The tram pulled out of the station.
“Keep following her,” Drakkal said, bracing one hand on Arc’s chair and the other on the desk as he leaned his face closer to the screen, closer to the image of his mate.
“Drakkal, I don’t think?—”
“Keep following her!” Drakkal snarled. Arcanthus’s chair creaked and groaned within Drakkal’s tightening grasp. “I need to know where she went. Where she isnow.”
With a heavy exhalation, Arcanthus continued the recording. He switched camera feeds regularly to keep the terran in view as she exited the tram station and made her way through the crowded streets, subtly checking for pursuit as she moved. Though Arc played the recording at a faster-than-normal speed, the terran’s pace clearly slowed as she traveled, and she soon developed a noticeable limp.
Drakkal’s lips fell into a deep frown; the tightness in his throat and chest was no longer the result of rage but of sorrow and helplessness, of guilt. His mate was suffering, and he couldn’t comfort her.
His mate was suffering, and he’d caused it.
Her route was meandering, including a stop for food, but she eventually reached what seemed to be her ultimate destination—a big, rundown apartment building two sectors away from Viraxis. She entered the building, and Arcanthus paused the playback a few seconds later.
Drakkal’s heartbeat, slower now but even more insistent, filled the silence until he said, “Follow her into the building. Show me where she went in there.”
“I can’t, Drak.”
“Kraasz ka’val, you really think I believe you can hack Consortium surveillance but not crack the security of a dump like that?”
Arcanthus changed the main display to a three-dimensional model of the apartment building and the surrounding structures. Numerous slowly flashing dots were scattered around the building, but none were on the building itself—or inside it.
“The place is dark,” Arcanthus said. “If they have a system, it’s a closed network, off grid. But places like that don’t usually have surveillance at all. Less chance of liability for the owners when the peacekeepers come knocking.”
“So what do we do?”
Reverting to the main recording feed—the one focused on the building’s front door—Arcanthus scrubbed through the available footage. Aliens of dozens of species came and went through that entrance, but there was no sign of Drakkal’s terran. There was no sign of any terrans at all. The feed slowed to normal speed when it reached current time.
“Either she’s still inside or she left by another exit,” Arcanthus said. “Either way, I think?—”
Drakkal shoved away from the desk and turned toward the door.
“Where are you going, Drak?”
“To knock on doors until I find her.”
“Stop, Drakkal. Please. You need?—”
Nostrils flaring, Drakkal spun toward Arcanthus. “Didyouever stop? You know what she is to me, Arcanthus!”
Arcanthus pushed himself up out of his chair and stepped closer to Drakkal. Though the sedhi wasn’t nearly as burly as the azhera, he was a couple centimeters taller—not counting his horns. The beast inside Drakkal, which hadn’t stirred for over a year before encountering his elusive female terran, demanded he face this challenge directly.
“I know exactly what she is to you, azhera, which is why you need to stop and listen to me,” Arcanthus said firmly, holding Drakkal’s gaze.
Drakkal’s fur bristled as a fresh wave of heat spread through him, concentrating in his face. “Stopping isn’t going to help me find her.”
“But it will help you keep her,” Arc said. The weight of his expression, paired with the sincerity in his tone, broke through Drakkal’s impatience and aggravation. It wasn’t often that Arcanthus was so solemn.
“What do you mean?”
Arcanthus settled a hand on Drakkal’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “Terrans are different from you and I, Drakkal, and I don’t mean merely in appearance. Whatever you feel for her, whatever instinctual drive is pushing you toward her, she doesn’t feel the same for you. They don’t work that way.”
“Sam loves you, Arcanthus.”
“Well, who doesn’t?” Arc replied with a smirk before lifting a finger and lowering his eyebrows. “Don’t answer that. This terran may well come to recognize that she’s your mate and reciprocate, but it’s not going to be instantaneous. You need to win her, not conquer her. You know…wooher.”
“I freed her from captivity and let her have the clothes off my back. Shouldn’t that be proof enough of my intentions?”