Snaring the Huntress - Sylvia Day Page 0,1

Now you’re being ridiculous. You know his pre-assigned was hot for it.” Jacians were a telepathic species renowned for their exotic beauty. Pale green skin mottled with softer and darker shades of green. Thick, silky hair in various colors. Eyes in a rainbow of jeweled tones. And their inexhaustible sexual appetite, which they augmented by reading their partner’s fantasies and then making them come true. All traits that made them highly sought after as mates.

“Have you been with one? Sexually?”

“Nope.” Star stood and stretched, lifting her arms over her head and pushing out the bony spines that coursed the length of her back before retracting them again. “I like sex as much as anyone, maybe more than most, but days on end with the same guy would kill me. Even if you are fucking most of the time, there has to be some time when you’re not. You gotta sleep and eat, right? And once men start opening their mouths, it gets tedious fast.”

“You are kidding.”

Laughing, Star checked the programmed coordinates, and started the mental preparations for the hunt. She liked to be ready for anything. It’s why she was the best. Because of her skill, she was counting on this being an easy capture. The Jacian was holed up somewhere, either with a woman or going mad with need for one. He didn’t stand a chance.

“Of course I’m kidding, Two-Thousand. I love men. Everything about them. That’s what sucks about this assignment.

Jacians don’t usually go rogue. In fact, this is the first case I’ve heard of in my lifetime. A shame to have to waste a prime Jacian male like this, but he had a trial and was duly sentenced. Wanted dead or alive. Those are our orders.”

“I am curious as to whether you agree with the popular opinion about their beauty.”

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen one.” Star opened the weapons bunker and withdrew her favorite blade. She didn’t need it.

Physically, she was equipped with the claws and teeth to kill anything. But using a knife or blaster kept her prey alive.

“I’ve always been too busy collecting the judicial credits I need to make it to the Supreme Court bench.”

“I have pictures of him,” Two-Thousand coaxed.

“No, thanks.” Moving back down the hallway to her quarters, Star caught up the silvery blond tresses that flowed down her back, and tied them in a knot at her nape. It was time to get ready for the hunt. “Jacians are pretty distinctive. I just have to find the one with the raging hard-on.”

“But they have varying hair and eye colors.”

“I’ll keep my eyes trained below the waist. No problem.”

“How about a first name?”

“Ambassador Teron is good enough.” She sighed. Softness was a luxury she couldn’t afford. “You’re a computer, you don’t understand.”

“What do I not understand?”

“It makes it harder to terminate prey if they actually become individuals.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah,” Star muttered. “That’s what he’ll be saying when I catch up with him.”

* * *

They’d sent the Huntress after him.

If he weren’t in so much pain, Roark would be flattered. As it was, he was merely relieved his plan had worked so well. Of course, this meant the Supreme Court wanted him terminated. The Interstellar Council never sent a Hunter after anything they didn’t want dead. But if everything worked out as he hoped, it would all be worth it. Death was a small price to pay for the realization of his true desire. A desire he chose, not one that was forced on him by genetics.

Roark leaned his head against the wall and closed his eyes, a wracking shudder coursing the length of his long frame. At this point, he rather wished for death. He’d begun the heat cycle yesterday, and his veins burned with the unrelieved hormones in his blood. Every muscle was straining, his breathing was labored, and sweat poured from his skin. If he’d started fucking at the onset, he’d be languorous and playful now. But he wanted what he wanted, and he would get her. He was not a man who took well to being denied.

But damn it! He wished she’d hurry.

He’d chosen lodging just outside of town, and did the best he could to hide, while not hiding too well. She was a Huntress.

If she tracked him too easily it would arouse her suspicions. But now he wished he’d just stayed out in the open, so she would have found him already. He needed relief, a few hours straight of it, so he could think clearly and handle