Pursued by the Hunter – Xarc’n Warriors Short Story

By Lynnea Lee

Copyright © 2020 Lynnea Lee

All rights reserved. No part of this publica on may be reproduced, or

used in whole or in part, in any form or by any means (electronic,
mechanical, photocopying recording, or otherwise), without the prior
wri en permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fic on, and the characters and incidents found within
are products of the author’s imagina on and are used fic ously. Any
resemblance to persons, living or deceased, events or locales is en rely
coincidental.
 CONTENTS

CONTENTS
Chapter 1: Cynthia
Chapter 2: Cov’k
Chapter 3: Cynthia
Chapter 4: Cov’k
Chapter 5: Cynthia
Chapter 6: Cynthia
Chapter 7: Cov’k
Chapter 8: Cynthia
Epilogue: Cov’k
ALSO BY AUTHOR
 Chapter 1: Cynthia

Crap! My alien stalker was at it again.

I’d seen the Xarc’n warrior several mes over the last few days. The first
me, he chased away a bunch of bugs a er I’d go en cornered. I’d been
lucky that it was a pack of the noisy, crawly bugs with large scythe-like
front legs, instead of the ones that spit acid. It had been my fault for
ge ng cornered. Those ugly alien frankensteins, between cen pedes and
praying man ses, were noisy li le freaks, and I should have heard them
coming and hidden.
A er that, I’d seen him several mes, either in the distance or
disappearing around a building. No ma er where I went, he was there. I
couldn’t shake the feeling that he was following me.
Yesterday, I caught sight of my Xarc’n hunter as he followed me to my
hideout. My hideout wasn’t much: just a shipping container hidden in a sea
of iden cal ones in a shipping yard. I kept a combina on lock on it to
prevent other survivors from ge ng into my stash while I was away, and
also to prevent others from ge ng in while I was sleeping.
In this messed up, post-apocalyp c bug world, it wasn’t just the bugs
that were dangerous. Other survivors were just as likely to fuck me up. Add
in a few dozen Xarc’n warriors, another race of aliens who claimed they
were here to help destroy the bugs, and I got a veritable soup of possible
dangers to worry about.
The alien bugs had hit New York first, though many conjectured they had
been breeding on our planet for months before they found the large city
and exploded in numbers. The Xarc’n came a er, offering their help. At
first, Earth’s governments had turned them down, believing the Xarc’n had
sent the bugs before them to a ack the planet. But the Xarc’n hadn’t le ,
even a er we blamed them for our pest problem. They started helping
smaller towns whose mayors had ignored the government and welcomed
aid from above.
By the me Earth leaders had realized their folly, it was too late. It was a
bug’s world now. There was no government, no internet, no borders. In the
last few months, I’d watched as my en re world fell apart. I don’t know
how I made it through the first days of chaos. But somehow, through sheer
luck and maybe a good dash of stubbornness, I’d survived.
And I didn’t plan on giving away my hideout to the Xarc’n hunter who
seemed to have developed an unhealthy obsession with me. I’d made a
long detour, weaving in and out of the rows and rows of containers un l I
was sure he’d lost my trail, then headed back to my sleeping bag and cans
of soups. I considered the shipping container as my save point. Every day, I
went back and “saved” my progress in my journal, knowing that I’d
survived another day in bug land. Thinking about it like a game kept me
going.
I knew I needed to leave the safety of my makeshi home eventually. I
lived in a medium-sized Canadian town by the Great Lakes, and the area in
my immediate vicinity was nearly foraged bare. The problem was, I was
trapped between the lake and the center of town. The center of town was
bug city. If I wanted to leave, I would have to choose between the sludge-
like water of Lake Erie in the summer or the bugs. Neither sounded like a
good op on.
Now, as I le my save point to start a new day, I spo ed Tall, Mauve, and
Handsome—yes, he was a total hunk, for an alien—si ng on top of the
tallest tower of shipping containers in the yard. Fuck. He knew I was here.
And this was the moment I knew for a fact that the Xarc’n hunter was
following me. Our encounters were not merely accidents.
What the fuck did he want with me?
I hurried across the shipping yard, crossed the empty road, and ducked
into the small shop that I used as a locker. I never kept all my supplies in
one place, afraid of losing my en re stash in one fell swoop. I grabbed a
chocolate bar I’d hidden in the cash register—no one checked there now
that money was worth nothing—and crammed it into my mouth. I didn’t
even bother to taste it. I was sick of candy bars and canned food, but it was
all I had le .
I looked out the barred window of the shop, expec ng my alien stalker
to follow me. He did.
He started down the stacks of containers, jumping down each level
easily. Despite the metal surface, he landed lightly on his giant, clawed
feet. Xarc’n hunters didn’t wear shoes, and a er one look at those long
claws, I understood why. They didn’t wear much of anything, to be honest.
This one only wore a loincloth, a harness that held his armor in place, and
a belt. All his supplies and equipment were strapped to the belt and
harness.
He strode across the street with most of his mauvy purple skin on
display and soaking up the sun. The Xarc’n warriors were naturally armored
with leathery skin, and they seemed impervious to the cold. Even when
standing straight, they looked slightly hunched over from the sheer size of
the muscles on their shoulders and backs. They had sizable fangs for
canines, and the rest of their teeth were sharp too. Their yellow eyes
ranged from a warm orange-yellow to a cool yellow-green; all of them
glowed with unnatural light in the dark.
This hunter had yellow eyes that glowed with warmth. He growled
something at me as he approached.
“You must come with me. The swarm is coming,” a small device clipped
onto his harness translated.
The swarm was coming? What the hell was he talking about? The swarm
was already here. Earth prac cally belonged to the swarm now.
I ignored him. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my courage and shoved
past him to the door. I couldn’t help but no ce that he smelled quite
pleasant: clean and masculine. Unlike myself; I probably stank from not
showering for so long. I reached for the door.
“No, do not go outside. The swarm is almost here.”
There he went again, talking as if the swarm hadn’t already demolished
my world. Maybe there was something wrong with this hunter. Were there
such things as mentally slow hunters? Of all the massively muscled and
loinclothed warriors roaming my planet, I had to get the defec ve one.
I ignored him and his crazy talk and push my way out onto the street.
My musclebound but mentally confused alien followed me out and
scooped me up into his arms.
“Hey! Let me down! What’s the meaning of this?” I pounded my fists
against his shoulder and instantly regre ed it. Ouch! What was he made
of? Granite? I snatched my hand back and nursed my sore fingers.
Then I heard it. The sound of a million ny bug feet scurrying,
stampeding, toward me. A sea of bugs blanketed the horizon, moving
towards us like a live carpet.
“Holy shit.” I hadn’t go en the defec ve warrior a er all. Boy, did I feel
stupid now!
“They are here.”
The bugs were coming in fast, and my alien ran, s ll carrying me. But to
where, I didn’t know.
“My shu le would be safe, but I don’t know if I can make it.” He started
toward a pile of rubble.
What shu le? I saw no shu le. He got to the pile of rubble and started
climbing, but it was difficult to do with me in a bridal carry. He maneuvered
me to straddle the front of his body, instead.
“Wrap your arms and legs around me,” he demanded.
I considered refusing since he didn’t ask nicely, but the ocean of bugs
coming at us changed my mind. I wrapped around his almost bare body.
His leather loincloth covered very li le, and the harness only held up two
pieces of chest armor, leaving his abs completely bare.
He smelled good too, and I chided myself at no cing something like that
at a me like this.
“Krux! We aren’t going to make it.”
I had no fucking clue where we were trying to make it to; all I saw was
the pile of rubble he was climbing.
 “There’s a small alcove. We can hide in there and pull the rubble over
top of the opening un l the first part of the swarm passes.”
He ducked, with me s ll wrapped around his body, into a crevice in the
rubble before triggering the debris to come crashing down right behind us.
I screamed, thinking this was the end. I was going to die buried in rubble in
the arms of a stranger.
But aside from a few grains of sand, nothing landed on me. A gadget on
his harness lit up to illuminate the area, and I saw what he meant by an
alcove. We were in what used to be a storage closet of some sort before
the building collapsed. There was just enough room for one oversized alien
warrior and a small human.
He growled, and the device on his harness translated again. “We are safe
for now, female.”
I looked up at his face. His eyes glowed gently in the dark: not a scary
monster glow, but a warm, kind one.
“My name is Cynthia.”
“And I am Cov’k.” His hand, which was s ll on my waist, moved up to
touch my face. “Cynthia, my female’s name is Cynthia.”
His female? What the hell? “Your female?”
“Yes. I scented you days ago, and I know you are mine.”
Before the collapse, there had been news reports of Xarc’n warriors
stealing women away. The rumor on the internet had been that they kept
them as sex slaves since they didn’t have any females of their own kind.
Nuh uh. That was not going to happen. I didn’t survive the ini al bug
apocalypse just to become an alien’s toy. Not even if he was the ho est
fucking alien I’d ever met. Not even if every part of his body was bulging
with muscles. Not even if he’d just saved me from being torn apart by the
bugs. I might be up for one or two romps in the hay as a thank you for
saving my life, but I wasn’t going to be “his.”
Nope, nope, nope! I needed my freedom. There was no way I’d be happy
being his li le toy. It had been a few minutes already. Maybe the bugs had
already passed. I turned and pushed at the rubble that sealed us in.
 Chapter 2: Cov’k

I reached for the female’s hands, trapping them in my own to stop her
from pulling down the rocks and rubble that protected us from the
scourge. But not before one small rock near the top fell away, exposing us
to the swarm outside. My female froze immediately at the sound of
hundreds of scu lers that dri ed into our safe li le hideaway—their
chi ering bounced off the walls.
“What are you doing, female? Do you wish to give up now, a er you
have survived for so long?”
“I’ve heard of you monsters taking us Earth women and making us your
sex slaves. I’d rather face my death with the bugs.”
I growled to hide the pain at her words. She believed death was be er
than being with me. But she, like much of Earth, was wrong. We did not
take Earth women as slaves, and we did not send the scourge in to destroy
Earth. While the ancestral Xarc’n had used the scourge as weapons, we
now hunted them across the universe. And the women the hunters took
became our mates, to be loved and cherished, and cared for un l the day
we died.
The moment I’d scented this female among the large metal containers,
I’d known she was to be my mate. Some hunters ac vely searched for their
mates, smelling every female they got close to. But I’d found mine by sheer
luck.
And now she’d told me that she’d rather die than to be with me. It hurt.
But I was not about to give her up to the scourge. Cynthia would grow to
love me, and even if she didn’t, I would spend the rest of my life protec ng
and caring for her. She was my mate; I knew it. I just needed the
opportunity to trigger the fabled ma ng bond with her.
“I am not worse than the scourge.” I sat down cross-legged on the
ground and pulled her down onto my lap, my hands s ll holding hers
prisoner. She pulled at her wrists, but I kept a secure grip.
“I rather face the bugs than to belong to anyone. Even you.” The words
hurt even worse the second me.
“I will protect you and care for you. You will not be my slave. You will be
my mate. What is the human word? Wife. You will be my wife.”
“I will be no such thing!” she cried indignantly, though the fear and
anger were mostly gone now.
A scu ler found the small opening le by the fallen rock, a racted to her
voice. It chi ered and scratched at the opening. Fear filled the small space,
emana ng from my female, the scent cloyingly sweet. Her reac on told me
more than her words. She feared the scourge more than she did me.
But the delicious scent of her fear called in more scu lers, and soon they
were piling on top of each other trying to get in. Cynthia huddled against
me, and I released her hands to hold her close and comfort her.
“The scu lers are a racted to your scent of fear. It smells delicious.” I
took a big sniff and smelled more than just fear. “You are also injured; I
smell blood. Where is your injury?”
“I scratched my leg crawling through a narrow opening earlier.” She stuck
out her leg and I saw the small cut oozing blood. “Wait. I can’t stop being
scared, but I have something to hide my scent. I use it to hide from the
bugs.”
She took out a small spray bo le from her pack and sprayed it at the
opening, right at the scu ler’s face. The whole alcove filled with the
fragrance. It smelled of fruits, but a bastardized ar ficial version. The
scu ler closest to the opening backed away, making a loud chuffing noise.
We stayed quiet in our protected alcove, wai ng for the scourge to lose
interest. I adjusted her in my lap and picked up her injured leg. The
bleeding had already slowed to a seep, but I should disinfect to prevent
infec on.
 Not wan ng to have her sit on the dirty floor, I pulled out a thin, metallic
emergency blanket I kept in my pouch. I laid it on the floor and moved her
to sit on it. Then, I picked up her leg again.
“It’s fine. I don’t even feel it.”
I ignored her and leaned in to lick the wound clean. It was primi ve, but
Xarc’n saliva had an microbial proper es.
She gasped and kicked at me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I am not fucking; you would know if I was. I am cleaning your wound.
My saliva will stave off infec on.”
“Oh, um. Thank you, but no.” She pulled at her leg, but I held it in place.
All she managed to do was topple herself, so she was now leaning up
against the wall, her legs splayed out on display in front of me. She wore
blue colored shorts, not very protec ve against the scourge, but
understandable in the hot weather.
I brought her leg to my mouth again and licked at the li le cut. She did
not protest this me.
“Fine. As long as all you are doing is licking. Don’t bite.”
“I do not wish to bite.” But my female had just given me permission to
lick, and I planned on using it to my advantage.
I licked a li le higher up her leg, inching my way up to the v of her
thighs, where her tantalizing aroma was the strongest. I reached for the
fastening at her waistband, undid it, and pulled it off her body. Surprise
crossed her face at how easily I’d undressed her.
“Hey, that’s chea ng. I’m not injured there.”
“You said licking was fine,” I growled. “I wish to taste all of you.”
The scent in our li le recess changed and arousal filled the air, drowning
me in lust. A rumble started in my chest: one I’d never experienced before.
I con nued my explora on up her leg. She pushed my face away, her
hands landing on the sensi ve base of my horns. The rumble in my chest
deepened at her touch. Our horns were sensi ve, especially at the base,
and her touch brought to mind images of me thrus ng into her as she held
onto my horns.
 “Holy shit, you’re purring.” She moved her hands experimentally over
the curves of my horns.
My eyes rolled up at the ero c feel, and the rumbling in my chest grew
louder.
“Oh, you like having your horns rubbed.” As if controlled by childlike
curiosity, she rubbed over them again.
It was too much. I snarled, grabbed her hands, and shackled them at the
wrists. “If you touch my horns again, I will take it as an invita on to fuck
you.” I inhaled the sudden flush of lust that filled the air. “By the smell of it,
you want me to.”
She shook her head, her dull li le teeth bi ng at her lower lip.
Stubborn female! Her sexual arousal filled the small space like an
aphrodisiac, yet she denied herself pleasure. I would give her pleasure,
anyway. I had made it my job to take care of all her needs.
“You said I could lick. You are aroused; I know. I will take care of you.”
I didn’t wait for her to tell me no. I dove my head into the V of her crotch
and lost myself to the heaven there.
 Chapter 3: Cynthia

I muffled my screams against my palm as Cov’k licked me to another

orgasm. I’d worried about his sharp teeth at first, but his talented tongue
made me forget all about them. He had not been lying when he said he
would take care of me. I was lying, however, when I said I didn’t want him
to fuck me. I did want him, and my body totally betrayed me. Why did he
have to look so sexy while saving me from certain death?
Not that I was complaining. I hadn’t had this much physical contact since
the world ended, and I didn’t want it to end. I hadn’t felt this alive for
months. Every nerve was awake and ngling.
“Cov’k.” I pulled him up to cover my body and looked directly into his
glowing yellow eyes. “I want more. I want you.” I wasn’t afraid to ask for
what I craved. The bugs were s ll scurrying outside, and I needed him to
make me forget they were there.
I reached for his horns again, massaging the curved, rigid protrusions.
Today, I learned not to play with a Xarc’n warrior’s horns unless I wanted to
be licked to death.
He crawled up my body—the small alcove barely had enough room for
him—and his horns bu ed up against the wall behind me. This wasn’t
going to work. If we tried to do it like this, he might ram down the supports
and bring the whole place down on us.
“I think the only way we could do it is me on top.”
I pushed him off, sat up, and reached for the fastenings of his loincloth. I
fumbled with them, not able to figure out how they worked in the dim
light. He helped, unfastening the offending garment and pulling it off. The
harness, with all his armor and weapons, came off next. He leaned his two
swords up against the wall before kneeling on the metallic blanket.
His cock ju ng out at me looked completely alien. I gasped at the large
size and the strange shape. But I wasn’t afraid. I’d faced down bugs with
bladed arms and acid spit; I could handle an alien dick.
Instead of a head followed by a long sha , his cock was a series of three
gradua ng head-like sec ons. The p was well-shaped, swelling out to a
pronounced flared ridge, but at the end of this first head, there was no
sha . Instead, it widened again into another flared shape before narrowing
again sharply. Finally, it flared out one more me before dipping in where it
joined his body. It almost looked like some sex toys I’d seen.
I reached for it, exploring the wide flares and curved dips with my
fingers. The p glistened with a drop of precum. At least that was familiar. I
swiped a thumb over the p and spread the silky liquid over the velvet skin
of the first head.
Cov’k growled, the sound rumbling in the small space. He pulled me up
and maneuvered me to straddle his hips, lining himself up to my opening.
Firm hands gripped at the sides of my ass almost painfully, reminding me
suddenly of a news report I’d seen back at the beginning about the Xarc’ns’
retractable claws. He pulled me down roughly. I was suddenly glad the
claws on their hands were retractable. I moaned as his cock pressed into
me.
He was extremely thick, and I started to panic. Despite how wet I was, it
had been a long me since I’d had sex, and the wide flare of the first head
was too much. I tensed up.
“Calm, you are my female. You can take me. I will not hurt you,” he
soothed.
He held me in place and rocked his hips, each movement sea ng himself
deeper into my body. I felt each flared ridge as it entered me, stroking
against the inside of my channel. He pushed down against my hips again,
and I sank the rest of the way down with a cry.
The feeling was intense, and I expected him to give me a moment to get
used to him. But he started moving immediately, rocking his hips and
thrus ng up into me with a fierce passion. I screamed, and the sound
echoed in our li le crevice. I felt every inch, every dip and flare of him
inside me, and it felt so good it almost hurt.
I moved in me with him, riding him with a fran c need, moaning as the
pleasure spread out to all my nerve endings and threatened to explode. I
was so close. Beneath me, Cov’k rumbled like a vibrator on steroids. Each
me our pelvises came together, the vibra ons shot through my clit,
pushing me further over the edge.
“Ah, Krux,” Cov’k growled as he guided my hips almost violently up and
down. “So good.”
His sounds of pleasure were a huge turn on, too. Some men were quiet,
but not Cov’k. He snarled and growled to show his pleasure, and every
feral sound pushed me toward the precipice.
Time seemed to freeze as my body tensed and shook. My world was
suddenly filled with white-hot silence, and the only things that ma ered
were the two of us and where we joined. But it wasn’t just at the crotch. It
felt as if our en re bodies were one. I screamed my climax, breaking the
perfect silence.
His snarl joined me a moment later as he filled me with warm spurts of
his seed. That was going to be a mess. But right now, I didn’t care. That was
for future me to deal with. Current me collapsed onto Cov’k’s rumbling
chest and closed my eyes.

I stretched as I woke, expec ng to find the familiarity of my sleeping bag

and shipping container. But instead, I found myself waking in the arms of
Cov’k, the warrior with the magic tongue. My head was pillowed on his
bicep as he cradled me against his body. Some me during my nap, he’d
cleaned us up and neatly folded our clothes against the wall. The light on
his belt, which now rested on the floor of the alcove, s ll lit our li le nook
with so light.
 What the hell did I do? Bad, Cynthia! I scolded myself. This was bad. No,
let me rephrase that. The sex was amazing, but the situa on was bad. I
needed to get away if I didn’t want Cov’k to hide me away forever as his
human toy. I was sure Cov’k would never treat me badly, and I wouldn’t
mind daily repeats of what we just shared, but I valued my freedom.
I didn’t get this far in the bugpocalypse by relying on someone else or
following their rules. I made my own rules. My freedom meant a lot to me.
“You are awake.” My alien reached over, grabbed my clothes, and
handed them to me. “We should head to my ship now. The first wave of
the swarm just ended. But the second wave will start soon. You will be safe
inside my shu le by then, my female.”
I wasn’t his female, but I didn’t argue. I didn’t even react. I didn’t plan on
going home with him just because he was amazing in bed. I needed to find
a good me to give my possessive paramour the slip.
We poked our heads out of our cozy alcove. A few bugs s ll wandered
around on the road below, but that was nothing compared to the sheer
numbers I’d seen earlier. He stepped out into the sun, the beams of light
shining off his slightly sweaty purple skin. It accentuated his brawny
physique.
“We can make it to my shu le now.”
I followed his gaze up the pile of rubble but saw nothing. “I don’t see
your shu le.”
“It is cloaked.”
That explained a lot. I excused myself to take care of some natural
func ons. He suggested I do that on his shu le, but I told him it was
urgent. It wasn’t, but I needed to buy me. Then, we started up the rubble
slope, and I let him go ahead of me, insis ng that I didn’t need to be
carried and I could do it myself. Again, I took my sweet me.
Then I saw my opening. On the horizon, another wave of bugs charged
towards us. One of his devices buzzed, and he stopped to check it. If I
wanted to get away from Tall, Mauve, and Way too good with his tongue,
now was my chance. I took my backpack off, placed it on the ground
behind him, and looped the straps strategically to catch his feet. I took one
last look at my post-apocalyp c wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am and said a
silent goodbye.
Then, I ran.
 Chapter 4: Cov’k

We were close to my shu le now. I paused in my climb to check my

communica on device when a message came in. It was a fellow hunter
warning of a large group of flyers entering the area. But we would be safely
inside the vessel by the me they got here.
At first, I thought my female had fallen. Perhaps she had trouble
naviga ng the rubble with her li le human legs, since the slope here was
steeper than below. I turned to help her get up and saw her running down
the hill of rubble towards the road.
Shit! I’d thought that because she’d agreed to share sex with me, it
meant she would stay. But she had run at the first opportunity she saw.
The scourge were approaching fast, and I figured out her plan; she
wanted to put the swarm between us. I ran toward her and immediately
tripped. I rolled to avoid falling on my face as I realized my feet were s ll
stuck. It took me a moment to realize what I’d tripped over. While I had
been checking my message, Cynthia had loosely encircled my feet with the
straps of her backpack, then le the bulk of the pack directly in my way.
Krax! I’d underes mated her.
She was at the bo om of the pile of rubble now. I untangled my feet and
started a er her fleeing form. But by the me I was down by the street,
the first scu lers appeared. They orientated toward me, chi ering at me
with deadly intent. Behind them, the rest of the swarm arrived.
I was a strong warrior, but I was not skilled enough to take on an en re
swarm on my own. Especially not in my precarious situa on. I ran back up
the hill of rubble with the scu lers in hot pursuit.
 Several of the scu lers were faster than the others and reached me
before I made it to the shu le. I reached for the weapons at my back and
unsheathed the dual energy blades, my weapons of choice. As I swung the
swords in wide, prac ced arcs, the edges glowed yellow-green with energy.
It made quick work of the creatures, slicing through them easily and
smoothly as if they were nothing at all.
I ran the rest of the way to my ship, triggered the cloaking off to find the
door, and ran inside. I turned the cloaking back on immediately. Not only
did the cloaking hide my shu le from visual detec on, it also released
chemicals to deter and confuse the scourge.
I sat at the captain’s seat at the main console and toggled on the
external display. The light grey walls of the shu le disappeared and were
replaced by life-sized video feed from the external cameras. The scu lers
milled around the shu le, confused. Then one by one, they lost interest
and le . I turned off the external display for all the walls and transferred
them to the large screen at my console instead. Some hunters enjoyed
flying or driving their shu les—we o en spent more me on the ground
than in the air—with the external displays on. But I preferred to use my
screen.
I couldn’t believe she’d go en the drop on me. I should have been more
careful.
Now that I was in my shu le, I was safe from the swarm. But I could not
pursue my female, not in the town with the numerous buildings to hide
her. Our shu les, while technologically advanced and perfectly ou i ed to
hunt the coldblooded scourge, had no way to track her heat signature. The
only way to find her now was through scent.
I made a note to put in a request for heat detec on. It was a simple
technology and easy to add to our arsenal.
Finding her shouldn’t be too difficult. She was trapped in this area by the
bugs on one side and water on the other. She was one of the few humans
remaining; most had already le or died trying.
Cynthia was strong and intelligent to have outlasted the ini al a ack in
the spring. But the swarm was upon us now, and that meant waves and
waves of scourges for the next fortnight, by Earth calendars. As the area
filled with scourge, it would be a death trap, even for the most cunning of
survivors. Those devious enough to avoid being scourge food would find
themselves facing a long, drawn-out death by starva on.
That would not happen to my Cynthia. I would sooner feed her with my
last ra on bar than to let her starve. But as Xarc’n warriors, we were well
provisioned with supplies delivered to us monthly. I would care for her
well, and my female would never go hungry
But I needed to find her first. I vowed to hunt her and make her realize
that living with me was be er than being alone—even if I had to follow her
across the con nent.
 Chapter 5: Cynthia

If Cov’k wanted to find me, he’d be er be ready to follow me to another

country. Not that our border meant anything to the Xarc’n hunters.
I packed the last of my newly foraged food and supplies into the
abandoned boat and looked over the checklist I’d made in my journal.
Map. Check.
Compass. Check.
Food. Check.
Water. Check.
Sunny day with no storm in sight. Check.
And finally, the despera on to ignore the part of my brain screaming
that this was a crazy idea and that I was going to die out on that lake.
Double check.
I was ready. Let’s do this.
The goal was to travel along the shore of Lake Erie, not so far that I’d lose
sight of it but not so close that the bugs on land would catch wind of me. I
didn’t want hundreds of bugs tailing my ass as I tried to dock at the end of
my journey. When it came to the bugs, my biggest fear was the flyers;
hence why I had selected a closed cabin boat. I’d been lucky that the
owner had refueled it before the bugs came.
I didn’t have many choices in boats. My criteria included having a
covered cabin, having enough fuel, and looking like it might survive the
journey. I had no freaking clue how to sail, despite living next to the lake
my whole life, so a boat with a working motor and fuel was crucial. There
was no way I could learn the winds and current in the two days’ me I
allo ed myself. I needed to be able to point and go. My des na on? The
good old US of A. Or what was le of it.
Our neighbors to the south hadn’t fared much be er than we had when
the alien bugs had a acked. Borders meant nothing to the bugs. And to
most of us s ll le alive, borders were just lines on a map.
It would be faster to travel across the lake, but I didn’t want to lose sight
of land and get lost. I planned on matching the shoreline and any
landmarks I saw to the decade old map I’d found at the back of a gas
sta on. Not to men on, Lake Erie was shallow and known for rough water
condi ons during storms. I didn’t want to risk being too far from land.
Of all the Great Lakes, I had the privilege of sailing the s nkiest one.
Having lived next to it my whole life, I knew the lake turned toxic in the
summer heat.
At first, I planned on docking at one of the ports. But considering how I’d
been trapped in this town by the bugs for months, I thought be er of it.
Instead, with a pen I circled on my map what looked like a serene beach a
li le way off a small town. I didn’t know what awaited me on the other
side. But I did know what awaited me here: a slowly dwindling food supply,
a growing bug popula on, and an obsessed Xarc’n warrior.
I said one last goodbye to my home, my city, my country, and I was on
my way.
I’d been correct to worry about the flyers. The moment I started up the
engine, the aerial bugs came. The ground-dwelling bugs with the noisy
li le legs and the acid spi ers weren’t in the area when I started the boat,
and none took no ce of me once I was on the water. But the flyers took
note and flew out to inves gate.
I hid under the dash, behind the captain’s chair, hoping the flyers
wouldn’t see me. I had the boat aimed in the right direc on, and I
shouldn’t need to change direc on any me soon. I was banking on the fact
that they would lose interest before then. One of the flying bugs landed on
the roof with a loud crash, and suddenly I was glad I’d chosen the boat that
looked like a floa ng n can with windows rather than the pre y-looking
cabin cruiser with the hardtop.
 Another flyer landed, and the combined weight of the oversized bugs
rocked the vessel. I couldn’t feel what they were doing on the roof, but I
felt every movement as the two fought and screeched at each other. I
caught glimpses of a third flyer circling overhead through the window. A
horrible thought came to mind; what if the flyers were intelligent and were
trying to capsize the boat?
No. They couldn’t be. I just needed to sit s ll un l they forgot what they
were hun ng for and le . But they didn’t leave. I checked the wind-up
watch I had on my wrist. I’d had the watch since I’d le my work to find the
town riddled with bugs. It had come in handy once my cell ba ery had run
out. The two creatures had only been figh ng on the roof for a few
minutes, though it felt like an hour.
Eventually, something caught the a en on of the trio of flyers, and they
all flew off toward it. I released the breath I’d been holding.
I got back up onto the chair and sat looking out into the waves. And
suddenly, the magnitude of what I had done bulldozed over me. I had le
the only home I’d ever known to set sail across a Great Lake to lands
unknown. What the fuck was I thinking? I could have just made the biggest
mistake of my life.
I looked back at the dock that was no more than a ny line in the
distance. Too late to go back now. I’d never know now if Cov’k had been
the be er choice. I knew I didn’t want to have my freedom stolen from me;
I’d fought too hard on my own to belong to anyone. But for a few hours in
that li le alcove, I’d felt safe, maybe even cared for. I wasn’t sure if I
believed what I felt, though. I’d been alone for so long that I could have
mistaken any form of a en on or touch as care. Living through the end of
the world was a lonely endeavor.
There were plenty of survivors, but for a lone woman not many of them
could be trusted. I’d almost shown myself to a group passing through the
area once, thinking that living with a group would be be er than surviving
alone, but I’d watched the group closely and seen that the women were
mistreated. I’d let the group pass on by and con nued my lonely existence
in Bug Town.
 There had been other loners in the area, once. But one by one, signs of
them had disappeared as they each le the area or met their maker.
I wondered what type of people I’d meet at my des na on. And I
wondered what new bugs I’d encounter. Before the internet went down,
there had been reports that different types of bugs roamed different areas.
I looked to the shore and picked out any special curves of the shoreline
as I tried to follow the map. The map book had a close up of the lake and
the surrounding areas, but it was s ll difficult to recognize much. A er a
while, I gave up and just took note of any ports or towns that I passed as I
traveled around the lake.
I went slowly, not knowing how much fuel I needed to get to where I was
going. I’d read somewhere that going slower conserved fuel and got you
farther. That meant staying for a night on the boat. To be honest, I was
probably safer on the boat than anywhere on land.
As the sun started to set, I cut the motor. The chain for the anchor
wasn’t the longest, and I crossed my fingers as I dropped the anchor and
waited for it to hit bo om. It did.
Then, opening my pack, I took out my dinner: a can of tuna, a can of
corn, and a bo le of water I’d collected at the last rainfall—there was no
way I was drinking lake water in the summer—and sat down to enjoy the
sunset. I took out my pen and journal and “saved” my journey today.
This was it, a new chapter in my life: Bugpocalypse, Part Two: Lands
Unknown.
 Chapter 5: Cov’k

Where was she? I checked where she usually slept, but a er our
encounter that day, she never returned to her sleeping spot. She’d le her
stash behind, knowing that coming back would mean facing me.
I made the rounds in the area she o en frequented, and while her scent
s ll lingered there, it was old. I finally found fresher trails as I moved to
another area along the lakeshore. The most recent scent trail had been at a
marina where several small vessels were docked.
The last scent I found of her was at the docks. It led directly to an empty
spot. Her scent here was strong, as if she’d moved over this area
repeatedly. I looked out over the lake, and my stomach sank.
Had my female le the area by boat while I had been busy searching the
buildings? It had only been a few days since she’d le me to the swarm,
and the scent on the dock was fresh. She would have needed a day or two
to gather supplies unless she opted to go without. I doubted she would.
My female was resourceful and planned ahead.
She could s ll be on the water. And I doubted there would be other
boats traveling the lake, unless you counted the ones that had been
dri ing aimlessly since the thaw.
There was only one way to find out. I headed back toward my vessel,
triggered the cloaking, and climbed into the sky. I searched first one way
along the coastline for about as far as a small boat could travel in a day. I
doubted she’d le any earlier. Her scent at the dock was recent. I found
nothing.
I backtracked to the beginning and started over, going in the opposite
direc on. And a er a short search, I found her boat, an old but secure
looking cra with a so humming motor. It traveled parallel to the
coastline. She must have set sail yesterday, while I was too busy searching
the buildings, and put down her anchor last night. I set my shu le to follow
the li le cra on the water.
If she sought to weather out the swarm on the water, she’d chosen too
shallow of a lake. While the scourge couldn’t swim, exactly, they were
known to travel en masse under the water to get to other loca ons. If they
knew prey was just off the shore, they would file into the water towards
the boat and follow it just under the waves un l it came to land.
But the scourge had to know there was sufficient prey on board or be
desperately hungry enough to take the chance. I took a quick look at the
shoreline; no scu lers followed her there, and no flyers a acked from the
air. The scourge probably did not know there was a delicious morsel inside
the li le boat humming along the coast.
So as long as she kept a low profile, she should be safe, unless there
were scourge following the cra below the water already. But since she
had most likely already put down her anchor last night, I ruled out that
possibility. If the scourge had been following her under the surface, they
would have climbed the anchor line.
I could go in, swoop her up, ignore her protests, throw her into my
shu le, e her up on the bed, fly back to the area I was patrolling and
consider it done. But I would spend the rest of my life, at least un l she
grew to care for me, watching her to prevent her from escaping. I didn’t
want to be her jailor. She would not be happy that way.
I was a pa ent warrior. I needed to be. Xarc’n hunters spent our en re
lives figh ng, wai ng, and figh ng some more. Each hunter alive today was
a clone of the original ten thousand the elder Xarc’n race had created to
con nue their fight against their biological weapon run amuck.
We were gene cally engineered to be weapons ourselves, geared
toward the extermina on of their previous failure. Or, as some of us
hunters tended to believe, we were created to destroy their previous
success, as the scourge had been so successful that they’d destroyed their
creators.
 As the authori es on Earth had learned too late, simply bombing the
nests did nothing. The scourge survived under the rubble just fine. In fact,
most of their nests were underground. And using radioac ve weapons only
made the surviving scourge harder to kill. They not only had scourge to
deal with a er, but they also now had radioac ve scourge, contamina ng
all the fresh water with radia on.
So the hunters had to learn pa ence. Once a se lement was colonized,
our objec ve was to keep the outcoming swarms from reaching other
loca ons. Throughout the year, we took down the scourge’s numbers
around the area by se ng traps—beacons that called the scourge in—and
killing a few dozen at a me. This kept the numbers manageable when they
swarmed, but it was a never-ending task.
When the scourge swarmed, our goal was to prevent them from
reaching new sources of food: an objec ve I was currently failing as I was
chasing my mate. The plan was to starve out the nest un l the numbers
were small enough for a team of Xarc’n warriors to go in and clean up the
remainder. This some mes took years, depending on how long the warm
season lasted on that part of the planet.
I wanted my mate now, but I had pa ence. If my Cynthia wanted
freedom, if she wanted to experience more life on her own in this dreary
scourge-filled world, I would let her have it. But I planned to be always
watching to ensure her safety. And when she’d had enough of hiding, when
she’d had enough of the loneliness, when she’d had enough of the
uncertainty, I’d swoop in and be her hero. My female should think of me as
her hero, not as her jailor.
I made a call out to the hunter group I had been working with back at
the old town and explained my situa on. They were good males, and I
enjoyed working with them. Our occasional teamwork during the swarms
kept the lonely life of a hunter bearable. But I had more to live for now.
My reason to live was si ng in a rusted li le boat, floa ng toward our
new home. Wherever she landed, I’d be there. I’d give her the freedom she
held so dearly, but I’d be there every step of the way.
 Kaj’k sent another stream of fire into the scu lers as I beheaded the last
flyer with my blades.
I’d followed my female, always staying out of sight, to a town called
Franklin. Every step of the way, I’d made sure that her passage was safe
without being boring. I’d taken care of every group of scourge before she
got there, leaving one or two for her to hide from or sneak around. I didn’t
want to make it too obvious that I was easing her journey. At night, while
she slept, I guarded her against stray humans and scourges alike.
Several mes, she’d looked out toward the trees, at the skies, or at the
horizon, as if searching for something. And once, she’d even looked directly
at my cloaked shu le for several minutes with a confused look on her face.
Then, she’d stuck out her tongue at me! I’d had to double-check to make
sure I was truly cloaked. I suspected she knew I was tailing her.
At the edge of Franklin, Cynthia had joined up with a group of humans.
I’d personally ve ed the group first, of course, to make sure the females
there were treated well. Some of the survivors in the area I wouldn’t let
get close to my female, but this group was good. And she se led down at
the edge of town with her newfound friends.
And what of myself? I’d been surprised to find that I knew most of the
hunters in the area. Kaj’k and Rajiv’k had been in the same training group
when we were young hunters, and I recognized the others as hunters from
the same batch. We were all cloned from different sources but raised
together. Truth be told, Franklin as a home was my choice. I’d bumped into
Rajiv’k first, decided to stay, and then sent the group of humans towards
Cynthia.
I cleaned the scourge goo off my beloved blades and returned them to
their scabbard on my back.
Kaj’k and I o en worked together, since the scourge tended to travel
along the edge of our territory on their way out to find food. Cynthia’s
group of humans lived in the middle of my sector, where natural landscape,
building placement, and a strategically raised fence diverted the scourge
away.
 One of the other females in the group had thought of the fence and
designed the placement. It was highly effec ve. The scourge took the path
of least resistance to the largest amount of food, and the fence forced the
outcoming scourge to loop around two large buildings and down a steep
hill. The area near the humans’ hideout was barren of food, and the
scourge were never tempted to loop back up the hill to search out humans
they didn’t know existed. The group also sprayed the trails down o en
with scented sprays to hide their scent.
I held out my forearm to my hun ng partner and Kaj’k gripped it in his.
We leaned in to tap the side of our horns lightly against the other in a
signal of comradery.
“Good hun ng.”
I grunted my agreement.
“Rajiv’k found bo les of Earth whiskey in his last foray close to the nest.
Come share a bo le with us. We deserve to relax a er a day of killing
scourge.”
I was tempted. It took a lot more alcohol to intoxicate a Xarc’n warrior
than it did a human, and whiskey was good drinking. But I thought of my
female and turned down the offer.
“I must return to my female.”
“She would be fine for one night. She is with her people.”
There was a new male in the group. He’d joined them only several days
ago, but already I did not like him. He gave the females, including my
Cynthia, a lot of a en on. I’d watched as another female in the group had
slapped him across the face for touching her. I needed to keep my female
safe.
“I will return to my female.”
“If you change your mind, we will be by the river where Rajiv’k’s and my
territories join.”
We parted ways and I returned to the center of my territory to spend
me with my female—together but separated. I longed to hold her in my
arms as I had that day trapped beneath the rubble. I’d thought I was a
pa ent male, but each second that cked by drained my pa ence.
I rubbed at my chest. When I thought of my Cynthia, that rumbling
sound that had echoed in the alcove that day tried to emerge. But it never
did. It just tried, making my chest ache with longing.
 Chapter 6: Cynthia

I looked out into the quiet, deserted town again, as the sun dropped
back behind the buildings. I’d been feeling this sense of being followed
ever since I landed on American soil. Not a bad feeling, though—more like I
had a guardian angel tailing me. And I was pre y sure I knew who it was.
Once, I’d even thought I saw the outline of a ship in my peripheral vision:
one of those Xarc’n personal ships I’d seen on the news last year. But when
I looked directly at it, it disappeared. I stuck my tongue out at it for good
measure. Cov’k was out there somewhere. Even though I’d seen no
concrete signs of him, I knew he was there.
My en re experience since leaving the boat had been too easy, as if
someone had gone before me and removed all the major obstacles, leaving
only a few minor challenges in the way. It felt as if I had the world’s biggest
lucky horseshoe stuck up my ass. Even my chance mee ng with Natalie and
Alice had seemed too serendipitous.
What I didn’t understand was why Cov’k didn’t just swoop me up and
drag me to his ship. He’d had plenty of opportuni es. Instead, he had gone
out of his way to make sure I had a good life with this group of survivors. If
I had to be honest with myself, I kind of missed him. I kept imagining him
swooping in, carrying me back to his shu le, and doing that thing he did
with his tongue again.
Damn it! I couldn’t seem to get my mind out of the gu er when it came
to my Xarc’n guardian angel.
“Are you coming in?” Alice asked, poking her head out of the rubble that
camouflaged our hideout.
“One moment.”
 “You’re going to want to be back inside with the main group once Mickey
returns. I don’t trust that guy farther than I could throw him.”
Mickey was the new addi on to the Franklin group. He’d traveled in from
the west, and one of the guys had recognized him from his old life. They’d
let him in without a vote. And I’d agreed to it at first because Mark had
vouched for the guy. They’d gone to school together.
“I don’t trust the guy either.”
“Did you hear? Jess slapped him the other day when he got too handsy.”
I had not. But I wasn’t surprised. The guy paid too much unwanted
a en on to all the women here.
There were only five of us women in the group. Alice and Natalie were
cousins; they were the first two I’d met. Then there was Jess, the
supermodel. And finally, Jenna, the mother hen. Jenna was my mom’s age,
and her son, Mark, was a good man. He led the group and usually made
great decisions for us. Un l he’d let Mickey in.
There were about a half dozen other men in the group. Some of them
were Mark’s friends from before the collapse. And the rest were older but
s ll physically capable men. It was clear most of them had an interest in
the women folk, but they were all gentlemen and kept their hands to
themselves.
I scanned the building once more, looking for signs of Cov’k, and
wondered why he didn’t show himself. I knew he was here. Then I ducked
under the entrance to our group’s hideout with Natalie.

The sounds of someone sneaking about around the hideout woke me.
My first reac on was to wake Mark and have him check it out. But then I
thought of Cov’k and decided against it. It could be just my alien stalker
checking up on me. Just my alien stalker! I laughed mentally at the phrase.
 But s ll, I didn’t want either Mark or Cov’k to get hurt in an alterca on,
so I decided to check out the noises myself. I didn’t know what I would do
if I found Cov’k. Would I thank him for helping me out during my journey
and leading this group to me? Would I leave with him?
If it weren’t for the new friends I’d met, I think I would be amenable to
joining up with him now. He’d shown me that he wasn’t one of the bad
guys. My idea of freedom had changed. There was no true freedom in this
world, from the bugs anyway.
When I’d survived alone, I’d been technically free, but I was s ll a
prisoner to the bugs’ movements and to the constant pursuit of food and
clean water. Now that I lived with a group, I gave up some of my autonomy
but acquired safety and security. Life was be er now most days. I hadn’t
realized how freaking lonely I’d been. Before mee ng Alice and Natalie, the
only physical contact I’d had with anyone since the world went to shit had
been with Cov’k.
I ptoed to the storage area where I’d heard the noises, but by the me I
got there, the noises had moved. Now, they came from just outside. I li ed
the first of the double flaps leading outside, crossed over to the final flap,
and stuck my head out. I peered around, but the noises had stopped, and I
couldn’t see anything in the dark.
A flash of light caught my a en on. Someone was sneaking around with
a flashlight. That was good; it meant it wasn’t the bugs. I crept toward the
area I’d seen the light, staying close to the walls of our hideout.
Suddenly, I found myself pressed up against a body with a hand over my
mouth. I knew right away that this was not Cov’k. It lacked the warmth and
the tantalizingly masculine scent. Also, this person was much smaller than
Cov’k.
“Why hello there,” Mickey’s voice drawled out. “You sure are a curious
one.”
Why the fuck was he sneaking around out here and in the storage room?
“Maybe, I’ll reward you for your curiosity.” His hand, which had been
covering my mouth, moved to roam across my body as he con nued
pressing me to him.
 I struggled, trying to get away. “Don’t touch me. I’ll scream, and Mark
will kick you out of the group.”
The hand covered my mouth again. “Do so, and I’ll make your life
miserable. Let me tell you something about Mark. Do you know why he
doesn’t touch you women? He likes men; that’s why. And he had the
biggest crush on me in school. He’ll sooner kick you out for taking my
a en on than he’d kick me out. Me? I swing either way. I’m happy as long
as I get some. And I plan on ge ng some now.”
He dragged me further away from the hideout and around the corner.
And silly me, I’d le the hideout in my slippers, thinking that all I’d find was
Cov’k sneaking around. I screamed into his hand and kicked at the ground,
trying to make as much sound as I could.
Of all the other women, Alice was the lightest sleeper, and her
nightmares woke her up o en. Maybe if I made enough noise, she would
come out and save me.
But my slippers were so and made nothing more than a so pa ng
noise. So I kicked at Mickey instead. The first kick landed my heel into his
shin. He grunted and then hit me across the head. Stars exploded in my
vision.
Then the growling started from the darkness. Mickey froze for a second
before releasing me. The growling got louder, and I looked toward the
sound, hoping to catch sight of the person making it. Unless, somehow, I’d
collected another mysterious Xarc’n warrior stalker, it had to be Cov’k.
“Fuck! I think it’s a bear.” Mickey ran toward the hideout and dove
inside, making a huge racket as he went.
I con nued staring into the darkness, and a pair of warm yellow eyes
glowed slightly in the dark, as Xarc’n eyes did.
“Cov’k,” I whispered. It was him. Those were his eyes; I’d recognize them
anywhere.
I took a step toward him, and the growling faded into that calming purr
he did. I had an urge to run to him, to what I now thought of as the
physical embodiment of safety. But by now, Mickey had woken up the
en re group.
 “There’s a bear out there. I heard it!”
“Don’t be silly. There aren’t no bears le . The bugs got them all.”
“I swear, Mark, I heard it,” Mickey whined. “We’ve got to go chase it
away.”
The purring stopped, and the eyes disappeared moments before
members of my groups filed out one by one, holding torches and weapons.
“Why are you out here by yourself?” Mark asked, spo ng me. “Mickey
says there’s a bear. It’s not safe out at night alone.”
But before I could answer, Mickey answered for me. “We both heard the
noise and came out to check,” he lied. He clung onto Mark’s arm and hung
onto him. “I’m so glad you are here to save us.”
And by the way that Mark looked back at him, I knew that Mickey had
been telling the truth. Crap! This complicated things. I opted to keep my
mouth shut for now.
“Where’s the bear?” Mark held up the torch and peered around, as did
all the other men who had come out following Mickey’s ruckus.
“I think you guys scared him off,” I said, as I stared out into the darkness.
I didn’t feel Cov’k’s presence anymore. He was gone.
Alice approached me with a blanket. “Come on back in, hun. We’ll figure
it out in the morning.”
 Chapter 7: Cov’k

I tailed my female as she foraged in the ruins for more canned goods.
The sunlight was fading, and it was me she started back toward her
shelter. Her group was running low on food, because that lying crook
they’d taken in had been hiding cans for himself. I wanted to separate that
coward’s head from his body for touching my female. But I knew I needed
to make sure Cynthia was safe on my shu le before I taught that creep a
lesson.
It was me to collect my female from her group. It was no longer a safe
place for her. Last night, she’d known I was there and had even taken a step
toward me. She hadn’t run from me. Too bad the sniveling male had woken
up their en re crew. I could’ve taken my female with me last night. But I
hadn’t wanted to accidentally hurt her friends, especially the small females
who she’d grown fond of. I’d been sure they would have a acked me to get
her back, since they were all armed and ready to fight a bear.
Cynthia stopped mid-step and whirled around, catching me off guard.
“Ha! I knew it!” she exclaimed. “I knew you were following me, Cov’k. I
felt it.” She had a look of triumph on her face as if she’d caught me doing
something naughty. “It was you all along, wasn’t it?”
I didn’t deny it. While I hadn’t shown myself to her, I also hadn’t been
par cularly discreet. I wasn’t surprised that my female knew I’d been
tailing her.
“I need you to come with me now, my female. It is no longer safe with
that group.”
She looked back at me, confused, and I realized my translator was off. I
turned it on and repeated my words.
 To my astonishment, she agreed with me.
“Actually, you’re right. I should go with you.” She wrinkled her nose.
“That new guy is a troublemaker, and I don’t want to s ck around to find
out what trouble he makes. But I should go back and say goodbye to my
friends.”
I wasn’t sure if I believed her. What if this was just a trick to get away?
“Come with me now.” I held up my hand to her, but she didn’t take it.
“Wait! I can’t come with you right away. The group is low on food. I need
to go back first, at least with my latest haul. And I need to say goodbye to
my friends.”
Even if this wasn’t a trick and Cynthia only wanted to say goodbye, it was
not a good idea. If she went back now and told her friends about me, they
might not let her go. They might not see me as a good guy. They might see
me as a threat to Cynthia. The one named Natalie seemed to be quite open
and friendly to Xarc’n males. But the rest of them had expressed fear and
distrust of my kind.
“No. You will come with me now.” I stalked toward her.
“Hey! Wait a minute. Stop.”
I con nued toward my female.
“I’m coming with you. But just let me go back, and I’ll come back out
right away once I’ve said to bye to Nat and Alice.” She backed away from
me. Then, seeing that I didn’t look to be changing my mind, she turned and
ran.
I didn’t chase her. I’d promised myself that when she came into my
shu le, it would be willing, rather than kicking and screaming. She headed
straight to the group’s hideout, and I followed her closely.
I didn’t want any trouble with this group of humans, aside from the new
male. If my female insisted on saying goodbye to her friends, who was I to
stop her? I hunkered down outside their hideout to listen in on the
exchange.
“Jesus, Cynthia. You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” one of the females
said. “What’s wrong?”
 “He’s coming for me. But I wanted to come back and say goodbye.”
“Who’s he?”
“It doesn’t ma er. Just know that I really appreciated all your friendship.
You ladies have been great.”
Then she moved to another room, the main room, by the sounds of it,
and told the leader she was leaving the group. Just hearing the words from
her lips and knowing that my female was finally coming home with me
filled me with joy.
Then, one of the males asked if she was being followed by a Xarc’n. “You
don’t need to go with him, Cynthia. We will fight him and protect you.
Don’t let him scare you into leaving.” It was one of the older males, a
protec ve fatherly type. I didn’t want to fight him for my Cynthia.
“Yeah! He’s right!” one of the females exclaimed. “If it’s one of those
Xarc’n dudes, we will fight him off. There are almost twenty of us and only
one of him. The news reports said they mostly hunt alone.”
Another women’s voice said, “Maybe that ‘bear’ last night was actually a
Xarc, and he caught sight of you. Whatever he threatened to do to get you
to go with him, ignore it. We will all fight to keep you here.”
“Speak for yourself.” It was the male who had a acked my female last
night. “I’m not willing to face down one of those monsters.”
“You’re a freaking loser coward, Mickey. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“You can’t speak to me like that!”
I was done with this. I needed to get Cynthia out of there, and I needed
to do it now, before anyone in the group had the chance to arm up. And
before they managed to convince my female to stay.
The wall I was leaning against was made of a mber frame with wooden
cladding on the outside, drywall on the inside, and insula on in between. It
did a decent job at keeping the elements out, but it was insufficient to
keep a Zarc’n warrior out. I took a few steps back. Then I charged, aiming
my horns at the siding. I misjudged, and instead of cracking a hole in the
wall, I rammed my way en rely into their hideout. Surprised faces stared
back at me, including Cynthia’s.
 She looked adorable. I picked her up, threw her over my shoulder, and
stomped out the same hole I’d entered.
“Hey! Put me down.” She pounded at my back with her li le fists.
I ignored her and, instead, put as much distance between the other
humans and us as I could. I didn’t stop un l I was in front of my vessel. I
triggered off the cloaking, found the door, and stepped inside. I stomped in
the few steps to my bed and plopped my s ll struggling female on top of it.
So much for having her come into my home willingly.
Cynthia pushed her messy hair out of her face before glaring at me with
daggers in her eyes. “You didn’t need to come barreling in and carrying me
off, like some barbarian. I was going to come back out.”
I grunted. “I wasn’t sure you would.” Then in a so er voice. “I missed
you.”
Her face so ened. And, surprising me again, she crawled toward me on
the bed and knelt there in front of me, only a few inches away. Then she
hugged me. And I hugged her back, pulling her ght to my body.
“I missed you too, you big barbarian.” She pressed her face against my
chest. “I really did plan on coming back out. I’ve changed my mind about
wan ng my freedom. I know you’ve been tailing me and making my life
easier. At first, I was kind of upset, thinking I didn’t need your help. But I
realized that while, yes, I didn’t need your help, I s ll appreciated it.”
“I will never take away your freedom. You are my female. We will be free
together. Partners.”
“I get that now.” Then she pushed away, but my arms refused to let her
go. “You can let me go now. I won’t run. I’m already on your ship.”
“I can’t.” It was the truth. I ordered my arms to let her go, but they
refused. “I physically can’t.”
“Oh, come on. That’s kind of cute, and I miss you too, but seriously.”
She must have no ced the panic and confusion on my face because her
next words were, “Oh crap, you’re serious.”
I sat on the bed, arms s ll around my female, and pulled her onto my
lap. Then, s ll holding her, I asked my ship’s computer to look up what was
happening to us.
My shu le searched its database and displayed the most likely reason on
the wall, and I read it out loud to my female.
“According to the records, when a Xarc’n male finds his mate, the
triggering of his ma ng bond renders him incapable of releasing his mate
once in contact. In essence, the male must physically hold onto their mate
un l the ini al period of a achment is over. If the two are separated, the
male feels an indescribable sense of pain and would go insane if he could
not return to his new mate.”
“Whoa, that’s crazy. Did you know about this before?”
“No. I’ve never had the need to know about the Xarc’n ma ng rituals.
There weren’t any females to trigger our bond un l we found Earth, and
some of the hunters found their mates.” I tried again to let her go, but my
arms would not comply. “I’ve always thought that when they said a Xarc’n
male could not let go of a mate once they find her, it meant that he would
stay with her for life. I didn’t expect to be literally a ached to you.”
“And you suspected I was your mate?”
“Yes. A part of me knew.”
Cynthia shi ed in my arms to straddle my hips. Her arms reached up to
wrap around my neck. “Is that why you followed me here and eased my
travels every step of the way?”
“Yes, I needed to know you were safe.”
“That me on the road, I made a funny face right at your cloaked shu le,
didn’t I?”
I laughed. “You did.”
“The Franklin group, did you lead them to me?”
“They were a good group of humans, and you were lonely.”
“I was,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. Then louder, “Last
ques on. Why didn’t you come to me yourself? Why did you hide in the
shadows?”
“At first, I didn’t want you to run from me again. But I also knew you
valued your freedom. I wanted to give you that.”
 She pushed away from my chest to look me in the eyes. “Thank you,
Cov’k. I really appreciate it. I realized during my travels that staying with
you and having my freedom are not mutually exclusive. You’ve proved to
me that you care.”
“I do.”
“And since we seem to be stuck together for the me being,” she said
with a twinkle of mischief flashing in her eyes, “I think we should get to
know each other a li le be er.” She ran her hands up the side of my head
to caress the base of my horns.
The rumbling in my chest started instantly.
 Chapter 8: Cynthia

I loved the deep rumbling that vibrated through our bodies; it

simultaneously excited me and calmed me. I also loved the control I
wielded over Cov’k. He reacted to my touch as if I were the most desirable
thing in the world.
I traced my fingers over the curve of his horns again, remembering the
way he had reacted back in our li le alcove, and was rewarded with a
hungry snarl. Cov’k shi ed us, and I found myself lying on the bed with him
caging my body, one arm s ll wrapped around me.
Ooh, this me we got a bed, too. Bonus!
The other arm made short work of our clothing and his equipment. I was
sure my tank top was ripped right off my body, considering it never went
over my head. I just felt a powerful tug, and it was gone. It joined the rest
of my clothes and his weapons on the floor. I ran a palm over his
powerhouse of a chest, feeling the ridges of his muscles as it vibrated with
lust.
“I miss my female’s scent,” he growled.
He buried his face into my neck and inhaled. Then he dragged his sharp
teeth down my throat, and I shivered at the feeling. He kissed and
devoured my body as if he’d been starving for months. And perhaps he had
been.
“Turn over, my mate. On your hands and knees now.” His voice was full
of savage dominance, and I could not ignore it.
My heart pounded hard in my chest, and my body heated up as I turned
over on the bed. Cov’k wrapped one huge arm around my belly and li ed
my hips up into the air. A warm hand caressed the inside of my thigh,
leaving trails of burning lust in its wake. My knees shook from the
an cipa on as his fingers inched closer to my center. My clit throbbed and
ached for his touch.
I arched, pushing backward to rub against his hand, too eager to wait. It
felt as if I’d been wai ng for him to touch me for months. A vicious snarl
cut through the air.
“Yes!” I rolled my hips against his hand.
“My female is needy. I will give her all she needs.”
A warm hand rubbed at the rounded cheeks of my ass, then it le for a
second before landing with a loud smack. I hissed but stuck my ass up
higher. It stung but felt good.
“That was for running from me.” Cov’k rubbed his palm on my ass again
and landed another loud crack. “My mate will never run from me again. If
you do, I will not do this.”
He leaned in and drove his tongue into my pussy as he pinched lightly at
my clit. I cried out, and my channel throbbed and pulsed around his
tongue. He fucked me with his tongue for a few more strokes before
lapping up my juices.
Then Cov’k was pushing into me, breaching me with the broad head of
his cock. I inhaled sharply as the flared ridge penetrated, and my muscles
clenched down around the first rim. Then he pushed in harder, and the
second flared ridge was too much for my already primed body. I buried my
face into his ma ress and screamed. Then he was fucking me hard,
pounding into me with a fierce rhythm. Each flare of his cock rubbed
against a spot inside that took away my ability to think. My screams
dissolved into shuddering sobs as he pulled climax a er climax from my
body.
His deafening roar filled the shu le as he came, shoo ng jets of his hot
semen into me. He collapsed on the bed, his arms s ll around my belly, and
pulled me into his chest. Throughout everything, he hadn’t let me go. We
rested un l our breathing returned to normal, and our bodies recovered
enough to move.
 But s ll, Cov’k refused to release me. I didn’t mind. I liked that the
ma ng bond was forcing him to cuddle with me a er sex. He buried his
face into my neck and inhaled. Then he did it to my hair. And my shoulder.
And even my armpit.
I laughed. “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to convince myself that you are really here. It feels too good
to be true. I’m smelling every part of you, so I will remember your scent
forever. I don’t want to wake up for it all to be a dream.”
I turned in his arms and looked up into his warm yellow eyes.
“I’m here, Cov’k. And I’m not leaving. You don’t have to worry about me
running ever again.”
“But what if you aren’t real? I’ve done nothing but fight the scourge my
whole life. What if I was so lonely that I made you up?”
The look of dread on his face broke my heart. I hadn’t realized how
lonely his life was. I wrapped my arms around him and held him as ghtly
as he held me.
“I’m real, Cov’k. Touch me, feel me.”
“I don’t think I can ever live without you again, my mate. I love you more
than anything. You are my life.”
It must have been so hard for him to watch me from afar for so long.
“We can be together now. I’m sorry I ran from you before. I know now
that here is where I belong.” I pushed myself higher on the ma ress and
gave him a kiss at the base of each of his horns.
During the past few months, each me I’d sensed his presence, I’d tried
to look for him. Knowing he was there watching me made me feel safe and
happy. It felt as if he’d been with me the whole way, but only in spirit. I
wanted him to be there in body, too. I didn’t know it at the me, but I’d
really missed him. Somewhere along the way, I’d fallen in love with the
Xarc’n hunter.
And now that I was in his arms again, I knew that everything would be
okay.
 Epilogue: Cov’k

Next spring…
I checked my communicator again and saw that Kaj’k had le a message.
Several hunters in the Franklin area, along with a group of Xarc’n friendly
humans, had decided to team up to deal with the early summer swarm,
and we were all supposed to meet on loca on today. But almost every
single hunter was running late for one reason or another.
According to Kaj’k’s message, he was going to be half a day late to our
mee ng spot, but he was bringing a female. Interes ng.
“Does that mean we have me for more cuddling?” My female stretched
out languidly in our sleeping nook. She pa ed the spot beside her and
mo oned me over.
I stood from my chair, eager to obey my beau ful mate, and walked over.
“Kaj’k is going to be arriving late, but he’s bringing someone you’ll know.”
The group of humans she was living with last year had broken up shortly
a er she le . It had ended badly, with some of the members ac vely
figh ng each other, and most of the members le the area. We avoided
them when we could, not wan ng to cause trouble.
I sat on the bed, and Cynthia immediately sprawled her body over my
thighs. I draped a hand over her body and rubbed her back in small circles.
“Really? Who?” she asked excitedly.
“Alice.”
THE END
Interested in Alice and Kaj’k’s story? Keep reading for an excerpt from
Claimed 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
ac vity 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 me in the town than
absolutely necessary, and if the place looked thoroughly ransacked, most
people le it alone. I reached behind the large planter, found the key I’d
hidden there, opened the door, and stepped in.
Safety! Or rela ve 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 le 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 bo le of pain reliever and crammed it into the front
zip. There were no perfume or scented sprays at this loca on, but my pack
was ge ng 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 li le cousin. She’d been visi ng 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 op mism
and never-erring voice of reason, who pushed us to survive. She was the
fearless one. But she was injured now, and it was me 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 no ced 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 o en 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 horn 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 trus ng the alien, I
gripped my crowbar ghter and brandished it in front of me. The alien
frowned, and the effect was downright terrifying, drawing a en on 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 nutri on bars. He held
one out for me, the strange yellow-green eyes s ll 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 gi s from a Xarc’n warrior. It was rumored that
they would offer gi s 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 li le straighter and announced, “I’m
leaving this store now. Please let me leave.”
The alien didn’t move but con nued 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 li le louder, since he hadn’t
hurt me yet, “Get out of my way!”
“Female no go.” Instead of moving, he repeated his mo on and word.
Was he trying to tell me his name? He repeated the word one more
me, 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.
Want to read Kaj’k and Alice’s Story? Pick up Claimed by the Hunter
today!
ALSO BY AUTHOR

TALLEAN MERCENARIES
A Deal for Zeylum
A Chance for Arus
A Promise for Vore
A Claim for Calix
A Minx for Ryek & Holden
A Cap ve for Kean
A Future for Zharor
TALLEAN MATES NOVELLAS
Becoming Mrs. Claws
Space Pirate’s Treasure
Space Merchant’s Jewel
XARC’N WARRIORS
Claimed by the Hunter
Wanted by the Hunter
Taken by the Hunter
Cherished by the Hunter
Rescued by the Hunter
Stolen by the Hunter
OUTLAW PLANET MATES
Alien’s Stone Heart
 SHORT STORIES
Short stories available through Mailing List only.
Captain Bax’s Stowaway
Casch’s Runaway Mate
Pursued by the Hunter