Page 3 of Fated to the Hunter (Xarc’n Warriors #13)

“I think he likes you!” Holly squealed when Roger and Bael’k were out of earshot, or at least I hoped they were out of earshot. Those Xarc’n hunters had amazing hearing.

“Think?” Garrett responded. “More like I’m sure he likes you.”

“You’re right!” Holly agreed. “That was a purr if I ever heard one! You lucky bitch!”

“Uh, well, I’m not really interested,” I said.

“Really? Not even with that body.”

“Well, the body, sure,” I admitted. “But just to look.”

“Ugh! Girl talk,” Garrett made a face, reminding me that he was technically just a kid. “I’m outta here. I need to disinfect the scrapes on my knees anyway. I didn’t notice them at first, but now they really sting.”

“Lemme see?” I peered down at his knees, and sure enough, they were bleeding. “Yeah, get that looked after. See if you can get a decontaminator on that for a few minutes too, just in case.”

The space bugs themselves weren’t the only thing that could kill you.

The fungus they carried was just as scary.

That shit was super contagious, and if it took hold, it turned you into a sore-covered zombie, good for nothing but being bug chow.

And the scariest thing? By the time the sores started showing up, you were as good as dead.

It was like Rabies 2.0, but minus the fear of water.

“I’ll hold up the fort until Mel gets here,” I said. Melissa was my replacement.

Since I’d helped with the actual setup of the booths and stalls, making sure everyone got to their right area, I was only scheduled at the information booth until midmorning. Then I got to check out the market myself before the midday sun and flyers forced us all indoors.

Despite not having a nest in the immediate area, New Franklin still got a few flyers now and then. Today was far from normal, and considering this gathering had attracted so many flyers from the surrounding nests already this early in the day, I’d bet lunchtime would be a doozy.

That was why we’d planned several lunchtime presentations inside the community center. The auditorium was more than big enough for everyone attending.

Some vendors were worried about theft while everyone was indoors, so we installed cameras and streamed the footage to screens in the community center.

Still, a few had insisted on staying at their stalls.

After a heated forum debate, we’d reached a compromise: meetings became optional, but those who stayed outside, vendor or thief, would have no security.

Hunter shuttles would be grounded during peak flyer hours, leaving them exposed.

If their presence attracted the scourge and caused damage, their group would be responsible for repairs and compensation.

Failure to comply meant removal and a ban from future markets.

I doubted the ones insisting they’d stay out would actually follow through, especially since a flyer had already breached the shuttle barrier, and it wasn’t even midmorning yet.

“So, you’re still not gung-ho about dating a hunky hunter?” Holly asked.

“I’m not gung-ho about dating at all. Don’t get me wrong, I think they’re super hot. Queen of the alien romance novels, remember?”

She tittered. “How could I forget. Thanks for liberating those from private collections and stocking up our library.”

I grinned, glad that Dottie’s and my hard work of finding and retrieving that mega stash of romance novels had been worth it.

“But no relationships for me. Not after... Never mind.”

She looked chagrined. “I’m sorry. I know it still hurts.”

Crap! Now I felt like shit. Just because I couldn’t get over the fact that I was never getting my friends and family back didn’t mean I should bring everyone else down with me. Everyone here had lost people. I wasn’t special.

“No, I’m sorry. I know it’s been years, and I shouldn’t dwell on the past.”

A pair of men wearing combat pants, leather jackets, and cowboy hats—yes, all three together, and somehow it worked, don’t ask— approached the information booth, and I was glad I had an excuse out of that conversation.

One of them had his attention on Holly’s stall, probably craving a cuppa joe, but the other one walked straight to me.

“Are you Kiera?”

“I am. And you are?”

“Jeff and Jordan Ainsley.” He motioned first to his brother, who gave me a curt nod before turning to eye Holly and the coffee, then to himself.

I brightened in recognition. “The Ainsley brothers!”

“Glad to make your acquaintance,” Jordan said with an exaggerated bow, a big grin on his face.

“Is that coffee?” Jeff asked.

I chuckled. “It sure is!”

The brothers and I had been messaging back and forth on the survivor forum for a few months now. They had something very special that I’d been itching to get my hands on.

For my day job, I spent my hours going through all the old web pages the Xarc’n warriors had saved from our old internet, categorizing them so it would be easier for us to find the critical information that we needed.

Four years in, and the work still wasn’t done.

Some thought we should scrap all the social media archives, which was just ridiculous.

I knew that buried in those billions of clips were insights we couldn’t afford to lose.

Sure, most of it was junk, but some of it reshaped society.

My job was to sort the wheat from the chaff.

But that was just my day job. After hours, I hunted down information on pre-collapse tech.

I ran a site called Kiera’s Corner of Tech and Specs , where I posted everything I found, even the stuff I didn’t fully understand.

The site had been voted Most Likely to Save Humanity two years straight, and I knew the Tech Wizards used it often.

Hell, they were frequently the ones requesting or submitting new entries.

It started with me uploading useful bits from the hundreds of pages I scanned daily. Then people began bringing me physical blueprints and rare finds to digitize. Now there was even a section for fan-made creations built from the specs I shared.

Last year, I’d stumbled across some very interesting notes regarding some hard drives with highly classified information on them.

Think international semiconductor secrets.

An anonymous Taiwanese expat in the U.S.

had posted on a dark web forum (yes, the Hunters archived that too), claiming the drives held manufacturing data that could make the right person insanely rich.

Some people called bullshit, especially since he wasn’t selling the hard drives themselves, but rather, a map showing where he’d hidden them.

The thread had ended suddenly around the time the scourge arrived on the planet, but it looked like someone had taken the bait, and money and a map had changed hands. Whether the buyer ever had the chance to look for the treasure? No clue. Especially with the unfortunate timing of the bugpocalypse.

Curious, I’d gone to the survivor forum with the story, not expecting anything to come of it. Imagine my surprise when I started getting real replies that weren’t just jokes. One woman remembered the pre-collapse thread. In fact, she’d even replied to it, and I confirmed her username.

CyberSiren, or Sara in real life, had assumed that the whole thing was a scam until the FBI showed up at her house. That was only a few days before the internet was shut down. Then there was the Ainsley Brothers, who claimed they might have the actual map.

The brothers were nomads. They visited New Franklin frequently. I just hadn’t met them.

Jordan Ainsley had dashing good looks and a friendly grin; he was probably the type who had a pretty girl in every settlement.

His brother, Jeff, seemed like a quieter, more reserved version of him.

He was currently ordering a double coffee with three sugars and extra creamers, which Holly was more than happy to mix up.

“So, which one of you have I been talking to?” I asked.

“Me,” Jordan said, looking at me appraisingly. “You know, you are not what I expected.”

I laughed. “In a good way, I hope?”

“Yup.”

“I can say the same about you.”

“We brought the map, if you wanna look at it.”

“You did?” I mentally chastised myself. Of course he did. This was what the market was for! “What do you want for it? I mean token-wise.”

We had a system where everyone priced their wares by tokens. One small coffee was one token. A large coffee was worth two. As a result, we had people on the forum trying to figure out how many coffees things were worth. Yes, on post-apocalyptic Earth, coffee was the default currency measurement.

He shook his head. “We’re not selling it. I’m after something else.”

I raised my brow. “Yeah? What?”

“Fame and fortune?” He cocked a brow at me. “An entry in the history books. If you end up finding the hard drives, we want to be known as the brothers who hunted down the map. Oh, and a mention on your website, of course.”

“That’s doable. But I’m not sure if we’ll find anything.” Despite my excitement, I knew that I could be chasing a ghost that never existed. “It could all be a scam.”

“Yeah, it could. That’s why we’re not charging anything. But it’s not doing us any good just sitting there. We ain’t going to go look for it; we mostly trade in medicines. So might as well give it to someone who would.”

Oops! He thought I planned on searching for the goodies. I hadn’t thought past getting my hands on the map.

“There’s no guarantee I’m looking for the hard drives,” I said honestly.

He gave a little shrug, a crooked half-smile flickering over his lips. “That’s fine by me. If you don’t mind, maybe instead of a pile of tokens, how about dinner? You, me, and a meal. No pressure. Call it a fair exchange for the map.”

I hesitated, a little surprised by the offer.

Today was turning out to be strange indeed.

I’d spent years hiding from anything that might be confused for intimacy, and now this.

Well, maybe it was time for me to step out of my comfort zone.

Jordan was a nomad, and that meant he’d leave after the market was over, and I might not see him for a while.

He was perfect for some commitment-free itch-scratching.

But before I could reply, a loud growl vibrated the air around us, and there was suddenly a big wall of purple muscle wedged between Jordan and the information booth. Bael’k was back. Without warning, he grabbed one of the market maps and then shoved it into Jordan’s hand.

“You have your information. Go!”

I wasn’t sure if Bael’k was baring his fangs on purpose to intimidate Jordan or if that was just his angry face.

Jordan backed away, looking wary but amused.

His brother, Jeff, was immediately beside him, his hand on the knife strapped to his thigh.

Jordan put a out hand, stopping his brother from drawing the weapon.

“Taken, I see. Ah, well.”

“Actually, I’m not,” I managed to spit out. “I just met him today.”

Bael’k stood there menacingly, chest puffed out like he was protecting me from certain danger.

The low, primal growl rumbling from him sent an unexpected shiver through my body.

Okay, so he was kind of hot when he got all jealous and protective.

And look at those wide shoulders and thick, drool-worthy arms.

Ugh! What the hell was wrong with me? He was an alien. And he was scaring away the very person who actually had what I wanted.

I tried to shove him out of the way, but he stood there all majestic horns and rippling shoulders. All I managed to do was trigger that telltale purring sound that made it undeniable that he found me attractive.

This was when I noticed that Bael’k had returned with Roger, who was munching on a generously-sized kebab, and watching the exchange like the latest episode of his favorite show. Melissa, his wife, was here as well, to relieve me of booth duty.

There were also several people around the booth now, watching with barely-concealed curiosity and looking rather amused. Great. This was going to be all over the settlement by tomorrow.

“Well, in that case, my offer still stands. Come find me when you’re free.” Jordan tipped his hat, and sent me one last playful grin before turning away.

“Bye. See you later,” Jeff called out, waving before following his brother through the market stalls.

I turned on the hunter who’d just sabotaged my nearly nonexistent game. “What the actual fuck!”

“He got his map. He can go.”

“But I haven’t gotten my map!”

Bael’k frowned, then picked up one of the compostable market maps and held it out to me.

I rolled my eyes. “Not that map!”

Holly cleared her throat, then came over to our booth. She looked first to me, then at Bael’k, then at me again. Oh! She wanted an introduction. Perfect timing. She could keep the unsuitable alien suitor off my back.

“This is Holly,” I said, sidling over to her booth. “Holly, this is Bael’k.”

My Xarc’n hopeful friend stuck out her hand, and when he didn’t immediately take it, she took his instead. “Nice to meet you! Thank you so much for saving us earlier!”

I took the opportunity to slip out from behind the counter. I sent Melissa a grateful look as I squeezed my way past them, and she replied with a thumbs-up.

Scanning the market, I noticed the small group of Xarc’n fangirls huddling nearby, all eyes on Bael’k. I made a beeline for them.

“I think that one’s looking for a mate,” I said conspiratorially.

All their eyes lit up, and they started toward the booth.

Ha! Good luck getting out of that!