Zeus and the Raptor: FUC Academy, #34

By Renee Hewett

A comic convention with rooms full of fur suits, and a possible second chance at love.

 

Maddox Goosby is trying to regain a sense of normalcy. Ever since being kidnapped, experimented on, and turned into a featherless raptor monstrosity, the once goose shifter just wants things to go back to the way things were before.

 

A great plan until his ex shows up.

 

FUC agent Zeus Ezzo couldn't get through to Maddox when they'd dated, so he doubts it will be any different now, but that won't stop him from trying. The man he loves has gone through something traumatic, and like it or not, Zeus isn't giving up.

 

The Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy has gained intelligence regarding the person who turned Maddox into a monstrosity and it seems only right Zeus invites his ex lover along for the ride. There's just one problem. It's a comic convention and everyone must be dressed in fur!

 

Since Maddox's shifter is naked as a freshly-hatched cuckoo he's going to have to don a fake animal suit if he wants in on this undercover operation.

 

Will an adventure with an opportunity for vengeance, be enough to tempt Maddox back into Zeus' arms?

 

Zeus and the Raptor by Renee Hewett is an EveL Worlds novella set in Eve Langlais' Furry United Coalition (F.U.C.) World and is available on all platforms!

• Language: English
• Publisher: EveL Worlds Press
• Release date: Nov 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215619681

Book preview

1

Zeus Ezzo parked his Humvee on an empty street in the Winnipeg Exchange District, normally a busy area, they’d decided to go in at night to minimize the potential for innocents getting caught in the crossfire.

That was only one of the ways Zeus had planned for this mission to go off without a hitch. He looked behind him at the group of Furry United Coalition—FUC for short—agents. He had a good team with him. Some wore full body armor, as they’d stay in human form. The others had simple coveralls they’d shed when they shifted into their animals.

All of them had hard-set, determined faces. There was no nonsense on Zeus’s team.

They were just one of five vehicles getting into place at the moment. Each one took a different location around the perimeter, and they’d all converge at once.

All right, agents, take your places, he told his group.

They filed out of the vehicle, but before Zeus exited, he had one last thing to do. He punched the contact for his brother, Link.

He’d expected to see his brother over video chat—they were the spitting image of each other with dark hair and soulful dark eyes—but Link instead answered phone only, which he only did if he were flying or fucking. Zeus didn’t care to ask which it was.

You about to advance? Link asked.

Yup.

Good luck and Godspeed.

Thanks. See you later.

Love you.

Love you, too.

Short and sweet, but that’s all it took. Their pre-mission call was their tradition, one they made way back when they’d become FUC agents together. They always spoke to each other before they went into a dangerous situation, always told each other they loved each other in case it was the last time they ever spoke. And if something were to happen to one of them, the other would be the one to break the bad news to their parents. Zeus hoped that never happened, but he also hoped it would provide them some comfort knowing that the brothers had spoken.

He left the vehicle and took his position at the lead of his group then radioed into the others.

Everyone was in place.

The computer gurus had hacked the warehouse’s security system to play fake footage so the security inside wouldn’t see them coming. They had no outside patrols—otherwise, it would make their warehouse stand out from the others and look suspicious.

All the better for Zeus and his team.

As he stood facing the warehouse, he felt the adrenaline course through him. As lead investigator leading up to this night, he had done all his research so he could be confident that they would successfully take down this robbery ring. As the leader tonight on the ground, he knew his experience and expertise as a field agent would allow him to run a successful mission, taking down the bad guys and recovering all the stolen jewels, artwork, and antiquities stored inside.

"On your mark, get set… charge!"

Zeus spoke aloud to the agents around him, as well as to the ones listening over the radio. They had to move quickly. Once they were heard, the folks inside would be alerted to their presence. They had only this quick moment of surprise before they gathered themselves together.

The battering rams struck the large metal doors. With the strength of shifters propelling them, the doors fell down easily, and everyone ran inside—some as humans, many more as vicious animals.

In his wolverine form, Zeus ran fast, slashed easily, and made quick work of his opponents, as did the other team members, including bears, wolves, and even a moose. They didn’t call them The Eh Team for nothing. They were Canadian agents, who shifted into very Canadian animals, and they didn’t go down easy.

That’s what the thieves figured out.

The shifted agents had one mission: incapacitate anyone with a gun. Even if the entire team had shifter-healing abilities, no one wanted to be shot.

While the shifted agents focused on that, half of the human ones swept the place, handcuffing anyone they found. Half of the non-shifted agents waited at the doors to apprehend any of the offenders trying to flee.

As for secret escape routes? Zeus’s team was already inside, stopping every thief or minion who thought they’d get out that way.

They had all their bases covered.

Zeus’s team had been tracking them, patiently waiting for their next heist when they’d afterward return to their hideout. That way, they’d recover all the stolen art and jewels, as well as apprehend the robbers.

And that’s exactly what they did.

The entire raid was over before he knew it.

The group of agents reconvened in front of the warehouse. To ensure any onlookers wouldn’t catch sight of them, all shifted agents returned to human form inside the building and dressed in the new coveralls being handed out.

Zeus congratulated everyone on a job well done. Everyone beamed with pride. He could feel the adrenaline still coursing through him, reminding him why he loved this job.

While others left ahead of him, he stayed, supervising the transportation of each and every thief and stolen item. He didn’t expect to hear a familiar name called out.

Douyette, this way!

There was only one person who still called him Douyette. Zeus had used his middle name, Ezzo, as his last name ever since a bad mix-up in their college days, when Link’s hookup ended up in Zeus’s room—on his bed and naked—and Zeus’s then-boyfriend walked in to find her.

Maddox had told Zeus he had a lot of explaining to do, but he’d only meant it as a joke. They’d been together too long by then for Maddox to think that Zeus was interested in such a switch-up.

Link’s date, however, had been mortified, and Link had ended up sleeping alone.

Link, what are you doing here?

His brother gave him a brief hug before explaining. "Just got word they want us at the BC Academy. Operation GAGE is a go, and Alyce and Miranda want one last briefing before we head to Toronto."

Zeus’s heart stilled. This was good news—great news. It meant they were getting the green light on the special project he’d spent the last year working on.

He nodded dumbly and pulled up his secure FUC messaging to confirm what Link said.

There it was, the message sent by Eliza Cogdill on behalf of Alyce Cooper and Miranda Brownsmith, recalling him to the Furry United Coalition Newbie Academy—FUCN’A for short.

This was it.

His intelligence had been confirmed, and they were getting approval to go to Toronto and take down the scientists who’d experimented on Maddox.

Zeus’s ex.

Revenge is going to be sweet.

All right, let’s go! He clapped Link on the shoulder and jogged over to his Humvee to give his second-in-command full charge. He grabbed the small bag he’d brought and tossed the keys over, telling his team to have a drink for him before he headed over to where Link waited.

The whole ride to the airport, Zeus thought about the last time he’d seen his ex. Maddox had been in the rehab wing of FUCN’A, and he’d looked like only a ghost of himself. He’d not wanted to have anything to do with Zeus, which Zeus might have taken personally, except Maddox didn’t want much to do with anyone in his family, either.

Zeus had left, deciding to give Maddox space, but he’d kept in touch with Kailee, Maddox’s cousin, and learned that Maddox had been doing better over the past year.

Zeus hoped so. He hoped Maddox was back at the Goosby Bedding Factory, running things as he’d always planned to do. Taking over from his aunt and keeping a family institution alive.

It was why they’d split