There was no fear on her face, just mild confusion.
She knew, as every other human did, what happened to males who couldn't control themselves. This one thought he was safe to express the filth in his heart because of the isolated location and dark street.
"Did you want me to?" I asked her.
"No," she replied. "He didn't actually do anything, no matter what his intentions looked like."
"I tagged him for tracking and evaluation," I said.
She smiled. "Good."
She pursed her lips, glancing down at his crumpled form. "Have him retrieved for medical care and behavior therapy as well."
Her tone was harsh and cold, but her instructions were as warm and soft as the building design on this planet. This male was nothing to her but some thug whose body language and movement told a story of violence and cruelty, but she still wanted him cared for and given the chance to work through the thought process that led him towards that behavior, and would lead him straight to his death unless corrected. She didn't know him, but she was giving him a chance that he likely didn't deserve.
I did as she asked as she unlocked her car and got in. She had the engine started by the time I was at the passenger door. The door handle clunked under my hand, but the door didn't open.
She had locked it.
I grinned, wrenching and snapping the flimsy lock, but the door didn't open.
Instead, the handle came off completely in my hand.
I heard her laugh peel out as she slammed down on the accelerator and the car lurched away, speeding down the road and out of sight.
"Do you want a ride?" my brother's mate Lamia asked from behind me. I glanced back to see my brother and her standing at the building's entrance. "We can drop you off at her place."
I narrowed my eyes at her.
"You will message her that you did that," I said. It had become clear that the human females had detailed conversations about us that didn't involve us.
"You can just pretend like I won't," she said as she rolled her eyes. "She's the one who offered you that contract. She knows what you're going to do even if I don't tell her."
"These things are important to us," my brother said as he reached out to stroke a strand of her hair. She glanced up at him with a depth of softness that made my heart ache to see it.
"I will come home with you two," I said. "So that you can tell her that."
"I'm just going to tell her the second you head out the door," Lamia rolled her eyes again, her words filling me with frustrated tension. To court Porcha properly, I needed to slip into her space without her knowing, or invade it with a violence that would get the Norratar peacekeeping force called on me. I had planned to get into her car, accompany her home, and then stay on the street so that she could see me from the window for most of the night until she fell asleep, then I would sneak in so when she woke, she wouldn't know for certain if I'd gotten in or not.
It was important that I did things right.
The courtship of invading a female's space had to be done correctly. Still, humans were predatory pack animals, and it was clear that Lamia's desire to prepare her pack mate was greater than her desire to ensure my courtship was done well.
My brother bit the air above his mate's head, just out of her sight, where she couldn't see, then tapped the side of his nose.
Relief replaced the tension.
Humans weren't the only species that would aid those they cared about.
He would distract her.
"Let us go," I said.
Chapter
Three
PORCHA
