Mated to the Dragon Warlord (Fated Mates of the Sarkarnii Warlords #3)

Rosalie

My neck aches as if I’ve slept in a strange position. I lift my hand with a groan to grab at it, my vision blurred.

Was it a good night out? I’m not sure. My head, my neck, and my body are all shouting loudly at me in the most uncomfortable way, but as I gave up drinking I don’t know how many years ago, it seems weird I don’t remember having a fun time.

Instead there’s a creeping sense of dread. Wasn’t I…abducted…by aliens?

I want to shake my head to clear my vision, to clear the thought which persists. But my neck hurts too much. Instead, noises make their way into my brain. Shouting, yelling, banging, and growling?

I don’t think there are any bears in England. In fact, I’m sure there are not. I’m more confused than ever. This isn’t a dream, but it can’t be reality…can it?

Reality comes rushing in like a hurricane force wind. I was abducted by aliens. I’m on an alien planet, I’m surrounded by the huge scaly things…

And one of them just bit me!

“Keep Dante away from here!” I hear Kerra yell. “Keep him back while we check on Rosalie.”

I’m surrounded by my friends, a motley collection of women who have all, somehow, ended up here, with me on a planet filled with aliens who can turn into dragons.

“Are you okay?” Maggie asks me. “Let me have a look at your neck.” She gently pulls my hand away, and while I expect her to wince, instead she stares.

“What is it?” I ask, lifting my hand to explore what has to be a wound of some sort. She grabs at it and keeps me from touching.

“It’s…well there’s not much there. Just some…er…red dots. Lydia?” She grabs the shoulder of a diminutive, dark-haired woman who is apparently keeping look out while my two friends, Kerra and Scarlett, shout into a box on the brushed steel wall.

“Oh!” Lydia says, putting her hand to her mouth but then leaning in for a closer look. “That’s not what I was expecting. Didn’t you say he bit you?”

“He…did.”

I was bitten.

I was bitten by one of the aliens, a great blue-green male…Dante!

“Yes, yes,” I say louder. “He did.”

“For a male with fangs the size of his, he didn’t do a great job,” Maggie says, staring at my neck.

“Sarkarnii have healing venom,” Scarlett calls over to us. “Has it worked on Rosie?”

Maggie shoves my head to one side and looks closer. “Yes,” she calls back.

Kerra and Scarlett look at each other.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” I say, my voice shaky.

Kerra puts a hand on Scarlett’s shoulder and walks over to where Maggie and Lydia are gathered around me, before checking where I now have a dull ache.

“Oh, Rosie.” She shakes her head. I gaze at her as she gently takes my hand. “I think he bit you because he believes you’re his mate.”

“What?” Maggie explodes. “Darax and Dexx didn’t do that to you and Scarlett. What the actual fuck? They can just walk up, bite us and that’s okay?”

Lydia puts her arm around Maggie’s shoulders, but she shrugs it off.

“No,” she says. “It’s not okay at all.”

“It’s Dante,” Kerra says.

“It doesn’t matter which warlord did this. It’s not right, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Maggie spits.

“It’s okay, Maggie,” I rasp, my voice hoarse. “The Sarkarnii are who they are.”

“First Dexx kidnaps Scarlett, and now this,” Maggie growls, gesturing wildly at me. “They’re out of control.”

“They’re warlords,” Lydia says quietly. “What did you expect, ponies and rainbows?”

Maggie bares her teeth and snarls in frustration before she turns on her heel and stomps over to the wall, slamming her hand on the shiny black square, causing the door to slide open.

“Then we might as well accept our fate,” she shouts over her shoulder as the door opens further, and multiple Sarkarnii ripple to get out of her way like a scaly wave of tails and claws, wings and fangs.

One of whom parts from the rest and skids to a halt on his knees in front of me. Even kneeling, he’s still more than a head taller than me while I’m standing. His great broad chest is a riot of iridescent blue-gold scales.

“Female,” he pants.

He’s grabbed from behind by another Sarkarnii, one with glittering blue-green scales. “By the ancestors, Dante, at least use her name.”

Dante looks up at Dexx. “I don’t know it.”

“Nev it, Dante,” Dexx growls at him. “You can’t bite a female and not know her name. Didn’t you learn anything from your tutors?”

Dante turns his gaze back to me, his stunning eyes blue flecked with gold around dark slit pupils. He stares at me like he’s trying to burn my image into his brain.

“What is your name?” he rasps.

“Don’t fucking tell him, Rosalie,” Maggie calls out, before slamming her hand over her mouth.

“Rosa-lee?” Dante rolls my name around his mouth as if tasting a piece of meat, his fangs poking over his bottom lip. The slit pupils in his stunning eyes are blown wide open as he gazes at me.

“My friends call me Rosie,” I say quietly.

“Rosie,” he repeats.

“But you are not my friend,” I respond, not entirely sure where my boldness is coming from in the face of this huge alien male who could snap me in half without breaking a sweat.

Dante studies me, his gaze raking over me from my head down to my toes, somehow making me tingle at his inspection.

“No,” he rumbles. “I am not your friend, Rosalie.”

He curls a hand around my chin, thick dark claws threatening my eyes with their scimitar edges. His eyes alight on the area where he bit me.

“I am your mate, and you belong to me.”