Seeran walked away with his group following close behind. They had just left Pilot Merrick's home.

They had all seen the mated pairs together when they had first arrived on the planet. It shocked them all to see all the happy couples. It also gave them hope. Their race had difficulty finding their mates. As years passed, more and more of their people were left without a mate.

The possibility that they had a mate waiting for them somewhere out there gave them hope. It was a hope for their people's future. Because of how difficult it was to conceive without a fated mate, their race was dying. Only those with a partner could have children. Sometimes it would happen, but it would take years or even decades to conceive. The ease of finding a mate among the humans of the planet was the salvation of their own race.

It all changed when they found out what Council Leader Tosh was going to do to the humans and mated pairs. He had planned on executing them all in public. He wanted all of the humans and all of their mates dead.

It pained him to find out that all the females in the pairings were pregnant. He didn't enjoy hearing that. It disgusted him that their leader would kill pregnant females.

Seeran understood why Merrick didn't trust him and his friends. In his position, he wouldn't either. They had arrived with the one who was bent on destroying the mating bond.

Merrick could trust him and his entire group, however. He and his friends had been against the tunnel's chemical burnout. The tunnels were not infested with zombies; he and his friends knew that. There was only one zombie when they went down there to look for the hidden city, and it was already dead. They knew that it was most likely an excuse to blast the tunnel with chemical burnout. Council Leader Tosh couldn't come out and say he was ordering it to kill a group of innocent people who were hiding down there. That wouldn't go over well with his people.

Seeran and his group were part of the squads that had to enter the tunnel system and search for the hidden city. He didn't say, and neither did any of the others in his squad, and even most of the other squads searching the tunnels, that they were all happy that they found nothing. No one wanted to be responsible for innocent lives dying for the only reason of being human or a mated pair with a human.

When they returned from their search and did their report, Council Leader Tosh was angry that no one found anything. He wanted blood to be spilled. It was specifically the blood of those hiding in the tunnel system. After the squads found nothing, Council Leader Tosh handpicked a group of men to pull out the chemical incinerator to flood the tunnels. He knew there was no way to hide from the flammable, toxic fog. Seeran couldn't think of any way that the group hiding down there somewhere could have escaped it. They all had to have died in the blast of the chemical incinerator.

"I think we should keep an eye on Pilot Merrick," one of his men stated. "He's going to need our help, eventually. We can help him."

"I know, Trei. I just don't know how to help him if he refuses to tell us anything," Seeran answered, frustrated. "I know he has to be careful who he talks to; people can die if he speaks to the wrong person."

Trei walked beside Rai, who was walking with her head down, upset about all those females who were pregnant and the fact that they were all dead. Finding out that it wasn't just the men who found mates with the human survivors gave her both hope and despair. She felt like she would never find a mate. Hers was probably already dead. If he weren't, maybe she would find her mate one day if Tosh didn't kill them for it.

There were five of them in Seeran's group. There was one female and four males who wanted to help anyone trying to save the mated pairs and remaining humans.

First, there was Rai, the female of the group. Then Trei, who was the youngest male. After Trei was Mikiel and Yarven.

The group's leader was Seeran.

When they landed on Earth for the first time, they accompanied Council Leader Tosh. They watched as the couples approached their shuttle, holding hands. They saw how Fleet Commander Vorik moved to block Council Leader Tosh from his mate, protecting her. As their shuttle took off, they watched the couples happily embracing. He wanted a mate like that.

Council Leader Tosh had spoken of his disgust with the mated pairs during the entire flight back to the ship. He didn't believe their kind should be mixing with humans. He complained that the mated pairs were defiling the bloodlines. He would rather see their own race die than pair with another race.

During his interrogation, when Fleet Commander Vorik was under the influence of the truth serum, he explained what had happened. He had even pointed out the sacredness of the mating bond. Council Leader Tosh didn't care. He wanted to rid their race of human contamination.

"So, what are we going to do since Pilot Merrick won't listen to us?" Mikiel asked. There was a tinge of frustration in his voice as he spoke.

Seeran looked at his friend. "We're going to have to help from the shadows. Help him without him or anyone else knowing. It's the only way. I'm pretty sure if we're found out, we'll be executed."

The group was silent for a few moments before Yarven spoke. His voice was low as if he was afraid to be heard. They were now out in the open, and there could be anyone listening. "We need to find a list of our kind that found their human mates," Yarven stated. "I want to know how many of the higher-ranked officers found mates besides Fleet Commander Vorik."

"Why, it doesn't matter, does it?" Mikiel asked, baffled. He didn't understand why their rank would matter.

"If there was someone with them who was high enough in their rank, they could still be alive. I'm going to guess that it's possible that someone warned them, and whoever the higher rank is, knew what to do to save them." Yarven answered.

"Who was there that knew ahead of time that they were going to use the incinerator to clear out the tunnel?" Rai asked. A glimmer of hope bloomed in her black eyes, then quickly faded. "There wouldn't have been time. I know Commander Vorik knew, but Tosh never left him alone to warn them. There's no way they could have been warned."

"You're not looking at all the details, Rai. Think about it. What if they were warned during the evacuation? Who evacuated the homes around the tunnel entrance?" Yarven continued. There was a slight smile on his face.

Tri smiled, understanding what Yarvan was getting at. "Merrick evacuated the homes closest to the tunnel entrance."

"How could he have warned them if he was busy evacuating the homes?" Rai asked again.

Seeran understood what he was saying. "Perhaps he had time to use a comm link and notify someone to warn them, or one of the closest homes, or all of them are helping to protect the hidden city in the tunnels. Perhaps those living in those homes are strategically placed to protect the people in the tunnels."

Mikiel looked over at his friend. "Seeran, those living in the homes closest to the entrance are Van, Rask, Keirn, Vernisa, and Merrick. They are the ones who live the closest; they are also connected in their duty. Two of them were the original patrol in this area; two of them ended up here and worked closely with them when they built the dome, and Merrik is Vorik's pilot. All five of them were the core group that set up the dome. They might not be the ones, but I think we should keep an eye on those five people first, then go further back to the others that were evacuated."

"And since Merrick is there, too. It shows me that he is strategically placed, as well. If we are guessing correctly." Yarven added. "I personally think we are."

The small group walked closer to their new home, which was much farther back than any of them would have liked. They didn't want to complain because if they did, it could ruin the plans of those strategically placed near the tunnel system.

If they were right and there truly was a reason that particular group surrounded the tunnel's entrance, they didn't want to mess up their plans.

Seeran and his friends split up from each other and went into their own homes. They would look for a list of officers who had found their mates and had hidden inside the tunnels. They wanted to know if there was a chance that if they were warned, someone knew what to do to save them from chemical incineration.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.