Chapter 8
Zathar
Leaving Vera inside the food storage building was one of the hardest things I’d ever done. Everything in me screamed that I was making a mistake by leaving her there without my protection. She was so fragile without scales or claws, completely defenseless against a Naga.
Then there was the ‘kiss’ she’d bestowed on me.
I had never heard of anyone doing such a thing, it seemed outrageous to press mouths together, it didn’t sound like it would feel good.
I’d never been happier to be wrong though, my cock was aching in my sheath.
When I had her pressed up against me, I hadn’t been able to stop the tip from partially extruding and I still vividly remembered the touch of her silky skin against the sensitive tips.
Once I had my mate safe again, I was going to demand as many kisses from her as she was willing to give me. I would never forget the taste of her as I drew her essence into my mouth and now I was wondering what else I could do, where else she’d let me taste her.
“Zathar, firstborn!” my mother called out, jerking me roughly from my vividly erotic thoughts.
Thoughts that had no place in this situation, I needed to keep my cool and think ahead if I wanted to resolve this the way I wanted.
She was beneath the Pagoda on the edge of the town square, draped among the many pillows and pelts.
Rich fabrics created by the Lagoon Weaver Clan waving gently in the breeze created a sense of privacy; fake walls for a building that had none.
Several of my sisters sat around her, and a young hunter was coiled just below the raised platform she resided on, her current lover.
Everything about this scene screamed decadence and wealth, from the many jewels each of the females wore, though none outshone my mother, down to the expensive fabrics.
It had bothered me before I was cast out of the Clan, that the wealth we earned with our hunts and our trades went into things to keep the Queen and her chosen females happy, not into bettering the rest of the Clan.
Now it felt even more glaringly obvious that my mother was a Queen who cared for her power and her wealth but not for her people.
I was glad that she didn’t even remember Corin’s involvement in all of this, leaving him out of this audience. Maybe she would forget him altogether, just return him to the fold and forget about it. I hoped so, my friend deserved a good life.
Sliding between the pillows into the semi-circle my sisters and some other high-ranking females formed, I came to a stop in front of my mother.
On her raised platform she was taller than me, and I was forced to look up or rudely rise on my tail.
“I am here, what do you wish of me?” I said by rote, the required phrase that started any audience with her, whether I was her son or not.
The tip of her tail flicked and then coiled along the edge of the platform, sliding down to curl around the throat of the male sitting beneath her.
He was several years younger, a hunter barely out of training and I was horrified with the realization that she was picking them younger and younger each year.
The movement was insulting and possessive and it was wrong that she was bold enough to do that in plain view of everyone.
I knew she meant it as a threat to me, symbolizing that she had my neck in a noose and I better obey.
“What I wish, is for my firstborn not to dishonor my proud lineage!” she hissed, her clawed hand shooting out to point at the storage building in which Vera was locked.
I hadn’t missed the sound of the heavy bar locking into place behind me, or the two Naga that had taken up flanking positions right outside.
“What does it matter to you? I am an outcast, what I do no longer concerns anyone,” I responded calmly, staring defiantly at her narrowed eyes.
When I was a young hunter in training, her gaze could make me feel withered to the bone, worthless, and tiny.
No more, she had lost that power long ago and I knew it had been a contributing reason to my outcast status. My mother preferred her sycophants.
“It does now. I have decided on a better future for you,” she answered, her body elegantly rising.
Still sleek and powerful though she’d birthed more than a dozen young already.
Like all Naga females, she had birthed twins and triplets.
But the two sisters with whom I’d shared the womb were both dead already, dead before they’d even fully matured because of the challenges most females were so fond of.
I didn’t rise to her bait, asking her what she meant, I simply waited with my arms crossed over my chest and my chin held high. High enough that my horns were angled just a tad her way, a minor insult I delighted in getting away with.
“Astrexa,” my mother said, the name a demand and answer both.
As the female she’d called for rose from her pillows to move to my side in front of the dais, I knew what she was going to say.
A mate approved by my mother, her favorite sycophant, raised to the status of heir in that manner.
Only a mating to the firstborn son could do that.
Which meant that she might have intended to return me to the fold before she’d even learned of Vera’s existence.
The female in question was slightly younger than I was, with dark blue scales patterned with the palest blue spots along the back.
Unusual and pretty but it didn’t stir me in the least. Not even when she smiled seductively and flipped her long black hair over a shoulder to display the delicate arch of her neck.
“She will be your mate, forget about the pale, tailless thing. You will mate Astrexa, return honor to my line, and provide the Clan with many healthy Naga.” My mother said it casually, her gaze flicking from my defiant one to the female’s eager smile.
She made an imperious gesture with a hand that counted as a complete dismissal but I wasn’t going to roll over for her like I was expected to do.
“I will consider your proposition. You’ll have an answer in five days,” I said.
Stalling for time was the only thing I could do.
She wasn’t going to let me walk out of here with Vera willingly, not when she had other things in mind.
My mother always got what she wanted, but not this time.
I’d have to break the humans out, and then we’d have to escape Thunder Rock Village.
The shocked gasps that echoed through the Pagoda were satisfying, as was the furious expression on my mother’s face.
Astrexa looked downright offended as if she couldn’t fathom that I wasn’t leaping at the opportunity to be hers.
I remembered her as a particularly vicious one when growing up.
She always fought over the slightest of offenses and it showed in the claw scars that lined her chest, arms, and stomach. Points of pride for any Naga female.
“Three days!” was the offer, which was far more than I expected. I grinned as I conceded, letting her know that I was aware I held more power than it had previously seemed. She had shown her hand, and now I was going to run with it.
I had three days to retrieve my mate from her current prison and escape the village. Three days was plenty.
***
Vera
The door locking behind me felt ominous, like it was final and I was now locked inside my own tomb or something.
I was shivering, not from the cold but from the fear that took hold of me.
For the first time since I’d woken up on this planet, I was without Zathar nearby.
I hadn’t realized how much I’d relied on his strength and his steadying presence.
I had never had that before, and the sudden absence made me keenly aware of how lonely it was. How lonely I had been all my life.
The house was completely dark, I couldn’t see anything and I didn’t know if they’d put Reid and Cosima in here too. I was actually scared to call out and find out, what if they were somewhere else? What if I was really alone?
No, I couldn’t think like that. I promised Zathar I would be brave, and I had to do that as much for him as for myself.
Focus on nice things, like that mind-blowing kiss a moment ago.
That was hands down the best kiss I’d ever had.
Impressive, considering Zathar hadn’t even known what kissing was until I’d shown him just now.
His first foray had been rough but my God, he’d caught on quick, and that thing he’d done with his tongue…
Remembering the wetness I thought I’d sensed on my belly, I lifted my shirt a little and pressed my palm against my skin.
I gasped in surprise when I felt a bit of sticky wetness at the edge just above my pants.
I raised my now coated fingers to my nose for a sniff and the spicy, hot scent that swirled into my nose was unmistakably Zathar’s.
His nest in those caves had smelled exactly like this, only not quite as intensely.
He’d leaked precum on me, somehow. Where had it even come from?
I hadn’t seen his cock, I definitely hadn’t felt it.
My thoughts were immediately filled with questions and fantasies.
Was it hidden? Could it pop out of a hidden pocket, like a marine animal?
What if he was more snake than man? What if he didn’t even have one?
Thoroughly distracted from how scared I was only moments ago, I tried to make myself refocus.
This was the least appropriate time to get turned on, I needed to figure out what was in this place, and where Reid and Cosima were.
The noises from the village outside were still loud in here, voices talked in guttural growls and hisses, and I heard the higher-pitched shrieks and shouts of children.
I was pretty sure there was some kind of animal mooing in the background too.
Now that my eyes were starting to adjust to this dark interior I was starting to make out shapes.
Stacks of crates rose to my left, shelves with baskets on my right, and from the rafters hung many swaying shapes that looked suspiciously like drying sausage.
Then I noticed the lumpy pile a few steps ahead of me. Was that a pair of legs?
Hurrying to him, I dropped to my knees and gently put my hand where I thought his shoulder was. “Reid? Are you all right?” He didn’t respond but I was pretty sure his chest was moving up and down beneath my hand; alive at least. “Cosima, are you in here?”
The shivery noise I heard was all the answer I needed, but I was relieved anyway when she crawled out from between two big barrels. “He fought when one of them grabbed my uh… boob,” she said. She sounded a little husky but she wasn’t crying, which I counted as a huge improvement.
“I’m pretty sure that while extremely rude, you shouldn’t consider it sexual.
Have you seen their females? Their chests are all as flat as a pancake.
It might have been curiosity.” I could well imagine that to be the case, but it was boundary-crossing and awful regardless.
Even if we were prisoners, we deserved to be treated with more respect than that.
“I figured as much,” she said, “Do you think we’ll get out of here?” That was the big question, wasn’t it? I had no clue, but for the first time in my life, I felt like I actually had someone in my camp.