by E. A. James
Tanak paced around the bowl and looked at the sky. “I see they’re escalating their campaign against the planet. I only hope my people are safe up north.”
Margila glared at him out of the corner of her eye. Now that she took the edge off her hunger, her animosity returned. “Where did you get this meat? Did you steal a cow from one of the villagers? Who tied it up for you? I don’t think you could do that with your claws.”
“I didn’t steal it from anyone. I killed it in the forest on the other side of these mountains, and I cooked it with the fire from my own breath. You’re welcome, by the way. I can see you enjoyed it. That’s the most important thing to me.”
His words shamed her, and she sat back on the rock to chew her meat. “I’m sorry. Thank you. It’s delicious. Did you see many of those ships flying over?”
“I noticed a bunch of them hanging around the village and another group heading north to scout our territory. I imagine my people will be arming for war right now.”
Her heart beat with a faint hope. “Don’t you think you ought to join them? They probably need you fighting with them.”
“Not yet. I’ll go when you’re ready.”
“I’m ready now.”
“Does that mean you’ll mate with me?”
“Yes, I’ve decided. I’ll mate with you.”
“I mean, will you mate with me of your own free will? Don’t answer that. I can tell you’re getting ready to lie. You don’t really want me. You just want to get out of here. I won’t take you until you’re ready to give yourself to me with your whole heart and make the Raveniss your own people. Until that happens, we’ll stay here.”
“What if those ships wipe out the rest of your people? What will you do then?”
“Then it will be more important than ever for me to win your love. The two of us will be the only Raveniss left alive on the planet.”
Margila pulled her head down between her shoulders. “I will never be Raveniss. No matter what I do, I will never join your people.”
He collapsed on his side with a heavy sigh. “Very well. Have it your own way. I’m tired. I’m going to sleep.”
“How can you expect me to give myself to you when you keep me tied up as a prisoner here?”
He buried his head on his big front paws. “If I untied you now, you would run away the first time I left you alone. You will come around in time and agree to be my mate.”
He closed his eyes, and in a minute, a loud rumbling snore came out of his body. His sides rose and fell with his breath. Margila studied him. She loathed him more than ever, especially for his kindness. She resolved not to let his care break down her hatred. He was only being nice to her to get what he wanted. In the end, she was nothing but a prisoner and a slave.
She looked all around the bowl for some sharp rock on which to sever the ropes that bound her. The rock on which she lay gave her enough warmth to keep her comfortable in her thin dress. When she tried to rub her bonds against the corner, it crumbled into sand. She crawled off it to search for something harder, but the moment she hit the ground, the cold seeped into her bones. Tanak was right. She couldn’t survive if she ran away.
She retreated to her rock and lay down in despondent despair. Should she starve herself? That was the only way to thwart his plans. She already gave herself up for dead when she took part in the lottery. She would lose nothing by killing herself, but she could strike a blow against the Raveniss.
Then her eye fell on Tanak. He slept in peace a few dozen yards away. He trusted her, as far as she could move tied hand and foot. Maybe he told her the truth, and the Raveniss really were a peaceful race. She couldn’t deny her own people harbored murderous intentions toward the dragons.
No one ever talked about why the dragon-slaying knights first set out to annihilate the Raveniss from the face of the planet. Even the village’s own legends said the dragons didn’t come in force to devastate the crops and burn the village until centuries after the dragonslayers first waged their campaigns against the dragons.
The humans never once considered leaving the dragons alone to live their lives. Why had they slaughtered so many dragons, when they weren’t dangerous in the first place?
How many innocent virgins has the village sacrificed over the years? They could have avoided all of that, had they left the Raveniss in peace.
Then the reality hit her like a ton of bricks. All those virgins weren’t dead, the way the villagers thought they were. They were all still alive, living their lives and raising their children with their Raveniss mates. What were their lives like? What were their children like? If only she could catch a glimpse into that world, even if only for a fraction of an instant, she might make her decision easier.
She would never know the truth, though. Tanak would never allow her to know what their lives were like until she agreed to mate with him. She shuddered at the thought. She could never do that. She could never give her body to a thing like that, a devil serpent. The very thought disgusted her beyond endurance.
As if in answer to her thoughts, Tanak stirred and raised his head. His slanted eyes flickered open, and he regarded her with that inscrutable gaze of his. “Did you sleep?”
“No.”
“You should have. You need your rest.” He got up and stretched. When she didn’t answer, he came toward her. “Is anything bothering you?”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“Of course.”
“What’s it like, where you come from? What’s it like, in your stronghold, where the other human women live?”
“It’s a lovely place, full of light and laughter and music. It’s much nicer than your village.”
“Are the women happy there?”
“Very happy.”
“I wish I could see it for myself. Not knowing is the hardest part.”
“I’m afraid I can’t let you see it until you make your decision.”
“What are the children like? What sort of hybrid comes from a cross between human and dragon? No, wait. Don’t answer that. I don’t think I want to know.”
He put his head on one side and studied her. “Why don’t you want to know? What made you change your mind about asking me?”
“Because I will never mate with you. I don’t care if the children are the most beautiful creatures in the world. I’ll never let you touch me, let alone.....” She shuddered. The thought turned her stomach.
He lowered his head until he came level with her eyes. His head inched closer and closer until his breath warmed her through her dress. The tingle of excitement scorched her flesh, the same way it did back at the mountain where he found her. He smelled her through her clothes.
She wanted more than anything to turn her face away, but his eyes held her enthralled. Her ripe petals unfurled to invite him between her legs, and a delicate blush colored her cheeks.
His nostrils flared. He smelled her desire. He could hear her heart beat and her breath rasp in and out of her lungs. He sensed the convulsive twitching of her inner channel in her aching need for...
She forced that thought out of her mind. She couldn’t dream about him. She couldn’t fantasize about a dragon inserting its flesh into her. She wouldn’t be human if she gave in to the craven hunger burning her up from the inside.
With all her strength, she turned her back on him and sank down onto the rock. The volcanic heat radiating into her bones only made her desire blaze hotter. She stretched out at full length and let the heat melt her anxiety and tension away. She no longer cared if he took her or not. She was no longer human, anyway. She was nothing but a pulsating mass of primal instinct.
She wanted him. She wanted him far more than she ever wanted Marcus. That’s the real reason she managed to keep her virginity against all Marcus’s efforts to take it. She never really wanted him in the first place—not like this.
Something in Tanak’s eyes, in his flesh, in his skin, blasted away her inhibitions and left her panting and moaning in agony for hi
m. Nothing could satisfy that craving but him.
All those other women who mated with Raveniss must be very happy they did. If the dragons excited them as much as Tanak excited her, she would eventually mate with him. It was only a matter of time.
The dragons’ bodies didn’t damage them or tear them apart. How did it work? She didn’t care. She wanted him inside her. She wanted to hurl herself on him and destroy herself against him.
He didn’t notice or pretended not to. He turned away and went back to his place. She extended her bound arms above her head and undulated against the rock. Was he watching her? Did she excite his passion as much as he excited hers?
He wasn’t watching, though. He kept his back turned, so he didn’t see her antics. She rolled over on her side and closed her eyes. She didn’t have to bother telling him anymore that she didn’t want to mate with him. He already knew the truth.
At that moment, a massive explosion rocked the whole mountain. It knocked Margila off her rock onto the cold ground. She fought to sit up in time to see one of those vehicles soaring over the bowl. A blast of some bright light burst from its nose and slammed into the mountainside. It shattered the boulders overhead and sent rocks tumbling down on top of Margila and Tanak.
Margila cried out in surprise, but she couldn’t get away with her ankles tied. Tanak crossed the bowl with one hop. “They’re attacking!”
“Who?”
“The fleet—whoever they are. You know better than I do who they are. You tell me.”
“The Axis Joint Command. That’s all I know. I overheard my father talking to one of them.”
“They must have seen me on their last flight over. They want to kill me and move on north to the Raveniss stronghold.”
“Isn’t there anything we can do?”
Another blast pounded into the mountainside. One whole side of the bowl collapsed in a shivering pile of rubble. Boulders bounced around Margila. She covered her head with her arms for protection and screamed.
“Get on my back. We have to get out of here.”
“I can’t. My legs are tied together.”
He didn’t take a moment to react. His head darted out and he lifted her up. He draped her across his back and took to the air. The bowl’s rim fell away. Margila tossed on Tanak’s back, but she dared not move around too much for fear of falling off.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of the ship in hot pursuit. It fired on Tanak, and the sizzling blast sailed past his wing.
He didn’t turn around. With a few powerful thrusts of his wings, he left the ship far behind. It broke off its pursuit and returned east, the way it came. “They must be operating from the village.”
“How can you be sure? Did you fly over there since you took me from the mountain?”
“I haven’t been back, but it’s the only place that makes sense. They can park their ships on the Common and barrack their troops with the villagers.”
Margila didn’t argue. How could her quiet little village be transformed into a battleground in the short time since she left it? She didn’t have to ask that question. Her village would do anything to get rid of the Raveniss, even if it meant cooperating with a tyrant like Major Bloodkist.
Her heart sank when she thought of her father and mother hosting that man in their own home. They let him parade around the village in his dress uniform and pretend he was saving them from the dragon menace. How could they?
Then again, how could they do anything else? They just lost their only child, their daughter, to the dragon. To them, she was dead. They had no idea another life waited for her in the far north. They had no idea the very same Major Bloodkist would kill her along with the rest of the Raveniss.
Tanak landed on another mountaintop far away from the last one and Margila slid to the ground. No volcanic caldera sheltered them here. The bitter wind scoured the peak and moaned among the rocks. It blew right through her thin dress and chilled her to the bone. The ground on which she sat froze her even more.
Tanak checked the sky. Then he noticed her huddled on the ground. “I’m sorry I couldn’t find a better place for you, and you must be hungry. I was just about to go hunting when that thing came along. The night is coming on. We’ll have to spend the night here and move on in the morning.”
She couldn’t answer through her chattering teeth.
“Come here and lie against my side. I’ll keep you warm.”
He curled his long body around her. A mesmerizing heat radiated from his skin and penetrated her frozen limbs. She rested her head and side against his bulk. His body rose and fell with his breath. “Tanak?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t you think you could untie me now? I couldn’t run away now if I wanted to.”
He didn’t answer for a long time. “All right. I suppose I could.”
He didn’t move, though, and neither did she. They just lay, one against the other, in the peace of the moment. “Tanak?”
“What is it?”
“You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”
“What possible reason could I have to lie to you?”
“You wouldn’t tell me it’s nice in your northern kingdom when it isn’t, would you? You wouldn’t lie to me about that just to get me to consent to mate with you, would you?”
He let out a long breath. “I have no reason to lie to you about that when I want you to love me and be happy there. If I lied about it, you would discover the truth as soon as I took you there. That would defeat the purpose, wouldn’t it?”
She didn’t answer. She hid her face against his side.
“I’m not lying about it, Margila. The women who come to live with my people are very happy. They live in a beautiful, safe city far away from war and hunger and strife. Their children receive the best education available anywhere in the galaxy. They grow up tall and straight and strong, and they take their place in our society with honor and support from the whole community. You have nothing to worry about for your life in the north or from my people. You have only to love me. Everything else will take care of itself.”
Her shoulders shook with emotion. “How can I love you? You’re a dragon, and I’m human. I’m not supposed to mate with you. I’m supposed to mate with another man of my own kind. That’s only natural.”
“Look beyond my appearance. You know me well enough by now to know I would never lie to you or harm you in any way. Can you love me for myself, in spite of being different? Can you let yourself share your heart and your life with me?”
“I only wish I could. Everything would be so much simpler if I did.”
He rumbled deep in his chest. “There’s no hurry. We have all the time in the world.”
She let the subject die and fell asleep there, against his side. He wrapped his long tail around her to keep her warm, and the wind pounded against his back and blew over her head.
CHAPTER SIX
Margila woke in the first light of dawn and looked around her. The ropes that bound her wrists and ankles for the last days lay in shreds on the ground. She rubbed the painful welts on her skin and moved her arms and legs freely for the first time since she was bound.
Tanak lay in the same position, with his body wrapped around her and his skin glowing with heat to keep her comfortable. She stood up and stretched her legs. She got a good look at rugged mountain ranges running away in all directions. Not a single house or wisp of smoke interrupted that wilderness. She sat back down in the pocket of warmth against his side.
His voice rumbled inside his chest. “Good morning. How are you today?”
“I’m very well. Thank you for letting me go.”
“You’re welcome.”
She looked up into his face. “I feel like we can talk for the first time since you took me from the mountain. I feel like there’s nothing standing between us anymore.”
“I’m sorry I had to keep you tied up. I shouldn’t have.”
“Oh, yes, you should have. You were right about me.
I would have run away the very first chance I got, even if it meant dying in the mountains. I didn’t care, as long as I got away from you.”
“And now? Do you still want to run away?”
“You were right about something else. I have nowhere to go. My only option is to go north with you.”
“Are you prepared to do that?”
She stared down at the ground. “I want to go north. I want to start a new life with your people, but I would be lying if I said I wanted to mate with you. I care about you, but I don’t feel that way about you. I’m sorry.”