Chapter 16
Farah
I guess I should consider myself lucky. I wasn’t entirely sure if this counted as luck or not, but I wanted to think so.
It was better than the alternatives. Once again I’d survived, alive, and even completely unharmed, if you didn’t count the weird scales that covered some parts of my body like little freckles.
We were locked up in one of those tiny recovery rooms, or maybe they were supposed to be hospital rooms or cells.
I was lucky because I wasn’t alone. Zeidon lay sprawled across most of the nest, his chest rising and falling steadily as he slept.
It felt selfish to be glad that he was now a captive with me, but I was infinitely relieved that I wasn’t alone.
That I wasn’t alone, and that he was alive.
Srazz made a rumbling noise and finally gave up his sentinel post in front of the door to wander my way and settle his head in my lap.
“I know,” I said to him, “This sucks. But at least we’ve got each other, right?
” I scratched him behind his soft round ears and listened to the purring noise he made, then giggled when that made Buzz jealous enough to start butting my other hand for his own pets.
Zeidon had gone down like a ton of bricks when the creepy robot hit him with some kind of stun dart.
The purple fuzzy end that had suddenly sprouted from his green, bandage-covered chest was a little too much like those tranquilizers darts zookeepers used.
I could have bolted then, raced up that tunnel, and abandoned my friend, but I hadn’t.
I’d stood my ground and cursed that damn robot to hell and back.
At first, it had seemed like I hadn’t existed to that thing, he’d just grabbed Zeidon from the floor and hauled him to a nearby functioning healing machine.
The last one he’d tried to use on me was still smoking from where Zeidon’s trident stuck out of it.
It had felt like I was nothing more than an annoying fly buzzing around him while he placed Zeidon beneath the machine and started ripping bandages from his body.
When he suddenly lunged for me and slapped my hand against Zeidon’s hip I’d nearly had a heart attack.
It had made Srazz attack the machine’s tail, gnawing on the tip and growling like a rabid dog and I’d feared the small black and white animal would suffer the consequences.
“You are his mate,” the robot said to me, ignoring the animal hanging from his tail.
“Once you are both healed, you will be the first members of my new Clan. You will breed the perfect Naga to repopulate this planet. You will live in the hallowed halls of Ahoshaga, and rule under my guidance.”
“His mate,” I said out loud to no one in particular, then glanced guiltily at where Zeidon lay sleeping.
It was very tempting to crawl into that nest with him and just cuddle up and pretend none of this was happening.
The robot had known exactly what it meant when Zeidon’s scales glowed at my touch.
Which made me feel all strange inside, a little freaked out, a little dirty even.
That robot was twisting what was between Zeidon and me into something evil, something foul he wanted to use for his own nefarious purposes.
At least he didn’t want us dead, that was the lucky part again.
Zeidon hadn’t looked good, although his face had been the best thing I’d opened my eyes to.
Bandages everywhere, pale green beneath his eyes, and a messy, limp look to his beautiful blue-green hair.
I’d seen the slash across his face and one eye, damage to that orb had made his green eye bloodshot.
Now he was healed and resting, not even the slightest hint of a scar to mar his emerald scales. I just wished he would wake up.
It felt a bit like a role reversal, where I was the one hovering at his side, waiting for him to wake.
It must have been agonizing for him when I’d slept as long as I had after he rescued me.
He hadn’t said how long it was, but considering how weak I’d been, I knew it was long.
We were lucky to be alive. Luck again. I had enough of that sentiment, I didn’t want to count on luck, I wanted to control my own destiny.
I gave Srazz a last, final scratch behind his fluffy ears, and rose to my feet.
Buzz came with me, climbing up my sleeve with his sharp claws and settling on my shoulder with a chirp.
My sneakers made scuffing noises on the floor when I went to the nest, reminding me of the old linoleum in my grandma’s kitchen when it was freshly polished.
The nest itself crinkled when I touched the edge, the surface was soft but covered with a plastic-like padding that felt just a tiny bit icky.
At least it looked comfortable to rest on for Zeidon, and his breathing was even and slow.
At a touch of my finger to his scales, a soft glow spread across his front, and all the way down to the tip of his tail.
It looked so pretty and apparently, it meant so much…
Curling against his hip, I lowered my head to his chest and closed my eyes.
The steady thump of his heartbeat beneath my ear was soothing and I focused on that.
He was alive, I was alive, and we had chemistry beyond my wildest dreams. Now that we were both healed, we’d kick that stupid snake terminator’s skinny ass and bust out of here in no time. All Zeidon had to do was wake up.
It felt like an eternity before he finally stirred.
First, his heartbeat increased and his breathing sped up; then I saw the tip of his tail twitch and curl.
A smile stretched my mouth when unerringly, it curled up to slither around my ankle and pulled my leg closer, almost across his body. “You’re awake!”
His arm curled around my shoulders and I felt like everything inside of me untangled and eased.
I could hope again when I knew that he was alright.
Those hours when I had believed that he might be dead or dying had been the worst of my life.
He didn’t answer my exclamation but when I tilted my head to look at his face, his green eyes glowed fiercely.
His head dipped as I tilted my chin higher and then his mouth was on mine.
This was neither the time nor the place to get physical, but I couldn’t care less.
That robot wanted us to breed babies for him so he could start his deranged plan for world dominion of a world regressed to the Stone Age?
Fine. Why the heck not? I wanted Zeidon to touch me everywhere, to prove that we were both alive.
Then any possible thoughts fled my mind and I became instinct and feeling.
My mouth a direct line to my core as Zeidon tangled his agile, split tongue with mine.
His scent filled my senses, salty like the sea, a hint of a male musk that was all him, and even a note of something sweet that clung to his pretty hair.
The deep sound that rumbled from his throat was primal and male, a little animalistic and wild and it drove me crazy!
If our steamy interlude at the lake had taught me anything, it was that Zeidon knew how to push all my buttons.
Now was no different, his tongue stroked and tangled, his lips were just the right roughness against mine, and his wandering hands…
He boldly cupped one of my breasts and stroked the pad of his thumb over my already hard nipple.
A moan escaped me, my legs moving restlessly against his tail.
I found myself pinned beneath his bulk against the soft mattress of the nest’s interior.
His eyes glowed above me when he lifted his head, two bright points in the darkness that clung to this room.
“Farah,” he growled, “Are you hurt?” I shook my head, a smile pulling on my lips.
Of course, Zeidon’s first thought would be about me, even through the haze of passion that stirred between us.
I raised my chin and could just reach the edge of his jaw to press a kiss against it, he rumbled another growl at the butterfly touch.
“Farah…” his eyes drifted from mine to coast along my cheeks and down my neck.
I knew what he was looking at even though I hadn’t seen it yet myself, the scales that now covered parts of my skin.
I didn’t want to think about it or talk about it, I just wanted to hold him and know that things were going to be fine.
So I raised my head again and leaned up to press my mouth to his scales, dragging my teeth along the edge.
The growl he emitted this time was loud and fierce, rattling through the room and vibrating against my chest. His head dipped, his tongue tangled with mine and I just knew we’d be lost together like this, claiming each other.
I ran my hands over his shoulders, tangling my fingers in the luscious strands of his sea-blue hair.
My hips rocked beneath his, seeking friction, contact.
This was very different from before, at the lake.
Then I was still weak, still fatigued. I hadn’t been an active participant, I’d received but not given, and I was determined to show him that I cared about his pleasure too.
“Farah,” he moaned much softer, a shudder rocking his chest. “Yesss,” he hissed with a drawn-out s when I hooked my leg around his narrow hips and pressed my core open against him.
“Stop talking and make love to me,” I demanded, “I’m healed, Zeidon.
And if you’re up for it, I really, really want it.
” I couldn’t get the image of his cock out of my mind now that I’d started down this path.
My body felt so warm, so hot and languid against his that it was all I could think about.
To finally be united with him in every way.