The Cargo

Even werewolves bite off more than they can chew. With this girl, he could choke and die.

For centuries, the werewolf, Clifford Crane, has had a love-hate relationship with both his own reputation, which has followed him many light years from Old Earth, and the ghost of his ex-lover, who has taken up permanent residence in his mind. The reputation, at least, has finally shown its usefulness by landing him a job. 

Although he dislikes, in principle, the para-military corporation controlling shipping lanes in human occupied space, they’ve offered him big bucks to handle security for a shipment of Silkies, an enigmatic race of shapeshifters who indenture themselves to the richest and highest bidders in the galaxy. 

The gig is simple. Keep them fed. Keep them safe. Keep personal contact to a minimum. The work is easy, and the crew is amiable. Plus, there is enough money in it to finally get him back on his feet. But, when he begins to encounter things that should not be there, things long forgotten from his distant past, he learns there is more to the cargo than meets the eye. 

Clifford Crane, once celebrated as the Red Wolf of Prophecy, leader of the Lycan during the long-ago Vampire Wars and touted as savior of the human race, finds himself centuries later a forgotten hero, barely scratching out a living as a glorified security guard at the edge of the galaxy. For the most part, he likes living under the radar. Life is simpler than it once was. But a werewolf has to eat, so he accepts a well-paying job that seems almost too good to be true. 

He soon finds out that not everyone has forgotten about him. In fact, one of the Silkies is particularly intrigued, so much so that she appears to him as the reincarnation of a long-lost love and offers him the opportunity to play out a what-if fantasy he has pondered for centuries. There has to be a catch, but Clifford has never been one to pay attention to the warnings of red flags. 

The Cargo is werewolf science fiction, featuring half human shapeshifters in a paranormal space fiction story. It is paranormal romance with a gut-wrenching twist. There is also an element of paranormal fiction humor, as the protagonist must deal with the ghost of an ex-lover who has taken up residence in his mind, conversing with him and expressing her opinions at inopportune times.