Page 6 of Hunter’s Valentine (Xarc’n Warriors)

Having Sara in my shuttle was sheer torture.

Her scent was driving me crazy, and I was willing to bet it had already seeped into the sleeping mat so that she would haunt me even after she was gone. How would I sleep tonight without taking myself in my hand?

That had me thinking of the strange, human mouth-mating ritual we’d shared earlier. I regretted initiating it, but not because I didn’t enjoy it. On the contrary, I’d enjoyed it far too much. It was all I could think about now—that and continuing my explorations of her body and burying my face between her legs.

She was currently in the pilot’s chair, poring over the updated map on the screen, which meant it would be covered in her scent as well—especially since she’d removed her outermost layers of clothing and left them in my sleeping nook.

She was surprised that we had kept and used one of their map programs, which confused me. Why wouldn’t we? It was more work to map the area ourselves, and our time and energy were better spent hunting the scourge.

“Is this date correct?” she asked, pointing to the numbers at the top of the map.

“It is the date all humans working with hunters follow. Hunters use it because Xarc time is confusing on other planets. Why?”

“Just that it says today is February 12. But we have today as February 26 at the bunker.”

“You can correct it when you return,” I said.

“I guess I didn’t spend Valentine’s Day alone again this year after all.”

“What is this vale-and-tines day? Is it like your Christmas?”

Humans had many holidays, and I hadn’t bothered to keep up with them all.

She chuckled. “How do you know about Christmas?”

“The humans who work with our hunter groups celebrate it. I do not understand it, but there is much food. I enjoy food.”

“You and me both. But no, it’s not like Christmas.”

She explained how Valentine’s Day was when lovers showed affection with words and gifts, and how children also made cards with hearts on them to give to their friends and family.

“Hearts? But isn’t that messy? Where are they getting the hearts?”

She giggled, the sound bouncing merrily off the shuttle walls. “Not actual hearts. It’s symbolic. I wish I had an example to show you. I’m not good with explaining.”

“Will access to your internet help?”

“Yes! Don’t tell me they got that back up!” Her eyes were wide with excitement.

“How does an internet fall down? Do you mean your satellites?”

“I mean, it’s working.”

“We saved what we could and use it as a reference guide to the locations, animals, and other things we come across. But there are many useless recordings.”

Her scent filled my lungs as I reached over her to pull up their internet. The last video I’d been watching popped up and started playing. I immediately moved away from the page.

“Did you just try to hide a video?” She eyed me suspiciously, then quickly went back to the page.

The video of the young feline attacking a fake bird on a string started playing again.

“Aww! That’s so cute. I miss cat videos.” She shook her head. “Sorry, the way you were acting, I thought it was porn or something.”

I made a face. “Videos of humans fornicating do not interest me.”

I looked at the screen, then at Sara’s smile as the next video started playing automatically and several kittens pounced on each other.

“Recordings of felines are not useful for the hunt,” I explained. “It feels like I am shirking my duties.”

“Yeah, but they’re cute. It’s fine, unless you are addicted to them and watch them all day and night.”

I didn’t comment. I watch many, many of them.

She showed me red and pink shapes on the screen. “There. Those hearts.”

“Those are not hearts. They cannot pump.”

“Like I said, it’s symbolic. People tend to think that love comes from the heart, even though it really comes from the brain.”

“I see. I think.” I thought of how Xarc’n chests rumbled for those they were compatible with, and how my chest had done that for her. What I felt when we did the mouth-mating was like a hunger, but different.

As if sensing my thoughts, Sara’s stomach rumbled. She dug into her pack and produced a solid yet light cake of food that was very different from any of the others I had seen humans eat.

She caught me looking, broke off a piece, and held it out to me. “Want some?”

I took it and chewed. It was hard and unpalatable, perhaps even blander than our food bars, and my tongue detected very little protein or nutrients. It might be high in calories, but that was all. Where was the protein and all the vitamins? She couldn’t possibly live on such inadequate sustenance.

I opened my cabinet to retrieve one of our food bars. Unwrapping the waxed packaging, I broke off a piece for her. She took it, probably because I’d already taken some of her food. Many humans refused to take food from Xarc’n hunters because they worried it meant we would steal them away into our shuttles. But technically, she was already here.

“It’s tough,” she said after taking a bite. “But not too bad.”

That surprised me. “Usually, humans find our food bars to be unpalatable. You are the first to say that it’s ‘not bad.’”

“Well, you’ve tasted mine.” She waved her flavorless bar in the air.

I had to admit, hers was worse.

“Food at the bunker isn’t…great,” she admitted.

“You come from the underground shelter behind the large house,” I said. It wasn’t really a question, but I was interested to know if I’d guessed correctly.

She was silent for a beat, then changed the subject, denying me my hoped-for confirmation. “I have a question, and don’t take this the wrong way, but if hunters were created to fight ‘the scourge’”—she used our word for the creatures—“then why can’t you fight the big centipedes? I have seen you hunters take on the flyers and even the spitters without difficulty.”

“The centicreeps evolved here on Earth. We are not trained to combat them.”

She frowned at the name. “Centicreeps?”

“That is what we call them.”

“Why is it in English? All the other names, like flyers or spitters, are translated from your language.”

“Because they were first discovered here on this continent. The name was adopted planetwide.”

“Huh. Interesting. Now that you mention it, I didn’t see these bugs until after we’d gone down into the bunker. The internet was down by then, and the only way we found out about them was from our drone that we sent out to gather information. It didn’t last long. A flyer snatched it up mid-air on its second flight.” She wrinkled her nose. “So, if you can’t fight it, what happens if it shows up when you are hunting?”

“I can fight it if it is caught in a trap, or I pin it with a net. Conditions were not right this time. And other hunter groups have developed many effective ways to fight these creatures, but they all require more than one hunter.”

“And you hunt alone?”

“Affirmative. Except during the summer swarms, when I join one of the groups. That is how hunters have done it on other planets. Many now stay in groups permanently, but it is because they have females they must protect. I, however, am not interested in a mate.” I didn’t know whether I said that to reassure her, or to convince myself.

Sara also tried some of my vitamin water, which she said was quite tasty, so I mixed some up for her, and she filled one of her bottles with it. Then I offered her an Earth-made protein bar, which I collected to trade with other hunter groups.

“No thanks,” she said, even as her eyes lingered on it.

She was still hesitant to take food from me.

“I do not enjoy them,” I said. Then I left the bar out next to the navigation screen, in case she changed her mind.

It was late afternoon by the time the centicreep lost interest in my shuttle and headed back to its nest. The other scourge in the area were returning home, too. Even though there were more flyers in the sky than there had been in the morning, the hunt would still be successful, with some modifications.

“I will attempt the hunt now,” I announced. “And since you interrupted it the first time, you will help me.”

That had Sara bristling again. I secretly enjoyed her ire, especially when she was glaring at me like that. It reminded me of an angry kitten I’d seen in a video. Felines were hunters, too. Perhaps that was why I enjoyed watching them so much.

“I will show you how to use my ship’s blaster so you can shoot down the flyers. Flyers that wouldn’t have been there this morning,” I stressed.

“Fine, whatever. I still say you ruined my travels, but shooting down flyers actually sounds kind of fun.”

“It is. This is another thing the humans at New Franklin helped me with. They remounted the blaster so I can use it both in flight and as a turret when stationary.”

I brought up the screen to control the ship’s weapons, then pulled her down to sit on top of me in the pilot’s seat.

“Hey!” She pushed away from me, struggling in my lap.

I groaned at the way she rubbed up against me and tightened my hold on her so she’d stop squirming. “Stop moving, female!”

She did so, but it was already too late. My chest was rumbling like a volcano about to erupt, and my cock had stolen all the blood from my brain.