Page 22 of Treasured By the Hunter

“That’s—” She made a strangled noise.

“What is wrong?” I reached for her, patting down her upper body to see if she’d somehow hidden an injury from my sensitive nose.

“Nothing,” She looked away and closed her eyes. When she opened them, there were unshed tears. “It’s just… they would’ve been so happy to know it’s true.”

She was talking about her lost friends.

“I’m sorry.” She dashed away the tears rolling down her cheeks. “I don’t mean to break down on you. I’ll get it together.”

“There is no need. It is natural to grieve.” I looked up at the ceiling but saw the faces of the hunters I’d lost instead.

“But I can’t. Not yet. Grief is a distraction; it kills. It’s not safe yet.”

I pulled her into my arms, holding her close to my chest, which was rumbling softly now in a bid to calm her. “It is. You are safe. I will keep you safe.”

At first, she was stiff and immobile in my arms, but after a few long moments, a shudder broke the stillness, and she inhaledsharply. Her fingers tightened on my biceps, and I felt the warmth and wetness of tears on my chest.

Chapter 10: Zoey

I didn’t know how long I stayed there in Harb’k’s embrace, crying for the people I’d loved and lost. But by the time the tears ran their course, my eyes were puffy, and I was all cried out.

His chest was purring softly against my ear, and all I could think about was how cats sometimes purred to self-soothe when in pain. I wondered if this was the same frequency that had healing or at least calming properties because I wanted to stay in his arms and let him protect me forever.

But that wasn’t an option. We both had a job to do. Though, right now, I wasn’t so sure about my plan anymore. Did I really want to join Sanctuary after I disassembled all the charging sites? I knew I had to go there to meet up with Riley. She was everything I had left. But did I want to stay there?

What about New Franklin? The idea that they’d conquered their nest and taken back the town was so inspiring. And now I knew it wasn’t just a rumor. God. Connor would’ve been so happy. And Tomas! Tomas had been just a kid when the bugs arrived, still had been before this shit with Corey. Did New Franklin have teenagers his age?

And Riley. She was so excited when we’d said we’d go check it out.

Suddenly, my plans were changing right before my eyes, solidifying, and I knew what I had to do. I’d go to Sanctuary, pick Riley up, and then we’d go to New Franklin together.

Maybe I’d even run into Harb’k again after he was done scouring the land for anomalies. I wasn’t ready to end our temporary partnership just yet. Maybe we could extend it longer.

I wiped the tears that had fallen on his chest with my palm. “Sorry, I’m crying all over you.”

“You can cry on me anytime. I have lost many to the scourge. Each loss gets harder, not easier. But wemustgrieve so we can keep fighting. If we do not, the anguish will consume us from the inside.”

I gazed into his warm, golden eyes. And despite their alienness, I saw the very human scars of loss.

He released me and pushed open the door to the stairs. “We will go see this shop of hobbies.” He stepped out and when he sensed no danger, started up the stairs.

He took small, careful steps, and I realized the treads were too short for his feet. With the claws tipping his toes, he could just barely get the balls of his feet on the steps. No wonder he’d leaped down the half flight of stairs to the landing with the bowling alley door when we first got in.

I followed behind him. I could see right up his leather loincloth, and I followed the lighter patches of purple up the back of his muscular thighs.

“When we first landed on Earth, there were three hunters in my group,” Harb’k said as he picked his way up the stairs. “Because there were no major human cities in the area, our mothership had erroneously estimated that the nests would besmall. It hadn’t taken into account the millions of heads of cattle raised here. It only sent us down, and we quickly realized that it was too much for our group to handle.

“During one of the first swarms, we lost Gra’k. We hadn’t been ready for such a large swarm. But still, the mothership refused to send more help. We were lucky Lok’n joined us after.”

I listened to his story, glad that I was learning more about him so it wasn’t so one-sided.

“I was close to Gra’k. Losing him was hard on me, but I never let myself grieve. Instead, I threw myself into hunting the scourge. I became reckless that cold season, taking on more scourge than I knew I could handle. I got trapped by a group of scuttlers and spitters.”

I shuddered at the mention of the bugs that spit acid. Seeing someone dissolved alive wasn’t something one ever really bounced back from.

His hand went absentmindedly to one of the lighter patches, the movement so slight, I wouldn’t have seen it if I hadn’t been staring so intently at him. And I realized that what I had mistaken for his natural pattern were scars.

I reached up to touch the scar on his arm. “Spitters?”

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