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could she when they’d only
spent fleeting moments together? Humans weren’t attuned to the bonding instinct
as Alphans were. Wooing her would just take a few
more hours than they’d anticipated. “We’ll try again tomorrow. I’ll find out
when Mak will be on duty and appeal to him. He seems
to have some sympathy for our cause. But we must go gently. She’s clearly
skittish.”
    “I
don’t want to wait until tomorrow.”
    “Neither do I, Mikel, but it’s already late afternoon, visiting
hours are over, and we are not exactly popular at the compound.” That was
another obstacle to overcome. Well, they weren’t going to find their mate while
on an adventure-filled quest like they’d imagined, but the logistics of getting
access to Alisa was already a challenge.
    “Who
says we have to wait?” Mikel righted his head to stare at him, a spark of some
mischief in his eye. Felix knew his bondmate had always been the plotter and
more daring of the pair, though from others’ observations, his own talkative,
quick-to-act nature made it seem as if he was the
instigator. Such a misunderstanding was exactly how they’d met. There had been
some sort of incident with food coloring in the morning’s porridge during their
Academy days, and he had made too loud a joke of it, bringing blame upon
himself. During his punishment run, Mikel had silently joined him, only
introducing himself and admitting his crime once they’d completed the course.
They’d been inseparable ever since. So if Mikel had an idea, Felix was bound to
follow.
    ****
    The
lump on her head had reduced to a mere bruise, only tender if she touched it,
thanks to the quick action of the men. Alisa hated to give them credit, but
they had been skillful in treating her wound. She was sure neither of them
would have even noticed it if they’d suffered something similar. It probably
took a laser blast to attract their attention, they
were both so big and solid. But she didn’t want to think about them. She was
already distracted enough. If she thought about how Mikel had silently attended
to her after they’d carried her to the compound’s medical center, despite the
protests of the nurses in attendance, or of how Felix had held off the director
of housing and one of his fellow Alphans until his
bondmate had declared himself finished, she would become more flustered. She’d
been flustered for hours now.
    Evening
was falling, and she gazed out the window of her room which faced the edge of
campus. A fence had been installed here once the buildings had been converted
to use as a refugee center, just like the one the two Alphans had scaled so easily before. She hadn’t had a chance to thank them before
they’d been herded away, but not before both had sent her quick smiles. They
might be in quite a lot of trouble. One of the major tenets of this joint
effort between the rulers of Alpha and some Earth governments was to provide a
safe environment for humans who’d been displaced as a result of kidnapping by Xyrans . That meant no over-sexed, highly trained warrior
Alphan males running amok within the walls, a rule rigorously enforced so that
the women here were secure and not viewed as some sort of smorgasbord by the
visiting aliens. Felix and Mikel hadn’t seemed to care that they were breaking
the rules, and she wasn’t sure how to feel about that.
    Her
musings were interrupted by a rattling sound coming from outside, like a
squirrel had climbed past the window. She told herself there was no danger even
though her nerves twitched. The noise repeated, and she knew she had to investigate.
    Opening
the window, she cautiously peered out, glancing along the walls for a stray
animal or bird that might be clinging to the ivy that crept up the brickwork. A
hiss from the fence made her look, and to her shock she saw Felix and Mikel
standing in the shadows, staring right at her. Her belly clenched, and she
gripped the edge of the windowsill with suddenly shaky