The Draqon's Brat

by Pearl Foxx

  Maxsym huffed out a puff of smoke and sucked in his cheeks before dropping Caj to the floor. “Let her go.”

  “I don’t think so.” Gideon slunk along the wall as Caj shifted back into his human form and stood, following the commander closely. “I know what you can do, and I for one am not eager to be burned alive by acid.”

  Veronica struggled against her father’s hold as Maxsym worked his jaw, heat billowing off him in waves that distorted the air. If he shifted, would he know her? Would he remember who to kill and who to spare?

  “These Draqons are ruled by instinct, nothing more.” Caj’s hoarse voice lacked none of its previous cruelty or pompous privilege. “Beasts, each and every one of them. If your daughter has been consorting with this creature, there’s no telling what low she’s willing to sink to. Next, we’ll discover she’s been fucking your Earthen animals better sourced for food.”

  Maxsym lunged, sparks flying from his mouth as he growled. The sparks landed on the ground and burned small holes in the white flooring.

  “Stand down, guardsman.” Gideon pulled her back, the hold on her neck tight enough to cut off her breath. He kept her between himself and Maxsym as Caj sidled over to stand behind him. She was their protection, a living human shield that her own father was using to save himself.

  “We already know this won’t hold you long, but it’ll be long enough.”

  Gideon slammed the door shut, locking Maxsym in the secure lab. His roar ricocheted off the walls, deafening Veronica’s thoughts. His rage and fear as it coursed through her veins alongside her own. Part of her knew they wouldn’t survive if her father separated them. She would die without him.

  The thought didn’t inspire the self-deprecating thoughts of being a lovesick girl that she would have expected. Instead, it rang with truth, and in her bones, she knew life without Maxsym would mean no life at all.

  She doubled her efforts to get away from her father as he dragged her through the lab, kicking and struggling against his hold. The red lights pulsed above them, and the calm computer voice reminded them they were about to die.

  As soon as Caj had donned new clothing from the lab, Gideon shoved her at him. “You handle this. I have to get us through security to the docking bay.”

  Caj gripped Veronica with extended claws that ripped through her tunic and dug into her flesh. “Go ahead, try to run. You’ll see what a real Kladian does with disobedient females.” His voice cut through her like razor blades, bleeding her dry and leaving her shivering in fear.

  She hoped Maxsym didn’t hurt himself before he could get out of that room, because if there was one time when she needed him to keep his shit together, it was now. For the first time in her life, she felt genuinely helpless, and she hated it.

  Tears ran down her cheeks in rivulets of pain and disappointment, but she didn’t struggle as Caj led her through the station’s halls, passing panicked residents toward the executive elevator and her own private hell.

  Chapter Twenty

  Maxsym

  The door slammed with a metallic bang, and the silence in Maxsym’s mind went into a frenzy. No hive. No Veronica.

  No control.

  The fire inside him burst forth, and the metal slabs melted away from him as the walls bubbled and buckled. A roar crashed through his chest. His wings unfurled, and his hands morphed into talons. Scales undulated under his flesh with the desire to fully transform and destroy the men who had stolen his mate.

  His mate.

  The fire rose in his chest, and as he screamed he spat acid at the wall, following it with a burst of flame that engulfed the entire surface. He picked up a twisted slab and threw it at the fiery wall with all his Draqon strength, smashing a hole large enough for him to burst through. Only the hairs on his arms caught flame as he exited the secret lab.

  His wings retracted, and he pulled off his shirt, flexing his back muscles as they slid between the layers of muscle and sinew. He’d need them later. He had no intention of letting Caj live past today, and if Gideon died too, all the better.

  But the only thing in his mind as he ripped the lab door off its hinges and bounded through the crowded hall was the image of Veronica with tears in her eyes and a blaster to her head.

  His rage mounted, and he broke into a run. He shoved people out of the way as they rushed toward the escape pods. The fire he left behind him spread, leaving the station in a chaos of smoke and terror.

  A woman screamed when she saw him approaching, his black eyes and shimmering scales on full display. “Aliens! We’re being attacked by aliens!”

  Others screeched and scurried out of his way, but he paid them no attention. His mission was fucked, and at this point, he didn’t give a shit whether Gideon lived. All that mattered was getting Veronica back alive.

  The elevator was locked or in use or damaged. The computer was too busy telling him how much breathable air remained in the station to report on the issue. Maxsym slid his talons between the doors and ripped the metal open like a gaping wound.

  The dark elevator shaft loomed above him. He had over fifty floors to climb to get to Veronica. He saw her every time he blinked, every time he breathed, her face afraid and desperate, her hair hanging over her eyes as her father dragged her out the door.

  Maxsym jumped and shifted fully into his Draqon form inside the shaft, wings curled in tight around his body. He dug his talons deep into the metal casing and ripped through the walls, flinging his massive body upward. The cables and machinery of the elevator tore at his scales, pulling them off and leaving behind bloody holes in his skin, but Maxsym didn’t feel any pain. If anything, it forced his body to dig deeper, climb faster. He used it to fuel his rage, and soon he ripped through the door of the docking bay with his teeth and talons and burst into the room.

  As soon as he arrived, he let his wings unfurl to their full span, knocking over anyone standing near him, and let loose a roar that shook the plasteel ceiling leading out into the void of space.

  His reptilian eyes scanned the running crowd. They screamed and fled from him, some falling to the ground in their fear of the massive, snarling Draqon in their midst. Around them, the station’s AI repeated the contamination threat over and over, and lights flashed red. Deeper into the station, people screamed, and the smell of smoke reached Maxsym’s nose.

  Across the vast bay, there was one area of stillness. His eyes focused in, and he flapped his wings, taking to the air. Caj and Gideon stood next to a bank of parked Falconer shuttles with Veronica in Caj’s grasp.

  That Vilka had his mongrel hands on his mate.

  Old rage from generations of war filled him as he swooped down, shifting before he even landed so that he stood before them, naked and fearless in his human form.

  “Give her to me,” he demanded. Smoke poured from his mouth.

  “Monster!” Gideon shouted like the coward he was and shot his blaster directly at Maxsym.

  His wings burst forth, wrapping around him and protecting him from the blast. A line of scales was ripped from his flesh.

  He shook off the pain and stepped forward, his wings still on display behind him. “She’s mine.”

  “She’s nothing but a stupid human,” Caj said, shoving her at Gideon.

  “She’s my daughter, and I’d rather she be dead than with one of your kind!”

  “She’s her own fucking person!” Veronica screamed, slamming her elbow into her father’s face. As soon as his grip loosened on her, she ran forward, straight toward Maxsym.

  In a ripple of skin, he shifted, releasing his Draqon. He snaked his head around in time to see Veronica almost stutter to a stop, her eyes wide as she took him in. For a horrible moment, he thought she would run from him, screaming in fear. But she only smiled, her eyes coming to life. She launched herself at his back.

  Before she was even fully on him, he jumped into the air. Gideon shot at them from below, tracking his flight pattern, forcing him to zigzag through the open space.

 
Despite the panic below them, peace filled Maxsym’s Draqon soul, and he flew on instinct, aware of nothing but the grounding weight on his back. His mind was wonderfully silent, and the madness that had threatened to take over as he’d raged receded. It was Veronica’s weight on his back that centered his thoughts, and it was her mind he felt brushing up against his. Her fear abated as she lay against his back, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck.

  Her warmth spread through him, and he maneuvered through the gunfire as if it were a peaceful summer day and they were flying over the hot springs.

  His mate had centered his heart. His wildness had been tamed, and his body vibrated with the rightness of it.

  Through their connection, he could feel her comfort in the air. Her hips shifted with his movements easily, and she leaned into his turns as if she’d been training with the hive her entire life. A sigh escaped her, and a dam broke loose as her last wall crumbled, letting him in completely.

  As one body, one mind, they flew a final lap around the docking bay. Above them, the plasteel ceiling opened and a Falconer careened out into space. Gideon and Caj, escaping. Maxsym growled, but he couldn’t pursue them.

  They’d gotten away. For now.

  There.

  Maxsym looked where Veronica’s attention had pulled him and saw a ship shimmer into existence. A frizzy-haired Maeve waved both hands wildly from the open loading dock.

  He twisted, rolling his body through the guards’ blaster fire as Veronica tightened her thighs around him and dug her nails into the thick scales on his shoulders. A natural rider.

  Pride swelled in him. His mate was a natural. Her joy reflected back at him, and part of his Draqon mind wished he could keep flying out of the docking bay and into the black void with her on his back. But more and more guards raised their guns to the sky and fired, thinking the alien flying above their heads was attacking their precious ship.

  When the real evil villain was making his escape right in front of them.

  When they neared Noaz’s ship, Maxsym banked hard to the left, and Veronica leaped off his back. She tumbled next to Maeve, who pulled her up and out of the way.

  Maxsym flapped his wings hard, lifting above the ship, and then aimed himself into a nosedive toward the hatch’s opening at the top of the ship. He shifted at the last possible moment and rolled into the shuttle just as Maeve slammed her palm against the control panel to close the hatch. She screamed for Noaz to haul ass.

  He sat for a moment, stunned, until Veronica approached and rested a hand on his shoulder. Her touch sent a wave of peace and clarity through him he’d never experienced before.

  Shit. He would have to apologize to Zayd for giving him such a hard time over his moon eyes for Niva. That was gonna fucking suck.

  He chuckled and pulled Veronica down onto his lap.

  “That was something else,” she said breathlessly, running her fingers through his hair.

  “What? You’ve never ridden a giant scaled Draqon before?”

  She laughed and kissed him lightly. “That’s not what I was referring to, you imbecile.”

  “I know,” he whispered back before deepening their kiss. “I love you too.”

  Epilogue

  Kinyi

  Three Months Previous...

  “Kinyi!”

  Cold dread washed through Kinyi’s body at the sound of her name shouted across the hive’s hot springs. It wasn’t that she was afraid—nothing intimidated her—but if there was anyone who sparked the tiniest kernel of trepidation in her heart, it was the hive leader, Zayd.

  She slowly turned from the pile of smoking rubble she was sorting through to find Zayd striding toward her. He moved with constrained power and a hint of violence that made her lick her lips. She’d enjoyed the few times they’d shared a bed, but those moments were over now thanks to his human mate and her new queen. Not that Kinyi really cared about him beyond her own pleasure and ambitions. She’d appreciated bedding Zayd, but he’d never made her cold heart flutter.

  “What?” she said, hoping the snappy question didn’t come across as too abrasive. She really wasn’t trying to get into another fight with him. She simply had a blunt nature.

  “Have you seen Maxsym?” Zayd stopped a few feet from her, his eyes hard, his scarred jaw flexing like crazy.

  “No, why? Isn’t he with you?”

  Zayd cursed vilely enough to raise Kinyi’s brows. “That Hyla-fucking piece of shit …” he growled.

  He was ready to storm off, when Kinyi asked, “Why? Where’s Maxsym?”

  “I’m not certain but I think that impulsive son of a bitch took off to the humans’ space station. He got it in his idiot head that he could assassinate Gideon—alone.”

  Kinyi sighed. Men. They were so stupid. “But he can’t even shift without falling into the madness. How’s he supposed to survive away from the hive?”

  “That’s the fucking problem, isn’t it?” Zayd paced back and forth in front of her. “We need all the mated pairs here at the hive, and I’m not risking sending an unmated male after him. It’s too risky, and we need all our fighters here. There’s no telling when they’ll attack again. And Maxsym’s the fucking Swarm Master!”

  “So let him try to kill the human. He’s always been strong. Maybe he can keep his shit together long enough to get it done. What’s the worst that can happen?”

  Zayd’s nostrils flared as he looked at her. She knew he wanted to snap her neck. He hated her after the horrible things she’d said about his queen. And she might feel bad about some of them, but she’d never take them back. She’d never apologize.

  “Because he’s my best friend and I don’t want him dead. That’s the worst thing that could happen. Do you not get that? Are you really as cold-hearted as you act? Isn’t there anything you’d be willing to die to save?”

  “Yes,” Kinyi snarled. “This hive.” She stabbed her finger at the rubble she stood atop. The rubble caused by the humans who’d attacked her home. She’d make them all pay. “This planet. My home. I’d do anything to save that. Think what you want about me, Zayd, but you know I love Kladuu. Don’t try to take that away from me just because we don’t see eye to eye anymore.”

  His eyes narrowed as he stared her down.

  She returned his dark glare and waited him out.

  “I can’t risk any of the unmated males,” he said slowly like he was thinking long and hard, “because they can’t be trusted to shift on their own. But a female …” He eyed her with a dark, fiery light.

  “What? What is it?”

  “You’d do anything for Kladuu?”

  Kinyi gritted her teeth. “Just fucking ask the question, Zayd. Grow some balls. Or did your mate take those too?”

  Smoke curled from his nostrils, and the golden scales along his arms rattled. But she just smiled. “Prove your worth, Kinyi. Go to Earth. Find the White Horn and bring him back to Kladuu.”

  Silence stretched between them.

  Then Kinyi threw her head back and laughed so hard she had to clutch her stomach. When she was finished, she swiped the tears from her eyes and said, “You’re insane. The White Horn doesn’t exist. He’s a myth. Something told to sparklings to keep them from running off.”

  “He’s not a myth. He can’t be. If war comes to Kladuu, we’ll need the greatest Draqon fighter who has ever lived.”

  Kinyi bit her tongue to hold in the laughter that still threatened to spill out. “Let’s pretend he’s real. According to the legend, he went mad. He shifted too many times without a mate, and he lost his Draqon mind. He’s completely insane in his shifted form. What good is a Draqon like that to us? He’d be just as likely to attack the hive as the humans.”

  “That’s why we need him. We can unleash him on the humans. If we keep our distance, he might give us an advantage.”

  “It sounds like you want to use him like a bomb to drop on the humans.”

  “Whatever wins us this war.”

  “That’s great. I’m g
lad you’re finally getting in touch with your inner murderous warlord, but legend also says he swore to never fight again. To never harm or kill anyone else. That would make him a horrible bomb since bombs are meant to massacre.” Kinyi paused before adding, “Plus, he’s not real. He’s a bedtime story, Zayd.”

  So fast she barely saw the movement, Zayd closed the distance between them. Nose to nose, he growled, “You better hope like hell he’s real.”

  Her heart pounded with the instinct to take him on, to meet anyone who threatened her with equal force. She never backed down, but the look in his eye kept her silent.

  “Because if you don’t find him, this home you’d do anything to save? You won’t be welcomed back.”

  THE END

  I hope you enjoyed Maxsym and Veronica’s story!

  Don’t miss the final book in The Shifters of Kladuu Series THE DRAQON’S HERO, starring Kinyi and the elusive Dragon who has chosen the life of an exile on Earth..

  Coming October 2017

  Don’t miss out on a free download! Join my VIP club now and get THE VILKA’S SECRET, a short story about a lonely Vilkan patrol officer and the geeky, adorable astrophysicist he can’t resist.

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  About the Author

  Pearl Foxx is the author of epic space adventures with steamy romance you will never want to stop reading. Join in the fun at www.PearlFoxx.com.