Razar (The Mating Games series Book 1) by Catty Diva Page B

know how many hunted her together, planning to share her if she was caught. Lista had a healthy sex drive, sex with a couple guys if they were good at it wouldn’t bother her, but keeping house and raising children for an unknown number of males? Not this girl, that wasn’t happening.
    Sweat soaked her lightweight pants and shirt. Thank God for the hat with a round brim that protected her face and the back of her neck. Her army knife had already come in handy when that snake had attacked her not far into her trip. It had been venomous according to what Lista remembered from the short training they had received. As hard as this game was on the potential brides that were unfamiliar with the planet and many who were not in top shape, she wouldn’t be surprised if many didn’t just run straight into the arms of their potential mates. To give them the impression that they even had a chance to escape their fate was a joke.
    Lista made it to the foot of the mountain. It surrounded the desert on one side and while the bottom of the mountain wasn’t too hard for a passable climber to attempt with caves to be found there, the higher you climbed the steeper they became. The mountains were topped with a substance that was glasslike and sharp. Looking down at her thin leather gloves she knew they’d be cut to ribbons along with her hands underneath. Her only way to escape was to make it to Haynan the town where the check in station could be found.
    She stilled as she heard the sounds of someone talking and she pressed against the mountain trying to become part of it. Lista was in the shadows and the Mazlans had sharp senses but they seemed not to be aware of her. Her implant allowed her to understand them and they were talking about the nonstop sex they would have with their mate once they caught her. She could see them clearly and hear their conversation just as clearly. Pausing for a second, the male in the middle looked right at her. He shook his head as if to clear it and they continued on.
    Her breath had frozen in her lungs and her heart had pounded like a drum. Now she was able to breathe again since they were gone. Waiting to let them get ahead of her, she took a breath and tried to remember what the potential brides had been told. That was right, they had told them the bride hunters could only see the one who was their own potential mate as long as they were on the hunt.
    The Mazlans believe each male could only play for one fated mate. They went through a cleansing and anointing process before the hunt that would restrict them to the one their goddess wanted them to have. Those three males had looked rough and rowdy. She would thank their goddess for not sending them to her if she ever met the female. Ha ha.
    Maybe Lista was blessed and there was no mate in the hunt for her? No that couldn’t be right because they only selected the females their goddess chose through a messenger. Even though the Mazlans were desperate for females, over two hundred had applied and only fifty two were selected. Lista was so lucky, not! That wasn’t true, not really. She might be bitter to be selected as the sacrifice, but she wanted to help her mother and her younger brothers. Her oldest sister Narcissi had told her it was her duty because Narcissi was too pretty to go. The males would try harder to catch her, Lista they might just let go since there was no reason to catch her.
    Lista’s mother might have a funny way of picking names but Narcissi’s was dead on. She loved her family dearly, but her oldest sister was a stuck up bitch. It was time to move on so she had a chance of getting away. Thank God she was in top shape and had survival training. This might be different from the deserts of Earth, but there were similarities. By staying in the shade of the mountain until she had no choice but to veer off, she would save herself from sunstroke. It would also help her move faster if she didn’t run into anything predatory.
    The sun was