by Naomi Lucas
King Cobra
Naga Brides #2
Naomi Lucas
Contents
Blurb
Naga Names
1. Captured
2. Zaku, King of the Forest
3. Daisy Wakes Up
4. My Queen
5. Captured and Carried Away
6. An Ancient Castle and High-tech Trappings
7. The Second Night
8. The Room
9. A Bloody Trail of Vengeance
10. A Head for a Head
11. Gilded Cage
12. Zaku’s Return
13. The Head
14. Life Isn’t Fair
15. Chains
16. Morning Light
17. A Visitor
18. Broken Promises
19. Trapped
20. No Longer Human
21. Coaxing Daisy
22. A King No More
23. Alone
24. Gone
25. The Pit
26. Lies
27. A New Pain
28. A Frightening Face
29. The Hard Truth
30. The Last King Cobra
31. Taming the King
32. Glass
33. The Playroom
34. Expansion
Epilogue
Author’s Note
Blue Coral Blurb
Blue Coral Teaser
Also by Naomi Lucas
Copyright © 2021 by Naomi Lucas
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission in writing from the author.
Any references to names, places, locales, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Cover Art by Naomi Lucas and Cameron Kamenicky
Edited by Mandy B., and LY
Created with Vellum
To my amazing readers.
Thank you.
Blurb
Daisy. Daisy. Daisy.
From the moment her name is spoken, it is all I can hear. Her tears of fear bring me anger. I vow to wipe them away and banish her fear. To make her my queen.
But I have to catch her first.
I have to convince her to trust me.
I have to show her she is safe.
But only with ME.
Because if any other naga male tries to take Daisy away from me, I will kill them.
And if she runs?
She’ll find out there’s no escape.
I’ve paid the price to mate her, and she needs to know a gilded nest is better than freedom in my world.
Naga Names
Vruksha— Viper
Azsote— Boomslang
Zhallaix— Death Adder
Syasku— Cottonmouth
Jyarka— Diamondback
Zaku— King Cobra
Vagan— Blue Coral
Krellix— Copperhead
Lukys— Black Mamba
Xenos— Sidewinder
One
Captured
Daisy
Gemma yanks my arm, and I stumble forward, my boots catching over a bush. Unable to regain my footing, I trip. Gemma turns back and helps me rise.
“Don’t stop,” she gasps, eyes darting left and right. “We can’t let them gain on us!”
Panting, I chase after her through the trees but lose her.
“Gemma,” I wheeze, bracing against a tree.
She comes back, grabs my arm again, and we keep running.
The forest is thick, filled with so much overgrowth it’s hard to move through it. Leaves, branches, and thorns from alien plants abrade and rip at my clothes, exposing skin. Rasping, haggard breaths push my lungs to their limits, and still, I can’t keep up with Gemma.
She’s fierce, a fighter. She would have made a great soldier.
She’s our ship’s communications officer, and is being traded to alien men for tech. As am I. Gemma’s presence is the only thing giving me the slightest hope of rescue. If she’s here, someone on The Dreadnaut will notice she’s gone.
Because I won’t be missed…
Someone disgraced like me unexpectedly assigned to pilot the first team to our homeworld? It was legendary. I was going to be planetside for the first time in years, and of all planets, it was going to be on Earth. My father would have been proud.
My boots catch again as the land slopes down, and we both have to pause, eyeing the sharp descent.
“It’s not safe,” I croak, staring at the sharp ledge, the trees between us and the top. “We’ll never get away.” It’s almost too painful to speak.
“We have to try!” She takes off to the nearest tree and flings her body against the trunk. She does it again, bracing her feet at an angle to stop from tumbling forward. From one tree to the next, she slowly makes her way down the mountainside.
Following her lead, I take it slow at first, shunting from one tree to the next. I see her reach the bottom, way ahead of me, and she glances back. “Daisy! You can do it!” she shouts.
I fall into another tree.
Something snaps behind me. I hear a breathy hiss.
No!
Pushing myself off the tree, I rush to the next one.
I fall forward, tumbling down the slope, crashing against the side of a bush. I stare at the branches above, stunned. Pain shoots up my side as Gemma’s face appears above me and she tugs me to my feet. My hair snags on a branch and rips from my scalp.
“Come on, Daisy! You can do it!”
I don’t know how long we’ve been running or how far we’ve gone. The shadows are lengthening. We started running when the Earth’s sun was at its zenith, when Peter and Collins dragged us out of the skiff, exchanging us for a box from the large alien male who made all of this happen. Then Peter and Collins flew away, leaving Gemma and me at the mercy of the aliens.
The big, scary one had come right up to me. He leaned down, looked into my eyes, and scowled.
He scowled like he was furious at what Peter and Collins presented him with. Me. As if he knew I was an outcast. That I was weak. And all I could do was stare. Even when Gemma grasped my hand and jerked me behind her, all I could do was stare.
Because despite how giant and frightening the alien was, he smelled really, really good.
Something crashes behind us, and Gemma sprints forward, leaving me behind. I try to keep up. I claw at my chest, grasping my jacket. I can’t lose her. She’s the only thing keeping me from losing my ever-living mind.
The noises grow louder. They’re getting closer. A tear rips from my eye.
I can feel hands grabbing at me, catching my hair and capturing me. I’m about to scream for her when I run into her back. She stumbles forward as we nearly tumble to the ground. I drop to my knees.
She grabs my shoulder and squeezes, and I almost lose it.
“We have to climb,” she gasps. “Go!”
I look up to see what she means. Right before us is a ledge and a short rocky slope of boulders. It’s the only way we can go.
The sounds of pursuit continue to grow. They’re coming from multiple directions. I snap to my feet and take to the ledge. Gemma catches my foot and pushes me up. I pivot back to grab her hand, eager to finally help her, when something yanks me off the ground.
No!
I scream as Gemma gets smaller and smaller below me. My hair whips across my face as I’m jerked brutally around and into a hard, muscled chest. Pain lashes my side as a thick arm presses hard against it. The scent of musk invades my nose as trees blur past me.
The smell makes me vomit. It’s bitter and sickening, like sul
fur. I try to twist back to Gemma. Bands of steel stop me.
My arm snaps back as I’m flung through the air. The thing holding me hits a tree, jerks me higher in his arms, and jumps to the next one. I glimpse his face and shriek.
Yellow eyes, yellow skin, and even yellow lips. Two large fangs eclipse my vision before I’m tossed violently to the side.
Fighting with every last shred of strength I have, I kick and scream, tearing at him. He clutches me to his chest, ignoring my attempts to hurt him. My teeth snap together the next time he jumps. My neck wrenches.
He’s going to kill me.
I’m going to die.
I scream for Gemma.
My nails drag across rough skin, catching on scales that rise as I touch them. Slamming my knees into the male’s tail brings me more pain, and has little effect on the brute. Growing desperate when we hit the next tree, I manage to get my hands up his chest to wrap them around his neck. I don’t want to die.
Tough flesh stops me from choking him with any real effect.
“Let me go!” I shout, returning to my thrashing.
He grabs a section of my hair and forces my head back. “Ssstop making noise,” he hisses, snapping his fangs at me, his eyes devoid of intelligence.
I thrust back, terrified he’s going to bite me when he drops us to the forest floor. Limbs locked from the sudden weightless and abrupt stop, the male releases me and forces me to the ground.
Claws rake down my body, shredding my uniform in a single sweep. Chilly evening air breezes my skin as the male tears my clothes from my body. I realize what he’s doing when he gets to my boots and his nails aren’t able to shred them.
I kick him hard in the face.
Rearing, the alien arcs back and grabs his face. “Rabid female!” he bellows thickly. His tail slams the ground beside my body, and the ground trembles. “You will submit! I am in pain!”
Twisting over, I hold what’s left of my clothes to me as I crawl away. I don’t get far. Fingers curl around my ankle and drag me back. “Gemma!” I scream for help, clawing at the ground, knowing there won’t be any.
He thumps his giant, sickeningly yellow tail next to my head again, and I flinch. It’s so huge it blocks out the forest, creating a wall of scales beside me. He rips my undershirt next. I try to hit the male again, but he catches my fist and forces it to the ground. The chill of the evening air hits my bare chest the same moment his hot breath does.
Shoving at his body, he’s completely undisturbed by my struggles as a forked, meaty tongue lashes the air. “Female,” he groans, tasting my terror.
I kick harder when he slides down my body, tearing off what remains of my pants, exposing my legs.
“Please!” I wheeze. “Please, don’t,” I beg.
He rips my pants off.
Something hard, hot, and thick falls upon my shin, and I cry out.
“Female,” the alien groans, sliding the hot appendage up my leg. “You are mine.”
I turn my head and brace for what’s to come. The fight has left me. I can barely rise and can’t catch my breath. All I can do now is hope I survive.
Hope it doesn’t hurt, hope it doesn’t last long.
The soft sensation of smoothed-out scales chafes my inner thighs as his tail forces my legs apart. His tail is so large, it forces my thighs and knees to the ground. I try to close them but can’t, trapped under a wall of undulating muscle. His giant genitalia is lodged between us.
Closing my eyes with a whimper, I glimpse something shiny next to my head.
The knife.
This morning, while taking my last shower on the transport ship, Shelby, forced to guard Gemma and me so we didn’t run or send a message to the Central Command, slipped a knife under my unit. I’d hidden it under my clothes…
A wet tongue slides over my breasts, fingers snaking around my neck as the alien pushes his cock to my open, dry sex. The male hisses when he’s unable to easily thrust into me and bows his head down to peer between our legs, completely unaware of the knife.
Sliding my hand over to it, I grasp it, wiggling it free of its sheath and aim. Shaking terribly, I miss.
He doesn’t even notice, gripping his member and trying to get it inside me. He’s going to have to rip me in two to make it fit.
I bring my hand back, and a fleeting calm washes over me. I aim again.
And with everything I have, I sink it deep into the side of his neck.
I drop my hand as blood gushes from the wound.
The male jerks, his tail swipes out wildly, and he rises to meet my wide eyes as his hand releases my neck. Snatching my hand to my chest, he grabs the hilt of the knife and yanks it out of his neck.
Blood spurts from the wound and all over my face.
Run.
Twisting onto my front, I scurry out from under him as he brings the knife forward, pausing to look at it.
I don’t wait to watch. Reaching down to grab at the shredded clothes next to me, I crawl away, putting as much distance between us as possible. I pray the wound is enough to stop him from chasing me.
I don’t know how long I run, how many times I stop to listen, or when I find the strength to get back to my feet. I keep going until the sun sinks below the horizon and darkness blankets the forest. It’s not until I’m about to faint that I collapse and curl up on my side. Bringing my ruined clothes to my chest, I sob until sleep takes me away, until my nostrils fill with the sweet scent of a different male…
Two
Zaku, King of the Forest
Zaku
I give the human male his box of broken tech and dismiss him and his guard from my mind. He flees back to his ship and leaves. Coward.
Good.
Cowards are easy to control. Yesss.
If it weren’t for their weapons, I would kill them and the rest. Only I do not know how powerful they are. I want to see them dead. I wish them all dead, or at least exiled. I am king of these lands and I do not suffer interlopers. The humans are trespassers and should not be here. They had their shot at Earth, and they will not get another. I’ll make sure of that.
But the females… the females can stay.
Heading for the human ones now, I scowl as the crying one, the one with long light-colored hair held back from her face, flinches as I approach.
She cries? Why does she cry? A beauty such as her should never have a reason to cry.
Standing across from me is the most enchanting female I have ever seen. And she is not even nagakind. Except she is crying? Her glistening eyes glance at me before cutting away to the others. My scowl deepens. I want her eyes on me, and only me. Even if they are wet, even if they show fear.
They return to me like they hear my thoughts. Good female. Keep your eyes on your king. They widen as I move closer to get a better look at them, and it’s the terror etched deep there that brings my anger to the surface.
I will not be feared by you! I growl.
Human, naga, or otherwise. Females are valuable. They bring males power, and power is all that matters. Dominion. Control. I am a king, and a king cannot rule without his queen. I have waited decades for my queen.
She holds my gaze as I stare. Pools of soft brown glitter and glint, framed by dark lashes that cling together. A teardrop forms, slipping down her soft, pinkened cheek. I curl my fingers into my palm, wanting to catch it.
I flick my tongue out for a taste.
The red-headed female comes forward and hides the blonde behind her back. My tail thumps.
“What do you want from us?” she demands, but there’s a tremor in her voice. Is this one also scared? Is she trying to hide her fear?
What have their males done to them that they fear males so much? Better males at that.
Agitated that she hides the fearful one, I face her. “You will submit to one of usss.”
“We’ll never submit,” she quips. “We’re not items—we’re not yours. We’ll never be yours.”
My brow arcs. “You will
be hunted, and the best of us, the one who captures you, will covet you within his nest.”
Vruksha hisses, stealing the red-headed female’s attention. I stop from striking him down and starting a brawl here and now. How dare he interrupt me? This is my deal with the humans—mine! It’s only out of fairness that I allow the other nagas to have a chance at one of them.
If I want both, my subjects should bow their heads and move out of my path.
“Run,” Vruksha snaps. “So I may catch you,” he tells the red-headed one, rising over her, urging her to flee.
“What?” she says, recoiling.
Vruksha presses into her until she’s stumbling backward, trying to get away.
“Daisy,” she gasps, keeping her hold on the crying one. “Run!” she shouts, and then both females are stumbling, catching their footing, fleeing into the forest.
Hoots and shouts rise up from the males, a cacophony of all the nagas hiding in the forest, waiting for this moment. This once-in-a-lifetime chance to have a mate of their own. Trees shift, branches shake, and pine cones fall. One moment I see the females, and the next? They’re gone.
Vruksha surges forward, and I miss him with my tail, but I catch Vagan before he hits the tree-line. The Blue Coral spins back to me. “Zaku,” he snarls.
Twisting my tail up his before he can react, I sling him over the cliff. I hear a yell, a thud, and then nothing.
