by Celeste Raye
He raised a brow to me, obviously infuriated, and I fought off a smirk.
“You think that’s funny, do you?” he said, nodding, his eyes twitching and narrowing in my direction.
Before I had the chance to swallow the spit that had graciously formed under my tongue, he grabbed my legs at lightning speed and pulled them through the bars so that the pillars crashed up against my chest.
I let out a guttural cry as I hit the cage and scraped my teeth against my bottom lip. My breasts formed perfect circles on either side of the pole that was wedged between them and he grabbed one firmly in his hand. I jerked away, spitting at him.
Kayldreon laughed and with his free hand he grabbed my chin and tilted my head upward. I stared at him defiantly as though tilting my head back were my own idea and seethed, “Take your hand off me, shithead.”
“I should claim you and get this over with before somebody gains their senses and kills you,” he said smoothly, as if he were making small talk about the weather.
Which, as it turned out, wasn’t small talk at all.
I’d learned as much one morning when I had broken my week-long silent-strike. The Weredragons were my least favorite race I’d ever run into during my time as a gun for hire across the planets.
After being captured, I refused to speak to them. Then they turned the other prisoners, my former crewmates, against me. The girls would no longer speak to me. I’d gone so stir crazy that I actually bothered to make what I thought was small talk with one of the kinder guards.
The conversation went on for what felt like hours and I wasn’t sure what was more tortuous: being confined in my own brain by the deathly silence or the hideously boring conversation that followed about the Weredragon’s woes.
As though I cared.
The dragon planet was so hot they claimed they were unable to cultivate their land.
Two giant stars, their ‘suns,’ had been passing over the planet for years now. One of the suns should have shattered by now. Or… passed? Or… whatever their latest claim was.
Whatever the reason for the heat, it crept over the land like a wave. The air was so hot I could barely register when I was inhaling. The refreshment of breathing had been sucked away by their suns.
“I’d rather die,” I said firmly, setting my jaw to the ridiculously tall red shifter. “Now take your hands off me.”
“That can be arranged, Livingstone,” Kayldreon said warily, using my last name. “But I would miss these conversations of ours if you were gone.”
I tried again to back away from him and he gripped my chest harder, pulling me forward and licking the side of my face as it pressed up against the bars.
Disgust crawled across my skin as I felt his warm tongue on me, raising my pores into hard bumps of contempt as the air hit the wetness.
“My turn,” came the familiar voice of another shifter guard. Before I could look up, the gray shifter’s boot came down hard on Kayldreon’s arm; causing him to lurch back with a howl of pain as he nursed his now limp forearm against his chest.
“Are you kidding me?” Kayldreon said with spite as he looked up at the deep gray shifter and nearly hissed.
The dark shifter didn’t respond, instead taking the time to grip Kayldreon hard by the shoulders and whip him into the cell bars. I watched as the bars dented and crumpled in front of me and my eyes went as wide as saucers.
The red dragon didn’t stick around to see what the gray shifter would do next, should he be defiant. With a tumble of his thick, scaly feet to the floor, my guard shoved his thick wing against the new dragon present and left The Tower floor with a loud slam of the door behind him.
“You really have a way with people,” came the familiar voice of Aurlauc.
We had met when my sister's ship crashed on a nearby planet, more than a year ago now.
The Weredragon's lulled us into safety and then murdered our crew: stole our women to breed with. They wanted to find out how to get to the Earth so they could pillage us and kill our men. For that, I hated them.
I looked at the crooked smile on the familiar warrior and felt myself soften, just a bit.
“You're one to talk,” I said with a grateful smile. “You were the one assigned to try and charm me, remember?”
“Actually,” he said, raising a pointed finger to the air, “that was Khrelan.”
I snorted. “And not a one of you could succeed.”
“You’re a hard one to crack,” he said with some pride. “Not like the other humans here.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” I breathed, taking a half-hearted look around The Tower’s cells. “Next time have him let go of my breast before you whip him at the floor,” I said with no note of thanks in my voice as I rubbed my swelling breast under my shirt. “These things are attached, you know.”
With a quick flick of his brows to the air, Aurlauc scoffed and looked to the direction Kayldreon fled. He brushed his mouth with the back of his hand and laughed. “If that were the case, I would have been waiting forever.”
I rolled my eyes and scrambled backwards in my cell, pushing my back against the wall so I could use it to balance myself.
He watched me carefully and crossed his arms over his chest. He wore dark pants, something like leather. Straps of the same fabric covered his bare, chiseled muscles on his chest and held various weapons strewn across them. I couldn’t help but notice my own laser pistol was still hanging from his side, after all this time.
“You need to learn to make friends,” he said exasperatedly, catching my eyes as they trailed along his body.
“Here I thought I had a way with people?”
He grunted. “There’s no time for funny.”
It still made me laugh to hear the way Weredragons used English. Correctly, but slightly off.
“There’s no time for funny,” I repeated mockingly: my voice hitting a low pitch. I watched as Aurlauc’s face quickly changed from annoyed to charmed.
Most of the dragons had a vague grasp of the English language when we got here due to a mixture of their own language and the Earth paraphernalia they’d found floating through space—including movies, which I’d now heard again and again and again.
One of the first females let out of The Tower was assigned to teach the shifter’s the English language.
Correction: The first female was actually let out for sex. But, the next few that followed were asked to teach English.
“You know what to do to get out,” Aurlauc said carefully. His eyes skimmed the room as his words came out.
I shrugged. “Snuggle up to a Weredragon and get myself a nice home in the pit?”
“That’s one spin on it,” he said slowly. “Khrelan. He wants to claim you.”
“Yeah, he also led the slaughter on my ship,” I spat. “No, thank you.”
His brows shot up and quickly lowered. “He wasn’t so bad once.”
“Once,” I repeated with a scoff.
“Then…” Aurlauc squirmed on the spot and then walked up to the bars of my cell thoughtfully. He gripped his hands around the cool metal and looked at me seriously. “You know that I care for you.”
My eyes flicked back and forth from his and I approached the front of the cell cautiously. I couldn’t lie to myself that my heart skipped a beat when he said the words. If there were any Weredragon that could redeem the sadistic race, it was probably Aurlauc. He was the only one who had been kind to me or tried to make me smile. Succeeded.
The right side of my lips curled up into a half smile and then I laughed.
“No, you don’t,” I argued.
He blinked in surprise and looked taken aback. “I do,” he confirmed with a waver in his tone.
I brushed my hair behind my ear and met his gaze with my most seductive eyes. “If you cared for me, you would let me out,” I teased.
Aurlauc blew out a long breath and his hands dropped from the bars. “Athena…”
“What?” I snapped.
“You think I want you in he
re?” he asked genuinely. I knew he didn’t.
My shoulders sloped down into a half shrug. “Then let me out.”
“And you’ll do what?”
I blinked. “I’d run.”
“And die in the elements?” He frowned. “No. I can’t do that. You don’t know enough to get around here.”
“I’m a soldier!” I screamed from nowhere. My hands gripped the bars of my cell as though they were independent of my mind and I began shaking them with all my strength as I screamed. “This is what I do! So give me back my gun and let me the hell out of here!”
Aurlauc swallowed hard and I watched the way the light hit his deep gray and black scales. He brushed his long black braids behind his shoulders. Azure eyes stared at me intensely and he put his hands over top of mine, peeling them from the bars so that they fell at my sides.
“I can’t keep protecting you,” he said quietly.
“Then let me go,” I breathed.
He raised a thick brow and shook his head slowly. “You know I can’t do that.”
Aurlauc
Rock surrounded me on all sides except for one. The left side of the curved rock staircase that led from the bottom of our housing pit to the scorching earth above had carved windows. Anyone using the staircase had the opportunity to peek curious glances down to the city below.
I could feel a hard pit form in my stomach as I reached one of the case's many landings and crossed paths with Khrelan.
He, Tredorphen, and I had all been great friends as dragonlings. And then the humans came.
Not only had we taken a blow of losing Tredorphen, but something in Khrelan seemed to have changed after that. His attack on the humans formed a wedge between us that was nearly imperceptible to anybody but the two of us. But, it was there all the same. A palpable distinction that separated us.
I ascended the staircase that sat in the midst of our underground home and paid him no mind.
“Aurlauc!” the navy scaled shifter called out with a laugh.
I swallowed a sigh and turned on my heel to regard him. I smiled and gave a nod, “Khrelan.”
“Heading to The Tower?” Khrelan asked. The navy shifter didn’t look at me as he spoke, instead ridding the corners of his eyes of their crusts with his fingertips.
“I’m not stationed there today,” I said easily as I walked by him.
“Did you hear about Lenovius?”
I cocked a brow and shook my head. “Planet?”
He nodded, furiously rubbing at his eyes. “The D’Karr says he’s heard good things about the prospect of food. It is cycles away, but… he’s gathering an army to send. You interested?”
I shrugged, but Khrelan couldn’t see: too busy with his quickly reddening eyes. “This damn itch in my eye,” the dark-skinned shifter swore, all but ramming his fist into the hollow of his eye and itching ravenously.
I laughed at the sight and took a seat on the stairs above the landing where he stood.
Finally removing his hand from his face, he looked up at me, his eye red and swollen. “You know he’d put us in if we wanted,” he explained.
It was true. Growing up as cousin and he as best friend to the D’Karr’s son was as good as being royalty in D’Karr Boradrith’s eyes. He spoiled us and gave us rank as if we were his own. All we would have to do is imply we wanted in on a mission and it was as good as ours.
“Last time didn’t go so well,” I said in an uncharacteristically unenthusiastic tone. “And I don’t mean on Ceylara.”
“Oh right,” Khrelan said with a long, exhaled breath. “Zevaxu,” he said and his eyes widened. “What a mess.”
“I told you!” I laughed. “It’s a Drog breeding pool, the whole planet! We were as good as melted.”
“Who’d have ever thought you would be the one doling out advice to me?” Khrelan laughed and leaned up against the wall behind him.
“Sometimes I’m brilliant,” I said with a smirk.
“Sometimes,” Khrelan repeated with a tone that married a compliment with sarcasm. “You hear about the new orders in The Tower?”
I shook my head.
“The D’Karr wants Athena taken from The Tower and moved to his personal playpen.”
“Boradrith?” I asked unbelievingly and Khrelan frowned at my use of our ruler’s first name.
“Says he wants to break her,” he raised a suggestive brow and then let out a belly laugh. “Whatever that means!”
“I’m sure his mate must love that,” I said absent-mindedly, barely believing his words but trying not to look too stunned.
Khrelan sloped his shoulders downward as though it didn’t matter one way or another. “She was the only one with the coordinates to the Earth,” he explained. “Plus, it’s obvious that she knows where Tredorphen went. D’Karr is spreading around that he was kidnapped.”
I rolled my eyes and let out a seething laugh. “Please.”
“I know,” Khrelan waved me off. “But it’s what he’s saying. Probably just a reason to wage war against the Earth.”
I stood from the staircase and pushed my wings from their boney entrances that sat hinged on my back. I flicked them behind me and felt a tickle crawl through my spine as they expanded.
Khrelan watched me carefully and then looked to the ground, an uncomfortable air between us.
“Why are you telling me this?” I asked lowly, my eyes shooting around the staircase to ensure no shifter was listening in on our conversation.
He swallowed and pitched a brow. “Why do you think?”
My eyes flicked from his and I remained stony. In truth, I didn’t know why he was telling me. Khrelan had made no secret of his feelings toward possessing Athena, especially since she had thrown nothing but figurative fire his way since she arrived. This ignited his passion for her like no other. He hadn’t even taken a lover since the humans arrived, instead waiting to claim her as his own.
“I guess because… Well, you know!” he erupted awkwardly, twirling his fingers to the air. “I guess I just knew you wouldn’t like hearing it.”
I tried to decipher what he was saying without asking and he rolled his eyes and swat me on the arm as he passed me by. “You are really just the brawn, aren’t you?”
I smirked and turned to watch him pass.
“Claim her or I will,” he said as a warning, still descending the staircase away from me. “That, or the D’Karr will have her, break her, and kill her for her inability to cooperate. You know the D’Sharr would love to watch him do it.”
He spoke of our king’s wife. She hated the humans, likely because they had captivated her mate’s attention. Specifically his nether regions.
I swallowed and nodded to my old friend, but he didn’t turn to see it.
With a quick exhale, I began my ascent to the top of our underground homes. Our whole society had gone from the greenery of Dobromia’s soil to taking shelter in an inverted spire that drove deep into the ground.
Our D’Karr's kingdom was set up through a series of interconnecting caves below the topside. There were rivers and homes, as well as green fields and the castle. Going to our inverted mountain town was the only thing protecting us from the heat. Those who were in the best standing, such as the D’Karr and his family, were stationed closest to the bottom, farthest from the suns. Those who were less than were assigned apartments near the top.
I wasn't exactly sure how living at the bottom was supposed to be a boon, though, considering the insane climb it took just to get to the top. Most of us simply flew topside, but I preferred to walk.
There were many things about my human shifted form I preferred over the dragon characteristics that spilled across my body.
I waited until nightfall before making my way to The Tower. I wasn’t scheduled, but Khrelan had made sure to distract a guard and cause him to leave his post with the promise of coming along on the mission to Lenovius.
With no patience for walking after my long trek out of the underground kingdom, I
flew to the floor I knew Athena was on. There were various openings throughout The Tower: large window ledges made for us to get in and out of the spire with ease.
I saw Athena sleeping in the middle of her cell. Her body was splayed out before me in a mess of deep tan skin and blonde hair.
It was my joy to be the guard in here on long days: to sit and talk with her and hear her peculiar take on the world. Her opinions were immovable and I loved that.
Except when it came to her escape. Her mind was so sharply focused on the possibility of escaping that she never stopped to realize she would die under the scorching stars or be eaten by the many beasts that lived on Dobromia.
Still, I would cater to her wishes.
I looked around the stone halls and up at the intricate statues of shifter’s past: the intricate detailing the ceiling held. The shifter females had carved beautiful decorations into the bone ceiling and painted it with the stains from flowers. A rich blue shone back down at me.
The Tower used to be where the D’Karr lived. Our ruler and his mate made lavish shows here in The Tower. But, since we moved down below the surface of the ground, we had transformed the vast tower into a prison. We took the line of servant’s quarters and arrayed them with bars and locks.
I blinked in recognition of the beauty and prestige the spire once held and then directed my gaze back to the beautiful human sleeping on the cold floor.
“Athena,” I said quietly.
She stirred immediately and her blue eyes shot open, her recognition somewhere between asleep and awake. She crawled on all fours toward the front of the cage and gave me a strange stare, as though she weren’t entirely sure if this were real.
There were no words between us as I set a satchel on the floor in front of her. I raised each item to the air; the fire lanterns on the walls were the only thing illuminating the room. I wanted to show her exactly how much I loved her.
One by one I raised my gifts to her eye line. A bundle of grain wrapped up in a pouch, a sheathed knife, a canteen of water, a dark cloak, a roughly sketched out lay of the land on a scrap of cloth. And finally, her laser pistol. The one I had kept close to me all these cycles.
