Chapter 3: Koriv’n

 

Jumping out of a second-floor window with the female in my arms hadn’t been the plan. I hadn’t even found my translator yet, though I did have my belt and harness. I’d taken precautions and left most of my gear hidden in this house.

My communication device could be used as a translator, but it was bulky, had to be left on to do the job, and stopped translating when I was in a call. I also had a handheld medical unit. That would come in handy now to heal the minor cuts and abrasions I’d sustained when jumping through the window.

I had to admit the escape plan hadn’t been thought through at all. I hadn’t expected the very female I’d gone in looking for to stumble into me in the dark. I also hadn’t expected her to practically beg me to take her along.

I pulled the box with my belongings out from under the bed as Nikki watched with curious eyes. The first step was to download the translation program into my communicator from our networks.

As the program installed, I checked over my body for scrapes and cuts. I healed fast—all Xarc’n hunters did, having been created to fight and therefore sustain injuries—but I never refused some external help when it was available. I held the medical unit over the first cut, and when I pulled it away, it was no more than an angry red line.

“Wow! That’s crazy.” Nikki stepped so close to me I felt the warmth of her body through the narrow gap of air between us. “Do it again.” She pointed to the next laceration. She got up close, trying to peek between the unit and my skin.

These were small cuts, and even without the machine, I’d be able to heal them in a few hours. The device just hurried the process along. It couldn’t heal more significant cuts as quickly.

She watched as the next cut closed up.

“That’s amazing! Do you want me to help you get the next one?” She pointed to a cut on my back.

I picked up my communication device and turned on the translation. “Yes. Just press this button.” The device translated for me, and Nikki’s eyes widened.

“A translator! How convenient.”

She went around my body, healing all the tiny cuts I’d gotten from the broken glass.

Her hands touched my skin here and there, her fingers smoothing over just-healed skin. I knew she was marveling at the medical unit’s handiwork and not at me, but I enjoyed the attention anyway. I enjoyed it a little too much. I tried to ignore the effect her touch had on my body and calm myself with a big breath, but it only made matters worse as her addictive scent filled my lungs.

“You know some people claim you warriors don’t have a language, that you just growl. I knew they were wrong.” She finished healing the last laceration. “All done.”

“You missed one more.”

“Where?” She walked around me, looking for what she’d missed.

I took the device from her. “Here.” I gestured to the bruise on her face.

“Oh.” Her hand came up to finger the blossoming red and purple.

I cradled her face in my palm and held the unit to her cheek. When she closed her eyes and leaned into my hand, a soft rumbling started in my chest. I’d heard this sound before from the mated males at the compound, and I’d done my research into it. It only happened when in the presence of a compatible female. It was meant to calm and relax the female, but it also was a way to express happiness and desire.

Her eyes popped open. “You’re purring.”

“I do not purr.” Small felines in this world, things they called kittens, purred.

“Okay.” She didn’t look like she believed me.

I pulled the medical unit away, and her bruises were mostly faded. They would fade the rest of the way on their own.

As she went to the mirror to check her face, I pulled out my weapon—a single curved sword—and armor from their hiding place under the bed. Some of the hunters preferred to use twin swords, but one was enough for me. Many of the hunters from my contingent chose it as their primary weapon.

“I will find shoes for you so you can travel. Stay in this room.”

I scoured the house, looking for as many different pairs of shoes as I could, hoping to find something comfortable in her size. The males at the building had taken all the females’ shoes so they couldn’t leave. Humans had tender feet and needed to protect them from the ground.

My feet were tough. I’d felt a shard of glass beneath my feet as I landed, but it had done no damage. It wasn’t enough to cut through my tough leather-like sole.

Humans were physically weaker and less ruggedly built than Xarc’n hunters, but they were survivors and were strong in other ways. They were intelligent and used everything around them to their advantage. There were many humans living with the hunter group I was a part of, and they amazed me every day with their ingenuity. I had great respect for them. They made great enemies but also great allies.

I wasn’t even supposed to be on Earth. I’d been part of a group destined to fight on another planet, but after learning that Earth females could trigger the mating bond, we’d changed course and headed straight here. There’d been two hunters who were against the idea, and they’d sounded the alarm to the rest of the hunter ships.

Never in hunter history had a unit questioned their objective and gone against the scourge annihilation program dictated by our makers. When a planet with a scourge infestation was detected, the program assigned the next available ship or ships to that world, regardless of whether the planet was worth saving or not. Hunters onboard were not given a choice.

My contingent had made a choice. We overrode the ship’s system and headed for Earth. Once on Earth, my unit had disbanded and left our mothership floating above the planet for retrieval by other hunters.

Some hunters had not approved and suggested we be rounded up and sent to our designated planet. I was lucky and found a group here on Earth willing to hide me. They shared their resources with me and even altered my ship and communicator so I could continue to use the Xarc’n networks without detection. Many of them had found their mates here and understood my need to find mine.

Unlike most of the other hunters on this planet, warriors from my contingent had activated our fertility before our arrival on Earth. That meant I’d be able to create offspring the moment my mate triggered the mating bond.

All hunters were created with our fertility deactivated. Without females, there was no need for it, and it was just one more function that would waste our energy. With the technology on the space-bound ships that orbited the planet serving as network hubs, hunters could turn it on when they found a mate.

But after we’d gone against the programming, we worried the next time we were on a mothership might be to take us away from our future here on Earth. So we’d taken the ability to have offspring into our own hands.

I’d spent my first winter here learning about human courtship. I’d wanted to make the best first impression. All the hunters who’d found their mates reported that the physical portion of the mating came instinctively; humans were similar enough to our original race, pre-genetic modification. Communication had been the largest hurdle.

Naturally, when I finally met my female, the only words I had access to were “safe” and “mine.” She didn’t seem to mind.

I needed to thank those nasty human males for being the way they were; it helped my Nikki make the right decision. She would never be subjected to bad treatment now that I had her.

Returning to the room with all the footwear I could find, I dumped the selection on the floor. She tried them on systematically and settled on a comfortable-looking pair.

“These are men’s shoes and a bit too big, but they’ll have to do. This is what I get for having big feet. Let’s see if I can find some socks. A couple layers of thick socks will help.” She headed to the set of drawers and dug around. She came out with multiple pairs of the closed tubes they put on their feet and a warm sweater.

I pulled a nutrition bar out of my pack as she pulled the socks on. I broke it in half and passed it to her.

Nikki looked at it distrustfully and sniffed. “It smells good,” she said, sounding surprised. “Like fruity beef jerky.”

“It is made from Earth bovine creatures.” I ate the rest of my half in one bite.

The grazing ruminants the humans kept as livestock were tasty, and hunters now raised them on islands safely away from the scourge. The scourge had found the animals to their liking as well.

On every planet where we fought the scourge on, Xarc’n warriors tried to raise animals native to the habitat. Earth livestock were very palatable, and the hunters sent here had several large islands producing food on Earth. The islands were easy to clear and keep free of the scourge, and they’d converted them into production hubs. They also kept any of the islands’ wildlife that survived the scourge attack protected.

Those in charge of production sent supplies and resources out to the hunters monthly. Since I wasn’t supposed to be here, I didn’t get a share. I’d survived at first the same way the humans did, by foraging and hunting. Now, the hunters at the compound shared their monthly supplies with me, and I was grateful.

Nikki took a tentative nibble and frowned. Her teeth barely made a dent in the bar.

Tarv’k’s mate, Evie, used our bars often in her cooking, adding them to soups and stews. The cooking and softening in liquid made the bars easier to eat for humans, with their dull teeth. I hadn’t even thought of that.

I took the piece of nutrition bar back and unsheathed one of my claws. Nikki gasped, and her eyes opened wide at the dangerous appendage. She must not have known about the retractable claws on our hands. I cut the food into small pieces for her.

“Thank you.” She kept her eyes on my hands, even though I’d retracted my claw.

“Eat. We need to get moving again. The scourge come out during the day, so we will travel by night.”

The scourge had just finished swarming for the warm season, but that didn’t mean they weren’t still a threat to my Nikki. The ones that stayed back to serve the queen would be out tomorrow to look for food. I wanted to avoid being out during the heat of the midday sun when the flyers would be the most active.

I pulled up the video feed from the two drones Rajiv’k had lent us for this mission. He’d used the same light-sensitive cameras from our shuttle to create the drones, and the images they sent back were clear and detailed even in the dark. They showed a few men searching around the building we’d escaped from with flashlights.

Nikki leaned in to look at the screen, the scent of her teasing my nostrils. It was hard to resist the urge to sniff at her. From what I knew of human culture, that was rude.

“They’re looking for us.” She rubbed at her arms absentmindedly.

“We are safe.” I pulled her close and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, smiling when she didn’t push me away. “They can’t search every home in the area. The surveillance devices will warn us if they get too close. We rest here and head out after they give up. There will still be plenty of night left to travel.”

“You had cameras above the building the whole time?”

“I had to find a safe way in.”

“Didn’t you get caught trying to retrieve the two women they brought in?”

“No, they were already safe and on their way home with their mates. I was there for you.” I squeezed her shoulders.

“For me?”

“Yes. You are mine, and I’m taking you home.”