Page 16 of Treasured By the Hunter

I pressed the icon. “Release the Kraken!”

A kiddie pool-sized amount of water suddenly appeared and drenched the three men. They screeched and danced away, soaked. I cackled, letting loose my inner villain.

“What the fuck!” Corey looked up, confused.

“Shuttle,” Harb’k said. “Turn off cloaking for two seconds.”

Corey and friends cursed and aimed their weapons at us, but we were already flying away.

I clutched my belly laughing. “Did you”—cackle—“see the looks”—wheeze—“on their faces? That was amazing!”

Harb’k was grinning, too. “The ‘purple freak’ got them.”

“That he did! Thank you. I needed that.”

“Does that mean we can be partners? The humans at our camp forage with partners.”

He looked so hopeful; I couldn’t say no.

“But what about your mission?” I asked. “If there are strange mutations happening out there, you need to go find them and stop them.”

“Where is your next destination? It could be in the area I need to search.” With a few taps of his hand, a very familiar map app appeared on screen.

“Hey! That’s ours!” I exclaimed, recognizing the interface.

“It is. We transferred it to our system. It is still being updated with new information.” He circled an area. “I’m searching here.”

“And I need to get here.” I pointed to the general area on the map. It was in his search area.

“I will take you. We will look for anomalies together on the way.” He stuck out his hand in a very human gesture. “Deal?”

I took his hand and shook. “Deal!”

Chapter 7: Harb’k

I set my shuttle to fly to the location Zoey had indicated on the map, then showed her how to zoom in on details of anything she saw below us. We turned it into a game, seeing how many scourge each of us could spot and check for anomalies while we traveled.

We’d turned a chore that was supposed to be tedious and boring into something fun. However, I had to admit that I wasn’t at the top of my game, because her presence and nearness distracted me. Plus, her delicious scent filled up the shuttle, and all I could think about was tasting it from the source.

After she’d scrambled over me, pressing her soft body all over mine in an effort to claim a roving band of scuttlers in the distance as “hers,” my cock had decided to make my job infinitely more difficult. Especially since I now had to face away from her to prevent her from noticing my rather hard and obvious handicap.

I managed to calm myself before my shuttle announced that we were at our destination and we’d only had to dodge one super early flyer.

Her “safe house” wasn’t a house at all, but a pub. I knew what a pub was because I’d been to the one in New Franklin.

After a quick look around the area, I declared it safe for her to approach. Zoey just rolled her eyes at me.

“The bugs don’t really come here,” she said. “They know there’s nothing to eat. The other survivors avoid it, too. It’s the perfect place. There are solar panels on the roof, and I got them connected to a battery again.”

I stepped in behind her, still doubtful. At first glance, the place was a mess, but it soon became apparent that the mess was artfully created to be a deterrent for any survivors who happened to find this location. Hidden amongst the mess of tables and upturned chairs were tubs and tubs of clean, filtered water and a stash of prepackaged food.

“Did you want the water? I hate wasting it, especially with these dry winters we’ve been having, but it’s got to be done. I’m not letting those fuckers live off of our supplies.”

“I’ll take it. My shuttle needs a refill anyway.”

She giggled at the memory of those males being drenched, and I knew the water hadn’t gone to waste. Nothing that made her laugh was a waste.

“It’s yours. Just let me refill these bottles and hide some of it for later. And while you’re at it, take the food too. I can’t take much with me, and I’ll be damned if I let them eat it. Consider it a thank you for flying me here.” Then she got to work doing whatever she needed to do with the battery.

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