Predator: Huntress - Alpha

Chapter 16

"And just what kind of training takes you out every night and you coming back angry as hell?" Justice asked sharply from her position leaning against the door jam.

She had woken a few minutes ago to an empty house for the third day in a row. Putting Larsa into her highchair in the living room, Justice did a quick search of the house and found no trace of the colossal hunter. It was only by mid-morning did the yautja return always in a tense grumbling mood. Today, he carried something huge and quite dead slung over his shoulder into his work room. Hanging the alien animal body onto hook suspended from the ceiling Jarak stepped back and cast his sunset eyes on her.

"I train for us," he replied tersely.

"Us?" she frowned, not understanding his words whatsoever. "How the hell do you train for us? What does that mean? Besides you're the meanest bastard on this planet--ok maybe not the meanest," she corrected not able to help the smile that tugged at the corner of her lips as she looked at him, "but certainly the baddest motherfucker here. So, what is there really to train for in the middle of the night until morning?"

For a moment he simply stared down at her, the emotion in his eyes shifting from pride at her earlier words to a blank unreadable expression. Turning his back to her, Jarak reached out for the hanging carcass and grabbed one of the various knives from the array attached to the wall. Decorated with bones of a spinal cord the knife looked like some tribal ceremonial blade, very much Jarak's style. Sinking the blade into the beast's flesh, Jarak cut a long line from groin to chest letting the dark blue blood flow out into the drain on the floor.

Finally, Jarak spoke. "I train for our mating."

For a moment Justice just stood there staring at the back of his broad shoulders and long pile of tubular spines resting on his back. His words bounced about in her head like a ping-pong ball.

Reaching up Justice grabbed a fistful of his spines at the base of his head and pulled until Jarak let out a rumbling growl and began to comply with her force. Pulling and turning the big yautja, Justice shoved him with full strength at his chest ignoring his snarl and watched with pleasure as he hit the wall behind him. Snatching the knife from his hand, Justice pressed her forearm under his angry flexing mandibles and held the knife with her other hand pointing at his face.

Closer now, Justice gave him a cold stare. "And just who the fuck are you practicing on? You go out and find some human bitch to practice your moves with, Jarak?" Her voice hummed with anger. She said his name with every ounce of threat that coursed through her.

Reaching up with painstaking slowness, Jarak carefully wrapped his long-clawed fingers around her hand holding the tribal knife. Justice stared into his warm aurora eyes and saw the satisfaction coiling bright within them and allowed him to pluck the knife from her grasp.

"Your jealousy pleases me," he said, letting the knife drop with a clang on the nearby metal table.

Refusing to ease the pressure from his throat, Justice narrowed her gaze at him. "I'm not jealous, I'm pissed," she clarified.

Not at all intimidated by his position, Jarak let his hands settle on her waist and Justice could feel her resolve immediately weaken at their warm heat.

Disgusted with herself, she snatched her arm from him and stepped back. "Fine go have your-"

Her words were replaced by a small, startled feminine sound that had no business coming from her. Grabbing her by the waist, Jarak lifted her high against him. Instinctively her legs wrapped around his waist and she sighed at the contact of his warm abdomen pressed against her sex.