by Cara Bristol
Under Fyre Prequel
(Alien Dragon Shifters)
Cara Bristol
In Under Fyre (Alien Dragon Shifters 1), dragon shifter aliens threaten to destroy Earth. In an attempt to appease the dragons, Earth sends a human woman to become a concubine to one of the Draconian king’s sons, Prince K’ev.
The Prequel to Under Fyre tells what happened during the friendly early encounters between dragons and humans. On his first diplomatic tour of Earth, young Prince K’ev meets a child, Rhianna Montclair. As an adult, she will become his concubine, his mate, his everything. Both are unaware of how important that first meeting is and how everything soon will change…
Note: The prequel is a 2500-word prologue to the main 60,000-word novel, Under Fyre.
Under Fyre Prequel (Alien Dragon Shifters)
Copyright © March 2019 by Cara Bristol
All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
eISBN : 978-1-947203-08-2
Editor: Kate Richards
Copy Editor: Nanette Sipe
Cover Artist: Sweet ’N Spicy Designs
Formatting by Wizards in Publishing
Published in the United States of America
Cara Bristol
http://www.carabristol.com
This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events or existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Under Fyre Prequel
By Cara Bristol
Behind the stage curtain, K’ev slouched and swished his tail with impatience.
“It won’t be much longer, Prince K’ev,” T’jan murmured.
He just wanted it to be over. Any time spent on this backward, primitive planet was too much, and this place was the worst. The chatter hurt his ears.
Actually, the irritating squawking and screeching reminded him of tanta birds before you swooped in and turned them into lunch. But it was forbidden to hunt or eat humans. They were allies. Pity. And these particular humans were children, students of Parson Middle School.
“We’re going to see real dragons!”
“Do you think they’ll breathe fire?”
His ears picked out individual conversations among the din. His senses were much sharper in full dragon form, but even in the demiforma state, he could smell the excitement, hear the adults urging the young ones to take their seats so the assembly could begin. The school was one of many stops K’ev had had to endure during this diplomatic visit to Earth, ordered by his father, K’rah, king of Draco, and orchestrated by his advisors.
“It’s time for you take more responsibility. I’m sending you to Earth to represent the royal court. The experience will be good for you and will help you grow up before you take the Flight of Fyre,” his father had said.
He should have been purifying himself for the passage into adulthood when male dragons reached their two-hundredth year and could generate fire. Instead, he was stuck on this cold, inhospitable planet occupied by smelly humans. Everything about them stank—their perfumed bodies, their emotions, their buildings and cities, their planet itself. He wasn’t sure what was more odiferous—the earth after a rain or the stench of a wooded forest.
The single, unexpected bright spot of the trip had occurred when the ambassadorial contingent visited a military base on an island chain called Hawaii. The stop had coincided with the unexpected eruption of Mauna Loa. Nearby towns had been evacuated, and everyone advised to stay indoors. Apparently, volcanic gases were toxic to humans. K’ev and the Draconian officials had been asked to remain in their hotel suites as well, revealing how little humans understood dragons. The volcano should have been the first stop on the diplomatic tour.
K’ev had sneaked up onto the hotel roof and shifted into full dragon mode. Following his nose, he’d flown to the volcano. Smoke and ash had belched from the mountain as red-hot lava flowed down the sides and spread out, torching everything in its path. The scorched land reminded him so much of Draco, he’d gotten even more homesick, but he’d enjoyed a wonderful few hours, soaring on the thermals created by the intense heat of the eruption. Alas, that had been one pleasant day of a six-week tour, but the fires and rivers of melted rock had been glorious, the fragrance of char and sulfur a soothing balm and relief from the stench of the rest of the planet and its people.
Humans were awash in the noxious odors of anger, lust, greed, and jealousy. They acted polite, kind, and generous, but beneath outward appearances, emotions seethed. Not that dragons didn’t experience jealousy, anger, or lust, but they were open about their feelings whereas humans concealed them. How could you trust a people of such disingenuousness? K’ev had a hunch if his father had come and gotten a whiff of their dishonesty, he would have reconsidered the alliance.
“All right, boys and girls, I need you to take your seats and be quiet.” The principal’s voice drifted through the curtains. He was the official in charge of the school. “Boys and girls, please.” His tone sounded patient, but the sourness of irritation floated on the air.
K’ev turned to the Draconian ministers. “Tell me again why we’re bothering to come here?”
Embarrassment and consternation wafted off the two ministers as they glanced at the Earth official who’d accompanied them everywhere. Handling him was no simple matter for them since, as a member of the royal family, he outranked them. They couldn’t rebuke him outright—but the whole purpose of their presence was to ensure the visit went smoothly by keeping him in line. Which made him want to step out of line even more.
Before either minister could reply, the Earth official spoke. “Everyone is curious about Draco. Before we ever ventured into space, we wondered if extraterrestrial life existed. We never expected to find dragons.” The misleading implication slipped off his tongue so easily, the untruth hardly reeked at all. Earth hadn’t found the dragons. Just the opposite. If not for the king’s decision to contact Earth, humans would still be wondering if sentient life existed in the cosmos. K’ev thought they ought to be pondering whether intelligent life existed on their planet.
“To meet you is a once-in-a-lifetime educational opportunity for our school children,” the official said. “Your time is valuable and limited, so our middle schools competed for the honor of meeting you. This way, you only have to visit one school and not 98,000.”
“A competition?” K’ev asked, his interest piqued. “Like a fight to the death?”
The official laughed nervously. “An essay contest.”
“Oh,” he said, bored again.
“A fifth grader from this school, Rhianna Montclair, wrote the winning essay. You’ll meet her for a photo op after the assembly.”
“Fine.” He scratched a horn with a clawed fingertip.
“Other children from the school submitted questions. If it pleases you, I hope you will answer some of them?”
“We have them right here.” Minister T’jar held up a primitive Earth tablet device. “We’ll be answering them for the prince.”
K’ev snorted. He’d seen them. Stupid questions.
Can dragons fly? Yes.
Do you really breathe fire? Breathe it? No. Generate it and throw it? Yes.
What do you eat? Hu
mans, when we can get them. That’s what K’ev would have answered, which might account for why he wasn’t allowed to address the questions. Dragons were predators and carnivores; they ate meat. No one had eaten a human as far as he knew, but if they tasted anything like they smelled, they weren’t good anyway.
Do dragons get married? No. Such transient, inconsequential pairings were the purview of humans. Dragons mated for eternity. K’ev would have added they could and did take concubines or consorts for down-and-dirty rough sex, another reason why he wasn’t permitted to answer the questions. Apparently humans considered that kind of honesty inappropriate for schoolchildren.
On the other side of the curtain, the children had gone mostly quiet. K’ev could feel the expectancy rising. He swished his tail. Get on with it, already.
“Three dragons have come to see you today,” the principal was saying. “We’re honored to have His Royal Highness Prince K’ev of planet Draco and two ministers of the royal court, T’jar and D’lok. They are real live dragons who have assumed a humanoid form for this visit to Earth.”
“They’re human?” a little voice piped up. Murmurs of disappointment rippled through the audience.
It had been decided the Draconian envoys would sustain a demiforma state for the duration of the visit. Earth’s structures weren’t set up for dragons in full form. The streets, their buildings, and doorways could not accommodate fire-throwing beings as large as airplanes.
“Not human, humanoid,” said the principal who probably had no idea omnishifter dragons could assume a form indistinguishable from humans—as well as any other being. However, sustaining those alien forms for long periods could be draining and leave a dragon temporarily powerless when he shifted back. The natural and comfortable demiforma, midway between dragon and human, could be maintained almost indefinitely.
“I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when you see them. You’ll notice many physical differences between us and them, which is why I want to assure you you’re safe. Remember, we do not judge people based on their appearance. The Draconians come in peace and friendship, and you don’t need to be alarmed.”
Of course the children were safe. A dragon would never hurt a child, but it was foolishly presumptuous to offer assurances of a situation of which the principal had little knowledge. A single dragon could immolate an entire auditorium of humans in minutes.
The humans were fortunate their planet’s climate was chilly and inhospitable, or they would have discovered dragons weren’t necessarily friendly. The fire within Draco’s core had been dying for eons, necessitating the need for a new homeland. On the quest for another world, Draconian explorers had come across the little blue planet and discovered semi-intelligent life. Third from its sun, Earth was too cold for comfort. Its sister planet Venus, with temps hot enough to melt lead was much more pleasant; however, its dense gravity hindered flying. So, it, too, had been eliminated. Besides, the proximity to Earth and the humans made the neighborhood less than desirable.
“Is everyone ready to meet the dragons?” the principal shouted.
“Yes!” the children yelled.
The Earth official motioned, and K’ev moved to center stage as he’d been instructed. T’jar and D’lok took up their positions, one on each side, slightly behind him in accordance with protocol.
“Please show the dragons a warm Earth welcome!” the principal said, and K’ev snorted. Warm Earth was an oxymoron.
Applause rang out, and the curtain separating K’ev and the advisors from the audience peeled back.
Applause died. Noisy little humans went silent. Then the screams began.
Pandemonium erupted as shrieking children sprang out of their seats and rushed for the exits.
“Children! Children! It’s okay! It’s okay. Please, return to your seats,” the principal yelled as other adults also called for calm. Panicked, the screaming, crying children ignored them and stampeded.
The auditorium flooded with overpowering, sour-smelling terror. When one was vanquishing a foe in battle or hunting prey, fear smelled spicy, appetizing. These little humans did not give off that same scent. It brought no satisfaction to see them run, but made K’ev feel guilty somehow, and he resented it. He hadn’t asked to be here—his father had commanded him.
This cold auditorium reeking of too many humans was the last place he would have chosen to be. He hadn’t booked this stop on the tour. So, why did he feel responsible? It wasn’t his fault his appearance and that of his advisors frightened the little humans. Longingly, he recalled soaring on the thermals generated by the volcano and wished he was back there now. He wished he was home on Draco.
One little boy fell, and two others tripped over him, piling up in the aisle. Adults rushed to pick up the fallen ones before they could be trampled.
Television and Internet drones whirled overhead, dogging the fleeing children and recording their panic. A few robocams spun around to record the dragons on stage.
“Oh my god,” muttered the Earth official. “What a fucking PR nightmare. I knew this was a terrible idea.” He slapped his communication device to his ear and moved farther away from K’ev and the advisors. Turning his back, he spoke into the device. “We’ve got a problem…”
K’ev flicked his tail, lashing in unusual discomfort and guilt. “Was it something I said?” He forced a laugh and, for effect, released a burst of flame, just a little puff. Not until he completed the Flight of Fyre in the temple would he acquire full fire-throwing capability.
“Your Highness!” D’lok rebuked, and, with a shake of his head, motioned to the empty auditorium.
Not empty.
A female child with hair blazing like the ceremonial flame in the Temple of Eternal Fyre remained standing in the front row. Curious pale-blue eyes fixed on him, assessed him in a way humans would not have considered polite, surveying his scaly grayish-green body from his horned head and abbreviated snout, to the tip of his shortened demiforma tail.
All the others had fled. She remained.
His impatient dragon stilled. Watched. Oddly, his dragon urged caution. Don’t scare her.
K’ev vaulted off the stage and landed in front of her.
“Your Highness, I don’t think…” T’jar said.
He ignored him. Next to the volcanos, this little human was the only interesting thing he’d seen on this Fyre-forsaken planet. Nowhere near as large as he would have been in full form, he still stood over seven feet tall. He dwarfed the tiny female, but she peered up at him without a trace of fear, smelling sweetly of curiosity.
“You don’t have wings,” she said. “I thought all dragons had wings.”
His dragon urged him to shift, to show off. “We do in our full form,” he explained.
“I would like to see that,” she said.
“No!” Breaking protocol, both advisors shouted at him. If a demiforma dragon scared the humans, they’d never handle the sight of one shifting into a creature the size of one of their airplanes.
“I guess I’m not supposed to do that.” He winked.
“Do all dragons have yellow eyes?”
“All the ones I know do,” he replied, fascinated by hers, pale like the blue of an ice floe, the round irises so unlike a dragon’s golden eyes bisected by vertical pupils. She was such a bold little thing. All the other children had cleared out. The principal, smelling of worry, creased his sweating forehead into a frown and jogged toward them. “Rhianna! Come now! You must return to your class.” Moments ago, he’d been promising the students they were safe, and now he hurried to cut short the contact like K’ev represented an imminent danger.
He could be a threat. Even in demiforma, he could snap a person in two, char him where he stood. He would never harm Rhianna of the flaming hair and fearless blue gaze. He couldn’t. His dragon hummed with a desire to protect.
As for the irritating bald-headed principal or the Earth official who’d orchestrated this debacle? Well�
�
K’ev sighed. Not them, either. His father would spit fireballs. He didn’t know why the king had opted for diplomacy rather than battle. The old dragon was getting soft in his dotage. Even as he thought it, he knew it wasn’t true. His father’s mettle had been forged by fyre; there was nothing weak or soft about the king.
K’ev studied Rhianna. “You’re not afraid of me.”
“No.”
“You should be. I’m a dragon.” He flashed sharp teeth. “I could eat you,” he joked.
She giggled.
A delicious spicy fear wafted off the principal as he grabbed Rhianna’s arm and pulled her away. “Return to your class now. Your teacher and classmates are waiting for you. School will be ending early today.”
Rhianna peered over her shoulder as the principal dragged her up the aisle. “Bye, Mr. Dragon.” She wiggled her fingers at him before she was shoved out the door.
K’ev leaped onto the stage where the ministers and the human official stood. He folded his arms and surveyed the empty auditorium. “That went well,” he said.
* * * *
Thank you for reading the Prequel to Under Fyre (Alien Dragon Shifters 1). This isn’t the last encounter for K’ev and Rhianna. They meet again fifteen years later. Read on for an excerpt from the main novel, Under Fyre…
* * * *
Under Fyre
Chapter One
“Take a human? As a mate?” K’ev had guessed the news wouldn’t be good when his father, King K’rah, had summoned him, but he hadn’t expected it to be this bad. Humans were so…human.
An image of a fearless child with ice-blue eyes and hair blazing like the sacred flame in the Temple of the Eternal Fyre flickered in his mind’s eye. When other children had fled in terror, she’d held her ground. Due to short lifespans, humans quickly matured into adulthood. The girl child would be a woman now. What would she look like? Did her hair still blaze? Were her eyes still as clear as ice floes? Had she grown into the perfidy so second nature to her race?
