Ineq (Dragons Of Kelon) (A Sci Fi Alien Weredragon Romance)

by Maia Starr

“What is it? Another mission? We just got back from the most dangerous one yet. I guess I am ready for another,” Commander Vrerkin said as he came to my side.

  “I hope it is another mission. I feel restless lately,” I said to him as I broke the Draqua seal on the parchment.

  I briefly looked over the words. I smiled and looked at the commander.

  “Well, what does it say?”

  “Captain Ineq, you and Commander Vrerkin have done excellent work this year, including your last mission. As a reward, you are granted leave to go to Earth and find your human mates. You may leave at your own will,” I said.

  “Whooo!” the commander shouted.

  “This is excellent news,” I said with a grin. I had been waiting for this news for two years. Getting it was a sweet relief. “You deserve it, Commander.”

  “You deserve it too, Captain. When do we leave? I'm ready today,” he said.

  “Going to Earth is a very dangerous Mission, even if it is just to find our human female mates. We get prepared today like we would for any other mission. Take our time and take care of the details. We leave tomorrow morning,” I said.

  “Yes!” Then the commander spread his wings out behind him and took off into flight. He flew straight up and did a few loops in celebration. I watched, laughing at the idiot. I wanted a mate just as any Draqua did, but it was for the purpose of continuing our race. I did not think it was cause for too much celebration;. The commander thought differently; that was obvious. He finally came back down to the land and was in a great mood.

  “Are you done?” I said.

  “Yes, I think so,” he laughed.

  “Good, now go see to our supplies. Remember that we will need food and water for four on the return journey. I am going to go log a launch time for my ship first thing in the morning,” I said leaving his side.

  Commander Vrerkin Roan was a damn good Commander. I had him as my right-hand man; it was the best position for a captain like myself to have at my side. I trusted him beyond any doubt. I trusted him with my life. We were practically like brothers and had grown up and trained together. But my advancements in my warrior skills and leadership qualities put me in the position of captain, and Vrerkin was well on his way to becoming a captain himself in a year or two. We were both hybrids, and we took our work as warriors very seriously. We took no mission for granted.

  Being out there, in space on a mission was what I lived for. When I was home on our home planet of Kelon for too long, I became very restless. I craved the danger, adventure, and chance to prove myself every chance I got. Like other hybrid Draqua, my mother was a human female, and my father was a full-blooded Draqua. Now that I was of age, it was my turn to do the same. It was my duty and responsibility to mate with a human female in order to keep the Draqua from going extinct. It was part of my responsibility as a warrior and as a captain. I would do my duty and go to Earth and find a suitable human female to mate with so that she could carry my offspring. I wouldn't expect much from her other than to do her duties as a human female wife. It was all very black and white to me.

  The next morning, we left our home planet and made our way to Earth, just the commander and me. It would be a long slow trip, and it was important that we were on high alert. The opposition was our enemy, and they were always looming, searching for Draqua ships to take down.

  The opposition was a sect of Draqua that had segregated from the main Draqua that lived on Kelon. The opposition opposed mating with human females. They wanted to keep the blood pure. They wanted to wait until a time when we could mate with each other again, but no one knew when or if that would ever happen. So by mating with the humans, we kept our race alive for decades. But the opposition did not like it, and we had many battles with them since the segregation years ago. It had been an ongoing conflict.

  Therefore, any mission was dangerous. We kept a lookout as we traveled to Earth.

  “I am getting a transmission,” the commander said as he sat in the pilot chair of our ship.

  “Where is it from?”

  “From a base on Kelon.”

  “Play it,” I said.

  “Captain Ineq Shun, we have new orders for you. You are to go to Pacu in order to retrieve some information for the king. We need an accurate count of the Aeriwana before your return to Kelon.”

  “That is it. That is the end of the transmission,” the commander said.

  “Reply to the transmission. Say we accept the mission, but we are very close to Earth. We will do the mission on our return trip home.”

  “Yes, Captain,” the commander said as he began to type in the information.

  I wondered why they needed this information from the market village of Pacu on the planet Tiok. It was not what I wanted to do, take two females from Earth to Tiok, but we were too close to Earth to do it before we went there. It would be a waste of fuel and time. So we would have to take the human females with us to the village in order to complete this mission. But it sounded like a very quick and easy mission, nothing dangerous. But going to that planet was dangerous in itself. It was a mix of every single race in the galaxy and was a rowdy place. The opposition had been known to occupy areas, as well as their new weapon, the Aeriwana.

  “Sent,” the commander said. “What do you think that is all about, Captain?”

  “I don't know. But it must be important if the king is asking for it.”

  “Do you think it has to do with the rumors about the Aeriwana growing in numbers?”

  “Could be. There are countless reasons; I guess we will find out when we see it with our own eyes. How much longer to Earth?”

  “Another forty-eight hours,” he said.

  “Let's take turns on the watch. Go get some sleep. I will wake you up in eight hours to take your turn,” I said.

  “Are you sure? I could take the first watch?”

  “No, I will do it. If another transmission comes in, I will be here ready to respond to it. You go ahead.”

  “All right,” he said as he left the flight deck and walked down the back hallway to one of the two cabins. We were in my ship; it was a fast ship, but it did have long-range capabilities, and because of that, it had good living quarters. It would be very comfortable for the human females that we chose. I hoped for a quick visit to Earth. We would need to find two human females fast and take them. Then leave as quickly as we entered. It was important to stay hidden from the humans of Earth, and fortunately, our fleet had invisible shields that hid us from the naked eye. Not even the human radar could pick us up.

  Forty-eight hours later, we were doing just that; we were entering Earth's atmosphere over a vast area of water. It was always our chosen destination when entering Earth. There were fewer humans over their oceans and less chance of being seen.

  “When we are twenty-two meters above the water surface, hover. Then we will fly out of the ship before it submerges into the water for camouflage,” I ordered the commander.

  “Sounds like a good plan to me. Setting the automatic settings now, and remote retrieval. Are you synced?”

  “I am synced to the ship.”

  “All right, ready when you are, Captain,” he said.

  I took a good look out the windshield. It was a black night. The water looked dark, and in the distance, there were lights, obviously a village or city. “When the ship is submerged and secure, we will swim in the direction of those lights. Follow my lead,” I said.

  “I understand, Captain.”

  “Open the door,” I ordered.

  The ship door opened. I shifted into hybrid form. I jumped out of the ship and spread my wings. I flew into the air and hovered near the ship. The commander followed me out.

  We watched as the door closed and the ship slowly submerged underneath the water to a safe depth.

  “What's that?” the commander said.

  I looked in the direction that he was looking. There was one lone light bobbing up and down between us and the village lights.

 
“It could be a boat. Let's check it out, slowly and carefully. Underwater,” I said. I flew in a loop and dove straight down into the water. The commander followed me. We were water dragons, and our swimming skills were just as fast and smooth as our flying skills. We cut through the water fast and easily toward the ship. It was possible there were human females on the ship; any one of them would do as my mate.

  When we were close to the ship, I slowly emerged, sticking my head above water. The commander followed. We treaded water and listened. We could hear the voices of human females arguing. I looked at the commander.

  “Females; could our luck be this good?”

  “I do not know. Can you see them? Are they breeding age? Do you see any males to battle with?”

  “I will take a closer look,” the commander said as he swam a few meters away from me around the edge of the ship. From this distance, I could see the two human females walking back and forth on the deck. They seemed to be in a panic, but I could not make out what they were saying at this distance.

  The commander returned. “They are both of breeding age, and they are in peril. The boat they are on has run out of fuel. They are stranded. I think we should rescue them,” he smiled.

  “Let us make sure we will not be seen by other humans,” I said looking around the area. It was very dark, and I did not see any other lights of boats. We seemed to be in a perfect area.

  “I think it is clear. What do you want to do?” the commander asked. I looked at him and smiled.

  “I guess we should introduce ourselves,” I said. I shot straight out of the water. I could hear the splash as the commander followed me. We hovered directly over the boat deck. We were ready to meet our future human mates.

  CHAPTER THREE

  ALEXANDRA

  Okay, so maybe it was a very stupid idea to steal a boat in the middle of the night while we were drinking. Now, we were stuck at sea. We had run out of gas, and there was no help in sight. I regretted the decision to allow Camilla to talk me into doing this.

  “What now?” Camilla asked.

  “The radio. I will try to radio for help,” I said, searching the ceiling and shells around me. “There,” I said, grabbing the radio receiver. I pressed the button. “Mayday, mayday. This is a distress call. We are lost at sea and out of fuel.”

  “Did it work?”

  “I don't hear any static,” I said, fiddling with the knobs. “I don't think it is working.” I slapped the side of the radio. “There is no power to it. I have never seen a radio like this. It is very old. I don't think it is working.”

  “Great. So what do we do? Just sit here?”

  “I guess. But we could drift further and further away from the shore.”

  “Well, we can't swim for it. Look how far the beach is,” Camilla said.

  “No, we definitely can't swim for it. This is your fault, by the way,” I said feeling angry.

  “What? Not entirely. You are the one that knows how to drive the boat. I didn't drive it out here myself,” she said lunging toward me but stumbling a bit. She was drunker than I was, but we were both still intoxicated.

  “Yes, I suppose you are right about that,” I said. I did drive the boat. Without me, she would just be at the pier.

  “Well, I suppose we can try to drop anchor. I assume this ship has one. At least it will keep us from drifting too far.”

  “Okay, how do we do that?”

  “There should be a switch here. I don't see one. Look on the deck for an anchor for a heavyweight. I'll look in the front,” I said. We searched the deck but could not find one.

  “We are really screwed, aren't we?” Camilla said sitting down on a bench.

  “Yes, for now. Maybe when the sun comes up, there will be more ships around that we can flag down. For now, we just need to sit here.”

  “This is not what I had planned when I thought about a vacation getaway in paradise.” Camilla crossed her arms and pouted.

  “Well, neither did I. Let's just hope that things don't get worse,” I said, moving to the bench and sitting beside her.

  Then something bumped the ship.

  “What was that?” Camilla said scared.

  “I don't know,” I said grabbing her arm.

  “It's a shark, isn't it? We are going to be eaten alive,” she said hysterically.

  “Calm down. This boat is way too big to be destroyed by a shark, no matter how big it is. If it is a shark, it's just bumping it out of curiosity and will go away. Just don't stand up and fall in.”

  “Oh, that is reassuring. I am never standing up again,” Camilla said.

  Whoosh! Splash!

  “Oh my God! What the hell?” Camilla shouted.

  “I don't know. Whatever it is, it is big. Maybe it is a whale splashing around that we can't see in the dark,” I said as we squeezed together frantically. Then something caught my vision, but it wasn't in the sea; it was in the sky. I pointed up. “Oh my God!” Camilla followed my finger and we saw two large figures, like men, flying above the boat. We both screamed. “Aah!”

  We ran inside the small cabin wheelhouse.

  “What the hell? Did you see that?” Camilla yelled.

  “Yes, I did. Are we hallucinating?” I asked.

  “You saw winged men out there, didn't you?” she said.

  “Yes, that is exactly what I saw. Two of them. But that can't be right. There is no such thing. We have to be imagining it. Maybe it was massive stingrays. They fly out of the water, like leap a bit.

  “Leap yes, but that was not leaping. That was full-on flying and hovering above us. That was no damn stingray.”

  “Do not be scared. We will not hurt you!”

  A thick and deep voice. Camilla and I looked at each other with wide eyes. We were both trembling in fear.

  “Oh my God,” Camilla whispered.

  “It talks. It is talking to us,” I said.

  “What do we say?” Camilla whispered.

  “I don't know. How am I supposed to know?” I said.

  “Do we go out there?” she asked, trying to get a better look at the sky through the glass.

  “No, don't go out there. Are you crazy? What if they want to kill us?”

  “I think they would have killed us instantly. They came out of nowhere. They did not have to warn us. We should say something back,” Camilla said in an optimistic way.

  “Are you listening to yourself? This is insane. This cannot be happening. This is not normal. This is not something that happens on an everyday basis, men flying around with wings.”

  “Maybe it is not wings. Maybe it is some new wind sport, like hang-gliding, that we have never heard of but that they do here in Mexico. Like kiteboarding or something. They could be trying to help us.”

  “No, that was definitely not kiteboarding,” I said.

  “Whatever, you know what I mean. It was dark out there, and we didn't really get a good look.”

  Boom. Boom. We felt the vibration of something heavy landing on the deck. We looked at each other and swallowed hard before turning our attention out to the deck.

  “Come out. We will not hurt you. We want to talk to you, human females,” the deep voice said.

  “Human females?” I whispered to Camilla. She shrugged her shoulders. Clearly, this did not strike her the way it did me. Why would they call us humans? Humans do not refer to other people as humans. Which meant what was out there was not human at all.

  “I think they are on the boat,” I whispered to her.

  “Yes, I think you are right,” I said.

  “Go check it out and let me know if it is safe,” she pushed me toward the door.

  “No. If I am going out there, then you are going out there with me.” I grabbed her hand.

  “Fine, we will go out there together,” she said, taking a deep breath. We held hands and slowly peeked out the doorway onto the boat of the deck. It was dimly lit, with only the boat lights as our source of light.

  “Oh my,” Camilla whisp
ered.

  There were two very large men standing on the deck, but they did not look like complete men. They were something else. Wings were folded behind their backs, and there was a light pattern down one side of the body, like a tattoo of scales perhaps. They were shirtless and wore only loincloths and strange boots that went up to their knees. They were very tall, about nine feet. One had black hair and the other had blonde hair. I looked at Camilla with wide eyes and then back at the creatures.

  “You can come out. I am called Captain Ineq Shun,” the dark haired one said. I was immediately drawn to him. His hair was long and wet and clung to him. The water was beading off of his strong, toned chest and thick arms.