Hands grab us, pulling us apart.
“Enough!” Zaku shouts.
Fighting his hold, I spit venom in Azsote’s direction. He pushes his capturer away and shrieks a battle cry. Furious, only his blood on the ground and his spine in my hand will appease me now.
“I sssaid enough! They’re coming! Do not let them see us fighting.” Zaku shoves me away, getting between us. Growling, I rise to fight the King Cobra as well, but he’s facing the horizon.
Behind him, the humans’ transport vehicle is heading our way. It glides soundlessly through the air.
All thoughts of Azsote and the others fall from my mind. My female is heading for me.
In mere moments, I will see her up close for the first time. My body tenses to not only fight, but to rut as well.
“Present the technology,” Zaku orders.
Vagan hands Zaku a small metal box. A data collection. An ancient thing left here by aliens. Both this technology and humans once shaped this world, but for countless years, both have been ours. Times have changed and now the technology is wanted by these humans that have returned from the sky.
I don’t care about the technology. I have my den, my weapon, and enough resources to last me into old age. These trinkets that we are giving the humans are nothing compared to what we keep hidden.
The transport flies past us to land on the clearing behind. Some of the males scatter, readying themselves for the coming hunt.
When the transport opens, the only ones left are me, Zaku, and Vagan.
I will not lose this chance to finally see my female up close.
My fangs drip. A male dressed in a powersuit steps out.
My spine stiffens when another man follows after.
Where are you, little female?
I clench my hands.
Then I see her, and my mind blanks.
Two
Thrown to the Snakes
Gemma
“Daisy, calm down,” Peter says.
Daisy sniffles louder. “Fuck you.”
“Crying isn’t going to change anything. You’re acting like a damn fool.”
I glower at Peter, sitting across from us in the skiff, and tighten my arm around Daisy. “Can you blame her? You’re throwing us to the wolves.”
“Earth doesn’t have wolves anymore.”
“Fuck you.” I agree wholeheartedly with Daisy here. “You said it would never come to this.”
“No, you’ll be the one fucking an alien snake. Not me. High and mighty Gemma Hurst, fallen from grace. You knew this course of action was in the cards the moment the locals offered a trade. What’s at stake is too important...”
“It’s only been weeks! We’ve barely begun our search—”
“Central Command does not want to wait.”
I hold Daisy against me as I glare at Peter. I can’t believe what a prick he’s become. I’ve worked with the guy for nearly two years, and I’ve never seen him be so cruel, especially to someone under his command.
Peter pointedly looks at the screen in his hand.
He can’t even meet my eyes. He knows what he’s doing isn’t right. Maybe he thinks if I hate him, it’ll be easier for both of us. It’s not.
But I get it.
I get it—and I hate that I do. Central Command is breathing fire down our necks, demanding a solution to their war problem and to bring them that solution fast, now that Earth is safe to travel to. Peter’s feeling the heat. It’s his neck on the line if he doesn’t give Central Command what they want.
It’s my neck too, and Daisy’s. Except we’re not as high-ranking as Peter. We don’t get what he gets. We’re expendable. At least more so than Peter.
What he’s doing still isn’t right, but I get it, in a deranged, depressing, horrendous way. Depressing because I can almost forgive him for this. He’s desperate, and desperate people do shitty things.
Daisy trembles and any chance of forgiving Peter flies out the window.
“What about you, Collins?” I cut my eyes to Peter’s second-in-command. Collins is gazing out the window, unable to look at me or Daisy, just like Peter. He doesn’t even try. His face blank, unreadable. He’s shut down.
None of the ranking crewmen can meet my eyes.
Because it’s us that’s making this sacrifice. It’s the women who are being made to give up their lives to save the team, and we haven’t even been on Earth a month...
“What about me?” Collins mumbles, avoiding my gaze.
“Don’t you feel bad for doing this to me and Daisy? When it could be Shelby sitting here with us?”
Shelby is Collins’ girlfriend, and she was spared because of it.
Apparently, Shelby’s pregnant. That fact came out last night when Peter gathered the three of us women and locked us in a room together. Collins fought for her, sparing her. We can’t risk a child—especially when that child could become a soldier one day.
Lucky lady. Shelby gets to stay. Hopefully, she’ll reach Central Command and tell them what’s happening down here on Earth.
Collins shrugs, doesn’t answer.
Of course he doesn’t. He saved the only one of us he cares about. He’s not going to go to bat for anyone else, not with what’s at stake.
Because we’ve been sent to Earth for one thing and one thing only: alien technology.
It’s the only thing that can save us in the war against the Ketts, a species of blob-like aliens that are highly intelligent, extremely adaptable, and fully capable of consuming all organic matter in their path. They’re always hungry, and humans make a great meal. Our bullets pierce their flesh but leave no mark. Our lasers sear their gelatinous bodies but then are absorbed. We can’t fight them with hand or fist, or weapons of old like swords and daggers. We can’t even crush them…
They just reform.
We’re losing the war.
The Ketts are growing, breeding, expanding at an exponential rate, hunting humans down like cattle because we pose the only threat to their existence.
It’s only a matter of time before we find a way to hurt them.
Humans have a way of prevailing.
Which leads to me and
