Man Hunt Read online

  Man Hunt

  Love Bites: Women’s Day

  Harper Dell

  Copyright © 2021, Harper Dell.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  From the author

  About this Book

  Other Books by Harper Dell

  About the Author

  Blurb

  It has been six thousand years since the last war to vanquish all men from Azaria. When one man is foolish enough to arrive on the planet, Azaria’s top bounty hunter, Leah, is sent by the High Court to capture him. She must do so within five days or another bounty hunter, Britha, will be sent after them both. All Leah knows of men are tales from her childhood about how beastly and dangerous they are. What she doesn’t know is that the man, Ayden, has been sent to find her to fulfill an ancient prophecy. By the two of them coming together, women and men can one day be united on Azaria once more. And their coming together raises emotions and sensations she could never have expected.

  Note: This book has a high heat level.

  Dedication

  For B, because I’m still dancing.

  Chapter 1

  The three judges of the Azarian High Court were for once in agreement. Allowing the man to tarnish their world was just too dangerous. Vasha, the head of the court, was relieved. It had been six thousand years since the women had last seen one of those creatures. Six thousand years since the last war to vanquish them all. This foolhardy man who had returned to the planet could not be allowed to live.

  “The question now is, who do we assign to capture him?” asked Wentiesh, the youngest of the three of them.

  “There is no question. It is written in the prophecy. Whether resulting in doom or prosperity, Leah must be called. We have to trust that she will be able to resist the male,” replied Vasha, the most ancient one, who wore a shawl of gray hair and a veil of wrinkles.

  “But Leah is erratic. She runs on emotion,” argued Esplana. “We cannot risk the man overpowering her.

  “You call it emotion. I call it instinct. She is our top bounty hunter. She has never let us down yet.” As always Vasha had the last word, and the others knew well enough not to argue.

  ****

  Leah waited outside anxiously. There were rumors this task involved that elusive thing called a man, the thing their mothers never spoke of. She knew it only from fairytales told to her with vehemence in her childhood. Violent, unpredictable and aggressive, these beastly creatures of folklore were to be avoided at all costs.

  She shrugged. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had a dangerous assignment, but to deal with a man, if it really was real, she needed to be on top of her game. And she had been feeling so strange lately. A combination of anticipation and dread had her whole body poised, waiting for something, something that had her up half the night pacing and fidgeting. This assignment unnerved her, and she had half a mind to turn around and walk right out of the court.

  Instead, she looked around at the dark walls painted at regular intervals with the golden crest of Azaria—a heavily-breasted woman, her foot balanced firmly on the slain body of a man lying flat on his stomach. Leah examined the depiction with new eyes, wondering what she might see if she could turn the image of the man over, wondering if she even wanted to know.

  She swallowed hard. She had never liked the High Court much or the red tape that went with it. When she was assigned a bounty, she liked to simply get on with the job—a job she had never failed at before.

  When the Organizing Secretary nodded for her to go through, Leah rose immediately. She was tall and muscular like many Azarian women but had a sway to her hips her birth mother had long given up trying to suppress. She wore a simple bra made of brown leather, which framed her ample breasts. A short skirt of the same material cut into strips swayed over her backside—practical clothing for a woman who needed to move quickly and silently. She ran her hands over her taut stomach muscles, allowing her fingers to come to rest on the power lasers strapped to her sides. A razor-sharp knife fit neatly into the leather of her sandal. Confident all was in place, Leah pushed the heavy door open with ease as she sauntered into the room and sat directly in front of Vasha.

  “No greeting?” Vasha asked.

  “What am I needed for? I delivered on the last task just yesterday. Do I not get to enjoy my reward?”

  “This is no normal assignment. It cannot wait.”

  Vasha pushed a button and a holographic image appeared in front of Leah. It was indeed the creature from the fairytales. The one they called Man.

  “This is your mark.”

  Leah studied the image. It was a likeness of the man but did not show his features in detail. Undoubtedly, he was large, well-muscled with intelligent eyes. His chest was firm, his shoulders wide. So far, the anatomy was not unfamiliar. But as her gaze trailed down, it came to rest on the peculiar appendage that rested between his legs.

  “What is that?” she asked.

  “That is the reason we need you to bring us this creature. We cannot risk it tainting our gene pool,” said Esplana, distaste clear on her face.

  Leah wanted to know more. The thing was intriguing, and she found it hard to tear her eyes away from it.

  “What is it called?”

  “It is his manhood. It goes by other names… We simply call it danger,” confirmed Esplana.

  “How can that… manhood possibly threaten us?” Leah leaned forward with interest.

  All eyes rested on Vasha, curious to hear her explanation.

  “It is no matter. When you find the man, it will be clothed,” Vasha threw back.

  “It is best to leave it that way.” Wentiesh left little room for further conjecture.

  Leah finally averted her eyes. “Where do I start?”

  Vasha handed her an electronic tracer. “This will take you to the place the man was last seen. And Leah…”

  “Yes?”

  “You cannot fall short. We give you five days, and then we will be forced to send Britha to deal with both you and the man.”

  Leah knew Britha had long wanted to take her place as Azaria’s top bounty hunter.

  “I will not fail,” she said.

  “Good. Don’t underestimate the man. These creatures are known for their brutality. They do not hesitate to kill.”

  “Neither do I,” Leah said matter-of-factly.

  Vasha smiled.

  ****

  Leah opened her glorious green and gold wings and lifted herself up on the air currents. She had loved to fly since she was a child, loved the space and freedom it gave her to be herself. No matter that it was all thanks to genetic engineering in a society where perfect women were created without the necessity for the thing called Man. It was a thriving world and women in Azaria were headstrong and independent. War was a word that belonged in ancient dictionaries, and the society was as prim and proper as its members.

  Each new girl child was designed with her fated task in mind. As one of a long line of bounty hunters, Leah ha
d been given heightened senses along with her wings. This placed her in the top ranks as a tracker and bounty hunter and made sensual delights difficult to resist. She loved the feel of a warm blanket holding back the chill of a vicious Azarian storm, the sweetness of a ripe zira fruit dripping down her throat, and the touch of hands on her skin and lips on her neck.

  Bounty hunting was a sought-after position, but women of these abilities were rare since, along with genetic coding, the correct bloodline was essential for success. In a society bogged down with rules, the slightest disobedience prompted severe punishment. If the punishment was not obeyed, a bounty hunter such as herself was employed to capture the wrongdoer and take them to the High Court for judgment, often resulting in life imprisonment.

  Leah never questioned her role in life. She simply caught the perpetrators, and it was up to the High Court to dispense justice. That was the way it had been for centuries, and her family was well-respected, thanks to the system. The work was challenging and the rewards plentiful, exactly why Leah didn’t like the nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach one little bit. One did not argue when given a task by the High Court, so Leah pushed her anxiety aside and immersed herself in the glorious rush that came as the air brushed her skin, whooshing along her body. Instead of filling her with the usual quiet satisfaction, the feeling made her long for something more, a way to enhance her senses still further and throw herself into pure abandon. There was something more out there, she could sense it, but she couldn’t quite put a finger on it.

  As a current of cold air washed over her, Leah cut short her musings. She peered down at the tracer that rested between her breasts and noticed it flashing. She must be near the man’s last coordinates now. She swiftly headed downward and allowed herself a smile as the air rushed up between her legs. She never tired of the delicious shivers that came with a rapid landing.

  The tracer flashed urgently. Its job done, Leah reverted to her senses and instincts. It was one of the reasons she had succeeded as a bounty hunter. She was in touch with her body and knew how to use it to best advantage. The man was not far. She could smell it. To her surprise, it smelled good. A mix of healthy sweat and something she had never known in her world before. Something heady that swept through her like a fire through brush. Leah shook her head. This was no time for self-indulgence.

  She checked that her weapons were in place and began to delicately make her way forward, looking for any sign that the man might be near.

  *

  Ayden stared at the woman, mesmerized, every part of him still. Well, almost every part, he realized as he felt a twitching in his groin. The woman was everything they had said she would be: strong and intent, searching with absolute focus for her prey. What they hadn’t told him was how damn sexy she was. He’d travelled for months in that cramped spacecraft with only her holographic image to look at, and boy had he looked. Seeing her now in the flesh, feeling that pull toward her, Ayden wanted to do a lot more. There was only one problem—the power lasers she carried strapped around her luscious hips were every bit as hot as the woman herself.

  When they first discussed the idea back home Ayden had been cavalier about it. Though he was a hard worker and took orders as easily as he gave them, the idea of having any trouble getting a woman to fall for him seemed absurd. Now, as he looked at her he saw a steely strength and a determination so intense it had to be driven by passion. Passion was something he knew a lot about, and passion was the weapon he intended to use to trap her.

  It wasn’t only the lasers he needed to be wary of, he realized, as she turned and headed directly toward him. He would need to keep more than one step ahead of this woman, if he was going to get her to fall in love with him. After all, it is her destiny. Ayden smiled to himself as he stepped firmly onto a precarious log bridge.

  *

  Leah stopped in her tracks, hearing a creak. The man must be about to cross over the bridge that joined the forest with the nearby cliffs, but when she arrived there, he was already gone. She decided to start a fire and set up camp for the night. The Azarian suns were setting, and the dark of night brought with it new dangers. She smiled at that thought. What could possibly be more dangerous than a man?

  The next day she found herself growing increasingly frustrated. She could sense the man with all her being. She felt as though she might burst if she did not find him soon, but he remained out of reach. At the end of that long day, she stopped at the edge of a cliff opposite a waterfall and sat staring into the twinkling sheet of wetness flowing down into the river. As she watched, she wondered if her eyes were playing tricks on her. A dark form seemed to appear behind the waterfall.

  When the man stepped through the curtain of water toward the ledge she jumped to her feet, ready to pounce, but she found herself transfixed, unwilling to move.

  He stretched his arms lazily up under the last rays of the setting suns. She gazed at him. His thick brown hair fell lightly on his shoulders. It was streaked with blond, offsetting the glow of his tanned skin. The short stubble on his face caught her attention. His was unlike any face she had seen before. No soft feminine lines or pink-cheeked skin; rather a reassuring firmness and a roughness she longed to feel. His eyes were almost black, and so intense she wondered what it would be like to have them stare into you. But there was something else there, something she was surprised to notice: a warmth that contradicted all she had heard in the myths and legends of her people.

  He was naked except for a cloth draped around his waist, covering the thing she was agonizingly curious about. A movement caught her eye as he lowered his hand and undid the loincloth above his legs. It fell to the sides to reveal all of him. The thing looked different to the flaccid object she had seen on the hologram. It still rested against his leg but seemed firmer than she remembered.

  She watched in fascination as he stepped back under the water, letting it fall against his skin, freshening up after his day on the run. He ran a hand across the ripples on his stomach, reaching down to touch the thing. She couldn’t see much below that as the water blocked her view of him but as she watched the expression on his face grow more intense, Leah absentmindedly began to touch herself. She played with her breasts, rolling her hands to feel the fullness of them, moving slowly inward to her nipples, twisting them gently between her fingers.

  At the same moment, the man changed his actions seeming to move faster, his head lifted skyward, water embracing his face.

  His hand was moving, his body rocking too now, as an eyes grew hooded and his mouth slipped open.

  She lowered her own hands gently down past her stomach to feel her hot, swollen sex. She began to rub in slow, steady circles, her eyes never leaving the man for an instant. As she explored herself further, the man looked up and caught her eye. His intense black gaze locked onto her green one, and neither of them was willing to break the connection.

  The man moved his hand faster as Leah did the same. She began to feel small shocks of exhilaration moving through her as the man’s body tightened, pulsing with pleasure. It felt as though he was staring into her now, and she could no more turn away than she could stop the wave of intensity coursing through her.

  She increased her rhythm while his hand moved faster. They both moaned and writhed with the pleasure of it, made all the more delicious for being able to watch one another.

  Finally, Leah could take no more and her body shuddered with delight as his primal shout rose above the noise of the falling water. She watched as the man’s body mimicked her own, contorting in spasms of ecstasy.

  He moved across the grass to sun himself, closing his eyes, bathing in the afterglow of his stolen pleasure, Leah did the same. If the man was an animal, so was she because it was not only the warmth of her orgasm that flowed through her blood. There was something else the man had touched in her, something she could feel deep down. The thing that made her confident she could allow herself to surrender to the heavy drug of her orgasm and be sure he w
ould not come after her that night.

  She fell into a deep, dreamless sleep and when she woke, she was more determined than ever to capture him.

  Chapter 2

  In the morning, he was gone and Leah decided she would have to fly. It was not the best strategic decision since, although she would see the man, he could see her too. But time was wasting and it would not be long before the High Court sent Britha if she did not complete the job. If that happened, Leah would shame her family and be forced to join the undesirables who spent their lives in the Azarian sewers, surviving only on the few rats not cunning enough to escape capture.

  This man is wily. She rose up on her wings and scanned the forest below. She spotted him soon after, but in her haste to land, Leah hadn’t noticed the enormous Azarian firebird that saw her as a tasty prey. Since last night, she had been more restless than ever and her mind was far from focused. Now she was acutely aware it was the firebird baby season, and those large babies liked to eat. She reached for her power lasers, took aim and shot at the mother bird, but its lizard-like skin repelled the bursts as if they were droplets of rain falling from the sky.

  The bird began to close in, and Leah reached for the knife at her sandal, but she knew she could not compete with the massive talons and razor sharp beak inches from her face. Instead, she pirouetted in the air, smashing both her feet into the creature’s face, but it took only moments to recover, angrier than ever.

  As Leah placed protective hands around her own throat, an awful screech reverberated around her. The bird had some kind of a spear piercing its wing, and when she looked down, the man was holding a weapon on his shoulder, shooting another spear with deadly accuracy. In its urgency to get away, the bird turned and knocked her off balance with its wing. Leah hurtled downward and landed with a soft thump on something that felt nothing like the ground she was used to.

  She realized she was sitting on the man’s face. He had reached out to give her a softer landing and fallen backward, leaving him at her mercy. But, within moments, she was the one in a position of vulnerability. She felt a warm flicker and then a wetness. As it became more insistent, delicious heat throbbed through her and rough stubble on his chin raised goose bumps on the skin of her inner thighs.