Enslaved by the Alien Dragon Page 12

  “Aren’t you hungry?”

  I shrugged. “I’m used to going days without food. This is nothing.”

  He eyed me carefully and then nodded. The moment he left the control room, I breathed a sigh of relief. The intoxicating pull of his presence had me all turned around and I needed to get my bearings. We had been pressed so close together and his eyes had a hypnotic quality about them. I was honestly shocked at my own feelings. I had once thought the idea of a man with wings, scales and a tail was stomach turning, but it seemed that something had changed.

  Shaking my head, I pushed Ranel out of my thoughts, focusing on the task at hand. Glancing at the manual that he had left behind I followed the diagram and opened the little glass casing that housed the main wires connecting the whole coms system. It looked like there had been a short in one of them when the asteroid had hit. I realized that if I re-routed the unit and connected it to a different, functional port, I might have a chance of restarting the communications line with Dashel’s ship.

  I held my breath as I made the new connection. There was a small spark that mimicked electricity and I pulled my hand back just in time. I tried a few more ports until the wire slid seamlessly into a small blue port. I knew I had probably cut the communication to another ship in the fleet, but I figured we needed to know what was happening on Dashel’s ship first.

  There was a crackle of life on the other side and a second later I heard a signal come in loud and clear. “Yes!” I gasped as the sweet taste of victory coated my tongue.

  “Hello?” I asked, pressing the button and speaking into the little microphone. “Hello, is anyone there?”

  “This is Gyygnar, our messages were not reaching.”

  I didn’t recognize the voice on the other end, nor did I care. “Our coms system was down,” I replied quickly. “I’ve just managed to fix it.”

  “Is this second commander Gormson?”

  “Uh… no.”

  “Bletchgor?”

  “No.”

  “Deveron?”

  “My name is Yvette,” I said, because I didn’t know what else to say.

  “I know no commanding officer on the Wyvern by that name,” the growly voice replied, turning harsh instantly. “Who are you and why have you taken control of the ship?”

  “I am under orders from Commander Ranel,” I said quickly.

  “Where is he now?”

  I paused.

  “Who are you?”

  Before I could answer, the door slid open and Ranel walked back into the control room. His eyes fell on the glowing button in front of me and he rushed forward.

  “It’s working.”

  “Just the direct line to Dashel’s ship,” I nodded. “But it’s a start.”

  “Commander Ranel?” the Drakon on Gyygnar asked.

  “It’s me, Moddoc,” Ranel nodded. “Yvette is here under my orders. She is responsible for the communication we’re currently having. What happened? Where is Dashel?”

  “Hurt, but he will make a full recovery. Debris from the asteroid hit us on a sideways trajectory. We lost two wings, but our craft is strong enough to fly without them for a short distance. Dashel was thrown by the hit and he injured his head. He’s in the medical facility now, which is why I have command. He’s not conscious at the moment but he will be in a few hours.”

  “We’ll need to re-route immediately,” I said. “Neither one of these ships can stay in the air for long. Set course for Thirren, we can re-group there.”

  There was a pause. “What about Grissa?”

  Ranel ground his teeth together. “Forget Grissa,” he snarled. “Our fleet is not ready for a pillaging mission. Our ships need to recuperate.”

  “But… what about commanders Lehar and Tarion?” Moddoc asked.

  I saw anger and impatience flit across Ranel’s face. I was surprised at how persistent the Drakon commanding Gyygnar was. It was almost like he wanted to pillage Grissa despite the hits the fleet had taken.

  “Once we make contact with them, they will understand the decision,” Ranel shot back. “I cannot control the whole fleet, but I can command my own ship and by extension Dashel’s. Or do you plan on defying my orders Moddoc?”

  There was a pregnant pause and I could sense that this Moddoc was genuinely considering his options. “No Commander Ranel,” Moddoc replied at last. “I will not defy your orders.”

  “Good,” Ranel hissed, disdain coloring his tone. “Keep me updated on Dashel’s status. I want to know the moment he is conscious.”

  “Yes, Commander Ranel,” Moddoc replied in a monotonous voice.

  The light blinked off and Ranel turned to me slowly. “You did it,” he breathed.

  Despite everything that had happened in the last several hours, I found myself smiling. “Have a little faith. Not all humans are useless.”

  His eyes softened. “How did you get it to work?” he asked.

  “I didn’t fix the whole coms system,” I pointed out quickly. “Just your direct line with Gyygnar. I knew you were worried about Dashel and I wanted… well I wanted you to have peace of mind.”

  His eyes were bright. I had never seen him look more… human. I felt my body lean in without my permission, drawn to the gratitude I could see etched across his face. I could sense the makings of a fragile friendship. No, friendship was too strong a word. Perhaps at least there would be mutual respect between us. I could be satisfied with that.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  It was the first time he had said as much to me, and the sentiment nearly knocked me over with shock. No one had thanked me for anything in the last seven years. In that moment, he was not the owner and I was not the slave. He was just a shifter who had asked for help and I was the human who had agreed to help him. There was something beautifully sentimental about that. It stripped away our roles and left us bare.

  “You don’t have to thank me,” I heard myself say.

  “Actually I do,” Ranel nodded. “You didn’t have to help me. In fact, anyone in your position would have chosen not to even if they’d been confident they knew how to correct the problem.”

  I looked away from his emphatic eyes. I used to think his eyes were terrifying with their animalistic tenacity, but now I thought differently. He was more than his terrifying appearance.

  “He’s your friend,” I said. “I know what it’s like to lose people.”

  Ranel’s eyes clouded with confusion. “You surprise me, human,” he said.

  The way he said the word ‘human’ was different than how he normally said it. It wasn’t an insult or a derogatory term. He wasn’t flinging it in my face and expecting me to cower. He said it with a new kind of awe; the kind of awe that came from a lifetime of believing one thing and then discovering it was something else entirely.

  “Sometimes,” I said quietly, “I surprise myself too.”

  14

  Ranel

  “Your commanders don’t like me,” Yvette said, glancing at me out of the corner of her eye.

  I felt contradicting instincts tunnel their way to the surface. On the one hand, I wanted to defend my fleet brothers and on the other, I wanted to scoff at their ridiculous sense of importance.

  “They don’t think a human can do what they could not.”

  “I realize that,” Yvette nodded, as her eyes turned down to the active line between Gyygnar and Wyvern. I could see a kernel of satisfaction in her eyes and I knew she was allowing herself a moment to revel in her success.

  “Our way of life is different from your reality,” I said, feeling the need to explain my commanders’ viewpoints. A part of me realized that it was because I had shared the very same perspective not so long ago. “For the Hielsrane, battle and war are an inevitable part of life. We are taught to reave, rove and pillage as hatchlings. We go from planet to planet and take what we want. It is the right of the strong and powerful. It is how we have always lived.”

  “That does not make it right,” Yvette said, he
r voice shaking with emotion. “Everyone deserves the right to their own freedom. Everyone deserves the right to have a future.”

  “If freedom is what you seek, then you must fight for it,” I told her. “The only thing that wins wars is strength.”

  Her eyes bore into my face and I actually felt self-conscious. It was a distinctly uncomfortable feeling, one that made my scales feel cold and my breath come in a little faster.

  Yvette looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read. I wanted to reach out and touch her but suddenly… I was nervous. She took a step closer to me and put her hand against my chest. It was a tentative gesture and I recognized that she was as confused by her emotions as I was.

  “Does it make you feel powerful to reduce whole species to chains?” she asked, with a patience that I didn’t recognize.

  “We do not make slaves,” I said firmly. “That is the trade of the Pax Alliance.”

  “But you purchase slaves,” Yvette pointed out. “Every single ship in the fleet is equipped with a functioning staff of slaves.”

  “There is a difference—"

  “Where is the difference?” she asked, cutting me off. “There is none. Tell me, does it give you satisfaction to see someone with no choice and no free will?”

  She moved closer still and the strong, heady scent of her flooded my nostrils and made me want to drink her in.

  Her palm moved slowly against my chest as she spoke. “I would think it’s more satisfying to have someone do something for you because they want to.

  We were dangerously close. The smell of her was intoxicating and I realized why. She smelled of the cookies she loved to bake for me. Her eyes were limpid pools of beauty and if I looked closely, I could see my reflection in them. I had been fighting this for a long time, probably since the first time I’d set eyes on her. I just hadn’t admitted it till right now. I wanted her… this strange and complicated human who was more Drakon than she realized.

  My hand reached out and wrapped itself around her neck. She didn’t gasp or cry out; she didn’t even pull away from me. It was like she had been expecting it. I held fast to the back of her neck, as soft and fragile as a dove’s wing and pulled her to me.

  I could feel the strange tension between us. It was rife with desire. I paused a moment, trying to test the boundaries of this fragile break in the wall that had been between us since the first moment we had set eyes on one another. I met her gaze and she stared back at me challengingly. I leaned in and she did too.

  Our lips met and I felt as though the fire inside me had travelled outward and coated my skin. Not since Harron had I felt this way –like I was in my dragon form, soaring through the skies without tethers, without responsibility, without worries.

  I felt her arms wrap themselves around my shoulders and my hands fell to her back. She was impossibly small, and I realized that I could seriously hurt her if my concentration slipped. That thought made me pull back and release my hold on her.

  Her eyes were filled with desire; her lips were raw from the kiss we had just shared. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I… we shouldn’t be doing this.”

  “Why not?” she demanded.

  Why not? She was a slave. She was a human. She was everything I didn’t want. And yet… my body was calling out to hers. My erection pressed hard and insistent against the fabric of my leathers and I shifted uncomfortably on my feet.

  “I don’t want you to feel like… like you have to,” I admitted.

  She smiled. “I know I don’t have to,” she replied. “I want to.”

  My erection throbbed, bordering on painful. The instinct to touch her had always been there, strong and insistent. I had just buried it under prejudice.

  As lust kicked into overdrive, the intellectual, mindful part of myself started losing out to the carnal, animalistic part. A low growl escaped my throat and she froze for a moment. I had to remind myself that she was delicate and unfamiliar with draconian ways.

  “Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?” I asked.

  She looked at me through her thick, dark eyelashes. “Probably not,” she admitted. “But I don’t care.”

  “You might…”

  “We’ll just have to do it and find out, won’t we?”

  With another hungry growl, I pulled her to me and slipped my tongue into her mouth. She tasted of cookies –sweet and warm and incredibly comforting. Her arms wrapped around my chest and shoulders and I ripped off her slave’s garments. They landed on the floor between us and I kicked them out of the way. Underneath, she was wearing a tight white band around her breasts and matching underwear.

  “Let me,” she said, glancing at my claws.

  She freed herself of her undergarments and I stepped back to watch. She unwound the white band around her breasts with exaggerated slowness. Every few seconds her eyes darted to my face as though my expression was giving her satisfaction. As the last piece of fabric twirled away from her chest, I was able to admire the round fullness of her perfect breasts. I realized the band she wore smashed them down and made them appear smaller than they were in reality. When she pulled off her underwear, my eyes travelled ravenously over the sharp jut of her hips and the delicious sweetness I knew awaited me between her legs.

  When she finally stood naked in front of me, I realized that I wanted a moment to just stand there and look at her. Her body was an alien thing, a place I had never ventured before. She was small, yes, but there was strength in her sharp collarbones and the high swell of her breasts. Her stomach was taut and flat and her slim thighs met at the mesmerizing V of her groin.

  I saw the heavy rise and fall of her chest and I realized that she must have been nervous. You couldn’t tell from her expression. She looked at me unblinkingly, conveying pride and confidence that I had only just now recognized in her.

  “You are beautiful,” I said.

  I hadn’t meant to speak at all, but she overwhelmed me. The only other time I had felt this strongly was with Harron, and that had been another lifetime ago.

  “So are you,” she said, taking me by surprise.

  “You’re not afraid?” I asked.

  “I thought I would be,” she replied. “But… I’m not.”

  I turned towards the control room’s door and sealed it shut so that no one could enter. Then I removed my crest, tunic and trousers. I peeled them all from my body, taking care not to tear any of them on my wings or caudal. She watched me in the same way I had watched her. When I was naked, I walked towards her; my hand reached out and cupped the heavy swell of her right breast.

  “You’ll have to tell me if I hurt you.”

  Instead of answering me, she pulled me towards her and our bodies met. Was there a feeling so singularity perfect as that first moment, when skin met skin and you were reduced to your most basic nature? It didn’t matter that she was human and I was Drakon. All that mattered was the way our bodies spoke to one another.

  That invisible barrier that existed between us seemed to dissolve into nothing. She was no longer a slave and I was no longer her master. That was when I realized how much sweeter this union was. After years of wondering, I finally understood what Tarion, Lehar and Dashel must have felt with their human mates. There was nothing unnatural about this.

  Her hand slipped down and wrapped around my cock. I heard her sigh against my chest and the sound sent tendrils of passion running through my spine. I grabbed her firm buttocks and lifted her in the air. Her legs wrapped around my waist and I laid her down against the control panel. I entered her in one swift move, the wetness between her legs made my entrance smooth and easy. I heard her gasp with uninhibited desire.

  She clutched at my chest as I pushed in and out of her, my thrusts growing more and more vigorous the longer we went. Her fingers clawed at my skin, but it barely made a scratch. Her nails, sharp as they were, had no impact on my tough skin. They only served to inflame me.

  At one point she screamed out and her ey
es rolled back in her head. I saw ecstasy on her face, but I also read pain.

  “I hurt you,” I whispered against her ear.

  “It’s ok,” she breathed. “I want it… keep going…”

  How could I say no? How could I stop myself when I was so close… when she was so close? I pushed her down against the control panel and rammed into her, harder and harder with my hands on her breasts. Dewdrops of perspiration blossomed on her skin and I licked them away as we came together.

  She gasped and shuddered, and I growled loudly as I released myself inside of her. Had there ever been a more fulfilling moment in my life? If there was, I couldn’t even think of it. I bit at her ear as she pushed me off her gently and looked around for her clothes.

  I would have liked to stay with her a little longer. I would have liked to enjoy our nakedness a little more, but her eyes darted to the control room’s doors and I knew we didn’t have that luxury. I pushed away my need for her and reached for my crest.

  15

  Yvette

  I was in the kitchens trying very hard to concentrate on the work I needed to finish. The kitchen and the scullery were a mess and Gormit was beside himself. Now that the ship was cruising relatively smoothly, we could start work around the ship once more. Gormit had been tasked with making dinner for the commanders and the kitchen was full of his Vence helpers.

  As usual, I was the only one who had been designated to the scullery, but I barely cared about that. Work I could tackle alone, but the voices in my head… not so much.

  After what Ranel and I had shared in the control room only a few hours before, it was hard for me to get myself back in the headspace of a slave. But of course, the harsh reality was that I had never stopped being one. Being with Ranel in that way had changed nothing. The collar was still tight and heavy around my neck.

  I took a deep breath as I paused over the sink. Now that I was back in the dark confines of the scullery by myself it felt like I had dreamt the whole thing.