“But it’s not a game. This is a hunt,” Yesenia said slowly. “Those things are like, for real hunting us down.”
Esme nodded, even though Yesenia couldn’t see her. “Yeah, hunters come here to capture prey. If they capture us, they get to keep us—for a price. The lower the level, the cheaper we are. Right now, in Level One, my survival skill set is meager. I’m considered weak. He said most of the hunters are looking to capture Level One prey for mates or whatever.”
“Hell no. I’m not trying to be anyone’s mate or whatever,” Yesenia ground out.
“No one wants that,” Esme said. “That’s why we have to survive and not only make it to Level Three but finish it. If we finish this without anyone catching us, then we’ll get freed and can go home. That’s what Xrez said, at least.”
“And how the hell are we supposed to make it to Level Three?” Miranda asked. Her fingers clutched her pants so hard that her fingertips blanched. “We don’t know what we’re supposed to be doing, where we’re supposed to be going or how to avoid those…those…things!”
“We have to survive. The better at it we are, the faster the countdown and quicker we get to the next level.”
“So how do we make that happen?” Min asked.
“The more independent we are, the faster it’ll go. Payton’s countdown is probably going faster than mine. She’s alone and displaying proper survival skills while Ben, Miranda and I are relying on each other. He said that we can still progress, but not as quickly as someone who’s going it alone.”
“Maybe he’s just trying to break us up,” Miranda said.
“No. I think he’s telling the truth about that,” Danny said. “Me and Kaylin met up with Yesenia and Min earlier today. Now our countdown thing is going much slower than it was when we were by ourselves.”
“So we should split up?” Min asked. Esme couldn’t see her, but she could imagine the fear on Min’s face just as clearly as she could hear it in her voice.
Miranda pulled the flap of her sleeping bag back and crawled inside to cuddle Adam and Lexi.
“We don’t have to split up,” Esme said.
“But if we don’t, we’ll stay in the game longer,” Yesenia stated.
Everyone went silent.
Esme glanced at Miranda. There was no way Miranda would be able to survive on her own with two small children. Without Ben carrying Adam and Esme helping with Lexi, Miranda would be easy prey. There would be no telling what one of the aliens would do to Miranda and the kids. Esme and Ben were the only people who could keep them safe and from a life of servitude. Esme had only just met them, but she felt responsible for them. She wasn’t sure if she could do it on her own, but with Ben’s help, they could both keep them safe.
Miranda glanced at Esme, most likely being drawn by the weight of Esme’s stare. “So even an alien knows I’m a burden and you guys would be better off without me. Nice.”
Before she could comfort Miranda and assure her they were a team, Miranda turned her back on both Ben and Esme.
“I really want this crap to be over, but I also don’t want to be on my own,” Yesenia said.
“I guess I’ll be the first one reaching Level Three,” Payton said.
“Yeah, but you’re also out there all by yourself with no one watching your back,” Esme pointed out.
“It’s not the first time,” she replied.
* * *
The pod spit Xrez out at the entrance to the lodge. The jungle was at his back, and in front of him, the building loomed. It was made out of the finest materials and structurally sound, but to make it blend in with the surroundings, it appeared to be built from the trees in the jungle. The compound had been there so long that the jungle itself had grown around it, almost swallowing it up.
There were more lodges on Turolois, built specifically for the arena they were in. But this one was the main base. The ground level housed the hunters and their quarters, but the top two levels were where the business offices and command centers were located. And unbeknownst to the hunters, deep under the building was where the in-coming prey was logged, given medical examinations and held in stasis until they were added to a hunt.
From where he stood, if Xrez didn’t know better he would think he could turn around and re-enter the jungle. If he tried that, not only would the collar give him a shock, but the laser barrier would stop him in his tracks. There was only one direction for him to go, through the doors and inside the lodge.
The ground opened around him, and other hunters popped out. None of them seemed in good spirits. Xrez guessed leaving empty-handed wouldn’t make for an ideal situation for any hunter. The happy hunters were in the processing center transferring credits to The Hunt for the prey they’d acquired.
Xrez stepped through the door and immediately was met with the cool air, a refreshing feeling from the oppressive heat. Before he could take another step toward the hall leading him back to his suite someone grabbed his arm.
Xrez stilled. His first impulse was to crush the hand and yank the arm out of the hunter’s socket. Instead, he turned slowly to the owner. The Givvek.
“I want the mother and her children,” he said.
“Remove your hand from my arm,” Xrez warned.
The Givvek narrowed his eyes, then as if thinking better on starting a fight with a Dar’E, he released Xrez’s arm. “Fanian.” He thumped a balled fist to the middle of his chest.
Xrez returned the universal greeting. He didn’t offer his name. Hunters were solitary, making friends and exchanging names hadn’t been something that he or Bradliix had made a plan for. It just didn’t happen.
“You’re following the large group of prey,” the Fanian said. “I only have an interest in the mother and children. I have a buyer.”
“And this matters to me why?”
“You follow them. No other hunters can get close, and the rules state that we can’t poach your prey if you’re actively hunting them.”
“I’m well aware of the rules.”
“Is your plan to take all of them?” He let his eyes roam up and down Xrez’s body. “I think you can afford it, but that would be costly. And greedy.”
“If I’m greedy, that’s my business.”
“Then claim who you want and get on with it. Some of us have business arrangements to fulfill. My buyer doesn’t care what level I acquire his mate in. His only requirement is that she be able to provide him with children. The mother is the perfect choice, and the children are a bonus.”
“Why do you tell me this, Fanian? Do what you want.”
“You don’t want Level One prey. I know your type. You’re looking for someone valuable, as valuable as you would find in Level Three. Give me the mother and children. I prefer to take them in Level One. They’ll be cheaper to acquire, and I’ll get to keep the extra credits.”
“You’re a contracted hunter,” Xrez sneered.
They were even worse than opportunistic hunters. Contracted hunters worked for individuals who couldn’t participate in The Hunt themselves. Contracted hunters cared about one thing only. Their credits. And they would do anything to keep the credits flowing into their accounts. Lie, cheat, steal, nothing off-limits.
The Givvek smiled. “Not all of us can have power, prestige, and credits handed down to us. Some of us have to work hard for each scrap that we’re given.”
This time Xrez was the one who narrowed his eyes. “Do I know you?” He was sure the ruse would be up and his plan of helping the humans through to the higher levels would be thwarted.
Instead of outing him to every hunter who sauntered by, Fanian smirked. “No. I don’t know you at all.”
Without another word, Fanian turned on his heels and left.
Chapter Thirteen
Xrez was on top of her. His large body was imposing and muscular. Her legs were spread wide, his hips pressed against her to open them wider. Her hands were around his neck, grasping tightly. He stared down at her. She should’ve been scared
of the way his teeth gleamed and how scary he looked, but she wasn’t.
“Are you ready?” he asked, staring down at her lovingly.
“Yes.”
Xrez plunged inside her. Instead of pain, she was filled with bliss.
“Oh, Xrez,” she cried out. “Make love to me.”
Xrez pumped inside of her, harder and harder. “Oh, Esme!”
“Esme!”
Esme startled, caught in a cross of embarrassment and confusion. Embarrassed someone might’ve guessed what she dreamed about and momentarily confused because everything around her was unfamiliar.
Then it all rushed back. Prey. Hunters. Aliens. Turolois.
Her heart dropped to her stomach. She bolted upright, her breath caught in her throat. She glanced around, expecting to find aliens leering over her. “Are we caught?”
Ben crouched where Miranda and the kids should’ve been sleeping. Not only was their sleeping bag gone, but so were they, along with Lexi’s diaper bag and Miranda’s purse. Ben let out a heavy sigh, looking more drained than ever before. “They’re gone.”
Esme blinked the last of her grogginess away. It was the quiet time before the sun fully rose and the morning alarm blared. “Miranda? The kids?” She rubbed the sleep from the corners of her eyes. “Are they washing in the lake? Maybe she decided to take them there before all hell breaks loose.”
Ben shook his head. “I checked there right after I woke up and found them gone.” He stood with another tired sigh and placed his hands on his hips. He peered out into the jungle. His eyes were deep with concern. “She left.”
Esme frowned. Left? Miranda wouldn’t endanger her kids by breaking away from the group. Esme untangled herself from her sleeping bag and pushed it aside.
“That can’t be right. Miranda wouldn’t do that. She needs us. Maybe they were captured?”
Esme stood and pushed a button on her comlink, triggering her bedding to fold down to an impossible size. Then, when it was as small as an SD card, she picked it up and inserted it into a slot on her comlink.
Ben scrubbed his hand down his face. He looked a far cry away from the straight-arrow Marine who’d woken up on an alien planet less than a week ago and had asserted himself as the de-facto leader of a rag-tag group of confused humans. His buzzed cut hair was now noticeably longer, his clean-shaven face was now replaced with salt and pepper stubble, and his clothes were wrinkled and dirty.
“If what that alien you talked to last night said was true, then that isn’t possible. Plus, I would’ve known if our camp was breached. She was here when I went to sleep and gone when I woke up. I was sleep maybe three hours, but plenty of time for her to gather the kids and call one of those transporter pod things and leave.”
Esme wanted to chastise him for not sleeping properly but bit her tongue. Every time an unfamiliar noise had woken her up, she’d seen Ben, eyes wide and scanning the jungle around them. He was the last to go to sleep and the first to wake, and it was showing. His eyes were a deep red and dark bags formed under them. She’d thought for sure he would’ve gotten some sleep after she’d explained that it was mandatory for the hunters to stay in a lodge until the morning alarm.
But Ben was a survivor. While she was snoring and dreaming about things she shouldn’t have, Ben wasn’t leaving their lives to chance or taking the word of a random alien. She wouldn’t chastise him for watching over her while she slept. She should’ve woken up to relieve him.
Esme paced, trying to push her guilt aside and focus her energy on finding a way to get Miranda and the kids back. “But why would she do that? It doesn’t make sense.”
Esme paused long enough to crouch next to her purse and grab her brush. With the brush raking through her tangled hair she paced again.
Ben turned to look at her. The amount of sadness wafting from him made her catch her breath. “It makes a lot of sense, Esme. From what you told us last night, we’ll have better odds of getting out of this if we split up and go it alone.”
“But I can’t believe she left us. I know it’ll be better for her, but still, we’re a team.”
Ben let out a hard breath. “She didn’t take off so she could get through the levels faster. She left because she knew without her and the kids, we would get through faster.”
Esme dropped her arms. Tears immediately burned her eyes. “Did she think that’s what I wanted? For her and the kids to leave?”
Ben shook his head. “I was going to talk to her today, to let her know that getting through this the quickest wasn’t a priority. We would’ve done this together, no matter how long it took.”
Esme twisted her hands around the brush handle, replaying every word she’d told the group again and again in her head. She’d relayed to them what was said to her. She didn’t mean for Miranda to run off on her own.
“We’ll call her and tell her to come back. She can’t survive out there on her own with the kids. Xrez said if we get caught in Level One we wouldn’t have a good life.” She rushed to Ben and held onto his arms, pleading with him. “I won’t be able to live with myself if they get caught, Ben. We have to find them.”
Ben stared down at her, his grey eyes brimming with tears. Lines she hadn’t noticed on his face before were deeply set. “I tried,” he said softly. “She isn’t answering her comlink. I told everyone else what happened. They’re keeping an eye out for her.”
Esme’s lips trembled. This was all because of her. If she hadn’t said anything Miranda and the kids would still be with them and safe.
The morning alarm sounded. An invisible hand gripped her heart, squeezing it until the pain was almost unbearable. Sharp pains radiated across her jawline and fired down her neck. Their lives were in peril once again.
Esme glanced over her shoulder, half-expecting Miranda and the kids to burst through the brush to join them. They didn’t. Esme tried to take in a breath, but her ribs were too tight. She let out a strangled whimper.
“Let’s get going,” Ben said with a pat on the arm.
Esme gave him a nod and dropped her brush into her purse and slung it over her shoulder. With a final scan of the camp, they left side-by-side.
She didn’t want to think about Miranda out there by herself and everything that could happen, but whenever she pushed one bad thought from her head, a fresh one popped in. Esme concentrated on moving forward and keeping pace with Ben. She didn’t want him to get an arm’s length away, afraid of losing him too.
Before, Esme could easily convince herself that she was needed to help with the kids. But now with Miranda gone, there was no reason for Ben to stay with her. She was a burden. Ben could make it on his own. His survival skills would surely get him to Level Three and to freedom. She wasn’t an idiot. She was the one holding him back.
“Ben?”
“Yeah?”
She didn’t want to say the words, but it was the right thing to do. There was no reason for him to sacrifice his freedom for her. “About what Xrez told me…?”
“If we let ourselves get captured we’ll end up as some alien’s mate. If we beat the game, we’ll go home.”
“About that.” She swallowed the lump in her throat.
“You don’t strike me as a person who would give up easily, Esme.”
Esme had never given up on anything in her life. From a very young age, she’d been labeled as a child prodigy. It was a title she’d embraced whole-heartedly and never shrunk away from. At eleven years old, Brown University had offered her a full-ride scholarship and an opportunity to study in America. She’d pushed all her fears aside and left her lower income family and the only home she’d known behind. She’d been scared, poor and alone, but she’d taken every credit Brown had given her and finally gone home with a Ph.D. in Chemistry.
“I don’t,” she responded.
“Then don’t talk yourself into thinking that we aren’t a team. It’s you and me, and Miranda and the kids when we catch back up to them. You got it?”
Esme’s eyes
filled with tears. “I got it.”
Esme followed Ben silently as they picked their way through the jungle, still with no clear destination in mind. The heat was just as unbearable as the humidity. The air too thick and heavy. She’d twisted her hair in a bun, but wet clumps escaped to plaster to her face and neck. Her clothes clung to her skin, bunching in the most uncomfortable crevices.
She was sure the blisters on her feet were now open sores. Each step sent flashes of pain up her legs. But no matter what, she couldn’t stop. They had to keep going, even though she didn’t know where they would end up. The objective was to stick with Ben and survive.
As they trekked on, Esme kept a watchful eye on Ben. He was careful where he stepped, meticulous and sure not to leave any tracks behind. She noticed how he didn’t break tree branches to make his path easier but ducked under or moved around them. She took mental notes and studied how stealthy he was. If it weren't for the bumbling trail she left, no one would be able to tell what route he’d taken.
She wasn’t as light on her feet as Ben. Her footsteps were loud and often clumsy, and she’d fallen and tripped more than once. But Ben stuck with her. He helped her up when she fell and waited for her to catch up when she slowed.
She couldn’t imagine doing this by herself and had no clue what Miranda was feeling at the moment. Esme glanced at her watch. It said nine in the evening, but the time difference between Turolois and Earth was so different that right now Miranda would’ve been feeding the kids their lunch.
Before she could stop it, thoughts rolled into her head like thunder.
How could Miranda feed the kids and keep moving? Did she find somewhere to stop and hide to get them fed? Did she try to feed them while walking? How were they managing on their own? Was Adam walking by himself? Esme took in a sharp breath. What if something happened and he got separated from his mom?
A fresh round of tears streamed down her face.
A crack came from her right. She knew that sound. She’d been stepping on dead branches for days and recognized the sound immediately. Her breath caught in her throat and heart fell to her stomach. She peered between the trees, looking for whoever, whatever stalked them.
The Game Warden's Mate Page 11
