Page 19 of Guarded By an Alien Hunter

“What is that? Who are all these people?” Katie exclaims as we arrive.

“Bad news,” I tell her. “The defendant is having another news conference. This time, some of his political friends are here to make speeches to the journalists. A large crowd has arrived. I would have gotten rid of them, but I didn't find out about it until we were already driving.”

“It's not your fault.”

I growl again because I feel it is. Maybe I didn't know about this because I've gotten too close to her without that professional detachment. My thoughts about her are taking up too much of my mind. My jaw clenches and my grip tightens on the steering wheel. The female I want so much, the one who I should protect above all others—and I'm not giving her my best. I could lose the one I want above all others. “I have often left while you get ready and take a reconnaissance trip to the courthouse. But I didn’t do that this morning, because I was in your bed.”

“Are you saying this is my fault?”

“No, it ismyfault.”

We enter an immediate traffic jam. I take the road into underground parking.

Our windows are tinted, but someone screams out, “That's her car. That's her, can't you see? It’s Katie Ross, the corrupt juror, the one that’s been planted and paid.”

Then we are stuck because I can't move forward or back. There are cars in front of me and behind, and they have stopped. The crowd surges forward. Katie screams with fear as fists hit against the windows and faces press against the glass.

“We are safe. They can't get in.” But I tense because I smell her fear.

Hunters are useful because now that I have locked on to her scent, I not only see dangers to me, but I see dangers to her as if it were happening to me, and my senses are heightened about danger in the vicinity. My hunter lock allows me to see heat signatures and movements that a normal Zagwe or a human would not.

And that's when I catch a movement in the periphery of my vision. I turn my head and I can see clearly that someone is trying to toss something that I calculate is a crude, handheld bomb.

The car is heavily shielded, but I still can’t hold back. I must quickly eliminate this threat and unclog the crowd of beings that frightens my female.

A snarl bursts from my lips.

“Vander, what are you doing?”

I burst out of the door and close it behind me.

And then I shove aside annoying humans and zero in on my target. His arm is now raised. I leap high over the heads of the humans who shriek and gasp. I jump onto him and knock him to the ground and take the object from his hand.

“You will not hurt my female,” I growl in his shocked face.

And then I stand and toss him aside towards the law enforcement that has finally shown up. And then I leap back. I kick aside one or two humans again and get back in the car and shut the door again.

The line is moving. I go forward and get underneath the parking structure and stop in the normal space. I step out again and open the back door.

Katie looks up at me with wide eyes as I take her hand and pull her to standing.

“Are you okay?” I question.

“Yes. I can't believe what did out there. You're like… you're like the superhero or something.”

I shrug. “I am the best.”

She chuckles. “You are.”

And then I can't stop myself. I need a moment myself to calm down. I pull her around to the back of the vehicle I lean forward, and I bury my nose and her hair, and I inhale.

“Oh, Vander.” Katie wraps her arms around me and pulls me in close.

“Well, that settles the bet,” a familiar voice remarks. “I won. I said they’d only hold out two weeks. Give me the money.”

“Dammit, I said three weeks.”

“Well, I said never so I lost the most.”

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