Tropical Dragons Series Box Set: Venys Needs Men: Books 1-3 with Exclusive Short Story

by Lucas, Naomi

  The only creature, besides my own, that can fell a dragon. The only creature that can steal our immortality and mate bond with us.

  “Human,” I utter with malevolence in ancient dragon tongue, my voice thick and guttural. The human’s lips part. “Do you know what you have done?”

  I fling my tail away, unable to bear the sight of my destruction, not caring if the wretch dies in the process, and raise my head once more to the sky.

  A roar unlike ever before blasts from my throat—cursing the comet, the blood moon, the human I am now bound to—as I feel my body, limbs, innards, and all twist and change.

  And all I can think of, as pain shreds my senses, is vengeance.

  8

  The Dragon Turns

  The moment my hands and arms wrapped around the dragon’s tail, I knew Aida was right, that the messenger told Aida the truth.

  A force I can’t deny makes my limbs heavy upon the dragon’s body, preventing me from letting go. I want to remain, even if it means death, to stay upon the dragon and soak up the immediate satisfaction pulsing inside.

  Warmth like I’ve never known pushes away my fears, and to my embarrassment, lust—arousal for this giant, terrifying beast that could so easily smite me—clouds every other feeling in my body.

  But I lose my hold on the dragon’s tail and tumble across the ground, over plants and leafy grass. The tail drops next to me as I come to a stop and scurry back, expecting it to rise up and strike me dead.

  The most terrible, fury-filled bellow erupts from the dragon, and my gaze shoots to it. I wince and cover my ears as the roar goes on and on, filling me with dread, replacing the warmth from before. The dragon’s raging, seething ferocity into the air.

  My thoughts scatter, knowing I caused it.

  It’s roaring because of me.

  Every fiber of my being urges me to run, to flee and never look back, but I can’t find the desire to do so.

  Something is happening to the dragon, and I can sense it changing, morphing, shifting into another form.

  Into a man…

  A man. The thought takes over everything else. A man! I drag my eyes back to the giant beast fighting an invisible force. Water splashes my face as his tail draws back into the river, flopping before rising up and slamming back and forth, striking trees on either side. They crack and snap, and I roll away from the falling branches.

  Moving to a safer place, I watch with horror and awe.

  Scales fall, teeth fall from its gaping mouth, and the spikes on his back shorten like they’re being sucked into his spine. The horns on his head pull in the same way.

  He’s getting smaller.

  My throat squeezes shut at the painful bellows the dragon emits. I didn’t think of what would happen after touching a dragon—only the idea, the hope. As if it couldn’t get worse, his body begins to warp, contract. I grip the plants nearby and wrench them. Will he survive?

  My brow wrinkles as I gasp in a breath. Please survive.

  I’ll never forgive myself if I kill such a great creature, especially knowing it meant me no harm before I disturbed it.

  His tail melts into itself, his skin folds inward. His bones split apart, and I can see them even in the waning light. Crying out, I crawl as close as I can without being in harm’s way.

  The waves lessen around him as his body gets smaller and smaller. And before I know it, unsure if it has been moments or minutes, it’s over. The last of him drops below the river line and all I’m left with is the sound of falling leaves and stilling water.

  Perching right on the edge of the shore, I watch for his reappearance. His body floats to the top.

  Pop. Like the bubbles from before. My mouth drops as a large man, floating face down, fills my eyes.

  Rushing in—swimming to the middle where he floats—I grab his arm, flip him over, and pull him to the shore. He’s incredibly heavy and my fingers can’t fully reach around his wrist, unlike any other male I’ve ever known or encountered. It’s a struggle but I get him out of the water and fully onto land.

  Exhausted, I drop next to him.

  Several branches fall from above and hit the water, making me jump up. Enough of the brush is gone that the comet’s red glow and last rays of sunlight fall upon us. A gruff rasp and cough startle me further.

  I pivot to him and gasp.

  A male unlike one I’ve ever known, one I could possibly fathom, lies next to me. A male who could only be created from the darkest of dreams and most unusual fantasies coughs up jungle water but then falls back down. Alive, I note, very much alive—and real. And thankfully asleep.

  It allows me to gawk without shame. Mermen are outrageously beautiful, but they’re nothing compared to this male. Danger and strength exude from him even in rest, so much so that I feel weak and disoriented and so unmatched to his power even though I’m awake and he’s not. Bulging, lean muscles ripple down his arms and legs, his chest sculpted to terrible perfection.

  His prick is hard and primed and impossibly large against his thigh. My gaze takes his shaft in with clenching fear. A wayward thought fills my mind for a quick moment, telling me to mount him and relieve his aching appendage—my body agrees hungrily, stiffening with anticipation—to sate my own need. Every midnight desperate desire comes back to me, and I reach out to grasp him and take him in hand.

  I stop short when he coughs again. I palm my face with mortification.

  Inhaling to calm my rapidly growing desire, I study him further. His body is a pale green, with a mixture of mossy-colored and emerald scales over his joints, much smaller than those he had when he was a dragon although still the same. Black hair, long, snake-like, and straight, falls wet around his face—down his chest—where it’s plastered to his limbs. Strange black wing-like appendages sprout out from the sides of his arms. They remind me of his large wings from before, only smaller.

  He coughs again and his hands ball into fists at his sides. Small black claws are where his fingernails should be. I touch one with the tip of my finger and his hand twitches away.

  Distant cracks and snaps fill my ears, and my gaze rips away from him to the other shore where it’s coming from—reminding me that nightfall looms, that the unconscious male and I are far from safe.

  A yelping screech rips the air. It’s near.

  I duck over the male, hoping the plants hide us.

  Another dragon emerges from the broken trees, much smaller than the last. It’s different yet eerily the same. A long worm-like green head without horns sways back and forth. Its nostrils rise high from a thin snout to sniff the air. Slanted glossy black eyes survey the scene. I study it in return, as well as I can through the leaves. It looks like a giant boulder rolled through.

  The new dragon hisses and fans out long wings. It lifts its head and screams.

  The mating call.

  The male beneath me tenses, his muscles jump, his shaft jerk against my arm. I pray that he doesn’t wake up, that he doesn’t give us away. Please stay asleep, please, please stay asleep.

  The new dragon stills after the call ends. It waits. My heart thunders so loudly I’m certain it’ll hear it. I’m afraid to move for fear of giving myself away.

  I won’t survive another dragon, I know it. I’m not even sure I’ll survive the first.

  When I can barely take it anymore, the dragon turns and disappears back into the jungle, thrashing its long, thin tail from side-to-side. A sickeningly sweet smell lingers in the air after it’s gone.

  I exhale.

  Thank you, waters.

  I barely have a moment to be thankful before a hand grips the back of my neck, tossing me over. Gasping out, I’m on the ground staring up into the furious dark eyes of the dragon man. A sneer twists his lips. His nails poke my flesh.

  I press my hands against his hard chest.

  He’s going to kill me.

  9

  Femdragon

  “You,” he growls.

  He speaks my tongue! Pushing even h
arder against his chest now, I try to get him off me. He doesn’t budge. “You know my words,” I gasp. The warmth from his body covers me so thickly I feel I might drown.

  “You wretched human,” he says, tightening his hold on the back of my neck. “Death is too good for you.” He slams his fist into the ground beside my cheek.

  I flinch and try to turn my head away, but he holds me still.

  “I was immortal!” he screams in my face, rising up to straddle me. “I was respected, uncontested, powerful! You have taken that all away. Now I am doomed to perish—not in battle, not with elder honor—but by weak and sickly human ways.”

  He raises his hands between us, his furious eyes tearing from me to his arms. They’re so big that with one sure hit, I’d be gone from this world in a blink.

  His voice lowers. “My claws are gone, replaced by these things that will not even be able to shred the jungle.” I watch as he touched them, his face growing with disgust. His tongue comes out and rubs his teeth. “My fangs are gone. Gone!” He twists around and roars. “My tail!”

  “I’m sorry,” I barely manage to whisper.

  His hand is back on my neck before my words end, his face directly over mine. “Sorry is not good enough, wretch. Sorry will never be good enough. You will spend the rest of your days paying for what you have done. We are bonded now, you and I, for as long as we live. Do you realize what that means?”

  I shake my head.

  His lips pull back, baring his teeth. “If you die, I die. If I die, you do too. Your touch has woven us together, irreversibly. There is no escape! That is why you understand me! Why I understand you! We are bonded!”

  My eyes wrench closed as his hot breath slams my face, his anger filling my ears. What have I done? I feel the bond he speaks of, the disparate pull in me that delights in his nearness, but I still feel everything I did before, and it hurts. Rationality, fear, even regret.

  I didn’t think my actions through, didn’t even truly believe I’d even find a dragon, let alone touch one—bond with one. It was just a rumor, and I had time—reckless freedom from my duties for the first time since Leith was born.

  I went from one male ruling my life to another. In less than a day.

  The hand on my throat releases and I shakily inhale.

  “Open your eyes,” he demands.

  I open them.

  “Take me to your territory, wretch.” He rises off me but stumbles, catching himself on a low-hanging branch. A hiss escapes him but I can’t see his face. He pivots back to me. “Get up!”

  Pushing my hands slowly under me, I rise, wet and aching, our gazes attached. The toil of his transformation didn’t just hurt him but me as well. Pounding bruises make themself known under my flesh, scratches and cuts. I curl my toes in my waterlogged sandals and tense my legs, testing my body. A wave of relief goes through me, realizing nothing was broken. I manage the shock next.

  “Quickly!” He scowls down at me.

  I glower but stand, straightening out my netted top and skirt. When I’m done, I glimpse his face. His darkly shadowed eyes, hued by the dim glow of the comet streaming from above, are on my body, roving, stilling on the chest, where my legs vanish under my skirt.

  A shiver grips me.

  His focus on me is so heavy I feel it to my soul. The thick, hard outline of his shaft is almost glowing from the gloomy light, beating red, twitching, angry, and exposed entirely for my view. My skin flushes involuntarily, and I wrap my arms around myself.

  He must notice because he closes the distance and grips my hair, tilting my head back. My neck strains.

  “It is not meant for you,” he rasps, his voice a brewing storm. “It was for the great femdragon hunting me.”

  I lick my lips, and my heart stutters. “Hunting you?” I ask.

  He releases me with a jerk, flicking his hand as if he can’t stand the touch of me. I take a quick step back as he sniffs the air.

  “She is nearby, searching. She smells me thickly here. She is ready to mate.” His eyes slant back to mine. “We must leave now or she will kill us both. Me quickly, out of pity, but you, she will take her time with you. And it will be all the worse because of our bond.”

  As if on cue, the yelping high-pitch dragon’s call fills our ears. It’s all the warning I need.

  “Okay,” I say, moving around his large frame to the edge of the river, stopping short before falling in. “We’re on the right side.” Thankfully. I search for anything left of my belongings, the raft, my weapons… when I see a leather lump caught on the edge of a partially-crushed bush to my right. I begin to rush after it, but a large hand catches my arm.

  “Do not move fast,” the male growls low, prickling my skin.

  I don’t know if the warning is because of the female—femdragon—or because he’s not good on his legs. Either way, his grip remains.

  “I need to get that bag,” I say after a moment. When he responds with a growl, I add, “It’s in the direction of… my territory.”

  His grip tightens but to my surprise, he steps onto the wet bank first, pulling me after him. Nearly falling, he takes me with him. I land against his side. He shoves me off—still holding onto me—and with a little bit of awkwardness and a few more stumbles, we make it to the bag together.

  Lifting it up, it’s completely soaked, but within are fruits and several clay jars of crushed herbs and spices, medicinal and otherwise.

  “What is it?” he asks, releasing me to snatch the bag.

  “Food, some medicine.” I see my net in the place the bag was, caught in the weeds. Excited, I grasp and untangle it and check the net for holes. Finding none, I hold it to my breast. “My net,” I say when I notice him studying me curiously.

  It dawns on me, and not for the first time, that there’s a male here, beside me. The impossibility of it is still hard for me to take in, even after everything. Even though there’s guilt. Even though I saw him turn from a giant, mighty dragon with my very eyes. He’s lost something… magnificent.

  His lips warp into a sneer.

  There’s a male, and he hates me.

  He takes my arm again and shoves me forward. “Go.”

  10

  The First Evening Bonded

  The screeches of the femdragon follow us—each time I hope it’s the last—and the jarring sound rises back into the air to assault my ears. It’s not long before night has fallen completely and we’re both tripping and stumbling over everything.

  He keeps his hold on me, making it worse—maybe not for him—and our bodies keep colliding together. He’s huge, a whole head taller than me, and even though there’s nothing but the muted gleam of red to guide us, I still feel the shadow of his body over me. And to make matters worse, his shaft is still hard, and it hits my back and my side again and again.

  I’m beginning to think he’s doing it on purpose.

  I’d give anything to have my raft back right now. I swat away a glowfly in front of me.

  He trips on uneven ground and his curses fill my ears. I barely manage to stay upright as he catches and rights himself.

  “Puny, weak legs, with no armor. How has your ridiculous species survived?”

  His question burns me. “By not traipsing through a dangerous jungle at night!” I snap.

  His nails bite into my flesh. “You should have thought of this before touching me! Where is your territory, wretch? It must be nearby now.” Hissing, he waves his hand against his thigh. “These blasted bugs. If they knew what they bit into, they would stay clear.” More curses follow. “I will destroy you all!”

  He releases me and flaps around like a madman, slapping his skin. Gaping, I follow his outline twisting around, wishing I could see his face.

  “The bugs aren’t biting me,” I say.

  Roaring now, he pivots back to me, swiping his hand once more before his face. “Your flesh is too weak,” he blasts. “You are lucky they have rich, ancient, dragon flesh to dine on otherwise they would be after you. Sh
ould I sacrifice everything for a powerless human!”

  “Powerless?” I furrow my brow in annoyance. “If my flesh is so weak, why does a single touch of my hand do so much to you?”

  He grabs me again before I can react, jerking me forward. His breath hits my face. My nose fills with his wild floral and spice scent. His warmth floods over me, and I can feel all of him. I can even see his scowl in the pitch-dark. My palms come up to press against his chest as his hard cock nudges my belly.

  “Where is your territory?”

  “A day or two’s walk away, in the light. That way.” I point behind me, using the sound of the river close by to direct me.

  He closes the distance and we’re flush against each other. “A day? A. Day! Two?” Twisting to the side, he slams his fist into the tree next to us. I flinch as the sound pulses through the air.

  We both stop, listening as the leaves settle, searching for the yowls of the femdragon. I realize I haven’t heard them for a few minutes now, and that makes me nervous.

  “Why is she quiet?” I ask after a moment.

  “She is either nesting for the night or stalking prey.”

  My stomach drops. “Us?”

  I can almost hear his snide smile. “Does that scare you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” He smirks. “If you had this fear before, we would not be in this situation.” He flings me around and shoves me forward. “Go.”

  I catch my footing and scowl. “I was afraid before. I didn’t know a dragon was beneath my raft!”

  Another push. “I do not believe that.”

  I keep to myself that I was looking for one of his kind to touch… but not necessarily him specifically. Maybe one like the gold and brown sleeping dragon Aida told me about. The moment I touched him, I’d been reaching for a tree.

  We continue on for a time, keeping the river to the left of us. We can’t get lost if we follow it, right? It will eventually lead to the gulf and to the beaches I know so well. Which poses another issue: what will my tribe do if I bring this dragon man into their midst? Nothing of the sort has ever happened before, and hierarchies and responsibilities are discussed at great detail—and a new male, joining us, one so very different from them is an unknown.