In this excerpt from For Her Only, Ambassador Mehfawni Ruh has just discovered that her brother, Dallon, has been murdered. She must return to her home planet. But she's also Khyff's only hope of saving his brother.

She was his only hope

The chill in the room had nothing to do with air temperature. Now that Mehfawni knew about her brother's death, the collective gaze of her all-female staff stabbed into Khyff. He didn't need telepathy to read their thoughts. Their body language shouted at him.

Be gone, alien. Get out. You don't belong here.

Fawni's eyes filled with tears as she looked up at him.

Khyff melted. No matter how much the others hated him and wanted him gone, he couldn't leave her alone with this kind of news. What if it had been Senth who'd died? That possibility was all too real.

Khyff wrapped both arms around her and held her tightly against him, his cheek against her hair. "Oh, Fawni, I'm so sorry."

She clutched his leather jacket and clung to him as if all the strength had seeped out of her. He stroked her hair and kissed her brow.

"This can't be true." Her voice was muffled against his jacket. She turned and faced Kata. "There's been a mistake. It has to be wrong."

Kata didn't lift her gaze. "I'm sorry, Eetzesar. The news came directly from Tzesar Ehldani."

Khyff expected Mehfawni to crumble. She shook, but she drew herself up to her full height and took two steps away from him. With one hand on Kata's arm, she looked around the room at her staff. Ten Kin gazed back at her, their expressions full of pride and sorrow.

She cleared her throat. "Thank you. All of you. Kata, when do we return home?"

The young assistant looked up, revealing the tracks of tears on her face. "At dawn, Eetzesar."

He wanted to hold Mehfawni, bring her back into his arms, but she kept her back rigid, her head high.

"Good, Kata. I'll need you to help me with a few things." She told the others, "Get some rest. We'll all need our strength when we get home. Kata, stay, please."

Her staff dispersed quietly, and Mehfawni reached back and held Khyff's hand while she talked softly to Kata in her breathy native language.

What was he going to do now? Images rose in Khyff's mind. Senth swathed in bandages, lying in the hospital. NarrAy trapped in a glass cage. Both depending on him for their freedom. For their lives. And all he could do was stand here and hold Mehfawni's hand while the hope he had for saving them made arrangements to leave.

"Senth Antonello."

Khyff's attention riveted to Mehfawni's words. "What?"

She looked up at him. "You're such a male, Khyffy. Here I am making arrangements for your brother and his fiancée, and you're not even paying attention."

"Arrangements? What kind of arrangements?"

"You didn't hear a word I said, did you?"

"Well, you were speaking Felis, so I couldn't understand you."

"Oh." She touched her chin. "That was rude of me. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize. You're upset. It's natural. What arrangements?"

"I can't leave you, Khyffy. I want you to come home with me."

His stomach went all hollow and his head light. His chest ached. He couldn't catch his breath, couldn't speak.

Felidae? Kin. Enemies. And...Mehfawni. He breathed. "I... Mehfawni, my brother... I—"

"Khyff, I know you can't leave when you're worried about your family. I couldn't do that either. So Kata's going to make sure my diplomatic immunity is extended to Senth and his fiancée. NarrAy's a Better, isn't she?"

"Yes, but—"

"Then your brother is addicted to her. He'll need her pheromones if he's going to heal properly. We need to get her out of prison so they can be together."

"Mehfawni, I don't understand." His heart pounded so hard, he was afraid he wouldn't hear her answer. Was this what hope felt like? Was there some way to keep Sen and NarrAy safe and escape the Conqueror's choke hold?

Mehfawni gave him a look that said he should try to pay attention, and then she grasped both his hands. "I read their story in the news, remember? It wasn't fair of the police to imprison her for defending her mate. At the time, I thought there wasn't anything I could do, but now that I know it's your brother, I can do something. If you come home with me as part of my entourage, you'll have diplomatic immunity, which extends to your family as well, if I wish it." She squeezed his hands. "And I do wish it."

Not if Mehfawni found out what he'd been sent to do, she wouldn't.

Khyff floundered, awash in a sea of emotion. His hope dashed on the rocky shore of reality, but he drew her hands to his mouth and kissed the back of each one. Maybe her diplomatic immunity could buy him time to find a permanent solution. Maybe she was still his best hope.

Khyff flung himself back in his chair. Every time he and his brother talked, they ended up arguing. He rubbed his eyes. The pleasant meal they'd started lay almost untouched and any appetite he'd had was gone.

It had taken seconds to read the all too short bio of their mother that his brother was perusing now.

Sileenya Antonello had run away from home on Trien at age ten and been arrested for theft at eleven. While still on probation, she'd disappeared at thirteen and been arrested at age fourteen for unlicensed prostitution. When her pregnancy test had come back positive, they'd placed her back on probation. She'd run away again and been fifteen when she'd given birth to Khyff.

Two years later she began living with an armada-enlisted man who transferred to Felidae, taking Sileenya and Khyff with him, but then he abandoned them. Her next boyfriend addicted her to drugs and prostituted her to newly recruited male Kin soldiers eager to spend their first pay to experience sex with a human female. When she became pregnant, he transferred off-planet, leaving them to fend for themselves.

An Elder of the Ruh clan found Sileenya huddled in an alley during a thunderstorm, holding the nearly lifeless Khyff in her arms. A scant month later, the Tzesar of the Kin ordered the halfbreed newborn destroyed, but the elder intervened and sold Senth to slavers to save his life.

Sileenya and Khyff had been cast back into the streets.

Days later, she was dead by her own hand and Khyff was a slave. Senth ended up at an orphanage where he was later adopted by Luc Saint-Cyr.

Senth poked at the notereader's buttons. "This thing is encrypted. What if the Empress knows who my father is? Don't I have a right to know that? You have to talk to her. Find out what she wants. Maybe she'll give you the key."

"Destoiya's not going to give me information without demanding a favor. I have nothing left to give that woman. She's already taken way too much."

"Khyff, that's unfair. I need this. You can't ice up and go all mental."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

His brother growled, a predatory cat sound that made the hair on Khyff's neck stand up. He scrambled out of his chair and stepped back from the table.

"That"— Senth pointed a finger at him —"is what I mean. I do anything Kin-like and you freak. Get hold of yourself, Khyff. You're falling apart. The brother I knew two years ago would've done whatever it took to find out who his father was. He would've helped me find mine."

Khyff shoved his chair under the table and leaned over it. "Don't lecture me about doing whatever it takes. If it wasn't for me interceding with Destoiya, you'd be dead."

"I'd be dead? I rescued you, in case you don't remember."

"NarrAy rescued me. You were unconscious. I carried you in my arms when we transported back aboard the ship. You had nothing to do with it."

Senth stood. "If it hadn't been for me, we wouldn't have gotten in the palace and found you."

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have been a captive in the first place!" He stepped around the chair and set a hand on the corner of the table. "I got my freedom and the next day the Empress held me hostage to control you."