As she walked over to him, Treffon let out a threatening growl at one of the aliens as it passed him. It gave a shrill cry of panic and ran for its life.
“What the heck was that for?” she demanded. “It wasn’t even doing anything.”
“Keeps them in line.”
“Why are you such a jerk?” she shouted at him.
“Why do you keep disappearing?” he parried back.
“I asked you first.”
“But I am the Reginar, so you must answer me.”
She snorted at that. “Oh really, is that how it works? Well you’re notmyReginar, so I don’t have to do a thing you say.” She faced him defiantly, hands on her hips.
“If I were your Reginar, you would be disciplined most severely for speaking to me in such a fashion.” But a hint of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he said it.
When he said the word “disciplined,” an image of him bending her over his knee and spanking her suddenly flooded her mind, and she blushed furiously. She could imagine the slaps of his hand on her naked flesh, her cries of pleasure…
And the way he was standing there looking at her – it was as if he could read her mind. Could he? Dear God, she hoped not, but who knew what Vulfans were capable of? Madok had claimed to be psychic, back on Earth.
Mortified, she turned and hurried away.
Treffon walked beside her, keeping up with her easily. “If you run away, I will follow you,” he informed her.
She stopped and spluttered indignantly. “Stalker much?”
He shrugged. “Call it what you like. I will find you wherever you go.”
“Yes, Treffon, on Earth that is what we call a stalker.”
He smiled. “Okay. I am a stalker.”
She blew out a breath of exasperation. “I keep disappearing because…well, the first time I met you, there was a huge bar fight, and furniture and bodies were flying through the air, so it seemed like a good time to leave. The second time I ran off it was because I found out that you let me totally humiliate myself for your own amusement. And the third time was because someone blew up a cab that I’d been about to climb into, and I was afraid they might be targeting me. Someone on Earth was trying to kill me, I don’t know why, and I thought they might have followed me here.”
He frowned at that. “I did not humiliate you on purpose; I just never got a chance to tell you my name. As for the threat to you, you mentioned that earlier, and I should have paid more attention. We have connections on Earth. We will investigate. But it does seem very unlikely that anybody from Earth would have found a way here, given that nobody on Earth knows we exist. The explosion is being investigated, however, and I will inform Donnelle law enforcement of the possibility that you were the target.”
“I answered your question, so answer mine. Why are you such a jerk?”
He grinned fiercely. “It runs in my genes. Reginars do not survive and protect their packs by being,” he gestured at the little furry things that were crowded around Dorcas, “like Eeplings.” Dorcas had pulled out her knitting from her purse, and the Eeplings were passing the ball of yarn from one to another with fascination.
“Eeplings! So that’s their name. Figures – all they say is ‘Eep’. My translator doesn’t seem to be working on them.”
He nodded. “As I recall, they are one of the species who don’t have a translatable language. They use the same word to mean thousands of things, and only other Eeplings, or a Universal Translating Telepath, knows what meaning they are giving to a word.”
“Can you bring a translator here?” she asked hopefully. “I’d love to find out where the rest of their people are, so they can come fetch them. This is no place for helpless little creatures.”
“The guard told me that apparently they were on some kind of field trip when a cyborg fleet cut them off, and their ship automatically re-directed them here.”
“A field trip! So that’s a bunch of little children running around without anyone to protect them?”
Treffon shrugged. He didn’t seem particularly worried about them, which made Violet even more annoyed with him then she already was.
“Now, as I recall, their parents are actually quite deadly. They can spit poison. The young are unfortunately totally helpless.” He shook his head. “Surprising they were sent without adults or chaperones. But anyway,” he added dismissively, “that is not our concern. I am taking you back to my pack property, where I will guard you until we know if someone is really trying to kill you. If they are, I will find the person who is trying to kill you. Then I will tear off pieces of them until they die.”
“You…” Violet spluttered. “I am not leaving these Eeplings here on their own! Something almost ate them!”
“Yes, the young are considered a delicacy by some species.” He looked her in the eye. “But you are, in fact, coming with me. I will pick you up and carry you if need be.”
