Chase Read Free

frustrated. I realized that if I let Mari start a relationship, you would drop your guard around me. Unfortunately, that wasn't quite correct. Why was that, Nenita?"
    The icy silk of his tone ran through her. "You aren't right. Nothing about you feels right for me. You feel creepy."
    He nodded. "Your talent at work, no doubt. You have no idea how hard it was to find a Terran who was not guarded. Most other species guard their talents, but yours puts them all over the Alliance and then depends on local governments for protection."
    Nenita didn't bother telling him that her government had given her and almost two thousand others to the Alliance as a test. If those two thousand humans could meet their matches in the stars, integrate and grow, their race would be offered a welcome in the Alliance. Phase one was already complete, five champions had been declared in the human bloodlines, exceptional representations of their species.
    Each of those champions was female and each had begun a family of her own. Some had been altered for the purpose of carrying babies who did not quite match their genetics, but all were sprouting babies who would have their own place in the stars.
    She would cut her own throat before she brought a child of this murderer to term.
    Shaking her head, she focussed on the sounds of pursuit from the forest beneath her. A vicious blue brute stumbled into the clearing and he raised his head to scent the wind. She saw, rather than heard, his snarl of frustration as her height scattered her scent to the breezes. The entire area smelled like she did.
    She would have to return to the ground in a few hours, her thirst and biological needs would make sure of it. Despite the Terran male propensity for peeing on trees, she really had no urge to try it herself.
    As she watched the blue man searching for her, another male came into the area, a wrist scanner on his arm. That bugger was cheating!
    Nenita had hoped for more time and more sterile surroundings, but there was only one thing to do. With a deep breath, she pulled the quill from her wrap and tested it in the tiny hole in the back of her collar.
    She stilled her shaking hands with a deep breath, placed a small branch between her teeth and bit down as she worked the quill into her collar.
    The controls were fairly simple, but the retraction trigger was what she was after. Nishino had ordered the control installed when she tried to kill him when he untied her after their landing on this rock. The influx of his clan members saved him and restrained her, but her fury wouldn't fade.
    If she struck the control in the correct place, the collar would retract the electrodes that zapped her when she got too close to Nishino. She wanted him dead and nothing was going to stop her.
    She grimaced around the branch as she sought the right spot. If she hit the wrong spot, she would be paralyzed or worse.
    The collar started chirping as she pressed the nodules in order. She swallowed and held her breath as she slid the quill into place. She saw two large feline predators on the ground beneath her and kept her focus on them while she pressed down and activated the centre of the wiring.
    At first, she didn't feel anything and then a disturbing slither inside her caused a gagging reaction as the filaments retracted back into their metal housing. She removed the quill and popped the lock on her collar loose. Nenita looked down at the instrument of torture and control in her hands and scowled. What should she do with it now?
    Chapter Three
    Drioth looked at his clan brother, Hexar. They could smell the female in the trees above them.
    Should we climb?
    No. She will have to come down eventually. We will just have to remove the competition in the area.
    Hexar shifted his feline form into something more deadly with longer claws.
    Drioth matched him, his collar stretching around the thicker cords of his neck. They no longer needed to track the Terran. They knew precisely where she was.
    She