I woke up and I wasn't sure how much later it was, but I did know two things. One, it was still dark out and two I was alone. At first, I wondered if he had gone invisible again, but I was sure he was gone when he didn’t respond to my hushed whisper. What did that mean? Surely he didn't just abandon me after arguing with me about being his mate. No, I was betting he was out there keeping a lookout. I'd stay put until he got back. I wasn't dumb.

It was always cold in here even during warmer seasons, but even worse at night. This old gym had been built way back in the 50's so insulation wasn't exactly the best if there was any at all. I was still wearing only my shorts, boots and my oversized hoodie. I sighed, pulling my hoodie over my knees. The relief was instant.

As soon as I got comfortable, I realized with great irritation that I had to pee. As a master of being lazy and holding off until the very last moment so I didn't have to get out of bed, I knew this was the last moment. So much for staying put.

I got to my feet and crept over to the door, listening intensely. When I was satisfied that I was alone, I opened it, hating how fucking loud it sounded. Does no one lubricate their damn doors anymore? Might as well fire off a fucking gunshot while I'm at it.

After a few heart pounding moments when nothing pounced on me, I made careful steps toward the bathrooms. They were only a few feet away so it wasn't a far journey. The girls bathroom door pushed open much quieter than the concessions to my relief.

Inside the bathroom hadn't changed since I had last seen it. It was all cream tile, metal sinks and navy blue stalls. Even when the lights were off, there were always the emergency overhead lights on. A quick sweep of all the stalls assured me that I was alone.

I felt so much better after I finished and felt uncomfortable not flushing, but it simply would make too much noise. I did wash my hands and my face though. I couldn't talk myself out of that one. Xai'an's blood had still been plastered to my face and I did not want to walk around with glowing alien blood on me. My clothes thankfully seemed to absorb it which made them just look like stains. Now, I needed to get back before Xai'an came back and-

A hand covered my face and jerked me back. My scream was muffled and my arms were pinned to my sides. Before I could go on the defensive a voice whispered, "It's okay. You're safe. Just didn't want you being too loud."

Another fucking person! Relief melted my body and I nodded so he released me. I turned around to see Danny Harrel of all people. He had been two grades above me and last I knew, he had gone off to the Marines. Judging by his small armory attached to his person, he still was. His large arms were covered in straps, wrist sheaths and the vest he wore was puffed with ammunition and...sweet mother of god, grenades. There were several handguns strapped to his legs and sides and it looked like he had a shotgun strapped to his back. Sweet baby jebus.

"Danny! I didn't know you came back from the Marine Corps?" I whispered to him.

"I came to visit my parents. They are down in the weight room along with a few others that made it in here." He answered back. Then he took a look at my attire and I blushed. "We have blankets."

I opened my mouth to say yes, but then my mind went to Xai'an. How would he handle the sudden mass of other people? He made it clear that he was not a fan of most humans. Hell, how would they handle him? And he would come looking for me, which I doubt it would go well. Things would get bloody fast if I disappeared on him without warning. Which I did not want in the slightest. No. Even with Danny's arsenal, we needed Xai'an to fight those whatever he called them. So I only had one option here. I had to tell Danny the truth. I doubted that even Xai'an could take a grenade and be okay. "I can't. I'm waiting for someone."

He looked over my shoulder as if he could see. I knew Xai'an wasn't standing there because no doubt we wouldn't be casually whispering if he were. "Who?"

I hesitated because how the fuck do I explain that Alien 1 came here to hunt Alien 2, which hunts humans, but Alien 1 isn't exactly friendly either and the reason he saved me was because he wanted to do the horizontal dance with me? See? Confusing! A headache started forming. Finally I sighed. "You've seen them right? The black aliens?"

He didn't even hesitate to question the alien part. He just nodded.

"Well...there's another kind out there. He's been helping me and seems to understand English well enough. I don't think he'll be violent if I tell him about you guys before I just randomly disappear. I watched him take out nearly a dozen of those black aliens." I purposefully left out that he wanted to more or less marry me, but I still didn't know what to do with that information so…

Danny's eyes narrowed. "Humanoid? Seven to eight feet? Dreads?"

My mouth dropped. "How did you-" Danny's curse cut me off.

"Let's just say I've seen things most aren't privy to. They are called Predators and they've been here before. The government has been aware of them since '87. They seem to visit every decade but their visits have been getting more and more frequent. Though we don't know why but trust me when I say they are not our allies." He suddenly grabbed my arm firmly and started to pull me toward the stairs down to the court floor. An assault weapon of some sort made an appearance in his hand as he watched carefully, ignoring my attempts to pull back.

"How do you even know that? Dude! What are you doing? Let me go!" At this height disadvantage, twisting out of his grip was going to spell pain for both of us and I was betting that his training was far more extensive than mine. Not to mention I trusted Danny and I didn't want to hurt him if I could avoid it.

"Don't let that thing fool you. It will kill you, Z. Where is it?"

"I don't know. He was gone when I fell asleep and trust me when I say he's not going to hurt me. Dude, for real, let go! He's been pretty protective and I don't want you to get hurt because you're playing macho hero!" He'd probably barf if found out why. Hell it made me uneasy too!

"I always figured you for smart-" His condescending tone cut off as he suddenly froze and at first I didn't understand why. Then I saw the three red lasers aimed at his chest. It took less than a second to see it came from the top of the stands near the doors. I didn't see a form to go with it which told me exactly who it was.

I jumped out in front of Danny, holding up my hands. "No, no, no, no! Xai'an! Friend! He's a friend! Please don't!"

"You know his name?" Danny hissed, which I ignored.

After a moment, the dots went away. "Release her." A males voice said loud enough to echo.

"I told you he's protective, Danny. Let go of my arm." This time I didn't whisper. If Xai'an didn't then it meant we were safe for now. Or I assumed.

He didn't seem happy about it, in fact, he looked like he was contemplating if he could hit Xai'an from here. But he finally let me go. "He really protects you?"

There was a loud thud that nearly had me on my ass and Danny stumbled a step. He cursed and whirled around, weapon ready which earned him a roar. I slammed my hands over my ears.

Then Danny jerked into the air, his gun clattering down the stairs, as he gasped for air. Xai'an phased into appearance, blocking my view of Danny, but I knew he had him in a one handed chokehold. I saw his hands go for the guns on his side, but Xai'an threw him onto the bleachers before he could reach them, roaring again with his arms and claws spread out.

Xai'an was going to kill him! Shit! This was bad! This was bad! This was REALLY bad! I whirled around him, hoping if I stayed in his path he'd stop. When he didn't even look at me I wrapped my arms around his waist. That did stop him. He looked down at me, chittering softly. I think I surprised him and I'd use it to my advantage if I could. "Don't hurt my friends! You scared him! Shit, you scared me! We've never seen anything like you before! Give him a break, Xai'an! Please?"

"Get away from him, Z!" Danny groaned behind me, but I didn't look away from Xai'an. I didn't want to risk pissing the big guy off by giving my attention to Danny.

"Shut up, Danny! You aimed a gun in my direction which is what probably pissed him off!" As I spoke, Xai'an's massive hand caressed my cheek briefly before he turned my head, inspecting me for any injuries, I assumed. "He didn't hurt me, Xai'an. I'm fine."

"Ooman stupid." His voice.

I snorted a laugh. "Yeah, I had to tutor him once in math."

"For fucks sake, Z. He likes you." The horror in his voice was almost enough to make me wince. Yeaaaah, I wasn't okay with it either, but there was no way I was admitting that right in front of the big guy while I was winning. Everyone safe is a win.

"Danny, shut the fuck up, will you? Jesus! Don't you think we have other things to worry about right now?" I whirled around to glare at him.

Maybe that sobered him or maybe he just didn't want to argue anymore, but he just nodded and stiffly collected his gun. "He tries to kill me again and I'll shoot him. Does he know what those things are?"

I frowned. I didn't take his words seriously. Danny had always been a ball of fucking sunshine like this. Nice to know he hadn’t changed. "You can ask him yourself, Danny. He's not stupid."

"Mother fucker can't even say 'human' correctly. He's not that smart. Hurry up before I change my mind." He started down the stairs.

"No. Must leave city. Unstable." Xai'an growled as I tried to follow Danny. His massive hands wrapped around my waist to hold me against him. I fought hard not to blush because I just realized that I had no bra on underneath this hoodie and my girls were squishing up against his abs. It may not have bothered me if I hadn't been made fully aware of the intentions the big guy had for me.

"What the fuck do you mean unstable? The mines are on the other side of town." Danny stopped a few steps down to look back up at us.

"Not so smart, Danny." Xai'an chittered and I realized he was being condescending after he had been called stupid. It made me smile. Xai'an may be a brute, but he certainly wasn't stupid. "Sewers collapse under weight. Only hours."

Danny cursed heavily. I may have learned a few of my colorful words from him and I used them expertly now. Why the hell didn't he tell me this? I know my mom said the mines were going under and the town was in trouble, but I guess I hadn't REALLY expected it to take out the whole town. "I have elderly people down there! Fuck! I was waiting for National Guard to get here but that isn't going to give us enough time! Fuck!"

"How many people are down there?" There had to be a lot if he couldn't just put them in a SUV and drive out of here.

"Forty." He spat out like it was a curse. In a way, I guess it was. Shit! Moving forty people was going to bring attention no matter how you went about it.

"Fuck..." I mumbled. Even if we could find enough cars, we'd be a wagon of noise for the Kiande Amedha to come after us. I looked up at Xai'an. "Do you know how many of them are out there?"

Xai'an tapped his claws along my spine, and it made me fight off a shiver. "Will know soon. Brothers are looking."

I arched an eyebrow at that and Danny cursed again. "Brothers? Great! How many more of you are out there that I need to worry about?"

Xai'an pointed to himself and then held up three fingers.

"Okay, how long before they know if it is safe to move? I can assume the…" I paused on the name of the creatures because it was easier to say in my head than out loud. "Kiande Amedha will be attracted to noise, so running out of here isn't an option. Driving would be faster… but even louder…" I was thinking out loud at this point.

"Kiande Amedha attracted to sound, smell. This many oomans will bring them regardless. Sound will bring them faster." One claw went up to a rather wild curl of my hair and I felt myself go red. I hadn't even really thought about what I looked like because I had been too scared. It also didn't help that I knew he was attracted to me, though I couldn't deny that with Xai'an I realized that I felt safe. I was still a bit scared of him because he was unpredictable, but I now felt confident he wouldn't let anyone hurt me. "I should have a report within the hour." That voice was recorded. It sounded vaguely familiar, like I may have heard it in a movie somewhere. Did Xai'an watch human tv?

"A report on what?" Danny asked tiredly. I looked back at him and saw his rifle hanging limply in one hand at his side. His head was faced up at the ceiling, but his eyes were closed.

"Kiande Amedha. Safe or not."

"It only takes ten minutes to drive out of here. Fifteen to be out of old city limits. If we get the green light that his brothers killed enough of them, we could use one of the buses to cart all of them out of here." I looked up at Xai'an to get his confirmation. He cocked his head to the side curiously before he nodded his head.

Danny threw up his hands. "And how are we going to get the bus? They lock them up in the garage on the other side of the school."

I rolled my eyes at him and dropped my arms from Xai'an. He chittered softly as he watched me turn to the man and motion around myself. "You are still acting like the perfect little golden boy at school. We just go to the office, get the keys and go get it. Even if I didn't know how to pick a lock, it's not like you don't have an arsenal at your disposal to get through one measly door."

Danny opened his mouth to argue with me, but shut it after thinking about what I said. Finally he sighed and nodded. "Fuck. You're right. Okay. But if we only have hours to wait, then I want to make one thing clear. If we don't hear from his boys in one point five, we go anyway."

One point five. An hour and a half. I nodded with him. Xai'an growled softly behind me and I thrust a finger at him. "Don't. Just don't. I'm going to help save my people if I can!"

"Okay. Well it's as good a plan as any. Oh, but, uh, I think we should hide him away from the rest of them. Half the people down there are older. If they see his big ass waltz up with us, it'll probably shock them into an early grave. My parents included."

I didn't disagree with his point but…"He can cloak-" I stopped when Danny shook his head.

"There's not enough room in there for him anyway."

I sighed. "What do you suggest? He's not going to want to leave me."

"He can sit out in the hallway, but there just isn't enough space for him to be in the weight room. As long as he...does his invisible creepy shit no one will see him."

I didn't like the idea of hiding Xai'an away like a bad monster. He was on our side. Well...my side which meant he had to be on their side too.

"Fine." Xai'an's mask said. "If they knew," A woman's whispered voice, "I'd have to kill them."

I think both Danny and I went pale a little at that. He thrust a finger at Xai'an. "Then stay the fuck away from them! I don't want you doing something fucking stupid and revealing yourself on accident then expect me to not light your ass up for protecting them!"

Xai'an's growl made me shiver a bit. "You can try."

I scowled. "Will you lower the fucking testosterone, please? This shit is giving me a headache. You." I pointed to Danny, "Stop threatening our best shot at survival against those things. And you!" I pointed to Xai'an. "Stop antagonizing him! Got it? Or I'm going to knock both your big asses out, ya feel me?"

Danny frowned but nodded. "Yes, ma'am."

Satisfied, I stomped down the polished concrete steps, muttering to myself over the stupidity of men and their fucking egos. I knew they would follow me even if I didn't hear the sound of Danny's boots. Xai'an, like always, was silent despite his size, but he wouldn't leave me far behind.

When I got to the weight room I had to shoulder the door open since it was made of metal. Inside was lit up with various LED lights and even a few candles. Several faces looked up at me from their huddled spaces. Some I knew. Others I didn't. I didn't like to socialize much.

"Zena?" The voice belonged to Sean. He wrapped his arms around me before I even had the time to process that's who I was looking at. When he pulled away, I noted that he looked like hell. The t-shirt he'd started the day with was now soiled beyond recognition and ripped open, leaving several scratches along his abdominals. Claw marks.

I looked at everyone in the room again. They all had the same haunted look on their face that Sean had. Many were bloodied, whether or not it was their own, I couldn't be sure. Horrors unimaginable came to life and the result left little hope of survival. These people were giving up.

"I worried about you when all this shit happened! I-I tried to come to you but those things…" His whispered voice cracked and those big blues watered up enough to make my heart clench. He was so fucking scared and I could relate. I wasn’t exactly his biggest fan, but I wasn't heartless. My hate for him diminished a long time ago.

"You don't need to worry about her, Sean. Trust me on that." Danny muttered darkly as he passed us, shutting the door behind him. The comment made me wonder where Xai'an had taken post because although I didn't wish death on Sean, Xai'an clearly expressed his jealousy over him. I did not want to get Sean killed.

The moment he came back in, it was amazing to see all the people sit a little straighter. Their hope was back in the room. They believed in him. Fuck. No wonder Danny was so tired. There was no way he missed this. To have the weight of this many people's hopes on his shoulders...I did not envy him.

Sean reached for my hand but I pulled away as Danny addressed the room to go over the new plan. He made it seem like he had military intel that gave him the new knowledge that he had and even had a logical story as to what those roars had been. Freak thunderstorm...and these people ate it up. I couldn't believe it. Hope could make you overlook a lot, I guess.

Sean tried again for my hand but I pulled away and hissed a whisper to him. "Listen, I know we're scared, but I don't want you touching me. A life or death situation does not change my want to stay away from you."

It was probably the biggest lie I had ever told in my life. I would have loved to have gotten another hug from him, even though I didn't want to be with him. I just wanted the comfort of hugging another human being that I knew. I just did not want to put a target on his back.

Sean led me by my arm over to a corner away from other people and I let him because I already knew the plan. I came up with it for fucks sake. I just didn't want to take attention away from those who needed to listen. "Look, I know you're tough, Z. You don't have to prove shit to me. But I'm sorry I still fucking care for you! You're scratched up to hell, barely wearing anything! You don't need to put on a brave face for me just because you're still pissed with how things ended."