14. Chapter 14

I didn't know why I had followed Gwyn when I noticed her leaving the camp, but drawn like a xythrax to the smell of blood, I did. When I found her standing there, staring at the sky, I stopped, taking her in.

She was a beautiful woman, just like the others, but with a grace about her that I found lacking in the other gallies. She emanated an aura of strength and softness, as contradictory as that sounded, but she possessed both and had displayed them on numerous occasions—however the situation demanded.

I had also noticed how she had helped my warriors around camp when the others rested, even though I didn't fault the gallies for being exhausted after walking for two days. So did she , my mind supplied .

There was something about her that raised my curiosity. I wanted to find out more about her and get to know her better. I had truly enjoyed our alone time in the lab, had liked her smart wit, curiosity, and how she hadn't shown any fear of me. I would have liked to repeat the closeness I had felt to her and wondered if that was the reason I had followed her.

"Ever since they created the wormhole, I wanted to come see your planet," she said in her quiet, melodious voice, and I found myself mesmerized by her and surprised that she had heard my approach and guessed who it was.

"I studied to become a scientist so I could be one of the first people to come here," she added. "I was willing to do anything to get to know your planet."

"And do you think it was worth it?" I asked, pushing thoughts of the dead aside. What had been a miracle for her had been the most tragic day in my life.

She turned her face that looked even paler in the moonlight to me; her eyes were shining. "Yes," she said simply.

A sharp pain stabbed my heart. She had no idea how loaded my question really was or what she had just confirmed. Still, it was hard to quiet my churning stomach and focus on her excited face instead of thinking of our tragedy. Innocence poured out of her, diffusing my rage and stopping me from shouting at her for what her people had done to mine.

Once again, I asked myself why I had followed her.

I felt a pull toward her. A strong pull. Different from the one that made me spare Matt, and yet the same .

My eyes landed on her luscious lips, and I wondered what they would taste like.

Sandra's offer from last night came unbidden to me, but instead of Sandra, it was Gwyn in my mind, and my cock stiffened. With absolute clarity, I admitted to myself that had Gwyn offered herself to me just then, I would have taken her up on it, consequences be damned.

"Your planet is striking," Gwyn continued, having no idea where my mind had traveled or about the arousal in my pants. "Even the very air is so much clearer and cleaner than ours."

"Why is that?" I heard myself respond in a hoarse voice, wanting to keep talking to her.

"We've built so much. We have so many factories, cars, planes, and—" She interrupted herself, laughing self-consciously at my mystified expression. "You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not entirely, nek. Matt told me about… planes and cars."

"Well, all those things cause our air to become polluted," she continued.

"Why do you have those things then?" I asked, intrigued by her world.

She stared off into the distance. "Because there are so many of us," she said after a brief pause. "People need to be fed and are spoiled. They constantly want things that have to be produced, but the production and transportation of the goods are killing our planet. "

It was hard to wrap my mind around this, but Matt had alluded to the same, confiding that the human population ranged into the billions, a number that had meant nothing to me until Matt explained that their number was higher than the amount of stars I could count in the sky. I didn't think our number even swelled to a million—not even before…

"That sounds counterproductive," I said to stop my mind in its tracks.

"It is. Unfortunately, it seems like a natural progression of things, and it's not like you can stop people from having children. The more the population grows, the more the need arises to find faster, better ways to feed them."

Nek, I supposed growth could not be stopped. Would that be our future? Would we grow like the humans had—neglecting our world and our roots and poisoning our planet? Or worse yet, would the humans seek to do so to our world? It was a thought worth pondering. Worth mentioning to her to see what she would say.

"Do you think this is the ultimate goal of your people to come here and… do to our world what you have done to yours?" I tested her.

She went quiet and averted her gaze, but even in the darkening shadows, I made out a low bob of her head. "Eventually, I fear things will… progress this way."

Her eyes returned to me. "I'm not saying that this is what they're planning, but regretfully, that is the way things progress. It only takes one greedy person with enough resources for things to… to deteriorate."

I pushed her further. "So, in your opinion, I should not allow humans on Vandruk?"

Her clear gray-blue eyes seemed troubled. It was an impossible question to pose to her, yet I wanted to find out if she would answer me honestly.

"I worry it's already too late," she said after a moment's hesitation. "The wormhole is already in place, and I don't think they'll stop sending people now that they know that your warriors are the ones responsible for the loss of the scouts they sent out beforehand."

"Let them send more," I declared. "We will position more warriors."

She looked disturbed and a little sad. "That won't stop them, Khadahr. They'll just send more, with weapons."

"Your weapons don't work on our planet," I pointed out.

"Maybe not the ones we have right now, but believe me, if we humans are good at one thing, it's our ability to create new weapons, ones that will work on Vandruk."

She must have read the doubt edged into my features. She stepped closer and placed her small hand on my forearm. I didn't think it was a sexual advance, not like Sandra liked to do. She did it to underline her point. "Khadahr, we have… gases. They could send them through in a way that would kill or incapacitate the warriors waiting for them."

That caught my attention. "Gases? "

She seemed to warm up to the idea, as red blotches formed on her face. But it was what I read in her eyes that held my attention because they were filled with true concern and the need to make me understand. "Yes, if they haven't thought of it before, they will soon. They can send gas through the portal. It doesn't necessarily have to kill your warriors, but it would buy them enough time to send an army through."

Her palm still rested on my arm, and I was more aware of it than I should have been, given what she had just told me.

"How far do those gases reach? I will move the warriors farther away."

She gave that some deliberation. I didn't even think she realized she was giving me a reason to kill her and her brethren. She just honestly tried to protect us Vandruks. Of all the people I had met during my life, she was the most intriguing. I found her baffling and mystifying. Harsh judges might have declared her a traitor to her species for what she was telling me, but I didn't think so, not for a moment. She was the kind of person who wanted to do what was right.

"I'm not saying this is what they're going to do," she evaded my question.

"But it would be what you would do if you were them?"

"If I were unscrupulous, greedy, and wanted nothing more than to exploit your planet." She nodded. "Yes, that's what I would do." She lifted the hand that had been resting on my arm, and right away, it felt as if something was missing. "But only after other forms of negotiations failed. "

"Negotiations in terms of the kind of trade agreement we make?" I ensured.

"Their demands will become increasingly higher," she warned. "But as long as you're playing ball, I don't think they will attack."

Playing ball , I took that as an expression of being cooperative, and I understood her warning.

One question remained, though. "How far should I move my warriors back?" I reiterated.

She wrinkled her forehead and raised a hand. "Stay."

A smile quirked the corners of my lips. Stay ? Nobody had given me orders in years. Neither had my lips quirked in a long time.

I didn't think Gwyn noticed, though, as she moved away from me, gesturing with her arms and mumbling, "I'm not an expert on this, far from it. I have no idea how far gases go…" Her voice turned lower the farther away she got from me until she stopped and faced me again, yelling, "This should do."

I noted the paces of distance she thought reasonable and watched her return to me. There was something about her walking to me that was arousing and pleasing. It appealed to my primal inner core.

"You are a mystifying creature," I said when she reached my side, stopping right in front of me.

She blinked, not understanding that I was referring to her warning me of her own species. Admitting that humans would plot against us without realizing she was putting herself in danger, which made her all the more puzzling to me .

Greed, I could understand. Same with ambition and even deception. What I couldn't understand was Gwyn. Why was she warning me about her own people without realizing she would not only be lumped in with them but judged as well?

For a moment, I was tempted to ask her, but the Khadahr in me won out. If she wanted to keep giving me information about her people, I wouldn't stop her. Maybe in the process I would be able to figure out what was in it for her.