Azdrei’in didn’t fully grasp everything Artemis was saying to him, but he did understand that she saw him as similar enough to a human that she treated him the same way she would her own kind. That made sense to him, especially since visually, Earthlings and Lunvalgans looked quite a bit alike. He’d also noticed that even though she kept the bunny in her home, she hadn’t once tried to speak with it like she had with him. There were distinctions between the ways she interacted with “pets” and “friends.”

When she showed him the image of the animals kept in cages, he studied it until he realized she was asking what had become of them after the virus had killed off her race. If they had been locked up by humans and didn’t have a way to escape on their own, he had a feeling most, if not all, had starved to death by now. It was unfortunate, but there wasn’t anything his people could have done to prevent the loss. It wasn’t safe for them to colonize the planet until the violent apex species was eradicated, so they’d had to wait on their ship while the disease took its course. He and the other warriors that had been sent ahead of the rest of the colony were the first Lunvalgans to set foot on the ground in a long time.

“I think they are dead,” he told Artemis practically. He’d heard the emotion in her voice when she asked him about the animals, but there was no point in lying to her. Without sustenance, it was impossible for the creatures in their cages to have survived when their caretakers succumbed to Strizin. He wondered why they had been locked up at all though. The only time his people contained another species had been when they’d been developing the virus to eliminate the Earthlings. They’d needed test subjects to refine the disease, so they had captured a few humans to use for practice. Other than that, they didn’t cage other creatures as far as he was aware.

While she spoke, he strode over to the high table and made himself comfortable on one of the chairs. Between what she was saying and the video she showed him, he gathered that she was telling him that humans were led by their emotions. She also seemed to think that his kind was the opposite. He shook his head. “[i]I[/i] am not emotional,” he clarified, pressing a hand to his chest. “Warriors are not emotional. We are taught to only think… to listen to leaders and not stop just because we don’t want to listen.”

Suppression, repression and detachment were the words he would have used if he knew them in English. When he’d been assigned to be a warrior, he’d been taught to remove himself emotionally from his work. There was no place for empathy or compassion when his commanders needed him to hunt or kill. He still had emotions, of course, but he’d learned to be logical and pragmatic before anything else. [i]Although, I did disobey my orders by allowing her to live before Zalla gave me her approval,[/i] he realized. Maybe he wasn’t quite as good at burying his emotions as he’d thought.

“Males and females don’t have a choice,” he explained to her, then drummed his fingers against the table as he thought of an example. “I could like one female, but if we don’t make a baby, I cannot have her. My leaders will put me with another female, even if I don’t like her. We need more people.” To further demonstrate the point, he showed her telepathically how young Lunvalgans underwent genetic screenings to give them the best odds of reproducing with a compatible mate. He’d already gone through the process too. The only reason why he didn’t have a mate was because he’d been assigned to the Yihai. The task of exploring the Earth was dangerous, so the Om’phaers had postponed selecting a breeding partner for him until after he survived the assignment.

“I could have a female when I go back,” he mused carelessly. “But now, I don’t.” He was only somewhat eager to be given a mate. Like the rest of his kind, he had a drive to procreate, but the process had become so clinical that it felt more like an obligation than something to be enjoyed. The Om’phaers were very involved with fertility tests, adjustments to the couple’s diets and occasionally, medical intervention if necessary. Emotions, attraction, and love weren’t part of the equation—not like they used to be before their people started dying out. As such, being assigned a mate wasn’t something he was excited about. It was just another duty to be fulfilled.

“I will not leave you,” he assured Artemis, his gaze wandering to the bunny she’d placed on the floor. “Zalla told me to stay with you, so I will stay.”