Chapter 15
Zsekhet
Zathar and I were standing at the foot of the cliff.
Above us, Ses was sunning himself shamelessly, with his belly rolled up to the last rays of sunshine still streaking across the valley.
I’d given a report of the situation at Bitter Storm earlier to everyone.
Joxra had filled in some of the details, like how Aser had whipped up many of the males into a frenzy so they’d stormed the palace and killed the Queen.
Then he’d revealed that the baby in his arms was the one the Queen had given birth to, only hours before.
The small infant was a couple of weeks old at this point, it had a good set of lungs and was growing rapidly, but no one in the Clan had wanted to care for it.
I was not the only male present in that meeting who wasn’t surprised when the humans were willing to welcome that little girl with open arms; but plenty still were.
At Serqethos it was common to help raise orphans, but I knew that most Clans out here were not nearly so kind. Or rather, the females weren’t, especially not to a female child, it was the males that would have ended up raising her. Just like Joxra had done so far.
“What did you want to share, Zsekhet? You did good, you got your mate, refugees, and even good intel on Bitter Storm. What could possibly be so urgent that you pulled me away from my mate?” Zathar sounded more amused than annoyed by my claim on his time.
He knew that I too would rather be with my mate right now than stand here and chat with him.
I opened my mouth to tell him the truth, just like I’d promised Cosima but the words dried on my tongue. I’d screwed this up, I should have come clean the moment I realized that Cosima was my mate. I should have told him on day one why I was truly here.
“I didn’t take you for shy. Come on, spit it out,” Zathar drawled as he crossed his arms over his chest. With his tail, he pointed at the cave and then up at where Sesethul was sleeping soundly, the tip of the dragon’s spiked tail dangling over the edge of the cliff above our heads.
“It’s not about them, I reckon. So what is it? ”
I shrugged and scratched at the base of one of the horns rising from my head.
“I should tell you why I came here. I mean, I was sent…” I groaned.
“I am Cosima’s, through and through. She’s my mate and I’d do anything for her, anything to make her happy.
” Those words were easy to say and Zathar wasn’t surprised, he nodded along full of understanding but when I tried to find more words to tell him I’d been sent to spy, they dried on my tongue.
“He’s trying to tell you he wasn’t cast out from his Clan, he was sent here to spy,” Cosima announced boldly as she strutted around some nearby boulders at the foot of the cliff.
Kalani and Min-Ji flanked her, both women eyeing me with suspiciously identical grins.
“I knew it, and I warned all of you but you didn’t believe me!
” Cosima added fiercely and she pointed her finger at Zathar before wagging it in Kalani’s face.
I winced but when I raised my eyes to Zathar he shrugged a shoulder, “And now you are mated to a human. How is your Queen going to take that news?” He didn’t sound too bothered, he sounded thoughtful instead and when he cocked his head I knew questions were about to follow.
“I’m not really surprised, to be honest. Your Clan had some issues with outcasts in the past…
It is wise of your Queen to be cautious. ”
Cosima was grinning smugly at me, her eyes doing this ‘I-told-you-so’ thing that I found endearing, not that I’d tell her.
Looping the end of my tail around her middle, I reeled her in so I could pick her up in my arms and kiss her the way humans did.
I wasn’t normally lost for words, but with the pressure of messing this up, I’d floundered.
My mate had known it would turn out alright.
“I must return to Serqethos to let them know Haven is no threat,” I said to Zathar once I let my mate up for air.
The male was grinning widely, likely because he knew exactly what kind of lure a human mate was.
I felt silly, of course they knew my loyalty was all Cosima’s; that’s what the mate bond did.
And if my loyalty was hers, I’d never harm Haven since it was her home. It was our home now.
Dismissing the Haven leader from my mind, I focused on the warm, soft bundle of female in my arms. “I want to get the blessing from the ancestors for our mating, as is traditional. Will you come with me?” I liked the idea of a trip, a few weeks away from here to spend with just Cosima.
There’d be no interruptions, and all the time in the world for love-making while we journeyed.
“That sounds like you’re asking me to marry you,” Cosima said.
For a moment I saw a shadow pass over her eyes and I knew she was thinking of her human mate, Caleb.
I waited carefully to see how she’d respond and the luminous smile that followed meant everything.
“Okay. But I’ll need to make some better clothes for flying if we’re going to be up in the air. I don’t fancy losing any toes.
I glanced down at her tiny feet, encased in a pair of odd foot-coverings as usual.
They were made of fabric but the sole was of a strange material I did not recognize.
Most of the females here wore such ‘shoes’ but it was Reid, the single male, who had told me it was called rubber.
He’d even let me poke the strange part of his pair when he realized how curious I was.
“I shall make fur covers that you can pull over those,” I declared, and with my tail nudged her toes.
I liked each small, dainty little digit, no matter how foreign they were to me.
I did not intend for my mate to lose a single one.
But the closer we got to Serqethos, the warmer the air would get anyway, and I had some very interesting plans for that.
“What about the greenhouse?” Min-Ji asked, “Are your plans finalized enough that we can get started on building it? Because I do not want to live through a winter here on just dried meat.” The woman pulled an exaggerated face of disgust that made Cosima and Kalani laugh.
Then my mate wiggled to be put down and with a last lingering touch and a smile, she started to draw the two women with her, talking rapidly as she went over those plans.
I smiled after their departing figures, feeling this tightness in my chest that came suspiciously close to being choked with emotion.
I just loved how much Cosima had gotten out of her shell of late.
How happy she looked as she talked with an enthusiasm that lit her face.
She had healed, and she’d found her place in this group.
I’d heard her call Haven home more than once now, and she no longer seemed intimidated to get into a heated discussion with Krashe when they worked on the plans for the greenhouse.
“When will you be back?” Zathar asked quietly, staring after Cosima with a pensive look on his face. “And will your Queen let you go? Honestly, I’d rather have you and Sesethul here now that we know Bitter Storm is still a dangerous, unstable threat.”
His words were valid, it was a worry of mine too, but we’d left them in chaos.
I’d glanced back when we were winging away and seen that some of Ses’ thrashing had opened up the cages in which they held the females.
I had a feeling that Aser was dealing with more than the betrayal of Joxra, the disappearance of the Queen’s latest child, and our escape.
I was anxious to go and get everything sorted, but I wasn’t surprised when it still took several days to finish all the preparations.
We couldn’t leave without supplies for the journey and adequate clothing for my mate.
Sesethul could also use the rest, and that more than anything allowed me to have peace with the delay in our departure.
Keeping myself busy helped, so I worked on building a few more permanent structures outside the gates for the aspirants to live in.
I helped Joxra, his two younglings, and the baby to settle in one of the apartments inside Haven.
I even mediated between the aspirants and the three former Bitter Storm warriors who had defected with Joxra.
Tensions ran high between them and any of the other Naga, their Clans had never been anything but hostile and it proved hard for them to set aside such issues from the past.
When it was finally time to leave, I was more than ready.
I was about to burst from my scales with how eager I was to go.
Cosima’s riding harness had been finished ages ago and I’d seen her wear it so I could make adjustments.
But on the morning of our take off, when she stepped outside in leather pants and a form-fitting tunic, the harness strapped on over those clothes… It took my breath away.
Every little strap and buckle accentuated her shape, and since I’d been supplementing her food with more fruits and roots, she’d filled out a little more. More lush curves, her breasts large enough to fill my hands, her hips this sexy curve that swayed when she walked.
Reid was standing next to me, and he’d been shooting me all kinds of questions about how to care for a dragon.
He nudged me with his elbow, his frame large compared to the females, and his strength surprising.
I jolted forward from his blow and shot him a glare but he was unperturbed, grinning at me with a knowing look.
“You Naga males are all the same, completely gaga for your mates.” He said it as if that was a bad thing but I didn’t give a damn, not when my mate looked like that.
“Are you ready?” I asked her when she reached me.
I had been worried that she wouldn’t want to go, that she’d fear stepping out of Haven again after the last experience.
But the Cosima that had accepted the mating bond with me was not the same as the one I’d met on my first day at Haven.
She grinned, her eyes glittering with excitement that mirrored my own.
“Can’t wait.”
***
Cosima
Zsekhet had practically been climbing the walls all week, he was that eager to fly back to Serqethos.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this journey, or if meeting his Clan was going to go over any better than it had with the others.
Charlie and Mox had faced threats and expulsion from Copper Tooth, while Vera and Zathar, pursued by Thunder Rock, narrowly escaped with Vera nearly killed.
Not to mention Bitter Storm which had tried to do a number on Naomi, Krashe, and even Zsekhet and me.
He’d assured me several times over that his Clan would not be nearly as hostile, they were much more understanding of things new and different.
He’d tried to explain to me how fights to the death between Naga female were even banned at Serqethos, which made them the only Clan enlightened enough to do so.
“Just think of it as a road trip,” Charlie commented from my left.
She was seated in a cross-legged position on some furs and munching on a purple version of celery that had recently been added to our diets.
It was a bit bitter for my taste but I was happy to have it as a diversion from our limited other options.
“Yeah, exactly! A road trip but with air miles,” Min-Ji nodded enthusiastically.
As a pilot, I was pretty sure she was rather jealous of my oncoming journey but she was kind enough not to say so.
Now that the girls living at Haven had figured out that pushing me was how you got me to do things, they were relentless, in a nice way.
Vera threw her arm around my shoulders from my left, her other hand cradling her belly which had grown a suspicious baby bump over the past week.
“I’m sorry we didn’t catch on to how bad things were with you.
We should have spent more time on figuring out what everyone’s story was.
” I appreciated the sentiment but honestly, I didn’t think it would have helped.
I had needed time to come to terms with what I’d been through, and possibly a little sexy nudge from a golden-scaled male.
“You were all dealing with your own shit,” I pointed out.
“And being mated to one of them is seriously distracting,” I added with a grin while I nodded toward Vera’s baby bump.
She flushed then smirked, before playfully waggling her eyebrows.
I was pretty sure the girls all had bets running on how long it would take until I was pregnant too.
Kalani laughed uproariously from her other side, “Thank god my mandatory shot hasn’t worn off yet!
” she patted her sleek flat belly. “Now come on, it isn’t like they’ve never seen pants before.
You look badass.” In seconds, they were ushering me out of my apartment.
Not that I could truly consider it mine now that I never slept in it anymore, Zsekhet preferred to be as close to the exit as possible, so at night, I went to his place.
Outside, Naomi was waiting for me with a satchel full of food that she’d freshly prepared for us that morning. “Woah girl, you look good,” she announced as she handed it off to me with a hug. “Don’t worry! I’ll make sure Krashe sticks to your plans when building the greenhouse.”
I hoped so, but that was no guarantee that we could finish it.
Corin had perused our list of supplies and mapped out locations where more greenhouses were located that could be scavenged for parts.
Already, several parties of aspirants had left to retrieve what they could find.
I was worried that we might not be able to find some of the more delicate parts but that was something I’d have to figure out later.
Settling into the goodbye routine, I eagerly accepted the rounds of hugs from all of them.
Waving at their mates, and ducking to avoid a head ruffle from a grinning Reid.
By the time I was walking over to Zsekhet and Ses, I was a little misty-eyed but eager to get going.
This time, I was sure that riding a dragon was going to be fun.
I was prepared, and with no audience, I knew that Zsekhet was going to pull out all the stops.
As soon as I’d climbed on and got myself strapped to the appropriate hooks on Ses’ harness I knew I was right.
With Zsekhet sitting behind me, his arms around my waist, it felt extremely intimate, and our lift-off was like champagne bubbles in my bloodstream, better than a roller coaster.