Page 6 of Hunter of the Tide

As he walked toward the infirmary, he glanced down at Ikaros. The prixxir stared up at him with those wide, dark eyes, looking so small, so helpless.

“Damnit,” he muttered.

His sister, Elle, would’ve laughed if he told her he saw his feelings reflected in the gaze of an animal, but there wouldn’t have been judgment in her laughter.Thiswas what she’d so often talked about.Thiswas the sort of connection she’d made with so many of Halora’s creatures.

He’d never thought less of her for it, though their father had little patience for what he called herbleeding heart. She could outpace most other rangers, was the best shot in the fort and everywhere else they’d gone, and maintained her cool better than anyone Randall knew, but she had always been too soft in Commander Nicholas Laster’s eyes.

Too much like their mother.

Randall shook those thoughts away as he peeked into the infirmary; the lights were dimmed, and all was quiet within. He turned toward the cabins — once the quarters of the Facility’s crew, now home to the few humans who lived here — and resumed his walk.

The prixxir chirruped and poked the tip of its snout out of the water, little nostrils flaring.

Sighing, Randall shook his head. Maybe this was a belated acknowledgment of his days as a ranger being over, a subconscious effort to move on.

The betrayal he’d suffered at the hands of his fellow rangers should’ve been the best indication. Men he’d known for his entire life, who he’d hunted with since he was old enough to lift a firearm, had attempted to relieve Randall from command through use of deadly force. He’d always butted heads with Cyrus Taylor, who’d been a close friend of Randall’s father, but how had those disagreements in method escalated into attempted murder?

The main directive of the rangers had been simple — protect the colonists from whatever came. Had that always meant something inhuman was the enemy? Had it always meant destroying things before understanding them?

Had Randall always been so damned naïve?

By the time Randall reached Aymee and Arkon’s den, his left shoulder ached. He’d taken a stray bullet there when he’d first confronted the couple on the beach, two months ago, when Cyrus attacked Aymee and the weapon in her hand accidentally discharged. The bastard might as well have shot Randall twice himself.

He shifted the container to his right arm. The prixxir wobbled in the sloshing water and made another of its little sounds as Randall stepped in front of the door, which was cracked open about ten centimeters, and knocked on the doorframe.

Cloth rustled inside, followed by a shriek of laughter and footsteps. The door slid open to reveal Aymee. She wore a broad grin, her curly hair wild around her shoulders.

“Randall! Hi!” Aymee’s happiness shone in her brown eyes.

Arkon slipped a tentacle around Aymee’s waist and settled a hand on her shoulder as he came up behind her. He regarded Randall with narrowed eyes. Though he was leaner than most of the male kraken Randall had seen, he still towered over most humans; he had to be at least two and a half meters long from the top of his head to the tips of his tentacles. With pointed teeth and wicked claws thrown in for good measure, Arkon looked every bit an apex predator.

Randall couldn’t fault the kraken for his jealousy or possessiveness — whatever tension existed between he and Arkon was warranted. Their history, however brief, hadn’t exactly been conducive to building trust and friendship.

“Hi, Aymee. I don’t want to bother you, but I was hoping you could help me with something,” Randall said.

“You’re not bothering me.” She glanced at Arkon — whose expression made it clearhewas bothered — and gave his tentacle a pat. “Let me talk to Randall, and then we can get back to ourgame.”

A bit of the stiffness eased from Arkon’s posture. He brushed his thumb along Aymee’s neck with a simple intimacy that would’ve set a jealous fire in Randall’s gut only a month ago.

“I will be waiting, quite eagerly,” Arkon said. He leaned his head down and kissed Aymee’s cheek, lips lingering for several seconds, before moving back into the room.

“You two playing some Blind Man’s Bounty?” Randall asked.

Cheeks reddening, Aymee cleared her throat, but her smile didn’t fade. “Something like that. So, what can I help you with? Is it your shoulder?”

Randall moved aside as she stepped into the hallway. “No, shoulder’s fine as long as I don’t overwork it.” He took the container in both hands and held it up. “I know you’re not an animal doctor, but I was hoping you might be able to help me tend to this critter. His name’s Ikaros.”

Aymee’s brows rose. “A prixxir? Where did you get it?” She reached into the container and gently rubbed Ikaros’s snout with the tip of a finger. Ikaros leaned into the attention, closing his eyes.

Randall smiled. He couldn’t deny that the little prixxir was cute. “Melaina found it, and I graciously volunteered to take care of it.”

“So, Rhea told you to, huh?” Aymee glanced up at him, smirking.

“Actually, sheaskedme to do it. Guess I’m the animal expert around these parts.” He lifted a leg to brace the bottom of the container on his thigh and reached into the water, carefully slipping a hand under Ikaros’s belly. He lifted the prixxir out of the red-tinted water. “Something tried to make a meal of him. Is there anything we can do?”

Aymee leaned closer and examined the puncture marks. “Let’s take him to the infirmary. I can run a scan to see how serious the damage is and get him patched up. Just give me a sec to tell Arkon.”

Randall settled Ikaros into the water as Aymee slipped back into her room. Before he removed his hand, Ikaros caught it with his forepaws and clamped his teeth around one of Randall’s fingers with surprising gentleness. The prixxir pulled his head back, ran his rough tongue over Randall’s skin a few times, and finally released him.

---