Draekon Fire: Exiled to the Prison Planet : A Sci-Fi Menage Romance (Dragons in Exile Book 2)

by Lili Zander

  I might even be falling in love.

  But what if they’ve never gotten over their first mate?

  I make my way down the path to Zorux’s house, where Raiht’vi and Beirax are recuperating. As I walk, my mind spins in a thousand different directions. The hanky-panky with Dennox and Vulrux. Dennox’s memories returning, and what that might mean for us. Vulrux’s odd hesitation when we talked about the two of them transforming into dragons.

  Beirax or Raiht’vi?

  Let’s see. Beirax crashed our spaceship on the prison planet, killing Janet outright and condemning the rest of us to spend the remainder of our lives here. Raiht’vi, on the other hand, might not be the queen of charm, but she told Vulrux and Dennox how to save my life.

  Raiht’vi it’ll be.

  I knock on Zorux’s front door. Nyx opens it, and I blink at him, surprised. “What are you doing here?”

  He snorts. “It’s my turn to feed the two ungrateful idiots in there,” he says. “Why the two of them can’t eat in the dining area like the rest of us, I don’t understand. Then again, they’ll probably just glower at everyone.” He gives me a quizzical look. “And what are you doing here?”

  Is Nyx going to give me a hard time? “I’m here to see Raiht’vi,” I reply.

  He steps aside. “First door on the right.”

  Well, that was easy.

  Raiht’vi’s door is ajar. She’s awake, half-propped up on her bed, fiddling with a thick bluish metal band on her wrist. When I knock, she looks up and seems surprised to see me.

  “Can I come in?”

  Her expression turns guarded. “Yes.”

  I sit down on the solitary chair in the room and get right to the point. “When Vulrux and Dennox gave me their blood, it cured me, but it also passed on the Draekon mutation to me.”

  She nods curtly.

  “My body’s changing,” I tell the scientist. “I’m getting stronger. I can swim faster.” I take a deep breath. “What else can happen?”

  “I don’t know.”

  Her reply is evasive, and I’m positive she knows more than she’s telling. “Are you sure?” I press her. “You were the one who told Vulrux and Dennox about the curative properties of Draekon blood. Are you positive you don’t know what might end up happening to me?”

  This time, she gives me a dismissive look. “I don’t share everything I know with humans,” she says, her lips curled into a scowl. “Or with Draekons.”

  Her hands clench into fists. On the Fehrat 1, only a few weeks ago, Raiht’vi seemed invincible. Now though? She’s trying to stay strong, but she’s stranded on this world as much as I am. I don’t have any close family—none of the women who were chosen to fly to Zorahn do—but she might. Maybe she had a husband, children. Maybe she’s homesick and has to hide it under a veneer of strength.

  I realize I know nothing about the Zorahn woman. She’s got to be feeling the same tumult of emotions that I’ve been struggling with since I woke up from my coma, and she doesn’t even have the company of the others to cheer her up.

  Honestly, I feel a little sorry for her.

  I pull my chair closer to her bed. “Sofia’s the kind and gentle one,” I tell her. “I’m much blunter. My mom used to accuse me of being tactless. When my friends in high school would call me to whine about their loser boyfriends, I wouldn’t make sympathetic noises. I’d tell them to dump the assholes.”

  “What are you chattering about, human?”

  “The name’s Harper.” I give her what I hope is a friendly smile. “Should I call you Raiht’vi, or do you have a nickname?”

  The Zorahn scientist looks at me as if I’ve grown a second head. “Hey, we’re stuck here,” I tell her. “Might as well be friends, right?”

  Raiht’vi has a great resting bitch face. The look she gives me is withering, but I don’t allow my smile to dim. Finally, she relents with a sigh of impatience. “You can call me Raiht’vi.”

  We’re making progress. “Awesome.” I draw a deep breath. “Look,” I tell her honestly, “we’re all in this together. Beirax got us in this mess, but there’s no need for the rest of us to be at each other’s throats.” God, I feel like Viola. Any moment now, we’ll be holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

  She snorts derisively. “Your human lifespan is short,” she says. “I can never be friends with the Draekons. There’s too much history between us.”

  “Between you and the Draekons?”

  Her body goes still. “Between the scientists and the Draekons,” she says at last, her voice wary. “The scientists created the Draekons and sent them to battle against their will. When Kannix gave the order to annihilate the Draekons, it was the scientists that created the diseases that wiped them out. I can assure you, Harper Boyd, that no matter what you think, the Draekons and I can never be friends.”

  I give her an incredulous look. “The stuff you’re talking about happened a thousand years ago.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Do you think Arax has forgotten that it is a scientist that tested him for the Draekon mutation? The mutation that stripped him from the throne?”

  I feel out of my depth. “I don’t think Arax bears you any harm.”

  Her retort is immediate and predictable. “You know nothing.” She laughs bitterly. “Beirax, that misguided idiot, wants to bring the Draekons back. The madmen in the Order of the Crimson Night believe that the Draekons can be controlled. Fools, all of them. They forget the most important thing. You can control an animal, but the Draekons are sentient.” She pauses, and her next words are almost inaudible. “And they have much to be angry about.”

  We sit in silence for a few minutes. I’m trying to think of what to say next. Raiht’vi is talking about events that happened a thousand years ago as if it were yesterday, but staying stuck in the past solves nothing. If I were going to do that, I’d be sitting in a corner, rocking back and forth, moaning about chocolate and coffee.

  God, I miss a good latte. I’d kill for a cappuccino machine. And Internet access. If I had Internet access, I’d be posting pictures of hot guys with eight-pack abs all day. Who needs Tumblr when you have Draekons?

  Finally, Raiht’vi breaks the quiet, probably in order to get me out of her room. “The Draekon mutation shouldn’t affect you adversely,” she says. “Humans are a compatible species.”

  Hallelujah, she’s talking. “If I get pregnant, the baby isn’t going to burst out of me, right? It’s not going to leave a big, gaping, hole in my stomach?”

  Aliens. Should have never watched that movie as a teenager. Scared the crap out of me.

  Raiht’vi gives me an ‘are you freaking kidding me’ look, the kind my teachers used to reserve for me when I said something exceptionally stupid. “There is nothing that should prevent you from carrying a child to term,” she says finally.

  I heave a sigh of relief. There’s no need to freak out; there’s nothing to worry about. There’s nothing to stop me from sexing it up with my two hot men.

  It’s taken me more than two weeks to get to this point, two weeks in which the attraction has simmered, the fire slowly being stoked, two weeks in which my doubts have disappeared under the weight of my need.

  I don’t want to wait anymore. I’m ready.

  12

  Dennox:

  I sense Harper’s disappointment when I tell her I want to be alone, but I cannot help it.

  The dragon clamored for more, demanded that Vulrux and I plunge into her soft, willing body and take her, claim her, make her ours. Until I remembered the Liberation of Kraush.

  As we climb the stairs, it seems like a dam has burst in my head. Images tumble out, clearer than they’ve ever been before. I remember our ship landing in the main square of Padris, Kraush’s capital city. For the Zoraken, Kraush was a minor skirmish. Not so for the Kraush, who viewed the two companies of Zoraken as saviors. Danae was one of them. Her deep golden eyes had sparkled with gratitude as she served the hungry and thirsty troops. As the evening went
on, and more pints of Padris’ finest firna were consumed, her expression had changed to lust. She’d taken my hand and led me up a set of stairs…

  That memory had been wiped as soon as the Zoraken returned to their bases, but it’s come back to me. Eighteen battles. Kraush. Senish. Gaarven. The hellholes of Remousi. And of course, there was the last battle. Adrash.

  It’s Adrash that I’m thinking of as I make my way back to my house. Pouring myself a cup of kunnr wine, I sit on the porch and watch the rain. The battlefield had been gray. Bodies were strewn everywhere. In death, the Zoraken lay side by side with the maroon-robed Adrashian techmages.

  We’d holed up in a bombed house in the high-walled city of Karhm, waiting for reinforcements. Our supplies were running low, and three of my soldiers were badly wounded. As dangerous as it was, I’d decided to head out to the battlefield, hoping to find a med-kit among the fallen.

  Someone had followed me.

  A cold sweat breaks out on my skin, and though the air is warm, I shiver involuntarily as the memories unfold in my mind. I’d realized I had a shadow almost as soon as I’d stepped out, but I’d kept going, hoping to lure him or her into a trap.

  I’d walked into an ambush. Six highly trained techmages had surrounded me, their staffs glowing. I’d drawn my weapon and stood my ground, prepared to die in battle, but one of the techmages had signaled to the others. “Our orders are to bring this one in alive.”

  Another long-dormant memory surfaces. A gold-tipped needle puncturing the skin of my neck. Bright blue blood trickling out. The tester flashing crimson. “Draekon,” the techmages had hissed in unison. “The Zorahn scientists will pay a bounty for him.”

  The next thing I remember, I’d been in the Crimson Citadel, tied down so I couldn’t escape.

  A deep shudder of relief passes through me.

  I had not been handed over by the Zoraken to the Scientists as punishment for crimes I’d committed. I’d been kidnapped by the Adrashian techmages.

  I don’t understand why the scientists would ally with the Adrashians, and I don’t remember anything that happened to me at the Crimson Citadel, but I know one thing. I’m not a monster.

  I’m now free to claim Harper.

  Harper:

  When I return from talking to Raiht’vi, both Vulrux and Dennox are waiting for me. “Before you start,” I warn them, “you only said I had to tell you where I was going until I recovered.”

  Vulrux doesn’t crack a smile. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he says. “It’s important.”

  My heart does a funny little pitter-patter. Vulrux’s expression is more serious than I’ve ever seen it. I give Dennox a sideways glance, but he looks as puzzled as I do.

  “What’s going on?”

  He seems to gather his thoughts. “You already know about our first mate,” he says. “Like Dennox, she was being held prisoner by the scientists. One night, some unknown instinct drew me there.”

  Please don’t say you’re still in love with her, please don’t say you’re still in love with her… I don’t think I can bear hearing those words from Vulrux. I was miserable when Tom broke up with me, but underneath the pain, I’d known that Tom wasn’t a very nice person, and I’d known, as much as I would have denied it then, that I was better off without him.

  I won’t have any such consolation with Dennox and Vulrux.

  “You’ve already heard that we transformed into dragons when we saw her,” he says. “And you know that when we changed, the guards didn’t know what to do. They fired at us, but our scales are impenetrable, and their weapons did not hurt us. Then, one of the guards received an order.” His hands clench into fists, his knuckles white with pressure. “He turned his weapon on the woman and killed her. The moment she died, Dennox and I transformed back to men.”

  Vulrux is right; I already know this story. I’d demanded the truth from Viola, and she’d revealed everything. The surprise isn’t in the details of the narrative. The surprise is that Vulrux is telling me about it.

  “I was exiled immediately after that,” he continues. “For years, I burned to know who gave the order that killed her. And then, your spaceship crashed on the prison planet, along with two people that might know the truth.”

  “Raiht’vi and Beirax?”

  He nods. “Indeed. Raiht’vi, in particular, wears white robes, a mark of distinction among the scientists. Only a handful of them earns that honor.”

  “So you asked her?” I frown at the tall man in front of me. “I can’t imagine Raiht’vi telling you anything.”

  “I didn’t expect either scientist to be forthcoming with the truth,” he replies with an oddly ashamed look on his face. “But I had to know. Not just for my sake. For Dennox’s as well.”

  Dennox looks sharply at Vulrux. “What did you do?”

  “I couldn’t bring myself to harm Raiht’vi. Not after what she did for Harper.” He stares at the two of us. “So I drugged Beirax.”

  A shocked squeal erupts from my lips. “What?”

  “I’m not proud of it,” he says flatly. “I will take the guilt of what I did to my grave. But I don’t regret doing it, and if I had to make the same choice over again, I would.”

  “What did you learn?” Dennox asks intently. “Did you find out why I was there?”

  “No. Beirax knew nothing about the underground labs.”

  Dennox’s shoulders slump. I frown at Vulrux. “There’s more to this story, isn’t there?” I guess. “You said you wanted to talk to me. You found out something connected to us, didn’t you?” My voice rises. “Vulrux, tell me.”

  “Beirax’s mission was to determine if the human women would trigger the Draekon transformation,” he says. “If he succeeded, he was to carry word back to the Order of the Crimson Night.”

  He takes a deep breath. “According to Beirax, somewhere out in the jungle,” he says, “are the component parts of a Cloakship.” He looks at me steadily. “There might be a way off the prison planet, Harper Boyd. There might be a way for you to go back to your planet. To Earth.”

  I stare at him, shocked and speechless.

  “The Draekon mutation has made your body stronger,” he says. “If we mate, the effects will accelerate. The mutation will prepare your womb for Draekon young, and you will not be able to bear human children any longer.”

  He draws a deep breath. “If you mate with us,” he concludes, “the effects are permanent.”

  I look back and forth between the two men. I don’t really know what to say.

  13

  Harper:

  Talk about a bombshell revelation.

  I stare at Vulrux and Dennox. I don’t know what to say. Part of me is celebrating the idea of returning to Earth—chocolate! Coffee! Pizza delivery—but another, much more insistent part of me wants to be sick.

  Vulrux kneels down next to me and takes my hand in his. “I know this is a shock to you,” he says, his lips twisting into a grimace. “I didn’t want our first time together to be under false pretenses, Harper.”

  “I know.” I bite my lower lip. “Do you think Beirax is lying about the ship?”

  “No,” he says. “But I also don’t want you to get your hopes up. Beirax thinks that the Order did a supply drop at a site that’s two months away by foot. He believes there’s a locator on the spaceship that will show him the way there. But the locator could be damaged. We could get to the supply site and find out that the parts are unusable. No one in our Exile batch is a technician; we might not be able to put the ship together. Even if we assemble the ship, we might not be able to pilot our way out of the asteroid belt. And finally,” he finishes, “we can’t set off in search of the supply site until the rains end.”

  He’s right. It’s a thread of hope, but a slim thread. I hold my breath as I ask him my next question. “Do you want to go back to Zoraht?”

  He shakes his head immediately. “I’m Draekon,” he replies. “There’s no place for me in the homeworld, and I
don’t have any desire to change that. I’m content with my life here.” He looks at me with heat in his eyes. “I don’t want to change anything, Harper,” he repeats.

  The tight fist around my heart eases. I turn to Dennox. “Did you know about this? This morning, at the lake, both of you appeared reluctant to take things further.”

  A strange expression flickers over his face. “Harper,” he says, “ever since you woke up, I’ve been fighting my need to claim you. I don’t want there to be any doubt about how much I want you.”

  There’s a ‘but’ in that sentence. I wait for it.

  “But,” he says, “until today, I held myself back.”

  “Why?” I whisper.

  “Because my memories were missing,” he replies. “I’d ended up as a prisoner at the Crimson Citadel. I thought I’d committed an unspeakable crime for the Zoraken to surrender me to the scientists.”

  Vulrux looks up. “You have your memories back?” he asks intently. “You remember everything?”

  Dennox shakes his head. “Not yet. I remember nothing after I arrived at the Citadel, but I do remember the circumstances that led me there. The Zoraken didn’t surrender me. I was kidnapped right after the Battle of Adrash. Half a dozen techmages captured me, tested me for the mutation, and collected a bounty from the scientists.”

  He fixes me with a direct look. “I didn’t know what I was capable of, Harper, and couldn’t risk hurting you. But now I know that I’ll never do that.”

  Silly Dennox. I could have told him that days ago. Vulrux and Dennox have never once pressured me. They’ve never made me feel uncomfortable or nervous or frightened around them. Ever.

  I don’t care about some hypothetical future back on Earth. Not when a very real future is in front of me. One with the two hottest men I’ve ever seen in my life.

  Who have some crazy oral skills.

  Who make me scream with pleasure.

  Whose cocks have made my mouth water from the moment I caught a glimpse of them.