Page 37 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #2)

“ N ev these nevving warriors.” I pull another three apart who are fighting over nothing, slamming each of them in the head in turn.

Perhaps Scarlett is right. Perhaps we do need something to break up the monotony of not being able to go about our normal lives.

And maybe I should be paying more attention to how we can manage our mutation better. The multiple clan meetings in the neutral zone have been extraordinarily difficult to handle given my regular shift.

A shift which somehow is becoming harder and harder to change back to my biped form from.

I’ve gotten used to having not just a tail but wings and horns.

Fortunately Scarlett enjoys all of them and having her grip my horns as I enjoyed her sweet cunt was one of the best experiences so far in mating.

But if I thought taking a mate, going into rut, might have changed anything for me or my warriors, it seems I was wrong. Very wrong.

“Lord Dexx.” An unshifted warrior approaches me, eyeing the fighters I’ve knocked unconscious.

“What is it?” I snarl.

“Lord Dalox requests your presence.”

“I can’t see him. Tell him I will meet with him some other time.”

“You will see me, Dexx.” Dalox strides into the atrium, doesn’t even glance at the warriors, and shifts into his Sarkarnii form. “You will see me now.”

“Get them out of here,” I order the remaining few of my shifted warriors who have nothing else to do.

Each prone form is dragged out of our sight.

Dalox eyes me. “This would be easier in our biped forms,” he says.

“I prefer it this way,” I growl. “There’s too much danger and I have a mate to protect.”

“Ah, yes. The mate,” Dalox says. “The one you stole.”

“The females did not belong to Darax, and he has a mate,” I respond.

“What if she was my fate, Dexx?”

“She is not.” The growl, along with the smoke I release, should be enough to make any Sarkarnii recoil, but not Dalox.

He fought everything in our old galaxy. He’s faced down the worst of the worst. None of us know how old he is, but given Sarkarnii live a long time and he’s been around forever, he is much older than the rest of us. Regardless of his age, nothing beats Dalox, not even me.

“I am aware,” he says. “And this is your first rut.”

I don’t snarl. I hold down the growl which rises within me. “That is not of your concern.”

Dalox makes a sound which could be laughter if the nevver ever found anything amusing.

“Everything on Vorostor Central is my concern, Dexx, even your mating, and especially your mutation.”

His words jar me. I huff out a long stream of smoke. “What mutation?”

Dalox eyes me. “If you think I was unaware you and your clan have to shift in order to survive, then you are wrong. I know everything, Dexx.”

“You know nothing.” I growl out the pain of a thousand enforced shifts. “And there is nothing you can do.”

“But you took the female thinking a rut might assist?”

Nev Dalox to the ancestors. Someone has to have been talking, passing on information which should have remained inside the clan.

“She is not yours. Scarlett is mine and mine alone.”

“Have you claimed her yet?” Dalox cocks his head on one side, his eyes not missing a single movement of my body.

“I have mated her. Thoroughly,” I say, proudly.

“But have you claimed her?”

Anger rises within me, accelerant filling my flame glands, the mating mix once again pumping through my veins in defense of my mate.

“She is mine, Dalox.”

It is a measure of how well he knows his reputation that he leans in close to me. “You do know you need to give her your bite in order to claim her, don’t you? It’s where most Sarkarnii go wrong and end up being envenomated.”

“A bite?”

Dalox lifts his huge muzzle to stare at the ceiling of the atrium, a rumbling in his chest.

“By the ancestors, were you taught nothing by your clan? Your venom claims her. She needs to be bitten to take it. She is yours and you are hers because your venom flows within you both.”

I shake my head. A bite? Admittedly, the thought of biting my sweet Scarlett makes my cock harden in my pouch, but it is not something I knew about.

“I cannot bite my mate.”

“Not in your present form. But you will need to bite her to claim her.”

“When?”

“Your rut will know when the time is right.”

“But my venom…?”

“Is compatible with her,” Dalox rasps. “I want no more distractions, Dexx, we need to deal with these devices. The females have encountered the Veseli and the other creatures. We need more information from them.”

I don’t hold back my growl.

“And you are to get it, Dexx.” Dalox drops a huge paw onto my shoulder. “Once we have vanquished our enemies, we will deal with your shifting problem.”

“No problems here.” I am unable to keep the lie from my lips.

Dalox’s gaze doesn’t waver. I am an idiot if I continue.

“If my clan and I do not shift twelve nova-hours out of a nova-day, we get sick.” I dip my head. “It has been this way since we came through the wormhole.”

The huge male, his dark red scales seemingly getting darker, says,“The wormhole was bad for all of us. But what we have become is greater than ever. Your work fuels us. It gets us the power and the respect we deserve. All we need to do is deal with the threat within and it will be time for us to take everything we desire.”