In addition, he harbored no illusions about the coming union; Nadia's heart did not beat for his nor his for her; still they liked one another and would do well together. In the meantime, he would inject Dee with as many babies as possible. She would be his concubine or Chosen One and he would provide for her and theirs, long after he lifemated with Nadia. Forever, if she would let him. She would be content for he would let her raise their children. Maybe motherhood would blunt her sharp edges. He would love to see a softened Dee with his offspring. He would love to see her expand with his babies. He needed to formalize their union quickly; she needed to know how she would fit into his life. It would have to be enough for her...It would have to be enough for him, as well.

"I too have had a demonstration of their defense skills," Zorroc quirked his head toward Prolinc with a bemused half smirk. "They are very effective for ones so small and delicate. Cat told me of the special training she and Angel endured from your female. The three are a formidable threat to unsuspecting males; maybe we should outlaw the training of other Earth females under our protection. We would no doubt be safer for it."

He fastened on Zorroc's last statement with dawning, nauseating clarity. Self defense not a good idea for the earth females? A concubine counted as fair game for male attention; Dee's defense skills may be essential from time to time when he was not there to protect her. His reputation would be enough to keep most of the males at a distance but not all, and not his equals in rank after they reached Gattonia. Dee was beautiful and alluring. It would be a challenge to keep her from lifemating with another peer. It was what she deserved; he just could not give it to her.

Suddenly, he knew that self-defense skills were exactly what each earth female required. Lifemated women would have less trouble but those who serviced many or chosen ones would need extra protection from not only overly aggressive males but also a.s.sorted Gattonian females. The decision to bring a contingent of earth females into the Gattonian society for the express purpose of mating with their males had not been a popular one, especially among the females. The monogamy strictures that had been in place before doc.u.mented history, faced deletion; which meant their civilization faced ma.s.sive disruption in the very near future. The Dargons const.i.tuted no more than a temporary glitch compared to the social storm currently hurtling toward Ganz.

"I disagree," Prolinc a.s.serted in a deadly tone.

Zorroc, surprised and caught off guard by Prolinc's sudden change of mood, waited for him to expound. He obviously saw something that alluded Zorroc, and not for the first time. His long time friend had helped him avert disaster on more than a few occasions. He trusted him more than any other.

"The Earth females are small and vulnerable to the more domineering will of some of our males; our females too are larger, stronger and for the most part unhappy at the prospect of bringing in foreign females to produce what they are no longer capable of producing. I believe it imperative to train the earth females in self-defense tactics. I have a feeling they will need all the protection they can get. We have less than a month to equip them with what they will need to survive in our world. Education in protocol, customs and comportment will also be necessary, I believe." Prolinc glanced up to his silent friend to see him directing all of his focus into what he had proposed. For once, he was paying full attention to their situation instead of his mate.

"I see the truth in all you have said; I think you have saved us from a potentially internecine situation. Our three women will instruct the rest in self-defense, Bandoff can instruct them in our ways. He is mild, non-threatening and can be trusted not to become overly enthusiastic in his regard for the women." Then he added. "And keep Rosik away from them at all costs!"

Zorroc put his head in his hands and grumbled, "How could we have foreseen the complications we would face when we began this venture to save our race? I thought Earth females would be simple, uncomplicated and eager to please in whatever capacity we chose for them; instead they are as complex as our own females, some more so; they expect, even require love. Love! How can they expect that kind of regard after only a group of days?"

While Prolinc left to set everything into motion, Zorroc directed his gaze toward the monitor focused on his now sleeping Cat. Her tearstained cheeks yielded no answers. He would visit the aunts...again.

"You numb sculled, dweeb-headed, clueless, clumsy boy! Did you desert your finesse in Gattonia?" The aunts had picked up their share of earth slang while monitoring the progress of their American cousins, and now Marie demonstrated her verbal apt.i.tude. "Why does it matter whether you credence the idea of love; the point is that she does. Just tell her that you love her and make her happy. You are, after all, mated and therefore celibate; what is a little terminology between mates?

"You call it desire and she calls it love; it still is what binds you, if not the mating ritual itself. You implied that her only value lay in her bloodline. I have watched you handle all your other females with the perfection of a master manipulator, what is so different about this one." Marie hmphed, frustrated at her nephew's inability to improvise. "First you complain that she is unsuitable for joining, which obviously you have overcome, and now you complain that she requires an emotional bond that you cannot reciprocate. All you have to do is say the words and she will be putty in your hands. The word love is very important to her because of the way she was raised. She needs security and the surety of a permanent union and you are giving her mixed signals of reluctance, duty to your race and vague rea.s.surances of protection. It will not do for her. You have to be there-all there for her or you are courting disaster for you both."

Helen took over. "Have you no feelings for the girl, no care for her physical or emotional well-being?" She paused and riveted her nephew with knowing purpose. "Tell me Rocky, do you withhold the words she needs for lack of love or because of your depth of it?" She then picked up the remote control and began surfing channels on the console, seemingly ready to drop the subject, until she muttered. "Not that it matters in the long run; she is your responsibility now. I have often thought that too much responsibility was placed on you at too early an age. Seventeen cycles is impossibly young to run such a large province as Gattonia, but with both your parents lost, well, there remained no one else of choice."

Helen sighed and seemed to deflate a little but then resumed her plea. "Talk to her. Confide in her and she may surprise you with her council, she is bright. I think she could be of great value if you would but give her the opportunity. It would also give her a definitive place in your life. She would feel needed for herself instead of her bloodline. In truth, that has worried me the most in this genetic gamble for survival-the fallout of how she would translate this union. How it would affect her self-esteem and her already strained relationship with her parents. She is a beautiful young woman. Nancia and Rowan don't deserve her; they never have; but that can't be helped at this late date, we can only go forward." She fixed him with a look that told him he would be held accountable for mending Cat's world.

He suffocated under their advice, under his many obligations. He could not do it, any of it. He may be a ruler, but he was not a G.o.d. Why did they have to bring up his parents? They were dead and no longer of importance in any way that mattered. He made his way toward the main level to confer with Rosik.

Zorroc had adored his mother and worshiped his father, but in the end, neither emotion had been enough to save them. He had not been enough. He flew back into the gyre of his youth. His upbringing had been practically idyllic. He was the treasured son of the ruling family in the powerful House of Ra. His aunts and the staff doted on him and looked after his every need. His parents loved him, though were primarily attuned to one another. In the end, the devotion and love they shared caused his father's demise and in a way his own. Alternatively, maybe the end marked the beginning of the male he would become. His father had always preached on the balance of life. His balance had been his mate on one side and his leadership responsibilities on the other. When at the age of thirteen, Zorroc's mother died, their family axis skewed irreparably. His father, who had always been an indomitable force, became a weak and ineffectual leader with the loss of his wife. He watched his father go slowly down hill; not caring that his people suffered, not caring that his son grieved along with him, not caring about anything, ever again. He slowly faded away and died when Zorroc reached the age seventeen.

By that time, he had been running the empire for over two years. He had to grow up very quickly, too quickly some said, but he had no regrets; it had made him strong. Love emerged the weakness and he would be d.a.m.ned before he succ.u.mbed to its ravages. It had ruined his father more completely than any disease or sickness.

Love destroyed his father and almost toppled an empire.

He had to make Cat understand that the fantasy of love posed a dangerous threat better left to fools who could delude themselves; neither of them could afford the cost. Already it had begun tearing her apart.

After Prolinc completed his instructions to Bandoff, he headed toward the X-center where Dee was toning both her defense skills and her delectable body. He knew she would be pleased with his directive to train the women. He just hoped she would be equally amenable to his other proposal. Somehow, he did not think it would be that easy. Nothing came easy when it involved his woman. He would take her first and talk later. He pressed his wristband and issued orders for COM blackout of the X-center until further notice. Satisfied, he almost grinned.

As he entered, Dee was busy throwing one of his junior officers around. She did not understand that they would not lay a combative hand on her for fear of her safety-and theirs-if Prolinc found her injured in any way. "I see Abzu is a.s.sisting you with your workout today, banshee, why not let me take over and give him a chance to live and train another day."

Dee lit up at the sound of his voice and decided it would be as good an excuse as any to touch him.

"I would love to train with you, Prolinc," she replied, giving him a somewhat confused look. What had he called her, it had sounded suspiciously like banshee, but surely, she must have just misheard and had addressed her with his usual 'my Dee'.

Prolinc dismissed a very grateful Abzu and secured the panel into the lock position before turning to face his blond G.o.ddess. Sweat glistened and glowing, he would soon stake his right of possession on her. Prolinc opted for no protective gear and approached.

She moved very quickly with an agility and deliberation that almost challenged him. She was magnificent. His warrior took herself very seriously, he had come to realize, and when her loyalty was given, it endured unshakable. But how to gain it? She had many barriers to her heart-trust, only one of them.

So caught up in his musings, he was flabbergasted when one moment his feet were planted firmly on the ground and the next he was flying through the air. The wind was knocked out of him several seconds later as he hit the floor with a loud resounding boom. He studied the ceiling and waited.

Chapter Twelve.

Dee rushed to his side, horrified; he wasn't moving, oh, what had she done? She'd surprised him somehow, and with his size and momentum, had flown nearly ten feet before colliding with the floor flat on his back. These Gattonians were not nearly as tough as they seemed. Size wasn't everything, after all. She straddled him with her legs on either side of his hips then placed a hand on one side of his head while her other gently brushed back his hair to get a better look at any damage she may have caused. He groaned. "Linc, sweetheart, tell me you're alright, that I haven't hurt you, please Linc, do I need to go for help?"

Nothing she could have said would have motivated him more to a.s.sure her of his recuperative powers. She would not get away from him this time. She let out a surprised whoop as he flipped her onto her back and pinned her with his body. He looked deep into her eyes, debating his plan of attack. Better to join first and talk later as she lie sated and yielding by his side. She had barriers that needed to be loved away before imparting his plans for them. He would love her slow with deliberation. He would make her blaze for him. Dee's eyes had gotten huge in her perfectly heart shaped face. She comprised the s.e.xiest, most physically appealing, most mentally exasperating, female he had ever encountered and he would make her his, really his, no more trancing, he wanted her soul.

The h.e.l.l with going slow, they would go slow later.

He attacked all of her senses at once, giving her no quarter, no opportunity to think or question his sudden turn toward pa.s.sion. How could he be stone one moment and molten lava the next?

Only she was the one melting.

He a.s.saulted her body with hands grazing every inch of her, his tongue plunging deeply into her mouth, his lips ravishing her lips with sucks and nips and grinding pressure. He parted her legs with a strong muscular thigh and kneaded it into her mound. As she erupted into flames, Dee realized they were still fully clothed. Deciding to rectify the situation, she put her hands on each of his huge shoulders and pulled his suit fastenings apart with an efficiency born of desperation.

Prolinc tore his mouth from hers and focused on her eyes, now heavy lidded and dilated with almost no gray showing. "There will be no going back," he warned, rasping out a threat he had every intention of enforcing.

She only nodded and continued on her quest to get them both naked. He thrust himself off her and stripped, then grabbed her uniform and shed it off her in one movement. He looked down on her, eating her slowly with his eyes. Enough foreplay, he wanted in. He covered her, spread her legs wide with both of his, and entered her in one smooth, hard motion with his hands tilting her b.u.t.tocks for deeper penetration. She stretched fully to accommodate him, causing his d.i.c.k to swell even further. Prolinc felt her withdrawal and stilled. "Have I hurt you, banshee, I fear it is too late for me to stop no matter the answer."

"You're so big, I feel it b.u.t.ting against my womb," she admitted self-consciously. Prolinc propped himself up on his elbows and stared at her for what seemed like a full minute before responding. Then he flashed her a most sensual, confident, mind bending smile. It lit his eyes to an almost iridescent mossy glow and gifted her with the first glimmer into his soul; he was letting her see him, truly see him. She gazed back in dazed wonder; he was inviting her in.

She relaxed and found that the too full sensation no longer proved unpleasant. She moved her hips slightly to confirm the feeling. She began to throb, she wanted him deeper, wanted him to move. Looking up at him once again, she silently pleaded for more. The response was immediate.

"I will find my way to your center, Dee. You will take all of me, I promise; now relax and let me work you."

This last, a spoken purr, and then she began to feel it; his whole body seemed to vibrate, as his purring grew louder and stronger. She hummed and vibrated everywhere, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, her stomach, her b.u.t.tocks, and deep inside of her. He began to move within her as well. He pumped into her slowly but firmly, at first, then harder and faster with an unrelenting rhythm that quickly took her to that marvelous precipice. He moved like a jackhammer and she flew apart like so much concrete. She burst into a million pieces calling his name repeatedly. He let out a long satisfied answering growl.

He rolled onto his back bringing her with him in order to cushion her from the semi-hard surface of the floor. She engulfed his senses both physically and emotionally. How had this earth woman captured him so neatly? He needed more research; he would explore further. He had had many females of various races and had pleasured them, as well as being pleasured himself but pleasure did not touch the way this female made him feel.

He had always been number two. Number two son, number two in rank, number two in life's offerings, but Dee took him beyond numbers to a magical private world designed just for them. Could he bind her into the role of Chosen One by s.e.x alone? He did not think so but he would do anything for her compliance, anything.

As she roused from her groggy and sated stupor, she focused on him with a look of wonder, awe, and just a touch of apprehension. She swallowed hard, at a loss as to how to proceed from here. She had a few questions as to his technique and wanted to know if this would happen every time, if it had happened at all; because, if so, she didn't think she'd survive much past the coming week. Talk about a mind flyer, his lovemaking reined as the most exhilarating, fulfilling, frightening experience of her life. It felt like the dreams she had on Zeba II. She feared she had just become a Prolinc addict with a zero possible cure-rate. He probably believed his special talent alone intoxicated and enthralled her and she'd probably let him believe that for a time, but the truth of the matter proved much more alarming. Prolinc himself formed the secret ingredient that made her fire. Anyone else would just be a very large vibrator. Prolinc had become her found key that unlocked her soul and freed her to the possibility of love. Still peaked on emotional overload she glanced to Prolinc for guidance. He seemed to understand because he gently brought them to their feet and proceeded to carefully dress her like a treasured doll. When they both were clothed, he led her down the hall to their quarters. She liked his mindset. They weren't done yet.

Something busily chewed on her toe while another something had entangled itself in her hair, gnawing on her ear. Syphors...no kittens. Spock and Scotty greeted Cat in their usual manner and there droned a consistent beep on her COM signaling a message that must have awakened her. The kitten's antics had become so familiar they no longer roused her. The aunts had managed this surprise, no doubt, in an effort to make her feel more at home. The mini-terrorists looked like two matching black spooks with perfectly round moss-green orbs. Spock had a tiny white tuft on his chest while Scotty looked pure black, even though she knew black cats were in actually a deep, deep mahogany. They had grown in the short time she had been away but remained as open and playful as always. If she hadn't known better, she would have believed they had actually missed her. She had certainly missed them. Finally, she acknowledged the persistent beckoning of the COM and rose to approach her incoming.

As Zorroc proceeded toward his quarters, he could hear a gaggle of female voices chattering and giggling like schoolgirls and he knew the three friends had connected with each other again. Somewhat surprised it had taken that long; he surmised Carpov and Prolinc must have been keeping their women very occupied. He intended a confrontation with Cat to see if he could make things better between them and delve further into her Dargon confrontation. Something there was amiss. He had a niggling in the back of his neck that told him Cat would have been horribly used had they had deduced her ident.i.ty. He would like to question her immediately but maybe gossiping with her friends would provide what she needed most, for the moment. Zazu knew what she would have to say about him but decided not to intrude anyway.

Dee and Cat finished their accounts of the past week and now it became Angel's turn. She almost didn't know where to begin. How could someone's entire being change in the s.p.a.ce of a few days. Most of what she had to impart surpa.s.sed glorious but there loomed one thing she dreaded to share. It would hurt them. She decided to start with it and then bombard them with the good stuff afterward.

"Remember Octapaws at the ed-center?" Angel broached, while focusing on the way Spock jumped and swatted at the proffered length of ebony hair she swished for his enjoyment.

Dee and Cat exchanged matching blank looks. Of course, they all remembered that lowlife; he constantly laid in wait for a quick feel from a pa.s.sing girl, and rumors had persisted of worse. They had tried, on more than one occasion, to get him fired but his brother, a trustee of the board, dismissed their complaints. Octapaws, however, being informed of the grievances, would retaliate by cornering the accuser and making her life a living h.e.l.l. It proved a compelling reason for the three to stay glued to one another as much as possible. They found safety in numbers. Had Angel met someone like that on board the ship, where had Carpov been?

"We remember, Angel, his clone is not lurking in the hallways, is he? I'd say the three of us could take him out easily these days." Cat tried for a little levity but at the somber expression on Angel's face, decided on the direct approach. "What brought him up?"

"He caught me alone in the lab a few times. He raped me," she whispered, once more reaching into that dark pit that had not yet been totally cleansed by Carpov.

"I knew we should have killed him when we had the chance. Why didn't you say something, Angel, we would have stopped him," Dee fumed while trying to grasp the importance of what Angel had just revealed.

Angel lowered her lashes, her lips forming the half smile of a seraph, and then gazed at her friends with all the love in her heart. "I feared you'd succeed in killing him for me and spend the rest of your lives in jail. Then where would I be?" She sighed, working up to the real reason. "He said if I told, that you two would be next. I couldn't let what happened to me, happen to you."

"Typical Angel, trying to take the lead sister role again. We could have dealt with him and kept each other safe, if only we had known. Never again, Angel, never again hold back on us," Cat threatened as she and Dee exchanged twin glances of guilt.

They should have picked up on the situation by the changes in Angel, beginning about the time she turned thirteen; the cloudiness seeping steadily, over time, into her fathomless dark eyes. How could they have missed it?

Because they remained innocent and naive, thanks to Angel.

She had shielded them and kept them safe with her own body. Then another thought occurred to Cat. "Why are you telling us this now, after hiding it for so many years?"

With a wider smile she admitted, "Carpy made me do it; he told me you'd be p.i.s.sed but would most likely let me live."

Angel's eyes, finally free of darkness, glowed like shiny black halos. At times, she embodied such ethereal goodness Dee wanted to weep. "Carpy...and you call him this because he carps at you worse than Cat and me?"

"Uh-huh." She proceeded to fill them in on her life and love with 'Carpy', their progress relating to the FIS vaccine and her very full play of pa.s.sions.

"You know the aunts stayed with us on Jasper, don't you Cat?" Cat nodded and began rubbing Scotty's tummy; he was the more laid-back and affectionate of the two. "They want to see you and explain. They feel like they have become your real aunts and they love you; promise me you'll listen to them and give them a break for the deception, okay?" Angel implored, beseechingly.

"They COMd me earlier but I was saved from answering when you two busybodies showed up. I guess I could visit them one of these days to hear what they have to say." Cat deflated like a balloon only to re-inflate like a blowfish and pin both of them with her best no-nonsense glare. "You do realize that the reason we are all here is because Marie and Helen set me up, don't you, and as a result entangled both of you in the snare," Cat cast back, determined to score one last point in this already lost battle. "We emulated a small school of minnows swimming merrily into the net, not realizing it would end the world as we knew it and our freedom, as well," she ended with the flair of a splashy triggerfish.

"Yes," Angel sighed, "and I don't know how I will ever return the kindness."

"At least they feed us well," Dee added.

"Probably just fattening us up for the kill," Cat concluded.

Everyone believed Angel the 'brainy, aloof one', 'The Ice Princess'. If they only knew the truth. In actuality, she was as shy as Dee was bra.s.sy and kindhearted to a fault. Like now. Not the shy part of course, the shy part disappeared when she got to know you and morphed into the bossy part. Bossy and kindhearted, who could win an argument with someone like that? Only a sycophant, whose main enjoyment in life involved drowning little kittens, Cat grumbled the last part almost silently to herself.

Dee and Angel exchanged a conspiratorial nod; the aunts would be jumping out of their tennies. They all needed the aunts, they represented the only family the three of them had known in a very long time and had become an integral part of their lives.

The aunts were euphoric and ecstatic to see Cat; and nervous, apprehensive, agitated, fl.u.s.tered, and all together ruffled.

Cat felt better already.

They launched into a soliloquy of how they transported the kittens and kept them safe; how they gave notice to Cat's employer so they wouldn't worry about her; then followed this revelation by saying that they hadn't given Angel's company notice on purpose. Let them wonder what had happened to her. They would probably conclude that she quit and left the state, which is exactly what she should have done when that mess began with one of the owners of the company. After everything she'd already endured with men, well, they deserved to worry and wonder whether she intended to speak with an attorney about a s.e.xual hara.s.sment suit.

It took them about another fifteen minutes to finally wind down to a blessedly silent, pregnant pause. Clearly, at a loss as how to proceed, the two went Gattonian still and fixed twin gazes on Cat. That's when she noticed it. They had matching tawny cat-eyes.

She couldn't help herself. "What happened to your eyes, they used to be brown."

"Well, dear," Helen cast an anxious look at her sister, "these are the real color of our eyes; when we are on earth we wear contacts to blend in."

"That must have been extremely uncomfortable for you, considering the length of time we lived under the same roof together," she observed politely.

"You're d.a.m.n straight it was," mumbled Marie.

"Oh my, this isn't going very well at all," Helen messaged to her sister. Catarina was a fey little creature with too much openness, enthusiasm, and naive generosity. The three friends had raised each other and done a fine job of it but there remained missing pieces in each of them. They needed an anchor to firmly bind them together as a family and she and Marie had, long ago, determined that they would be that anchor.

They had decided to fix the three girls' lives as best they could and had been working diligently toward that end. They hoped Cat would let them stay in her life long enough to finish the job. She was a member of their family now, as were Angel and Dee, being extended sisters to Cat.

Cat observed 'her aunts' sitting too still as if waiting for some invisible axe to fall. They looked like two peas in a pod, literally. They reached no higher than five feet...and were plump. Well, maybe a little plumper than plump. They currently looked like two overfed, colorful Prairie pups propped together on the sofa that lined their quarters in an L shape. She had to let them off the hook.

"Zorroc told me he sent you to evaluate my suitability as a mate for him. I understand that you had no choice but to carry out his plans. I also know that my parents, if not the instigators, certainly facilitated the plan." She improvised, determined to clarify her parent's exact role in this dilemma.

"All the people of Gattonia were contacted for potential fertile females. You belong to a High House with n.o.ble blood and therefore were considered the strongest possibility. Your parents knew this and, indeed, put your name into the hat, so to speak. They will be very proud that you mated with our leader," Marie explained in logical terms.

"So, given a choice between duty and daughter, they chose duty. Is that the gist of it?"

"They thought you would be pleased once you got used to the idea, dear, they didn't mean to hurt you with their decision," Helen suggested, in an effort to comfort their charge. Cat had a distressed, pinched expression with too large eyes and, not for the first time, the aunts wished that Rowan and Nancia had just once put their daughter before a mission.

Cat had a tinkling concern hovering behind all else that had occurred. What would happen to Habi-Cat and its occupants now that they had departed? Who would be there to fight for, feed and protect them and keep them safe from needles, electrodes, deadly injections, and meat-grinders? She needed to know. Euwitti could not be allowed to succeed. "What of Habi-Cat?" she finally voiced.

The aunts, at first startled at the change of subject, smiled brightly. "Oh well, dear, I think you could say we wet Cecil's wick and soon it will be as rotten as the rest of him; with the world watching it all. It turns out that Dr. C. Euwitti has another use for animals other than those stated. He apparently enjoys having conjunctional relations with them, as well, or so the photos will depict. The un-retouched photos."

Cat stared, stupefied, viewing her aunts in a completely new light. "How?" she croaked.

"Where there's a will, sweetheart, there's a way," Helen beamed. "I just wish we could have stayed for the show," she sighed. "I guess the reports will have to suffice. This will not guarantee the safety of pets, by any means, but at least the movement will have been discredited for a time. One of our people has taken over the Habi-Cat to make certain your charges are protected. Have no fear, Cat, we have taken care of everything."

Cat loved these two incredible women. They may not be her true aunts, but they certainly remained the aunts of her heart.

Marie decided that the time had come to change the subject. "What of you and Zorroc, is he making you happy?" she asked, knowing almost certainly that he was not.

Cat squirmed under the aunt's avid attention. Well, it had been the primary reason she decided to visit sooner rather than later. "He's fulfilling his obligations to his people and to me but he doesn't...I' m merely another responsibility heaped on to his many others; I feel like yet another millstone around his neck. I had hoped you could tell me if this is Gattonian normal for mates or whether I am doing something wrong," she finished in a soft whisper, refusing to meet their eyes.

"Catarina Achilles, you will stop that this instant. You are much more than a responsibility to Rocky. We raised him from an infant and know more about him than any other living soul and he cares for you deeply, he just doesn't know what to do about it...or you," Marie hmmphed looking an awful lot like an older Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty.

"He's made it clear that I am nothing more than an obligation. A baby-making machine to preserve his family's holdings and status, and to populate future generations. Where do you get that he cares anything at all for me, beside my bloodline and reproductive capabilities," Cat demanded, eyes direct and hands clasped together.

"Maybe he doth protest too much," Helen suggested while giving her a moment for her comment to sink in. "Has he told you anything about his family; about how his parents died, dearling?" Helen ventured, not sure how to present the trauma that Zorroc had undergone at too young an age, but then, any age was too young to loose a parent, let alone both before you gained maturity.

"I know that you are his aunts, he mentioned a sister briefly but he hasn't spoken of his parents. I a.s.sume his father is dead or he wouldn't hold the rule; aside from that, he hasn't shared his life with me. We're like s.e.xually mated strangers and frankly, I am at a loss as to how to proceed from here." She blew a wayward curl away from her right eye before proceeding to jump out of her seat and dart from one end of the room to the other, pausing briefly to collect her thoughts and proceed. "One moment he is impossibly gentle, kind, and attentive; like he truly does care for me, but in the next he's spouting bloodlines and procreation with no emotional attachment in evidence. He turns himself off completely. Can you tell me what I have obviously missed?" she pleaded, not sure where the aunt's loyalties lay.

"Child, we will do all we can for both you and Zorroc; we love you both. Our sister, Zorroc's mother, died when he was thirteen in childbirth but successfully delivered a girl child named Nadia. It was over quickly and it devastated both son and father. Shortly afterwards, Zion, Zorroc's father, seemed to succ.u.mb to a wasting illness and lost the will to live. We believe that Zorroc blames the love that his parents shared to be the cause of his father's eventual death four years later.