He held out his hand to take it.
“I’m fine, I can carry it.”
“As you like.” He adjusted the bags for optimal carrying. “We need to reach the settlement. Safety in numbers.”
She got her own bag settled. “Is that wise, though?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
She met his gaze. “If Terran soldiers are coming after me, they’ll be coming wherever I am. I don’t want to put a town or city in danger. The Terrans won’t care who they kill. You’re just a bunch of alien invaders.”
“We aren’t invaders,” Wrathin barked.
She crossed her arms, the movement amplifying her breasts, and he wanted to put his hands on them again. To claim her again.
He must control this Craving!
He gritted his teeth.
Veta raised her voice. “You kind of are. You came and settled on our planet.”
“It was not yours,” Wrathin said. “No star chart in the quadrant claimed this system.”
“Just because we didn’t have a sign on the door didn’t mean it wasn’t ours!”
“It is onlynextto yours,” he said.
“The territory—" Veta began and took a breath.
The entire crux of the war. Who owned the Sol system? Did the Terran Empire? Was it unclaimed, as the Rhimodians believed when they settled there?
Territorial disputes enraged races all over the galaxy. The Rhimodian-Terran Empire War was just another dispute, as far as much of the Galactic Alliance believed.
If Wrathin met Terrans outside of both systems, the arguments arose. More than once, fights had erupted on trading posts. Some sided with the Rhimodians. Some with the Terrans.
Some thought the whole thing was foolish. They had to now be cautious at Disguised Serenity due to their last exchange.
Wrathin had reached the point where he agreed with the ones who thought they were all foolish. Veta’s passion over the argument illustrated that she had strong feelings as well. Strong emotions, however, would not end the war.
Veta held her hands up. “We can’t do this right now.” She knelt over one of the soldiers and started taking whatever armaments he had. “We’ll argue over the location at the negotiation table. If we can get there.”
Wrathin raised his eyebrow. “I will get you there. On my honor and my program. I will get you to the negotiation table.”
Whether his member kept growing around her or not, he would do his duty.
