"I didn't do anything to let her escape, I'm trying to help you," she pleaded. He advanced on her, grabbed her throat and snapped it loudly. As she slumped to the floor.

He turned to his warriors. "There has to be a hidey hole of some sort, she is a puny Earth woman, not a spirit. Tear the place apart, and find it or you will meet a similar fate to the woman at your feet." Gorn went back to the panel and tried to bluff, "Your female remains right where we left her, I would let you talk to her if she were conscious but unfortunately the stun blow I inflicted has damaged her in some way."

"Cat, where are you?" he messaged.

"I see you have a sense of humor after all. I have no idea where I am," Cat replied, as she moved swiftly forward, turning from one path onto another, hopelessly disoriented. "Geez, honey, what if I'm going in circles and wander close enough to the entrance for them to grab me? They have to know I'm missing by now." Don't panic! Don't panic! She kept repeating to herself. Yeah, yeah she answered, she might as well be saying don't breathe, don't breathe.

"Stand still for a few moments and I will discern you location," he calmly stated and then activated the search monitor on his wristband.

She liked his inner voice a lot better than her own at the moment, silently cursing the ancestor responsible for her directional guidance gene.

She waited almost a full nid away. He told her to find the nearest cove and stay there until he could come for her. She took three steps and fell seven feet into an unlit hole slamming her right arm and thigh and landing on her left foot, which twisted underneath her. She groaned and patted her belly asking, "You alright in there, sweetie? Mama's a navigationally challenged, klutz. She curled herself into a ball and begged Zorroc to hurry. She could feel her ankle begin to swell.

"Cat fell into one of the pits, we need to speed this up," he told Prolinc and then to the panel, he advised them to stand back. He received no reply.

They blasted through in less than twenty-seconds and flooded the shelter finding it empty except for Sandra's dead body. The Dargons had found the caverns. Leaving twenty soldiers behind, Prolinc and Zorroc led the remaining team toward Cat's homing signal. They would retrieve her first and then go after the Dargons.

Following Cat's scent, the Dargons located her within minutes after her fall but they could not determine a way to extricate her. The crevice that she fell into proved too narrow for their trunk like bodies to descend and she hunkered too far down to grab. Gorn came up with the solution. "You will stand and give me your hand so that I can lift you out, child. You will not be harmed if you do as I ask."

"No offense there, Gorn, 'cause I know what a sweet guy you are underneath all those slimy, stinky scales; but I would just as soon neck with Jaba the Hut."

"Javthut is not here and if you refuse to co-operate, there is no further reason for your existence. I will simply kill you. The choice is yours, of course." He gave her a sinister Dargon smile.

They came upon them from above and what Zorroc saw stopped him in his tracks. If they succeeded in grabbing her, they would be unable to protect her with a force field. He and Prolinc, most likely, had a strong enough bond to keep a blazer blast from disintegrating her, though three guardians in tripod formation would certainly have been safer. But if they took the time to summon another...

"There is no time to improve our position or numbers, you must tell her not to touch the slimy hand that reaches for her, our power will have to suffice," Prolinc mind-thought, grimly beginning to focus his power and link with Zorroc.

"Do not touch him Catarina, pretend you cannot reach that far with your injuries then remain absolutely still; we will form a protective field over you, do you understand," Zorroc telepathed, garnering all of his ma.s.sive power to protect her.

"Alright Gorn, I'll try to reach you, but I've injured both ankles and am not sure I can stand. Just give me a minute to prepare," and then she knelt and froze in place.

Gorn sniffed the air, as if sensing something awry, but disintegrated before the thought fully formed. They snuffed the rest of the party allowing them no time to fire on Cat.

Epilogue.

The commotion was deafening. The south wing, cleared and reset for the festivities and chambers readied, welcomed the Gattonian allies from Ganz, Mesper and Jasper. The celebration spilled into every cranny of the House of Ra and out into the streets for miles. The Dargons, after losing seventy-five percent of their troops and one hundred percent of the starch between their legs, turned tail and fled. The allies did not bother to deter them.

Zorroc had saved his people, his planet and his mate.

The weeks following her brief respite in the pit were exuberant. Her injuries healed and she began to take on the proportions of a baby whale. Zorroc rejoiced in every inch and behaved worse than a mother hen protecting her only chick. Being smothered, however, did have its rewards. Cat fairly hummed with sensual overload both day and night. The brooding intensity that had been like a cloak surrounding her cat man had dissipated to reveal a playful, mischievous, and joyful side. Nadia was maturing into a person as beautiful and pa.s.sionate on the inside as the outside. The aunts remained the same and her two friends were every bit as addicted to their males as Cat was to hers. Long live co-dependecy.

Of course, not everything was perfect. China and Rosik had been injured in battle and though both would recuperate, China lost the child she'd been carrying. Cat's parents had surfaced and now wanted to be a part of her life. They'd resigned their positions with the Earth s.p.a.ce program and were apparently ready to settle into the role of parents and grandparents. They were only twenty-something years too late. Zorroc told her he would not encourage or discourage her involvement with them. He'd support her in whatever path she chose. And lastly, some of their allies, namely Sherem lingered on at the House of Ra, seemingly in no rush to leave.

The panel to their chambers slid open to reveal her, very own, dream come true...frowning ferociously. "You are supposed to be resting and yet I feel your mind working feverishly. What troubles you, my Divitta?" he purred, underlain with steely intent.

"I'm confused. Why is Sherem still here? Before the Dargons decided to visit, I got the distinct impression, things between the two of you rated somewhere between tolerance and antagonism. Is everything alright?"

"Everything is fine, the prince would like our two provinces to be closer, become stronger allies, if you will. I have agreed but not in the manner he wishes to accomplish it," he murmured bemusedly, stripping slowly keeping his gaze fastened to hers until he wore nothing but a smile and a gleam.

Cat blushed as he stalked slowly toward her. Would she ever get used to the overpowering eroticism he exuded that sucker-punched her with electricity igniting every nerve-ending in her body? What had they been discussing anyway, she paused, transfixed...transported...to a world of pookas, feline predators, and foremost love.

It wasn't until much later, temporarily sated, that she remembered her derailed train of thought. "Zorroc?"

"Hmm..."

"What does Sherem want?"

"Nadia."

"Nadia? He can't have Nadia, she's betrothed to Prolinc."

"The betrothal is not the obstacle, Prolinc has asked permission to lifemate with Dee, and I granted it."

"When did that happen?" Cat screeched and sat up baring her increasingly plump b.r.e.a.s.t.s.

Zorroc leaned over her suckling first one breast then the other before softly growling his response, "This afternoon while you were sleeping."

"Uh...Uh..." Now what was she going to say? "Oh," she mind-stumbled, remembering. "So what is the obstacle?"

"She hates him."

"Hates who?"

Zorroc chuckled whimsically; his mate was short-circuiting again. "Nadia hates Sherem."

"Nadia can't hate Sherem, my G.o.d, the girl can't even hate the Dargons, she told me she felt sorry for them; how can she hate Sherem?"

"It poses a mystery, but there is another mystery much more important that I would solve. The one of my offspring."

"He's fine."

"It is not a he."

"But I thought you said...it's a she?"

"It is not a she."

"It's an it?" Oh no, were they dealing with a new species here? The ramifications were staggering. Oh yeah, now she remembered. In Enemy Mine the alien didn't have to have a partner to become pregnant, he was both male and female and would just drop a baby periodically. Oh my G.o.d, her last coherent thought, before Zorroc began to laugh...and laugh...and laugh. He roared, he cried, he howled, he'd become hysterical. This was just terrible. His mind had sprung. Well whose wouldn't with news like this!

She grabbed her belly, silently rea.s.suring the, uh, little thing, that she loved it anyway. Her protective action brought Zorroc around.

"It is not an it, it is a them," he clarified, gasping for air and sanity.

Them-like the horrifying creatures in the movie Them? Cat visibly shuddered. Zorroc started cracking up again.

"Tri-tri-triplets," he spurted. "One boy and two girls, triplets."

"Triplets," she repeated, "triplets...well," her voice clogged, "well," she croaked again and then began to cry with joy, with relief and with an overpowering love for all of them. She was having a litter.

"Thank you," she hiccupped, launching herself at him. Whew, she thought, there for a minute science fiction had taken on a completely new reality.

Before diving into the overwhelming waters of penning women's fiction, Lil was a singer, c.o.c.ktail waitress, sales rep and finally a headhunter specializing in Information Technologies. She recruited her IT husband out of North Carolina, relocated him to her home in Nashville and married him a year later. She now lives in Weeki Wachee, Florida with her husband and three cats along with the mermaids and manatees.

You can visit Lil Gibson at www.lilgibson.com.

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