Rescued by the Dragorian

by Emma Vance

  Bardoa was sitting on a green chair with twisting glass vines all around it. I suppose he’d meant it to be a throne, but he was so small that it looked more like he was sitting on a stepping stool. Anyone would think he was trying to be an emperor on this tiny pleasure planet. I snorted, forgetting myself. He probably believed he was. Mal looked at me sideways. I schooled my face back to stillness.

  “Your excellency,” I began when we reached him. A blue male rushed forward who was even smaller than Bardoa.

  “You are in the presence of Bardoa the eighteenth. Ruler of the most illustrious Stryxx pleasure planet in the Urythrian Galaxy.” His high-pitched voice held a slight whine.

  The blue male stared at us. I looked at my crew mates, who all stared back. Tsanel shifted slightly and darted his eyes to mine. I had no idea what the male was waiting for, so I bowed slightly, and my crewmates followed.

  The little blue male broke into a smile.

  “The illustrious Bardoa is pleased to welcome honored Dragorians to his pleasure planet.”

  “I give thanks to his excellency for greeting us in person. We have always been curious about pleasure planets and heard good things about Stryxx. We decided to see what, er, distractions Stryxx has to offer.”

  I hoped I said enough to sound convincing. I couldn’t even look at the females that surrounded Bardoa without the acid sting of bile rising to my throat. The females stood silently on a platform behind him, dressed in silk and chains.

  Mal was right. We should free them all and leave.

  But I couldn’t lose sight of our mission. I wouldn’t let that happen again.

  Bardoa hopped from his ‘throne’ and waddled towards us. Despite being a quarter my size, he was exceedingly rotund.

  “I’m surprised the male can walk,” muttered Mal.

  He stopped a few feet away, stained brown teeth wide in his putrid green face.

  “I know why you are here.” His voice was low and sly, as if he shared a secret with us.

  I reared back. I glanced at Mal and Tsanel beside me.

  No. If he truly knew why we were here, he would have arrested us as soon as we landed on Stryxx.

  “Make yourself at home first,” he continued, oblivious to my alarm. “Sample the females. Then, we will talk about the business you seek. I might just be agreeable to selling some of them to you.” He smirked. “For a price, of course.”

  “Er. Yes, of course.” I had no idea what he was talking about and had no intention of ‘sampling the girls’ but if this gave us free rein to search for the Dragorian scientist then I’d outwardly agree to whatever Bardoa proposed.

  “I’ve chosen a few special females so you don’t have to go to the main selection room. You and your crew can choose who takes your fancy, and I’ll think about selling you some female flesh for that pesky problem on your planet.” His right two eyes winked at me.

  I lifted my lips in an answering smile trying to mask my rage. Bardoa believed Dragorians could just buy mates and be done with it. As if we would never consider a female’s wishes. As if a Dragorian’s mate wasn’t the most important thing in a male’s life. Mal clenched his fists beside me.

  “Easy,” I muttered quietly, so only he could hear. I understood his frustrations, but we couldn’t let this male ruin this chance. On our planet, females were so precious it was difficult to see them treated so cavalierly.

  Bardoa waddled back to his throne and two females lifted him on to it. The blue announcer stepped forward.

  “Please choose your female and you will be shown to a room in the luxury gardens which will be yours for the duration of your stay.”

  “That is unnecessary.” I was careful not too sound too hasty. “My crew and I would prefer to explore the pleasure planet ourselves.”

  The blue thing’s smile faltered, and he glanced back at Bardoa. “I’m afraid his excellency insists.”

  Mal had said we might need to bed females to appease Bardoa. I’d scoffed at him, but he was right. Now I was the one clenching my hands. It was unimaginable to use females like this. Like objects. Females were revered, worshipped and respected on Votarnis.

  They had to be, we had so few of them.

  But even so, I smiled at the small blue male. “Of course.” I ignored everything in me that protested against the words.

  Mal sputtered but I waved him silent. If this is what we had to do to save our people then we would.

  “Choose your females.” I gestured to Mal and Tsanel. I had no idea how we were all going to get out of this. I knew none of us would mate with these females, and Bardoa would likely find out.

  I glanced at Mal. His lips firmed into a thin line and his eyes were focused on the far end of the tent.

  I turned in the direction of his gaze and saw the line of females silently waiting. They were all different. Different colors, shapes, sizes, species. All I had to do was raise my arm and point to one at random to get this over with. I gritted my teeth, my fangs slightly elongating from my spike of anger. I tried to force the emotion down. I just needed to keep this act up until we found the scientist. Then we’d be on our way.

  All I needed to do was choose a female for the night. It didn’t matter which.

  I walked closer to them. My gaze roved over the females, standing still, placid smiles painted on their faces. I lifted my arm gesturing to the female nearest me, until I froze. My eyes stopped on one female and my stomach jolted.

  My reaction must have been fairly obvious, because Bardoa chuckled.

  “Should have known you’d be interested in one of my new ones. Very rare species, impossible to get. Had to bribe quite a few Confederation patrols for them. They are some of my most popular females. Tight cunts, soft arses and they give a good ride. Though this particular female is new. If you choose her, you’d be the first to sample her flesh.”

  Bardoa’s voice was drowned out by the roar in my head as I continued to stare at the female.

  She had an oddly tinged skin that was the colour of the warmed sweet bread my mother made when I was a child. Her mane was dark and fell to her large breasts, which were much bigger than any Dragorian female. She was covered by only a sheer gauze, like the other females, which outlined the curves of her body.

  Unlike the other females, she wasn’t smiling, nor was she meeting my eyes.

  I could taste her fear. It was so sharp in the air that I could feel the jagged points of my fangs thickening from the emotion surging through my body. As if my body was reacting to her fear.

  Protecting her.

  I shook my head, trying to shake loose the sensation, trying to understand what was happening to me. I felt drugged, my blood pulsating like an invisible drum and my pulse matched the fervor of the rhythm.

  My skin began to tingle, my gray-golden scales vibrating with a slight hum. The roaring in my head got louder.

  It couldn’t be. It was impossible. This female?

  But it could be nothing else. I’d read about it in books, heard it described by elders on my planet.

  The feeling flooding me, the physiological reactions. My fangs, my scales, the thundering in my ears. It all pointed to one thing.

  This female was my mate.

  My mate.

  The female population on Votarnis was so low, I hadn’t even the slightest hope this would happen to me.

  I lifted my arm again, but did not point at random this time. I pointed directly at her.

  Her eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open.

  She was afraid of me.

  The realization hit me like an iron spike to my gut. We hadn’t even exchanged a greeting and already my mate was afraid of me.

  “Her,” I announced, wanting to throw her over my shoulder and tear out of this planet before anyone else could touch her.

  But as soon as I spoke, something else entered her eyes, replacing the fear. Her mouth firmed and she raised her head, meeting my gaze, her spine straightening.

  She looked like a Dragorian s
oldier preparing to enter battle—shoring up her defences, strapping on her armor, and walking into the fray.

  Despite myself, despite the shock of the situation, my lips lifted.

  When this was through, this female was leaving this forsaken place and coming with me.

  Chapter Seven

  Beatrice

  Fuck. Double fuck. That fucking mountain-man-Thor-dragon-alien dude picked me.

  And his buddies did not look happy.

  They glanced at each other, frowns creasing their giant, grey foreheads, and folded their thick arms over their chests. Great. Maybe they wanted to pick me too. Maybe all the gigantic alien men with gigantic alien cocks just wanted to fuck a human.

  This couldn’t be how it went for me. I worked hard. I hustled. I was going places and I was going to do shit. It wasn’t on the cards for me to get abducted by aliens and then be fucked on a sex planet by random creatures until I died.

  Nope. I wasn’t going out that way.

  I had to escape.

  I looked at the guy who picked me. He was humanoid, but aside from two arms, two legs and a head, that was as far as similarities went. He must have been about seven feet tall, with thick, corded muscles and a hairless, ridged scalp. He had grey scales with a smattering of shimmering, gold-like flecks spread out across his shoulders and chest, like he’d been splashed with metallic paint. His face looked like it had been carved out of grey stone, with bone structure to kill for and golden eyes like a cat. And when he spoke, I caught a flash of giant fangs that hung from his mouth like curved daggers. He was shirtless, clad only in shiny black pants that looked like liquid poured over his ass. He was so clearly alien, I couldn’t even pretend he was anything but.

  I released a breath and stood tall, trying to push down the fear and panic that rose inside me. I tried to grasp onto the edges of a plan formulating in my mind.

  He got here somehow. He must have a spaceship or something that could get me the hell off this planet. If we could steal his ship there might be a possibility of getting out of here.

  I looked at alien-dragon-Thor-2.0 again.

  Okay. Maybe I could work with this.

  Because if there was one thing I knew for certain, I wasn’t going to be anyone’s sex slave.

  Mekvar

  I paced the large tent I was given, my talons elongated and hanging heavily from my hands, the anger surging through my blood giving me focus.

  On Votarnis you were given time to be with your mate in the Rushing frenzy. But human female likely didn’t even know what a mate was. I scrubbed my talons over my ridged head.

  I’d wanted this mission to be different from my last, to prove to the elder council I could do this. To save my people from the Wolgon threat. To prove to myself I wasn’t a failure.

  But it was already starting out as an epic catastrophe before we’d even begun to search.

  Mal and Tsanel entered. I turned away from them, not wanting to explain myself, not even wanting to see the disapproval reflected on their faces.

  “What happened back there?” Mal strode towards me, concern lighting his face. Maybe he thought I had finally lost control. Maybe I had.

  Tsanel came up beside him. “We know you had to choose a female. But for a moment you seemed . . .”

  “Like you’d drunk too much fermented elgard root,” said Mal. Tsanel nodded.

  “It’s worse than that.” I steeled myself and took a deep breath. “The human female I chose, she’s more than one of Bardoa’s slaves. I think she’s my mate.”

  They both stared at me, eyes wide.

  Mal’s nostrils flared in surprise. “Impossible. Dragorians do not mate with other species,” he said, voice firm.

  “It has to be possible,” I said with impatience. “What I felt was clearly the Rushing.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  “It cannot be.” Mal continued to shake his head.

  “If this is true, the Council must be alerted immediately.” Tsanel looked from Mal to me.

  “It is true,” I insisted, with a low growl. “My body wouldn’t be reacting this way if it wasn’t.”

  Tsanel nodded at me, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “If you are feeling the Rushing, this is momentous. Not just for you, but our entire people.”

  He was right. Being able to mate outside our species could alter everything for our people. But I wasn’t thinking about the future of the Dragorian race right now, I was only thinking about her.

  And that was a problem.

  At least Tsanel seemed to believe me. But it didn’t matter if none of them of them did. I wasn’t leaving this planet without her. My fists clenched at my sides.

  It had already been too long since I’d last seen her.

  She would come with me. I was sure of it. I just needed to speak to her and explain everything.

  I could feel Tsanel’s eyes on me. “How does this change the plan?” he asked, his words coming out slowly.

  “It doesn’t.” I controlled the growl in my voice. A war was going on inside my head between our mission and my need to protect my mate. “We stick with the plan. We still retrieve the scientist. Then we leave.”

  Mal was shaking his head. “It will be more difficult if we also steal one of Bardoa’s whores.”

  My fangs elongated fully, coming down to my chin. I advanced on him and grasped Mal’s neck, lifting him off the ground. “Do not refer to my mate that way.”

  Tsanel placed his hand on my forearm. I blinked at him.

  “Relax, Captain. None of us have experienced what you are feeling but I am aware that the Rushing is meant to be intense. We all know what this means for us. If this female is your mate – ”

  “She is.” I loosened my grip on Mal’s neck. He dropped to the ground and gasped, rubbing his neck.

  “Then of course we will help you take her,” Tsanel continued, his voice calm. “This is important for all of us, not just you,” he said quietly.

  “What is she?” I heard Mal ask through the thick fog clouding my brain. The need to find her was overtaking everything.

  “Human,” Tsanel said. “Black market. I’ve only seen one once. They aren’t allowed to be imported from that far out.”

  “So, she was taken against her will?” I felt the rage begin to fill my lungs again. My mate had been kidnapped, hurt, and enslaved by Bardoa.

  “Most likely,” said Tsanel.

  I tried to shake off the rage, tried to will my fangs to recede. But it was as if my brain had turned to soup. What I had felt when I had first saw her had trebled. “Tell the rest of the crew. We need to start searching for the scientist immediately.”

  “We will start searching for him, Captain. Right now, you need to be with your mate,” said Tsanel. I looked at Mal who said nothing, but he crossed his arms and nodded gruffly.

  It was difficult to agree with them, but the lust roaring through me was impossible to think beyond. I needed to find my mate and explain to her what was happening.

  But how could I do that when I didn’t even know myself?

  Chapter Eight

  Beatrice

  “Do you want to talk about anything before you go to him?”

  Kat stood over me, looking genuinely concerned. Unlike the other female aliens around, who seemed jealous that the grey-gold monster had chosen me. I warmed a little bit to her then.

  “Have you ever tried to escape?” I asked abruptly, and probably too bluntly because she blinked a few seconds before sitting down on a cushion beside me.

  “Ah. I wondered why you seemed so calm.”

  “I don’t know what you mean,” I said, crossing my legs in front of me.

  She sighed. “If you are attempting to escape, I can’t stop you. All I can tell you is it hasn’t worked out for any girls in the past. And the answer to your question is yes, I have tried to escape.”

  I inhaled sharply. “How come you weren’t discovered and thrown into the gladiator pits like the others?”

  “I was
lucky. I had help from someone. If I didn’t, I would have been caught for sure.”

  “Who helped you?”

  Her mouth twisted to what almost looked like a smile. “No one I want to discuss right now. But know if they hadn’t, I wouldn’t be alive today.”

  I mulled that over, clenching and unclenching my hands in my lap.

  Kat sighed. “The first guy is always the hardest. Right after my first time, I took the sex-poison. But, if I’m being honest, you got lucky.”

  I stared at her, thinking of the monster who had chosen me. “Lucky! That guy is huge! He will tear me in half!”

  “From what I have heard their species is very respectful of females. Mei’s first time was with a slug alien. She drank the lansian root tea immediately after, too.” Kat shuddered.

  “So, I should be grateful I got this gigantic terrifying beast-man? He looks like a demon villain from a comic book!”

  “Not grateful so much as practical. Always think it could be worse. That’s my motto, anyway.” She shrugged then dusted some sand off her shoulder.

  “I’d rather die than be practical about this,” I said vehemently, clenching my teeth so hard I thought they’d drop off.

  Kat turned her head towards the entrance of the tent. I followed her gaze. A guard had entered and beckoned towards me.

  “How can you live like this?” I asked, my voice so rasped and desperate as I laid a hand on her arm. “How could you be bought and sold over and over again, without any choice in the matter?”

  Kat got up and brushed out her filmy skirt. “Because I have hope. Hope that something better is coming.”

  “Hoping is fine, but I’d rather do something to get me there.”

  I’d never not worked for anything in my life, and I wasn’t about to stop now. You couldn’t wish yourself out of messes, you had to build yourself out of them.

  Kat smiled again, but it was bitter this time. “Good luck to you, then. If I were you, I’d drink the sex-poison. Just to get through. You will eventually anyway.”