Jaeger hugged the small, fragile human bundle tightly to her chest as she hurried home through the dense woods. The catch of that day dangled over her shoulder, held firmly in place by her other hand. Her senses were on high alert for predators, but even more so for the aliens that had invaded their peaceful world, Lusilia, eight months ago.

Ever since the Lusilian army got the upper hand, the aliens had scattered across the planet and formed smaller troops. The yellow-skinned creatures were everywhere, in the most unexpected places. She couldn’t call them anything else because they looked terrifying, like giant yellow slimy worms or snakes with arms and legs, though they were intelligent enough to have spaceships and high-tech weapons. Their futuristic artillery had killed many of the people in her village and had reduced quite a few of the homes and buildings on Lusilia to rubble. The invaders had wrought destruction across her whole world, and not only was the death toll high, but the creatures had also captured or abducted a number of Lusilians, too. She didn’t know how many. The news flashes only reported when there had been another case of abduction in the city or village but no details or headcount.

Twice during the last thirteen days, she’d come close to pockets of aliens—they were enemy ground soldiers probably on their way to raid a village. Just today, she’d spied on a small group of them while they rested near the river. Their language, if one could call it that, sounded almost like a troop of chittering birds. There were six of them. But what had grossed her out and made her literally throw up—they had captured a man, stripped him of his clothing, and killed him. Then they proceeded to peel the man, sliced strips of flesh from his body as if they were peeling an apple, and then they ate it.

She’d been ready to annihilate the group, but more of the creatures had arrived, too many for her to tackle on her own, and it had been too late to help the poor guy anyway. She’d carefully snuck away from the area, the image of what she’d seen remaining in her mind and haunting her. She’d never tell her parents what she’d witnessed. It was better they didn’t know that the creatures weren’t only grotesque and killers, but that they were also cannibalistic, easting the flesh of the slain…

The main threat was from the dozens of alien warships hovering somewhere in space above the planet, mostly unseen unless they suddenly attacked. But soon, very soon, the Lusilian Space Force would drive them away or annihilate them completely. Jaeger was almost sure of that. She could hardly wait to report back for duty and be part of the last efforts to drive the creatures away.

A loud noise startled her, and she dived behind the huge trunk of a tree. She quickly conjured up a protection field around her and the infant. She undid the clasp that held her hunting knife in its sheath, felt for her phaser in the holster on the other side, unlocked the safety, and waited with bated breath, her heart pounding against her ribs. She slowly let out her breath when she saw what had caused the sound.

It was a wolfpack. Its leader, a gorgeous big silver wolf, sniffed around the area here and there as the pack bounded across the mossy ground. They were shifters and posed no danger, but regardless of that, she didn’t reveal herself. These wolves weren’t killers of humans and wouldn’t pose a serious threat, but they could steal her catch by using excessive force, and she had more than herself to protect.

Everyone was desperate for food, and she’d had a good catch that day consisting of five garundals—small furry animals that, when cooked, tasted a bit like chicken. Their pelts would bring in gold coins—once it was safe for the merchants to set up their stalls and the markets began operating again. She’d also caught a bundle of fish from the river that wound through the forest.

The dangerous wolves, the non-shifting wild ones that roamed the mountains, never came close to civilization. They stayed in their own habitat. For now, anyway. They would never come to the villages or towns unless the winter weather proved so fierce that they couldn’t hunt. And there hadn’t been a really severe winter in quite a while.

Jaeger could easily tell the difference between the wild wolves and the shifters. Mountain wolves were smaller and mostly brown and scraggy. These wolves were majestic and downright gorgeous. She had no idea why the shifters were roaming the forest in their animal form. They rarely shifted unless they needed to defend themselves. Were they hunting for food as she suspected, like she’d been doing every day since the aliens had attacked her village? Were their families sorely in need of supplies? Fresh meat or fish? Like her own large family?

She was the eldest of ten children. When she was born, the gods told her father that she would be a great huntress, and that’s how she got her name. Her father had explained to her that when translated, Jaeger meant hunter. For nine years, she’d been an only child. And then her mother got pregnant with triplets, and again with twins, twice, and after that, she gave birth to two more babies, and in no time, Jaeger had nine brothers and sisters, the youngest of which had just turned two years old.