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As the meal progressed, even Silar and Fallon earned a smile or two from her. For the very first time, I found myself jealous of my men. Jealous! Jealous of these foolish, shirtless exiles who likely wouldn’t know their claws from their tails if their wives were not there to tell them.

At least they know why a human’s stomach growls.

I stabbed the face on my plate, right in its bracku cheese eye. And then I ate it.

“So will you go to see Magnolia next?” Darcy asked Tasha, pulling me away from the violence I was currently enacting on my plate. “It takes like a month to get there. So it’s good you’re staying that long.”

“It wouldn’t take a month on my slicer,” I interjected. For the first time since we’d started eating, Tasha’s eyes met mine from across the table.

“What’s a slicer?” she asked.

“It is a vehicle. A type of hovercraft,” I explained. “The wardens each have one in case of emergency. It’s much faster than travelling by shuldu.”

“Oh, that’s very good to know,” Tasha said, bobbing her head up and down. “And, yes, I will definitely be going to visit Magnolia. I need to meet Garrek and make sure she’s alright.”

She wasn’t looking at me anymore. Once again, I was struck with that boyishly idiotic desire to get her attention by any means necessary.

With more anger than was truly justified, especially for a warden in full control of all his faculties, I stabbed and ate my plate’s other eye.

“I’ll have to meet Oaken and Zohro, too,” Tasha continued. “And the men in the other provinces.”

The cheese lodged in my throat. It was only with great effort that I managed to swallow it.

“You never told me,” I rasped, “that you intended to meet the convicts in the other provinces.”

She stiffened at the word “convict.” Perhaps, in Fallon’s jovial company, she had forgotten what had brought these men here. Perhaps she had forgotten why she was supposed to be so suspicious of them.

“Well, of course, I should meet them,” she said. “If they want to participate in the program, then I definitely need to speak with them before I agree to bring any more human women here to potentially marry them.”

“I see.” I rose from my chair, sending the legs of it scraping back against the wood floor. “Excuse me for a moment.”

Cherry and Fallon both made questioning sounds as I left the kitchen, but Tasha and the others were silent. Though, even in her quietness, I felt Tasha’s gaze on my back, burning through my uniform even after I’d left the house and closed the door between us.

I stalked away from the house towards Fallon’s barn. An excited barking filled the cool night air, and Fallon’s hound, Sora, came streaking from the building.

“Got the bracku settled for the night, girl?” I asked, scratching her furry black head as she panted gleefully, her tongue lolling out. “Well done. Back to your post for the night, then.”

She gave a high, happy bark before turning to lope back to the barn. I watched her black fur morph into shadows and then disappear inside as I mulled over what Tasha had just told me.

Visiting the other provinces.Blast. I hadn’t even considered she’d want to do such a thing. It could be arranged, of course. But it meant clearing it with the other wardens first. Warden Hallum’s province was closest. All the others would take more than a human month to travel to, even using my slicer.

This also meant that the future marriages of my men Zohro and Oaken might hinge upon the behaviour of convicts I had no relationship with or history of authority over.

At least it is Warden Hallum who is nearest,I thought grimly. I knew him to be a paragon of Zabrian excellence in discipline and leadership. Which meant he was as hard as a blade and twice as sharp. I did not expect that he would tolerate any nonsense, and if anyone could produce convicts that might pass Tasha’s judgment, it would be him.

With the stars and three moons sending silvered light down through the trees and long grass of Fallon’s property, I removed my data tab from my pocket and used it to contact Warden Hallum.

After only a few moments of waiting, his face snapped into focus on my screen. Smoke-grey eyes with centres of pale ice looked out above severe, sharply-cut cheekbones. His black hair was tied smoothly back, the dark strands a sharp contrast to the light yellow shade of his hide.

“Warden Tenn.”

“Greetings, Warden Hallum,” I said in reply. “How go things in your province?”

“Nothing new to report here.”

“I see.”

“I take it you have something new to report,” he observed coolly. “Considering this sudden call. And the recent update that I’ve had from the empire. Apparently, three of the human females have been successfully settled in your province.”