Page 3 of Monstrous Hunt
Air hit my calves and then I was falling. Rolling. White-hot pain shot through my shoulder down to my elbow, making me cry out. Heaving for air, I tried to lay still, straining my senses, but I couldn’t hear anything over the sound of my own frantic gulps. It was still so dark I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. My skin felt wet and slimy. Great. More dinosaur slobbers. At least this one hadn’t licked me.
A gust of wind in my face stole my air, sending my heart pounding with alarm. A blowing snort, so loud and close it sent goosebumps racing down my arms.
But nothing happened. He didn’t bite a hunk out of me or settle in for a nice juicy feast. Even though I was pretty sure I was bleeding. I had to smell like food.
Images flickered through my mind. His huge snout buried in my stomach, chomping away. Ripping an arm or leg off. My head. His mouth cracked open with amusement as I tried to crawl away to safety.
But then the ground rumbled beneath my cheek with rhythmic steps as he retreated.
Leaving me alone in the dark. Unless it was a fucking trap.
I lay still for several long minutes, listening to the frantic thud of my heart. Gradually my ears picked up other ambient sounds. Gentle plops of water. The trickle of a stream across stones. I smelled earth and stone and water. Some kind of cave, maybe? I wasn’t even sure how he’d gotten here. There’d been a blue flash and the smell of ozone burning my nostrils, the same as when the other squad had started to jump through the blue fiery circle. If he’d taken me through one of those jump holes…
We could be anywhere. Like on another planet.
My stomach quivered with dread. Oh fuck. I was pregnant with an alien-human baby. Now alone—except for the asshole who’d swallowed me—in some dark, nasty cave.
Gingerly, I tried to lift my left arm. Pain made a sob tear from my throat. Injured too. I wasn’t sure if my shoulder was dislocated or if my arm was broken. I used my other hand to brace my forearm against my body and rolled over on my back. Waves of nausea and dizziness flooded me. My right knee throbbed but I could wriggle my toes, and I could still move my fingers on my other arm despite the injury. My damp skin cooled quickly in the dank air. Shivering—which hurt like hell—I carefully shifted up into a seated position.
The ground was hard packed over layers of rock. Turning my head slowly, I searched for any sense of lightening in the darkness, a hint of air, anything that might indicate an exit. The big guy who’d swallowed me had gone somewhere else, unless he was silently laughing at me in the corner. I hadn’t heard any scraping rocks that might indicate he’d blocked the pathway behind him. So theoretically, I could escape. Right?
Assuming I could walk. And if not, I’d fucking crawl.
2
AXXOL
Idespised this weak, fragile, bedraggled human.
Yeah, right. Keep telling yourself that.
She’d fucking torn the best Dynosauros squad ever engineered apart. Z288C’s exemplary record was now expunged from Draco-Sirius Command’s databases. None of that was directly her fault—though she made an easy target. Humans really were the perfect prey.
This planet was doomed. It was only a matter of time before humans were exterminated. The only question was whether DSC would carry out the task directly—or if they’d sit back and allow the Myrm to do their dirty work for them.
Though as I watched her rally her reserves and find the strength to sit up, I couldn’t help but feel a growing, grudging respect. She didn’t cry and fall apart, even though I’d stolen her from her mate.
I didn’t have to be on their fucking private grid to know what had happened. Kroktl had caught wind of her delectable scent in the jungle, and the rest was history. Not that he’d fucking thank me for what I’d done to strand us here.
Kroktl might think he’d evolved closer to BGR but he couldn’t begin to verge on the supermassive black hole that spread through me. How he thought this slip of a female could survive a dynos’ rutting, I had no idea.
She made a low sound of pain that sharpened the vicious blades of hunger coiling through me. I wasn’t immune to her luscious scent—which only infuriated me more. Of fucking course, she was injured. He should have snacked on her tender flesh rather than wasting time fucking her. One heavy thrust would split her apart.
The scent of blood mixed with her natural pheromones made the beast stretch inside me. Shocking me to stillness.
I hadn’t struggled to control my rex since the beginning of my memory. Alphas had formidable control at all times. We had to control ourselves—so we could control the rest of the squad.
She moved her leg and whimpered. The sound of a bleating prey animal.
Fucking delicious.
“Way to go, Nat,” she muttered to herself. “You’ve got to find a way to get up or you might as well lie down and die right now.”
“No dying,” I said aloud before I realized it. Startling myself as much as her. “Not yet, at least.”
“Oh shit. You’re still here.” She laughed awkwardly, turning her head in my direction. “I forgot you guys can shift.”
It dawned on me that she couldn’t see in the darkness. Another mark of weakness against her species. I didn’t speak again, testing her other senses. Could she smell the predator lying in wait? Could she feel my raging hunger?
