Marked by the Predator

by Milana Jacks

  I side-eye her and change back so I can speak. “They haven’t seen a female in a while,” I explain. “I have to stay vigilant.” And maybe I’m a bit agitated, a tiny bit possessive, and definitely protective too, because I don’t want anyone stealing my…food. That’s all she is. My food. Smells good too. A cute walking piece of meat with colored eyes. But food nonetheless until further confirmation.

  I can’t mate with food. We are incompatible, even if I felt like pissing on her as I would on any hunter female I chose for breeding. In hunting form, it’s easier to become confused, both the instinct to breed and the instinct to eat coming from the same place in the brain. I think better on two feet than on four.

  I would not piss on her in this rational male state. I wouldn’t.

  My brother, Nar, rushes out of the tower and walks with me. I should’ve pissed on her. Instinctively, I throw my arm over the female and bring her closer. She protests and tries to move away, but I snarl at her too. Everyone is making me edgy this evening. Someone’s gonna fill my belly, and I hope it’s not her or my brother, because I will regret both those choices.

  I can feel his gaze on the side of my face, practically piercing my cheek.

  “You’re escorting me to my chambers?” I ask.

  “Mas is scrubbing the pod’s data.”

  “And?”

  “They eat flowers?” He makes a noise at the back of his throat. We’re both grossed out that an alien species eats flowers, but it is what it is.

  “Good question. I don’t know. Tell me about the pod’s data.”

  A corner of his lip lifts as if he’s smiling, but I ignore it and nudge him with an elbow. “Don’t make me ask again.”

  “The pod detached from the ship that carried it and proceeded according to preset coordinates.”

  “Where did they lead?”

  “Our territory.”

  “What’s Mas’s working theory?”

  “The Ra boarded her ship, and instead of consuming the prey, they placed them inside pods and sent them to the homeland. Her pod malfunctioned and ended up here.”

  “Why?”

  “Why what?”

  “Why send this one to the homeland?”

  “For later consumption? I don’t know. Clearly, she’s an herbivore, so what else is there to do with her?”

  I stop and give him my most bored look.

  He frowns. “Did I miss something?”

  I knock on his head. “Think outside the skull.”

  He nods, scrubbing his jaw. “Since we control the majority of the portals, the Ra are experiencing food shortages, so some of them left the homeland on warbirds in search for food. They capture, board, and eat, and what they don’t eat, they send home.”

  “I don’t think she’s food.”

  “What else would they send her home for?”

  “Breeding.”

  He blinks, clearly having never considered it. We haven’t seen a female in, well, most of our adult lifetime, so it makes sense that we don’t consider it. It’s a novelty for most of us, and the ritual is a bunch of crap only Sha believes in.

  Nar slaps a hand on my shoulder, and I halt. He steps closer, and our chests touch. I growl because his dominance invades my senses. My muscles start relaxing, bones twitching, eager to fight him. My brother would be a worthy opponent, one who would fight to the death, which is why we never fight. There are just over one thousand Ka hunters left, and if we fight each other, we might as well sign off on our extinction.

  “Breeding?” he whisper hisses and looks around as if we’re exchanging territorial portal secrets. He knocks on my head and leans in to speak into my ear. “Are you crazy inside?”

  I slap his hand away. “Look around. We’re a dying breed, as are the Ra.”

  “They have females.”

  “Most aren’t fertile anymore.”

  “Then you know what to do. If they’re collecting breeders across the galaxy, then we might have a breeder in our midst, which is going to stir up the others for the games. You are the Kai, so you eat first, but when it comes to breeding, all males are born equal until one wins.”

  The winner takes the breeder. The losers have to wait for another game. There can be up to four hundred males competing in the games, so beating three hundred and ninety-nine of my males is akin to weakening my defenses. The moment the Ra hear about the games, they’ll send their males, and since there’s a truce, we have to allow them entry. “I’m aware.”

  “What will you do?”

  “Nothing yet. She didn’t hunt.”

  “And yet…” My brother touches his nose. “I smell your disappointment. You’re not thinking about… Oh no, brother, don’t do it. You fucking her and then consuming her is wrong. Sexy but wrong.” Nar glances at my alien, who’s unusually quiet, big brown eyes darting from me to him and finally resting on him, which makes me growl.

  Nar steps back. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves. She’s clearly an herbivore, and you’ll have a nice meal, and we’ll forget all about this breeding conversation.”

  “She peed on my territory.”

  His eyes widen.

  I nod. “Marked it right in front of me too. What kind of an herbivore marks a predator’s territory?”

  “A stupid herbivore.”

  “Didn’t even dig a hole to hide the scent.”

  “Seriously?” He’s as shocked as I was when I saw what she was doing.

  I nod. “Just squatted and went.”

  “I’d have killed her for that. You can’t have an herbivore marking our hunting grounds. That’s…that’s…unnatural.”

  “I have to investigate this alien. For the good of my people. You understand?”

  Nah snorts. “What do you think the flowers are for?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “If she starts eating them, then you’ll know, but before you know, don’t speak of breeding.” He taps my shoulder and finally prepares to leave. “Kai.” He drops his gaze, respectfully.

  “One more thing,” I say. “Get me a translator.”

  Nar slaps his cheek. Once, twice, three times.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m trying to awaken from a bad dream where you want to talk to your food.”

  I chuckle. My brother is funny.

  “Before Mas hands me the translator, he’ll want to know why you want to speak with food. What do I tell him?”

  “We’re interrogating her for intel on Ra’s warbird.”

  “Mas is scrubbing the pod, and it will tell him everything we need to know. Brother, please, let’s just have dinner and be done with her. I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “I don’t need a reason to ask for a translator. And if Mas doesn’t give you one, tell him I will come and take his eye along with the translator. Have a pleasant evening.”

  Chapter Six

  Stephanie

  The entire time we walked, I kept searching for water or a vase where I could put these beautiful flowers, but as we make our way under the throne room, all hopes of finding anything go down the drain.

  This time around, the throne shoots back up and closes the ceiling, darkening this space. I can barely see the male as he stands in the middle of the room. He waves his arms in front of him, agile fingers working on something I can’t see. The lights come on. They’re tiny yellow stars on the ceiling and walls.

  A chill runs down my spine, and I shiver, rubbing my shoulder, still holding the flowers with the other hand. Nightstands pop up on both sides of the bed, a fireplace too, more art appears on the walls, and the lights dim.

  The male ceases his frantic hand movements and watches me, scrubbing his jaw. He starts pacing, every once in a while throwing glances my way.

  I signal, again requesting a translator, but he shakes his head, telling me either no, he won’t provide me one, or that he doesn’t understand. Frustrated, I throw up a hand and place the flowers on the nightstand, knowing with no water, they’ll
die by morning.

  Outside the window, a strange moon rises, much bigger than our moon in the Solar System. It dawns on me that it’s night, which means time to go to bed, but there’s only one bed and literally no other place to crash but the cold floor. With no sheets anywhere in sight, I worry I might freeze.

  The red beacons on the towers dim down too, and I barely see my pod under one light. Just sitting there, lonely and secluded from the rest of the ships docked around the tower. Kind of like me.

  I don’t hear him approach, but the heat of his body tells me he’s behind me. I step into him and rub my back on his chest. “I’m thinking you don’t sleep under covers because you don’t need them. You don’t wear many clothes either because you don’t need them and also because you have a second form and the clothes might rip. I need covers, and I don’t have a second form. I also need food and water. At least I have shelter. So that’s good.” For how long, though?

  I spin around and look up into his white eyes. I can’t see the orange or the pupil behind it now. “Why are you keeping me here?”

  He speaks, his voice a deep baritone.

  I sigh and move around him, then stand in front of the bed. Bending, I touch the floor. Nope. I’ll freeze. I open the pair of nightstands made of that gorgeous wood, dark brown in color and warmer than the floor. Inside, there’s nothing but wood and rocks and leather strings. I think it’s jewelry.

  Okay, well, I don’t have much of a choice. I won’t sleep on the floor, and the bed is big enough for two. Awkward? Maybe, but I’m past caring at this point. Here I am, stuck on an alien planet with no way to communicate my needs to this male, who took me into a forest a mile away to use a bathroom. The sooner I go to sleep, the sooner I can wake up the day after and find out that National Security has contacted these males and told them about the ship that blew up and about a pod that was never recovered.

  To avoid revealing that they’re predators, the males would say they have the lost girl, and boom, I’ll be shipped back home.

  I lie on my side.

  He’s stayed by the window.

  I smile. “Good night.”

  He shows me his teeth, then rips off his kilt and pounces on me like an animal.

  With a scream, I try rolling away, but he’s on top of me, caging me in. I’m on my belly, cheek pressed to the bed, while his body touches mine, and he’s hard. I mean he is hard, with a capital H. One hand presses my hip down, and he starts purring, the purr vibrating over my back and practically through my entire body.

  I tense as he nips my earlobe and speaks through his purring, his thumb sliding back and forth over my jeans, inching toward my bare skin.

  He purrs louder when he touches my hip, and just when I think he’s about to tear off my pants, he turns on his side and takes me with him, balling up my body like a baby and practically encompassing all my surfaces with his own. He’s a massive male, so he can cover me whole. I can’t complain, because he’s super warm, with fuzzy fur on his skin.

  He seems to have settled in, and so has my heart after nearly beating out of my chest. My breathing slows as I listen to his purr and take comfort from the warmth of his body. His purr seems to relax me. I stare out the window, into the one light shining over my pod, wondering if I’ll be leaving this place tomorrow. Or ever.

  Something poking my shoulder awakens me. I open my eyes to the face of the alien male I slept with last night. Brain still coming around, I blink, wondering why he’s crouching beside the bed and staring at me. Not wanting to be rude, I say, “Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” he replies.

  Wide awake and hopeful, I sit up in bed. “I understand you.”

  “And I you.” He stands. Naked. With his long, wide shaft hanging down to midthigh. There’s a…a small, unidentified body part at the top of his mushroom tip. I want to take a closer look, but find the flowers more appropriate at this time.

  They withered. Not yet dead, but slowly dying. This bothers me more than it should. “You installed the translator while I slept?” I ask.

  “I did.”

  “Could’ve woken me up.”

  “You seemed to need sleep. It is past the middle of the day.”

  True. I did sleep well.

  I head for the bathroom, then realize there is no bathroom, and my brain can’t process much of anything, let alone the thing at the tip of his cock, with no coffee. I scrub my face. “I feel like I slept for days.”

  “What is a day?”

  “Twenty-four hours.”

  He shakes his head.

  I frown. “Time spent in sunlight?”

  “A span. Your species is nocturnal?”

  “No.”

  “Then why do you feel you slept for days if you don’t sleep during the time spent in sunlight?”

  I laugh. “Good point. It’s just something we say.”

  “We?”

  Okay, okay, I can do this even with no coffee, yesterday’s clothes, and faced with naked alien hotness. Here we go. I approach his massive muscular shape without looking at the ripped abs or how well hung he is, and concentrate on his face, how his mouth is plush, his nose kind of wider than an average man’s, and his eyes bigger and white and a little scary. I extend a hand. “Stephanie. Representing womankind. What’s your name?” Your species, planet, world?

  “Womankind,” he repeats.

  “We’re humans. We hail from Earth and arrive in round pods, crashing onto alien lands all over the galaxy.” I smile, but he doesn’t find me funny. “Shake my hand. It’s a way of greeting.”

  He clasps my hand and yanks me to him, then starts purring again. I wiggle, then stop because he’s growing harder between his legs.

  “There’s only one way to greet a female on my land. It’s not by shaking hands.”

  I’m pretty sure I understand what he means, and now kind of regret that he installed a translator. I existed in mild oblivion for a while there, and now he’s giving me a wide awakening.

  “You think we could talk about greetings after coffee, bathroom, bath, food, stuff like that?”

  “Bathroom?”

  Oh no, this is a nightmare. If they don’t have plumbing, I need to leave this place pronto. “A private place where we waste.”

  “Ah. We also waste.”

  “Bonding over waste is kind of strange.”

  He smiles. “You are funny, womankind.”

  “It’s Stephanie.”

  He pulls back his lips, baring his teeth, and makes an S sound.

  I think he’s trying to say my name. I show him the T sound made by moving my tongue up behind my teeth, and in turn, he sticks his tongue out and licks my face.

  “I can’t move my tongue in the same way, so I will make a name for you.”

  “Okay, that’s fine.” I won’t be here long enough to suffer a new name. I like my name. “And you are?”

  “Hart. Kai of my people.”

  “Like a king?”

  “Yes. The Alpha male. The primary predator at the top of the food chain.”

  “Um, that’s concerning.”

  “It should be, because you marked my territory.” He releases me and starts pacing the room.

  It makes me nervous, and I sit on the bed, tucking my hands under my thighs. I thought our first conversation was going well, but no, aliens are aliens, and a pair of aliens can’t understand each other well even when we think we do. “How did I mark your territory?”

  “You peed on my hunting grounds.”

  “Oh that. Oh no.” I wave my hand in front me, noting that the white polish from the French manicure on my left forefinger has chipped off. “I wasn’t marking anything. I just had to pee. You know, waste.”

  “You consider my territory a bathroom?”

  “No, no.” He’s stopped pacing, and facing me, he’s still naked, and I’m trying and failing to look everywhere besides between his legs. I can’t do that! The floor. It’s crafted in delicate golden lines merging with purp
les in places. Slick, thin, cursive, feminine lines.

  “Does my fitness offend you?” he asks.

  I snap my gaze his way, but it’s incredibly difficult to make eye contact when eyes don’t have pupils. I never thought about how the iris and pupil make eye contact easier. “Not at all.” His body is made for pleasuring a woman, and it makes me uncomfortable that I think he’s sexy. On Earth, while we trade with aliens, civilians rarely see any of the species. Most aliens use the trading ports and hardly ever have the need to land on the surface and interact with us. We definitely don’t sleep with them. It’s taboo to think of another species in the way I’m thinking of him. But his cock is long and thick, and I’m thirty-one and single.

  “I am annoyed you’re refusing to assess me for breeding.”

  “Hm?”

  He taps his temple. “Is the translator not working?”

  “Oh, it’s working.”

  “Then why do you appear confused?”

  “Breeding is a strong word to wake up to. Do you think maybe we can share a cup of coffee?” Surely there’s coffee around here. God, please let there be coffee.

  The alien’s eyes narrow. “So you crash into my hall, mark my territory, and refuse to assess me for breeding. Do you know what we do with aliens like you?”

  “Besides breed?”

  “Yes.”

  “Nah, I’m trying not to think about it.”

  “You don’t have to think. I’ll tell you. We consume them.” He steps closer, and the warmth of him makes me want to rub my body against his rock-solid torso. It’s furry. Covered with tiny hairs. Warm. And he purrs. I mean he purrrrrs. I’m horny again. What did he say? Ah yes, something about consuming me. “You won’t consume me, or you would have already.”

  “Maybe I’ll consume you later.”

  I look up to see he’s smiling. I think the alien made a joke. Or at least I hope he did.

  His nose works, and he says, “You need to bathe.”

  Heat crawls up my cheeks. I tame the nest at the back of my head. “Lead the way.” I’m also trying not to think about the breeding part of the conversation, and will think about it later, after coffee, when my brain isn’t so muddled by the naked alien with a cock that I know for a fact would rock my world.