“Over an hour now.”
“Ugh.” Esme slumped to the ground. “How can they have sex that long?”
Payton frowned. “Easily.”
Esme’s face turned a slight shade of red before she turned her head. “I thought the average time was about twenty minutes or so.”
Payton quirked her eyebrow. “Seriously? The ‘average time’? Honey, I feel sorry for you if that’s all your guy spent doing the deed.” In the beginning, her and Mike would go for hours, but that had been during the good times. When things turned bad she’d learned to cringe away from his touch.
Esme initiated her bedding to fold. “I don’t have a boyfriend. I read about it in a magazine somewhere. Probably my doctor’s office or something.”
Payton opened her eyes wide. “You read about it?”
Payton immediately slapped a hand to her mouth, and her gaze homed in on the crevice. She’d spoke too loudly. She watched the opening and feared the worse. Nothing happened. Payton took that as a good sign and scooted closer to Esme. “You can’t be a virgin. Seriously. How old are you?”
She’d assumed Esme was around the same age as her, twenty-six.
Esme stored her sleeping bag in her comlink. “You sound like that’s so farfetched, Payton. I had a lot on my plate.”
“So much that you couldn’t get laid?” Payton asked, her voice higher than normal.
Esme glanced warily at the opening. “Shhh. I know you’re surprised, but keep it down, I don’t want the lovebirds out there to find us.”
“Okay, so spill the details,” Payton whispered.
“Details? I don’t have any. That’s why I’m a virgin.” Esme rested the back of her head against the wall and focused on the ceiling. “Now look at me. Abducted by aliens, forced to run for my life in some warped game, dangerously on the verge of becoming an over-sized praying mantis’s reluctant bride.”
“Oy.”
Esme glanced toward Payton. “He’s bent on capturing me, you know. I’ve seen him twice already.”
She’d seen her hunter several times now. She didn’t know if she would survive another encounter and walk away with her dignity intact. What the hell had come over her? One minute she’d wanted to maim him to keep him from following her around. That had quickly turned into frustration. Then she’d wanted his tongue down her throat and dick deep inside of her.
Correction. Dicks. As in plural.
That alone should’ve made her snap the fuck out of thinking about Themba.
Yes, there’d been a momentary strike of good old fashion common sense that had screamed how the situation was all wrong. But after that? Thoughts of him were still creeping into her mind and turning her on when she should’ve been thoroughly turned off. What she needed to do was bat those thoughts away as easily as he’d done her knives.
Her biggest fear was getting wrapped up in someone who would make her lose her mind and self-esteem—again. Hello, Hunter screwing me on the ground on an alien planet. Self-esteem, bye-bye.
She didn’t want to make another poor choice in lovers. If she forgot what she’d learn in her past, it would be a nightmare all over again. “And I thought the alien hounding me was what nightmares are made of.”
“Hideous?”
Hideous wasn’t how she would describe Themba. He was handsome, strong, sexy, and dangerous. “He’s something alright.”
Maybe the little cock over the big one hadn’t really been what she’d thought it was? For pleasure. And maybe the translation had been all wrong? Like that whole treasure verse prey translation? For pleasure could translate to deformity.
For pleasure vs. deformity. That didn’t matter. Treasure vs. prey. Now, that mattered.
Payton cleared her throat. “Don’t change the subject. Let’s focus on you. I’m just wondering how you kept your hoo-ha on lock-down through your college years.”
“Really, Payton?” Esme nodded toward the entrance. “Don’t we have other pressing matters at hand?”
Payton spread her arms then laced her fingers behind her head, getting comfortable. “It seems like we have nothing but time until those two finish and move on.”
While Esme told her how she’d ended up going to an Ivy League school before puberty, Payton thought back on how much of a screw up she’d been. She’d struggled in high school. Her grades were never the best. If she’d spent more time studying rather than trying to please Mike, maybe she would’ve made something of herself.
Esme and Payton were so different and came from drastically different backgrounds. While Esme’s parents had wanted her nose out of the books and wanted her to live more, Payton’s family had wanted her to calm down and not live as much.
She’d grown up typically Midwestern. She’d had an average childhood and came from a good home. Her parents had met in college, and she was expected to go off to college too. She’d crushed their dreams when she’d left high school with only four months left and ran off to elope with Mike.
Her parents had loved her dearly, and she’d broken their hearts. What a disappointment she had been.
“I’m going to make it to Level Three,” Esme said.
“So, Level Three, huh?”
Esme lifted her chin. “I can do it, Payton.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t,” Payton sang the words. “Let me see your comlink.”
Esme held up her hand and Payton did the same, comparing the two.
“Just as I thought,” Payton continued. “When you were sleep, I checked my number thingies, and it was going much faster than yours. Now they’re synced.”
Esme winced. “Sorry. We’ll split up as soon as we can get out of here.”
Payton nodded. She didn’t mind the company, she actually enjoyed it, but they both needed to win this thing. But winning meant being alone. Out there. Again. With not so nice hunters.
“So what’s your story?” Esme asked.
“Don’t have a story.” Payton scooted back to her corner. This was exactly why she didn’t getting chatty with folks.
“Really? You made me admit to being a virginal spinster, and you’re not going to tell me anything about yourself? Pft. That’s just lame.”
Payton rolled her eyes. “Way to make me feel guilty.”
“Well, you should. That’s not fair.”
Payton let out a deep breath. Opening up wasn’t something she was used to. In every new town and diner she’d worked in, she was asked about her life, it was one of the first questions brought up. Everyone wanted to know about the new girl. For obvious reasons. The places she’d run to had been small, one traffic light towns where people didn’t usually move to, they moved on from. They were curious as to why an outsider would ever choose to live there.
She would tell lies and make up a backstory, but trying to keep up with the fibs had been more work than it was worth. So she’d stopped responding at all, choosing to smile and avoid the question.
“You don’t have to give me your complete backstory. I was just curious about you and Jack.”
“Fine.” Payton huffed. She guessed this was that whole opening up to others that Dr. Rebecca was always talking about. “I was out late walking Jack when I got taken. I couldn’t sleep. I hadn’t had a good night’s sleep since...leaving my husband.” She hated talking about Mike. It only reflected her failures back onto her. “Normally I would’ve checked the security camera feed to calm my nerves then watched television until I fell asleep, but that night I was jumpy. I’d gotten a hang-up call on my new burner cell phone and I...I thought maybe he’d found me again.”
“I didn’t mean to intrude. You don’t have to finish. It’s not my business. Sorry for pressing you about it.”
Payton made designs in the dirt on the ground, thinking back on that night. “If only I’d stayed inside I would be going to a divorce hearing today instead of stuck in a cave held hostage by the hornies.” Payton took out her cell phone and tapped the screen. “I don’t know why, but when I got up this mor
ning, I had the urge to turn it on. A reminder for divorce court popped up. I was dreading it before. But now I would do anything to be there instead of here.”
Esme let out a nervous chuckle. “I’d choose divorce court any day over the mess we’re in.”
“I was having nightmares about it. About seeing my ex again. Having to stand there and tell the judge...stuff. Now I know it’s not the worst thing in the world.”
“Hey, you aren’t alone. We’re all in this together.”
Payton’s chest tightened. “No, we aren’t, Esme. If one of us gets caught, we’ll get carted off to God only knows where. We all came here together, but we aren’t leaving together.”
“And then you still won’t be alone. You’ll have Jack by your side.”
At hearing his name, Jack stood and wagged his tail and climbed over Esme’s legs. Esme lifted her arms to let him curl in her lap. When he settled, she scratched behind his ears.
“Yeah, I’m glad he’s with me. Jack always has my back, and he can take care of himself. Unlike...”
“Adam and Lexi.” Esme’s eyes watered. “I fell asleep and missed roll call last night. Please tell me. Did...?”
Chapter Ten
“I told everyone that I was watching you snore. They know you’re okay.”
“Miranda? Ben?”
“Miranda and the kids are fine, and Ben got away just after you did. He found a hollowed out tree, and he’s sticking close to it until his leg can heal enough for him to find something better. Everyone is fine, except...”
Esme stilled. Her eyes were as wide as saucers. “Who?”
“Kaylin. She was taken.” The words felt awful on Payton’s tongue. She blinked against the burning in her eyes. “Some of the aliens set a trap, and she got caught in some kind of netting. The others tried to get her out of it, but couldn’t. They had to scatter to save themselves.”
Esme’s eyes watered, and tears leaked from her eyelids. “I saw Yesenia. Our pods passed each other.” She scrubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. “Are we going to make it out of here?”
Payton wiped at her own eyes and sniffled. “Yeah, we are. We have to be smart. That means no traveling in large groups. Those aliens probably see it as a gold mine. No hiking for miles just because. Find an area, get to know it and learn how to survive in it. That’s what I told everyone last night. No more treating this like we were meant to win.”
“We just need to survive,” Esme whispered.
“Survive and take pictures of this place.” Payton tried to lighten the mood. It was a bad attempt, but what use was it if they were holed up in the cave balling about Kaylin? Neither of them could do a damn thing about it now. “Hm. I wonder how much the pictures will go for when I sell them to CNN?”
Esme wiped tears from her cheek and chuckled low. “We have to plot how to survive this mess. We shouldn’t be thinking about hawking pictures to news outlets or magazines.”
“Hey, I didn’t say anything about selling my pictures to hack jobs. I’m talking gold star news organizations. Don’t act like you haven’t thought about it, Einstein.”
“I haven’t. My phone’s in my purse. I haven’t turned it on. I’m trying to save my battery.”
Payton waggled her eyebrows. “Good. More money for me.”
Esme pulled her phone out and turned it on.
“We need to be documenting our time on this planet,” Payton pointed out. “When we get back to Earth we’ll be able to sell the pictures for a lot of money.”
“Maybe you’re right. If I don’t have photographic evidence, no one will believe me. I don’t even think my parents would believe a story like this.”
“Hi, mom and dad. I know I’ve been gone for a while, but guess what? I was abducted by aliens and forced to play out some survival hunting game.”
Esme snorted out a laugh. “As much as they love me, I really do think they would have me committed if I came home with a story like that.” Esme went from playful to sad in a split second. Her smile dropped, and her shoulders slumped. “I know they’re worried sick about me. My dad is probably organizing search parties, and my mom and sisters are losing their minds. I-I don’t know if I’ll ever see them again.”
“You will. That’ll be your motivation to finish this game and win. Do that, and you get to go home to your family.”
Esme sniffed and wiped her eyes. “What about your family? Do you think they’re out there searching for you?”
Payton gave her head a slight shake. She didn’t want to talk about them. Dammit. “They’ll...they’ll think that my ex finally got a hold of me. They didn’t want me to marry him in the first place, and when things turned...sour, my mom and dad couldn’t wait to tell me, ‘I told you so.’ They didn’t want to hear anything about it. I pretty much had to escape my ex and do everything on my own.” The words spilled from her lips. But despite her early reservations, it felt...good.
Payton let out a sigh of relief.
“That must’ve been hard.”
“I was in hiding for about a year and a half. I hadn’t had contact with my parents since before then. I kept in touch with my little brother though. He’s probably the only one who would raise a fuss when he finds out that I didn’t show for my court date. My ex would probably think he’d scared me out of showing.” Payton let out a humorless chuckle.
She had been scared. Not so scared she would miss that day. This. This was the only thing that would’ve kept her from walking into that courtroom.
“No, no one would miss me for a while.” And she meant that. Payton had long since stopped calling her parents. They weren’t for sure she wouldn’t go back to Mike. She’d left him so many other times before.
Her brother, Collin. He would miss their once a month calls. But she’d skipped months before when she didn’t have enough money to buy minutes. So he wouldn’t get too upset—not at first. It would take him a while to know she was missing.
And friends? She hadn’t had any friends since high school, and even then her closest friends stopped hanging around when Mike began making it known their presence wasn’t wanted. Then when she got older and started making friends at the various jobs she had, Mark would get jealous and accuse her of being unfaithful.
Payton came back to the present when Esme took a picture of her. The flash momentarily blinded her. “Hey, what did you do that for?”
Esme lifted a shoulder. “Just documenting. You have a, ‘I’m going to beat this game, so I can go home and give everyone the middle finger’ look about you. It’ll be a significant turning point for my book.”
Turning point?
Like realizing there wasn’t anything to go home to?
Esme had a family, job, and life to get back to while Payton didn’t have anything or anyone waiting for her on Earth. Maybe it was a turning point, but not one that she wanted to address right now. “So you’re writing a book are you?”
“You’re doing CNN. I’ll do Oprah.”
Despite herself, Payton laughed. She tried to cover it with a hand. “Oprah?”
“Hell yeah. It’ll be a dream come true. Oprah will come to my house, and I’ll make her tea. My mom will make her enchiladas, and we’ll talk about my experience. She’ll add my book to her book club reading list.”
“And you guys will end up being best friends.”
“Of course,” Esme deadpanned.
Payton pushed some dirt together on the floor then drew tic-tac-toe lines. “Come on, let’s play.”
The next few hours were spent taking selfies and playing tic-tac-toe and other games in the dirt. Each time they checked, the couple remained close to the entrance and rutting away. They’d taken turns videoing the aliens. It was gross, but Esme said they might win a Pulitzer for it.
Late into the day, the sun disappeared, and the sky turned a purplish haze. Fat raindrops fell, pounding into the ground and lightning and thunder clashed. Each clap of thunder rocked the cave. Both Esme and Payton cowered near the e
ntrance, hoping for a fast getaway if the roof caved in.
The rain drove the aliens away but left Esme and Payton stranded again. When they tried to leave, they’d only gotten a few steps from the cave before fast-moving water, and the slippery ground made them turn back. Night fell, and the evening alarm sounded. The rain continued harder and stronger.
This time during roll call they found out no one else had been caught. Payton breathed a sigh of relief. They’d all taken her advice and stopped stomping around the jungle in the middle of the day.
I NEED HER.
Failure burned him. Themba couldn’t catch her scent on anything. The rain had beat heavy against the large acota leaves, causing the less than sturdier ones to break and fall to the ground. He growled and stomped through the high grass, searching for Payton. The downpour washed all traces of her away as if she didn’t exist.
His boots sloshed as he walked and sunk into the dirt. He guessed he should’ve been grateful for the leaf covered ground. They were the only things stopping him from getting his boots stuck in the mud.
Themba trudged on, cursing under his breath. He’d tried to get her out of his mind and he couldn’t. The only thing he had to show for it was being without her for two days. She was a smart one, his ndebele. When he found her again, he wouldn’t let her go.
There was no hiding the path he’d taken. Normally he took care to hide his steps, he didn’t want to encourage any of the other hunters to follow him.
Because they didn’t invest in The Hunt as serious hunters did, opportunistic hunters often followed the serious hunters, hoping they would be led to prey. The rules of The Hunt stated a hunter had the right to stalk desired prey and in doing so, other hunters couldn’t interfere. But, knowing the serious hunters weren’t interested in Level One prey, the opportunistic hunters were more than happy to follow the more experienced, hoping to be led to prey and when the serious hunter moved on, the opportunistic hunters would claim prey without having to do much work at all.
So far he’d been able to avoid most opportunistic hunters. It was hard to follow what they couldn’t track. But another glance at his large footprints behind him and he knew he would be followed soon enough.
Hunted by the Alien Prince Page 10
