Under Fire: Dragon Shifter Romance (ComeShift Series Book 2)

by Sky Winters

  Dehneese nodded. “Sure, of course.”

  A light suddenly started flashing on the monitor. An enemy ship was approaching the Resistance forces they had sent up. “Shit!” Keandra shouted. “Enemies approaching!”

  She and the other ground leaders were fairly safe in their protective alcove in the foothills, but Albion was out there with the patrol group. Keandra wished that she had a direct communicator with him so she could make sure he was okay. As it was, she had the main channel, which had to be good enough.

  “Find him,” Dehneese told her, understanding immediately what brought on Keandra’s specific sense of urgency.

  Keandra lifted the communication device to her mouth. “Come in, patrol units. This is HQ. Come in, patrol units.”

  For a long, intense few minutes there was no response. The radio silence almost drove Keandra crazy. She and Dehneese looked each other in the eye, holding their breath.

  He has to be okay, Keandra thought, as though pleading to some unknown, made up deity in her mind would save him. He is going to be okay…

  “Patrol units,” a slightly broken voice said back through the machine.

  Keandra sat forward in her seat. “Albion?!” she cried. “Come in, Albion?”

  Dehneese breathed a sigh of relief but just hearing one phantom voice was not enough for Keandra. Her heart was racing and she felt like she was going to be sick. Reaching over, Dehneese took her hand and squeezed it.

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” she said softly. She sounded just as hopeful as Keandra wanted to be.

  Suddenly, there was loud crackling on the intercom. “Yeah, hello? Hello? Come in, Keandra at HQ. This is Albion. I’m safe. We made it into a cave.”

  Grinning at Dehneese, Keandra felt tears in her eyes. “Great, Albion. Be safe. Help is on the way.”

  She hugged Dehneese and then they got to work rounding up some troops to go out and find the patrols. The troops were armed with heavy duty blasters so they could attack any incoming ships. Keandra wished like hell that she could go out there with them and bring her Albi back.

  She wanted to be his hero for a change.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  From her place inside the tent, Keandra watched as the ground troops returned, carrying their large blaster guns. They were also carrying several people back on stretchers. Keandra gasped as soon as she noticed that, checking each one with nervous eyes to make sure that Albion was not one of those sad souls. Fortunately, she did not see him.

  Suddenly, there he was. He was walking toward her, blaster over his left shoulder, uniform torn in a few places, grin on his face. She had never seen such a sexy sight in her entire life. Getting up from her seat, she ran to him, jumping into his arms.

  He dropped his gun and it clattered to the stone floor with a sound of galactic plastic. They kissed each other passionately, deeply, as though they had never kissed before and they wanted to experience every facet of it at once.

  Keandra wished that their kissing could go on forever, but outside there was a war going on. Albion carefully let her back down onto the floor and went with her to the desk with the monitors and the controls for the ground weapons that the Resistance had hidden within the planet’s soil or up in the mountains behind the flora of Hoth.

  The Resistance had been on this planet for years; long enough to make a full operation in order to fight back when need be. And need usually was.

  Albion hit a bunch of switches and suddenly the headquarters became an armored tent. The cloth changed form and became hard, heavy plastic like the weapons of the Resistance. It was not Keandra’s grandmother’s plastic. It was engineered by an interplanetary scientific coalition. Fancy plastic.

  “Get down!” he suddenly shouted, essentially pushing Keandra until she was on the floor. She scooted under the desk for some extra cover.

  “You get down, too!” she shouted up at him. “I am not going to raise this baby without his father.”

  Albion looked down at her and smiled. He opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by a blast of laser beam fire coming through the front of the tent. All at once, all Keandra could see was blue and green flames. All she could hear was shouts and screams. She covered her ears and huddled down into a ball in an effort to protect herself. Her heart was racing and so were her thoughts.

  She could not see Albion anymore. All she could see was explosions and death.

  * * *

  When the enemy fire finally subsided and the Hoth starship flew away from their encampment, the survivors of the blast crawled out of their hiding places. Keandra awkwardly crawled out from under the desk and got to her feet. She had a gash on her right forearm from some fallen debris, but she was otherwise unharmed.

  At least physically.

  As she was making her way to the group of other mostly-unharmed people, she discovered Albion. He was lying on the floor, eyes closed and a huge and bleeding wound on his upper left shoulder.

  “Oh, no no no,” Keandra cried, rushing back down onto her knees and taking his head in her arms. “Don’t do this to me, Albi. You don’t get to be hurt. I’m always the hurt one. I was starting to live with it.”

  Dehneese caught sight of her and hobbled over to her. She had been slightly banged up and was now wearing a bandage around her head, but otherwise she had made it out in one piece. She knelt beside Keandra. “I will get anything you think you may need. Let us take him to the hospital tent.”

  “Is it clear yet?” Keandra asked her, panic in her voice. “Is it safe to go out?”

  Dehneese nodded shortly. “As safe as it will ever be here. They know where we are now; we’re going to have to relocate as soon as possible.”

  Together, the two ladies lifted Albion. Some of the other Resistance fighters brought over a stretcher and they all carried Albion from the room. Well, the others mostly carried him. Keandra was instructed to just follow them.

  There was no sign of Ggregg, which she supposed was a bad sign…

  Once they got into the hospital tent, it was mass hysteria. The amount of injured was high and there were not enough beds, let alone enough nurses and doctors, to be able to adequately care for the wounded. Some of the medical crew were hurt themselves. The blasts had been brutal.

  Keandra found a space for them that would have to be big enough. Albion groaned on the stretcher and they laid him down on the ground where Keandra directed. Then she knelt at his side once more.

  Dehneese went and got bandages and some of that Vlwarx stuff that was all the rage. Keandra took the bottle and poured a generous amount onto his gaping wound.

  Albion sat bolt upright and shouted a slew of curse words in some alien tongue. Keandra couldn’t help but smile. “Oh, sorry,” she said. “Vlwarx may sting a little.”

  Realizing what was going on and who he was with, he grabbed Keandra and pulled her to him. The godawful medication got onto the top of her uniform but thankfully did not hurt when in contact with fabric or skin that was not searing. Possibly it would leave a pink stain, though, but then so would Albion’s blood.

  “You’re all right,” she said softly to him, petting his hair. “You’re safe now.”

  “Safe for now,” he corrected. “The Resistance doesn’t have much longer. The Hoths are onto us.”

  Keandra placed an index finger to his lips. “Shh,” she said. “I know. But for now, you need to focus on resting and getting better. You probably have a concussion and you definitely have a laceration.”

  He looked down at the open wound on his shoulder. Then he shrugged, grinning at her. “I’ve had worse.”

  As soon as it was determined that Albion was okay, he was allowed to leave the hospital tent. He and Keandra went back to their bedchamber, which was mostly just a closed-off section of a large bedchamber. They got some privacy but it was not as though the tents walls were soundproof. They were essentially tarp.

  Still, as soon as they were fully into their chamber and the flap was zipped shut, Albion grabb
ed ahold of Keandra and walked her to the bed. He kissed her mouth, cheeks and neck and then slowly pulled the bottom of her uniform off of her. He placed his fingertips between her legs and sought out her wetness. Stroking and rubbing there, he got her wetter and more turned on. Smiling at him, she got onto the small bed that was bigger than most of the others’ and opened her legs for him.

  Albion took off his uniform bottoms and climbed onto the mattress with her. They were not going to have long this time, and they would have to be a great deal quieter, but there was something about that that made it even hotter.

  Quickly, he positioned himself between her legs, lying beside her instead of on top of her because of the bed’s size and because her pregnant belly meant that she could not easily be entered from on top anymore. They would be less conspicuous if someone accidentally opened their flap this way, too. Keandra moved against him, stroking his cock for a few moments and then sucking it to get it nice and wet for her.

  “Mmm,” Albion whispered.

  Keandra nodded, her large eyes becoming an innocent kind of seductive as she looked at him while blowing him.

  Gently, he tapped her chin in order to signal her to stop. Then, he pressed his body into hers, holding her close as he entered her.

  She let out a gasp that was barely even a sound and her eyes widened as he thrust far inside her. Because they did not want to be detected in the close-quarters of the tent – mainly because of shyness – Albion did his best to use slow, calculated thrusts instead of his usual quick pace. Keandra absolutely loved it. Before long, they were both sweating. She could feel every wonderful inch of Albion’s cock as he moved against her.

  Feeling herself about to come, she took the fabric at the top of his shirt and bit into it so she would not emit a sound. She came hard against him and looked at him with ever widening eyes as the waves of pleasure and sweet release rushed through her.

  Albion thrust again a moment later and came into her pussy.

  How they both managed to fuck each other’s brains out so quietly was anyone’s guess. They were both shaking, sweating and grinning by the time they both reached their satisfying conclusions.

  * * *

  The Resistance regrouped the following morning, well before the Hothian sun had risen in the amethystine sky. They packed up everything they had and loaded all of their belongings and equipment into a caravan of long trucks that Keandra did not even think they had available to them.

  They rode in the trucks for nearly two days. It felt a bit like the life of luxury that a celebrity might live back on Earth, but for a pregnant woman who needed to pee constantly it was less than enjoyable. Keandra was very relieved when the line of trucks finally stopped and everyone was free to get out.

  The Resistance had found their new station, and it looked more or less exactly like the last placed they had staked out. The only thing separating the two locations was the fact that the Hoths had discovered the last one.

  Well, that and the fact that they were slightly closer to the water source now.

  Albion came to her a few mornings after their relocation, before setting out on his next daring mission that she would have to sit out of. He took her small hand in his big one, stroking the back of it with his long, claw-like fingers. She had not realized it before she saw him make his transformation into a dragon, but he did have the body of a man who could turn into a dragon. Everything about him was tall, angular, and serpentine.

  Keandra looked into his eyes. “I’m looking forward to not having to go through these sad farewells anymore,” she told him. “Someday quite soon, I’m going to be able to fight alongside you.”

  “That is exactly what I wanted to talk to you about,” Albion said. “If I come back from this one…”

  “When you come back from this one,” Keandra corrected, snapping it out as though he had offended her with his slight fatalism.

  Albion smirked at her and let a short chuckle escape him. “When I come back from this one,” he agreed, nodding. “Will you marry me? I know that I do not have much to offer. A nomadic life of bloodshed and uncertainly is hardly—”

  Keandra cut him off with a kiss. They held each other close. She felt herself crying and she did not bother to try and wipe her tears away. When at last their lips broke apart, she smiled up at him. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, of course. You silly Gekkota.”

  He smiled back at her, clearly touched and prideful that she had said yes. “You silly Earthling.”

  They kissed each other again, and then he had to be on his way.

  She was so far along now that she was confined to their chamber in the tent, not allowed to leave the bed unless it was to go to the bathroom or sit in the cafeteria for a short meal with Dehneese. The other woman had decided that it was her responsibility to look after Keandra and see to the delivery, whenever it should happen.

  Keandra did not want to go into labor while her fiancé was out there somewhere, possibly being shot at by Hoths. She did her best to will herself and her baby not to start going into labor or contractions. She wanted Albion there with her. She needed him there with her.

  She was fast asleep when Albion returned to headquarters. This time, thank his lucky stars, he was completely unharmed. He went to the bedchamber that he shared with his beautiful, green-eyed fiancée and found her sleeping soundly on the bed.

  “Keandra,” he said to her softly. “Wake up. We have a surprise for you.”

  Slowly, she let her eyes open and, as soon as she saw his golden eyes looking at her, so lovingly, she smiled.

  “Wake up, we have a surprise for you,” he repeated.

  Keandra did not know what it was, but there was urgency in Albion’s voice.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, sitting up in bed and carefully coming down off of it. “You’re not hurt again, are you?”

  Albion shook his head, smiling at her. “No, not at all. Just come with me.”

  Taking her hand, he led her out of their bedroom, through the main bedchamber where the rest of the Resistance forces in their sector slept, and outside. A crowd had gathered there and everyone cheered as he and she came into view.

  There was a twisted and bent metal statue in front of where everyone was sitting. Keandra let out a laugh when she realized that it was supposed to be an altar. Someone had found some abandoned metal and shaped it into an altar for them. She beamed up at him.

  Instead of marching slowly up the created aisle like she was used to, Keandra and Albion walked together hand in hand and stopped when they stood just beneath the metallic structure their friends had designed. Ggregg suddenly appeared. His arm was in a cast and he had a black eye, but he was smiling and seemed otherwise fine.

  Keandra let out a strange sound that was half a sob and half a laugh. She was so glad to see that Ggregg had made it out alive somehow. “I thought he…!”

  “We found him on our last patrol,” Albion said softly into her ear. “He was barely alive and pretty mangled, but we rescued him.”

  Ggregg beamed at her. “You didn’t think I’d miss this, did you?” he asked her. He was holding a little brown book. She realized, shocked, that it was a Bible.

  Where did he find a Bible in space?

  Then she remembered that the Resistance was made up of people from all over. Surely one of the Earthlings had a Bible with them. Keandra was not religious, but it was nice to be reminded of things back home.

  “Dearly beloved,” Ggregg started the wedding ceremony. “We are gathered here today in HQ to celebrate in the union of our dear friends Keandra Calhoun and Albion Pagoda. They have both been an invaluable part of our operations here, as you all know. May their marriage and love for each other last throughout the years and may they come to know peace in our galaxy.”

  Everyone bowed their heads a little bit, wishing so badly for that peace.

  “Albion, do you have a ring for Miss Calhoun?” Ggregg asked.

  Reaching into a pocket of his uniform pants, Albio
n pulled out a sparkling silver ring with a familiar, midnight blue stone on it.

  Keandra opened her eyes and her mouth wide in amazement. It was one of those Hothian galsects. She never in her wildest dreams could have imagined how happy she would be to see one of those damned rocks.

  She started to cry uncontrollably as Albion placed the ring carefully onto her finger. “With this ring,” he recited. “I marry you. With this ring, I make you my wife, my partner, my best friend.”

  This was all so beautiful. Keandra wished that she had been given some warning. She might have tried to scrounge around and fashion herself a wedding dress. Though, now that she thought about it, it made all the sense in the world that they should be married in their Resistance uniforms. They had worked hard to finally wear them, after all. They had earned them. Together.

  Dehneese, who was sitting in the front row of the crowd, came forward and placed a small, silver ring into Keandra’s hand. She winked at her friend and then sat back down.

  Keandra, gulping, did the same thing that Albion had just done for her. She placed the silver ring onto his large finger, breathing a sigh of relief when she realized that it did indeed fit somehow. “With this ring,” she said, smiling up at him. “I marry you. With this ring, I make you my husband, my partner, my best friend.”

  All three of his heads grinning from ear to ear, Ggregg went on with the ceremony. “Keandra Calhoun, do you take Albion Pagoda to be your galactically wedded husband, to have and to hold, to love and to cherish, to fight beside in times of war and times of triumph, as long as you both shall live and even after if from the flames you both can regenerate?”

  She stared at Ggregg, taken aback by the added passages. “I do,” she said, raising an eyebrow.

  Although she was inquisitive in her tone, Ggregg took it as a solid answer and went on, asking Albion the same.