Hawk's Prey Read online

  She jerked her arm out of the Hunter’s distracted hold. It was an impulse born from the feeling that the Hunter was thinking about her spreading for him. She had no true cause to direct her anger at him and still her body flinched away from his as her clit flickered with a strong ripple of sensation. The lust made her gasp because this Hunter was not anyone she might take as a lover. He was her prison guard and detested among the convicts. She might whore for him to gain something she wanted but absolutely nothing more.

  A second later, her body was pressed against a wall as the Hunter reacted to her abrupt action. She had learned quickly upon her arrival in the penal sphere to never try to pull her arm out of a Hunter’s grasp. The huge males were poised on the edge of tension, always ready to respond to any tiny physical threat. Tova gasped as her body was jerked into a helpless position. Her arms twisted behind her back as the Hunter wedged his thick thigh between her legs to prevent her from kicking him. Her wrist cracked as the bones were twisted by his much stronger body. Surprise flickered through his eyes as he stared into her face, but a second later she was free as he released her and stepped back. His huge body still blocked her path away from the wall, leaving her prey to his dark stare. He looked as surprised by his actions as she was by her own. They had both responded out of instinct. Her cheeks stung with a blush as she realized how much larger he was than her. So close, he towered over her. A ripple of awareness moved over her skin until it hit her nipples. Tova frowned as she felt them tighten into hard points that dug into her robe.

  “You should know better, non-convict. You are required to stand still for inspection.” The Hunter grunted with disapproval as his eyes studied her.

  Tova rubbed her wrist as she crossed her arms over her chest. Her nipples tingled again as she caught an unfamiliar scent. She actually recognized that she could smell the Hunter’s skin. The warm scent of male traveled through her senses, triggering odd little impulses. She fought to stand still as her muscles twitched with a surge of energy. It felt like a current that flowed into her nipples and down her spine to her clit. A hot flicker of lust filled her pussy as she cursed her bad luck for having such a reaction to a Hunter.

  “You are too slight to disobey a Hunter.” Her head didn’t reach his shoulder but her body wasn’t tiny. Hawk considered her sturdy frame with a flicker of appreciation from his cock. The attraction was not anticipated and he lingered in place as he felt it move through his frame. She rubbed at her arm but didn’t complain. Pain flickered in her eyes, proving that this female was stronger than most he had ever met. That wasn’t completely uncommon among convicts. Many were hardened by their greed, but Tova didn’t look jaded. She simply held her complaints, refusing to lower herself to whining. Hawk felt another surge of appreciation for her and it sunk deeper into his brain as he looked at her arm again. The skin was turning an angry red, making him frown.

  “Let me look at your arm.”

  The Hunter didn’t wait for her to comply, he reached across the space between them and captured her wrist once again. A tiny sound of surprise escaped her lips as Tova struggled to relax and let him have command of her limb. Every muscle felt taut and unyielding as more sensation filled her breasts and even flowed towards her pussy. She was horrified at the reaction. Hunters fucked non-convicts but never respected any occupant of the penal sphere.

  “I am fine.”

  Her wrist remained in his grasp as his eyes flickered back to her face. “I will be the judge of that.” His voice was thick with authority but her fickle emotions heard strength in it too. His shoulders blocked the afternoon sun because he was so close to her. His fingers encircled her wrist completely. Tova stared at his hand and the stark reality of how helpless her limb looked held in his grasp. He pulled a slim black rectangle from his belt and a red light appeared on its surface. There was a soft chirp from it as he moved it over her wrist and held it up for his gaze to inspect. A hard grunt was his only response as he returned the item to his waist but didn’t release her.

  Instead his other hand joined the grip as he began to rub her numb wrist. Tova felt her jaw drop as she stared at his fingers rubbing and working the feeling back into her arm. Concern for her comfort was only a distant memory.

  “’Tis not broken.” His voice was hard with reprimand as his fingers continued to rub at her limb. She was suddenly lamenting the black gloves encasing his fingers. The dense fabric prevented her from feeling his skin against her own.

  “As I said, I am well.” She yanked on her arm. A hot curl of lust moved through her pussy as heat seared across her face. She should be ashamed to feel any sort of attraction for a Hunter, even something as common as lust. A deep growl came from his throat as his gaze flickered with displeasure.

  “You should submit without a struggle. Hunters react quickly and harshly to subjects who do not yield.”

  Tova rubbed her own wrist to remove the memory of his strong fingers stroking her limb. “The law does not require I yield my body to anything more. May I pass?” Tova detested the plea lacing her voice but she was powerless to banish the heat flowing through her blood. Lust curled through her clit as her pussy gave a twist of need so surprising, she blushed once again. If he didn’t move, she could not force him to.

  “And yet you blush.” Hawk shouldn’t have remarked on the fact but he wanted to see what she would say. He wasn’t ready to watch her turn her back on him, in fact, preventing that appealed to him quite a bit.

  “Do you think I enjoy being inspected? Temper colors the cheeks.” Her words were a blatant lie. His eyes traced the stain on her face and then dropped to her crossed arms. Tova hid her nipples with her forearms because her soft robe would have displayed the little points.

  “So does attraction.” She gasped and licked her lower lip. Hawk watched her reaction and grinned. Satisfaction moved through him for unmasking her. He enjoyed witnessing how he affected her just a little too much but that wasn’t enough to stop his hand from stroking her cheek just once. His glove prevented true skin-to-skin contact but she shivered and that pleased him immensely. She glared at him before raising her voice enough to make sure the people behind him might hear her.

  “May I pass?”

  The Hunter studied her flaming cheeks for a time before he stepped back. Tova sprang away from the wall that had imprisoned her. She bit back the curse she wanted to mutter as she fled. There was no other way to describe her departure and it made her furious that any male might make her so desperate. A fine tremor shook her legs as she moved, betraying how affected she was by her lust. She stopped for a moment and turned her head to look back. He stood there watching her with a smug grin on his face. The look of appreciation for her body stunned her. His face lacked the leer she was used to seeing aimed at her bottom when males were interested in spreading her. The Hunter was arrogant but not presumptuous. His words echoed in her head.

  Attraction? She had labeled it lust but his word made it far more possible for her to yield to the heat flickering through her clit. His eyes still lingered on her and she turned when she realized that he could now see her hard nipples. Her blush doubled as she shook her head and moved towards her home. Letting him know how much she was interested in him was most unwise. Any further contact between them promised to lead her into trouble. Her life was hard enough, she did not need a Hunter to complicate it further.

  Even one whom she was attracted to.

  Hawk watched the non-convict hurry down the street and his eyes strayed to the sway of her hips as she quickened her pace. His cock throbbed behind his uniform as a slight scent of her body lingered. He grinned at her retreating form and cursed at his thoughts. He inspected hundreds of inhabitants each duty rotation, her body wasn’t any different than a hundred others.

  But their meeting clung to his mind as he moved his gaze around the street. Losing focus was asking for death to land on the back of his skull. A mocking grin from Janus only infuriated him further. The Hunter stood ten feet behind him with a
grin on his lips that told Hawk his comrade had witnessed the entire episode.

  “That was interesting, Hawk. Very interesting.” Janus turned and looked at Tova as she turned a corner. “Very nice too.”

  “Shut up.” Janus offered him a smirk. The man was his partner but that didn’t make him any happier about finding him watching. Hawk felt a frown mar his face. His thoughts weren’t making sense. He and Janus often shared females. Command structure among Hunters made it mandatory that they could view each other’s records at any time and for any reason. He had no secrets from Janus. He never would. If he acted on his lust for Tova, Janus would know and possibly even share in it. That made his current agitation hard to understand. Possessiveness wasn’t a good thing in a Hunter.

  “Now who is dreaming of submission?” Janus was also a bastard who never forgot a single thing.

  “Choke and rot.”

  Janus snorted and grinned at him. He slapped a hard hand onto his shoulder as they began to move once again. “You’re surly when your cock is hard.”

  “And you whine like an unweaned babe.”

  Janus smirked at him before nodding in agreement. “I shall whine happily. If it means I will be rewarded with a plump set of tits to suckle.”

  Hawk laughed at his friend because the comment deserved it. Only your friends were willing to drop their pride long enough to engage in humor. Among Hunters, that bond was treasured. But his thoughts didn’t remain with Janus very long. Hawk scanned the street but his mind lingered on the non-convict he’d just inspected.

  Chaste.

  Her face remained in his memory as he considered that surprising fact. Most non-convicts prostituted their bodies. Their life was not easy and it was a simple way to gain comfort in a sphere built for convicts. He and Janus moved forward and another butternut-robed female turned to clear their path.

  “You can inspect me anytime.”

  She offered them both a coy smile that left a sour taste in Hawk’s mouth. His temper rose in response. His cock was still hard. The offer should have pleased his stiff flesh. Instead, Tova’s scent lingered and his cock rejected the idea of any female save her. Their meeting remained lodged in his brain as he felt more heat for her than the female offering to spread for him. Janus considered him and shrugged the offer aside as well.

  “We make a fine pair.”

  Hawk scoffed at his partner. “Aye, a fine pair of idiots.” They would both suffer their hunger but that idea met with more approval than taking the woman behind him up on her offer. Sometimes, if you couldn’t have quality, it wasn’t worth ruining your palate with an inferior product. Tova was quality, Hawk knew that. He also knew they were better off avoiding each other. That didn’t mean he was willing to sink his cock into a slut.

  Yeah, he and Janus made a fine pair of idiots. Fay wouldn’t be showing up anytime soon either.

  * * * * *

  Tova bathed when she got home. Rishan grumbled about her fetish for cleanliness as he checked their water meter. He shot her a glare before pointing a finger at her.

  “Your bathing habit must stop. It wastes water. We could trade it instead.”

  Everything was rationed in the penal sphere. As lawbreakers they were disallowed possessions. Even the very necessities of life were dispensed in small allotments. That practice helped ensure the convicts would find it difficult to store up enough supplies to make an escape attempt. There were stories of the far side of the planet where it was primitive but not controlled by the Hunters. If a convict made it, he could cut his bands of conviction off his wrists and live however he liked. If he survived the journey, that was. Stretches of burning sand and hungry carnivores lay between the civilized spheres and the uncivilized side of the globe. The Hunters would not bother to give chase to any convict who ran but they would not allow their resources to be stolen for the escape attempt either.

  Instead they simply waited for the convict to return. They did too. Battered and half crazed from dehydration and other horrors. The Hunters would place them on public display before shipping them off to a work colony. It was a fact that the Hunters enjoyed being able to place returned convicts in the work colonies, it kept the other convicts neatly in their barracks. Still, convicts like her brother listened to the rumors and dreamed of freedom. They fueled their hopes with false pride, telling themselves that they would be strong enough to make it.

  Tova was content to linger in the few enjoyments her life yielded. It was the truth that her life had changed little. She labored each day to hold off starvation, just as she had in her birth sphere. Rishan made demands of her and her father cursed her for being born a daughter, just as he always had. But there was one thing that was better. She was no longer struck when the males in her family gave in to their rage. Here among their Hunter guards, their violence would meet with swift judgment. Tova considered her blue wristbands and smiled. There was good in all things, even imprisonment.

  Still, nothing was free. Her nipples were still sensitive. Just a lingering awareness now, but as she moved and the evening air carried away the heat from the day, she felt her robe brushing across her bare skin. It was a thing she wasn’t accustomed to noticing. Frustration chewed on her clit as her memory insisted on displaying the Hunter’s image to her. She recalled little details about him. Her nipples tingled slightly as she lingered in her memory of just how wide his shoulders were. His eyes appealed to her as well, they were keen and quick to absorb details. The heat moving through her surprised her, but she enjoyed it too. For the first time, the idea of letting a male touch her excited her.

  It was his comforting touch that caused her to think about him. Tova looked at her hand and the slight swelling marking her limb. He had hurt her but what held his memory in her attention was the fact that he had applied care to the injury. The few times it had happened to her in the past, the Hunters had left her to deal with the discomfort alone. It wasn’t necessary to treat, only to remember to stand still around the highly trained guards. She knew so, had listened to the stories of those who had made the mistake of attempting to resist inspections. Non-compliance met with swift applications of Hunter strength. Their bodies grew larger than civilian males and were honed just like weapons. It was simple to see them because they stood a good foot taller than the convicts. Thick muscle covered their bodies making their chests wide and imposing.

  Truly, she was astonished to discover the Hunter had indeed been able to control his strength. That was not a trait she had considered you might find in a Hunter. Even their chosen mates were often submissive to the point of pity. She had never seen one, only heard about the practice of capturing females who became the property of the Hunter. The women were lawbreakers and yet it still seemed harsh that their bodies became toys for males who called them Trophy.

  Her nipples tingled again as she considered being played with. Tova pressed her hands over her breasts and delight spread through her nipples. Heat pooled in her belly as she felt the touch of fluid on the top of her bare thighs. She hissed as she rubbed her hands over her breasts, attempting to banish the sensation. An image of strong Hunter hands touching her tender breasts filled her cheeks with heat as she felt her clit flicker with more lust. The betrayal of her body continued in spite of her mental warning to forget that Hunter.

  She could not spread for a Hunter! He would bend her body to his whim. Take what he craved and leave her marked with the stain of her shame. Even a female who spread for money was considered more respectable than one who allowed her body to be penetrated by a Hunter just for the pleasure of coupling. Unless it was for some tangible thing, a Hunter was not acceptable as a lover. Tova felt two tears sting her eyes—she would not earn her things by spreading. Too many of the non-convict women did so and their eyes grew old before their faces wrinkled. The spirit died and Tova wouldn’t give up her life for comfort. But her pussy was hot for the Hunter. Desire to spread for him clawed at her, leaving her struggling with her principles. She wouldn’t lie either. No
t even to cover up her lust for a Hunter. That left her with a craving that might drive her half mad because she wasn’t going to feed it.

  “Where is my dinner? You lazy bitch!” Rishan bellowed from outside.

  Tova closed her mind to his insults as she began to fill a bowl with the stew she had made. She was not lazy. Rishan might say she was but she would never listen to his surly words. She would bathe when she pleased as well. That was one ration neither male might take from her. Whenever water was used, each occupant’s wristbands transmitted their identity. Rishan could not draw her water allotment with his own hands, he would have to demand she do it and hand the precious fluid over to him. But he risked the record being viewed if she were inspected, so he tried to get her to offer the water to him.

  Tova smiled as she enjoyed the feeling of clean skin. It was a comfort she treasured. She would not be giving her water to Rishan for his purposes. She refused to think about what he did with the water he managed to collect from their sire. In truth, she was better off not thinking about Rishan’s actions at all. He was a confessed convict and a non-penitent one too. Greed shone bright in his eyes. Tova was convinced it would bring him to further ruin. Still, she was not willing to leave, so she would keep the living space for him and not poke her nose into his affairs. She contented herself with the firm belief that life would be no easier for her in a peaceful sphere. Life was hard. It was a simple fact that made it possible to be content with her lot.

  Enduring lust was simply today’s discomfort…nothing more.