by Ruby Dixon
I pause and for a brief moment I want to shove the cart into the nearest wall…or Gabe’s head. You are providing for other females?
He looks at me with a bit of surprise. “You’re jealous?”
You are my mate. Let their mates do such things for them. I scowl, a murderous rage rising in my belly. If I have to fight these other females to prove my dominance and my right to be at your side, I will. Do these females know I will tear their guts open if they approach you?
Displeasure flashes in Gabe’s mind. “Teva. There’s nothing to be jealous of. It’s a fort full of women with babies or elders. I’m not interested in any of them.”
His thoughts are clear and full of truth. That makes me feel better, but even so, I will growl out a warning to any female who encroaches on my territory. You are allowed to acquire things for elders and young, I tell him. Nothing for any other females, though, or they will regret it.
“Hey.” Gabe turns to face me. He puts his hands on my face, tilting my chin up so I meet his gaze. “I’m here with you. I want to be with you. There’s no need to be jealous.”
I bare my teeth at him and bat his hand away. I am not jealous. I am territorial. There is a difference.
“They’re elders, Teva. Elders and women with babies and no protectors.” The look he gives me is exasperated. “It would upset me if you attacked them. Would you attack elders and children at your home?”
My scowl lessens. I…just want them to know you are mine. I touch his chest. If you wore my scent, it would be easier.
“Wear your scent?”
When two drakoni mate, their scents mingle as their spirits do. You fill me with your seed and you share your fires with me, so I wear your scent. It will grow stronger every time we mate. But you do not wear mine. I slide my claws up his coverings, to the bare skin on his neck, and the bristles that grow on his chin. We need to mate more often.
His thoughts fill with our bad mating from earlier, when his cock did not fill with seed and my body did not clench with release. He feels regret, and it permeates his mind.
Do not think about that, I tell him. I still like your touch. We just need to mate to cover you with my scent.
“Later, perhaps. What if you bite me? Can you share your scent with me that way?”
Oooh. It’s an intriguing thought. You would let me do so?
“When we get back to camp? You can plaster me with your scent any way you like, Teva.”
My eyes flare with heat, and I send him my thoughts full of molten need. I like that idea. Let us hurry.
He laughs, then leans in and gives me a fierce kiss, showing I am not the only one full of need. “We’ll hurry, yes.”
I follow behind him with the cart as he heads down the aisle, looking at each object left atop the counters. Some of them have been destroyed over time, contents spilled, and some completely dried out. Even so, he fills his cart with objects, pleased at what he finds. We fill the cart up and he goes to the front to grab another, and I pass by a stand with…people on it.
Flat people. I pick one of the flat people up and poke at the face. It is not really a person, but it looks so real. What…is this? I move to Gabe’s side and hold it out. Who is this person and why can I not smell them?
He puts a handful of small packages—toothbrushes—into the cart and glances at the object in my hand. “That’s a magazine. It’s not a person. It’s a picture of a person. An image of them captured and put on paper.”
Oh. Some of his words make sense, but some do not. I touch the picture again, fascinated. The female on the cover has dark brown skin and purple lips and a bushy, thick wave of hair that springs outward from her head. She wears a brightly colored covering that makes her body look so lovely, and her skin glows. She is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. I touch her face again. She is wearing strange coverings.
Gabe pushes the cart down another aisle while I trail behind him, staring at the picture. “It’s a fashion magazine. They all dress a little strangely.”
I like it. But why does she wear it? Does her skin need protecting like yours?
“It might, but most people just wear clothes because they like the way they look in them. Makes them feel good about themselves. Plus, you shield your private parts from prying eyes.”
That is curious. Shield your body from others? Why?
Gabe’s expression grows serious. “Sometimes men aren’t very nice to women. Sometimes they take without asking.”
The females do not challenge?
No. There’s no challenge at all.
I narrow my eyes at him. Your females allow that? Why do they not rip the throats out of any male that dares to make them feel like less?
He flashes me a hint of a grin. “That’d make the world a simpler place, wouldn’t it? But look at my hands, my teeth. We’re not equipped for that sort of thing.”
I gaze down at the picture, at the lovely woman who must wear coverings to hide her pretty breasts and cunt from other men because the males here take without asking. How very awful it is to be human.
“Sometimes it is, yeah.”
You would not do such things to a female?
I am amused at the disgust that fills his mind. “God, no. I’d lop the balls off of any man that tried to hurt any woman in my presence.”
His violent, firm thoughts send a shiver of pleasure through me. There is nothing but truth in his mind. He would hurt a male that harmed a female. Good. I will help you. I hold the magazine and touch the woman’s face again. I think of Gabe’s dream, of the Teva in his thoughts that wore a dress like this. He stripped it off of her as if she were a special treat. Something to be savored. I want that, I decide. I want to dress in coverings like a human woman and see the look in his eyes. Not because I have anything to hide away, but because I want to have him peel the clothing off of me.
Gabe pushes the cart, and we pass by a large section in the center of the store full of racks of soft materials. I touch one and realize it is clothing, just like on the magazine, but in different colors and shapes. Gabe doesn’t pause, but continues on, and I pick up from his thoughts that he is heading toward something called “sporting goods.”
I want to look at these, I tell him. You go ahead. I touch the fabric of the nearest blue covering and find it has a curious texture.
He pauses and looks back at me, and I can feel the worry on his mind. Stay close. I don’t want anything to happen to you.
I am amused at the thought. It is I that guards you, I remind him. And if anyone comes near, I will smell them.
Gabe breaks out into a grin. “Right. I keep forgetting that you’re the badass in this relationship. Okay. Let me know if the situation changes.” He winks at me and then pushes his cart forward.
I touch the clothes again and then move into the sea of them, my mind partially focused on Gabe’s absent thoughts as he picks through the things left behind. I like the constant stream of thoughts coming from him, and they soothe me even as I touch human things and try to figure out their purpose. I told him I would be able to scent anyone that approached, but the smells of the different fabrics and the dust—and the old, old scents of many humans—quickly become overwhelming.
It is quiet, though, and that reassures me. I stand between Gabe and the entrance, so someone will have to try to sneak past my location if they wish to harm my mate. So I relax, touching human clothing as I wander through circular racks. I want something pretty and flowing like the one in the picture, but nothing matches it. I find more pictures of human females plastered on the walls, and they wear strange harnesses over their breasts and small coverings over their cunts. They smile with delight, as if these are the best things in the world, so I find a covering like theirs and try to put it on. It scratches at my skin and there are too many straps, so I let it hang off my elbow instead and move on to something else.
Human clothes have a great many holes in them, I learn, and I do not know how they fit. I find something in a bright y
ellow and orange, but it looks like nothing but triangles and strings. I loop it over my head and it catches on my horns, but I can see the pretty colors when I move, so I leave it. I find more and more pieces of clothing with vibrant hues and I pile them on. When Gabe comes back, he can show me how to wear them properly, but for now, I just slide them onto my arm or over my neck and stack them there.
Now I see why Gabe enjoys shopping. He is right; this is fun.
13
GABE
I ransack the sporting goods section, taking a few boxes of bullets and some camping equipment before I return to Teva’s side. There’s more to get from this store—it’s loaded with merchandise—but I keep getting vague flashes of pleasure and color from her mind, and I can’t stay away. I follow her thoughts to her side.
When I find my dragon mate, she is seated on the floor in the children’s clothing, several string bikinis draped over her head, and more swimsuits loaded up on her arms. She lies on the floor, carefully turning pages in the fashion magazine. I chuckle at the sight of her, and she turns on her side to look at me.
Did you know this opens up to more pictures inside? Teva gestures at the magazine, her thoughts full of wonder. They wear different coverings in all of them!
“And so you’re trying to wear them all at once?” I ask, amused. I lean over her and pluck a string bikini top off of her hair. She looks adorably ridiculous, and has managed to get clothing on every part of her except the spots most women would cover up. I laugh aloud as I see a thong twisted up and down her arm.
That was not the response I wanted from you, she tells me sourly. I wanted you to help me take these off.
“And I am,” I tell her, chuckling. The layers she has on really have no rhyme or reason. It looks as if she just grabbed anything brightly colored and slid it on however possible. I tug at a child’s swimsuit she has under the thong.
No, I wanted you to help me pull my layers off. Not laugh at me. And her thoughts fill with an image of the two of us together, of me moving toward her and pulling a sexy yellow figure-hugging dress off her body. It was a dream you had, she confesses. And I liked it. It made you want me.
Now I feel like an asshole for laughing. She has to be thinking about how things went wrong this morning. I know I am. I rub my mouth and crouch beside her. “Teva, that was just a dream. I’d never insist you cover up if you’re comfortable naked. You’re allowed to be you.” Once upon a time I might have thought differently, but Rast walks around Fort Shreveport naked as hell and everyone got used to it. Teva would be no different. If she likes being bare-assed, then she can be bare-assed. Hell, if the sun didn’t bother me, I might go bare-assed with her. “I like you however you want to be,” I tell her, rubbing my knuckles along her jaw. “You don’t have to dress and try to be human.”
I have no wish to be human, she tells me haughtily. But…some of your things are pretty. She touches the magazine picture again and then looks up at me. Do you like me with coverings on?
“I like you covered or bare.”
Her fingers touch one of the bright swimsuits stacked and wrapped on her arms. Only Salorians wear robes to cover themselves where I come from, she admits. They do it to set themselves apart from the rest of us. I never thought I would want to wear such things, but… Some of the clothing feels good on my skin.
I stand and offer her my hand. “Then let’s find you something you want to wear and I’ll help you with it.”
She picks up the magazine and flips through the pages, then stops on a lingerie advertisement. I do not like these. I found them but they itch.
“Bras and panties? You don’t have to wear them, then. Some women do because, ah…well, I don’t know why they do.”
Because they like to itch, Teva declares. She flips to another page, and then shows it to me. I want to wear that. Look at how beautiful it is.
I rub my jaw. I shouldn’t be surprised Teva likes a picture of a woman in a wedding gown, but I guess I am. It’s a lot of bright white fabric cascading behind the happy bride, the veil swirling around her. “That’s a special kind of dress. They’re worn when a female first takes a mate.”
Her eyes are pure gold. Then it is perfect. Where can I wear one of these?
I chuckle at her enthusiasm. If she wants a wedding dress, we’ll get her a damn wedding dress. “Not here. This isn’t the kind of store.”
There are different stores for different things? Her brow furrows.
She has no idea. I take her hand in mine. “Come on. Let’s pack up what we’ve got here and then we’ll go to a bridal store and get you the dress you want.”
* * *
Teva doesn’t complain as we finish scavenging in the store, then carefully box up the items for carrying. I duct-tape all of them onto a flatbed, then wheel it out to the parking lot, where Teva shifts forms. She’s eerily beautiful as a dragon, all teeth and claw and red scale, but I’m not afraid of her. She’s dangerous, yes. She could kill me with a random flick of her tail. She could tear me into pieces with one claw, and she has tons of them. She could roast me in an instant or swallow me whole.
Her eyes whirl dark black and she gives a full-body shudder, as if something’s wrong.
Teva? I ask, touching my mind with hers.
Her eyes bleed slowly back to gold. She nuzzles my face and sends me thoughts of pleasure and protectiveness.
She’s fine. I’m just being overprotective, it seems. It’s kind of amusing. I’ve always been the alpha male everywhere I’ve gone. It was one reason we were booted out of our last fort—the leader didn’t like how much influence I had on the other men. I can handle myself in a fight. I can intimidate the hell out of a few rogue nomads if I have to. I can shoot a gun and fish and hunt.
And Teva acts like I’m the fragile one, the one in need of protecting. It’s obvious in how carefully she curls her claws around my torso, even as she lifts into the air with the flatbed tucked in her other hand.
Should I not be fierce? Teva asks me. Among my people, the females are the hunters and the most vicious fighters. The males might have size, but that is it.
It’s just different for me, I admit. But I don’t dislike it. I admire a woman that can take care of herself, and Teva certainly can. Now if we can just figure out the sexual dynamic between the two of us, things will be great. I’m still stuck on that pride-destroying encounter between us, but I shove it out of my mind quickly so she doesn’t pick up on it. Time to dwell on that later.
Come, Gabe, let us go and get my dress. Her excitement is as palpable as it is girlish.
I laugh, caress her scales, and scan the world below for a dress shop.
I thought it’d be easier to find a bridal gown store, but the part of town we’re in doesn’t have much like that. We end up doubling back and flying toward a different part of the city, and I spot a small place that looks promising. We set down in the parking lot, Teva gently setting me on my feet, and then releasing the flatbed. It rolls away and thumps against a nearby car.
I consider staying out in the parking lot to watch over it, but I promised I’d help Teva. Even more selfishly, I want to see the look on her face as she goes through the dresses. I didn’t realize how jaded I’ve become until I felt her bubbling enthusiasm. For all that she’s a killer and a “monster,” there’s a sweet innocence to Teva that is refreshing. It’s like no matter how bad things get, she can still find things to enjoy. I love that.
Today…I just want to see her smile.
“Come on,” I say as I pick up a rock and approach the dirty glass door of the shop. “Let’s find you a dress.”
Her eyes gleam with eagerness as I break the glass and reach in to unlock the door.
14
GABE
Teva’s enthusiasm over the wedding dresses is impossible to ignore. She touches each one with joy-filled reverence, her thoughts racing as she examines dress after dress. Some are scratchy, some are noisy, but she loves all of them. She loves the ones with the thi
ck layers of fabric that make huge skirts…until she tries one on. Then she scratches at the fabric until it tears, and her woebegone expression is so pitiful that I don’t have the heart to laugh.
“We’ll find something perfect for you,” I promise her.
And we eventually do. When I pull out a silken, body-hugging dress with spaghetti straps, her mind fills with joy and I know it’s the one. It’s got some girly shit going on in the front, weird little tucks right under the tits, but the skirts flare out like a bell and it’s soft to the touch. I help her pull it over her head and then zip her into it, and it fits as if it was made for her.
Teva turns to look at me, her eyes shining molten gold as she touches her breasts. Am I pretty?
I have a huge knot in my throat at the sight of her. She still looks wild and untamed, my dragon girl, but fuck, is she ever pretty. Her thick hair cascades over almost bare shoulders, and the dress pinches in, highlighting her small, high tits and the nipples visible through the fabric. She looks dainty and delicate in the dress, but more than that, the sheer joy in her eyes is enough to kill me. You’re beautiful. Come on, let’s find you a mirror.
I take her hand in mine and lead her to the back of the store, where the dressing rooms are, and as we pass other dresses, she touches them, her thoughts filled with happiness. It makes me want to grab one of everything off the rack and bring it with us, even though I know it’s impossible. We need supplies way more than we need thirty wedding gowns, but damn. I love seeing the bright smile on her face.
She twirls in front of the mirror like any bride, and I laugh at her delight when the skirt bells out around her. “You look perfect, destroyer.”
I do, do I not? Teva eyes her reflection, pleased. She meets my gaze in the mirror and her expression grows hot. In your dreams, you tore this off of me and mated your tongue with mine.
