by Amanda Milo
Because Halki’s eyes have gone full black.
I push away from him. “Oh, you animal! Behave yourself and go get your hunting done. A minute ago, you were excited to make yourself another casting, remember?”
He doesn’t answer. He does begin to purr, though. And instead of turning into a dragon and flying off to hunt his next meal, he steps into me, his penetrating gaze setting fire to my insides.
He backs me up with his next step. And his next.
He’s stalking me.
I don’t even have time to decide if I should try to escape him or not. With a growl, he catches me up and throws me over his shoulder, dragging me back to the lodgehouse for more vigorous fucking.
EPILOGUE
HALKI
Crested Merlins refer to a group of dragons as a ‘valor.’
Lacewing dragons refer to their groups as a ‘court.’
Whatever collective term you prefer, during the blessedly long days before the blood moon takes over the sky (where we catch some respite from the nighttime mating heat), I catch Nalle all but one of my brothers, and nearly a dozen Lacewings. (As well as a Western Hydra that it took a great deal of skill to capture, considering it had nine simultaneous firepoints, but Nalle insisted I turn him loose because she feared he’d turn into a multi-headed man upon bonding, and she said the very idea ‘creeped’ her out.)
Not that it should have mattered since he’d be bonding to a woman other than my Nalle, but she was adamant, thus I let him go.
As far as the Lacewings though, those we kept. And because Nalle once promised a favor to the Middle Plains Tribe, that’s where we take the latest mate-fevered bunch of bachelors. They’re so crazed to breed they don’t ask what kind of females we’re taking them to. Although they’re in such a bad way, we don’t think the idea of humans will make them hesitate.
Making good on her vow turns out to be quite the reward for Nalle; rather than delivering the Lacewings and immediately leaving, the Middle Plains residents insist that Nalle accept trades for the dragons we’ve brought them as the males bond to women and begin turning into mating-crazed men.
We settle on trading for weaving threads in colors that will please Nalle. The Middle Plains Tribe are experts at the application of dyes and pigments on wools and skins, and with extensive flocks of interesting creatures (llamas, Nalle calls them—and I’m curious as to what llamas might taste like, but Nalle tells me it would be frowned-upon if I consumed any), the tribe has much to offer that Nalle has never before seen.
I learned she favors the color amethyst. She blushed when she admitted this preference. An odd reaction, I thought—until her eyes met mine and I had a flash of memory where I marked her back with my cum—my amethyst-colored cum.
This revelation made me grin.
I’d vowed to gift Nalle with amethyst-dyed everything from now on.
When we return to our own clan, Nalle and I are deep in discussions of what our blended offspring might be like.
“No matter what,” I promise her as I set her down onto her feet, “I, as your capable Crested Merlin, will of course take part in all aspects of rearing our young just as you do.”
Nalle pats my foreleg. “There are a few things you can’t do.”
I tilt my head, eyeing her. “Name them.”
“You can’t give birth.”
My tail flips before twitching to the other side. “Well, I’ve been releasing thousands upon thousands of sperm. It is perhaps a form of birthing.”
Nalle stops walking and gives me a disturbing stare. “When I deliver, you’d better hope I forget this conversation. And I suggest you don’t mention it again.”
Strange female. “All right.” I shuffle my wings. “What’s the next dissimilarity?”
She bends her knees and tips herself until she’s nearly turned herself upside down while standing up. Her head is completely angled so that she’s viewing my undercarriage. “You don’t have nipples. So milk production is out too.”
“Not true,” I tell her proudly.
She straightens and eyes me in wide-eyed shock. “You have nipples? That work?”
I puff smoke as I chuckle. “That would just be strange. No, Crested Merlins secrete crop milk for our young.”
Nalle stops walking again. “What now?”
I point to my neck. “See this? This is my crop. When our clutch hatches, I’ll be lactating by secreting a yellow semi-solid substance high in fats and proteins and beneficial bacteria.”
Nalle blinks up at me rapidly. “Where does it come from?”
“From here,” I repeat, tapping my crop.
“No, I mean what—where does the secretion even come from up in there? Are you eating some sort of special liquid or—”
“My regular diet will suffice. I’ll simply need to ingest a larger quantity of food.”
“Good God.”
I tilt my head at her, but continue. “As for where the milk comes from, my crop lining will detach in small stages and emulsify. I’ll regurgitate it for our offspring until they’re ready to leave the nest.”
Nalle covers her mouth with her hand.
I nudge her with my snout. “Oooh, drhema, stay here. I smell antelope! They’re fast becoming my favorite meal to hunt. Not to mention we’ll secure another tawny-colored casting for our collection. I’m rather fond of how many we have in that shade.”
Nalle covers her eyes with her other hand. Muffled, I hear her mutter, “Yay.”
I bound through the grass towards the herd, feeling light and happy and joyful, just as my mate surely does.
***
~Nalle~
“Uggggh,” I moan into my hands as I drag my feet back into the village proper.
“What’s wrong with you?” Västra asks, carrying Ingrid the goose. It’s only a little surprising to see her holding her own goose. Västra’s dragon (Danelagh) usually appoints himself the duty of goose-keeper, tending to the bird as if it’s their feathered child.
And since she’s here, I decide that because she’s mated to Halki’s brother, she might want to know what I just learned. “Did you know that dragons produce milk?”
Västra frowns, looking curious rather than disbelieving. “How?” Something occurs to her, and her brows go up and her lips tug up in a smile. “Wait, are they like pigeons?”
“Are they like pigeons?” I stare at her. “They’re dragons.”
She spins her forefinger, rotating her whole wrist. “Right, right—but they regurgitate the ‘milk,’ don’t they?”
My jaw drops. “You scare me sometimes. I don’t even want to know how you know this.”
She rolls her eyes. “Haven’t you ever watched pigeons feed their squabs?”
“I can’t say that I’ve paid attention. Silly me, I never thought that the mysteries of pigeon-feeding would relate to anything in my life.”
“Weren’t you wrong.”
“Apparently. Okay, I’m going to find someone else to share this news with. Someone who will be properly horrified with me.”
Västra smirks. “You think it’ll matter to any of us?”
I pretend to sigh in defeat—but I’m smiling. Because we are happy. After Tamworth and Danelagh found mates among my tribesisters and were pleased with the development, they hunted down more bachelor dragons until there wasn’t one unmated woman in our tribe.
Now, thanks to Halki, Danelagh, and Tamworth, we’re branching out to neighboring tribes too. If we hurry, we could help pair loads of dragons who are miserable with mate heat to human women who would love a devoted, protective, virile man. (One with a few eccentricities, but hey, dragon mates are never boring.)
“Nalle, I have returned!” my never-boring mate announces as he smoothly lands beside me and Västra.
I lean against his foreleg and I'm not ashamed of how I stare up at him adoringly. So he’s eccentric. He’s also pretty wonderful. “Did you enjoy your antelope?”
“Immensely. Thank you for inquiring.”<
br />
“Did you get to add another special yellow casting to the collection?”
Halki looks pleased that I asked, and sits down on his haunches. “I’ll be adding it shortly.” His abdomen spasms a little, the first sign that he’s about to hork up his regurgitated brick.
“Great.” I send a look over my shoulder to Västra, who grins and struts away probably to reunite with her own dragon. Ingrid follows her, honking.
A disturbing, disturbing retching sound commences from my mate, but I’m barely fazed. Not anymore.
And just think: after a few weeks of Halki producing ‘milk’ for our children, I might not be grossed out by that either.
I shudder and decide that the line will be drawn somewhere.
Halki proudly raises his latest casting. “Just look at this one, Nalle! It has pronghorns sticking out of it.”
“Ouch,” I say, wincing for him. “Bet that felt great coming up.”
“It did not. But it will be lovely for the collection.”
I make a noise that I halfway hope is agreeable.
“We’re going to require a lodgehouse expansion,” Halki informs me as we turn and begin trekking to ours so that he can put his casting away.
“For the babies we’ll raise?” I ask hopefully.
“For them too,” my dragon says with a nod. “But also because a dragon produces well over three hundred castings per solar.”
If I had a wall handy, I’d beat my head against it. We pass by Yatanak, who has been relieved not to bear the burden of servicing our whole tribe anymore. He’s even settled down with one woman. He raises a hand in a wave when he sees me and Halki pass by.
I wave back, remembering his advice that essentially landed us all here. Without a word exchanged between us, I shake my head at him, and he laughs, rightly guessing what I’m thinking about. Shortly after Halki’s mating fever began, during one of the daytime-periods where his heat wasn’t making him starved for me and completely mating-crazy, I made sure to have a word with Yatanak about ‘knee-high’ dragons and sending me off with a damned fishing hook to catch one.
Yatanak stunned me by sharing that he assumed dragons were knee-high because that was the size of the dragon that used to stalk me.
“You knew Halki used to stalk me? Why didn’t you TELL me?!” I’d gasp-asked.
Yatanak said he nearly shouted the plains down in warning when he saw what I’d attracted. But before he could holler my name, something stopped him. It was something about the way the dragon watched me. Not predatory. Proprietary.
That night, Yatanak told our tribe what he found. They were undecided on how to proceed—should they try to catch the dragon, or kill him?—but their plans turned out to be moot anyway.
No dragon would be shadowing me any longer because unbeknownst to us, Halki had been caught by his parents.
As I was digesting this news, old Yatanak smugly pointed out that hooking my dragon worked.
I smirk to myself, and send a look up at Halki that makes his eyes turn darker. And on the end of his snout, one of his nostril shields still has a tiny hook-sized hole in it from where I caught him.
Oh yes, it worked. Better than I could have ever imagined. Rather than training him to fight other tribes, he’s helped us and them in a way that’s repaired past trespasses. He’s even flown me to visit my brother (who insists that his women will have no dragons; he’s enough for all of them—blech!) and gifted him with dragon gold (melted down bull nose rings) as a ‘bride price’ for me, something that made my brother smirk about to no end.
Luckily for both males, I thought it was a pretty cute gesture. I was touched. It further solidified for me that Halki is amazing. He’s made me happier than I could have dreamed. My dragon is perfect.
“Would you like the honor of arranging this casting?” Halki asks earnestly. We’ve reached our lodgehouse.
All right. Close to perfect. I clear my throat and tilt my head back, pursing my lips at my dragon, bemused. “I’m good.”
“Are you certain?”
“Oh yeah. Thanks for offering me the honor though.”
Halki’s tail winds around me and he tugs me to the side of his face, his horn base clunking against my shoulder. “Of course, drhema. I adore you.”
I wrap my arms around his long, scaly face. “That’s always good to hear, my wonderful—” weird, vomiting, oddly-sweet “—other half. I love you, Halki.”
He purrs as he changes into a man and hauls me inside our lodgehouse. (With his casting, of course.)
He hands it off to me to hold so he can properly manhandle me towards the bedding benches. We don’t reach it though; he doesn’t even care when I drop the casting in favor of bracing myself as he ruts me damn near through the lodge wall.
Happy sigh.
As I said, my dragon is perfect.
THE END
AUTHOR NOTE
Did you have fun? =D Want to read the story of one of Halki’s other brothers?
If so, check out The Mermaid and the Dragon:
https://amzn.to/3dzDUyW
If you’re wondering when the next Stolen by an Alien book will arrive, the answer is Soon, yay! I got the edits back on Bash’s 1st draft back in February (Bash is the grumpy Rakhii introduced at the end of Craved by an Alien) and the 2nd draft is nearly done. Just a couple more passes and this puppy will be good to go! =D
For now, if you’d like to read more dragon stories set in the same world that Halki & Nalle live in, the following books are up for grabs in any order, and are complete standalones.
To Touch a Dragon by Naomi Lucas: https://amzn.to/2MwG1Yr
To Tame a Dragon by Tiffany Roberts: https://amzn.to/2Y3kc8m
To Seduce a Dragon by Poppy Rhys: https://amzn.to/2Y3C17h
:) I hope Halki and Nalle’s story made you smile and happy-sigh! <3 If you get a chance to leave a review, you know what this does for an author like me. THANK YOU. And thank you for grabbing this book! I really hope you enjoyed!!
Sincerest Squeeze-hugs!
Amanda ♥
Trivia Fun!
Gooses
Sebastopol geese really do have curly feathers. In fact, in Germany they are called Lockengans which means "curl-goose." Of all the geese varieties we had, Sebbies were the nicest and least likely to harass the dogs. Or chase people. Or beat children. Ahhhh, geese! So many fond memories! ;D
Sring not String
Nalle mentions trading for a sring flute. The sring is a real-life musical instrument; it’s a flute used by shepherds in Armenia.
Yarn Lovers Understand
Qiviut yarn is a real thing. It’s collected from Arctic Musk Ox and it’s quite rare—and quite expensive. But the most expensive yarn comes care of a wild animal called the vicuña. Apparently the wool collection is a trip. They round up wild herds, shear them, then turn them loose. Since they’re related to llamas and I’ve sheared some unhappy not wild llamas, I do not envy the people who have this wool-rustling job.
Create-a-Dragon
I was so excited to design a dragon! =D I looked at raptors (the predatory bird-kind, not the dinosaur kind, although I love me some Jurassic Park) and frilled lizards from Australia. For the raptor research, I settled mostly on Merlin falcons. And while regurgitated remains are referred to as pellets in the wide world of ornithology, Falconers call pellets castings. Falcons cast pellets like Merlin dragons do, but falcons do not produce milk for their chicks. That honor really does go to pigeons.
That was Real.
Pigeons, doves, flamingos—all of them really do burp up their throat lining for their kids. Nature is fascinating. (And apparently I’m a little milk-source intolerant; I don’t blink at the notion of drinking milk out of a teat (even a sheep’s ;)) but vomiting your digestive tract into your baby’s mouth? NOPE. XD!)
Crack These Open to Cure Book Hangovers
Need a cockbook for your kitchen? Thanks to Dravon for sharing this! ;D 50 Ways to Eat Cock https://amzn.to/3d2OduY
I like this author. This one was a good read if you’re a fan of her books & style: Third Life by Noelle Adams https://amzn.to/3czhb4U
Hmmm, I’m told I won’t get my romance fix here, but I’ll have a thrilling time anyway. The Spider Heist by Jason Kasper https://amzn.to/3dCMehv
For a sci-fi romance adventure to balance out my ebook bag, I’ve got Barbarian's Treasure by Ruby Dixon loaded up and ready to enjoy! https://amzn.to/2Y2e0gU
Books & Audiobooks by Amanda…
Are you wondering what else I’ve written? BLESS YOU! I hope whatever you grab, that you have FUN ♥ *GIANT HUG*
Stolen by an Alien—Arokh and Angie’s story ebook: https://amzn.to/2A6sH9T
This book is also available in Audio, narrated by the talented Nick Cracknell: https://adbl.co/2N7WXHF
Rescued by an Alien—Zadeon and Callie’s story ebook: http://amzn.to/2EZEitg
Audiobook voiced by Nick Cracknell: https://adbl.co/2Nx8WxR
(WARNING: This one has some Dark times. This couple’s love is beautiful though, and they get their Happily Ever After.)
Won by an Alien—Brax, Tara, and Tac’Mot’s story is here: http://amzn.to/2FeuFGl
Audiobook narrated by Teddy Hamilton and Callie Dalton: https://amzn.to/2zUkHWu
(If you had to classify this one, it’s almost Reverse Harem. This is an MFM book, which means there are two (alien) guys and one woman but it’s not *quite* menage, because Brax is a Rakhii, and you know this means he doesn’t share his female. Slight problem: his female is bonded to Tac’Mot.)
Craved by an Alien—Dohrein and Gracie’s story: https://amzn.to/2Qn4lwo
Audiobook voiced by Nick Cracknell: https://adbl.co/2s6gN96