by Naomi Lucas
“Anybody out there? Is anybody out there?” a feminine voice says, crackling the music.
Gemma tenses and I lift my head.
“What was that?” she asks, turning to look at me. “It didn’t sound like it was from the movie.”
“I don’t know.”
We break eye contact and look around the room. In the background, the movie continues to play. A minute goes by, and the crackly voice doesn’t return.
“Can you rewind the movie?” she asks.
“Please, answer! This is Shelby from The Dreadnaut, and we’re in trouble,” the voice, spiked with desperation this time, says again. It’s coming from behind us.
Gemma shoots to her feet. “Shelby?” she gasps, searching for where the voice came from. I rise with her, pausing the screens.
We both turn to an orb, half-hovering, twinkling in the corner. It’s one I thought as good as broken, and it hasn’t been solar charged in months.
Gemma rushes to it just as I pluck it out of the air with my tail, grabbing it before it falls and breaks.
“How do we answer? Can we answer?” Gemma asks hurriedly.
The female calls out again. “Anybody out there?”
I turn the orb in my hand, asking it to—
“Connect us,” Gemma orders.
“Connecting…” the orb responds. It works. It twinkles, glows.
Gemma grabs it from me. “Shelby, it’s Gemma. What’s wrong? I’m here. Are you okay?”
“Gemma! Oh, hell. You’re alive! Thank god you’re alive. It’s good to hear your voice, any voice.”
“I am.” Gemma shakes her head. “What’s the matter? What’s happening? Are you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m trapped,” the female answers on a hitch. “Under the facility. I’m trapped with him.”
“Who?”
Shelby’s voice lowers. “There’s something you need to know. I’ve found something—” Shelby cuts off.
“What?” Gemma asks. “Shelby? Are you there? What do I need to know? Who’s him?”
The orb twinkles one last time and dies.
“Shelby! Answer me!” Gemma yells, shaking it.
I snatch it from her before she hurts herself. “It’s dead. She’s gone.”
“We need to find another!”
I nod, and we make our way back to my bunker at record speed, but when we reach the other orbs I’ve gathered, we cannot reach Shelby. The connection is gone.
“Scanning. Scanning. Scanning.”
Gemma cries out in frustration, threading her fingers into her hair and pulling it away from her face. She turns to me.
“Vruksha…”
I already know what she’s going to ask. I already know my answer.
I grab my spear.
Whatever comes. I’ll protect what’s mine.
“Scanning. Scanning. Scanning.”
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading Viper, Naga Brides Book One. If you liked the story or have a comment, please leave a review! I love reviews and so do other readers :)! Continue onto King Cobra if you want to learn more about the ferocious naga males who rule Earth and all its secrets, and the strong women who fall in love with them.
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Naomi Lucas
Turn the page for King Cobra, Naga Brides Book Two!
King Cobra Blurb
Daisy. Daisy. Daisy.
From the moment her name is spoken, it is all I can hear. Her frightened tears bring me anger. I vow to wipe them off her face and banish her fear. To make her my queen.
But I have to catch her first.
I have to convince her to trust me.
I have to show her she is safe.
But only with me.
Because if any other naga male tries to take Daisy away from me, I will kill them.
And if she runs?
She’ll find out there’s no escape.
I’ve paid the price to mate her, and she needs to know a gilded nest is better than freedom in my world.
Buy here!
Or continue to read Chapter One…
King Cobra
Naga Brides Book 2
King Cobra, Chapter One:
Daisy
Gemma yanks my arm and I stumble forward, my boots catching over a bush. Not getting a chance to catch my footing, I trip and Gemma twists back, helping me rise.
“Don’t stop,” she gasps, eyes wildy looking around. “We can’t let them gain on us!” She turns and runs.
Panting, I take after her through the trees but lose her.
“Gemma,” I wheeze, bracing against a tree.
She comes back, grabs my arm again, and we keep running.
The forest is thick, filled with so much overgrowth, it’s hard to move through it. Leaves, branches, thorns from alien plants abrade and rip at my clothes and exposed skin. Rasping, haggard breaths push my lungs to their limits and still I can’t keep up with Gemma.
She’s fierce, a fighter. She would have made a great soldier.
Communications Officer, Gemma, like me, is being traded to alien men for the tech they have in their possession. Gemma’s presence is the only thing giving me the slightest hope of rescue right now. If she’s here, someone on the Dreadnaut will notice she’s gone.
Because I won’t be missed…
Someone dishonorable like me? Piloting the first team down to our homeworld? It was legendary. I was going to be planetside for the first time in years and it was going to be on Earth of all planets.
My boots catch again as the land slopes sharply and we both have to pause, eyeing the trek downward. I don’t know where we’re going, only that Gemma’s taken the lead.
“It’s not safe,” I croak, staring at the sharp ledge downward, the trees between us and the top. “We’ll never make it.” It’s almost too painful to speak.
“We have to try!” She takes off to the tree nearest to her and flings her body against the trunk. She does it again, bracing her feet at an angle to stop from tumbling forward. From one tree to the next, she slowly makes her way down the mountainside.
Setting off after her, I take it slow at first, shunting from one tree to the next. I see her reach the bottom, way ahead of me, and she glances back. “Daisy! You can do it!” she shouts.
I flinch, fall into another tree.
Something snaps behind me, I hear a breathy hiss.
No!
Pushing myself off the tree, I stumble to the next one and slip.
Screaming, I fall forward, tumbling down the slope, crashing against the side of a bush. Sprawled out, I stare at the branches above, stunned. Pain shoots up my side as Gemma’s face appears above me and she tugs me to my feet. My long hair snags on the bush’s branches and rips from my scalp.
“Come on, Daisy, you can do it!”
I don’t know how long we’ve been running or how far we’ve gone, only that the shadows are thickening. We started running when the Earth’s sun was at its zenith, when Peter and Collins dragged us out of the skiff, only to take a box from the large alien male who made all of this happen, and then flew away, leaving Gemma and I at the mercy of the alien and his friends.
The big, scary one had come right up to me. I nearly relieved my bladder from terror. He leaned down, looked directly into my eyes, and scowled.
He scowled like he was furious at what Peter and Collins presented him with, me. As if he knew I was a cast-off of my people. And all I could do was stare, even when Gemma grasped my hand and jerked me behind her, all I could do was stare.
Because for how giant and frightening the alien was, he smelled really, really good.
He said something to Gemma, Gemma said something back, and then we started running.
I hear a crashing noise behind us and Gemma sprints forward, leaving me b
ehind. Pain radiating my chest, I try to keep up. I can’t lose her. She’s the only thing keeping me from losing my ever-living mind.
The noises grow louder. A tear rips from my eye.
I can feel hands grabbing at me, catching my hair, and capturing me. I’m about to scream for her when I run into her back. She stumbles forward as we nearly tumble to the ground. I shout, dropping to my knees.
She grabs my shoulder and squeezes and I almost lose it.
“We have to climb,” she gasps. “Go!”
I look up to see what she means. Right before us is a ledge and a short rocky slope of boulders. It’s the only way we can go.
The sounds of pursuit grow louder. They’re coming from multiple directions. I snap to my feet and take to the ledge. Gemma catches my foot and hauls me up.
Pivoting back to grab her hand, something yanks me off the ground.
No!
I don’t get a chance to scream as Gemma gets smaller and smaller below me. But then she’s gone and my hair whips across my face as I’m jerked brutally around and into a hard, muscled chest, my legs flailing everywhere. Pain lashes my side as a thick arm presses hard against it. The scent of musk invades my nose as I see trees blur past me.
The smell makes me vomit.
My arm snaps back when we go flying through the air. The thing holding me hits a tree, jerks me higher in his arms, and flings to the next one.
I get a good look at his face and shriek.
Yellow eyes, yellow skin, even yellow lips with two thick fangs briefly eclipse my vision before I’m tousled violently to the side.
This male wasn’t on the cliff.
Fighting with every last shred of strength I have, I kick and scream, tearing at him. He snarls and ignores my thrashing, continuing his abduction. My teeth snap together violently the next time he jumps and my neck wrenches.
He’s going to kill me.
I shout for Gemma.
Though I know it’s already too late. My nails drag across rough skin, catching on scales that rise when I touch them, slamming my knees into the male’s tail brings me more pain with little effect on the brute. Growing desperate--when we hit the next tree--I manage to get my hands up his chest to wrap them around his neck.
Tough flesh stops me from choking him with any real effect.
“Let me go!” I shout, returning to my thrashing.
The male grabs a section of my hair and forces my head back. “Ssstop making noise,” he growls, snapping his fangs at me.
I thrust back, terrified he’s going to bite me when he drops us to the forest floor. Limbs locked from the sudden weightless and abrupt stop, the male releases me and forces me to the ground.
Claws rake down my body, shredding my uniform in a single sweep. Chilly evening air breezes my skin as the male tears my clothes from my body. I realize what he’s doing when he gets to my boots and his nails aren’t able to shred them.
I kick him hard in the face.
Rearing, the alien arcs backward, grabbing his head. “Rabid female!” he bellows. A large, thick tail slams the ground beside my body, and the ground trembles. “You will submit!”
Twisting over, I hold my clothes to me as I crawl away. Dizzy, breathless, and in pain, I don’t get far. Fingers curl around my ankle and drag me back in place. “Gemma!” I scream for help, knowing there won’t be any.
The male thumps his giant, sickeningly yellow tail next to my head again and I flinch.
My undershirt is ripped from my body next, the cloth breaking my skin. When I try to hit the male again, he catches my fist and forces it to the ground. The chill of the evening air hits my bare chest the moment his hot breath does.
Shoving at his body, he’s completely undisturbed by my struggles as a forked, meaty tongue lashes the air. “Female,” he groans.
I kick harder when he slides down my body to claw at the strips of cloth left holding what’s left of my pants to my legs.
“Please!” I wheeze, my lungs failing me. “Please, don’t,” I beg.
He rips my pants from my body.
Something hard, hot, and thick falls upon my shin and I cry out.
“Female,” the alien says wetly, sliding the hot appendage up my leg. “You are mine.”
I turn my head and brace for what’s to come. The fight has left me. I can barely rise, can’t catch my breath. Shaking, all I can do now is prepare and hope I survive.
Hope it doesn’t hurt, hope it doesn’t last long...
The scaly, soft sensation of smoothed-out scales chafe my inner thighs as his tail forces my legs apart.
Closing my eyes, I glimpse something shiny next to my head.
The knife.
This morning, while taking my last shower on the transport ship, Shelby--forced to guard Gemma and me so we didn’t run, and didn’t send a message to the Central Command on the Dreadnaut to alert them what’s happening--slipped a knife under my unit. I’d hidden it under my clothes…
A wet tongue slides over my breasts, fingers snake around my neck as he pushes his cock to my dry sex.
The male hisses when he’s unable to easily thrust into me, bows his head down to peer between our legs, completely unaware of the knife.
Sliding my hand over to it, I grasp it, wiggle it free of its sheath, and aim. Shaking terribly, I miss.
He doesn’t even notice, gripping his member, trying to get it inside me.
I bring my hand back, and a brief calm washes over me. I aim again.
And with everything I have, I sink it deep into the side of his neck.
I drop my hand as blood gushes from the wound.
The male jerks, his tail swipes out wildy, he rises and meets my wide eyes as his hand unclasps my neck. Snatching mine to my chest, getting his blood on me, he grabs the hilt of the knife and yanks it out of his neck.
Blood spurts from the wound.
Run.
Twisting onto my front, I scurry out from under him as he brings the knife forward to look at it.
I don’t wait to watch, reaching down to grab at the shredded clothes next to me, I sprint away putting as much distance between us as possible. I can only hope the wound is enough to stop him from chasing me.
I don’t know how long I run, how many times I stop to listen, or when I find the strength to get back to my feet, I keep going until the sun sinks below the horizon and darkness blankets the forest.
It’s not until I’m about to faint that I collapse and curl up on my side. Bringing my ruined clothes to my chest, I sob until sleep takes me away, and my nostrils fill with the sweet scent of a different male...
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Also by Naomi Lucas
Naga Brides
Viper
King Cobra
Blue Coral (Coming Soon!)
Cyborg Shifters
Wild Blood
Storm Surge
Shark Bite
Mutt
Ashes and Metal
Chaos Croc
Ursa Major
Dark Hysteria
Wings and Teeth (Coming 2022)
The Bestial Tribe
Minotaur: Blooded
Minotaur: Prayer
Stranded in the Stars
Last Call
Collector of Souls
Star Navigator
Venys Needs Men
To Touch a Dragon
To Mate a Dragon
To Wake a Dragon
Naga (Haime and Iskursu)
Valos of Sonhadra
Radiant
Standalones
Six Months with Cerberus
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