Page 32 of Hunter’s Harvest

“You found her!”

“She’s not waking up. We have to get her back to New Franklin now,” I said urgently.

To my relief, no one argued about going for the shuttle first. Instead, they got to work figuring out how to stabilize Marisol for the flight home.

“Why can’t the new hunter just hold her for the trip?” Meghan asked.

“Because Hess’n is gone already,” Var’n said.

“But he was just…” I looked around, and sure enough Hess’n was gone. He’d carefully laid Marisol down inside the sleeping nook of the shuttle and had just disappeared.

“I know him well. He will not come with us to New Franklin now. But he may show up in a few days. He needs time to think.”

“Great. So how—”

“Everyone, put your hands up where we can see them!”

I whipped around to see a NEM asshole in raggedy fatigues pointing a rifle in my face.

Shit!

“Hey look, boys. It’s our lucky day. A shuttle and some pretty girls.” The guy eyed Var’n. “I said arms up, lover boy.”

Var’n only managed to jerk me to the side.

“I said let go!” He waved the firearm at me.

“He can’t!” I said, hoping they’d listen. “His arms are stuck.”

Movement behind him caught my attention. Hess’n!

Suddenly, Var’n moved, and I found myself being shoved toward Mal’k and Meghan, who were by the shuttle door. Before I could even realize that Var’n had released me, I heard him shout, “Take her and go.”

Then Mal’k was pulling me into the shuttle. The sound of gunfire was loud for a split second before the door slid shut behind us.

“Keep the other female still,” Mal’k ordered as he hurried to the pilot’s seat.

“But, Var’n—”

“He wishes for you to be safe. We must go now while they keep the hostiles distracted.”

No, no! We couldn’t leave Var’n behind. Those guys were armed. What if they—

But the shuttle was lifting off already, the sudden motion jerking me to the side. Meghan was already by Marisol, struggling to hold her down onto the sleeping mat as the shuttle lurched to the side. I stumbled toward them.

“It’s okay. They’re going to be fine.”

“He’s not armed.”

“It’s okay. They are fast. And he has Hess’n too. I saw him. Those assholes won’t even know what hit them. Concentrate on Marisol now. She needs you.”

I tried. I really tried. But all I could think of was Var’n facing off against a group of NEM bastards with nothing but his claws, fangs, and horns.

Eventually, the shuttle stabilized, and we were no longer needed to keep Mari from being tossed around. But my mind was already somewhere else. It was reeling and all I could see was my purple hunter, his claws unsheathed and facing off against a group of armed NEM bastards.

Meghan placed a hand on my shoulder, steadying me. “He’s going to be fine,” she said, her voice low and reassuring. “These hunters are made of tough stuff.”

I nodded, but the tightness in my throat made it impossible to speak. I couldn’t stop that part of my brain that kept insisting I’d given Var’n up for Mari. An eye for an eye. A life for a life. Even though I knew that didn’t make any sense at all.