Lycan's Promise: Book 3 (5 page)

“You acted without regard for your own
imminent transition. An action that resulted in damage to property
and which harmed humans.” Jurisa stopped to come within a hair’s
breath of Sanda. “I will not tolerate behavior that puts the
contract between humans and Lycans in danger.”

Sanda swallowed. The Alpha was a lot more
intimidating up close. No wonder Dragos took a back seat when she
was around.

“Understand?” Jurisa asked, her voice quiet,
but firm.

Sanda nodded. She breathed a sigh of relief
when the Alpha backed off, giving her breathing room once more.

“Everyone is valuable, human or Lycan. To
help you understand that, I’m apprenticing you to Mouse,” Jurisa
said, placing her hands on her hips and smiling at Sanda with
obvious satisfaction. “You will follow her directions, and you will
learn how to heal the damage caused by careless action.”

Sanda gaped for a moment, managing to just
rein in a surprised outburst. Mouse must have been planning this
all along. “I understand,” she said, realizing that Jurisa was
waiting for a response.

“Good.” The leader clapped her hands
together, signaling the end of their meeting. “Go home and rest.
You start tomorrow.”

Sanda left the leader and her mate in a much
relieved mood. She’d stay here in the community. She’d have work
and a purpose. She still had Beryx too.

He called out to her from where he was
waiting by the fence post on the street. Sanda embraced her mate
with a happy kiss.

“You knew didn’t you,” Sanda said.

“I had an inkling,” he admitted. “Are you
pleased?”

“Yes, very pleased and relieved.”

“Me too,” Beryx said, clasping her hand in
his larger one. They walked together down the street of their small
community. Fellow passersby greeted them, everyone wrapped tightly
in their heavy cloaks. Snow started to fall in great big fat
clumps, a rarity for the Cold Mountains. Sanda decided to take it
as a good sign. When she got home, Sanda also decided she would
show her mate exactly how pleased she was to have him.

The end.

Kerry followed her lead into the darkened
corridor of the space station. A small outpost of the far rim of
the sector, the tiny station was a tin can floating next to a
pockmarked asteroid. It served only as a listening post for radio
communications between ships and the sol system. The occupants long
since dead. She and Marcus found what was left of them strewn
across the control room when they arrived.

The hallway was particularly small and
cramped and dark with the lights out. The damn thing they were
hunting had gotten into the wiring system and ripped it apart. She
and Marcus were working only by the flashlights affixed to the
muzzles of their weapons. They had to stay alert, but the humidity
and extreme heat in the small space made Kerry feel fuzzy. It had
also gotten into the temp control system and seemed to prefer the
atmosphere inside be much like its own environment. Tropical and
sticky.

Sweat ran down Kerry's face and neck, pooling
between her breasts and the armor plating she wore to protect
herself from the creatures they hunted. She was sweating all over
underneath her suit. If this lasted much longer she swore she’d
just pull the damn thing off and walk around in her tank and
underwear. She’d probably have an easier time maneuvering
anyway.

Marcus took the next turn ahead after
stopping to peer around the corner with their mirror. A handy
little device and extremely low-tech, it certainly helped them
avoid walking into any number of traps. From her vantage point
pressed up against him, as they moved along the hallways, checking
each and every sound, each and every corner with their lights,
Kerry could see the reflection from her flashlight bouncing off of
the armor covering Marcus’ firm ass and corded thighs. He had
thighs like a rugby player, built up from years of chasing down
escaped creatures for their employers. His whole body was a
well-toned machine. Each muscle and fiber worked repeatedly in the
company gyms with one goal in mind, monster hunting.

That was what they called it, this
never-ending hunt through space around the sol system for
biological oddities, experiments gone wrong or even just dangerous
xenos that threatened traffic in the area. Xenos were alien animals
from other planets and moons. Most of them were okay, adapted
perfectly to their own environment and dangerous only to their own
prey. Some were sharp and strong and clever and in Kerry's opinion,
utterly homicidal. Occasionally, these dangerous beasts snuck onto
cargo ships when they landed or made their way into poorly guarded
outposts to try out new human snacks. They had to be at the top of
their game to keep up with these creatures. So they trained, and
they hunted and they trained for more.

Kerry enjoyed watching Marcus train, enjoyed
working out with him since they had been partnered together. He was
entirely too focused on his job in her opinion. That strength,
those muscles, and skin needed more than danger and death. They
needed to be licked and stroked and even scratched. Sometimes, she
just wanted to pin him to the gym mat and grind lewdly against his
crotch until she felt some sort of response.

It's not that she hadn't made her attraction
to him clear. Hell, the first week she never presented so much to
one man in her life. She'd never been rejected so much either. He
never pointed it out to her, just ignored it or pretended not to
notice her come ons. It made her so irritated, bruised her ego too.
Kerry gave up out of frustration. In the months since that first
week she hadn't seen him so much as glance at another person’s
chest or crotch or other assets. Half the time, she wondered if he
were even human.

In front of her, Marcus slowed to stop
halfway down the hallway. He didn't move, his muscles bunched up in
readiness, waiting, feeling out the atmosphere around them. Kerry
knew what this meant. The creature they were hunting was very
close, hiding. Possibly somewhere in the darkened corners.
Confident in her lead’s abilities, she waited while Marcus felt out
the area, quietly analyzing potential threats, mentally casting
them aside before moving onto the next.

The high-pitched whine warned her before the
creature’s attack, so she barely had enough time to get down, put
her weapon up and start firing. It shot out over top of them from
an air vent way up in the back of the darkened corner. It was
tucked between the bulkheads in the wall. They couldn't possibly
have seen it.

Her shots, without enough time to target,
flew wildly past the long limbed, long clawed humanoid. It swiped
down with one of those clawed hands connecting with the vulnerable
flesh between her lead’s helmet and his body armor as it thumped to
the ground opposite. Marcus’ sharp cry burst through her receiver
in an earsplitting crackle.

It ran at them, tackling Marcus without
stopping, raising its arms back for another swipe at the vulnerable
flesh of his neck, a second from tearing open his jugular. Not
thinking, only reacting in response to her training, Kerry raised
her weapon and fired repeatedly at the beast despite its close
proximity to Marcus. Better to be shot to death than to have one's
throat slit and bled out like a pig.

The creature’s high-pitched whines burst out
with each impact of a bullet into its torso, pushing it off of
Marcus. It scrambled up. Leapt away on long limbs, turned a corner
at the end of the hallway and disappeared.

“Go after it,” Marcus yelled at her through
the comm. Kerry turned to Marcus, half ready to argue with him. He
was down, but he screamed at her again. Threatened to shoot her
himself if she didn't do her job and go after the creature. That
was all the impetus Kerry needed.

Adrenaline rushing through her system and
sweat pouring down her skin, Kerry tore off down the hallway after
it. The high-pitched whine was gone. All she could hear was her
heart pounding in her ears and the thumping of her feet on the
metal grating beneath and Marcus’ heavy breathing on the other end
of the comm.

“Update Kerry,” Marcus demanded to their
comm.

“It's gone. Fuck, it's gone.”

Other Books in the Lycan's Series by
Chandler Dee:

Lycan's Sacrifice

Lycan's Love

Lycan's Mate

Lycan's Secret

Bounty Hunter Series:

Predator on the Rim

The Immortality Backup

The Chimera Problem

The Hidden Planet

Check out more about the series at:
Chandler
Dee