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at least some
did. He and Felix had certainly engaged in some casual flings with open-minded
females while they’d been stationed on Earth. But a mere one
or two nights of passion with Alisa would not satisfy him or his
bondmate. She was suddenly and irrevocably as essential to them as oxygen.
    “Entirely
honorable, I assure you.” Felix said, staring past the old man to peer down the
hallway where she had disappeared.
    “Sounded
more like you were going to throw her over your shoulder and steal her out of
here.”
    The
image that queued up in his admittedly over-stimulated mind had Mikel reeling,
his staff hardening with the thought of wrapping his arms around the soft
curves of her thighs, her buttocks, having her wriggle against him with gasps
of excitement. When his bondmate shot him a dark look, Mikel forced himself to
deal with the here and now and leave such fantasies for the shower cubicle.
    “We
didn’t intend to abduct her. We wished to speak to her and present our case.”
    Mak raised one eyebrow and released
his hold on the discipline rod. Mikel breathed a sigh of relief. He’d often
been chastised with the crook while he was at the academy and had the knots on
his skull to this day.
    “You
don’t have much experience with women, do you?”
    Mikel
shook his head even as Felix spoke up. “We have spoken with twelve women in our
time here and have had four welcome us for coitus. Well, one
for me and three for him.”
    His
bondmate jerked his head at him, and Mikel suppressed a grin. Felix was quite
peeved he hadn’t had more success at finding a willing woman. He’d demanded to
know what Mikel said or did to entice them to join him in bed, but since he wasn’t
sure what women were thinking in the first place, he honestly couldn’t answer.
He just gratefully accepted whatever contact they were willing to give.
    The
older man sighed and settled back behind his desk, gesturing for him and Felix
to bring their seats closer.
    “It
seems you have encountered humans who are actively seeking a means to leave
this planet. Not that they weren’t sincere in their desire for you,” he said,
holding up his hand to stave off any protest. “But the women here come from
terrible circumstances, and they want a better life. Our efforts to encourage
all these uncooperative governments to support just this one center are nearly
always met with bluster, corruption, and outright neglect of their most
vulnerable citizens, so it’s no wonder these women wish to leave and find
security on Alpha.”
    Mikel
stayed quiet, ready to learn. Instinct told him gather Alisa up and bring her
home, but they apparently needed a strategy.
    “And
that’s exactly what we will give Alisa. We are ranking officers and come from
elite houses. We can give her a fine home, jewels, and children. She’ll never
have to worry about a thing.” Felix made his declaration like he was standing
in front of the assembled cohort in the Great Hall on Alpha, introducing his
bonded woman and staking his claim upon her. Mikel felt an answering swell of
pride.
    Mak tilted his head. “As I said,
those are the women who wish to bond, who have their hearts set on a different
life. Some who shelter here are not of that mind.”
    “ Whyever not? Other than this
campus, which is maintained to our standards, everything I have seen of Earth is shabby, if not completely
dysfunctional.” Mikel couldn’t help interjecting. He, along with the rest of
the newly-arrived diplomatic contingent, had taken a quick tour of Earth as a
welcome from various countries officials. Most of the urban areas swelled with
homeless populations, the infrastructure was faulty, and only the supremely
wealthy seemed to have any security or contentment. Out in the hinterlands,
they’d had to merely fly over, since so many of the scattered inhabitants
harbored feelings of animosity towards interstellar visitors and would take
shots at anyone non-human. Their ship had even been fired