The doors slip smoothly open in Council Leader Vorik's Council Chamber. One by one, the scouts were brought in. They were not told why they were being brought in, only that Council Leader Vorik needed to speak with them.

They were all nervous, not sure what was happening. They were technically still prisoners after all.

Council Leader Vorik was standing in the back of the room, pacing. There was a scowl on his face. He was clearly upset. It made the men flinch due to their experience with Commander Grev's anger.

Without turning around, he spoke to the Kreq scouts. "Sit down; we have a problem that we need to find a way to resolve. If we don't find a way to resolve it, one or all of your families will die. We need to find a way to save them."

Gasps were heard around the room from both the scouts and their guards. It was Krem who spoke first. "May I ask what happened?" There was a slight shake to his voice. He didn't like what he had just heard.

Council Leader Vorik turned around slowly and faced Krem and the other Kreq scouts. "Commander Grev came down to the surface of the planet and found your scout ships empty. He came to the East Gate of this dome. He surrounded himself with a swarm of fighters, pointing their ship's blaster cannons at the dome. We could not risk lifting the blast shields to fire upon Grev. He threatened to bring your families here to be executed if we did not hand you over to him. I will not send you back only to be killed, yourselves. I brought you here to help devise a plan to save your families."

Krem nodded slowly in understanding. "We can't give ourselves up. He will kill us and then kill our families anyway. They are all doomed if we don't find another way. Commander Grev only wants us back so that he can make an example out of us to the rest of the men for getting caught."

The door to the council chamber slid open, and Jada and Orik walked in. Jada looked up at Council Leader Vorik, one eye raised, chuckling. "You didn't think I wouldn't find out you're in here conspiring to save the families, did you?" She asked. "I'm good at ideas. So what the hell are we going to do to help save them?" she asked Vorik.

One of the Kreq looked up at Jada and frowned, and then turned to the man sitting beside him. "She's not very submissive," he told him quietly. He didn't understand the behavior. Kreq females were submissive. This female was not.

Jade looked over at him, placing her hands on her hips as she glared at the man who spoke. "Females aren't supposed to be submissive!" she spat out. "Females are partners to the males. My partner is Orik. I am not submissive; we are equal! Any man who forces a female to be submissive is not worth even the spit at the bottom of a chew bucket."

The man looked down at the table. He was trying not to argue. He had believed what he was taught on his planet. Females were only meant to produce children and raise them. There was nothing more; they were there for. He was too used to how things had been for decades.

Krem looked at her and smiled. "Thank you for pointing that out. Commander Grev changed our culture. It used to be like you speak. As a child, I found books that told me this," he said, smiling, nodding to her with respect.

Jada turned to Council Leader Vorik. "Recap what's going on, and how can someone with my skills help the situation?"

Council Leader Vorik lifted a brow. He knew exactly what she was saying. She had half-zombie superpowers that could do a lot more than ordinary humans, Ramesians, or Kreqs.

Vorik sat down at the opposite side of the table and then looked directly at Jada. "Okay, here is the recap. Commander Grev came down with a small swarm of fighter crafts. He got out of his shuttle and walked up to the dome's east gate. We could do nothing. The swarm of fighters had their blaster cannons trained on the dome. The moment we would have opened it, they would have opened fire. He demanded that his men be handed over; All sixteen scouts. Commander Grev told us that he would bring down their families and execute them for all to see. He said their deaths would be on our hands, then he left," he stated. "That is the recap, which I know you already knew since you were there."

Jada listened to every word Vorik spoke. She needed the recap so she could analyze tactics to help the families. It was like scanning a document multiple times for new information that had always been there, but your eyes glazed over it. She suddenly smiled. "I think we should hide some teams outside of the dome so when he comes back down here, we can try to prevent that from happening. I also think that two of those people should be Nevle and Mia. I have reason to believe that they are mates. If they are near enough and do that soul-mingling thing they do, it will cure a lot of those present. The mating bond is supposed to be much more potent than the family one. I think that if they are mates, we should at least try. While they're hidden, doing whatever it is that they do, the teams outside of the dome can go in and stop the families from being executed. If it's possible and one of us gets a chance, we should take out Grev while he's on the planet's surface and not hiding on his disk."

Orik tensed up, not liking Jada's words. He knew she would be one of the ones outside the dome. He was determined to go with her.

Jada knew what he was thinking and turned to her mate. "I will not leave the dome without my mate. Orik will go with me."

Relief passed through Orik. He smiled at her. Inside, he was worried, but he was happy she wouldn't go without him.

Council Leader Vorik called on his comm link to set up multiple teams outside the dome. He explained that he couldn't open the dome when Commander Grev showed up with the scouts' families, so he needed to position men outside, ready to attack Grev or liberate the families of the scouts. The best option, of course, would be to do both, liberate the families and kill Grev.

Once he had completed calling the teams, Council Leader Vorik finally called Renn and told him to bring Mia to the council chamber. He hadn't had a chance to talk to her yet. She had no idea that there was even a second scout team that had been brought inside the dome. There were too many lives at stake to wait any longer.

Shortly after, Renn arrived with Mia. She was tightly gripping his hand. Vorik didn't tell him what they were doing there, only that he needed to bring Mia. Mia kept her eyes focused on the floor. She was uncomfortable in the room filled with men she didn't know or trust.

"Have a seat," Council Leader Vorik told Renn.

Renn found a seat and sat down, slowly pulling Mia into his lap. It made her feel safe when he did that.

Vorik turned to Mia. "Mia? Please look at the Kreq scouts. Besides your uncle, is there one you are drawn to? Is one of them your mate?"

Jada sighed loudly, "Suttle much?" Sarcasm dripped from her tone.

Vorik turned to Jada. "I don't know how else to ask it."

Jada looked over at Renn and Mia. Renn was looking strangely at one of the scouts; Mia was looking at Vorik. "Mia? We have a problem that you may be able to help us with. If one of the scouts is your mate, you and he can do the soul-mingling thing and cure some of those in the crowd. You would be hidden from the teams and Grev and his puppets," Jada explained to her.

Mia looked at the scouts, who were all watching her. Her gaze fell on Nevle almost immediately. She smiled shyly. "He is my mate," she said matter-of-factly, pointing quickly to Nevle.

One of Nevle's men, Renk, stood up, ignoring everyone else in the room. His face was pale. He walked shakily to Renn. His next words shocked everyone. "How is it possible that you are my mate?" Renk asked Renn.

It was a good question. Both were men. It wasn't a common practice in either race. Two men or two females were nearly non-existent, but a mate bond was a mate bond. It clearly confused both of them.

Jada laughed. All eyes turned to her. "If we have two mated pairs doing that soul-mingling thing. A lot of those puppets can be cured."

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