Hunted By The Alien Assassin (A SciFi Alien Warrior Romance) (Mates of the Kaluma Book 1) Read online

  “Did you just scare someone?” Gurla scolded.

  I rubbed the bridge of my nose as I sighed. “Maybe I liked you better when you were scared of all of us.”

  She let out a soft cackle, and I heard her speaking to someone nearby. Probably one of her mates, Wensla. A few cycles ago, our clan had been ruled by a pardux who had crippled our society with his paranoia and greed. Fortunately, with the help of our new Drixonian allies, we defeated him and had been working hard to rebuild ever since.

  The females of our clan, now free to contribute rather than live only in service to the former pardux, proved excellent at tech. Bolstering our capabilities allowed many of us Kaluma warriors to travel off-planet with skills for hire. I was the only one who worked consistently and into the far reaches of the galaxy. In fact, I hadn’t been home in… a long time. I tried not to keep track.

  I missed the time when I could disappear, and no one had a way to contact me. Now I had to wear this yerking talk box in my ear and get zapped every time I received a call. I swore mine was calibrated with a stronger shock than any of the other warriors.

  “So, what’s the latest?” she asked.

  “I’m working on it.”

  “Can I have details?”

  “No.”

  “Bosa,” she whined.

  “You asked. I said no.”

  There was a pause. “She got away, didn’t she?”

  “No,” I barked out just as I passed an Ickithin vendor offering me a vivid piece of fabric. The vendor, thinking I was speaking to her, shrieked at my tone, flapping her antennae which began to rapidly shift colors and pulse in distress. Her beak mouth clicked and clacked loudly as her whole body trembled.

  I held up my hands as other vendors began to crane their necks at the commotion. Forcing my tone to something I hoped resembled gentle, I said, “I’m sorry, I wasn’t talking to you.” I tried for a smile, but that only seemed to distress her further as a high-pitched keen seemed to leak from all her pores.

  “Oh, for yerk’s sake...” I muttered.

  “What did you do?” Gurla hollered in my ear. “What is that sound?”

  I shoved a handful of czens at the Ickithin vendor, way more than that yerking piece of fabric was worth. Her pulsing, flashing, and keening faded as she stared at the sack of clinking czens in her hand.

  “Sorry,” I said, not bothering to do the failed smile this time. “Thanks for the, uh—” I held up the fabric in my hands. The colors were atrocious, and the pattern was foreign to me. “Uh…”

  “Scarf,” the Ickithin whispered, her antennae fluttering. “For your mate.”

  The human’s face flashed through my mind, and I slammed the heel of my palm into my temple. “Enough!”

  Seeing my anger, the Ickithin went into another meltdown. As some of her fellow vendors rushed over to her, I gripped the ugly fabric in my fist and did my best to melt into the crowd. I didn’t really do melting, but soon the Ickithin’s shrieks faded, and everyone had moved on from the market commotion.

  “Bosa?” Gurla spoke in my ear.

  I jerked, forgetting she was there, and cleared my throat. “Yeah.”

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “Is … is everyone there, okay?”

  “Mostly.”

  “Is it possible for you to not make a scene?”

  I huffed. “Look, my marks make choices. I am content to complete a job cleanly. It’s not my fault they drive me to make messes.”

  “Okay, whatever. When will you be home?”

  Just the word home made my throat close, and that familiar weight settle in my chest, nearly crushing my lungs. I missed home. My tree hut. The food. My fellow warriors. I worked off-planet because I was paid well, and every single czen I made went to supplies for our clan as we rebuilt. All that was the truth, and it was also an excuse. As much as I missed my home, I was also avoiding it. The tug in my heart for home warred with the guilt over standing by while our females had been oppressed for way too long. I was a coward for not facing them, but at least I could send czens home to help support our settlement. My time was up now though. Sherif, our new pardux, had called me home. This would be my last mission for a while.

  The Kaluma were everything to me. I had to remember that and quit yerking around with this mission. It wasn’t my fault the human was here, and it wasn’t my fault she chose to do what she did in this galaxy. My job was simple, and I’d get it done. No more playing. I had to go home.

  “Five cycles at most,” I answered Gurla.

  “Sounds good. Be safe.”

  A click echoed in my ear, signifying Gurla had disconnected the line. I glanced down at the fabric in my hand, then shoved it into my pocket. Time to visit the docks. I had some bribing to do to find out where the human went. And if bribing didn’t work? Pain was a convincing runner-up.

  Two

  Karina

  This was risky, but I had nothing more to lose. I was already hunted by the most skilled assassin in the damn galaxy. If I was going to go out, then I was going to go out making the most trouble for Frenz as possible. If I had my way, every one of his cargo ships would be nothing but space debris.

  I walked onto a rural farm on the planet Gorsich, home of the Rinian Galaxy high court, council, and … Frenz. My nemesis. He was a massive source of the human trafficking taking place in this galaxy. The Uldani had been culprits many cycles ago, but I’d heard rumors of a war, and they were no longer employing the Rahgul to transport stolen humans.

  Gorsich was one of the richest and most resourceful planets in the galaxy. The farm where I stashed my supplies was home to an elderly Pucin couple who no longer worked the land. Most of their outbuildings had fallen into disrepair, which worked for me.

  Running in a crouch in the pre-dawn darkness, I skidded to a halt next to a lean-to that more was lean than to. Lifting a rotted piece of manufactured building material, I smiled when my black fabric bundle came into view.

  If you would have told me when I lived on Earth I’d travel to another galaxy and become an expert on explosives, I would have called you crazy. I had JROTC training, and briefly considered joining the army—mostly for college tuition. I wasn’t some Hurt Locker character. But then … the Rinian Galaxy had turned me into everything I didn’t think I was. If I was honest, I hadn’t realized what I was capable of as a person, human, woman until I arrived here, scared out of my mind.

  Once I escaped from the clutches of my captors, I knew my purpose almost instantly—save other women. I’d been a social worker back home in Michigan, so my empathic gene for the lost and less fortunate was bigger than most. Every day on Earth, women went missing never to be heard from again, and now I knew why.

  They ended up here.

  I couldn’t do much to save the women already smuggled into this galaxy, but I could do my best to cripple the supply chain. If I made it too expensive for Frenz to steal humans, then he’d choose some other shitty way to make money.

  Had I thought about killing Frenz? Sure. But I knew another Frenz would pop up in his place. As long as there was profit, there would be someone looking to earn that profit, even if it was on the backs of sentient human beings.

  I grabbed the pack and untied the strips I’d ripped into the fabric. Inside held the supplies I needed to blast a cargo ship into pieces. I’d found the blue and pink putty on another station, sold in a black market alley full of shady creatures. Mash the two together to activate, and then all it needed was a blunt force, which I usually achieved by a well-aimed throw of a rock or other object. It was amazing how a small amount of putty could go a long way.

  Did I know what it was made of?

  No.

  Could it be poisoning me every time I touched it?

  Maybe.

  But again, I wasn’t in it for the long haul here. What was the saying? I was here for a good time, not a long time. And a good time in this galaxy meant… lots of explosions. My goal was to do as much
damage as possible. This planet had been my last stop—a hub of Frenz’s shipments—but I’d had to stash my supplies and flee when Frenz’s soldiers got close.

  No way would Kaluma think I’d walk into the lion’s den. He’d probably search for me on all the small space stations and backwater planets.

  Right?

  Right. That made sense.

  I tied the bundle again and slung it over my shoulder. Biting my lip, I considered my options. I could hide out here for the day, but I’d lose time. A lot of it. Or I’d travel as far as I could before the sun rose.

  My destination? Frenz’s docks. Ruin those ships and he’d be crippled for months, maybe years. A long ass time, that was for sure. Cargo ships weren’t like cars. They weren’t easy to come by.

  I took one step, my boots crunching on the dried grass under my feet when a quiet thud stopped me in my tracks. I whirled around, searching for any unwanted company. Had the owners of the farm found me? Was it just a rodent? I squinted in the dim light and dug into the pocket of my cloak for my knife. It was small, but sharp as fuck, and I had been practicing throwing it—

  Suddenly I was swept off my feet. I landed on my back with an oomph as all the air left my lungs. I hacked and coughed amid the swirling dirt and dried vegetation. My fingers grasped my knife, but before I could pull it out of my pocket, strong fingers seized my wrist and squeezed so hard that my bones grate together. Still coughing, I cried out and tried to roll onto my stomach. Get off your back, Karina! My mind shouted at me, but my oxygen-starved lungs weren’t delivering the proper fuel to my brain.

  A boot flipped me onto my stomach, but before I could scramble to my feet, my hands were wrenched behind my back and tied. I screamed out a hoarse plea but that was the only sound I was able to get out before a rope of fabric was slotted into my mouth and knotted at the back of my head. Flaring my nostrils to inhale as much air as I could, I flopped onto my butt to look up into the eyes of my captor.

  Bright, fluorescent blue.

  “Kaluma,” I muttered through my gag, so it came out more like “A-ooh-a.”

  I shuffled until my back hit a wall, and I remained there, regret and despair flooding my bloodstream. My eyes pricked with tears. I’d been close. So, fucking close.

  The giant Kaluma crouched on the balls of his feet in front of me, forearms resting on his thighs. He wore an open sleeveless vest, a pair of pants that seemed to shimmer silver in the low light, and large boots. His bat lay on the ground at his side.

  His head cocked, and he studied me.

  I tried not to lose my shit. He was huge. We were alone. I had no idea what kind of anatomy he had in his pants, and I was terrified he’d use it before handing me off to Frenz. I’d managed to keep my pants on all these years in this galaxy and I’d fight like hell to keep it that way.

  While his face was fairly humanoid, his eyes were absolutely otherworldly, as well as the silvery sheen of his hair. The spikes on his shoulders seemed straight out of a Lady Gaga music video during her “Bad Romance” era.

  For a while, he didn’t say anything, and then he huffed out a snort through his nostrils. “What a waste,” he muttered. He reached for me, and I tried to squirm away. When his hands tugged at my cloak, I began to scream in earnest and flail with my legs. With one hand, he held down my ankles and gave me a patronizing look. “Relax, human,” he said as if speaking to a child. “I’m checking you for weapons, so you don’t stab me in my sleep.”

  He found my knife, which he kept. I glared at him for that. I’d cleaned an entire drinking establishment to earn the czens for that knife. It fit perfectly in my hand. Next, he claimed the rest of my money, shoved a half-eaten strip of jerky in his mouth, and then fingered my pendant. I shook my head violently, but he ignored me, twisting it this way and that before letting it drop back against my chest. “Did you get that on Rinian?” he asked.

  I continued to glare at him.

  He leaned close and gripped my chin. “You can answer this without speaking. Shake your head yes or no.”

  Under protest, I shook my head no.

  His eyes narrowed. “You brought it from Earth?”

  I nodded.

  Lines creased his forehead and his full lips turned down at the corners. “Huh,” he murmured. “That’s interesting.” For just a brief moment, what seemed like indecision flashed in those brilliant blue eyes before he shook his head with a jerk and began to twirl my knife with his thick fingers absentmindedly. “So, this is how your future is going to go. I’m going to deliver you to the Rinian Council to make you pay for the crimes you committed against your own species.”

  I went still. The crimes I committed… The council… What the hell was he talking about?

  “Do I give a yerk about humans? Not really. But I do care about loyalty. I’d do anything for my Kaluma. So, you, little human, in selling your own kind, represent the worst of the worst to me. Understand?”

  No, I didn’t understand. Not at all. Selling my own kind? That wasn’t at all what I was doing. I began to shake my head frantically and tried to talk through the gag, but it was no use. My words came out gibberish and he seemed more amused by my distress than anything.

  I wriggled and flailed. He only watched me before reaching out and running a calloused finger from my temple to the hinge of my jaw. I panted, sweat dripping down my back, more pissed off than anything. If only I could talk and explain. Maybe I could persuade him.

  He picked up a lock of my hair and sifted it through his fingers. It’d been ages since I’d had a haircut and the length nearly reached my waist. “If I thought humans were attractive,” he said in a low voice that made me shiver, “then I’d probably consider you pretty.”

  I stopped moving, captivated by the way his eyes burned as they focused on the pendant between my breasts. My stomach warmed, and my skin broke out in goosebumps. I couldn’t sort through my feelings. Was it terror? Anger? Why did I feel a warmth spreading to my lower belly? I couldn’t be turned on. Nothing about this was my kink.

  Finally, his eyes drifted up to my face. He fluttered his lips as he rose to his feet, hauling me with him. “Good thing I don’t find humans attractive, then.” As he marched me forward, he continued to talk. “Why is your skin like this? Too delicate. Inefficient body temperature regulation. Terrible claws. Teeth that grind and mash rather than rip. Seriously, what are humans? What is your purpose?”

  I kicked out and slammed my toe into his hard as hell calf. He barely let out a grunt, and all I got for the effort was a sharp stab of pain down through my foot. Gasping, I stumbled.

  He let out a low chuckle. “Won’t try that again, will you? I appreciate the effort though.”

  Seriously, I wanted this guy to die a slow death. I would have paid big money and maybe even my left arm to see that smirk wiped off his face. I glanced back. My pack of explosives remained behind. He hadn’t bothered to pick it up. All I had on me was my clothes and my pendant.

  I forced myself to think as he led me across the dried grasses toward a small hover vehicle. He said he was taking me to the galaxy’s council. They’d have to let me talk then. I could tell them the truth. Plead my case. I had to begrudgingly respect this stupid Kaluma. He wasn’t some dumb assassin. He was more like a bounty hunter who thought he was doing the right thing. If I was who he thought I was, then I’d want me captured too.

  Stay calm, Karina. He hadn’t hurt me yet. And the best news of all? Frenz hadn’t hired him. Maybe luck was on my side after all.

  Bosa

  She wasn’t pretty. Or attractive. I didn’t like her long, fluffy hair or pale, soft skin. The warmth in her eyes didn’t draw me in, and the rounded curves of her breasts and hips didn’t make me feel anything. Not at all.

  She rode in the hover buggy beside me. I’d strapped her in, and while she sat uncomfortable with her hands behind her back, she hadn’t protested too much. In fact, she hadn’t protested much at all once I dug her out from her hiding spot. Was she planning s
omething? I couldn’t imagine what. I never lost a mark once I got them. There was no way she’d get away from me now. The job was almost done, which meant I could get my czens, treat myself to a feast, and then buy some extra supplies to take back home. Gurla wanted some beads for jewelry, and the twins, Grego and Uthor, wanted a stone gaming set.

  Originally when I’d agreed to be an assassin, I’d told Sherif, my pardux and friend, that I’d take any job as long as my mark wasn’t a juvenile. He’d refused, telling me I had to only take jobs from the Rinian Council to hunt down criminals. I’d given in because it didn’t really matter to me either way. Which was why the odd feeling that had been buzzing in my head and had now graduated to a pounding knock on my conscience pissed me the yerk off. The human deserved this, and even if she didn’t … it wasn’t my job to decide her punishment. The council would deal with her. Once I delivered her, my job was done, whether she was guilty of her crimes or not.

  I gripped the wheel and focused on the drive. Her hair swirled around us, flicking against my skin, sending bolts of heat racing over my scales. It took me a moment to realize I was hard. As a rock. Just from the feel of her hair on me, and the scent of it surrounding us. The vurs on my shaft pulsed and my cock cap had already begun to flare. Soon, it would be visible through my pants, and the only way to take care of it would be to find release.

  I couldn’t. I refused to come knowing this yerking human was the reason for my aroused state. What was wrong with me? I needed to find a mate back on Torin. Soon. Before I started finding something else attractive I shouldn’t. Like a Rogastix. I shuddered, which seemed to soften my cock somewhat. At least I wasn’t too far gone.

  The sun had risen over the horizon, throwing a pink and orange glow on the human’s skin. I’d originally thought her skin without tone, but now I could see all the colors—the redness of her cheeks, the pinks of her lips, and the blue lines of her veins on her temples…

  Oh, for yerk’s sake. I picked up her cloak and threw it over her head. She let out a squeak but otherwise remained silent and still. There, now her stupid skin and hair wouldn’t distract me. The job was what mattered. The czens. My home and my Kaluma. I wouldn’t risk any of that for one stupid little human. No matter how pretty she was.