Machiko Noguchi accepted the assignment of supervising the ranching colony on Ryushi as a challenge. Little did she know that not only would she have to run the colony, she'd defend it with her life. First the carcass of a spiderlike alien is discovered. Then a rancher's family is massacred. Finally a creature unlike any ever seen before is brought to the colony medical center, near death. It soon becomes clear that not one but two strains of alien life have landed near the settlement of Prosperity Wells. One kind—beetle black with shells hard as steel—have been spawned as the prey in a deadly hunt. The other kind—upright like humans but infinitely stronger and just as smart—are the Predators. Between them are the human colonists, unarmed and vulnerable. With the entire colony at risk, Machiko Noguchi must choose between death and survival—and may find her greatest ally in a Predator ready to kill her...

The best time of Machiko Naguchi's life came in the wake of the Ryushi colony massacre. It was then that she abandoned her human heritage and ran with the Predators as a dedicated Hunter. But it was only two years before she returned to live with humanity and work for the Chigusa Corporation. Livermore Evanston is an ambitious developer who has built the ultimate hunter's paradise: a world just beyond the reach of human regulations, populated by ferocious genetically engineered animals. But Evanston didn't plan on being patronized by the galaxy's most ruthless Predators—or the Aliens they brought along as prey. As his human customers fall victim to the unscheduled hunt, Evanston realizes that the Predators must be curbed, and there's only one woman for the job. But there's even more to this world than meets the eye, and Machiko Naguchi may only have one way out: to take complete control of the deadliest planet in known space!