by Abel, Regine
I squirmed on his lap, taken aback by the unexpected topic. As much as I loved his respectful way of formally seeking my consent rather than assuming or imposing, this was also forcing me to face the demons I’d been relegating to the back of my mind whenever they resurfaced.
Palm resting on my nape, Bane gently caressed the side of my neck with his thumb. His right hand, which had been resting on my knee, took one of mine instead.
“No pressure, no expectations, and no demands. I only wish for your company by my side, to be together with you like we have been for the past three days,” Bane said.
I licked my lips nervously and looked at his beautiful face before taking the dive. “I… I’m really drawn to you. You’ve become a bit of an obsession for me since the first time I laid eyes on you, and it terrifies me,” I confessed. “It has been years since a man has affected me as strongly as you do.”
“Since Rage,” Bane said, matter-of-factly. I stiffened and gaped at him. He smiled, squeezed my hand, and gently caressed my knuckles with his thumb. “I do not know the details, only that you were once very close, and then he found his soulmate.”
I swallowed painfully and nodded. “I had convinced myself he was the one. When Violet entered the picture, it quite literally broke me. I swore off any Xian Warrior, any genetically engineered male, and especially those with Gomenzi Dragon DNA,” I added, giving him a sheepish look. “Until you… The way you make me feel… I fear you’ll be able to hurt me even more than Rage did when he answered the true call of his hearts. And yet, I can’t resist my attraction towards you.”
“Nor should you,” Bane said with a tender smile. “Everything will be all right.”
“You don’t know what it’s like,” I said, with a sharp tone, stung by the somewhat dismissive way he was brushing off my misgivings.
“Don’t know what what’s like?” Bane asked, his voice losing all playfulness. “For your hearts to ache for someone who can never be yours? To have her within arm’s reach but pretend that you feel nothing? To watch her walk away, time after time, returning to the better life that you can never give her? To know that in her eyes, you are probably the monster, the enemy? To be haunted day and night by the memory of her face, of her voice? To know that, even now that I’m free at last, I should let her go because she deserves so much better than the abomination I was created to be?”
Bane spoke those last words with something akin to barely repressed rage. My throat was too constricted to speak as I stared at him, mesmerized. When I had touched his psychic mind and held his soul within my vessel, the tender emotions he felt for me had seeped through the bond. But never would I have imagined they had such depth.
“You are my soulmate, Tabitha. You are my Queen. I cannot hurt you that way because there can never be another female for me but you.” His hand fisted the short hair at the back of my head. The lack of grip seemed to frustrate him. A frown crinkled the small dark scales adorning his forehead right below his horn. “You will grow your hair for me,” he snarled before crushing my lips in a passionate kiss.
While our previous kiss had been about comfort and tenderness, this one had me instantly hot and bothered as desire surged within me with violent intensity. His mouth claimed mine with determination, demanding complete submission. It never even crossed my mind to challenge his dominance. Without interrupting the kiss, Bane turned us sideways and tilted me back until I was lying on my back on top of the wondrously soft mattress.
His hands roamed over my body with a possessiveness and boldness that had been absent before. Mine explored his as feverishly, ripping the hem of his shirt from his pants. Coming up for air, Bane paused our kiss only long enough to remove his shirt altogether and toss it to the floor, before diving in again.
I loved the feel of his scales beneath my hands and the gentle way they scraped my palms when I caressed them in the opposite direction. But what I loved even more were Bane’s hands slipping underneath the skirt of my maxi dress, roaming the length of my thighs, all the way up to my waist. Releasing my mouth, his lips kissed and nipped my jawline before latching onto the tender flesh in the crook of my neck and sucking on it.
My core throbbed, aching for his touch. When my legs spread wider with a will of their own, I felt Bane slightly stiffen, his head lifting to look at me. Lips parted, heart racing, I held his unreadable gaze unflinchingly. While he stared at me intently, Bane’s hand on my hip slowly moved towards my sex. My breath caught in my throat with anticipation, and fiery tendrils of desire swirled in the pit of my stomach. A needy moan ripped out of my throat when his hand reached its destination and began rubbing me over my slip. Bane growled his approval and bared his teeth at me. I couldn’t tell if my throaty gasp was provoked by the sight of the vicious pair of double fangs descending, his fingers slipping in my underwear to sink inside me, or both.
“You are mine, Tabitha,” Bane hissed, his voice almost menacing in his possessiveness. “I will hear you scream for me.”
The movement of his hands between my legs accelerated. My nipples hardened as pleasure built inside of me. My stomach quivered and my toes curled as I neared the edge. An air of triumph on his face, Bane continued to stare at me, watching my every response to his touch. My nails dug into his back as lighting suddenly struck me. Back arching off the bed, my legs snapped closed around his hand, but that didn’t stop Bane. As my shout of ecstasy began to fade, he reclaimed my mouth as if to taste its final notes.
Breaking the kiss, he gave me a smug and predatory smile that both made me want to smack him and provoke him to further unleash his beast. But he wasn’t done with me.
“I’m going to make you scream again, my mate. Louder this time.” His commanding voice had my stomach doing somersaults.
A part of me couldn’t wait for him to fully claim me. I already knew that sex with Bane would be wild and raw. My inner walls contracted spasmodically, aching to be filled. But another part of me was on the verge of panic. I didn’t believe myself quite ready to cross that line.
“That’s quite the boast,” I said, wondering why I was provoking him.
“I never say anything that I can’t back up,” he replied with a mischievous smile.
Bane suddenly poked his tongue at me, and my mind went completely blank. Startled by that unusual behavior, my lips parted in shock when it grew a little longer, paused, then grew a bit longer still. My jaw dropped when Bane made it grow past his chin and halfway down his neck.
Retracting it in the blink of an eye, Bane grinned fiendishly before giving me a brutal kiss. “Let’s see how much of me you can handle, my Queen.”
Before I could react, Bane was kneeling on the floor, face buried between my legs that still dangled over the side of the bed. His mouth latched onto my core, too impatient to wait for his hands to finish stripping me of my undies. I cried out, my hands fisting his hair between the half-moon arc of his horn. When his tongue penetrated me, I thought I would die with pleasure. Thin at first, it pushed its way deep inside me before it swelled. As it began to dip in and out of me, I writhed with ecstasy. My body and mind couldn’t seem to process the unusual sensual assault, driving me insane with the most exquisite sensation. The minute Bane pressed his thumb on my clit, I went off like a rocket. My throat stung from my powerful shout.
But my man didn’t relent until he squeezed another orgasm out of me.
Even as I trembled from the spasms of my climax, Bane slowly pulled his tongue out of me, my inner walls contracting around it as if sorry to have to part ways. Through hooded eyes, I watched Bane straighten on his haunches and slowly lick his lips with well-earned pride. He had wrecked me.
To my surprise, he pulled my underwear back up and lowered my skirt before lying next to me again.
“Do you have any idea how beautiful you look right now with your lips swollen from my kisses, and your face flushed from the pleasure I’ve given you?” Bane asked with that same possessive tone, his voice made even deeper by his arousal.
“W-what the heck was that?” I asked, my body still overwhelmed.
“I am a Dragon,” Bane said smugly, as if that explained everything. “And you, my Queen, are—”
Bane suddenly interrupted himself, his face taking that slack expression I’d learned to recognize after years of living among psychics. He frowned as he emerged from whatever telepathic communication he’d just received.
“I am needed,” he said, clearly displeased. “This might take a while so don’t wait up if you are tired. I sleep on the left side.”
I raised an eyebrow at his presumptuous assumption. “I didn’t say I was staying.”
“Then say it,” he deadpanned. “We both know you want to. Plus, how else would I make you scream my name again?”
“You cocky jerk! Maybe I’m the one that will make you scream,” I said, my arousal reawakening.
“You are welcome to do so whenever you wish. I am yours to do with as you please.”
Despite his provocative attitude, the way he said those words made it clear he meant them. And that did crazy things to me.
“Say it,” he insisted.
“Fine, I’ll stay,” I replied with false irritation. Bane’s face closed off, and I realized this was no playing matter to him. That sobered me. Slipping my fingers through the golden curls of his hair, I stared him straight in the eyes. “Yes, Bane, I will share your quarters because whatever this thing is between us, I want to see how far it goes.”
A satisfied smile stretched his sensual lips. “There’s only one way it can go, my mate. I will enjoy convincing you.”
Bane pressed his lips to mine with a brief but passionate kiss before rising to his feet and marching swiftly towards the door. He opened it and paused to look at me over his shoulder.
“You will grow your hair for me.”
He walked out of the room before I could find a perfect snarky remark. Letting my head fall back on the mattress, I stared at the stony surface of the ceiling, my body still thrumming from the vestiges of the climaxes he had given me.
I was in over my head. But hope, not fear dominated my emotions.
I was his Queen.
* * *
I couldn’t tell what time Bane came back. I’d been long asleep by then. Despite his efforts not to wake me, years of training and living dangerously as part of the Raiders division of the Vanguard, survival instincts had taught me to snap to attention the minute someone approached me while in a vulnerable position. No doubt beyond exhausted, Bane had been content to draw me into his embrace before diving into dreamland.
Morning brought a very intense Chaos to Arkonia. With Ayana able to pull his soul into a new Shell from anywhere in the galaxy should he meet an untimely demise, he had come alone. Bane, Dread, Rogue, Reaper, and I greeted him at the landing pad. Ever the protective big brother, Chaos came straight to me and, holding my shoulders, he examined me for any sign of injuries. I had to semi-scold him so he would stop fussing.
Despite being amused by it, the hybrids clearly approved of his protectiveness. It was fascinating watching them and Chaos interact with each other. Their dragon blood created a bond between them that they didn’t quite seem to know how to handle, feeling both wariness and a fraternal attraction.
But it was Chaos’s reaction when we entered the city that turned me upside down. Like me, the hybrids were closely watching him while the lift brought us down into the bowels of the city. Every balcony, terrace, and walkway was crowded by both hybrids and their ‘extended family’ of experiments. Chaos’s lips parted his shock as his gaze roamed over them.
“So many…” Chaos mind-spoke to me.
“Yes. Nearly eight hundred hybrids with half of them teenagers or younger,” I answered. “And that’s excluding the approximately four hundred other experiments that Bane has ‘adopted’ as their people.”
As Chaos was walking past one of the elevated walkways, Arrow pushed through the small group of children gathered there. Chaos lifted his head to look at the little boy who waved at him with a timid smile. The Warrior slowed down and waved back. Arrow’s smile broadened. Within seconds, his translucent wings appeared at his back, and he flapped them to fly above the railing towards Chaos. The adult hybrid with the children made as if to hold him back, but Bane raised a hand in an arresting gesture.
When the boy stopped his approach, hovering a few steps in front of him, Chaos opened his arms in a welcoming gesture. Arrow didn’t hesitate and flew into Chaos’s embrace. He stared at the Warrior with awe, his little hands exploring Chaos’s golden scales, his pointy ears, his forehead devoid of a horn, and his large eyes so different from his.
“You are one of our golden brothers,” Arrow said with his childish voice. “I feel the dragon inside you.”
“I am,” Chaos said, with a paternal voice filled with emotion. “I can feel the dragon inside you, too, little one.”
“He is Elisa Thompson’s youngest boy,” I said telepathically to my Warrior, knowing he wouldn’t have forgotten any of the Soulcatchers who had been abducted over the years.
Arrow smiled, kissed his cheek, and gave Chaos a hug. The Warrior returned the embrace, his head leaning against the boy’s head with an expression akin to pain on his face. Like every Xian Warrior, he had very strong protective and paternal instincts. That this little Dragon was also the son of one of his long-lost sisters only moved him deeper.
My hand slipped into Bane’s who gently squeezed it as a few more children flocked to Chaos. He kissed Arrow’s forehead, right beneath his crescent-moon horn before releasing him to grant some of his attention to the other children curious to touch the scales of a golden warrior.
In that instant, I knew everything would be all right. We were one family.
Chapter 8
Bane
I allowed my young siblings to meet their Xian brother for a while longer before gently, but firmly, shooing them off. The pull of the dragon blood was hard to resist, especially for the fledglings. But Chaos’s instinctive paternal and protective response to my little brothers cemented the fraternal sentiments he and the other Xians always stirred within me.
We finally made our way into the large meeting room, unfinished like everything else in the city. It embarrassed me that we should appear so downtrodden before him. But given our circumstances, we had accomplished miracles. As we settled at the round, dark stone table that occupied the center of the room, I couldn’t help smiling at the way Chaos took in what little decorations it contained, in the same black and gold color scheme as the Vanguard. It shouldn’t surprise him considering they were the colors of the Gomenzi Dragons. Then again, I had been shocked finding out from Silzi that Khepri had been decorated in the same colors we had also instinctively chosen.
“We’ve got quite a mess on our hands,” Chaos said, leaning back in his chair.
“We do,” I replied with my poker face on.
“The Vanguard and the Intergalactic Coalition have received your request for a peace treaty,” Chaos declared with a ‘let’s-not-beat-around-the-bush’ way that I appreciated.
While I kept a neutral expression on my face, my back tensed painfully while awaiting his verdict. If the Coalition rejected our request, my people would struggle and be vulnerable.
“The Coalition isn’t too hot about that idea. They fear you and what you might do should you be allowed on their planets and inside their cities,” Chaos continued.
“Understandable under the circumstances,” I said. “But that is not what we are requesting.”
“No, but we are,” Chaos countered.
Tabitha’s jaw dropped. The faces of Dread, Rogue, and Reaper reflected the same shock I felt. Even my legendary stoicism cracked.
“For whatever reason, Ayana has made it her mission to have all hybrids recognized as formal members of the Coalition, with all the benefits and protection it entails,” Chaos said with fake annoyance.
I snorted, unable to repress the affectionate smile that
discreetly stretched my lips. She had such a beautiful, loving soul. Meeting her had given me the first glimmer of hope that an alliance with the Xian Warriors could be possible. But her genuine concern for my well-being and her saving my brother’s life had further reinforced the strong bond of fraternal affection that had blossomed between us.
“We prefer to be called Dragons,” Rogue said, the slight frown on his baby face making him look more adorable than menacing.
“Dragons, then,” Chaos conceded. “Those of us who fought alongside you on Janaur acknowledge the dragon bond that links us. Without it, things would be far more complicated. But seeing those children only reinforces the conclusion we’ve reached.” He gave the room around us an assessing look before staring back at me. “Under the circumstances, and in light of all the constraints you’ve had to juggle, you have done an amazing job at providing a shelter for your siblings. But we both know it’s not viable in the long-term.”
“Correct,” I admitted, more flattered than I would ever admit by his approval. Even though Chaos was old enough to be my father, in many ways, I perceived him, Legion, and the other first-generation Warriors as the older brothers I’ve never had. “But once we have a truce with the Coalition, we could negotiate permission to migrate to one of the less populated, primitive planets like Mineas or Denaj.”
“Which would take years, with them stalling you at every turn,” Tabitha argued, apologetically. “In the meantime, whether Khutu or Queen Aitxa gets the upper hand, you will be hunted here, and the Coalition will not raise a finger.”
My hearts sank at that comment. I had indeed feared such a possibility. Food and shelter for my people wasn’t the issue. But we didn’t have the resources or the infrastructure to keep up our defenses and repel multiple attacks. Without the protection of an alliance, our days were numbered.
