by Naomi Lucas
The world has changed.
Since then, the red comet vanished, Delina and Leith had a daughter of their own, and the beginning of the next generation of our people has been born. My relationship with my sister was at first strained, but since our pregnancies and our young being playful cousins to each other, the past has become the past. It’s reminded us of our childhood, of all we’ve gone through together.
Delina has grown much, and anger is too hard to maintain. Although Zaeyr still growls at Leith and won’t let me near my brother-in-law, we remain friends.
I tickle Haime’s feet, and she squeals with laughter, bringing a rare smile to her father’s stoic and broody facade.
Since then, the mermaids forsook Sand’s Hunters for me mating him, for Sand’s Hunters giving Zaeyr a home. But I don’t think they went far.
In recent months, the babies have brought the mermaids back to our shores. I’ve discovered the laughter of babies draws in mermaids. Much more so than singing.
Krakens and other enormous leviathans have also returned to the gulf. Perhaps the mermaids forgot the protection Zaeyr once gave their underwater lands…
Now he protects the coast, and the shores are safer than before.
The femdragon never came back.
Issa claims she saw a small dragonling fly through the skies, but I don’t know...
Makes me wonder…
Reaching the top, Haime whimpers to be on her father’s shoulders. Zaeyr scoops her from me and spins her around.
Stoic and broody. I laugh. He looks that way but he’s anything but. I curl my arm around his side and lean my head against him. “You didn’t have to wait.”
“I wanted to.”
I pat one of the three bone daggers hooked at my hip and then the net tied to my waist. “I know these lands and its predators better than you, dragon man,” I humph.
“But I have better hearing, smell, and eyesight, human.”
I humph again and move away.
But he catches me, pulling me into his chest, wrapping his large arms around my torso—shunting his hips against my back. My core clenches. He wants me. He always wants me. Smiling, I wiggle my backside.
Perfectly unaware of our silent communication, Haime’s little hands reach around her father’s horns to tangle back into my hair. “Where’s the ocean?” Completely unaware of her parent’s tension. My smile grows. Turning around, I tug on her leg.
“Can’t you hear it, little seashell?”
Her ear pricks—literally pricks up. Something else she inherited from her father. “I hear it!”
“It’s close,” I say. “The louder it gets, the closer we are.”
“Aida! Come see!” Issa yells from up ahead.
Please let us be there, I beg. Please.
Together, Zaeyr’s hand in mine, we make our way to Issa’s voice.
The last of the brush clears, the sky spans outward, and after scrambling over several more ledges of rocks, the ocean comes into view.
Sapphire waters stretch out in all directions before me. Water so dark, so deep, a shiver for its greatness courses down my back.
Zaeyr’s home. I squeeze his hand tightly.
“Do you think there are others like us?” Gullis asks softly.
Issa licks her lips and glances my way.
“Yes, sand dollar, far north past Haime’s home, there are others like us.”
The rumor that started it all.
“I want all the world to be like us.”
“Me too!” Haime agrees. Her little tail catches in my hair.
Zaeyr hums. “You will have to find a dragon of your own, little one.”
“I will!”
“I’ll find one too,” Gullis announces.
The four of us adults share a concerned look.
“Not today,” Issa says, swallowing.
“Nope, not today. Or tomorrow,” I add.
“Or next week,” Issa continues.
“Maybe next year,” I laugh.
“Ugh.”
It’s something that’s been on my mind too. Are there others like us out there? Dragon and human, bonded? And if there are, how many? Where are they?
Zaeyr tugs me against him as a flock of eagles soar by. I lean into him again. It doesn’t matter.
We stay up on the ledge until the sun begins to set. We make camp and tell stories. The children play, wrestle, and fight. They eventually fall asleep, Haime’s tail curled around Gullis’s ankle.
I’ll never really know if there are others.
And that’s okay.
Venys is a big world, after all.
Zaeyr places his hand on my stomach, pulling my attention back to him. When our eyes meet, his flash, bold, bright, and blue. A dark, hungry look I know so well.
I don’t need to search for others, because this is mine, it’s everything I want. More than I could have ever hoped for.
My heart swells. I’m ready.
Author’s Note
Thank you for reading To Mate a Dragon. If you liked the story or have a comment, please leave a review! And if you haven’t already, keep on going with Tiffany Roberts, Poppy Rhys, and Amanda Milo’s amazingly sexy dragon books in the Venys Needs Men series.
If you love cyborgs, aliens, anti-heroes, and adventure, follow me on Facebook or through my blog online for information on new releases and updates.
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Naomi Lucas
Turn the page for the blurb for To Touch a Dragon, Issa’s story.
To Touch a Dragon
The tribes have wilted. The last of the menfolk have grown old. The human race has been dying since the red comet first soared through the skies above.
As the youngest hunter, and the only one left within childbearing age, I’m doomed to be the last matriarch of my people. Which would be a great honor, if there were a male to be mine from another tribe. But none have been born, none but my younger brother. It’s been my life duty to protect him.
When the time comes to escort my brother to a neighboring tribe, my friend tells me a rumor of a huntress finding a dragon in the northern plains. And when that huntress touched the dragon’s hide, the beast transformed into a virile, possessively bonded male.
With a thundering heart and nothing left to lose, I venture into the forbidden jungle to find such a dragon. To touch him, to take his seed, to bear his burden.
But the dragon I find is nothing at all like I imagined…
Venys Needs Men Collaboration
To Touch a Dragon by Naomi Lucas
To Mate a Dragon by Naomi Lucas
To Tame a Dragon by Tiffany Roberts
To Seduce a Dragon by Poppy Rhys
To Desire a Dragon by Amanda Milo
To Enchant a Dragon by Amanda Milo
Also by Naomi Lucas
Stranded in the Stars
Last Call
Collector of Souls
Star Navigator
Cyborg Shifters
Wild Blood
Storm Surge
Shark Bite
Mutt
Ashes and Metal
Chaos Croc
Ursa Major (Coming Soon!)
The Bestial Tribe
Minotaur: Blooded
Minotaur: Prayer
Venys Needs Men
To Touch a Dragon
To Mate a Dragon
Valos of Sonhadra
Radiant
Standalones
Six Months with Cerberus
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