by Maia Starr
Zaphira emerged back into the building as her formal meeting with the dragons had ended. She told us that, for our benefit, the men had transformed before hitting the surface so as not to scare us with their full forms.
I stared at her as she walked us through how to stand and what to say when the Weredragons approached. I couldn’t help but wonder what her life was like with the alien species and why she was so cold about the transaction. What had happened to make her mate return her to the Earth with such a sour interpretation of the experience when Amelia seemed so taken by her husband?
I blinked cautiously and once again looked to my sister, who seemed to have no reservations about the event. She smiled playfully back at me and widened her eyes as if to say she couldn’t believe her luck.
Though they had landed some time ago, I could still feel the heat of the Weredragon’s landing radiating towards me.
There were twenty altogether, which was more than we were told about.
“Probably crew members,” my sister whispered to me as she grabbed my hand with excited anticipation.
She was probably right. Though the Weredragons were able to fly through our atmosphere in their full form, they would need crew members and a ship to take us back to Udora. We were humans, after all, and last I checked I wasn’t able to breathe in space without combusting, which wasn’t exactly a ‘come hither’ look.
I breathed in and looked over the wild array of alien creatures before me. While taking on the male form, most still had wings and patches of scales scattered over their skin.
Their scales were all different colors, and their wings took on different forms. Some had see-through patagium – the membrane of skin that extended between the tips of their wings and their backs. Sort of like bat wings. While others had firm, strong wings that looked like impenetrable walls.
The men were all fit and sexy with toned bodies and sharp eyes. The way they looked at you was almost unreal. I barely had the words to process it in my own mind, but ‘striking’ had been an accurate portrayal. When they looked at you, you could tell they were staring straight into your soul.
My eyes scanned the men back and forth as they did the same with the women. The more I noticed we were all just checking each other out, the more I felt like I was at my junior prom – both sexes too nervous to approach the other.
This transpired for only a moment before one of the Weredragons broke their stance. Without a word, he glided over to a girl named Wynne and took her hand into his.
He had chosen.
And it was as simple as that. I couldn’t believe how quickly it had all happened. I looked to Zaphira with sarcastic surprise, and she shrugged playfully as she folded one hand atop the other.
“That was fast,” I whispered to my sister with a grin as I eyed Wynne down the row of women. “Guess that’s what you get when you keep your blouse undone,” I snorted.
“This feels like getting picked last in dodgeball,” she responded with a wrinkle in her nose. “I literally wore the sexiest thing I have, and they’re still picking skin over snug.”
“Snug?” I repeat.
“My outfit!” she protested childishly. “It’s, you know… snug!”
The Weredragons didn’t seem to appreciate us talking, as I noticed one dark-haired man frown at our gestures and swooped up to us in a hurry. His eyes were rounded and azure. I expected him to look more human than this, yet something about the way he looked at us sent a fire through me that I wasn’t expecting.
The girls who were not chosen as mates got to return to Udora for exactly one year to study their land and culture. After the year, we would have the choice either to return to Earth or have a representative beseech the Weredragon council on our behalf to stay for two more years to continue our research.
I had always assumed I would be the latter, but the longer I watched the Weredragons take their pick of the women I had come to know as friends, the more I resented not being chosen.
The man who approached us had dark features and deeply tanned skin with fluorescent purple scales that seemed to hum and breathe on their own every time the man moved. I was hypnotized by the beauty that exuded from the creature just feet from my face, yet at the same time, I desperately wanted to tell him to go away.
He watched my sister for just a moment before his eyes fixated on mine. No matter where I looked or how I shifted nervously, his eyes didn’t leave mine. Suddenly his azure gaze shifted, and for just a moment, he had a tall slit for a pupil that you might see on a snake. Or, you know, a dragon.
He locked my eyes with his and his scales began to glow. Then all of the sudden, they stopped and his eyes returned to the human pupils I was accustomed to.
“Are you going to pick one of us, or what?” I said finally; my tone coming off completely rude. Whoops!
My sister looked mortified, and the dragon looked amused. He furrowed his brows at me and offered a somewhat arrogant smirk.
“Is that an attitude deserving of a choosing?” he asked, now crossing his arms and leaning back on a wing that he had extended to the ground below him. He was tall and beautiful, and he looked at me with dark lashes and perfectly pointed lips. I felt my knees buckle in a way they hadn’t done since I was eight and kissed Tray Phelleps for the first time in the third grade.
I played coy with him and raised a brow, crossing my arm in mimic of his posture. “And what makes you think I want to be chosen?”
“Ha!” he laughed with a sarcastic demeanor and hopped up from his wing. We stared into each other’s eyes for some time, as though we were having a standoff of sorts. As much as I’d wanted to win our little contest, my eyes couldn’t help roving about his body. He pointed his index finger at me with a grin that said he’d caught me staring and looked entirely too proud of himself for doing so.
“So you don’t want to be chosen, huh?” he asked in perfect English. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. An accent, or something. Surely aliens should have had some kind of accent, I thought, but not him.
Before I could respond in kind, he turned around and spread his wings out fully. They were the kind that reminded me of the bat. The see-through membrane of his wing shimmered against the light, and the colors that reflected through the patagium were like a rainbow in an oil slick; all purples and deep greens swimming around a black atmosphere.
I blinked in surprise as his wings extended far out on each side and he turned around to regard the other Weredragon.
“What do you think, brothers?” he shouted with some authority. “Should I take the mouthy one off your hands and claim her as my own?”
I bit my lip with uncertainty and was surprised to see some of the Weredragons chuckling in response. Here I’d thought it was supposed to be a dignified event.
A beautiful Weredragon with blonde hair and white, wide-set scaled wings smirked and closed his eyes as he shook his head with bemused disapproval.
“That guy doesn’t think it’s a good idea,” I said with a lighthearted raise of my brow as if it were all a big shame that he couldn’t have me.
“That’s alright,” he said smoothly.
As he took my hand into his wide palm, I suddenly felt a sick rush of butterflies flow through me. I looked to my sister with surprise, and to my horror, she also looked shocked. I was unsure if I should be offended by the surprise that was plastered across her face, like she couldn’t believe her sister, of all people, was being chosen instead of her.
“I’ll take my chances,” he said and began pulling me away from our structured lineup.
“Wait, wait,” I said and tugged away from his surprisingly ginger grip. “If it’s all the same to you,” I whispered, leaning close to him. “I’m pretty good just being a nurse or a biologist or, hey, anything really, just not a wife.”
He raised a brow curiously and seemed to consider my words before gripping his long, scaly fingers back around my hand and pulling me forward. “It’s not all the same to me,” he shrugged with a spit
eful stare. “I have claimed you. That’s not a request.”
“Hey, you know who’s dying to be chosen?” I asked in my most obnoxious tone. “My sister.” I tried to spin on my heel and point to Meghan, who was now making humiliated eyes at me and waving her hands back and forth as if to dismiss us both. “She’s beautiful, don’t you think?”
“I don’t know,” he said as he looked her up and down before turning his eyes back to me, his scales once again glowing and fading as quickly as a breath.
“You… don’t?” I was dumbfounded. “Alrighty then,” I said under my breath. “Well, maybe you don’t know about human standards, but let me tell you, she’s a knockout. Me? I’m second rate, really. Second banana. Second born, even! You don’t want me; you want Meg.”
“Meg,” he repeated slowly and looked her over once more, his grip tightening around my hand as though he thought I would run. “I don’t think so,” he said wickedly as he leaned into me and bit his lip.
“Listen, sir,” I said through completely gritted teeth. “I’m sure you’re very nice, but I’m just not… lookin’. You know?”
I could feel the Weredragons around me swooping in at alarming speed and selecting their mates before whisking them back to the male lineup just twenty feet away. The force of the air behind their wings left heavy plumes of wind racing behind them. They flew in such quick succession, I nearly lost my balance.
The dragon steadied me with his grip and extended his wings to block the strong breeze from hitting me.
“That’s very polite,” I relented lowly and gave him a nod of approval.
“Ariella, stop,” Meg pleaded. “This isn’t funny. Just go with him.”
Great. Not only had I been chosen, I’d embarrassed my sister in the process.
I set my jaw and looked back at the dragon before me. I couldn’t believe how wrong everything was. I let out an uneasy breath and tried to convince myself he’d made a mistake, and soon Zaphira would be back to correct this royal screw up. But it didn’t happen.
He simply pulled me back to the lineup of Weredragons and before I could even exhale, all of the women had been chosen. What we were left looking at was a group of 18 hopeful, professional, respected women who had been rejected by a different species.
I had never imagined I would be on this side of things and couldn’t imagine what life on the ship would be like as we flew back to Udora. Would the women hate me? Would the friendships I’d made be reduced to jealous stares? How would Meghan feel?
I stared back at the women, in shock, my toes tingling from the sudden yet catastrophic change my life was about to take. My mind couldn’t comprehend what was happening, especially as I looked forward at the women on the other side and realized my sister had not been chosen.
Looking at her resigned expression made me feel angry. I wanted to turn back to my match and scold him for his ridiculous pick, but as I looked up to regard him from my 5’4 stature, I suddenly felt intimidated.
And I wasn’t intimidated by anybody.
Chapter Four
Caridan
Ikar stared at me with an intense gaze as we boarded our shuttle back to Udora. He hadn’t stopped staring since I’d mistakenly chosen a human mate without getting on my knees and begging him for the privilege.
I was forbidden from participating in a choosing, and going against Koth orders isn't something that goes unpunished.
That meant not only had I put my own life in danger; I'd also thrown Ikar's leadership into question with the Koth. I'd kept waiting for him to come up and reprimand me, but all he did was instruct me not to mate with Ariella. So long as I obeyed, he wouldn’t bring the choosing to the council’s attention.
Ikar and I weren't close. Bad history between us led to a growing dispute, but he liked to pretend as though he were above it.
While Zephira had encouraged me to participate in the choosing, in truth the whole thing started out as something of a joke. I’d watched the girl blather on and on during the choosing with no respect for us and no respect for the time and energy that had gone into making the event happen.
Yet, she didn’t even want to be chosen? Months of training for this ceremony all so she could come back to study us? That thought didn’t sit well with me. In fact, I found her wildly disrespectful… and so I chose her.
I’d only done it to scare the girl. To annoy her as much as she was annoying me. I kept waiting for Ikar to tell me I was banished from choosing by our council; that I was out of line and would be punished. I kept waiting for something to happen, but the farther we went along with the choosing ceremony, the more I realized nobody was stopping me. Before I knew it, the human and I were signing papers and being put into intake.
We sat in the shuttle and braced for takeoff to leave Earth. Just as quickly as we’d come to this blue planet, we would be on our way back home. That was fine by me. I was used to the effect high speeds had on my body from my own personal form of transportation, but I could tell some of the humans were still unaccustomed to it. Some of the women excused themselves soon after takeoff to be sick. Others casually unbuckled their seatbelts and began to walk around the ship like it was a vacation to be enjoyed.
My choice and I sat across from one another on parallel walls, facing one another awkwardly. Weredragons were confident by nature. I’d never seen one unsure of how to handle a human companion. In fact, most I’d known were already off trying to mate by now. I was not one to let a women stare me down, nor to ignore her, but I was so confused at the lack of repercussions I wasn’t sure what I should be doing.
Ariella wasn’t the most beautiful human I’d ever seen, but I did find myself staring at the blonde curls that fell down the sides of her face. I became fascinated by the way she used the strands as a shield against me. She’d gone back and forth between looking annoyed and looking afraid. I wanted to laugh, but said nothing.
She sighed finally as she loudly unbuckled her seatbelt. We hadn’t even exchanged names. I’d only known hers from Zaphira telling me about her and watching her sign our intake forms.
The woman had slight curves, which wasn’t something I was used to. When Weredragon’s pick a mate we tend toward exaggeration. Hips and curves and beautiful bumps to hold onto. Her hips were adequate, but she was bottom heavy and had small breasts from what I could gather.
I set my jaw as my eyes traced her form and I frowned inwardly, wondering if I should have bothered giving her a second look.
“Friends of yours?” she said sharply, finally catching my gaze. I followed her eyes to Ikar and Brenem, who were both cross-armed and staring my way.
“Not exactly,” I said quietly and met their glares.
Ariella widened her eyes and looked out the window beside her, turning her body half way before turning back to me with exasperation. “I don’t like them staring,” she said exasperatedly, though under her breath. “It makes me feel like I should be hiking up my skirt and putting on a show or something.”
I raised my brows with a beguiled curiosity and said, “You need to hike up your skirt for that?”
“Well, the show’s not that interesting,” she smirked. “Have to give the boys something to look forward to.”
“I suggest working on your routine then.”
She shrugged and suddenly seemed bored with me, sighing and turning back to the window.
“That’s it, then?”
She didn’t turn back to me. “Am I supposed to be thanking you, or something?” Her tone was in a whisper, at least. She knew better than to insult a Weredragon in front of his pack. “I told you I didn’t want to be chosen.”
“Then you shouldn’t have signed up,” I enunciated.
“Are we seriously fighting right now? Why don’t you go play with your friends? Wag your tails together and steal women, or whatever it is that you do.”
I could feel the fire burning down my throat as I swallowed hard against her comment. I exhaled audibly, and she heard my annoyance as I brea
thed again to try and calm myself.
“You’d do well to watch your tone,” I snapped quietly. “You forget yourself. I suspect you’ll learn to keep that in check quite quickly.”
Her blonde curls bounced in a hurry as she whipped back around to face me, a deep frown burying itself between her eyebrows. “You know there’s a non-violence clause in our contract, right?”
Ariella’s tone was sarcastic and strong, but my expression remained the same as I said, “You’d be surprised how little that matters.”
She looked at me with darkness in her eyes and set her jaw. “Your friends are still staring,” she snarled.
I looked over at my brethren next to me and raised by brows to them. “Problem?” I asked loudly.
The shuttle was quiet, with only the memory of my shout lingering in the crevices. Ikar looked calmly in my direction, but his hound Brenem was absolutely enraged. He approached me, with Ikar following slowly behind.
“That’s a nice little girl you’ve got there, Caridan,” Brenem said, crossing his arms in the hostile way I’d grown accustomed to. “Funny thing, that.”
“And yours as well,” I said.
My words were sarcastic, but in truth, he’d chosen beautifully. His mate was a woman named Harper. She had long brown hair and large, almond-shaped brown eyes that seemed to stare with an innocent intensity. She had a small waist and beautiful curves that made me want to grab her right then and there, but she was Brenem's. She sat in a flight row not far from Brenem. She peeked her head down the small shuttle hallway with heightened curiosity as the altercation began.
“She’s perfect,” he spat back. “And legal.”
“Funny, I don’t hear our Koth saying anything about it.”
He leaned against the wall and raised a brow, condescension dripping from every tone and every tap of his finger. “I think he’s still trying to decide what to do with you,” Brenem sneered, his scales now glowing with anger.
“Well!” came the jovial tone of Targeg as he approached us. He slapped Brenem hard on the back and gave a large grin as he said, “When our Koth finally decides, I bet we know who will be at his side, cheering on the penalty.”