Hunter's Claim: The Alliance Book 1

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my husband Steve for
believing in me and being proud enough of me to give me the courage
to follow my dream. I would also like to give a special thank you
to my sister and best friend Linda who not only encouraged me to
write but who also read the manuscript. Also to my other friends
who believe in me: Julie, Jackie, Lisa, Sally, Elizabeth (Beth) and
Narelle. The girls that keep me going!

—S. E. Smith

IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

Science Fiction Romance

HUNTER’S CLAIM: THE ALLIANCE BOOK 1

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2013 by S. E. Smith

First E-Book Published January 2014

Cover Design by Melody Simmons

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may
not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in
part, without express written permission from the author.

All characters, places, and events in this
book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to
be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or
dead, actual events, locales, or organizations are strictly
coincidental.

Smashwords
License Statement
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook
may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like
to share this book with another person, please purchase an
additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and
did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,
then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Synopsis

Jesse Sampson and her two younger sisters
have lived a hard life on the streets of Seattle, Washington for
the past several years. Four years before the Earth received its
first visitors from space causing mass fear. Alone in a world gone
mad with just her sisters,
Jesse
has
learned to use the darkness and the remains of the city to survive
and keep what was left of her family alive. She has seen the savage
side of human nature and finds they are not much different from the
aliens who conquered the Earth.

The Trivators have taken control of the Earth
to prevent the humans from destroying it in their fear. A world of
warriors, they are sent out by the Alliance of Star Systems to seek
out new worlds. Their mission is first contact. They are to
establish communication with the leaders of the new worlds they
find and bring them into the Alliance. Any resistance is to be
quickly subdued to prevent unnecessary death of the inhabitants of
the new worlds they find. Their payment comes from the success of
their mission.

Hunter is what he is called. A hunter, one of
the elite clans of the Trivators who seek out those who resist. His
abilities to track, capture and eliminate those who try to harm any
warrior is renowned. He finds the tables turned when he becomes the
one captured by a group of ruthless humans.

Hunter is shocked when a strange human female
risks her life to help him escape only to disappear into the ruins
of the city. He now has a new mission, finding the female who saved
his life. He is determined to find her before she is damaged by
others of her kind.

What he finds is a reward beyond
comprehension to a Trivator warrior, a family. Can he convince
Jesse that he can give her and her younger sisters a better life on
his world? Or will fear keep her from accepting what he has to
offer?

Jesse moved quietly through the deserted
streets. The black backpack on her back contained the prize from
her outing this night. She had been able to steal enough to keep
her and two younger sisters fed for several days as long as they
kept the portions small. She needed to get back to the collapsed
rubble
that hid the underground parking
garage which was their temporary home.

She had found that shelter almost two months
ago by accident when she had needed a place to hide from the group
of men roaming the street. She had crawled under a fallen slab of
concrete for protection only to find it was slanted at an angle.
Unable to stop her descent, she had slid to the bottom where she
discovered herself in the remains of a parking garage. After
exploring the area, she thought it would be the perfect place for
her and her two younger sisters to hide from the roaming gangs who
looked for unsuspecting victims to rob or rape.

She and her sisters’ lives had changed a lot
over the last four years since the death of their father. Hell,
Earth had changed a lot over the past four years. Gone was living
in a nice house in the suburbs. Gone was making sure her sisters
did their homework and got to school on time. She had taken over
the job of being ‘mom’ to her two younger sisters when their mother
died shortly after Taylor’s third birthday. Everything she knew was
gone since that November day four years ago when the skies had
filled with spaceships from another world.

The President had issued a state of
emergency but it hadn’t done any good. People had poured out of
their homes in fear. The war, if you could call it that, lasted
only a few days. The aliens had weapons that neutralized the
nuclear weapons some countries tried to use. Communications systems
around the world had been taken over as well. Messages for calm had
been transmitted over and over but it was useless. Even messages
from world leaders that the aliens were not there to harm the
population did nothing to calm the riots. Zealots and
anti-government groups rose up and overpowered the local law
enforcement. Jesse, Jordan and Taylor’s dad had been one of the
Seattle police officers killed on the first day of rioting. Soon,
bombs exploded and neighborhoods were overrun.

Jesse was just arriving home from picking
her sisters up at school when the news broke of the alien
‘invasion’ as it was being called. They had watched the news in
terror. Their father had called to tell them to barricade the house
and to gather as many supplies as they could in case they had to
leave in a hurry. They were supposed to go to the cabin up near
Wenatchee if it got too bad. That was the last time any of them
heard from him. By that night, roaming groups had overturned cars
and set fire to homes and businesses throughout the area. Jesse,
Jordan and Taylor had gathered as much as they could and hidden in
the old cellar behind the woodpile when rocks and bricks had been
thrown through the windows of their home. They had barely made it
to safety, climbing from the second story balcony into the tree
that was next to it, as their house was overrun. They had been
running and hiding ever since.

Jesse stopped to adjust the black scarf she
had tied around her nose and mouth. She didn’t want there to be any
sign of her, including the slight fog of her breath in the freezing
air. There was too much riding on her not getting caught, namely
Jordan and Taylor, her seventeen and fifteen year old sisters. At
twenty-two, she was their mom, dad and protector.

Tonight, she had been fortunate to come
across a small convoy of Trivators. They had set up a ration
station almost ten blocks away. She had grabbed a box that had been
dropped as they unloaded supplies into one of the distribution
centers they had set up for the humans like her who refused to
trust them. She had found other packages before and while the food
was bland, it was edible. She had disappeared into the dark alley
before anyone saw her.

Hiding behind an overturn
ed
trash bin, she had emptied the small box into her
backpack and disappeared. She had been terrified at first she was
about to be caught. She had never been so happy about the stench of
decaying garbage as she had a short while ago.

She knew the Trivators had an excellent
sense of smell. Well, some of them did. She had watched from a
distance as a small group of the massive males discovered several
human men hiding in ambush a little over a year ago. One of the
Trivators had held up his hand and sniffed the air like the dog
they used to own. Shortly after, the men were taken out with a
clean shot to the chest. She hadn’t stayed after that. She just
knew she needed to avoid all contact with both species of male,
Trivator and human, if she and her sisters were to remain safe.

Jesse froze when she heard the sound of
trucks moving slowly down the street with no headlights on. A
worried frown pulled at her brow as she glanced frantically around
for a place to hide. The only ones out this late at night were
those who were like her, searching the shadows for food or those
who she didn’t want to find her.

Other humans and the Trivators, the alien
species that had come to Earth four years before supposedly in the
name of peace,
were to be avoided at all cost,
she
thought bitterly as she thought about her younger sister,
Jordan.

The Trivators may have wanted peace with the
humans of Earth but what they had found was war and hatred. They
would have their work cut out for them if they thought the humans
would welcome them with open arms, she thought as she squeezed
between two pieces of ripped corrugated steel panels. She hissed
when a jagged piece cut her forearm, leaving a long but shallow
line. She scooted between several large sections where the ceiling
had collapsed and slid the backpack off her shoulder.

The sound of the trucks engines echoed
loudly as they drew to a stop outside the building. Jesse leaned
her head back and groaned when the large loading door was unlocked
and pushed open. She slid further into the shadows, drawing her
knees up to her chest to make herself as small as possible. A
moment later, a moving van backed through the doors followed by a
pickup truck. The area grew dark again when they pulled the door
closed and she heard the sound of the chains being run through the
bars again. This time from the inside of the doors.

“Make sure those damn doors are secured
well,” a raspy voice muttered. “Those fucking aliens are all over
the place. I hate this shit. We should have been out of here
yesterday.”

“It took longer than we expected to capture
one of the bastards alive,” a woman’s voice said coldly.

“Why do you need one alive? Aren’t you just
going to kill him anyway?” Another voice asked, puzzled.

“I told you, I need to study one of them
closely to see just how powerful they are,” the woman bit out. “If
we are going to take control of this area and eventually the
western half of the United States, we need to know how to kill the
bastards. If we can kill them, we can rule the world ourselves,”
she laughed.

“They are mean bastards. Did you see how
protective he was of you?” The first man chuckled. “If you hadn’t
acted all girly on his ass we never would have caught him.”

“Yeah,” another man said as he walked over.
“But that isn’t going to save his ass. Mitch is dead. That
son-of-a-bitch ripped his stomach wide open when he thought he was
trying to rape you. I want his balls hanging from the back of my
truck.”

“Shit! That is the fourth man we’ve lost in
the past month,” the first man said. “It’s getting harder to find
anyone any more. Since those bastards started providing food,
shelter and medication to the
people
in
this area, more and more people are turning to them.”

“It won’t matter if I can find a way to kill
them all,” the woman said. “Keep him inside the van for now. We
can’t take a chance of any of his friends hearing or smelling him.
We can move out tomorrow morning after curfew is lifted. I want to
begin dissecting that bastard by tomorrow night at the lab we’ve
set up.”