Hunter's Claim: The Alliance Book 1 (6 page)

Jordan’s face wrinkled in distaste. “Great,
out with the garbage. Just what I was hoping.”

“Hey, if it works,” Taylor started to argue
before Jesse interrupted.

“You did good, squirt,” Jesse said
reassuringly. “So, now we have to figure out how to get away from
the big guy who thinks he owns us.”

Taylor’s grin widened. “I’ve got that
covered as well. I had two of the best teachers in the world,” she
said pulling a small gun shaped device from her pocket. “I lifted
this from medical when the doc wasn’t looking. It will knock him on
his ass.”

Jordan grinned at her little sister and
hugged her. “I’m so proud of you, Taylor,” she whispered. “Dad
would be too.”

Taylor’s smile wobbled for a moment before
she nodded. “He said we needed to look out for each other,” she
said huskily. “You and Jordan have protected me. It is time I
started helping out more.”

“You have definitely done that, kiddo,”
Jesse said. “Let’s do this. Gather as much as you can that you
think will help us once we get out of here.”

*.*.*

Jesse glanced at the clock. It was almost
two o’clock in the morning. Taylor was telling Hunter some
ridiculous story about an old cat they had when they were kids. It
was time to put their plan in motion.

“I need to visit the ladies room,” Jesse
said, standing up.

Hunter turned to gaze at Jesse as she stood
up. A dark frown creased his brow. He started
to
rise as well. Jordan looked wildly at Taylor who
nodded.

“I need to go after you, Jesse,” Taylor
said, reaching out to grab Hunter’s arm. “Hunter, did I tell you
about the Bellamees that lived two houses down from us?”

*.*.*

Hunter shook his head but sat back down. His
eyes followed Jesse as she walked around the table back toward the
bathroom behind him. He turned his attention back to Taylor as she
started telling him about an older couple that lived near them
years before.

He glanced at the clock wondering how much
longer it would be before he could send Jesse’s two younger sisters
back to their room. He had hoped one of them would start showing
signs of being tired but so far none of them appeared to be feeling
like sleep. Hell, the young one acted like she could go on sharing
stories for several more hours.

Frustration gnawed at him. He wanted to get
the female alone. It had been a long time since he had relieved
himself with a living female and Jesse’s scent was driving him
crazy. He wanted her with a hunger that surprised him. He would
have to be gentle when he took her so he would not break her but he
felt confident that would not be an issue.

He started to turn back around when he heard
Jesse returning but Taylor touched his arm and leaned forward, said
something to him that he missed. He bit back a growl. He was going
to have to ask the little female to repeat what she had said as he
had been distracted… again.

“What?” Hunter asked impatiently.

“I said I hope you have a nice sleep,”
Taylor repeated.

“A nice sleep?” Hunter repeated with a
frown. “What do…” His voice faded as he felt a cold injection being
pressed into his neck.

He half rose and began to turn when his legs
gave out under him and his knees hit the hard floor. His eyes
blurred as he stared in disbelief at Jesse. His eyes moved from the
injector in her hand to her eyes. He opened his mouth to howl in
rage before they rolled back in his head as the medication worked
its way through his system.

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.”

“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.

“Stay back,” she snarled, swinging the pipe
as one of the men who had been chasing them stepped closer.

The men laughed. “She is a feisty one,”
another man called out. “I wonder how she’s going to look bent
over.”

“Jesse,” Taylor whimpered as she pressed her
back against her older sisters. “I’m scared. I don’t want to die
like this. I… please, don’t let them…”

Jordan swung the rebar she held in her hand,
striking one of the men who got too close. His angry howl of pain
seemed to incite the other men who started yelling at each other to
move in closer. Jordan cried out when one of the men grabbed the
end of the long metal rod she was gripping, jerking it out of her
hands.

Jesse attacked the men who were reaching for
her sisters. She hit as many as she could before they overwhelmed
her. She felt her tunic rip under their hands. In the background,
she could hear Taylor’s high-pitched scream.

“No!” Jesse screamed as she felt hands
trying to drag down the pants she wore. She kicked out again,
catching one man in the groin but another took his place. “No!” She
screamed again as she fought with everything in her.

She cried out in pain as she was pressed
down onto the hard ground. Sharp rocks bit into her back and
shoulders. Her arms burned from where she was being pulled. Her
legs were forced open. Hard fingers bit into her flesh.

“Please!” She sobbed. “Please, don’t!”

Additional screams filled the air. It took a
moment for Jesse to realize that they were not coming from her
sisters. The sound of bones breaking and tortured cries of agony
rained around her. It took a moment for the men holding her down to
realize that the sounds were coming from their own.

Jesse felt the bodies holding her down
release her. Some in panic, some as they were thrown away from her.
Jesse’s frantic eyes locked with Hunter’s for a brief second before
he turned and sliced through the throat of a man who stumbled too
close.

She forced herself to roll over onto her
stomach and rise up. Her eyes searching for Jordan and Taylor. She
saw another Trivator warrior attacking three men. Her eyes swept
the area until she caught sight of Jordan’s dark blue shirt. She
pushed up off the ground and staggered over to where Jordan lay
curled up in a ball, her bloody hands over her head. Harsh sobs
shook her sister’s body.

“Jordan,” Jesse choked out, touching
Jordan’s shoulder. “Jordan, we need to find Taylor. Please, help
me. Taylor…”

Jordan’s slowly lowered her hands and looked
up at Jesse with tear-filled eyes. She had blood near her hairline
and the beginnings of a bruise was beginning to form at her temple.
She nodded and held out her shaking hands to Jesse.

They both looked frantically around. They
stumbled over several bodies as they searched for Taylor. Jesse
held Jordan when she turned with a sob at the sight of the
brutality. Jesse felt no regret for the way the men died. They had
planned a much worse fate for her and her two younger sisters. Her
only concern was finding Taylor.

A low cry was pulled from Jesse when she saw
the still body of Taylor lying near the
rubble
of a building. Saber stood holding a man by his
throat. It was obvious both of the man’s arms had been broken. With
a sickening twist, he snapped the crying man’s neck and tossed his
body aside before bending down over Taylor’s small broken body.

“Taylor,” Jordan cried out, stumbling
forward.

Jesse stood back. The weight of despair and
failure filling her at not being able to protect her sisters. It
was too much. If Taylor was dead, she didn’t want to go on. She
could never survive the guilt at being unable to protect the little
sunshine that warmed her world.

“Jesse,” a deep voice said harshly.

Jesse flinched violently when warm hands
reached for her. She jerked back a step, uncaring of the sharp
stones that cut into her foot from where her boot had been ripped
off. Nothing mattered anymore. She knew shock was setting in as her
body suddenly felt like it was encased in ice and she couldn’t stop
shaking. Her mind felt like it was splintering into a million
pieces.

“It’s all my fault,” she panted as her teeth
began to chatter. “I should have stayed to the south of the city. I
shouldn’t have tried to find a vehicle. It is all my fault.”

Hunter grew concerned when she paled even
more. He reached out again, this time slowly. His eyes swept over
the wounds on her skin. She was bleeding from her temple, cheek and
lip. Her tunic was ripped and hanging off of one delicate pale
shoulder. Dark bruises were forming on her exposed arm and more
blood ran from her shoulder. Fury burned in him. He glanced around
at the bodies of the human males who would have destroyed something
so beautiful and fragile. He wished he could kill them all over
again.

His eyes moved to where Dagger was holding
Jordan. Saber was checking Taylor. He nodded in relief when Saber
looked up and briefly nodded. Jesse’s little sister would live.

“Jesse, she will be alright,” Hunter said
quietly. “Saber says she is alive. She needs medical attention. You
all do.”

Jesse turned to look at him with dazed eyes
before they cleared and bitter anger replaced the shock. She pulled
the torn remains of her shirt up but it fell back down the moment
she released it. She looked around her. Her face twisted with grief
and rage.