Azlo

by Maia Starr

  “Off the wall,” she said with a gesture of her thumb, never turning to look at me. “I don’t really think I need security right now, but thanks. You can wait outside.”

  I frowned deeply at the reaction and couldn’t help but laugh. “Orders of your beloved, I’m afraid. So, much as I’d like to head out, it’s not happening.”

  “Okay,” she saw with drawn-out vowels. “Then, can you at least help?”

  “Not my job,” I shrugged. “Where is everybody, anyway?”

  “Overwhelmed,” she snipped.

  “Yes,” I said with annoyance. “I see that.”

  “And you’re not going to help so, just, scoot, or something.”

  “Scoot?” I repeated.

  “Scoot,” she sassed. “As in piss off.”

  “Now, now,” I tisked. “That’s not very ladylike. Hardly the kind of language the future Missus of a Koth should be using, especially not with all those cameras outside.”

  “I’m not in the mood!” She yelled and moved past me in a hurry, reaching for the last of the salve and rubbing it into the dragon’s wounds. “Move!”

  I frowned and backed away in a hurry as she rushed through several portable shelving units, desperately searching for something. The yellow shifter couldn’t hold back any longer, erupting into painful screams that sent an uncomfortable tinge through my legs.

  “Shouldn’t you be helping him?” I narrowed my brows.

  “Yeah, I’m trying,” she snapped.

  As his screams grew more intense, I became endlessly uncomfortable and frustrated with both the situation and her performance. “Shouldn’t he be under anesthetic or something?”

  She nodded in haste and began laying bandages down over his wounds and patting them gently, one by one.

  “And you just decided to skip that step for giggles?” I scoffed. “Or are you seriously that undertrained?”

  “Take a look, genius!” she yelled at me. “We have no supplies!”

  “This is the Koth district,” I said with no small form of shock. “This district is made of money. How is that even possible?”

  “Seen the news lately?” she mocked with a roll of her hazel eyes.

  My eyes flicked to the television in the corner of the room and watched as the shot of an exploding building was played on repeat. Another strike by the rebellion, and it just so happened to be the biggest supplier of goods in the city, including medical supplies.

  My forehead creased with worry as I looked back at Rosalyn, who had a ‘duh’ expression on her face.

  “I find that hard to believe,” I said quietly, watching her hands scramble against the

  “Seriously?” she said incredulously.

  “The rebels have a problem with the Koth, not with civilians.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Sounds like you’re well informed.”

  “I see no reason for them to attack that building. There’s a mistake here somewhere, mark my words.”

  “I’m sorry, I have a massacre on my hands. I don’t have time to play conspiracy theory guy.”

  “Oh,” I raised my hands in defense. “I am not that guy. Trust me.”

  “I don’t trust you. I don’t even know you! In fact, I don’t even like you right now, so…”

  I shrugged. “That probably won’t change.”

  She let out a frustrated humph and snapped her fingers as she said, “Unless you can do a magic trick and make some supplies appear then…” her voice tapered off, and she stared down at the shifter below her.

  The scales on the dragon faded to a dull white, and the shifter grew uncomfortably silent. Rosalyn’s face fell into a panic. Her movements were erratic; her hands were shaking wildly as she filled a needle with a creamy liquid and injected it into the right side of his neck.

  She watched him with bated breath and then suddenly whipped the needle to the ground in a huff. He had no reaction. She bit her lip in frustration as a wave of emotion crossed her features. She carelessly whipped a sheet overtop the dragon and pulled the cords from his monitor before rushing off to the next human.

  “Hey!” I said in fury as I carefully adjusted the sheet overtop the shifters face. His charred skin was already cold to the touch. I’d seen soldiers die in battle before, but I’d never seen them tossed aside with so little reverence.

  I looked over to Rosalyn and raised my brows in surprise as she was already working on one of the girls.

  “Hey!” I repeated, more forcefully this time. “There’s another shifter who’s hurt!”

  “Yes, but I’m working on her right now,” she said.

  “He’s a shifter,” I insisted, grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the dragon.

  “They take more resources and are harder to revive,” she seethed, jerking her arm from my grasp. She marched back over to the human, and I silently fumed. I stared at the girl with fury and stormed out of the room. I wasn’t about to stand around while she ignored our shifters. I ground my teeth for the next few hours as I paced the hallway.

  This was the woman Galsthenn wanted? I’d heard rumblings that as soon as Rosalyn had landed my brother had nearly disappeared from the public eye. That was what usually happened once someone started getting deep in a human.

  It was almost normal that once they got into relationships, they would spend more time with the girl, alienating the rest of their lives as though their independence never existed. Not me, though.

  The whole thing wasn’t for me.

  Was it truly wise to ignore and potentially hurt those around you when they were the ones you’d go crawling back to once your female inevitably took off or died? I scoffed at the thought. I didn’t want to become one of the masses who relied on such a partnership. Especially not with a human.

  Why were so many shifters so eager to find some woman to complete them when there was a perfectly ample supply of humans flooding in on a monthly basis? I’d been on enough security missions and human expeditions to see how many voluptuous women were willing and eager to give themselves over to a shifter for the night.

  If the choosing ceremonies were about continuing the shifter population, then why not take dozens of ‘wives’ and call it a day?

  The room had emptied out over the last few hours, with only a handful of nurses staying. I walked to the windowed doors and looked the brunette over. She looked exhausted and drained. My eyes locked onto the curve of her breasts; watched them push together as she struggled with a box of supplies.

  I took a breath and stepped into the room, beckoning her toward me with a finger motion.

  “What?” she said, her voice devoid of anything resembling tolerance.

  “We’re leaving,” I ordered and began walking toward the door. I sighed in frustration as I realized she hadn’t followed me and I spun on my heel. “You are going home now, by order of your mate. Understand?” I condescended.

  “Charming,” she said, crossing her arms in a huff.

  “That’s me,” I quipped. “Now come on.”

  She stood there, breathing heavily and looking at me with confused eyes.

  “What?” I sulked.

  “I…” She shrugged helplessly, the emotion now wearing on her expression. “I saved him,” she said, gesturing toward the purple shifter I’d instructed her to tend to.

  I stared and blinked in surprise. “Oh,” I frowned. “And the girl?”

  “Fine,” she said.

  “Well,” I cleared my throat. “Good. Looks like you know how to listen to orders, after all.”

  “At least one of us does,” she spat as she walked past me toward the exit. She stopped before the door and tossed her gloves into a nearby waste bin. She turned to me and gave me an impatient stare, and I began walking toward her, smiling at the exchange.

  Maybe there was something to her after all.

  Chapter Five

  Rosalyn

  I walked in the familiar company of Rilark, the red dragon. We stood outside the embassy that now rested in
the outskirts of Udora’s biggest city.

  Earth had contested some decisions made by the Koth and eventually got their own embassy put up on Udora. It was outside the city and crawling with military personnel. The shifters greatly protested the presence of military, but Earth insisted it was a necessity.

  The shifters also protested the presences of males on their planet, but these requests also went ignored. The Koth claimed it would be a problem if the women started sleeping with the human males instead; that it could jeopardize the breeding program, but Zaphira said it wouldn’t make a lick of difference.

  Along with the military, Riddell had made sure they brought myriads of high-powered weapons with them. It would be hard to fight a shifter, they said, and should any human soldiers run into a rebel looking to fight, they needed to be prepared.

  Whoever overlooked the fact that the rebels may just steal from us were definitely in need of firing.

  I arrived for my monthly check-in. This was a new implementation ordered by Zaphira, the head of the Riddell organization. The participants in a choosing would now check in monthly with the embassy to ensure the match was going well.

  “Ridiculous,” Rilark scorned as he leaned against the wall behind my computer screen. I rolled my eyes at his attitude; my general reaction to him on a daily basis.

  He’d spent weeks now following me around even during the most mundane tasks. I thought I’d soon come to know him as a friend or at the very least come to think of him as invisible, but his cocky, arrogant demeanor couldn’t be silenced in our interactions. I cringed as he continued to rant and rave about the unfair treatment of shifters by Earth.

  I raised my fingers up in a silent plea for him to shut the hell up and took a deep breath.

  “Rilark, please,” I sighed. “Are you really this stupid?”

  He cocked a brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “The Koth are the ones who wanted these stupid check-ins done.”

  “No,” he drew out his word. “Earth did. Thus why we’re in an Earth embassy. See?” He pointed to the overly large sign to the right of us that read: EARTH EMBASSY and crossed his arms smugly. “Earth!”

  “Yeah, and there’s good reasons for both sides wanting a check in. Get it?”

  “Which would be?”

  “First of all, it makes sure that the women are doing okay and that they’re not being mistreated,” I said; ignoring his ignorant laughter at the sentiment. “Second, this way the Koth can be sure that nothing fishy is going on, like, you know, rebels and humans working together.”

  “So, you’re saying you’re happy with your monthly interrogation?”

  “I’m saying it’s necessary, and if it keeps me with Galsthenn, then it’s completely worth it.”

  His eyes rolled back. “How sweet.”

  Ignoring him, I put in a call to Zaphira’s line and was met with Sarra Hayes, her second in command. The raven haired woman smiled on the other end of the video and brushed her blunt-cut bangs from her eyes. She was the leading diplomat between Earth and Udora.

  It wasn’t anyone who got to check in with someone of such high station, I reminded myself. It was only because I was the chosen one of a soon-to-be-Koth that I had such a privilege. Sarra was also married to an ex-advisor of the Koth. The two of them split their time between Udora and Earth.

  She asked her first few questions with a warm smile on her face: how safe I feel, how happy I am, what I’ve been doing with my time. She was interrupted only once by the handsome shifter behind her, his black scales shimmering in the daylight of Earth as he leaned down and whispered to her.

  “I’m working,” she whispered back, and he smiled, their hands clasping and releasing as he walked out of view. “Sorry about that,” she flushed. “Leave him alone with our son for two seconds and he starts to worry.”

  “Congratulations,” I said sincerely at her family.

  “Oh,” she made a ‘pfft’ noise with her front teeth and waved me off with a chuckle. “He’s five. Trust me, they never stop being absolutely clueless about kids. Get ready for that.”

  “Oh, well,” I fumbled awkwardly. “Thanks.”

  “So, how’s your mating progress coming along?” she asked nonchalantly as she consulted the silver tablet in her hand, ready to input my information. “Gotta get that baby maker going,” she said as she snapped her fingers playfully.

  “Good, good,” I shifted and glanced up at Rilark, who was now listening intently.

  “You’re having sex?” she asked casually. “How many times a week, roughly?”

  “Uh,” I scratched my arm uncomfortably. I wasn’t a prude, really, but it wasn’t my dream conversation to be having in front of my security officer. I licked my lips uneasily and my expression landed at an embarrassed smile.

  “Ballpark,” she encouraged.

  “Two… three times a week?”

  “Okay,” she nodded and wrote something down. “That’s good! You have all of your data about ovulation and the like?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. That’s important to keep track of, especially as a breeder.”

  I blanched at the term, blinking it off. I knew they had to make titles for their missions but… calling us breeders seemed a little brash. I liked to think what Galsthenn and I had was a little deeper than that. In fact, I knew it was. Still, I wasn’t prepared when she asked: “You in love yet?” She grinned as she leaned into the screen, her green eyes sparkling with girlish glee at the thought. I knew she was just making conversation now, but as I saw Rilark’s expression turn bored, I wished she’d stop.

  “Getting there,” I smiled politely.

  “Alright girly,” she said warmly. “Just one more left. We just wanted to know…” she gave pause and looked passed the camera and then back to me. “If you’ve heard anything, any rumblings about the rebels or danger in the area. We know rumors are just rumors, believe me, but I have to ask just to make sure you’re being kept safe and secure.”

  “Oh, they assigned me security, actually,” I teased.

  Sarra couldn’t see Rilark on her screen, as he was standing behind the monitor, facing me, but it gave me no small amount of joy to bug him.

  “So no rumors?” Sarra repeated, sounding somewhat humorless now.

  “Um,” I frowned. “I guess just…” In my peripheral, I saw Rilark sneer and his face crease with frustration. My jaw nearly dropped. Of all the things for him to get annoyed about, I didn’t think public safety would be one of them, considering his line of work. “Not really,” I finally confirmed. “Some people seemed to think there was going to be an attack or something at the welcome ball, but nothing happened. And actually,” I wrung my hands together. “Nobody actually confirmed that for me.”

  “Alright, Miss Westfall,” she said with a nod of her head, “Just keep us up to date about anything. Rumors, pregnancies, party invites,” she winked.

  With that, our conversation was over. I stood from the leather stool, allowing the next breeder to check in with the headquarters and began walking back toward the elevators.

  Rilark followed behind and kept his hand firmly on his pistol. We walked in silence and reached the mirrored elevator. I caught his reflection in the doors and quickly looked down at the ground.

  It was just the two of us, going down six floors and heading home to my beloved. He’d been working every day this week. On what, he wouldn’t concern me with, but his secrecy didn’t bother me. I was sure that whatever he was dealing with was intense and that when the moment was right, I would be brought into that part of his life.

  Rilark was watching me intensely with that stupid look on his face again: a condescending smile mixed with the most infuriating arrogance I’d ever seen. I wanted to scream at him, ‘Have you ever looked at yourself?!’ but I held back and tried to remain ladylike, cupping my hands together and staring up at the ceiling.

  His arrogance made me crazy. He was like some wild animal; his red hair was a
mess of spikes that fell down his shoulders; his wings were always ready for flight; and he had the most peculiar red stripe across his face: a skin discoloration. Plus, his nose was quite literally bent out of shape.

  Plus…

  “Why do you have horns?” I snapped like I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

  The black and brown horns protruded from his head like a great dragon’s. When I’d mentioned them to Galsthenn, he said some dragons had them, if they were descendants of one of the first Weredragons. He said they couldn’t retract, but it was rare.

  “Why do you have breasts?” he scoffed.

  “Um. Because I’m a woman?”

  “Then I guess I have them because I’m a Weredragon.”

  I raised my brows in an annoyed dismissal and an awkward silence filled the room once more. We both stared at the buttons in the elevator and realized we hadn’t gone down a floor in about a minute.

  I huffed in frustration and pressed the button for the bottom floor twice more, the number lighting up and going dark again each time I hit it.

  “Yep, that’s helping,” Rilark yawned.

  “Would you just shut up?”

  The room fell silent once more until the red shifter leaned back against the wall, shifting the entire weight of the room. “So,” he began slowly, scornfully. “Only twice a week, huh?”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You and the big guy. You’re only going down twice a week?” He breathed in sharply and laughed. “Must be a long week.”

  “He’s been busy,” I stuttered, pulling my heavy jacket closed and tightening my scarf as though even talking about such things might cause an indecency. “And furthermore, I don’t think this is an appropriate conversation.”

  “Nope.”

  “And… it’s really not your business anyway.”

  “Definitely not.”

  My eyes widened and flicked back and forth from his indignantly. “So… case closed.”

  “Guess you’re not into it, huh? Geez. I thought girls were supposed to love going at it with a shifter.”

  I pressed my lips together awkwardly. I wanted to say that I had thought that too, but instead, I kept quiet. “Personally, I’ve had girls who can’t get out of bed once they discover me.”