by Hope Hart
He nods and then gestures for me to back away. He glances at Maez.
“I’ll keep her safe,” she vows, and I grind my teeth. I hate, hate, that I’m the weakling human who would be nothing but a liability right now.
Dragix shoots into the sky so fast that he’s like a bolt of lightning. Here one moment and in the sky the next.
Charlie
I sit on top of the mountain while I wait for Dragix to get back.
It’s been years since I trusted a man to touch me like that. Years since I lost myself in the feel of strong male arms around me.
Now that he’s gone, my head is clearing. What I’m doing…it’s dangerous. I don’t believe that Dragix would ever hurt me. Deep down in my soul, I know he would never raise a hand to me. But I’ve been wrong before. And Dragix is different from Ben. When I met Ben, I was young, innocent, naive. Now I’m older, jaded, and well aware of the lies that men tell to get you to drop your guard.
Dragix doesn’t lie. He’s honest to a fault. He doesn’t think to deceive me because he doesn’t have to. He has the strength and power to do whatever he wants to me, yet he makes me feel safe.
And that’s the problem. Am I falling into old habits?
When the Arcav invaded, a tiny part of me hoped that I’d be an Arcav mate. That someone would save me from the torment. From the endless violation of restraining orders and constant, gut-twisting fear. When I tested negative, I sobbed in the bathroom, wishing I had a way out of my life. That I could just leave Earth behind.
I was considering applying to travel to Arcavia for work. To settle on the planet.
And then I watched as Harlow, the Arcav king’s mate, ran. Just like I did. How she fought back and was taken to Arcavia anyway.
I destroyed my application form—which I’d had to purchase on the black market. It was only when I saw how in love they were, how the Arcav king bent, how he changed the laws, how he listened and gave human women back their rights that I regretted my decision.
And then Ben found me again, and the cops in Austin told me to file a different type of restraining order.
They don’t tell you that those restraining orders are going to really piss off your abuser—and that if you’re going to get one, you also need a backup plan so you can run like hell. They don’t tell you how many women end up dead anyway, the restraining orders they counted on to protect them tucked away in their purses or shoved into drawers.
They don’t tell you that if he ever strangles you—if he ever gets enraged enough that he’s trying to choke the very air from your lungs and you’re lucky enough to survive—the chances that he’ll kill you increase significantly.
I rub my throat, feeling his hands, huge and strong, around me, cutting off my air. I get to my feet, forcing myself to take deep breaths. For the first time, I have a chance to process, a chance to look back on the last few years.
I was able run because I had no ties. My parents were dead, and I had no kids. So I was able to move every time I felt someone watching. Every time I realized he’d hired another private investigator to find me.
It’s sheer luck that I’m alive.
What if I…didn’t go back?
What am I returning to anyway? A life of living in my car, shaking awake through nightmares, and constantly looking over my shoulder.
I push the thought away. And what would I do on this planet? Dragix will get bored of me eventually. I’m the shiny new thing he has to play with, the pet that drew his attention. We both know that I’ll be dead in decades compared to his centuries.
Maybe…maybe if I can talk to the other women, I can see what they’re doing here. They must have some way to support themselves. I could work, cook, clean, whatever I need to do.
Dragix’s scales flash through my mind. Armor, Dragix said. If I got desperate, I could sell them.
The thought is abhorrent, and I instantly reject it. If I leave Dragix, there’s no way I can give up the small pieces of him I’ll have left.
Don’t be an idiot, Charlie. You’ll do whatever it takes to survive. Like you always do.
Dragix
I shudder with pain as I fly toward my mountain. A trap. The Zintas marching on my territory had been a trap, a way to distract me while the creatures hiding in the trees attacked. They were covered in mud to dull their scents, and it took me too long to realize that their arrows were coming from every direction.
A large portion of my territory is now little more than ash.
As are the Zintas.
They were well armed, however. My wings are torn, injuries that will take at least a day to mend even with my unique healing abilities.
Dizziness overtakes me, and my blood drops through the air like rain. I fight against the urge to close my eyes. If I fall, I will be completely vulnerable to any creatures who come across my unconscious body.
Charlie is waiting on my mountain, pacing. As I get closer, she turns, hands on her hips, shock clear on her face as I approach.
My landing is sloppy, my wings no longer able to support my wait.
“Move!” I order, terror shooting through me at the thought of landing on top of her.
She leaps out of the way, and I crash with a thump that makes my mountain shake.
“Oh God, oh God, Dragix, are you okay? Jesus, there’s so much blood.”
“I am…fine.”
My voice sounds weak, even to me, and I snarl. Never should a male of my species show weakness. But those are Charlie’s cool hands on my snout, Charlie’s deep-blue eyes on mine.
“Shift back,” she orders me shakily. She glances over her shoulder as Maez arrives, out of breath. She runs to my side, her face shocked.
Charlie leans closer, her eyes wild. “Shift before you pass out, Dragix. We can’t help you properly in this form.”
I reach for the shift. And it’s agonizing. Pain rips through my body as I shift around the arrows stuck into me. Some of them fall, torn from my skin, yet still more remain.
“What do we do?” Charlie’s voice is panicked.
“We must remove the arrows,” Maez replies. “Once they are no longer in his body, he will be able to quickly heal the wounds.”
Maez leans over me, her expression grim. “You will need to prepare yourself.”
Charlie is shaking next to me. “How can I help?”
I take her hand, pulling her close. Her worried gaze meets mine. “Maez will do it.”
“Stay close to him,” Maez tells her. “Make sure he can breathe in your scent as I work.”
I shift my attention to Maez and see the awareness in her eyes. She knows. Knows that my dragon has almost mated with the two-leg. That the most basic primitive part of me will be reassured by Charlie’s scent and that it will prevent me from shifting and ripping Maez apart when she causes me even more pain.
“Look at me,” Charlie murmurs, moving even closer. Her face is pale, and she raises my hand to her face, placing a gentle kiss on my palm. “I’ll distract you.”
Maez pushes one of the arrows through my thigh, and I can feel my blood draining from my body.
I snarl.
“Shh,” Charlie soothes. And it’s the steady, deep blue of her eyes that keeps me grounded. That allows me to tolerate the pain.
Tears are dripping down her face and onto mine by the time Maez works on the arrow that has lodged itself in my gut.
“You’re lucky this wasn’t a little to the left,” she murmurs. “You may not have made it back here.”
Charlie lets out a sob, and I ignore the pain as I soothe her. “I would have made it back to you,” I reassure her, and she gives me a shaky smile.
The next minutes are agonizing. Finally, finally, Maez pulls away. “I’m finished,” she says. “Can you shift?”
“No.” It is difficult to admit that I’m too drained to reach for my other form. I would heal slightly faster in my winged form, would be more able to protect the females under my care.
“Shh,” Charlie s
ays as I attempt to move. “It’s okay, Dragix. If you can’t shift now, you can do it later.”
I nod, fighting the rage. For the first time in centuries, I am…weakened.
And I know why.
Too much time in two-leg form has consequences. Slower healing being one of them. Yet I will never regret spending time with Charlie. Never regret touching her skin, kissing her lips.
“I’ll be right back, okay?” Charlie murmurs, glancing at Maez.
Maez nods. “I’ll stay with him.”
We sit in silence as I gaze up at the sky.
“I have never seen you so wounded before,” Maez says.
“I am weaker,” I reply and meet her gaze. She nods, obviously understanding what is happening to me.
“Will you tell Charlie?”
I frown. “No. And you won’t either. She will feel responsible for this.”
Maez frowns at me and opens her mouth—likely to argue—but we both turn our heads as we hear Charlie panting and cursing.
She appears, walking backward and dragging a mattress with her.
Maez gets up and helps her maneuver the mattress close to me.
“I wanted to bring a larger one up here, but there was no way I could get it up the stairs,” Charlie says apologetically, still slightly breathless. “I figured this might be more comfortable.”
I smile at her. The sun will be going down soon. “Will you stay with me?”
She nods as Maez helps her push the mattress next to me. “Do you need help?”
I give her a look, and she throws up her hands with a grin. “Fine. God forbid I damage your fragile male ego.”
It takes all my remaining energy to roll onto the mattress, which is stuffed full of feathers. I’m panting and covered in a fine sweat by the time I’m lying on top of it. Part of me is enraged at this new weakness.
The other part of me wonders if I can convince Charlie to lie with me.
I glance at her. “Will you lie on this mattress with me?”
She nibbles on her lip. “Is that what you want?”
“Of course.”
She finally smiles and sits on the edge of the mattress. I reach out, and she yelps as I pull her down until my arm is wrapped around her and she is lying on my chest.
It aches, but the feel of Charlie in my arms is worth it.
Maez smiles at us. “I will leave you alone. Let me know if you need anything.”
We watch the sun go down, and I slowly feel some of my strength return to me. Charlie is draped over me, obviously tired, but she brushes her hand over my chest, dancing over a large bruise.
“I’m still confused as to how it could be worth it. How the loss of so many of their men could be worth some armor and potentially some greater healing abilities,” she says.
I shrug and instantly regret the movement. “There will be someone powerful at the top. Someone who wants to use my scales as a symbol. He will use them to make armor, which he will wear in front of his people, and he will tell them that he can now heal anything, that he is immortal.”
“But he won’t be. He’ll just have your blood. And it won’t do anything…right?”
“His people won’t know that.”
“It’s insane. The loss of so much life for a symbol.”
“Leaders will always need symbols for their followers—the people too stupid or too cowardly to choose their own paths. People looking for an excuse to hurt, to destroy, to kill. It would never occur to those men to question their orders. To choose to be more than mindless soldiers. To not attack the biggest threat to their safety.”
Charlie nods against me, and her voice is small when she lifts her head. “Are they still here? In your territory?”
“I killed them all,” I tell her.
She leans over and kisses the tip of my nose. “Of course you did,” she says, and her tone is satisfied.
I smile at her. “Wicked female.”
She kisses my lips. “They came into your territory. Tried to kill you. Scared the life out of me. All because they want your scales, your blood. I’m not sorry that they’re dead. I’m only sorry that they didn’t know better than to attack in the first place.”
“I am not unaware like my people were.”
Charlie studies my face, and I wonder what she sees. “What do you mean?”
“We lived on this planet for thousands of years before the Braxians arrived. When they landed in their metal ships, we did not think anything of it. They waited until the longest day of the year—when we are all together, the night when so many younglings first take to the sky, the elders ready to catch them.”
“Oh God.”
I nod. “I was one of those younglings. But I had been practicing in secret. When they began shooting the younglings out of the sky, the elders rose, went hunting.” My throat hurts at the moment, and I shift restlessly. The physical pain is slightly better.
“They were killed too,” Charlie says.
I nod. “My father rounded up some of the younglings who had not yet been killed and told us to hide. He told me to protect them. The Braxians had a ship. A ship with weapons that they turned on my people.” My voice is hoarse.
“But you survived.”
“Yes. I was injured, but I survived. I had landed in the forest, fallen into a pile of leaves. I was too wounded to move, and it was little more than luck that kept me alive when they hunted everyone else over the next few days.”
Charlie’s eyes are wet. “Why? Why did they do it?”
“They are descended from dragons—not my people but dragons from their planet. Braxians can no longer shift. Perhaps they were hunted on their planet. Perhaps they decided that they were unwilling to be prey again—unwilling to risk living so close to my people.”
“There’s no excuse,” Charlie snaps. “None.”
I take one of the spirals of Charlie’s hair and pull on it, watching in fascination as it springs back into place. Curls, I remember.
“No,” I say. “There isn’t. Maez’s family found me and helped me heal. When I was large enough, I hunted the Braxians for sport, killing large numbers of them. They were almost extinct like my people when more of them arrived.”
“You didn’t kill them.”
“No. By then, the worst of the rage had passed, and I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head, telling me that the new arrivals shouldn’t pay for what had been done to my people. But I created my territory and made it clear that any Braxian who dared come close would die screaming.”
“I’m so sorry, Dragix.”
“So am I. You should sleep, little two-leg,” I say simply to see her smile at the nickname.
“What about you?”
“I will sleep too.”
But I spend hours staring at the stars, wondering which of the glimmering lights are my parents.
Chapter Ten
Charlie
I wake to gentle kisses on my face, down my neck, on the arch of my ear. I open my eyes to see Dragix’s face above me, and then his mouth is hard, dominating.
I moan as his tongue strokes mine.
“Dragix,” I mumble, pulling back slightly. “Your wounds.”
“Healed,” he says. “Sore but healed. Please, little two-leg. Be with me.”
How could I do anything else? Yesterday, when I watched him fall, realized how close I’d come to never seeing him again…it almost killed me.
“Yes,” I breathe, and his eyes widen as if he can’t believe his luck.
Dragix is naked, as usual, but he helps me peel off my clothes. I blow out a shaky breath, suddenly nervous, and he pauses above me.
“You are scared.” He goes to move back, and I reach out, pulling him close.
“No, no, not like that. It’s just been a long time. And as I couldn’t help but notice, you’re not exactly small.”
His grin is wicked, his hands gentle as they stroke over me, his touch almost reverent.
“We will go slow,” he says,
and then he leans down, once again taking my mouth with his.
His hands explore my body as his tongue explores my mouth. I’m tense, almost shaking against him, desperate for more when he pulls away. Sending me another smile, he begins kissing his way down my body.
My mouth goes dry at the sight of his golden head moving down as his lips caress me, slowly driving me crazy.
“You steal my control,” he murmurs, gazing up at me, his eyes burning.
“Right back atcha,” I manage to reply, but the words turn into a moan as he takes one of my nipples in his mouth.
I wind my fingers into his hair, holding him to me as I gasp. He runs the edges of his teeth lightly against my peaked nipple, and I almost climax right there.
He gives me a wicked, wicked smile, as if he just read my mind. I stare him in the eye and scoot down slightly beneath him until I can reach the long, hard heat of him.
I wrap my hand around him, raising my eyebrows as I find that my fingers don’t quite meet.
“This is a little intimidating,” I say, and he closes his eyes, shuddering above me.
“I would never hurt you,” he manages to get out, and I let out a hum of agreement as I lean up and press my own kisses to his chest.
He grasps my hair, using it to angle my head and taking my mouth once more. His tongue strokes against mine as if he’s starving for the taste of me, as if he’ll never get enough.
I feel the same.
Then he leans down and takes my hand from his cock, pressing a kiss to my palm.
“Allow me to play first,” he says, and I open my mouth to protest, but in the blink of an eye, he’s already between my legs, gently pulling off the loose pants I wore to bed.
I blush as he studies me, and then I squirm as he gazes up at me. He looks at me like I’m candy and he has the world’s biggest sweet tooth.
His hand slides over me, and my cheeks feel even hotter at the sound of my wetness. He groans, and his expression is possessive as he slides his finger inside me. He kisses my inner thighs, using his tongue to make me shiver. I’m so sensitive there, and my shiver seems to delight him as he does it again and again.
