by Maia Starr
“Well,” she laughed, suddenly dumbfounded as to what to say. “I don’t know if that’s a come-on or if you’re trying to…”
Before she could finish her sentence, Targeg came back toward us, using his wings to reach us in haste. He grinned at Ari, and I could feel my eyes rolling.
“I have something to show you, too, dear,” he jested in a sexual tone, and the pair erupted in laughter. I, myself, didn’t find him quite as hilarious. Funny thing, that, how once there was a woman around, all the shifters suddenly wanted to be comedians.
“I can’t imagine what that might be,” Ari said demurely, but didn’t look up from her work.
Targeg still didn’t know what had happened between Ari and me, and the more I thought about it, the more he must have believed she was fair game. I gritted my teeth and looked his way, expressing my annoyance only for a moment.
“She’s working,” I snapped, never looking in his direction.
“Yeah, she’s been working for two days straight,” he argued. “Thought you could use some water,” he said kindly and tossed a bottle her way. Ignoring me, he crouched down beside her and began to inspect the many samples
“Amazing,” he snorted, gesturing the bottle of moss to me. “What we walk on every day she finds fascinating. You should feel lucky she doesn’t have higher standards, Car.” The yellow dragon laughed, and Ariella joined him.
“Hey, I happen to see real potential in the ordinary,” she jeered. “So, yes, he should feel lucky.”
Targeg’s chuckle died off, and suddenly his face went serious. He looked to me with the same eyes that had always befriended me, suddenly curious and concerned. The expression he gave sent my stomach twisting so fiercely I had to walk away from the pair. I stepped out into the field and shielded myself from the sun with my wing; still listening to them, even more intently as Targeg’s tone turned into a whisper.
“That’s all well and good, but you know Caridan can’t really participate in a choosing, right?” he cautioned her below his breath.
“That’s right,” she confirmed nonchalantly. “So, what’s the problem?”
“I just don’t want to see you get attached, that’s all. He’ll be guarding you for a few days, and then he’ll be shipped off to some other mission. You know that, right?”
She blanched, and while I couldn’t see her face, I could hear her tone waver. “Thanks for the friendly advice,” she said with a put-on smile in her tone. “I wasn’t really anticipating being chosen, anyway, so… I hope you’re not expecting a play-by-play of my broken heart,” she chuckled.
“No, of course not. I’m happy if you’re happy,” he said sincerely.
“Thank you,” she said sweetly. “I really do appreciate it.”
“Oh,” Targeg said, incredulous.
Before I could listen in on any more of their conversation, Ikar approached. He smiled at me and set his hand on my shoulder. “I didn’t see you there,” I said genuinely.
Ikar offered a courteous nod and let out a tired breath as he said, “Your senses are no doubt dulled from all this rain we’ve been having. The sun seems to have come out now, but it was quite the storm we had this morning, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah, came out of nowhere,” I said lowly, nearly rolling my eyes at the sentiment. I was too tired to be hit with cheesy metaphors and dull chit-chat. If Ikar was speaking to me, it was for a reason, not for a weather update. “Must be quite the excavation of resources to have you called out from the ranks,” I said in my best attempt at cheerful banter.
Usually, someone of Ikar’s station wouldn’t bother himself with research teams, yet he’d been here for two days overseeing the work.
“My commitment to my station is half-hearted at best,” he smiled, his tone dismissive. “But you’re not wrong. This situation has become somewhat top tier, if I may say privately.”
I raised a brow at him and ran my hand through my hair, feeling the strands tickle my skin underneath.
“You’re doing a great job,” Ikar breathed as he watched over the field of biologists. His expression seemed genuinely impressed. “No attacks, and plenty of samples. Your girl is something special, just as Zaphira suggested.”
“Oh?”
My heart sank, and my eyes shot to Ikar, making no pretense. I wasn’t sure why he had brought up Zaphira’s name, but it put me immediately on edge. I knew Zaphira had told me to choose Ariella, but I didn’t know how much of that she had shared with my Koth.
“She told me she told you to choose Ariella.”
She shared everything, as it turned out.
“Did she tell you why?” I bit my lip and sighed inwardly, looking up at Ikar, awaiting what his reaction might be.
He raised his brows happily toward me; a look of impression crossing over him. “She said Ariella had potential; that she’d been researching ways to heal the Aurorean properties,” he spoke, referring to the area of a dragon’s throat that produces fire. “She knew the girl would be enticed to fix it if she could get attached to you, seeing as…” He paused, but there was no other way to say it. “How you’re one of the only ones left who can.”
“Oh,” was all I said.
“That one,” he pointed to the blonde from across the field. “She has a lot of strong beliefs about the Marraflower and its healing properties. She’s already mixed up a salve and she’s testing it out on Targeg sometime in the next few weeks.”
“Targeg,” I repeated slowly. “Interesting.”
“Don’t,” he cautioned, turning his head to me and following my eyes as they landed on Targeg and burned through his form.
“Don’t what?”
“You know what,” he warned. “She’s beautiful. But, she isn’t worth losing your life over. Nor your best friend.”
“And why would I lose Targeg?” I played along, only half certain what he was trying to say to me.
In private, Ariella had told me that when she first saw the lineup of dragons, she found Ikar very appealing. This was the only thought that seemed to dredge through my mind as my Koth spoke to me in respectful tones. It was no surprise, as much as I didn’t like hearing it from her. He was always a favorite for the choosings. He had white and silver features, with wide set wings. He had long white hair and silver eyes. There wasn’t anything about him that screamed ordinary. He was ethereal. I knew that.
“I’d hate to see the past repeat itself, is all…”
I looked into the eyes of my superior and suddenly wondered if he was really the terrible shifter I’d made him out to be in my mind. We’d clashed on occasion in the past, but my behavior hadn’t been the most cautious when we’d first met.
“You remember our deal, right?” he asked.
“I remember.”
Don’t touch her: that was the deal. Don’t touch her and we don’t kill you. I had no rights as a shifter any longer. My body was a vessel used for fighting other dragons, other creatures. A vessel used to protect those we brought back to Udora. I’d accepted this long ago. But I couldn’t not touch her. Not anymore.
My eyes were elsewhere, but I could see Ikar give an approving nod in my peripheral.
“I’m pushing to have you reinstated, should this girl provide a cure.”
My head snapped in his direction, and I actually felt myself smile. “Really?” My tone betrayed nothing of my excitement. In fact, it came out more as a statement than a question.
“Really,” he repeated with a laugh. “Just don’t do anything to screw it up. Don’t take this girl, don’t kill anyone out of your jealousy, and stop fighting with Brenem. He’s well within his rights, and you know it.”
“Hmph,” was all I said.
That night I’d brought Ariella home, waiting around some extra hours so she could buy food from our market and pick up supplies from the laboratory before turning in.
We’d spent the night talking until we could barely keep our eyes open, with her nestled in my arms. I neglected to make love to her, feelin
g uneasy somehow. She never asked what Ikar and I spoke of, and I never offered.
I’d spent the next few days in the mines with the rest of the soldiers, guarding the humans as they dug through our soil and made plans for our biology. It was Ariella’s day off. Those were the days that I hated most of all.
Not only was I not allowed to be around her during her time off, but it left my mind to wander how she was spending her time. If she and Targeg were viewing the sights of the city I still had yet to show her, or if Brenem had finally found a way to rouse the demon in me.
I approached my front door and watched as Ari’s clean face poked through the crack of the door. She smiled at me and waved me in, her hair up in a messy spiral of waves. She looked tired.
I stepped into the apartment and felt a surge of power flow through me that left me glowing. There was an atmosphere that filled our apartment with something I had missed for a very long time.
Ariella made her way to the bed and patted the soft mattress, inviting my company. I joined her on the mattress and lay down sleepily. To my left was a desk I had set up for her. She’d placed a cork board on the wall and filled it with pictures, notes, and bagged samples. On the desk sat a microscope and her tablet, still left on and furiously scribbled with notes on her findings.
I frown with familiar endearment as I noticed the novelty disco lamp Ariella had finally set up next to the bed. I’d spotted it in her bag the day we arrived and dreaded the moment she would bring it out. I much preferred glow stones. Still, seeing it then made me realize she felt at home here.
“Disco lamp?” I smirked.
She placed her hand over the lamp and smiled, sitting with her legs folded under her bottom. “I figured it was a mandatory 20s item.”
I looked around the silent room, the silence grabbing our sexual tension and playing with it. “How was your day?” I asked, hovering over her body and instinctively reaching my hand under the band of her pants. She wore modest pink pajama pants and a white tank top. No rings, no bracelets, no makeup.
She nodded and lay back, closing her eyes as she whispered, “Good.”
“Good,” I repeated in exhale as I began to gently bite at her neck and lick along her collarbones. Looking down, I could see her freckles spotting across her chest.
Ari’s eyes shot open, and she grabbed my hair in the palm of her hand. She laughed in the sexy way she did and quietly giggled out, “Caridan?”
But there was no time for a response. I removed her top and watched the lights grazing her supple breasts, pressing my lips against her nipples. She got on top of me and leaned forward to kiss me in the same fashion she had the first time she'd tried to tempt me. I looked up in wonder at her mounds and cupped them in my hands.
She moved in and kissed me fiercely, almost aggressively. Her tongue searched my mouth until it found mine and we did our familiar dance. I could feel my skin light up; a surge of energy that only seemed to emerge only when she was around. I tugged her pants down just enough, and she began grinding against me in a slow rhythm. Following suit, I grabbed her hips and moved with her body until I saw her eyes glaze over with passion.
She could feel I was hard, and the slick feel of her against me only made me want her more. But, she loved playing this game with me. Everything was a game to her. The tease; the taunt; making me wait. Sometimes it felt like torture to be at her command. It made my temperature rise with anger to wait, but my patience was rewarded as she lowered herself onto me. From that moment on, our bodies moved in perfect harmony with one another as she mounted me.
I waited patiently, watching her every facial feature and gauging her pleasure. I caressed her waist and could almost feel the heat suddenly radiating off her body. A surge of pleasure washed over her face, and I knew we didn’t have to wait to orgasm any longer.
She let out a muffled moan, and I quietly followed before she collapsed on top of me, filling my mouth with kisses before she rolled onto the mattress.
I turned over to regard her so that we were both laying on our sides, facing one another. I watched as her tacky light sent a dotted pattern flying throughout the dark room, lighting up every crevice and bouncing off of glossy pictures on the wall. As the yellow dots reflected against her skin, Ariella squeezed my hand, and I could feel her warm breath on my neck. “It’s kind of beautiful,” she whispered.
“I would say ‘not as beautiful as you,’ but…” I trailed off, feeling stupid for even joking about it.
The blonde laughed and moved her head up to meet my eyes, and with a tired wit, she whispered, “Good thing you didn’t, or I might actually feel like you liked me or somethin'.”
“Right, because that’s not terribly clear by now.”
Her face lit up suddenly, and she rested her chin on her hands, grinning wildly at me. “So you do?”
I rolled my eyes playfully and could see she was still waiting for my response. My brows creased and I slid my finger across her face; my lips now chapped from our barrage of kisses.
“Of course. Why do you think I chose you?”
She snorted. “Just to bug me, I guess?”
“I chose you because I knew.”
“Knew what?” she asked.
I exhaled and suddenly felt a tingling throughout my body. “I knew that you were meant for me.”
She stared at me and then smiled, collapsing back onto the mattress, now looking satisfied. “Well, I didn’t,” she admitted. “I thought you were a total jerk.”
I laughed. “And now?”
“Well, you’re still kind of a jerk. But, you’re my jerk.” She giggled. “And you’re sweet.”
The rest of the night was spent in a sleepy haze, the two of us falling in and out of the grips of sleep, intertwined with one another. The rain pelted the glass of the window and sent a small chill through the muggy room.
Chapter Nine
Ariella
“I fly back today,” came Caridan’s voice on the other end of a wide screen I had been sat at for the majority of the day. He was sending me a video call from the mines that he’d been serving in. His tone was excited and exuberant in a way that I’d never heard before, which only made me feel guiltier that I wasn’t.
“That’s good. You using your own wings for that adventure, or are you taking advantage of human invention, yet again?” I mocked in a light, whimsical tone.
It was just as Targeg had warned me: Caridan was called away to attend other missions. The Koth didn’t consider his choosing official, and so he was made to move into the apartment above mine. He was sent into the mines, and I'd felt the sting of loneliness for a month now. I would sleep alone in the bed we'd made ours and crave his touch and miss his conversation.
I'd tried to keep busy, making progress with my work in a way that was obviously impressive to the Koth. I spent most of my nights in my lab, and it hadn't gone unnoticed. I'd heard rumblings that Caridan would benefit from my findings. I tried not to act too excited when a friendly nurse named Alexandra told me the rumors she'd heard while patching up on of the higher-ups of the Koth.
“Are you alone?” he asked in low tones.
I nodded and his face brightened.
“I found myself missing you,” he admitted. I became lost in the screen, eyes elsewhere as he patiently waited for my response. I startled myself as I realized I hadn’t said a word for some time and smirked at him.
“Oh,” I said and tried to sound upbeat and then teased, “Should that be shocking to you? I am pretty fantastic, lest we forget.”
“Right,” he said absent-mindedly. “Are you alright?”
“Yes,” I said, maybe a little too quickly. “What, I don’t confess my lust for you, and that means I’m not feeling well? Somebody’s awfully full of himself.”
He stared at me, his expression vacuous. “What’s wrong?”
I laughed and suddenly found myself avoiding eye-contact with him. I had been excited about my project all week. This was what I came here to do, aft
er all, but I just couldn’t shake the sick feeling that had been in my stomach for weeks.
I’d been keeping a secret from Caridan, and I wasn’t sure if I was keeping it due to a lack of proximity to my love, or if I would be too afraid to reveal it even if he were here. He would be returning later and, while I had missed him, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see him quite yet.
“Nothing; you’re just feeling insecure because you miss me!” I finally managed to tease.
He stayed stoic a moment and then his expression softened slightly. “You’ve been working hard?”
“It’s all I’ve been doing,” I breathed with put-on exhaustion. “I’m just a lonely little orphan without you.”
“With Targeg a lot, I’m sure,” he murmured. “He must be loving that.”
“Hey, I’m a lovable gal; what can I say? But I’m a taken woman.”
He grinned at this and somehow made it feel like he was right in the same room with me as he leaned toward the camera. Taking another look at me, his shoulders tensed and he asked, “Are you alone?”
“I already said yes,” I scoffed. “Just busy.”
Caridan’s expression darkened, and I knew I had made him sullen. Without any hesitation, he said, “Then I won’t keep you.” And then the screen went dark.
I stared into blackness for a moment before swiping his tab away and refocusing on my work. Usually a tiff like that would have had my stomach in knots until I had the chance to speak with him again, but for now, I felt happiness in my solitude.
The sterile environment of my lab had become my home since he’d been gone.
I’d performed several treatments on Targeg over the last few weeks and was finally seeing some smoke progress. Something, be it in their water or food, was tarnishing their Aurorean glands. My salve seemed to be healing it up quite nicely, but I still wasn’t sure if I could heal it completely.
“Knock, knock,” came another familiar, but unwelcome voice. I spun in my chair to see Brenem standing in the empty doorway of the lab. My eyes flicked behind him quickly, and it occurred to me that I was probably one of the only ones left in the building.