I want to try. I’m excited to try. My body tenses, and my core flutters at the prospect. I’ve waited years to mate, suffered countless nights of longing…
And that right there, I realize, is why I’m feeling so lost.
Delina is right. It’s the elder’s choice.Mating has always been the elder’s choice since the comet’s curse.
She is the chosen female…Why do my thoughts go there? They only emphasize how confused I feel, feeding the toxic mixture of fear and envy running in my veins. My fingers and palms rub the male’s skin almost worshipfully.This may be the only time I’ll ever touch him.
I can touch him while cleaning him…
His lips part and a quiet moan escapes him. I nearly moan in response, wanting to so badly lie down next to him, curl into his side, forget all these thoughts, and for once, in years, feel at peace.
I imagine it, as if all my training, all the responsibilities the tribe has put on my shoulders since childhood, pretending it could all be pushed away—even for a few minutes—imagining that I won’t have to live to see the gradual extinction of my people.
That I’ll have someone strong beside me when things get too hard to bear…
“I know you may be sleeping,” I say quietly so no one else would hear. He spoke my language before I knocked him out, but that doesn’t mean he’ll fully understand me. “I know you may not get my words, but if you are the dragon on the beach, I want you to know—I want you to know that I was going to search for one of your kind and see if the rumors of dragons turning to men were true.
“I wanted to believe, you see,neededto believe. But I didn’t think it would actually happen, and if it did—I doubted that I would even have the chance to touch you, never mind that you would even transform. But now that you’re here and I can’t deny it, all I feel is guilt. I’m confused. So confused. I hate these gashes on your flesh, and I can’t help but think it’s my fault. I’m sorry. If you want to hurt me for what I’ve done, I understand. If you want to leave, I will make sure no one stops you. I’m sorry.”
With my mind going back to the dagger hooked in my skirt again, I continue, “It’s my fault you’re here, not the tribe’s. If you want to hurt someone, hurt me, not them.”
Desire builds within me at my words to prove myself to this male. Prove to him that I’m not a bad person, that I will honor my words and him. That I will take the blame and not hide. That I will fight for my tribe, and I will fight for him.
Because as I’m watching his wounds close shut, and while I’m spreading his hair out on the hide untangling his knots, I can’t help but know that my touch upon his wing changed my life forever.
And his too.
8
Zaeyr in Heat
Aida.The human’s name is Aida.
The other humans call her that. It is nearly all I can think of since I heard it.What a strange and simple name.Though as I test it in my mind, I find I’m liking it too much—fury should be the only emotion brewing within me.
“Please forgive me,” Aida says again. I hear every word she utters.
She asks for forgiveness.My thoughts will not go there.
She acknowledges her selfish act for touching me too,I note. I am almost awed by her honesty.She is sorry for the hurts on my flesh…
Does the human female not realize she isn’t responsible for these gashes? That the femdragon did it in her frenzy?
The rends to my skin are nothing, not even fatal. A battle wound well taken.
This human could never hurt me in such a way, it is almost laughable to think of.
But when she falls silent, I quickly realize how much I was enjoying her voice.
Aida.My mind tastes her name again. Waiting for her to speak, I am annoyed that only her soft breaths, trickling water, and the distant talking of other humans greet my ears.
I have been awake for a while, pretending, listening in on my new surroundings, deciding whether or not these humans are a danger to me.
Waiting.Waiting and figuring them out, waiting for my strength to return.My new form is as strange to me as Aida’s name, and I need to get a sense of it before a battle ensues.Ifone ensues.
Aida reassures with her words.
She does not know me!A tendril of anger returns.She will pay for what she has done!
