Page 22 of Hunter’s Harvest

This whole getting stuck together and triggering the mate bonding was supposed to be romantic. Instead, all I felt was embarrassment and stress. And I couldn’t even help it. I wanted to feel better about it, but I couldn’t stop how I felt.

So we did what we could, which was focus on our mission. For today, it was getting to the front section of the shuttle and finding my friends. We could do that while stuck together. Then, when we’d rescued everyone, we could deal with the mate bond.

It was an overcast day. But at least it smelled clean and crisp today. Var’n carried me, since that was the only way we could really move, stuck together.

We tucked ourselves under the cover of the trees as soon as we could, staying out of sight. We were just crossing an open road when something had the hairs on my arms standing on end. Var’n froze and let out a snarl, his eyes focused in front of us.

The feeling was familiar, and I placed it the moment before a shuttle uncloaked right in front of us, still hovering in the air. It descended from the sky and landed on the road, kicking up dust around it.

It wasn’t just any Xarc’n shuttle, however. This one had a cartoon of a squirrel with giant balls painted on the rear end. I knew that squirrel! That was Tooth!

Relief flooded through me. Help had arrived!

“That vessel’s from New Franklin!”

Var’n did not relax.

The shuttle landed, the shuttle’s door slid open, and a woman with freckles and hair even redder than mine stepped out, her face breaking into a grin when she saw me. "Nellie!”

“Meghan!”

“I’m so glad we found you. I was terrified to return without you and face Kim’s wrath. She’s been freaking out since the crash. We had to drag her out of the shuttle to stop her from coming along.” Her eyes went to Var’n, and her brows went up. “And who’s this?”

I knew what she saw. She saw a hunter who looked like he’d been living without his shuttle, because he had.

“This is Var’n. Var’n, this is Meghan.”

I didn’t need to explain that Var’n was from the third contingent. Meghan could tell that already just by the shade of his purple skin and the sound of his name. The ending sound of Xarc’n names often coincided with the ship they were on. Which was why so many of the hunters in this area had names that ended with a K sound. They all came from the same mothership.

But hunters sometimes switched and combined motherships, so some of them had names ending with an L sound too.

Meghan eyed the arms around my waist, but before she could ask the question Vince appeared at the shuttle door. He was bruised, had a black eye, and looked much too pale, but he was otherwise alive.

“Hey, Nells! You made it.” He was in front of me in a blink of an eye, trying to pull me into a hug.

Except it ended up like a tug-o-war with me as the rope, with Var’n growling menacingly and Meghan coming between us like she thought she had to stop a fight. And then, because Meghan got between a growling hunter and a human man, her mate Mal’k was there growling as well.

“Everyone, stop!” I yelled, twisting out of Vince’s reach and shoving Var’n, and therefore, myself, away from everyone else. “Var’n, stop growling at my friend. He’s just happy I’m alive.”

I looked over at Vince. “I’m so happy you made it. And I would give you a hug, but somebody is overreacting. We are kind of stuck together right now.”

“Congratulations on the mating.” It was Meghan who finally spoke.

I wasn’t sure what to say, especially when Var’n doubled down with a rather unfriendly, “Nellie is mine.”

I turned just enough glare at him. “You’re not helping.”

“You are mine.”

Meghan came to the rescue. “She’s not saying that she isn’t yours. But we are friends, and we are all here to make sure Nellie gets back to New Franklin safely. Why don’t we talk more inside the shuttle?”

“Affirmative,” Mal’k agreed. “The NEM are around, and I would like to get in the air and cloaked before they find us.”

That had Vince and me exchanging a look.

“They fired on us while we were cloaked,” I said.

“So they can detect our shuttles. Then we will leave the area quickly.”