Page 16 of Jorhee

He nodded. “I have to process some requests for equipment, mainly some medical stuff for the doc. I have to give him the forms to hand in with his purchase order so they can affix the proper documents to the crates and whatnot.”

“I’ll let you get on to it, then. We’ll head back to the spaceport and be on our ship.”

He smiled gratefully, gave a small bow, then scurried away, his tail swaying behind him in mild agitation.

“Let’s go find something to eat,” I said. No sooner had the words left my mouth than my comm-link chirped. “Looks like they've got Bob safely ensconced,” I said, seeing his name as I tapped to hear his message.

“Priority message from Xeranos,” Bob said excitedly. “Sorry I’m only informing you now, but I only finished accessing all the nodes and received this, as it was marked for me and as confidential.”

“Do I need to be someplace private?” I asked, wondering what the stars was going on now.

“Preferably so.”

I glanced around, spotting a place with no one else nearby to overhear and hurried over to it. Not that it was difficult, seeing no one had expected me today so the locals were all busy working elsewhere. Whatever it was, I knew it would be fine for Kiprr and Fethri to hear, as they were my personal guards and sworn to secrecy except to the king.

“Alright, what is it?”

“You’ve been matched!” came the excited response. “He’s on his way now! Ambassador Helkhor’s bringing him and his dog personally! Isn’t that exciting!”

That was certainly one word for it.

I licked my lips. “How long until they arrive?”

“Three days. Oh, and Helkhor says Jesse - that’s his name, Jesse Wilson - is worried you won’t let him keep his claim and run a ranch. Something about horses too.”

I sighed. “If that will make him happy, then of course he can. This is a frontier world, after all.”

“Okay, byeeeee! I’ll let you plan how you do the meet and greet for him.”

“He seems very lively for an AI,” Fethri said.

“Apparently Xeranos is as well. Perfectly sane and responsible, however.”

Both guards nodded. That was all that mattered, after all.

“Come, let’s get dinner and everything else can wait until tomorrow.”

They wisely did not disagree with me.

11

JOHREE

The door to the meeting room swished open, revealing the ambassador, his aide, and my human mate, all three of them bowing.

I frowned at the sight of my mate.

“Was he not informed of my impending arrival?” I asked.

Ambassador Helkhor wrung his hands, his tail twitching in agitation behind him.

“He was, Your Grace.”

Jesse Wilson smirked at me. I understood then - this was an act of defiance.

He stepped forward, thrusting his hand out at me. “Jesse Wilson! Nice to meet cha!”

I took his hand in mine. It was as sweaty as the rest of him. I linked our fingers together, turning over his hand and bringing it to my lips to kiss his knuckles. His cocky expression faltered as I took an exaggerated inhale before actually performing the kiss. If he thought he was going to reject me and have me fail in my duty to my people, not to mention leave me mateless and alone for the rest of my life, he was sorely mistaken. I might not have wanted to use the Mylos service, but we both had, and his choiceto do so was entirely of his own making. To try to wriggle out of it now would be dishonorable.