Jason looked himself over in the male bathroom’s small mirror. It was fairly strange to be back in civilian clothes after a month of nothing but fatigues and exercise clothes. He half expected a DI to come roaring into the bathroom and cuss him out for not being up to code.

He also couldn’t help but note that the shirt and jeans felt unreasonably tight on him, which wasn’t totally unexpected. He hadn’t exactly been out of shape when he’d shown up at the Crucible, but the occasional gym visit didn’t exactly compare the near constant physical activity he’d undertaken since his arrival here.

Once upon a time he might have been self-conscious of the too tight shirt because it might have led to people assuming he was some kind of muscle bound jock who felt the need to show off his ‘gains.’ Now he was worried that a passing female might take the too tight garment as an open invitation for extracurricular fun.

…Not that he’d be against that, but there was something to be said for being able to pick and choose a target at leisure, rather than being swamped by every thirsty female in the nearby vicinity.

“That shirt’s too tight.”

Jason resisted the urge to smirk as he turned to see Tarcil standing behind him, still clad in his basic issue fatigues.

Neither Adrilla or Tarcil made it out of the forest. Adrilla got nailed at the start, and Tarcil ran into an ambush. The small male seemed fairly indifferent to his ‘death’ and the lost opportunity to get off base, but Adrilla was downright inconsolable. Apparently, this would have been her first chance to see the sights and sounds of a ‘big city.’

“It’s funny, I was just thinking the same thing,” Jason said as he turned to his friend. “Unfortunately, the same thing is going to be true for just about every other item of clothing I brought with me.”

“I could lend you a shirt…” the alien started to say, only to trail off as he realized the absurdity of the statement. Tarcil wasn’t that much smaller than Jason, but his frame was lithe enough that anything that fit him would be even tighter than what Jason was wearing now.

“I’ll just have to deal with it.” Jason smiled. “Fending off thirsty females attracted to my hot bod all evening might be annoying, but I can imagine worse things.”

“I can’t.” Tarcil rolled his eyes. “Your funeral.”

Jason chuckled at his friend's melodrama. “I take it you didn’t come in here just to critique my fashion sense?”

“No, I came to give you this,” Tarcil said, tossing a thin can of something to him. “I figured you’d need it.”

“Deodorant?” Jason asked, noting the small nodule on the top.

“You can use it like that, but I wouldn’t recommend it,” Tarcil deadpanned. “It’s Grinshaw deterrent.”

“Grinshaw?”

“It’s a large predator that lives in forested areas. Sometimes they attack hikers or joggers.”

Jason looked at the small can. So, it was basically bear spray.

“Thanks?” he said, throwing it back. “But I wasn’t planning on going hiking. The twins want me to go to this club of theirs with them.”

It was also clear that they wanted to do other things afterward, which he wasn’t particularly opposed to. After all, how often did a guy get to be with twins?

Tarcil sighed, and tossed it back to him. “It also works on Shil’vati.”

Jason caught the tube, his mind finally catching up. “This is pepper spray. You’re giving me pepper spray.”

“I’d also lend you my shock baton, but you need a permit to carry one of those.” Tarcil shrugged.

Jason didn’t know what to say to that, instead he looked down at the fairly innocuous tube of metal. Part of him wanted to reject it outright, without even thinking about it. He was a grown ass man. Hell, he was a soldier – no matter how odd that notion still seemed to him. He didn’t need something like this. He could protect himself just fine.

Could he though, if a Shil’vati tried to force something?

Maybe. If he had a bit of room to maneuver.

If there was more than one though? If he was cornered? If his movement was impaired because he’d been drinking? Sure, he’d beaten an alien before while black out drunk before, but after a few fights in the sparring ring, he was willing to put that down to either a fluke, or his opponent being equally impaired.

“Thanks,” he said, finally pocketing the tiny container with mixed emotions.

“You’re welcome,” Tarcil said, a hint of relief on his perpetually placid features. “Part of me was worried you’d reject it out of hand. Feminine ego and all that.”

Jason deliberately didn’t correct the alien with ‘machismo’ or tell him that he almost had rejected the gift. He still didn’t expect to need it or use it, but it didn’t hurt to have. It also would have been rude to his friend.

“I’m not like that,” he lied. “I can be objective.”

Tarcil gave him a look that said he didn’t believe a word of it, but mercifully didn’t pursue the topic any further.

“Well, even if you’re going out on the town looking like a…promiscuous gentleman...” The alien looked like he might have used the Shil’vati equivalent of ‘slut,’ which had no English equivalent and roughly translated to ‘perpetually stiff’ or ‘stiffy,’ “...at least you’ve got protection. He paused, as if considering something. “The girls in the platoon should keep you safe from others at least.”

The subtext being that Jason had no protection from his fellow recruits themselves. Still, Jason was a little surprised.

“I thought you didn’t have a particularly high opinion of our comrades in arms?”

The male had made no attempt to hide his cool disdain for the other members of their squad, though if it bothered the females in question, it didn’t show in any way. Jason thought it strange, but hardly worth bringing up. He’d put it down to a Shil’vati male thing. Besides, the guy pulled it together when they were involved in group exercises.

Tarcil shrugged. “They’re fine enough. A little high spirited perhaps, but ultimately good people. They wouldn’t let anything happen to you, even if half of them weren’t crazy about the ‘exotic human.’ Raisha in particular probably won’t let you out of her sight. She acts the fool, but she can be serious when it counts.”

Privately Jason doubted that, but didn’t say anything as Tarcil continued.

“Either way, they’ll keep an eye out for you. Just as you will them. As you said, for all our differences, we’re all comrades. Even Freyxh.”

Jason quirked an eyebrow at that last line. “It’s the first I’ve heard of you thinking that way. Ever considered telling any of them that.”

“Goodness, no.” Tarcil looked scandalized by the very idea. “I wouldn’t want any of them getting the wrong idea.”

Jason chuckled as he started heading towards the door. “Thanks for the mace, buddy. Here’s hoping I won’t have to use it.”

As the human left, Tarcil was left standing alone in the bathroom, a look of befuddlement on his features.

“Mace?” he asked no one in particular.

What did an ancient bludgeoning weapon have to do with anything?

In the end, the small male chalked it up to human strangeness.

----------------

“Some final things I will reiterate before you leave. Just because you are out of uniform does not mean that you are no longer representing her Empress’s armed forces,” the DI said to them as they all stood in formation. Which looked odd to Jason, given that they were all in their civilian gear.

After weeks of seeing the others in the same uniform clothes, it was interesting to see how their different personalities came through in their outfits. Raisha had the ‘girl next door’ look going on, wearing a t-shirt and something that looked remarkably like jeans. The twins both looked like a pair of punk rockers with scandalously short shorts and midriff baring shirts that showed off both their midriffs, as well as a significant amount of under-boob. By contrast, Nuiy’s clothing choices were more subdued and covered more skin, a green and black bodysuit similar to some of the clothing items he’d sometimes seen his Shil’vati professors wearing.

To be honest, the only one who really didn’t look any different was Freyxh, the woman’s tank top and skin-tight shorts not looking all that different from their standard issue exercise kit. He couldn’t deny that it worked for her though. If the twins had the rebel without a cause look going on, Freyxh looked like a genuine femme fatale, with her spiky white mane of hair and perpetually semi-pissed off expression.

The DI continued to stride up and down the line. “Remember ladies, men that will sleep with a girl after one night at a club will have slept with a great many women. Any one of whom might be carrying something. Medical science has come a long way, but I can assure you that catching crotch rot is still just as unfun today as it was during my own time at basic.”

Jason watched Nuiy shift uncomfortably from her spot, and wondered if the woman might have had some experience with that, being the oldest member of the group as well as former military herself.

“Finally, keep an eye out for each other. You’re a team. Marines stand together. If you see one of your platoon mates getting into trouble, help them out.” Jason didn’t miss the way the instructor’s eyes roamed over him as she spoke, nor the way a few of his fellow recruits glanced at him out of the corner of their eyes.

The notion might have been sweet if it wasn’t so irritating, and he found his thoughts following the same loop they had with Tarcil just a minute ago. He could still feel the unfamiliar weight of the aerosol can in his pocket.

He wasn’t some damsel in distress who needed people looking out for him. He could look after himself.

The DI stepped aside gesturing to the gates of the training facility. “That is all. I expect to see you all back here and signed in before final bell on Shelkat evening. I will remind you, that anyone who isn’t will be considered AWOL until they resurface.” She looked over all of them, causing many to shift uncomfortably. “Dismissed.”

The group didn’t so much move as one as stream out, each pressing a finger to the scanner on the wall to sign out as they slipped out. Truth be told, even as they stepped out of the training grounds, they weren’t off military property. They were still surrounded by low squat military buildings as they walked down the street toward the public transit terminal.

“I’ve always wondered what all this stuff is for,” Raisha murmured as they walked past a purple building with a glass entrance. “A warehouse? A barracks?”

“Specialization training,” Nuiy said, not unkindly, even as the twins rolled their eyes at Raisha’s ignorance behind her. To be honest, Jason was resisting a similar urge. How did she not know?

“Specialization?” Raisha repeated. “Like after we graduate.”

“Exactly.” Nuiy nodded. “Obviously, not all specialization training facilities are here, but some are.” She gestured to the one they were passing. “I’m pretty sure that one’s where they train the stewards.”

“I wouldn’t mind going there,” Vieysha said, the pink streak in her hair bobbing along with her movements as the lithe recruit positively leered at the building. “Bet it’s filled with guys.”

“Is that normal?” Jason asked.

That seemed to startle the group, who seemed to be reminded that there was a guy in their midst.

“Is what normal?” Vieyshi asked, the green streaked twin’s head cocking to the side.

It took a moment for Jason to realize that he’d been unconsciously doing the same thing, and promptly straightened his neck.

“For guys to be stewards?” he asked.

A silence fell over the group as they seemed to ponder the question. Even Freyxh, surprisingly.

“Sort of?” Vieysha said finally. “It’s not like, a rule or anything, but you generally see more guys as like…nurses or teachers than anything else. Same for stewards.”

“Assuming they’re not househusbands.” Vieyshi took over fluidly from her sister. “And of course, there’s going to be more girls than guys in any industry…but as a rule of thumb, most guys gravitate to more…caring professions than other kinds.”

Jason could imagine that. While it was slowly changing on Earth, you’d generally find more women in those sorts of roles than men. The positively outdated notion of a ‘male nurse’ being humorous certainly leapt to mind.

“Officer ahead,” Freyxh called out, breaking him from his thoughts.

The group as a whole stopped to salute the passing lieutenant. The harried looking woman didn’t even break stride, or truly look at the recruits, as she returned the motion automatically and strode past.

Well, that wasn’t strictly true. She definitely made sure to get an eyeful of Jason, but to be honest it happened to him so often that he’d essentially tuned it out.

“How far are we from the public transit hub?” Raisha asked as soon as the woman was gone.

“Just up the road,” Nuiy said.

-----------------

“Would you quit moping,” Raisha said as they clambered off the bus and onto the sidewalk.

“I’m not moping,” Jason said.

“You are,” Raisha teased. “Our buses don’t fly or anything, deal with it.”

“I knew that,” he said.

Of course he knew that. The vehicles the Shil’vati used on Earth had been pretty mundane too - ignoring their space-capable shuttle craft. Still, those had been on Earth. Part of him had hoped that now that he was on an actual Shil’vati world, their means of transport might have been a bit more fantastical.

Nope. Just a bus. A big bus given the average size of a Shil’vati, but a bus nonetheless. It had been interesting to see that the thing had ‘male only’ seating options near the front, though Jason had not availed himself of them, choosing instead to sit with his platoon mates.

At least the view coming into the city had been pretty spectacular.

“So what do you think?” Nuiy asked curiously.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to all the purple,” he said, staring out at the massive city surrounding them.

The strange purple alloy the aliens seemed to use for everything gave the entire city a strange dull purple sheen that gleamed in the day’s morning light. There weren’t any skyscrapers, that was amongst the first things he’d noticed. Shil’vati architecture seemed to disdain anything built too tall. Instead, surrounded by much smaller buildings stood massive square megaplexes that dominated the cityscape. Like a mall turned up to a hundred, the sprawling complexes were festooned on the outside with garish glowing advertisements in the runic script of the Shil’vati, as well as moving pictures advertising all manner of goods. It was pretty overwhelming, even during the day, and he could only imagine how bright the city looked at night.

The streets were also packed with people, though very few cars. Apparently the city had a pretty robust underground transit system, which meant that only vehicles with certain permits were allowed this far into the city center. The noise was pretty incredible, but fortunately there was no smell of car exhaust to accompany it; just the stench of thousands of going about their day, combined with hundreds of restaurants and street food vendors.

It wasn’t quite Blade Runner, but it wasn’t too far off either.

“It’s pretty cool though,” he confessed to the older woman.

Nuiy just smiled, gesturing down the street toward where the hotel they were going to be staying at was located. Jason had to admit to some small trepidation at stepping into the moving mass of aliens, who were all so much bigger than him, and he found himself thankful that he had his comrades around him, as the women essentially formed a bulwark between him and the rest of the crowd.

Of course, then his pride got in the way.

“You don’t have to do that,” he said as he strode down the street.

Nuiy cocked her head, as she looked down at him. “Do what?”

“This,” he said, gesturing to the others who were standing between him and the crowd, many of whom stared openly at him as they passed.

“This?” Nuiy asked, genuine confusion on her face as she looked around. Eventually though, she seemed to realize what he was referring to.

“Ah,” the blue haired woman said, almost slightly chagrined. “I didn’t even notice. It’s just something you’re supposed to do when you’ve got a guy with you.”

“Box him in?” Jason asked, not unkindly.

“Essentially, yes.”

“Why?”

Nuiy cocked her head as she seemed to think, before finally shrugging. “I don’t really know? It’s just what you do. Does that make sense?”

So it was a cultural thing. They weren’t actively babying him. That made it more tolerable. Though, to be honest, it was kind of ridiculous that he found it intolerable to begin with. Just moments ago, he’d been ruminating on that fact that he was nervous about stepping into a crowd of six foot amazons. Now he was irritated that his friends had taken steps to make sure he was…safer, or something, he was irritated?

The male ego was a confusing beast.

He was still ruminating on it when the group stepped into a hotel lobby and started booking their rooms.

“You’ve only got one room available?” Nuiy asked, as the group’s negotiator.

“Yes," the concierge, a well dressed male surprisingly, said. “I apologize for the inconvenience, but a convention is in town, and they have booked up most of our rooms.” He bowed his head slightly apologetically. “I would recommend another hotel, but I imagine the situation will be much the same everywhere. In fact, the fact that we have a room available at all is rather lucky. We had a late cancellation.”

“It’s not a big deal,” Freyxh said. “We’re already all sleeping in the same room at the dorms. You said it was a unit suite right?”

The concierge nodded. “Certainly, it will fit everyone in your group with room to spare.” He glanced down, seemingly only just noticing Jason. Still, to give him credit, he didn’t hesitate more than a second. “Though I will note it is only a single bed…I hope that will not be an issue?”

Jason felt everyone’s eyes fall on him. He sighed. He’d been kind of hoping to get his first taste of privacy in five weeks. That dream was dead now.

“It’s not a problem,” he said to the concierge.

“Excellent,” the male said with a beaming smile. “If one of you would just put your credit chit in here, I can get you scanned into the system.”

------------------

The room had been about what he’d expected. A nicely furnished, fairly giant room that was cream in color and occupied by an equally giant bed. Of course, he hadn’t gotten to do more than glance at it before the girls had dumped their bags and were dragging him back out onto the street.

“So you guys sleep in one big pile?”

Raisha shrugged. “Some do. Some don’t.”

“It used to be more popular,” Nuiy said, a faraway look in her eyes, “but nowadays most families try to at least have one secondary bedroom for the wives. Y’know, the ones whose turn isn’t currently with the husband.” She paused. “Kids have their own rooms, of course. It’s hard enough for a woman to get laid as it is, never mind if we had to tiptoe around curious kids.”

The woman preempted his next question. “The hotel probably had rooms set out like that because it’s cheaper. A location so close to the city center like this will have been expensive, so it makes sense for them to try and fit as many rooms in as they can.”

Jason nodded. That made more sense. The room setup was a combination of cultural considerations and monetary realities. He also recognized that his question had been ridiculously open ended. In parts of Asia and South America it would be expected for a child to stay in the family home well into adulthood, assumedly until they got married, and moved out to start their own family, at which point the grandparents may later move in with their children. By contrast, in most of the Western world, a family expected a child to move out as soon as they were financially capable, valuing independence over close family bonds.

Of course, even within those specific cultures, he’d just made massive generalizations. The same was probably true for the Shil’vati.

“You going, Freyxh?” Vieysha called out.

The group stopped, alerted to the fact that the white-haired recruit was striding off in the opposite direction to the rest of them. The woman in question froze too, as if surprised anyone had even noticed she was leaving.

“I’ve got some stuff to do,” the woman said gruffly.

The group watched her stride away, the twins seeming a little disappointed at her disappearance. For his part, Jason was utterly unsurprised. Freyxh had tagged along with their group thus far, but she’d probably just been looking to save some cash on a room. Now that it was booked, she was back to her usual loner status.

The group set off again – sans one member – and Jason quickly found himself being regaled with stories about Raisha’s home world. He didn’t much mind to be honest. For all that the arrival of the Shil’vati had made space travel seem an almost mundane concept, Jason still found the idea of life on another planet fascinating.

“-so of course, we’d been warned about the fact that the wildlife on Helstrom was much bigger than we were used to, but Dad was determined that before our holiday was complete we were going on at least one hike,” Raisha said, gesticulating wildly even as her eyes seemed to take in every aspect of their surroundings. “So he gets all twenty six of us up the next morning – Mother Sylnai stayed in the hotel with the little ones – and has us marching through one of the local parks. Of course, none of us knew that the ‘park’ he’d picked was actually a Helcrack reservation that-”

Jason was listening intently, but every now and then he was distracted by the stares of passersby. It was strange to him. It wasn’t even like he was the only ‘alien’ on the street. He’d seen a bunch of werewolf-looking things that looked a lot like the reference pictures for Rakiri. Besides them though, he’d seen a pair of bipedal dragon creatures. What looked like a genuine walking, talking flower. Even a six-breasted moth woman.

Even they had acted just like the Shil’vati surrounding them and stared at him though. Was it because humanity was new to the galactic stage?

…Or was it because he was a guy?

The Shil’vati said that humanity had way more males than just about any other race. He didn’t want to make any wild assumptions about the gender of a bunch of alien creatures, but from what he’d seen, they all looked female-ish. The dragon hadn’t had teats, but it did have wide hips…

He shook his head. He didn’t know and it didn’t matter. He had enough trouble with Earth’s resident purple women. He didn’t need to start worrying about alien races right now. Still, it was cool to know that there really was a genuine intergalactic community out there. So many different worlds and races.

“Jason, are you even listening?”

He snapped his eyes away from where he’d been staring at a pack of nude but for their fur werewolf things that had been looking at him with a gaze he really didn’t want to label as hungry.

“Ah no,” he admitted, summoning up enough shame to avoid lying.

Rather than looking annoyed, Raisha nodded her head in a bout of uncharacteristically contemplative understanding. “I get it. I’m still pretty blown away myself. I mean, I’d seen plenty of videos and stuff, but nothing really catches the essence of it all of it until you’re there in person, you know?”

Jason nodded though he was pretty sure they were focused on different things. Evidence of which he could see in the way Raisha’s eyes strayed to the flashing lights of the advertisements above them, rather than the ‘aliens’ in the crowd around them.

He glanced back as he noticed there was a whispered conversation going on behind him between Nuiy and the twins. A whispered conversation that was quickly devolving into a hissing argument. His Shil’vati was pretty good, even before he’d spent the last few weeks immersed in it, but the guttural words were firing so thick and fast he could barely make out more than one word in four.

“Anything I should know about?” he asked, prompting all three of them to look up with wide eyes.

Nuiy was the first to recover. “Rather than taking you along to show off and be eye candy, I suggested that you might enjoy somewhere a little more laid back than a loud club.”

The look of betrayal on the twin’s faces was downright comical, as their mouths opened in horror. More to the point, Jason found the idea of a quiet night out more appealing the more he thought about it. He was an engineer by vocation and nature. Clubbing was not a part of that nature. Not even on Earth. Sure, he’d been going along with the others, but it had been more out of habit than anything else.

Now that an alternative was being offered though?

“I’d like that,” he said, surprising himself by how much he meant it.

“Wha- But we were going to-” Vieysha started to say before her sister cut her off, the other twin almost physically slapping her a hand over her sister’s mouth.

“Are you sure?” Veiyshi asked, a squirming Veiysha held in her hands. “Flux is really cool. It’s got all the best music and drinks. It’s, uh, got lots of guys, too, if you wanted to, uh, hang out with them?”

Well, that partially explained why the twins were so excited about the place. He was also reasonably sure that their plan had been to ‘buy entry’ to it with his presence. What he didn’t understand was why the presence of guys was supposed to be appealing?

“Thanks, but no thanks. I think I’d be happier heading to a quiet bar or something with Nuiy.” He smiled, trying to ignore the way the twins and Raisha too, deflated at his words. “Don’t let that stop you guys from going though.”

The twins glanced at each other, clearly disappointed at his decision, but willing to accept it. They started walking off, pausing when they realized that someone wasn’t following.

“Aren’t you coming, Raisha?” Vieyshi asked.

The woman in question looked indecisive, glancing back and forth between him and the twins.

“I don’t know if I should….” she said.

“Aw, come on Raish,” Vieysha said. “You haven’t shut up about Flux since we told you about it. Are you really going to back out now?”

It was clear to all of them that the reason Raisha was hesitating now was because it would mean splitting from Jason. Something he found both endearing and irritating. He didn’t need an escort or a hanger on. Raisha clearly wanted to go to the club. Given that she came from a planet that was mostly rural, she was probably excited about finally getting to live it up in the ‘big city.’

“You should go with them, I’ll be fine,” he said, catching her eye and using a little more firmness in his voice than he strictly needed. “I’ll go for some quiet drinks with Nuiy. You go enjoy yourself.”

That seemed to do it and the recruit didn’t resist as the twins jogged back and started bustling her off.

“It’s alright, Raisha,” he heard Vieyshi – or maybe Vieysha – saying. “Even if we aren’t bringing a human guy with us we’ll probably still get in. Places like this love to have exotic people in their clientele and us being identical twins makes us pretty exotic. It’s helped us get into tons of-”

Jason didn’t hear the rest of the statement as the trio turned a corner.

“And then there were two,” he said, turning to Nuiy who smiled warmly back at him.

Truth be told, this was probably the best outcome. He’d been craving some solitude for a while now, but he was simultaneously wary of being alone on an alien planet. Nuiy was a good compromise, given that the more mature woman was less boisterous than her younger companions.

“It’s just down the road, here,” she said, gesturing in a different direction to the way twins had gone.

Jason nodded and followed after her.

Whether Nuiy’s relative calmness because she was older, had been married before and was thus less desperate for male affection, or simply the woman’s nature, he couldn’t say. All he knew was that it was that it felt like a weight off his shoulders as the pair of them walked down the street in companionable silence.

--------

As Nuiy relaxed into the battered leather of their corner booth, she noted with some satisfaction that Jason seemed a little more relaxed. It probably helped that this was the first time in weeks that he wasn’t being crept on by a horde of horny girls.

Certainly, a few of the bar’s patrons were glancing his way, but at a dive like this, most of them were more concerned with forgetting their problems than getting laid.

“Two Blue-Grails, thanks.” She raised a hand to the passing waitress, getting a harried nod in return.

She turned back to the table only to wince at the frown on Jason’s face. Whoops. Probably shouldn’t have ordered for him. An old habit from her ex-husband that she’d have to get rid of.

It was odd to be single once more. No longer part of the unit. Even after months on her own.

Fortunately, the diminutive human was pretty easy going. He didn’t kick up a fuss, even if he was unhappy. She wondered if that was a Jason thing, or a human thing, just rolling with the punches like that? A Shil’vati male would have been giving her the cold shoulder all evening for that kind of misstep.

Of course, that was part of the human’s problem. Though she’d never say it, Jason only had himself to blame for the attention he got from the rest of the Cadre. A guy couldn’t act like he did and not expect some kind of reaction. Hell, he hadn’t even blinked when they reached their destination. A lot of guys would hesitate at the thought of walking into a bar as seedy as this with a relative stranger, even if they were comrades.

Jason had just walked straight in.

Yep, only himself to blame, she thought as she took a sip of her first drink.

The rest of the recruits in the platoon were good girls – sans Tarcil - but they were only mortal. Hell, Nuiy had been married before, but even she could feel her blood heating up when the human just spoke to her without a care in the world. As if it was nothing? And walking around without a shirt like that? How shameless could a guy get?

She frowned a little even as her blood rushed slightly at the memory. She used the arrival of their drinks as a way of hiding the slight flush that came over her as she turned to thank their waitress. Not that the girl noticed, instead staring at the human as he gave his own thanks.

The older woman raised the frothy blue liquid to her lips. Thank the Empress her ex-husband had raised their own boy better than that. Greft was a proper gentleman who knew better than to trust girls or flaunt himself.

She smirked wryly around the rim of her glass at the thought. All the girls in the cadre thought she only had a single direct-daughter. She wasn’t dumb enough to tell any of them she had a beautiful baby boy – even if he was nearly a man-grown now. She’d learned from her militia days to avoid mentioning him to avoid a deluge of requests for pictures more than anything else.

Her smile dimmed at the thought as she put down her mug. Truth be told, even if the others had asked, she didn’t really have any recent ones of her boy. He hadn’t wanted to move out to the ‘boonies’ with her. He’d wanted to stay with his dad - and those bitchy former sister-wives of hers – back on the homeworld.

She looked down at the scarred woodwork of the table. She couldn’t really blame him. She might have birthed him, but they weren’t that close. She hadn’t been much of a mother to him growing up. Always working. Always another training exercise. Always another deployment. Another meeting. Even though she’d effectively given it all up, she was proud of the fact that she’d reformed her local militia band, from a disparate group of layabouts, into an actual military unit. But there was no denying it had taken a toll on her home life.

She missed her boy, but him being with his father was probably for the best.

She looked over at the human across from her who seemed to be enjoying his first alcoholic alien beverage, she assumed. She supposed, from the outside looking in, someone might make the mistake of assuming she might see Jason as some kind of surrogate for her son.

That wasn’t true.

Even if she wasn’t sure her maternal instincts had been dead on arrival, Jason acted nothing like her son. He was far more independent for one – and flirtier.

Hell, even as she had the thought, the human caught her gaze and smiled at her. She tried to stop it, but she felt her pulse quicken. She knew deep down he didn’t mean anything by it. He was just being friendly. He was a human and they acted different to Shil’vati guys.

Different culture, Nuiy, she repeated in her head.

Still, she couldn’t help the way her pulse quickened and the way her female instincts begged her to capitalize on a male that was clearly giving her signals, lest some other female steal the precious opportunity.

She took a sip to cover the tiny blush she was now sporting.

Human guys were dangerous.

“Hey, Nuiy, is that you?”

Turox shit.