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The fiery-haired female turns to her friend, reassuring her, “Don’t worry, Maya. The nice gentleman was just letting me know there’s a town meeting later today.”

“Nice? Gentleman?” Maya stammers. She gazes up at me with dark eyes, looking so much like a defenseless halvi that I want to just gather her in my arms and promise to keep her safe.

Their conversation finally clicks with me. Me? A nice and gentle male? My shoulders shake with silent laughter. If given the chance, Maya might soon learn that gentle isn’t always the best. My little halvi will soon beg for me to be rougher with her, especially when my cock is pounding deep inside of her.

“You can trust him,” the flame-haired female says, pulling her friend closer.

Yes, she can. Always. I will never allow a female to come to harm, especially one under my protection. Because she is; this female will be mine.

My attraction to this female is so unexpected and strong, that I fear I might do something stupid just to impress her.

“Sir, we need your help,” the females tell me.

Yeah, I’m going to do something stupid, I just know it.

ChapterFive

MAYA

I’m back to running for my life, only this time I’m not totally panicking.

All I can say is that I’m glad I’m not also screaming like a banshee like the women around me. Seriously? Why do some people scream when it’s unnecessary? We get it, you’re scared! But you’re only going to draw attention toward yourself.

Instead of running toward the Hunters and other security officers, I set my sights on something further in the distance. The communication tower. If I want to save my friends, then I need to find out what’s going on.

Sure, the axe-wielding giants pose a threat, but I have to believe they are here for Ariana. And the colony trained Hunters for a reason; to keep the beasts at bay.

Within seconds I’m slipping through the small alleyways between buildings.

The patchy light blue grass flies beneath my leather shoes. My feet slide through the mud, and I feel the splatter of near-freezing mud hit the backs of my arms. I just know that the back of my skirt is going to be soaked through by the end of the day.

Why didn’t we build nice, neat gardens? Raised planter beds? Or better yet, garden paths that I could run along. Instead, I have icy blades of tall grass ripping at the hem of my skirt and branches of alien trees slapping me in the face. It really feels like this whole ‘settle on an alien planet thing’ is not meant to be permanent, a facade to keep us placated as something sinister goes on beneath our feet.

My mind is a jumble of impossibilities and I feel completely overwhelmed.

Aliens! The planet is supposed to be empty of sentient life. The government checked… Didn’t they?

Now that I think about it, doubts are surfacing. It wouldn’t be the first time someone lied to me. Just more things for me to uncover.

Sweat breaks over my skin from exertion; I ignore it. I push through it. I funnel all my anger and desperation and pain into reaching my destination.

The control tower rises up ahead of me. If I’m lucky the commotion has caused the guards there to abandon the tower. It’s my one chance to sneak in and actually hack the mainframe!

I’ve always kind of wanted to say that line.

The direct opposite of me right now. I’m flushed, my ankle-length skirt keeps catching on things, and I’m sweating up a storm. I’m pretty sure that with the way my curly black hair is frizzing around my face, I look ridiculous.

I slam into the side of the stone building.

I’m also not sneaky at all. I’m like the direct opposite of some sort of superhero.

My goal is in sight. I just have to get past the colony walls; huge towering stone and wood barricades that keep the alien wildlife locked out. Or us humans locked in…

I rest my hand against the building wall, clutching my beloved tablet to my chest as I gasp for air.

Apparently, I’m not even as fit as I thought I was. All those days sitting at a desk, coding the colony’s computer systems and helping to design the tools necessary for living on Atraxis has caught up to me.

As soon as I am not so close to passing out from a lack of oxygen, I peer around the corner of the building. Before me is the second colony gate. This one is tiny compared to the main gate. It’s meant merely as a maintenance gate rather than for heavy machines to drive through. In fact, I’m not even sure most of the colonists even know about it. I do, since I had to help set up the security access for it.