listened.

"How much time do we have left?" Lou asked stoically.

"At this point.... 24 hours then the invasion begins. Are you ready to negotiate or are you abandoning the project?" Leonidas asked as he smirked.

"And I can trust your word because?" Lou asked skeptically.

"I'll let you link to my personal computer and you can read my emails to verify for yourself if I'm being honest or not."

"While I verify what you claim, you should meet with the representatives and tell them you have a team of half a dozen undercover operatives cataloging the human activities and analyzing their weaknesses. See if you can buy us some more time." Lou ordered.

"So you are willing to help us?"

"I'm willing to help me, my plans are in place but I can't neutralize the humans in that short a time... providing you are being truthful. I can end this but all I need is more time and I can be persuaded to give some of the credit to the government if they are willing to give me reign and hold off the invasion for the time being." Lou stated.

"For the time being? So is an invasion a part of your plan?" Layla asked skeptically.

"If need be but hopefully it won't come to that."

Ben walked over to Tyger as he watched the monitors and wrapped his arms around him hugging him gently. Tyger seemed too busy to realize he was being hugged as his eyes were glued to the monitors. Ben was fine with that because he believed that Tyger knew unconsciously.

Tyger suddenly began to rise and he realized that Ben was hugging him. He smiled as he rubbed his face against his fiance's arms and made a chuffing sound.

"Don't go," Ben whispered.

"Sorry but Dash is gonns hand me the fake reports Bear is sending. We have ro keep up the roose." Tyger explained.

"I thought that when we agreed to do this because we had alone time that we'd actually get to have alone time together. So far you spend every waking minute looking at that damn screen." Ben said. He kept his voice soft but Tyger could detect the hurt in it. He also smelled it on his scent.

"I'm sorry but this is important. You understand we are dealing with a once thought extinct species. If my father doesn't step up then they'll go extinct again. He needs us!" Tyger explained as he pulled on a large black coat and hat. He was dressed to try and be inconspicuous.

"I love that you and your father," Ben started to say

"OUR father!!" Tyger interrupted, making Ben rolled his eyes.

"Want to help species but why must we suffer in the process?"

"Suffer? How are we suffering? For the first time there is no one looking over our shoulder. We are here completely alone... unsupervised." Tyger replied.

"That's my point! We haven't snuggled once since we've been together. Why can't we spend a little time pawing each other off or grinding a little? I have needs too, the same as yours."

"I'm... I'm just afraid that if I'm not watching them something bad will happen." Tyger said.

"Like what?"

"Like how Bear was snuck in and we weren't told about it. I know Bear and he's not to be trusted. He's very smooth and slick and pulls the fur over your eyes then when you're not looking... BAM he hits you with something and flips the switch." Tyger explained.

"As I recall, that was you when you were pretending to be going through his indoctrination." Bn replied.

"That's my point! I was doing a poor job of going through it just to delay things and he suddenly passes me without warning to get his paws on you and blackmail me into obeying him. I never saw it coming.

I'm still ashamed that he was so easy to manipulate me. Had it been my father then he would never had been able to do that."

"Not true, I've spoken to your father and he's told me the times he was manipulated because someone, like Merrik, used you to manipulate him. He expects it and plays accordingly. That is what you need to learn." Ben said as he released Tyger. Tyger stood there thinking carefully and for a second his expressed looked like Lou's as Ben watched his face. It made him chuckle how much alike those two are.

"I'll be back," Tyger replied as he jumped out of the van and raced to the drop off spot. There was an area of the barrier that the army set up that was not watched very closely. Tyger waited trying to look inconspicuous while he waited.

Dash would tie the note tied to a rock over the barrier and Tyger was supposed to retrieve it. Should a member of the army approach him he had a dozen excuses as to why he was here. He should be fine unless the soldier was the same one because then they would catch on on the second excuse.

Tyger ducked as the rock nearly hit him in his head as it landed. He cursed under his breath for not paying attention. His mind was wandering back to Ben and how he should handle this. He thought about calling his father for advice.

The trouble was he was not sure how to ask for help. What was he going to say? Father, Ben wants to fool around while we wait for something to happen. Will that be OK? Should we do it? He could only imagine how his father would react.

He picked up the rock and removed the nate then tossed it back over. He secretly wished it would narrowly hit Dash in his head. Not to hurt him but just a light tap to cause discomfort. Like what he nearly got. He stuffed the note in his pocket and walked back to where they had the van parked.

He climbed inside and Ben was busy playing on his cell phone and said nothing as he entered. Tyger took out the note and left it on the keyboard of the monitors as he hung up his disguise.

Bear is sending out a group of hunters to sabotage the army. They strike at midnight and they hope to disable the surveillance system. This is a test to see how long it would take for them to recover in case he needs to do this for real at a later time.

"That's actually a good plan, if it were real." Tyger remarked but Ben said nothing. He was too busy on his phone and Tyger saw that he was watching videos. Tyger sighed and went over and knelt in front of Ben. He reached out with his paw and rubbed Ben's crotch making him look down at Tyger.

"Can I make it up to you?" Tyger asked as he pulled down the zipper of Ben's jeans. This made Ben smile until he saw Tyger glance at the monitors. This made Ben push Tyger away as he zipped p his jeans again.

"You got things to worry about. I'm not gonna let you give me a pity BJ while your mind is a billion miles away. When you actually have time for me let me know and we can fool around." Ben said sternly.

"I do have time! I just..." Tyger tried but Ben looked at him unconvinced.

"If you can turn off the monitors then we'll 69 it..." Ben started but instantly went silent at the look of sorrow on Tyger's face. "I see. Look I'm not mad but I don't want to be a distraction to you. You have greater things to worry about and I just have to learn that I'm not one of them." Ben said sourly. Tyger rose and kissed Ben despite the resistance and eventual acceptance Ben gave.

"You're a damn fool if that is what you truly believe." Tyger remarked.

Bear sat at the desk BH used to sit at as he waited for Dash to return. Maxx avoided eye contact as he rubbed the bruises Bear had given him, hoping the pain would go away. It was not bad but very annoying to feel it.

"Still mad?" Bear asked him.

"No," Maxx lied as Bear chuckled. BH suddenly entered holding a notebook. He waited for Bear to look at him before he opened it and glanced at the pages.

"I got a number of stories from the humans about what they know about their gawd. Once I share them with Maxx we can convert them slightly to glorify you as their gawd." BH said excitedly. Bear smiled as he heard a slight moan from Maxx.

"Good! Which reminds me that last movie... err story you told the humans was perfect. Keep up the good work and you can both be my number ones." Bear remarked.

"Maxx has always been a perfect assistant to me. I expect he always will be." BH replied and Maxx caught the dig in his comment. Seems BH would have no one equal to himself before Bear. He just could not understand why BH was so loyal after the terrible way Bear treated everyone.

Dash suddenly ran in breathing heavily and Bear nodded to the human guard that stood outside the door. The guard nodded back knowingly as he closed the door deliberately slow.

"Did you deliver the false message I gave you?" Bear asked and Dash nodded. "Excellent. Now they will focus on the army while we send out another raiding party to gather more supplies."

"The humans are very skilled at blacksmithing. It seems they had an excellent teacher when Maxx taught them what he knew." BH said.

"They have amassed a large number of weapons and though they are not as superior as what the army has, their swords, knives, and arrows, should do some damage." BH stated.

"They're not for the humans but the pets. If we need to make an escape I will arm the pets and use them as cannon fodder. The army will wipe the pets out but they are only pets. Pets can be replaced." Bear said coldly and Maxx felt a sudden chill. He looked at Dash and BH and they had similar looks but they said nothing.

"We have to be careful. I saw some soldiers searching around the hidden entrance to the escape tunnel we use to sneak out. They may have caught a whiff of the location. German Shepherds have great noses and the human scent is... distinct." Maxx said.

"If that's true it may be too dangerous to use it any longer. This puts us at a serious disadvantage. Our supplies are running dangerously low now that the ACs are running constantly. Not that I'm complaining but if we can't get new supplies then we lose all power in a day or so." BH said carefully hoping that Bear would not be angry with the Air Conditioning remark. Bear needed them running so the heat would not make him sick but it drained up all their resources.

Even though the humans had gone back to living in their old tribal lifestyles with no electricity there were some things that were needed. They could not simply rip apart every building in order to make fires to keep warm and handle their basic needs. They needed to consider the winter month that would be coming as the summer was close to ending.

There was no telling how long the occupation would last but they needed to prepare just in case. The fear was that desperation might force Bear to attack the army. Since they could not make guns and bombs and the ammunition they had was in very limited supply, it was clear the army had every advantage if it came to a fight.

"I can't stress how time is growing short and we can't last much longer with the army breathing down our necks constantly. We need a way to strike them when they least expect it and get the upper paw if it comes to a conflict." Bear stated.

"What if we abandon the humans? We can sneak away and start an army with species that can fight better than the stone age humans." Maxx replied. Bear raised an eyebrow as he looked skeptically at Maxx.

"You seriously want to trade our ready and willing army on a gamble that they could be replaced? What species are gonna just join us to fight the government?" Bear asked and he saw Maxx look at his feet.

"I agree with Bear," BH said proudly. "The humans are weak and uncivilized but they trust me... US completely. We've taught them how to use guns and rifles but we're just about out of ammo. If we could get more, we could match the army tail to tail."

"Do you really trust that the humans can overcome the army with their trained professionals?" Maxx asked and an uncomfortable silence filled the room.

Lou drove his jeep wearing sunglasses as the sun was setting in the west. It was just enough to annoy his vision so he wore his sunglasses. Lyon sat silently in the passenger seat and Lou glanced at him briefly.

"You're quiet. Are you still mad at me?" Lou asked softly then he saw Lyon shake his head. "What are you thinking about?"

"Dash," Lyon replied softly after a brief pause. "Do you think he's OK?"

"Oh course I do. I expect he's probably running the place and if I called him, he'd open the gates of the city and end all this." Lou said kiddingly. He saw Lyon smile and that at least made him feel better.

"But we have less than a day before the army attacks! How can we get Dash outta there?" Lyon asked nervously.

"We're on our way to visit Tyger and I'm gonna send instructions to Dash. I'll tell him about the attack and that he needs to escape if my plan fails. Of course, how often do my plans do that?" Lou asked.

"Do you mean the one plan that works or the dozens of others that fail while we wait for one of them to be the winning plan?" Lyon asked confusedly and Lou frowned. He realized Lyon was not as innocent or as clueless as he thought. He realized that he needed to spend more time with him because he did not know as much about his son as he thought he had.

The jeep came to a screeching stop and dirt was kicked up to the side as he slammed on the breaks next to where his surveillance van was parked. Lyon coughed at the dust as they both excited and Lou led the way as he opened the back.

Inside on a sofa Ben sat with his jeans and boxers laying around his feet while Tyger knelt in only his fur as he gave fellatio to his fiance. Lou immediately covered Lyon's eyes with his hoof as he loudly cleared his throat and turned his back towards them.

Ben and Tyger scrambled to get dressed as Lou sighed realizing that he was taking it for granted that he boys were growing up.

"We'll be outside while... you make yourselves more respectable." Lou stated as Lyon tried to fight him to get his eyes uncovered.

"Father, wait! I can explain!" Tyger stammered as he blushed and Ben buried his face in his paws.

"No need I was young once too. I just need to know the truth, have you even looked at the monitors once or have you been fooling around the whole time." Lou asked.

"Father... Please, it's all my fault." Ben said. "I pressured Tyger because he's spent the whole time glued to the monitors and I thought a... break might do us some good."

"Please forgive us," Tyger said softly.

"We're running out of time! C.I.Z.A. has announced that the army has divulged to them that they will attack the city in less than 24 hours. We're here to try and see how things stand... or kneel in my son's case." Lou said and Tyger blushed as he looked at his feet in despair.

"We seem to have the worst luck when it comes to wanting some alone time. No matter what we seem to fuck it up." Ben said and Lou chuckled.

"Well at least something gets fucked." Lyon said getting the jab in as Tyger and Ben stared at him as he smiled proud of himself.

To Be Continued...