by Lili Zander
The techs have nothing to gain by endangering Ashara. The Senate, on the other hand, likes to play politics with our lives. “Put every Senator under surveillance immediately.”
“That’s against the law.”
“Not when we’re in a state of emergency.”
“Valid point, Commander.” She smirks at the idea of putting the Senate, so often the bane of our existence, under watch. “Are you coming back?”
I should turn back immediately. My primary duty is to my city. Even on this souped-up skimmer, I’m at least eight hours away from Ashara.
But Bryce McFarland is still out there. And there’s a company of Zoraken looking for her.
Duty wars with desire. “Soon,” I promise Silu. “As soon as I make sure the human is safe.”
Nothing gets past Silu. She knows I’ve been watching Bryce MacFarland. She smirks once again. “Of course, Commander.”
4
Bryce
Things don’t go as planned.
Seven hours into the search for my damn karvil, I’m convinced I’m being followed by one of the Zoraken. A few times, I stop the skimmer and double back on foot, but I can’t spot them. Still, the prickly feeling in the back of my neck doesn’t go away.
You’re being paranoid, Bryce. There are fewer than two hundred people on the entire prison planet. Nobody is following you.
The sun is beginning to set. I pitch my watlich-coated tent and get a fire going. There’s a river not too far away, and I’m hoping to catch a nice, juicy fish for dinner. I keep an eye out for trouble, but mostly, I’m moving on auto-pilot. I’ve fished in this exact river many times before. It’s not new to me.
But when I get to the water edge, there’s a man there, one I’ve never seen before.
A Draekon.
He’s tall. His hair is dark and falls to his shoulders. He’s naked to the waist, and every muscle in his abs is clearly defined. Forget six-pack. This is an eight-pack. A ten-pack, if that’s even a thing.
I’m used to good looking guys. Every single Draekon in camp is, without exception, really hot. Genetic engineering at its finest.
But this guy is different. It’s not that he’s better looking than any of the others; he isn’t, not really. It’s something else. It’s the way he carries himself. With self-assurance. With a certain, effortless air of command.
“You know,” he says conversationally. “This is a really stupid idea. Commander Hurux is on your trail, Bryce MacFarland. If he catches up with you, you’re going back to Earth.”
Hang on. He’s not wearing a translator. He’s speaking English. And he knows my name.
Have I been out in the sun for too long? Have I accidentally ingested some kind of hallucinogenic mushroom? This doesn’t make any sense.
“Who are you?”
There’s an amused gleam in his eyes. “My name is Cax.”
Well, that’s a maddening half-answer. A Draekon that I’ve never seen before shows up in the middle of nowhere. Who is he, and where did he come from? “And?” I prompt. “Are you an exile?”
“Not exactly. I was born on Trion VI.” He takes in my confused expression. “This planet.”
Okay. That’s possible, I guess. I’ve explored the area around me pretty well, but that’s just one piece of a continent. Maybe there’s a tribe of Zorahn or Draekon, or whatever this guy is, somewhere on this planet.
Except Cax speaks English. And, he knows exactly who I am. “Who are you?” I ask once again. “Who are you really? And why can I understand you?”
A smile flashes on his face, and fuck me, he has a dimple. So fricking sexy. “A long time ago, members of the Zorahn Empire, the Adrashian Federation, and the Makpi Alliance came together to build a city where we could all live in peace. That city is Ashara. It’s north of here. I’m in charge of it.”
“The lost city of the Draekons,” I exhale. “Dariux was convinced it existed. So he was right.”
“In a manner of speaking. A historian might correct you, telling you it was more coincidence than anything else that we chose the same planet as Wonacx.” That dimple winks into view. “But I’m not a historian, and right now, neither of us care about something that happened a thousand years ago, do we?”
He’s so damn self-assured. I can’t decide if I’m attracted to him, or annoyed by him. Little bit out of Column A, little bit out of Column B.
I narrow my eyes. “So you’re not one of the Zoraken hunting me?”
He chuckles. “Caeron, no. I’m here to help you, Bryce MacFarland.” He tilts his head to one side. “Unless you want to return to Earth. Is that why you left the Southern Outpost? If you’re looking for the Zoraken camp, it’s due west of here. Less than a couple of hours by skimmer.”
Definitely annoying. I roll my eyes. “I know where the Zoraken camp is. I’m searching for my pet karvil. About knee-high, is partial to the blue grass that grows by the river bank, answers to the name Fluffy McCutie. Have you seen her?”
“You named your pet Fluffy McCutie? Maybe she ran away in sheer embarrassment.”
Grr. Everyone’s a comedian. I clench my hands into fists. I’m about to demand an actual, not half-assed answer from him when another man appears from behind a tree trunk.
Zoraken. I recognize the uniform.
I brace to flee, but it’s too late.
Because something is happening.
Something I saw when Liorax and Zunix pulled Olivia out of our crashed spaceship.
Something I saw when Yasix and Thesix first saw May. When Rezzix and Magnux laid eyes on Paige. When Luddux and Xanthox met Felicity.
“What in the name of Caeron?” Cax’s voice is low and laced with shock as he sinks to his knees. “How is this possible?”
Their faces contort in pain. Clothes tear. Bones shatter. Spikes erupt from their spines. Their nails elongate to sharp, pointed claws. Their bodies grow larger, and around us, the air cools noticeably.
They transform into dragons.
Well, fuck. Things just got really interesting.
Cax is big and beautiful, his scales silvery in the twilight. The stranger is a gorgeous shimmery coppery-green.
They’re my mates? But they can’t be. It doesn’t make any sense. The soldier isn’t even Draekon. He’s Zorahn. He’s one of the exilers, not one of the exilees.
Yet, he’s definitely a dragon.
My mates. Underneath the confusion, joy starts to grow. As much as I love the prison planet, as much as I wanted to stay here and never return back to Earth, I hadn’t been quite ready to give up sex forever. Neither had I wanted to fall into bed with Draekons for whom I was clearly not the one.
Now, I don’t have to.
Cax looks just as self-possessed as a dragon as he does in his two-legged form. He looks almost bored. His wings are outstretched, his scales catching the dying rays of the sun, and reflecting them back in a thousand jagged pieces.
The soldier, on the other hand? He’s freaking out. His tail lashes to and fro, and he roars at the sky, a hot stream of flame erupting from his jaw.
If I didn’t live with dragons and see this kind of thing every day, I might be scared.
This morning, I’d been haunted by Liam’s death. I’d wondered if I was so deeply flawed that the Draekons could sense it. Now, in the space of a few hours, everything has changed.
I have mates of my own.
Maybe they’ll go exploring on the planet’s surface with me. Cax must know this world pretty well. I can’t wait to see the prison planet—or Trion VI, as he called it—through his eyes.
I love flying on dragon back, but it’s always felt like an imposition, asking someone else’s mate to take me for a spin. Now, I don’t have to.
And of course, there’s the sex. My cheeks start to heat. I’ve been doing okay with my fingers, but I miss the real thing. The weight of a man’s body on mine. The scratch of his stubble against my skin. Arousal warring with impatience as he takes his time getting to know my body.
There’s two of them. That’ll be new.
My skin prickles with desire. I can picture the scene in my mind. First, one of the men will slowly push his finger in my ass. When my muscles relax, he’ll go deeper. Relaxing me and stretching me, preparing me for his cock…
The roar of the copper-green dragon dies out. The thread connecting the three of us snaps. The dragons transform back to men.
Very naked, very endowed men.
Men who are not looking at me with pleasure.
“What just happened?” the soldier growls. He looks badly shaken. His eyes cast about the ground near him for his weapon. “What sort of sorcery is this?”
Cax snorts. “Sorcery? Come on, Commander Hurux. I’d have thought it’d be obvious. Don’t you know your own history? A Draekon transforms for the first time when he sees his mate.”
Big fan of history, this Cax guy. Also, this is Commander Hurux? Yum. He’s hot. Ripped. Broody and growly. Very sexy.
I’ll be his prisoner anytime.
Hurux visibly blanches. “Draekon?” he whispers. He doesn’t look at me. I might as well not be there. “No, that can’t be. I undertake the Testing every year. I don’t have the mutation. I can’t be one of the beasts.”
My joy drains away, as does the low-level arousal. These guys are not happy to find their mate. Not even a little.
“The test can be fooled,” Cax replies with a shrug. “The black markets of the Homeworld are filled with blockers. Some of them even work, no doubt.”
I clear my throat. “You’ve unlocked the power to transform. That’s good, right?”
Are you actually pleading with them to give you a chance, Bryce? How pathetic are you?
“I don’t need a mate to transform,” Cax replies. “In Ashara, and in all the Free Cities, we’ve shattered that particular genetic lock. We transform at puberty.”
Every Draekon so far has been thrilled to find their mate. Every single one of them. The Draekons in camp, the ones that haven’t transformed so far, spend their waking hours hoping to run into the woman that can unlock their full power.
Not mine. Nope.
Hurux looks repulsed. Cax looks inconvenienced.
This is a nightmare.
5
Hurux
This is impossible.
Draekons are mindless beasts, angry and violent, created for destruction. Beasts so dangerous that for generations, the High Empire has exiled them so the rest of the population might be free of the madness, the taint.
And now, I’m one of them.
How is this possible? Year after year, as a male citizen of the High Empire, I line up for the Testing. Year after year, I’ve been pronounced free of the mutation.
But there’s no denying the evidence. I’d definitely transformed. The instant I saw the human woman, something had snapped. Tightly contained bonds had shattered. Blinding pain had washed over my body, and I’d felt the beast emerge from within.
I am an animal. I feel the dragon inside me, wild and untamed and savage. Ready to take over. Ready to erase my identity. Ready to destroy my life.
A Draekon transforms for the first time when he sees his mate.
Mate. Impossible. I can’t have a mate. Biology does not dictate our quest for a bondmate. Raw, animal magnetism is a crude and primitive tool, unsuitable for the selection of a life partner. No. When the time comes to choose a bondmate, I will pick a woman from a suitable family for a mutually beneficial relationship. That is the Zorahn way.
Like Lenox? The woman he picked is hiding from him. According to Dariux, Raiht’vi would rather live in this primitive, tech-free planet than return to the Homeworld and take her place as High Empress.
I dismiss that thought as irrelevant. Faced with the enormity of the disaster in front of me, what do I care about the High Emperor’s marital woes? I have plenty of trouble of my own.
The human woman clears her throat. She’s pretty, if I stop to think about it. Her hair is the color of the sun’s rays on a warm summer afternoon. She’s delicately built. Two hands, two legs, physiologically compatible with the Zorahn. Sexually compatible.
She gives us a tremulous smile. “You’ve unlocked the power to transform. That’s good, right?”
No. It’s not good. My entire life has been upended. All because I stumbled upon this human woman.
This is the worst possible thing that could happen to me.
Then it gets worse.
The three of us are standing by the river bank. There’s no sound except for the rushing of the water. No one around for miles.
A twig snaps.
I whirl around, just in time to see a familiar figure fleeing away from us. From me.
“Anyone you recognize?”
“Yes,” I reply heavily. “That’s a member of my company. His name is Nardox.”
I’ve been seen. It’s over.
I slump to the ground, despair running through me. The Draekon sits down too, and, after a moment of hesitation, so does the human woman.
“You’re in shock right now,” the man says to me, his voice calm. “You probably have a thousand questions. But we can’t linger here. The hairus swarms hunt in the night, and they pack quite a bite.”
I don’t know who or what the hairus swarms are, and I don’t particularly care. I stare at the man, the wheels in my head turning. “You mentioned Ashara earlier. That’s the lost city that Dariux was talking about?”
The man heaves an exasperated sigh. “Or we can stay here and make small talk. Yes, that’s Ashara. My name is Cax. This is Bryce MacFarland.”
Bryce MacFarland. I try the sound of her name out in my head. The syllables are strange yet pleasing.
Mate. The growl comes from inside me, shocking me to my core. She is our mate.
She looks concerned. “Someone saw you transform into a dragon. That’s not good for you, is it? Your people freak out about Draekons.”
She’s worried about me? She should be worried about herself. She should be running away from the beasts, screaming in terror and fear.
“We’re blocking all comm signals,” Cax replies. “Your secret is safe for now.”
How much advanced tech does Ashara have?
Bryce MacFarland’s nose scrunches up in a frown. “Hang on. You mentioned Dariux. Do you know him?” Her body stiffens. “Is he your prisoner? Is Sofia your prisoner too?”
“No.” Honesty compels me to clarify that statement. “Not anymore. A pair of dragons attacked our camp a few days ago. They took the woman. Dariux used the opportunity to escape.”
“Oh.” She chews on her lower lip. “I hope Sofia’s okay with Rorix and Ferix. They were suffering from a fever.”
“They’re all fine,” Cax interjects. “Not to keep repeating myself, but we should really go.”
There’s a lot going on, but I’m still on the ‘I’m a Draekon’ part. My brain moves onto the next problem. “You mentioned cheating the test. How is that possible?”
“Easiest way, you bribe the person administering the test.”
“That would be dishonorable,” I snap. “Not to mention exceedingly unwise. The Draekons are exiled for the good of the Empire. They’re savage, dangerous animals.”
Cax raises one eyebrow. “What a flattering description. Some people take blockers.”
“Blockers?”
“The genetic make-up of Zorahn and Draekon are identical,” he replies. “The test can’t tell the difference. Instead, it shows a positive reading if there’s a protein in your bloodstream. Blockers suppress the formation of that protein.”
I understand roughly half of that. “You sound like my mother,” I comment wryly. The shock is slowly wearing off, and a lifetime of training kicks in. I’m Draekon, there’s no getting around that. How do I manage this situation? What happens next?
“Your mother is a scientist?”
“She’s one of the white-robed,” I reply with quiet pride. “She is on the Council of Scientists.”
> “In that case, she has the skills to make you a blocker,” Cax says. “I don’t blame her. I’d do the same thing for my youngling.”
At that, Bryce MacFarland gives him a sharp look.
“You’re not listening to me.” My hands clench into fists. “I’ve never taken…” My voice trails away as the dots connect. The kesvet cookies. My mother’s insistence on baking them herself, ever since I was old enough to be tested.
She knew all along. My father had tested positive and had been dragged away in the middle of the night, and she couldn’t risk the same thing happening to me.
“Everything changes, doesn’t it?” Cax asks quietly. “Everything changes when you know the truth.”
An image of the dragons burning our camp flashes in my mind. Raging. Rampaging. Setting the trees on fire. Destroying everything in sight.
They’d been invulnerable to any of our weapons. Strangely beautiful as they’d flown away, their scales glittering in the sunlight. What would feel like to be that powerful? To fly through the sky, free as a bird?
They are savage creatures.
The High Empire wants the human women to return home. It wants to protect them from these beasts. From me.
It’s the right thing to do.
Bryce MacFarland is small and delicate. In my dragon form, I could have snapped her body like a twig.
Bile fills my mouth. “Nothing’s changed,” I say flatly. “I came to this planet on a mission. I was charged with returning the human women to their home.” I’m dimly aware that I’m still naked. “I’m Draekon. I know I don’t have a future in the Empire. But that doesn’t change what I believe, Cax. No matter what happens to me, I will fulfill my mission. I will do everything in my power to send the humans back to Earth.”
I scramble to my feet, my gun in my hand, and I point it straight at the Draekon. “I’m going to take Bryce MacFarland to my camp. Don’t try to stop me.”
Cax coughs. “Umm, Hurux? One question. Where exactly is Bryce?”
She’s gone. Lost as I was in my own head, I didn’t even hear her escape. Some soldier I am.