by Maia Starr
The next day I was faced with questioning. I was lucky that Jessica had also been there. She gave testimony to the fact that it was self-defense. Even though Haven Brook did not have a justice system, people still wanted to know why one of their own was dead. I could understand that. Everyone understood what had happened and I was not held accountable. Truly, I did not mean to kill him even though I did hit him with such force, throwing him across the room. But I was not aiming for the mantle. It just happened. But I was getting rid of a predator in Haven Brook. Everyone seemed to be glad to know that he was no longer there. If he had done such a thing to Vanessa, then who would be next?
I was glad that he was gone. I did not want him around to terrorize the woman that I loved. Now things could go on as we had planned. I was going to make Vanessa my wife and my queen.
Chapter 25
Dr. Vanessa Lopez
It took me several weeks to feel normal again. It had me shaken up, more than being abducted by a drone and taken to the Clenok cyborgs. This was different. But many weeks passed, and I began to put it behind me. It helped that I had Karik at my side. He was absolutely wonderful. He was everything that I could ever ask for in a partner, even though he was not human. He was the best man that I had ever met.
I was more than happy to marry him. We had decided to get married in Haven Brook. It was my decision. I thought it was important that a marriage between a human and the Veruka was a normal thing. After my wedding, then it would be considered normal. I thought that was very important. Not only would it make me happy, but it would also send a message and set a standard. I liked it.
The day finally came. We got married in the pine forest where we had first made love. It was a simple ceremony, and I had a very simple dress. When you lived in an isolated village, you did not have the luxury of decorations and wedding dresses. But I managed to find a white dress in one of the abandoned homes. I tailored it to fit me. It was actually very beautiful. Karik married me in dragon form. I insisted on it. It is what I wanted.
The entire village of Haven Brook was in attendance. We were married by General Razook in a Veruka ceremony. It wasn't much different than ours except that the wording was different. I liked it. The people of Haven Brook also seemed to like it simply because it was something different.
After the ceremony, we had a large party. Food and drink were still rationed, but music and happiness were not. The Veruka army had also found a forest not too far away that had lots of wild food growing. There was an abandoned farm next to it. But the crops were still growing. With the ships that the Veruka had, it was easier to collect food around the region and bring it back to the village. This made the people very happy. They were getting used to having the weredragons around and all of the privileges that they were bringing with them. Suddenly food didn't seem so scarce.
The feast lasted late into the night. I think it was a much-needed party for the people of Haven Brook. After everything they had been through in the last few months with the cyborg attack, they deserved some happiness and celebration. I was watching the village transform into a different place. It was good. It was very good.
After the feast, Karik picked me up into his arms and together we flew back to our home.
“You are now a queen,” he said to me. The word hit me hard. Never in a million years did I ever think I would be a queen. Especially after the cyborg invasion. Nothing could prepare me for this turn of events.
“I am a queen. It comes with great responsibility. You are a king; you are my king,” I said, kissing him on the cheek.
“Yes, that is true. You are queen of the Veruka. The first human queen that we have ever had. It will be very interesting to bring you home,” he said.
My eyes grew wide. I never thought about the rejection that I might face on his planet. I have been so busy trying to get the humans to like and trust the Veruka that I did not think about it the other way around.
“Shit. Will they hate me? What if they have a mob and take me from you? I don't know what things are like on your planet. I don't know how much power you actually have,” I said playfully but also with a little bit of fear.
"You have nothing to worry about. My word is the law of the land. What I say goes. You are untouchable. Sure, there might be some grievances, but once they find out that humans are the cure to the blackness, they will be very happy that there is a human queen. That only promises that there will be more humans to come.”
“But I hope that you are right,” I said.
“I am always right,” he said.
“Oh, you are so arogant!” I said laughing.
“And you are so beautiful. Let us not talk of things that make you worry. I only want to kiss you and make love to you. This is the first time making love to you as my queen,” he said.
“And this is the first time making love to you as my king,” I said.
He picked me up and carried me to the bed. “Then let's not wait any longer to get started.”
He kissed me. I kissed him back. A queen to a king: an alien weredragon king.
Epilogue
It was six months after the battle with the Clenok cyborgs. It was time to leave. We had only told everyone in the month before. Karik was very adamant about keeping it between us until thirty days before departure. This had given the humans of Haven Brook time to become acquainted with the army and live alongside them. It had given everyone months to recognize our marriage and consider it the new normal.
So when we left, he left the army and Haven Brook with the exception of two ships. One would be our own ship with the crew and guards. The second ship carried the human female volunteers that had offered to go to Tivoso. There were twenty of them. They were all very excited to go. The crew and another squadron of soldiers were on that ship as well. There needed to be at least one ship guarding the king, and now the queen, myself. I was still getting used to the fact that I was a queen. The soldiers called me my queen, and it was very strange to me.
Then we were off into space. I was amazed by what I saw. I was not expecting such beauty. Space was a fantastic place.
“So what do you think? Is it everything you dreamed of?” Karik asked as I stood by the window looking out into the darkness of deep space.
“It is so much more than I ever expected. Thank you for bringing me with you,” I said. I could not describe what I was feeling. I had such happiness inside of me.
“I am glad that you like it. It is a long journey. The view will never get boring,” he said with a wink. And he was right. The week-long journey was full of beautiful views. I saw a nebula. I saw spiral galaxies. I saw stars and other planets. I saw an asteroid shower. There was just so much to see. It was never boring. And of course, we still managed to carry on our activities in space—our bedroom activities, that is.
After a week of travel, we finally arrived on Tivoso. It was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a very foreign-looking planet. But it looked like Earth, only different. They were plants that I have never seen. The sky was blue during the day but with a darker tint of purple to it. Their sun was not as close as the Earth sun. This made it a little cooler on the planet, and I realized this was why the dragons were always burning up. The temperature was much milder. I would get used to it.
But I did love the planet. It was almost as if I was getting Earth returned to me without any high walls that I had to stay in. Here there was no enemy living on the planet. I had freedom. It made me very happy. It was like old times on Earth.
Then the time came for my public appearance one day after landing. By then the news had spread that the king had married a human female. But Karik was smart. He made sure that the news spread that I had cured him of the blackness. So when he finally introduced me from the balconyof his grand palace to those below, everyone cheered. I was happy. I was terrified they would not accept me.
The human program was also going successfully. We told the human females that we needed help nursing those that were weak
back to health. We told them that being in contact with human females only made them stronger. But we still did not tell them everything: not yet. But slowly, one by one, the human females fell in love with a Veruka weredragon that was suffering from the blackness. Of course, they would mate, and suddenly the weredragon was cured. It seems like a miracle to everyone, except for those that knew what was going on.
For six months we lived on the planet of Tivoso. I watched Karik rule with honesty and respect for his Veruka. It was a very attractive thing to watch. While he was running the show, we also were gathering the army. He was going to take five hundred soldiers with him. I learned that this was a very small number considering the army numbered in the millions. Every single weredragon was a trained soldier on this planet. Many of them were excited to get to Earth and meet the human females that were responsible for curing them and causing a great euphoria.
We also were able to make the virus I created stronger using the advanced computer equipment that they had on Tivoso. It was good to be in a technologically advanced environment again. I did not take it for granted. Living on Tivoso was amazing. I did not want to leave, but I knew that Earth needed us. We needed to help those that were still under threat of the Clenok cyborgs, including Haven Brook. There was a long road ahead in defeating the millions of the Clenok cyborg army. But war was never quick. I was glad that I had an alien weredragon king at my side. I could get through anything as long as he was with me and I was with him. It was a match beyond anything we could comprehend. It was magic.
The End
Book #2-Azlo
(Weredragons Of Tivoso.)
By Maia Starr
Chapter 1
General Azlo Bron
“I am counting on you, General Azlo Bron,” King Karik said to me.
“You can count on me, my king,” I said as I stood at attention.
“You, Jex, and Moxor will distribute this virus to the other communities that Vanessa has shown you,” he said.
“Now each of you has chosen a community. But you must be warned; we have not had contact with these isolated human communities for more than a year. We do not know if they are still there, if they have been abandoned, or if they have simply been taken over by the Clenok cyborgs. Go on your mission with caution,” Vanessa said as she pointed at a map rolled out on the table.
“I have chosen the human community of Providence to the north,” I said pointing at the map.
“It is cold there. It is the winter season, and it will be a lot colder there than it is here. Be warned of snowfall and winter storms,” she said.
“I will be cautious. We are dragons; we burn from within. The heat will not bother myself and my army,” I said.
“And I will be departing to Willow Creek to the west,” Jex said.
“I will be departing to Gainesville to the south,” Moxor said.
“Each of you carry many copies of the virus with you. If you come across other communities on your way to your destination, you will hand over the virus. If there are humans in the community that are departing to other communities, give them the virus to take with them. Do whatever you must so that this spreads to all human communities,” King Karik said.
We nodded in agreement and saluted our king.
“Then it is time for you to prepare for your departure, my good Veruka soldiers. Each of you will take a fleet of ships with you as well as two hundred soldiers. Use your resources wisely. I wish to see you all returned to Haven Brook so that one day we can all return to Tivoso together after we have help to humans defeat the Clenok cyborgs,” King Karik said.
“I will return,” I said to the king.
The weredragons at my side agreed with my sentiments.
“Then go prepare. Each of you leave at sunrise tomorrow,” he said.
I saluted the king and his human female, Doctor Vanessa Lopez, and then was on my way to prepare for departure with my fleet of weredragon soldiers.
“Remember: we can't use the long-range communications. The cyborgs will receive them as well,” Jex said to me as we walked toward the Veruka army base camp we had set up inside of Haven Brook, a human community isolated with a large wall around it and an electric fence.
“Yes, we will each be on our own once we are out there,” I said.
“Good luck to you, Azlo,” he said as he grabbed my forearm in a Veruka handshake.
“And to you, Jex,” I said.
The next day I departed the human community with my fleet of ships and two hundred weredragons. We headed north toward the snowy region of what used to be called the United States, before the cyborgs took over.
The cyborgs were called the Clenok. They were ruthless artificial intelligent machines that had one mission: kill all humans. They meant to take over the Earth, and there were billions of them spread out over the planet. The humans built the predecessors of these cyborgs. They had built machines that could run themselves for manufacturing and products, but eventually, the artificial intelligence machines grew smarter and smarter, and before that humans knew they were under attack by these machines, they had created armies of cyborgs.
Now only small isolated communities of humans remained throughout the Earth. We, the Veruka, were glad that the humans still existed. We had come to Earth in order to seek out the human knowledge of medical expertise. Our species had to come down with something we called the blackness. It was a sort of plague that was infecting the male weredragons. We did not know how to cure it, but we thought that the humans might. That is why we came to Earth to help the humans fight the Clenok cyborgs. We needed them to survive because we needed their knowledge. But when we came to Earth, our king stumbled upon something that we were not expecting: he found a cure for the blackness. But it wasn't based on human medical knowledge; it was based on the humans themselves. Our king found that if you mated with a human female, you bonded with them. The human DNA of the female was absorbed by a Veruka male and was then able to heal the body from the blackness plague; we didn't understand why or how. We only knew that mating with human females was the answer. Therefore, we needed as many human females to survive as possible. Our mission went from leaving Tivoso and coming to Earth for medical advice from the humans, to needing the human females to save our species. We were figuring it out along the way, and now the mission was to disperse a computer virus to as many humans as we could. Haven Brook had successfully used it to infect what it was known as a keddle. It was a large machine that controlled a regional army of cyborgs. Once you brought the keddle down with a virus, the cyborgs it controlled would fail. So this was my journey now: my mission spread the computer virus.
So I made my way north looking for the isolated mountain community known as Providence. I only hope that when we arrived, the humans would greet us with acceptance instead of hostility. They did not know that we existed. They had every right to be suspicious of anything that was not human; it was a complicated situation.
Chapter 2
Sergeant Sheila Adams
“Sergeant Adams, you are needed at the gate,” Casper said to me.
"Thank you, Casper. I will be down at the gate as soon as I finish here,” I said.
“But Sergeant Adams, you were also needed to overlook the food rationing warehouse inventory after this,” Chrissy Jones said to me as she came to my side.
I exhaled in frustration. This was what my life had been like since founding the colony of Providence. I seemed to be the only leader in the community of five hundred humans. Yes, I had an extensive military background, and I was a natural leader, but it was very frustrating to have every single person look to you to make sure that the infrastructure was working properly. When it wasn't, they came to me, no matter how much I trained individuals to manage the areas of the community. It seemed that I had all the answers, and I didn't. No one person could be in charge of such massive tasks.
“Yes, I will see to the rationing after I go to the gate. The rationing can wait,” I said to her.
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br /> She rolled her eyes and walked off.
Richard looked at me with sympathy. Then he continued to work on the engine of a generator. “You spread yourself too thin, Sergeant,” he said to me.
“Yes, I know. But if I don't do it no one will,” I said.
“But if you don't take care of yourself, you will get sick, and then where will we be? Chrissy Jones wouldn't be able to wipe her ass without you,” he laughed.
I laughed with him. Richard was an older man in his sixties, and the maintenance man in the community. He always made me laugh and look at things with a lighter tone. It was helpful in my stressful situation.
"Thanks, Richard. What do you think the damage is here?” I asked.