by T. J. Quinn
“Well, forgive me if I’m not thrilled you consider me a walking womb.”
“Our mates are much more than pure wombs, and I am sure you will find out that soon enough, Víf Rosalind,” The King scolded her, in a cold tone. “They are part of us, the other half of our soul.”
“I’m afraid I stopped believing fairy tales a long time ago, but since I doubt my opinion will matter in this case…” she made a small pause, “I really would love to get some rest.”
“I can understand these must have been difficult days for both of you, but I really would appreciate if you would bear with me for a little more time,” The King asked, but Rosalind was smart enough to understand it was an order.
“Of course. What else would you like to know?”
“What did you do, back on your planet?” the King asked, crossing his fingers in front of him, drawing the woman’s attention to his long, black claws.
She dried swallowed. “I used to be Chief Executive Officer for a marketing company.”
“A position of power, I can see.”
“Yes, you could say, I formed the company as soon as I left college, with a friend. She passed away a few months ago, and I decided to sell the business,” she explained in a cold tone, apparently not comfortable with sharing that information.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to find something here to keep you busy. Our planet is your home now, and we want you to be as happy as possible,” The King concluded.
She snorted, and Erin kicked her under the table.
“Of course. That'd be great,” she said, rubbing her leg, glancing at Erin.
The door opened up, hitting the wall, and startling the people on the room.
“What did I miss? I came as soon as I could, but the snow had other plans,” he said as he walked into the room, his leathery wings, similar to those of a bat still displayed as well as his long, dark claws, coming out from the back of his hands. A fur cape floated behind him as he crossed the room.
“What the hell…?” Rosalind cried out, and both women jumped up from their chairs and took a few steps away.
“Haakon… you’re scaring our guests,” The King snarled, getting up and striding to stand in front of the women.
“Hello, brother,” Haakon nodded, and in just a few moments, the wings and claws were gone. “Did I hear the word guests?”
“Yes…” the King started, determined to scold his younger brother, but his words were caught up in his throat at the expression on Haakon’s face.
The man took a deep breath as if sniffing the air and froze on the spot. With a wicked grin on his face, Brynjar stepped aside and allowed his brother to take a good look at his future.
“Is this for real?” he finally muttered, with a deep frown, as if he couldn’t believe what his instincts and his soul were shouting at him.
“You tell me, little brother. Does it feel real?” the King asked, looking back and forth from his brother and Rosalind.
“But… how is this possible?” he was still struggling with his feelings. His olive skin had become so pale it rivaled his blond hair.
“Asgar’s journeys finally paid back.”
“But… a soul mate?” these words were for the king’s ears only, and he simply nodded.
Haakon finally looked away from the woman and focused on his brother. “What about you?”
“We hadn’t reached that part yet,” The King informed.
“God, I hate this...” Rosalind murmured through gritted teeth. “Can anyone explain what’s going on here?”
Her question attracted the new man… thing… whatever he was’ eyes towards her once more.
“How rude of me. Please, allow me to introduce myself. I’m Haakon, the king’s younger brother,” he said, nodding.
“Brother? You mean the king is like you?” she almost cried out.
The other men shot the newcomer a dark look, and if looks killed, he would have dropped dead.
The king let out a heavy sigh and turned to look at the women. “We, the Drogons, are all like him, even our females.”
“Jesus…” Rosalind cursed and took another step back.
This time, Erin was the one calmed and serene. “You seem to be a fascinating race.”
“How can you say that? They’re like some… dragons…” Rosalind insisted.
“I’m sorry if I scared you, it wasn’t my intention,” Haakon apologized, taking a step closer.
“Scare… who said I was scared?” she grumbled, recovering her cold blood, and facing the strange man standing in front of her, though her heart was still thundering frantically inside her chest.
He grinned at her and bowed. “Good, I would hate to disturb you.”
She let out a deep sigh and turned to look at the king. “Perhaps, we could call this meeting over?”
“Yes, of course. Egil will escort you to the guest rooms.” The King finally accepted.
“But…” Haakon protested.
“Not now.” It was a precise order, and the other man silenced, as he watched the women leaving the room with Egil.
“Damn… we could have waited for that.” Fritjof grumbled, pounding the table.
“I had no idea we had visitors. I would have been more careful if I had known,” Haakon let his powerful body fall over a chair and rubbed his tired eyes. “Damn… you could have warned me.”
“How does it feel?” the King asked with an amused grin on his face.
“Like a hammer to your stomach,” Fritjof answered.
“You too?” Haakon asked with a smirk.
The other man just nodded.
“How is this possible? Where are these women from?” Haakon asked, and Asgar filled him in.
“And how are we getting more women from this planet?”
“The Slythonians will bring a new cargo soon, and they will let us know. Hopefully, we will be able to find a few more matches amongst them, but unless things change, we should start planning a trip to this planet,” Asgar explained.
“That won’t be easy,” The King frowned.
“No, it won’t. According to what the traders told us, the planet is very far away from here, and unlike us, they have eight thousand million inhabitants.”
“Well, at least that means they can spare a few females,” Haakon said in a scornful tone.
“Fortunately, one of us has found his mate,” The King stated with a wicked smile.
“Do you really think she will ever let me get near her?” a self-deprecating smile showed up on his face.
“She will, eventually. The mating mutual, and though she might fight it, she will end up surrendering to it,” The King comforted him.
“Or so say the legends.”
“Did it feel unreal to you, Haakon?”
His brother didn’t answer, but then again, he didn’t have to. The answer was written all over his face.
“Any idea when the Slythonians will be back?” Ingvar, another one of the councils, asked.
“No, I considered it wouldn’t be wise to show them our urgency,” Asgar replied.
“You’re right. That information would be dangerous in the hands of our enemies.”
“So, we just sit back and wait?” Haakon asked, not very pleased. He was a man of action.
“No, we sit back and wait. You and Fritjof have a lot to do, conquering your soulmates and making them love the Drogon in you,” The King corrected him.
Haakon chuckled, but there wasn’t much joy in his laugh. Showing his drogon to the women had been a nasty move, one that would require time to erase.
“Is that an order, my King?”
“You might consider it as you wish,” his brother nodded. “Keep me informed and go slow with your woman. She is strong-willed and determined. You’ll only have trouble if you confront her or tried to force her into accepting you.”
“Give me some credit.”
“I am, Haakon, but this is new for all of us. We know little to nothing about their species, and
as you said, the whole soul mate thing had been a legend so far, we have no idea what will come out of this,” The King advised him.
“You should be the one with a soul mate, not me,” he grumbled, jumping to his feet.
“Perhaps, the gods will be kind to me, next time.”
The King dismissed the council and left the room.
Asgar and Haakon were the last ones to leave.
“What made you bring them?” Haakon asked, curious.
“Believe it or not, it was an instinct, like a damn voice inside me. I knew none of them was my soul mate, but I could feel the potential in them, and so did Egil. We had never experienced such a thing.”
“Very well. We have to make sure the future queen comes with the next cargo because I have no intention of becoming king.”
Asgar chuckled, but he knew Haakon meant every word. His place was out there, in the mountains. Raising the cattle that fed most of the Zuvrakians, free and reckless, not sitting on a throne he never desired.
“I assure you I will do all in my power.”
Chapter Six
Captain Rurik turned around to look at his slave master. He was sitting behind his desk, looking at the information on the women they were planning on abducting.
“Are we ready to go down to the planet?”
“Yes, Captain. We’re just waiting for you to approve the targets.”
The captain looked once more at the pictures his hunters had brought back. “Why wasn’t this one taken into consideration, as well?” he asked, pointing at a woman with a fabulous auburn mane, smiling at the woman in the center of the picture.
“We had, at first. Those two live together and have no family ties on the planet, but then we realized the other woman wasn’t able to walk for herself.” The slave master pulled the picture up to the hologram projector and amplified the part where the redheaded woman was, signaling the strange object she was sitting on. “She uses that device to move around.”
“Damaged good,” the captain stated.
“Yes, captain, that’s why we ruled her out.”
“Good decision. Her friend, on the other hand, will be quite a catch.”
“Yes, I believe so too.”
“Then, proceed with the abduction, as discreetly as possible. We don’t need to alert the humans about our businesses on their planet,” he warned his man, closing the files with the five females they had selected for this trip.
“Of course, captain. Our men have been warned and prepared to eliminate any possible threat.”
“Perfect. Tell them to proceed.”
The slave master nodded and left the captain’s quarters. Ten of his best men were going down to the planet, for the capture of five different points of the planet. This time, they were looking for variety, and that was something abundant on planet Earth.
Eskol went straight to the command center. He always followed up close the abductions. They had been orbiting on the dark side of the planet’s moon, avoiding all of their primitive scanners.
The Slythonian men were going down to the planet on small vessels that would go down to the surface wearing their special shields that would make them invisible to the earthling radars. After that, they just had to land near their targets and materialize on their homes, abduct them, and return to their ships.
Eleanor let out a heavy sigh. It had been a heavy day, and her instinct kept telling her it still wasn’t over.
She wheeled her chair into her apartment building and smiled at the doorman.
“Good evening, Miss Eleanor, you’re back early from your therapy today,” the man greeted her.
“Ah, Mr. Jones, how are you? My therapist had an important meeting tonight, so she wasn’t able to keep her appointment with me,” she replied, with a scowl. She wouldn’t have minded, if the woman had warned her with time, instead of doing it the minute she entered the gym facilities.
“Oh, that sucks. And she made you go all the way down there to tell you that?”
“Yes, I know… the good thing was I used the time to swim a bit, so it wasn’t a total waste of time,” she replied entering the elevator the man was holding open for her.
“I’m sure Miss Sasha will have a delicious dinner waiting for you.”
“We can hope, can’t we?” she winked at him, as the doors slid closed and the small box moved up to the ninth floor.
A few moments later, she was opening the apartment’s door and going straight to the kitchen. “Sasha, are you here? The therapist didn’t show up today,” she shouted out, sure her friend was around.
She had told her she would be home early.
“Eleanor… I have company, would you mind going away for a couple of hours?” Sasha’s voice came up from her bedroom.
For a split second, Eleanor felt an excruciating pain in the face of rejection of those words, but then common sense kicked in, and she knew something was wrong. Sasha would never kick her out of their apartment.
“Sure, I’ll see you later,” she replied in a loud tone.
Scared, with her cell phone ready to dial 911, she wheeled her chair to her friend’s room. She had to find out what the hell was going on.
“But before she could reach the door, this one was smashed open against the wall and the strangest creatures she had ever seen come out, holding Sasha prisoner.
“Get the hell out of here,” her friend shouted, struggling to free herself from the creatures.
Eleanor was so surprised; she wasn’t able to move a muscle.
“Sir, our men in North America, have been spotted,” one of his officers warned Eskol.
He had been monitoring the actions in Europe and in Asia, other two continents on the planet.
“Damn, let me see that,” he pulled the image his officer sent him and watched the live transmission coming from the cams his men were wearing.
“She wasn’t supposed to be home,” he grumbled, furious.
“According to what we heard, she had a cancellation,” his officer explained.
With a deep frown, Eskol opened a communication channel with his men on the planet.
“Get rid of the other woman,” he ordered, furious.
“We can’t, sir. The woman is fighting like a wild beast,” his man replied, clearly having trouble to submit the female they had imprisoned. “There’s no telling what she might do if one of us let her go.”
“Damn, damn… do all you can to knock her down and then bring them both here. We’ll deal with the second woman when you’re out of there.”
“Yes, sir.”
Sasha struggled harder to free herself to no avail. She had been changing clothes in her bedroom when the creatures appeared in her room. She had let out a cry and had run for the door, but before she was able to reach it, they had trapped her, and she had been struggling and kicking since then.
When she heard, Eleanor announcing her arrival, her struggles increased, and she tried to send her friend away, but the creatures wouldn’t let that happen.
They burst out of her bedroom into the living room, and despite her prayers, Eleanor was still there, helpless on her chair.
Distracted by her friend’s presence, she didn’t see the needle on one of her captor’s hand until it was buried in her belly, with its content squeezed into her.
“Sasha!” Eleanor yelled, finally coming out of her stupor.
But instead, of running away, she charged against the creatures, determined to get a hold of her friend, that had gone suddenly still and quiet.
One of the creatures grabbed her before she hit the floor and the other one turned to face Eleanor, holding a similar syringe in his claws.
She threw herself to the floor and crawl as fast as she could away from him, hearing his hideous laughter as he walked after her.
He mumbled a few things she wasn’t able to understand as he kneeled next to her, pinning her to the floor.
Njal growled when he was finally able to subdue the first female. The other one tried to escape
, but she was no match for his superior strength, and soon he had her pinned to the floor as he injected the tranquilizer into her system as well.
That one wouldn’t last much, but they didn’t like to leave a witness behind, so with both women secured, they finally returned to their vessel.
“All set, sir, we’re heading back to the mother vessel,” he announced to the slave master.
“Are you bringing both women?” Eskol asked, still frowning.
“Yes, sir, we had to, she had seen too much.”
“Very well, we’ll dispose of her later.”
Njal nodded, and as soon as his partner had the prisoners secured on the back of the ship, they headed back to the mother vessel.
Chapter Seven
Eskol waited for the vessels on the boarding room, anxious to confirm if the merchandise was as good as promised. He had noticed the Zuvrakians interest in human females, and he would be more than pleased to satisfy their wishes.
One by one, the females were carried into the room by the men, putting them on a table for him to examine. They were perfect.
The ones brought by Njal and his partner were the last ones to arrive. Njal let the one they had gone looking for over the table and Zadok let the other one slid to the floor. They were still unconscious.
“Excellent job with this one,” Eskol congratulated his hunter.
“She’s the feistiest I’ve ever seen so far, sir. We had a lot of trouble subduing her,” he admitted.
“Yes, I was able to see some of it. We have to collar her while she’s sedated.”
“Yes, sir, that would be wise.”
“Take her to the cell,” Eskol ordered.
“What should we do with this one, sir?” Zadok asked, signaling the other woman.
“Get rid of her. I won’t ruin our reputation offering damaged goods.”
“Yes, sir,” the hunter pulled her up to his shoulders, and he was about to leave the room when Captain Rurik entered the room.
“What’s going on here?” he asked assessing the people around him.
“The crew was forced to bring an unexpected guest back to the ship, Captain,” Eskol replied, motioning the hunter to leave the room.