by Lili Zander
This time, I was fully conscious as we flew through the air, and it was such a rush. I’m definitely going to be doing that again.
It was absolutely amazing to see the other women and realize that they’re okay. Fun little twist—Harper’s pregnant. The Californian swimming coach is as big as a whale, and when she’s not in the grip of pregnancy brain, she seems really happy.
Sofia’s the only non-mated one in their bunch. Bryce and she are getting on like a house on fire.
Zunix’s syn is very popular in the new Draekon camp, but it’s not all one-sided because evidently, Raiht’vi had a food synthesizer in her luggage. I’d forgotten how good chocolate tastes.
About the only person who isn’t happy is Felicity. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I get the sense that Luddux didn’t exactly tell her about the spaceship. She looks absolutely miserable, and even though she can be a catty bitch, I feel a twinge of sympathy when I look at her.
Step 3: Figure out how to stay alive.
Is it possible to die from having too much yummy sex? Because if so, it’s going to happen to me.
We’re sitting around the main living area, a small handful of us, in an unofficial conference. So much has happened in the last couple of weeks that my head is spinning, and I’m pretty glad for a chance to catch up with everyone’s adventures.
“The one thing I do feel bad about,” I muse thoughtfully, “is leaving Raiht’vi behind. She’s all alone, with Dariux looking for her.”
“I think she wanted to stay hidden,” Ryanna says thoughtfully. “She was terrified. She had a locator embedded in her arm, and it tracked her movements. I saw her dig it out of her flesh and smash it to pieces.” She takes a deep breath. “She said she was betrothed to a powerful man, and hundreds of Zoraken will die trying to retrieve her.”
“Who?” Arax asks.
Zunix sits up. “Of course,” he breathes. “It’s so obvious.” He looks at Arax. “Brunox has always been ambitious,” he says. “And the scientists have chafed at the restrictions put in place after the Great Rebellion.”
The dots connect, and the blood in my veins turns to ice. “It’s Lenox, isn’t it? Raiht’vi is engaged to the High Emperor.”
“Yes,” Zunix replies grimly. “And Brunox will stop at nothing to ensure the bonding takes place. We might need to find Raiht’vi before Dariux does.”
“And then what?” Liorax asks. “The Zoraken will slaughter us all.”
Nyx shakes his head, a small smile on his lips. “We didn’t really know you,” he says to Zunix. “And we didn’t tell you everything. The spaceship that Herrix and Belfox built? It’s not the only one. Three copies were dropped on the prison planet.”
“We had six of the seven parts before Arax and Nyx got attacked,” Thrax fills in. “And we went back the day after we returned to camp for the last box.”
I gape at them. “You can build another ship?”
“It’s not that easy,” Arax says. “We don’t have a technician among us. Do you?”
Zunix and Liorax exchange helpless glances. “Belfox was the only one,” Zunix says. “And he’s gone.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he replies. “We’ll figure it out.”
Viola clears her throat. “On a more immediate note,” she says. “I just want to make sure we’re all safe in the camp.” She gives my mates a hard glance. “Ryanna was attacked by a member of your batch. Dariux held my mates hostage. Three months ago, two Draekons almost tried to kidnap me.”
Zunix leans forward, his gaze sharp. “At the onset of the rainy season?” he asks. “Do you know their names?”
“Every word of that conversation is seared into my memory,” she replies flatly. “One of them was called Cax.”
Liorax and Zunix shake their heads at once. “Not one of ours.”
“It has to be,” she insists. “They said Liorax and Zunix had found a human mate. They knew I was human. Who else would know?”
“Another exile batch?” I ask my mates, unease trickling through my spine. “Someone who’s been watching you all along? Why?”
“Never a dull moment on the prison planet,” Zunix says wryly.
It appears I’m not done with my list.
Step 4: Find these new exiles and figure out what their deal is.
Step 5: Get Raiht’vi off the prison planet before the Zorahn armies come marching.
Step 6: Find out what Dariux is searching for.
Never a dull moment indeed.
Liorax pulls me toward him. “You have a certain look in your eyes,” he says. “If you’re going to do something foolish, I’m going to tie you down so you can’t leave.”
Mmm. Tie me down. That sounds like a lot of fun.
Ah, what the hell. The list can wait until the morning. I get to my feet and wink at my guys over my shoulder. “I’m about to do something foolish,” I warn them.
“More games, Olivia?” Zunix’s chuckle is rich and warm as he gets to his feet, Liorax on his heels.
A thrill of pleasure floods through my blood, and my heart skips a beat. My mates. Mine. “Admit it,” I tell them, my eyes dancing with amusement. “You wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Thank you for reading Draekon Abduction!
The prison planet adventures continue in Draekon Destiny. This time, it’s Felicity’s story. Flip the page to keep reading!
Draekon Destiny
Draekon Destiny
It took less than ninety days for my happy ending to fall apart.
Stuck on an alien planet? I can deal.
Abducted by rogue prisoners? No problem.
Mated to two powerful, sexy Draekons? Let’s be real. It’s not a hardship.
After three months on the prison planet, I think I’m finally free of my demons. I’m far away from home. I can start over. Here, there’s no one to hold me back. No one to sabotage my happiness.
But my mates have been plotting to escape the prison planet.
Without me.
I thought I could trust them. I thought they loved me. I was wrong.
Can we heal our shattered bond?
Is a second chance in our destiny—or were we doomed from the start?
Draekon Destiny is the fifth book in the Dragons in Exile series. It’s a full-length, standalone science fiction dragon-shifter MFM menage second chance romance story featuring a heartbroken human female, and the two sexy aliens who are determined to win her back. No M/M) Happily-ever-after guaranteed!
Prologue
“You need to talk to us.” Xan stares at me, his eyes intense, his tone demanding.
No, I don’t.
“Tell us what you’re angry about, Felicity. Is it because we worked with Belfox and Herrix? Is it because we didn’t tell you about the ship? Because we yelled at you that morning? Tell us what’s wrong, and we will fix it.”
Even now, even when it’s too late, they aren’t telling me the truth. They’re still hiding it from me. Still trying to pretend it didn’t happen. “There’s nothing to talk about.”
Lud lifts his head. “You have to listen to us.”
“Or what?” I throw back at him. “Or you’ll make me? You’ll force me?”
He blanches, recoiling from me in shock. His expression turns hard. “I have never forced you,” he grinds out. “I have never asked you for anything. Except for that one time.”
My stomach churns.
I thought it’d be different here. I thought they were different. But they’re not.
My aunt and uncle used me for cheap labor; Lud and Xan used me to turn into dragons. All the dates, all the pretty things they said, it was all intended to seduce me for one purpose. They never said they loved me. They just brought me gifts and counted the days until I could give them what they wanted.
And once they got what they needed, they were going to leave. Forever.
I steel myself so they don’t know what the words cost me. They never cared about me. It was stupid of me to think they did.
“There’s nothing you can say that will make this right.”
Our relationship is over.
1
Felicity
PRESENT…
Everybody, even us humans, has a role on the prison planet. Viola’s the unofficial leader of the nine of us. Harper’s the snarky, funny, and very pregnant one. Sofia, the resident doctor, is sweet and understanding. Ryanna’s handy and practical. Bryce is the adventurer.
I’m the catty bitch.
It’s been three weeks since we combined camps. The other exiles—I’ve been thinking of them as the New Draekons—live on top of a large mountain. They’re a strange mix of primitive and sophisticated. Their clothes are made from fur and a thin, silvery fabric that’s spun by the spider-like ahuma, but their houses have bathrooms, complete with bathtubs, running water and working toilets. After three months of squatting on the ground and bathing in the lake, I should be delighted.
They’ve also been really accommodating. It’s crowded here. Originally designed for fourteen Draekons, the camp first grew when Viola, Harper, Ryanna, and Sofia got there. Now, there are thirteen new additions, and everyone’s been working overtime, building houses, hunting and gathering food, and settling in.
We’re so busy that I’ve had very little time to face the truth. To admit to myself that things are probably over between Luddux, Xanthox, and I.
I’m sitting in the dining area by myself, cleaning a pile of fish that one of the Draekons, Rorix, had caught this morning. “Can you do it?” Olivia had asked me dubiously when I’d volunteered for the task. “I mean, we don’t want to waste any food. Maybe you should wait for Bryce.”
I’ve been working in my aunt’s seafood restaurant since I was nine, yet somehow, Bryce is the expert of the group. Whatever. “I can manage.”
Harper waddles over when I’m almost done, with a plate heaped with fries in her hands. I glance at it and then look away. It’s funny. I can clean fish alright, but the smell of deep-fried food takes me back to Maine, and not in a good way.
“Before you can lecture me about eating junk food,” she snaps defensively, “Save your breath. I already ate my daily quota of green vegetables.”
Sigh. Once—just once—I’d asked Harper if she was concerned about the baby getting enough nutrition. I wasn’t being the mommy police, just wondering if the plants on this world contained the necessary nutrients, but of course, Olivia had immediately taken it the wrong way, and jumped down my throat, telling me that Harper was worried enough about the baby without my unwanted commentary, thankyouverymuch.
I’d thought about explaining, but I hadn’t. Why bother? She’s got me pegged as the catty bitch. Not without reason. Olivia’s rubbed me the wrong way from the start. She looks exactly like Chloe, same red hair, same big boobs, same bossy know-it-all attitude, and because of that, I’ve said more than my fair share of mean and snarky things about her.
Most of the human women dislike me, and yeah, that’s my fault. I’ve made a lot of mistakes so far. I’m probably still making them.
Why not stop, you ask? It’s like binging on a full pint of Haagen-Dazs. You know you shouldn’t eat the entire container, and you know it’s a bad idea, but let’s be honest, has that really ever stopped you?
Even now, there’s probably something I could say to Harper that’d make her feel better, but it’s easier to ignore her.
She sits down and eats her food in silence. I lapse back into thought as I continue preparing my fish, cleaning the scales, salting and seasoning the meat, and then smoking them dry.
My mates and I sleep in separate rooms now. It’s been a little over three weeks since we had sex. Back in the old camp, Lud and Xan had tried to heal the rift between us, but they don't anymore.
If we were back on Earth, I'd have moved out into my own apartment, and we’d be officially separated, starting divorce proceedings.
But I'm not on Earth. I'm stuck on the prison planet, and I’m useless here. I don't know how to hunt for myself. I don't know how to grow crops, or mend roofs, or do any of these survivor-type things that the other women seem to be able to do so readily. All I can do is cook.
For three weeks, I’ve been in limbo, letting things drag out, being quietly miserable without doing anything about it. Until this morning, when everything changed.
I track things obsessively. I know exactly how many things I own, how many days I’ve been here, and, perhaps most importantly, how long it’s been since my last period.
I’m three days late. For most people, that wouldn’t be anything to worry about, but I’ve always been as regular as clockwork.
I'm pretty sure I’m pregnant, and I have to make a choice. Stay or go?
“You’re quite good at that.” I’m wrapping the fish in leaves and carefully counting how many packets we have—forty-four today, and three hundred and twenty-three overall—when Harper’s voice startles me.
“I cooked in a seafood restaurant in Maine,” I mutter.
“I didn’t know that,” she replies. She’s trying to be friendly, but I have no idea why. “Do you miss it?”
Let’s see. Do I miss being an indentured servant to my aunt, uncle, and cousin? Do I miss being told daily how worthless I am, and how much I owe them for giving me a home? Do I miss working long hours in front of a hot stove, only to see my meager wages being taken away for room and board?
“Not really.”
She eyes me curiously. “Are you happy here, Felicity?”
No. I’m freaking out. I’m pregnant, my mates are barely talking to me, and I have no idea what I’m going to do.
I’m about to reply with something bland and non-committal when there’s a commotion in the clearing. A large dragon touches down, and he’s carrying something in his claws.
No. Someone.
Everyone comes running out of their homes as Thrax, one of Ryanna’s mates, shimmers back to his human form. Except he’s not human; he’s Draekon. Two-legged form, I guess. Whatever. I’m more interested in the man slumped on the ground, bleeding from multiple wounds.
“After I dropped off food for Beirax, I flew south-east,” he explains. “And I came across a shipwreck.” His expression is grim. “Six people. Only one was still alive.”
Arax folds his arms over his chest. “From the High Empire?”
Thrax nods, and Arax’s expression tightens. “And so it begins.”
Vulrux is kneeling next to the man Thrax rescued. “He’s not going to make it,” he says tensely. “He’s losing too much blood. My herbs and potions aren’t going to work. At best, I can keep him alive for the next day or two.”
Lud steps up. Even now, even after everything, my heartbeat quickens when I look at his curly brown hair, his sapphire blue eyes, his tightly-muscled body. “Dariux’s med-kit,” he says. “I’ll fetch it.”
“Will Dariux cooperate?” Arax asks, turning to Olivia’s mate Zunix. “You know him best.”
“Who can tell?” Zunix shrugs his shoulders. “It’s worth a try. He might be hard to find. Both of you should go.”
Xan nods, his golden-caramel hair glinting in the sun. “It might take us a few days,” he warns. He looks at me, his eyes hooded. “I suppose you’re going to want to stay here, Felicity?”
He might as well have stabbed me through the heart.
I don’t fix things. I never do. That would involve making myself vulnerable. That would involve facing the cold, hard truth. Admitting that the only reason they ever wanted me was because of a mating instinct, because of biology, because they wanted to be dragons. Admitting I’ve always loved them more than they loved me.
But there’s a baby involved now. I grew up without parents. I can’t repeat the cycle. My child, at least, deserves better.
I take a deep breath. “Actually,” I say quietly. “I’d like to come.”
2
Xanthox
PRESENT…
We built Felicity a house in our old camp. A little south of Lake Ang, we’
d constructed a three-roomed structure with large windows. A portion of the roof was flat. Felicity had enjoyed lying there, naked, feeling the sun’s rays caress her skin. So many days, we’d climb up the ladder and find her there, her glossy brown hair partially covering her perfectly-formed breasts. She’d smile at us and beckon us forward, and in that small platform, hidden by the tree’s thick foliage, we’d make love.
How far away we are from that place now. Both physically and emotionally.
Most of my belongings are still in that house. Felicity, on the other hand, had packed everything she owned into a bag when she came here.
“Just give me a few minutes to get my stuff,” she says now, her voice vibrating with some hidden emotion.
I follow her to Dennox’s house, where we’re staying. The others are staying back to talk about the ship. Especially Luddux, who undoubtedly wants to know if Thrax found a communicator in the wreckage. He’s desperate to make contact with the outside world. “Do you need help?”
“No thanks,” she says stiffly.
I sigh inwardly. We caused this, Luddux and I. We should have been truthful with her from the start, but we’d held off on telling her what we were doing.
And it seems to have destroyed something between us.
Or maybe it was all only in my imagination. Maybe I’d wanted to be loved so badly, maybe I’d wanted a mate and a family of my own so much that I ignored the truth. Maybe there had never been anything there at all.
She pulls out her suitcase from under the bed. “Is that your luggage from the Fehrat 1?” I ask. I know that Arax and Nyx had retrieved the women’s belongings from the ship, but this is the first time I’ve seen the torn and faded box.