by Amanda Milo
“In damned ropes, more like it,” one of his women mutters behind him.
His grin flashes for us to see, but his voice sounds dangerously low and full of warning when he responds without glancing back, “I told you what would happen if you spoke without permission.”
The woman’s eyes flash like a scorpion—all sting and killer glare—but the woman’s scent thickens with arousal.
Nalle shudders, making her brother chuckle and pull her to his chest for a quick hug. Then he releases her and looks to me. “So. You say you’re Nalle’s… man.”
“I am,” I say firmly. My gaze is locked with his.
“He’s a dragon,” Nalle shares.
“I gathered that from the scales,” her brother says. To me, he levels a dead-serious look. “You’ll treat her well?”
A woman who’s plucking at the knot situated between her forearms mutters, “Like you’re one to talk, you sadist—”
Nalle’s brother clucks his tongue and wags his finger at her, making her drop the knot and hiss.
“You don’t seem surprised that a dragon can turn into a man,” Nalle informs her sibling.
“That’s because I’m not.” He gestures to his harem. “My ladies are full of stories.”
“You don’t even look surprised that I’m mated to a dragon,” Nalle continues.
Her sibling winces. “I’ve kind of got a lot going on right now, Nalle. And a lot of those things are tied up at the moment.”
His women grumble, making him stifle a grin.
“Aren’t you…” Nalle starts before she stops and shakes herself as if chilly water has spilled down her neck. “How long do you think you can service this many women all by yourself?”
Her brother scratches his puffed chest. “I manage them rather well, believe me.”
“Arrogant dick,” one woman behind him mutters.
His head whips around. “What was that? Maybe we need to put that mouth to good use.”
Nalle shudders beside me again, and I wonder why.
Then she’s straightening and seems to be coming to terms with something. “So… we’re leaving you here?”
Her brother smiles gently at her. “This is where I want to be.”
***
After Nalle exchanges hugs with her sibling, with her looking as if she’s still half stunned, we leave the Qippik tribe, walking past their silent huts on our way to the plains where I’ll shift and fly us out. I don’t tell Nalle, but I spent a considerable amount of attention on the rope configurations I spied among her brother’s harem. I like how quiet this kept his females as they busily tried to pluck themselves free, and I think Nalle’s clanswomen could benefit from being tied up too. I’ll be sure to tell my brothers this when I lead them to our camp.
I feel no guilt at the idea of feeding my brothers to Nalle’s clan. I’m looking forward to it. “Your sibling looks well,” I say to my mate.
“I guess he is.”
“He seems happy.”
“He looks it,” she mutters.
I catch her by the chin, tilting her face up to peer down into her eyes. “Why aren’t you pleased? You worried for your brother’s safekeeping. Now you’ve seen he is fine. Explain your emotions to me.”
“I…” she huffs. “I can’t. I don’t even understand what I’m feeling. I can hardly break it down for you.”
“Try.”
“I guess… this whole time, it’s felt like an enemy took him away. They did. And I’ve missed him. And I was worried for him, and I thought when I got him back that we’d go right back to where we were, being a family again.”
I shift to my dragon form and sweep my tail around her. “And now he’s claimed a new family for himself.”
Nalle sighs sadly, nodding.
I nuzzle her jaw with care. “You have me now, and I vow to you I’m worth a dozen brothers. Perhaps two dozen. Maybe more.”
She snorts against my teeth, which are right at her face-level. “Speaking from experience, are you?”
“I am,” I confirm, nibbling on her shoulder, getting hairs in my mouth from whatever creature’s pelt keeps her shoulders warm. “I’d trade every one of my siblings for you, no hesitation. No quibbling. In fact, I’d like to bring them to your clan sisters.”
Nalle draws back enough to stare up into my eye. “You’re going to gift my tribe with your brothers?”
One side of my scaly mouth slowly curls up. High up. “Would you like to help me capture them?”
CHAPTER 15
Nalle
We capture two of Halki’s brothers relatively easily because Halki doesn’t tell them where we’re going. Tamworth and Danelagh follow us out of curiosity because here their brother shows up to their mountain, mated to a human of all things, and he tells them they are needed.
I think we should tell them what they’re in for, but Halki keeps covering my face with his oversized fingers every time I try. Bizarrely, he asks his siblings if they remember how they taught him to swim and fly. Evidently, Danelagh used to tell him he was ‘refining Halki’s technique’ by tossing him off cliffs and watching him plummet to the ground. Tamworth has a gift for holding his breath long enough to reach great depths of the sea, and when Halki was young, this earlier-hatched brother captured Halki and dragged him underwater with him until Halki learned to dive too. It was that or drown.
The more and more the brothers laugh good-naturedly together over the memories of them torturing Halki as a nestling, the less and less sorry I feel for them about how they’ll be entering into our village blind.
We have to make a stop when we’re gliding out of Flame Pass because the dragons are famished.
Halki sets me down and sits beside me. I fit my hand on his side under his tucked wing, feeling like everything is a little surreal as I stand in a circle of dragons as they discuss luncheon plans.
As they consider various hunting options, my attention leaves them because I feel the bite of pebbles hitting my skin. When I bat at myself and try to pinpoint the source of where the rocks are being thrown from, I find a bachelor herd of satyrs on the opposite side of the pass.
When the otherlanders see that they have my attention, they begin miming lewd gestures to me.
When I don’t react, they begin calling crude and vulgar suggestions.
I tap Halki on his foreleg, and when I have his attention, I point to the beasts. “Did you hear what they told me to do with my mother?”
As one, Halki and his brothers frown and turn their heads in the satyrs’ direction.
“No,” Halki replies. “I did not hear. But you can show me how to tan their hides when I gift them to you.” And just like that, Halki is scaling the cliff, chasing after the satyrs who are scrambling up the side of the mountain.
He dines on goatman haunch and gifts me three satyr pelts. Danelagh and Tamworth happily bring me four more, also filling their bellies with satyr meat. I’m offered some too, but I decline in favor of eating when we get back to the village. I show Halki how to fold the wet pelt sides together and tell him that we’ll need to stop in at the salthouse immediately so that we can treat the skins. It’s relatively cool in the mountains, but it’s still too warm to have any hope of saving pelts without the preserving salt.
When we arrive on the plains, Halki glides skillfully to the ground and his brothers land on either side of us. They stare at my tribesisters who look just as shocked to see three dragons in their midst as they were when Halki first appeared.
Halki calls to them, “These are for you.” And he nudges Tamworth and Danelagh forward with his wings.
My tribe goes wild, rushing us.
Halki’s brothers realize something is very wrong with this. They begin to scramble backwards but Halki’s wings keep them pinned at ground-level long enough for women to surround them. Danelagh squirms out from Halki’s hold and alights on a nearby rooftop, making the entire structure groan, and he coughs out a sound of sheer surprise. “What elven brew have I imbibed that I’m seeing
this?”
“It’s like being swarmed by lunatic rabbits!” Tamworth shouts, completely circled by women and still trapped under Halki’s crushing wing.
“Speaking of lunatics,” Halki says conversationally, “the red moon is coming. Have either of you selected a mate?”
“No,” Danelagh replies from the roof, curling his tail around himself and extending his neck so that his nose hovers just above my tribesisters who are stretching up to touch his snout. “But I’ve been told we’ll lose our minds with mate fever and we’ll be forced to find a female or else go mad.”
“Perhaps you’ll find a mate among this lot of lovely females.” Halki’s wings shrug—which gives his trapped brother the opportunity to shrug out from under his pinning. Tamworth slides out and shoots into the sky, leaping onto the same roof that Danelagh is already perched on.
The roof caves in and the dragons crash to the ground.
They get swarmed.
When Danelagh (the brother who taught Halki to fly) leaps ahead of the throng and nearly escapes, Halki catches him by the back of the neck like a mother cat holds her kitten, and he tosses him back to my tribesisters. Halki smiles as he calls, “Danelagh, I think you’re really getting the hang of this!”
...Which is apparently what Danelagh would tell Halki when he managed to return to the top of the mountain, shaking with exhaustion and shock after being tossed off the cliff for the first time that day.
I sort of want to stay and watch how their arrival plays out, but I’m feeling a little raw from the loss of my own brother. Because although Jöran did appear perfectly happy and he definitely appeared to be in control, not having my little brother in my life is going to take some getting used to. I trudge for the salthouse.
Halki falls into step beside me, and he seems to sense my mood because he nudges me more gently than ever with his big snout. “What ails you, drhema?”
“I’m going to miss Jöran,” I admit, my throat tight. “Until he was taken, I’ve been with him every day of his life,” I tell Halki, having to raise my voice slightly to be heard over dragon’s curses and my tribesisters’ excited shouts. Geese honk, sheep cry out in alarm as one of Halki’s brothers breaks from the pack of women and busts through a pasture gate. He’s attempting to find a wide enough space to extend his wings enough that he can fly, but my tribe latches onto him until he resembles a honeycomb swarmed by bees. Halki keeps his eyes on me, and I continue, “And now I’ll never see him.”
“That’s not true. I can fly you for visits as often as you like.”
I sigh unhappily. “Thank you. If the fall harvest is good, we might travel that way to see what his tribe has to trade from their harvest and visit with him then too. But it won’t be the same. Like you pointed out, he’s got a whole new family, Halki. He doesn’t need me anymore.”
“Ah,” my dragon says, and his wings come around me. Oddly, they’re thin enough for the sun’s light to pass through them, turning the black surfaces to a nearly transparent pink, yet they’re an effective enough barrier against noise that the sounds of two panicked dragons being pursued through our settlement barely register. “This, my tenderhearted female, is the nature of family relationships. Your brother is grown and needs you no longer. He’ll still love you though. And now you have me, Nalle, and I need you. Forevermore, I’ll need you. You can believe that.”
I gaze up at him, hearing the seriousness in his voice. And I know that we haven’t known each other long enough for the feelings between us to make sense, but Halki isn’t alone in this: I feel as if I need him just as much. I only just met him but if he disappeared today, I’d be devastated.
I place my hand on his nose, my thumb brushing the part of his nostril where I hooked him. He’s got a little hole in the thin scale. “I’m glad I have you, Halki.”
His eyes glitter like green gems. “You do have me,” he confirms. “And when you’re ready, I’ll demonstrate how much I’m yours.”
I go still, thinking of his naked human form, with all of his glorious muscledness, scales and all. My eyes squarely meet his. “I think I’m ready.”
Halki’s eyes widen. “Are you certain? What of your duties and chores?”
I shake my head. “You’re right. I’m not thinking clearly.” I glance back up at him. “But tonight then.” I’m certain I’ll crash like a felled log after I’m treated to all of him, but there’s no way I could hope to sleep tonight otherwise. My head is too full. “Honestly? I’d like you to distract me,” I tell him.
My dragon purrs, the sound vibrating the air between us, sinking into me in rapid waves. “I will ever so happily oblige your wish.” His teeth flash bright white against the backdrop of his dark scales. “I’m relieved at your timing. The blood moon’s fever is going to have me crazed for you. Soon, I won’t be able to think of anything but being inside your body.”
I lick my lips, holding his gaze. “I’d like to get lost in that fever with you. Take my mind off of other things right now.”
Heat flares in his startlingly green eyes. “My poor female.” He shifts into a man and takes my hand. “Come, my mate. Let’s salt our skins and spend quality time together in private.”
I grin at how strange that statement sounds, but I reach into the salthouse and retrieve a bucket—which Halki insists on hauling back to the lodgehouse. “It is pretty loud out here, hard to clear a mind and concentrate,” I agree, and we both ignore the pair of dragons hollering Halki’s name like they’re cursing it. “But shouldn’t we help them before we go?”
“Who? My siblings?” Halki scoffs. “They produce the same fires that I do. If they wanted to escape your clanswomen, they easily could. Are you hungry?”
I gape at him. “You polished off a band of satyrs all of a sunspan ago. Are you serious?”
“You she-beasts stay back!” one of his brothers yells. We both ignore him.
Halki frowns. “That was half the sky from here. And besides, you didn’t eat anything. Let’s feed you and then I’ll clean up your leftovers.”
CHAPTER 16
Nalle
I’m a little alarmed at how much Halki needs to eat. He found a pack of scrub jackals stalking our sheep and he ate those while I prepared roasted chicken for me. And as he promised, he ate my leftovers, acting like he wasn’t already too full.
How will our tribe support three dragons? “Maybe we shouldn’t drag more of your brothers here,” I tell him. If they haven’t already bonded to ladies in my tribe, we should probably let the two we have go.
“Nonsense,” Halki scoffs, using his claws to pick membrane off of his satyr hide as he scrapes and softens it. He’s smoking it with his breath as he tans it. I’ve never seen the process performed in this order before—and never in this way, using your own body’s fire, of course—but if it works, dragons are even more handy to call allies than I could ever have guessed, or hoped for.
I intend to pay attention to his work and offer instruction as needed, but Halki’s arms and shoulders and back are such a distraction that I’m hypnotized every time he so much as twitches. Everything on him flexes and I lose all faculties.
Unbeknownst to either of us, soaring high above the North Plains of Venys, a burning eight-tailed comet sears across the sky, blindingly bright streaks trailing behind it. It’s beautiful, but it comes with a scarlet moon, the red moon of legend, and it sparks the dragon’s mating fever.
CHAPTER 17
HALKI
Energy sizzles over me and sparks fire in my veins.
The club between my legs swells and tents the loincloth that Nalle insisted I wear for reasons understood only by her; it isn’t as if this ridiculous scrap of fabric preserves my modesty, not with my hind cheeks covered more by suggestion than fabric.
As for the front of me, my instant erection makes a mockery of the covering, looking more obscene as it juts the fabric up and pulses in time to my thudding heart.
A wave of heat washes over me, making me want to turn, catc
h up Nalle, and seat her on my pounding staff.
Mating fever. This has to be mating fever. The red moon’s effects must truly have begun.
I stay facing my work. With deliberate movements, I fold the wet sides of satyr hide together and lean over to sink my hands into the wash basin beside me where I scour myself all the way up to my elbows.
From the corner of my eye, I watch Nalle bring a hand to her heated-looking cheeks. Then she’s running her touch to her neck, as if it too is hot. She glances at me, her lips parting, her eyes glued to my profile, and soon she begins to fan her face.
Ahhh, drhema, do you burn in the fever too?
If I’m not mistaken, her thighs clench. I wonder if she aches for me as I’m aching for her. My flesh throbs, and with a panted breath, I turn to look at her and find her ogling the vicinity of my hips.
Her scent carries to me then. It’s bright and molten hot with desire.
Pleasure punches my system. My mate wants me—she’s affected, just as I am.
This is also cause for concern because the fever will keep us breeding, even when our bodies might need other things. Such as sustenance. And while I’ve been driven to eat a little extra every meal, I’m not certain if Nalle has shared this drive. The good news is, a human body can go a month without food as long as she has access to salt and water.
I glance down at the salthouse bucket next to my satyr skins. Beside them are a dozen waterskins.
I smile. We’ll be fine.
I turn and begin to stalk my mate.
CHAPTER 18
HALKI
Being that my mate has a penchant for making me chase her, driving her to run from me should feel like nothing new. But it takes my interest and boils it, turning my hunger for her body into a beast. When I growl and pivot to shadow her, it makes my pulse hammer and her breeding scent intensify.
My body responds, answering to her call of need. I thicken even more, and my rod begins to hurt, I want her so fiercely.
