Page 5

Artek

I paced back and forth inside the healing chambers as I waited for my mate to finish her washing routine.

I’d told her to call out to me if she needed anything or if she began to feel faint, but I doubted that she would.

It would be wrong to invade her privacy and check the sensors, but the temptation was strong.

Instead, I kept my ears wide open, listening for any sound of distress.

Awake. Finally, she’d opened her eyes to reveal their pretty brown hue, the golden glimmer of her clever brain.

I’d been working tirelessly for weeks to get that stasis pod open in a safe manner.

Technology—especially this strange, alien stuff—was not my strength.

I should have called for help, but selfishly, I hadn’t wanted to let anyone know I had her.

Guiltily, I remembered how I’d deceived Sazzie and Reid not that long ago, when I ran into them on yet another hurried foraging mission.

I glared at Khawla’s prone body, resenting his intrusion, though it wasn’t his fault.

The mated pair had done the right thing by bringing him to me, but once he woke—and he’d wake soon—the secret would be out.

Nala was my mate. I should have told her that, but she’d only just woken up, and I didn’t want to scare her.

It was imperative that she knew she was safe with me.

That meant healing first, adjusting to her new home.

My mind flashed to my private quarters, where I hoped she’d nest with me.

Her soft, small, and scaleless body in my furs, my nest. Her scent on my scales, deep in my lungs where it belonged.

I shook with tension as I fought to hold back the powerful mating urges that surged through me.

My cock ached, rising in its pouch, and I pressed the heel of my hand against the slit so it could not extrude.

Thunder Rock females thought it was shameful for a male to show his excitement for her.

Bitter Storm females only mated with the most powerful warriors, and the Copper Tooth females were no different.

I had never been interested in any of them, and none of those females had wanted me, anyway.

I hissed in frustration, unsure what to do or how to proceed.

Nala was in the shower because I could hear the water running.

I’d learned that humans preferred showers to baths, unlike the Naga, during my stay at Haven last month.

I hoped she wouldn’t fall and injure herself; I hovered by the door, primed to leap inside if she did.

Water was slippery to those scaleless feet, and I recalled that pregnant Vera had had trouble getting out of her shower without her mate Zathar’s help.

Then again, Vera’s belly had been four times the size of Nala’s, last I’d seen her.

Zap had finished drinking and settled down on her pillow by my desk, giving me a baleful look that warned me I was acting weird, even to her. Nothing bothered Zap much these days, but I was disturbing her now.

The console by my desk beeped just as the sound of the shower ended.

That meant Nala had finished washing up and was drying herself.

Was she in more or less danger of falling now?

The beep came again, an incoming call from one of the other shamans.

I couldn’t ignore it, not without a good reason, and listening to my mate dry her naked body was, unfortunately, not a good reason.

With a frustrated hiss, I hurried across the room to the console and answered, my hand a little too firm as I slammed the button.

Static crackled for a moment before the connection fully established.

Then a face flickered onto the screen that took me by surprise: Levant, the Shaman stationed near the Serqethos Clan in the far deserts.

I had not heard from him in months; our last words had been about Zsekhet and his mate, Cosima, and their visit.

His scales were completely black, but they were edged with gold and green flecks.

In his long hair, green streaks mirrored the patterns on his body.

Two black horns also rose from his forehead, indicating his close genetic match to those who lived at Serqethos.

“Ah, Artek, I am glad I managed to reach you,” he said, his gold eyes locking onto my face with sharp focus.

Levant could get a little obsessed with things that caught his fancy, and I’d heard through the grapevine that his latest obsession was humans.

Of everyone out there, he was the last I wanted knowing I had one stashed inside my home.

He’d get onto the first dragon he could find and fly here.

“Levant,” I greeted back, my body shifting to make sure all he could see was me.

“What can I help you with? Is everything all right at Serqethos? Queen Alshara is thriving?” The young queen was one of the more enlightened Naga females out there, and her rule was very different from that of queens in other Clans.

Serqethos had always been different that way, which was why they’d always had a Shaman dedicated solely to their care.

Levant waved his hand through the air. “I’ve left my post there.

Chen has sent a replacement. I’ve requested to be part of the party watching the crashed ship’s status.

But you’re more of an expert on humans than I am.

” The last was said with a hint of jealousy, masked but present.

His golden eyes were glowing with excitement the next moment.

“I think I saw some—at the ship—but my translator implants failed. Are you sure you’ve got a complete library of their language? ”

With a sigh, I sat down at the desk and asked him to send me whatever data he had.

I was not surprised to discover that he’d recorded what I’d seen, Levant was very tech-savvy, and his curiosity would have led him to want to document it all, like the true researcher that he was.

I analyzed the words and the footage and had to conclude that they were not in my language model for the implants.

“It’s not a technical failure,” I assured him, even though he had done the risky thing of installing the implants unassisted.

Corin had done mine, so I knew the work was perfect.

I tried not to respond when the door to the bathroom opened behind me.

If I did, I’d give away to Levant that someone was with me, and he’d find that most unusual.

I hoped that Nala would not try to approach, but there was no way I could warn her to stay away.

“I will have to analyze the words, maybe show them to the humans at Haven,” I said to Levant.

Then I winced, cursing internally, because I’d given away to Nala that she was not the only human here.

How quickly would she demand to leave now?

“What is the status of the ship?” I asked through dry lips.

Nala had sidled around the console to stand on the other side of my desk.

She was still wearing the loose-fitting gray shirt and pants, but now her chin-length brown hair was wet and dripping into her collar.

Her head cocked at an angle, she was listening intently, but she kept quiet—not giving away her presence—and for that, I was grateful.

“Ah, the ship, my friend, it is magnificent! I have never seen a skyship as intact as this one. There are many survivors, as you’ve been told.

They’ve built fortifications near the entrance, and they appear to use slave labor to do so.

That’s how I got the footage. There are definitely humans, but I wonder what those other creatures are.

They look so ugly.” Nala made a muffled sound then, and I couldn’t stop my head from jerking her way in reflex.

Levant’s eyes immediately sharpened. “You have a patient?” He didn’t say it in an accusatory way, and he definitely didn’t appear suspicious, yet. It was a question asked with his usual curiosity.

I nodded, as it was the truth, and waved a hand in Nala’s direction.

“Kwahla was brought to me a few days ago—Thunder Rock’s head scout.

But the noise was Zap; she got into a cupboard she’s not supposed to be in.

I gotta go.” Zap raised her head from where she lay on her pillow, giving me a bared-teeth stare that warned me not to sully her good name.

It made Levant smile, his dark face splitting wide in a fang-filled grin.

“Ah, good, Zap is still with you. Give the lady a treat from me. Let me know what you find soon, Artek. This is important!” The call disconnected the next moment, leaving behind a crackle of static before that too faded.

I stared at the screen a moment longer before rising on my tail to look at my mate.

Ah, to have my mate here with me, to know that there was a female just for me on this world.

It was such a blessing to have this, and yet…

my chest felt tight with all the huge feelings I struggled to comprehend.

I was used to being the one helping others, dealing with their wounds, emotional or physical.

It was much harder to analyze what it was that I was feeling myself.

Except lust, that was bright and clear, all-powerful, and it consumed me every moment of the day, ever since I’d found her.

“I have so many questions right now,” Nala said, after the silence had stretched between us for some time. Her brown eyes pierced me with a look that made me want to squirm in place, but she was right. She deserved answers. More than anything, I wanted her to know that she could trust me.

Gesturing with my hand, I indicated that she should follow me.

I picked up my Altare-restored and reinforced tablet as I turned and headed for the exit of my healing chambers.

Nala seemed fit, with a healthy color in her cheeks, so she’d probably be hungry.

A change of scenery would probably only help with this conversation.

I wrestled with the urge to sweep her into my arms and carry her.

I did not have that right, not yet. She would take offense if I picked her up without asking, and I’d scare her with my intensity.

Leading the way without looking back was even harder, but I listened keenly to the padding of her bare feet against the stone or metal floors.

We left through the curtained doorway, past the seating and waiting area out front, and then slipped into one of the many hallways of my home.

It was a large, stretched-out space of many tunnels, rooms, storage areas, and indoor gardens.

Plenty of space for guests to stay and private quarters for me to retreat into and perform my experiments when no one was here.

That was not where I was taking her, though.

Instead, I led her to one of the entrances to my mountain home.

The one that everyone knew about and that was used almost exclusively by my visitors.

Only Zap knew the other ways. But even the senior Ayala did not know all the secrets of my home. Sometimes, I wondered if I did myself.

We reached the domed glass building that I used to grow the more heat- and light-loving plants I needed to make medicine with.

The humans who had visited called it a greenhouse, on account of plants on Earth mostly being green.

So this could be called a purplehouse, I mused, as Serant’s plants were mostly purple, a reaction to the violet light of the sun.

That would just confuse Nala until she saw it, though, so I used her human word.

“This is the greenhouse. We can sit down and talk here. I’ll fetch us food.

”She nodded, two spots of red high in her cheeks—an emotional response humans were prone to, or perhaps a sign of overheating or exhaustion.

I hesitated; the greenhouse was much warmer than the cool tunnels.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Flicking out my tongue, I tested her scent, and then deeply regretted the action.

She smelled so good; she tasted divine on my tongue.

“Oh, you have plants?” Nala said, and she moved past me before I could stop her.

Not that I dared reach out and hold her back, not when she stepped casually over one of my coils to reach the doors.

Her scent was fearless, and I did not taste hints of illness.

With a sigh that was almost a shudder, I slid my hand along the door panel, and the pane glided back into the wall, revealing the lush jungle I had cultivated beyond.

I watched her awed response and drank it in.

The purple Serant light lovingly caressed her face, filtered through the leaves on the taller shrubs and trees.

It wouldn’t be too intense for her pale skin, and she would never know how cold it truly was outside by now.

Low on the mountain, the sun still warmed the foothills in the last vestiges of autumn, but at night, it already dropped below freezing.

The greenhouse was heated, though, to keep my plants alive, which made it a cozy place to have dinner.

She stepped onto the stone path, head tilted back, eyes darting from one plant to the next.

I rushed to follow her, reaching out with one hand to catch the small of her back before I could think better of it.

She was so entranced with the scenery that she wasn’t watching where she was going.

Her spine felt soft; I could feel the gentle bumps against my palm, and she leaned into my hand, letting me turn her in the right direction while she kept staring. “It’s so gorgeous in here, Artek!”

Her praise made me feel proud, my scales flaring along my shoulders, puffing me up like a youngling. It was a ridiculous response, but I couldn’t stop it. She liked my plants, what else would she like? The smell of the Shavire flower? The dazzling colors inside an Aris conch?

“Sit here,” I murmured, guiding her to the seating area where soft pillows were arranged along low benches set against the plant beds in a semi-circle.

She sank to her knees on the indicated pillow without hesitation, her head tilted back, I thought to look at the plants, but no…

Her gaze was heavy-lidded as she looked at me, and my cock ached, its bifurcated tip twisting and writhing, fighting its restraints.

It wasn’t enough. It was going to slip out, extrude—and she was right there at hip height with her face. She’d see it all.

I bit back a groan, failed to hold back the growl that came on its heels, and moved away before I could make a terrible mistake.

This was not an invitation. This was an innocent glance, curiosity, cultural differences.

Who was I kidding? It wasn’t innocent; only humans did such a thing as lick the cock of their male.

I wasn’t supposed to know that, but I had ears, and I’d been at Haven long enough to know what went on behind closed doors.

“Stay,” I said, and then I fled.