Page 6 of Snared (The Legion: Savage Lands Sector #8)

She didn’t realize we were being hunted.

I meant to keep it that way. The jungle had gone quiet in places, just enough to make the fur on my nape lift.

Not full danger silence—but a pause. A breath.

A shift of something *not right*. The fugitive I’d tracked for days had circled back.

I could scent it. But she couldn’t. Miri—my kassari—was smiling, talking to a vine she’d nicknamed “Phil,” and humming some melody I didn’t recognize.

The jungle vines pulsed happily around her, reacting to her emotions. They liked her. Chose her. So had fate.

I walked ahead, ears tuned for movement, every stride deliberate. Each scan I made of the canopy and roots was subtle, practiced. I didn’t want her to notice. Fear was unnecessary. Not when I was between her and every threat this world could offer.

Behind me, she sighed. “Do you ever smile, catman?” she asked, fingers brushing the glowing moss as we walked. “You’re all broody muscle and don’t-touch-my-weapons vibes.”

I didn’t smile. Not with danger this close. But her voice made something ease inside my chest.

“I’m focused,” I answered.

She tilted her head. “Yeah, well, focus is good. Just...maybe blink once in a while?”

The jungle vines stirred at her words, brushing her arms, her waist, her legs.

She didn’t flinch. She welcomed them. Neural resonance was deepening—she was reading more from tone, body language, *intention*.

A gift granted only by the wild. I didn’t fully understand it, and I didn’t need to. She did. That was enough.

She paused beside a flowering creeper. “Phil says you’re tense.”

“I am.”

“Danger tense or you’re-around-a-pretty-girl tense?”

Both. The answer curled inside me like a growl I couldn’t release.

I scanned the high branches again. Nothing overt.

Nothing yet. But the fugitive was near. I could smell him—oily and sharp, his trail winding close to our path from the night before.

His route had changed. He was testing the perimeter, watching.

She didn’t need to know that. She needed to feel safe.

“Come,” I said, gently nudging her forward. “You’ll like the next spot.”

“Unless it involves more weird vines touching my ass, I doubt it.”

I glanced back. “They like you.”

She grinned. “Phil’s a perv.”

I turned my attention back to our surroundings, nostrils flaring to catch any change in the air currents.

The Cydarian smuggler’s scent was distinctive—a chemical tang overlaid with sweat and fear.

It had grown stronger in the last hour, which meant he had doubled back toward us.

The stolen Legion tech gave off faint energy signatures that the jungle reacted to, creating small dead zones where the flora retreated from the corruption.

Such a dead zone lay ahead and to our left. I steered Miri to the right, keeping myself between her and the potential threat.

“So,” she said, breaking the silence, “not that I don’t appreciate the strong, silent, jungle guide thing you’ve got going on, but maybe fill me in on what’s actually happening?

Like why you’re really here on jungle planet?

” She gestured around us. “This doesn’t exactly seem like vacation real estate. ”

I hesitated. How much to tell her? The mission was classified. But she was my kassari. My fate mate. Legion protocols didn’t account for that.

“I hunt,” I said simply.

“Yeah, I figured that part out. The question is who—or what—are you hunting?” She stepped over a twisting root formation, her movements growing more confident with each hour in the jungle. “And don’t say ‘prey’ because that’s just evasive and annoying.”

My lips twitched despite the tension coiling within me. She was perceptive. “A fugitive. A Cydarian weapons smuggler who crashed on this planet two weeks ago. He carries stolen technology that could destroy worlds.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh. Okay then. That’s…not what I was expecting.”

“What were you expecting?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Research? Exploration? ‘Studying the fascinating sentient jungle ecosystem’ kind of thing. Not ‘hunting dangerous space criminals.’”

“I am not a scientist.”

“Clearly.” She gave me a once-over that heated my blood despite the danger surrounding us. “More the action hero type. Got it.”

The jungle rippled around us, a subtle wave of awareness passing through the connected root system. I placed my palm against a massive tree trunk, extending my senses into the living network.

*Proximity alert. Movement northeast. Two hundred meters.*

The jungle’s response came not in words but impressions—a directional pull, a sense of watchfulness. The fugitive was circling, perhaps trying to determine if I was still tracking him or if I’d been distracted by the new arrival.

Miri was watching me, her head tilted in curiosity. “Are you...talking to the trees?”

“Yes.”

She blinked. “Okay. And?”

“They talk back.”

A slow smile spread across her face. “That’s actually pretty cool. What do they say? And don’t tell me it’s classified or I’ll have Phil tickle you.”

I raised an eyebrow at the threat, but the vine she’d named actually undulated in what appeared to be agreement. The jungle found her amusing. So did I, against my better judgment.

“They sense everything that moves through the ecosystem,” I explained, resuming our path. “They tell me when something doesn’t belong.”

“Like me?”

“Like you,” I agreed. “But they have accepted you.”

She glanced at the vine that had draped itself casually across her shoulder. “Yeah, Phil and I are tight. But what about the bad guy? The fugitive? Does the jungle tell you where he is?”

My ears flattened slightly before I could control the reaction. She caught it immediately.

“He’s close, isn’t he?” Her voice lowered, the humor draining from it. “That’s why you keep scanning the trees. That’s why you’re so tense.”

I considered lying to her. It would be easier. Simpler. But the Unity bond between us was already strengthening—she would sense deception, even if she couldn’t name what she was sensing.

“Yes.” I stepped closer to her, instinctively shielding her with my body. “But he doesn’t know we’re aware of him. As long as we remain calm and continue on our path, we maintain the advantage.”

To my surprise, she didn’t panic. Her eyes sharpened, her posture straightened, and she nodded once.

“Gotcha. Act natural. I can do that.” She resumed walking, her movements deliberately casual.

“So, Lor Pardus, tell me more about these Unity dreams. Is it like a one-time thing or can they happen again?”

I matched her pace, impressed by her adaptability. Most humans would have reacted with fear or denial to the knowledge of nearby danger. Miri responded with strategic redirection.

“They will continue,” I said, keeping my voice conversational while my senses remained on high alert. “Stronger each time. More...intense.”

A flush crept up her neck. “More intense than the last one? That’s...wow.”

The memory of our shared dream sent heat coursing through my veins—her taste, her scent, the way she had claimed me as thoroughly as I had claimed her. But now was not the time for such thoughts. Not with the fugitive so close.

The canopy opened ahead to reveal my temporary high shelter—a treetop alcove strung between thick-bellied trunks, cloaked with camo vines and insulated moss. A perimeter barrier wove underneath, invisible to the eye but deadly to anything that touched it wrong.

It wasn’t permanent. But it was safe.

“For now,” I murmured.

She climbed up behind me with surprising agility, swinging into the nook and plopping down like she’d done it a hundred times.

“Home sweet viney home,” she muttered, looking around the small space. “Not bad. Better than the military bunker I was camping in before I ended up here.”

I took one last sweep of the jungle from my vantage, calculating distance, angles, terrain. I would track him tonight. Finish it. But not until I was certain she wouldn’t run. Wouldn’t stumble back into danger without me.

The shelter was simple but functional—a sleeping platform lined with soft moss, storage compartments built into the hollowed trunk, and strategic openings that allowed me to monitor the surrounding area while remaining hidden.

The jungle itself had helped construct it, weaving living branches and vines into a resilient structure that blended seamlessly with the natural canopy.

“You built this?” Miri asked, running her hand along the smooth inner wall.

“The jungle and I built it together.” I activated the security perimeter with a subtle gesture, triggering sensors that would alert me to any approach. “Nothing will reach us here without warning.”

“Security system too? Fancy.” She settled herself more comfortably, crossing her legs beneath her. “So what’s the plan? Wait for the bad guy to get bored and wander off?”

I shook my head. “No. He will not stop hunting. Not while he carries what he carries.”

“And what exactly is he carrying? You said technology that could destroy worlds, but that’s pretty vague.”

I hesitated again. Legion protocols were strict about information containment. But she was already involved, already at risk simply by being here. She deserved to know what she faced.

“A neural disruptor core,” I said finally. “Experimental technology designed to interface with sentient ecosystems like this one. In the wrong hands, it could be weaponized—turned into a device that could destroy planetary consciousness.”

Her eyes widened. “Like a mind-killer for living planets?”

“Yes.”

“Well, shit.” She ran a hand through her tangled hair. “No wonder you’re so intense about catching him.”

“It is my mission.”

“And what about me? Am I part of your mission now too?”

The question hung between us, weighted with implications. I met her gaze directly.

“You are more than a mission, Miri. You are my kassari.”

She swallowed, her pulse visibly quickening at the base of her throat. “Right. Fate mate. That’s...still a lot to process.”

“We have time.”

“Do we? Because it sounds like there’s a dangerous alien criminal out there with a planet-killing device, and you’re stuck babysitting me instead of hunting him down.”

I moved closer, crouching before her so our eyes were level. “Not babysitting. Protecting. There is a difference.”

“Is there?” She challenged, but there was no real heat in it. Just the same reflexive deflection I was coming to recognize as her defense mechanism. “Because from where I’m sitting, I’m a liability. A distraction. The reason your fugitive might get away.”

“No.” The word came out more forcefully than I intended. “You are the reason I will succeed. To keep you safe, I must complete my mission.”

Miri met my gaze, her expression curious and soft. “You’ve got that look again.”

“What look?”

“Protector with a dark secret.” She shrugged. “It’s hot.”

She had no idea what she was saying. But one day, she would. And by then, I’d make sure the only thing she had to fear was how hard she’d fall for the male who would give his life to keep her breathing.

Mine. Always.

I straightened, moving to the edge of the shelter to scan the surrounding jungle once more. The fugitive’s trail was growing colder—he had retreated, perhaps sensing the increased security, perhaps simply biding his time. It didn’t matter. I would find him.

“You should rest,” I said, not looking at her. “Night comes quickly here. We will need to move soon.”

“We?” she asked. “Or are you planning to sneak off and play hero while I’m asleep?”

I glanced back at her, unable to hide my surprise at her perceptiveness.

She grinned, though it didn’t reach her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Look, I get it. You’ve got a job to do. But if we’re really...whatever we are...then we’re in this together. No ditching me for my own good. Got it?”

The challenge in her voice stirred something primal in me—respect, amusement, and a deeper hunger I refused to name. She was not what I expected. Stronger. Braver. More.

“I will not leave you unprotected,” I said finally. “But I must track him. Tonight. Before his trail grows colder.”

She considered this, then nodded. “Fine. But I’m coming with you.”

“It is too dangerous.”

“Life is dangerous. I spent the last three years chasing cryptids and conspiracy theories across Earth. I’ve been shot at by paranoid militia groups, chased by ‘security personnel’ at classified facilities, and nearly eaten by what may or may not have been a chupacabra in New Mexico.

” She crossed her arms. “I can handle myself.”

I stared at her, caught between admiration and exasperation. My kassari was either the bravest human I’d ever encountered or the most reckless. Perhaps both.

“The predators here are unlike anything on your world,” I warned.

“That’s why I’ll have you.” She held my gaze, unwavering. “You protect me, I help you. Partnership.”

The concept was foreign to me. Reapers worked alone. We hunted alone. We lived alone. But nothing about this mission had followed protocol from the moment she stepped through that portal.

“We will discuss it after you rest,” I said finally, a compromise.

She seemed to recognize it as the concession it was. “Fine. But just so you know, if you try to leave me behind, Phil will totally rat you out.”

The vine draped across her shoulder gave a small undulating wave that could almost be interpreted as agreement. The jungle itself was conspiring against me.

“Traitor,” I muttered to the vine.

Miri’s laugh was unexpected—bright and genuine in the shadowed shelter. It sent a pulse of warmth through me that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with the Unity bond growing between us.

For the first time since detecting the fugitive’s return, I felt the tension in my shoulders ease slightly. Whatever came next, whatever danger we faced, we would face it together.

My kassari. My fate. My mission.