Emin's Mate

by Selena Scott

  But even his strong arm around her shoulders didn’t keep her heart from flopping in her chest as they stepped into the clearing where they held their nightly campfires. The chatter and card games immediately came to a grinding halt as the new couple appeared.

  Zara watched the firelight dance across the faces of all these people she knew so well. Her family, really. In all the ways that mattered.

  “Emerged from the love nest for some food?” the Oracle asked as he strolled up to Solar and Zara. “I assume you two are hungry after all the canoodling. Oooh! That just made me hungry for noodles. God, I miss noodles.”

  Zara couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows and laugh at O. He certainly had a gift for cutting the tension. “Whatever everyone else is having for dinner will do just fine,” Zara said. Because they were awfully hungry, and it had been one of the reasons they’d chosen to emerge.

  “Come give me a hand with it, sweetie!” Keiko called across the campfire from the kitchen hut. She was obviously in the middle of finishing up dinner for the camp. Zara automatically moved toward her friend to help, but she found herself gently yanked backward.

  Solar’s arms came around her and held her firmly to him. Zara was acutely aware of their audience, but the second his lips touched hers, she was lost to him. Completely. His flavor. His tongue. His arms so strong and sure around her back. He pulled away, gently, and reality descended back over her like a warm blanket.

  Keiko cleared her throat loudly and Zara jumped a little, flashed Solar a little grin, and hurried around the fire to help Keiko in the hut.

  Zara stepped aside at the hut entrance for the three other Surgeres that Keiko shooed away. “Where are they going?” Zara asked.

  “I don’t care,” said Keiko. “Anywhere but here. You. Details. Now.” Keiko shoved a ladle in Zara’s hand and pushed her toward the fish stew that needed serving.

  Zara felt herself blush down to the back of her neck, but she knew that Keiko wasn’t going to leave her alone until she spilled her guts. So, taking a deep breath, she did.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  God. She was so damn beautiful. Solar felt the breath dam up in his chest as he watched Zara move efficiently in and out of the kitchen hut. She set up utensils and bread and pitchers of water on the serving table. Her long hair swung behind her back and her skin glowed in the firelight.

  “Solar,” Rafael said as he nervously stood at Solar’s side. Honestly, Solar hadn’t even noticed he was there until he spoke.

  “Yes?” Solar said, keeping his face even and level as he spoke to the young pledge. He wanted to give nothing away. If the boy had a problem, Solar couldn’t afford to show weakness in front of the group. In the corner of his eye, he saw Zara pause, a pitcher in her hand as she watched the two men speak.

  Rafael cleared his throat. “I just wanted to apologize to you.”

  Solar’s face remained impassive and the boy shifted from one foot to the other. He cleared his throat and continued. “I didn’t know that Zara was… yours. And if I’d known, I never would have gone there yesterday. And I certainly never would have tried to fight. Not that it was much of a fight on my end.”

  Solar finally cracked a small smile. “You did fine. You were just up against someone who was completely unwilling to lose.”

  Rafael looked immensely relieved. “So am I forgiven?”

  “There’s nothing for me to forgive,” Solar said, then, thought twice. Because now he was thinking for two. “Maybe you should apologize to Zara, though. I think the whole thing was pretty overwhelming for her.”

  “Of course,” Rafael immediately nodded and turned on his heel to go find her.

  Solar had to admit that the boy had a good head on his shoulders. He liked Rafael. He always had, despite the fact that he’d tried to make a move on his woman yesterday.

  The next few days passed happily, almost lazily, while everyone in the Surgere camp got used to seeing Solar and Zara as a couple. That went for Solar and Zara as well. It was new. And took a lot of getting used to.

  Solar didn’t expect everyone to throw confetti everywhere they went, but of all the reactions he received, Javi’s surprised him the most. His second-in-command had barely been happy for him and Zara. Actually, the moment that they finally got to talk about it, at a meeting in the war hut, he told Solar exactly how he felt about it.

  “Look, Solar. I’m happy for you that you’ve found your mate. I really am. That’s a blessing that not everyone receives in this life and I hope you cherish it.” His salt and pepper hair was tied in a knot on top of his head, his dark brow drawn.

  Javi had lost his mate a few years ago in a skirmish with King Dalyer’s soldiers. Solar would never forget that. And the enormity of that sacrifice and grief was only beginning to become clear to him, now that he’d started a relationship with Zara.

  “Thank you, brother,” Solar said, laying a hand on Javi’s shoulder.

  Javi nodded his head. “But I have to say, now that your attention is understandably being tugged in another direction by your new mate, it only accents the way the revolution has stalled. We’ve made virtually no progress in at least 3 years. The king is dormant but active. Unfindable and wildly dangerous.” Javi got up and paced around the small room. “I’m losing my mind hiding out in this godforsaken jungle.”

  Solar ran his hand through his hair. Anything that seemed like an insult or threat to Zara instantly got his back up. Another new side effect of having a mate. He had to remind himself that Javi wasn’t being critical of Zara. Solar took a deep breath. “I don’t think you’re necessarily wrong, Javi, but we have to look at this from a longer term perspective. What might feel like a long time to wait right now, is actually a very reasonable stretch of time if you think of the revolution spanning a few decades.”

  “But Solar, we don’t want the revolution to span a few decades.”

  “But it might,” Solar replied. His voice was firm and clear. His temper wasn’t rising. He and Javi often discussed their viewpoints this way and they were never disrespectful to one another. “Look, Jav, we’ve virtually destroyed Dalyer’s opportunity to create viable offspring. And we drove him away from the castle, the only known portal to the human realm, so he can’t have access to human women he might be able to mate with. And we deprived him of his precious Oracle.” Solar waved a distracted hand at O, who was sitting in the corner, carefully braiding colored string together. “At this point, it’s only a matter of time before the dynasty falls. There will be no one for Dalyer to pass the throne to. His family’s reign will end. Which is the point of the revolution in the first place.”

  “I thought the point of the revolution was to stop the enslavement and slaughter of our people by Dalyer.” Javi’s voice was cold, calm. It was an old argument. One they’d been having for years.

  “You take the local perspective. I take the global perspective.” Solar stood and paced. His only concession to the tension. “If we fly out, go looking for a battle and get blindsided, our revolution could be snuffed out in the blink of an eye. We’re the only thing keeping Dalyer in hiding at this point. If we are eliminated, he’ll have free reign again. He’ll go to the human realm. He’ll find a viable mate. He’ll reproduce. His line could enslave generations of dragon shifters. It’s too risky.”

  Javi, frustrated, crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the ceiling. “I know you’re right, Sol, I do. But this sitting and waiting is excruciating. People are dying. People are living miserable lives and then dying. Under a cruel, tyrant king. And we scare him. We’re the ones who scare him. And yet, we’re still impotent against him.”

  “You’re right about that as well, brother. Everything you say is right.” Solar flopped down in the seat next to Javi and the two men sat shoulder to shoulder, lost in serious thought.

  “Oh, I forgot to tell you guys,” the Oracle said, his tongue sticking out as he dexterously tied the last knot on the colorful strings. “I have a plan.”

&nbs
p; Javi and Solar turned to look at one another. Twin looks of frustration, rage, and amusement crossed their faces. Javi turned away and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Oh? Do tell, wise Oracle.”

  “I didn’t tell you guys before because Solar’s not gonna like it, so I didn’t want to spoil the last few days with Zara. And then I forgot, but I remembered now. And that’s what counts.” The Oracle stood and crossed the room. He first grabbed Solar’s wrist and then Javi’s, tying matching embroidery floss bracelets onto the two stupefied men.

  “What the fuck is this?” Solar asked, holding his wrist up for inspection.

  “It’s a friendship bracelet,” said O. “See, all three of us have them now.” He held up his own wrist in proof. “So, do you want to hear the plan or not?”

  This time Solar joined Javi and both men pinched the bridges of their noses. “Yes, O. We want to hear the answer to our problems, please.”

  “Okay,” O said. “But you’re not gonna like it. Remember that I already know that when you’re tempted to yell at me, okay? And I’m merely a receptacle for an idea that was floating through the cosmos. Don’t blame the messenger.”

  “For the love of god, O!”

  “Tell us the fucking plan!” Javi and Solar yelled at the same time.

  The Oracle raised his hands in surrender and flopped down on the chair he’d been sitting in. “Jeez Louise. Fine. God. Everybody hates a disclaimer, huh?”

  “I’m leaving,” Solar said, rising from his chair and stalking to the door. “I’ve got a new mate waiting for me and I’m sick of this shit. Javi, you can tell me what the plan is when he finally gets around to telling you.” Solar stalked toward the door of the hut.

  “We use Zara.”

  The Oracle’s words froze Solar in his tracks. “What did you say?”

  Solar turned around slowly and the momentary grave look lining the Oracle’s face had his blood turning to ice. The Oracle was never serious.

  But the look fell away as the Oracle cocked his head to one side and leaned back in his chair like a man on vacation. “I said we use Zara to lure Dalyer out of hiding. Look, she hit fertility about a week early. We still have a few days until her actual 21st. And she was always Dalyer’s favorite wife. I saw it with my own eyes while I was living at the castle with them.”

  “You think he’ll leave hiding with the hopes of finding her and claiming her,” Solar’s voice dropped the temperature of the jungle about twenty degrees.

  “Well,” Javi interjected, scratching his beard in a way that told Solar he was actually considering this ludicrous idea. “Dalyer doesn’t know she’s hit her season yet. Or that she’s been claimed.”

  The Oracle put one finger in his mouth and snapped it out of his cheek. “Popped like a champagne cork.”

  “Jesus Christ, O!” Javi exclaimed, glancing at Solar.

  But it was a testament to how concerned this plan made him that Solar didn’t even comment on the Oracle’s absurdities. He turned to his comrades.

  “And how close to Dalyer would we have to dangle my mate in order for this plan to work? How long would she be out in the breeze? Waiting to be snatched up by the most evil, most disgusting, vindictive son of a bitch to ever walk the dragon realm?” His voice was finally rising.

  “The details of the plan haven’t been worked out yet,” the Oracle waved his hand through the air. “Mostly I was concentrating on getting you to agree to it first.”

  Solar paced across the small room, filled a tin cup with water, contemplated sipping at it, but set it down untouched. He refused to let his hand shake. Mind over matter.

  “If we did this, O, what would happen to her? Tell me.”

  The Oracle’s brow furrowed as he studied his friend. “You know I can’t tell you that, brother.”

  “Can’t or won’t?” Solar’s voice was rising again. “What’s the fucking use of having a fucking oracle around if he won’t ever tell you the fucking future?”

  Javi leaned back in his chair, out of the line of fire. He’d been down this road himself, when his wife died. And he’d come up against the same unfulfilling answers. He knew that all Solar could do right now was rage until he made peace with it.

  “Of course the answer is both can’t and won’t. No prophecy has come to me regarding what might happen with Zara if we do this plan. Probably because of the sheer quantities of mights and ifs.”

  “Then close your eyes, do your voodoo thing, and find the fucking prophecy!” Solar raked his hand painfully through his hair. He was losing his grip on the moment. On himself.

  The Oracle’s eyes went soft, kind, and utterly annoying. “Solar, you know better than most the dangers of soliciting a prophecy.”

  Solar picked up the cup of water and flung it to the side. Of course he did. He was still grappling with what he’d learned in his own fucking prophecy. He knew that. He would never want to burden Zara with a prophecy about her own life. It was hell knowing what was going to happen to you. It made your life into a cage. A one-way road. It trapped you into being a puppet in your own play. He’d never ask that of Zara. Or the Oracle.

  “Solar,” Javi said, his voice low and calm. “The reason you’re already so upset about this is because you’ve accepted the logic of it. The fact that it really might be the only way.”

  A strangled noise of frustration ripped its way out of Solar’s throat. “I can’t ask her to offer herself up like this without knowing I can protect her.”

  Javi and the Oracle exchanged weighted glances. Neither of them liked seeing their leader and friend like this. Solar was rarely unhinged or out of control.

  When O spoke, his voice was carefully monotone. The burden of his gift was, and always had been, to tell people what they didn’t want to hear. Mostly he chose a spoonful of sugar. Right now, he chose simple, clear, and inevitable. “Our future is defined by our choices. You know this. And asking for a prophecy is a choice. If we ask for this, get one, learn what’s going to happen, and then use it, we’ll be cementing the future in a way that becomes unchangeable. You know this, Solar. We’ve been through this before. There is no fate. There are only choices.”

  “I won’t make this choice,” Solar said and stood, facing the two other men. “I will never make the choice to put her in harm’s way.”

  “You won’t,” said Zara, her voice ringing clearly as she stepped into the hut. “But I will.”

  Javi and Solar whirled to look at her. The Oracle merely smiled to himself.

  “How did you-” Solar started.

  She cut him off. “I was coming to see if you were done with your meeting and I overheard.” She threw her arms up in the air. “You can yell about that later. But let’s talk about the matter at hand.”

  Zara turned to the Oracle. “I’ll do it. But we’d better act fast because the more time passes after my birthday, the less likely Dalyer is to believe that there’s still a chance to claim me.”

  O nodded. “I figure that gives us about four days of wiggle room.”

  “Wait a second here,” Solar cut in. “You two are acting like this is a done deal.”

  “It is,” Zara said, barely inclining her head toward him before she shifted back to the Oracle. “What do you think is the best way for him to know where I am?”

  “Well, the fertility scent thing you’ve got going on is our best bet, I think. And by the way, darling,” the Oracle said, leaning in. “Can I just say, you smell good enough to eat.”

  “OKAY!” Solar shouted, stepping in between them. “Will everybody just slow the fuck down, please?”

  Touching Zara calmed Solar. But not by a lot. He took a deep breath and turned to her. “Zara, why are you agreeing to this? It’s too dangerous.”

  Her eyes clouded for a second and she dropped them to the ground. He hated that. Over the last few days he’d gotten mighty used to her looking him dead in the eye. “You don’t know what it was like, Solar. The Oracle was there. He saw how Ki- how Dalyer treated me. The thing
s he made me do and say. The clothes he made me wear.” She shoved away from Solar. “I was his possession. Something he owned and bossed around and threatened. And the whole time I was just dreading the day I finally hit my fertility season. For me, it meant that my life would be over. Because I knew that no matter what I had to do, no matter what drastic measure I had to take, I’d never let him do that to me. Mate with me. Or claim me.”

  Solar felt as if there wasn’t any air left in the room at her words. The thought of her taking the messy way out made his blood curdle in his veins. “Zara,” he started toward her, but she held up a hand, warding him off.

  “No. Listen to me. I understand what you say about a global perspective. That this is about more than just our generation of dragon shifters. It’s about more than Dalyer. It’s about making sure his line dies out with him one way or another. I get that. I really do.”

  Her passion made color fly high in her cheeks. Her hair tumbled over her shoulders and her eyes were bright with emotion. “It might be risky. It might be too sudden for your taste, Sol. But mark my words. Dalyer is going to die. And if, in the course of the plan, something goes wrong and he gets close to me, then I’ll be the one to kill him. I’ll do it with my bare hands if I have to. With my teeth.”

  With that, she brushed the angry tears out of her eyes and brushed past the men, hurrying out of the hut and disappearing into the dim jungle.

  The three men stood stock still in the silence that settled in the wake of her speech.

  “Wow,” Javi said.

  “Yeah,” said Solar.

  “That was really hot,” said the Oracle.

  “Yeah,” said Solar again.

  He slowly sat down in his chair and dragged his fingers through his hair. But when he looked up, there was the fire of determination burning in his eyes. “Alright. This plan better be fucking perfect.”

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Zara had to fly. There was no other way to get rid of some of the insane energy and tension that dogged her. She didn’t usually mind the heat of the jungle. But suddenly, right now, the oppressive blanket of foggy heat had her feeling like she was going to come out of her skin.