We slipped out of the Atomic Cafe without any more parental disasters, which felt like a minor miracle after the dual family ambush.

After extracting the sleek black glider, Nessy, Candace, and Adelle climbed into the bag. Kristi slung it over her shoulder, and I took my seat in front of her on the Nemesis.

The glider lifted into the air, the city spreading out beneath us. Candace stuck her head out of the bag, silver hair whipping in the wind.

"Left at the next intersection," she directed, pointing with a white claw. "Then straight toward the front gate. Then keep moving East for a bit across the edge of the barrier."

Kristi nodded, adjusting our flight path per fox-instructions.

Ferguson downtown's 1920 Art Nouveau architecture gave way to more modest neighborhoods of one story bungalows. Then the buildings became sparser and rougher around the edges, eventually culminating in a crowded, haphazard collection of trailers, prefab units, and makeshift structures clustered near the barrier dome.

A grimy trailer park came into view, bordered by a junkyard from one side and industrial concrete storage warehouses from the other. Chain-link fences and piles of rusting junk were a rather prominent feature of this neighborhood.

"Land over there by that rusty blue trailer," Candace said.

Blue-tinted prads in hoodies loitered on porches or leaned against beat-up cars, their eyes tracking us as we descended. No one dared approach and some vanished inside of their trailers, trailing blue smoke behind them, as a delving glider like the Nemesis and the Decimator rifle hanging over Kristi's shoulder stated "raptor mafia" in bold letters.

We touched down in a dusty clearing, the engines whining down to silence. Candace repackaged the glider back into the bag after the other girls emerged from its innards.

"This doesn't seem like Dragon Alley," I said.

"Nah," Candace said. "Dis is Terry's place. Reckon she could use a trip to the mall with us."

"Ah, right." I said.

I remembered this area vaguely as I'd dropped Terry off nearby a few nights ago, close enough to the park but not quite inside.

"She didn't want me seeing where she lives?" I guessed.

"Yeah," the fox girl nodded. "Terry's always been touchy about her home life. Come on, her family's trailer's this way."

We wove through the park, past trailers in various states of disrepair. Some were patched with mismatched metal, others sagging under the weight of accumulated junk. Piles of random trash dotted the landscape: old tires, broken appliances, half-dismantled bikes. The air smelled of rust and faint smoke from backyard grills. More prads eyed us suspiciously from half-shuttered, dirty windows.

Terry's trailer was tucked between two others, a faded blue unit with peeling paint and a sagging striped awning. Random shit was piled up around it: empty crates, tangled hoses, a rusty barbecue grill missing its lid, blue-tinted cigarette buds and far too many beer cans and bottles.

Candace rapped on the door with her knuckles.

It creaked open after a minute, revealing a round-bellied lynx woman with sunken eyes and matted fur. She wore a stained shirt that read "Visit Scenic Lake Eerie, explore the ruins of Denver" in faded letters, stretched tight over her ample frame. She squinted at us, reeking faintly of stale beer and cigarettes and something distinctively, sharply sweet.

Judging by the fact that her fur was blue at the edges, it was Topaz.

"Yeah?" she rasped. "What d'you want?"

"We've come to pick up Terry," Candace said. "We're her friends."

The lynx, presumably Terry's mother, eyed us up and down, her gaze lingering on our clean clothes, nose twitching.

"Friends, huh? She ain't mentioned no fancypants pack like you lot. Aight." She stepped aside, gesturing us in with a jerk of her head. "She's in her room."

The trailer interior was dusty, dim and cluttered with piles of smelly clothes, newspaper articles and random bags.

We navigated through a narrow living room stacked with boxes. Every unclaimed surface there was populated with what looked like a massive dust-covered 'beanie pradies' collection.

"Terry!" the lynx woman barked, pounding on the slightly bent door. "You got visitors! Fancy ones!"

A muffled groan came from inside.

"Prolly drunk again." The woman shrugged. "N'ways. I got my show, you lot are welcome to claw her outta thar."

She departed into the living room to the sound of her TV drama.

"Unbind lock," Candace put a paw on the door.

The lock clicked open.

Candace pushed the door open.

The room beyond was dark, lit only by the flickering light of an ancient television set placed directly on the floor. The walls were bare except for a piece of paper taped lopsidedly to one wall. Terry sat against her bed, staring blankly at some static-laced channel, a half-empty bottle of tequila clutched in her right paw. She wore a white tank top that clung to her curves and simple white underwear shorts, her fur disheveled and eyes bloodshot.

"Wauh?" She turned towards us, wiping her eyes. It looked like she was crying earlier.

I noted that the paper on the wall was a job application form.

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"Hey Terry," I said, stepping to the somewhat clean spot on the carpet beside her, "what's with the paperwork art installation?"

"Mom's reminda' that I gotta pay rent if I'm stayin' here. Like I need remindin'." She snorted. "Beerch chagring me five hundred a month for this closet. Fukin' highway robbery."

"You're paying rent to your own mother?" Nessy asked.

"Uh-huh," Terry yawned. "She undoubtedly is already planning to spend it all on T-dust smokes and alcohol."

"Right then," I said. "We're taking you out of here. That's enough drunk-binge sulking."

"Ye, Fluffy, pack yo bag," Candace said. "You're coming with us."

The lynx blinked slowly. "Where?"

"Shopping," Candace declared. "Then wherever. You're part of our pack now."

"Shopping where?" Terry repeated.

"Dragon Alley." Nessy said.

"Dragon Alley?" Terry squinted at the dog girl. "A bit too rich for my blood. My bike's scrap, gang's gone... I'm kinda broke as fuck if you didn't notice."

"Relax, Fluff," Candace said. "I'm covering it."

"Fine," Terry said. "This better not cost me some stupid future favours or whatever."

She disconnected from the grimy carpet with the aid of Adelle and rummaged in her closet, pulling on a black dress. We waited while Terry stuffed some belongings into a backpack.

Once all of us came outside, Candace pulled out her phone. "Pawber time. No way we're getting dis' many prad girls into the bag comfortably."

Terry turned to Adelle while we waited for the Pawber to arrive. "You visitin' yo' fam while you're here?"

"No. Fuck that noise," Adelle growled, showing cheetah chompers, glancing at the long, uneven row of trailers. "Had enough shitty family drama this mornin' already."

"Aight," Terry shrugged. She yawned again and sniffed Adelle and then her eyes bulged comically. "The fuck."

She turned, sniffing each of us. "What. The. Fuck."

"Alpha-dude," She stared at me then. "What's your secret?"

"Secret?" I arched an eyebrow, already suspecting where the conversation was going.

"How?" She asked. "I understand that Candy and Ads are together and Candy's a pushy fox and is into you for some stupid reason, but… the raptor and a dog too? Really?"

"Yes," I rubbed the back of my head, trying not to blush as Candace elbowed me with a sly grin. "Really. We're all together."

"You have a deathwish or something?" Terry eyed me.

"What's the problem exactly?" I asked.

"You don't just go n' date four prads, dude," she said. "I really do not envy you when they all go in Cycle."

"Ah that," I said.

"Death by snu-snu!" Candace laughed.

"This some kind of Binder trick?" Terry turned her head to the fox. "How have you managed this?"

"Pancakes!" Candace replied, batting silver eyelashes.

"Pancakes?" Terry blinked.

Candace nodded with a giddy expression.

"This another stupid meme I'm not aware of? Spill the deets fox," Terry demanded.

"Pancakes are a memetic for sexy times, yes," Candace bobbed. "And we had plenty."

"Yes, I can smell that quite clearly," Terry huffed. "How the fuck have you got four prads to agree to share one human?"

"We're the same soul he divided dimensionally, das' how," Candace said.

"Riiiight, not sure what I expected there," Terry gave up on the loopy fox, turning her head to Adelle.

"What she said," the cheetah stated bluntly.

"What." Terry looked at the dog and raptor.

Nessy wagged her tail. "We're soul and blood bonded!"

"I..." Kristi sighed. "It's complicated. Simply put, we all have a connection to Alec that goes beyond normal pack dynamics."

"And you're all cool sharing him?" Terry asked.

"Sharing implies ownership," Nessy said. "We don't own each other. We belong with each other."

"Technically, he's Alpha," Adelle pointed out.

"Yeah, but like, a democratic Alpha," Candace cackled. "Equal opportunity maul-rights for all!" She pretended to maul me from behind.

I rubbed my temples. "Can we please stop discussing our relationship dynamics in the middle of a trailer park?"

"Nope!" Candace grinned. "Terry needs to know what she's signing up for."

"I'm not signing up for anything," Terry protested. "I just want a new bike."

"And you'll get one," I assured her.

"Yepp. No strings attached," Candace added.

Terry squinted at the fox. "You better not Bind me to whatever the fuck this is."

"As hilarious as that would be, alas," Candace sighed. "You ain't me. I'd probably chew anyone else's face off for pawing my man."

"There's a dog pawing at 'your man' now," Terry's look of judgement intensified as she spotted Nessy lightly touching my fingers with hers.

"She's me, so it's fine," Candace said jovially.

Terry opened and closed her mouth, giving up on the conversation entirely.

The Pawber app on Candace's phone pinged, indicating our ride was approaching.

A flying black van descended from the sky. The dog driver, a burly mastiff in a cap with a winged star logo, nodded at us as we boarded.

"Dragon Alley, please," Candace said, sliding into a seat on my left. "Scenic route, bank around a bit for my pawmate from the human boonies to gawk at Cascade landing." She patted my head with a wink.

The mastiff driver grunted affirmation, and we lifted off, leaving the trailer park behind.

As we gained altitude, Candace chatted away, explaining to me that Dragon Alley wasn't technically inside Ferguson's barrier but was still part of Feguson township, managed and owned by Strand Co. "There's a direct gate there from the city center," she added, "but flying in is way more fun."

I pressed my face to the window, watching the view. Ferguson river valley stretched out below, the quarry vanishing behind. The river delta descended down the mountains to a massive body of water nestled against jagged cliffs. Sunlight sparkled on the distant waves, and massive, odd, jagged shapes protruded from the water, like the bones of a drowned giant.

"What are those?" I asked.

As the van drifted closer to the water, the jagged shapes resolved themselves into tall, crumbling half-submerged skyscrapers.

"Das' Lake Eerie," Candace explained, leaning over to point, 'accidentally' draping her chest over me. "And those? Ruins of Denver."

"Denver?" I blinked trying to recall what I knew about the doomed town in this lifetime on Prad Earth. "Isn't that…"

"The eternally expanding Denver dungeon," Candace nodded. "This section is pretty much inactive, the lake and the mountains don't allow it to expand any further. It doesn't bloom very well in water or across slanted surfaces, see?"

The curve of her breast squished into the side of my head.

"Dragons love it there." Nessy added, pointing at distant fluttering shapes circling the half-submerged skyscrapers. "Plenty of fish and abandoned towers to nest in."

One of the sparkly flying creatures dove down, emerging with something clamped in its jaws.

The van banked lower passing between drowned skyscrapers, slowing further for me to spot office interiors within obliterated glass windows covered in barnacle growths. I saw white bones in ragged outfits here and there and an entire mountain of skulls nestled upon by a violet-blue dragon who was licking herself like a cat.

"Who's skulls are those?" I asked.

"Lawyers," Candace replied, distractingly pressing her body into me.

"Lawyers?" I looked up at her.

"Uh-huh," she nodded. "A good snack for the dragons. Like I said, the lake weakens them. Cascade's dragon population keeps them in check."

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