do that?” Sevith snorted. “This is the third place we’ve been to this morning, and we haven’t eaten any of the terrible human food.”
Hiren released an exasperated sigh. This meant he’d have to backtrack later and make sure this oversight was corrected. Leaving human workers without their proper compensation was unacceptable. “Yes, I am aware we haven’t eaten, but coming in and sitting down at a table and exiting before ordering is a breach of custom. Leaving currency on the table thanks the workers for their time, and it draws less negative attention to us.”
“If negative attention is something you are worried over,” Sevith growled, shooting a glare at a group of humans openly staring at them, “you are out of luck regardless of whether we visit any restaurants.”
This was true. The Drokten had a way of attracting attention—often negative, despite the fact that they’d freed Earth from the Zignills—whenever they walked freely on the planet. It wasn’t something they could help, and Hiren didn’t enjoy being treated like a novelty. All he wanted was his female.
“We need to find her,” Hiren stated.
Sevith’s jaw clenched as he issued his vow. “We will… we will.”
Last night they’d finally found their Oso, the female who would join them as their mate, bear their offspring, and make their triad complete. It was the most important moment of their lives. But before they could jointly meet their female and begin the mating process, they’d been interrupted by his least favorite politician from the human government and worst of all… they’d lost their female.
The most important moment of their lives had been ripped from them in an instant of inattention.
Secretary Wells, the annoying human in charge of negotiating relations between the Earth governments and the Drokten had claimed Jenna Perry had escaped and run away. Why would she do such a thing? Didn’t she understand that they were her mates? She was supposed to wait in that room until they could rid themselves of that human male and then they’d planned on taking her with them to their ship so she could get settled into her new home.
But they returned and she was gone. Just… gone. Secretary Wells said he’d find her and punish her for her transgression. Hiren let the ridiculous human know that wasn’t necessary. Hiren and Sevith would find her and bring her to the Battleship Avash themselves. The last thing they needed was this male’s continued interference.
It was painful having to return to their ship without her last night. Both of them had barely slept. They’d spent time in their quarters planning out the retrieval of their Oso, and today they were working that plan. It was all-consuming.
The human government wasn’t open with information concerning human history, customs and daily life and had turned very little intelligence over to the Drokten authorities. Everything was restricted, even if it was seemingly innocuous, and anything they found seemed to come at the cost of a favor or two. They often discussed how simple it would be to hack the humans’ databases to gain the information they needed, but for now they tried to give the humans their right to privacy.
Hiren was certain that one day soon the humans would come to understand that their two species were allies and upgrade their relations. After all, now that the commander and his Bahn had also found their Oso on Earth, this planet would soon become a popular destination among the males of his species.
But due to this lack of intelligence from the humans they were protecting from their mutual enemy, some Drokten had begun resorting to paying human informants they kept on retainer. Hiren didn’t know who Sevith had to pay or intimidate to get what information they’d acquired so far, but Hiren was grateful for even the little they knew.
They’d discovered that their Oso, Jenna, was something called a “waitress at a diner,” not only a server at Drokten Main. Naturally, he and Sevith had spent time last night researching what a waitress’s life and duties entailed. Sevith had been livid when he’d learned that a waitress was typically an underpaid, overworked servant, who was effectively a slave to a manager’s whims, and that it was considered very difficult and highly unstable work. But… Hiren felt differently. He now knew their female was a hard worker and this made her sound similar to his own species. The Drokten revered hard work and dedication.
But this was all they knew—her name and her occupation. They did