Chapter 2: Green Blood Crimson Heart.

Angel sighed contentedly, looking around the beautiful forest, she kept feeling like any moment a white rabbit was going to show up and pull her ass back down the hole and she'd wake up in her bunk back on Earth finding out that it had all been a dream, well, part dream, part nightmare.

Having been stuck on the planet the Bad Bloods had used as a hunting reserve for so long and to live every day in fear of your life had had a profound affect on her and so many of the others, but not only that but now after hating the Yautja for so long she finds out that the ones who had them were not representative of the species as a whole, but after so long spent hating a people out of ignorance of how the few had tarnished her and the view of many others it was hard to switch that off.

But it had helped alleviate that pain and that fear when she'd seen others of their race fighting not only for them but alongside them which helped to change her view somewhat, then there was the fact that Miller's best friend and idol, Jack Mason, had turned out to not only be married to one but had children with her, now she was living on a planet far away from her home surrounded by them and it was absolutely nothing like she'd expected, they weren't blood thirsty monsters at all, yes, they liked to hunt strong prey, yes, they liked to take trophies, but there was a vast difference to them and the Bad Bloods, regular Yautja were all about honor and law and codes of conduct.

Then there was the warrior in crimson armor, a shiver ran down Angel's spine even as she thought of him, a shiver that both annoyed her and warmed her, she'd never in a million years thought that she could be attracted to anything other than a human male, but there was just something about him, the way he carried himself, he just oozed confidence and skill, plus, he wasn't a loud mouth spouting bravado and BS, he was quiet and softly spoken, in fact, she still didn't even know his name yet, she'd only met him at the final battle that had freed them from the planet, he'd come with Ryan, Jack's son, and the reinforcements he'd brought, but out of all of them he'd just stood out like a shining beacon of crimson, she didn't even know his name.

The first months on this new world had been hard, living either in tents or in the bunks in the ships, but eventually, thanks to Yoshi and the big Xenomorph queen who followed him around like a giant lost puppy, they were each given their very own log cabins to live in and these weren't like those makeshift things you saw on the TV shows about crazy preppers either, they were the type you saw on the films of those little ski resorts, all huge cut and interlocked logs.

The day she moved in Angel felt like she was living in one of her dreams as a little girl when her mother had taken her skiing and she'd stayed in a lodge and had seen a place that looked just like this except all covered in snow, it was truly beautiful, what Jack and the others were trying to build here was a truly beautiful notion that matched the idea and somehow she still felt like she was just along for the ride, but what could she do, she wasn't a builder or an engineer, she was a soldier who bled green, but they'd still given her a home, a beautiful little cottage like cabin that had everything she could need, including a wood burning boiler and a fucking hot shower, and what had she given back? Nothing.

That's when everything changed, she was sat in her little home cleaning her weapons when there was a knock at the door, well, it more sounded like someone was trying to punch through her door, when she opened it she found Jack standing there, smiling like an idiot, "Good morning, Angel, hope we didn't wake you up," he said, but it wasn't him that caught her attention, it was who was stood behind him.

"May we come in?" Jack asked, still smiling, and Angel found that the butterflies that had suddenly filled her stomach had also landed on her tongue and were weighing it down like they were made of lead so she just nodded her head dumbly while never taking her eyes off the crimson armored Yautja standing with Jack, his eyes were the brightest green she had ever seen in her life, it was like those glowing emeralds were burning right into her very stained and disfunctional soul.

"This is Armek, he's a defector from the Shadow Claw clan, Tik's old clan," Jack said, heading over to her table and inspecting the parts of her AR-15 which she'd stripped down and was in the process of cleaning.

"I-I-It's good to meet you," Angel found herself stammering and hating herself for doing so, it was one part fear and one part nerves and a whole lot of mixed up feelings doing it, he nodded, giving a small bow of his head.

"I pay my respects to a warrior who stood against the Bad Bloods for so long, it is an honor to meet you, Angel," Armek said, his voice somehow managing to be both as smooth as silk and deep and gravely at the same time which sent a flurry of shivers chasing each other down her spine.

He was tall, standing seven and a half feet tall and had to weigh in at least three hundred pounds of solid muscle which, although she couldn't see under his crimson plate, she just knew was there from the shape of it, if the way the armor was made was anything to go by this man was a new definition to the term beef cake.

"Well, I, err, thanks, I guess," she said, rubbing her head and flushing even deeper when she saw Jack was smiling at her in that knowing way he did, the bastard really could read bloody minds, bloody Dream Warriors, wasn't bad enough that they were sharing a planet with aliens but now they had super humans who could reach into your head and strum your memories like a bloody harp or shove theirs down your throat without giving you a choice, it still made her feel sick when she got flashes of all the shit he'd seen in his life.

"Well, a flock of little birds keep tweeting to me that you're going stir crazy and are in need of something useful to do, something about feeling like your sitting around with your thumb jammed up your ass?" Jack said, and as he said it she felt herself flush, made even worse by the fact that Armek looked confused and looked at her ass.

"Why would an ooman female put a thumb up her rear end?" he asked, looking at her ass with a look of confusion on his oddly handsome face which made it oh so much more worse, as did Jack, roaring with laughter.

Though, to be fair, Jack did throw her a life line here, "It's just a human expression, Armek, it means sitting around doing nothing and feeling useless," he said, and Armek switched his attention from her ass to Jack, though the look of confusion remained.

""You oomans have odd sayings," he said, raising his eyebrow and Jack laughed again and nodded.

"No arguments here, but odd sayings aside, I'm here with a solution to your boredom, we have a population in need of feeding and I have it on good authority that you're rather partial to hunting, something about buck hunting since you were six?" Jack said, and Angel instantly knew where he'd got that from, she'd told that story to Miller.

"Yeah, my dad used to take me when I was a kid, became a sort of family tradition from that point," she said, and Jack nodded.

"Good, well, Tik has been hard at work setting up hunting teams to go both into the forest and onto the plains to bring in meat to feed people, you and Armek are to pair up and head into the woods and see what you can bring us back, you don't have to carry everything back, we have retrieval teams as well, so just place one of these on your kills and they'll be picked up and brought back," Jack said, placing down a bag filled with small disc like tracking devices, it was Yautja tech designed to mark targets.

"You want me to go hunting?" Angel said, sounding confused, and Jack nodded.

"Yup, and I want you to take Armek here with you, he's curious to see how humans hunt and we need hunters, you're complaining that you have nothing to do so it's a triple win, we get food, you get something to do and Armek here gets to learn about humans," Jack said happily, indicating the tall, handsome, and slightly uncomfortable looking Yautja

But before she could argue or protest, Jack smiled and waved and was gone like a fart in a tornado, leaving her all alone in her now rather small feeling cabin with Armek, Angel turned to look at him and his gaze quickly flicked from her to the weapon disassembled on her table, "Ooman weapons are so odd, they seem so archaic and yet they are oddly effective," he said, picking up the receiver and turning it over in his hands, inspecting it, Angel felt a flush of anger as her pride as a human was insulted.

"Oh, yeah? Well, that archaic weapon did pretty fine against your kind even with your fancy plasma toys, see those lines on the stock?" she said, pointing to the butt stock as she snatched the freshly oiled and cleaned receiver from his hands and placed it back where it came from. he looked slightly surprised and a little insulted but he still looked at the butt stock and saw the lines scratched into it in groups of four with a fifth line through them horizontally forming a five bar gate, it was covered in them.

"Each and every line is one of yours that that weapon has taken out, so, archaic or not, in the right hands it works just fine," she said smugly, and Armek snarled, drawing his mandibles up in a way that made him look like he was trying to get rid of a horrible taste in his mouth.

"Not mine, ooman, Bad Bloods, would you compare yourself to the worst criminals your society has to offer?" he spat, taking her aback slightly with the venom in his voice.

"No, of course not! I was a soldier, my job was to protect people, to fight the enemies of my people!" she spat back, and he whirled to face her so fast that his dreadlocks fanned out around his head, making a crack noise.

"Exactly! As am I! Do not compare me to those honorless pauking cowards, ooman! Do not! I fought proudly for my people, I defended my clan and I took part in a great many hunts against prey far stronger than you can imagine, not once have I ever dared to even deem it honorable to hunt anything weaker than myself, to turn weapons on unarmed, defenceless civilians! It is a despicable act of pure cowardice! And do not forget, ooman, that I, like all my brethren here, fought for you too!" Armek growled in a voice filled with such passion that it shocked her.

He turned and pointed at her butt stock, "I celebrate those marks as much as you do and wish that there were infinitely more of them, I wish that every wall of this cabin was decorated with the skulls of those vile animals, anyone who would turn weapons on the defenceless, the innocent, the elders, on cubs does not just deserve death, they deserve Paya's cruelest torment, they deserve to be torn apart over and over in the eternal hunt as the prey they sought to turn others into," he said with such passion that she knew in her heart he spoke nothing but pure truth.

She nodded slowly, "I'm, err, sorry, Armek," she said, blowing out a heavy sigh, "Its just been hard, you know, this whole thing, living like a fucking animal in a cave, hiding every day wondering when one of those fuckers was just going to pop up and pull my head off my shoulders and mount it on a fucking wall, all that pain, all that fear, it kinda leaves a mark, a scar that you can't see, though, to be fair, I got plenty you can see as well," she said, and his expression softened up a bit and he nodded.

"You know, in my culture, scars are considered to be trophies in themselves, of battles fought and won, my people wear them proudly because it shows your heritage as a warrior, not to mention your skill," he said, and she laughed softly, making him raise an eyebrow at her and she sensed that she was close to insulting him again.

"Well, then, in your culture I think I'd win a prize for best warrior but I don't think I'll be winning any beauty contests, human guys don't exactly go for girls covered in scars who can outfight them or intimidate them," she said, a tinge of sadness creeping into her voice.

Now it was Armek's turn to smile, "Then ooman males are fools, but at the same time I do not believe that it is entirely true as many of the females of my kind here have a great many of them and are far more intimidating than the males of your kind and it does not seem to be bothering them," he said.

Angel nodded, "Yeah, I think the kinda guys here are a very special kind of crazy but, hey, who am I to judge," she said, and now he smiled far more warmly, drawing his mandibles up so it looked like his whole face was smiling, it made her heart actually skip a beat and she felt heat rising up in her belly.

"In my culture those scars would be considered, how do you oomans say it? Sexy," he said, and now her heart skipped a whole series of beats to the point where it felt like it stopped, had he just called her sexy?

"Umm, yes, well, let me get this weapon reassembled and we'll go hunting, shall we?" she said, quickly trying to hide her flushing face as she sat back down at her table and began expertly reassembling her weapon, trying to keep the shake out of her hands as she worked, she saw under the fringe of her hair that Armek was watching her, fascinated by her movements, once she was finished she checked her work, pulling the cocking bolt and dry firing it, it made a satisfying click.

"Oh, yes, before I forget, the Grand Patriarch gave me this for you, said it would help while hunting," Armek said, pulling out a pair of magazines for the AR-15 and holding them out to her, she took them curiously and looked at them, at first glance there was nothing special about them but then she noticed the bullet tips.

They were almost black in color with the very tip being a kind of gold, "Huh, odd, wonder what's so special about them?" she said, loading one into the magazine receiver and pulling the cocking bolt to load one into the breach, turning the weapon over in her hands she nodded and when she looked up she saw Armek holding out something else to her and it took her a moment to realise it was a Yautja hunting mask.

She looked at it curiously before taking it, "I believed this would make our hunt easier, it is my first mask, it still bears the mark from when I was marked a full blooded hunter," he said, his voice sounding proud, though she didn't fully understand the significance of what he was giving her she got the feeling that it was important to him.

"Umm, thank you," she said, and he smiled and nodded, now she had to figure a way of keeping it on her head.

Half an hour later the pair of them were walking into the forest, her in her camo fatigues and him in his crimson armor, using a spare rifle sling and a bit of ingenuity she had managed to figure out a way to secure the mask to her head and suddenly she realized why these guys wore these things, it was like having a constantly adapting heads-up display that could see heat and various other spectrums of light, it picked out and even targeted even the smallest little critters hiding in the undergrowth around her, things she'd have never had a hope of seeing in her life.

"Tell me, how do you expect to ambush anything wearing that? You kinda stick out, you know?" Angel said, looking at Armek's crimson coloured plate armor, he glanced at her and cocked his head, his eye pieces glowing slightly of his own hunting mask which was covered in symbols and marks simular to the ones scratched and burned into the one currently strapped to her head, she had no idea what any of them meant but figured that they were significant to his people in some way, a record of his accomplishments maybe? Kinda like medals and campaign ribbons on a soldiers uniform.

He paused and tapped a few buttons on the wrist computer he wore and with a crackle of electrical energy he vanished from sight until her heads-up display drew a dotted line around his body, showing him up, then, showing an incredible feat of strength and flexibility, he leapt from a standing position on the ground into the branches of the nearest tree, grabbing the branch and flipping himself around it and up onto it, landing like a cat and crouching atop it to survey his surroundings.

She couldn't help but be impressed by this, yes it was juvenile and yes it was basic, but hell, sometimes a girl wanted to feel like a giddy teenager and seeing this man mountain leaping fifty feet straight up into the trees and move like a panther, he was every bit the hunter he claimed to be, his every movement precise and measured, it was like watching nature at work, millions of years of evolution and adaptation refined into a being with a singular purpose, to be the very best hunter and predator out there, but fuck, why did he have to be handsome and exotic?

The suppressor made a muffled thud as Angel fired and a six legged deer like creature began to run only to plow face first into the ground as its body seemed to realise that it didn't have a heart to supply its muscles or brain with blood anymore, "Gotcha," she said, grinning as she lowed the rifle from her eye line, suddenly two more of them just dropped out of the sky and landed right next to her, making her jump and snap her rifle up just as Armek decloaked right in front of her, "Excellent shot, Angel, a clean kill, you are indeed a skilled huntress," he said, looking at her dead prey, Angel felt a rush of pride somehow that meant a lot coming from him, a seasoned predator like him complimenting her hunt and kill was high praise indeed.

"Ok, let's tag these like the others, what's our count now? Eight? Nine?" she asked, and he shook his head.

"Twelve," he said, and she nodded, they were doing really well out here, but then prey was plentiful and utterly everywhere.

"We should set up camp for the night, it is getting dark and we need to rest ourselves," Armek said, gesturing to a set of nearby caves, Angel nodded and after tagging the prey for collection the pair packed up and moved on, heading for the hills in the distance that were peppered with caves and tunnels, they quickly located a cave that had no connecting tunnels or caves, only one entrance and exit, Armek connected a few small devices to the entrance of the cave that flashed and filled the entrance with red laser beams so dence not even a spider would be able pass between them unscathed.

Inside the cave the pair of them had collected branches and foliage and had made themselves some field beds, a skill that Angel had become remarkably good at thanks to her time on that world, she used creeper vines to lash together a set of branches to make a rudementry frame, on top of which she'd laid ferns and soft grasses to make a form of mattress, to her right, Armek had done the same and was now arranging a series of cut branches into a tight grouping to make a fire which he lit with a small torch in his glove.

The heat bloom shut down her mask and Angel took it off and Armek followed suit, taking his off his and hooking it to his belt, Angel moved over and joined him by the fire, feeling the warmth wash over her as she sat down and began to dig into her pack, pulling out her cooking equipment and the rations that she had brought, "We did well today, you are a fine huntress, Angel, I must say, I have learned much from observing your methods today, you oomans are interesting to say the least, you make up for your lack of strength with cunning and ambush tactics and your mastery of stealth is impressive, even without the use of our cloaking technology your ability to blend into your surroundings impressed me, as did your marksmanship, that last shot was a clean heart shot at a hundred yards in dense undergrowth, an impressive feat," he said, and Angel felt herself smile a bit, it was nice to hear flattery from a master hunter such as him, he hadn't been the only one doing the observing.

She'd been watching him too and she had to admit that he really knew his stuff, she'd watched the way that he combined ambush tactics with melee combat expertly, despite having shoulder mounted plasma casters he chose to use melee combat to ambush his quarries from either above in the trees or from the bushes, taking down the beasts with a pinpoint strike from his ultra sharp wrist blades or from his staff.

He was so graceful and confident in his movements when he leapt in ambush, it was like he was several steps ahead of his quarry and knew exactly what move it was going to make even before it did, "Well, thank you, you're not to shabby yourself, though I have to admit I was surprised that you chose to use your blades when you have those things and I've seen how accurate they can be first hand many times, kinda seems a little inefficient to use blades," she said as she placed strips of meat into a pan she'd filled with rice and water to make a simple stew.

"There is no honor in taking on a beast with these, they are to attack my enemies or to defend my brothers and sisters, I will not use them on an unarmed opponent, or at least not opponents such as these," he said.

"The way you speak of hunting, it's like more than a way of life to you, it's like a religion or something," she said, and Armek looked at her with a curious expression on his handsome face, made even more handsome by the firelight causing the grey and pale green patches of his skin to shimmer slightly with golds and reds, how could she look at him like this? How could he be so beautiful when most would see him as a monster, when she should see him as such too, but he wasn't, not at all.

"It is in a way, true Yautja are taught from birth to follow the teachings of the goddess Paya, she is the Lady of The Hunt and the Guardian of The Eternal Hunt, which is our eternal rest, our afterlife, but in order to obtain that perfect hunt, that perfect rest, we must adhere to a strict code of honor set out by our Lady, there are strict rules like never hunt anything weaker than yourself or that is defenceless or unable to fight back, which is why a great many of my kind still hunt the kiande amedha, which you know as Xenomorphs, we've always known they were intelligent but to my disgrace I didn't realise they were sentient and after seeing the lives they have been given the chance to lead and how the queens that the Grand Patriach's son rescued from my former clan have chosen to live it fills me with a great sense of shame and sadness that I have been part of inflicting such harm on their kind, with that in mind it is no wonder that they are usually so violent, who wouldn't be when anybody and everybody seeks their destruction, in fact, these two marks right here and here are related to them," he said, pointing to two distinct marks on his hunting mask, two marks that were also on the one he'd given to her.

"What do they mean?" Angel asked, interested.

Armek pointed to the first one, "This means full blooded, it is a right of passage among my people, to prove yourself in battle against the kiande amedha on their terms, the second is rarer, it means queen killer, it is granted to a warrior who strikes down a hive's queen, it is a badge of great honor among my kind, but having seen how loving and gentle the queens that live among us are they actually give me a sense of shame now, that I, in my ignorance, destroyed these mighty creatures, it was a glorious battle and she gave me these," he said, lifting his upper armor off to reveal a skin tight black thermal regulating undershirt that did absolutely nothing to hide the utterly chiseled masculine body under it, this man couldn't have been born, no biological means could have created a figure so utterly perfect, he looked like he'd been chiseled from a single block of multi colored marble, Angel actually felt her pupils dilating as her eyes drank in every rippling muscle, every single curve and taught iron solid muscle bunching and twisting as he lifted off the heavy plate.

She felt herself swallow hard and had to resist the urge to start panting like a dog, not to mention she very nearly had to pin her tongue into her mouth to stop it hanging out and drooling, how had it come to this? From being reviled and utterly hating them with every fibre of her being to looking at him in the way a starving woman looks at an all you can eat buffet?

But it got even harder to keep said tongue in her mouth when, without a single hesitation, Armek once he'd placed his armor down he lifted his shirt up, revealing his flesh in all its battle scarred glory and Angel caught herself muttering a silent prayer of thanks to Paya for sculpting her sons like this, he was utterly exquisite, he utterly oozed masculinity without even trying, he didn't seem to have any of the toxic alpha male bullshit that she would have associated with a human that would have looked like this, as he bowed his head to look down his torso at his scar collection, the little metal charms jingling like wind chimes in his dreadlocks as they swayed against his huge back that looked like it could carry the weight of the world.

That's when she caught herself licking her lips like she was staring at a huge juicy steak sizzling on a flame grill, Armek pointed down at three particularly nasty looking furrows that went from his right slab-like pectoral muscle right down to his left hip, but the scar really did look nasty, it must have hurt like absolute hell, it amazed her that something like that hadn't killed him, boy, these guys were tough, before she could stop herself or even realise what she was doing she'd reached out her hand and ran her finger tips down the long scar.

His skin was very odd in its texture, it was like a kind of soft sandpaper, it was rough without being painfully so, it was incredibly warm and also soft feeling a bit like warm toughened leather, to her surprise he shivered and made a chuckling noise that sounded like laughter, she glanced up to find those incredibly bright green eyes watching her intently and also a little questioningly.

"Sorry, did that hurt you?" she asked, withdrawing her hand, admittedly rather begrudgingly, he shook his head.

"No, it, umm, tickled me," he said, sounding as if he was admitting a weakness.

Angel couldn't help but be amused by this and she laughed, causing him to look a little ashamed, "Never imagined the big, bad hunter to be ticklish," she said, grinning at him, he lowered his top and looked down at his incredibly large hands.

"I did not know that I was, but your touch is much lighter than that of a female of my kind," he said.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" she asked softly.

"Good, I think, the females of your race are so strange to me," he said, looking away from her and into the fire where he began to to stoke the fire where their food was still cooking, adding fuel to keep it going.

"Strange how?" she asked, wondering if she should be insulted on behalf of her gender and her race.

"Well, the females of my race are aggressive, more aggressive than the males in most areas, they are not afraid to speak their minds or to go after what they want, I guess you could call them sexually aggressive, if they want a male they make no bones about it and simply go after him, but in your species everything seems reversed, it being the males that are more aggressive, but then there are females like you who are like a blend of the two and it is confusing for me, you remind me of one of the females of my race while at the same time looking small and fragile, it confuses my senses," he said, never taking his eyes off the fire, well, right up until she stood up and yanked up her top to just below her breasts to display her torso.

"This look soft and fragile to you?" she asked bluntly, feeling insulted by him referring to her as small and fragile, his mandibles opened in surprise and she saw his eyes roaming over her scarred torso, suddenly and more hesitantly than she'd been that's for sure as she could see it in the tremor in his hand and the way his eyes came up to meet hers to obviously seek permission which in a way she liked, it showed that he not only understood boundaries but had respect, it also made her feel guilty that she hadn't shown him the same respect and restraint in touching him, but he got what he needed from her eyes and the subtle nod she gave him.

His touch sent shivers through her, overloading her senses, it sent flurries of tingles through her body, "These look like plasma burns and these I would say were made by blades and these look like holes made by your weapons," he said, touching each of the wounds in turn and to her amazement his touch was incredibly gentle, even if the pads of his fingers and his hands were both kinda rough but that just made it even more incredible because even his touch was exotic and alien, she felt his dull claws tracing the lines of the scars in turn.

"Good eye," she said, and he smiled at her before resuming his examination.

"You have endured much, fought valiantly, if you were Yautja these would be a source of pride for you," he said, and she nodded.

"They are a source of pride, most of them I got from the Bad Bloods with a few exceptions like those I got during my tours of combat on my own world before they took me, but each and every one of them is a reminder of both my own resolve to live but of the battles I won and the lives I took," she said, letting her top fall as he removed his hand and sitting back down but this time right next to him rather than opposite him.

Thier food finished cooking and there was something rather pleasant about having someone to share a meal with again, though watching him eat was kinda fascinating, watching him use his mandibles like extra digits to pick up food which he delicately placed into his mouth, she had to admit those teeth of his looked kinda scary but at the same time she found herself wondering what they felt like, the mandibles too.

Suddenly she felt an overwhelming urge, it was like nothing she'd ever felt before, it was like the stars had suddenly all just aligned themselves and made everything to clear to her, it all made sense and he had been the one who had made it clear for her, his words had given her the key, the key to something she'd never imagined and a life she'd never known she'd wanted, until right now, and all she had to do was seize it and make it her own.

Taking a leaf out of the good hunter's guide book, she waited for the right moment to strike, when her prey was at its most vulnerable and it's guard was down, they finished their meal in silence and between them they washed up and packed their eating utensils away, once they were done, Armek stoked the fire and began to get ready for bed, he removed the lower part of his armor, revealing that he was wearing a pair of shorts that were every bit as tight as his top, his thighs were like tree trunks, solid and bunched, rippling with power and strength, his buttocks were like solid plates of dimpled armor stuffed into his oh so wonderfully tight shorts, then there was the bulge in the front, it looked like he was trying to smuggle a python out of a zoo.

Armek stretched himself as Angel removed her own gear and placed it next to her own bed, then just when his back was turned and he was at his most vulnerable she struck, lightning fast and sure, she launched herself at him grabbing his back and kicking him in the back of the knee making him fall forwards with a cry of alarm and surprise, as his knees hit the ground she used his own momentum against him, stepping forwards onto the back of his leg and using it she stepped forwards and onto his back spinning around him and yanking him backwards, causing him to fall and her to swing around him like a monkey on a tree.

Armek slammed down on his back hard and it knocked the air from his lungs with a whoosh and she landed on top of him in exactly the position she'd planned, straddling his stomach with her hands planted on his huge shoulders, it was obvious from the wince that passed over his face that he'd hit his head as he'd fallen but his dreads had softened the impact which she was glad of, she didn't want to hurt him in any way, just to merely gain the upper hand on him and to take him by surprise, to prove that while she was a small fragile human that she could take him down, to prove her strength wasn't her muscle mass, it was her understanding of her prey's weakness and how to exploit it.

"Hey! What the pauk are you doing, ooman!? We are supposed to be allies! I trusted you..." Armek began to yell in anger in her face and again waiting for the right moment to strike as his mandibles flared open wide and as he yelled Angel darted her head in, pushing her face in between them and pressing her mouth to his in one lighting fast and life changing move, this was either going to go really good or really really bad.

Angel's lips pressed above and below his teeth and her teeth clicked against his, Armek's mandibles flare as wide as they could in utter surprise, like two fleshy fans either side of her head, she rested her weight on one hand, placing the other against his head and reveling in the feel of his rough skin, his hot, taught, hairless skin, feeling the fleshy pipes that made up his dreadlocks, her heart was hammering in her chest as she used her tongue to lick his teeth, trying to get his mouth to open and to allow her access, this would be her sign, her sign that he was going to allow this, that he had accepted her, recognised both her strength and the claim that she had made on him, just the same as one of his own females would have done, which is exactly what she was trying to prove to him, that she was as worthy of him as any of his own race were, that she would be no different, that being with her would be no different, well apart from the size anyway.

To her sheer delight his sharp pointy teeth parted, granting her entrance, her tongue darted into his mouth and her second hand came up as she took most of her weight on her knees and holding his head steady as her tongue found his and the pair entwined, sending a rush of stimulation through her entire body, the taste of his saliva was like the sweetest nectar that she had ever tasted as they played and wrestled inside his surprisingly small mouth, in fact, she realized that mouths were about the only part of Yautja that were human sized.

She felt his hands come up and plant on her, one on her back right on her bare skin, sending shooting tingles in every direction as his claws raked little lines in her skin, the other wound itself into her hair and gripped her head, holding it in place, now he was showing off some of his strength, he may be the one on his back but with a small flex she was instantly reminded of just how powerful he was and that seriously turned her on, she had this incredible, powerful and beautiful male flat on his back and under her control, not that she wanted to control him, not really, part of what attracted her to him was his wild, free nature, a perfect hunter that was truly in tune with both nature and his surroundings, a warrior with a deep seated sense of honor, she just wanted to prove to him that she could if she wanted to, to prove to him that not only was she worthy of him, but given the right circumstances could bring him down and make him helpless and vulnerable.

She felt his mandibles close around her head like a fleshy claw, holding her head in place and she might have panicked if she hadn't felt the tenderness in that grip, she'd seen how sharp those tusks of his were and she knew that if he wanted to he could simply bite into her head, but instead they gripped and stroked gently like fingers made of bone exploring her features.

When they finally parted a glittering strand of thick saliva left their mouths joined and his eyes fluttered for a moment before focusing on hers and searching them for the answer to the million questions she could see firing behind those emerald green orbs of beautiful intelligence, "Are you sure about this, ooman? Becasue we are not like your kind, if you cross this line there is no stepping back over it, my love is not transient, it is for life and if you claim it there will never be a day that I will not be at your side, you cannot simply throw me away if you get bored of me, so be sure before you cross this line because if you break my heart, I'll break your neck," he said in a quiet but incredibly stern voice that made her realise that it was not a threat, it was a promise and one that she took seriously.

"Funny, I was thinking kinda the same thing you know, I might be small but that doesn't mean that my love is worth less than any female of your kind, I'm sick of game players and false promises, it's time for a change, it's time for me to take charge of my life and to get what I want for a change and what I want, Armek, is you, though, for the life of me I can't figure out why, I should hate your kind with every fibre of my being for what the Bad Bloods of your species did to us, to me, but I can't hate you, I won't because you are nothing like them, you are beautiful, kind, honorable, strong and valiant, you see the most amazing beauty in things around you and you have such a great respect for life and it makes me happy, it also makes me realise that your heart is a prey that I want to hunt and I'm going to make it my trophy, I'm going to hang it on my wall and I'm going to polish it and make it beautiful every day so that any who come to my house may look at it and think, 'wow, how lucky is she to have such a wonderful trophy,' I want them jealous, walking away and thinking, 'I want a trophy like that,' but they can't have it because it's mine and it always will be, now, all I have to do is win it," she said with pure defiance and fire in her voice.

Armek reached up and stroked her face with his large hand, brushing her blonde hair back behind her ear, his eyes never leaving hers, "Then I declare your hunt at an end, if I am truly what you want then step forward and claim me, Angel, I will not resist you, I will not run from you, make me yours this night and I will be yours for life, 'till the day I join you in the great eternal hunt and we spend eternity hunting the great forests of eternity," he said with such fire and passion in his voice that Angel's heart felt like it was on fire, all this time spent hating them, spent wallowing in a fury so pure that it blinded her and now, here she was, in the arms of one she would have called enemy, but now she called lover and would soon call husband, god, life is a strange journey.

Angel reached down and kissed each of his mandibles in turn while her hands reached down and lifted his shirt, she wanted it gone, she wanted him naked, bare, exposed to her in every way, she wanted to see him in every way, she wanted nothing between them, she pulled it up over his head, but as it caught just about his mandibles acting like a kind of blind fold she decided to steal a kiss, but somehow he knew she was going to do it because as she shot in he opened his mandibles and caught her, he was already adapting to her methods, which meant she was going to up her game, but she still took the kiss but this time it was his tongue that invaded her mouth.

When they parted she popped his shirt up above his head, she saw his eyes shining and he was smiling, "Sneaky, how did you know I was going to do that?" she asked, and he smiled.

"You're not the only one watching, you know?" he said with a smile, and Angel laughed.

"Then I guess I'm gonna have to up my game, eh?" she said with a playful grin.

A wicked idea swam into Angel's mind and it made her shiver at the deliciousness of it, but the trick was getting him to agree, she didn't want to pressure him or for him to feel pressured in any way, but it would be a good way to show him that he could trust her, that he was safe in her hands, "Do you trust me, Armek?" she whispered in his ear, kissing his mandibles and his large neck, she could feel the pulse thudding in his neck and it quickened as her lips pressed to his flesh.

"Yes," he gasped softly under her attentions, so she slowly moved her hands up and pushed his hands above his head pushing his shirt with them, then as it reached his wrists she reached past it with her hand and snagged her rifle sling and freed it with a deft move of her hand before twisting it through his shirt and with two simple moves she had his wrists tied together, using his shirt as padding so that the binds didn't either cut off his circulation or hurt his wrists, though, to be fair, she knew that Armek was more than strong enough to break these bond with ease should he want to.

"W-What are you doing?" Armek stammered, though the cracking in his voice was more due to the pleasure she was causing him by nipping his neck, she'd found a sensitive band of nerves that ran up behind his ear and she was mouthing it and nipping it with her teeth, "Just trust me, ok? I would never hurt you, If you don't like it just say so and I'll undo them, ok?" she said in a soft husky whisper, and he nodded softly.

"Is that too tight? Are you comfortable?" she asked, and he nodded.

That was it, she had his permission to do whatever she wanted to him, or for him as the case may be, the bonds that held his wrists were tight enough to hold but loose enough to be comfortable for him, standing up, she retrieved some of the vine they'd been using to make their beds and she used it to secure his binds to the foot of his bed, keeping his hands secured above his head, then she moved to his feet and pulled his legs out straight as Armek silently watched her tie his ankles together, being careful to ensure that just like his wrists they were tight enough to hold but loose enough not to either hurt or to cut off circulation, with that done she secured them to the foot of her bed, so now he was laid on the floor on the soft grasses and leaves left over from making their bedding that they'd been sat on while they ate.

Armek looked both confused and a little worried, she saw him test the bonds and he seemed to realise that he could easily escape them if he wanted which seemed to both further confuse him and relax him a little, but seeing his apprehension now that he wasn't in the grip of her passion which had clouded his head somewhat he seemed to be reconsidering his position, "It's ok, Armek, it's just a game alright? Just a little roleplay, you see, we humans like to make things fun, it's just to spice things up a bit, to make things even more memorable, so tonight I'd like you to play the role of prey and I will play the mighty ooman huntress who caught herself a predator," she purred, straddling him as she stood over him and knelt back down, settling her weight on his hips.

"And what if I don't want to play, will you let me go?" Armek asked, a slight waver in his voice that made Angel suddenly concerned, she'd never seen a Yautja display fear before so she didn't know what to look for, but his voice betrayed that something was wrong and that was enough for her to act on it.

"Of course I would, Armek, I would never pressure you or try to force you to do anything that you don't want to do or that even makes you uncomfortable, so if you don't want to do this just say so, I won't be sad or angry with you, I just want to show you the shades of human love, to show you that not only can you trust me with your whole self but no matter what I'll never hurt you, even when you're at your most vulnerable, but you have to want it to, this is not about me Armek, it's about us, if you don't want this or it doesn't make you feel comfortable then please say so and I'll let you up in a heart beat," she said, taking his large head in her hands and holding him tenderly, using her thumbs to stroke his top two mandibles as she looking into those incredible eyes of his.

"I trust you," he said softly, and she shook her head.

"No, that's not enough, I need you to want this, Armek, I don't want you to do this just to make me happy because that will make me feel bad, I want you to want this too, so say you want this, say the words and make me believe them or I'm going to undo those bonds and let you up, because now I'm not sure you're doing this for the right reasons," she said softly.

He looked right into her eyes and something in them changed, something seemed to steel itself, "I want this, I want you, Angel, I give myself to you, do with me as you will but treat me with respect," he said, and she smiled and leaned in and kissed him full on the mouth.

"Oh, my proud, beautiful hunter, I would never treat you any other way, you've earned my respect and that it isn't something I give up easily, nor is my love, but you've got that too, now, relax and let me show you what a complex place the human heart is," she said, and he nodded, "Good, now, I think I'll pass on the roleplay part of this for the time being because I can see it's still making you nervous, so I think we'll just ease into it and we'll see how it goes, if at any time you want to stop just say it," she said, and he nodded again.

She slowly leaned down and began to shower him with soft, gentle kisses, letting her aching need guide her, this was a gentle display of dominance and control but it wasn't meant to take anything from him, quite the opposite, it was to show him how much she cared about him, how much she wanted to please him, to make him forget himself, to make him writhe in pleasure and to make him lose his composure and his control over himself, she ran her hands all over his chiseled chest and stomach, trailing kisses in the wake of her fingers.

He was gasping and squirming under her touch, she wanted to bathe and drown this beautiful male in pleasure, the very reason that he had followed Ryan and had come to this world was to get a chance at a love that in his culture was forbidden to him, that was seen as an abomination, that would make him a race traitor, now she had the chance to show him exactly why he'd made the right decision to trust in humanity the way he had, she was gonna love this handsome man in ways that he'd never even dared to dream possible, she was gonna unlock his heart and his soul and she was gonna make it burn like a Phoenix and rise like one to.

Angel's kisses trailed down and she paused to run her tongue inside of his navel, making him gasp and squirm, tugging gently at his bonds and making the beds move as his muscles easily bunched, but they weren't really there to tie him down, it was just an illusion there to make him feel vulnerable and exposed, not to genuinely take his freedom from him, if she really wanted that she'd have hog tied him.

As she shifted her weight down his body so that she was sat on his huge thighs, she glanced down and a large smile broke out on her face as she noticed that the already large bulge in his shorts had grown considerably, she hooked her fingers into his waistband and, with a slow, torturous pull, she eased them down his thighs, making his manhood pop free and her eyes widened, oh, he was a big boy alright, and not only that but it looked like it had come right off the website of a fantasy sex toy maker that made alien pussy or dragon dildos.

It was about nine inches long, covered in what looked like ridges and swirls of flesh, the tip wasn't wide and bulbous like a human's but narrow and pointed, almost like a dart, it looked like it was made from marble swirled in green and grey, she ran her hands over it lightly, tickling his burning hot masculine flesh and making it twitch and him gasp as she tickled him, "Oh, wow, it's even more beautiful than I thought it would be, just like its owner," she purred softly, taking hold of it firmly in both hands and realizing she couldn't get her fingers to close to her thumb due to the girth.

"R-R-Really? You like it?" Armek gasped, actually sounding surprised as he looked down his body at her.

"Oh, I don't just like it, my hunter, I love it, just like I know in my heart that I love its owner, now, relax, because I am going to do something for you that you have never imagined in your life, something very...ooman," she said with a grin as she used their word for her species.

Unlike a human male he didn't have a foreskin, the tip was simply exposed, she very slowly began to pump her hands up and down his sizeable shaft, feeling his pulse like a heart beat pounding under her hands as he began to writhe and gasp again, but it was obvious in his reactions that he was in no way prepared for what she did next and the only warning he got was when her hot breath washed over his super sensitive Yautja flesh, but it was the kisses and licks that really set him off.

She started low down, running her tongue over the soft, leather like flesh that covered his tennis ball sized testicles, planting kisses all over them and very, very gently nipping his flesh and it drove him crazy, he began to growl and to roar, struggling against his bonds, flexing his huge fingers and toes, this was what she'd wanted, she'd wanted to show this beautiful male just how beautiful he was to her and just what he meant to her, that his sacrifice was not only worth it but was the best decision of his life.

She trailed slow, lingering kisses up his thick shaft and she felt it pulsing under her lips until she made it to the tip and she swirled her tongue over the tip, enjoying the utterly alien flavor that kinda reminded her of grapes for some reason, funny, she'd never expected it to taste nice but that was a very welcome surprise, she began to run her tongue around the tip, enjoying the taste of his pre cum before she engulfed as much as she could in her mouth, slathering her tongue over his burning, sensitive flesh, making him buck and push more in, touching the back of her throat and making her suppress her gag reflex.

She began to suck hard, letting the whole thing withdraw until it was just the tip and then pushing back down, pushing down on his hips now with both hands to try and hold him still, he began to make the most wonderful noises, sweet moans and soft groans interlaced with power and passion filled roars, this was what she wanted to prove to him, no matter what she would give him the very best she had because she knew that he would accept the worst off his own back.

Her movements gained rhythm and pace, she increased the pressure on his soft glans and he roared again, "What are you doing to me? I've never felt anything like this!" he roared, and she smiled through a mouth filled with his manhood, his cock pulsing and hardening in her mouth even more which meant only one thing and true to form moments later he erupted right in her mouth with a roar that echoed around the cave.

To her pleasant surprise his seed actually tasted appealing, it was thicker than human seed and had that odd grape taste, but she actually found that she liked it and not just because she liked making him feel like this, she wanted him to feel like this and look like this every single day of his life from now on, he looked like a gibbering mess as she swallowed the gallon of seed that she'd drawn from him, he looked utterly lost and unfocused.

Once she licked the very last drops of his essence from his deflating member and then she began to kiss her way back his exquisite body right up 'till she was kissing his mandibles and looking into his soft unfocused eyes, "Did you enjoy that, my hunter?" she purred, kissing him over and over again.

"T-T-That was wonderful, I-I-I never knew that oomans did that for each other, I-I-I've never imagined anything like that, it seems you oomans really do know more about love than we do," he said, and she laughed and shook her head.

"Not love, just sensuality, trust me, I'm sure your love is fine just the way it is and I want you to show it to me in all of its glory, but tonight, my lover hunter, I just want you to lay there and enjoy this, just let me show you mine, because, trust me, I'm going to want you to show me yours," she said with a smile, and he nodded.

"I will count on it, I will show you all the Yautja love your ooman heart can handle, I will show you the fire of my passion and the depths of my heart, I will let you walk through my soul, just show me your love, show me your passion and your sensuality, please," he said, and that made her heart swell with pride and with love, as powerful and as prideful as this beautiful male was he was willing to surrender himself to her to trust her and let her love him and she was going to just that.

But now it was time to give her handsome hunter a show, she reached down to her top and lifted it up slowly, teasing him with each and every single inch of pink white feminine flesh she revealed to him until she hoisted it over her head and her breasts fell free with a soft bounce, next up came the lower half, she stood up and swiveled around to face his bare bound feet, slowly she bent over, giving him an eyeful of her plump rear end, her rear was the only part of her body that she was actually proud of, slowly she lowered her shorts and her underwear at the same time, letting him see each and every single inch of her as she took them down to her ankles and kicked them off, standing naked and looking over her shoulder at him.

His eyes were like two green dinner plates, "You are magnificent," he breathed, making her heart leap with joy, she'd been called hot, pretty, sexy, plus a few other things, though that was usually before the guy saw the scars and then there were lots of stammered excuses. but she'd never been called magnificent before and certainly not while naked.

"You really think so?" she said, and he licked his teeth and nodded, running his eyes over every single scar and every inch of her which sent shivers down her spine, she wasn't used to doing anything like this for a guy, but for him he was more than just special, he was more than worth it.

She knelt back down and leaned her weight on him, very, very gently rubbing herself on him, letting her smooth flesh glide over his rough, hot flesh, it felt like her whole body was getting a very fine soft pedicure and it felt utterly amazing and not just her womanhood which was rubbing against his inflating manhood, she reveled in each and every inch of his manhood as those ridges rubbed and parted her hot, slick flesh, now it was her turn to gasp and moan as explosions of tingles ripped their way through her, oh, god, she wanted him, yearned for him, ached and simply needed him, she planted her hands on his chest and lifted her hips up and rather than using her hands she simply rubbed herself along his shaft until he found his own way to the entrance to her body, then slowly and tortuously for both of them she began to fill her human body with boiling hot, pulsing, throbbing, heavenly alien flesh, feeling him stretching her and filling her to the utter brim before stretching her beyond her limits.

"Oh, my god, Ohhhhhh, Paya, thank you! Thank you for this glorious son you have gifted to me, I'll love him the way he deserves, I swear it!" she yowled as he bottomed out inside her and pushed her womb up as even more made its way inside, but she didn't waver, she was determined to take every single glorious inch of him and to surround him in human flesh.

That's when something in her snapped and like the crack of a whip she shot forward and began undoing his bonds, his eyes popped open and he looked at her in confusion, "I-I-I thought you wanted me restrained to show me ooman sensuality?" he asked in a breathless, pleasure soaked voice.

"I need your touch! I'm yearning! Please, Armek, please put your hands on me, grip me, claw me, feel me, all of me, I don't just want your eyes on me, please, Armek, touch me!" she said, her voice taking on a note of desperation which actually made her feel ashamed of herself, but to her delight, rather than let her finish untying him he snapped the bonds like they were made of dental floss, taking his shirt with them.

He roared his masculine pride and it sent a very real, very primal shiver though her whole body like an electrical current running down her spine, his huge hands came around and gripped her, "You ripped your shirt," she exclaimed as he came up, wrapping her in his huge arms and out of pure instinct she swung her legs and wrapped her legs around his waist, which she was incredibly glad of because moments later he'd snapped his ankle binds and destroyed his underwear as well, but now she was in the air with her arms wrapped around his neck, her face in his mandibles, his tongue in her mouth, her legs wrapped around his waist.

Angel had never felt so feminine in her life, it was odd, maybe it was because she was a soldier but she was always kinda used to being the dominant one, the one who did the chasing, the one who did every move, but now as she hung from his body his desire was like fire, but it was odd, it was like a perfect union operating in perfect unison, their flesh meeting in perfect harmony, his flesh driving into hers and hers driving into his, forcing him as deep as he could go into her, his movements were primal but at the same time they were gentle, he knew that his strength could hurt her and they both knew it, but his passion was in no way diminished by this holding back, in fact, it showed a greater strength and a great level of care for her and her safety and her pain, it just made her love him more.

They only remained standing for a few minutes, then leaning back she pulled him down to the floor again only this time with him atop her, keeping the majority of his weight in his hands, she relished the feel of the soft grasses, the heat of the fire and the pure masculine heat of her alien male as he took up a slow and incredibly wonderful rythm that drove her crazy, the feel of his manhood scraping along her insides and stretching them and sending more pleasure than she had ever felt into her, but it was his tenderness, his loving gentle passion that drove her crazy and now she wanted to show him hers now and with a quick movement she rolled them both over and now he was on his back, she raised up and his huge hands slid up her scarred belly, enveloping her breasts completely in those massive shovel like mitts of his.

She couldn't help it, the overload of pleasure blew through her like a lightning bolt, blasting his way through her and hitting water, sending a million smaller sparkles of their incredible power through every nerve in her body and now it was her turn to roar her pride to his goddess, her way of giving thanks for this beautiful son of a magnificent people, it was followed moments later by his roar and together their voices morphed into one perfect prayer of thanks, then like a flash out of nowhere she was overcome by an urge she'd never felt before and before she knew what she was doing she'd bit down on his shoulder, drawing blood and making him roar even louder, not out of pain, out of pleasure and pride because seconds later he was doing the exact same thing to her and it was like pure understanding hit her, she'd claimed him before Paya and he had accepted her claim.

Angel snorted herself awake and for a moment her brain didn't know where she was, that was until she could feel rather huge fingers stroking through her hair, "Sleep well, my love?" Armek asked softly, and she lifted her head off his chest, revealing why her pillow had a heartbeat.

"Better than I have in, like, ever," she said with a grin as she hugged his huge chest tighter, he rumbled a laugh that rippled through her whole body and she felt herself smile, "You know you're utterly screwed now, don't you, hunter boy? after what we did last night there is no way I'm going to sleep without feeling like that ever again," she said, and he grinned.

"Oh, you don't have to worry, my ooman, after the fact that you marked me and thanked Paya for my existence at the top of your lungs it's pretty safe to say you have yourself a Yautja now, for life," he said, grinning as she lifted her head and kissed his mandibles one at a time.

As it turned out, the pair of them had found their perfect life here, when they returned to the town they both made their claims before the Clan Patriarch and Matriarch, despite having already made their marks, but the trip had more of a profound effect on her than finding herself a husband, she'd found her calling, being out there with him she felt free, like the pureness of the hunt had freed her very soul just as Armek's love had freed her heart.

That very same day she resigned as a soldier, she told both Jack and Tik that she just didn't have it in her to fight anymore, she wanted to feed people, she wanted to hunt and to feel closer to nature, just her, nature and her husband and as it turned out she'd just mirrored his very feelings, between the pair of them they began to set up a group of hunters who's job it was to feed the people without disrupting the delicate flow of nature of the planet, turned out that Yautja are utterly incredible at this sort of thing and Angel relished this, watching her gorgeous husband in his native enviroment, reveling in the thrill of the hunt at his side, to run through the woods like wild wolf, or across the plains like a lioness, stalking the swamps like a crocodile, this was who she was meant to be, how she was meant to live.

In fact, it was something that they both bred into and taught their children, all twenty of them, longer human life spans thanks to Yoshi and Citrus were really useful for something, as were the enhanced genetic compatibility, the pair of them raised hunters who became the singular authority on the planet's eco-diversity, they ensured that no animal would be hunted anywhere close to extinction, in fact, they cultured and populated entire areas to ensure it.

Over four hundred years Angel was never happier than when she was out far from people, well, all except those she loved, using the power armor suit that Yoshi and Citrus's lot had developed for her so she could move like her husband and her children, jumping from tree to tree like a Yautja.

When the day finally came and she was laid on her death bed she was surrounded by over sixty people, her kids, grandkids, great grandkids and so on, each and every one of them a hunter and ecologist, it was also the only day she'd seen her husband cry, the way he clutched her hand and prayed to Paya to take his most beloved one into her arms and let her hunt alongside him for all eternity touched her heart even as her strength left her and she breathed her last she watched his tears roll down the face that was as beautiful to her on that day as it was over four hundred years ago when she'd first laid eyes on it.

That's when she found herself standing in amongst those she loved the most looking down at herself as her sobbing husband clutched her hand and begged Paya to take her soul and to protect it, that's when she became aware of the most beautiful Yautja woman she had ever seen in her life standing next to her, "I heard him and there is most certainly a place in my paradise for someone who has loved one of my beloved sons as fiercely and freely as you have, so, come, young one, it's time to hunt forever in paradise and when my beloved son comes home to my arms he will take his rightful place at your side," Paya said.

Angel reached out and placed her hand on Armek's shoulder, "I'll always love you, my special one, take your time and spend every second of it with these wonderful miracles we brought into this world together, not a day early, you hear me, not one day early," she said, suddenly another hand appeared on her shoulder, this one a male's and she turned to find herself looking right at Jack Mason.

"Don't worry, Angel, I'll tell him, we'll miss you," he said, and she smiled at him.

"Thank you, Jack, for everything, for all of this," she said, and he nodded, then, just like that, she turned and with one last kiss to her husband's head she stepped through the gates and found herself in a forest so perfect it took her breath away, now all she had to do was hunt and wait for her love to once again come to hunt her in this perfect place, but she wasn't worried, her husband was the best hunter alive and she knew that on the day he wasn't he would catch her, she would make damn sure of it.