by Naomi Lucas
“Can you prove you did not do this?” Tabach asks, breaking my thoughts.
“Prove?” I ask, snorting out a wisp of smoke. “Can you not smell her? If I had assaulted her, my scent would be all over her.”
Aida tenses beside me, and like a wave, I sense her unease at my words. “I was there,” she says. “Though I could not see, I could hear. Delina said since she was the elder’s chosen female, she should be with the mightiest male.”
Tabach sighs.
“Your sister would not do such a thing,” Aida’s mother—Shyn is her name—says. “Delina has Leith, and by being chosen, she was chosen to be with him and no one else.”
“You don’t know your youngest daughter well enough,” Aida mutters.
Shyn scowls. “Delina may be spoiled, but she isn’t stupid.”
“She also has not been raised for the duty she’s been handed! She doesn’t fully understand the importance. When we were growing up, you and the tribe gave all your attention to me, letting Delina get away with whatever she wanted. Now she’s making bad choices because she doesn’t fear there will be repercussions.”
“You said so yourself, daughter—you didn’t see what happened! How can you go against Delina so? When you should have been there to protect her?”
Aida’s jaw ticks. “Because I was recovering from mating with Zaeyr,” she gripes. I watch Shyn’s face void itself of color. “I rose within minutes of the interaction. Zaeyr had his hand on Delina’s shoulder. And though I didn’t know what occurred, he told me he was pushing her away for being touched unwantedly. Considering the things she said, if anyone assaulted another, it was Delina who assaulted him!”
The females glower at each other.
But before they can continue, Tabach interjects. “Did she touch you first, Zaeyr?”
“Yes.”
“What happened after?”
“Aida ran, and I chased after her.”
Tabach nods. “And you have brought her back to us. Thank you.”
“Only for her safety—assuming this place is safe for us. She is mine. We need a place to nest.”
“She’s yours?” Aida’s mother asks.
“Nesting? What is nesting?” Nata adds.
“We have not accepted your claim on my daughter!” Tabach stammers.
I growl. “You have no choice in the matter, old one! She is mine regardless—not yours, not anymore.” Aida shifts uncomfortably next to me. “If you knew anything about dragons, it is that once we mate, we remain with them until our dragonling is raised, protecting them, caring for them, nesting with them only. No female, femdragon or otherwise, could come between that. Even if she seeks the protection of an alpha male too, there are no others. I seeded Aida—chose her to carry my young—Delina wanted that as well. I denied her, pushed her away.” My voice darkens. “She is not honorable for coming to me when she reeks of another.”
Silence falls again between the humans. I find I do not like this or them, wanting to take Aida away, understanding now why my little human did not want to face her tribe. They ask inane questions. I have never been accused of such a thing in my life.
If I assaulted a femdragon, she would kill me. If not her, others.
“And nesting?” Nata asks again.
“A place to stay during gestation,” I snap.
Aida buries her face into her hands.
Shyn gasps. “She is pregnant? How can you know such a thing? It’s only been days!”
“If she is not yet pregnant, she will be within days,” I warn. “That is how I know.”
Some of the elders gaze at me in disbelief, some shake their heads.
“Aida… you are… you know what this means?” Shyn turns to her daughter, saying her name softly. Her face falls. “What are we going to do about your sister? Leith?”
“I don’t know,” Aida says, raising her face.
“Are you—are you happy?”
Aida smiles at her mother. “Yes.”
Tabach, still stammering, flares his nostrils. “We still have not accepted your union.”
I snarl. “Do you not listen, human?”
“Father!” Aida snaps. “Enough. We will leave if you don’t accept us.”
My heart warms at her words. She chooses me over her people, just as I choose her, humanity and all. Taking her hand, I stand, helping her rise with me. My human does not need this, these people. “You do not deserve her,” I tell them.
If her people worried about their future, they would not let us walk away. I could help them. I could extend my protection to them, for Aida’s sake, for our future offspring.
But no one says a word.
“Come,” I tell her. It is time for us to go. Any longer and I may go back on my own words and harm the others. Aida nods, and we head to the door. “We will leave.”
With silence behind us, we walk out together.
19
The Final Night
“Wait!”
Hearing my mother run up behind us, I turn and she envelopes me in her arms. Tensing, she holds onto me tighter, and I slowly ease in her embrace. Zaeyr never lets go of my hand. “Don’t go,” she begs. “Your father will come around. He… he—”
Pulling back. “He what?”
Seeing Mother cry makes me want to cry. I hold my tears back. She’s a tough woman, one of the toughest. I’ve watched as over and over she’s held Sand’s Hunters together through her grit alone. I realize I’ve already forgiven her… Was there anything to forgive in the first place?
My heart sinks.
“He thinks you’re too good for another, Aida. That there is no male the world over that deserves you.”
I stiffen at her words, at her touch. “Why would he think that?” Father and I barely have a relationship.
“He sees himself in you. He loves you.”
My anger returns and I pull out of her embrace. “Tabach only cares about the tribe.”
Mother wipes her tears away. “No, Aida. He may be a hard man, but he is not without softness. All he does is for you and his family, so you may have a home—a place to be proud of.”
I finally dare to ask the question I had been wondering all month. “Did he… did he choose Delina for Leith?”
Zaeyr growls at the mention of Leith’s name.
Mother’s eyes drop for an instant. It’s all the answer I need.
Father was the one who broke my heart, not the tribe.
I gulp, pain zipping through me. “Why?” I whisper. After everything, after spending my whole life proving myself…
“Last season,” she swallows, straightening, “when we traveled to Shell Rock for the oyster harvest. He had Leith—” Zaeyr growls again “—come to him after seeing the young male kissing mermaids. They spoke at great length.”
I remember the harvest; it wasn’t that long ago. Issa and I had roamed the isles by her home for pearls—pearls to add to my mating dress. The dress Delina wore instead…
We only procured a dozen, but it was a great day regardless, having encountered a lusty merman who followed us, bringing us the prettiest shells from beneath the waves. In the end, he’d been driven off by a sea snake. So Issa and I killed it, bringing home its glittering pink and blue skin to make coverings for her.
It was one of those rare days Issa was allowed to be free of her ward, of Leith. I recall because I wanted him to join us…
He had no interest in hunting pearls. Instead, he chose to sit by the lagoon and sharpen his spear.
“They spoke?”
Mother shakes her head. “I don’t know what they said, but his opinion of Leith fell that day. The male is young, fairly untried, and Tabach could not see you with him. That does not mean he will be a great male one day, but today, he has much left to learn.”
Confused by the omission, it is not a side of Father that I know. But I know Mother, and she doesn’t lie.
I exhale, and with my breath, it feels like all my confusion finally goes with it. All that
remains is…
Relief. I didn’t know how badly I needed that answer.
Zaeyr grunts, pulling me back under his arm. “It does not matter. Leith is nothing to us. Aida is with me now. If he kisses her again—”
I circle my arm around his waist. “I’m with Zaeyr,” I declare.
Mother’s eyes finally go to him, and all her softness fades. I hold onto Zaeyr harder, uniting our front.
Relief or not, it’s not enough. My thoughts are jumbled.
After Delina was chosen over me, I never thought I’d have a partner of my own. Dreams of having young dashed to pieces. But it’s not only this… Zaeyr is a mighty male. Any tribe would fight to have him.
And here we are, possibly leaving.
He’s done nothing to deserve this treatment.
“Delina is my daughter too, dragon. She is Aida’s blood sister,” she says stiffly. “But I will have you stay if it keeps Aida here where it is safe. This is her home. And you, you are just one male. If she is with child, she needs to be with her people.”
I glance around and for the first time, I notice many of my tribe looking upon us from the shadows. Above, the moon rises, and the eerie glow of the comet rubies the land.
I love them. I love this place.
“Your people do not deserve her,” he fumes.
“That may be so—”
“Mother,” I intervene, unable to go through another fight, not tonight at least. They stop to look at me. “We will go to the caves tonight and tell you our decision on the morrow. It has been a long few days, for all of us.”
“Daughter…”
“Tomorrow,” I say, my voice lowering.
She slowly nods. “Tomorrow then. Take this.” She hands us a bag strapped to her back. Inside, I find food and dried meat. She steps back and gives us room to leave.
I swallow hard, holding the bag to my chest.
Zaeyr practically pulls me to the lift and lowers it down for us. He leads me to the caves. We light a torch and head deep within, procuring hides from one of the stashes and setting up a cozy camp by the water.
When we finally settle, I glance at him. He’s staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“I do not like it when you hurt,” he says, reaching out and tugging me into his arms.
Lowering my head against his warm chest, I let him hold me.
“What do you want to do, little human?” he asks.
“Nothing, not right now. Nothing but lie with you.”
“That,” he exclaims, holding me even closer, “I would be happy to oblige.”
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow, we will choose to leave or stay.
“Do you forgive me?” I ask. “Can you forgive me?”
“There is nothing to forgive.”
There is everything to forgive. I brought him into this mess, into humanity, into our looming extinction, into my family…
But his hands go to my hair, his fingers caress my scalp, and with nothing but the sound of his heart beneath my ear and the crackle of torchlight, I push all concerns from my mind and fall asleep in my dragon’s arms.
20
Loving a Dragon
I wake to find Zaeyr between my legs, licking my sex. A shocked moan escapes me, and I spread my knees. Long fingers slide up and through my private place, where he explores and plays.
I don’t know what time it is, whether it’s morning or still night. All I know is his sharp tongue ramming into my deep place and his dark groans. He spans his hands and gropes me everywhere.
“Time to breed,” he groans, rearing up like a wild beast over me. I lift my hips as he spreads me out and open. The hard tip of his thick prick nudges my opening. His eyes glow bright upon me, lighting the space with blue.
I’m barely ready, but he thrusts, pinning me to the hard ground with his hips. I scream, stunned by being spread so abruptly.
Gasping, he slams slow and rough, each shunt a beating of my body to his—to the floor. Slower still, I’m fluttering and clenching, pushing him out as much as trying to keep him rooted.
I hook my legs over him, once again finding my feet unable to connect. I strain my neck to look upon his face.
But he’s over me, his huge body not even arching so our lips can meet. I kiss his torso and chest to get his taste in my mouth.
Thrusting faster now, he snarls like an animal. My dragon. And with a roar blaring out, he shoots his seed.
Heat pools into me—so much heat—and I clamp my sex around him. My thighs grab what they can while I cry out. His seed spreads slick between us as he forces me to take everything. And when I’m about to wilt with exhaustion, he releases me.
“Zaeyr,” I moan, curling to my side, the sensation of his cum spreading throughout my body. Like the first time we mated, my body shudders, paralyzing me on contact. But I remain conscious this time.
Relighting the torch, he picks me up and carries me to the cave pool, tugs off my remaining coverings, and slips us into the cold water together.
“You are ovulating, human. Your pheromones have sweetened this night,” he groans, moving his hands all over me. “It is maddening, and I am already mad.”
Ovulating? My heart skips a beat and I find the strength to whisper, “What does that mean for us?” I ask coyly, allowing him to move me, wash me, pet me. I couldn’t stop him even if I tried. My body is still weak.
“It means we should stay here until it is over, so I may have you whenever I want. I may not be able to control myself.”
Oh.
The answer. The tribe. Father… everything comes back to me like a speartip to the heart, taking away the headiness of the moment.
For a time, there’s stillness between us.
He hums low, almost in warning. “Do not think of them.”
“I can’t help it.”
“It is because they are important to you.” He sighs.
Swallowing, I close my eyes. “Yes.” No matter how hurt or angry I am with Delina. My tribe is and always will be one of the most important things to me in my life. If this journey of surrendering a future with Leith has proven anything to me, it’s this.
“We will go to them soon,” he grumbles, and I ease up against him.
“Thank you.” I mean it. So, so much. “I will make this better,” I tell him for his sake because I still feel guilty. “This thing with Father, and Delina, will be nothing soon. I promise.”
Zaeyr pulls me from the water, wraps a clean hide around me, and helps me back into my clothes, tying the strings, adjusting the shells and teeth adorned on them. It’s such a kind, unexpected move on his part that my throat tightens. All my strength has returned by the time I’m ready. He dresses in his loincloth. Finding a cape in the nearby stashes, I pull it around his shoulders and button it at his torso.
Stepping back, the only word that comes to mind is dashing. My dragon is handsome.
Wrenching my hands at my sides so as not to touch him again, I know the time has come for us to leave the cave.
We make our way to the entrance, bringing the torch to light our way, ditching it when the dawn’s light brightens the path.
The smell of the ocean fills my nose, the sea breeze whips my heavy hair away from my face. Zaeyr takes my hand and leads me into the light. We stand there for a time as our eyes adjust to the light shining down and the brilliant blue skies above.
“Not even a wisp of cloud,” I murmur as it all comes into focus. “It’s as if the storm never happened at all.”
“It happened,” he mutters.
I turn to him. “What do you want to do?”
He knows what my question means, what I’m inferring.
“I want to build a nest with you, human, and cover you in my protection.” He glances toward the turquoise water beyond the rocks. His face falls and I frown. “I had a nest built, a sapphire and pearl cave filled with all the jewels of this gulf within, with walls that were high and tunnels that ran deep—all for my future mate. H
undreds of years of my life, I prepared the space, waiting.”
My throat strangles further. “Under the mermaid kingdom?”
He nods.
“It sounds beautiful.”
He looks at me. “It was. It was all for you.”
“Zaeyr…”
“Do not,” he hisses. “I have a confession to make myself, Aida. Several, in fact. I know you harrow with guilt because you touched me, but you should not. You may have sought a dragon for a mate, but you did not seek me out specifically, and I gave you no choice. That day on the beach… I was searching for that other dragon that arrived—a rare femdragon in heat—but when I saw you… It was you who stole my mind, my heat. She wanted to destroy you but I would not, could not let her. You were already mine.”
Swallowing, I try to turn away, but Zaeyr reaches up and cups my cheek, rubs my lips with his thumb. Too much. Too much, dragon. Don’t make me fall. I don’t know how I can possibly feel any more love for you… It’s already overwhelming.
“Your touch…” His voice softens. “I wanted to hate you for everything you stole. My instinct was to punish you, to force you to be mine, to break you—not once thinking of who you were or might be to your tribe. Maybe it was the bond, or maybe not, but I could not hate you, not even from the beginning. And I tried, human, oh, I tried. I realize now those feelings never came because you gave me everything that I ever wanted: someone to spend my life with. Someone to banish away all my years of loneliness.”
I press my cheek into his palm and try hard to keep my tears inside.
“I was so lonely,” he chuckles, drawing my gaze back to his. “I spent countless years building a nest for what? Hope? I am glad it is gone, human, because it would only be a reminder of the past.” He leans down to press his brow to mine and I shutter my eyes. “So when we return to your people, know that I do not care what choice you make, whether it is to stay or for us to leave.”
“I love you,” I gasp. I can’t help it. My chest hurts; his words constrict my soul. I can no longer keep my emotions at bay. Inhaling deeply, the ocean and Zaeyr’s scent pulls into me. It’s beautiful—it’s home.