by Maia Starr
No matter what it took, I was going to take down the Drackon that took me down. I jumped up and grabbed the bars of the window. I pulled myself up and down, keeping my muscles in shape. There was nothing to do while in prison except prepare for what I needed to get done when I escaped.
Chapter 6
SENTINEL TERIK VUNA
"You wanted to see me?" I asked Adriana when I walked into her living quarters. She stood up and crossed her arms in front of her. As soon as I saw her, all those feelings came flooding back; the same passion I had when I first saw her photograph and read her biography facts.
"Yes, that was yesterday. What took you so long?" She said.
"You're angry at me," I said leaning against the wall and crossing my arms in front of me. I was amused by her lack of fear when she spoke to me. The power that I held in my title position did not scare her. I liked that about her. She seemed fearless, even though she was in a strange world under suspicious circumstances. She was still strong. Her strong will attracted me to her even more.
"It's called a job. I have many responsibilities as the Land Sentinel, and as you know I have a very immediate case. That is what took me so long. I'm a very busy Drackon," I said to her.
"And I am a human, and I would think the fact that I am a living being would give me some precedence over at least a few of your responsibilities."
She stepped closer to me as she took on a tone of scolding me as if I were a youngling. Her nose wrinkled up when she did so; it was very sexy.
"Very well, I am here now. What is it that you wanted to see me about?" I asked her while moving closer. As I did so her gaze fell on my chest and did not leave it. She seemed to be frozen in thought. I liked it that I had this effect on her. Perhaps she wasn't exactly Captain Mordikye’s. Maybe her heart did not belong to him.
"Adriana...?" I said trying to snap her out of her gaze.
"What? Oh, right. I wish to speak of my circumstances. I would like to ask permission to contact the registration office on Earth," she said as she turned around and faced the wall. Her back was now to me. It allowed me to look at her ample backside. It was torture not to reach out and touch it.
"Why do you want to contact the registration office?" I asked her.
"I want to inquire if they can find me another Drackon match for a husband. It seems a wasted trip that I have come this far all the way to Sala, just to be sent all the way back to Earth, where I will have to undergo the match process again. Then I'll have to make another trip out here. I think if I plead my case to the registration office they can match me with a Drackon quickly because of my special circumstances. Therefore, I would very much like to contact them," she said laying out her case to me.
What she said made sense to me, but a part of me did not want her to be matched again. What if she was matched to someone other than myself. I would need to give this some thought.
"I hear your request, Dr. Adams. I shall see what I can do. In the meantime, I have been called back to Mooreah. I must sit with the king about the situation with Captain Mordikye. I will be gone for two days."
"You're leaving me?" She burst out the words quickly. When I looked at her in confusion, she turned away embarrassed. I do not think she meant to say that out loud.
"No, the king wishes to sit with you as well. And since you told me of your love of the land, I thought you might want to see some of Mooreah. I can show you," I said to her knowing that what I was really asking was permission to spend time with her. It hurt my pride to admit it.
Her face lit up with a bright smile and she jumped up and down in excitement. It was not the reaction I was expecting, but it was one that captured my heart immediately.
"Yes! Yes! I would love to see it!" She said as she ran straight toward me and threw her arms around me in a hug of gratitude. It caught me off guard. Her body was warm against mine and her head pressed just above my stomach. She was so petite and delicate. I didn't dare hug her in return. If I put my arms around her I would not be able to stop myself from other actions. Her pheromone scent was now all over me, and I didn't know how much more of it I could handle. She quickly pulled away from me and looked up, as I looked down at her. Her brown eyes were wide with embarrassment. She took a few steps backwards away from me and said, "I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me. I was just so excited."
"Well if that got you excited, I wonder what I will get when I tell you my next surprise," I said to her. It was a moment of tenderness that I was not expecting to happen; yet it left my lips anyway.
"Surprise? You have a surprise for me?" Her voice was a weak crack of a whisper.
"I do. We leave tomorrow at first light to Mooreah. But until then I thought you might want to see more of Sala. I can take you out over the mountains, if you like?" I asked her.
Her eyes lit up again and she jumped up and down. I groaned. I felt my staff getting harder. I would never get tired of seeing her do that, her body jiggling. It was very enticing.
"I would love to!" She shouted. "When? Now?" She asked me.
"No, in an hour or so. I have a few more responsibilities in my office. I will have Luqan visit you with the proper clothing attire to wear. The desert can get cold," I said as I turned my back to her, ready to leave her living quarters.
"Terik?" She said, stopping me in my tracks.
I turned to her and said "Yes?", as I stood in the doorway.
"Thank you. Being able to see the planets is everything to me. It is all I ever wanted," she said.
I wanted to say you're welcome. I wanted to say that I would do anything for you. I wanted to tell her that I had also chosen her as a wife choice. I wanted her to know that I desired her. But instead I said nothing. I could not say anything. I could only walk into the hallway, letting the door close behind me. I was getting overheated. I needed to cool off. I was supposed to go to my office, but now in my heated state I knew that I could not concentrate on my task. I went outside and shifted directly into dragon form and took flight. I needed to get this steam out of my system. I flew out away from the base port over the rocky desert. It was midday and the noon sun was high above us. I flew high and I flew hard. I tested my diving skills. I tested the height that I could go into the atmosphere. I had to keep my mind busy on flying so that I would not think of Adriana Adams.
But when I finally returned to my office, it was almost time to take Adriana out onto the surface of Sala. I would be heated all over again.
"She is ready," Luqan said as she walked into my office. "I gave her the proper attire, and the extra things that she asked for."
I looked at her confused, "What extra things?"
"You're going to laugh. She asked for a trowel and a specimen bag. She wants to dig around and collect and study things," Luqan said with a smug smile on her face. She was saying this to me because she knew that I enjoyed doing the same thing. It was uncanny.
"Is that so?" I asked her.
"Yes, she seemed very excited to do it. I looked up her profession on Earth, geologist, and it is in the same department of work as land sentinel for us Drackon."
"That is interesting," I said as I moved away from her, not wanting her to see right through me to the fact that I already knew it and it was the main reason I had chosen Adriana as a wife choice. "If you will excuse me I will go fetch her now for the outing. Make sure that everything is in place for my departure in the morning to Mooreah. Adriana will be accompanying me, as the king wants to meet with her."
"Of course," Luqan said.
As I was walking out the door, Luqan shouted to me, "Have fun!"
I stopped but did not turn around. Then I kept walking. This was not a date or courtship, dammit--or so I was trying to convince myself.
Minutes later I was walking out of the base with Adriana.
"Here we are," I said as I walked up to a land a vehicle.
"This is peculiar. I've never seen anything like this," she said as she moved to the vehicle and put her hand on it.
/> "Yes, it does well in the desert here. Come on, get inside," I said as I opened her door. She crawled in and I shut the door behind her. I went around and took a deep breath of fresh air before I had to be in a small capsule of a vehicle, where I would be overwhelmed by her pheromones scent. I climbed in.
"This is very exciting. Thank you," she said.
"Don't mention it. I have to monitor Sala and that requires me to drive around the land for checks," I said lying to her.
"I see, so you are not just doing this for me? You are just letting me tag along on one of your job responsibilities?” she said in a teasing manner.
"Exactly. Shall we?" I said as I turned on the engine and we rolled out of the base. We moved past the fence as I nodded at the guards, and then we were out into the open land. She turned her head back-and-forth, eagerly taking in the scenery. I could see how excited she was out of the corner of my eye. It was adorable.
"Stop here," she said, opening the door before I could even come to a complete stop. She jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward a rock wall. She moved her hands over it. I followed her and asked, "What is it?"
"I just wanted to touch the rock wall. It is my first time touching an alien landscape. It is beautiful. Look at the colors," she said in an excited manner.
"Yes, it is beautiful. I thought the same thing when I first came to Sala," I said to her as I placed my hands on the wall as well. She turned and looked at me and smiled. We were quiet as we stared at each other. It was a moment of appreciating the land and it was bonding us together. I had never experienced anything like it with any other female, be it human or Drackon.
She broke away from the stare as though trying to distract herself as she said, "Do you think I can dig around and maybe take some samples?" She grabbed her bag of tools.
"I'm not sure about that," I said teasing her.
"Why is that?" Her eyes went wide.
"Normally, a human would have to fill out many forms and they would have to be approved by the Land Sentinel before any collection could take place," I said crossing my arms in front of my chest.
"But isn't that you? You are the Land Sentinel." She asked.
I laughed and said, "Oh yes! I forgot that is me!"
"Well? Do I have your permission?" she asked me.
"I don't know. It's going to cost you."
"What do you want?" She asked.
"A kiss right here," I pointed at my cheek.
She gasped, and it grew quiet. She stepped towards me and pulled herself up on her tiptoes as her hands pressed against my chest to keep her balance. She tilted her head back and I lowered my face and turned it. Just as her lips were going to make contact with my cheek I turned my face and I locked my lips onto hers. She moaned into my mouth as I kissed her. It was a dirty trick but I could not help myself. She quickly pulled away from me and stepped back toward her tools.
"Now, do I have your permission?"
I cleared my throat and forced myself to calm down and said, "You have my permission, Dr. Adams."
She smiled a big grin and went to work. She took out a notepad and began taking notes. She was focused. She was driven. She made drawings of the strata of the rock wall, and I knew exactly what she was doing. As she went along I decided to help her, "This layer here that is a darker yellow, we call that the cruit layer."
She looked at me, shocked, and then she smiled, "Tell me more, Sentinel Vuna," she picked up her pen ready to hear my lecture. I was excited to share that knowledge with her. Before I knew it we had spent an hour as I gave her a lecture about the geology of Sala as she collected rocks and soil. We truly were a real match. And to think we came so close to actually being matched without any problems between us. If Captain Mordikye had not gone to Earth and picked her out himself, she would be on a ship from Earth to be with me as my wife. But that was not how things had progressed, and for the time being I would have to deal with that until I could figure something out.
"You know, when you and the Captain shifted and fought, that was the first time I had ever seen a weredragon shift," she said out of nowhere.
"Did it scare you?" I asked her.
"No! I thought it was very fascinating. I was in awe of it. I had never seen such a beautiful thing before. Does it hurt? Does it hurt when you shift?" She asked.
"No, in fact it feels great. It releases all this tension and energy that builds up inside of us."
"It must be an amazing thing to be able to fly," she said as her eyes began to water.
"It is," I said, as I stepped away from her. She looked at me in confusion.
"Grrr" I growled as I shifted into dragon form. Then I moved my wings, flapping them up and down and taking flight. Adriana watched from below with awe in her eyes. Then I swooped down and picked her up in my arms. She let out a little squeal as I took flight, holding her in my arms close to my body. Now she too was flying. I could hear her giggling and it made me smile. I took her flying high over the desert and over the mountains. It was more fun than I had flying any other time, and it was because she was with me. After a few minutes I set her back down near the vehicle.
"That was amazing!" She shouted as she jumped up and down in excitement.
"Yes it was," I said as I stepped toward her. Her mouth fell open, as she looked me over.
"Can I touch it?" She asked.
I raised an eyebrow at her and said, "Touch what?"
"Your scales… Your wings…" she said moving toward me. Before I could give her an answer the palms of her hands were flat against the scales on my chest and stomach. She moved over them with a soft motion, and it was more than I could handle. She was turning me on. I took a deep breath as she continued to fondle me. Then she moved around me behind my back and began to finger my wings.
"They are so beautiful and shiny," she said.
"So are you," I said to her.
She walked around to my front side and before she could speak again I pulled her into my arms and kissed her fiercely. My lips pressed firmly against her… and she pressed her body against mine, putting her hands around my abdomen. I picked her up off the ground so that she could better reach me. I held her firmly against me as I ravaged her mouth. Her hands roamed over my shoulders.
Then she pulled her mouth away from me and said, "Put me down please."
I set her back on her feet and she moved away from me toward the vehicle. She turned to me and said, "I'm sorry. It is not that I don't want to, but it seems wrong. I am still betrothed to another. Is it not wrong for us to engage in this type of behavior when I am still promised to another?"
"You are right. I am sorry. It will not happen again. We do have laws against this, and technically you still belong to Captain Mordikye… for now. Let us go back to the base," I said as I shifted back from the dragon. I got into the vehicle and we drove quietly back to the base. Neither of us said anything. There was so much that I wanted to say to her, but I locked it up inside. She had been right. King Jarith Rykor would look down on my behavior if he knew what I was doing.
Chapter 7
DR. ADRIANA ADAMS
After my flight over Sala in the arms of the powerful weredragon Sentinel Vuna, I could think of nothing else. I had almost forgotten about my mission to seek out a cache of flagion rocks. I had to remember why I was really here. I had an entire life back on Earth that was about to get so much more interesting when I got to study the flagion. But now, for some reason, all of that seemed very small in the grand scheme of things. My heart wanted Sentinel Vuna… Terik.
The flight from Sala to Mooreah on board a small space pod with Terik and a guard was a very quiet trip. I could feel the tension between Terik and I yet none of us said anything. It was a short flight and when the pod entered the Mooreah atmosphere my mouth fell open. It was beautiful and lush with lots of greens, blues; forest and water. The pod flew near a grand castle that looked like a medieval English castle. “What is this place?” I asked breaking the silence.
“This is
the capital city of Cerista. That castle is where the King and Queen live,” Terik answered.
After landing we left the pod and Terik walked me toward the castle. It was then that I saw a weredragon youngling flying over the castle grounds sweeping and diving fast. There was something very different about him.
"That is Prince Caspin," Terik said.
"He is different; why?" I asked.
"He is a tricolored. He is the offspring of the human female Queen Marissa and King Jarith Rykor," he replied.
That was interesting. I had heard that the offspring between human and Drackon was different but it wasn’t until I saw it in person that I really understand how special it was.