by Lili Zander
Draekon Fever
Draekon Fever
Once upon a time, two dragons saved the virgin…
Being the only virgin on the prison planet isn't so bad.
No, actually, it totally sucks.
There are two Draekons who are interested in me.
Well, at least I thought they were, but they keep blowing hot and cold. They won’t make a move. It’s infuriating.
Whatever. I have no use for broody aliens. None at all. No matter how gorgeous they are. No matter how much my insides tingle when they touch me…
Then it turns out that the Draekons have a very good reason for staying away.
Because they’re ill with the fever, and it will kill them unless I can find a cure.
This time, the virgin is going to save the dragons.
Draekon Fever is the sixth book in the Dragons in Exile series. It’s a full-length, standalone science fiction dragon-shifter MFM menage second chance romance story featuring a very determined human doctor, and the two sexy aliens who try their hardest to resist her. No M/M) Happily-ever-after guaranteed!
1
Sofia
Reasons I’m a thirty-year-old virgin:
There are no condoms on the prison planet.
Two of the nine women here are pregnant, Felicity, and now, Viola. Harper just gave birth to little Kaida. Whatever is in those Draekon swimmers, it’s potent stuff.
My grandmother Anotella, who raised me, was a big believer in saving your virginity for marriage. “If only I’d taught the same thing to Valentina,” she’d lament almost every day. “If only she’d kept her legs closed…”
Valentina was my mother. Pregnant when she was fourteen, she had me the week before her fifteenth birthday. She hadn’t dealt with the responsibilities of motherhood well. She’d turned to drugs and died of an overdose three years later.
All my life, my mother served as a cautionary tale. “This is what happens when you fool around with boys,” my grandmother would say sadly. “But you’re a good girl, aren’t you, mijita?”
I don’t feel like a good girl. I feel like a freak. Back on Earth, they make romantic comedies about people like me.
The thing is, even if it wasn’t for the risk of accidental pregnancy, it’s not as if I can hook up with someone. There’s no shortage of single Draekons in the camp, but at the end of the day, there’s only forty-five of us. If things go badly, it’s not like I can avoid the guy in question. How seriously awkward would that be?
I always thought I’d find someone. Eventually. In my twenties, med school was the priority, and then, surviving residency. There wasn’t any time for dating in the margins.
Celibacy sucks, by the way.
“Hey Sofia, could you do me a favor?” Bryce walks into the greenhouse where I’m plucking some kilpei flowers, baby Kaida in an improvised sling around her torso. “Harper’s taking a nap,” she says, seeing my questioning look. “I offered to watch the little bub.” She tickles Kaida’s nose, and the baby stares at her with steady blue eyes. “Who’s your favorite aunt?” she coos. “Auntie Bryce. That’s who.”
My lips twitch. “I think Auntie Viola, Auntie May, Auntie Ryanna, and, oh, I don’t know, every other woman in this camp, might have something to say about that.”
Bryce laughs. “That’s why I didn’t say it when they were around.”
I take Kaida from her. She’s growing much faster than human babies. Already, in the space of less than a month, she’s holding her head up, and focusing on people and tracking movement. That’s the Draekon in her. The Zorahn scientists are geneticists. For thousands of years, they’ve tweaked their DNA—or whatever the Zorahn equivalent is—speeding up growth, slowing down aging, and extending their lifespan.
According to her proud fathers, Kaida, who has as much of Vulrux and Dennox’s genes in her as she does Harper’s, is growing as fast as a Zorahn youngling.
“Did you want me to watch her?” I ask Bryce. “Was that the favor?”
“Nah, she has to go back to Harper for a feeding soon.” She wriggles her fingers near Kaida’s face, and the baby reaches out to grab them in her chubby little fingers. “Isn’t that right, little button? You’re ready to treat your momma’s nipples like a chew toy, aren’t you?”
Poor Harper. “I should make up a new batch of lotion,” I say out loud. We have a syn for day to day things, but Zunix’s syn doesn’t do skincare products.
“Can you do the count today?” Bryce continues. “I told Ryanna I’d help her with the preserving.”
“Sure.”
It’s going to be the rainy season soon, and our preparations have intensified, though things have been complicated by the Zorahn ship that crash-landed in the middle of one of the best hunting grounds. Three soldiers—Zoraken—survived that crash. We have to assume they have ways to communicate with the Zorahn empire, and as a result, Arax has ordered that we stay away from that area to avoid being detected.
The Draekon have also had to curtail their flights, and it turns out that when a dragon wants to fly but can’t, he gets very cranky. Tensions are running high in our camp.
“Thank you,” Bryce says. She bites her lower lip, seeming to hesitate before plunging on. “Hey, have you noticed something off about Rorix and Ferix lately?”
My cheeks heat. The two Draekons Bryce is talking about are the subjects of my most persistent fantasies. When we’d first crashed on the prison planet, and the two men had rescued us from the dwals, I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off them. For a long time, I had the biggest crush on them. Oh, who am I kidding, I still do.
Then Bryce’s words sink past the haze of attraction. “Something’s off with them? What?”
“I’d have thought you’d have noticed, Sofia,” she teases, and then her expression turns serious. “Yeah. I saw Ferix out on a hunt yesterday, and he threw his knife and missed. He was swaying on his feet, and he didn’t look good at all.”
I frown. Ferix is a really good hunter. It isn’t like him to miss. “Maybe he was just tipsy?”
Bryce shakes her head. “On what? I manage the stores. Ferix barely drinks. Plus, I brushed past Rorix in the corridor outside the communal room this morning, and he was burning up.”
“Burning up? Like running a fever?”
She nods. “I was going to ask him about it, but he nearly bit my head off for bumping into him.”
I stare at Bryce. Rorix is the most easy-going, good-natured person in the entire camp. As long as we’ve been here, I’ve never seen him lose his temper. “Rorix snapped at you?”
“I know. It’s so fucking weird. Rorix is the nicest person in the world. Maybe he’s sick?”
My heart jumps in concern. The Draekons are annoyingly healthy—another side-effect of their scientists’ genetic manipulations. The only time Rorix has been sick was when he’d first arrived on the prison planet, and he’d accidentally brushed against the same orange fungus that got Harper.
Yes, I creeped on the medical information of the guy I have a crush on. It’s crazy, I know. HIPAA violations all over the place.
“Anyway,” Bryce says. “I was going to tell Vulrux about it, but he looked dead on his feet when I dropped by. Evidently, someone,” she gives Kaida a kiss on her cheek, “was up all night, fussing and restless. That’s probably the reason Dennox even let this little monkey out of his sight. Isn’t that right, little pumpkin? You show your parents who’s boss, okay?”
My mind is still on Rorix and Ferix. “I’ll check on them,” I assure her.
She grins. “You do that, girl,” she says. “And if you need to give Rorix a sponge bath to get his temperature down, you enjoy every bit of the view.”
2
Ferix
"It’s getting worse, isn’t it?”
Rorix looks about as good as I feel, like warmed-up argangana dung. His eyes are bloodshot, his breathing comes in short bursts, and I can feel the fever emanating from him from across the room.
He lifts his head up a
nd looks at me blearily, his expression unfocused. “It comes and goes,” he grinds out. “I’ll be fine in the morning. You?”
I don’t answer; what can I say? Yesterday, during a routine hunt to top up our stores, a red mist had overcome me, and I was filled with a killing rage. I felt thin, like a thread stretched beyond its capacity to bear, ready to snap. But I couldn’t.
The dragon rampages inside me, filled with fury, its voice jagged with madness. At the start, the creature had felt like part of me, but not anymore. Now, I live in terror that one day, my self-control will erode, and the dragon will emerge, ready to destroy everything and everyone I care about.
I can’t let that happen. No matter what the cost.
Rorix’s thoughts are running in the same direction as mine. “If you had to go back in time,” he says, his voice barely audible, “Would you make the same choices?”
An image of Sofia flashes before my eyes. The first time I saw her, she’d looked exhausted. Terrified. She was trying to hold up her unconscious friend, as well as defend herself against the hungry, hooting dwals.
And we’d known right from that first moment, that she was our mate.
She doesn’t know. No one does. At the start, we’d kept it a secret for obvious reasons. The humans had crashed on a strange planet. One of them had died. They’d been injured. Worried about their missing friend Viola, who’d set out to find food and water.
To court Sofia in the middle of all of that would have been dishonorable, thoughtless and inconsiderate. Not when her heart was troubled. She deserved time to come to grips with everything.
Then we’d found out why the spaceship carrying the humans had crashed. Because of the actions of a rogue scientist, one of the members of the House of Kei.
Our house. Our family.
Beirax und Kronox is a member of the House of Kei. Possibly a distant cousin. I don’t have access to the naming scrolls, and I am uninterested in tracing his lineage. All that matters is that one of my family is responsible for marooning the human women on this prison planet.
Which makes it impossible for us to ever be with Sofia Menendez. We cannot. Under Zorahn law, we are culpable in Beirax’s crimes. Every single member of the House of Kei bears responsibility for what he did.
Months ago, Rorix and I had made up our mind. Our first transformation would have to be kept a secret. We would fight the mating bond. It was the right thing to do.
But the fever has spread. The dragons want their mate. The blinding rages, the red mist, the headaches, the pain… I fear I will not be strong enough to withstand the beast inside. He is at the point of madness. Soon, the barrier that holds the dragon back will fall, and the man will be overcome.
I, Ferix und Kalox ab Kei will be lost forever.
If I could go back in time and face the decision all over again, would I make the same choice?
Yes. Now more so than ever. Brunox is determined to find his daughter. The Zoraken try, again and again, to land on the prison planet. Eventually, one of their ships will get through unscathed, or, they’ll do what Beirax’s associates did—send enough spare parts so that a new ship can be constructed.
Most of the camp see this as a bad thing. And it is. For the Draekons.
But for the humans? It might be a blessing in disguise. After all, the High Emperor Lenox gave his personal guarantee to that the human women would be returned to their planet, safe and unharmed. Lenox is said to be a proud man and his reputation matters to him.
If the Zoraken find Sofia, they can send her back to Earth. Back to her home.
I swallow the tightness in my throat and blink to clear the film in my eyes. “I regret nothing.”
Rorix nods soberly. “The time of reckoning nears,” he says. “I can feel it in my blood. Soon, the dragon will tear free, and it will not be like the transformation of the others.” He fixes me with a steady look. “We must leave before that happens.”
“I know.”
The dragon is dangerous. Untamed by the mating bond, it will destroy everyone and everything in its path. We cannot let that happen to the people we care about.
I will not miss the dwellings in this hollowed out mountain, but I will miss the Draekons that were exiled with me. Rorix and I were younger than most of the others when we tested positive, barely into adulthood. For sixty years, Arax and Nyx, Vulrux and Dennox, Strax and Vaarix, even uptight Haldax, have become my family.
And I’d miss Sofia. Her quietly kind presence, her caring, her warmth, and her strength. I’d miss the way she smiles when we tease her, her eyes sparkling even as her cheeks turn pink.
It doesn’t matter, because it can’t be helped. We must leave.
There’s nothing more to be said. I turn to go, punching the button that controls the door. It slides open with a hushed whoosh, and I step forward, only to run into her. Our mate.
The dragon flares with heat. “Sofia,” it growls, pulling her into my arms, pressing her soft body against my hardness. Flames dance over my skin as the beast inside takes over. “Mine.”
3
Sofia
Ferix is kissing me, and I never want it to stop. Every argument about babies, condoms, virginity, teenage pregnancies—it all goes flying out the window the instant his lips descend on mine.
He growls low and deep, and the noise sends a surge of heat through me. He pulls me into the room and pushes me backward, and I hit a wall.
No. Not a wall. A hard, hot, bare chest. Rorix. And then there’s another set of arms around my waist, tight and possessive. Another warm mouth kissing my neck, even as Ferix coaxes my mouth open, his tongue dancing over mine.
I don’t understand. Rorix and Ferix had flirted with me when I first landed on the prison planet. I thought they liked me. I wasn’t going to jump into bed with them, not right away, anyway, but I liked them too. They were nice. Funny. Kind. Helpful and considerate.
And, even though this is going to make me sound really superficial, they were also really, really, hot. They had the kind of bodies that made me want to lick them all over, the kind of bodies I’d previously thought were possible only by spending hours at the gym.
Then, as if a switch had been flipped, one day, their interest evaporated. There were no more winks, no more sidelong smiles, no more searing looks that set my insides ablaze. Nothing.
I’m not going to lie; it had hurt. For weeks after, I’d laid awake at night, wondering why their interest had waned so rapidly. Was I too naive? Was it too obvious that I was a virgin?
Eventually, I’d pulled myself together. Living in what-if land was pointless, and I had more pressing problems to face. Like being stranded on an alien planet for the rest of my life. I’d moved past the hurt, and I’d found a measure of peace.
But the Draekons are kissing me now.
“Sofia,” Rorix whispers, his breath tickling my ear. His lips brush against my skin, and I shiver. Ferix’s fingers lace in my hair and he draws me even closer to him. His tongue brushes my lower lip and traces the seam, and I can’t resist; I surrender to pleasure.
I’ve been kissed before, but never like this. Never with this sense of passionate, fiery abandon. The temperature in the room has risen a thousand degrees, and I can’t breathe. All I can do is cling to them.
Their hips grind against me, and their erections press into me. My heart races, desire mingling with nerves. My knees buckle, and my insides feel heavy. I’ve never felt this way before, light-headed and faint, desperate and yearning and aching for this, for all of this, for everything they’re doing to me.
They smell like smoke, like summer nights spent outdoors around a campfire. When Ferix slides his tongue into my mouth, he tastes like sweet sin. When Rorix nibbles the tender skin of my neck, his teeth nipping my flesh, a sharp jolt of lust quakes through me.
I close my eyes and surrender to the storm of sensations. Rorix’s hand cups my breast, and he squeezes, growling my name as he touches me in a way I haven’t been touched for a very, v
ery, long time. My pussy feels heavy and achy, and my stomach clenches with need, and everything is hot and smoky and perfect…
Hot.
Far too hot, actually, come to think about it. Not that I can really think, mind you, not when Rorix’s tongue is in my ear, laving the shell over and over in a way that makes my toes clench.
Really hot.
I sigh in pleasure as Ferix rubs his thumb against my engorged nipple. My clothes have never felt as unnecessary as they do at this moment. I want them to tear it off. Ferix’s nails look long enough, sharp enough, and I wish I were bold enough to ask for what I want.
Hang on. Why are Ferix’s nails so sharp? And am I having a stroke, or can I really smell something burning?
I open my eyes and yelp. “You’re on fire,” I scream, wresting myself away from being the filling in a very sexy Rorix and Ferix sandwich, and waving frantically at the small flames that lick the skin of both Draekons. “Dios mio, what is happening?”
Rorix growls into my ear, and his grip tightens around my waist. “The fire is nothing,” he breathes. “Stay with us, Sofia.”
Something’s wrong. Rorix and Ferix are literally burning up, and there’s a hard edge in Rorix’s green-gold eyes, one I’ve never seen before. I take a step back, my pulse racing and my mouth dry. “Please…” I whisper. “You’re scaring me.”
My words act like a cold bucket of water. The instant I edge away, the air seems to shimmer around them, and the fire dies down. Rorix shakes his head, as if he’s snapping out of a daze, and he almost looks surprised to see me standing in front of him.
And then an expression of shock and horror spreads across his face. “What are you doing here?” he snaps. “Leave.”
