Huntress

by S. J. Sanders

  Holding her ground, she placed one hand on her weapon, thankful she had the forethought to put her armor on before making her way to the river, and scowled at the males.

  There would be no mistaking that she did not in any way, shape or form welcome their presence.

  The males skidded to a stop just in front of her, their faces dropping into scowls doubtlessly due to her hostile stance. A male stepped forward, his arm outstretched, as he gestured for her to near him. Heidi shook her head and bared her teeth in the least friendly refusal that came to mind.

  “I don’t think so,” she growled. “I have no interest in going anywhere with you.”

  The fierce look on his face deepened into an unhappy frown. “We will not hurt you. The plains are not safe for a lone female. The giant worms will attack anything that crosses them. You are fortunate that you have not become prey for one yet. You will come with us. A lone female is always welcome to join our clan.”

  Slowly, she licked her lips. The fact that he seemed reasonable gave her some hope that he would not force the issue. “What is a giant worm?”

  He gestured to the massive grass snake. “This is one here. We hunt them because they provide plentiful meat, and these in particular are a threat to our people when they become large like this. This one would have eaten you whole while you slept.”

  The Mintar holding the creature adjusted his stance so she got a clear view of the monstrosity he was holding. Her eyes widened. Its head was almost twice as wide as the largest part of her body. Her hands twitched at the thought of that thing coming across her in the night with her unaware.

  What of the triad—if it had come across them?

  She forced the thought out of her head. It had already been half a week since she saw Orth. She needed to quit thinking about them and worrying. Their welfare wasn’t her business anymore.

  She ran her hand through her short hair. She’d cut off the overgrown length with her knife the night before after she awoke from dreams of Tah lovingly stroking her hair, whispering how much he admired it and wanted to see it long someday. She had wept and hacked at it until the length was gone and her grief could be caged once more. Banishing them from her mind, she eyed the Mintar.

  “Come with us, please,” he entreated. “You are tired and alone. A warrior who is weary of battle—we recognize such signs. Surely a clan that will love and protect you would be better than continuing in this world alone.”

  The words spilled so sweetly from his mouth that they sounded heavenly. A family. Yes, she wanted a family. She was so fucking tired of being alone and unwanted—of being damaged. Is that what her last lover had said when she confronted him over why he’d betrayed her? He’d begged and pleaded and said that he couldn’t risk his career on a woman who was a great fuck but was so broken that there was no possible future. It had felt good to slit his throat after that, but the words had haunted her. She hadn’t thought of them in a while, not until they started intruding on her dreams in brutal nightmares.

  These males offered her… everything.

  Why did that seem so odd? Weren’t they supposed to be dangerous to females? Wasn’t she supposed to avoid them? Something wasn’t making sense, but every time she tried to grasp a thread of thought regarding what it was, it drifted away from her.

  He stepped closer, his hand held out, his eyes imploring. The purple color reminded her of her mother’s garden. She hadn’t thought of it in years. The tiny box garden her mother kept in her window. Her favorite color was purple, and she’d grown violets and lavender among other purple blooming plants contained within it. It was her happiest memory—the smell of lavender on her mother’s hands when she picked her up to hug her.

  Slowly her hand slipped from her blade, and he smiled.

  “Come with me. I am Bakin. I will take you home. You would like that, wouldn’t you? To go home?”

  “Yes,” she whispered longingly, the word drawn out from her like a sigh. “I would like that very much.”

  Her hand lifted almost seemingly on its own power. Wait. That wasn’t right… Was it? She froze and the male in front of her frowned.

  “That is odd,” one of the males murmured and her eyes swung over to him as she tried to blink through the warm, soft fuzz in her mind.

  “She is strong. She is fighting it,” another male responded.

  Anxiety coiled through her, dispersing the fog. No, it wasn’t right at all. Something was very wrong with her—with them!

  “Silence. You are making it worse. Bakin, hurry. Just take her while she is subdued,” an older male snarled from the back as he pushed himself to the fore.

  Her hands were sluggish, her every movement painstakingly slow, but she reached and pulled out her blade, the hiss of metal loud in her ears. A large hand slapped the blade out of her weak grip, and she snarled as the blade fell uselessly into the grass.

  The male stepped closer, his expression hard as he pulled her body tightly in his arms. The fog in her mind descended again as he breathed over her, whispering in some language she couldn’t understand. She thrashed in his grip, fighting against it. His strange eyes gazed down at her speculatively, a hint of regret in them.

  “It is a shame,” he murmured. “A strong female like you would breed fine Mintar young, but he will not allow us to keep you.” She didn’t know how he thought that was possibly going to happen, but clearly it did if Mintars stole women. “It is a shame, considering what the Master will have planned for you.” His head turned as he shouted to his companions. “We leave!”

  His clutch around her tightened as he spun around and kicked up into a full gallop, the gait different from that of a horse but somehow faster as they sped across the plains. Her head lolling against his shoulder, she was aware of little but the blur of the horizon and the ripple of grass that seemed to merge into a rolling sea of rust, yellow, and green. Her anxiety mounted at her current helplessness.

  “Your heart beats too quick. I am not so cruel to make you endure it. Sleep, female. I will wake you when we arrive. Sleep.”

  The word refracted through her mind, breaking into a thousand tendrils hissing the one word seductively. She struggled against its pull until finally it broke over her, pulling her down into a warm cocoon of nothingness.

  She did not know how long she existed in that state. She knew nothing until a word invaded her being, bidding her to wake. The single word was like a shaft of light on her inner world, freeing her. Clarity rose fast and sharp, and she awoke with her fists striking out, making contact with nothing but air. She scrambled to her feet, blinking against the sunlight that sent piercing shafts of pain into her head.

  Her kidnapper smiled down at her, not the least bit off-put by her dark glower. He held a plate filled with meat and unfamiliar vegetables of different sorts in one hand. In the other, a mug of coarse pottery. It was stark, rough in form, and unadorned except for what appeared to be geometric designs cut into the clay before firing.

  “I have brought you food and drink, huntress.” Her eyes narrowed on him as he chuckled. “I know who you are, my entire clan does… The huntress who sought to kill her Master. I admire that, truth be told. Even more, seeing the strength of your mind against my voice. I am sure you know that the Master suspected that you would follow him. I must say that he doubted you would get so far—we were merely a contingency plan—but I knew you would. One who fights back from the edge of death for revenge is not one who will give up.”

  Heidi licked her lips, eyeing the cup. By the Mother, she was thirsty. Her mouth felt like it had been filled with sawdust. “With your appreciation running all over the place, why are you helping him? What do you get out of it?” she croaked.

  He considered her and dropped elegantly down to his knees on his forelegs without spilling even a drop from the cup, placing his offerings on the ground before her. His hindquarters folded under him until he was a little closer to her eye level, his expression serious.

  “Normally, we wouldn’
t help him. Mintars value females. Our clans are ruled by queens, and females have significant status within them. Even females of other species that we take into our own, ones who are not adequately cared for and protected by the males of their own race, are treated with equal reverence within our clan. Humans and Atlavans are the only ones we have discovered so far who are capable of breeding with us, but we cherish any and all females regardless. Some don’t always come with us willingly, even those who are thin and fighting for survival, but it never takes them long to discover happiness among our people.”

  “Sounds like a paradise. If that is the case, why are you working with the Master?”

  The thick dusting of scales on his forehead almost gave the impression of eyebrows as they dipped. “Two annums ago, the Master attacked our clan with several of his huntsmen. It was an unprecedented occurrence. We have not had humans come openly into our territory for generations. Some will pass through, skirting the edges, but never deep into the plains where we make our homes. Many of our kind died, including our queen. Her body was defiled and dragged for great distances. They only released it back to us when we agreed to pledge fealty to his whims. He demands tribute from us every annum. He selects the females he wants before we are given leave to approach those remaining to be our mates. Sometimes he has special needs that he requires of us,” he growled, his face shuttering.

  “You keep your clan safe by submitting to him,” Heidi filled in, noting the way his face fell in shame as he nodded, his horns bobbing.

  “We cannot afford another massacre. We give him all that he asks for…”

  “And he wants me.” She couldn’t help but laugh.

  The male’s face became stern. “It is no laughing matter. I do not know what he plans for you, but I have no doubt that it will be pain unlike you have ever known before. Our queen suffered much. Even while she was bleeding from the arrows and spears piercing her, she was raped and beaten before she was dragged over filth and left with her wounds festering as they repeated it every day until, finally, she died.”

  Heidi’s lips pinched together as she battled back her nausea. She always knew that he was cruel, but it seemed that even with all the things she’d recently learned, she hadn’t realized just how much in recent years he’d brought a whole new perverse game into play.

  “I cannot do anything about the Order, but I swear to you that I can and will kill the Master. Let me leave this place, and I will rain pain down on him. I will make him suffer.”

  Bakin frowned at her with uncertainty until a shout made him stiffen and leap to his feet. His entire body radiated hostility as he spun around, looking for the source of the attack as males bellowed and females screamed and ran for cover. Heidi stood, peering around, a prickle running over her skin as she failed to make out the source of the attack.

  Whoever it was had the entire clan in a frenzy.

  27

  Gund grunted in disgust. “Why are we doing this again?”

  “Because we caught their scent and I want to see what these Mintars look like,” Tah reminded him. “You did not have to come.”

  A derisive snort burst out of him before he could catch it. Things had been tense within his triad for days now. Orth was barely speaking to either of them. He had not been wrong in saying that he and Tah had attempted to find comfort together. What he hadn’t known was that it was so lacking without their female that, after the first two attempts, their frustration had grown increasingly hostile with the effort. They had tried to ignore it, hoping that with time it would become easier to forget her and find some small pleasure to help it along…

  That was until Orth had brutally shoved reality right in their faces.

  It was impossible to ignore it after that.

  Even as strained and fractured as his triad was, Gund wasn’t about to agree to any of them going off alone, especially not to satisfy some odd curiosity. He wrinkled his nose as the wind shifted, bringing a fresh wave of Mintar scent.

  By the arm of the First Father, it was disgusting.

  “You really should see this,” Tah whispered. “They are the strangest things.”

  Huffing, Gund slipped closer through the grass, knowing that Tah would never let it go until he did. Orth was already silently perched beside the male. Yellow eyes turned to meet him before the younger male looked away. A pang of guilt filled Gund, but he continued to the other side of Tah before crouching down. The pale silver male grinned and pointed.

  Gund squinted and took in the creature. A female stood holding her sleeping young against her chest. She was peculiar, both human-looking and monstrous to his mind as if someone had taken two species and fitted them together wrong. The bluish scales covering her body were pretty, though, as was the dark mane that flowed down the center of her head. The youngling he couldn’t see well except to note that the tiny creature’s limbs were curled into its body as she gently knelt to set him in a basket in the grass. She paused, her tail flicking, and then turned. He thought for a moment that she’d scented them when a male burst through the grasses and joined her. They were similar in form except that the female had prominent breasts and the male had horns, which the female lacked. The male was also a startling deep shade of red in contrast to the blue scales of the female.

  Tah leaned forward. “Are they going to…?”

  The male Mintar growled roughly, chuffing at the female. She smiled flirtatiously, her legs stiffening as her tail came up to her side. The male paced back and forth behind her a few times, a bulge at his front becoming more prominent until a long, thick cock dropped. Gund didn’t want to look, but now he was as captivated as Tah as he crept closer and stared.

  The male’s phallus was covered in ridges and swollen protrusions. Gund tried not to look too closely at it and felt relief when the male moved behind the female. The male Mintar suddenly reared up only enough to where his forelegs were able to grip the hind legs of the female, holding her in place. The female moaned as he grabbed her tail and yanked it to the side, wrapping it once around his arm and holding it tight against his chest as he pushed forward against the female.

  Gund growled and turned away, gripping Tah by the mane, pulling him away. “We are not going to sit here and watch them rut.”

  The male sighed and followed, the moans of the Mintars echoing after them. The scent of Mintars grew more pungent, mixed with something familiar, and Gund halted, frowning.

  Heidi’s unique perfume was mixed among the Mintars.

  Her scent was nearly covered by that of so many males that it sent a bolt of alarm through him. The Atlavans had mentioned that Mintars stole females, but he had never imagined that they would be able to overcome a huntress—or that they would have come near enough to the track to see her. Hadn’t Levanth assumed the same?

  “Is that Heidi?” Orth whispered as he moved forward quickly to Gund’s side.

  “What is she doing with the Mintars?” Tah growled. Gund leveled a surprised look at his brother. For a male who had railed for hours, insisting that Gund cast aside the huntress as their mate, regardless of his own instincts on the matter, it sounded suspiciously like jealousy.

  Orth seemed to agree because he had no problem baiting the irate male. “You do not want her, but are angry that another male might? Perhaps she has found a Mintar preferable to your disloyalty.”

  Tah growled, his hackles rising as he faced off with Orth. “You do not know of what you speak.”

  Gund’s fur rose warily as Orth smirked. He shot the other male a reprimanding look and silenced Tah as they slipped further into the camp. At the very least, he wanted to make sure that the huntress was not harmed.

  A feminine—and very human—cry of ecstasy made them halt in their tracks. A male Mintar settled into view, his legs folding beneath him. In his arms, he held a human woman. At first all he could see were lithe limbs, and he bristled, but the male shifted to reveal a dark-haired woman who clung to the humanlike torso, her legs wrapped around it while the male
supported her with his arms. The male’s claws dug into the ground, and he bounced the female up and down on his massive cock as she threw her head back and let out another loud moan. He gaped at the sight.

  Was everyone just freely rutting out in the open?

  Tah pushed forward, his eyes widening until the worst thing that could have happened did. Orth taunted Tah too far.

  “If everyone is out rutting, I suppose somewhere Heidi is doing just that with her new mate,” he observed.

  Alarm surged through Gund as Tah stiffened by his side, the male’s face wrinkling with rage. Gund lunged, trying to grab his brother, but the male streaked forward.

  “Tah, do not!” he called out as he gave chase, but it was too late.

  The male burst into the clearing, snarling. The female in the Mintar’s arms screamed as she clung to her mate, and the male, despite being lodged in his female, lowered his horns threateningly toward them as he rose to his feet, still holding her locked close to him. The claws on one of his forelegs slashed out and his tail swung, numerous spines that hadn’t been visible before pushing up from the skin, turning the tail into a terrible weapon. He didn’t advance to attack Tah, but warned the male away.

  Tah snorted at them and raced by as panic broke out among females and males alike. Screams raised through the ground and several males charged, two of whom Gund personally blocked with a hard body slam before continuing his chase after his triad brother.

  The idiot was going to get them all killed.

  Gund gritted his teeth. He should have ignored the male’s insistence that they cast the female out. If he knew that even a slight proximity to her around other males would set his brother off, he would have refused the male and taken their female back into their company whether he liked it or not. Tah could have sulked and snarled as he did in the early days until they worked out a way to deal with the female’s tripwire reactions to the smallest threat. She was broken, but he would have found a way to compromise and help her heal if he hadn’t allowed Tah’s insistence to sway him.