by Selena Scott
Keiko barked out a laugh. “No. You’ve done quite the job hiding your feelings there. That girl’s clueless. She thinks she bothers you.”
“She does.”
“I don’t mean hot and bothered, Sol.”
“Fair enough.”
Keiko filled two more mugs with coffee, took the sandwich out of Solar’s hand and shoved it straight into his mouth. “Finish your sandwich, take the extra coffee to Javi and O, and think about what I said.”
She gave his cheek a sharp, if not loving, slap and turned back to the fire. Solar recognized himself as dismissed.
CHAPTER SIX
Their weekly meeting had been a frustrating one. And depressing. After their attack on King Dalyer four years ago, when they rescued Zara, the king had gone into hiding. No one knew where to find him. Even the Oracle. Dalyer being in hiding wouldn’t be such big deal if he weren’t still in control of his million-man army. If he weren’t still terrorizing the dragon realm. Pillaging and burning as he went. And if he weren’t still bringing down swift and deadly retribution upon anyone who spoke up against him.
Hence, the jungle camp. Nearly 500 miles away from where they suspected him of hiding. Their guess was that he was deep in the Shina Mountain range. But they couldn’t say for sure. The Oracle was frustratingly stymied. For some reason he had some sort of block on the king. One he never had before.
Javi, mid-forties, with salt and pepper hair and a soldier’s mind, was always spoiling for a fight. And lately, he had had enough. He wanted to hunt some royalty. His vote, every meeting, was to stop hiding and go find a fight. Solar’s vote was simply to have a plan. He had no interest in free-wheeling across the realm, searching for someone who didn’t want to be found. And it meant that they stayed where they were. Moving camp now and again. For four years.
The Oracle, inevitably, waffled back and forth between the two viewpoints. He argued one side and then the other. Offering advice that was always wrapped up in prophecy, real or not, it was always hard to tell. If he hadn’t known O for so long, he might have thought that the bastard was just fucking with them. Trying to stall the revolution from the inside. But as it was, Solar knew that the future was viscous, ever-changing, like the direction of a lava flow down the side of a volcano. The Oracle might know how things would end up, but he wouldn’t always know how to get there. Or conversely, he knew exactly what to do next, but not where their actions would ultimately lead. There was no sense in putting too much pressure on the Oracle’s gift. He was the revolution’s ultimate weapon, and they needed him sharp.
After their meeting, Solar thought about trying to seek out Zara, just to see if she was alright, but he remembered Keiko’s words from earlier. Instead, he chose to walk along the river and remain discreet. Doing something about it, as Keiko had ordered him to do, was just not an option. Maybe she was right. Maybe his… thing for Zara was distracting him from being the kind of leader he needed to be. But doing something about it was never going to happen.
Solar heard footsteps behind him and whirled. It was just the Oracle, sauntering after him, one hand in the pocket of his worn and ratty cargo pants, the other flipping the dagger that he always favored.
“Whatcha thinkin’ bout?” he called to Solar as he approached.
“Don’t you already know?” Solar raised an eyebrow.
“Of course. That’s why I came.”
Solar’s eyebrows raised even further but his heart sank. The Oracle was finally going to make him talk about the real reason why he wouldn’t court Zara. “You came to talk to me about the prophecy. My prophecy.”
“Well, more specifically, I came to talk to you about the reasons you won’t let yourself have what you want so badly.”
“And we both know that the answer to that is the prophecy you gave me three years ago.” The memory of that day still made Solar’s blood run cold. It was a burden to know certain information about your future. And it was one that Solar never would have chosen for himself if he hadn’t had the lives of all the Surgere in his hands. And by extension, the lives of all the dragon shifters in the realm who lived under the tyranny of a power-hungry, vindictive king.
He’d made the Oracle give him a prophecy about his future. And it had been bitter. A very hard pill to swallow. And one that would keep Solar from getting too close to anyone.
To O’s credit, he hadn’t wanted to intentionally read Solar’s future. “Things get lost in translation when I intentionally seek them out, Solar,” he’d said. “Everything’s clearer if the prophecies come to me on their own.”
But Solar had insisted. The Oracle had prophesized and now Solar had to live with that knowledge.
The Oracle caught up with Solar and clapped a hand over his shoulder. The river rushed past them. The sun, caught behind a rain cloud, seemed to come from every direction, not just the sky.
“Look,” O began. “I’ve been thinking more about that prophecy and-”
The Oracle cut off talking as the jungle breeze shifted directions and a scent blew across their path. Solar simultaneously felt every muscle in his body freeze and catch fire at once.
What was that scent? Flowers and woman and long, clean hair and woman and sweet, dark sleep and vanilla and woman. His body cried out for it. His voice ripped out of his chest. Suddenly his vision was tunneled and spotty.
Solar’s hands became claws, his teeth lengthened in his mouth. His tongue flicked out and was forked, like a serpent. The scent. The scent. He was shifting before he could stop himself. His clothes exploded off of him and his body quadrupled in size. Midnight scales ripped out of his skin and sliced through the air.
Solar’s reptilian tongue licked out at the air, as if he could taste the scent on the air. He was too far from camp. Why had he walked this far? If he could smell it, then so could the other unmated males back at camp. Fuck. That.
They didn’t call him the fastest dragon in the realm for nothing.
Solar ducked his head and tore the air in two as he raced over the jungle canopy. The scent was leading him straight to her. It was a week before her birthday still. She was a week early. But the scent on the air couldn’t lie. It was the most enticing, mouthwatering scent he’d ever had the pleasure of experiencing.
As he winged through the air like a madman, he had only one thought in his mind.
Claim Zara.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Zara woke with the sun that morning. Half of the sky was still the turquoise-lavender of the nighttime’s last fight before the day takes over. She was out of bed in an instant, tiptoeing to the door of her hut, sliding it open just a silent inch, and peeking out.
But he was gone. Just like the morning before. And the morning before that. She sighed and got her things to wash herself up in the river.
As she walked back to the hut, her hair in a wet, swinging braid down her back, the sun was all the way up and her stomach growled for breakfast. She wouldn’t kick a cup of coffee out of bed either.
Speaking of bed. Zara tossed her soap and towel on the small table of her hut and looked longingly at her cot. She was never someone who wanted to get back into bed once she got out of it, but strangely, this morning a nap sounded delightful.
But, in the Surgere camp, there was never time for indulgences like that. There was always a task to be done. Zara would bet everything she had that Keiko had already been up for an hour and gotten at least four things off her list. So Zara dressed quickly and headed to the kitchen hut where she knew Keiko was putting in her morning shift.
She half-heartedly returned the waves and greetings of the unmated males as she hurried through the camp. But honestly, all the attention made her a little sick. Actually, she might have just been feeling a little sick in general. The jungle was warm enough by itself and when Zara stepped into the kitchen hut, the heat from the cooking fire swamped her. She pressed a hand to her forehead and steadied herself against the wall.
“Zar, are you alright?” Keiko asked, rushing
over to her, half an orange in one hand and an uncracked egg in the other.
“I’m ok,” Zara waved her off. “Just feeling a little woozy this morning.”
“You look flushed. Are you overheated?”
“No, I don’t think so. I just cooled off in the river.”
“Here, drink some water.” Keiko divested herself of the orange and the egg and fixed a cool cup of water for her friend.
Zara drank deeply, but it didn’t help. Her vision swam, doubling and tripling the images in front of her. “I think I’m gonna go home and lie down.”
“That’s a good idea,” Keiko said, taking the half empty glass of water out of Zara’s hands and steering her out of the hut and back through the camp. “I’ll walk you home, in case any of these sailors get any ideas.”
Keiko had an idea herself of what Zara was going through right now, but she kept it to herself. She didn’t want to freak the girl out. She knew how much Zara had been stressing about it.
Once they made it back to Zara’s solitary little hut, Zara let Keiko tug her dress over her head, leaving her in her underclothes, and steer her into bed. Keiko unbraided Zara’s hair and left a canteen of water by her cot. She slipped out the door, wishing her friend silent luck with this next phase of her life.
Zara fell immediately into deep sleep. She dreamed of nothing. She woke with a start a few hours later by her estimation. The sun was much higher in the sky than it had been. Zara stretched, instantly noting that she felt much better than she had before.
Much better, but also very strange. She felt different. As if her body had come alive. She felt extremely aware of where the sheet dragged against her skin. She lay in a black bra and panties. Whenever the Surgere got close enough to civilization to restock on supplies, Keiko and Zara always insisted on new underclothes. Neither of them minded living in the jungle. But a girl’s got to have some standards. But the familiar underclothes felt different on her body than usual. They tugged and zipped along her skin. Every touch was a zinging tickle that raced through her. Zara moved to swing her feet over the edge of the cot, but instantly froze. There was a new sensation. Down there.
Reaching down, Zara slowly, so slowly, dragged the sheet aside. She hooked one finger into her underwear and pulled it aside. She gasped into the silence of her little secluded hut. Her chastity scales were gone. She was bare. She was open for business, so to speak. She was… pink.
Zara leaned forward and spread her legs to inspect herself and was quite pleased with what she saw. Delicate, smooth flesh peeked out at her. And so sensitive. A zippy feeling whipped through her when she pressed her thighs closed against herself.
Curious, Zara tentatively smoothed one palm over her thigh, skating her fingers over herself. She gasped at the sensation. She had honestly never felt anything like that in her life. It was like electricity. Heat. Tension. All rolled into one.
She teased her fingers over herself again and this time she let herself linger. Explore. The feeling came back again, stronger, licking through her. And this time an image popped into Zara’s brain. A strange image, one she’d never really thought of before. Two people kissing. Pressing against one another in the night. The air was hot around them so they sweat as they rolled over one another, naked skin against naked skin.
Zara’s eyes popped open. Why was she thinking about that? She never thought about stuff like that. She probably should stop. She knew that. She should go find Keiko and tell her that she’d reached her fertility season. But almost of their own volition, Zara’s fingers feathered over herself again.
This time, Zara’s head fell back and she didn’t try and stop the images that popped into her head. She let her hand move over herself. She was surprised when a tingling wetness started to seep onto her fingers, but whatever feeling was rising inside of her was too good to stop and question. So Zara pressed her eyes closed and let the images come. A man in the moonlight. A bare chest. Sheets tangled across him. Her on her back. A man’s hard, heavy hips pressing her into the ground. Soft hair, strong hands. Pressing. Holding. Lifting. Breath on her lips.
Zara rose and rose. Her muscles tightened and she couldn’t stop them. Didn’t want to. In her mind the man grabbed her by the shoulders, pressed her back onto a bed, let his hands wander over her body. He raised his head and looked up at her face. His eyes were midnight blue.
Just like Solar’s.
Zara yelped and whipped her hands away from herself as she realized she’d been thinking about him. While she touched herself. Heat crept up her cheeks and she quickly reached for the canteen. She gulped water, needing to tamp down the racing heat that still zipped through her. What to do?
Zara was practically wringing her hands when the feral, furious roar of a dragon split the silence of her secluded cabin in two. She nearly jumped out of her skin. She knew that roar. That was Solar’s roar. For a split second she had the terrifying thought that he knew about the things she was just thinking about, but she dismissed it. Couldn’t be.
So then why was he roaring in her front yard? Holding the sheet around herself, Zara slinked forward to peek out the front door of her hut.
There he was. Gorgeous and gleaming deep blue in the sunlight. It almost seemed like all the light was drawn to him. She couldn’t help but watch the deep blue dragon that was rearing back and swinging his tail.
At another dragon.
Oh god. Solar was fighting another dragon in her front yard. It was a smaller dragon. She recognized him. Lighter blue, lithe, quick on his feet. It was Rafael.
Zara glanced down at her newly bare self and realized that they must know somehow. They must know that she’d reached her season. Rafael was coming to mate her just like she’d feared. And Solar was protecting her just like he promised. Zara felt something swell inside her chest but she couldn’t say what it was. Gratitude mixed in with fear and confusion.
Rafael feinted from one side to the other, trying to slip past Solar. But the young dragon roared in distress when Solar brought the weight of his heavily spiked tail down on Rafael’s back. Not enough to really hurt him, but enough to bring him to the ground. Rafael slid in the dirt. Solar lifted his tail just a smidge and Rafael immediately flipped on his back, and shifted back into his human form.
The ultimate show of submission. Rafael didn’t want to fight his leader. And he certainly didn’t want to fight a dragon with hard-won combat skills like Solar.
Solar’s dragon form stepped away from Rafael, lying prone on the ground, with a footstep that shook the earth. He slightly bowed his head to the boy and Rafael took the sign for what it was. He hopped to his feet and disappeared into the jungle, back toward camp.
Solar reared back and roared again. A tree shaking roar that had animals scurrying and leaves falling like rain around them. Zara squinted into the dim light between the trees that surrounded her hut, and she saw shapes moving away. Other dragons shifting back into human form. Other men. Other Surgeres, shifting into their human forms and heading back to camp. Away from her. And away from Solar.
He was protecting her from all of them. It was working. She was free of them. And no matter what Keiko had said, now that she’d reached her season, she didn’t magically want to mate with those men. She still wanted her space. Her freedom. She didn’t want to be lashed to anyone but her own self. And that was a relief too. She was still herself. Just fertile now.
Zara breathed a deep sigh and leaned her head against the door jamb as she let her eyes wander over the midnight blue scales of Solar’s back. She was just so unbelievably grateful to him. But she froze in place when his giant, magnificent head swung back and looked at her. She was completely pinned. The gaze was reptilian, but it was still completely Solar’s. And she couldn’t look away.
The great dragon’s scales began to shimmer and quake, his arms raised and his shoulders came up, a half growl, half roar erupted from him as he took one step, then another. Zara gripped the sheet over her breasts and gasped when she realized
he was shifting. Back into his human form. He took one step and his shoulders came back. Another and his legs were Solar’s own, long, striding form. He gave a shake of his head and the scales gave way to his glossy black hair. He didn’t pause as he crossed the clearing. His hair was messy and a light sheen of sweat showed over his skin. And his eyes burned as they stared into her.
Zara had seen Solar naked before, from a distance. It was very common in the dragon realm, where they all shifted between forms so much. But she’d never been this close. Seen in quite this much detail. Because suddenly he was standing directly before her. Not more than two feet from her.
Sunlight dappled his skin, deepening the shadows between the muscles on his stomach. His chest was muscled and wide, a light sprinkling of dark hair across it. Zara’s eye followed that trail of hair down toward the narrowing of his hips and down further. To something that Zara had never really had much reason to look at before. Solar’s cock. Long and thick and seeming to reach out toward her.
Zara found herself licking her lips and pressing her thighs together as she surveyed him. She felt something she’d never felt before. A slow uncurling of heat inside her. The wetness she’d felt before on her fingers was now creeping down the inside of her thighs.
What was happening to her?
“Zara,” he said, his voice a low, husky rumble.
She dragged her eyes away from his cock and up to his face. A stunned little gasp escaped from her lips. Either she was seeing him through new eyes or he was wearing an expression she’d never seen before. Or both. His eyes were burning with intensity, the lines of his face set in extreme tension. Zara found herself wanting to lean in, smooth his brow.
She remembered the images in her head from moments ago. The two people kissing. Sweaty. Rolling over one another. One of her hands flattened against her belly and dragged over her sensitive skin. Her pulse was still racing toward something but she didn’t know what it was. She didn’t know how to find the release she needed. She imagined leaning up and kissing Solar. Or him pressing her into the floor like he had the other night in his hut. A little moan escaped her lips.