by Cara Bristol
It didn’t matter what had happened to her. She meant nothing to him. He doused the image.
“Not a mate,” the king corrected. “Dragons and humans can’t mate. Humans have no fyre. Taking one as a consort, however, is a different matter.”
“Why me?”
“You’re the one most familiar with humans. You have studied them, and you’re the only member of the royal family to have visited Earth.”
“Because you ordered it,” K’ev said. Fifteen years ago, relations with Earth had been cautiously amicable. He hadn’t wanted to go to Earth at all, and visiting had cemented his unfavorable opinion. With the exception of the little girl, he hadn’t met a single human he’d liked. But, as much as they repelled him, they fascinated him in the way a catastrophe attracted onlookers, so he’d eavesdropped on their electronic signals to learn about their culture. If he’d realized his curiosity would lead to this…
The king grimaced and leaned back in his throne. “I don’t like it any better than you do, but it has been suggested a more intimate, personal relationship between a member of the royal family and a human might foster detente between Draco and Earth and restore an alliance.”
It wasn’t like the king to retreat from a course of action he’d set. After discovering signs of mining operations on Elementa, Draco had severed relations with the blue planet and placed the humans on notice that any further incursion would result in decisive consequences.
“Who suggested it?” K’ev asked, racking his brain to figure out which advisor could have been so bold—and misguided.
“What is done is done.”
“Why seek an alliance at all?” he persisted, trying to wiggle out of the inevitable. “Humans are thieves and liars. You can’t trust anything they say.” It was almost impossible to fool a dragon. Deceit had a strong, distinctive odor. Most humans stank period. Bring one into his private, personal space? He shuddered, and his dragon growled.
“They will not be stealing from us anymore.” His father’s eyes flashed. “I want this matter settled. As much as I personally prefer a decisive outcome, the truth is, war would be a distraction from the critical problem facing us.”
Their home world was dying. Geologists had forecast in a mere thousand years Draco’s molten core would cool beyond an ability to sustain life. Draconians had been searching for a new homeland for eons without success until discovering Elementa a few years ago. Dragons required heat and fire to thrive, and most planets in the habitable zone were too cool. On his tour of Earth during its “hot” season, K’ev had damn near frozen to death.
Elementa was very similar to what Draco used to be, with hundreds of thousands of active volcanos, underground magma pools, and lava rivers winding over the surface. Draconion scientists had been monitoring the planet’s geology to verify its suitability as a replacement homeland.
And then a recent scan detected mining operations.
“You’re certain Earth removed the metals?” Ke’v didn’t doubt it, but he thought he’d better ask.
“Our flag disappeared, and we found one of theirs.”
His dragon roared in outrage. Staking a flag was the first step in galactic protocol to claim ownership of a planet. “Why are they doing this? They can’t inhabit it. Elementa’s atmosphere is toxic to them.”
“Obviously, they desire the precious metals.”
While Elementa’s wealth of natural resources had immense value, nothing mattered more than life. They needed that planet if they were going to survive—which made the change of direction incomprehensible. Dragons didn’t ask or coax, and they never surrendered. While the passage of time had tempered their aggression somewhat, they remained warriors born of the sacred fyre. They fought. They claimed. They took what was rightfully theirs without apology.
They didn’t instigate conflicts, but they finished them the Draconian way.
K’ev disliked humans; his father despised them. Nothing in the ensuing years since K’ev’s visit had given them reason to revise their opinions. Rather than confront directly and honestly, humans lied and sneaked and plotted. They would kill while smiling. They weren’t even intelligent. Technologically, they’d advanced little beyond infancy. If Draco hadn’t pointed out the fold in space giving them a shortcut to the rest of the galaxy, they still would have been wandering around their solar system, searching for life in the rocks on Mars.
“We will try this,” his father said. “The humans have one last chance to repair the broken trust. The president of one of their nations has agreed to send his daughter to become your consort.”
“I doubt they’re doing this to make amends. They have some ulterior motive.”
“Of course they do. As do I. You know the old saying, ‘It is better to have an enemy inside the hall breathing fire out, than outside breathing fire in.’ The president’s daughter is one of his closest advisors. I believe we could use her.”
“Use me, you mean,” he said.
His father’s neck frill flared. “Remember who you’re speaking to. You are my son, the fifth child of my beloved mate, but I am the king, and you serve me. I do not serve you.”
“My apologies, Your Highness.” He bowed his head. No one defied the monarch and lived, which indicated the incongruity of the decision. Draco wasn’t the offender. Earth was. No conciliation on Draco’s part was required. They should swoop in and eliminate the problem.
Big ice-blue eyes. Hair like a flame. That smile. The child, now a woman, would die if Draco took care of the problem the way they should.
“Of course I will do whatever you command.” Why me? Why now? Although five siblings had mated and had produced eighteen granddragons among them, his youngest brother was unmated and had no regular consort, either. And while his oldest brother, T’mar, had taken three dragonesses as concubines, what was one more added to the harem? Why not one of them?
“You are unmated and directionless.” Sometimes K’ev feared his father could read his thoughts. The king had been chosen by the Priestess of the Eternal Fyre. Who knew the power she had conferred upon the monarch when she crowned him? “You lack a consort of any consequence or longevity. Your relationships have been meaningless, short-term dalliances.” His lip curled with disapproval.
In truth, K’ev hadn’t found a dragoness who could hold his attention for long, so until his fyre chose his mate, he wished to remain free to do as he pleased.
“Since the president’s daughter is only a consort, you can still take other concubines,” he said in a softer voice. “The humans will betray their motives soon, and the arrangement will be annulled. Worst-case scenario—it will last only the length of the human life span so you won’t be bound to her forever.”
“How old is she now?” Humans lived to be about eighty, one hundred max.
“Twenty? Thirty?” The king shrugged.
Fifty to sixty years out of eternity amounted to a mere blip until you were the one tied to an unwanted, perfidious, malodorous human. Then it seemed like forever. Two hundred fifteen years old, K’ev would still be young when this ordeal ended, but that afforded little consolation.
Constrained, his dragon roared. The urge to shift burgeoned. Talons extended from his fingertips, and he had to forcibly retract them. His tail twitched with the tension coiling inside. “What happens if I join with this human and then I meet my mate?”
Arising out of affection, friendship, simple lust, or, in this case, an interplanetary treaty, a consort relationship was, at best, a tepid one. But a mating? The red-hot, consuming, possessive bond united two fyres into one flame. If he encountered his mate, all others would cease to exist for him. Nothing was stronger or more revered than a mating bond. If he mated, what would happen to the precious treaty?
“Given how many females you have…sampled without your fyre finding a suitable mate, the likelihood of that happening in the near future is remote, but if it occurred, it would nullify the treaty, and the consort wo
uld return to her planet.”
How many females he’d sampled? Had his father been keeping track? K’ev frowned. There hadn’t been that many.
It was said when a dragon found his mate, a second without her became an eternity. A second with a human would be an eternity. Red hair and bold blue eyes as deep as infinity itself flashed. He blocked the image from his consciousness and focused on his father’s voice.
“In the event of a mating, rightful termination of the consort relationship has been written into the contract. Earth was advised of the possibility—but informed it was highly unlikely.”
“When will this happen?” Maybe he still had time to change his father’s mind, or at least track down the advisor who’d convinced him this was a good idea and singe his neck frill.
“An envoy departs the day after tomorrow to rendezvous with the president’s daughter and escort her to Draco.”
This entire situation had been decided before his summons. He’d never had any say. King K’rah didn’t ask, he commanded. Still, it rankled. K’ev would do anything for Draco, his fellow dragons, and his family, but he wanted to be asked, not commanded.
Showing his true emotions would enrage the monarch who wouldn’t hesitate to have his wings clipped. “Very well.” He bowed his head in gesture of respect and obedience. The thought of consorting with a thieving, smelly human was unbearable.
“I’m glad we were able to reach an understanding. You’re dismissed.”
K’ev pivoted and marched across the stone floor for the exit. Blood heated as he prepared to shift.
“K’ev?”
He halted and turned. Please, no more.
“You never asked her name,” his father said.
“One human is the same as the next.” He stalked out of the rotunda, desperate to be free. As soon as he cleared the wide-spaced pillars supporting the massive stone dome, he shifted. Facial bones took on their inborn triangular shape atop a long neck snaking out of a body that doubled in size then doubled again. Scales hardened. Massive leathery wings unfurled.
Human consort? The enemy? The dragon roared, spitting flames.
He crouched, pushed off with muscular legs and leaped, bringing his wings down to lift himself into the air, rising into a scarlet sky fragrant with smoke and sulfur. Freedom beckoned. He left the royal palace compound, circumvented the Temple of the Eternal Fyre, and headed for open land where mountains still belched fire, and rivers of molten rock flowed.
Swooping low, he flew over Lavos. Only a thin, winding stream remained of the once large and mighty lava river. Draco used to be alive with hundreds of thousands of volcanos, but, over the eons, its core had cooled, magma hardened into rock and soil, and the hazy vog coloring the sky a fiery red at starset dissipated with every solar rotation.
Only a few hundred volcanos remained active, and more went extinct every year. His fyre mourned the loss. His planet was dying.
And he would be shackled to a human.
* * * *
Want to read more? Get the full-length novel, Under Fyre (Alien Dragon Shifters 1), from your preferred online bookseller.
The story blurb:
Betrayed by her people, does she dare trust a dragon?
The alien dragon shifters who discover Earth come in peace—at first. Then, inexplicably, they threaten to attack. In an attempt to show goodwill and appease the dragons, Earth sends a human woman to become a concubine to one of the Draconian king’s sons, Prince K’ev.
K’ev would sooner give up his ability to breathe fire than accept a human, but when he meets Rhianna, sparks fly, and his dragon realizes she’s his mate.
Rhianna falls for the hot-blooded prince, unaware she’s a key link in a desperate scheme to defeat the dragons, a strike that could backfire with devastating consequences. Will she figure out what Earth has planned in time to save her dragon mate? And if she does, will K’ev be able to save her planet from an angry king’s retaliation?
Get your FREE copy of Married to the Cyborg here!
Other Titles by Cara Bristol
Alien Mate series
Alien Mate (Book 1)
Alien Attraction (Book 2)
Alien Intention (Book 3)
Alien Mischief
Dakonian Alien Mail-Order Brides
Intergalactic Dating Agency
Darak
Aton
Caid
Cy-Ops Cyborg Romance series
Stranded with the Cyborg (Book 1)
Married to the Cyborg (Book 1.5)
Mated with the Cyborg (Book 2)
Captured by the Cyborg (Book 3)
Trapped with the Cyborg (Book 4)
Claimed by the Cyborg (Book 5)
Rescued by the Cyborg (Book 5.5)
Hunted by the Cyborg (Book 6)
Breeder sci-fi romance series
Breeder (Book 1)
Terran (Book 2)
Warrior (Book 3)
Other titles
Destiny’s Chance
Goddess’s Curse
Longing
Naughty Words for Nice Writers (A Romance Novel Thesaurus)
Anthologies
Portals
Body Talk
Audiobooks
Stranded with the Cyborg
Mated with the Cyborg
Books in Print
Alien Mate
Captured by the Cyborg
Claimed by the Cyborg
Goddess’s Curse
Naughty Words for Nice Writers
About Cara Bristol
USA Today Bestselling Author Cara Bristol writes character-driven science fiction romance with humor, heart, and heat. She loves introducing new readers to science fiction romance, and likes to say she writes sci-fi for readers who don’t like sci-fi. When she’s not writing (ha ha ha–she’s almost always writing) she enjoys traveling to exotic destinations and chillaxin’ with her favorite reality TV shows. Cara lives in Missouri with her own alpha hero, her husband.
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