Looking for more love with sexy aliens? Check out this excerpt fromClaimed by the Hunter.
I scurried along the overgrown hedge, moving as quickly and quietly as I could. At the street, I looked both ways, not for traffic but for signs of bug activity or roving gangs of bad men. All clear. I ran across and dove for the cover of the convenience store’s fallen awning.
I’d brought the awning down across the front of the store on purpose. The more dilapidated the place looked, the less likely other foragers would try to get in. No one wanted to spend more time in the town than absolutely necessary, and if the place looked thoroughly ransacked, most people left it alone. I reached behind the large planter, found the key I’d hidden there, opened the door, and stepped in.
Safety! Or relative safety anyway. Safety was mostly an illusion now, something I convinced myself I had so I could sleep at night. Even in the abandoned hardware store that I now called home, it wasn’t truly safe.
The store looked exactly as I had left it. I went behind the counter, searched the cabinet, and found the cans of luncheon meat and tuna I’d hidden there behind a pile of old magazines and record books. I stuffed as many as I could into my backpack and zipped it up.
Damn! Cans were heavy!
I picked up the last bottle of pain reliever and crammed it into the front zip. There were no perfume or scented sprays at this location, but my pack was getting heavy, and I needed to be able to run. This was an easy forage at a shop I’d already secured, but tomorrow, I’d need to find a new source of supplies. That was always difficult. Especially now that Natalie was injured, and I needed to forage on my own.
Natalie was my little cousin. She’d been visiting when the bugs arrived in town. Being the older, wiser one, I was supposed to be taking care of her while she scouted out her future job in the next city over. But when the bugs arrived, it was Nat who took care of me. I’d freaked the fuck out, and became a useless mess. She was the reason why I kept going. When the shit hit the fan, it was Nat, with her ever-present optimism and never-erring voice of reason, who pushed us to survive. She was the fearless one. But she was injured now, and it was time I did my part to keep us safe.
A sound at the door alerted me of the presence of an intruder. I peeked over the counter and froze. At the door stood a Xarc’n hunter. The alien warrior was huge, with giant shoulders and a broad, muscular chest. He had to duck to get through the door. Even when he stood up fully in the convenience store, he looked almost hunched over from the masses of muscles on his neck and back. And he was staring straight at me as if he’d come in looking for me.
Yellow-green eyes met mine. They glowed slightly in the darkened store, standing out against the purplish mauve of his leathery skin. I noticed his horns next. The black horns curved from his temples, reminding me of a ram. They looked heavy, and I was sure they were used often as a weapon from the wear marks on them. No wonder he had such a thick neck; only a tree trunk could hold up those horns.
He took a step toward me, and I gawked at the inhuman-looking legs. Each muscular limb ended in giant feet with three toes in the front and one opposable digit at the back, and each toe was capped in sharp claws. Those were the feet of a monster. He took another step toward me, and the claws gleamed as they passed through a beam of sunlight shining in from the broken window.
Panicked, I backed away and grabbed the metal bar strapped to my thigh. Though how the metal crowbar would help me, I did not know. It looked like a toothpick next to his monstrous form. His dark skin looked tough and leathery. I’d bet he was very well armored naturally. Even if I put all my weight behind the swing, it would bounce off him like nothing.
He didn’t wear anything except what looked like a loincloth, a belt, and a harness. Pieces of armor were strapped strategically to the harness to protect him. He wore a long axe on his back and a blaster on his belt as if his claws, fangs, and horns weren’t weapons enough. He also had a few pouches and devices strapped to his harness.
He growled unintelligibly before a device strapped to one of his belts translated it to English. “Calm, female. No fear. Not harm you.”
Sure, and I was a monkey’s uncle. I wasn’t stupid. Not trusting the alien, I gripped my crowbar tighter and brandished it in front of me. The alien frowned, and the effect was downright terrifying, drawing attention to his elongated canines.
More growling ensued, and I waited for the translator to do its job. “No fear me. I care for female.” He reached into a pouch strapped to his belt and brought out a handful of what looked like alien nutrition bars. He held one out for me, the strange yellow-green eyes still holding my gaze.
I shook my head, and then, realizing that Mr. Big, Tall, and Scary might not understand the gesture, I said, “No, I don’t need any.” There was no way I was going to take gifts from a Xarc’n warrior. It was rumored that they would offer gifts of food to starving women, and if the women took the food, they took the women. No one has ever seen a female Xarc’n alien, and it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know what they wanted with us.
The translator didn’t growl anything back at him, but he looked as if he understood my words all the same. He smiled, and the look was so terrifying, I nearly shat myself. Sharp teeth lined his mouth, and there was no doubt I faced a predator. I preferred him frowning.
“Take. Hungry.”
“No, I’m not hungry. I don’t want your food.” My stomach chose that moment to growl loudly, calling me out as a big, fat liar.
A low rumble sounded from him, his chest shook, and mirth sparkled recognizably in his strange eyes.
The oversized asshole was laughing at me! I narrowed my eyes at him, suddenly pissed. The nerve! Fuck him and his food. I wasn’t going to take the food anyway, but now I was doubly sure he could keep it and shove it where the light didn’t shine.
Shoring up my courage, I stood a little straighter and announced, “I’m leaving this store now. Please let me leave.”
The alien didn’t move but continued to block the door. He thumped himself on the chest and said a single word. The device did not translate.
“Move so I can leave,” I repeated. Then a little louder, since he hadn’t hurt me yet, “Get out of my way!”
“Female no go.” Instead of moving, he repeated his motion and word.
Was he trying to tell me his name? He repeated the word one more time, and I took my best shot at the strange alien name. “Kajeck.”
“Kaj’k,” he swallowed the last syllable.
“Kaj’k.”
He grinned, showing a row of shiny, super sharp teeth. I shuddered and backed away.