Page 80 of Mated on Live

“I prefer to think of it as checking up on a friend.”

Serval just snorted, unimpressed with his theatrics.

Korvii laughed at his disbelief. “You know what I think? I think you don’t even have a story. You’re just trying not to be caught lacking, so you made something up and you’re using your excuse about bringing your mate home to buy time.”

“If that’s how your investigative mind works, then I understand how you’re so bad at this,” Serval growled, annoyed.

“We can just end this now if you admit that my female is better.” Korvii leaned in, giving him a mocking grin. “And we both know she is.”

“Your female could only aspire to have half the charm of my female.”

Korvii threw back his head, laughing. “Be serious, Serval. I saw her channel. She doesn’t do any reporting. All her videos are fluff pieces! That’s all she does! The last video she posted was her trying sweets from your planet with your sister. That’s it! That was the whole thing. My Hela just did a piece on the exploitation of the rural communities on Vander Aim. She’s bringing attention to serious issues that need addressing. Your female is eating food. Truly, there has never been a more uneven competition.”

Serval could only snarl in frustration, because he couldn’t even argue.

He adored Sophie. He didn’t mind her recording everything, and he was proud of her. But he couldn’t exactly say that what she was doing was equal in importance to the stories that Serval and Korvii covered.

It was frustrating, but all he could do was glare as Korvii laughed at his helplessness.

“Why don’t you just admit defeat now? Save yourself the long humiliation.”

Serval scoffed. “This story is going to be huge. It will drown out everything you and Hela have done combined. You’ll see.”

“If there even is a story,” Korvii snickered. “I’m certain you aren’t going to find it on that peaceful water droplet you call a homeworld. Nice catching up, Serval. See you soon!”

With a wicked laugh, no doubt mocking him, he cut the comm. Leaving Serval standing there, grinding his teeth with annoyance.

Closing out all the unhelpful videos and pictures, he instead started putting in orders for everything he needed to resupply the ship and paid extra to have it delivered to the island tonight. He wanted to take off first thing in the morning.

Korvii’s mockery always grated on him. His obsession with competing with Serval, his cocksure attitude, were a harsh reminder why Serval disliked being trapped planetside. He had almost let himself become complacent.

Well, he wasn’t going to fall for that.

He sent a message to Sophie, telling her of his new plans. He opened the data in the phone and started looking for hints of where to go. He didn’t expect Prince Qui’tal to be stupid enough to just outright state where he was conducting his illegal animal trade deals, but there had to be something that would point him in the right direction.

Sophie messaged him back. Her response was simple, just stating okay. She didn’t even argue his sudden need to get off Wav’aii and back to story chasing.

He also messaged his mother and father, telling them that a sudden lead meant that they needed to leave tomorrow. They both expressed their understanding. He felt guilty though, because his mother actually thanked him for warning them instead of just taking off like usual.

Sophie was right. He should keep in better contact with his family. They cared for him, and he had practically ignored them for more than a decade.

Determined to be a better son and brother, he also messaged Valorei, even though Sophie would have doubtlessly told her since they were out shopping together today.

If Sophie could keep in touch with her family from across the universe, he could certainly do the same thing.

Besides, he wanted his mate to still feel connected to this place. Even though they were going to be far away. Maybe they’d come back and continue things after he got this story and, hopefully, shut Korvii up once and for all.

For now, he spent the rest of the afternoon sorting through entirely too much information, trying to find something he could use. Some direction he could take. There was no point boarding his ship if he didn’t have a destination, but he couldn’t stay here anymore. Not when he had Korvii’s obnoxious laugh ringing in his ears.

It took him longer than he hoped. The prince just had so many completely useless and pointless things saved onto his combot, sifting through it was like trying to find a single, lost ovili out in the open waters.

However, some time past nightfall, Serval finally stumbled upon something strange.

There was a space station that the prince had frequented a few times in the last few years. In and of itself, that wasn’t unusual. Space stations, which were set up away from planets for ships to resupply or just to offer specific services that might not be legal planetside, were popular. There were entire stations dedicated to gambling, entertainment, huge games of pretend where people could go to act like they were in a different time or something. They were essentially huge gathering places of debauchery and decadence in between serving as waystations. A rich prince visiting such places wasn’t out of the ordinary, and in fact was something he did often.

It was the space station itself that was odd.

Unlike the other high-end, luxurious, expensive places he went to, this one was small. It wasn’t extravagant or expensive. It was actually rather plain. Their claim to fame was being a place that had more bar types than any other. That included everything from smoking bars, drinking bars, light bars, music bars, etc, etc. But they were more for people with few credz to waste. A place where large transport ships stopped on their circles through the universe, bringing tons of passengers around to various places. The kind of dirty, seedy place that didn’t ask questions and where looking someone directly in the face was likely to get you attacked.

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