Hunter's Moon

This is my second book over on Kindle

It is a bit of a Novella if anything but it deals with an inspiration I was trying to put to rest.

In one distant galaxy where the strongest actually run everything in it, it is a dog eat dog world where the weak are either owned or taken advantage of. The biggest rule in the Indoviel Galaxy is that the Alphas rule and run everything. Betas serve their masters and have a place in the universe as the normal peasantry. Then there are the Omegas that have to submit.

           Alphas are designed to tap into the primal sides of their being and can turn it on and off at will. This makes the Alphas the most formidable predators in the galaxy. 

Omegas are fewer in the galaxy and are always females designed to mate with the Alphas. Their soul design is to bare young for the Alpha males. 

It is not unusual for mediocre Alphas and the lower classes of Alphas usually do not mate or take Betas since the Omegas are few. However it is the upper crust of the Alphas that are the most dangerous and the most powerful that seek the Omegas to sate their needs and to breed.

The Omega will try and run.

Alphas will always give chase.

Anarei

Far be it from me to have wanted to be forced to take part in what I have been told is a bloody time. The Alphas class can be truly ruthless and they are the ones who make their own laws. Even lawful space is not safe for even the Alphas there do not give a shit about anyone but themselves. 

           This year as the Alpha Moon Hunt quickly approaches, my father figure was arrested and his property immediately confiscated. The six of us were taken from his home and dumped on the fourth moon of Lycia, a planetoid wrapped in woodlands and swampland. This is the destination of this year’s Omega nightmare. I hope I survive and by some slim chance that the Alpha that captures me is nice about thing…but probably not…

Malachite

           Instead in the Shadow Zone, the Cabal has seized control of everything. We are perhaps the true power in this Galaxy because even the law runs from us.

           In the nine years since I rose to power in the Cabal Organization to being one of the most profitable, I managed to manipulate and create my family’s criminal enterprises out of the dust of the previous master of the planet Cytal. I control Cytal and everything he had his hands in now from Weapons development and smuggling, money laundering in almost every way imaginable, casinos, night clubs, I even have my hand in the illegal slave trade.

           With the Alpha Moon Hunt finally back on, I get involved to find myself an Omega. I do have a legacy to consider. Since we secretly sponsor the Hunt, I get the chance to see just who is coming to the moon and the Omega that are there waiting.

           A pretty little thing in the files is truly exceptional. I have made my choice on who I am pursing, now if I reach her first…

Taken from the story:

T-minus 15 hours…

Anarei

           With a heavy heart but certain strategy, I leave while everyone else sleep after the countdown clock started. 

           I start out on the ground as if I am normal without nails like mine, but then I take to the trees when I am a mile away from camp. No prints, no immediate scent, no trace if I can help it. From the rest of the girls I travel west. In the trees, only the occasional leaf fall is all I had to deal with.

           Below me in the bushes and some of the grass I see movements, but also know that they are animal life. I see a heard of herbivores, possibly deer, and the wolf stalking them. I also see mice and other small creatures. Crickets and night birds make up a majority of the sounds. The forest is alive and I can almost sense it.

           As I move from interlocking tree branch to tree branch, I see the occasional small prey species look up at me. Despite being a humanoid, to them I still have traces of the predator in my scent. As long as I don’t come across as a threat I should be able to move like a phantom without commotion.

           My thoughts on what is to come are to be silent at night and stay awake in case I have to run from a hunter. During the day I will risk sleep but only where I can conceal myself completely from anyone around. The most powerful of the Alphas that will come will revert to their primal half the moment they leave their ships. Their primal halves most likely will make them more nocturnal. If I am going to try and stay a head of the curve, I too must become nocturnal. It is the best way to compete and be a more difficult catch.

           I also have to make myself hard now. If I witness something…abusive or even a rape to claim one of the others, I can’t help her no matter if it is one of my sisters or the next thing to a stranger. I have to think only of myself, even if it tears me a part on the inside. I cannot play hero. I must stay strong until I cannot no more.

           I slip along a branch about thirty feet in the air and have a brief look at the sky. There are a few silver reflective surfaces in the night in orbit around this moon. The hunters are already starting to show up but cannot land until the clock runs out. This makes my movements more important to do this now then later. I need distance between myself and that camp before the sun comes up.

           I lower myself down a few branches to drop to the ground but lose my footing and end up scraping the back of my right thigh on the tree before I am free enough to land. A few prey species scatter, but they will not be seen from above. I stand and glimpse back at my thigh and sigh. It isn’t that bad so I move on because I have no choice.

           With a cat species at my base DNA, I did inherit the agility and the speed. I use that and race on until dawn begins behind me. Then I find a small cave that had been abandoned by animal species and climb inside. I press a large leaf against my thigh before I curl up as far back as I can to conceal myself…then my eyes go close for just a little while.

T-minus 8 hours…

Maude

           As the sun begins to make its appearance over the horizon, I am awake. I know that Anarei has already left. I saw her leave but let her go without argument. 

I know she sat with our father figure ten years ago when the last hunt was on and he told her about the brutality. I overheard some of it but ended up in my bed with my blankets pulled over my head as I prayed that I would never be here.

Well here I am.

The others have not stirred yet. I am on my own. 

I see a ship directly over our heads watching the planet. In this camp we are seen by everyone who comes into orbit. Staying until dawn was probably not the best things but I wanted a goodnight sleep before I started up my own plan. They can watch us all they want in the meantime provided they do not land until the Hunt begins.

The Betas told us a horn would be heard all over the planet when the clock strike zero. 

I can’t be among them when it happens. 

If I am, I am a sitting duck.

That is absolute submission.

Sorenson…father taught us to be better than that…

It is my turn to leave now. I pull myself up and step into the undergrowth on the southern side of the camp. I start out walking, but once I am concealed by the canopy of the various trees I break into a run of desperation. 

As I head into parts unknown I begin to formulate my own plan.

It is best that we do not make it easy for them to find us. The Alphas want to hunt, that is why this event was planned like it is. Because we lived in law space it is why we were drawn into this. Frame up Sorenson, claim his property, and use it as part of the show. Though I don’t see cameras, I wouldn’t be surprised if we are not being televised to the Shadow Zone. 

If we are too easy, too willing, make it simple for them, they could decide to kill us and look for the girls that can complicate and give them their satisfactory hunt. That is what Anarei is doing now by becoming a solo act.

Make it hard for them. Then I might get a powerful one at least to take notice in me.

I slow my speed when I notice the landscape change. The ground is becoming more sponge like. I took to the swamp side of the landscape apparently. Foot prints will be seen more easily, but the water would hide tracks and the smell will hide me as well as them. I can use this…

I play along the shallows and shifting land masses. I do note the species variants here as well with the marshgators and the serpents in the water, but I think I can manage it here. I have always liked a good flame kissed snake in the summer time.

Even though I have to slow my pace, I have an advantage here. I just have to work on using it. I need to get away from the bio shift, but once I am squarely in the swamp, I can perhaps lose myself for a while and make a base of operations.

T-minus 5 hours…

The rest of the girls…

           They awoke and eyes went skyward. Cries began as did weeping. There are multiple ships seen from their location on the ground. 

The smart ones rise and begin to scatter into the woods individually as fast as their legs can handle it.

Then there are those that think that numbers matter. They take off in small groups of three and four with intentions of hiding out together. There would normally be safety in numbers, but would that matter in this situation? Nevertheless the blonde from the night before ran off with two others.

Very soon there is only one sitting at the camp. Audrey does as she threatens and sits. She refuses to move from the location in hopes that it would appease the Alphas above. But predators like to hunt…