Page 8 of Marked for Vengeance
Something big moved beyond the tree line, its true shape hidden in the shadows that formed as evening fell. When she finally saw it, she nearly put a hole in its chest out of instinct. Her finger was already tensed on the trigger when she registered that despite its size and bestial appearance, this was no wild animal. The new arrival walked on two legs and had human-like facial features, but she had no idea what species it was.
Golden fur with subtle color shifts that acted like natural camouflage covered his body. Dark stripes spanned his forehead from eyebrow to hairline, and long blond hair fell to his broad and damn impressive shoulders. Oh yes, this had to be a male.
He strode deeper into their camp, and Loris squeezed off a warning shot, sending a pulse of energy to slam into the ground at his feet. “That’s far enough.”
The big alien whatever-it-was stopped, but he didn’t lower the blade he carried. Instead he gave her a long, slow look that made her stomach flip. Most of her was hidden behind the shuttle’s hull, so why did she feel like he was mentally undressing her right now? He couldn’t evenseeher. Could he?
Another male moved into view. This one had a blade in one hand and a spear in the other, and he was a slightly smaller than the first she’d seen. Both of them were clearly in their prime with hard bodies and predators’ grace.
Gods save her. Was she ogling them? What the hell was wrong with her? With a mental head shake, she got back to the business at hand. “Do you understand me?”
“We do,” one said. “We have translators. I’m Havoc.” He tilted his head toward the larger male. “That’s Vengeance. You must be from theBountiful Harvest.”
She hissed in shock at the mention of theHarvest. “How the fuck does he know that?”
She didn’t notice she had spoken aloud until Joy answered her. “Ask him.”
It was a good suggestion, so she took it. “How do you know about theHarvest?”
A third alien walked into the clearing. Unlike the others, he held his empty hands up and out to his sides. She noted that this one was clean-shaven, if that was even the right word to describe it. He was the only one of the trio without a neatly trimmed beard. Huh, the beastie boys must shave after all.
They all wore similar attire, too. Though there wasn’t much to their fashion choices. A simple leather kilt hung from their hips, and they’d strapped what looked like hardened animal hides to their lower legs with some kind of homespun cord or leather thong.
The third one introduced himself. “I am Risk. We met one of the other survivors from your ship—a female named Hope.”
Loris felt a flash of relief to hear there were other survivors, but she didn’t let her feelings show. This situation was still far too fraught with danger for her to relax.
Joy spoke up. “She made it? Where is she?”
The spokesman for the group nodded once and then explained. “We saw her this morning. Her escape pod came down much closer to our home. She was rescued by one of our brothers. We were on our way to the main crash site to assist when we saw your shuttle.”
Joy seemed satisfied because she made a show of putting down her weapon and moving her hands away from the stock. Loris wasn’t happy about that, but she understood this was part of Joy’s personality.
She sighed and nudged the other woman with her foot. “You can’t help yourself. Can you? You don’t have a single distrustful bone in your body. Pick up the weapon, Joy. It could be a trick.”
Joy ignored her. Instead of being sensible, the woman asked another question.
“What else can you tell us? Were there other survivors? What about theHarvest? Did it land safely or crash?”
Risk shifted his attention to Loris. Until then he’d been staring at Joy with an unsettling amount of interest. Male interest. The kind that made Loris tighten her grip on the rifle. There’d be none of that.
“Put down the weapon and we’ll share what we know.”
“You first,” Loris said firmly.
The one who called himself Havoc stowed his weapons, and then both he and Risk turned to glower at their companion. He still had his sword in his hand and was giving her a cocky grin that made her want to shoot another warning shot just to make him jump.
His grin widened as if he knew what she was thinking, and she caught a glimpse of fangs behind his lips.
Fangs. Fur. Oh, and horns. She hadn’t noticed the horns before, but now she couldn’t stop staring at them. They swept up and back from his brow and curved around to a tapered point below his ears.
Like handles,some small, utterly mad part of her observed. I could climb him like a tree.
She barely registered the insane thought before the situation caught her attention again.
“For fuck’s sake, Venge,” Risk growled. “We talked about this.”
“You talked. I wasn’t listening,” Vengeance said.
