“Enter!”
The warriors moved out of the way and MarIK entered the quarters to find OrIN sitting at a table with food spread out. He looked frustrated as he glanced up at MarIK.
“Did you take the female to your observatory?”
“Yes.”
“Did she let you touch her?”
MarIK bit his inner cheek to keep from growling angrily at him. “Of course not. Lieutenant TanAR is courting her.”
“You’re interested in her, I could tell. And she couldn’t take her eyes off of you.”
“She is curious about us. That is all.”
OrIN snorted. “I know when a female is interested. It doesn’t matter, my friend. You’ll have to find another to take care of your needs. I have already promised her to the Morins.”
That was never going to happen. MarIK would do everything he could to prevent it. Trying to change the subject he asked, “What was the outbreak in the banquet about?”
“The Morin leader had caught sight of her and didn’t want to wait.”
“I thought that the Morins were going to remain on their transport until we have secured the Katierans.” He had no idea the Morins were already there and even on the trading post. How many were there? Where were they hiding? He needed to speak with his team immediately and warn the Katierans.
“The Morin leader doesn’t completely trust me. Can you believe that? They showed up unexpectedly and we barely had a chance to keep them from ruining the plans.”
“What exactly are we going to do, just hand the female over to the Morins and force the Katierans to attack the trading post? We have one transport and the Morins have one still in bad shape. One and a half transports are no match for a Katieran fleet. Not to mention that the alliance with the Kiljorns and Colony would ensure that they also sent transports to assist in the fight. What good could one female do for the Morins?”
“The Morins want her as a trade.”
“For what?”
“Information on the whereabouts of their own females.”
MarIK was shocked. “What are you talking about? As far as I know all the female Morins died out decades ago.”
“Evidently, not all of them did. Their people broke off, much like what happened with the Kiljorns and Colonists broke off from Katiera. The group that left had viable females and young. The Morins want them back.”
“And the Morins think the Katierans know where these other Morins are?”
“They do.”
MarIK wasn’t sure how he felt about all of this information, even if was true. “The Morins plan to give you the cloaking technology in exchange for your help?”
“Yes.”
“You are counting on the Katierans to go to all this trouble over one female.”
“They will do it out of their misplaced honor. Also, they have many males mated to Earth females, so it would be an affront to them to lose even one female to the Morins. They will cave in to our requests. Especially if they see that the Morins abuse her.”
Sickness filled him at the thought of the Morins getting their hands on Sharon. He couldn’t let that happen. He had to make a choice. Stay and have a final confrontation with OrIN, or drop his desire for retribution to save the life of an innocent female — one that he cared for.
“When do you plan to hand her over to the Morins?”
“Early in the morning. I had the meal they ate drugged so that we could remove the males and take them into custody. The female will be drugged enough to take her to the Morin transport without any trouble from the males.”
MarIK was worried. If the Katierans were drugged then they would be no help getting the female to safety. Things had just gotten even more complicated.
