Page 56 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #2)

I haven’t fought with my fellow warlords for a long time, ever since it became clear my clan’s physiology had changed to the point regular mixing with the other clans would be impossible.

Nothing has changed. It’s as if we never came through the wormhole at all. Other than I now need to protect my mate from these feral creatures. Their mayhem is legendary. I should know. I was one of them once.

Dante gives me a nod before he disappears into the air again.

“Where the nev is he going?” I growl. “I thought there might be a plan.”

“No plan.” Driok grins.

“No plan?” Darax rasps.

“No plan,” Dalox says with a deadly finality.

There is a loud explosion somewhere in the neutral sector.

“Looks like Dante has found your rogue warrior.” Driok cocks his head on one side.

“We need to get to my friends,” Scarlett says quickly. “They’re in danger. Where are they?”

“Back in my sector,” Darax snarls. “They are safe.”

“No one is safe.” Scarlett pushes past him. “We need to protect them.”

I glare at Darax. He shrugs and turns to follow her.

“What about these?” Dalox points at the two Dalsors.

“Driok can deal with them. Tech is his area,” I respond. “I will protect the females with Darax.”

I’m pretty certain I hear the pair of them grumble.

“If protecting those precious to us is not part of who we are, then what are we?” I growl.

Dalox gives me a dark look. “We are Sarkarnii. No one challenges the Sarkarnii.”

My entire hide twitches with the desire to shift. I know what follows, the sickness which will make me too ill to move, only I can’t risk shifting. If I do, I don’t think I will ever be able to change back.

“Deal with Drex. But we need answers,” I respond.

“You mean you want him alive?” Driok says incredulously.

“Don’t you want to know what is controlling him?”

“Not really.”

I look over my shoulder. Scarlett is getting further away with Darax in pursuit. I want to go after her, but if we don’t get answers, then we will never find out what the real danger is. To protect her, I need to go after Drex myself.

With trepidation, I shift out my wings, and I’m in the air, following the scent of smoke from the explosions set by Dante. The warlord is hovering in the air above an area of destruction. I ignore his warnings as I dive in.

The last thing I need is to lose the one connection we have to the species who wishes the Sarkarnii not just harm but total destruction.

In the center of the steaming, mangled mass, there is a Sarkarnii. I don’t want to risk my hide more than necessary, so I scoop up the body and get the nev out of the hole. In my claws, Drex groans, his eyes rolling in his head, several deep wounds on his body oozing blood.

“Lord Dexx?” he queries, his eyes half-lidded but clear, unlike the strange clones of Dalsor.

“I need answers, Drex,” I snarl, landing in a clear area and shoving him up against a wall.

Drex looks down at himself, a shiver wracking his body as he sees the wounds.

“The shadows,” he says, teeth chattering.

“What about them?” I shove my hand into his throat. “Why do they want my mate?”

“They want everything. They want to turn the whole universe into machines, starting with the Sarkarnii,” Drex says, blinking rapidly, his breathing increasing.

“Why the nev should I believe you?” I growl. “You are working for them.”

“I…I was,” Drex says slowly, the blinking slowing. “It was as if I was in a dream, Lord Dexx. As if I couldn’t wake up.”

“What did you do?” I grip him tighter. His scales change color. “Tell me everything.”

“I don’t…remember.”

“I can make him recall,” Dalox growls from behind me. “I have my methods.”

“The females!” Drex says urgently. “The shadows want the females. With them, you are everything. Without them, you are vulnerable.”

“Nev!” I fling Drex at Dalox. “I need to get to my mate.”

“You have two choices, Sarkarnii,” Drex says, his voice changed and his eyes glassy. “You can shift and save her, or you can stay as you are and regain your ability to control your shift and so will your crew.”

“What do you mean?” I demand as Dalox curls his huge hand around Drex’s neck.

“Your mutations, as you believe,” Drex continues in his strange new voice, “are not so. They are an experiment we have been running since you came through the wormhole.”

Dalox’s eyes burn at me, but I don’t have time to work out what it means.

“You are responsible for the shifting sickness?”

“And we can stop it any time you want, providing you hand over the females,” Drex says.

I glare at Dalox. He inclines his head minutely.

“I will do what I need to do,” I respond and beat out my wings, rising up over the neutral sector.

I have to get to Scarlett before our new enemy does. No one takes my mate from me. Not now, not ever.

Scarlett is my beginning, and I’m ready to do whatever I need to do to keep her and my sarkarnlings from harm.