Page 53 of Monstrous Hunt
No one needed to explain the worst-case scenario.
Rizan jerked upright, wavered, but waved Snryx’s additional implement away. “We need to act fast.”
“How?” Kroktl raked his claws over the stone, a metallic shriek that echoed eerily through the stone formations. “We can’t jump after him.”
“As soon as they finish with him, they can come pick us off one by one.” Snryx dropped the rest of his implements from Rizan. “That’s the best I can do now. I’ve injected your wings with growth hormones to stimulate feather regrowth and patched the tears, though I wouldn’t attempt flight for at least a few hours.”
“Thanks. Let me see if I can get the grid back up.”
Kroktl landed beside me with a soft thump. “Humans, one hundred meters and closing.”
Rizan shook his wings out and clicked his beak. “Good. A meal is just what I need right now.”
“Only males,” Kroktl replied. “We don’t want to eat Natalie’s friend by accident.”
:Heard,:Rizan replied.:Running a quick scan on the grid. I’m picking up some interference.:
Snryx quivered, every implement stiffening into vicious spikes.:The medbot is measuring unusual activity as well.:
Kroktl let out a roar that rolled through the mountains, making the ground beneath our feet rumble.:Don’t even fucking say it.:
:Natalie’s going in labor.:
In unison, Rizan and I muttered, “Fuuuuuck.”
24
NATALIE
Jump.
Not like hop in the air. A happy little bounce. Butjump.
Through space and time to an unknown location. Using an alien technology that I didn’t understand.
It’s no big deal, Nat. Just close your eyes and leap off the cliff into the cold, empty, bottomless nothing of space.
:Your cells remember,:the drone said in my head.:Trust. Believe. Nothing can stop the Mother.:
Except my own damned fear. Gritting my teeth, I hugged my arms tightly around my body, trying not to shiver. Damn Axxol for coming all over my lovely warm robe.
As soon as I thought of him, his scent filled my nose. The burn of ozone. The wild threat of violence shimmering in his blazing eyes. The way he’d fallen to his knees and buried his face against me. Or crushing me against the wall, pouring buckets of cum on me.
His thick, raw musk thick in my nose, mixing with Kroktl’s scent. The entire squad. Complete and whole at last.
They were out there, in danger, walking into a trap this very second.
Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply, focusing on Axxol’s scent still fresh on my body. I lifted my hands to my face, breathing him in. I’d touched his chest. Wiped his cum off my stomach with my shirt, getting more on my fingers. And yeah, I’d sucked them clean. Learning his taste. Smoky, yet sweet, like peaches cooked over a campfire. Strange but also familiar.
I saw him in my head. He lay flat on his back, strapped to some kind of table. He didn’t move. Couldn’t. But I read the agony in his eyes as a man in a white coat moved slowly around the table, touching him with what looked to be a silver ink pen.
With a blink of my eyes, I zoomed in on the implement. Again.
Pieces of Axxol disappeared into that pen. Mrions, like the tiny marching ants. His Sirian cells.
Mycells.Mymrions.
The drone’s words repeated in my head.“Our technology is yours now.”
