by Hope Hart
“We are downwind. By the time I scented them, I could tell one of them was a female like you and would not harm you.”
“Unless I die of embarrassment right here.”
He lets out a rumble.
“Charlie?”
Ivy walks closer, and I huddle behind my rock like an idiot. I’m not completely shy, but I’d rather not walk around naked in front of three people. I glare at Dragix.
“You could hand me my towel, you know.”
He sighs. “When did I become your servant?”
Dragix is entirely too amused, but he gets to his feet, picking up the towel from where I left it waiting on my rock. He throws it to me, and I wrap it around myself before walking back to the traitorous dragon.
Dragix once again flashes his teeth at Ivy and her Braxian.
I narrow my eyes at him. “Scaring them is beneath you.”
I turn back to Ivy, who looks stunned. I can’t entirely blame her.
“Um. Hi,” she says, and I have to grin at that.
“Hi. Excuse the grumpy dragon. He hasn’t had enough to eat today.”
Dragix shifts behind me as the Braxian narrows his eyes at him.
They stare at each other for a long moment, and then Dragix snorts.
“I could eat him,” he says.
I ignore that.
“He’s not going to hurt you,” I tell them. “We’ve come to an understanding.”
Ivy looks doubtful, but she shrugs. “Uh, okay, then. We’ve been looking for you for a while now.”
They have? While I imagined that these women were planning to leave without me, they’ve actually been actively searching for me?
I’ve never had many friends. Since I escaped Ben, I’ve never been in one place long enough to make friends. But these women, these…strangers have been trying to find me.
I feel like a giant asshole. Not only have I not convinced the dragon to let me find these women, but I haven’t even tried to leave. Not for days.
“Yeah, I’m sorry,” I say, my face heating. “It took a while before Dragix and I reached that understanding.”
Ivy stares at Dragix, and I can see her wondering if I’ve just been talking to the giant dragon. Something tells me that he’s not planning to open up that mental pathway to let her know that he really can talk.
“We’ve been in negotiations,” I tell her. “I want to come hang out with you guys, but Dragix isn’t the biggest fan of the Braxians.”
Understatement of the century.
“That’s why I’m here,” she says. “We need your help.”
“I’m listening.”
Dragix is silent beside me, a huge blue-and-green guard dog, as Ivy paces on the riverbank across from us.
“Okay, so you know those purple bastards who bought us and loaded us onto their ship?”
“How could I forget?”
“Yeah. Well. We’re pretty sure they’re coming back.”
My chest tightens as my mouth drops open, and just like that, I’m standing in front of hundreds of leering aliens while they negotiate how much I’m worth.
Then I’m forced to walk toward a ship, forced to watch as one of the other women falls to her knees and a purple alien kicks her in the ribs so hard that I can hear the crack.
“Breathe,” Dragix orders, his voice sharp as a blade. “Good. Again.”
Ivy pauses while I get ahold of myself.
Dragix moves closer to me. “I do not like this. I do not like the scent of your terror. We will go now.”
“I need to listen to what they have to say, Dragix. I’m fine. Just give me a moment.”
When I’ve pushed away the oncoming panic attack, I turn back to Ivy. She tilts her head sympathetically. They’re not here. They can’t hurt me. Can’t steal us away. At least not right now.
I clear my throat. “What makes you think they’re coming back?”
“The ship we were in. The one that crash-landed. Have you been inside?”
“No,” I admit, feeling like a coward. Dragix narrows his eyes at me as if reading my mind.
“There’s a light that flashes every so often. At least, when we landed here, it was every so often. Now it’s flashing faster and faster each time we check it out. We’re pretty sure that it’s some kind of GPS signal. If I were an alien slaver and my people crashed a ship holding cargo I’d paid for, I’d come check it out. See if there were any survivors, anything to salvage, any products to recover.”
I want to slam my hands over my ears. I want to tell her to go, to leave me alone, and I want to return to my mountain with Dragix.
His mountain. These women have been looking for me.
I shiver at the thought of the cruel aliens with the electric weapons that they used to herd us like cattle.
“You really think they’re coming back?”
Ivy nods. “I think we should hope for the best but prepare for the worst.”
I blow out a breath. I’ve lived that way for years. Why should this planet be any different?
Dragix moves even closer, nuzzling at me.
“You will be okay, little two-leg. I will keep you safe.”
I smile at him, and then he glares at Ivy, obviously pissed that she upset me.
“It’s not her fault, Dragix. She’s just telling me the truth.”
He snorts, and I stroke my hand down his nose.
Ivy clears her throat. “So what do you say?” she asks. “We’re outgunned and likely to be outnumbered.”
“I want to help,” I say. I chew on my lip, and Dragix goes still beside me.
“You will not leave me to put yourself in danger,” he says. “I forbid it.”
I ignore that. “We need to discuss this,” I say to Ivy, and she nods, her dark-red hair spilling over her shoulders. “But you can count on my help, even if Dragix doesn’t quite feel up to the task.”
Dragix tilts his head at my poor attempt at reverse psychology. “Mind games mean nothing to me,” he tells me, and I choose to ignore that too.
He’s not pleased at my silence. “We will go now,” he says, his voice harsh. He reaches out and pulls me close, my clothes already clutched in the claws of his other foot. I roll my eyes, but it’s evident that the dragon has used the last of his tolerance.
Not that he had a lot of it to begin with.
I don’t argue, making sure the towel is wrapped around me fully as I sit down. Dragix extends his wings, and the color drains from Ivy’s face.
“We’ll talk about this,” I tell her. “Tell everyone I’ll come see them as soon as I can.”
Dragix snarls and shoots into the sky.
Dragix
I don’t speak as we fly back to my lair. And I can tell from Charlie’s silence that she’s disappointed in me. I swoop down and catch an udazin as it bolts across a clearing, biting down with a satisfying crunch. Charlie doesn’t even wrinkle her nose when I glance down at her.
Instead, her mind is clearly elsewhere, her expression thoughtful.
Why would she want to join the other females when she would be in such danger? I scented her horror, her terror, as the other two-leg told her of these things. The reek of her fear was an affront to my nose.
Her voice sounds in my head. “Humans can’t be owned, Dragix. I’m not a pet.”
I snarl at that. For some reason, when Charlie is disappointed in me, it makes me want to growl. To growl and then beg for her forgiveness.
I narrow my eyes at that. Perhaps this is the problem. I have spent too much time with the little two-leg. She was not even a thought when I was born. And she will be dust in the ground before I am dead.
The thought makes me roar, and Charlie glances up at me. She says nothing, and I don’t attempt to explain myself.
I have spent too much time in my two-leg form. In that form, I become someone different. Someone who is more likely to give in to the whims of the female two-leg. Earlier today, when I lay on my rock, my mind clear, I remembered. I remembered
why I must spend more time in this form.
My people have long known that to spend too much time as a two-leg is to invite mortality and eventually death. The old ones lived for thousands of years, seeing the topography of this planet change. When they were ready to leave this life and choose their place amongst the stars, they would take their two-leg form and let nature run its course.
I will never lose my life for a two-leg.
So why do you not allow her to leave?
I snarl again, and this time, Charlie rolls her eyes with a sigh. I show her my teeth, and she rolls her eyes again, examining her nails.
Maez’s dark eyes float in front of my face. “Charlie has taught you more in days than you have learned in centuries. I’m happy to see you more like yourself. I have…missed the Dragix that I knew.”
Perhaps…perhaps allowing her to go to her people is the best choice. The two-leg has accomplished what I did not imagine possible—she has drawn me from the apathy that haunted me for the last several centuries. She has allowed me to remember that I have two forms. That I can communicate. That I enjoy the feel of warm water on bare skin.
I am…grateful to her for that.
Chapter Nine
Charlie
We’re both quiet over the next few days. Dragix is back in his dragon form, spending most of his time hunting and sleeping on his rock. I don’t ask him to let me go to the other women again. I’m hoping that if he thinks about it enough, he’ll realize on his own that it’s the only solution.
And maybe a tiny part of me is putting off that conversation.
I’m…happy here. The traitorous voice in my head that pops up every so often urges me to stay with my dragon. It tells me that if he doesn’t let me leave, I can’t be held responsible for not helping the other women. For not risking being taken by the aliens who bought us. For not leaving this mountain.
And Dragix.
It’s that voice that makes me look for Dragix when he’s not on the top of the mountain after his morning hunt. I’m a lot of things, but I’ve never been a coward.
Dragix is in the hot pools when I arrive. Instead of giving me the long, heated look I’m used to, he merely glances at me and then returns his attention to the forest.
“You still want to leave me.”
“It’s not that simple, Dragix.”
His eyes jolt to mine at his name, and then he once again glances away.
This obviously isn’t the time for our conversation. I turn to leave him alone, but his low, hoarse voice sounds behind me.
“Don’t leave.”
He’s not just talking about right now, but I sigh and turn, sliding fully clothed into the tub. He smiles at me, but it’s a sad smile.
“Dragix, you know you don’t have to be alone. You’re clinging to me because I was the first person you found after so long by yourself. But I’m sure you could easily find someone else who would want to live here with you.”
My heart twists as I say it. Someone else who would fly on his back, nap with him in the sun…attempt to keep their hands off all the golden skin.
Except they wouldn’t have to show any restraint. They could do whatever they wanted with my dragon. Kiss, touch, fuck…all of it.
I grind my teeth, jealousy stabbing through me.
No. I don’t get to be jealous. Dragix deserves to be happy. I truly believe that now. And I forgive him for taking me. He wasn’t in his right mind.
But someone will get this version of him. The Dragix with the slow smile, hot eyes, and playful words.
He shifts, and I remove my gaze from where it’s drifted down to his chest.
“I don’t want anyone else. I would rather be alone again.”
“Dragix—”
“I don’t wish to talk about this anymore.”
I sigh, and he moves closer, his expression sad.
“Will you let me kiss you?” He lingers over the word, and I feel my cheeks heat. For the life of me, I can’t think of a single reason to say no.
“Yes,” I breathe, and in the blink of an eye, he’s in front of me. I jolt. I forget sometimes how quickly he can move. How he can pounce when he sees something he wants.
And I’m something he wants.
He reaches out, and I blink as he takes me into his arms. I expected him to lean down and kiss me, but instead, he’s reversed our positions so he’s the one leaning against the rock and I’m now straddling him.
“You’re tricky,” I tell him, and he grins. His face suddenly looks so much younger, and I raise my hand, running it along his cheek. He closes his eyes and rubs his face against my hand like a cat.
It’s like he’s touch-starved. And I guess he is. Centuries alone. Centuries. With only Maez to talk to yet not remembering that he can. What must it have been like?
Hell. It must have been like hell.
I don’t know how he survived it and came out the other side with his sanity intact.
“You…pity me.”
Dragix’s voice is a low growl, and he lifts me off him, his jaw tight.
“No, Dragix. I admire you. I think it must take a special kind of man to spend so much time as a predator, forget most of what makes you who you are, and still choose not to destroy the people who you hold responsible for your loneliness.”
“My mother—”
“She sounds like an amazing woman. But it was still you who had to make the choice. Every day, you chose not to seek revenge. She’d be so proud of you. I’m proud of you.”
His smile is a beautiful thing. His hands are still on my butt, and I lean close, almost unable to help myself as I nip his bottom lip.
He goes so still that he barely breathes. So I do it again, this time adding a stroke of my tongue. He growls, and one of his hands slides up from my butt as he buries it in my hair and takes my mouth.
How did he get so good at kissing? If I didn’t know, without a doubt, that he hasn’t been practicing on other women, I’d have my suspicions. But Dragix is obviously just a fast learner, and I groan against his mouth as he strokes my tongue with his, angling my head so he can get deeper, then teasing me as he pulls away.
This time, I’m the one to grab the back of his head and pull him back to me.
He lets out a laugh that’s wrapped in pure male satisfaction.
I grind down on him, feeling him hard and long and thick against me. My thin pants are no protection from the heat of him.
I don’t want them to be.
Now he’s the one to groan as I twist my hips and writhe against him, pleasure gliding up my body. He moves his other hand under my shirt, up my abdomen, to where my nipple is hard and aching.
“I have gaps where my memories should be,” he growls against my lips. “But all my instincts tell me that you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
My throat tightens, and I swallow around the lump that forms at his words. I haven’t even left this man yet, and I already miss him so deeply that it feels like I have my own gaps. Dragix-sized gaps.
His hands are sure and unhesitant as he moves one of them back to my butt, using it to help me grind on him while his other hand plays with my nipple. He pinches and rolls, and I lean forward for another slow, deep kiss.
“Ahem,” a female voice sounds.
“You have got to be kidding,” I murmur against his mouth, and Dragix slowly pulls his head away, his eyes liquid gold as he keeps them on my face.
He leans toward me again, and I slap one hand over his mouth. He frowns at me and then turns his attention to Maez, his expression dark.
To her credit, she doesn’t tremble at the look in those eyes.
“The Zintas,” she says. “They’re in your territory. Hundreds of them.”
I shiver at the rage on Dragix’s face as he gently lifts me off him and gets to his feet. His cock is hard and thick, and I have a sudden urge to cover it up in front of Maez.
She’s not looking though, her eyes almost wild as she keeps them on his f
ace.
“Where are they?” he asks.
“The southeast border. The came across the Colossal Water in large numbers.”
“What do they want?” I ask.
Maez flicks her gaze to me. “His scales. His blood. They don’t realize that it’s not dragon blood that heals but saliva.”
I stand, the lust that was pouring through my body instantly replaced with outrage. “Why do they want his scales?”
“Armor,” Dragix says as he climbs out of the hot pool. “They sell it for people to use as armor.”
“I’m coming with you.”
He shakes his head, and I get out of the pool, water running off my clothes in a flood.
“You would split his attention,” Maez says softly as Dragix stalks back into the cool mountain and we trail after him. “He would be consumed with keeping you safe.”
She’s right. I know she’s right. I’ve seen how protective Dragix is of me. But I wish there was something I could do.
“I want to help.”
Dragix is stalking up the stairs, and I attempt to keep my eyes off his tight, toned butt.
Now is not the time, Charlie.
Maez glances at me, and from the way her mouth twitches, she obviously knows what I’m thinking. But then her face sobers.
“If you want to help, be here when Dragix returns. He will not be…himself after killing so many of his enemies. But I believe you will be able to calm him.”
She doesn’t mention the scene she just walked in on, and I nod.
Dragix turns to us as we get to the top of the mountain, and I shiver at the expression on his face. Wrath. Pure, unrelenting wrath. I almost feel sorry for the Zintas.
But they were the ones shooting at us that day. The ones that managed to hit his wing with an arrow. He pulled it out, healing quickly, but what if they all fire on him? I get a vision of him roaring as he falls to the ground, pinned by hundreds of arrows, and my heart almost stops.
“Don’t be afraid,” he tells me, his nostrils flaring. “I will protect you.”
“It’s you I’m worried about.”
He snorts at that, shifting instantly to his dragon form. I stride forward and place one hand on his snout, looking into those glorious eyes. “Be careful. Please.”
