Nabvan

by Celeste Raye

  “Are you being serious right now, or are you mocking me? I’m not used to you being nice, so I honestly can’t tell,” I laughed.

  “I’m being serious,” she chuckled.

  “Wow,” I breathed. “My first supporter. Boy, do I feel proud.”

  “Geez, it's almost like we're having a moment or something.”

  I ran my hand through my hair bashfully and grinned wryly. “I know, I feel disgusting.”

  The blonde laughed and set her hands on her thighs, looking down at the floor and avoiding my gaze. She was so shut off to friendship, to a real life here.

  I swallowed hard and set my hand on hers to get her attention. With a quick sigh, I said, “I have to tell you something.”

  “Oh no,” she blanched playfully. “This means we're actually friends, doesn't it? I confided in you; you're about to confide in me.”

  I paused for a moment that felt like hours, sure that her eyes were reading the truth in mine already. When she said nothing, I looked around the room and then blurted out, “I slept with Kavryiss...”

  “Ugh,” she groaned and pinched the bridge of her nose with annoyance. “Are you crazy? Or just plain stupid? These shifters need to keep their dicks in their pants. This shit can't keep happening.”

  I bared my teeth nervously and said, “I take it you're having Marina flashbacks?”

  “I'm having a 'what the hell is wrong with you' moment, yeah. So? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  With a slippery shrug, I smiled and said, “He sort of, it just h—”

  She cut me off. “Please don’t say 'it just happened' because that's basically the worst excuse for anything. Ever. Steps were taken. One decision after another. Then he was screwing you. That's not an impulse buy. He isn't gum!”

  My eyes went wide with embarrassment, and I laughed, “Geez! Point proven! Look...”

  “What?”

  I swallowed, but it was my pride this time as I said, “Boradrith has other mistresses.”

  “Huh,” she said.

  I watched the girl’s large blue eyes take on something of a shocked expression, and I felt even worse then. Even Athena was expecting the D’Karr to be faithful to me—the biggest pessimist in the world.

  “That's it?” I frowned. “Huh?”

  “Well, I don't know! I guess I find it hard to believe I don't think I've ever seen someone so in love with someone else since the two of you got together. He parades you around like...”

  I wrinkled my nose and filled in the blanks. “Like his one true happiness?”

  “Eww,” she said quickly. “Well, not so cheesy but, yeah. Still... you sure chose a hell of a dangerous guy to cheat on.”

  “It's not...”

  “What?” she laughed. “It's not cheating? Sorry, sugar, but unless he assaulted you, then it is. And you know one of the biggest reasons people get caught with affairs?”

  I shrugged.

  “Because people don't keep their mouths shut. So, I suggest that you and ole purple do exactly that!”

  The tears streamed down fluidly now, an endless stream of solemn tears. My chin trembled under the weight of my emotion, and I grabbed her hand into mine like a desperate child. “You're the only person I have in the world. Do you know what that's like?”

  “In fact, I do.”

  I licked my lips. “Nobody here believes in me. I have no one to talk to. The only person I had was Boradrith, and he doesn't love me.”

  She breathed carefully, “So you slept with Kavryiss?”

  I shook my head and lay it down on her thigh, still holding the cold towel to my cheek. “T-that's not what I meant.”

  “What is it then?” Athena asked as she rubbed her hand along my arm. I didn’t think there was anything maternal in her, but it turned out there was, and it was everything I needed. “Is this like... a full-blown affair, as in, you care about him?”

  “No, of course not,” I cried and then my heart fluttered. “I don’t think.” I shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought it was just sex.”

  “Right,” she paused and seemed to think about the sentence before she gave a small laugh and said, “With Kavryiss, really? How was it?”

  I looked up at her and laughed through my cries. “Good. Sweet. He's sweet.”

  The blonde blinked: deadpanned. “Kavryiss?”

  Another laugh. “Deep. Deep down.”

  “Way down,” she added with a grin.

  “I think I care about him,” I said with a drawn-out sigh. I hadn’t even thought the words until now. “He seems to…” I paused. “Don’t laugh. But he seems to believe in me.”

  “How does he feel about you?”

  “Oh,” I waved her off. “He hates me, but I guess that’s the theme of my life on Dobromia.”

  “I doubt it,” she soothed quietly, suddenly comforting once more. “Kavryiss is a warrior, that's all. They don't express like they should. Actually, that goes for most shifters. They're all alphas. He doesn't hate you, he just... likes to fight against you.”

  “Boradrith didn't,” I argued. It was all I knew here.

  “Boradrith... is a D’Karr. He has the means to impress and spoil you.”

  “If I were you... No, forget it!”

  “No, please!” I insisted. “Tell me!”

  “Keep going to Boradrith like you do... If you really have a plan for Earth to make an alliance or to help then, just continue as things are. But stop boning Kavryiss. If Boradrith is still parading you around like his grand prize then... I say run with it. If you really have aspirations to change the world? Do it. Don't let him stand in your way.”

  “Really?”

  She smiled. “I believe in you. That's one in a million. Don't let it be for nothing.”

  I nodded to her and picked myself up off the floor, asking her to take my son back to safety. Without another word, I left the D’Sharr’s quarters.

  Finding my way through the passages of the underground pit had become increasingly easy the longer I stayed on the planet. Maneuvering the quickest routes to the D’Karr’s bedroom became as easy as walking through my own house.

  I stood at the bottom of a long staircase in front of Boradrith’s door and stared at the doorknob. Athena encouraged me to pursue the relationship for political gain.

  It was a good plan.

  Yet, as I stared at the knob, I couldn’t force myself to turn it. With the crack of sun chipped off, the world had gone into complete darkness. There were guard’s everywhere now.

  I thought about sleeping with Boradrith, getting pregnant to appease him. I thought about how high he had built me up politically and all my visions for Dobromia’s future. He made these a reality for me. Yet, thinking about stepping into his room filled me with nothing but guilt and disgust.

  My mind flicked unwillingly over to Kavryiss, and my body erupted with butterflies. If he was really sleeping with someone else, as Sillevia suggested, then I wanted him dead. I wasn’t about to let another Weredragon break my heart.

  And it was just then that I realized my heart was with him after all. That was it. I wanted him.

  As though he could read my mind, the amethyst dragon approached me, his footsteps echoing through the metallic halls. He wore a large leather overcoat lined with thick furs. He looked handsome and sexy, and it was all I could do not to rip it off of him.

  Instead, I crossed my arms and gave a calculated smile. “If it isn't my friend Kavryiss,” I said seductively.

  “Friend,” he repeated as though he were testing the word in opposition.

  I raised a brow. “Or whatever we are.”

  He smirked. “I'm open to your interpretation.”

  “Well, you sleep with me and then go screw some shifters, so... if I knew what that meant, I guess I would know more about my standing with Boradrith, too.”

  He went to speak but then thought better of it. He narrowed his eyes and watched me carefully. Finally, he said, “I'm not sleeping with anybody.”

>   “Uh huh.”

  “Who told you that?” he demanded.

  “You know,” I said smugly; wistfully, “if I'm going to be with a cheat, then I'll at least stay with the one who makes me feel like a queen; not the one who talks down to me.”

  “I haven't been with anyone else,” he insisted and walked up to me, grabbing my arm and turning me to him.

  “Leave me alone,” I said and jerked away from his touch.

  His eyes were fiery and full of determination. He set his jaw and gripped my arm harder, pulling me toward him and kissing me. “I came looking for you,” he said forcefully.

  “Kavryiss,” my voice was thick with fury and fear as I pulled away from him and looked around the hallway. On any given night, it should have been crawling with the D’Karr’s warriors. “Look at where we are,” I seethed under my breath and enunciated, “Let me go.”

  “I want you,” he whispered with a husky breath.

  “Too bad,” I said scornfully.

  The dark shifter grabbed my waist and pulled me close to him, moving the hair away from my neck and licking and nipping at it lustfully. I could feel his dick harden and instinctively reached for it.

  “I need you,” he whispered.

  I scowled, stroking him with my hand. “No, you don't.”

  His eyes flicked back and forth between mine, and there was a sincerity there that I couldn’t read. “I can't stop thinking about you,” he said, casting lusty breaths into my ear as I worked the length of him in my hand.

  He grabbed my waist and pulled my skirt above my hips. He tested me with his finger and then all at once fixed himself inside me, filling me from wall to wall with a thick mass. I gasped at the intrusion and shook my head, trying to push him away from me.

  “Not here,” I begged, looking around frantically for anyone who might be watching from the halls. “Don’t do this; not here. Not while people can walk up.”

  “Diana,” he said, thrusting hard into me. “I can’t stop thinking about what it might be like for us…”

  “You can't stand me,” I said with a deep frown and wrapped my arms around his neck to steady myself before eagerly riding him, giving into the new emotions welling up in me.

  “I was with Tredorphen,” he said through his breaths, pulsing powerfully into my wetness.

  I watched him with lust and fear and wasn’t sure what the hell we were doing anymore. Did he want to come, or did he just need to possess me? Did he just want to feel me around him? Why was he talking so much?

  “Him and Marina, you should see it,” he said quickly.

  “This is really weird dirty talk,” I said with a confused smile and grinding against him.

  “I want that,” he said firmly. “All I want is what they have, with you.”

  “...I missed you,” I said in a quiet panic, breathing hard into his ear.

  He pulled his neck away to get a better view of me, and he smiled. “I love you,” he said, and I felt as though a seed was planted inside me: a flower bursting forth into life. A new love.

  I stared into his wide-set eyes and brushed his brows with my thumbs. With my best throaty, dismissive laugh I said, “No, you don't.”

  “No,” he said, almost humorously disgusted with himself, burying himself deep inside me. “I do.”

  “Well, I don't love you,” I whispered.

  “I think you do.”

  I thought about it and couldn’t rightly give him an answer. The sight of him filled my whole body with butterflies. When I saw his tall stature and thick wings, I wanted to be wrapped up in them, completely enveloped by his warmth and safety and beliefs. But I couldn’t be sure whether I loved him, or simply loved the way he made me feel.

  My lips grabbed his for one last sticky kiss, and I shrugged and said, “You can think what you like.”

  He went silent then and continued thrusting into me as we made love standing up in the hall of the Weredragon king’s quarters.

  Chapter 10:

  Kavryiss

  “I can’t help but notice that our little problem still hasn’t gone away.”

  Those were the smooth tones of the regal D’Sharr. She wore a long see-through gown that sparkled in the light of the sun that pitched through the opening of the pit. We stood in the grassy field, the only part of the pit that could produce food. It was just far enough from the sun to catch the beneficial light and deep enough underground to stay moist.

  I looked down at her small breasts that were thinly veiled through the silver material and quickly darted my eyes up to hers.

  “I’ve been busy,” I said lamely. “The D’Karr assigned me to the armory to… Erm… test the weapons for the sun.”

  “Ah,” she said with a flick of her brow, now turning to look at me. “And what a good choice that turned out to be.”

  “It didn’t go as planned,” I said self-consciously.

  “I hadn’t noticed,” she laughed and looked up at the sky, still littered with fallen blocks of sun. “I heard since your misfire, the topside has never been so dangerous. I heard two shifters died from the heat alone.”

  I nodded uncomfortably. This woman was truly testing my patience. I gritted my teeth and managed to push out, “We’re doing another run in just a few cycles.”

  “Take her with you then,” she waved regally, dismissing me. “See that she can get hit by a meteor or some such thing,” she said and gave a high-pitched laugh at the thought.

  I grinned half-heartedly, and she continued, “You are bedding her, yes?”

  I swallowed. “Yes.”

  “Good,” she exhaled. “Then it shouldn’t have been this hard to get close to her.”

  “The timing is…” I trailed off.

  “I imagine her death gets in the way of your fun then, doesn’t it?” she said quickly and reached down to pick up a small orb of vegetation that was growing from Graynar’s greenery. “Don't forget your mission. You are my warrior. This is your assignment. This is for the good of our people. Do you want her ruling over Dobromia? A human?”

  I shook my head. “No, of course not,” I said.

  But the truth was, I wouldn’t mind at all. In fact, the annoying girl had garnered my respect over the cycles. It turned out she was more than just something for the D’Karr to wet himself inside.

  She had good ideas; she was smart enough to know how to properly cultivate our land and use its resources to build useful structures. The more I thought about it, the more I wished she could take power. It was a mess of thought that hadn’t left my mind for the last couple cycles, but I couldn’t figure out an end-goal. Unless she stayed with the D’Karr.

  The thought made me sick: sent shooting, burning bile up my throat and rested there long enough to singe me.

  “I'm growing tired,” she said exasperatedly, her feminine, little voice never sounding so wicked. “I want this taken care of today. There are handsome rewards for you, Kavryiss.”

  I bowed my respect to her, and she began to walk away. Just as I was coming off my heel, she turned to me.

  “And Kavryiss?” she snapped. “It’s your head if this goes awry.”

  “Of course,” I said, another bow. “I won’t fail you.”

  I could hear her footsteps disappear behind me and another sick pang shot up my stomach. I thought about all the ways I could get rid of her: bring her out to the T’nemtar fields and wait for a burning remnant of the sun to destroy her. I could leave her to burn. Make love to her and strangle her.

  As the one the D’Karr and D’Sharr went to for exterminating problems, whether they be people or creatures from other planets, the thought of killing something never bothered me, until now.

  My mind whirled with excuses, reasons to make it okay to fulfill my mission. Then I realized I just couldn’t do it. I loved her, and apparently, that meant the end for me.

  In fact, I’d heard nothing of loving a human that ever brought a Weredragon solace. Tredorphen loved Marina and abandoned us all, Vaikrand be
dded Athena and had to fight to the death in a proving to stay alive, the D’Karr loved Diana and she was plotted against, and Aurlauc too loved Athena and seems tortured to no end by whatever went on between them.

  The list went on and on. I knew of different warriors who had dealings with human females, and their lives seemed to grow into one endless complication after another.

  Now I would risk my own life by disobeying the D’Sharr, all for a girl whom I wasn’t sure loved me.

  No, she did.

  I just don’t know if she did more than her desire to lead over Dobromia. And she deserved that, after all.

  “What are you doing?”

  The sudden sound made me jump back, my heart racing endlessly as I spun around and saw Tredorphen standing before me with narrowed brows. He folded his arms one over the other and traced his tongue around the inside of his mouth, awaiting an answer.

  I swallowed hard and set my jaw, defiant against the D’nebu’a.

  “What are you doing?” he seethed. “What does she have you doing? You’re going to kill her?”

  “It’s my mission,” I said tersely, trying to sound indifferent about my assignment. The blue-eyed shifter’s scowl ran deeper, and his eyes met mine with a sharp gaze. “What does it matter to you? You just got here,” I said, incensed. “And this is your mother you’re speaking of. Our D’Sharr. She wants it done. Am I supposed to say no to that?”

  He raised a brow and tilted his head ever so slightly. “I would.”

  I scoffed. “Then you forget what it's like to live here. You're not a warrior anymore. You've changed.”

  The golden shifter looked up, flapping his wings behind him and swaying his tail from side to side with irritation. He nodded in agreement and then said, “But everything's changing. Don't you see?”

  I stared at him and wasn’t sure how to respond. The truth was, I was jealous of what he had and the freedom he had to do it. He wasn’t stuck on Dobromia any longer. He didn’t have our problems.

  He had Marina: endless devotion and an Earth overflowing with food and resources.

  “Not all of us are so lucky. Not all of us can choose to leave or do as we please,” I snapped.