Chapter 1: Koriv’n

 

I twisted my hands and pulled sharply, breaking the useless plastic ties the human males thought could hold me. They thought they’d caught me snooping around, but the truth was I’d gotten caught on purpose. They’d fallen for it and brought me right into their lair.

She was here in this building—the female I’d been searching for since the day I’d set foot on this planet. She was mine, and I wasn’t leaving without her.

Nikki. Her name was Nikki. At least, that was what the redhead who’d escaped this group of males and was now returning with my team to our compound had called her. Nikki. At first, I’d thought the scent came from the redhead, but it hadn’t. My Nikki was the one who’d been recaptured, and I planned on freeing her myself.

My eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room; the special mirror-like cells in my retina reflected light, giving me exceptional night vision. I couldn’t see in complete darkness, but the starlight shining in from the window was enough for me to see the required details.

I’d waited for most of the humans to fall asleep, my ears picking up the soft sounds of snoring from the first floor. Only a few guards were awake, patrolling the place. They were easy to avoid. It was night, and that was the best time to use my ability to move around unnoticed.

I found my belt and harness a few rooms down the hall, in a room they used for storage. My translator, however, was nowhere to be seen. It was a tiny device clipped onto my belt and looked almost decorative; I’d hoped they wouldn’t notice it. I’d even turned it off while attempting to get captured on purpose so the humans wouldn’t be aware of it.

One of them must have recognized the device and kept it. This might make it harder to communicate with Nikki when I found her, but that was a chasm I’d cross when I got there. I had a few English words in my arsenal, having picked them up after living with humans in our compound through the entire summer.

Hopefully, my Nikki wasn’t afraid of Xarc’n hunters. Her friend had been terrified of us until Evie, Tarv’k’s mate, had stepped in to calm her. But even if my female screamed at the sight of me, alerting the entire building, I knew I could get her out of here. I was fast; we’d be out of the building and safely away before they could even pick up their weapons.

After a few days with me, she’d understand I meant her no harm, unlike the males here. The male who had caught her when she ran had slapped her hard enough to bruise. It angered me that these humans would lay hands on a female, especially one so small and harmless. I needed to get to her soon, before they caused her any more harm.

I’d taken a good look around the building when I was brought in. Before society on Earth collapsed, this had been a small, two-story shopping complex with offices on the second floor. They’d built a fire in the central foyer, and most of the activity was focused around it, especially in the evenings.

They kept the females downstairs, around the fire, where they were easily watched. They had a row of mattresses on the ground with little privacy. I had to find my Nikki and get out.

A commotion outside the storage room had my ears perking up. Several sets of footsteps were heading this way.

The door to the room opened suddenly, and I froze, glad I’d hidden out of sight around the corner. A small figure ran in and slammed the door closed behind it, plunging the room back into darkness.

Her scent hit me immediately, almost knocking me to my knees with its perfection. It was her.

I stood there mesmerized for a moment watching her. She had her dark shoulder-length hair tied up at the back, many of the strands too short to fit into the spiky ponytail. Thick dark lashes framed her dark brown eyes as she looked wildly around the darkened room.

She was taller than the other human females at the compound but still tiny compared to me. Her height accentuated her slenderness; she was almost too thin, as if she’d not been eating enough. A bruise was slowly blossoming on her cheek.

What caught my attention most were her eyes, which shone with intelligence in the starlight streaming in from the window. If she hadn’t turned away, I would have been lost in them forever.

She hadn’t seen me yet. The room was dark for human eyes, and she was busy. She felt around in the dark, found a folding chair, and shoved it under the door handle. Then she stepped to the window, still not noticing me as I was tucked around the corner.

“Shit, this window doesn’t fucking open!” She slapped her hand angrily on the glass of the window and made a furious, growling noise that gave me shivers.

“Nikki?” The low hum of my voice sounded strange in the room. I had a translator embedded in my ear, and I understood all her words, but I worried she wouldn’t even recognize her name on my lips. Some of the humans at the compound had told me that the Xarc’n language sounded like nothing more than grunting and growling to them. When we tried to speak English, it was only slightly better.

She gasped and whipped around, holding out something small and covered in red—a knife.

“Oh fuck,” she whispered. “You’re not supposed to be in here.” She backed away from me, bumping into a desk. “Please, don’t hurt me. I’m not your enemy.” She looked at the knife in her hand and dropped the arm. “I didn’t mean to point that at you.”

Her voice shook when she spoke, and a sudden look of “oh shit” showed in her eyes, but she didn’t scream. She seemed surprised I was here but not terrified as her friend had been at the sight of a Xarc’n warrior. She scented of fear, but she’d come in with it, and the sight of me hadn’t spiked the sweet smell. That was a good sign.

She looked at the door, then out the window, then back at the door, and finally at me. She chewed her lip as if trying to decide what to do. Then, without looking me in the eyes, she held both hands up as if in surrender, knife still in her hand.

I remembered some of Earth’s media had spread the rumor that looking Xarc’n hunters in the eyes would provoke an attack. It wasn’t true. We were not mindless animals.

I frowned and took the knife from her, not wanting her to get hurt. She surrendered it easily. The knife had already seen some action recently. The blood wasn’t hers. She must have attacked one of the males with it.

The door handle jiggled, and loud pounding came from the door.

“We know you’re in there. Get out here, Nikki! You’re in big trouble.”

The scent of fear filled the room as she checked the window again. “I gotta get outta here,” she mumbled.

That was why I was here, to help her escape. I wanted to explain to her that I would help, and she needed to trust me. I could get her out of here, away from her pursuers, away from this life. I could offer her more, something better. I wanted to tell her she was safe now with me and that I would care for her from now on.

But without the translators, all that came out of my mouth was, “Nikki. Safe.”

She looked at me and frowned. “I don’t think we’ll be safe here for long.”

Krux! She didn’t understand. But try as I might, I couldn’t pull any more English words out from my uncooperative brain. Where the fuck were they when I needed them?

I swore I had more English words than this. Even though we gave all the humans living at our compound in-ear translators, I’d still been learning some English in hopes of communicating better when I finally found my female. I’d practiced the pronunciation, stringing together the words I wanted to say. Even while getting myself caught on purpose, I’d practiced in my head the words to tell her she was safe with me, and I was here to rescue her.

But now that my female was right here in front of me, in the flesh—her fear tainting the air and the males pounding at the door—all I could pull up was “safe.” Nothing more. How pathetic.

“I’m sorry I’m going to get you caught again. You were just escaping, too.”

She worried that her actions would get me caught again? She worried for nothing. Her actions had made my mission easier. My female had come to me. I no longer needed to search the building for her, following my nose to the source of her alluring scent. There was no need to hide anymore from the enemy.

“Get out here, bitch. You’re going to get it.” The male pounded on the door again. “I can’t believe you’ve betrayed and embarrassed me like this. Get. Out. Here.” The male punctuated each of the last words with a bang on the door.

“Go to hell, Jason.” She picked up a random object from the desk and threw it at the door. The glass vase landed with a crash and broke.

I was tempted to swoop her up, break the window, and run off with her, similar to how Cov’k, one of the other Xarc’n hunters at the compound, had done to catch his mate, Cynthia. The females at the compound had called it a romantic kidnapping, but Cov’k and Cynthia had already known each other and had even shared sex before that moment.

Nikki didn’t know me, except as the idiot hunter that had gotten himself caught. She didn’t even know it was on purpose. She was clearly panicked and frightened by the angry human males; I didn’t want to add more to her fear.

A crash came from the door, and the chair she’d shoved under the handle shifted.

I might not have a choice in my actions. I would never let those males hurt her. I’d rather her be angry at me for taking her now and work on her forgiveness after. I’d have years to do that.

“Nikki, safe,” I repeated, gesturing to myself, all the other words still nowhere to be found.

I took a step toward her. “Safe.”

She stood her ground, her brown eyes staring into mine. She’d finally risked looking me in the eyes, and I tried to look as pleasant and tame as I could. It was difficult, considering my entire species was created for the sole purpose of killing another formidable predator. Did she understand I meant her no harm?

Before she could change her mind and back away, I pulled her toward me and enveloped her in my arms. She was perfect there. “Mine,” I growled, feeling a certain sense of victory that she didn’t pull away.

I was getting out of here, and she was coming with me.