Only when Artemis finally released him did Azdrei’in start to relax again. He let out the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, trying to calm the frantic racing of his hearts. All she’d done was close the distance between them to express her gratitude for his help. He shouldn’t have responded as if it had been an intimate gesture by a female of his own species. She was a human, a member of the race that his people had all but eliminated from the planet. She wasn’t an option.

Walking with her toward the woods, he wondered if any of the other Yihai were exploring the area nearby. He needed an outlet to get rid of his strange attraction to the human at his side, and some of the warriors who had come to the Earth with him were females. Maybe he would run into one who would be interested in laying with him. None of them had mates, so they were free to sleep together if they wanted to. If he relieved his carnal desires with a member of his own kind, then hopefully his interest in Artemis would be stymied.

Unfortunately, that idea required tracking down another Lunvalgan, and he couldn’t easily do that when Zalla had ordered him to keep watch over the Earthling he’d found.

As they trekked toward the trees, he kept a little more distance between them than usual while she explained the nature of humans to him. Her description of the fight or flight response was familiar to him, since many creatures on Ashad’te had the same instinct, including his own people. It was also the reason why he’d tested her the day before by wrapping his claws around her throat. He’d wanted to find out if she even had enough of a violent streak to fight back when he threatened her.

However, he found it interesting that humans learned to become bad when they were given power, nurtured that way by their parents, or gathered together in large groups. His people tended to behave the opposite way. Perhaps it was because of their close encounter with total extinction, but the Eilix put their collective wellbeing before anything else, and they all did what they could to ensure that their society thrived as best as it could under less than ideal circumstances. If they didn’t take care of each other, dying out was a very real possibility.

“You are welcome,” he replied when she thanked him again, dodging her comment about how she’d missed talking and touching someone else. He was happy to oblige the first desire, but the second reminded him of his unnatural draw to her, so he was reluctant to indulge it. Since they belonged to separate species, it seemed wise to avoid physical contact that might tempt him to get closer to her than he should.

At her question, he shook his head. “I am not sure. I can ask Zalla, but my orders… the warriors’ orders are to kill all humans. I don’t know if we will get new orders if some humans are good.” After running into the young Earthlings, he had quite a bit that he wanted to interrogate his commander about. He was also willing to suggest that the Yihai shouldn’t end the lives of every human who’d survived Strizin. Based on his experiences, he didn’t believe they all needed to die. He just hoped Zalla would be willing to hear him out if he talked to her about it.

“When I talk to Zalla about you next, I will do what I can to make her see that some humans are good,” he promised, sidestepping a low-hanging tree branch.