Page 3 of Craved By the Hunter
“He did?”
“Yeah. Kan’n opened the door from the outside and let me out. But he was a total jerk about it. Trust me, I want to be done with this and out of his hair.”
“Kan’n is still being an ass, then?”
“Yup. Total butthole.”
Heather guffawed. “They didn’t nickname him Loose Cannon for nothing.”
She and Nov’k had been the ones who rescued Kan’n from the Albuquerque settlement where some assholes had been holdinghim hostage to blackmail Pip to do what they wanted. Kan’n was nice to her since she’d helped free him as a result, but he only interacted with me because he had to, and as for the rest of the humans at the camp, he kept well away from them.
“I thought he and Lok’n were supposed to be off hunting scourge today,” I sighed. “I thought I’d have the whole day to work alone in peace.”
“They were, but I heard they didn’t find any.”
I blinked, wondering if I’d heard her wrong. “Didn’tfindany?”
“Nope, not unless they went super close to the nest.”
“That’s…”
“Weird?”
“Yeah.”
“Mm, I thought so, too. But maybe it’s a good thing.”
“Maybe.”
I wasn’t so sure, but then again, what did I know? I was good with machines, not living things. Heather was the vet and even she didn’t look convinced. These bugs were a genetically-engineered weapon, and nothing like the creatures here on Earth.
She tossed back the last of her coffee. “Wanna come help me get the gophers ready? I thought I could get that done since there are no scourge out and about today.”
“Yes!” I was glad to have something to do to take my mind off Pip the WIP. I’d had to explain to him that WIP meant work-in-progress when I’d called him that, and that it wasn’t an insult.
I reached into my pocket for my phone, only to realize that I had been so eager to get out of the shuttle that I’d left it on the counter in front of the navigational screen.
“Shit. I left my phone inside Pip. Let me go get it and then I’ll meet you at the gopher enclosures.”
Chapter 2: Kan’n
“You let her go.” My shuttle didn’t sound impressed, but what was new?
“She wanted to leave.”
“You should have kissed her.”
“I do not wish to touch my lips to hers.”
Kissing was a strange human custom and one I wasn’t curious about at all—I used to be, I suppose, when I first arrived on Earth, but not anymore. I didn’t want anything to do with humans. It was bad enough that this hunter group that had accepted me worked with them. My shuttle seemed to believe that this Sam female was my mate.
“Not even a little?” my shuttle asked, sounding disappointed.
“No.” Okay, maybe a little, but I didn’t need to encourage that nonsense.
My excellent hearing had picked up bits and pieces of her conversation with Pip through the mostly soundproof door. According to these humans I’d been forced to live with, the shuttle I’d had my entire life was special. I hadn’t even known what a PIP model was, although I’d heard about ultra-intelligent shuttles the Xarc’n military had decommissioned centuries ago.
What were the chances that the AI on my ship would be the one that got away?