**AUTHORS NOTE**

Zena's point of view will always be first person where Xai'an's will be third.

I shall add disclaimers to chapters with the sexual themes so if you're not comfortable with it, you may skip ahead.

Again, this is my first Mature Content writing that I'm putting out there so I'm extremely nervous...

I'm currently working on drawing out images of both Xai'an and Zena so if this gets enough views/votes/follows I'll post them up in later chapters.

**END AUTHORS NOTE**

I stared up at the ceiling wondering when it had changed from the sun and stars. Faintly overhead I heard the faint chuckle of masculine laughter and suddenly my memory came back to me.

Blue eyes belonging to one of those handsome Nordic-type faces peered down at me with a smile plastered like the Cheshire Cat. "Did I throw you too hard?"

"You throw like a girl." I groaned with feeling as I slowly sat up. The room shook for a bit, but other than that, I was fine. I even managed to get to my feet without falling over. Point to me. Hurrah!

"I just knocked your ass out, hefer! Telling me I throw like a girl? Ha! You're cute!" Blondie was named Johnathan and he was actually my friend, believe it or not.

"Your mom seems to think so." I rolled my neck and hopped around, stretching out my arms to try to force myself back into the focus I had before.

Johnathan threw back his head and laughed, the prominent Adam's apple in his throat moving with the motion. "You're such a fucking freak, Zena! Ready to go down again?"

"I bet you don't hear that very often, do you, Johnny boy?" This from Logan. It earned a chorus of more laughter from the circle of men around us. Logan was older than most of the students in the dojo, but he learned infuriatingly quick. He was the type of person who could see a technique once or twice and master it. I had to be tossed around like a rag doll in order to learn. Fucker. Jealous? Who me? Naaaw.

As the only girl in the class, I knew I had to take my beatings with dignity if I wanted to play with the boys. No man wanted to spar with a woman who cried or got offended by being hurt. The whole point of me taking Aikido was because I wanted to defend myself against those who would try to hurt me anyway. How could I learn without getting used to reacting quickly after being knocked around if I didn't practice? Simple. I couldn't.

When I had been only 17 years old I was mugged. Not just robbed, but beaten senseless. To the point where I now had a metal plate holding my cheek together. The group of men had taken turns hitting me, kicking me. Laughing at me. The only relief was that they were far too drunk to get a hard on so I hadn't been raped. Though they tormented me with the knowledge that they wanted to but they would settle with the fact that I was going to die anyway. They left me there in the alley, hoping I'd die. Hell, I thought I was going to die.

Most people would have come out of that situation broken. Withered. Not me. I came out in a rage that was so beyond even Satan's capability. I wanted revenge. The bloody kind. I wanted to make sure that I never had to fear of being hurt like that again.

Less than three months after I recovered I set out researching the most prestigious martial arts dojo's in a 50 mile radius. It just so happened to be my luck that Aishwarya Aikido was 10 minutes down the road from my little apartment. I knew Aikido was meant to use attackers momentum against them. Perfect for someone my size. 5'4 and weighing a whopping 101lbs, I had been easy prey. I signed up and had been on a waiting list for nearly a year before they had openings for a new class. That had been nearly 6 years and 15lbs ago. I had gained weight in pure muscle due to the new activity in my life. Though my rage for revenge dampered (mostly because Sensei Aishwarya told me it had no place in his dojo), it was still there, seething under the surface and it helped me put more than one of my male classmates on their ass.

My skills improved, though not as fast as I had hoped. By year six, many would be considered seniors or even masters themselves. Many more would have long since quit after tirelessly practicing the same move over 100 times a day, but that's how I worked.

I turned to Johnathan and readied myself. Good thing for me this was about the hundredth time practicing this throw.

***

He looked up at the twitching screen as he tried to get the information he needed. How annoying. The battle with the Bad Bloods had been way more damaging than he anticipated. They had been a larger Yuatja species, something he, nor his clan leader had been privy to before this mission. In fact, it was the first time he had ever personally seen the likes of them, though his blood carried the same line. He had to use his enhanced plasma cannon to take out several of his cousin species who weren't as well equipped and hit a reactor, causing the ship to implode and now stranding him on this forsaken backwater planet. Earth. He had been careless.

The only reason he had survived was because of his cursed mixed blood giving him a larger, more durable body than his clan brothers. Something they never ceased to remind him of. Curse him for. Yes. He knew of the massive Bad Blood Yautja cousins, though he and his clan leader thought they had been wiped out. He knew of them because he was half of what they were. The only reason his birth was even permitted was because their females were not only declining in numbers, but were having trouble reproducing. His mother had been taken hostage and forced to mate numerous times with the Bad Blood's leader, resulting in his conception. She had been one of their clan's finest breeders, strong, ruthless, yet even she had been too weak to fight off his real sire.

His adopted father, Anak, had successfully launched a rescue mission just before his birth. His mother wanted to end the 'abomination' in her womb, but Anak refused to grant her such honor. He saw the value of raising the enemy's child even before he became the clan leader. She, on the other hand, rejected him the moment he came from her womb. Not unusual for his species as affection was not common among them, but she loathed him something fierce. To the point where she nearly killed him for getting too close to her when he was a young unblooded.

Now, she wouldn't be able to even if he did get close to her. Females were usually larger than their males, but Xai'an was even larger. It also was what made him undesirable to other matable females, not that he ever gave that any thought. Maybe once he yearned to turn the head of a female, but had come to terms centuries ago that he was simply too unworthy for them. That thought eventually turned into 'They are not worthy of me'. So his desires to mate were dormant. He had other desires far more pleasurable than that of a female Yautja. His size blessed him with the rapid climbing of rank and it was a high he lived for. He, alone, had more trophies than any of the clan brothers in his trophy room. That also included Anak, for not even he had the honor of successfully killing a Queen and Xai'an had three skulls in his room.

Yes. The hunt was strong with him.

His black claws traced the keypad again, hoping the harddrive wasn't too damaged for him to pull what he needed. As Enforcer to his Leader, it was his job to ensure protection of the clan as well as hunt down any potential threats and this ship was a threat. Or at least the information it held was.

Anak had informed him that this ship contained invasion sensitive information and he needed to gather the information at all costs. It was of highest priority which is why Anak sent Xai'an instead of anyone else.

The encryption was simple enough for him to get passed, but it did him no good if he couldn't read the damn thing and pulling the information to his wrist device wouldn't help either seeing as it had been damaged during the fight. He could repair it, but that would take time. Time he wasn't sure he had, given by the flickering lights. He was sure the ship's energy core was rapidly failing.

Frustrated he growled and punched down impatiently at the keypad, the sound vibrating in the cockpit. Xai'an wasn't sure if he knocked something lose, but the screen suddenly became clear.

His black claws tapped the metal keypad as he searched through the files. One name in particular made him growl deeply. Kiande Amedha. The great serpents. The fact that they had files on them made him uneasy. Only his clan had been allowed to hunt the great serpents over the last several hundred years. It was the greatest honor to fight against them and greater still to hunt a queen.

As he read on he was shocked to read these Bad Bloods not only acquired a queen, but they were hiding her here on Earth. Was that why they were orbiting so close to the small water planet? He continued reading and discovered the breeding cell was deep underground, beneath an ooman dwelling called 'Harrisburg'. Though Kiande Amedha could breed with any lifeform, they had a particular advancement when bred with oomans. There simply was something about ooman hosts that made them faster, stronger, smarter. Which made the oomans valuable to keep around. These Bad Bloods planned to unleash the Queen here for their own illegal hunts.

Anak would be displeased to hear this news. The serpents, if left unchecked, would wipe out their greatest breeding stock within a matter of weeks. No. This would not do. Not at all.

After rummaging through the debris of the ship, he'd fix his wrist device to send out a distress call and then he'd make his way to this 'Harrisburg' to ensure the queen was still dormant. Though he was an Elite hunter, with thousands of kills to his name, Kiande Amedha included, he knew he'd need the help of his brothers to secure the Queen and remove her to another location which he was sure what Anak would prefer.

Personally, he would rather kill the giant serpent with his own hands to add a fourth skull to his trophy room, but he was nothing but a great soldier.