Vera shook her head and, withplete honesty, told Analise what Hector had mentioned to her about how he had gotten hurt. However, she was also unsure about whether he had spoken the truth.


    "I don''t know," said Vera. "He went out with some friends a few days ago. He said that they encountered some interster raiders along the way, and he was wounded by them..."


    It was certainly possible to encounter interster raiders, but she had the nagging feeling that he had been really mysterious recently.


    Analise pursed her lips and turned to nce at Scott before looking back at Vera.


    "I''ll try and bring up the punishment when the timees, depending on how the situation evolves, but I can''t help you much," she said quietly.


    Vera was naturally aware of how strict Scott was when it came to handling official business, so her request to Analise was nothing more than a form of self- constion. "That''s fine. I understand."


    She mainly felt guilty for not telling Analise about the incident with Derek earlier.


    At the end of the day, the Crosses were a major family within the Stormw Alliance, so Scott would naturally give it due consideration regardless of the severity of the matter.


    She was just worried about Hector''s injury. As for whether Analise would be able to forgive him, she did not dwell too much on it.


    She and Hector had the closest rtionship within their family, so she had to try no matter what. Of course, she did not think that Analise had any obligation to intercede on his behalf.


    Honestly, she did not know why she had told Analise about the incident. She simply felt that Analise should know about it.


    Analise nced at the therian next to Vera and changed the subject. "Are you also here to form a contract today?"


    "Yes. He only worked up the courage to confess to his feelings to me yesterday," Vera replied quietly. "He''s rather shy."


    Analise snuck another peek at the therian. "Well, he looks rather aloof to me."


    "That''s just how he usually looks and acts," Vera exined exasperatedly. "He has good looks, though. You have no idea how lost he was after confessing to mest night. I was the one who came onto him in the end.


    "If I had waited for him to take the initiative to mate with me, I''d probably still be waiting 800 years into the future."


    Perhaps the therian had extremely good hearing, or perhaps Vera had intentionally not lowered her voice. Either way, he visibly turned red after she finished speaking.


    "Alright, I''m heading off to form a contract with him," dered Vera. "Scott''s also still waiting to get tattooed. I think Fiy''s tattoo should be done soon."


    Analise inadvertently caught sight of Fiy walking toward them and hummed in acknowledgement.


    After parting ways with Vera, she urged Scott to get his tattoo done.


    However, Scott still waited until Fiy walked over to her before he felt relieved enough to head over to the tattooing room.


    As for what Vera mentioned to her just now, she felt that it would be best to bring it up after they returned to Hopkins Gxy Lodge. After all, there were many people here, and she did not want to invite unnecessary trouble.


    Fiy happily lifted his left wrist for her to see. "Look, Ana."


    The pattern tattooed onto it was Analise''s appearance today.


    In truth, it looked just like a profile picture. The tattoo only extended as far as her shoulders.


    She looked at the still-red tattoo and touched it gently. "Are you relieved now? Does it hurt?"


    "No..."


    Fiy trailed off. He initially wanted to deny any pain, but then he thought of Scott and immediately changed his tune. "It hurts. I need Ana to kiss it better."


    Analise smiled in exasperation before standing on her tiptoes to nt a kiss on his lips.


    Her lips had barely brushed his, but Fiy grinned joyfully, more than happy enough with it.


    He took her hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. "After your Starstone ne is done, let''s take some photos and upload them to Cosmoseek, okay, Ana?"


    She did not refuse. "Alright. Sure."


    Cosmoseek was the equivalent of Facebook and Twitter of the human era. Once a post was made, everyone throughout the interster therian world would be able to see it.


    Other than Alliance executives who


    would use certain special,


    Alliance-exclusive interster


    Well, some people considered it a requirement to announce that they were dating. So, since they had pretty much gotten married, it did not make sense not to publicly announce their rtionship.


    By the time the Starstone ne was done, Scott had also finished getting his


    tattoo.