Page 10 of Treasured By the Hunter

“Too bad.” With the pillow still in hand, he climbed onto the bed and leaned up against the wall.

Crap. He wasn’t going to leave. He made the king-size bed feel absolutely tiny. Did he plan to stay here all night?

“If you have been outcast by your group, I will care for you.”

Oops. “I have not been outcast by the group.”

“Then why are you alone?”

“I said, I’m not—”

“Why are you here?” he asked bluntly. “I showed the images of the males following you to Heather. She says that they are not your group. You are alone.”

Shit. He knew too much already. “If I tell you, will you promise not to steal me away in your shuttle?”

The alien narrowed his golden eyes at me. “If you tell me, I promise not to steal you away in my shuttle tonight.”

I didn’t miss the fact that he’d added a qualifier there.Tonight. But he might come back and take me another night. But that was good enough for me for now. It wouldn’t hurt to unload a little.

“You know that nomad group that decided it was a good idea to keep one of you Xarc’n warriors hostage to use their supposed sentient shuttle?”

Harb’k nodded. “Kan’n and Pip.”

“I never knew their names. Well, our group had always been Xarc’n neutral. You don’t mess with us, and we don’t mess with you. Quid pro quo. You friendly? We friendly.” I looked at him pointedly. I was, after all, sitting right next to him.

He nodded in a very human way, and I took that to mean I should keep talking.

“Our leader, Connor, was a good man. But his brother Corey had always been a bit of a loose cannon.”

“I know what this means. The humans at our camp call Kan’n a loose cannon as well. They did not know what he would do next.”

“Yeah. That’s it. Well, Corey was part of the group that took one of you hostage. He—"

A hand suddenly covered my mouth, and Harb’k was hauling me into his lap. He was so big I felt like I was completely cocooned in his arms. I started to struggle until he whispered something next to my ear.

“Humans approach.” His translator was barely audible.

I stopped struggling, and sure enough, lanterns flashed outside the window.

Shit! Was that Corey’s group?

We stayed in the moonlight, in near silence, until a soft vibration started in his chest. It reminded me of a very, very big cat. And I could feel it along my whole body since my back was pressed against his front. He let out a soft groan and adjusted our position.

Something hard pressed against my ass. It was exactly what I thought it was, and he was very, very aroused.

Chapter 5: Harb’k

I ordered my body not to react to her lithe little body and failed. I tried to shift my position to try to mask my aroused state, but there was no way for me to hide the giant bulge tenting my loincloth, not with her pressed up against me.

The reaction had been immediate the moment she’d been in my arms, and her initial attempt to get away had only accelerated it. How could I control my urges when she was rubbing that delectable ass against me like that?

“Calm. I won’t hurt you.” My translation device, already muffled against her body, repeated the words at a low decibel. I hoped it was loud enough for her to hear; humans had less acute hearing. That was both a curse and a blessing right now as the humans passed by outside.

Their lanterns cast shadows through the window onto the ceiling. I didn’t know why they were wasting fuel if it was so rare. The moonlight was bright enough to see by. They were looking for Zoey. These buildings were shoddily built with thin walls, and they might have heard our conversation if I hadn’t reacted in time.

Would Zoey rather face her pursuers than me? If she screamed now, they would surely hear. I wouldn’t let them takeher. I wasn’t worried about being taken prisoner, not with just the three of them and my ship parked so close. I was worried the little female would get hurt in the struggle.

“I can’t believe the bitch sabotaged the charging stations,” one of them said.

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