Total pages in book: 61
Estimated words: 55551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
We turn around in time to see bushes rustling at the side of the track a few hundred feet away.
“There,” I say. “That’s her.”
“Thorn…”
I don’t hear Avel. I am too busy rushing to claim the human I intend on capturing and dragging back home to impart long, hard, hot justice.
I dive into the bushes, wrap my arm around the solid beast I find within…. And drag a small, very confused raptor out. It kicks and flails, powerful back legs replete with claws six inches long, each and every one of them as long and as dangerous as a machete. A sharp-toothed skull flails back against my chest and neck, just barely missing my jaw.
“Let it go!”
Somewhere in the midst of my mind, Avel’s shout makes it through the fog of chaos and makes enough sense for me to realize that would be a very good idea. Fortunately, it is more scared of me than I am of it, and the second I release my hold, it is up and bounding back for the safety of the undergrowth.
“That was bigger than she was. And had a lot more teeth.”
“I’m sorry if you wanted to recapture the human, but the odds something hasn’t already eaten her are low. Do you want to get the trackers out here? They might pick up her scent. Or what is left of it.”
Avel remains convinced that no human could possibly survive the primal wilds. I think differently. I feel her. I can taste her on the wind. I can smell her scent. She is either close by, or so far under my skin I cannot tell where I end and her absence begins.
“I want every inch of this jungle searched until we find either her or her remains.”
Sullivan
Yikes. I’ve really pissed this guy off.
The snarl in his voice as he declares me the object of his obsession is intense. He did also just save my life, however, because that fucking thing he just yanked out of the bushes was one lunge away from ripping my abdomen open and turning me into a soft and bloodied feast of innards for the wildlife.
Someone somewhere is looking after me. They have to be. I’ve had three near-death experiences in the last three hours. Or maybe it’s just luck. But the thing about luck is that it always runs out in the end, one way or another.
I can actually see him, a flash of fire-red scales visible through the undergrowth. It is the strangest thing, but there is an impulse to go to him and to seek safety with him, though I know he is the most dangerous creature I have encountered so far. That massive dinosaur that smashed the bike to a thousand pieces might have swallowed me whole, but it would never have taken me apart the way I suspect this much more sentient and intelligent man-like creature wants to.
I wonder if the fact that his scent is all over me is helping disguise me from him. I would not smell like anything else in this world. That is what is bringing out all kinds of wildlife, I think. When I look down at my feet, there is a small flurry of creatures, small lizards, bugs, even something that looks faintly mammalian with thick, dense fur investigating me. This planet is curious about me and is sending out every little living sensor it has to test and taste and experience me.
Thorn
“I’ll fly back and rally the guard,” Avel says. “And I’ll have them bring your spare bike. Don’t worry. We’ll ensure whatever is left of that human is captured.”
He takes off, and I know that I won’t see anybody for a good while. The hour is late, and they will be sleeping in their beds which means Avel will have to wake them all up if they are to come to my aid. It is my intention to finish the hunt before he returns with anybody else. I want to be triumphant. I want to capture this female and I want to start her punishment as quickly as possible. Never before in all my days as alpha have I ever suffered such repeated humiliations. Each and every one of them will be visited on the human soon enough. She will pay. But before she can pay, I’ll have to catch her.
“I know you’re here,” I growl the words to the quiet undergrowth. “I can sense you. Come out, and I might spare you the worst of the punishment you have earned yourself.”
If she is as close as I think she is, she won’t dare move at first, but eventually she will have to. She will get uncomfortable. She will get scared.
All I have to do is flush her out.
I step into the undergrowth and start moving through it, carefully, but loudly. I want anything wild to hear me coming, and I want to ensure my human prey is suitably scared. I can sound like a beast when I want to. I can growl and I can snarl and I can make threats that would cause a primal to panic.