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

by Lucas, Naomi

  A cry tears from my throat as I land, full frontal, on the cave floor below, partially on Haime herself. She’s beneath me, crawling out from under me, crying, as shocked tears fill my eyes. With my arms shielding my face, I groan as Haime flips me over and climbs over me.

  “Milaye? Milaye! I’m so sorry!” She shakes me ferociously, her childish voice heightened with fear. “Milly! Please get up.”

  My hands fall off my face and I moan, feeling the pain pulse through my arms, my knees.

  “Milaye? We need to find the boy.”

  I moan again, trying to sit up. I press my palms to my brow, hard. “Nooo,” I croak. She shuffles back from me. I slowly drop my hands down.

  “We have too!”

  “Haime…” My vision wavers.

  I reach out for her, weakly, but she scoots back. Everything turns to a blur.

  “Smells strange in here. It smells like hurt—pain. He’s in pain,” she whimpers.

  “Haime. Don’t,” I beg weakly as I try to grab her, but she’s no longer there. “Haime!” I shout as I hear her scurry off into the darkness. I nearly fall over but catch myself before I do. Worry careens through me. It was always there, even after I found her, but with the fall, I’m disoriented.

  If something should attack, I’d be an easy target. Get up.

  She’s an easier target.

  Get up!

  I call Haime’s name again as I rise to my feet. My toes curl with the effort, and I brace my palm against the rocky ledge to keep me from falling. Thank the waters for the torchlight above, it keeps me balanced.

  When I’m certain nothing is broken, only bruised, I reach up, grabbing at the ledge until I find my dagger. With it back in my hand, I’m a little less scared.

  Scared?

  I can’t believe it, but there’s fear. I’m in a situation I’m not prepared for, and Haime’s run off again. I wrench my eyes closed and shake my head before opening them, peering into the dark. Swallowing, I know I have to venture further into it.

  Haime said she couldn’t see without the light. I frown. Carefully, I stretch my body against the wall and nudge the handle of my makeshift torch toward the side. Once it’s close enough, I roll it with the tips of my fingers until I can grip it. With it below, I’m able to see a little more of my surroundings. But Haime was right, it’s so dark, like a black void where the light ends. There are no edges of rocks, roots, or walls. There’s nothing outside my light. Nothing.

  I’m already dizzy from the fall, but this… this is like being upended by a wave and not knowing which way is up to break the surface of the water. My breathing shallows.

  Must find Haime.

  I shake away my fear.

  I can’t punish her if I can’t find her. And waters, is she in for some discipline. I hold onto the thought as I pull a feather out of my hair and lay it on the ground by the wall, a trail to help me find the way out later. I twist around and take a steadying breath.

  I step into the vacuous, open cavern, and shiver.

  4

  Drazak’s Furor

  Haime. Haime. Haime.

  This strange word keeps repeating. I do not understand its meaning, but when I think it has finally stopped, I hear it again.

  Is this it? Have I gone crazed?

  Am I hearing voices, real or imaginary? It has been so long I cannot recall the sounds of the last voices I heard. Nor do I want to, knowing it was the poison dragon’s taunts. His voice would send me into a rage.

  Haime!

  But this voice is not a dragon’s. I am sure of it. And if it were, it must be a femdragon’s, it’s too sweet and lyrical to be a male. The likelihood of a femdragon being here, in this cave of all places, it is impossible. Femdragons keep to themselves far more than males, and though they prefer to travel—rarely claiming territory of their own—they only engage with others if they are in heat.

  This femdragon will not save me. Even if she is more than a voice in my head.

  I do not want to feel it—this hope—but it is there nevertheless.

  What if? No… My heart thumps repeatedly.

  This is not a femdragon.

  But…

  I have not felt this way, not since I fell from the sky and crawled into this cave, racing against time before the poison took its full effect. I have not endured this feeling of excitement even before then. It has been so long that I fear my mind might shatter. It hurts. I hurt.

  “That girl,” the feminine voice sours. So close now, almost too clear to be an illusion, and I am nearly wild with anticipation. “She’s never leaving the tribe’s rocks again if I have a say in it.” It is like a mumble across my wings.

  I wish I knew these words.

  Have I been here so long that my kind’s language has changed? The thought perturbs me. This whole situation frustrates me. Why is this happening now? That I cannot even seek out answers reignites my anger.

  But the only part of me that moves is my heart. It beats despite everything. It is the one muscle not affected by the poison—which is stagnant deep within—and never has been. The slow thread of blood that pumps through me is what keeps me alive. And the darkness… I am certain my continued cursed life has lasted this long because of the darkness that feeds my body.

  A strange scent fills the air, a beautiful, new scent, and I am transfixed. Hoping for change is one thing, hoping for death another, but hoping for a female is crazy.

  This smell though… This is the smell of a female.

  There is sweat and sea salt; there is jungle lily and spice. There’s a twitching in my nostrils, expanding for these smells to enter me, and I am stunned.

  I twitched.

  My mind goes blank. I barely comprehend what is happening. Whatever it is, I do not want it to end. Life after this moment will be worse than all that has already happened to me. To breathe in the ocean and jungle after so long, only to have the sensation taken away…

  Something small rams into my side. I hear a groan, and the sensation vanishes.

  “To the waters and back, my foot!”

  The voice and the smell are so close now that I am all but salivating. Something warm flares across my back leg, and a gasping noise sounds my ears.

  All noise stops completely soon after, not even the quiet breaths or moans continue.

  Do not go away. I plead. But something is happening at my hindleg, and I am unable to investigate. All I can do is wait.

  Minutes pass by, and my heart only hammers harder. The bloom of heat returns along my foot but disappears soon after. Now it is at my tail.

  It is fire, I realize. Something is wielding fire beside me. Nothing can wield fire like this but another dragon or…

  No.

  A human.

  Horror rushes through me. A human has found me. A great alpha dark dragon—a rarity in the world I once knew—lying paralyzed as a human nears. And not just any human, a female human.

  If she touches me, I lose everything. Everything that I have not already lost. My greatness, my majesty, even my hope that I will beat this poison—that I may one day fly.

  I will die human, bonded to a female, left unable to mate as the breeding heat consumes me.

  That would be cruel and painful and far worse than my sorry state now. I will lie here desperate for rutting, unable to either defend myself or take my female and dominate her, and as I grow crazed with lust, terrible shame will drown me.

  How much more will I be forced to endure? My thoughts roar. To be human and paralyzed…

  I do not want to die while losing my mind with mating heat. A female, even a human one, will not want a mate who cannot move. I am nothing if I cannot protect her.

  She will be shamed for my shame.

  I need to scare her away.

  I tense, strain my muscles, but nothing happens. Not even the twitching of my nostrils builds into something more. The tap of human footsteps punctures the silence, and pressure strangles my insides. Furor fills me, replacing the ann
oyingly delectable human scent, and my mind continues to roar.

  I will not be human, I bellow.

  I will meet the darkness as the mighty beast I am.

  5

  A Big, Dead Dragon

  My foot aches, but it goes ignored as I stare at the—the giant monster before me. My breaths are shallow, my throat tight, and blood rushes from my face.

  I want to scream for Haime, I want to run, but I do neither, waiting for the beast to rise and eat me whole. This wasn’t just a forgotten cave—or a naga’s nest—that Haime stumbled upon. It’s a den.

  A dragon’s den.

  My eyes water as I stare at the muscles and meaty curves of the beast. Minutes pass as my heart races, waiting for death, praying Haime is far away and hidden, when it occurs to me the dragon’s crooked leg hasn’t so much as twitched. The gleam of my torchlight glints, but the light does not shift upon its glistening scales.

  It’s not moving.

  It’s not even breathing.

  Is it… is it dead?

  As the thought takes over my mind, I remember what I’m staring at: a dragon. My back straightens, and my breathing eases. If it tried to attack Haime or me, it would’ve done so by now, and if it had… all I had to do was touch it to save us. That doesn’t mean the beast isn’t dangerous, but the realization gives me relief anyway.

  Come to think of it, I could reach out and touch the dragon now. I’m not even an arm’s length away.

  I could claim it.

  I frown, glancing down at my foot that had rammed into it, curling my aching toes. My sandal shielded my body, but even if it hadn’t, would such a clumsy touch bond me and this dragon together?

  I try to think back at all that happened to Aida when she encountered Zaeyr the first time. She touched his wing. Her touch had been deliberate.

  Right?

  Licking my lips, my eyes rove the shadowy mass. My skin prickles. It still hadn’t made a noise, still hadn’t moved, and the longer my thoughts whirl, the more I believe it has to be dead. Fate wouldn’t bind me with a dead thing, would it? And the touch of my foot hadn’t been deliberate, but then again, I don’t think my skin made contact.

  Did the skin need to make contact? My brows furrow. That was a question I didn’t have an answer for.

  I’m not even sure it’s male, but what if it is…

  I bite down on my tongue.

  Why am I even thinking of this? I take a step back. The last eight years flash through my head. The pain, the want, the envy.

  The red comet, the dragons, the very few males remaining in the tribes of the Mermaid Gulf. The days upon days, months upon months, years of wishing I would have a male of my own—a family of my own. I never cared about power or being a matriarch. I loved hunting and teaching the young daughters of Sand’s Hunters how to protect themselves and provide for others—but I desperately always wanted one for myself. A daughter of my own. A little girl who would curl up under my arm, snuggling with me as we gazed upon the crackling fire in the safety of my hut.

  A babe to hold against my chest and stare up at me with wide-eyed wonder. A beautiful child who I could call my own, that no one could ever take away from me. I never knew how badly I wanted to be a mother until I matured and began training the girls younger than me. Now, they are all older, huntresses themselves, and I’m enveloped with pride every time I see them.

  But they go to their mothers when in need, not me.

  No, consideration for the tribe matriarch and a mate were taken from me and my sisters when Aida and Delina were born. There were more males in their ancestry.

  I swallow, staring at the giant hind leg of the dragon without really seeing it anymore. And it is a giant leg. Though laid out and crooked, the bend of the knee comes to my chest. I squeeze the handle of my dagger, distracting my hand.

  I’m desperate to reach out and touch the beast. Eight years ago, I would’ve done so without hesitation.

  My fingers shake.

  What harm would it do if it’s dead? A self-deprecating laugh runs through my mind. Everything I have always wanted is right before me, yet not.

  Taking a step back, I move my torch around, trying to figure out how large the dragon really is instead. But the darkness is thick, and its body goes well above my head and into the cave ceiling. Cocking my head, I discover that the dragon has been here so long that the cave has partially formed atop it.

  Maybe that’s how it died?

  How long has this creature been here? I pull my bottom lip into my mouth.

  Carefully moving along its side, I follow its length, dazzled by its scales. They gleam deep purple and black—I have never seen colors of the like in the wild. I want to covet them. And strangely enough, it seems a deep, shadowy smoke emanates from them, dimming out my torchlight, but when I try to take a better look, the smoke dissipates, making me wonder if I’m seeing things. I shake my head and continue on.

  There are spikes and long claws but I refuse to dwell on them. I want to see its face, look at it head-on, capture its mightiness in my mind so I can remember this forever. My heart bleeds, longing for this dragon to be mine—my mate—my lover.

  My throat tightens.

  Zaeyr, Aida’s dragon, is the most virile and attractive male along the Mermaid Coast, only matched by Kaos, another dragon who lives in a neighboring tribe. But I can’t help but imagine that this dragon—if human, if male—would put those two to shame.

  He is mine. Even if he’s dead, he will forever be mine. I squeeze my eyes shut but soon reopen them, knowing I can’t linger.

  Finally, I reach the dragon’s neck, and my heart thunders. I’m almost to my destination. Enthralled. I’m enthralled. I’ve barely breathed and now stop altogether. Picking up my feet, I quicken my steps to the front.

  The first thing I see is his very long snout, much longer than expected, and streaks of purple and black scales alight the dragon’s features. My eyes glisten with them. They’re like lightning at night, seen from the shore, a storm far off the coast. Following them from the snout, I lift my torch higher, catching a glimpse of the dragon’s firmly shut eyes. They’re huge, like the rest of him, but my focus doesn’t linger, moving to the glassy jewel-like appendage between them, at the center of his forehead.

  The giant deep purple stone captures my attention, and my lips part. Nearly as big as my head, a jewel I have never seen the likes of fills my vision. This time, I’m certain I see wisps of black coming off of it. Glancing down at the dragon’s scales once more, I find the tendrils again.

  I’m not seeing things.

  Why would it be smoking? My gaze returns to the jewel. I sniff the air but smell nothing but dirt. Putting my dagger into my belt, I reach out to touch the jewel—

  I stop short and snatch my hand to my chest.

  “Milaye!”

  Startling, I twist around. “Haime?”

  What am I doing? I shake myself, dashing away from the dragon’s corpse. I’d completely lost focus. Anything could’ve snuck up on me—attacked me. I would’ve let them. I’m never this absent-minded, especially in such a dangerous place.

  “Milaye, say something again!”

  Haime needs me. I hasten back to the direction I think I heard her from.

  “Haime!” I yell. I come to the cave wall when something runs out of the shadows. It’s heading straight for me. Tensing, I swing out my torch with a cry, but the figure stops short. Haime’s features come into view, her arms outstretched.

  Without pausing, I drop the light and fling my arms around her, pulling her hard to my chest.

  “Stooop—” she whines, but I don’t.

  I lean down and bury my face into her hair. “You stupid, stupid girl. You could’ve gotten killed.” Tears well in my eyes. “Never—and I mean never—run away from me again!”

  Haime tries to tug free, but I grip harder. “He ran away,” her voice is muffled by my chest.

  “I don’t care!” My frustration returns. I release her eno
ugh to hold her gaze. “You could’ve gotten yourself killed, or worse! He could’ve been bait to lead you into a trap. You could’ve been hurt! And you ran into a cave, of all places! A cave I had no idea existed. If I hadn’t found it, what would you have done? Wander around in the dark and hope you found a way out? That is if you didn’t get hurt in the process? Do you know what kind of monsters makes their homes in caves? Some of the worst!”

  The dragon’s body comes to mind.

  “I didn’t know it was going to be so dark,” Haime gripes.

  “I don’t care. You never do something like that. Ever!” I want to shake her, make her understand, but she’s still a child, and ultimately it was me who failed her. I tug her back to me and wipe my tears away.

  I’d never forgive myself if something had happened to her while I was preoccupied with the dragon. If something had happened to her at all.

  “Promise me you won’t do that again?”

  She sighs, shoulders shrugging, like my question annoys her. “I promise.”

  “I mean it, seashell. I’ll never take you out on a hunt again if you don’t.”

  “I promise,” she says again. “You won’t tell Mama and Father, will you?”

  “I am most definitely going to tell them.”

  “But—”

  I let her go. “Just because you’re sorry doesn’t mean you didn’t know better. This wasn’t some mistake, Haime, you could’ve gotten us both killed. We will tell your parents and deal with the punishment, you and I both. That is what a Sand’s Huntress does. We face all things with courage despite the situation. We make mistakes, and we own up to them.”

  “Yes, Milly.”

  I gaze at her for a moment longer, sucking my lips into my mouth before nodding. “Good. Then let’s get out of here and go home.” I grab the torch from the ground. “Stay close to me,” I order.

  “But what about the naga boy?”

  I move around Haime, looking for the exit. “What about him? We’re not going after him, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  “But he looked hurt and sickly! He might need food.”