by Lili Zander
Draekon Conqueror: A SciFi Dragon Shifter Romance
Rebel Force
Lee Savino
Lili Zander
Contents
Draekon Conqueror
Are you all caught up with the Draekons?
1. Lani
2. Ruhan
3. Lani
4. Ruhan
5. Lani
6. Ruhan
7. Lani
8. Ruhan
9. Lani
10. Ruhan
11. Lani
12. Ruhan
13. Lani
14. Ruhan
15. Lani
16. Ruhan
17. Lani
18. Lani
19. Ruhan
20. Lani
21. Ruhan
22. Lani
23. Ruhan
24. Lani
25. Lani
26. Lani
27. Ruhan
28. Ruhan
29. Lani
30. Ruhan
31. Lani
32. Ruhan
33. Lani
34. Lani
35. Lani
Epilogue
A Preview of Draekon Mate
About the Authors
Books by Lili Zander
Books by Lee Savino
Copyright © 2020 by Tara Crescent, Lili Zander, Lee Savino.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Many thanks to Miranda for her sharp eyes.
Cover Design by Kasmit Covers
Draekon Conqueror
I’ve lived an eternity. I’ve killed thousands. Destroyed worlds. I thought I’d seen everything. I didn’t think there was anything left in the galaxy that could surprise me.
Then I met her. Lani Dennison. A human woman. My mate.
My mission was simple. Find Lani Dennison.
Zorahan scientists tortured her. I killed them, of course.
Okaki pirates abducted her. I tracked them down and infiltrated their ship. Routine stuff. Nothing that presented a problem to a trained soldier that could shift into a fire-breathing dragon.
I expected her to be smart. You’d have to be, to survive the Okaki pirates.
I didn’t expect her to be lovely.
I didn’t expect her to make me laugh.
And I definitely didn’t expect her to be the one woman I was destined to be with, the missing piece of my soul. My mate.
Now what?
Are you all caught up with the Draekons?
Don’t miss any of the books.
DRAGONS IN EXILE
Draekon Mate - Viola’s story
Draekon Fire - Harper’s story
Draekon Heart - Ryanna’s story
Draekon Abduction - Olivia’s story
Draekon Destiny - Felicity’s story
Daughter of Draekons - Harper’s birth story
Draekon Fever - Sofia’s story
Draekon Rogue - Bryce’s story
Draekon Holiday - A holiday story
REBEL FORCE
Draekon Warrior - Alice & Kadir
Draekon Conquerer - Lani & Ruhan
Draekon Pirate - coming soon!
The Must Love Draekons newsletter is your source for all things Draekon. Subscribe today and receive a free copy of Draekon Rescue, a special Draekon story not available for sale.
1
Lani
At first, our spaceship landed on an alien planet, and we were auctioned off, and that was bad.
Then we were experimented on by mad scientists in a strange alien lab, and that was worse.
But the real kicker? The cherry on top of this shit-sundae? Ending up on the Okaki pirate ship.
I’m locked in a room. Every single evening, Gervil, the pirate leader, inserts a slimy tentacle into my prison and feels me up. “Fat enough to eat,” he says. “You will be a delicacy, human.” Gross drool leaks from the corners of his mouth. “Maybe tomorrow. Tonight, tell me a story.”
They’re good engineers, the Okaki. The day they’d captured me in a raid, they’d found the translator in my ear and hacked it. They’d hooked me up to a freaky alien machine that sent agonizing pain shooting through my head. Whatever they did, I now understand both their native language, Oka, as well as Zor, and they understand English.
Gervil understanding my words has been the key to my survival.
For a thousand and one nights, Scheherazade told stories to save her life. So far, I’ve survived ninety-one. Just three months, though it feels like an eternity. I’ve told the Okaki pirate every fairy tale I can remember. Every myth. I’ve recited the story of Beauty and the Beast, and I’ve recounted the myth of Excalibur, the famed sword from Arthurian legend that only Arthur, the true heir of Uther Pendragon, could pull out of the stone.
Bilbo Baggins setting out for an adventure and stumbling upon the One Ring. Harry Potter discovering he’s a wizard. I’ve told all the stories.
Every dawn, before I fall asleep, I try frantically to prepare for the upcoming night. I end each session on a cliff-hanger, just like Scheherazade had done. Every dawn, I face the possibility that I haven’t been interesting enough.
If I can’t keep Gervil’s attention, I die.
Fear fills my every breath and haunts my every waking moment. At the start, I used to welcome the terror and the nightmares. They reminded me I was still alive.
At the start, I used to believe that someone would come to rescue me.
At the start, I dared to hope that one day, my life would return to normal. That one day, I would be able to go back to Earth, and my memories of being a prisoner, first of the Zorahn, and now of the Okaki, would fade. My parents would welcome me back with open arms and shower me with the unconditional love I always craved from them.
A fairy tale in itself, that dream, but that’s a different story.
But with each day, it becomes harder to hope, and harder to care. Harder to get out of bed. Harder to find a story to save my life. It’s been seven months since I left home. Who’s going to come to rescue me? Nobody even knows where I am. Earth has probably moved on, and as for my parents, years of therapy have taught me that the less time I spend on that particular fantasy, the better.
The door to the outer chamber slides open with a soft hiss, and a tall, muscled man strides in. Zorahn, from the looks of it, though his head isn’t shaved, and he doesn’t have any facial tattoos.
Has he come to leer at Gervil’s pet human?
There are Zorahn crew members on Gervil’s ship, but they don’t visit my prison. Why would they? I’m sentient, Gervil’s going to eat me, and they don’t care. Gervil is their boss, and they know better than to rock the boat.
The stranger is gorgeous. Tall. Ripped. Short chestnut brown hair, sparkling green eyes. Straight nose, high cheekbones. Full lips. The Zorahn are a physically beautiful race, but mostly, they do nothing for me. They remind me of waxwork figures. Perfectly formed, but dead inside.
Not this man. His skin gleams with an undertone of gold, and the light in his eyes reminds me of a blazing fir
e in a warm cabin on a cold winter night.
Jetor, my Okaki guard, lifts his weapon. His skin is mottled blue and purple, and he only has eight tentacles, having lost the last one in a raid in his youth. “You, there,” he snaps, addressing the Zorahn. “I’ve never seen you before. Who are you?”
Gervil undulates into the room. “This is our new mechanic, Ruhan,” he says coldly. “Take care how you address him, Jetor. He is more valuable than you. Ruhan, what do you need?”
The man’s gaze runs over me, and I feel it like a touch. “There is an anomaly in the engine room,” he says, his voice deep and smoky. “You should see it.”
Gervil nods. The stranger follows the pirate captain out. I watch them leave. The chime sounds for the evening meal, and I mentally brace myself. Soon, it’ll be time for another storytelling session.
The gold-toned alien is almost at the door, and then he turns back. His eyes find mine.
He winks at me.
An hour later, I’m still thinking of the mysterious Zorahn stranger, the one with dark hair and sparkling green eyes. Ruhan.
Gervil had said Ruhan was a mechanic. That’s good—we need one. The Konar took damage a week ago during a raid. They’d stumbled upon a Zorahn trade ship carrying a cargo of priceless diarmod. When they’d realized what they’d found, they’d been thrilled. The way they’d celebrated, it was as if Christmas had come early.
Unfortunately, the trade ship had been guarded by a cloaked Zorahn Navy vessel. They’d fired at us, intent on blowing the Konar out of the sky. The pirates had been forced to abandon the cargo, we’d escaped by the skin of our teeth, and, tails tucked between our legs, we’d hobbled our way to the nearest planet.
That must have been where we’d picked up Ruhan.
Stop thinking about him, Lani.
I shake my head in irritation. The gold-hued mechanic keeps flitting into my thoughts. Which is crazy aggravating, because, apart from being a perfect stranger, Ruhan is Zorahn, and I loathe every single one of the two-legged, torture-loving, humanoid aliens.
The Zorahn are the dominant species in this part of the galaxy. Call me incredibly naïve, but at the start, I thought that because we looked like them, they would treat us well.
Months of torture scrubbed that notion from my mind. To the Zorahn scientists that experimented on Mandy and me, we were lab animals and nothing else.
Poor Mandy’s probably still being tortured. It’s the barest chance that I’m not there with her. When the Okaki pirates raided the compound, the Zorahn scientists had grabbed Mandy and fled, leaving me behind. Had I been in the lab when Gervil’s crew had appeared out of seemingly nowhere, rather than in my prison cell…
Of course, most people would think I’ve gone from the frying pan into the fire. They might even be right. To the Okaki, I’m a tasty meal. Every night, Gervil talks about eating me. It’s only the stories that keep me alive.
Jetor is in charge of feeding me. He opens the door to my prison and holds a bowl out to me. Vegetables only, thank heavens. The instant I learned the Okaki eat people, I’d firmly declared I was vegetarian. Gervil thought it was hilarious, but he’d ordered Mardex, the ship’s Zorahn cook, to indulge me.
I take the food from Jetor without a word. I’m about to sit down and eat my stew when the outer door slides open, and an Okaki pirate undulates into the room.
I don’t recognize him, but something about the way he’s looking at me makes me uneasy. His coloring is bluish-green. His tentacles are bulky, and his jaw gapes open alarmingly when he approaches my cage. “So, this is the Captain’s meal.”
“Meal?” Jetor snorts. “More like the Captain’s pet.” He looks around before he utters his next words. “Gervil indulges it.”
“Why?”
“It is a storyteller.”
It’s very disconcerting to be discussed as if I’m not even here. You think I’d be used to it after months of captivity, but no. It catches me by surprise every single time.
“A storyteller?”
“It tells stories of strange and wondrous things. Last night, it told the Captain a story about a human that lived inside a small lamp.” Jetor extends two of his tentacles six inches apart. “When you rubbed the lamp, the human emerged from it and became bigger.” His tentacles widen to the size of a person. “As big as you and me. They can change their size. Can you believe that?”
Note to self: More magical stories. The pirates seem to like them.
“That’s why the Captain hasn’t eaten it?” The stranger slides a tentacle into my open cage. I move backward, but there’s not enough room to avoid the slimy appendage. It runs over my leg, and I can’t hold back my shudder. “It speaks with this?” The tentacle slithers over my face, lingering on my lips, and my stomach churns. Bile fills my mouth.
“Yes.”
The tentacle withdraws, thank heavens. Another second, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop myself from biting down on the Okaki, no matter what the consequences.
Drool drips from the pirate’s mouth. “What if you cut off a leg? It can still speak then, no?” The Okaki’s red eyes gleam. “It looks like a tasty leg.”
What? No, no, no. This is very bad.
Jetor’s tentacles ripple. “You know, something, Devnik? I don’t believe that thought has occurred to the Captain.”
“I’ll tell him,” the pirate says. “And I’ll remind him of our laws. The captain shares his bounty with the crew.”
My palms are damp with sweat. I’m trying hard not to freak out. I can picture myself, cut up and cooked, bit by bit, until there’s nothing left except a storytelling stump. The image is so macabre that I don’t know if I want to scream or laugh hysterically.
I don’t have time to dwell on a green-eyed, golden alien. This is about survival. I need to think of a really great story tonight.
2
Ruhan
My fellow Draekons, the five other members of the Crimson Force, are planners. To varying degrees, they’re careful, measured, and responsible. Me? Not so much. As I’ve tried to tell my brothers many times, detailed plans are for people that don’t turn into fire-breathing dragons.
I sure could use a better plan right now.
Here’s what’s happened. A few weeks ago, Commander Tarish, leader of the Rebellion, brought my brothers and me out of stasis. Except First, but that’s a long story. I’ll get to it.
Tarish’s pet scientist, Raiht’vi, injected me with a toxin and promised me the antidote if I cooperated with them. My mission? To find two human women the Zorahn scientists abducted.
Routine stuff so far.
The first human, Amanda Pascale, was easy enough to find. The scientists are predictable, and they don’t know how to properly encode their communications. It had taken patience, but after days of painstaking work, I’d tracked her down.
She was alive. She was also alone. The other human, Lani Dennison, was nowhere to be seen.
The scientists had been all too eager to tell me what had happened to Lani. They’d been set on by Okaki pirates. The pirates had stolen much of their research, and, even worse, they’d also made off with the other human. One of our specimens, they’d called her.
The sniveling worms blurted their secrets readily. They thought that their cooperation would stop me from killing them, or something like that.
Obviously, that didn’t happen. I mean, come on. You know what the problem with the Zorahn scientists is? For supposedly smart people, they’re really dumb. So infuriatingly stupid. They ignore their history. You think that after what happened the last time they treated sentient beings as slaves, they’d learn their lesson. But no. They’re still experimenting on Draekons, and they’re now branching out to sentient beings from a Neutral Zone planet.
I killed them, of course. I put the clearly traumatized human woman into stasis and mailed her to the Rebellion. It was a risk to send her unaccompanied, and Commander Tarish wouldn’t like it at all, but I didn’t have a choice. The moment
I knew the Okaki had taken the other human, Lani Dennison, I had run out of time. See, the Okaki have discovered spaceflight, but at their core, they’re maladjusted predators. Especially the pirates. When they encounter new species, they don’t really learn from them. No, they just eat them.
Yet somehow, against all the odds, Lani Dennison is still alive.
It’s been three months since she was abducted by the pirates. In that time, she’s managed to figure out that the Okaki venerate their storytellers, and she’s using that knowledge to survive.
Have I mentioned that smart women turn me on?
As soon as I stash my belongings in the crews’ quarters, I take the stairs to the top level where the officers’ quarters are, bringing up the location of Lani’s prison on my screen. She’s being kept next to Gervil’s own suite. I head there. I’m familiar with the Konar’s schematics, but if anyone asks, I can pretend to be lost.
The exterior door is locked. I disable it and walk into the narrow space just outside her prison cell. The walls are solid but clear, and for the first time, I lay eyes on the human woman.
