by Celia Kyle
She knelt on the edge of the bed, a small smile playing on her lips. He could sense that she wanted to explore, but he was afraid to make a move. He understood she was a lot like a wild animal. She was overcoming her nervousness to begin getting used to him, and if he moved too swiftly, she would retreat. Who could tell how long it would take to gain her confidence again if he broke it?
He let her slide across the bed and sat up, careful to keep his hands by his sides. He had taken off his leather straps and katoth pants and now wore a pair of soft wool trousers.
Dawn put her palms on his cheeks, looking into his eyes. She smiled and glanced down, taking in his bare chest. Her hands slid down his neck and onto his shoulders. She slipped her fingers toward his wings but was careful not to touch them.
“May I touch the scales on your back?” she asked quietly.
He shook his head. “Please, leave my wings and scales alone for now. I cannot control myself.”
Dawn nodded with a smile. “This is what we need. Constant communication. Both of us need to know we can say ‘stop’ at any time. I’ll respect your wishes if you respect mine.”
Vende touched her cheek, drawing her gaze to him. His eyes were bright, his touch trying in vain to contain his urgency. “I will never, ever hurt you. My one purpose, now that I have found you, is to protect you. There is no question of respect here. I am not one of your barbarians. Women are to be treasured and revered, not used.” He actually spat the last word, having heard quite enough about the behavior of human men.
Dawn smiled and ran her hands down his arms. She gained confidence every second she kept her palms on him, and through the mystical link between them, he sensed her arousal. As she moved beside him, he could even detect the changes to her scent. The heat from her skin affected him so badly that fighting it made him dizzy.
Dawn looked into his face, concerned. “Are you all right?”
“I must admit I am struggling.”
“Vende, don’t just hold on if you’re uncomfortable. Tell me. Don’t wait for the telepathy to kick in. I don’t want you suffering because of me.”
“I would suffer to my last breath to know you are safe and happy.”
“But you don’t have to, Vende! I don’t want you to suffer at all!”
He sighed, looking away. “I understand what you are saying, and my heart is full of joy to have a mate who cares so much about my welfare. I appreciate it deeply. But my entire existence has been driving toward this day—the day I find my mate. If I must endure something painful to make you happy, I do not call it suffering. I call it duty—one it is my pleasure to perform.”
Dawn’s eyes glittered with tears. They spilled down her cheeks like lines of diamonds. “That’s beautiful, Vende. I think I’ll just stop now. I don’t want to tease you.”
“Teasing is a most delicious torture.” He grinned and she smiled back. With a deep sigh, she lay down on Vende’s soft bed, stretching.
“Do you miss Preor?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Not really. The place has not recovered from the war or the loss of the females. It’s one of the reasons so many of us left. We could not wait to take to the stars to look for potential mates, but those who stayed behind were bound to try and rebuild a dead world.”
“Why is it dead?”
He shrugged. “The planet will survive. The Preor might not. I gave up my home in the hope there might be a mate for me in the stars.” He smiled. “I was right.”
“From what I’ve heard, you guys are still having culture shock?”
“Forgive me, Dawn, but is this like an electric shock?”
“No.” She laughed. “It means our customs are so difficult it causes some real trauma to understand the other side.”
“Oh, yes. Most of us are still unaware of the ways of Earth. I have watched the other couples coming together, and both the human and Preor sides have had serious problems. When the Knowing occurs the Preor males seem to completely change focus. They become… Human, almost.”
“You sound like you disapprove.”
“I did,” Vende admitted. “I could understand the duty to a mate and how it might change a male’s life. But until I experienced for myself, I could not understand how distracting it was.”
Dawn ran a hand lightly over his smooth, warm chest. “Does it bother you?”
He looked into her eyes, shaking his head in amazement.
“I am not what I was, Dawn. I was a solitary male. I have seen plenty of us become violent rogues. The jealousy over seeing others pair up, the burning desire to mate, it led many of us to ruin. I could tell you tales of the last few months and the goings on here that you would not believe.”
“The males here—they can be dangerous?” Alarm filled Dawn.
“We have been trying to explain that to you,” Vende spoke gently.
“I thought all Preor respected females.”
“They do, but some have had the desire to mate overcome their discipline. Jealousy has been a big factor in the incidents that have occurred. I only care for your safety, Dawn. I could not handle it if something happened to you.”
“I understand.” She reached up to touch his cheek. “I couldn’t stand it if something happened to you.”
She put her arms around him and Vende pulled her against his chest. His dragon was protective more than full of lust right now, the open sharing of emotion making him quiet. Vende couldn’t wait to bring out his beast to meet Dawn. He hadn’t flown much since they came here, and he realized this had been a factor in his temper.
It was a surprise to find that he really was not annoyed anymore. The only conflict that existed within him was controlling his desire to mate and claim Dawn physically. Compared to the constant aggravation he had felt before, it was almost sweet.
But not subtle. Even though he was learning to live with his desire, the sensations still ran through his blood with an urgent fire. Vende held his mate gently in his arms, determined to keep his heat from scorching her until she begged him to embrace her with both man and dragon.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Dawn awoke tangled in Vende’s arms. Their bodies weren’t close together, but their limbs were crossed as if they had been dancing in their sleep and she smiled at the image that gave her.
When it came to dancing naked in the sheets, she was certainly thinking about it. Her body throbbed when she was near Vende and she had no control over her reactions to him. She didn’t know if it was normal with a human partner to sexually light up as soon as he was in sight, but from what she had gleaned so far, it was pretty normal with a Preor.
She kept her gaze on Vende for a few minutes, watching him sleep. The thick dark hair fell across his forehead, the bronze of his skin showing his black eyelashes in sharp contrast. His mouth twisted a little in his sleep and he shuffled under the sheets.
His long blue wings were folded at a crazy angle behind him. She was amazed by how flexible they were, that he could lie down and turn over without getting tangled. She wanted to touch them but realized her touching his wings without permission was akin to him plunging a hand between her legs without an invitation.
She shivered, imagining Vende touching her there. She shivered even harder thinking of all the wings she had accidently touched. Preor should wear warning signs on their heads!
If you touch my wings you might as well squeeze my balls! Dawn giggled at her own joke.
She leaned over and brushed back Vende’s hair. He muttered in his sleep and smiled. While she was touching him, she could almost sense his dreams. She saw clouds colored by the dawn and huge rock spires that he flew through. He was content and happy.
Her mind pulsed with information even as she still shook the sleep from her eyes. Waking up back at home, she had often sat on her bed for a good twenty minutes just remembering what she wanted to do that day. Sometimes she wrote lists, but she always lost them or forgot to follow them.
Now random information rose in her
mind unbidden. Small details of the garden nagged at her, demanding immediate attention. She slid out of bed, careful not to wake Vende. In the pile of clothes that had been left for her, she found some thick trousers and sturdy leather boots. It was hot in the garden, so she just put on a light tank top and headed out.
“Dawn,” Penelope snapped the second she breached the doorway. “Where are you going?”
“To the garden,” she answered, wondering if Penelope had been spying on her all this time—or if it could even be called spying when she was technically omnipotent.
“I should teleport you.”
“I do not give you permission to teleport me.”
Penelope made a strange sound, like someone gnashing their teeth together. Dawn felt a sharp stab of uncertainty as she realized she’d heard sighs, snorts, and other quirks that displayed aggravation, yet Penelope didn’t have the physical necessities to make those sounds.
Maybe she records the sounds from elsewhere and plays them at the right times. Dawn thought. That was a frightening idea, that the machine could become so lucid.
“Please allow me to teleport you.”
“No.”
“Didn’t you just have the big talk with Vende?”
“Yes, but I still like to know where I’m going and see sights along the way. You don’t understand what it’s like, Penelope. For all of my previous years I wouldn’t have been able to take two steps on this ship without getting lost. Now I actually remember where to go.” Her voice dropped to a whisper, as if she were ashamed. “I need it.”
Penelope made another horsey sounding sigh. “I suppose I can understand.”
“Like having parts of your Random Access Memory erased,” Dawn put in.
“When you say it like that, it’s fucking terrifying.”
Dawn laughed. “So, we agree, then? What can possibly happen to me if you’re watching my back? You can teleport me out of danger or fetch the others.”
“Yes, but shit has gone down that you wouldn’t believe. People have gotten hurt and I was not fast enough to save them.”
“I promise you’ll be fast enough to save me,” Dawn said brightly. Her old enthusiasm and trust hadn’t changed as she gained her new intelligence. In some ways, they were even stronger.
She set off down the hall, waving and saying good morning to anyone she saw. Many of the Preor warriors were jogging for exercise or hurrying to their duties. No one was mean to her but most of them put in a good effort to ignore her.
Dawn supposed that was better than having them accost her. She was still very naive about the whole sex thing and didn’t really understand how dangerous a situation with an aggressive male could get.
When she reached the garden, it was deserted. She didn’t really understand how the day cycle worked, but she supposed she was in very early. She stopped just inside the door and took a deep breath.
The air was sweet and clean. It was still damp but held the taste of pouring rain instead of thick smog. Just a quick walk through told her the plants were already thriving.
She checked the small hot room and saw the seedlings were better than the day before but still a bit distressed. She cut a few vents in the clear plastic tent, releasing some of the heat, and the plants relaxed immediately. She patted the soil as she moved through the racks, thinking about fertilizer. She would contact her father to organize it.
She moved back out to the worktables. She would try and finish all the surgery and intensive care this morning so she could take a walk in the rainforest this afternoon. It was important to go through the whole place to see that everything thrived, but she considered it to be more for pleasure than work.
Over at the worktables someone had brought in some lab equipment. She didn’t bother with it, knowing she struggled with the analysis part of horticulture. She worked on pruning plants and turning soil, getting through most of the ailing plants before the others arrived.
“Good morning, Dawn.” Grace came straight over to Dawn’s table, watching her activities with interest. “Why do you clip it there?” Grace asked, pointing to where Dawn had her shears near the plant’s stalk. “I thought you cut off the yellow part, but you’re in the healthy part, aren’t you?”
Dawn smiled. “If you cut the yellow part without taking about an inch of good stem, you leave the toxin in the plant’s system. It’s better to cut back too much and have the rest of the plant strong than to leave parts that are doing it damage.”
“This is why we need you, Dawn.” Carla had taken a spot next to Dawn and watched carefully to make sure she followed Dawn’s movements.
“Would you come and take a look at the computer files?” Grace interrupted. “If you can help us extract compounds, we can get started producing medicine straight away.”
Dawn frowned. “I always crash land in my brain when I have to do the science stuff.” Even though her mind had been showing her some incredible things, she still lacked confidence in the one area she had always wanted to focus on.
“Just take a look. Please? I know you can help.”
Dawn agreed, only a little reluctantly. She was interested to see if she could understand the science much better, but she was afraid to fail.
Grace booted up the computer and went into the files. She brought up a few separate documents and had Dawn sit to look at them. Dawn sat in front of the lists of letters and numerals that coincided with the periodic table and understood them, even if there were markers for Preor chemicals she didn’t recognize. Her mind practically filled in the information for her. She scrolled down and found an intricate diagram of the molecules and how they fitted together. In this form, she recognized it instantly.
“You need a couple of Earth plants for this one,” she said, without thinking. “And the Preor one with white flowers. He’s really little with thin leaves. He’s next to the tree that sounds like a sycamore.”
“Sounds like?” Grace echoed. Dawn didn’t look up.
“Well, it’s a similar accent.” Dawn continued working through the molecule without noticing Grace’s surprise.
“Dawn, if I give you the basic maps we have and what I need to make them, can you tell me what molecules are missing and where to find them?”
Dawn felt confidence surge in her breast. This was what she had always wanted to do! She looked up at Grace, grinning like a fool.
“Yes, Grace,” she said firmly. “I can.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Vende
Vende came out of sleep slowly, his dream falling away as focused on his senses. It had been a long time since he’d woken naturally, as his career had him leaping out of bed first thing in the morning—every morning. A smile tugging at his lips, he reached for his mate. This was what he had to look forward to for the rest of his life. Waking with Dawn, touching her, watching her, eating breakfast with her…
Except, his fingers brushed the sheets and didn’t run into anything—namely, his mate! He sat up in alarm.
Okay, this is what I’ll be looking forward to, apparently! A mate who gets up earlier than me!
He rolled out of bed, struggling to control his panic. When he bent over to reach for his katoth pants, he slid the wool ones down at the wrong time and tripped over them, almost falling on his face in a pile of twisted fabric and limbs.
He now felt bad he had ever judged his fellow warriors for their behavior. Barely a day had gone by and he couldn’t even manage to change his own stars-damned pants!
As he crossed the leather straps over his chest, he called out to Penelope.
“Yes, Vende?”
“Where is she?”
“Who?”
“Do not do this.”
Penelope laughed. “Sorry, Vende. But if you aren’t going to trip over common slang terms any longer, I have to make my fun somehow.”
“Please, Penelope. My dragon would think nothing of tearing you a new docking bay by flying straight through a wall.”
“Ouch! Seriously, Vende
, what a thing to say!”
Vende covered his eyes and shook his head.
Thankfully, Penelope cut in, quickly putting him out of his misery. “She’s in the garden, Vende. Oh wait. Check that. She’s headed to the kitchens.”
“Wonderful,” Vende breathed a sigh of relief. “She must have started early and now she is going for breakfast. I can join her. We will have to talk about her running off while I slumber.”
“You’re just embarrassed your mate thinks you’re a late sleeper.”
Vend laughed. “I guess she is a bad influence on me.”
Penelope laughed too. “I don’t know if I can take this, Vende. I’m going to have to find another dragon to make fun of.”
“Quite a few have barely even seen the humans,” he said. “Some work deep in the ship. They may have come out a bit for choosings, but mostly they have not had a chance to soak up the culture.”
“I shall start looking closely at all of them,” Penelope said sagely. “In the meantime, would you like to be transported?”
“Yes, please, Penelope. The kitchens.”
“I’m still having trouble with you talking to me nicely.” Penelope sounded wary of him. He could not blame her. He had exchanged many angry words with her in the past.
“Oh, of course.” Vende grinned. “Will you transport me to the kitchens now, you fickle bitch.”
Penelope laughed, the feedback sounding like clanging tin cans. “That’s more like it!”
When he appeared in the hall, he checked the main dining areas and did not find her. Since it was a place for soldiers, he was not concerned and headed up to the rec room. A couple of the women were there, but no Dawn. Frowning, he walked down the hall. He checked the fireproof room, but the twins weren’t present yet.
Attempting not to panic over losing his mate, he addressed Penelope again. “Where is she? Didn’t you transport me to where she was?”
