by Luna Hunter
I’ve never needed my big sister more than now, but she’s thousands of miles away, in Australia with her brand-new husband Brad. I don’t blame her for marrying that hunk, but did she have to move all the way across the world?
My fingers grip the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turn white. I put my foot down on the pedal, and my car growls as I pick up speed. Cars honk at me as I whiz by, weaving my way through traffic.
I normally don’t drive like this, but today is not like any other day.
It’s the worst day of my life.
The stupid thing is that my mother warned me about Melissa, years and years ago. “She’s only interested in your toys,” my mom used to say whenever Melissa would come over to play. I always knew Melissa could be petty and jealous, but I figured she’d grow out of it…
How wrong I was. Taking advantage of my kindness wasn’t enough — she had to take Jake as well?! I gave her a finger and she didn’t just take the hand — she gobbled my whole damn arm off!
I’ve never felt so betrayed. I still can’t believe it. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’ve known her all of my life. We skipped rope. Even took baths together. Unbelievable.
I can’t lay all the blame on Melissa, though. Jake’s equally at fault. I gave him five years of my life. Five years of busting my ass off to put food on the table and a roof over our heads, just so he can focus on his schoolwork.
Five years of hearing him say he’ll ‘propose soon’.
Five years I’ll never get back.
Fuck.
I punch the steering wheel with all my strength. She can have him. I’m done. Done with this town. Done with my sorry excuse for a life.
I’m a week away from turning thirty, with no job, no relationship, no friends. Today really can’t get any worse.
A red light. I hit the brakes and the car comes to a screeching halt. My phone beeps and I grasp it instantly. Emma?
My stomach drops when I realize it’s just another email. Celestial Mates? No, unfortunately not. This time it really is spam.
They didn’t even send me a confirmation email or anything. Another disappointment. Why not, they’re piling on today anyway.
The blast of a horn pulls me back into reality. The light has turned green, and I’m holding up a whole line of cars. With cheeks burning red from embarrassment I pull up.
What did I think was going to happen? That some foreign hunk was going to materialize out of thin air and swoop me off my feet? That kinda thing doesn’t happen. I’m almost thirty, damn it, time to stop believing in fairy tales.
Mr. Right isn’t going to come knocking at my door.
My fingers grip the steering wheel tightly. That email distracted me from my broken heart for a few precious seconds, but now the dull, throbbing ache in the pit of my stomach is welling up again.
I wish that email was real. I wish with all my heart that someone would take me away from this hellhole, this stupid, boring town. There’s nothing left for me here but pain.
And just like that, a bolt of lightning strikes the road in front of me.
The sky is clear — this shouldn’t be possible.
Suddenly, I’m looking straight into a vortex. Deep purples mix with streaks of blue. It’s strangely hypnotizing — and growing in size by the second.
I shake my head. Am I having a stroke? No, the whirlpool is still there, and my car is speeding right towards it.
A massive beast flies out from the magical vortex, heading right for me, unhinging its enormous jaws.
Time seems to slow right down to a crawl as I take in the impossible sight in front of me.
That. Is. A. Dragon.
Its gorgeous yellow eyes, the size of basketballs, are looking right at me, and there is fury and anger in them. Its jaw is spread open wide, curved teeth the size of swords heading right for me.
In the distance I can vaguely make out the dark shape of a man riding the dragon, but to be honest, the giant freaking teeth about to rip my car apart draws most of my attention.
I jerk my wheel to the side, and the next moment I’m flying through the air, upside down. The world is silent for a moment, and a single thought runs through my mind.
Is this the end?
Sound comes crashing back with a vengeance. Glass breaks and splinters, metal groans and collapses, and my face is thrust into my airbag. The sound of my car scraping across the road is one that’ll be etched into my mind forever.
A small trickle of blood runs down the side of my face. I blink a few times, and catch my breath.
I’m still alive.
But I’m upside down.
Still, could be worse.
That dragon could have swallowed me whole.
Did I see that right? I blink a few times and pinch myself, but no, I’m not dreaming. I am trapped in my own wreck, though.
Then a terrible smell reaches me. Smoke.
My damn car is on fire.
Survival instinct kicks in. I try to remove my seatbelt and crawl my way out, but the giant airbag is making it hard to move around — and I can’t open my car-door. I push with all my might, but it won’t budge.
I can now hear the crackling of the flames, and panic starts to set in.
I need to get out. Get out get out GET OUT.
My prayers are answered when my entire car is lifted up into the air and placed back on it’s now broken wheels.
My car-door is torn off its hinges. My heart skips a beat when I see what’s happening.
A seven foot tall, dark blue man, the most beautiful one I have ever seen, pulls me out of the wreckage and cradles me in his strong, powerful arms.
“My melethril,” he growls. His voice is deep, and awakens something fierce inside of me. “It is you!”
I stare up at him, dumbfounded. His hair is long and dark, and his radiant eyes are turquoise, and seem to glow with power. Two horns curl up out of his jet-black mane. His bulging muscles ripple with energy, and a strange feeling takes hold of me.
Try as I might, I can’t look away. His beautiful eyes suck me in, and the world around me disappears.
There’s only him, this tall, dark, mysterious, otherworldly stranger. My stomach flutters, my heart beats in my throat, and a warm feeling spreads to every last inch of my body.
I thought I knew what falling in love at first sight felt like — but oh boy, was I wrong.
He pushes my head against his broad, naked chest.
“Rest, melethril,” he whispers. “You are injured.”
His low voice is like the softest velvet, and it makes heat pool right down in my lap.
Then, the dream is broken in an ugly manner. A roar like a dozen angry lions reaches my ears, and the mysterious man ducks down.
A cone of blazing hot fire passes over our heads, blasting right into my wrecked car. The heat is so strong the metal melts right in front of my eyes.
I loved that car. It was a piece of junk, but it was my piece of junk! And now, it’s nothing more than a melted pile of rubble, like so much in my life has gone down in flames today.
My mystery man sprints away, placing me on the side of the road, underneath a tree.
“I’ll return,” he says. “Stay!”
In the blink of an eye he’s gone — and I rub the blood out of my eyes, because it seems like I’m seeing double.
Two dragons are fighting in the middle of the highway. One is a brilliant turquoise, its scales glittering in the sunlight, the other a fiery red.
A single man is riding the red dragon, though I can’t get a good look at him.
What the hell is going on?
The two dragons duel, breathing fire and snapping their jaws. If I still had my phone I’d take a picture, because no one is ever going to believe me, but unfortunately it’s still in my car… or what’s left of it.
The dragons flap their massive wings, the force so strong it causes entire cars to flip over. The asphalt has melted in places,
the road strewn with wreckage.
Meanwhile, the massive, dark-purple vortex behind them is still swirling menacingly. Another two red dragons come flying out, and once again, they head right towards me like a pair of homing missiles.
I pull my knees up to my chest, hugging them tightly, as I blink rapidly. Perhaps if I blink fast enough, the two evil-looking dragons will disappear.
Nope.
One of the red, horned beasts lands right in front of me, kicking up dust, and a horrible looking man hops off.
Only now can I see the type of men riding the red dragons. They look like orcs from Lord of the Rings — but uglier, if such a thing is even possible. The man’s skin is a sickly, pockmarked green. His body is covered in raggedy hides, and he emits an odor like those rags have never been washed before.
“C’m here,” he says, uttering a throaty growl, as he grabs a fistful of my hair. “You’ll make a fine breeder.”
I kick and punch, but it’s of no use. This alien man is much too strong for me. He throws me in front of the dragon, which opens his big mouth. I can feel the heat coming from the dragon’s maw as I gaze down its dark throat.
This is it.
The dragon leans forward, snagging me between its pointy teeth… and then it kicks off into the air. If the beast would close its jaws I’d be snapped in half, but instead, it simply carries me in its mouth.
I’m afraid to move. If I slip out now, I’ll certainly fall to my death.
A load roar unlike anything I’ve ever heard, filled with heartache, is the last thing that reaches my ears before the dragon flies right into the swirling vortex.
The next thing I see is a bleak, desert landscape, stretching out as far as the eye can see. No roads, no houses, no signs of any kind of civilization.
I wrap my hands around the dragon’s fangs, my heart racing at a million miles per minute.
Where the hell am I?
4
Tau
My melethril!
I watch, powerless, as she’s carried off in the fangs of a great red. I knew the Qroqs would be close by on the Plains of Avik, but I didn’t expect them to appear so quickly.
I knew it was risky, but I couldn’t let Bodakin open the gate too close to Koti. I have to protect my people at all costs.
The moment the gate opened they were on me, and they beat me to the punch. It is as I had feared — my mate has been ripped from my grasp.
The Qroq in front of me controls his dragon well. I spread my wings out wide and dash forward, trying to reach my mate before she passes through the gate, but the red dragon in front of me lashes out at me.
I can only barrel-roll out of the way just in time to prevent my neck from being severed. I could sink my claws into the dragon’s exposed underbelly and rip his guts out, but if I did so, I’d be killing my own kin.
That’s what makes this damn war so hard to win. The foul Qroqs have enslaved my kind, turned my fellow Thalanil into crazed beasts whom they control by the use of shock-collars.
The damn thing provides constant electric shocks, preventing the Thalanil from ever shifting back into their regular form. The constant pain fills them with bloodlust. They become crazed, feral.
Dangerous.
Then the Qroqs sic my enslaved kin back on us, the remaining free people. We are forced to kill our own people in self-defense.
It’s an affront to all that is good and just in this world.
My off-world bride disappears into the swirling vortex. I was so close! I held her in my arms, felt the touch of her skin, her scent completely surrounding me, my cock instantly growing hard…
And the Qroq ripped her from my grasp.
Like they’ve taken all the Thalanil women.
Like they enslaved my men.
Like they made a mockery of my rule.
A rage unlike anything I’ve ever felt takes hold of me. The saknar, the blind, feral rage a Thalanil slips into when he’s without his melethril, is already starting to affect me.
The anger is tugging at the strings of my consciousness, begging me to submit, to give into blind fury.
I try to resist — but I fail, as I’ve failed my people so many times.
My body shifts, changes, mutates. I grow even bigger. My wingspan increases, my fangs grow an extra few inches, and my vision turns to red as I strike. My sharp teeth sink into the red dragon’s slender neck, and I taste blood.
I thrash the dragon around, snapping its neck in an instant.
The Thalanil falls down on the ground, moaning in its death throes. With one whip of my tail I send the Qroq-rider flying off its back, smashing it against one of the metal boxes that are strewn all over the black road.
The gate!
It is fading rapidly. I kick off and rush towards it, and only barely make it through in time. When I find myself on the other side, back in my world, I see that my melethril is only a blimp in the distant horizon.
They are taking her to the Fortress of Bones.
I cannot catch up with them.
“What happened?” Eldrin asks when I stumble into his hut. “Where is your mate?”
“They took her,” I growl, balling my fists. “They were too quick, too many, I couldn’t, I couldn’t…”
My voice trails off. There is nothing that could excuse my failure.
“Oh,” is all Eldrin has to say.
He disappears into the kitchen while I sink into a chair and rest my head in my hands. Nothing is going as it should. Our gods, our prophecies… never have they foretold this war.
Nothing prepared us for this onslaught.
Eldrin returns a moment later with a steaming hot brew.
“Drink this,” he says. “You are tense. You need to unwind.”
“What I need to do is save her!” I growl, baring my fangs. “We need to launch an attack, now!”
“Calm yourself, prince,” he says. “You did your best. Of that I am certain.”
Did I? Did I really?
“I killed one,” I say bitterly. “A fire-red Thalanil dragon. Possibly Hintri, or Prosi’s boy. Bit right through his throat.”
“You did what you had to do.”
I shake my head. “I didn’t need to kill him. I had time. Could have simply wounded him. Instead, I gave into rage and… put him down like a beast.”
“May the gods have mercy on us,” Eldrin says. “The Qroqs forced your hand, my prince. Don’t let this weight rest on your heart; it is heavy enough as it is.”
I close my eyes and take a deep breath. There is truth in the shaman’s words, yet they provide little comfort. The only thing that can calm me is feeling my mate’s lips on mine, feeling her soft skin pressing against me, her hair between my fingers.
At first I worried I wouldn’t be attracted to an off-world bride — now I’m worried I won’t be able to control my impulses.
My cock grows hard at the mere thought of her. My inner-dragon wants to break free. It wants to abandon all sanity and give into my lust, my desire, my need.
And the longer my needs go unfulfilled, the stronger the call becomes, until I am driven mad.
“The saknar,” I grit through my teeth. “I feel it.”
“So soon?” Eldrin asks. “That is remarkable. I take it you are a match then?”
“I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful she is, Eldrin. I barely spoke a word to her, but we exchanged one look… and that’s all it took.”
“Hm. Do you know where they have taken her?”
“They were heading east, towards the Fortress.”
“Then all hope is not yet lost, my prince. All hope is not yet lost.”
5
Amelia
The air grows cold, and I find myself shivering in the beast’s mouth, despite the dragon’s warm breath. I’m dressed in shorts and a white top, while the barbarians have themselves wrapped up in many warm hides.
Despite how bad they smell, I could go for one of those rags right about now.
; We have been flying for hours, and I’m afraid to drift to sleep and fall right out to my death. Just when I think I can’t keep my eyes open for a second longer, we pass a mountain and a city looms up in the distance.
Well, city. Fortress is more like it. A wooden palisade surrounds a smattering of houses, and in the middle of this urban sprawl stands a giant statue of one of the green aliens, standing at least a hundred feet tall
The tall thing dominates the flat steppe, and I see flocks of dragons circling it.
I swallow the lump in my throat as the dragon starts its descent. It seems we’ve reached our destination.
The flying beast touches down on the head of the statue. I now see that the statue doubles as a palace, and the top is where the dragons take off. The beast releases me from its jaws, and I fall on the hard, rock surface with a nasty smack. Before I have a chance to rub my sore knees, I’m pulled up by my hair by the barbarian.
“Gift for General Vakgar,” he growls. “From Rider Bargulg!”
“We’ll see,” another ugly alien says. His eyes drift all over my body, and it makes me feel dirty. Dirtier than being in a dragon’s wet, warm mouth for hours. “I’ll deliver her.”
“No!” Bargulg says. “My gift!”
“You defy Master Zuhgan?” the alien says, as he pulls a thin, long knife from his waistband. “You risk death!”
Unlike the riders, who are dressed in hides, this alien is wearing metal armor. It’s very rough, with many jagged edges — in no way does he look like a knight. More like a metal monstrosity.
“My gift!” Bargulg says again. He pulls my hair again, and I scream out in pain. “My gift!”
He tries to push Zuhgan to the side, and a second later I feel something warm and wet splatter down on my face. I touch it, and to my horror my fingers are covered in blood so dark it looks black.
Rider Bargulg falls to the ground, gurgling, thrashing about, his hands trying desperately to stop the bleeding in his neck.
Zuhgan has a wry smile on his face. He grabs my wrist and wipes the knife clean on my white top. We are surrounded by other alien warriors, but no one lifts a finger to help their dying brethren.
