by Stella Sky
“I understand,” Baca said.
It was a stressful voyage. I had to face a close friend and someone I considered to be a second father only to discover that he was a traitor. He was the cause for it all. He was the cause of the opposition uprising, and now I did not see that cause going away. It was only getting stronger. Then I had to deal with the new information that there was a new Draqua out there that was more dangerous than any I had ever known. I wondered how long it would be before they showed up on Kelon. It was probably only a matter of time
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MELODY REEVES
I was worried as I always was when Cylo was not with me. He had a habit of doing this. First, he left me on that cliffside when he went to jump back in the water to get gold from his ship with a monster trying to kill him. Then he left me on the island of Kila alone as he fought his brother. Both times he had me terrified that he was going to die, and now I was worried again. He had been gone for three days.
“He will be fine. He and Baca are a good team. There is nothing to worry about,” Jix said as he whispered to me.
“I know I just can’t help it. That planet is very dangerous. I’ve seen what lives there,” I said.
There was a knock at the door. “Who goes there?” Jix shouted.
“It is Umbvo Corist,” the fisher Draqua said through the door.
Jix opened the door just a crack and said. “Umbvo, this will have to wait. The king is very busy for the next couple of days. I will call for you when he is ready to see you.”
“But it cannot wait. There is a problem with the fisheries on the south side of the island,” I heard him say.
“Show him to the throne room, Jix,” I said.
“What my queen?” he asked.
“Show him to the throne room. I’ll hear his problem and see if I can be of help,” I said.
“But…”
“Just do it,” I said. Minutes later, I was wrapped in long robes. I was not going to wear the island loincloth and tube top bikini with a sheer dress in my pregnant state. I sat in the throne room and listened to the fisherman’s problem. I offered up a solution, and Jix listened. He agreed with it. I put the solution into action, and before I knew it, I had seen four more Draqua and helped to resolve their problems. It felt good to be of service and to help instead of sitting on my butt all day. Then I realized something, thinking about all the time that I had stayed away from politics with my father. Here I was now actually doing exactly that: practicing politics. I laughed to myself. He would be proud of me.
The next day was another excruciating waiting game. Then a gust of wind hit my face. I looked up to see Cylo standing on the veranda.
“Cylo! Thank god! I’m so happy to see you!” I said as I walked to him and threw my arms around him.
“Mmm… it is good to see you,” he said hugging me.
“I thought you might be hurt. I’ve been so worried,” I said.
“I promised you that I would return, and I always do,” he said kissing me on the forehead. Then he moved into the chambers. “What happened?” I asked.
“A lot. Where is Jix?” he asked.
“He is standing guard outside the door today. I needed a little privacy this morning,” I said as he gave me a look like he was not happy that Jix was not in the same room with me. I was very aware of the dangers that anyone could fly onto the veranda, but I needed privacy! I was a pregnant woman!
“I will tell you everything, but let me get Jix,” he said. He returned with Jix, and they quietly spoke.
“We found Candris, and it is much worse than we thought. He was not only leading the opposition, but he was doing more than that,” Cylo said.
“What was he doing?” I asked.
“He was creating a mating program of sorts with Draqua. He was crossing them with other alien species to see what happened,” Cylo said.
“What? That is insane. How long was he doing this?” Jix asked.
“Years, judging by the fully grown Draqua we encountered that were mixed with Aeriwana,” Cylo said.
“Aeriwana! What?” Jix said.
“Yes, keep your voice down. There is a big problem. The Draqua we encountered mixed with Aeriwana had my powers of persuasion,” Cylo said.
“Mind control?” I asked.
“Yes, exactly, only this one used it on Baca,” Cylo said.
“Holy shit,” Jix said.
“Exactly,” Cylo said.
“So what now?” Jix asked.
“We have to keep an eye on it. These Draqua are too dangerous to be around. One was able to make Baca turn on me with a few words.”
“What? Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes, I am fine, and Baca is fine. We got away and killed that Draqua but I am sure there are more like it. We did not stick around to find out.”
“Anything else?” Jix asked.
“Yes. These Draqua could not shift. They looked like us, but they could not shift to full dragon or hybrid,” I said.
“That hardly makes them Draqua,” Jix said. “Where’s the dragon?”
“I know, but they look like us, which means they could walk among us. So keep an eye out for anyone that you have never seen shift,” Cylo said. “Until then we will have to figure out another way to deal with these Draqua from Tiok. For now, Candris is no more, and that should be plenty for now.
It was a heavy talk, and I had to admit that it had me very scared. The deep space politics was full of backstabbing and opportunists just like on Earth, but here there was magic, and it made it so much more dangerous. We tried to put the haunting notion of mind controlling Draqua that were out to kill us out of our minds as much as we could. We could not go living in fear forever. So we went on with our daily lives, and my new life as queen.
Months later, it was as if the battle never happened. The Draqua began to trust each other again, and they were a lively village. But I think what also gave them hope was the birth of a new generation of royalty.
“I am more happier than I ever thought I could be now that our son Teavin has been born,” Cylo said to me.
“I am too. I am so happy, and he makes me happy every day,” I said.
“And what about me? Do I not make you happy?” he asked.
“Yes, you do,” I said.
Cylo hugged me and kissed me. I was filled with happiness and hope. Now that I had our son, I was able to figure out a time to go back to Earth for a week. This was to keep my father from starting another search party. It was something that was needed, and it was one of the perks of being queen. But what was the best perk of all was the fact that I got to rearrange the household.
Yes, that’s right, I kicked the harem out. Michelle and Sarah. I kicked them out of the palace almost immediately upon getting married. Baca found a new home for them with the warriors, and I was told the women were very happy. I did not care what they did as long as they were not in the palace and were away from me and Cylo. He just laughed the first time I asked him what kind of power I had as queen because he knew what I was going to do with that power.
But even though we had endured some hardship, I knew that I did not regret any of it. I had asked for an adventure, and I got the adventure of a lifetime. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me, being abducted by an alien that happened to be a dragon shifter. My life was never the same after that moment, and I was no longer the daughter of President Reeves; I was the queen of Kelon.
The ominous presence of the opposition was still out there and would need to be faced again, but that would come in time. We did not want to live in fear of it and let it tear the planet of Kelon apart. For now, my husband kept an eye on it, and I kept an eye on our son. One day he would be dealing with the problems of the Draqua. It was something that every royal house of Draqua would face, but none were quite like what I went through and loved.
The End (Flip page for another hot bonus book!)
Dekario-Dragons Of Kelon
(Dra
gons Of Kelon)
By Maia Starr
CHAPTER ONE
REENA RHODES
“Run! Don’t look back! Just keep going!” I shouted as I ran with the crew.
“I got it! I got it in firing range!” Jason shouted as he stopped running beside me. I looked over my shoulder to see him stop and position a large gun on top of his shoulder.
“No! Jason, run! It’s too big!” I shouted as I ran.
“I got it! Go, get out of here!” he shouted back.
“Jason, I command you to retreat!” Captain Wallace shouted as he ran with the crew.
“I got it, Captain. I got it!” Jason said.
Boom! The large gun on Jason’s shoulder fired. A loud and horrible screech filled the air. We all stopped and turned.
“Is it dead?” Marcy whispered in her frightened state.
The gray smoke from the gunfire hitting the creature was thick.
Whoosh! A large spidery limb came out of the wall of smoke and smacked Jason into the air as he screamed. “Aagh!”
“Jason!” I shouted.
“It’s too late. Run! Make for the trees! We’ll have to lose it in the trees!” Captain Wallace shouted over Jason’s screams as the creature tore him apart with one of its eight legs as it emerged from the smoke.
“Shit,” I whispered as I saw the full extent of it. It was a massive spider-like creature the size of a bus. I turned and ran toward the trees with the rest of the crew. It was at least 200 yards away, the tree line that could possibly give us safety, and I didn’t think that I could make it. It seemed that Marcy Fenick was feeling the same way. I noticed that she was lagging at my side.
“Marcy you gotta move! Move!” I shouted to her. As I shouted, I saw Captain Wallace turn back to us. He was frustrated and angry as he shouted. “Rhodes! Fenick! Move your asses, now! Now! Now!”
“Oh god! It’s coming!” Luka shouted over her shoulder, as she was a good fifty yards in front of us. She was fast, very fast, and the Navy-SEAL-turned-astronaut Pete Phoenix was at her side. They were the athletes, and the rest of us were a scientists, doctors, or in Jason’s case, the pilot.
I ran hard at Luka’s warning. I didn’t need to turn around to see that the creature was very close behind me because I could feel the ground shaking as it got closer. I could feel the hair on my neck stand up as the awful screeching sounds it was releasing filled my ears. We’re going to die. All of us are going to die, I thought to myself.
“Captain?! What are you doing?” I shouted as he ran by me in the opposite direction, toward the creature.
It was then that I turned to see that Marcy had lagged far behind me and had fallen in the blue-grey grass. Captain Wallace was running toward her shouting, “Get up! Get up!”
“I can’t. I can’t,” Marcy cried. But she wasn’t getting up because she was hurt; it was because she was paralyzed with fear.
“Marcy, get up!” I shouted. But it was too late. Whoosh! The creature picked her up. She screamed! Then it swallowed her whole. We all stood in complete shock. Captain Wallace shouted, “Nooo!” This got the creature's attention as he looked down at the Captain.
“Run!” I shouted. Then I heard Luka and Phoenix shouting as well. They were almost near the tree line, and they had stopped running to shout at us. “Run! Run! Hurry!”
I turned and ran for them, but I could hear Captain Wallace firing a couple of blasts with his blaster gun at the creature. Then there was a blood-curdling scream, and I did not need to turn to see that the creature had a hold of the Captain. Luka was screaming as she watched. Phoenix was shouting at me, “Hurry, Reena! Hurry!”
I felt a whoosh of air above me. I was next. I had to be. I cried out as I assumed that the creature was on top of me and that was the wind that I felt. But then I heard a different sound. It was the sound of fire crackling. I watched at Phoenix and Luka who were both observing at the sky with a stunned look. I knew that couldn’t just be the creature. I looked up and saw something that I was not expecting.
There was a dragon. It was a real life black dragon flying in a circle and breathing fire, directed behind me. I turned to see that it was not the only thing attacking the creature. Others joined the dragon, but these others were not full dragons. They were alien men with large dragon wings and a scale-like pattern on their skin. They shot fire at the spider creature and shot at it with blaster guns. But I didn’t stop running. Before I knew it, I was with Luka and Phoenix.
“What the hell is that?” Luka asked as we all watched the dragon men battle the spider creature.
“I have no idea. We don’t even know what planet we are on,” Phoenix replied.
“I, for one, am glad that they showed up, whoever, or whatever, they are. They seem to be against this creature, and that is good for us. I only wish they had shown up sixty seconds earlier. Marcy, the Captain, Jason…” I said breathing hard trying to catch my breath. The creature was screaming as it was now on fire, turning in circles and fighting the dragon men.
“I think they are going to take it down,” Phoenix said.
“What should we do? Should we hide? Run?” Luka asked.
“And go where? Who knows how many more of these spider creatures are in those woods. We are no match for them. We have no ship. We are stranded. If these dragon men speak, then maybe we can communicate and figure out where we are and how to get off this planet and back to Earth,” Phoenix said.
“So we wait? We speak to them if they come to us?” I said.
“It is our only choice right now,” Phoenix said.
We watched as the dragon men finished off the creature. There were three dragon men and one full dragon. They were unlike anything that I had ever seen. I was mesmerized as I watched these warriors take out such a massive creature. There was one that caught my eye. He was rugged-looking with long dark hair down to his jawline and a perfect body that could rival a Greek god. He was covered only from the waist down by a thick loin cloth and heavy boots that looked like they had some sort of weaponry attached to them, but it was hard to tell. I watched as this dragon-man warrior flew in dangerously close to the creature, taking risky shots at it. He was either very brave or very stupid. The other two men were very distinguishable by their hair as well. One had blonde hair and the other had chestnut brown hair.
“They did it. Unbelievable,” Luka said as she snapped me out of feeling hypnotized by these alien warriors. I turned my attention to her and Phoenix. The warriors amazed them as the spider creature fell dead with one last thud and screech. It was a horrifying sound but one that I was relieved to hear. Then the alien warriors and their dragon turned toward us. Luka, Phoenix, and I shifted on our feet.
“Shit. What if they are hostile?” I said quietly.
“Then we will be in same situation if we turn and run anyway. Besides, they saved us from the creature. If they wanted us dead they would have let the creature finish us off then kill the creature for whatever trophy they want or whatever their reason is for taking it down, but I genuinely think it was to help us,” Phoenix said.
“Shh… they’re coming this way,” Luka said.
I held my breath as they came toward us. I could not believe that we were in this situation at all. We had left Earth on a science mission. I was a scientist with a focus on extraterrestrial biology, which was mostly just microbiology in space, or so we thought. But now I obviously had extreme proof that there were massive life forms out in space, and one had just killed half our crew, and another species had rescued us.
When we left Earth, we were a small crew with one mission: gather research. I was the main research scientist. Marcy was the onboard engineer to help with any mechanical issues and Jason was the pilot. Captain Wallace was in charge of the entire mission, and Luka was the doctor but also a research scientist as well. Then there was Phoenix; he was sort of security. We had all set out on a pretty standard mission to gather samples from a large asteroid just outside of the solar system. Then it happened.
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br /> “What the hell?!” I shouted as I got up off the floor, having been thrown from my bed. Then the sirens went off,and red lights flashed. I ran toward the flight deck in my tank top and boy shorts, not bothering with modesty.
“What the hell is going on?!” Marcy shouted as she came out of her bunk too.
“I don’t know! It doesn’t sound good!” I shouted as I noticed Phoenix already ahead of me in the hallway running toward the flight deck. I could hear Luka and Marcy shouting behind me.