by Abel, Regine
As if sensing my intense scrutiny, Tabitha stirred. Her arms tightened around me, and she gently rubbed her cheek against the scales of my chest. A wistful smile stretched her lips before she sighed with contentment. Whatever dream she was emerging from must have been quite delightful. I wanted to believe I prominently featured in it.
My Queen’s eyelids fluttered, and she suddenly stilled as awareness of her current position sank in. Tabitha’s eyes jerked open, the deep blue sapphire of her irises almost eclipsed by her dilated pupils in the semi-darkness of the room. I didn’t quite know what reaction I’d expected from her, but my hearts soared when she didn’t try to pull away in that nervous ‘oh shit’ way people often did when finding themselves in an awkward position.
Tabitha awakening in my arms was the right order of things.
“Welcome back,” she said in a soft, slightly raspy voice.
“Thank you for bringing me back,” I said, turning to the side, making her lie on her back. Once again, I rejoiced at finding her so compliant.
From the first time I’d laid eyes upon her and realized she was my soulmate, I’d often feared she’d be repulsed by my Kryptid traits, she who had devoted her life to exterminating them. Moreover, with the beautiful Xian Warriors, who embodied the perfect mixture of our human and dragon heritage, how could any female not find hybrids lacking in comparison? And yet, her face showed no repulsion as she studied my features and no disgust for my multifaceted bug eyes.
A shiver of pleasure ran down my spine as her psychic mind brushed against mine. Her eyes widened, and her lips slightly parted in surprise.
“You’re whole!” she whispered with awe. “You were so ill yesterday, I expected your rebirth sickness to last at least four or five days.”
“Is that how long it takes your Warriors?” I asked, basking in her admiration.
She scrunched her face, catching the mocking tone in my voice, which I’d made no effort to hide. Tabitha didn’t answer, the expression on her face saying it all. I softly chuckled, nonetheless pleased by her protectiveness of her people… our people.
And yet, I couldn’t help teasing some more. “Weaklings. I guess we Dragons will have to teach them how it’s done.”
My soulmate snorted and rolled her eyes, making me chuckle again.
Leaning sideways, resting on my forearm, I cupped her face with my free hand. Tabitha sobered, and her intense gaze bore into mine as I ran my thumb over her heart-shaped lips. Mouth slightly parted, her breath caught in her throat.
“Thank you for saving me, Tabitha, for taking care of me, and above all, for helping save my family,” I said, this time without any of my usual taunting.
Her throat worked, while a soft, almost timid expression settled on her beautiful, elven face.
“Your mothers are our Vanguard sisters, too,” she explained. “But even had they not been, we’ve sworn to protect those persecuted by the Kryptids. For that alone, we would have done it. And you saved my life. Twice. So, technically, I owe you another save.”
My hearts swelled to bursting at the perfection of my Queen. Tabitha didn’t have dragon blood, and yet, she was fueled by the same bone deep need to protect those who were ours.
“If that means I get to take another ride in your vessel, sign me up. Let’s just try to get Ayana’s assistance for the rebirth part,” I teased.
Her face took on the most adorable guilty expression. “Sorry for that,” she mumbled.
“You never have to apologize to me, Tabitha,” I said seriously. “Least of all for this.”
Leaning forward, I stopped with my lips a hair’s breadth from hers, my stomach knotting with the need to finally claim what was mine, what I’d been aching to taste for nearly two years. Tabitha’s eyes flicked between mine, understanding I awaited her consent, but clearly trying to make up her mind about crossing that line.
And then she did.
Lifting her head slightly, she closed the distance between us, her mouth pressing against mine. Lightning struck at the small of my back, spreading its electric tendrils up my spine and down my legs, while a whirlpool of lava swirled in the pit of my stomach. My hand slipped behind her nape, to both support her and keep her from pulling away.
My body ignited when her hand ran up my side, my scales twitching in response to her burning caress. I had always known intimacy with my soulmate would be a wondrous experience, but I had never expected this whirlwind of emotion. My woman’s lips parted, and our tongues met timidly at first and then more passionately. The divine taste of her made me dizzy like the most potent of nectars. I could drink endlessly from the fountain of her lips until I drowned.
The dull throbbing at the back of my throat as my mating glands began to swell, and my blood rushing to my groin, signaled it was time to pull away. This was all too new to me, and I didn’t trust my self-control. Tabitha’s obvious disappointment when I ended the kiss almost made me throw caution to the wind. And yet, she was also relieved. My mate needed time to process what was happening between us and to assess if she was ready to leave her past behind her to embrace a future with me.
On a high level, I knew of her history with Rage from what intel Silzi had managed to gather when she had infiltrated the Vanguard. The thought she might still be hung up on him made my blood boil with possessive fury.
Dragons didn’t share.
“I need a cold shower,” I said softly, my thumb caressing her cheek in a slow motion.
Her face heated, and I smiled tenderly at her. I leaned down to kiss her forehead before pulling out of her embrace, with much reluctance. The weight of her stare burned holes in my back as I walked into my en suite bathroom. I indeed needed a cold shower to cool the burning hunger in my veins and wash away the traces of the rebirth fever that had tortured my new body in the past twenty-four hours.
I welcomed the bite of the water raining down on me, cooling my blood, sharpening my senses, and making me more aware of my new body. The thick scales forming my natural loin plate parted, freeing my engorged cock from its protective confines. My sigh of relief was short-lived as the cold water made it want to run for cover again. Still, the thought of Tabitha’s hands on me kept me hard as I began to wash myself.
In my thirty-two years of existence, I had never felt sexually drawn to a female until Tabitha—my beautiful Queen. The thought of physical intimacy with another female had quite literally made me nauseous. Dragons only ever mated once and for life. With Xian Warriors having barely 20% of Gomenzi Dragon spliced into their DNA, they were able to enjoyably fraternize with consenting females that appealed to them. With our 40% Dragon DNA, we couldn’t.
Had we not managed to free our mothers and siblings when we did, I would have been forced to submit to Khutu’s plan of having me mate with Shuria to prevent him from punishing them for my disobedience. Technically, I would have been able to complete the task, but I couldn’t begin to imagine how excruciating it would have been. Merely thinking about it succeeded in deflating my lingering arousal that the cold shower had failed to achieve.
Shuria and the other Mimics were a major headache I didn’t quite know how to solve. They were my people now: more of my sire’s sick experiments. Seeing her fight had proven she was still inexperienced with the powers of species she could currently shift into. But she and her sisters would learn fast. If nothing else, this encounter with my Queen would have taught Shuria what to work on for the next battle.
Shaking these disturbing thoughts from my mind, I quickly dried myself off then walked back into the bedroom, still naked. My stomach rumbled at the mouth-watering scent of roasted meats, fresh breads, and a steaming broth which Tabitha was laying down on the round breakfast table in my room.
“Good,” she said turning around to watch my approach. “Someone’s hungry. I figured you’d want to feed that new body of yours.”
I loved the possessive and lustful way her gaze roamed over me before she managed to school her features. To think I had feared she
might not be physically drawn to me.
Casting a glance at myself, I smiled in self-derision. “New and pretty. So much for my battle scars.”
“Oh God! You sound just like Doom,” Tabitha exclaimed, rolling her eyes. She smiled mockingly at my confused expression. “Doom—Raven’s father—is nearly unkillable. He holds a pretty much unbeatable streak of battles survived in the same Shell and takes great pride in his collection of battle scars. He particularly enjoys calling the other Warriors ‘pretty’ because of the flawless new bodies they regularly end up in. It’s essentially a diss about them being squishy.”
I snorted, instantly liking the man. “Truth be told, I do the same to my brothers,” I confessed without the slightest shame or remorse.
Despite the hunger pangs twisting my hollow stomach, I couldn’t resist the appeal of my female standing next to the table. I marched straight up to Tabitha. Surprised, she instinctively backed away as I continued to advance on her until her back was pressed against the wall.
“Bane…” she whispered, her beautiful blue eyes darkening.
I swallowed whatever she had wanted to say in a greedy kiss. Despite her initial attempt at protesting, her lips immediately parted to welcome my invading tongue. One hand fisting her short hair—much too short for a proper grip—I tilted her head to the side to deepen the kiss. As I was slipping my other arm around her waist to draw her closer against me, Tabitha’s soft hands caressed my back from the bottom up before clawing their way back down.
A bolt of lust exploded in my nether region, and I hissed with pleasure. Grabbing both of her arms, I pulled them away from me and with one hand, pinned both Tabitha’s wrists to the wall above her head. My fist tightened around her hair, yanking it back to expose her slender throat as my double-fangs descended. My mouth watered as I sucked on the tender flesh in the crook of her neck before grazing my fangs over it.
Tabitha breathed heavily through her open mouth, the scent of her arousal, fear, and excitement all mingling in a potent aroma that had my abdominal muscles clenching spasmodically with the need to claim her. I rubbed the scales of my forehead against the line of her shoulder before pressing my lips to her ear.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me, my Queen?” I asked in a growling voice.
Tabitha didn’t answer. My woman cast a sideways glance towards me, clearly torn between her desire for me to unleash the dragon, and the rational part of her saying she needed more time to come to terms with the inevitable. Leaning my forehead against hers, I swallowed hard to lessen the pressure of my swollen mating glands. Even as I battled to regain control of my raging hormones, my fangs refused to recede. After a few moments, I crushed Tabitha’s lips with a final brutal kiss, mouth closed so she wouldn’t risk cutting herself on my fangs—which would complicate things for both of us. I then released her wrists and took a couple of steps back.
Tabitha slowly lowered her arms and hugged her midsection, not with distress, weakness, or dismay, but with the calm dignity of a fierce woman who knew well the power she held over her man. She was stunning with her darkened blue eyes, her cheeks slightly flushed, her lips swollen by my kisses, and her hair disheveled by the possessive way I’d gripped it. How breathtaking she would look in my bed after we’d bonded, body and soul.
“If you’re done distracting your man, you should feed him,” I said in my usual taunting voice to chase any further naughty thoughts from my far too willing mind.
She snorted and raised a defiant eyebrow. “I’ve already fetched food for both of us. If you’re hungry, go put on some pants and then help yourself. Manners dictate you don’t sit bare-assed at the table.”
It was my turn to snort as I glanced at my naked body, then back up at her. “Your will,” I said with a conceding bow of the head.
I quickly slipped some clothes on then joined her at the table where she’d already taken her place. My stomach roared with hunger at the display of food she’d already started piling up on my plate, despite telling me to do it myself. The nurturing protector in her couldn’t help it.
My perfect Queen…
I settled at the table, moved more than I would ever admit by the domestic simplicity of breaking bread with my mate. Without flat out saying it, we implicitly agreed to keep on non-Kryptid subjects during our meal. Avoiding sensitive details, Tabitha gave me a glimpse of life on Khepri, her reasons for joining the Vanguard, and random tidbits about herself and her family, including a most unexpected passion for glassblowing.
Answering my woman’s questions about my drawings didn’t embarrass me, let alone the fact that she’s been the subject of so many of them. She was my soulmate. Before, when there had been no hope of a future between us, I had kept silent. But now that we actually had a chance, I would not let it pass without fighting for her and making sure Tabitha knew where I stood. There would be no lame misunderstandings or missed opportunities due to lack of communication.
Tabitha had awakened a sleeping dragon who had no intention of letting her go.
* * *
The two days it took us to reach Arkonia flew by too fast, with too much of it eaten up by duty—both hers and mine—instead of us devoting time to strengthening the blossoming bond between us. With no spare room on my chaser, Tabitha had not balked at sleeping in my bed. It had been the sweetest torture. But now, the real possibility she might want to reclaim her privacy had both my hearts constricting painfully.
As soon as we stepped onto the ramp leading down to the landing pad, the high-pitched voice of my brother Arrow—my mother’s youngest living child—shouted my name. He broke rank from all my siblings and extended family of former experiments to run towards me. His small feet pounding the reddish-brown packed dirt of the ground lifted moments later as he extruded his translucent wings to fly to me. Viper called out his name, but there was never any reasoning with Arrow where I was concerned.
He all but crashed into me as I reached the bottom of the ramp. His tiny arms wrapping fiercely around my neck, Arrow pressed his cheek against mine, his young body trembling in my embrace.
“They said you died without a Shell,” Arrow said with a shaky voice. “I thought you were gone forever.”
“But I’m not. I’m here, safe and sound,” I said, forcing him to pull back enough so that he could look at me, then gestured at Tabitha with my chin. “See this lovely lady? Her name is Tabitha. She’s a Soulcatcher, like Mother. She saved me, held my soul in her until Rogue could bring me a new Shell.”
Arrow looked at Tabitha with rounded eyes like she was the greatest wonder in the world.
“She’s so beautiful…” he said with a wistful voice. “Like Mommy in the dreams… when we still had them.”
My throat tightened at the memory of our mother’s catatonic state. Arrow, more than any of my other siblings birthed by her, was strongly emotionally dependent. I’d taken him from the breeding ship’s nursery just in time before the General had him put down. He’d been born too scrawny and sickly, as had many of my mother’s offspring in her recent unnaturally extended years of fertility. That he’d not been deformed had spared him from being killed at birth.
Flapping his wings again, he let go of me to hover in front of Tabitha. She stared at Arrow with gentle, yet fascinated eyes.
“Thank you for saving my big brother,” Arrow said before hugging her.
My mate appeared stunned at first, before closing her arms around him, her face melting with maternal-like tenderness. Arrow wrapped his legs around her waist and buried his face in her neck. Tabitha gently caressed his hair, the same golden color as mine, then placed a soft kiss on his temple. Arrow tightened his embrace, and in that instant, I knew he was imagining it was our mother holding him.
My eyes prickled while my chest filled with affection for my mate.
“You have chosen a great Queen for our people. I rejoice at your well-earned happiness,” Reaper mind-spoke to me.
I turned my head to look at him but was moved to
the core by the hundreds of faces of my brothers; the older ones looking at my mate with approval and respect, the younger ones with longing.
“Let her go,” I said softly to Arrow and gave his shoulder a gentle squeeze.
With much reluctance, he released Tabitha and flew backward for a few meters, his eyes locked on her before turning around to rejoin the others.
“I had no idea so many depended on you,” Tabitha telepathically said to me, visibly blown away.
“I am the oldest of seven hundred and eighty-three brothers birthed by fifty-six Soulcatchers over the past thirty-three years,” I said, my gaze roaming over the few hundred of them that had come to greet us. “There are also four hundred and forty-nine males and females of a dozen different species whom we have rescued from the General’s experiments. It is my duty to protect them and give them all a better future than what Khutu had planned for us.”
I looked at the somewhat harsh, rocky terrain that stretched endlessly before us, under the yellowish sky above, then at the inconspicuous cave entrance behind us which led into a massive network of caves of our far-from-completed new home.
“This is Arkonia,” I said to Tabitha, taking her hand and leading her after me. My brothers parted to make a path for us past the entrance of the cave to a vast, open space near the hidden giant doors of the ships’ hangar. My woman seemed stunned that I would stake my claim so publicly but didn’t try to pull away.
A few of my youngest siblings hugged me along the way, the bolder ones stealing a cuddle from my mate who didn’t seem to mind in the least. But once our destination became obvious, many of them made themselves scarce, not wanting to deal with the heartbreak ahead.
“I will give you a tour later. For now, I would like to see my mother.”
