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  “I told you, that request is denied!” snapped Chancellor Terex and for a moment, Six could have sworn that his pale blue eyes turned a burning red.

  He normally didn’t argue with a superior but Six was beginning to be uneasy about the entire situation. It wasn’t an actual emotion, he told himself—more of a sense of wrongness that originated somewhere in his gut. A warning that all was not well.

  “Forgive me, Chancellor,” he said. “But I truly feel that even an hour of instruction on how to treat Earth females would be beneficial. I met one of them on a medical barge orbiting Z4 and she seemed to feel my appearance and actions would be terrifying to Mei-Li. If there is any information I can gain that would keep that from happening—”

  “Mei-Li, is it?” The cruel smile stretched Chancellor Terex’s lips again. “So now you know her name? Perhaps you’re having feelings for her? Should I report that to your superior, the Mouth of the Collective?”

  Six felt his jaw clench.

  “I have no feelings for the female one way or another. I simply wish for a smooth and stress-free Claiming.”

  The Chancellor’s blue eyes flashed red again. “That is not my wish. In fact, the more attention you attract and the bigger scene you make, the better.” He consulted a chronometer he had strapped to his wrist. “It is almost noon down on your female’s part of the Earth right now—which I assume you know is Tampa, in the Florida peninsula.”

  “Tampa? Florida?” Six shook his head. “I am not familiar with the geography of this planet.”

  “But you do know where to find her, don’t you?” Terex demanded. “I thought all you Kindred idiots had some kind of innate homing device when it came to finding your brides.”

  All you Kindred idiots? Six frowned. Why was the Chancellor speaking as if he was not one of the Kindred? But he sensed it might be unwise to question the other male.

  “I have an idea of where she might be,” he said. “I’m sure that once I get close enough to catch her scent…” Though he had never seen her in person, he had smelled her scent in the many dreams they had shared. It was soft and delicate and very feminine. It bothered him almost as much as the memory of those small, perfectly formed breasts moving under her lace night dress.

  “Never mind,” Chancellor Terex snapped. “I’ve been tracking her position for weeks now. I’ll send her coordinates over as well. The sooner you find her and claim her, the better. As I said, it’s noon there now. You should cause quite a stir dragging her away in the middle of the day.”

  Six had no intention of dragging Mei-Li anywhere but he sensed this wasn’t what Chancellor Terex wanted to hear.

  “All right,” he said simply, and nodded.

  “Good.” The High Chancellor sounded somewhat mollified. “You will go and collect the Earth girl at once and take her back to Zeaga Four. Understood?”

  “Understood.” Six nodded again.

  “Excellent. I am transmitting all the information you requested now. Terex out.” The Chancellor nodded once more, formally, and then the viewscreen went blank. At the same time, the shuttle’s informations system beeped, indicating incoming data—the Claiming Agreement and Rules and Mei-Li’s coordinates, no doubt.

  Six sank back in his pilot’s chair, considering the strange exchange. Even though he was not conversant with emotion, it was clear that the Chancellor Terex was displaying several inappropriate feelings. He also seemed to have some strange ideas. He appeared to want Six to rush down to Earth and make claiming the Earth female into a huge incident. What did he stand to gain if Six did so?

  Another thing that bothered Six was the fact that Chancellor Terex didn’t appear to care how Mei-Li felt about any of this. In fact, he had been almost…gleeful, (was that the word?) when he’d suggested that she would feel trapped on a foreign planet and frightened by the male who claimed her. Why would he feel that way? It had always been Six’s understanding that the other branches of the Kindred valued females and tried to treat them gently and with reverence. How was it that Chancellor Terex had told him to do the opposite?

  He shook his head. No, even without an emotional reference to compare to, he was certain he could not be mistaken. Something about the orders the Chancellor had given him was off. His gut told him so.

  Six was half tempted to simply turn his shuttle around and go back through the fold in space. He would tell One that claiming the little Earth female was impossible. That it felt wrong, somehow.

  But…Six frowned to himself. But he didn’t want to go back to Z4—not without the female. Not without Mei-Li. He knew it was illogical and irrational, but he wanted her by his side. He wanted to claim her.

  Why do I feel this way? I shouldn’t be feeling at all.

  Except it wasn’t a feeling, not really, he told himself. It was simply his protective instinct, as One had said. It was a normal reaction for a Kindred male who was dream sharing with a female.

  He thought again of her petite frame, so slender and frail. So defenseless. Such a female would be an easy target for an unscrupulous male. No wonder he had the sense that he wanted to claim her—but it wasn’t so. What he really wanted was just to protect her. That was all.

  Perhaps he ought to just look in on her, and make sure that all was well. And once he assured himself of her safety, it would probably be better to leave her there on her home planet.

  Yes, that’s what I’ll do, he told himself as he set a course for Earth. I’ll observe her and make certain she is safe and well. Then I’ll go back to One and tell him that something is wrong with the Kindred High Chancellor here.

  Luckily, his little ship had the latest in Dark Kindred stealth tech. He would be able to observe Mei-Li without her ever being the wiser. That way he could protect her if the need arose, without frightening her.

  But first he had to find her.

  Six swiped at the viewscreen, causing the data Chancellor Terex had just transmitted to begin scrolling rapidly. He frowned as he skimmed through it—there was a lot more to the Claiming Period than he had initially suspected. It would definitely be better not to claim Mei’Li. Some of the requirements would doubtless “frighten her to death” as Tess had said.

  At last, at the bottom of the transmission, he found her coordinates. There wasn’t an exact pinpoint location—more like a map of the areas she frequented. That was enough for Six. He knew instinctively that he would sense her more clearly the closer he got. But she would never sense him. She would never know that he had come to watch over her for a little while before leaving again.

  “Tampa, Florida,” he muttered under his breath as he punched in the coordinates. “Mei-Li, I will see you soon…even if you don’t see me.”

  Chapter Four

  Mei-Li sighed and put her head down on her desk. It was turning out to be the day from Hell and there was no end in sight.

  She had come to work early, intending to make a serious dent on the mountain of paperwork waiting for her before the phones started ringing at nine. But that was not to be. Before she’d even sat down behind her cheap metal desk, the Emergency CPI had told her that the mother of one of her clients had been caught wandering up and down her apartment complex, banging on doors and shouting unintelligibly in the early hours of the morning.

  The minute she got the report, Mei-Li knew who it was about before the Emergency CPI even gave her the name. She had dubbed this particular woman “Drunk Mom” in her head, not to be mean but because she was almost always inebriated. Mei-Li had tried with varying degrees of success to get her into AA but it never worked for long. Drunk Mom always relapsed, usually at three o’clock in the morning, and made a huge, embarrassing scene.

  Mei-Li had no choice—she got in the car and went directly to Drunk Mom’s house. The woman had three children, all under the age of seven, and if she was three sheets to the wind it meant that the six year old was in charge of the toddler and the infant—not a good scenario.

  On arriving at Drunk Mom’s house, Mei-Li had i