The Hunt 4r3t1a

The Hunt by

Angelique Anjou

© copyright by Madris DePasture writing as Angelique Anjou, 2021 Cover Art by Jenny Dixon 2021 ISBN 978-1-60394Smashwords Edition New Concepts Publishing Lake Park, GA 31636 www.newconceptspublishing.com

Chapter One

There was a Dacton warrior standing on the rim of the bluff no more than three yards from her when Casey—Dr. Cassandra Towns—emerged from her abstraction. She jolted to a halt, but her heart leapt and stampeded through her chest as if it would beat its way out. A wave of faintness swept through her. For several moments, she couldn’t command her mind into any sort of order at all. Primal fear was so prevalent within her, she felt weak with the urge to whirl and take to her heels. Fortunately, the adrenaline pumping through her heart so that it was racing madly didn’t lend wings to her feet. Otherwise, she would’ve been halfway down the hill toward her hovercraft before she’d had time to consider the situation. Instead, she went into ‘mouse’ mode, freezing where she stood. She must have been huffing like an asthmatic horse, for all that. Despite her terrified focus inwardly, she noted the telltale signs that he’d noticed her presence. He tensed all over and whirled, scanning the bluff behind him in a sweeping gaze that seemed to miss nothing. Except her—She felt weak all over when she recalled that she’d cloaked herself even before she stepped out of the hovercraft—which was also, thankfully, cloaked. She clamped her lips together to force her panting breaths through her nose, trying to tell herself he hadn’t actually heard her frightened huffs of breath. She was too far away from him, she assured herself, and the wind gusting over the edge of the bluff had to have deafened him to her approach. It wasn’t easy convincing herself of that when he seemed to be staring straight at her. She slammed her eyes closed, focusing on calming her wayward heart. He couldn’t possibly see her. The invisibility cloak insured that. It had to be the sounds she was making that had alerted him, she was sure, but she was too panicked to recall if she’d sucked in a gasp of fright, whether she’d scuffed the soft soles of her shoes on the hard surface, or to think if she’d been panting

loudly enough he might have heard her. There was no doubt that terror was uppermost in her, though. She would’ve liked to have denied that, but this was the closest she’d ever been to any of the aliens and to have stumbled upon a warrior made her faint with fright. There was a touch of excitement buried somewhere in there, she assured herself. Fear certainly hadn’t been uppermost in her mind when she’d decided to study the Dactons first hand! She was thrilled at the opportunity she’d stumbled upon! She should be, anyway! She discovered he was still looking in her direction when she opened her eyes again. To her relief, though, a distant look entered his eyes. He couldn’t see her! Of course he couldn’t! The cloak made her completely invisible to the human eye. She must have made some sound to alert him. She was both relieved and disappointed when he finally turned away. She’d been in too much of a panic to actually examine him while she had the chance, damn it! Some scientist she was! Dismissing it once she had regained some control of her facilities, she scanned his back and the little of his profile that she could see. He was definitely a warrior, she decided. Of course, from what they’d been able to determine, all of the adult males of the tribe were and even some of the females. This specimen was so tall and brawny, though, she decided he must be one of their elite warriors. It struck her as odd. It had been determined that the Dacton people were savages, barely advanced enough to begin building a civilization. That suggested limited nutrition, which certainly shouldn’t have produced so fine a specimen as the one she was currently studying. She was of average height—human height—herself, and she could see that he towered over her, or would if she’d been closer. Of course, from the little that had been learned of the natives, they were a tall

race, or species. The argument was that it was the environment that had produced beings of such a size, either the high oxygen content of the atmosphere or possibly the lower density and/or gravity compared to Earth since the planet was somewhat smaller than Earth. Historically, their own species hadn’t been nearly as tall during this stage of their development. Few males had been much over five and a half feet and the females had been closer to five feet while the Dactons were all six feet to six and half. This one appeared to be six feet six inches, easily, if not more. It wasn’t often that she felt dainty, and in the current situation, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling—mostly, she realized, because she actually felt more puny and vulnerable than she did feminine, threatened by the sheer magnitude of the man. It was just icing on the cake that they were also savages and this was probably one of the most dangerous of the dangerous if she was right and he was one of their elite warriors. And she thought she probably was. Pushing that wayward thought aside, she focused on examining his muscular body, trying to infuse scientific detachment into the equation and ignore the mixture of fear and purely feminine interest. There wasn’t much impediment to studying him. The Dactons wore primitive clothing—what little they wore. This particular specimen wasn’t wearing anything but some sort of leather loincloth, knee high boots or leggings and gauntlets that covered his forearms from wrist to elbow. Frowning as she studied his clothes, she wrestled with the urge to move a little closer to study them better when it occurred to her that, primitive or not, the clothing didn’t look nearly as crudely fashioned as she’d expected. She was still trying to get up the nerve to move a little closer when the warrior abruptly turned toward her again, stared in her direction for a long moment, and then abruptly strode straight toward her. Casey’s heart, which had just begun to behave more or less normally, leapt into her throat. Her mind went blank and she felt her jaw sag in shock. He halted less than two feet away from her, seemed to stare right at her, and then turned and strode away from her. By the time Casey had managed to gather her wits, he was rapidly vanishing into the wilderness. She stared at his quickly receding form for a few moments, debating with herself, and finally began to follow him as briskly as she dared.

She felt sure that he must be heading toward his village and she didn’t want to miss the opportunity that had brought her to the remote area to start with. Most of her fear was replaced with anxiety and excitement as she hurried after him. Scientific excitement, of course. It was hard to convince herself that was all it was, she discovered. Her belly wasn’t just shimmying with nerves and detached, scientific curiosity as she watched him. He was downright … pretty—for a savage—and, oddly enough, there was something about the way he moved that was just blatantly … sexy. She chided herself. It was alright to ire him from a purely scientific standpoint as an excellent specimen of a species that had aroused heady excitement within the scientific community that had settled on Dacton One. It was a seriously bad time to she was a woman, though. She frowned. Ordinarily, that wasn’t a problem for her. Sure, she was a woman, not just a scientist, but her hormones didn’t generally get in her way when she was pursuing knowledge. She didn’t know why it was now even if he was, ittedly, a damned fine looking male animal and wonderfully formed. He’d scared the pure piss out of her when she’d stumbled up on him! It was disconcerting, to say the least, to make such a leap so quickly from sheer terror to feminine curiosity. She was so busy chiding herself about her unwelcome feminine interest in the male she’d discovered that a second stepped from the forest and onto the trail she’d been following before she even realized there was another Dacton warrior anywhere in her vicinity. The warrior ahead of her, she discovered, had stopped. She tensed, wondering if the newest was friend or foe, but her warrior, she saw, wasn’t showing any signs of tension or aggression. The newest Dacton warrior, glanced along the trail, his gaze almost seeming to settle on her and then he looked a question at the other. She didn’t anybody mentioning that the Dactons were such a handsome race, she thought irritably!

Maybe because the others had their minds where they should have been? * * * * “I suppose you’re aware you have a … haunt?” Khan asked in a low voice. Bane scowled at him irritably. “You know how skittish they are. Stop staring at her, gods damn it! I was trying to lure her into the village.” Khan lifted his brows, studying his friend speculatively. “For what purpose?” Bane sent him a speaking look. “So I could study her, of course.” Khan snorted. “Your interest is purely scientific curiosity, of course.” Bane grinned. “Don’t be thick! We need new blood, don’t we? This is the prettiest ‘spirit walker’ I’ve seen yet—not that I can tell as much as I’d like to with that thing she’s wearing.” Khan’s eyes narrowed, but he let the insult . Amusement flickered in his eyes. “Just like that? You aren’t even going to pretend you don’t have designs on getting her on your pallet?” Bane shrugged. “There’s not much point in pretending when you know me so well, is there? I figured I could always tell the council it was scientific curiosity.” Khan considered that thoughtfully and finally shrugged. “I doubt they’d object. As you pointed out, we need new blood. The spring festival is almost upon us. They’d welcome her for that if nothing else and everybody’s curious about them.” After flicking another quick, assessing look at her, he nudged his chin in the direction of the village and began walking. “You think she’ll follow us all the way to the village?” Bane frowned. “We could always use a little insurance. Why don’t you circle back, see if you can locate her vehicle, and disable it?” Khan considered it briefly. “Good idea. If she’s stranded, I think we can be sure she’d far prefer to hang around the village to walking back to their colony or staying in the woods. Any idea of where I might find it?”

Bane shook his head. “She came up behind me when I was standing on the bluff. She probably hid it just down the trail. She doesn’t look like she’s been traveling far on foot.” Nodding, Khan turned abruptly. Instead of heading into the woods, he strode directly toward the ‘spirit walker’. Casey was so surprised when the new warrior abruptly turned and headed straight toward her that it took her several moments to react. She barely managed to step aside to prevent a collision with him. The near miss was enough to thoroughly rattle her, though, and she stood staring at his retreating back for several moments before she realized he’d distracted her from her original quarry. Dismay filled her when she glanced around and discovered he’d struck off once more. She hurried after him although she’d begun to reconsider the wisdom of it. She had no idea, after all, if he was even leading her to one of their villages. She slowed, frowning thoughtfully, wondering if she should have followed the other Dacton, wondering if he was heading toward the village and she was following the wrong man. She hadn’t seen any sign of a village, though, she reminded herself—not surprising, really, since they were well hidden. Still …. Shaking her indecision, she hurried to catch up to her original target, wondering what the two had been discussing that had sent both off in opposite directions with such brisk purpose. She’d studied their language. Ansley, an earlier researcher of the natives of their new colony world, had carefully recorded and translated the language. True, they’d been speaking in low voices, but she had heard a few words here and there and she thought she should’ve been able to pick up more than she had. All she’d understood of the entire conversation, though, was some reference to spirit walkers, or ghosts. She supposed it was the same thing, and yet she couldn’t figure out what the connotations of it might have been. A ritual? Or some sort of religious reference? Maybe it was a sort of greeting they commonly exchanged? Historically, humans had often brought their mythology into everyday speech—some people still did even though a lot of people had long forgotten the original motives for doing so and even the original meaning of the phrases. She said fuck when she felt extreme provocation, distress, pain ….

Wait! That wasn’t religious! She didn’t think it ever had been anyway. God! That was one! And it probably had been like a prayer for help or something of the sort back when people believed in deities. So maybe that was it? Walking spirits or ghosts were some sort of religious reference, or maybe a blessing they exchanged that had to do with the spirits of their ancestors or something like that? It was unfortunate that she didn’t dare access her recorder. They seemed to have very keen hearing, though, and she thought it would be best to simply make a mental note of her suspicions for the time being. She could record her thoughts later and then, hopefully, she would get the chance at some point to better understand the significance of it. Always assuming they were actually headed to a village. The thought had barely faded from her mind when she discovered they actually were approaching a village. For some reason no one had figured out yet, the natives built structures that tended to blend with their surroundings. They also seemed to have a knack for building near or over areas that had some sort of magnetic interference that made studying them with electronic equipment extremely difficult. In point of fact, they’d established their own colony before they discovered the planet was already inhabited by an intelligent species. In a way, the habit of the Dactons of building near the electronic interference zone was fortunate. If not for that, they would have stumbled upon them right away and that wouldn’t have been a good thing … scientifically speaking, possibly even dangerous on a survival level since they appeared to be very barbaric and might have been extremely hostile to the ‘invaders’. The scientific community had certainly breathed a collective sigh of relief, though. Interference in any way with the development of other species was considered a serious breach in scientific protocol and interference included being seen. It had been proven, on Earth, that it was impossible for ‘outsiders’ to study primitive cultures without influencing them. Which was why she’d finally decided that the only way to conduct her research was to cloak herself. She needed to get close to study their social structure and customs. Unlike Ansley, who’d hidden out at some distance from the village and

recorded snatches of conversation between the Dactons as they traveled to and from their villages, she needed to get close enough to observe before she had any hope of understanding. The Dacton people were the find of the century! A hundred years earlier, when they’d finally mastered time/warp space travel and set out from Earth like locusts to explore, map, and colonize the galaxy, they’d had no real idea of what to expect. They’d studied their galaxy for years from their own solar system, but there’d been extreme limitations to exploring from ‘home’, despite the advances in the space sciences and the probes sent out in every direction. They’d mapped thousands of Earth-like planets, but with a mixture of disappointment and relief, they hadn’t found any that were home to a species that was the technological equal of humans or more advanced. They hadn’t actually discovered very many that had what they considered sentient beings. They’d found quite a few species of animals that were intelligent—but, by scientific measurements, they were still animals. They’d found the remains of some dead civilizations—some fairly primitive and some fairly advanced—and they’d discovered a few ‘dangerous’ species. The Dactons were a potentially dangerous species as far as Casey could see, and despite the reluctance of the others to rock the boat at this point, she didn’t see that it was a good idea at all to ignore the potential threat. Not that they didn’t have some valid arguments! The most valid of those was that they were on shaky ground in so far as establishing their colony. They’d mastered time/warp travel. What was once impossible because of the distances involved and the short life spans of humans, was now very possible. They had the ability to travel from one system to another quickly enough to make it doable. They hadn’t mastered the expense, however, of establishing new colonies. They were tremendous undertakings when they had to haul so much with them just to give a new colony a fighting chance of success. By and large, once they’d been deposited, they were pretty much on their own. So that was a very good point. They didn’t need to risk stirring the natives up when they weren’t really prepared to defend themselves at this point. The colony was vulnerable and so were the colonists.

On the other hand, as far as she could see, it didn’t necessarily follow that the Dactons were unaware of them just because they hadn’t noticed the planet was inhabited by such a race. She thought the sooner they discovered if the Dactons were dangerous to them and if so, how dangerous, then they could avert disaster —maybe. Ignorance certainly wasn’t going to help them avert it! Pausing when the warrior strode into the village, Casey looked around a little uneasily. She saw a number of Dactons look up when he did, study him for several moments, and then go back to their tasks. The warrior strode directly toward a young female who was busy at some task outside her habitat. His woman?

Chapter Two

Struggling to ignore the odd sense of disappointment that flickered through her, Casey watched the two together, trying to decide what their association might be. It occurred to her after a few moments that she had the opportunity to take a few notes. After glancing around again to make sure no one was close enough to overhear her, she took her recorder out and made a few quick observations, including the question that had occurred to her earlier about the possible connection between religion and spirit walkers. The warrior was still talking to the woman when she stowed her recorder again. Her belly tightened with anxiety as she considered whether to actually enter the village or not. The idea was far more terrifying than exciting, she discovered. While she’d been safe in her own habitat in the colony, it had seemed a little unnerving, but thrilling. It was amazing how that perspective could change so radically when presented with reality! Reminding herself that they couldn’t actually see her and that, therefore, she wasn’t in any real danger as long as she didn’t give her presence away, Casey finally crept from the concealment of the forest and began working her way closer, hopeful that she might overhear enough of the conversation to learn something. She discovered it was really hard to regulate her breathing when she was so frightened she felt weak and lightheaded. There was a tree within a couple of yards of where the two were sitting together and Casey decided that was close enough. She couldn’t actually hear them all that well, but they were going to hear her if she went any closer unless she stopped long enough to try to control herself! Leaning against the tree in relief, she listened intently for a few moments. When she realized she still wasn’t close enough to hear all that well, she turned her

attention to studying the village, hoping that would ease some of her tension. There either weren’t many Dactons in this particular village or the majority was inside their habitats—or off hunting. They would undoubtedly spend a great deal of time hunting, she decided. As far as she could tell, they probably didn’t have much if any means of preserving food, which would make that necessary. Very likely, they spent the vast majority of their days working on feeding themselves—just as ancient humans had. The first indication she had that something had changed between the two Dactons she’d moved closer to observe was movement in her peripheral vision. Before she could react by doing more than shifting her attention in their direction again, the warrior planted a hand the size of her head on one of her boobs and pinned her to the tree. If she hadn’t been too frozen with sheer terror to move, or even to breathe, she would certainly have given herself away. Fortunately, her instincts were still guiding her! The warrior turned and looked directly at her, frowning slightly as he squeezed her breast experimentally. “This tree feels a little … spongy. I wonder if it’s rotting?” he said slowly, thoughtfully. The woman uttered a snicker of amusement and covered her mouth. She cleared her throat. “I hadn’t noticed any signs of decay.” The warrior grunted, squeezed her breast a couple more times and then, thankfully, released it. Stepping back, he planted his hands on his hips and surveyed the tree. Casey allowed herself a light breath and flicked her gaze around a little frantically, wondering if she could summon enough strength into her legs to move. Before she could manage anything at all, however, the warrior decided to examine the ‘tree’ more thoroughly. He examined both breasts—her entire body from shoulder to crotch—and finally stepped back again. “Odd. It feels spongy all over. I don’t see any outward signs of rot, though. It would be a shame to have to cut it down.” “Bane!” the woman said in a slightly strangled voice. “Don’t … talk like that! Where would … the tree’s … spirit go?”

The warrior turned away. “Good point!” Casey nearly fainted with relief when he moved away again. * * * * The amused mischievousness that had prompted Bane to see if he could jolt their snooping visitor out of hiding waned as he thoroughly explored her soft dips and curves. A flicker of irritation went through him that he couldn’t examine her better, for whatever technology had been used to produce the effect of disguising her also limited his sensory perceptions. He moved away from her again thoughtfully. Definitely female, he thought wryly, but then he’d figured that out as soon as he saw her. Her stature alone suggested it. The vague shape he could discern beneath the ‘cloud’ effect had strengthened that assessment, but the examination had removed any lingering doubts. He flicked a chiding look at his sister to contain her amusement, searching his mind for another ruse to encourage her to discard her guise. After glancing around the village for inspiration, it occurred to him that the simple life they’d chosen must appear primitive to the aliens who were so dependent upon technology. The thought angered him, but since their scouts had suggested that before, he wasn’t as inclined to discard the notion as he had been. Primitives. They were misguided and it was insulting, but he wasn’t inclined to alleviate a misconception that could be advantageous to them, however insulting it was. Setting aside his pique, he considered tribal history and hit upon a possibility. “I must … purify for the hunt tonight,” he told his sister, Elan. She gaped at him and he frowned at her significantly. “Oh! The … uh … ritual.” He nodded, but he could see Elan wasn’t going to be a great deal of help at this point. Later, when he could shake his ‘spirit walker’, he could explain. Turning away, he considered possibilities for performing a convincing ritual, but he not

only didn’t feel like he wanted to make a public display, he thought the villagers might have a hard time catching on—and containing their amusement. After a little thought, he decided to lead his visitor to the small stream beyond the village. Assuming she continued to follow him. He thought, at first, that he’d lost her, but he hadn’t gone far when she pushed herself away from the tree and began to shadow him again. Relieved, he picked up his steps, following the narrow trail that led down to the stream where the children played when they were allowed. They would be at their studies at this time of day, though, and unless he met up with truants he would have the clearing beside the stream to himself. As he walked, he divided his attention between listening out to make sure she continued to follow him and searching his memory for some ancient ritual that would be at least somewhat believable. Unfortunately, there were few of the old customs they still practiced and even those had been corrupted over the centuries since they had been primitive enough to truly believe in such things. The only time they performed any sort of ritual anymore was for entertainment in seasonal celebrations to retain some ties to their past lest they forget hard lessons learned by their ancestors. Shrugging inwardly as he reached the stream, he decided to simply make it up as he went along and inspiration struck him. Purification—water—check, he thought absently. Burnt offerings. Frowning, he flicked a quick look at the banks on either side of him in search of any kind of herb that might be used. His gaze was snagged by a small patch of mating vine and he felt his heart take a strange little leap. He’d thought they had pretty well wiped out all of the plants growing this close to the village. He hesitated and finally discarded his misgivings and moved toward it to collect the herb for an ‘offering’. The name wasn’t purely accidental. In ancient times it had been a practice to steal females from rival clans for mates and the drugs given off when the plant was burned had been used to ‘steal the will’ of captive females. The effect on the

warriors who stole them was almost as profound—not that they’d needed a lot inspiration, he thought wryly, with their blood still racing with victory and a mate within their grasp. Now, except for the mating hunt they had yearly, which was one of those seasonal celebrations they still practiced, lovers merely used it to enhance their pleasure since the inhaled smoke had the combined effect of relaxation and hyper sensory perception. It was an odd mixture of devilment, resentment over her perceived sense of superiority, and curiosity to see if it would affect the aliens similarly to the way it affected them that prompted the decision to use it. He dismissed his qualms— which included a vague sense of uneasiness that it might affect him and not her —or might affect him far more. Taking care to leave the roots undisturbed, thereby causing permanent damage to the plant, he gathered the trailing ends of the vines and then looked around for dry debris to start the fire. He flicked a glance around to make certain he still had his audience before he crouched in the small clearing on the bank and started a small fire. She’d crept closer, he saw, but he’d undoubtedly unsettled her when he’d felt her up at the tree. She’d stopped several yards away. Change of plan. He thought she was too far away to feel the effects of the drug released by burning the vines. After studying the drift of the smoke for a few moments and ing his assessment, he straightened and looked around for something he could use to pick the vine out of the fire. Something that looked more ceremonial would be better, he thought wryly, but he finally simply cut a green branch from a nearby tree and wound the vines tightly around the tip. The vines were green. He thought they wouldn’t catch fire easily. He didn’t want to simply toss the vines in the fire. That would only ensure that he was the only one affected. He straightened, staring down at the fire and trying to decide what else he should do to make the ‘ritual’ seem authentic. In ancient times, they’d worn ceremonial garb for such things and he certainly didn’t have anything like that around. It was a purification ceremony, however. Shrugging inwardly, he stripped, more than half expecting to discover she’d turned tail and taken off when he turned around. A mixture of amusement and reluctant respect flickered through him

when he saw she hadn’t. Either her disguise lent her more confidence than she actually had, or she was braver than he’d thought—or a combination of false confidence and curiosity had overcome her natural wariness. He thought it was probably the last. She’d been huffing out frightened gasps by the time he’d thoroughly examined her earlier and he was more inclined to think she’d leaned against the tree for because she was weak with fear rather than lust. He began chanting the ancient spring ritual, humming when he couldn’t think of the words. It had originally been used to beg the grace of the gods, however, for planting season and it was the only damned thing he could think of that was even close to what he needed. He wouldn’t have worried about it except that he was reasonably certain the aliens had managed to translate their language. Otherwise, what would be the point of sneaking into their village? They couldn’t hope to learn much if they didn’t understand anything that was being said. After pacing all the way around the fire and lifting his arms in a gesture of supplication, he returned and carefully held the mating vine over the flames until it began to smolder. Rather than risk losing it before he got close enough to her to judge the effects, he took several, long steps closer to her and waved the smoldering branch until he saw the thin vapors engulf her in a small cloud. Satisfied, he moved around the fire, waving and chanting until he’d made a circuit of the fire again. He paused when he was facing her again, trying to fully penetrate the cloaking device she was wearing to see if the smoke had had any effect on her and finally decided to wave it at her again for good measure. By the time he moved back to the fire, he was already beginning to feel the effects himself. His cock stirred and slowly rose to full alert. He stared down at it ruefully, wondering if he dared stand up again in that condition and finally realized he didn’t have a lot choice at this point unless he simply gave up the notion altogether. He’d forgotten just how potent the damned stuff was! His skin began to feel as if stinging insects were crawling all over him and biting

as the drug flowed through him, making his skin feel tight and overly sensitive all over. His cock went beyond erect to painful, throbbing sensitivity and it took an effort to resist the urge to rub it. He stood up jerkily after a few moments, tempted to head to the stream to cool down. When he glanced around to see if the drug was affecting the alien woman, however, he froze, feeling the blood pounding in his groin begin an echo in his temples. * * * * Casey was so rattled by the warrior’s—Bane the woman had called him —‘examination’ of the supposed rot on the tree that she was still trying to recover the use of her limbs when the warrior announced his purification ritual. That penetrated the shock induced fog of her brain, however. A ritual! She had the opportunity to observe one and she hadn’t even been in the village an hour! Despite her enthusiasm, it still took an effort to shake the weakness that seized her in the wake of the fright the monster had given her! She followed with dogged determination, though, still unnerved and wary enough that she decided not to get too close. It wasn’t as if she actually needed to do anything more than observe, after all! Of course, it would be nice to record the chant that would no doubt accompany it and try to identify their deities and those deities’ supposed powers, but she decided she would just have to hope the microphone was sensitive enough to pick up the words at a distance. She simply couldn’t bring herself to move any closer. Little by little, she began to relax as she watched him work. It flickered through her mind that it seemed odd that he hadn’t collected any sort of religious implements, but they seemed very closely attuned to nature and she finally decided that they must not use anything—at least not for this particular ritual. It was disappointing, in a way. It didn’t seem likely that she was going to see anything exciting like she’d expected. Then, he stripped naked!

That jumpstarted her heart into overdrive! She swallowed convulsively several times when he straightened from the small fire he’d made and began to chant. Unfortunately, he’d already stopped chanting before her brain kicked into gear. She frowned when he crouched at the fire again, trying to recall what she’d heard. Something about fruition? A plea for a blessing from the god Nuk. When he straightened the second time, he turned toward her first. She might’ve gone into retreat except that the moment he turned, her gaze was drawn from the smoking branch he was waving around to the ‘stick’ pointing at her from his lower belly like a lance. It had looked big before when it was hanging unthreateningly along his thigh. It looked twice as big, now, as it had, though. It was hard to say when she hadn’t actually examined it before! It wasn’t until she inhaled a lungful of smoke that the trance was broken. Her struggle to tamp the reflexive instinct to cough was all that held her in place when she suddenly realized how close he’d approached. By the time she’d mastered the urge to cough, she’d begun to feel really strange. Really, really strange! A wave of dizziness swept through her. Hard on the heels of that, she felt a blistering wave of heat that made her skin prickle all over and then begin to sting. Before she could go into panic mode over that circumstance, however, the stinging tapered off, leaving a strange lethargy in its wake. The heat didn’t exactly subside. It seemed to gravitate toward her breasts and her sex and settle there. Her nipples hardened and then began to ache. She felt a similar heaviness in her sex. She squirmed, trying to ignore it, but it only seemed to grow more pronounced as she watched Bane moving around the clearing with the smoking stick. It flickered through her mind when he waved the stick in her direction again that the sensations she was experiencing seemed to be from inhaling the smoke but by that time she’d dragged in another lungful and the sensations had increased to a point where she was in serious distress. She rubbed at her throbbing nipples surreptitiously with her forearms, hoping it

would make the throbbing ache subside. Instead, even that light touch seemed to magnify the problem. Dimly, she realized she was aroused—and it wasn’t anything she’d ever experienced before—not with such intensity. It flickered through her mind that there was only one way to make the discomfort stop. And it was a hell of a time to consider masturbation! Once her mind had produced that as a solution, however, the seed was firmly planted. She massaged her breasts, trying to suck in enough fresh air to clear the drug from her mind. When that didn’t work, her mind leapt back to the possibility of relief through masturbation and then prodded her with the reflection that she couldn’t be seen. He wouldn’t know. There was still something wrong with that picture and yet the lure of relief was hard to ignore when it felt so good massaging her breasts. Before she even consciously acknowledged the desire to give in to her urges, she found her clit and began to tease it with her fingers. Waves of intense pleasure washed through her. It was such a relief she almost felt faint. Well, she did feel faint—dizzy, but she caught herself as the ‘mists’ parted and allowed a touch of reality-sanity to set in.

Chapter Three

It should have jolted Casey out of her preoccupation when she finally thought about Bane again and flicked a glance toward him from beneath her lashes, particularly when she discovered that he seemed to be staring directly at her. It didn’t. She discovered that he was stroking his cock and her channel clenched reflexively, as if in demand of the thick, hard length of flesh to comfort the ache inside of her. Her mind defined it as hunger, at any rate, and that only seemed to make the heat flare higher. Feeling more as if it she was in a dream state than that anything she was experiencing was real, she watched him as she continued to tweak her clit, imagining she could feel him thrusting inside of her. She closed her eyes to savor that feeling, trying to intensify the sensation, and felt herself reach her peak abruptly. Her body tensed all over at the hard convulsion that hit her. She sucked in a sharp gasp when it eased off and kept strumming her clit until she couldn’t wring any more pleasure from it. Bane spilled his seed so fast from watching her that it left a strong sense of disappointment in its wake. He wasn’t satisfied—not by any stretch of the imagination—relieved of the painful ache, but far more dissatisfied than he generally was when he felt the need for relief strongly enough to handle it himself. Because he didn’t if there was a woman available and willing. Struggling to calm his racing heart and catch his breath, he stared at her— waiting, willing her to acknowledge him. Instead, once she’d caught her breath, she seemed to come to a sudden awareness of her surroundings. A mixture of disappointment and anger flickered through him. Discomfort edged both out as, prompted by her reaction, he emerged sufficiently from the fog of arousal to assess his own surroundings and recall the situation. He’d just culminated his ritual by spilling his seed in the dirt.

Alright then! Fertility offering, he thought irritably, turning away from her and wading into the stream to cool down. He heard her depart as he splashed the cool water over his heated skin, trying to shake off the effects of the mating vine. He thought he could safely say the aliens were at least as susceptible to it as they were—maybe more. Without a great deal of surprise, he discovered when he returned to the village that she’d vanished. He wasn’t particularly pleased to discover it, however, and not confident enough about her reaction when she discovered her vehicle had been disabled to wait to see if she would return. As far as he’d been able to tell, she wasn’t armed and there were beasts within the forest that were dangerous. After a brief debate of whether to go himself or send someone else, he decided to go himself. She might not be particularly receptive to his presence at the moment, but he doubted she would be particularly pleased to see any of them . * * * * It wasn’t until Casey neared the village again that she managed to shake off the effects of the smoke enough to begin to feel extremely uncomfortable. It didn’t do any good to remind herself that she was wearing the invisibility cloak and he couldn’t have known what she’d done. She knew! It had to be some drug released by the plant when it was burned, she thought. Nothing else would explain the way she’d felt. That thought brought her to a halt. Was it important enough, she wondered, to go back and see if she could collect a specimen? She thought it probably was, but was it wise to introduce anything like that to the other colonists? Considering the effect it had had on her, she felt like the answer was a resounding ‘no’. It didn’t take a great deal of imagination to envision it as a huge money maker in the drug market—and social disorder following. She shook her head. Important or not, she wasn’t going to be the one to introduce it. Sooner or later, someone was bound to stumble upon it and discover the properties, but it wasn’t going to be her!

Thank god he hadn’t been able to see her! She was embarrassed enough knowing what she’d done without thinking about anybody else knowing! Then, too, there was no telling what might have happened if he’d known she was there and completely vulnerable to her hyper-sexual drive! If he’d touched her—even casually—she thought might have tried to mount him. She discovered she’d lost her enthusiasm for studying the natives—at least for the moment. After a little thought, she decided to skirt the village rather than enter it. By the time she’d made her way around the village to the trail she’d followed to reach it, she’d begun to wonder about the bizarre incident by the stream. There was no doubt in her mind that she’d been under the influence of some kind of drug, but was she mistaken about the origins of it? Would the drug effect the natives the same way? And if it did, why would it be used in that kind of ritual? She’d heard him say ‘cleansing ritual’ in association with ‘hunt’. She hadn’t heard the conversation all that well, but those words had caught her attention and she didn’t think she was mistaken about that. From what she knew about the rituals performed by primitives on earth, though, they generally used water, fire, or some sort of purge to actually cleanse themselves. She supposed masturbation might be construed as a sort of cleansing. It certainly purged the body of stress, maybe cleansed the person of carnal yearnings, at least for a short time and helped focus the mind on other things …? Or maybe she was looking at it all wrong and the purpose was to offer … like a fertile gift to the gods in exchange for success with the hunt? Unfortunately, the effect it had had on her had been so profound that she didn’t much of anything very clearly beyond that effect. Once it had her firmly in its grip, she’d been mostly focused on her rising discomfort and alleviating it. She believed that the warrior, Bane, had also been effected, but could she trust that? What if the drug had hallucinogenic properties as well as the other and she was the only one affected? Or maybe it didn’t affect them that way at all? They were a different species. No one had really studied them, certainly not their physiology. Outwardly, at least, they looked like a very close cousin to humans, but it didn’t necessarily follow

that they were under the skin. Maybe they used it specifically for the hallucinogenic properties? That would certainly be in keeping with the rituals of primitives on Earth. A lot of them used hallucinogens to get close to their gods. Maybe she’d even hallucinated what she’d done, she thought, briefly hopeful? She had to dismiss that after a few moments. She’d certainly been high, and she definitely hadn’t been entirely rational, but she was pretty sure she really had pleasured herself. She felt the telltale throbbing. It was late afternoon by the time she reached her hovercraft. As soon as she’d entered it, she stripped off her cloak. As lightweight as it was, the cloaking suit was made of a material that didn’t allow a lot of air flow and, despite the fact that she’d stripped down to her underclothing before she put it on, she was sticky with sweat from her own body heat as well as the heat and humidity of the forest. To say nothing of the ‘other’. Collapsing tiredly into the pilot’s seat, she debated whether she still wanted to head back to the colony or not. She’d been determined when she set out to find a group of Dactons and stick with them until she had a firm understanding of the natives. She’d thought it would be best to stay close. It had seemed to her that the more she traveled back and forth the more she increased the chances someone at the colony would figure out what she was up to. She’d packed enough supplies for a fairly lengthy field study so no one would actually be expecting her back. Really it was pretty craven to hightail it back to the colony over such a minor upset—especially when it hadn’t been the least bit threatening. It could have been, she supposed, if not for the invisibility cloak. She’d been deeply enough under the influence of that drug to have been completely vulnerable, but the cloaking had protected her. Dismissing her qualms, she turned her mind to her physical discomfort. She was tired from the long trek to the village and back, hungry, and sticky. She thought a bath and food would revive her enough, though, to make her feel up to going

over her notes and adding anything she hadn’t been able to before. Those thoughts led her to the stream again. She dismissed the flicker of discomfort, though, debating whether it would be a good idea to move her hovercraft near the stream or not. There’d been a very marked trail leading from the village—a clear indication that there was a lot of traffic to the spot. The question was, could she maneuver the craft through the thick woods to another position close to the stream without the Dactons noticing? She finally decided it was worth a try. She didn’t want to use her water rations for bathing when there was a perfectly good source close by. That was when she discovered the damned hovercraft wouldn’t start. Dismay filled her. She was not only miles from the colony—way too far to consider walking back. She was in the interference zone, which meant she couldn’t radio for help even if she wanted to take the chance they wouldn’t discover the village and realize what she’d been up to. “Damn it! Hell! Shit!” she cried angrily. When she’d expended a healthy dose of frustration, she sat glaring at the console for some time and finally decided to go out and have a look at the engine to see if she could figure out what the problem was. Opening the hatch, she scanned the area carefully to make certain none of the Dacton were around and then exited her vehicle to have a look. It was actually an exercise in futility since she didn’t know a damned thing about engines, but she carefully checked wires, tubes, and hoses. Everything seemed to be connected. Closing the cover again, she considered the situation and finally decided since the light was fading to leave the problem for another time. She’d planned to stay for a while anyway. Maybe it would be best to complete her study—or as much as she could before supplies ran low—and then walk until she could reach a spot where she could get a transmission through for help? It irritated her all over again when she saw the grease she’d gotten all over her from tinkering with the engine. Now she wasn’t just hot and sticky! Now she was filthy!

Heading inside again, she got her bathing supplies together and lugged them and a container of water outside. She glanced around again to make sure no one had come up and then stripped her underclothes off and settled to dabbing at herself. It was a wholly unsatisfactory bath, but she got the grease off and rid herself of the stickiness and promised herself a better bath at the first opportunity. * * * * Bane had time to consider the wisdom of his impulse to use the mating vine—or lack thereof—as he followed the alien woman back to her ship. It seemed significant that she’d byed the village and hurried directly to her ship and he didn’t think it was an indication of an urgency to take notes on the ‘ritual’ he’d just performed for her. Fortunately, he wasn’t far behind her. Equally fortunate, Khan had disabled it as he’d asked. Because she’d already headed inside before he arrived and, if she’d been able to, he was pretty sure all he would’ve seen was the dust she kicked up leaving. To his surprise, she appeared a few minutes later and opened the engine cover and studied it, reaching in to check various possible ‘problems’. He wondered if she knew what she was doing or if she was just going through the motions. Either way, she didn’t find the problem. She’d discarded the technology she’d used to cloak herself when she’d entered the ship, though, and he got a far better look—and then some. Far more skin was exposed than he would’ve thought to see. And she was a good bit more than the ‘pretty’ he’d seen through the veil. He was so enthralled, he damned near tripped over a root trying to move a little closer for a better view and gave his position away. He was not pleased when he’d recovered himself to discover that she’d headed back inside. After a moment, however, it occurred to him that she’d probably just gone in to test the engine to see if she’d gotten the problem fixed. Apparently, he’d guessed correctly, but the second time she came out she was

lugging … supplies for something. It certainly didn’t look like tools of any kind. And, it transpired, it wasn’t. As soon as she’d set them down and glanced around, she stripped. If he’d been enthralled before, it was nothing compared to the jolt that went through him that time. His cock stood at attention for a better look so fast he nearly ed out from the blood rush from his head. By the time she’d finished bathing his fried brain had managed to grasp only one concept—one word—MINE! He didn’t know when she left. He just sort woke up and discovered he was still staring at the spot where she’d been and she’d vanished. Alarm went through him, then. He whipped a look around for her just in time to see her disappear inside. He tensed, wrestling with the urge to chase her down and prevent her escape. The portal closing was like a curtain going down. Sanity returned. At least of a sort. One thing he was certain of, however, was that he had lost all desire to run the risk of losing her to any of the other warriors that would be taking part in the mating hunt at the spring festival. The problem was he hadn’t been completely serious about the situation when he’d mentioned it to his friend, Khan. Well, he had been—because there was absolutely no doubt that they needed new blood added to their gene pool. He just hadn’t been as keenly interested in adding her to his own gene pool. Intrigued, yes. Totally captivated—no.

There was a miscalculation if he had ever made one, because he was fairly certain that Khan would be keen to drag her into his pallet. He might have to share her, and, although he had no problem with that ordinarily, in this particular case he was far more interested in making certain he planted his seed—and that meant he would have to have her all to himself until he had had time to manage it. He would have to steal her, he decided. Once upon a time—in the distant past—that was commonplace. The mating hunt at the spring festival was far more serious—sometimes a deadly contest. Actually, fairly often deadly. Because it was a contest to make certain the strongest, bravest warriors ed their seed to another generation. So the contest didn’t always end with the capture of the mate—or intended mate. The males determined to mate with her would quite often continue to battle over the object of their desires until they had all had the chance to impregnate her. Unless she ended it by pointing out a preference. Or in some cases, preferences—plural—if she thought two or even three of the warriors were equally desirable to father her children. More often, the losers would simply try again the next time the female was available for the mating hunt—generally every other year. But, basically, it was a free for all when they were caught up in the mating heat. Because they preceded the hunt with a session in the sweat lodge with mating vine. Had in the old days. These days they simply built a fire for the dance. The only way a warrior could avoid having his prize snatched out from under him was to grab the female first, make off with her, and find a place to hole up until he’d thoroughly mated his woman. He decided he shouldn’t wait until the moment of truth to look for a good spot.

Because he wasn’t likely to have his wits about him and that meant his chances of success would definitely dim. He thought she would attract attention at the festival if for no other reason than the fact that she was new. If they got a look at her in the mean time … well, he was considered one of their best warriors even among the elite, but he didn’t particularly want to take a chance. Deciding she was settled for the night—safe from jungle predators and ardent suitors alike—he headed out to see what he could find in the way of a hidden love bower he could use where he wouldn’t end up sharing her with any other warriors bent on planting their seed.

Chapter Four

They were only a few days away from the spring festival and the mating hunt. Bane figured that all he had to do was to keep her occupied with learning new things about ‘the aliens’ and she would be happy to stick around, he was sure. Especially since her ship was currently disabled and wouldn’t be an easy fix considering what Khan had removed. And the signal they broadcast prevented her from communicating with her people to call for help. The trick was going to be to get her to willingly take part in the mating hunt. And he hadn’t figured out how he was going to do that. He wasn’t sure it was possible. Well, he was pretty sure she wouldn’t simply decide to take part in it—especially when her experience with the mating vine had already seriously rattled her from what he’d seen—but if she was there, even to witness, well …. He just had to figure out a way to get her there. Maybe he could just ‘discover’ her and act like she was from a visiting tribe, come to take part in the hunt? When she was bathing? She hadn’t been wearing her ‘disguise’ then so he could see her without alerting her to the fact that none of the Dacton people had any problem seeing through their technology. He wasn’t actually that keen on that idea, though, because it would leave her an opening to disabuse his mind about her reason for being there. And he thought getting her to take part in the hunt really hinged on her certainty that it actually had nothing to do with her. Maybe as a last resort, but not his first preference.

He set those speculations aside when he arrived at the hideaway he had thought of and focused on examining it thoroughly—trying to see it through a stranger’s eyes or more specifically, a woman’s. It looked like hell in his considered opinion and he was obliged to it it wasn’t going to make a favorable impression on the woman—even if he put some serious effort into trying to make it acceptable. Frustration flickered through him. Aside from his place in the village, he couldn’t think of any other possibilities and that wasn’t one as far as he was concerned or he wouldn’t have been looking for an alternative. If he hauled her back to his place, he was liable to have a half a dozen warriors hammering at the door to get in while he was trying to romance her. Not that he gave a shit about that—he would have no problem focusing—but it might make it difficult to keep her attention on him. No pressure, he thought in disgust as he headed back into the village. He had two whole days to make something magically appear. He stopped by his sister’s home before heading to his own and drew Elan outside for a private chat away from her two children and her man. “I have a … project in mind and I wondered if I could get you to help?” Elan studied him with patent amusement. “It wouldn’t have to do with the haunt you were leading around earlier?” He favored her with a reluctant grin. He hadn’t really thought he could fool her, but he didn’t especially want to tell her the whole truth either. “You got me! I wanted to see if we could convince her to hang around and take part in the hunt.” She sucked in a gasp of surprise and covered her mouth, laughing. “Khan said you were hot for the alien woman.” Anger flickered through him. “Mouthy bastard,” he muttered. “I suppose he told the whole village?” She hid her amusement, shrugging. “I was just teasing. He didn’t say that. He said you’d told him she would make a good contributor to the dwindling gene pool.”

He shrugged, regretful he’d shown his hand by getting pissed off. Elan wouldn’t miss something like that. “I believe I said ‘fresh’. We don’t know anything about her lineage … except that it should be close enough for a mating and far enough to introduce more diversity. The elders have been concerned about that for some time.” She gave him a look. “So … you aren’t planning on taking her yourself?” He grinned easily, although inwardly he was grinding his teeth. “I didn’t say that either, sister.” “Ok. I see you aren’t going to tell me anything. What did you want me to do?” “Nothing too taxing. Just introduce the subject of the spring festival and if nobody brings up the hunt, then you lead them that way. That should be intriguing enough to convince her to stick around and watch. And, I suppose, any other, permissible, thing you can think of that might interest her. She’s a scientist. I’m sure—wants to study the barbaric natives.” Indignation gleamed in her eyes briefly. Then she shrugged. “I guess we have it coming, all things considered.” “Well, if you’re going to act like a dummy it isn’t reasonable to get pissed off if you convince people,” he said wryly. He didn’t sleep worth a damn that night—partly because he kept reliving the incident with the mating vine and partly because of anxiety regarding whether or not the woman would figure out some way to take off back to her own people— either before the hunt, or afterwards while he was trying to romance her. * * * * Casey had a hell of a time getting to sleep and she didn’t sleep worth a shit even when she managed to doze off. Part of it was excitement and fear—for the same reason. She was thrilled about the opportunity of studying the natives and fearful at the same time—because she was afraid she was going to get caught either by her own people or the Dactons and there would be unpleasant repercussions either way. Maybe something really unpleasant.

A lot of it, though, was because of her experience when she’d followed the scary Dacton warrior off and inhaled whatever in the world it was he’d burned in his ritual. It wasn’t as if she hadn’t acknowledged that she found him attractive and exciting—in a totally terrifying way! She’d studied him pretty thoroughly in the time she’d followed him around and seen that he was pleasing to her senses in every way—he was built wonderfully. He was handsome. He had a nice smile and a pleasant laugh—even an easy going way about him when she’d seen him interact with others. But she at least wasn’t aware of thinking of him in a sexual way—until then. And then she’d had a total meltdown. She didn’t know if she was ever going to live that memory down. It didn’t matter that he was the only one present to see—and couldn’t have anyway because of the invisibility cloak—and he’d been just as preoccupied, as far as she could tell, as she was. It was in her brain to stay, she was very much afraid. It was in her dreams, too. Except in her dreams Bane was doing all the touching. She woke up with a headache and the sense that she hadn’t slept a wink. She was really tempted to climb back into her bed and go back to sleep, but she didn’t actually have a lot of time to collect data. She couldn’t afford to lay awake at night and sleep all day. The natives got up at dawn, she was sure. Staggering into the tiny bath the ship boasted, she hit at grooming, dressed, gathered up the things she thought she’d need, and headed out. She’d already stepped out before it dawned on her that she’d forgotten her damned suit. And it dawned on her because she’d spotted a Dacton warrior almost the instant she’d stepped out. “Shit! Damn it! Fuck!” she exclaimed when she’d leapt back inside. He’d seen her.

She knew he had. And the number one rule was ‘no interfering with the primitives!’ And being seen was interfering. Oh she was in deep shit now! She headed back into the miniscule sleeping compartment to try to think. It was no use. Her brain had felt fried from lack of sleep and that was before she’d spotted the warrior. Now she was struggling with panic and shock. She was certain it wasn’t the same warrior that she’d followed the day before, but he did look familiar and she finally decided it was the one he’d stopped and spoken to. Not that that made any damned difference as far as she could see. She decided to go and check the exterior cameras to see if she could tell anything about his behavior. He wasn’t where she’d seen him and she’d just breathed a sigh of relief and told herself she had nothing to worry about when she spotted him—talking to the man of her dreams. She couldn’t tell what they were talking about, unfortunately, but it didn’t seem like a friendly conversation. It also didn’t seem to be fearful agitation, though, and she decided the first hadn’t rushed to inform the other that he’d seen her. They also didn’t glance toward her—or rather the ship—which thankfully was still in stealth mode even though she couldn’t get the blasted engines started— which convinced her she wasn’t the topic of conversation. Eventually, both of them left, leaving her shaken and doubtful about whether to risk another possible ‘contamination’. It didn’t take her very long to talk herself out of hiding.

Surely, she told herself, if the warrior had seen her, she would have figured into the conversation and they both would have searched for her. She was sure she could take the fact that they didn’t as proof that she hadn’t actually committed a breach. The second time she left the ship, she was cautious. She checked the entire perimeter with the cameras and then donned her suit before she headed out. She decided to take the route she’d first taken into the village and was fortunate enough to arrive when the natives were gathering to eat a communal meal and chattering very gaily about plans for their spring festival. Finding a spot under a tree near enough to hear, but still far enough out of the main traffic areas she was certain she wouldn’t have to worry about being stepped on, she took notes. The excitement over it was palpable and she caught the ‘bug’. From what she could understand this was their time of renewal—the time to sow, and that included mating to produce a new generation. Everyone that was of age to feel the pull of producing young would be participating in the hunt—which seemed to include all of the warriors and a very large portion of the females of the tribe —even, apparently, some females who were at the crossroads of production years. Because they had an imbalance in the ratio of male-female population in the necessary age group. They did expect, hope, that they would have visitors from neighboring tribes to participate in the hunt. The hunt, apparently, was exactly what it sounded like—a hunt by the warriors for the purpose of mating. Somehow, they believed that would eliminate less suitable matches—because the woman worked hard to escape and only the women that presented a challenge were considered ‘worthy’ since that was a display of cleverness and skill and physical superiority to evade capture by the warriors. Casey had private reservations that it was any better than the courtships practiced by humans forever, but she thought it must be fun for the participants.

Especially the men. Although, it was the women that were babbling so excitedly about it and that gave her some food for thought. The men were conspicuous by their absence. When that occurred to her, she began to wonder where they were and what they were doing since it seemed the women hadn’t just gathered to gossip and share a meal. They were preparing for the festival. She decided the men must have gone out to hunt food for the festival. A very little consideration convinced her she didn’t want to go in search of them and risk getting trampled in a rush to capture prey or hit with a stray spear or arrow. She decided she could just that information later if they returned with food they’d caught. She got up after a bit, when she felt like she’d gleaned as much actual information as she was likely to get and followed a group of women who went out to gather plants from the woods to help to decorate the field where the festivities would be held. That kept her occupied until it was nearly dusk since she was busy following them around and collecting specimens of each thing and either trying to commit what they said about it to her memory or scribbling it down since she couldn’t very well talk into her recorder without being heard and she’d had the forethought to bring something antiquated but effective that wouldn’t make noise. And they were talking so quietly when they spoke at all that she was afraid the machine she’d brought to record things wouldn’t be able to catch it through the shielding. That was a strange thing about the Dactons that nobody had figured out. They always spoke so quietly. It was like they thought they were going to be overheard. It occurred to her that she’d heard mention of ghosts or haunts several times and she couldn’t help but wonder if it was some superstition—that maybe enemy ghosts were listening in to their conversations? She recalled several superstitions

from older Earth civilizations that were somewhat similar. It seemed like it was usually about ancestors, though, but she had a dim recollection of some ancient native American belief about their enemies where they had to do something to prevent them from coming back. She made a note to herself about looking it up when she got back to the ship to refresh her memory and check to see how similar to the two beliefs were. As she left the village, she saw a handful of warriors returning with a very large kill—a beast similar in size to the elephant on earth, but nothing like it in appearance. Well, she supposed, somewhat like the wooly mammoth. It was hairy and huge with big ears and a long snout. But it didn’t look nearly as cuddly as an elephant. She made a mental note that it was an edible beast. She was tempted to go back into the village to watch them butcher and clean it for reference and see what they did with the remainder of the carcass but it was really starting to get dark. She thought the sun had already set and it might be completely dark before she got back to the ship as it was. She was in luck, though—or had miscalculated, thankfully. She had just enough time, she realized, if she hustled, to get a quick bath before she settled in for the night. * * * * Bane managed to reach the site of the star woman’s ship before dusk and look for a good spot for a viewing—if she decided to bathe again. Unfortunately, he discovered that Khan had already beat him to the best vantage point and if that was not bad enough there were three other horny bastards lurking around the edge of the forest close to the ship. Bane stewed for a time, trying to decide if he wanted to watch badly enough to allow the others a view, but it really didn’t take that long to come to a decision. If they watched, they were most definitely going to compete with him for her.

Ordinarily, he didn’t mind a little competition even if he had a specific woman in mind that he hoped to catch. In this instance, he minded. That being the case, he circled around the ship and waited until he heard the door beginning to open and then strolled out and past the plank she used to reach the ground without glancing in her direction even once. Even when she yelped and ducked back inside. Satisfied that he’d thwarted the others, he paused, planted his hands on his hips and looked around as if he was looking for something. He got some ugly looks, but what the fuck did he care? Eventually, they gave up and left and when he was satisfied that it had grown dark enough she wasn’t likely to come out again, he wandered off. Kahn waylaid him on the way to the village. “What the fuck was that about?” he growled. Bane looked at him, tight-lipped. “I was thinking about asking you the same question. You know damned well I had my eye on that haunt.” Kahn folded his arms over his chest. “As a matter of fact, I didn’t—not that I give a shit one way or the other. But what you actually said was that you thought you would try to get her to stay and take part in the mating hunt because we needed fresh blood.” He knew that. He’d just hoped Kahn wouldn’t . “Well I do have my eye on her, gods damn it! And I saw her first!” Kahn shrugged. “I’m supposed to back off because you just happened to come along when she landed?” “I thought you were my friend,” Bane growled, using his last card. “I am. Friends share,” Kahn growled back at him.

Well, he didn’t fucking want to share damn it! He studied the determined set of Kahn’s jaw for a handful of moments and finally yielded to the inevitable. “I saw her first. If you’re that determined, you can run interference and we’ll both have a better chance.” He could see Kahn didn’t like that suggestion worth a damn either, but he considered it and decided Bane was right. They did stand a better chance together and their friendship might actually survive the rivalry. Or maybe not. Time would tell, but the way he saw it, he could either agree or fight Bane and maybe lose altogether. “I’ll agree, but only if I actually get a chance to breed on her. I’m damned if I’m just going to stand back and let you have it if she’s fertile.” Bane was so pissed off about that that he couldn’t see straight. “I don’t know if I’m up with that kind of deal. I pretty well made up my mind to breed her myself. I’ll think about it and get back to you.” “The mating hunt is tomorrow,” Kahn said dryly. “Tomorrow afternoon,” Bane reminded him. Shrugging, Kahn left him to stew over it.

Chapter Five

It was beginning to look as if he was going to be balked at every turn, Bane thought furiously. He’d hoped to find a love bower so he could take his time and get to know her and he hadn’t found anything even close to acceptable—beyond his own place and he wasn’t taking her there. At this point, he knew damned well he’d be overrun before he could spit. Teaming with Khan was bad enough when he wanted her all to himself, but he could, reluctantly, accept that that wasn’t avoidable. And he thought he would prefer Kahn to anybody else he might have to share her attention with. Besides, he thought teaming with Kahn would insure that both of them had time with her. But even with two of them to beat off other would-be suitors, they weren’t going to stand much of a chance if they didn’t have some place that was defensible. Fortunately, that thought led him to ‘her cave’—not that it was hidden and he knew damned well the wad of warriors he’d already spotted checking her out would head straight there as soon as he took off with her. But he could lock them out. If he could get in. That need prompted him to head over to her ship before day and take up a good spot to observe her working the pad she used to secure the door when she left. The code to open it, he reasoned, should be the same. Finally, luck was with him. He managed to get into a position that allowed him a clear view of the keys she depressed. He waited until she’d disappeared in the direction of the village and then went up to try it. Triumph filled him when it worked like a charm. He tamped the keys several more times to open and close the door, to be certain he’d memorized it and then,

after scanning the woods around the ship, ducked inside to check it out. He wasn’t just disappointed when he checked out the sleeping area, he was outraged. It looked like it was barely big enough for one—the tiny being that slept there—and he wasn’t entirely convinced that she could lay flat. He wasn’t sure he could squeeze his carcass in that space at all. He tested it and decided that as long as they ‘stacked’ they could manage it. He would have to be on top or bottom before it would work, though, and that would limit possibilities way more than he liked. He was absolutely, positively certain he would manage—somehow. Because he was horny as hell already and he hadn’t gotten so much as a whiff of the mating vine. When he did, he would be mating—if he had to do it standing. But there sure as shit wasn’t room for Khan. And he knew Khan well enough to know he was going to be breathing down his neck all the way. Well, he didn’t especially want the bastard standing over him waiting for him to get done anyway. He’d have to figure out some way to limit access—or find another spot in the ship that would allow a threesome. With that in mind, he thoroughly explored the ship—top to bottom. He found that the lower level was a storage area and although it was pretty full, there was a little space that might work and, better yet, more bedding. He set it up. He wasn’t going to have time to do it later. He wasn’t going to be willing to do it later. He doubted she would be going into that level to discover it before he put it to use. Hopefully, if she did, she wouldn’t take it apart and store it again. If she did, they were either going to be wallowing all over the hard floor or standing. And he just really preferred horizontal.

Well—when he was able to think straight and he wouldn’t be able to after the hunt. He might regret that part of it later—but it would be after he ground his knees up and probably her ass—not before. Finally satisfied, he checked the area for watchers and then let himself out and headed to the field where they would be celebrating the festival. He experienced a few moments of panic when he didn’t spot her right away, but finally located her and settled in an observation position and refused to be ousted. He didn’t give a damn what else was planned for the festival, he wasn’t budging —unless she moved. Which she did. She very obligingly moved closer to where he was standing. She hadn’t even sat down when Khan wandered over and nodded at him and then took up a spot on the other side of where she’d sat down. She stared at him for just long enough to make Bane uneasy and then appeared to dismiss the possibility that he was any sort of threat. He sent Kahn a look of irritation and flicked his fingers in a ‘move away’ motion. Kahan lifted one hand and made a rude gesture in response. Bane’s lips tightened, but he saw no way to do anything that wouldn’t be worse. If he went over and knocked the bastard down the stupid fuck would probably manage to fall on her and crush her little body. He debated what to do when it came time to eat and finally left Kahn to watch their ‘haunt’ and went to the buffet. Shrugging inwardly, he made two plates and carried them back to his watch position. “You brought me a plate?” Kahn asked neutrally. Bane gave him a look. “This one’s the offering to the … uh … ancestors,” he murmured, setting it down on the ground within reach of their mating target and then very purposefully ignoring her while he ate his lunch.

Uttering a snort that might have been derisive or amusement, Kahn left to get food for himself. And brought back an extra mug. “The ancestors will need to drink,” he murmured, straight faced. Casey was deeply suspicious, but she resolutely dismissed it when she’d carefully checked her invisibility cloak and saw that it was working properly and she was completely covered. Taking out her note pad, she made a notation of the offering to the ancestors and, when they seemed occupied, shuffled close enough to grab a couple of pieces of food—something bread-like and, if she wasn’t mistaken, some of the beast she’d seen carried in the day before. And she was glad for the drink. Before she was halfway through, her mouth was so dry she’d begun to think she was going to choke without a little liquid to wash it down. She took care, however, only to take a little of each to appease her hunger and her thirst. She’d begun to get very uncomfortable sitting on the ground as the day wore on, felt her back begin to burn and her legs to cramp. Finally, the first warrior, called Bane, left and then shortly behind him the other one, named Kahn. She would have shot to her feet if she’d been able. Instead, she got up with an effort, waited until she got a little circulation back, and headed into the woods to walk off some of the discomfort from sitting so long and to find a place to relieve herself. She debated, briefly, heading back to her camp, but she really wanted to observe the mating hunt. From what she’d understood that she had managed to overhear, they would be starting the ritual before dusk. She didn’t need to see the culmination. She knew what that was all about, but she wanted to observe the ritual itself and make notes. It was one thing to hear the natives discussing it and another thing altogether to actually watch it unfold, she was sure. After all, they were participating and it was, no doubt, so familiar to them that they hardly noticed specifics. They would

have a completely different experience from an outsider that was an objective observer. Instead of immediately returning to her spot to sit again, she wandered around the field and paused to watch various contests that were played during the afternoon—something with a fairly large, rounded stone, and crafted sticks—and stopped to look at the handicrafts displayed in their little market. Noticing the sun had dipped almost to the tree tops after a bit and they still hadn’t gotten the hunt underway, she debated whether she could really afford to wait much longer. She didn’t want to be out on the trail between the village and her camp after dark. And she didn’t want to spend the night curled up outside in the village. Just as she’d begun to meander toward the village, though, she saw that they were setting up for something. Convinced it must be the mating hunt, she headed over to a spot that she thought would give her a good vantage for watching and then sat down and got her notebook and pen ready. While she watched, the males of the tribe began gathering deadwood from the forest and dropping it into a ring of stones. The women gathered what appeared to be dead leaves but also some sort of green vine. Native musical instruments were brought out—mostly something she thought must be drums, although there were also some stringed instruments and a sort of flute, maybe—a tube with holes bored in it. Elders sat down with the instruments when the fire was lit and flames and smoke began to drift upwards from it, shifting in first one direction and then another as the wind made it dance. The men gathered in a circle around the ring of stones. The women gathered in a wider circle outside of the ring of men. Casey made notes, feeling her heart jerk as the elders began belting out a rhythm on their instruments. It surprised her—because it was not only rhythmic, it was … hauntingly beautiful, seemed to reach right down inside of her heart so that her pulse began to match the rhythm.

The men began to sing and dance. She fumbled to get her recorder out to catch the song for later analysis. After merely watching the men for many minutes, the women began to sing and dance around the circle much as the men had—almost as if the song and the dance were a direct response, or answer, to what had been asked by the men. When they stopped, the men began to dance and sing again. The flames of the fire leapt higher. The smoke grew thicker and began to snake along the ground and spread out in every direction. Casey lost track at some point of the music and the singing and dancing. She felt—strange. Excited to the point that she was huffing for breath and could feel her heart racing. Dizziness began to invade her. Heat. When she felt her erogenous zones begin to throb with discomfort it dawned on her abruptly that she’d felt this way before—smelled that strange scent before. “Oh my god!” she muttered, abruptly trying to get up. She managed to get on her feet, but she was so disoriented by that time she had to think, think, think before she could recall which direction she needed to go. And when she thought she had the direction, she felt like she was swimming through mud. Behind her, the music abruptly stopped. She wasn’t sure she would have noticed except the women all uttered screams that almost literally made her hair stand on end. Instead of launching herself into a run instantly with that threat behind her, she halted and whipped a look behind her.

The women, she discovered, were running in every direction—falling down, getting back up and struggling to run again—some of them heading directly toward her. They hadn’t made much progress when the men uttered a bellow that she thought actually did make her hair stand on end and, fortunately, that was all it took to unlock her from her paralysis. Well, that and the seven foot warriors headed in her direction. It didn’t once occur to her that she couldn’t be seen, that she was protected by her invisibility cloak. They headed toward her like a herd of stampeding buffalo and she took flight. Sprawled out, jumped back up, and ran a crooked path from the field toward the village—she thought. It was sort of like the childhood game where you spun in a circle until you were too dizzy to walk—or walk straight even if you could manage a few steps without falling down. She didn’t think she would have made it as far as she did except that everyone seemed so drunk from the fumes they could barely stay on their feet. Regardless, she hadn’t made it even as far as the village when she heard an ungodly male scream of triumph behind her a split second before something hit her so hard she thought she had been hit by a buffalo for several moments. Instead of plowing the dirt, however, she was snatched off of her feet and tossed over a meaty shoulder, landing hard enough it almost made her puke. Then the warrior who’d grabbed her took off at a run. She had no idea where he was headed, but she was in no condition to try to fight for her freedom. It took all she could do just to hang on to the contents of her stomach and to struggle for breath. At some point, she lost the fight for breath and ed out. She came around when somebody tackled the man that was running with her and

both of them hit the ground. She tumbled like a ball set free for several moments and then she was snatched up by … someone. Male. Because it was either dusk, or she was just blindly intoxicated. Everything was so shadowy she had trouble identifying anything. The good thing was she was too stoned to feel a lot of pain from the ‘wreck’. She thought she lost a good bit of her ‘hard on’, though. She didn’t feel nearly as frisky when she was scooped up again. That lasted until her warrior raced through the village and out the other side. That was disorienting. Somehow she’d had the thought that they were headed to the village to mate. When they didn’t she discovered that she was very distressed about it. Until she realized they were heading to her camp. “Yes!” Bed! The thought had no sooner formed in her mind than two things happened—her libido skyrocketed with the realization that she was about to get her itch scratched—and she really, really needed it. And secondly—worry. There was a reason why her camp was a bad idea, but she couldn’t think what it was. Because she was on fire. She heard the soft thud of racing feet across the ground change to a heavy thud that told her he was racing up her gang plank, the beeping sound of the security buttons being punched and they leapt inside. The warrior whipped around and shut the door before heading down the gangway to the stair leading down to the hold. He’d barely reached it when someone reached the outer door and commenced to

bellowing and pounding on it with what sounded like a sledge hammer. The warrior carrying her ignored it and leapt from the top of the stairs to the floor below, landing hard enough Casey thought she blacked out again for a couple of moments because her next awareness was of landing on an inflatable mattress. Confusion flickered through her for a handful of moments. But the warrior, she saw, was Bane and the minute he stripped, she completely forgot about everything else. It was an ‘oh my god he’s stunning’ moment in slow mo as he fell over her like a falling tree. Thankfully, he caught himself with his hands instead of crushing her. He did that after he’d landed. Stripping what was left of her invisibility cloak off and twining his arms around her, he fastened his mouth over hers and totally blew her mind. She thought she might have come the minute he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Something momentous happened. Heat poured through her and sent a tidal wave of liquid want through her channel. And then they fought over who was going to strip her clothing off and somehow managed it between them and he grabbed her legs at the knees and ‘made a wish’. She thought she should have been intimidated at the size and girth of his cock and probably would have been if she’d been totally sane. Instead, she grabbed it the minute he pointed the lance at her and commenced to trying to stuff it in, lifting her legs and curling them around him and digging a foot in his ass to encourage him. He fought her for it, lined it up, and shoved her off the mattress with it, then

grabbed her ankle and dragged her back. The second time he found the hole, he grabbed her tightly in his arms and worked her down over it. Thankfully, she was well lubricated by desperation by that time and it only took a couple of strokes to work that lubrication from the mouth to the womb. By the time he levered himself onto his elbows and began to thrust in earnest, she was well on her way to paradise. The second time something momentous happened she knew she’d come. She didn’t just think she had. She could feel the muscles along her channel quaking as if trying to swallow his anaconda and apparently that felt pretty damned good to him, too, because he came. Leaning over her, he panted for breath. In the aftermath, the sound of pounding on the door to the ship was a lot louder and a lot harder to ignore. “Kahn’s going to kill me,” he muttered and met her gaze. “Don’t move. I’ll be right back.” He wasn’t though. Kahn was right back.

Chapter Six

Kahn was still pounding on the door when Bane reached it, but in an on again off again manner that puzzled him until he got the door open. He managed to get a glimpse of three other warriors struggling to get up the gangplank before Kahn punched him in the face hard enough to knock him back to the wall behind him. Turning then, he seized the first warrior up the plank and pitched him over the side. Bane managed to recover enough to dive for the to shut the door before another one made it up the plank. Kahn had disappeared by the time he’d secured the door and turned around. He was sorely tempted to chase the bastard down and beat the fuck out of him, but he’d agreed to share if Kahn ran interference and he’d managed to keep everyone off of him so that he could get their woman back to her ship. His sense of fair play went no further, however. He followed Kahn down to the hold and watched jealousy and impatiently while Kahn had a chance at seeding her. * * * * It said a lot for the shit she’d inhaled that Casey was just as happy and excited to see Kahn as she had been to discover it was Bane who’d caught her in the mating hunt. It was a good thing, too, because Kahn was so desperate to thread the needle, he barely saluted before he was sheathing his beast and pounding into her. She shouldn’t have come at all. She already had. But she did—virtually no foreplay and one staggering climax already and she

came a second time harder even that she’d come the first time. “Sorry, baby. Sorry,” Kahn muttered, nuzzling her face and anointing her with nibbling kisses. “I thought I wouldn’t make it. Fucking bastard locked me out.” Casey stared at him dizzily, wondering what was wrong with the picture and realized he’d spoken English—clear, completely understandable English. She must be hallucinating, she decided. He settled to ‘making it up to her’ by lavishing after-play on her until she was desperate all over again and began fighting to mount him. Before he could, Bane grabbed a handful of his hair, punched him in the face three times in rapid succession and then rolled him off of her and ‘climbed into the saddle’. The ‘fever’ didn’t wear off. In point of fact, it only seemed to get worse. She could’ve understood it better if she’d only been able to get desperate and not find relief. That wasn’t the case. She had a climax with each of them every time, and the climaxes seemed to get harder each time until she was so exhausted she began to lose consciousness, black out, or fall into a coma between bouts. She wasn’t sure which. She lost all track of time, but she thought the marathon must have gone on all night and well into the following day when, abruptly, all hell broke loose. * * * * “Uh … Commander? You know that cruiser we’ve been looking for? I just got a breach alert.” “What?” Commander Stills crossed the room in three strides to hang over Taylor’s shoulder and stare at the computer display. “Location?” Taylor frowned. “I can’t …. I can’t get a solid reading, sir. It looks like it’s … inside the native reservation, though.” “Damn it to hell!” Commander Stills snarled. “I should have known that was where she went missing. Put out an alarm and let’s get someone out there …

stat!” He considered it. “Get a full detachment ready for transport. There’s no telling what that idiot stirred up out there.” Taylor frowned. “Maybe she just crashed, Sir.” Stills considered it and apparently dismissed it. “Maybe. But I’d rather have a full detachment anyway. We’d have to get the cruiser out of there—maybe fight off the natives. Who knows until we get there? It’s a dead zone for electronics.” It transpired that it was probably a good thing that they took a full detachment. There were native warriors battering at the door of the ship when they got there. They set their guns to stun—an elephant—and picked them off and then dragged them back into the forest and well away from the ship. The natives had beat on the door until they’d broken the seal—which they supposed was what had set off the breach alert. They had to go back to their own ship to get the equipment they needed to pry the door open. While they were working on it, the three warriors they’d stunned unconscious, regained consciousness and charged the door they’d just managed to breach. They stunned them again and dragged them into the woods a second time. That time, they tied them up. When they’d searched the ship, they discovered their missing scientist in the hold with two huge monsters fighting over which one of them was going to mount her next. They stunned both of them and dragged them out of the ship, tied them up, and left them with the others. That was when they discovered the ship couldn’t be flown. It didn’t take long to track down the problem. Someone had tampered with the engine and removed critical parts. Abandoning the ship, they hauled science officer, Casey Towns into their own ship, placed her under arrest and in confinement for violating interference law and headed back to the colony.

Fortunately for Casey, she was too damned worn out to care at that time and still under the influence and unable to fully grasp what was going on. She looked around until she found a comfortable spot and settled down to sleep. Unfortunately, by the time they made it back to the colony Casey had recovered sufficiently to feel a lot of dread. * * * * Bane was so pissed off when he came to he might have killed someone if he’d been in any position to do anything about it. It would actually have been hard to say which of the five Dacton warriors was most pissed off—the two who’d been interrupted in the middle of a mating or the three that hadn’t managed to make it in to seize the prize before they were knocked out, dragged off, and tied up so that every fucking biting thing in the woods could gnaw on them until they managed to get loose. They stalked back to the village in the tatters of their pride. Bane and Kahn went to their own huts to find clothing since they were both as naked as the day they were born, and then they called for a war council and sat down to air their grievances. The elders wisely held their peace and kept their amusement carefully concealed until all of the warriors had finished the heated discussion over the insult to the entire Dacton Nation and switched to complaints about having their woman snatched out from under them, almost literally, while they were finalizing the mating ritual. And they further suggested that it was entirely possible that a young Dacton was even now growing in the womb of their woman and that the citizen of the Dacton Nation had the rights of protection of all Dactons. The chief waited until they’d finally run out of steam and discussed the grievances with the rest of the council. When they were finished hashing out the pros and cons of confronting the offworlders, the chief sent them away to allow himself time to consider the full ramifications of an attack on the aliens. Bane and Kahn were left to cool their heels with the other three warriors that had been ‘insulted’ by the blind attack.

Their tempers cooled—largely due to the fact that the effects of the mating vine finally ran their course and left sanity in its wake. Coincidentally, the chief did not appear to announce his judgment until that time had ed and everyone had been able to think at least somewhat more rationally. Bane and Kahn, Adon, Kain, and Turo were still deeply angry that they’d been assaulted on their own land while under the influence of the vine—which meant none of them had been in any state mentally or physically to defend themselves —and going about the peaceful business of mating. The chief agreed that that was low and despicable and an outrage to the people and that steps needed to be taken. The world belonged to the Dacton people. If they were willing to mingle their blood with that of the off-worlders, they should be humbled and appreciative—not hostile. After cautioning the angry warriors, he told them that they should go with his blessing to the place where the off-worlders had built their village and demand the return of their woman. They had mated—regardless of the laws of either tribe—and that settled the matter. Relieved though not completely surprised to be given the chief’s blessing, Bane, Kahn and the other three warriors—plus a half a dozen others not directly impacted—settled to deciding how to go about the coup. Bane preferred the direct approach, the full frontal. He thought they should walk right up to the gate and demand that they hand their woman over. Kahn was more in favor of a sneak attack like the one they’d experienced— partly for that reason and partly because he wanted to remove their woman from the possibility of harm before they did anything to stir up the off-worlders. Put that way, Bane instantly agreed—but with a twist that would take full advantage of both tactics. At the top of the list of priorities was making the off-worlder ship capable of flight again. The distance between the two colonies was enough to take weeks on foot to reach and at least half that if they rode the myre-beasts they used for ‘fast’ transport.

Giving the others the task of rounding up the weapons and supplies they needed, Kahn and Bane headed back to the ship to repair it and then to learn how to operate it. It was not as easy as they had thought it would be given the fact that it was actually operated by a machine. They had managed to figure everything out— that they thought critical—by the following day, however, and they loaded up and set out, skimming as low to the forest as possible to escape detection and setting the ship down within walking distance. They had a heated discussion once they’d disembarked as to whether or not they should consider taking more women while they were about it, but Bane finally convinced them that that could be as easily achieved at a later time as it was now —perhaps better to wait. If the off-worlders still refused to welcome them as allies and partners, then they could steal the women they wanted. Taking the weapons from the ship’s weapons locker, they gathered materials to bind whatever warriors they had to take out and headed toward the walled village that none of them had seen before except at a distance. They did know that it was walled, however. They were almost certain that the wall would present no difficulties for them in scaling it, and they thought they would know the place where their woman was being held when they saw it. They did not expect quite the number of guards that were present and they thought that was a new development. Most likely because they had broken the peace and expected a retaliation— which was not a good thing for a sneak retaliation. They had three of the stun weapons the off-worlders used, however. They went around the perimeter until they found a place that had only four guards and managed to take all four out before any could fire upon them. Jumping down from the wall, they bound them, took their weapons, and dragged them out of sight. Now armed with seven of the stun guns, they began to search for a place that had the look of a prison. They encountered two other knots of guards in the endeavor and since they were expecting to see the guards and not vice versa, successfully stunned and bound those, as well.

It had begun to look like they would need to tie up the entire village—and they were running out of anything to bind them with—when they finally came upon a building that they were certain must be a place of imprisonment. It had high windows that had bars—like a cage. Bane was so pissed off about that circumstance that he immediately dismissed the last of his reservations about taking their woman as soon as they found her. They would figure out how to get her out and find a way to do it instead of heading back to the ship to look for tools. The windows were covered in something clear, which allowed him to look inside. Kahn discovered her at the second window, summoned Bane, and the two of them began to work on loosening the bars. * * * * Casey was still more than a little loopy when they returned to the colony, but she was clear headed enough to know she was in deep shit even before they hauled her to the jail and locked her in a cell. By the following morning, having had a full night’s rest to throw off the effects, she was clear headed enough to be scared. Of course, her memories were still hazy, but she was convinced nothing that she thought had happened had been her imagination. Primarily because she was stark naked when they dragged her out of her ship and into the military transport and because … well, the guys had deposited enough semen between them that it was snaking down her leg as visible evidence. And she couldn’t claim sexual assault even if she’d wanted to. And she didn’t want to—for a lot of very good reasons. First and foremost—it hadn’t been. She’d been just as anxious as they had been and, as dim as her memory was, she knew everyone that was at the mating hunt

had been under the influence, not just her. Of course, they’d been expecting it and she hadn’t been, but that wasn’t anybody’s fault but hers—prompted by ignorance as a mitigating circumstance, but still forbidden, which negated the ignorance part. Secondly, she didn’t want her mistake to result in a war with the Dacton people. And thirdly—well she had found both Bane and Kahan very attractive from the beginning—scary but attractive. And she’d followed them around enough that that had cemented in her mind, not diminished. She liked both of them, a lot, and she couldn’t bring herself to do anything or say anything that might cause trouble for them. Especially when she’d created the entire mess all by herself by going into the forbidden zone and getting way too close to the natives. All of that was way easier to claim responsibility for before everything began to get really scary and legal back at the colony. She’d been examined despite her protests that she was fine and not only did they find that she was under the influence of some drug they had no knowledge of, but she was pregnant. She didn’t know how that had happened. Well, she knew they’d been dedicated in working on it. She just hadn’t realized her contraception had failed her. And, really, if she’d thought about it, she would never have guessed they could make her pregnant, but—no, she didn’t want to terminate the pregnancy. She wanted time to think about it. That went against her right away—as an indication that she had spent way too much time around the natives—ingesting that drug, whatever it was, that had distorted her perceptions. So she was being charged with drug use and fornicating with the natives, and adversely influencing the natives—tresing on native lands—stealing the ship

—causing damage to the ship—instigating a native uprising and endangering everyone in the colony. It was starting to sound like she might be old when she got out of prison. And it was partly for that reason that she completely threw caution to the wind when she discovered Kahn and Bane at the window of her cell. The other part was simply because she was really glad to see them. Especially when they pulled the bars off the window, broke the glass and reached in to help her out. She knew she was in enough trouble as it was and she would only be in way deeper if she went with them. But what the hell? It was hard to believe she could get any deeper. She climbed out the window. Bane planted a mind blowing kiss on her and then tossed her across his shoulder like a bag of potatoes and took off toward the wall. Kahn leapt to the top and held out his arms for her. Bane tossed her up to him and then Kahn leapt down on the other side. Almost as if there was a motion sensor tripped, all hell broke loose inside the compound when they hit the ground. “Shit! Either a guard got loose or someone found them,” Bane growled, motioning for the other warriors to run even as he and Kahn took off running. The guards figured out they’d gone over the wall already before they’d covered much more than half the distance from the village to the ship and started firing upon them. Thankfully, they were almost out of range before the shooting started and beyond range very quickly after that. Casey was stunned to see that her cruiser was waiting for them. But that was mild compared to how she felt when they charged up the ramp with

her and inside and took off.

Chapter Seven

She almost felt as if she was under the influence again—except not so horny she felt like she was burning alive. The colony garrison got a ship in the air and chased them as far as the edge of the reservation—firing ineffectually at the cruiser since the Dactons had, either accidentally or intentionally, engaged the defense system and raised the ship’s shields. Then they broke off, turned around, and headed back to the colony. When they’d landed the ship, the warriors that had ed them disembarked and Bane and Kahn escorted her back to the hold. “Now,” Bane said, pulling her into a light embrace. “We were mating.” It was on the tip of Casey’s tongue to tell him she’d been checked and she was ‘mated’, but she decided he didn’t need that information right away. “Soooo … the mating continues until …?” “There is no doubt that our woman is breeding,” Kahn said. A thrill went through Casey—especially when she considered how long it might take them to figure out she was already preg. “Our woman?” she asked a little dubiously. “You.” Ooooh! It was so … barbaric and … thrilling! “Seriously?” she asked happily. Bane released her and focused on removing the jail garb she’d been issued, tossing it aside. Casey pulled off her underclothing and settled on the bed to watch while they discarded their garments and then climbed onto the mattress on either side of her and glared at one another.

“Bane was in the middle of something when we were rudely set upon,” Casey pointed out judiciously. Uttering a huff of irritation, Kahn settled back to watch. Casey had begun to rethink her decision of holding out information on the pregnancy thing by late the following day. As much fun as she was having, she was totally exhausted by the two of them. Fortunately, before she had to it she had lied by omission, they were interrupted in their ‘getting to know you’ marathon ‘honeymoon’ by a group from the village—who pounded on the door until Bane and Kahn reluctantly gave up on breeding her, dressed and went out. Bane returned for her a few minutes later and suggested she dress if she didn’t want to meet the villagers as she was. Fortunately, the military hadn’t collected anything but her when they’d come for her. She bathed off in the tiny sink in her bathroom and got out a fresh set of clothing. “This is just a wild guess,” she murmured as she dressed, “but … the invisibility cloak didn’t work?” “That thing you had draped over you?” Bane asked with amusement. “No.” She frowned. “I couldn’t see that it was malfunctioning.” He shrugged, his eyes gleaming with affectionate amusement. “We are not the same, little haunt. The eyes of the off-worlders may not see this thing, but we can.” Casey felt her face redden. “I guess nobody thought about that. Why do call me ‘little haunt’.” He chuckled. “That is what we called all of the off-worlders who sneaked around the village wearing those things and trying to record us speaking.” “Sooo …you learned our language …?”

“By listening to you recording your thoughts and impressions on the electronic thing you carry.” She faced him. “We were completely wrong about you and your people, weren’t we?” “Yes.” It was hard to take in. He pulled her close. “We live simply because it allows us to enjoy life. Once we were very much as you and your people are, but there was no time to spend with the people that mattered to us and no time to do the things that gave us pleasure in life. Beyond that, we were u and wasting valuable resources— despoiling our own world. Everyone was not willing to give up the electronic gadgets—at first—and there were some things that we saw as essential— guarding our knowledge through education. But in time everyone began to see that it was just … better to take the time to enjoy life.” Casey studied him in amazement. “I knew as soon as I saw you that you were amazing,” she said, smiling up at him. He grinned at her. “And I knew as soon as I saw you … naked … that I wanted you as my own.” She was a little outdone about that, but decided to dismiss her reservations. “My name is Dr. Cassandra Towns, but the people special to me call me Casey.” “I may just call you little haunt,” he murmured, lowering his head to brush his lips along hers. “You can call me whatever you like … as long as you call me.” Kahn interrupted. “The chief?” he prompted. Casey jerked away and the three of them went out to where the villagers were waiting. The chief officially welcomed her as a new member of their tribe. And then everyone settled while they held a village meeting and discussed the situation

with the off-worlders. Since Casey now knew that the entire village had known all along that she was wandering among them and had been peaceful, she didn’t see any reason to object to offering to speak for the tribe. She wasn’t convinced the people of the colony would be easily won over, but she thought they could start by inviting a party of scientists into the village so that both sides could learn about each other. When the majority had agreed to welcome visitors from the colony, she and the warriors who’d already been to the colony took her ship and returned, that time setting the ship down directly outside the gates. The military, naturally enough, was livid about the incursion even after it was pointed out that they’d invaded first. But the colony was no longer under the jurisdiction of the military and the colony council decided that it was worth pursuing peace with the natives if they were willing to offer it. It came as no huge surprise to Casey when the team of scientists arrived from the colony to exchange knowledge and it was all women. The Dactons were a very handsome race—or species. Whatever. They had all the right equipment and all the right moves. And mixing the gene pool was beneficial to both. And Casey just liked the laid back atmosphere of the village way better than the frenetic pace kept by the displaced humans—especially since it included a hut of her very own for her and her off-spring and conjugal visits from Bane and Kahn on a regular basis. Heaven!

The End.