Marked by the Predator

by Milana Jacks

  “Hart, please,” I say. I have no doubt the male who holds me cares nothing for me, and he’ll slice my jugular because beneath the male exterior lurks an animal, a predator, and a predator is ruthless when angered and let loose.

  “Someone from the command tower will assist you,” Hart finally says.

  “That’s not what I asked for.”

  “If I give you access to all my portals, you could turn around and show up in my chambers and kill us both while we sleep. No.”

  Oh my God. I swallow. Hart holds my gaze as if he wants me to do something. What? The goddess thing? Shit. “If you kill me, you’ll never find your goddess,” I stammer, while thinking of what else I could say that would scare Ark. “You will be cursed to walk the land alone while everyone else mates and their children grow. You won’t die an honorable death, but die drunk on smoke from fire and lies.” I touch his arm, and he jerks his hand back, then steps away, eyeing me warily. My heart jackhammers, and I’m scared shitless, but I square my shoulders because I think something I said bothers him and has made him release me.

  “Come here,” Hart says to me.

  I hop over the stools to reach him and wrap my arms around his waist. He strokes my hair as he speaks with Ark. “If you think there’s even a tiny chance the humans are able to track you here, you didn’t take them to your home, and I know you didn’t take them to mine. Where did you land the warbird?”

  “On Mount Omila.”

  A shudder runs through Hart, and I look up as his jaw works.

  “What’s that mean?” I ask.

  “You don’t want to know.”

  But I do want to know. However, I don’t interrupt the exchange. I know when to keep my mouth shut. They’ve barely calmed down, and Hart’s producing this eerie low growl from his chest. God, this is some intense shit!

  “Are the humans aware you…kidnapped their females?”

  Ark snorts.

  “Tell me!”

  “Maybe. Maybe not.”

  “What do you think they’ll do when they find out?”

  “They won’t find us. Not on Mount Omila. As you can see, I need the portals.” Ark balances on his heels.

  Hart scrubs his face and groans. “Yeah, I fucking see.”

  Ark shrugs. “Someone had to bring females. You should be thanking me.”

  “Get the fuck out.”

  “What’s it gonna be, Hart?”

  Hart plays with my hair, and I wonder if that somehow calms him. “I’ll give you access to the portals of my choosing. For others, at the time you need them, you’ll request access.”

  “Not good enough.” Ark lifts a finger. “But, fortunately for you, I have somewhere else to be. This isn’t over. We’ll talk more later.” Ark walks past us, and Hart turns after him. A portal opens, and it’s not going to the hall. It leads to some sort of forested area, maybe the same place we visited when I picked flowers.

  At the entrance, Ark turns. “Goddess of fire and lies, hm? I hope she’s as sexy as you are.”

  “Motherfucker!” Hart lunges, but the portal closes, another one opening in its place, and Hart collides with the male standing in the entrance. It’s his brother, who takes the brunt of Hart’s impact and grunts.

  “Heading somewhere?” Nar turns up his nose and sniffs. “Reeks of the Ra in here. Where’s the body?”

  “Nowhere. Sit down.”

  Nar nods toward me and sits where Hart sat, next to me. Hart starts pacing, telling him what happened between Ark and us just now. Nar’s snarling as he replies while Hart’s growling, and my translator isn’t trained for the noises they produce, so I only understand bits and pieces. Hart thinks Ark’s warbird was nearby when my ship was going down, and they saw my ship evacuating. Hart thinks the Ra warbird intercepted the pod’s intended trajectory and sent other pods toward Ka territory, not Ra territory, so if anyone comes looking, they’ll destroy the Ka first.

  Hart’s theory is that when the human warships closed in, Ark escaped, but to be safe, he landed on that mountain they mentioned.

  “Ark thinks there’s womankind,” Hart concludes as he stops pacing and puts his hands on his hips. “Scattered all over the land.”

  Nar shakes his head. “Mas looked for crash sites.”

  Hart snorts. “I’m sure the Ra warbird blocked any signals, and even so, if the pod’s down, the signal dies.”

  “We know of the one in Gur’s village,” Nar says. “Along with the army he’s amassing.”

  “Yeah, feel like competing?”

  Nar wags his eyebrows. “She tastes good.”

  “You’ve seen her?” I ask.

  “Nah, I got something of her that tastes wicked.” From his pocket he pulls out a G-string, puts it against his nose, and inhales loudly. “This is better than smoke. What is it?”

  “Um, those are her panties. Underpants.” Has he licked them to taste? Probably. I need to get used to their behavior. I really do. Maybe next year.

  “I don’t know what panties are or what’s under them,” he says.

  “That piece of clothing covers the…the area between the legs,” I explain.

  “Why would you want to cover that?”

  Hart lifts two fingers. “I think they’re hiding the fact there are two holes.”

  I am mortified. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “Two holes?” Nar’s eyes are saucers.

  Hart walks over and pats him on the back. “You wanna compete in Gur’s games?”

  Nar stands. “I’m on my way.”

  Hart grabs his wrist.

  Nar snarls and shakes off Hart’s hand.

  “If you get squeezed out there,” Hart says, “and you will get squeezed, the mission is to quietly kill Gur, not to win the female. Do you understand?”

  Nar nods. “Yes, brother.”

  “Fuck.”

  Nar smiles.

  “Wait wait wait,” I say, and run across the chambers to grab the woman’s medicine. I return and hand it to Nar, who tries to read the writing on the strips. “It’s medication,” I say.

  “What for?” he asks, sniffing the packaging. He licks it. Yup, he definitely licked the woman’s G-string.

  “I don’t know.”

  “How many does she need?”

  “One per day.”

  “Span,” Hart clarifies.

  Nar portions off three strips, twists his lips, gets a fourth one. He hands me back the rest.

  I don’t take it. “She needs all her meds.”

  “Only one a span and one more for the way back.”

  I turn to Hart. “I don’t like this.”

  “She needs to cooperate,” he says in a tone that brooks no argument. “Take only four, Nar, and make sure she knows what you have. But remember, the mission is to—”

  “Yeah, I’ll kill him. Don’t worry.”

  “Take Mas with you.”

  “No fucking way. You need him here.”

  “You need him more.”

  Nar rolls his eyes. “But he’s so annoying during the games.”

  “I know. That’s why he’s going with you. Good luck.” Hart claps him on the shoulder.

  I expect Nar to stomp away on a mission, but he lingers.

  There’s a quiet, almost serene moment between the brothers where their eyes lock and they stand there, not quite willing to part. Awww. It’s sweet how they purr in their chests and match each other’s sounds. I’m about to step away, feeling like I’m intruding on a private movement, when Nar pulls out a dagger and slices Hart. I scream, terrified.

  Nar swipes two fingers over the cut he made on Hart’s chest and brings his fingers to his lips. He licks the blood, purring loudly as if savoring the taste. “Thank you, brother.”

  “May Aoa be with you,” Hart says.

  Nar exits.

  I feel as if a mountain of worry has fallen off my back. I think I aged ten years during these meetings. “Good Lord, Hart. I’m done for the day. Can we swim or anyth
ing besides talk to another of your males?”

  He smiles. “They’re your males too.”

  “Oh,” I say.

  “Not in the same way I am, of course.” He raises an eyebrow.

  “Of course,” I reassure him. “I know what you meant.”

  “Good. You can do what you want. I can’t. I have a hall full of males and lots of explaining to do. The portals are yours. I’ve programed the command center for your touch.”

  “Yeah, about that. I—”

  Mas’s voice intrudes from somewhere. “Hart, you can’t send me away. I won’t go.”

  “You are going,” Hart says and winks at me as he leaves the room.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Stephanie

  Even when he rests, Hart’s heart beats strong and fast. I bury my face in his chest and stretch out on top of him like a lazy kitten. His purr vibrates on my lips, and I look up, expecting him to be awake, but his eyes are closed, though I know he’s not sleeping. Last night, he came home late in the night, a little edgy and a lot bossy, with the kind of pent-up aggression he likes to wear off by fucking me. We didn’t get much sleep. Claw marks on the headboard and a soreness between my legs tell me we likely slept not more than a few hours.

  I peck his plush lips. “I know you’re awake.”

  He grunts, but won’t open his eyes.

  “Do you have to be in the tower today?” I ask.

  “I’m sure they’re expecting me.”

  “But?”

  “But I’m not going.”

  “Oh, nice. Maybe we can stroll through town today.”

  He grunts. “For what purpose?”

  “No purpose. Just walking.”

  “Aimlessly?”

  “Mmhm.”

  He grunts.

  I think that’s a yes, and I crawl out of bed, put on the borrowed flip-flops, and stand. The chambers are full of glowing golden vertical lines. Some are stationary, some move around, some shrink into tiny lights, then stretch out again into a line from floor to ceiling. Multiple holographic-type screens blink and move around in the middle of the room. The control center.

  I cover my mouth with a hand. “Oh my God.”

  “Yes?” he answers.

  “I see them.”

  Hart vaults out of bed and appears before me in a split second. He crouches. “Who? Where? What?”

  “The lines.” I point. “I see the lines!”

  Hart looks at me, and his eyes widen. He grabs my chin, lifts it, bends a little, looking right into my eyes. Behind the white covering his irises, I clearly see what he calls his hunter eyes.

  He steps back. “What do you see?”

  “Vertical lines everywhere. They’re moving, flashing. And…” I point again, “that’s the command center.”

  “Vertical lines,” he repeats, frowning, then his pupils expand, and I see just how expressive his hunter eyes are.

  Oh, this is wonderful. Finally, I see things the way he sees them. Of course he’s confused. He can’t imagine not seeing the lines. They’re a part of his world, like air. “Portals,” I say. “What do closed portals look like?”

  He smiles. “I guess they look like lines.” He scrubs his jaw. “Your eyes have changed.”

  It’s my turn to look surprised. “What do you mean?”

  “The color disappeared.”

  “That’s freaky. Um, can you show me to the bath portal?”

  “Do you need to waste or bathe?”

  Eeeek. “I want to see my reflection in the water.”

  “Come.” He moves toward two adjacent lines a few steps from the bed and gently touches the one on the right. A portal opens and leads into the landscape miles from here that we can access from our chambers.

  He moves his hand from bottom to top and, like a zipper, closes the portal. “You try,” he says.

  My hand shakes as I stretch it out. Warmth hits me first, and I poke the bright golden line. It opens the portal. “Whooo! I can do this all day.” I zip the portal with a swipe of my hand like he did. I open it again. Close it. Open. Close. Open. I glance at Hart, and he’s giving me his best patient face. “Okay, okay, I’m done now.” I step into the landscape and notice a tent to the left. Usually, there’s nothing on the left. The path leads to the pond and the waterfall.

  I walk inside the tent to see a rock that reaches up to my hip, with water flowing over it that disappears into a hole in the ground. I peek into the hole and can’t see anything. It’s pitch black. “What’s this?”

  “Private waste space," Hart says, lingering outside the tent’s door.

  I swallow hard, touched that he’s figured out how uncomfortable I’ve been all this time. He knows too, because he winks at me. I walk to him and rise on my toes, but I can’t reach him unless he bends his head. He does, and his pupils widen, flecks of gold dancing in the orange irises. I’ve never seen the gold in his eyes either. “Thank you.”

  “You must tell me of the necessities so that I can accommodate them. You must not suffer things that are easily fixed. Is that clear?”

  “Yes, Hart.”

  “I’ll bring the tree soon.”

  “Hm?”

  “The tree for flowers.”

  I frown, not understanding.

  “I’ve decided where I’ll put it. Come see the reflection.” He steps aside so I can walk to the pond and crouch beside it and see my reflection in the water. White eyes greet a familiar round face framed in brown curls. One curl slides off my shoulder and falls into the water. Hart crouches beside me, picks up the curl, and secures my hair at the back of my head.

  “Why did my eyes change?”

  When he doesn’t answer I look up.

  He stares ahead at the waterfall. “I don’t know. I am…acquiring a healer, an old female to help you and other womankind, if any, with pregnancy and many other female things I can’t possibly fathom.”

  “I thought there aren’t any females left.”

  “She is too old to breed and not a Ka.”

  He will take care of me, and even though I can care for myself, it makes me feel safe to know I can lean into his strength.

  Hart shifts from one foot to another, gaze still ahead, a gentle breeze moving his hair. “I love you, you know.”

  I stand and throw myself at his back, locking my hands around his neck and hanging on tight. Under me, his body shifts, and he becomes the hunter. Rearing back on his hind legs, he wiggles his ass, leaps, then splashes into the pond. Slam dunk just took on a new meaning around here.

  From underneath the water, he detaches me and swims away. I kick to the surface and emerge to see him back on the shore, shaking off the water. He leans forward, and I swim to the edge, rising up on my arms, and touch my forehead to his hunter’s forehead. Bright predator eyes stare back at me.

  I kiss his nose. “I love you too, monster.”

  ***

  Hi, thank you for reading the first book in a new series. I am so very excited about these new guys. They’re edgy, funny, sexy, and I wanna spend a year or maybe even more writing this Sci-fi Alien Predator Romance thing. Nar’s story is book 2 with a teaser on the next page…

  Stolen by the Predator Teaser

  Nar

  Lightning cracks the sky, and the coming storm gathers the dark clouds as hundreds of predators assemble on the open field. The mud makes the already soft ground softer, and my boots sink lower. I lift a foot and move closer to Mas, leaning in. “How many are entering the games?” I whisper.

  “Two hundred at most.” He gives me a knowing look.

  The prize is a womankind who crash landed in the Ra tribe territory, and both the Ra and my tribe, the Ka, haven’t competed for a female in a decade, the games my brother recently held notwithstanding. After the wars between the Ka and Ra, my tribe was left with no females or young. Sterility plagues the Ra females, so they’ve got nothing too. There’re over four hundred males in the camp and more in the nearby village, so why are only two hundr
ed entering?

  Mas and I know Earl Gur plans to break the truce that Ark, his tribal Alpha, signed with my brother, Hart, and that’s why I’m here. To kill Gur in the games.

  “Have you seen Gur?” I ask.

  Mas shakes his head.

  “Are any of our males here?”

  “As far as I can see, only us.”

  A male bumps my shoulder, and I grunt from the impact. He walks on as if he didn’t do it on purpose. Old wounds die hard, and the animosity between the two tribes goes back centuries. We’ve fought this tribe for either land or revenge, and sometimes for no reason at all.

  “That’s Feli, Gur’s new second.”

  I killed the old second. “You think Gur’s holding a grudge against me?” I ask. A rhetorical question. Every one of the Ras holds a grudge against the Ka, especially against me. I’ve slaughtered many of them on open fields like this one. That’s why Mas and I stand alone and to the left of the wooden stage platform with a single chair that I presume the prize will sit upon as she awaits the games. “I wonder what she looks like,” I say.

  Mas side-eyes me, lifts a foot, and moves back a bit. I step back beside him. We’re gonna sink in the mud to our knees if we wait any longer. A drop of rain hits my nose, and I turn up my face and squint. The sky’s all but black.

  “This should be fun,” Mas says, face tilted up as well.

  Competing on this muddy terrain while it’s raining, and the clouds signaling a thunder storm as well? Yeah, should be fun. The two-hundred-and-some males shuffle. Whispers and hooting sound as Feli takes to the stage, his boots smearing mud all over it.

  “Here we go,” Mas says and cracks his neck. He gets off on being the finest portal master in the lands, and anyone who takes up portal controls during the games is his target, as portals are the way we travel across the land. Not to kill, though Mas has no issues with eliminating males, but more to wrestle portal control from the one who’s running it.

  Before pulling up the portal controls, which are a series of holographs that Feli will monitor during the games, Feli glances at Mas and smirks, swiping his hand over the control panel.