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didn’t care. With swift moves honed in mixed-gender change rooms, she peeled off the lizard-like cowl and the rest of the suit. Naked in the growing darkness, she ignored everything around her while hopping into her new bodysuit. Sighing happily, she turned to speak to Relak. “Pardon the disturbance. That suit was driving me crazy.”
    Cor remembered her manners, and she bowed low. “Relak, this is my partner, Socorea, and these are your prospective brides.”
    The girls were still frozen in place, four of them had their gazes firmly fixed on his cock and two looked like fainting was the next option.
    He grinned, and his body was covered with a soft tree bark in a matter of seconds. “If you will change your skin, so will I, but those women of Vahsh are not my brides.”
    Cor blinked, “What?”
    Sox stepped in, “What my partner means to say is they are the women sent here for the selection process and to wake you. If you are awake, you must be interested in one of them.”
    Relak inclined his head. “I do see your logic, but none of them woke me. It was your partner who lifted the control staff and blasted me out of my waking dreams.”
    Cor looked at the staff that she had picked up again out of reflex. With a grimace, she held it out to him. “Here you go. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to touch it.”
    Relak shook his head. “It is yours. You have inherited it from Lero. It is his gift to you.”
    Tobeena blanched, “My lord Avatar, please tell me that Lero has not just gifted the control staff to this creature.”
    Relak closed in on the young woman in a minute, inhaling deeply. He must have scented something he recognized, because he frowned and growled. “Your family has no say in this matter. You know of their guilt in this matter. She is Lero’s choice for me and therefore my chosen.”
    Cor blinked. “Wait. What?”
    Sox snickered softly, “It looks like you just got hitched by hallucinating.”
    Cor turned to her friend. “Finish closing your suit. It is hard to yell at someone who’s naked.”
    Sox grinned and sealed her dark blue suit across her breasts. “It has never bothered you before.”
    She shuddered, “It isn’t my fault that you sleep in the raw. Seeing you in the altogether once was enough for a lifetime. Bleah.”
    Cor finally realized that their quiet bickering had gained an audience. Back in her standard Alliance uniform, she twirled the staff between her palms, sending light dancing across the faces of those watching.
    Tobeena stretched out her hand. “Give me the staff, guardsman. You owe it to me as your employer.”
    Sox laughed, “You are not our employer. The Alliance is our employer, and they only contracted for two guardsmen to bring six of the Vahsh to the surface and remain with them for three days. Nothing else. No commands. We didn’t even have to feed you.”
    Tobeena frowned. “But, the last group of girls had service contracts with their guards.”
    Relak was watching the exchange with interest.
    Sox clarified matters. “That costs extra. Your people didn’t want to spend money on servants that you didn’t need. We are the basic package. We will defend you against outside threats, but that is where our obligation ends.”
    Tobeena paled. “They didn’t think he would wake.”
    She did something that Cor only thought of as stupid. Tobeena rushed at her and tried to grab the staff.
    Acting on reflex, Cor twisted the staff to one side, struck Tobeena in the ribs and pinned her to the ground using the very object she wanted.
    “What was that about? You are getting your flimsy dress dirty.” Cor kept her down and watched as she tried to grab the staff over and over, hissing as she did so.
    “Sox, can you grab her if I let her up.”
    “Sure, but I don’t think she will be grabbing again. I can smell scorched skin.” Sox lifted Tobeena, and the girl burst into tears.
    Cor inclined her head to Relak again. “Avatar, what is the purpose of this