The mate scent.
Surprise rolled through him and he studied the male again. Was Cameron Murphy his mate? He’d never considered a male might be his mate before, and he tilted his head slightly to the side. The conversation going on in front of him was secondary to his observation.
“You’ll have to tell me that story sometime.” Murphy cut the emperor a quick glance. “And no offense, but I’m glad to hear it.”
Daaynal waved in dismissal. “No offense taken. The D’Corr were among the Dishonored.”
Murphy’s eyebrow went up in question. He was a tall male but not quite as tall as Cade, filled with the kind of lean muscle that was never bulky. Dark hair was cut close to his scalp and even though the skin on one side of his face was smooth, the chemical scent rising from it told Cade something was amiss. That part of his skin was a mask for something, but what?
“The Dishonored?” Murphy’s voice was deep and low, pleasing to the ears. It helped as Cade readjusted his mindset.
He’d never really thought about his fated mate. Mostly because he’d never thought he would ever leave his own planet. But he had thought his fated mate would be a female. To find the mate scent rising from the male rocked his world. But then, Iaanto, Tecc and Vaix had been blissfully happy for many years before Tecc’s death. At the reminder, his mood took a nosedive, but he was still aware of the little glance the human president flicked toward him.
“Former members of the Lathar,” Daaynal explained, “who have been evicted from our numbers for dishonorable acts, such as kidnapping humans when it is expressly forbidden. If we had known what the D’Corr had done, any imperial vessel would have made it a point of honor to rescue Major Stephens as well as his unit and wipe the offenders out. As it turned out, Major Stephens required no assistance in dealing with them.”
Jay shrugged. “I did have a little help… from my wife.”
Murphy looked surprised. “And that is definitely a story I would like to hear, as well as meet your lovely wife.”
“That can be arranged,” Xaandril, the emperor’s champion, spoke for the first time. “Major Stephens is mated to my daughter and is an honored member of the M’rln clan.”
“We will have to arrange a dinner. We have some light refreshment arranged for you before we get down to business.” Murphy offered Jay a comradely smile as he turned. “But please, excuse me for a moment as I greet the rest of your party.”
3
“A pleasure to meet you, President Murphy,” Risyn said, extending his hand in the customary human greeting. A handshake. How… quaint.
“The pleasure is all mine, War Commander B’Kaar,” the human replied, his pale eyes unreadable and his handshake firm. He was a tall individual, dressed in what Risyn’s investigation of the human databases told him was a suit. Murphy wore it like the combat leathers of a veteran Lathar warrior. “I trust your journey here was pleasant?”
Ahh… This was human "small talk." Utterances of little importance, merely performed for social niceties. It seemed an utter waste of time. He compromised by splitting his focus and using half his attention to study the feeds from the suited B’Kaar around him.
Of all of them currently planet side, only he and Berrick were without their suits—a show of trust and nonaggression to the humans. Not that it made much difference. A simple thought through his ke’lath would trigger his suit's homing function, and it would find him wherever he was.
Most of his warriors were focused on gathering data from their surroundings: the layout of the landing pad, the design of the single building they could see, obviously some kind of portal or access point to the base they were supposed to be staying in. A warrior to the back analyzed the fauna on the low hills that surrounded the landing pad while another had switched his vision to study the composition of the surface beneath their feet.
“It was. Thank you,” he replied with an incline of his head.
Murphy was tall for a human and it was odd not to have to look down at one of them. He filed that piece of information away for later use, adding it to the compilation of data one of his warriors had gathered on the group around them. There was no such thing as too much information, and Risyn had always believed that information was power.
A small tug on the feeds on the back of his mind caught his attention. Warrior Sorren had deviated from his assigned task. With a nudge, he requested access to Sorren’s feed so he could see what had caught the male’s attention. The request was granted instantly as new information flooded his mind. His vision bisected; one half, the left, remained what he actually saw from his physical body. The right was filled with what Sorren saw.
His gaze was riveted on one of the human females. Not one of the ones in the front row, the ones wearing formal clothing like the president as they followed him like deearin kits after their mother, but one of the females in uniform at the back.
Risyn studied her for a long second in case she posed a threat to the emperor. But all he could see was a normal human female. Nothing was enhanced or special about her, or anything that appeared to pose a threat above and beyond any of the others. She was armed, and her body language was tense… But he didn’t believe it was threatening. No, she seemed to have her attention fixed somewhere else. When her eyes slid sideways to meet Sorren’s gaze, he had his answer. She was interested physically in the cyber warrior.
With a mental admonishment to Sorren to stay on task, Risyn disengaged from the warrior's feed.
The human president and the emperor had moved away from the VIP group, and following a short chat with the sole human who had traveled back with them from Lathar space, they were on the move again.
Murphy and the emperor exchanged more small talk, which Risyn scanned and then filtered out as they approached the small building on the airfield. The two males were saying nothing of interest, just political and diplomatic fluff, designed to smooth the way for the Lathar being here as guests on a planet they could quite easily conquer.
The building proved to be a subterranean station for a shuttle. Risyn looked around with interest, noting the construction of the building and the technology within. It was a little more advanced than he’d expected from such an inferior species.
“This is us,” Murphy commented as a train pulled up to the platform.
Risyn was forced to school his expression so his lip didn’t curl back in a sneer. The human’s comment had been pointless, a waste of air and the movement of vocal cords. Of course it was for them. They were the only group of beings here.
The floor of the train creaked as it filled with the human delegation, the Lathar warriors who had to outweigh them by at least half again, and then the B’Kaar warriors in their suits. For a moment Risyn wondered what the load capacity of such a train was and whether he should offer to have his warriors run behind.
He didn’t.
That would reveal how fast a B’Kaar was when he was suited. Information was power, and he didn’t give away information like that for nothing. So he said nothing as he settled himself into one of the seats next to the Izaean ambassador and waited as the train set off.
“So,” Cameron Murphy said, interest on his face as he leaned forward in his seat. “How is the mate program setup going?”