"And just what kind of training takes you out every night and you coming back angry as hell?" Justice asked sharply from her position leaning against the door jam.
She had woken a few minutes ago to an empty house for the third day in a row. Putting Larsa into her highchair in the living room, Justice did a quick search of the house and found no trace of the colossal hunter. It was only by mid-morning did the yautja return always in a tense grumbling mood. Today, he carried something huge and quite dead slung over his shoulder into his work room. Hanging the alien animal body onto hook suspended from the ceiling Jarak stepped back and cast his sunset eyes on her.
"I train for us," he replied tersely.
"Us?" she frowned, not understanding his words whatsoever. "How the hell do you train for us? What does that mean? Besides you're the meanest bastard on this planet--ok maybe not the meanest," she corrected not able to help the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips as she looked at him, "but certainly the baddest motherfucker here. So, what is there really to train for in the middle of the night until morning?"
For a moment he simply stared down at her, the emotion in his eyes shifting from pride at her earlier words to a blank unreadable expression. Turning his back to her, Jarak reached out for the hanging carcass and grabbed one of the various knives from the array attached to the wall. Decorated with bones of a spinal cord the knife looked like some tribal ceremonial blade, very much Jarak's style. Sinking the blade into the beast's flesh, Jarak cut a long line from groin to chest letting the dark blue blood flow out into the drain on the floor.
Finally, Jarak spoke. "I train for our mating."
For a moment Justice just stood there staring at the back of his broad shoulders and long pile of tubular spines resting on his back. His words bounced about in her head like a ping-pong ball.
Reaching up Justice grabbed a fistful of his spines at the base of his head and pulled until Jarak let out a rumbling growl and began to comply with her force. Pulling and turning the big yautja, Justice shoved him with full strength at his chest ignoring his snarl and watched with pleasure as he hit the wall behind him. Snatching the knife from his hand, Justice pressed her forearm under his angry flexing mandibles and held the knife with her other hand pointing at his face.
Closer now, Justice gave him a cold stare. "And just who the fuck are you practicing on? You go out and find some human bitch to practice your moves with, Jarak?" Her voice hummed with anger. She said his name with every ounce of threat that coursed through her.
Reaching up with painstaking slowness, Jarak carefully wrapped his long-clawed fingers around her hand holding the tribal knife. Justice stared into his warm aurora eyes and saw the satisfaction coiling bright within them and allowed him to pluck the knife from her grasp.
"Your jealousy pleases me," he said, letting the knife drop with a clang on the nearby metal table.
Refusing to ease the pressure from his throat, Justice narrowed her gaze at him. "I'm not jealous, I'm pissed," she clarified.
Not at all intimidated by his position, Jarak let his hands settle on her waist and Justice could feel her resolve immediately weaken at their warm heat.
Disgusted with herself, she snatched her arm from him and stepped back. "Fine go have your-"
Her words were replaced by a small, startled feminine sound that had no business coming from her. Grabbing her by the waist, Jarak lifted her high against him. Instinctively her legs wrapped around his waist and she sighed at the contact of his warm abdomen pressed against her sex.
"I do not train with anyone," Jarak declared, the bass in his monstrous voice sending ripples through their connected bodies.
Carrying her against him, Jarak began to walk her out of the work room and Justice felt her senses soar as she felt them move towards the living room. Burying her hands into the rubbery pile of his dreads, Justice listened with barely contained hunger as he continued to speak.
"I do not have any desires for another, only you," he decreed and Justice felt herself grow wet.
Leaning forward in his arms, Justice pressed her breasts against his face and placed a kiss between his eyes rejoicing in the stinging feeling of his fingers gripping the fleshy mass of her ass with barely contained need. Clicks and growls coming from his chest filled the room and Justice's eyes rolled back into her head as she felt him press her against a wall. Yes, right here, right now. She didn't care.
Looking down she let out another little whimper as she saw the frenzied lust in his eyes. Pulling at the hem of her shirt, Justice flung it over and off her head just as Jarak reached for her bra with one hand keeping his other braced on her ass. Pushing the material up, he exposed her breasts with a jostling bounce. For the briefest second, his eyes widened and pupils dilated with appreciative wonder before the darkness of hunger shadowed them again. Opening his mandibles wide he dove his head forward capturing one fleshy globe within his mouth. The tiny pricks of his fangs encasing her breast barely registered to her as Justice let out a moan. Hot and wet his tongue found her sensitive nipple laving it back and forth. Round and round his rough tongue scored at the tiny peak before circling the areola. The sounds he made were animalistic as she bucked her hips against him needing more and more. Grabbing his hand, Justice guided it lower between them until he cupped her in the spot that needed him most.
Crying out at his immediate compliance, Justice closed her eyes and leaned against the wall as his hand and mouth worked against her as one. Pulsing and rubbing at her wet sex through her pants while his tongue coaxed out her milk.
A familiar playful cry rent the air and they both froze.
Slowly Jarak pulled away from her ignoring her sound of dismay as he looked over his shoulder. They were standing underneath the stairs, the same spot they had argued in before. Behind him in her highchair sitting next to the kitchen counter Larsa held her stuffed hippo toy in one hand and stared at them both with a curiosity that said "why are you ignoring me?"
Justice could feel her giant yautja change beneath her. The feral hardness that had turned his body to steel was fading as the familiar warmth began to suppress the carnal need in his eyes. No, no, no Justice mentally screamed. Turning his head roughly back to her, she gave him a pleading look. "It's fine, she won't remember any of it," she coaxed shamefully.
Justice felt rather than heard the deep chuckle within him and pouted as he let her slide to the ground his hand at her sex being the last to pull away from her which only made Justice want to cry.
Looking into her eyes an evil look of promise filled his predatory eyes. "The things I plan to do--she will," he said deeply.
Justice felt her mouth drop at that. "Ok," she managed to gasp out, trying to pull her thoughts from the sordid images that kept playing through her mind. "Well...umm...I do need to be doing some research and Ravki needs to run more scans so..."
She was just rambling now; she had no idea what she was even talking about. She was so damn turned on everything hurt. Pulling down her bra, she stood there as Jarak silently watched her fidget.
"After my sparring with Carnak, you will sleep in our room," he commanded waiting for her acknowledgement.
Our room, she mentally repeated. He really did mean to take her for his mate. Joy, worry, and doubt filled her stomach. Doing her best to focus on the joy she felt when she looked into his eyes, Justice nodded.
~*~
"So, this display is some sort of resume of your badassery, right?" Justice asked aloud as she squinted at the skull in her hands. Judging by the jaw size and the huge eye sockets on the cranium it was an adult Corverian, a bear-like alien.
Justice could feel the pause in the air and smirked.
Finally, after a few seconds, Jarak's deep voice spoke from behind her. "It is a display on my honor, yes."
They were about eight miles east of the palace and past the ship hangar. A large circular clearing was cut into the jungle on a flat part of land containing a circular structure. Giant black metal rods were placed in the ground, each standing over eleven feet high, encircling the space like a jail cell. It was a fighting ring. Outside of the ring were three more poles, naked and standing by themselves. Having transported five black boxes behind their speeder that morning, both her and Jarak worked tirelessly arranging his massive collection of skulls and bones against the three pillars.
A jingle to her right brought Justice's attention up from the skull in her hand to the little black baby walker heading her way. Smiling Justice greeted Larsa.
"Hello, there sweetheart, you're back to see momma?" she asked in a light airy voice.
Smiling Larsa bounced with pure happiness, her tiny pudgy feet not touching the ground as she jostled her plump body happily up and down in the bouncing walker. Ravki had come through yet again, Justice thought appreciatively. Showing him pictures of human baby walkers, she described how she wanted it to be an all-terrain one that could keep her feet off the ground if she wanted. Within a day the genius yautja had sent the creation over with a grumbling Tyrn to her door. Mobile and loving it, Larsa had taken to the walker like a natural. Setting the controls so it only stayed on a set path of coordinates, the walker allowed her to bounce from point A to point B between Justice and Jarak as they worked.
Kissing the top of Larsa's baby-soft forehead, Justice went back to her pile of skulls and picked up another Corverian skull and tied it to the pile she was making at the bottom of the pole. "Ravki thinks he is closer to finding the receiving end of the access."
Jarak only grunted.
"Oh, come on," she said looking at Jarak who unlike her just dumped the skulls into a haphazard pile around the pole and began securing them. "There is no need to be jealous of Ravki, especially after yesterday and how you left me frustrated for the rest of the day.
Turning only his head until she could see the fierce outline of his mandibles and a gleam of one aurora colored eye, he gave her a piercing look. "You were not alone in your suffering," he replied dryly.
"Mmm," she intoned silkily, her eyes traveling past his wide, bare shoulders where the shoulder blades rippled underneath his scaled skin, "so why don't you come over here and-"
Tensing, Jarak turned and looked at her directly and pointed a black claw her way. "You will not tempt me woman. I will fight in the spar, obtain the information you need, and then," his eyes glittered despite the bright sun overhead, as he emphasized the word. " I will rut you for days afterword."
Justice felt her heart drop and the air in her lungs turn to smoke. "For days?!" she screeched. "Sweet stars, Jarak I may be enhanced, but even I don't think I can handle days' worth of fucking."
By now Larsa was happily making her way back to Jarak in her set path of bouncing adventure.
Without taking his eyes from hers, Jarak kicked a fallen xenomorph skull out of Larsa's path all the while his eyes promised Justice a future of raw, carnal need. "You will."
Turning from him, Justice began slapping the skulls onto the pile ignoring all her previous painstaking pattern. "Fucking hell," she muttered breathlessly as her mind conjured up the endless rounds of lovemaking with the beast.
Beyond sexually frustrated and annoyed she turned to the next container and took out what looked to be a spine held together by wire. "You know you have four more containers like these still in storage, are we going to go back and get those?"
"No, I would not put this up if it was not customary. I will finish the fight quickly and be done with it."
A smile fought itself through her sexual frustration and she imagined Jarak simply walking into the ring tomorrow and backhanding his opponent across the ring and calmly walking away.
"So, you can come back home and rut me for days, right?" she asked jokingly though the words still made her burn with want.
Looking back at her his primal eyes glowed with more lurid promise. "Correct."
~*~
Opening his eyes, Jarak stared up at the glass ceiling above his bed. Stationed at the tip of the pyramid the single room on the third floor, his room, was soaked by the bright morning sunlight. Blinking he sat up and opened his senses. The brightness of the sun, the quiet stillness of the house--he had overslept.
Standing up, Jarak looked to the muted display on the wall beside his bed and read the time. There were still a few hours before the sparring, but it was still far later than he intended to wake. Looking to the open door of his room, he listened again for a moment. No human baby noises sounded from below, no soft laughter or high pitch talking Justice usually reserved for Larsa--just silence. Turning back to the screen, he swiped his claws across the surface and brought up the house's sensors. There was no one in the house.
She was most likely out with the other humans.
Completely nude, he walked to the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. When was the last time he had slept that long? Last night he had gone to his room soon after Justice had taken Larsa to her room to retire for the night. Before she had stepped into her room, Justice had shared a look with him. A look he had never had directed towards him in his life. A look that made him wonder if other yautja had ever expereinced it. Human's held so many intricate emotions so many subtleties that seemed irrelevant to the yautja mind, but in that moment Jarak deciphered them all as he stared into her violet eyes. The pulse of the fine filaments in her eyes, the steadiness of her gaze, the depth of her feelings boring into him, he understood it all and it was the reason sleep eluded him for hours after.
Looking down at his claws lying against the sink's counter, Jarak let his mind drift back to the recordings Rakkah had assigned him. Jarak had prepared himself to be overwhelmed with knowledge regarding humans that would leave him confused and frustrated. He took Rakkah's advice to hunt afterward as simply a method to release the frustrations so there would be no repeat incident between himself and Justice. All of his assumptions were wrong.
Before each video he was required to read instructions on the anatomy of the human female body. Information regarding their soft bodies, spots of pleasure, and detailed accounts on how to stoke their pleasure. Once the reading for each section was over an accompanying video played. Stone still, he sat there for what felt like hours watching the human mating. Once or twice on a mission Jarak had seen and heard the loud rutting of humans, but he had never seen it like this. Close up camera angles, writhing bodies, sounds upon sounds of escalating pleasures. Each time the session ended Jarak had left the room in an explosion of energy. At first his feet always seemed to take him back home, back to Justice where she no doubt lay in her bed. His mind imagined her naked and panting like the woman on the videos and he wanted to implement everything he learned. But each time as he came into view of his home he stopped. He would not come to her like this, heaving and half mad with lust. Each time he turned back into the jungle, and he obeyed Rakkah's wise instructions and hunted.
Turning away from the mirror, Jarak stepped into the shower ignoring his arousal that hung heavy between his legs and let the eagerness of the day wash over him. Tonight, when he came home victor with Justice by his side and the information from Carnak as his prize, he would finally claim his mate.
~
Getting to the eastern clearing Jarak slowed his pace as he approached the crowd. Yautja from all over the planet were here today. Female yautja with their young taking their places closest to the ring so that their whelps had optimal viewing of the fight. Standing behind their mate and children, proud yautja males stood quietly with their arms folded over their armored chest silently catching the eyes of other hunters in subtle boast. Fine armor, a renown warrior's history, and a family was every male's goal beyond the hunt. There was no greater achievement than to stand proudly behind one's family showing your clan the strength of your family.
Turning his gaze from the gathering families, Jarak walked towards the crowd of unmated yautja standing on the east side of the sparring ring. Carnak and Ojibwe warriors were scattered amongst the large crowd. Jarak's brow bone lowered in confusion at the size of the crowd and the odd energy emanating from it. Something was going on. Worriedly he began to scan the crowd for the familiar dark skin and long braids of his mate. Trouble followed Justice and she was no doubt somehow the source of this strange energy. Approaching the edge of the crowd Jarak laid a hand on a hunter's shoulder, respectfully gaining his attention to allow him to pass. Turning around the hunter blinked at him and Jarak brow-bone lowered even deeper by the odd sense of shock he read in the younger hunter's eyes. One by one hunters turned and quieted at the sight of him each one stepping back giving him room to pass.
Something cold speared through his chest as he watched even hunters he knew well do the same, each staring at him with an odd reverent look. It reminded him of his clan on Ubu the sudden shift in attitude and the space they put between him and them. What was happening? Curling his clawed fingers into a fist, a snarl began to crawl up his throat as he looked back and forth angrily from hunter to hunter as he walked forward. Finally reaching the front he caught sight of Koga. Stepping back to let him pass, the blue-eyed hunter laid a hand on his tense shoulder and gave him an acknowledging nod Jarak did not understand, but quelled the rising anger within him slightly. Turning to look past him where everyone's gaze was focused Jarak stopped in his tracks and blinked.
Not anything like how he left it yesterday, the once simple display of his achievements towered like a great monolith of death. Every single skull in his storage room was artfully placed spiraling up and connecting all three columns of as one. At the top where every yautja's eyes rested stationed just above the alien queen's head sat the rarest skull of them all. A skull no one, not even Rakkah possessed.
Feeling his leader's presence at his side Jarak turned and looked down into his leader's eyes and felt his insides relax at the lack of malice in the yautja's eyes.
"Jarak, why did you not tell us of all of this?" Rakkah waved his clawed hand at the immensity of the collection.
"There are over two thousand kills here," Iko hissed at Jarak's left.
"Yes, the number sits just under three thousand," Ravki spoke up from Iko's right. "And I know you have another storage locker within the palace."
He did, Jarak inwardly confirmed.
A hand suddenly clasped his shoulder and Jarak turned around to see Tyrn's angry white eyes. "Tell me brother, when did you get it? I want details from this hunt. Why did you not tell us?"
Jarak knew he was referring to the massive skull everyone was looking at.
"Yes," Rakkah replied. "I too want to know why you kept such an achievement from us."
Looking around Jarak caught the eyes of all the hunters he respected most, Koga's, Tyrn's, Akur's, even Ravki's. There were many reasons he did not tell them, but all of them sounded weak spoken aloud, except for one.
Looking up to the king xenomorph's skull and its glittering crystal teeth Jarak remembered the long bloody battle in the depths of far off uncharted space. He remembered the struggle to cut up the alien and drag it onto his ship. He remembered getting back to Ojibwe tired and worn, but eager to tell his bretheren of his achievement. But as he entered the throne room, he found Rakkah standing amongst the other hunters receiving hardy back slaps and growling terse words of congratulations at the recent birth of his twin girls.
"Three years ago, you were celebrating the birth of your daughters," Jarak explained evenly. "I would not usurp the honor from that occasion."
Silence hung around them all as his words drifted across the crowd.
Rakkah did not say anything, he just stood there studying him in an unreadable silence.
Gruffly Iko spoke. "You will bring accounts of this battle."
And though Iko made no gesture to the king xenomorph skull, Jarak knew that was the one Iko was referring to.
He had something more precise than a simple account, Jarak had footage of that hunt though he said nothing. They would not receive that footage today or for the next few days--he had plans. Turning his head, Jarak scanned the crowd for her as his fellow warriors began clapping him with stinging slaps of praise along his back. Jarak could practically taste the undercurrent of jealousy in their gruff growls and grunts of acknowledgment.
One hand lingered at his shoulder and Jarak turned to see Akur's orange gaze. "Your human arrived at my house in the darkness of the morning, leaving her fat child with my mate," he said, walking along side of him. "Your human honors you with this display of your works."
"My mate does," Jarak corrected no longer looking at the warrior, his eyes still scanning the crowd until they fell on the familiar human heads near the edge. All three women were obscured by the crowd of yautja surrounding the ring and his trophy display. With a shift in the crowd of bodies, Jarak's chest swelled with the intake of air as he caught her violet eyes staring directly back at him. With the slightest shift of the muscles in her face, the expression she wore changed to something subtle and provoking. Jarak could see the challenge in her eyes, the wordless goad daring him to act.
Stepping forward, Jarak fingers flexed at his sides as his mind envisioned his next steps. Jarak was grateful Ember was holding Larsa. With every step closer to his mate he could see his hands wrapping around her curving waist, he could imagine her weight in his arms as she wrapped her long legs around him and he walked them into the nearby jungle. His mate had honored him and he would honor her in return. As if reading his intentions, Justice's eyes flashed brighter and Jarak could see the violet irises begin to fade to white in her excitement.
The sound of a horn blared through the air.
Everyone turned their heads to the crowd of arriving yautja. Carnak was here. Leading the large group of yautja to the sparring ring was their leader, a tall, lithe female with green markings and piercing green eyes--Kinrya.
Jarak groaned inwardly and looked back to Justice. With a small smirk, she gave him a sympathetic shrug; he would not be carrying her off into the woods any time soon.
~
The Carnak yautja were strong. Both Ember and Ahzma winced and shuddered as they all watched the young Ojibwe hunter, Bor, get slung across the ring.
This was the third match thus far and Ojibwe had only won once. Granted, only young recently blooded hunters had fought for Ojibwe against more seasoned Carnak warriors. Justice watched impassively as the Carnak yautja roared their victory into the air while Bor picked himself off the dusty ground and walked out of the ring. Sympathy practically oozed from Ember and Ahzma as they stared after Bor as he made his way to Rakkah. Their feelings however would not be acknowledged. There was no room for sympathy in yautja life, greatness was not garnered through understanding hugs and loving kisses. And while Rakkah may not dole out the type of cruel negative reinforcement Justice's mind conjured a place like Ubu doing, she could not see the fierce Ojibwe leader being too lenient either. With his mandibles closed tight over his inner mouth Rakkah spoke silently to the younger hunter before him, and Justice could see each word hang heavier and heavier across the younger hunter's shoulders. Finally, Bor nodded and made the respectful yautja bow before turning away, his eyes a little dimmer than before as he walked invisibly through the crowd of his bretheren.
As the Carnak's leader's second stepped up to announce the next fight, Justice caught sight of a familiar giant over the crowd. Looking to Ember who was standing happily next to her mate holding Larsa, Justice eyed her daughter's tiny headphones once more making sure they were securely in place. In a crowd of boisterous yautja the headphones were the only viable option.
Making her way over to the giant skull display Justice had spent hours crafting, Justice smiled at the memory of the shock rippling through the crowd. Everyone from Rakkah to Tyrn was stunned into silence by the massive king xenomorph skull she had prominently displayed, and she couldn't blame them. When she spotted the skull tucked in the back of the storeroom, she nearly gave away the surprise with a squeal. She wanted to run upstairs and jump on Jarak's bed and demand to know why he didn't place the skull first. The big sweet bastard, she thought as she slipped through the crowd. He didn't even tell anyone he had the damn thing. Well they all knew now, she thought with an evil chuckle. The faces of the Carnak warriors practically went white as they stared at the massive display and it made Justice want to whoop with laughter. Oh yeah boys, this was a dick measuring contest and she just exposed Jarak as the biggest bastard on the planet. Inwardly laughing at her own joke, she made her way over to the display and stopped.
Wearing only his tiny black leather loincloth and necklace of bones Jarak stood on the inside of the ring near the vertical bars adjusting what looked to be ceremonial, braided leather ties around his wrists.
Stepping closer to the heavy bars that separated them Justice watched as he turned and studied her. His eyes felt like hot strokes of his heavy hand against her skin as they took in her outfit. Wearing another Tani outfit from Ahzma the lime green diaphanous fabric left very little to the imagination. The thin strip of bright green fabric of her bandeau top barely held her milk-heavy breasts and exposed a generous portion of her abdominal muscles while the long flowing skirt exposed her long legs in slits that went right up to her waist.
Grabbing onto the bars above his head, Jarak leaned his big forehead against the black metal and looked at her, his sunset eyes glowing as they finally made their way back to her face. "You torment me."
It wasn't a question more like an accusation, but she answered nonetheless. "Yes," she admitted in a low voice placing her hand through the bar and ran it against the hard shape of his pectoral muscles enjoying the roughness of his skin beneath her fingers.
"I will have retribution," he grumbled and Justice nearly closed her eyes at the vibrations of his voice running through her fingers.
Leaning closer towards his bent head, she brushed her lips against his left tusk. "I look forward to it."
Behind him on the far side of the ring, the crowd of Carnak warriors began to make noise. Reluctantly Justice pulled away and smiled as Jarak stayed in place, his hands on the bar above his head and his back to the ring. He watched her with undisguised hunger as she walked away.
Getting back to the other women Justice watched along with everyone else as a large yautja stepped from the midst of the Carnak warriors. Although not as tall as Jarak, the gnarled, battle worn hunter was nearly just as muscled and very stocky reminding Justice of a big log.
With a show of arrogance, the stocky hunter lifted both arms at his side in proud display as he presented himself before the crowd. A sudden tension rippled through the air around Justice as the Ojibwe hunters watched him with open hostility. Egging their anger on, the arrogant yautja pushed and shoved his way through the crowd as he walked the edge of the ring, determined to show everyone in the crowd his ego and prowess.
Justice rolled her eyes and turned away from him as he approached her section of the crowd. She could see Jarak standing in the empty ring waiting and watching the hunter, most likely annoyed and ready for this all to be over with she thought with a smirk. Even the Carnak leader, the green scaled huntress, had a shining note of vexation in her beady predatory eyes as if she too had better things to do after this spar.
Ignoring the hunter compeltely as he approached, shoving and growling back at the prideful Ojibwe hunters who stood in the crowd around her, Justice caught sight of Larsa batting at the black headphones covering her ears. Pushing one of the padded ear-cups off her tiny ear and nuzzling her face deeper into Ember's shoulder, both Ember and herself reached to correct the slip.
The startling roar from behind her caused everyone to jump and Justice watched in alarm as Larsa's eyes went wide in fear before immediately scrunching up in tears.
"Oh no," Ember moaned in distress as she quickly covered the girl's ear, but the damage was done.
Terrified, Larsa let out a deafening cry her little face reddening by the second as Ember tried to soothe her.
Anger like none she had ever felt before washed over Justice. Whirling around she confronted the big yautja who was giving her a satisficed stare, as if he was happy to now have her full attention.
"I have heard of you cyborg," the stocky yautja growled ignoring the open threat that rippled not only from her, but every Ojibwe yautja standing around her.
Standing on either side of her, Tyrn and Akur were practically humming with the need to retaliate to the yautja's offense.
"Good, and now you will die by me," she whispered. Every muscle in her body was strung tight and ready, the nanites in her blood gathered and multiplied creating one perfect pulsing connection to her brain, ready to send the tiniest signal of movement for her body to obey with lethal force.
Outrage animated the ugly yautja's face as her words registered. Taking a step closer to her, he raised one clawed hand. Justice felt the satisfaction of getting to kill him slide down her spine as her hand grabbed the knife tucked in Tyrn's belt.
A shadow suddenly covered the sun, pulling her and all the hunters standing around her attentions up and behind the opposing yautja. Justice's eyes widened as the heavy dark shape grew in size and landed with a surprising silent thud behind the stocky yautja. Quickly, the dark shape stood up to its full height behind the unsuspecting hunter.
Reacting much too slow, the stocky yautja still had his hand raised and claws directed at her when the other clawed hand wrapped tightly around his wrist. Justice watched in shocked appreciation as realization dawned too late in the hunter's eyes.
Using the grip, he had on the stocky hunter's wrist, the towering yautja moved and twisted on his heel and pulled with god-like strength, yanking the hunter off his feet and tossing him up and over the sparring ring's vertical bars.
The hunter landed with a sickening thud in a cloud of dust in the middle of the ring, excitement and shock rippled through the crowd from all sides. Interest finally gleamed through the Carnak leader's tiny eyes as the ground and air shook from the anger in Jarak's deafening roar. Leaping over the tall bars of the sparring ring, Jarak landed again without so much as a sound that seemed to defy physics in accordance to his body mass. Allowing the hunter only seconds to get up and find his balance Jarak attacked, his rage palpable. Justice watched as Jarak dodged the hunter's attempt to swipe at him and grabbed his arm. With a chaotic glee in his eyes, Jarak broke the hunter's arm, the thick cracks audible over the crowd's noise.
But it was the sound of Larsa's continued crying that Justice had to pay attention to. Turning away from the brutal fight, Justice tossed Tyrn back his knife who caught it mid-air and pulled Larsa from Ember's hold and held the girl close. Tears streaked her little hot face while fear still danced in her liquid brown eyes.
"I'm going to take her home," she informed Ember as she moved past her in the parting crowd.
She wanted nothing more than to watch Jarak dismantle the idiot hunter limb-by-limb, but Larsa's upset cries and fearful look cut like a burning blade in her heart. Cursing herself for not bringing her harness, Justice climbed awkwardly onto the speeder and activated the lower steering. Taking it slow, she pulled away from the gathering of yautja and made her way through the jungle back in the direction of home.
Steering with the pressure of her thighs, Justice guided the speeder through the trail in the jungle as she cuddled Larsa closer running her fingers through the child's downy soft curls.
"It's fine, momma is here," she soothed feeling her heart melt and break at once as Larsa nuzzled deeper into the crook of her neck.
Gliding the speeder through the tree-line and into the clear tract of land that contained the numerous smaller black pyramids that led up to the palace, she banked the speeder left towards the south where Jarak's home sat deep in the jungle trees.
Rubbing Larsa's back, Justice let her mind drift to her suit still no doubt sitting amongst the hive of sleeping xenomorphs on LV594. Fucking hell, why didn't she take that damn suit to work with her that day? If she had her suit then she wouldn't need Jarak to beat the shit out of any egotistical yautja that stepped up to her. She would have handled that situation with ease if she had her suit. Everything would be different if she had it, she thought as she entered the tree line of the jungle again, getting closer to home. If she had her suit that day on LV594 she may not have ever met Jarak and that-
She heard the swishing slice through the air just before she felt the searing pain to her right flank. Tightening her hold around Larsa who sat against her left hip Justice grabbed ahold of the speeder's handle bars and swerved the speeder hard to her right bumping hard against a couple of trees.
Frightened by the abrupt jostling Larsa's began to cry again, but Justice ignored it. Shielded by the trees, her now white eyes scanned the direction the shot came from as she reached down and felt the blood oozing from her flank. Seeing the arrow embedded in the ground a few yards ahead Justice's eyes narrowed. A yautja arrow.
Beyond Larsa's cries an unnatural silence surrounded them. No hoots or calls from the long-limbed primates that resided in the tree-tops, no shrieks or chirps from the colorful birds that nested in the green canopies--just nothing.
"It seems you are being hunted," a familiar voice spoke from the tree limbs above her causing Justice's heart to clench, but then immediately relax as she recognized the gruff voice.
"Do you see him?" Justice asked, knowing whoever her attacker was she knew for certain it was a male. Huntresses would never hide in the shadows to fight.
"No," Ookla said from her invisible spot above and Justice imagined the scarred huntresses head moving slowly from side to side as she too scanned the surroundings. "The coward has run at my presence."
"I owe you for that," Justice said as she pulled the speeder from the trees.
Ookla said nothing, but Justice knew the huntress was still there.
"I cannot hunt him now," Justice said indicating towards a sniffling and upset Larsa on her hip. "But I am sure Jarak won't mind taking up the hunt for me," she said more for herself than Ookla.
Directing the speeder towards the pyramid, her mind raced at the possibilities of her attacker. Was it someone from Carnak? A human hating yautja who took offense at Jarak's retaliation? Or was it the other hunter she had been ignoring since she got to Ojibwe? The one she had only seen hints and traces of.
No matter who it was they did not want Larsa, she thought at she pulled up to the house and walked inside. But that fact would not dampen the inferno that would come when she had to tell Jarak exactly what happened.
~~
"Jarak calm down," Justice urged, her eyes following the pacing yautja. She had never seen him this mad before.
Coming in through the front door the already angry yautja had froze in place and Justice knew he had smelled the blood on her. Anger stacked on top of the still simmering rage from the spar transformed the gentle giant she had come to know. Flames of frenzied fury leapt in his sun-bright eyes until they glowed despite the bright daylight. The muscles in his wide shoulders and thick biceps packed and drew together until his body grew dense making him seem bigger and somehow larger than he already was.
Justice felt her eyes widen at the transformation of his anger, but kept her face impassive as he stomped over to her. With growling words, she could not understand, Jarak grabbed her shoulder in one clawed hand and her arm in another. Gentler than she expected, he moved her to his desire and examined her wound which was already healing under the work of her nanites.
"Who did this?" he finally spoke so that she could understand as he gently dropped her arm back at her side.
She was standing only a few feet from him and Justice could feel the radiating heat from his big body. This was not how she planned this afternoon going, she thought disappointedly. She had expected at most lingering tense silence between them as she put Larsa down for her nap and then she expected to follow him up to his room--not this. Dammit it all, she had shaved!
"I don't know," she answered tiredly. "I didn't bring my rifle to the spar and when the arrow shot me," she pointed to the arrow she retrieved from the ground sitting on the kitchen counter, but Jarak was already looking at it. His long fingers wrapping around the heavy wooden bolt making it look fragile in his grasp. "Calling my gun would have been useless since Ookla was already there and getting Larsa inside was my only objective."
"I will find them," he declared with a snarl, his deep voice shaking in her chest as his hand tightened over the bolt. "And I will hang their skull above my door."
Knowing she could not convince him to hold off his plans for murder until after he fucked her like he promised, Justice sighed and gestured to Larsa laying in her crib.
"I do not believe the hunter had the intention of harming Larsa, judging by where I was shot and the lack of a second shot," she observed.
Jarak's growl only deepened. Turning with a whip of his dreads he stomped out the door.
Alone and highly disappointed Justice turned to Larsa who lay in her crib and sat on the nearby sofa. Her thoughts replayed Ookla's words. It seems you are being hunted.
Yes, and now that Larsa was safe behind closed doors Justice allowed herself to smile as she put together the facts. It could not be a hunter from Carnak, the boisterous prideful lot would have no reason to hunt her like a coward. Only a hunter who stood to lose would do something so dishonorable. She thought of the times she felt watched before and the time the doors of the throne room banged shut in anger that day. Justice heaved a sigh and pulled out her tablet and began reading the new information from Carnak. She would let Jarak search for the dishonorable hunter, she had more important things to worry about at the moment.
A/n:
I survived the Texas snowmagedon I only went a few days without running water, so that was a blessing. I was so stressed my pipes were gonna burst. Praise the Lord they didn't. Aint God good?!