Page 4 of His Human to Chase

I narrow my eyes at him but keep my hands on my hips because it feels like he thinks I’ll try to shrink away from him. He gives me another smile, placing his mask so firm in place that he actually almost passes as a human man. So much so that if I didn’t know how good I felt when I smelled those pheromones yesterday, I might actually take him up on his flirting.

“Never thought I’d actually think one of you is attractive,” I give his body one more once over before he smiles down at me and saunters away. I’m pretty sure he says something to another Hand who looks in our direction and then scowls at the Hand who was flirting with me. I give them a little wave, and he’s averting his eyes while the other laughs. “Damn, where were these ones when we were cooped up for two years?”

Alice shakes her head at me, but her tears have slightly dried. She’s trying to cover herself since she’s naked, and I position myself somewhat in front of her so she’s hidden from the few pairs of eyes that make their way over to us. Most of them don’t spare us any glances, though. The portal in front of us lights up bright white, and then we’re being ushered through by a Hand.

The whole world goes dark, and the only thing that keeps me grounded is Alice’s hand in mine. The sound of chatting comes through first, and it’s clear that wherever the Hands sent us, we’re definitely not somewhere inconspicuous. No, we are dropped right in the middle of wherever our mates are.

A soft thudding on the stone floor grows closer to us, and then there’s a soft gasp. A human woman’s gasp. She grabs my shoulder, and I stiffen slightly.

“Still can’t see me?” She asks. I shake my head no, not trusting my words just yet since I’m not sure if I’m about to throw up. “Okay, I’m Olivia, A12-01, you’re safe here. Sit down if you can. No one can see you right now. I’ll get you some clothes, okay?”

“Wait,” My voice is raspy for some reason as I reach out to her. I clear my throat and speak again, this time my words louder and more clear. “The older brother is hers.” My vision starts to come back just in time to see Alice starting to cry again now that we’re really off Earth. “Shh, it’s okay,” I say quieter as I wrap my arm around her. “The Hands used our pheromones to figure out which of us were needed to complete the warriors’ transitions.”

Olivia looks over the partitions and motions toward someone on the other side. “Deja, I need your mate’s oldest blood’s tunic first.” I don’t try to follow the convoluted mess that is Olivia asking for a shirt.

“I’ll explain everything when I come back,” I whisper to Alice, who is clinging to my arm like I can stop what needs to be done next. I turn back to Olivia as she tosses the tunic to us, and I help Alice get it on and remove her grip from my arms. “We need to get them away from one another. Can you get the younger one outside?”

A chair scrapes across the stone floor, and my heart rate skyrockets, knowing it’s the one that’s meant to be mine. He can hear me, and he’s doing what I ask without even having to be told. Something about it makes me get all nervous, like he’s not going to like how I look, or maybe he won’t feel as strongly about me as I do about him since we’ve never even seen each other.

“Please don’t leave me,” Alice whispers.

“Alice, we can’t stay together. We don’t know if they’re dangerous around each other like this.” I drop my voice so only she can hear me and whisper in her ear. “They’re our mates. Like some real true love shit. I don’t know if you believe in it or not, but I know you can feel it because I can feel it.” Another tunic is thrown over the partition, and I know it’s for me. I slip it on, my soul beaming at wearing my mate’s clothes.

“Please,” Alice’s voice breaks as a sob starts to shake her. “Don’t leave me.”

Olivia kneels down near us and takes Alice’s hands in hers. “You’re safe here.”

Alice is clinging to Olivia, which gives me a chance to stand up. “I need to get out of here.” I take one last look at Alice and try to give her a reassuring smile, but she’s already crying again as Olivia tries to comfort her. I try not to dwell on the fact that I’m about to leave my new friend and future sister to cry in a stranger’s arms, but it’s better than our mates fighting because they’re too close to one another.

I look around the room when I’m away from the partition and gawk at the sight. Giant, red-scaled, horned lizard men sit all around the room at different tables. All of them stare at me with big black eyes except for two.

“Fucking lizard men, really?” I laugh. No one else laughs, but I see a couple of women sitting in the laps of two of the aliens. I offer them a small wave before turning back in the direction I heard my alien walking when I asked him to leave. “I’ll meet all of you in a few days.”

I take off down the hall, not too sure how I’m going to convince the alien demon to leave his tribe, but a horribly thought-out plan barely forms in my head when I throw the door open. My eyes land on a gate in a stone wall not far from me, and then I’m looking at the alien who’s supposed to be mine. His crimson body is tensed like he’s ready to fight, his deep red eyes boring into me as soon as I step outside, and his fists clasped so tightly together I wonder if he’s able to retract the claws that I saw the others had.

“Don’t touch me yet, big guy.” I throw him a look over my shoulder as I start to run. I let my instincts guide me into action. Following what I’ve been dreaming about for weeks now. “Give me a headstart. I’m pretty sure you like to chase.”

Yril

Pale hair and striking blue eyes are the first things I notice about my human. Yes, my human because even she can sense that she belongs to me now. I’m completely stunned and breathless when she throws the door to the great hall open and runs outside. She says something to me, but I am too entranced in her beauty to catch the words before she runs off through the tribe, her pale hair flowing behind her.

My body responds to the chase she wants me to give, but strong hands push against me before I can start. I snarl and snap at Dath without taking my eyes off where my pale human has taken off. She is outside of the tribe now, off in the trees where it is dangerous. Dath has a smile on his lips, probably enjoying that I’m the one being tortured by being kept from my mate when he was kept from his for many days.

“I will disembowel you if you do not release me.” I snap my teeth again but am able to keep myself from actually striking him. The rage underneath my scales is burning me from the inside out, but I still know Dath is my blood, and I have no reason to harm my blood.

“Give her a headstart, brother,” Dath’s smile grows. “You do not want the hunt to be ended so soon, do you?”

I snarl again, trying to push against him, but he’s bigger, stronger, and more powerful than me, thanks to already having his mate and fully transitioning into one of the goddess’s chosen warriors. “How would you feel if you were kept from your mate?”

Stupid question. I know it is as soon as it is out of my mouth. Dath is keenly aware of what it feels like to be kept from his mate. Many days, we kept him locked in his room and his mate in a whole other building because he was not himself. We thought he had gone mad before my father told us of the goddess’s decision to offer this tribe a warrior.

“You all kept me away from my mate for many days. Six of them, yes?” Dath turns to his mate, who I don’t look at but am assuming is nodding along with what Dath is saying. My eyes are still on the gates that lead out of the tribe. I need to get out into the trees, need to find my mate, and claim her so everyone knows she is mine. “I will keep you for just a moment, and you act as though you have been punished as much as I have.”

Something inside of me roars at being kept from my mate when it is not my own doing, which has caused me to not be on her now. My claws extend, and my body tenses. I might actually hurt Dath with how angry I am at what he is doing to me.

“Release me,” I hiss at Dath and pray quickly that he listens to me. I cannot be held responsible for what I may do to him if he refuses to let me leave now.

Thankfully, just as the heat under my scales reaches a point of scalding, he pushes a pack into my hands and releases me. My body takes off on instinct. She told me she wanted me to chase her, so I do what I do best. Track. Hunt. Kill. But it will not be killing that happens when I find my little mate. No, she knows what I want, and she has all but ensured I take her as soon as I catch her. The only thing I need to worry about is getting to her before another storm comes or night falls.

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