by Naomi Lucas
But his tongue…
He releases my breasts, sliding them down my body, moving so gently they don’t even disturb the bruising on my sides. He tears apart my pants, pulling them off me.
Zaku moves my body between his, laying me fully on the length of his tail. His eyes are almost human, and for an instant he’s just a man of my species, but then his forked tongue appears again.
“Beautiful female,” he says, licking the air. “You have made me happy. I am honored. You rest naked and wet and open on my tail. I am pleased.”
I grow warm from his words.
I’ve pleased him.
Zaku’s eyes drop back down to my chest, and further still, wandering to the rest of my body. I curl my toes realizing the position I’m in and how vulnerable I’ve become.
How did this happen so fast? How? His tail undulates again, and I feel him everywhere. His scales, his heat, his muscles…
Something hot splashes my belly, something much hotter than the water.
I strain my head to look between us and see his cock poised above my splayed sex, the head angled toward it. Seed is leaking from the tip and onto my body.
Fear returns hot and fast.
“No!” I jolt upright, pushing at Zaku’s chest and climbing off his tail. I turn to face him, plastering my body against the glass wall that separates the shower from the sink, blocked in by both sides of the shower, by his tail. I curl my arms over my breasts again, a hand protecting my sex.
“No,” I say again, almost whimpering. “We have a deal.”
He reaches for me, and I turn away.
“I was not going to…”
His hands never meet my skin.
I hear him hiss—and perhaps inwardly curse me. “I can’t,” I whisper.
I need to know he’ll be true to his word. I need to know he won’t betray me like Peter, like my own kind.
I’m desperate… to be able to trust someone again.
I feel him move away, feel it in the way the shower sprays me as he slips out. The air cools without his presence.
Without opening my eyes, I sense that he’s gone, that he’s left me alone. I slide down the glass with a soft sigh... and suddenly I’m splaying my fingers through his seed on my stomach and rubbing it into my skin.
I’ve lost my mind.
But…
I can trust him.
Fifteen
Chains
Daisy
It takes me some time to wash the soap out of my hair and clean my body. I make doubly sure any grime that has gotten on me is scrubbed off. I don’t have any open wounds, only scrapes. I clean them thoroughly anyway, not wanting to risk infection. An alien bacterial infection. I gulp. I don’t want to get sick here on Earth.
I’m also hoping that if I scrub hard enough, long enough, I’ll scrub the way Zaku’s making me feel, scouring it right out of me.
It’s his damned scent. I know it is.
Though I don’t smell him right now, I still can’t get him out of my head.
I can trust him. Hope constricts my chest.
Wrapping a towel around my body, I leave the shower and peek out the bathroom door. Zaku’s on the other side, wet and dripping and splayed out in sunlight that’s beaming into the room through the window. With his cowl wide around his face and arms crossed over his chest, he’s leaning back on his tail. He looks like a god. A strange, alien snake god.
He straightens when he sees me.
And puffs out his chest.
“I need new clothes,” I tell him, checking him out, sliding my eyes to his pelvic region. Relief fills me—and perhaps a little regret—when I don’t see his monster. “I’m going to just… go to the closet over there.” I point toward it. He won’t deny me clothes, will he?
“I have something for you.”
I suck on my lip. “It’s not a head, is it?”
His eyes glint. “No, not a head. Another gift. One you might like better.”
I see something in his hand as his fingers uncurl away from his palm. Whatever it is catches the sunlight and flashes with brilliance, shooting rainbows across the room. I flinch, shielding my face, thinking he’s shooting me with something. When nothing hits me, I lower my hands.
Rainbows streak across Zaku’s tail, his rippling muscles, all coming from the thing he’s holding. My lips part. He jangles it, and the room glitters with another burst of brilliant color. Dazzled and curious, I blink rapidly, clearing my eyes.
Whatever he’s holding doesn’t look like clothes.
It looks like—I squint as my eyes adjust to the sparkling light—strings of jewels? Maybe crystals…
Or diamonds?
My whole body goes on alert. If what Zaku is holding are diamonds… adding that to the wealth of jewels I’d seen in the closet… he might be the richest being in this galaxy. Maybe all the galaxies.
Diamonds are exceedingly rare, especially those from Earth.
There’s a whole other reason The Dreadnaut has been sent to Earth, and it’s not entirely for lost technology. Every human in the universe knows of the wealth that’s been trapped on our home planet, wealth that’s unguarded, unprotected, and ripe for the taking. A lot of people want that wealth, and no one more than the government and the royals. I’d heard enough chatter in the academy to know that the government isn’t just going to let people return to Earth and steal that from them.
Greedy bastards, all of them.
I hate working for them. I only kept piloting because there were innocents out there—children—who needed saving, and also because if I quit, I’d sink to the lowest caste. I’d be a dregger.
I’d do anything to not be a dregger. Dreggers have no rights.
Zaku curls his fingers, and the sparkles—the rainbows on the walls—vanish. My chest feels lighter once they’re gone. He shifts from his cocky posturing and slithers to me and out of the sunlight. I sniff the air, and when I smell nothing, I open the bathroom door a little further, clutching my towel and stepping out.
His eyes drop to my body. I hold my towel tighter.
“You’ll wear this,” he hands me the glittering thing he’s holding, “and I will enjoy the sight of you while I rest. I will enjoy your beauty.”
Taking the sparkling thing from his hand, making sure I don’t accidentally touch him, woven chains fall from my fingers, each attached to a black leather band. “This… isn’t clothes.” Stretching the thin chains out, my eyes go to the crystals. “This won’t cover any part of me,” I mumble, trying to see how something like this would even be worn, mesmerized all over again.
“I don’t want you covered.”
I gulp, bringing the jeweled chains to my chest. “I don’t think this is safe. I can’t accept this, Zaku.” Not at all. Not. At. All. What he’s giving me is little more than jewelry and nothing else. I’d be exposed, completely. The chains cover nothing.
I also don’t think I deserve to wear such wealth, if my pounding heart has anything to do with it… I hope it’s only crystals that I’m holding.
Zaku lifts his hand and twirls a strand of my damp hair with his finger. “If you’re afraid they will chafe your scrapes, I will pet and soothe your skin. I will enjoy it. It will give me time to learn you.”
“I can’t.”
“You can. You will. It is what your king wants.”
“What about what I want?”
Zaku tilts his head. “Your freedom?” He indicates the door to the room with his chin and my gaze snaps to it. It’s open. “The house is yours. The robots are yours. They will listen to anything you ask of them, except opening the front door. They will not release you.”
I shiver. “And you promise it’s my choice—” I lick my lips “—when, uh—” and I feel my cheeks heat “—when we—”
“Mate?”
My eyes flick back to his. I nod.
“It is your choice,” he says.
“Can I go outside, ever?”
“With me by your side,
you can.”
I glance at the chains in my hand, the black leather band. “How long do I have to wear this?”
Zaku gently pulls the chains from my grip, letting them fall between us. “Until I have had my fill of your beauty. Until I have memorized you.”
That’s not a good answer. He may want to gawk at my human body for weeks—months. I startle, realizing I might be here for that long, or more. But my skin warms at his compliment, and I am intrigued.
If Zaku were a human, I would think he was playing a huge joke on me, except he isn’t a man, and he’s not. “Okay.”
His gaze smolders at my acceptance. He lifts the chains above my head, unclasping the collar. “I will give you more gifts than this,” he rumbles. “Gather your hair.”
Digging my nails into my towel, I swallow thickly. “You don’t need to win me with gifts. Kindness is enough.”
“I have already won you.”
My lips purse.
I eye the exit behind Zaku and swallow again. The room is warm, my cheeks warmer, and my belly is twisting up with starflies.
“I can be kind,” he says. “I am out of practice, but I can be kind. I think.”
My gaze goes back to him as he sends the starflies dancing.
I let my towel drop to the floor and gather up my hair, meeting Zaku’s waiting eyes.
He keeps them despite my nudity and works the delicate chains over my head, over my arms. I shimmy, threading one arm through, and then the other, helping him out, knowing all the while, every inch of my body and all its flaws are exposed. Zaku positions the open band around my neck and latches it at the back. Once it’s on, I let my hair fall.
Tense, neither of us move as silence fills the space between us.
I drop my gaze from his to look down at my new adornments.
There’s one thick central chain that falls from the band, down to my navel where it forks, draping around my hips before returning up my back. Thinner chains drape from the collar, landing like necklaces, falling across my collarbone and breasts. They stop an inch above my nipples. From those thinner chains, two branch off, wrapping my upper arms, accentuating my neck and chest, my curves.
Throughout the piece, there are jewels. Crystals, I reassure my mind. More than I can count.
“Beautiful,” he says.
I bring my arms up to hide my breasts. He’s looking at me like I’m the sun, the stars, and the magical nebulas of space. His hands open and close. His tail coils around my ankle.
I wish my body was as beautiful as he says it is. I wish my bruises were healed. I’m glad he knows nothing about my past…
I lower my face.
His fingers clasp my chin and lift it, forcing me to meet his eyes. “It is time to rest now, Daisy. I am tired. I want to enjoy you. I want you to enjoy me.”
“Okay.”
What else can I say?
He smiles, revealing his fangs. “Good.” His tail strokes the sensitive skin behind my ankle. “Lead me to my nest, female.” His fingers drop from my chin. “It is time for my queen to give her king a gift in return.”
I step out from his tail and start walking toward the bed. He grabs my arm.
“Take my hand,” he says when I look back at him. His eyes trail across my backside.
It’s only several steps. I grab the hand he offers me.
When I’m at the edge of the bed, I stop, waiting for another cue. Why am I so nervous? I realize I’m waiting for the ball to drop, for Zaku to do to me like Peter has, like others before him have. He slides into the bed and lies back upon the silken pillow. With his hands behind his head, he looks at me.
Once again, he looks like he could be a god. All gold, all big, all potently male.
His tailtip slices through the air and tugs my hair, making my whole body jerk. The sun catches the jewels on my chains, filling the bedroom with sparkling wonder. I gasp, and he lets it go.
Awed, I turn away from him and walk into the sunlight.
Zaku doesn’t stop me, though his tailtip follows, stroking my ankles. Mesmerized, warmed, and feeling oddly freed, the rainbows streak over the floors and walls with every move I make.
After a while, I forget my nudity. I forget the aches in my body, the bruises on my skin, and even the circumstances I’m in, unable to look away from the splendor. I’ve never created anything before except tears.
The sun begins to set as my hair dries in silken waves down my back, as I hold onto this moment as long as I can.
When the sun lowers and my sparkles vanish, I press up against the window and watch Earth fall into a purple twilight. It looks empty and serene—peaceful—like no matter what happens, everything will be okay.
The room is in shadow when I face Zaku again.
He hasn’t moved, though his gaze is hooded, dark, like molten fire.
He looks wicked.
I feel beautiful.
For an instant, I consider crawling up onto his tail and straddling him.
“Come here, Daisssy,” he hisses my name when I just stand there.
I walk to the edge of the bed, and his tail coils up my leg. He reaches out for me to join him.
Staring at his outstretched hand, I slowly take it, climbing into the bed with him. A bed he calls a nest… Zaku shifts and herds me to his side, his giant tail moving to drape around all sides of me, closing me in. He presses me up against him, and I wait for him to do more as his hand cups my shoulder.
But his breaths even out and his hand loosens, slipping down my arm a short time later.
My heart calms, and I relax.
Sleep takes me away.
Sixteen
Morning Light
Zaku
I wake, warm and content. The past weeks have seeped from my limbs. Twirling a silken strand, I have the most beautiful female in all the universe at my side, her leg hooked over my tail and her hand on my chest.
She is asleep. Against me. I have never slept next to another. My mother did not birth a full litter, and so I never had to share my mother’s nest with siblings.
I’m sharing my nest now, and it is everything I have dreamed about.
Rumbling a low hiss, I release Daisy’s hair and play with the chains at her back. Her skin is flushed this morning, the red of her scrapes now a soft pink, and her bruises are yellowing. She will become more beautiful as she heals. I long to see her in all her glory.
I envy me for claiming her. No male deserves the most beautiful female in the land more than I.
I only want to be surrounded by beautiful things. I deserve the best.
My rumbles deepen. I have earned them.
Soon we will mate, soon my member will be lodged deep inside her, and she will remain on it, the flower to my stem, forever. She will give me young, gestate many litters—live well and long by my side—and raise our offspring.
It’s been so long since I saw a young naga. Decades. The female young who were birthed were adopted by unmated adult naga females and taken west. Males, like me, were left behind with their fathers.
I do not have to worry that Daisy will die like the females of my kind. Humans have safely brought children into this world far longer than I’ve been around. They will continue doing so long after I’m gone. Her being here is proof of that. I have a human medical pod just in case…
Though… I have never seen a pod that could fit a naga. I wonder why.
Catching a new strand of Daisy’s hair, I rub it between my fingers.
Seeing the humans’ ship descend from the sky has changed my plans. I’d thought about journeying west again to search for the lost ones, to try and help them. I expel the old plans from my mind.
I am glad I waited.
Everything is perfect—everything except my swollen member. I glance down at where it’s sticking out like a slightly curved pillar from my tail. I clutch the base with my free hand and slide my palm up my length, squeezing the bulge that has only grown. Seed bursts from my tip.
I
grit my teeth.
Some of the seed drips over the side of my tail and onto the bedding between Daisy and me. Groaning, I do not want any more of it to go to waste. I gather what I can and rub it over her skin.
She mumbles and shifts. She doesn’t wake up.
Excited, remembering our deal, I drop my hand, coiling my tailtip around my member.
I yank my shaft while I lift, shifting so I’m on top of her, gently positioning her below me. Arching my tail so my member won’t bump her, I squeeze my length hard, imagining so much more.
I hiss low and deep. My nostrils flare as my knot grows from the attention. I gather as much seed as I can endure, staring at Daisy’s slumbering, soft face. Slipping my tongue out from my mouth, I lash the empty air between our faces, wishing I was lashing her body. But if she wakes, she may stop me, and though I have every right to do as I will up to the point of mating, she might balk and try to flee.
I can’t let that happen. This moment is perfect.
She’s under me, soft and sweet, so small she could be nothing more than another pillow on my nest. Yet she’s in it, and she remained in it the whole night, letting me enjoy her warmth. My gaze streaks to the chains bunched up around her breasts and the glittering diamonds that tease her nipples.
I grip the bedding on either side of Daisy’s head, tearing it with my nails, rocking my hips, rutting my coiled tailtip.
She moans, brings one of her hands up, and swats her nose. Tensing, I go still, waiting to see if she wakes up. She moans again, and I lean on my right arm, deciding to shift to her side. I never get a chance to.
Her eyes flutter open.
Widening, they land on my face. The glare of sleep vanishes from her irises instantaneously, and her body loses all its sweet looseness.
We stare at each other. She’s stopped breathing. Her lips part and I can tell she’s trying not to scream—trying not to move. Because she knows if she does, even a little, she’d still be trapped under the cage of my arms, and right now, I’m barely touching her.
If she tries to flee, I’ll grab her and pull her against me. Daisy fears our differences, I sense it.