Page 55 of Fated to the Hunter
My heart leaped with joy. “I love you too, Kiera.” I’d never experienced love before, but I recognized it now without a single doubt. “You’re it for me. Stay with me, Fire of my Heart. Not just for this mission or the next, but forever.”
“I accept, brave warrior. I accept.”
Epilogue: Kiera
I twirled my pen, my eyes drifting from my screen over to the clock on the wall. I’d always loved my job, and I still did, but I also loved spending as much time as possible with my brave hunter.
Bael’k was still technically stationed out west in the Great Plains where they needed him the most. I could work anywhere I had access to the old Internet files, but I wasn’t about to give up my post in the New Franklin library just yet, so we’d agreed on a reverse weekend schedule.
I spent two days a week holding down the fort with Dottie, and five days out on the plains with Bael’k.
I found that I rather enjoyed helping him kill scourge, especially since I’d started taking drone flying lessons with Connie. Plus, I liked knowing that if anything happened, I’d be right there to call for help.
The new shuttle and I got along too, so that was nice. Though it did seem nervous around too many flyers, which I assumed was how it had lost its previous shuttle and hunter. I’d offered to lend an ear if it ever needed to talk about it, but it had yet to take me up on it.
The hard drives turned out to be real. Which meant that information-wise, we were completely caught up to the before times. Moreso, I’d say, because we now also had access to Xarc’n technology and were slowly figuring out how everything worked. The problem now was resources and manufacturing capabilities.
Also, just because we knew how to manufacture smartphones and supercomputers again didn’t mean we should. Not yet anyway.
We still had a long way to go before we’d be completely freed of the scourge, and until then, we had to put most of our efforts into fighting them. Not to mention, the appearance of the scourge and the Xarc’n warriors didn’t mean we’d stopped fighting amongst ourselves. We had people we had to worry about, like the New Earth Militia, who didn’t see a future for Earth with Xarc’n warriors in it.
But we’d deal with it as it came.
The front door to the library slid open, and I closed my laptop and stood, eager to greet my hunter; he was picking me up today. But when I stepped out from the back room, it wasn’t Bael’k who greeted me.
Instead, Dottie bustled in, a frown on her face. With a quick glance behind her, she hurried toward me and slipped into the room I’d just vacated. But instead of sitting at the long meeting table, she went to the front and ducked behind the podium.
“What’s going—”
She made a zip-it motion over her lips.
The library door opened again. This time, a big purple alien warrior stepped in. But it wasn’t Bael’k.
Why was Dottie hiding from Ror’k? The older warrior used to be the Overseer of the mothership that we’d lost. Since then, he’d transferred to the other one that was still in orbit. He’d come down to Franklin for the market and had stayed since, helping out in the mothership building. Used to spending their time in space, the hunters working in the grounded mothership rarely ventured out, but I’d been seeing more of them lately.
“Hi, Ror’k. What areyoudoing here?”
He didn’t answer.
“Well, everyone went home about an hour ago.” That was technically the truth. Dottiehadleft an hour ago. “Library’s actually closed. I’m just waiting for Bael’k to pick me up. Why don’t you come back tomorrow?”
He did that strange mouth breathing thing that the hunters sometimes did, and I knew that he was scenting the air. Of course, the air here would smell like Dottie. She spent most of her time here.
He frowned, then gave a quick nod before walking back out the door.
I went to lock it behind him before returning to the meeting room.
“Okay, Dottie. Spill the tea.”
“There’s nothing to spill,” she said, shoving her glasses higher on her face.
“Really? So should I go let Ror’k know you’re in here?”
“No!” she whisper-screamed.
“So talk.”
“Ugh! Fine. You know that extra-strong batch of booze that went out?”
