by Maia Starr
“Will you just hold me,” she said.
“Yes,” I said as I took off my clothes and got into the hot bathtub with her. I sat behind her and then circled my body around her. She leaned back against my chest. I held her for the rest of the day.
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 fina
lly 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
Weredragons Of Tivuso Complete Series (Sneak Peak)
By Maia Starr
Chapter 1
King Karik Korinth
“Where is Moxor?” I whispered to Azlo over radio communications on my armband.
“Moxor is not in sight. I have lost sight of Moxor. Jex, do you have eyes on Moxor?” Azlo asked.
“No. No eyes on Moxor,” Jex responded.
“Shit, Moxor… Moxor, come in,” I said into the radio. There was no response.
“I see him. I see him. He's going in through the back. He's going in alone,” Azlo said.
“Dammit, Moxor. Stand down. We are going in as a team,” I said into the radio. But there was no response.
Moxor did things like this. Even though I was the king and leader of the Veruka weredragons, Moxor always wanted to disobey me. He was a hardcore weredragon soldier. But his ruthless and careless ways often put us in trouble. There were times when we had very close calls because Moxor would run blazing into fights and not wait for a signal. Like the time we went up against the Jitron monster on the planet Guidia. That was a close one. Now, he was doing it again. It was not that he didn’t respect my authority as his king; it was that he was reckless and insane.
“Azlo, follow Moxor in through the back. Jex and I are going in through the front,” I said.
“Yes, my king,” Azlo responded.
Everything had gone according to plan up until this point. Everything had been laid out carefully, but I should have known that Moxor would jump the gun on the situation. I knew I should expect it and work it into the plans from then on. But how was I to know that there would not be a next time?
We were launching an attack on a large building on Earth. It was a very important building. It was a building that was key in helping to turn the battle in the favor of the humans. The humans didn’t even know that we were doing this. In fact, they didn’t even know that we existed. Why would they? They weren’t an interplanetary species. They were not as advanced in space travel as we were. But they did build great machines. They built them so great that eventually the machines took over the entire planet and the humans were nearly extinct. This building was part of the machines. It was home to a cyborg repair facility on the continent that used to be known as North America, before the machines took over and all hell broke loose. This facility was where broken machines were brought to be repaired, or inactive ones were housed.
The building was guarded by the ruthless and machine-driven cyborgs known as the Clenok. I didn’t know if they gave this name to themselves, or if the humans had given it to them. I only knew that now, there were billions of them spread out on the Earth and they had one mission: kill humans.
Cyborgs were the hardest enemy to fight. Anything with a real conscious could be manipulated or maybe even reasoned with. That was not the case with a machine.
The machines did not feel. They did not have humanity or any empathy-driven conscious. They were pure machine. You could not reason with them. You could not negotiate with them. They were set to do their mission: take over the Earth and drive humans to extinction.
This was where we came into the picture. We needed something from the humans, and we knew that by helping them we could show them that we meant them no harm. So we decided to take out this facility.
We knew this facility was guarded by Clenok cyborgs, but there were more Clenok cyborgs that were out of operation than in operation because most of them were undergoing repair and were turned off. Therefore we only had to go up against the ones that were turned on to guard the facility, and if our previous scouting information was correct, it was very few Clenok cyborgs to deal with.
Our plan was to infiltrate and double assault, a team going in the front and a team going in the back. We had one important goal: set explosives and get the hell out of there. It was going to be a team effort, until Moxor decided to go in on his own terms, like he always did. I was impressed with his bravery but pissed off at his stupidity.
"Moxor, we are coming in!” I said over the radio.
“He must have turned off his communications or he is not responding on purpose,” Azlo said.
“Wouldn't be the first time,” Jex said.
“Alright, move in. Maybe we can still catch them off guard if we stay quiet and…”
Boom! Boom! “Shit! Shots fired! Repeat, shots have been fired from inside the Clenok facility!” Azlo shouted.
“Dammit! Move in! Move in now!” I shouted, and Jex followed me as we kicked open the door to the facility. Immediately, shots were fired in our direction, and we took cover behind the massive concrete poles of the warehouse-like facility.
“I'm in! I'm in through the back! I cannot find Moxor,” Azlo shouted over the radio as we fought a full-on gun battle between the silver, metal Clenok cyborgs and us, the Veruka weredragons from Tivosa.
“Dammit!” I shouted.
“We have to set the charges now. We won't be able to hold them as soon as more Clenok move in,” Jex said.
“Azlo, find Moxor! Set the charges along the way even if you have to throw them like grenades. Just find him!” I shouted.
“Yes, my king,” he responded.
“Jex, you go around the right, and I will go around the left. Ready?” I said.
“Ready,” he said.
We began firing at the Clenok cyborgs as we went around in different directions. I was laying down explosive charges, dropping them and rolling them underneath factory tables and machinery as I went. The Clenok cyborgs were hard to fight. You hit them once, and they did not go down because they were made of metal. You had to hit them several times, hoping to burn out their circuitry. It took a lot of firepower and accuracy to make that happen.
“Moxor is down! I found Moxor; he is down!” Azlo shouted.
“Motherfucker! Get him out of there! Forget about the charges and take flight. Fly him out of there. If you come toward me, I can give you cover,” I said into the radio communications. I was pissed. Moxor had done this to himself.
“Yes, my king!” Azlo shouted.
“I'm done setting charges!” Jex said.
“Good. Get out of here. Help Azlo,” I said
.
“No, I won't leave you, my king,” was his response.
“Dammit, Jex, get out of here; that is in order. Do not disobey your king!”
I heard Jex grunt and growl over the radio. He did not agree with my orders. Just then, I saw Azlo flying overhead with Moxor in his arms. I began to shoot all the Clenok cyborgs that noticed them in order to protect him from their gunfire.
“I got that one,” Jex said suddenly at my side.
“Dammit, didn't I tell you to get out of here?” I shouted at him.