Humans were not to be trusted, he thought. No matter what their age or gender.
That single thought swept through his mind as several sets of hands grabbed him and lowered him gently to the floor as he started to fall forward. He heard Taylor’s frantic whisper followed by Jordan’s. He fought against the sedative they had injected him with but it was useless. The last thing he heard was Jesse’s soft voice as she knelt next to him and covered him with a blanket.
“You aren’t so bad for being an alien. Be careful and try to stay safe,” she whispered, brushing his hair back from his face with tender hands. “Goodbye, Hunter.”
..*
Jesse climbed out of the window last. She looked back one last time at the huge alien warrior sleeping on the hard floor. Regret burned in her chest. He was different than she expected. She shook her head and quietly closed the window behind her. Jordan waited at the corner for her. They would follow Taylor to where she had seen the garbage trucks leaving. They each had a pillowcase filled with items. It made it a little clumsier to run but they had no choice since they had lost everything when they were captured.
Jesse fingered her dad’s hunting knife that she had found in the top drawer of the single dresser in the room. Tears had burned her eyes when she had touched it. She also found the universal key set he had given her.
“There,” Taylor whispered, pointing to an area where several large trucks were sitting. “We can hide in the back.”
“It looks like they are about to head out,” Jordan said. “Let’s go!”
Jesse looked back one last time at the building they had just exited. She bit her lip and shook her head in frustration at her indecision before she turned and followed her sisters. They waited at the corner of the building nearest where the trucks passed by. The minute the last truck drove by they ran in the shadow behind it. Taylor vaulted over the side, followed by Jordan. Jesse gripped the back, almost falling, before Taylor and Jordan reached out and grabbed her arms pulling her over the side.
“This stinks,” Jordan whispered as she laid down on top of several black bags.
“That’s the whole idea, isn’t it Taylor?” Jesse whispered back before she lifted a bag and set it on top of Jordan. “Now, we hide.”
Chapter 7
“You leave in three days,” Dagger observed as he leaned back against the side of the transport. “Time's running out.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Hunter bit out with a snarl of impatience.
“They have to be close,” Dagger said wiping his face and scowling up at the dark skies. “I swear I have never seen a planet with so much rain! The stuff falls every blasted day. How do the humans stand it?”
Hunter understood his friend’s frustration. The rain made tracking any scent difficult, if not virtually impossible. They had been hunting Jesse and her sisters for the past two weeks.
He looked at the map of the area. He glanced around the ruins. They were in what was the former downtown area of the city. They had discovered how the females escaped. If he wasn’t so pissed he would have been amused at their ingenuity. Unfortunately, by the time he had woken from the sedative Jesse had injected into him, they were long gone.
“Hunter!” Saber called out. “Over here.”
Hunter stretched the tight muscles in his shoulders. He was going to strangle the female when he found her. Then he was going to strangle her sisters. The more he thought of that night two weeks ago, the more he realized he should have seen the signs of their duplicity. In his mind’s eye, he now understood the sly looks they had passed between them and how Taylor had used her stories as a distraction to catch him off-guard. He recognized his pride was hurt… for two reasons. One that he had fallen for their trick. Second, because he had taken Jesse as his Amate. Once a Trivator warrior took a female as his Amate it was for life. He would forsook any other female, including seeking relief in a relief room. His seed was to be given only to the female. It was his gift to her. Jesse had rejected that gift when she ran away.
Hunter strode over to where Saber was standing. He glanced grimly at the scanner Saber held out. The scanner was showing a group of humans a block away. He counted eighteen total. What disturbed him was that fifteen of them were surrounding three. The heat signatures distinguished that the three figures were female.
“Soco ballast!” Shit! He growled under his breath. “Dagger, let’s go! I think we have found them.”
..*
Jesse held the metal pipe out in front of her as she looked at the group of men surrounding her, Jordan and Taylor. They had been running non-stop for the past two weeks. Fatigue and lack of food had made her reckless. She shivered as the chill from the rain soaked through the tunic she was wearing.