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D alox is not going to like the fact the escape pod came down in his sector and the contents are in mine, even if it seems there is more of Kerra’s species than she thought.

The hoo-mans belong to me. Although I can’t imagine any of them will be as scented as Kerra. Given her presence alone stopped me from tearing off the limbs of my warriors.

I need those warriors. Anything which keeps them intact and a fighting force is a good thing.

Save for the fact my hips are twitching once more in her presence and the one thing I’ve been attempting to deny about my reaction to her, my need to shed more than ever, my desire to dance. The mere fact she wears my clothing. My reaction is unmistakable.

I rut for her.

Which is the last thing I need, now or in the future. Kerra will be my demise.

“You!” I point at the three warriors who haven’t bothered to reclothe after their earlier flight. “Go check out the area where the hoo-mans are.”

The three race ahead, out of the airlock into the heat of Vorostor.

We follow, Kerra at my side. The suns of Vorostor warm my scales and make them itch even more. I scratch at my neck, hating the need to shed.

“What…are those?” She gasps, pointing into the sky where my three warriors are undertaking several slow sweeps of the area around where the DNA signatures were located. “They look like… dragons .”

“Dragons?”

“Dragons.”

“They are my warriors in their Sarkarnii form.” I look at her with interest.

“Sarkarnii form? I thought you were Sarkarnii.” Kerra is a strange color, her eyes still on the warriors in the sky.

“Sarkarnii have two forms,” I reply. “The one you presently see in me, and the one my warriors have taken.”

“You change into dragons ?” she whispers.

“I’m not sure what a dragon is.”

Kerra points a trembling finger in the air. “That. That is what a dragon is. Up there. Three dragons.” Her voice rises exponentially.

I lean into her, rather disliking her present scent, which has changed to something slightly bitter. I slide a finger under her chin and turn her face back to me.

“Sarkarnii,” I rasp. “Our forms have kept us as the top predators, in our galaxy and in this one. Provided you stay by my side, I will always protect you.”

She blinks at me as I release her and straighten.

“As I would protect any creature I find useful,” I add.

Kerra doesn’t reply, but she also doesn’t keep looking at my warriors, an action which was beginning to make my skin itch even more. My heart is pounding and my head swimming. Changes which can only be from the mating gland pumping the mix into my veins.

A mating mix which signals only one thing.

If I don’t mate…if I don’t mate the creature fate has chosen for me, I will lose my mind, my position, and my body.

And yet mating Kerra seems as unlikely as finding my lost jewel.

“Come,” I snarl, motioning to my warriors. “Before Dalox gets here and I have to shed Sarkarnii blood for entering my sector.”

The area on the edge of my sector is mostly scrubland, save for the waving forest of grass which towers over us. I have warriors ahead, pushing through and clearing a path as we make our way to the area which the scanner indicates contains the hoo-mans.

“Why did you tell me you had one friend when you have four?” I ask Kerra.

“Because I only have one,” she says dully. “I don’t know who the others are or why they’d even be here.”

I growl under my breath. This galaxy has various anomalies, the wormhole which brought us here mutated our forms and then closed behind us being one of them. That a group of hoo-mans, a species I’ve never heard of, would suddenly arrive in my sector sends my scales tingling with concern.

I don’t trust it. I don’t trust any of this. And the mating mix makes it harder to work through everything.

“Lord Darax,” the warrior at the front of our party calls out.

I make my way to him. He’s checking his scanner.

“The creatures we seek are just ahead,” he says.

I beckon to Kerra. “Your hoo-mans will need to see you, if what you say is correct.”

“It is,” she says, and before I can stop her, she pushes through the grass ahead and disappears.

Mating mix roars through my veins at her loss. With a snarl that sends my warriors scattering, I dive into the grass after her.

Nothing takes my mate from me, not even the landscape.