Hunter's Claim (The Alliance, #1)
S. E. Smith
Synopsis
Jesse Sampson and her two younger sisters have lived a hard life on the streets of Seattle, Washington for the past several years. Four years before the Earth received its first visitors from space causing mass fear. Alone in a world gone mad with just her sisters, Jesse has learned to use the darkness and the remains of the city to survive and keep what was left of her family alive. She has seen the savage side of human nature and finds they are not much different from the aliens who conquered the Earth.
The Trivators have taken control of the Earth to prevent the humans from destroying it in their fear. A world of warriors, they are sent out by the Alliance of Star Systems to seek out new worlds. Their mission is first contact. They are to establish communication with the leaders of the new worlds they find and bring them into the Alliance. Any resistance is to be quickly subdued to prevent unnecessary death of the inhabitants of the new worlds they find. Their payment comes from the success of their mission.
Hunter is what he is called. A hunter, one of the elite clans of the Trivators who seek out those who resist. His abilities to track, capture and eliminate those who try to harm any warrior is renowned. He finds the tables turned when he becomes the one captured by a group of ruthless humans.
Hunter is shocked when a strange human female risks her life to help him escape only to disappear into the ruins of the city. He now has a new mission, finding the female who saved his life. He is determined to find her before she is damaged by others of her kind.
What he finds is a reward beyond comprehension to a Trivator warrior, a family. Can he convince Jesse that he can give her and her younger sisters a better life on his world? Or will fear keep her from accepting what he has to offer?
Chapter 1
Jesse moved quietly through the deserted streets. The black backpack on her back contained the prize from her outing this night. She had been able to steal enough to keep her and two younger sisters fed for several days as long as they kept the portions small. She needed to get back to the collapsed rubble that hid the underground parking garage which was their temporary home.
She had found that shelter almost two months ago by accident when she had needed a place to hide from the group of men roaming the street. She had crawled under a fallen slab of concrete for protection only to find it was slanted at an angle. Unable to stop her descent, she had slid to the bottom where she discovered herself in the remains of a parking garage. After exploring the area, she thought it would be the perfect place for her and her two younger sisters to hide from the roaming gangs who looked for unsuspecting victims to rob or rape.
She and her sisters’ lives had changed a lot over the last four years since the death of their father. Hell, Earth had changed a lot over the past four years. Gone was living in a nice house in the suburbs. Gone was making sure her sisters did their homework and got to school on time. She had taken over the job of being ‘mom’ to her two younger sisters when their mother died shortly after Taylor’s third birthday. Everything she knew was gone since that November day four years ago when the skies had filled with spaceships from another world.