by Stella Sky
“Well, that would be a sight to see. Here’s hoping it’s a change for the better. Let me know if she has any luck with you, and I’ll have to come and shake her hand.
Eddrys sighed and spun on his heel, brushing his wings back with a hard flap. “How did you get this one and I ended up with my own personal dictator?” He laughed. “Oh yeah, because I didn’t have Zaphira match-making on my behalf.”
“What?”
“Yeah,” he continued with a yawn, glancing back at me. “Apparently Zaphira had a direct hand in your little match there. She does work under Zaphira; you know this, right?”
“I heard, but I thought it was strictly professional.”
Eddrys stared at me dumbfounded for a moment and then laughed. “Well, it’s not like they’re getting handsy with each other, Haden.”
I nodded, but the air in the room had suddenly changed. I looked down into the pod at the beautiful, angular face that met at a pointed chin. I felt my stomach drop. This one may be a challenge after all.
Zaphira was a woman who knew how to get exactly what she wanted. An excellent quality for her job; a bad quality for making friends. In fact, Zaphira had many scoffing in her name across Udora. There were also many who feared her.
I’d heard rumors that she had members of the Koth under her thumb. I’d also heard tales that she’d had a were killed in the past and helped cover it up. There were also reports of a pairing who’d gone missing around the time of one of her diplomatic visits, though the story was largely undocumented. Stories of her deceptive behavior had become so farfetched they’d turned into something of a legend.
If there was one thing the Koth didn’t appreciate, it was meddling.
She didn’t scare me. But the thought of her making a pairing didn’t put me at ease either. I knew enough that if Zaphira was making a personal pairing, it wasn’t without reason. I would just have to find a way to use it against her.
I looked back at the raven-haired woman next to me and bit my lip. Was I being played?
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Eddrys said casually.
“I’m not.”
He stretched his arms in front of him, locking his fingers together as he did so. “The only thing you’ll have to worry about is your girl coming home with me.”
“Oh yeah?” I dared with a raise of my voice. “How will Petra feel about that?”
He winced at the name and slowly made his way toward the exit, tapping his nose as he passed by me. “Well played, Haden; well played.”
The doors shut with an audible slide and click as they locked, leaving me the only one left in the cryo room. I looked over the pods several times now and couldn’t find anyone as lovely as the one I had chosen.
I set my hands on the glass doors of her pod and leaned in to get a better look at her. A woman working under Zaphira, of all people. The Riddell director had been digging her hands in deep as of late. She’d been fishing for corruption, a flaw in our dealings with the Earth.
If she found any, she would be able to bring an Earthly embassy to Udora. I cringed at the thought. Even though I was part of the Koth, I wasn’t always in agreement with how they let the earth come in and leave their mark.
Our sacred lands and shallow mines were suddenly overrun with humans and tests, taking samples and setting up their hierarchy. They build sky rises, brought in currency, and now had civil rights on our planet. And what did we get in return? Women.
Something about the deal seemed like we didn’t have competent advisors on board at the time. Now they had me. The Koth was made up of 10 dragons and 12 advisors, myself included. Other notables were Koth Eliligan, Chalicien, Umadith, and Ikar – a dignified white dragon who had been serving as a faithful Were soldier and a stand-in representative for the Koth for missions and meetings for 90 years. He’d been promoted officially after a long time Weredragon died four years prior.
He certainly had the experience, but some found him to be a little softhearted for the job. Myself included.
“Everything okay in here?” came the voice of lovely Meghan Klein, a longtime custodian of the shuttles to and from Udora. She stepped into the building with her white lab coat and long, curly blonde hair trailing behind her. Her freckled face always brought an air of innocence to the shuttle missions. But one look into her eyes and you would be aware of the pain that burned within.
“Hello, Meghan,” I said and raised my hand from my kneeling position so as not to startle her.
“Oh, Haden,” she said, pressing her left hand over her heart in relief. “Sorry,” she offered, “but, we’re locking up for the night.”
“Can I interest you in a nightcap?”
She smiled and folded her hands together, but shook her head in decline. “Thank you thought. I prefer to stay with the girls.”
I nodded. “Ah, yes. I’ve heard there was an incident on your flight to Udora.”
She pressed her lips thin and reluctantly gave a nod. “I obviously wasn’t, you know,” she shrugged, “awake for it and all, but I watched the footage. Scary stuff out there.”
“Indeed. That’s why we take precautions now, to protect girls like you.”
“It was my sister, actually.”
I nodded. I didn’t know much about Meghan’s first journey to Udora, but she hadn’t left in five years, so I couldn’t imagine she found it all that excruciating. She stared at me in a way that made me feel like I was expected to know more about her story. But, I didn’t.
In fact, remembering her name seemed like a feat in and of itself. No matter how hard I tried, names always seemed to escape me. In one ear and out the other. Another charming quality of mine that made me absolutely terrible at formal meetings.
She looked like she’d rightly given up on me when I finally remembered a tidbit about her. “How is that boy of yours?” I blurted out, standing up from the pod I had nearly attached myself to.
She smiled and her eyes beamed in the way only a mother’s could. Her face flushed and she gushed, “A handful. Getting to be more and more like his father every day.”
“Ah,” I chuckled. “And how does dear old dad feel about this?”
Her face fell again; her features twisting to some unfathomable pain. Clearly, there was something poignant that I’d missed.
“Uh, well he’s… He’s passed,” she mumbled awkwardly as the room continued to overflow with tension.
I cringed inwardly and berated myself for choosing such a stupid thing to chat about. Why, oh why couldn’t I just pay attention when people were speaking to me?
“I’m sorry to hear that. And that would be…?”
A deep crease formed between her thinly plucked brows, and she deadpanned, “Brenem, the Red Dragon.”
Brenem. Damn.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and looked up at her. “Right, I’m so sorry,” I expressed genuinely. “How could I not know that? He was my cousin.”
This sentiment caused her to brighten somewhat. Perhaps she’d thought I was going to judge her. After all, not only was Brenem a known hot-head, he had also chosen someone else during his time on Earth. Someone who was not Meghan Klein. Making her child one of infidelity and no doubt the scorn of his chosen bride.
Brenem was also an infamously violent fighter. He’d died putting a traitor to death, or so the rumor went.
“I didn’t know you were related,” she said, almost apologetically.
“We weren’t close,” I dismissed. “In fact, I didn’t know him very well at all. But, I’ve heard stories.”
“He had a soft side, too,” she defended in a small voice that almost sounded too tired to bother anymore. “Anyway… I guess I have to ask you to scoot now.”
“Right, right,” I breathed. As I looked down at Sarra once more, I began to feel a little defeated. Maybe that wasn’t such a bad deal, after all.
Chapter Three
Sarra
After a brief sleep and an even briefer reunion with Haden, we took off f
rom the shuttle station in Udora and made our way to my shifters high-rise in the city.
His home reminded me of a penthouse – taking up the top floor of the building, complete with extravagant chic furnishings and art. His large glass walls gave a breathtaking view of the city. The buildings lit up in the central district of the city like myriads of fireflies. They seemed to sparkle in the distance.
“I love it here,” I said breathlessly as I walked over to his living room window.
“I’m glad I could impress you so easily, my lady. I haven’t even shown you the kitchen yet; you’ll be ecstatic!”
I rolled my eyes playfully and laughed. “I meant the view; Udora.”
“Ooh,” he said with a drawn-out breath. “I am enjoying the view myself,” he finished as his eyes traced my figure up and down.
“Are you trying to be cheesy, or does this just come naturally to you?”
“Ah, and we’re back at men being ‘funny’ again.”
“Did I say it was funny?” I teased, wrinkling my nose in the cute way I did when trying to flirt.
“Well,” he gasped. “I never!” We both grinned at one another, and he walked across the floor to the window, staring out into the city with a lost stare in his eyes. He wore dark jeans and another blazer; black this time, to match his perfectly formed scales and beautifully dark features.
“I’m sorry. That was rude,” he said simply; his eyes glancing my way as I made myself comfortable on his taupe chaise. “Tell me what you love about Udora.”
“Everything,” I breathed.
The seasons here were somewhat similar to those on Earth, but spring and winter only. No middle ground. I’d arrived at the end of winter this time. The planet ran devastatingly cold, which was just perfect to me. The moss that famously covered every inch of the planet now had its color sapped from it. Grass turned, not to blankets of snow, but grew thickly coated with sharp ice.
There was something so bare-bones about the seasons here. Something unexplainably beautiful.
“So, you’re an advisor to the Koth?” I asked. “Seems funny we’ve never met, considering they are who I deal with most of the time.”
“It’s a new title,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “But yes, I am a diplomatic man with access to all the higher ups and any secrets you could ever want to know.”
“So basically, you just go to meetings and do a lot of nodding?”
“Basically, yes.” He grinned. “Don’t forget ‘telling people what to do.' That’s my favorite part.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said while chuckling into my hand. “Good, because that’s basically what I do, too.”
“You don’t say? What will our alliance do when we’re in the same meetings getting along and actually agreeing on principles?”
“It will be a shock, that’s for sure.”
He set his jaw and gave me a look that seemed absolutely tickled. Walking past the bay window, Haden took a seat across from me after setting down two freshly poured glasses of wine. “One of the few things brought from Earth that I actually like. This,” he said as he took a long sip. “And you.”
“Don’t I feel special,” I flushed and took the base of the wineglass into the palm of my hand. “You don’t like anything else? Food, architecture, pigs?”
“Pigs?” he repeated with a laugh. “That was an odd reach.”
“Bacon!” I offered playfully.
“Ah.” He nodded. “Pigs are alright, I suppose. But as far as architecture goes, I’m much more of a fan of old Udora.”
“What?” I snorted. “Stone walls?”
He stared at me with an unreadable expression before his lips curved up into an endearing smile “And I do believe in time you will, too. Udora’s not all city, you know. It might seem like that, but it isn’t. There’s the city, the mine fields–”
“Not as dangerous as it sounds,” I quipped.
Haden gave a bashful blush and sighed as he continued, “Right. No. They don’t explode. Then there are the Were-valleys and the Old Udora.”
I bit my lip and stared down into my wine glass as he continued to give me a verbal map of the planet. Maybe Anita was right. Maybe the shifters really did make their landscape a point of seduction with their women.
“And what is Old Udora like? I have to admit, in all my years coming to the planet, I’ve never ever heard of that area.”
“We don’t take humans there,” he said, almost proudly. “It is as it sounds. A city in the midst of a mossy field, cracked with stone buildings from the old world. Back before we found Earth.”
“I see,” I hummed and took another sip of my wine before setting it on the table. “Hopefully I’ll be able to see it one day.” I tipped my head and gestured a faux curtsey to him, tilting my head in his direction as I finished, “If you deem me worthy.”
“But of course.”
We sat by his open window drinking wine for hours together. He had a good idea, it seemed: plying one another with alcohol until the conversation flowed smoothly. While I appreciated the liquid courage, something told me we would have been just fine without it.
“Which brings me to my next point, actually.”
“Oh, it does?”
“I am… well, part of the Koth.”
“Yes,” I stifled a giggle and fixed my short hair behind my ear. “I think I’ve heard rumblings here and there about it.”
“An important man; brilliant in nature. And being the stunning creature that I am, you’re considered to be a lucky woman.”
I nodded, suddenly taken aback by the subtle, if not playful, arrogance. “Good to know,” I stumbled.
“People tend to… want to celebrate a Koth pairing. There is going to be a celebration in a couple days.”
“And here I thought I’d have nowhere to wear my cocktail dress. So, it’s like a party? I have to say, in all the years I’ve been to Udora, I’ve never attended a party.”
“Something to cross off the bucket list.”
“That reminds me,” he said, no shifting in his chair. “Zaphira will be attending. She’s your higher-up, is she not?”
“Yes, and contrary to popular belief, she isn’t all powerful and full of doom and gloom.”
“Ah, yes. As they say.”
“She’s my boss,” I said flatly.
“So that means you are required to jump to her defense?”
“First of all, yes. And second of all, I would only be defending her if you were being critical of her. Were you?”
He laughed, hard. “I was just asking a question.”
I blinked several times as he continued to laugh at my reaction and then gave an audible sigh before downing the last of my wine like a teenager. “Sorry,” I said meekly. “Some people have a hard time with her. Her personality and all.”
Haden raised his hand in dismissal and moved closer to me on the couch. “No need to explain. So long as she doesn’t give you a hard time, then she’s fine by me.”
“She’s not as hard to work for as she is to negotiate with, if that’s what you mean.” I offered a smile.
The truth was, I was quick to jump to Zaphira’s defense. Sure, she was harsh, but she knew what she wanted. She taught me everything I knew. While she didn’t exactly have the warmest personality, I’d seen her care for the girls she sent to Udora. I’d seen her cry in the privacy of her office. I’d seen the love she had for this project and this alliance – and that side of her was mine to keep.
“Really,” I insisted. “She’s not that bad.”
“If you say so then it must be true.”
“You trust me already, huh?” I said, leaning closer to him and trying desperately to sound anywhere near flirtatious and change the uncomfortable subject.
“You’re right, what am I thinking?” he said, slapping his forehead. “You are in politics, after all.”
“She’s taught me a lot,” I said solemnly.
He raised a brow and had a coy, blithe look
about him. “And I’m supposed to find this comforting?”
Chapter Four
Haden
I stared across at the lovely creature before me. She was dodging my questions regarding Zaphira and her work. I knew I didn’t want to push my inquiries too far, but my curiosity had gotten the better of me.
“You can feel free to invite who you like, to the party, I mean,” I said, brushing the back of my hand up Sarra’s arm. She felt warm and amazing against my skin. “I know you mentioned you have a lot of friends at work.”
“My brother?” she asked, perking up ever so gentle in her seat. I loved how when women became excited their voices went up an octave.
“No,” I said with a breath. “Sorry. That was a bit of a tease, wasn’t it?” I said, now feeling embarrassed that I’d brought it up at all.
“Oh,” she sunk back in her chair a moment before composing herself in a professional manner.
“Sorry,” I repeated. “I’m sure you know that shifters aren’t fans of human males. I have no problem with them personally. It’s just all… bad blood from before.”
Sarra offered me a put-on smile and a nod of acknowledgment. I could see the conversation had once again taken an awkward turn. Weredragons, in the days before the alliance with the Earth sphere, used to come and take women as we pleased. Human males often became casualties of this excursion.
In shifters minds, men proved to be nothing more than in our way. I’d since met plenty of men whose company seemed perfectly fine, but I was the minority in that opinion.
“I’m sure I can think of someone,” she smiled.
I told her more of the party, and she seemed excited once again. I told her who would be there and what would be expected of her, though I had no doubt that she would have managed more than adequately without my help.
Several glasses of wine later, I found myself with my arm wrapped around her and she leaned into me with ease. “What do you love?” I asked, genuinely curious about the little wonder who was now resting her raven hair on my shoulder.
“In three words? Olives, nature hikes, mysteries.”