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Reminders or not, he still needed to pay his bills and add to his savings.
“Ten times your usual fee.”
Since his usual fee was already high, it was an extremely generous offer - but Marshall Thompson was not a generous man.
“What’s the catch?”
“There are two… conditions. First, you will be required to actually work on the farm as an employee.”
“Not an issue.” Physical labor had never bothered him. “What’s the other one?”
“You will need to be accompanied by a wife - a human wife. Several of the other males also have human wives and it will help you blend in.”
He froze. The prospect of a mate, a family, was another one of the things he had lost with the war. He would never ask a female to commit to someone who had done the things he had done.
“I do not have a wife.”
He managed to keep his voice calm, and Marshall waved his hand again.
“Obviously. And equally obviously, this would only be a temporary arrangement. I will provide one for you. I expect we could even fulfill any specific… requirements you might have to make the ruse more palatable.”
Marshall offered him a choice of females as casually as if he were offering him a choice of weapons, but he shook his head. He didn’t have many rules, but refusing to harm females and children was one of them.
“I will not expose a female to harm.”
“There is no danger,” Marshall said impatiently. “Even if you were discovered - which I trust will not happen - there would be no blame attached to an innocent female.”
The other male was probably correct, he conceded silently - especially if the warriors retained the same code of honor that he’d once had. He still didn’t like the idea of being responsible for a second person, or of claiming the type of female Marshall would undoubtedly provide as his mate.
“I wish to consider it.”
Another flicker. Irritation, perhaps?
“You do not have long. I need an answer by the end of the day so I can make the arrangements and provide you with a wife.”
“Understood.”
Marshall clearly was not happy with his answer, but he was also intelligent enough to recognize the futility of argument.
“Very well. You may go.”
The other male didn’t wait for a response, already dismissing Celenk as he pressed a button on a communication panel.
“Warshan, I need you to deal with Algar. He let my daughter out of his sight. Again. There will be no further opportunities - is that understood?”
The door closed behind Celenk before he heard any more of the conversation but he suspected that the unfortunate Algar was about to meet an untimely end. Then again, if he’d had a daughter, he might have been just as ruthless about her protection.
He’d chosen the tavern at random after he left, simply as a place to have a quiet drink while he decided whether or not to take Marshall’s offer. Not so quiet after all, and yet here he was with a female - a human female - giving him a tremulous smile.
He looked down at her speculatively. He still found her attractive, perhaps even more so now that he’d seen the dignity with which she’d handled herself. Now that they were away from the tavern and its prevailing odor of smoke and stale beer, he caught a faint elusive sweetness that must be her natural scent. His tail twitched again but his physical reaction was irrelevant, perhaps even inconvenient. This would be a business arrangement nothing more.
That is, if she agreed. Although he regretted the fact that she was out of a job, it could provide an excellent incentive. Yes, he decided, she would do.
“Let me buy you a drink.”
CHAPTER 3
Celenk’s words came out more as an order than a request and the female gave him a startled look.
