by Maia Starr
“That is a very unique reaction indeed. What do you think it means?” Jex asked.
“I don't know, but I would like to find out. Come, let's get to that tower. Follow me. Stay low,” I said.
An hour later, two thousand humans were gathered on the street in front of the tower building. We had shifted out of dragon form and hid inside of the building instead of on top of it. I took the advice of my soldiers to appear to the humans not in dragon form in order to keep it less frightening for them.
I watched as Vanessa addressed the humans gathered in front of her. I was very impressed with her. She was a commanding presence. Everyone was paying attention to her. It was obvious they respected her and that she was a leader of this community. I found it very arousing. As she spoke, I found myself growing hot. I found myself feeling strong, and that sense of happiness was returning. Just her voice was having this effect on me. It was a very interesting reaction. I wondered what could be causing it. But I would have to figure that out later. For now, I had to continue with the task at hand. That was important. I had to stay focused and not let this unusual reaction I was having distract me.
“I have called this meeting today because of the most unusual circumstance. I hardly believe it myself!” Vanessa said to the audience. This was it. It was going to be time to reveal ourselves. She continued with her speech.
“This news will seem alarming, but it is good news. We have been fighting the Clenok Clenok cyborgs for so long. We have stayed hidden from them and have fought off small bands of the Clenok cyborgs when they find out where we are. Sometimes it is successful, and sometimes it is not. We have lost many lives trying to find a way to defeat the Clenok cyborgs once and for all. But one thing that we have not tried is getting help. We need help. The Clenok cyborgs are made of metal; they are very strong. We are human, and our bodies are fragile. The Clenok cyborgs do not feel. They can fight and never age. They are able to repair themselves. They are machines created and lead by other machines. It seems that they just keep replicating over and over again. There seemed to be no end in sight… until now.
“I have met someone that brings me hope. I have met someone that says they want to help us fight against the Clenok cyborgs. They are much stronger than us. They have a vast army. I only met him today, and I want you to meet him as well.
“My first reaction when I saw him was to be scared. But after I spoke with him for some time, I knew that we had nothing to fear. They want to trade with us.
“You must be wondering what I am speaking of at this point. Please keep the commotion down as I continue to tell you. I met an alien. These aliens are known as the Veruka. They come from a planet called Tivoso, galaxies away. They are led by a king. This team is called king Karik Korinth. I have met him and two of his soldiers today. They come to us for a trade. They want to trade knowledge that we humans have in exchange for their protection. They have a vast army that is stationed a hundred miles away.
“I know that all of this sounds unbelievable, but there is more. They are not like us. True they look somewhat human, but they are taller and larger than us. They are what they call shifters. They can shift into a half-man half-dragon form: a weredragon. I know that this is extremely incredible. I agree. But I think that we should trust them because they ask for very little, and in return, they could save us all. I want to introduce you to King Karik Karin!”
The crowd was in commotion. They were all looking at each other and talking to each other. I could hear the fear in their voices. I looked at Jex and Azlo.
"That is our signal,” I said.
They opened the door. Together, the three of us walked out and stood behind Vanessa. She turned and looked at me. She had a look of sympathy in her eyes. She nodded at me.
“Say nothing, just stand here and let them look,” I whispered to my soldiers. It was then that I noticed that Vanessa was looking at our bodies. She had not seen us out of dragon form. I think she liked it. I nodded to her, letting her know that she still had the lead. The crowd grew very loud, and we could hear some humans saying that we were there to kill them. Others were saying we were going to eat them. Others said we were in league with the machines, the Clenok Clenok cyborgs. There was panic. This is what we were expecting. Humans were suspicious by nature.
Vanessa put her hands up in the air to silence the crowd.
“Attention! Let me have your attention! They wish to speak. They speak our language!” she shouted. Then she looked at me, and I stepped forward by her side. The crowd grew quiet.
“Humans of Earth! Thank you for allowing me to speak. What Dr. Vanessa Lopez has said is the truth. We have come here to help you fight the Clenok cyborgs. Yesterday, we blew up a repair facility located a hundred and fifty miles from here. That should keep the number of cyborgs low within this region for now. We did this in order to help you. We admire the humans and seek your knowledge, and nothing else. We have known of you from across the galaxies for many years. We know that you are intelligent beings. We want to learn from you. We want to gather and store your knowledge, especially that of medical expertise that could possibly help our race as well.
“It is true that we are weredragons. Right now we are in normal form. But we can shift into a weredragon form. We won't do that now as we do not wish to frighten you.
“We come in peace. We have come to help you, if you will let us fight for you. I have a vast army of weredragons that are stationed far from here. But they are ready to defend you if you shall come under attack by the Clenok cyborgs. I hope that you will give this some thought and not immediately banish us from your home. It is just the three of us. My name is King Karik Korinth and beside me are two of my trusted soldiers, Azlo and Jex. We are the only three in your village.
“We know that this comes as a surprise. Dr. Vanessa Lopez has agreed to meet with us to share her medical expertise, and we will not be in your way at all. But we wanted our presence to be known; honesty, loyalty, and honor those are words that we live by.”
“Why should we trust you?” a man asked as he came up on the stage beside Vanessa. He was looking directly at me. He had brown hair with brown eyes. He was short, not much taller than Vanessa. He had a look on his face that was a cross between fear and jealousy. It was an odd combination, unless he was protecting Vanessa. Perhaps this was her mate.
“Why would you trust anyone?” I said to him in return. “You cannot trust someone until they have proven themselves to you; isn't that correct? When you first meet someone, you do not know them. But I will tell you this: we are stronger than you. We have a vast army. We shoot fire from our mouths. Knowing all of this, if we meant you humans harm, you would not be standing here right now. We would have launched a surprise attack. But why would we do that? You are living beings. Why would we want to be here with machines? We owe them no allegiance. But know that if we were here to harm you, it would already be done. You can trust that,” I said directly to him but loud enough for the crowds to hear. I could hear murmurs of agreement as people understood what I was saying.
The man looked down at his feet. That was it. He wasn't going to argue anymore? I thought it was strange for him to give up so easily. There was something about him that I did not trust, but I guessed he was thinking the same thing about me.
Chapter 6
Dr. Vanessa Lopez
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?” Dr. Bradley Douglas said to me.
We were inside the lab while the three weredragons were outside of the lab. I had led them to the lab after we gave our introduction speeches to the people of the village. The village was now buzzing with all kinds of talk. Some people were glad that these aliens were there to help us. After seeing just how big the soldiers were, they believed they could help us. Others were suspicious and did not believe them at all. I knew that this would be the state of the village from now on. You couldn't please everyone. People were never on the same page. This was how it had to be for now. It wouldn't be until the Veruka prov
ed themselves as soldiers helping us that people would be convinced. But it was all that I could do for now.
So I lead them to the lab so that I could get started on helping them. I did not mention the blackness illness that they were dealing with because I knew that would cause more harm than good. People would think that it would spread to them, and as far as I knew, it possibly could. I didn't know anything about it at all. How could I? I had only known about this for a couple of hours and only seen it in action once when the king fell over. That was all that I knew.
But now Dr. Bradley Douglas was lecturing me and shouting at me in the lab. More so than his usual berating of me.
“Don't worry. You don't have to deal with this at all, Douglas. I am going to work with these aliens and share medical knowledge with them. They are also allowing me to gain knowledge from them. I am going to run tests on them. Who knows? They could offer medical advancements for our people as well. You don't have to lift a finger. Just go on with your regular work as you always do,” I said, lying to him. I was trying to make it look like I was going to be testing the weredragons out of scientific curiosity and nothing more. It would be a good cover.
“You cannot trust them. They are not here for the reason they say that they are.”
“How do you know that?” I said narrowing my eyes at him.
“Because I can just feel it,” he said.
“I am willing to take that chance. This is my chance to study something unique, and I am not going to pass up that opportunity. Now if you'll excuse me, I am going to get started,” I said walking away from him.
He grabbed my arm and tried to stop me.
“You are not going anywhere,” he said with anger in his voice.
“Get your hands off of me,” I said.
“Is everything all right here?” I heard a deep voice say. I turned to see Karik standing in the doorway. He was staring at us. There was anger in his eyes.
I pulled my arm from Dr. Douglas.
“Yes, everything is fine. I was just telling Dr. Douglas that I am ready to get started and I was about to go grab you,” I said.
“I don't like this one bit,” Douglas said.
I looked at him, shocked that he was saying something like that in front of this massive alien.
“Well, it's a good thing that she does not need your permission, isn't it?” Karik said taking a step into the room. I saw Douglas take a step backward and flinch. He was obviously scared. He had every reason to be. Karik was very intimidating.
"What are you hiding, alien? Have you come to take over Earth?” Douglas said.
"Douglas!” I shouted at him.
"If I have, you would be the first to know, I guarantee it,” Karik said to him in a threatening tone.
“Enough. I am going to get to work. You two can stay here and fight like children if you want to. It is a waste of my time,” I said walking away into another room of the lab.
“I am not going to stick around to see this nonsense,” I heard Dr. Douglas say as I walked away. He stomped toward the door and left. I could hear Karik walk in my direction. His heavy boots made a loud sound on the floor.
“Sorry about that,” I said without turning to look at him. I was getting the equipment ready.
“Do not apologize. He is only protecting what is his. I cannot blame him,” he said.
I thought about what he said. Then I turned to him as I realized what he was saying. “What is his? I am not his. I do not belong to him. He is a work colleague. He is a doctor like I am. That is all. He is not my…”
"Mate?” Karik finished my sentence.
“I never heard it called that, but yes. He is not my mate,” I said.
“Good,” he said. I looked at him for a second. What did he mean by that? I didn't want to ask.
“If you will sit on this table, I can set up the equipment and begin to run a few tests. While I have you hooked up, I am going to write down all the symptoms of this mysterious illness, including the history of when it started,” I said as I grabbed a few electrodes.
“I am more than happy to tell you anything you need. I am yours,” he said.
Hearing him say that suddenly made me feel aroused. I don't know why. I suddenly began to think about him sexually. I wondered what he looked like underneath those trousers. Was he human-like below the waist as well? I had to stop myself from thinking about it. But it was only going to get worse when I realized that I now had to touch him.
“I am going to put these on your skin,” I said to him.
“Do what you need to do, Vanessa,” he said.
I swallowed hard. Then I begin to work. His skin was spectacular. The silvery glitter-like skin was beautiful to look at. I rubbed it with an alcohol pad before sticking electrodes all over his body. Touching him was making me more and more aroused by the second. I could feel his firm muscular physique underneath my fingertips. I wanted to run my hands up and down his body, but I thought that would be too obvious. It wouldn't be medical, and he would know it. So I stuck to protocol.
“I was surprised to see you looking like this. Your wings are gone, and it just looks a bit different in your midsection area,” I said.
“Yes, when we first met I was shifted into dragon form. We decided to appear to the human group out of dragon form to make it less frightening. We look more human this way, except for our obvious differences.”
“That is an amazing quality, to be able to shift like that. I find it fascinating,” I said.
“You do?” he said as he turned his face and was an inch away from mine. It caught me off guard. I look directly into his light brown eyes.
“I mean that I find it scientifically fascinating. I want to study you,” I said trying to correct myself.
“You can study me hard if you want to,” he said.
“What?” I shouted to him.
“You can study me in a very extreme way: hard,” he said.
“Oh, I get it,” I said blushing.
“What did you think I meant?” he asked.
“Nothing; lie down. I am going to start the machine to run this test,” I said, trying to change the subject. I didn't want him to know that I thought he meant I could study him while he was hard. I was very embarrassed by it.
“My king, everything all right in here?” Jex said as he walked in with Azlo.
“Yes, everything is going well. Vanessa just started on running the test. Stand guard in the front room by the door,” Karik said.
“Yes, as you say,” he said, and they both walked out of the side room into the main room.
Karik laid there for an hour as I ran individual test. I also took notes as I asked various questions about the illness. He told me the history of when the illness first started showing up on his planet. He told me the symptoms, and then told me everything that he possibly knew about it. Then he answered all my questions about what was considered normal for a weredragon, like body temperature.
“So what are you thinking?” he asked.
“I think I am done for the day,” I said.
Then I began to remove the electrodes from his hot skin. I did it slowly. I took my time. I liked feeling his muscles underneath my fingers. This was bad. It was really bad. I should not be doing this, I thought.
Then he let out a soft moan. I looked up into his brown eyes. They were glowing a lighter color. What did that mean?
Before I could ask, his mouth was on mine.
Even his lips were hot. They were soft and brushing against my own in a very gentle manner. Yet his movements were full of dominance. I was kissing a king. I was kissing an alien. I was kissing a weredragon. It was unbelievable. It was wrong, and I knew it. So why couldn’t I stop myself?
His large hands moved to my hips, and he pulled me to him between his thighs. I gasped. I was caught off guard by how strong he was. I was moved like I weighed nothing. A part of me was scared of that thought, but also fascinated.
I rubbed my hands up and down over his che
st and torso. It was what I really wanted to do when I was attaching electrodes to him. Now I was able to do it openly. He felt so strong underneath my fingertips, and he wasn’t even in dragon form. I could only imagine how he would feel if he were shifted.
I felt moisture growing between my thighs as my center began to throb as I kissed him. I was eager, more than I should have been. I was so aroused, and I could feel my nipples hard against the fabric of my shirt and lab coat. His large hands moved to my waist and then around my back. They went lower and pressed against my ass. I moaned again into his mouth as he kissed me vigorously. I was taken with him. I was ready for him to pick me up and take me on the table. I didn’t care if anyone walked in on us. It was what I wanted, and I wanted it badly. I was wanton with lust.