“I’d rather take out everyone on this hole of a spaceport, including myself, than spend the rest of my life in a GU prison.” He laughed again, taking another step closer. Close enough for the end of my disruptor to press against his forehead. Close enough for me to smell his breath. Ugh. Crazy-ass masturbating criminal and oral-hygiene deficient. A winner all around. “So you’ve got two choices, cop,” he went on, lifting his de-atomizer up to my face and tapping the tip of its barrel against my bottom lip. “Open up and say ‘ahh’, or turn everyone on this hunk of metal to—”
He stopped talking.
His mouth fell open, his eyes grew wide, practically bulging from his head, and he staggered backward, gaping at something over my right shoulder.
Something beyond the unbreakable glass.
Something—by the expression on his face—absolutely terrifying.
Mine to claim.
I heard the thought before I felt the tingle in my limbs, the swelling throb in my sex.
An ear-piercing screech shattered the air. The viewing wall behind me rattled. The floor vibrated. I didn’t have to turn to see what was outside. My body—no, my heart and soul—told me.
Torr. My Wyvernian had come for his mate.
“Gods, gods!” the perp gasped, backpedaling like crazy. “What is that? What is that?”
I aimed my disruptor right between his eyes. “That,” I said quite calmly, “is my boyfriend.”
The perp squealed, his eyes bulged some more and, just to prove how completely fucking insane he was, he lifted his left arm higher, the one holding the brain-liquefying bomb, and swung it forward.
He was going to throw the neuron detonator.
There comes a point in every tale when the narrator—in this case, me—just has to admit to not having a bloody clue what went on. This is that point.
I saw the spice dealer swing his arm. I saw the blood flow back into the tips of his fingers as he began to relax his grip on the small metal sphere. I saw the detonator’s tiny red glow flicker green. And then I heard one simple thought.
Mine to protect.
It was my thought.
And before I even knew what I was doing, let alone how, I drew all the molten, blazing fury burning through me into one thick spear of untouchable heat and sent it out. Incinerating the neuron detonator to ash before the perp’s fingers could release it.
Incinerating the perp’s hand at the same time.
The bastard screeched, the end of his left arm a scorched, blackened stump, and swung up his right arm, leveling his de-atomizer directly at my chest. “Die, cu—!”
His head exploded in a puff of disintegrated matter.
“Ah, shut up, fucker,” came a barely audible croak near my feet.
I started, jerking my stare down to the bleeding, wheezing lump of Bo’aa on the floor. “Take your bloody time, partner.” I dropped to my knees beside Fraz. The perp had shot him in the shoulder, charring and melting part of his upper arm and throat and the side of his head. He looked bad. Real bad. And for a Bo’aa, that meant he looked positively hideous.
“Hey, I came back from the dead…to save your ass, Enforcer Mynn,” he wheezed back, bright blue blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. I gave his chest a quick once-over, biting back a sob of joy at the sight of his rarely worn, armored combat vest beneath his jacket. At least his heart and lungs was protected from the blast. Bo’aas weren’t known to be all that bright when it came to common sense, but then Fraz wasn’t your typical Bo’aa. Well, most of the time. He’d survived, but he wasn’t gonna win any beauty contests. Not that he ever had.
He turned his gaze from me to the viewing wall, and I followed his line of sight, for the first time letting myself look at the creature beyond its unbreakable glass.
“That the guy,” he rasped, voice gurgly but growing stronger with each word, “you been having all…that sex with?”
I studied the magnificent dragon gliding through the blackness of space, mesmerized by his beautiful golden-red scales, his massive translucent wings. Shyte, he really was glorious. I smiled, a warm, steady pulse awakening between my thighs. “Yeah.” I turned back to Fraz, giving him a grin. “It is.”
He kinda chuckled, kinda coughed. “And that was you who…cremated…the brain-bomb?”
I nodded, my throat thick. Cremated. Good word.
He chuckled again, and I noticed with sheer relief the blood oozing from his mouth had turned to a trickle. “Always knew…you were…a freak.”
I laughed. “Fuck you, Bo’aa.”
He closed his eyes and snorted. “Every minute of every day, partner.”
A kerfuffle to my left dragged my attention from Fraz, and I stiffened. Five pissed-off looking people were running toward us down the dim passageway, one of them Port Security Commander Scott, another the walking mountain that was Steam’s head bouncer, Corvan Jareth.
An ear-piercing screech sent shuddering vibrations through the area, and as one, all five turned to the viewing wall.
“Wyvernian!” Scott gasped, her face running white. I looked at the dragon flying through the blackness beyond the glass. Felt his smoldering gaze stroke my soul.
Come.
I turned back to Fraz, chewing on my bottom lip. Shyte, how do I do this?
“You have to go,” he said, and I realized he was doing it for me. “Before the shit hits the fan.” He flicked a look at the dragon. At my dragon. My destiny. “Or the flying lizard turns us all into extra crispy.”
Throat tight, chest heavy, I gave Fraz a heartfelt if somewhat hurried look. “I owe you a Bo’aa blade.”
He coughed and waved a dismissing hand. “I’ll take it out of your skinny-assed hide later.”
I smiled at him, my chest heavy. Damn, I was going to miss him. “Keep pissing ’em off, partner.”
He gave me an evil, lipless grin. “Every minute.”
I pushed myself to my feet in a fluid move and stroked my fingers against my right inner wrist. A soft prickling sensation razed the flesh there as my GU Enforcer ID tattoo materialized. I stormed toward the five newcomers, flashing my wrist at Scott. “Galactic Union Enforcer business,” I snapped. “My partner’s down. He’s been shot with a de-atomizer by a wanted spice dealer.” I flicked Fraz a quick look over my shoulder and, even from this distance, I’m positive I saw him chuckling. “He needs medical care immediately and I need to get my kit from our quarters.”
Scott blinked and Jareth cocked an eyebrow. Another screech outside made all of them jump. Well, all of them but the walking mountain. I took advantage of the distraction and pushed past them.
Come, Rai’nia.
I walked through the spaceport, heading for the docking bay. Past the fake Slessorians, past the Urid’ii pro, through the markets and hustle and bustle of the merchant levels—my home for the last sixty-one days. I couldn’t wait to leave.
With a swipe of my wrist, I deactivated the lock to the private bay Fraz and I had paid a friggin’ fortune to obtain, and crossed the threshold. There was a soft hiss as the door slid shut behind me. Then an even softer clunk as it locked again.
I didn’t stop.
I crossed the bay, past the GU-supplied shuttle. My stare locked on the large double outer airlock doors.
Come, Rai’nia.
Stopping at the control panel, I keyed in a Union override code. Being a cop came in handy sometimes. A dull alarm began to sound in the bay, a muted orange light flashed overhead.
I stepped back from the panel and stripped my vest from my torso. My sex throbbed. My heart hammered.
Come, Rai’nia. Come.
I toed off my boots. Kicked them aside. Shoved my trousers over my hips and ass. My flesh began to tingle. Heat. The very center of my existence began to smolder.
Come, my chyre. Come to me.
Naked as the day I was born who knows how long ago, I stood at the airlock doors, skin on fire, sex heavy, heart smashing against my breastbone.
Mine to claim. Mi
ne to fuck. Mine to…
I smiled. I knew the ending to that thought. I had no doubt and it didn’t scare me at all.
Love. Mine to love.
I was all for that.
“Alert,” the mechanical voice of the docking bay sounded. “Airlock doors opening in five seconds.”
Come, my chyre.
My pulse quickened. I took a deep breath, pulling Port Mercy’s artificial air into my lungs.
“Four.”
I closed my eyes and let the heat razing through me grow hotter.
“Three.”
Let it consume me. Change me.
“Two.”
Transform me.
“One.”
With a deafening clunk, the airlock doors opened and I was sucked into the empty vacuum of space.
Chapter Seven
Every molecule in my body cried out. Not in asphyxiated agony, but in rapturous joy. The smoldering fire within my soul erupted, engulfing me in an inferno of molten pleasure. I felt every cell of my human form un-be. I don’t know how else to describe it. I could feel myself being uncreated and made again—in the form of an immense dragon.
It was surreal. It was beautiful. It was right.
And it all happened in the space of two heartbeats.
Testing the density of the ether, I moved my wings and found the quantum energy surrounding Mercy to be thick. I pushed my wings against it and flew, reveling in the sensation.
There is nothing in space—and I rode it. Glided through it. I beat my wings again, arcing upward, away from the spaceport.
I heard Torr’s call before I saw him. My heart thumped and I quivered, right to the tip of my tail. Yep, my tail.
Come to me, Rai’nia.
I did, moving through the vastness, seeking my mate.
The icy vacuum melted over my body and I let out a cry of delight. If there was a way to encapsulate euphoria, this was it. Gods, there were no words to describe the way I felt. And that feeling only magnified by about a billion when I finally saw Torr’s golden form waiting for me.
Claim me. I sent out the command.
The great dragon flew toward me, scales shimmering golden fire, wings beating with silent grace.
He swooped over me, caressing my neck with the length of his tail. A shiver of pleasure rippled down my spine and I followed his path, arcing up beneath him until our bellies smoothed against each other and our tails entwined.
Mine, Torr murmured through me.
Mine, I whispered back.
A surge of something so pure and elemental speared into my chest and, with another cry that rumbled through my very heart, we separated, wings beating in perfect unison, flying up, up and away from each other in two perfect arcs before diving down. Down past the metal world that was Spaceport Mercy. I caught a glimpse of six beings standing at the viewing wall, and then all I cared about was home.
I cut through the vacuum, Torr beside me, and felt the kiss of the moon’s atmosphere. It rippled over my scales like hot ribbons, and then I was through it, gliding over the moon’s red surface like I had another lifetime ago. Well, not exactly the same. Last time I was on a jet cycle, this time…
A shiver of excitement shot through me and the reality of the situation really, really hit me. I was…I was…
Wyvernian.
Torr’s voice whispered through my mind. I banked into a wide curve, the dry air streaming over my scales, and saw him standing on the moon’s surface. A man once more.
My man.
I saw him grin. Yours to claim. Yours to fuck.
I thumped my wings, his entirely cheeky thought sending a tight thrill into the very center of my being. He was mine to claim. And I planned on fucking him for the rest of our lives.
I flew over his head and felt his fingertips run the length of my belly as I did so. The sensation of human flesh on my scales sent another tight twist into my core and, despite the rapture of being in Wyvernian form, there was another rapture I hungered for.
Torr’s chuckle sounded in my head. Then what are you doing flying about?
With another banking curve, I returned to him, landing on my clawed feet with—I’m ashamed to admit—far less grace than I’d hoped.
I heard Torr chuckle again, this time in my head and with my ears. “Remind me to always land after you, chyre.”
I stretched out my neck and nudged him with my muzzle. Shut the fuck up, lunatic.
He laughed. “Good to see your feistiness hasn’t been dampened by your transformation, Rai’nia.” He smiled at me, and I saw the mirth leave his eyes, replaced by a heat I knew all too well and felt all the way into my core. “My destiny,” he murmured. “Mine to claim.”
I thought of the next part of that mantra and a shudder rocked through me. My cells and molecules turned to molten fire and two heartbeats later, I stood before him. “Yours to fuck.”
He stepped forward, sliding his hands over my hips, bringing me against his body with a gentle tug. “No.” He smoothed his hands up my back, over my shoulders to cup my face. “Mine to love.”
I closed my eyes and let out a long sigh, leaning into his hard, warm body. “Hmmm, I like the sound of that.”
He chuckled, a low sound that vibrated into my soul. “So do I.”
I opened my eyes and gazed at him, my heart hammering. “So, what happens now? Do we hunt down the Galactic Union and barbecue them one by one? Or do we just fly about over the moon making mad dragon whoopie?” I tiptoed my fingers up his back, burying them in his hair.
He traced my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb, his gaze following the languid caress. “Both options are appealing, but I’m leaning toward one more than the other.” He returned his gaze to mine and cocked an eyebrow. “At this point in time, at least.”
I felt my lips curl into a slow, cheeky smile. “And that option would be…?”
He lowered his head and brushed his mouth over mine. “This one.”
And as I opened to his kiss, a kiss that was gentle and soft and tender, a kiss that made the pit of my belly quiver and my throat tight, I remembered the first time Torr had kissed me on this very moon. A kiss of savage possession and fierce invasion. A kiss that had almost made me come there and then. A kiss of merciless domination.
With a low chuckle, Torr lifted his head from mine, his hands tangling in my hair to hold my gaze. “Oh, trust me, Raina Mynn.” His eyes blazed with gray lust. “I’m going to show you no mercy at all and there’s nothing you can do to stop what is to come.”
I raked my hands up his back and sank my nails into his shoulders, pressing my thoroughly wet and throbbing sex to his thick, hot cock as I pushed him down onto his back on the moon’s surface and straddled his hips. “That’s just the way I want it, lunatic.”
And in one fluid move, I impaled myself on his shaft and we both began to burn.
Epilogue
Wyvernian—an ancient race of dragon shifters that once called the minor planet Mercy and its surrounding space home, in sector Seven A, Fourth Quadrant. Slaughtered by the Galactic Union in an act of brutal genocide over three hundred years ago.
Fraz M’x read the info-stream glowing on the small communal screen. He grinned and flexed his fingers. “Time to update the records.”
Shooting a quick look around, he activated the GU Enforcer ID chip embedded in his wrist. A slight tingle shot up his arm as the chip overrode Port Mercy’s security system and—with a blink-and-you’d-miss-it flicker—he was in the data network.
His fingers skipped over the onscreen keyboard, adding a small but important footnote to the entry on the Wyvernian, chuckling as he checked his journalistic skills.
Wyvernian—an ancient race of dragon shifters that once called the minor planet Mercy and its surrounding space home, in sector Seven A, Fourth Quadrant. Slaughtered by the Galactic Union in an act of brutal genocide over three hundred years ago.
All except for one lone male and one lone female, that is. But that was enough. The G
U suits better watch their fat, corrupt asses now, ’cause nobody does vengeance like a dragon shifter.
Can you say “extra crispy”?
He nodded and logged off. “For you, partner.” He gazed at the viewing glass, noting the empty space beyond with a smile. “And the flying lizard.” Turning, he walked away. He had a new mission and a new partner to break in. Playtime was over.
For now.
About Lexxie Couper
Lexxie’s not a deviant. She just has a deviant’s imagination and a desire to entertain readers with her words. Add the two together and you get darkly erotic romances with a twist of horror, sci-fi and the paranormal.
When she’s not submerged in the worlds she creates, Lexxie’s life revolves around her family: a husband who thinks she’s insane and her daughters, who both utterly captured her heart and changed her life forever.
Living in Australia makes it a bit tricky for Lexxie to pop by for coffee, but she still loves to chat!
Lexxie welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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Foreign Affairs 2: Misplaced Cowboy with Mari Carr
Foreign Affairs 3: Misplaced Lessons with Mari Carr
Foreign Affairs 4: Misplaced Hands with Mari Carr
How to Love Your Dragon
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Mercy 1: Highest Bidder
Mercy 2: Deadly Pleasure
Stone’s Soul
Timeless Wrath
Ty the Sexy Dragon
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