It had only been a few hours since the scout team was brought to the dome and taken to the cells. Jada insisted that Mia should be brought to the scout leader, Nevle. She had a feeling that Mia was his mate. He was too protective of her. The way he talked and acted when she was brought up in conversation was a dead giveaway that she was his mate.

Council Leader Vorik had told her it was too soon. He wasn't sure that Mia would be ready for a mate bond. He needed to talk to Renn and Mia first. Vorik wanted to make sure that Mia was willing to speak to Nevle before he did anything. He had to first explain to Mia that Scout Leader Nevle might be her mate. He didn't want the young scout leader to get his hopes up or for Mia to be frightened by the prospect of having a mate because of what Travis had done to her.

As was the standard procedure, the scout team was stripped at their ship, their clothing and weapons left, and they were given a set of loose clothing from the replicator inside the shuttle. Ever since they had brought Krem and his group to the dome, they had installed replicators in the shuttles so that they could replicate clothing for any prisoners. Scout Leader Nevle and his scout team were bound and flown back to the dome.

Once inside the dome, they were all scanned by the medic and taken to the cells to be interrogated by Council Leader Vorik. Krem and his team had given a lot of information. Now he had another willing team to get even more. He hoped they knew something that would be helpful to go up against Commander Grev.

All eight men spoke freely, giving as much information as they could. They wanted to be free of Commander Grev, and they knew that the only way they would survive was to remain open and honest with those who questioned them.

When the interrogations were completed, Krem was brought to the cells to speak with the scout leader. He was apprehensive about doing so. He wasn't convinced that eavesdropping on their conversation was strong enough to dissipate the serum in the scout crew outside of the dome.

He ended up going reluctantly. If it helped to free his people, he would subject himself to the scout leader of the second scout team, thinking he might learn something new while he was at it.

Now he stood at the cell of Scout Leader Nevle. Nevle looked up from his bed at Krem. "You do not appear to be a prisoner," Nevle observed. "Where is the girl?" He couldn't help himself. His soul needed to know where she was. It was all he had thought about since he saw her for the first time.

Krem looked at Nevle, his features strained, protective of his newly found niece. "That girl is Mia, and you will show her respect. You will not speak unkindly about her or to her," Krem told him evenly, the sudden protectiveness of an uncle of the daughter to his favorite brother coming out unexpectedly. Krem sucked in a breath, responding to his own unexpected protectiveness.

"Then she is your mate?" Nevle asked him. His tone fell to a whisper. A sudden sadness washed over him. He wasn't sure why. He was not used to having feelings for an unknown female.

Krem shook his head. "No. Mia is my brother's youngest child. Her name is Mia, and she is my niece. My youngest brother escaped Krogen when he was only seventeen to save our mother from death at the hands of Commander Grev. He was successful until the invasion of this world. He was killed in the initial attack along with his mate, our mother, his mate's father, and Mia's sister. She was the only one who remained alive."

Nevle thought for a moment. His face turned pale. The previous conversation with Commander Grev was playing in his mind. He slowly looked up at Scout Leader Krem.

"It was Commander Grev who made the deal that led to the attack on this planet," Nevle told Krem. "It is Commander Grev who is responsible for your family's deaths. He made a deal with Council Leader Tosh. Council Leader Tosh was to invade this planet for Commander Grev in exchange for the serum so that Tosh could control his people. They would only agree to attack this planet if they were all under the influence of the serum. Before the serum, they had all refused. The serum was the only reason they would do it. They were being controlled like we were."

"They had to be given the serum to get the soldiers to attack?" Krem asked. He was interested in this bit of information. This was all new to him. He knew some of it. But not all of it. He didn't know that the Ramesians themselves had been under the influence of the serum. He was sure that they didn't know they had been either.

Nevle looked around his cell. It was a habit that all the soldiers had, before speaking, to ensure that no one who he didn't want to hear him did. "If Commander Grev dies, it will save us all," Nevle stated. He was no longer worried about speaking his thoughts. He would rather die at the hands of the Ramesians than be controlled by Commander Grev another day.

"How do you know this?" Krem asked. Scout Leader Nevle seemed to know a lot of information. This brought all new possibilities. He saw the potential freedom of his people: All of his people, not just a select few.

Nevle bent forward, speaking quietly, yet not quite a whisper. "When we overheard that Niki killed Council Leader Tosh. We had gotten a call from Commander Grev. We had to give Commander Grev something. We told him that Nik had killed Tosh. We didn't want him to know it was a female who killed him. This information is what brought Commander Grev to come down to the planet's surface. He made us show him where we were able to eavesdrop when you and the others were talking. We showed him at the edge of the dome, where you were on the grass. He came down because Council Leader Tosh was dead. He went back to the disk after we showed him what he wanted to see. I don't know how to get him down again. He made a slip. I know he was talking to himself, yet it was directed at us. It was like he forgot that we were there. He told us that the Ramesians were no longer under the influence of the serum because Council Leader Tosh was dead. That means that if Commander Grev dies, the serum will no longer affect our people," Nevle explained. "Without meaning to, Commander Grev told us how to save ourselves."

Krem paced in front of Nevle's cell, thinking intently. He stopped and studied Nevle. "Why did you think Mia was my mate? She is my niece."

Nevle went to the back of his cell and sat down on the bed. He hung his head in shame. "I felt jealous. I felt anger that you were treating her like a mate. You spoke to her as if she were your mate. She even sat on your lap as if she were your mate."

Krem paced in front of the cell door, thinking of what to say next, and taking in all the information that he had learned. He analyzed what had happened, trying to figure out exactly what had happened and how the scout team had been cured of the serum's effects. Then it came to him. He stopped suddenly. "It is the familiar bond. We are family. Commander Grev did not allow the family to bond. When I met Mia in this prison, we bonded. It cured my crew, and now I see it cured yours as well. We already knew about the mate bond, but we didn't know about the family bond. It counteracts the effects of the serum. That's why Commander Grev killed anyone who bonded. Commander Grev didn't want the bond to dissipate the effects of the serum. He wanted to maintain control. If the serum dissipates, Commander Grev will lose control."

Nevle stood up and went to the cell door. He pressed his hands on the bars, squeezing them tightly. His knuckles turned white with the pressure. It was all clear as day. Everything that was happening to his people and why it was happening. He knew exactly what to do. "That must be why he keeps the men and their families on separate disks. He doesn't want them to bond," he stated suddenly. Looking around the cell one last time, he leaned closer to Krem. He spoke quietly, not wanting to be overheard. "We have to kill Commander Grev if there is any hope of saving us all."

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