Jex

by Maia Starr

  I shifted into dragon form. I let my wings fold out from behind me and stretched them ready to fly. I pulled my blaster gun from my boot and checked it. It had a full charge, just in case. I flew straight up into the rain, flying very close to the rock walls for cover. I flew up to the very top of the ridge, where I landed. I lay flat on my belly as I crawled across the ridge to the other side. From this point, I could get a view of the other side of the island. As I moved, I could hear commotion that was low and hard to hear because of the rain, but I definitely heard it. I moved further down the ridge. It was dangerous for me to do this, but it was the only way I was going to get a better view.

  Then I saw it. I was shocked. There was a large group of Draqua warriors. They were not shifted, so I could not tell if they were hybrid or dragon from this high up on the mountain ridge.

  There were several groups of them underneath a rock ledge taking cover from the rain. But the small fires that they gathered around provided the dim light for me to see. I did not see the human female called Michelle from this vantage point. But if they did have her, she would probably be tied up and not hanging around the fire with them. The opposition hated the human females; they would not be accommodating to her. She would be kept as a prisoner locked up somewhere.

  I spent the entire night crawling along the ridge getting different views of this base. I counted ten small spaceships and one hundred Draqua warriors. From the vantage point of being so high up, I could not tell who they were being led by. There had to be an organizer of this base. I gathered as much information as I could, memorizing it so that I could tell the king as soon as I returned.

  The time flew by, and I was very glad for the distraction of the work of gathering information on this opposition base. Now I was not thinking about the fact that I had taken Amelia and betrayed Talia. This was exactly what I had needed. Before I knew it, the golden light of the sun rising over the ocean began to illuminate the sky.

  “Shit. I need to get back.” Now that I knew how many Draqua warriors were on this island, Amelia and I were in danger. I would need to get her away from here without them seeing us, and I would have to do it quickly. I crawled down the ridge of the rocky mountain on the side of the island where Amelia slept in the cave. When I got halfway down, I felt safe enough to fly the rest of the way. I entered the cave. The fire was dead.

  “Amelia, wake up. We need to leave,” I said as I walked in. But as I looked around, I realized that she was nowhere to be found.

  “Amelia?” I said.

  There was no answer. I walked out onto the beach. “Amelia!” I said louder, but not too loud.

  “Over here,” I heard her say. I walked around the bend and found her on the beach. I was not expecting to see her at work. The shell that my father wanted was in her hand. But there were also about 50 of them all over the sand.

  “Did you find all of these?” I asked her.

  “No. They were just sitting here the way you see them now. They are all over the place. I don't think they are as hard to find as your father had made it out to be. There is an abundance of them. Even when I went into the shallow tide pool, there were so many that I had to be careful not to step on them. We can take as many as you like,” she said with a smile.

  She was right. I realized that my father had set us up. This was his plan all along. He just wanted Amelia and me to spend time together. I realized that it had worked. His damn plan to get me alone with the human female and mate with her had worked. But I wasn't going to let him win. I was still going to marry Talia, whether he liked it or not.

  “Let's get out of here,” I said as I grabbed a large palm leaf from a tree. I filled it with a few of the shells and tied it in a bundle. I handed it to Amelia.

  “I'm ready,” she said.

  “Good,” I said as I scooped her up in my arms and flew low, straight over the water. I was using the island to block the view of our flight path. I flew low until we were far enough away and then flew straight into the air. But having Amelia's body this close to me only reminded me of what we did in the middle of the night. Next to the fire, I entered her. I tried not to inhale her scent. But it was hard not to. It was torture having her this close to my body. So it was a relief when I saw the village come into view. I didn't waste any time; I flew straight to my father and landed on the veranda outside his living quarters. I put Amelia on her feet and stepped away from her as fast as I could. I did not want to be near her body any longer.

  “Father! Father!” I shouted as I moved into his sitting area.

  “Back so soon? I didn't expect you back until this evening,” he said as he came out of the hallway and into the room. He had a smile on his face. He looked at Amelia; she looked away. Then he looked at me and smiled. He could obviously tell that something had happened from the way Amelia was avoiding eye contact.

  “Here are the damn shells that you wanted. They were very easy to find, and there were plenty of them,” I said to him.

  “There were? They are usually so hard to find,” he said with a bit of a laugh.

  “I know what you were up to, father. But your dumb game turned out to be a good thing,” I said to him.

  “I am sure that it did,” he said looking over at Amelia.

  “That is not what I meant. Though I know that is what you were expecting. What I meant was you sending me to that island uncovered something much more important than you trying to manipulate Amelia and me into getting married. I found a secret opposition base.”

  “What? You found what?” my father said, moving toward me. The smile had disappeared from his face, and he grew more serious.

  “Yes, I did. So I must go and tell the king right now. I trust that you can see that Amelia gets back to her home,” I said as I walked toward the veranda. As I did so, I grabbed Amelia's arm and pulled her towards me and said in a low whispered, “Remember what I said. Our secret.”

  Then I let go of her ran and jumped off the veranda and spread my wings. I flew through the trees and toward the palace.

  “King Hydros, I have requested this meeting with you because it is of some urgency,” I said as I walked into my very first private meeting with the king.

  “Yes, Ravinn. So my guard has told me. It must be of some urgency. I very rarely meet with warriors that are of no rank,” he said.

  “Yes, I understand. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. I will get right to it. I understand that your time is important and I think my findings need to be addressed immediately,” I said.

  “Tell me,” he said as he offered me a drink. I accepted.

  “I have spent the night on a small island away from here. The island does not have a name. It is uninhabited. There is a large mountain ridge on it with a small cave. It is about 10 miles offshore behind the jungle and then west. While I was there, I discovered that on one side of the island there is a gathering of Draqua warriors. I could not hear their discussions, but I am positive that it is a base for the opposition. I believe these are the same that were involved in our latest battle that shut down our ships entering Kelon,” I said.

  The King turned to me with a startled look on his face. He put his cup down on the table and was silent for a minute entirely.

  “Who else have you told this information to?” he asked.

  “I have told my father out of necessity. And there was a human female with me, a new human female known as Amelia. I believe you spoke with my father and offered her to me as a wife. We went there looking to get away to get to know each other better at the request of my father. I don't think he knew that I would find such a thing there. But they are the only two that know,” I said.

  “Good. Let us keep it that way. My first instinct is to raid the base and capture the Draqua at warriors there. But we lost many Draqua in the last battle only a few days ago. I do not wish to lose anymore. Therefore I am going to send a few scouts there in order to gather data and find out as much as we can so that when we are ready to invade their camp,
it will be without any casualties on our side.”

  “I understand, King. That is very wise,” I said to him.

  “Thank you for this information. Ravinn, I will see to it that you are on a path to achieving a higher rank as a warrior,” he said.

  “Thank you, King,” I said to him.

  “Now go and tell no one what you have told me. I will take care of it,” he said.

  I left the palace glad to have the information off my shoulders. But now that I had handed the information over to the king, my mind was now free to roam. It immediately went to Amelia. I could see her naked body lying underneath me. I had to shake the image from my mind so that I would not crash into a tree. I was on a flight path to my home. But I quickly changed my mind and flew back toward the sandy beaches. I flew over the ocean and then made a dive straight down into the water. I needed to wash Amelia off of me. I needed to cool down after thinking about her naked body with her long red hair trailing down over her breasts.

  Then, I made my way home again. I landed on the veranda outside of my hut. I walked in ready to eat and figure out how to deal with my father pushing Amelia on to me as a wife.

  “There you are. I have been waiting for you all night. You did not come home last night,” Talia said as I walked in.

  “Talia? What are you doing here?” I asked her in surprise.

  “Waiting for you, obviously. Where have you been, Ravinn?” she asked looking at me suspiciously. I felt guilt come over me. I did not want to keep it from her, but I could not tell her because it would break her. I would have to keep it a secret. I searched my mind for an excuse. Perhaps I could tell her that I was at my father's home all night.

  “I ran into Ephane, and he said he saw you flying off past the jungle at sunset. I looked off in that direction, and you never returned,” she said.

  Dammit, Ephane. Why did you have to tell her such a thing? Now I could not pretend that I had been with my father. I wondered if Ephane told her that Amelia was in my arms when he saw me? Or perhaps he did not see her at all. I looked at Talia, trying to figure out if she already knew and was testing me. She would do that from time to time. She was too smart for anything. So I would have to tell her some of the truth in order for her to not figure it out.

  “It is true. But I just promised the king that I would not tell anyone what I was doing,” I said to her.

  “The king? You have never spoken with the king. You are lying. What are you hiding? I know that you are not telling the truth,” she said as she crossed her arms. She was very angry.

  “I am. Come here,” I said as I sat down on the bed. She came and sat next to me. Then I lowered my voice to a whisper.

  “You cannot repeat what I am going to tell you,” I said to her.

  “Fine, I won't tell anyone,” she said.

  “My father sent me on an errand to an island 10 miles behind the jungle. There, while I was doing my father's errand, I discovered that there is a base camp. It is the opposition. I stayed the night to scout and find out as much information as I could. I had to. I returned this morning and reported it to the king. It is a secret, Talia. You cannot speak about this to anyone,” I said to her.

  “The opposition… but they are so close. Do you think they are going to attack us?” she said scared.

  “No, it was a very small number of them, too small for them to attack the village. But they are definitely up to something. I wouldn't doubt that they had a spy here among us. That is why you must not say anything to anyone. It is too dangerous,” I said to her.

  “I understand, Ravinn. I am sorry that I doubted you,” she said, throwing her arms around my neck and giving me a big hug. I felt guilty as soon as her skin touched mine. I was lying to her. I was not telling her the entire truth of what I was up to. But I knew that Amelia would not tell anyone, and it would be a secret forever. Talia did not need to know about it. It was a mistake, and it would never happen again.

  “I miss you is all. I was so worried when you did not come to your home all night. I thought you were with another female. I could feel it. I guess I was just being paranoid is all. I just love you so much I don't know what I would do if I found out that you were with another. There is too much between us for that. Now I feel embarrassed that I even thought of it. Now that I know you were doing important work, it makes me feel very shameful about my paranoid feelings,” she said with a pout.

  “No need to worry, my love,” I said, placing a kiss on her lips.

  “I know that now,” she said with a smile as she kissed me back.

  “But all of that work left me incredibly hungry. It is time to eat now,” I said to her.

  “Should we go down to the beach and eat in the communal kitchens?” she asked.

  “I am too tired for that. I think I want to eat here in my home,” I said opening the shelf and finding nothing.

  “You never have food,” she laughed. “I will go to the kitchen and bring us a bounty of food, and we may eat here,” she said as she got up and kissed me and then left my home.

  “You are such a shit, Ravinn,” I said to myself. The extreme guilt that she had believed me and that she was now making sure that I ate moved through me. I had betrayed her, and I did not deserve her. I did not deserve her love, and I was not sure if I could keep my secret from her. I knew that I had to in order to protect her. But it was not right and what honor did I have if I was not an honorable Draqua? I felt sick to my stomach about all of it, but why was I still thinking about Amelia naked underneath me with my cock inside of her. If it bothered me so much, then why was it all I could think about?

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  AMELIA SANDERS

  I had new hope for the first time since I arrived on Kelon. I had hoped that Michelle would be found and returned to safety. After Ravinn found the opposition camp, I just knew that she had to be there. Ravinn leaving me with his father was a shitty move, but it gave me comfort that he was on the way to speak to the king and tell him what he had found. The quicker the king knew, the sooner that a search party and warriors would be sent to deal with them and return Michelle. It all gave me hope. So when I was finally returned to my home in the trees, it did not surprise me that Stephanie and Brenda were waiting on the veranda for me.

  “Amelia?! We thought something bad had happened to you!” Stephanie said as she ran over to me. She gave me a hug, then Brenda gave me one.

  “What happened to you? We came to your hut last night to see if you wanted to join us for dinner on the beach. Then when you weren't here, we brought you dinner when we were done, and you still were not here. We were worried, so we spent the night in your bed waiting for you. We thought you were dead,” Brenda said.

  “Well, my freedom is over, so I might as well be,” I said as I opened the door to my hut and walked in. They followed me.

  “Why? What happened?” Stephanie asked.

  “You are not going to believe this. These damn aliens think they can just do what they like with us. I was matched to a Draqua warrior. They want me to be his wife, like they own me,” I said as I began to run the hot water in the tub. I was in desperate need of a bath after spending the night in the sand in a cave and having hot dirty sex with Ravinn. Stephanie and Brenda were quiet.

  “What? What is it? Why are you not in shock like I was?” I said, looking at them as I pulled the sheer dress off my body and threw it on the ground.

  “Because we too have been assigned to become wives. That was why we wanted to have dinner with you last night. We wanted to talk about it,” Stephanie said.

  “But we could not find you,” Brenda said.

  “Oh, you guys… I am so sorry. That is awful. Of course you want to talk about it; let's talk about it, but I am going to get into this hot tub if you don't mind,” I said, taking off the loincloth and breast cloth and climbing in.

  “Actually, we are both excited about it,” Stephanie said.

  “What?” I said sitting up in the tub.

  “Yes, we
have spent time with the warriors that we have been appointed to. I think I am love. Love at first sight. I'm very excited to be the wife of an alien dragon shifter. It is so unbelievable, and I am grateful to have such an adventurous life when I had such a boring life on Earth,” Brenda said. I looked at both of them very confused.

  “But you have no choice in the matter. They are making you marry someone without a choice in the matter,” I said, angry at both of them for giving in so easily. This was why the Draqua thought they could just assign women to be in love; because it did work.

  “If I did have a choice, I would pick the same thing. I am happy to, and I think just the way Brenda does,” Stephanie said. The two women looked at each other and giggled. They were beyond happy and giddy about what was happening to them. I wished that I could feel the same way, but I did not. Yes, my life was very boring back on Earth, but it was my life. I made it that way; no one controlled it.