Hunter's Claim: The Alliance Book 1 (5 page)

“Jordan?” Jesse murmured. “Taylor?”

“They are safe,” Hunter said quietly. “They
are resting.”

He watched as Jesse’s eyelashes fluttered
before slowly opening. She looked at him with a blank expression
for a moment before horror and fear replaced it. She struggled to
move away from him. Her eyes swept down to where he was holding her
wrist. Her mouth opened and closed but no sound came out at
first.

“Don’t touch me,” she finally choked out.
“Don’t ever touch me!”

Hunter’s eyes flashed possessively before he
concealed his anger. He had tied his life to hers. He would be
touching her frequently. She now belonged to him.

Sensing her growing alarm as she glanced
frantically around the room, he opened his fingers. The moment he
released her, she pulled away and scooted up until she was in the
corner of his bed. He frowned when he saw her pale and her eyes
clouded with disorientation. He leaned forward and gripped the
upper part of her arms when she started to fall forward.

“I…,” she moaned, raising a trembling hand
to her head. “Where… where am I? My sisters?”

Hunter reluctantly released Jesse when she
leaned back into the corner to keep from falling. He sat back again
on the chair he had moved closer to the bed. Strange sensations
moved through him causing him to frown in confusion.

“They rest next door,” he replied. “You need
nourishment. Carp said you are too thin.”

Jesse’s mouth twisted with bitterness. Of
course, she was too thin. So were Jordan and Taylor.

That happened when you couldn’t find food
and went days without eating,
she thought.

She closed her eyes for a moment as the room
continued to spin. She had never felt so weak and defeated in her
life. She had to fight the feeling. She had to be strong for her
sisters.

“Where… where are we?” She asked in a husky
voice, licking her dry lips. “How long have we been here?”

“You are in our compound,” Hunter replied as
he turned and poured water into a glass on the side table. He held
it out to her. “Drink,” he ordered roughly.

Jesse stared at the glass like it was filled
with poison. Her eyes moved nervously to his. The only reason she
finally accepted it was because the look in his eyes promised if
she refused he might just pour it down her throat.

Her hand was shaking so badly she
spill
ed
a small amount on the bedcovers.
She spilt a little more when she heard him emit a low dark curse in
his own language. At least, she suspected it was a curse as his
hands covered hers to keep the glass steady.

“I said…,” she began before her voice faded
at the dangerous look in his eyes.

“I know,” he bit out. “I am not to touch
you. That is not an option. You are weak. You will get weaker if
you cannot get nourishment and liquids. Carp said you must be fed.
Your body is sick. The medicine he gave you will work better if you
eat.”

Jesse opened her mouth as he pressed the
glass to her lips. She took several sips before leaning weakly back
against the wall. She sighed with relief when he set the glass back
down on the table.

“Why are you helping us?” She asked,
confused.

Hunter stared at Jesse’s pale face. He had
not really noticed the faint dots that covered her nose before. He
liked the dots, he decided. He also liked her nose. It was small
and stuck out further than the females from his world and did not
have the ridges across the top. He wondered what it would be like
to touch the smooth skin.

His gaze swept over the tangle of dark brown
hair that fell around her shoulders. He liked it, too. His hands
itched to tangle in the long strands. Those feelings confused him.
It was not like him to want to touch a female’s hair.

Bree had dressed her in one of the long
tunics the Trivator females liked to wear over their leggings. It
hung on her slender frame. She needed more meat on her. He was
afraid he would break her until she had more on her.

His eyes moved up to her lips. They were
also fuller than the females of his world. He had never thought
about lips as being attractive before but he liked how full hers
were and how they curved upward at the corner, as if she smiled a
lot. He wondered if they taste
d
differently from the Trivator females he had bedded.

He frowned as he thought of her words. “Why
did you help me escape?” He asked instead. “You risked your life?
Why?”

*.*.*

Jesse stared at the alien blocking her way
to freedom. She fought to keep her eyes from moving to the door.
She didn’t want him to know that she was thinking of the different
methods of escape that she was planning. Granted, she was weak but
she could already feel her strength and determination returning.
She had to find her sisters. He said they were next door.

She lowered her head and raised a shaking
hand to push her hair back while she looked at the table near the
bed. There was a large metal pitcher on it. If she could grab it
and hit him hard enough she could knock him out. There was also a
metal lamp. She just needed to distract him long enough to grab one
or the other.

She raised her head and looked out the
window. It was dark outside. That would work in their favor as
well. They would just need to find a way off the compound. She had
seen a few of the ‘camps’ the aliens set up. Each had some type of
force field around them. Every ten feet there was a device they
stuck in the ground. It had the same effect as an electrified barb
wire fence. If she could destroy one of the devices, it would take
out one section of the barrier.

She looked back at the alien who she had
helped. Shrugging her shoulders, she forced herself to relax back
against the wall. She needed time to gather her courage.

“I heard a truck coming down the road,” she
replied, looking into his eyes. “It isn’t safe to be found. I knew
I had to find a place to hide. It just happened to be in the same
place they were going. I planned on just waiting until they either
left again or it was safe enough to escape back out into the
streets but then I heard what they planned to do to you,” she
paused and glanced at the water.

Hunter reached over, picked up the glass and
handed it to her. She gave a faint smile of thanks and sipped the
refreshing liquid. She frowned down into the clear water. It tasted
like water but she felt – stronger after drinking a little.

“There are nutrients added to help you
heal,” he said, seeing the frown of confusion on her face. “It
gives you vitamins and minerals that will help your body heal
faster and give you strength.”

“Like a vitamin drink on steroids,” she
murmured before drinking a little more.

“You were telling me why you would risk your
life for mine,” he encouraged, sitting back again.

Jesse nodded and wrapped both hands around
the glass. “I couldn’t leave. I wanted to,” she admitted with a
heavy sigh. “But I couldn’t. No one deserves to die much less the
way they were planning on killing you. I planned to just release
you enough that you could finish the task while I escaped but when
I heard them coming back to the van… I couldn’t leave you trapped,”
she finished awkwardly. “What did… what did you do to the people
who, you know, what happened to them?”

Hunter shrugged his broad shoulders. “I
killed them,” he said calmly. “Except for the woman. She killed
herself before we could.”

Jesse paled and she clenched the glass
tightly between her palms. “How did you find me?” She forced
herself to ask.

She needed to know how he found her so she
could make sure it didn’t happen again. The more information she
had, the better prepared she would be when she and her sisters
escaped.

“It was not as easy as I expected,” he
admitted with a grin. “You were very careful, even though you were
sick and wounded. If it had not been for the blood you left behind
as you moved it would have taken much longer.”

She glanced down at the glass again in
satisfaction. If she and her sisters could get far enough away they
could avoid being caught again since she would not be leaving any
blood behind this time. She was about to ask a few more questions
when her breath caught in her throat. She froze as she noticed her
wrists for the first time. She lifted her left wrist and frowned as
she saw the marks circling it.

“What is this?” She asked, holding her wrist
up.

“It is my mark,” he said uneasily. “It shows
you are mine.”

Jesse’s eyes flew to his. “What do you mean
by ‘you are mine’?

Hunter shifted in the chair before he rose
and walked over to the window. They were on the ground floor. He
stared out at the back of the compound that butted up against a
line of warehouses and supply storage areas. He turned to look at
where Jesse sat forward on the bed. Her face was turned upward as
she looked at him with a combination of horror and distrust.

“I owed you a life debt. I also promised to
protect you and your sisters with my life,” he said heavily. “The
only way I could do that was to claim you as my
Amate
.”

“What… what does an
Amate
mean?”
Jesse asked with a sinking feeling in her stomach that had nothing
to do with being ill.

Hunter straightened up to his full height
and looked down at Jesse with a fierce, possessive look. He could
sense her unease and growing fear. There was nothing he could do
about it. He would not lie to her. The sooner she accepted that she
belonged to him, the better for them all. He would be leaving in
less than two weeks to return
to
his world
as his tour of duty on Earth was up and Jesse and her sisters would
be returning with him.

“You are my mate now,” he stated holding up
his wrists that had matching tattoos on them. “You belong to me and
I will protect your sisters until they are given to another
warrior.”

Shock held Jesse frozen. Her mind
rebell
ed
against what he was telling her.
Her eyes swept over the huge alien standing over her. She had never
felt so small or defenseless in her life. There was only one thing
that she could think of as his words sank in. She had to accomplish
one thing as soon as was humanly possible.

We have to escape,
she thought as
horror seized her in its ugly grip.
Now!

Jesse looked at Jordan and nodded as her
sister glanced back at her with a silent question. Taylor was
animatedly talking to Hunter who was listening with a bemused smile
on his face. Jesse knew her little sister was the perfect
distraction when she was on a roll.

They had met earlier when Jesse had asked if
her sisters could help her bathe and dress since she was still
weak. The alien – Hunter – had started to argue that he would help
her but had quickly excused himself when Jesse’s eyes had filled
with tears. A few minutes later, Jordan and Taylor had rushed into
the room and wrapped her in their arms. Hunter had quickly excused
himself saying he would have food prepared and brought to them.

“We were terrified,” Jordan had said,
quickly glancing at the closed door. “When we saw you lying so
still in his arms we thought he had killed you.”

“We didn’t know you were sick, Jesse,”
Taylor said, brushing Jesse’s hair back from her forehead.

“What happened?” Jesse asked as she sat back
on the bed.

“Hunter found you unconscious on the
ground,” Taylor said. “Dagger had picked Jordan up and the other
guy had me. They came out of nowhere! I thought for sure we were
goners.”

“They brought us back here,” Jordan added.
“The doctor and his wife were nice. They put this thing over us and
it healed the wounds,” she said quietly touching her side where her
ribs had hurt. “He said I had two broken ribs and pneumonia. He
healed that and whatever he gave us to drink was like the
mega-energy drinks we used to get.”

“Jesse, what do we do now?” Taylor asked,
worriedly biting her lip. “They haven’t hurt us yet. Do you think
they are going to?”

“I heard Hunter call you by a name,” Jordan
said with a frown. “The minute he said that, everything changed.
The man who had stopped them from bringing us onto the compound
started yelling orders and the doctor appeared.”

“Am… ami…,” Taylor was saying.

“
Amate
,” Jesse whispered, looking at
the marks on her wrists. “He said I was his
Amate
. That I
belonged to him now and he would protect you two until he could
give you away to other warriors.”

Jordan and Taylor looked at Jesse in horror.
Their eyes glued to her wrists when she held them up. Determination
glittered in Jesse’s eyes. She planned on being long gone before
the aliens knew what happened.

“We need to escape,” she said.
“Tonight!”

Jordan slowly nodded head. She bit her lip
and looked out the window at the darkness. She glanced back at
Jesse and Taylor.

“How?” She asked. “How do we get out of here
without them knowing?”

“I know!” Taylor said with a grin.

Both Jesse and Jordan looked at their little
sister in surprise. She had a huge grin on her face and a
mischievous
gleam in her eyes
. She looked
back and forth between her two big sisters with a raised
eyebrow.

“Okay,” Jesse said. “How do you think we can
escape without being seen?”

“You two were out of it when they brought us
in but I wasn’t,” Taylor said with a knowing smile. “I did like you
taught me, Jesse. I watched everything going on and looked for ways
to escape.”

“Alright, all ready,” Jordan said
impatiently. “How do you think we can get out of here?”

“With the trash!” Taylor said. “It will
cover our scent and they don’t look through it.”