by Maia Starr
"True, but we can never know what another culture is truly thinking. We are outsiders in their land; you cannot forget that as an ambassador representative, daughter,” he said to me in a stern voice, as he always did when trying to let me know that he knew more than I did. It was something he did often, and something that annoyed me greatly.
"And the Drackon?” I said, crossing my arms.
"Oh, yes. Andrene, meet Security Specialist Special Ops Squad Leader Kuvo Bane."
"A Drackon? You hired a Drackon as head of security? Why? What is wrong with our own men and our own guards?” I said confused.
"They can't fly. They can't shift into a strong creature. If it weren't for his flying capabilities, you wouldn't have been rescued so quickly. You should be grateful that I am hiring from other worlds. I only want the best,” my father said to me.
I looked at the tall and strong Drackon who was standing at attention with his wings folded behind his back, listening to everything my father and I said. This must look like a father and daughter spat and ridiculous to him. I knew about the women on his planet of Mooreah and how they never questioned anything and were very obedient and submissive. He probably thought it strange that I was questioning my father's motives and decisions.
"Well, you could have let me know that. I thought I was being abducted by a Drackon and that they were responsible for this chaos outside,” I said to my father.
"I meant to let you know in the briefing this afternoon, but since that obviously had not happened yet, I had to send him for you without formally introducing you first. Now if you will stop giving me these petty questions, I need to get to work; you should too. We will need to send out reports to the Earth Council about this mess. We need emergency services in action to help the wounded. There is much to be done. Stop standing around, daughter,” my father said as he walked away from me.
I sighed, feeling like the little girl in trouble, as I always felt in his presence. I looked at the strong Drackon while he was standing at attention; there was a smirk on his face. I couldn't believe it. The nerve of him! He was laughing at me for being scolded by my father. I wanted to slap that grin off his face, but my father was right: there was much to do and I took my job as ambassador representative very seriously.
I quickly moved to a workstation and began to check on the status of emergency services. In no time at all, I was in full swing, doing my job and doing it well. I had five years of experience working as an ambassador representative but had only been transferred with my father to Africa two years before. This had been my life, traveling the world from one embassy to another since I was a child. Being an only child and having lost my mother at an early age, my father raised me as though I were a government colleague. So it was only natural for me to take a position at the embassy as a representative when I was done with my training.
But now that I was much older, I wanted to live my own life. My father was very oppressive, and his way of showing love wasn't exactly fatherly. I was more like a possession to him than an actual daughter. He had millions stored away in accounts and he managed my finances as well. I was given an allowance of sorts that was part of my wages anyway. It was absolutely ridiculous and no amount of arguing over it let him see that I was a woman that could manage my own finances and live my own life. That was fine when I was eighteen, but now at twenty-five it was damn smothering. I couldn't handle it anymore and I spent the last few months planning my escape from him and saving as much money as possible.
But I never knew if I truly could go through with it. The only way to get out of my father's oppressive control was to disappear from his life altogether. Maybe after a couple of years I would return, and only then would he realize I could survive perfectly on my own. It was either that or get married, and I wasn't about to take a husband to replace my father in a controlling position. I needed my own life and to be myself, to be free to do what I really wanted to do.
That is why I had the suspicion about why he hired a Drackon warrior to be a special guard. Did he mean he hired him to be guard for our family unit? That would not surprise me. We’d had special security guards assigned to my family many times before. My father, as executive ambassador, was a man of great power and wealth, making him a target for terrorists and criminals alike. Therefore we always had our own security detail, but never once was it a Drackon warrior. This was very suspicious and I wondered if my father knew that I had planned to pull away from him. To run away, and that is why he hired this Drackon to keep an eye on me.
I looked over at the Drackon suspiciously. He was now standing in the corner of the room and he was still in dragon form, waiting at attention. He was waiting for any command from my father. Looking at him at almost eight feet tall, without a shirt on and tight pants leaving nothing to the imagination suddenly gave me a stir. It was a reminder that I had not had any romantic companionship since a summer abroad where I had a quick fling with a hot, young Greek fisherman. But that was almost 3 years ago, and I was dying for the embrace of a man. So looking at this Drackon warrior was causing my body to respond in ways that I did not want it to. My eyes moved down his shiny scales on his strong chest and six-pack abs, down to his crotch. There was a large bulge there and my mouth fell open.
"Ahem." The clearing of a throat pulled me out of my gaze. I looked up and into the eyes of the Drackon. His smirk was sideways as he looked at me. I had been caught. I quickly turned back to my screen and began to type. My face flushed red and I was completely embarrassed that he had busted me.
"Kuvo Bane,” I heard my father's voice say. I immediately turned around and saw my father tell him something. Kuvo Bane saluted my father and moved quickly to the exit. Then he was gone.
"Father, what is it?” I asked him as I moved over to his side.
"Emergency assistance needed just outside the gate. Representative Carmichael is in trouble,” he said quickly before moving away from me.
I ran back to my work station and pulled up surveillance from the gates of the embassy. There was still a lot of smoke, but I could see a black car turned over completely. Then I saw it: legs sticking out from under the car. I gasped. Someone must be trapped under the car. Then I saw a shadow on the ground, and soon after, Kuvo Bane was landing near the car. He moved quickly to the person stuck under the car then he put his hands under the car and lifted it just enough so that another person could pull the injured person out from underneath.
"Holy crap,” I whispered to myself as I watched the Drackon warrior complete an unbelievable feat of strength. It was miraculous. It was amazing. It was badass. I could not believe that he was that strong. My body responded again; I felt my nipples grow hard under my black suit. I felt my panties getting wet. What the hell was wrong with me? I must have been very thirsty for sexual contact if watching a Drackon was doing this to me.
But who was he really? What kind of Drackon warrior would leave his own race to come work for a wealthy human like my father? What was he running from? And more importantly, would I still be able to go through with my plans to leave my father’s control with him constantly watching me?
Chapter 2
KUVO BANE
My rise to squad leader of the Drackon battalion on Mooreah was not an easy one. There were lots of missions that went wrong, but yeah, I survived. I was always the one to survive when I saw my brothers fall beside me. It was always a hard thing to face when a squad of twenty special operations Drackon went out into the field of battle for a stealth mission, and only one or two of us came back. I was always one of the two. It made me feel as though fate was on my side, but not in a good way. Fate was making me outlive my comrades, fate was making me watch them suffer before my eyes over and over, mission after mission. Fate was not on my side. It was mocking me. Therefore, I had to get away.
I could not give up my responsibility as a warrior and protector. It was in my blood. It was something that I needed. I could not stay idle for long. Any amount of time that I took off in leisu
re drove me insane. I needed to work. I needed to have a mission. I needed someone to protect. I needed to feel useful and needed. It was just part of who I was as a warrior in the alien race of Drackon. What use what is it to have these abilities to transform into a dragon and use my speed of flying and my extreme strength, without a purpose? It would be abilities wasted. I could not have that.
Yet after years of working on the battalion as the squad leader, I could no longer handle the sight of Drackon warriors falling to their death all around me. I could never help all of them. Even when I managed to drag a few wounded Drackon warriors to safety, only a few of them would make it out alive. It was a cruel time to be on Mooreah. There had been a rising of a radical group known as the purists within the last few months in the outlands, away from the capital city of Cerista. I knew that eventually it would spark into a massive civil war in another year or two. I did not want to be around for it. Perhaps that was cowardly of me, but I knew that I could not handle a battle in which I would have to watch many Drackon warriors die. I had reached my limit on those numbers.
So when my sergeant said he had a special assignment in the private sector on Earth, I took it. I didn't care what it was. All that I wanted was to get as far away from the Drackon race as possible. I took it without knowing exactly what it was, but it did not matter: I would take any assignment to get me out of Mooreah, and to keep me busy.
But I was not expecting to be assigned to such an ungrateful, spoiled brat of a human female. Ambassador Representative Andrene Novan was my main assignment. Her father was a very powerful and wealthy executive ambassador on the Earth Council. He had hired me to guard him and his daughter, with a focus toward guarding his daughter.
At first, it seemed easy enough. These humans were easy to defend against other humans. They were nothing compared to the size and strength of a Drackon army. This would be simple and it would keep me busy. It paid well, and kept me from going crazy from doing nothing. But that was before I met the subject of my assignment.
Ambassador Representative Andrene Novan, was unlike any human female I had ever seen. The moment her father flashed her holographic photo in front of me, I felt a stirring deep within. Her long black hair and big blue eyes pierced my soul. She was beautiful, but after I rescued her, she turned out to be not so beautiful on the inside.
She was brash, aggressive, and she whined a lot. She was not what I was expecting. She was an unbearable pain, and I had only known her for a few minutes. But from the moment I tried to rescue her when she jabbed her elbow into my scales and fought against me, fought against her own rescue, I knew that she was a force that I did not want to deal with. But it was too late, I was already on Earth, and I had already taken the assignment.
So I was glad when her father was utilizing me in the emergency services as well. I was more than happy to help with the rescue at the bombing of the embassy; it was busy work after all. It was busywork that was keeping me away from the prying eyes of Andrene. I caught her looking at me; her gaze landed squarely on my crotch and I knew exactly what she was thinking. She was sizing me up against human males. It was obvious that she was not a friend of the Drackon race. The way she looked at me, it was obvious that she despised the Drackon weredragons. All I could do was smile at her judgmental perusal of my body. The spoiled brat was going to be a pain in my ass. Great.
But something happened when I went out to the embassy gates to lift the car off a government official. I saw something that I was not expecting. I saw weaponry that was unmistakably Drackon. I knew the Partaba sect of humans orchestrated the attack, but why did they have Drackon weaponry? Something was going on here. When I returned to the emergency bunker, I moved immediately to Executive Ambassador Cavell Novan.
"Good work, Kuvo Bane. No one else could lift a car like that in the circumstances out there. You saved his life,” Executive Ambassador Cavell Novan said to me.
"Just doing my job sir,” I said to him. Then I leaned in and quietly said, “I saw something out there. Something I'm not proud of, but I must report.”
"What is it, Kuvo Bane?” he said.
"I saw weaponry that is Drackonian. There is no mistaking blasters like that,” I said to him.
"Where would the Partaba get Drackonian weapons?” he said to me.
"I do not know, sir. I can start looking into it immediately, if you wish,” I said to him.
"Yes, do that,” he said as he moved to the middle of the room and shouted, “Representatives! Gather around! My special guard Kuvo Bane has just informed me that there is Drackonian weaponry on site. As soon as all the wounded have been taken to the hospital, I call a meeting! We must figure this out now and prevent another attack from happening by taking action immediately!”
There was commotion over the room about the news of the Drackon weaponry. I looked over to Andrene; her eyes were narrowed in anger and she was staring directly at me. There was suspicion in her eyes and I knew that she thought I had something to do with the attack. It wouldn't be such a stretch to think that. Suddenly I, a Drackon warrior for hire, show up and then there is an attack with Drackon weaponry. It would make sense. But it would be a lie. But she was looking at me as though she had already made up her mind and in her eyes, I was guilty. I felt myself growing angry, as well as a sudden need to prove her wrong, just for the satisfaction of it. I wanted to shove her suspicion in her face. That would make me feel good.
Hours later, the wounded had been taken care of and the chaos was under control. All Representatives and officials had gone back to their apartments and it was now time for the evening meeting to discuss why Drackon weaponry had been found.
I knocked on the door and Ambassador Andrene Novan opened the door.
"Yes, what is it?” she said with her tone of smugness that I was already getting used to.
"Your father sent me to escort you to the meeting,” I said, looking straight ahead past her while standing at attention.
"I do not need an escort; I will be fine,” she said, turning her back on me.
"I have orders, and I will obey those orders. I suggest you do the same,” I said, finally looking at her directly in the face as she turned around with her mouth open. I knew what she was thinking: how dare I speak to her that way. I could see it all over her face, her spoiled, beautiful face.
"Maybe you didn't hear me. I said I do not need an escort. Please leave. I will go to the meeting on my own,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"No, your two options are to allow me to escort you, or to be thrown over my shoulder. It is your choice. The executive ambassador has given me permission to do so if you put up a fight. Clearly he knows you well,” I said with a smirk.
She huffed in anger and said, “Just a minute while I get my things,” as she stomped away from me. Why did every single action have to be a struggle with her? It was frustrating, and something that I was not used to, especially from a female.
"Fine, I'm ready,” she said as she shoved past me and walked ahead of me. I rolled my eyes, trailing behind her. I knew that she had grown up with security detail, and she knew that security went before the person in order to make sure it was clear. She was walking fast on purpose as her heels clicked in the hallway. She was being defiant and letting me, and everyone, know that she did not need security.
But at least from this angle I got a little treat, I could admire her full hips and ample ass in tight, black pants that were tucked into riding boots. Her black jacket and her black hair up in a bun let me know that at least she was dressed for a possible attack. It was much more sensible than the suit and high-heeled boots she wore earlier in the day. This was an outfit that would keep her camouflaged in the nighttime darkness as well as make her able to run if needed. I joked that it was part of my job to make sure she was sensibly dressed, but really I was just admiring her from behind.
I felt that familiar stirring once more as I looked at her. As she moved in front of me I caught something that I knew I had
caught before when I had carried her to safety, but did not realize it until now. Earlier in the moment of the attack, there was little time for me to think of anything else other than focusing on my mission to get her to safety. But now that she was walking in front of me, I caught her strong scent, trailing off of her body and hitting me in the face. It was thick and alarming to me. Us Drackon were able to pick up this type of scent stronger than humans. This one particular scent was driving me wild.
"Hurry up, will you,” she shouted over her shoulder at me. I restrained myself from throwing her over my shoulder and taking her to the meeting, just to humiliate her. It wasn’t easy to do. I was not used to being spoken to in this way by a female. It was new. It was annoying. It was frustrating, but it was also challenging and stimulating. It was very different from the battlefields of Mooreah and watching my squad die around me. I would take a sassy human female over that scene any day.
