by Naomi Lucas
“Love?”
“Yes,” I whisper. “I love you.” I don’t care if he says it back. It wouldn’t change a thing.
“Is that this overwhelming heat in my heart that makes it heavy when I think of you?” he asks.
“Yes…”
“The need to see you all the time or I may perish?”
“Yes.”
“I love you too, little human.”
My chest explodes and I slam myself into him, curling my arms around his large form. He picks me up and takes my mouth. His primal taste fills me to the brim.
This, I realize, this is what we both have been waiting our whole lives for. No one can take this away. No one can take us away.
21
A Future Full of Dragons
The tribe’s abuzz by the time we’re pulled up the lift. Several rafts are docked on the beach, half unpacked with supplies.
If my heart couldn’t thunder anymore with contentment, it still does, knowing those rafts are from Shell Rock.
Issa!
I’m nearly bouncing on my soles by the time the lift tops the rocks. Strangely though, Zaeyr goes rigid beside me, and when I glimpse his face, his cocky smile is gone. He took me again against the rocks outside the cave, quick and loving, whispering the word against my skin like he was branding it to me, unto and into my flesh.
But any happiness is gone.
Then I see Issa. Beautiful, dear Issa, my truest friend and huntress soulmate laughing with Leith by the central bonfire. Her long braided blond hair shining in the sunlight, her gold-kissed skin dressed in nets and white shells.
“Issa!” I yell, catching her attention as I rush forward and envelop her in my arms. She’s tense for a moment, and I wonder if I’ve ever given her a hug in the past. I’ll rectify that. “I’m so glad you’re here,” I cry.
“Aida,” Issa muses. She eases into my embrace and hugs me back. “I was so worried. Waters, I am relieved to find everyone okay. I could barely sleep with worry.”
We grip each other once more tightly before pulling back. I’m taller than her by several inches, but Issa knows how to use her shortness to her advantage, especially when we wrestle. I know to never underestimate her.
“You were worried?” I ask, finally registering her question.
“I saw the alpha dragon…” Issa’s blue eyes trail behind me and she stills. Turning, Zaeyr is as tense as ever standing nearby. Leith is several yards away looking on worriedly, having backed up, but as I glance around, I find what Zaeyr is staring at, it’s another large male.
A large green male.
My mouth drops.
A large green male with wings on his arms, emerald and jade scales covering portions of his body, and long snake-like black hair. He’s looking at Zaeyr the same way my dragon is looking at him: with blatant suspicion.
“Me,” Zaeyr says. “She saw me.”
I turn back to him. “You?”
“When I emerged from the sea, I sought him.” He points to the dangerously ripped green male behind Issa. “And saw her instead.”
“Yes,” Issa whispers. “You’re him, the alpha dragon from the ocean…” She shivers. “The one in the storm.”
The other male finally speaks. His voice deep and gravely. “Where is the femdragon?”
We all turn to him at once.
“I pushed her against the cliffs, forced her away. She fled into the clouds. She has not returned since, near mad with unrelieved heat,” Zaeyr tells us. “And since she has not come back I can only assume she has taken a lesser beta or omega draconid to nest, or that her heat has passed and she slumbers. I do not sense her.”
“Nor do I,” the other male grumps.
“And if she comes back?” I ask. I hadn’t thought about that happening, not once. My palms slicken.
Zaeyr finally drops his eyes from the other male. “We will send her away or help her find a mate nearby.”
“Yes,” the green one agrees.
A cough has the four of us turning again. Mother is standing off to the side holding a platter, eyeing all four of us, and it’s then I realize the buzzing tribe has stopped to watch our exchange. Half I know from Shell Rock, and they gaze at Zaeyr with wonder, while my tribe watches the other male.
Dragons. Two of them. No one needs to tell me the other is a dragon as well. So Issa took stock in the rumor I told her.
Mother comes forward with a platter of baked fish, fruit, and raw oysters. Issa takes it from her, and we settle around on driftwood seats beside the fire. My friend sits with the other dragon male, and his wing flutters out to caress her side.
They are bonded. It’s unbelievable. My dear friend has found a dragon of her own.
Despite Zaeyr’s growl, Leith slowly joins us and lowers between Mother and Issa—the furthest place possible from Zaeyr. While we eat in awkward silence, the tribe returns to their laughter and talk, others come to join our gathering.
They’re waiting for my decision. Mother’s gaze falls on me again and again.
I don’t know how much Issa and her dragon know, but they remain courteous, eating. Zaeyr is tense or terse, or both.
Leith asks how Issa and her dragon met, and they tell us their story.
“I stumbled upon Kaos—” the other dragon’s name is Kaos “—when he awoke in the Forbidden Jungle,” Issa says.
“She touched me,” he adds.
Issa chuckles. “Many times, actually.”
“We are bonded.”
“Oh yes, that,” she chuckles louder.
“She is pregnant with our first young.”
Shock falls upon the group.
Mother speaks first. “So it’s true? This bond, this fertility? You know you are with child?”
Kaos nods. “I sense him.”
“Him?” Mother gasps.
Issa wipes her mouth. “Kaos is very sure of his abilities.” She shrugs.
“Are you two… happy?” Mother asks.
Tulia, one of Issa’s half-sisters, joins us and sits down. “So happy it’s sickening. I’m sickened daily by it.” Tulia laughs anyway. “But our tribe could not be more joyous. I have not seen our people so hopeful in many years. We were ended, and now… Now we are not.”
Leith pipes up for the first time. “Sister, I’m so thrilled for you. I will be an uncle! I look forward to the day.”
Issa beams.
Envy strikes me. I clutch Zaeyr’s hand and squeeze it. He squeezes mine in response. Does he sense young too? Will he know when I’m with child?
Father comes to join us at some point.
Delina never shows.
I watch as my friends and family talk and laugh, ask and answer questions, continuing until the food is all gone and nothing but spirits are left to pass between us. Even Zaeyr lets up after a time, and his watchful stare on Kaos eventually comes to an end. Kaos’s glares cease as well.
Whatever it is between them, is gone for now. Knowing all that I know, they were rivals in a way, at some level, but now there’s nothing for them to rival about. I hope.
Happiness returns and I realize how much I enjoy this. I’ve already made up my mind, but now it’s just to tell Mother and the others. Issa and Kaos helped me make up my mind. Seeing them and their tribe so happy… It proves that things can be better—will be better. Change is never easy.
Somehow we’ve been at this all day. And as the sun begins to lower to dusk and the comet’s rays ruddy the land, I clear my throat.
Mother, Father, Leith looks at me. I hold their gazes. “Zaeyr and I have decided to stay. As long as we’re together.” We won’t let them force us apart. They can keep us as is, or not at all.
Finally, some pressure lifts—it vanishes completely when Mother smiles. I can’t help but smile back at her. Excitement for the future and everything it will bring with it fills me.
Father raises a cup of spirits, clapping it against Zaeyr’s—it’s more of a response than I could’ve asked for—and we all raise ou
rs in celebration.
Then Issa, Tulia, and even Milaye grab hold of me and drag me to my hut.
22
Mating Ritual
Watching my mate get pulled away, I stop myself going after her, calmed by the laughter and the grin on her face.
I have never witnessed such happiness. Her tribe is not only a place of safety but community too, and love. The love she offers so sweetly to me.
I am beginning to understand humans. They are not at all the wretches we dragons make them out to be. If they can survive this world, like us, they must be great in their own way. Intelligent, emotional, strong…
As Aida disappears with her tribe’s women, my eyes drift back to Kaos.
Even from where I sit, I could sense the young in the belly of Kaos’s female—its life. Though now she is with Aida, I no longer feel the child.
To be so near another alpha dragon’s young and his mate—for him to be so close to mine—is unheard of. But here we are, humans both, not trying to kill each other. Succeeding.
Kaos notices my gaze and leans back. Stiffening, I watch him rise and move toward me. He keeps his wings retracted. I keep my tail relaxed in response. He sits.
“Good journey, ancient one,” he says.
“Good journey,” I tell him back. Kaos is an alpha dragon too, but younger than me. He is a dragon born of two other elementals: Earth and Water, and it is his water half that aligns us. Somewhere, far back in our ancestry, we may have shared a relative, but with so many years between then and now, we will never know.
Though, I wonder…
We sit in silence for a time watching the fire. Fire that, at one point, lived in our bellies. It grows as more wood is added, fighting off the coming twilight.
“You did not answer me that day I roared for you,” I muse at last.
He shrugs. Such a human gesture. “I had no reason to,” he answers.
I try shrugging myself. “It is for the best.”
“Yes.”
“You kept your wings,” I say.
Kaos hums. “You kept your tail. I say we are equal.”
I find myself chuckling. “Are we though? Really?”
“Perhaps we will find out in the years to come,” he muses. “Perhaps we will never know. I do not think our mates will like us battling.”
“You may be right.”
“I know I am. Aida is your mate’s name, is it not?” he asks.
Hearing Kaos say her name makes my heart pound. “Yes.”
“Issa has been worrying about her often since the storm. She was afraid you might destroy Sand’s Hunters, Aida and Leith with it.”
I stiffen, snarl. “Leith.”
“You do not like the young male?”
“He kissed Aida.”
Kaos growls. He understands. Dragons do not share, are deadly possessive and protective of their mates for as long as they have them. And I know, when it comes to human females, we will have them forever.
Growing antsy, my gaze goes to the hut Aida entered. Where is she?
Issa is gone too. Kaos must sense my unease. “Do not worry. She will be out soon. They are preparing her.”
I glance his way. “What do you mean?”
“Just wait and see. It will not be long now.” Before I can inquire further, he rises and returns to his previous seat. My attention returns to the hut. My brow furrows.
An eternity passes before the door opens. Or maybe several lengthy minutes. And it is then I realize that the entirety of Aida’s tribe is around me and the bonfire.
The three other females appear first. Milaye I already know, and Tulia I believe to be second. Kaos’s mate is third, smiling big. Her bright eyes find Kaos and she goes to him.
I wait for my Aida to emerge.
Preparing her for what?
When she doesn’t appear, I rise, planning to seek her. But then a shadow fills the doorway and I see her.
My feet stop mid-stride, stunned.
Aida steps from the threshold and into the evening glow. Awes fills me to see her in such a mesmerizing way.
Enchanted, her dark eyes catch mine, and I am lost. The firelight spark and even a glint of red shine in her gaze, all framed by black chalk that goes from her eyes to her hairline. My mouth waters.
Her long, beautiful hair is pulled away from her face, sharpening her features, hanging down her back in enticing waves. A twilight goddess of golden sands. Or a seductress coming from the deepest fires of the earth.
My eyes slip to her body. Her skin has been donned in glittering shells, gold and twinkling. Adornments go up her arms, her legs, even her fingers and toes have accessories—intent to seduce my gaze everywhere at once.
I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand. I do not even try to hide my shaft, threatening to slip from my loincloth. She is dressed in dark green snakeskin that barely conceals her sweet parts. White pearls are sewn over her breasts and the crux of her sex. Pearls I want to tear off with my teeth. My water nest was filled with pearls. Forcing the thought from my mind, I vow to procure new ones.
Aida takes a slow step my way, her teeth bite down on her lip, and I am paralyzed. My nostrils flare. Her pheromones flood into me. I realize everyone else is watching her too.
We should have never left the caves! A rumbling grows in my throat.
My shaft grows painful, and I want to throw her over my shoulder and take her away at this very moment. Or remain here, in front of all, so they might witness my mastery. My mind clouds with lust.
I hear laughter. I do not care. Clenching my fists, I straighten, ready for my human to close the distance between us. But when she is only a few yards away, she is interrupted.
“Wait!”
Holding back a scowl, Delina runs up and forces Aida’s attention from me. Breathless, the younger sister raises something in her hands.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers, offering the object.
Aida glances down at it, back to her sister. Forgiveness softens her striking face. My mate nods and lowers her head. Delina lifts the object and places it on Aida’s head.
The headdress, I note, realizing what it is.
Delina positions the piece and ties it into my mate’s hair. Their brows touch, and then Aida turns back to me. Delina slinks away.
I do not wait any longer—can not wait without going mad—and storm across the clearing and take her in my arms, slamming my mouth over hers.
Like shrugging—no, it’s better than shrugging—Kissing her is such a human mannerism. One I enjoy immensely. Something I will enjoy every day for the rest of my life. No one will ever again kiss her but me. I nip Aida’s plump lip, and she pulls back with a gasp.
The tribe breaks out in hollers and laughter, and without caring of whatever human ritual we are in, I pick my mate up, throw her over my shoulder, and steal her away.
My human.
My. Human.
Mine.
Epilogue: Aida’s Paradise
Three years later
“Should we go deeper?” I ask, gazing at the shadowy passage leading further into the jungle.
“Yes!” Gullis exclaims with a squeal, waving his little dull spear that Kaos, his father, crafted for him.
“I want to see!” Haime cries with him, holding onto my hair, leaning over my head where she’s perched.
My daughter. My beautiful daughter with blue eyes like her father, shadowy skin like mine, and sapphire scales now appearing across her skin. Her sense of adventure keeps me alert—terrifies me hourly. Her little tail swishes against my upper back.
Issa sighs behind me.
For the first time in years, neither she nor I am pregnant.
Thank the waters.
Zaeyr grunts and, with his double-edged spear, breaks the vines in our path.
Kaos strides from behind Issa, our children, and me to join Zaeyr at the front. Gullis imitates his father and strides next to him, only to fall behind and scurry back up. He takes after the jungle dragon, scale
s, green skin, and all. All but the wings on his father’s arms.
Issa has two sons, and I two daughters. Both of our young babies remain in Shell Rock, Issa and Kaos’s home, where they’re being taken care of by the villagers. I miss them. I’ve been away from my baby girl for a day, and I miss her deeply. She may be growing horns, and I’d hate to miss their breaching.
“Mommy,” Haime whines as she pulls my hair, and when I glance up, I realize the others are all ahead of us. Hurrying my steps, I catch up, ducking through the broken vines fast enough so Haime can’t grab them.
But when we break through the passage, they’ve already reached the rocks to my left. Kaos yells after Gullis, bringing a smile to my face.
We’re close. We must be close.
The canopy soon opens up and bright blue skies fill my view. In the distance, my ears prickle with the sounds of waves crashing against the shore.
“Mommy,” Haime says again, “we’re falling behind.” She squirms, fighting to get down from my shoulders, but I grab her up against my chest and laugh. When she giggles, I stick my tongue out at her.
“We’re taking our time, baby.”
She doesn’t care. Fights me again. But I lift her back onto my shoulders, and she settles when I move into the open light to begin ascending the rocks.
This is our first outing as a family, our first hunt, our first real adventure. And we chose to do this with Issa and Kaos and Gullis because it would be a first for them too. Our dragons work well together when they have the same goal.
And of all places, we decided to venture past Shell Rock, follow the coast north, up the peninsula, to where the Mermaid Coast—the Mermaid Gulf—meets the open ocean.
I’ve never seen the ocean. The real ocean. The vast blue that goes far beyond Venys, endlessly.
I catch Zaeyr looking down from above, watching our ascent with keen eyes. Standing like a god on his perch. Never a moment he’s not there. I shoo him away with my hands but he remains.
Peering up at him, half-scowling, I can’t believe it’s been three years. Three years.