“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.”
ROSALIE
I’m moving so fast my feet are barely touching the ground as Dante marches through Dexx’s sector through the airlock into the neutral area.
“Stop!” I call out, breathlessly.
Dante comes to a halt so suddenly I run straight into the back of him, scaly behind and all.
“We need to leave,” he growls at me. Then he growls at his warriors who are following us, looking confused. Dante looks confused too as he growls at a set of Dexx’s warriors who happen to be guarding the airlock we pass through. Then his tail shifts, and he snarls at it as if the thing isn’t attached to him.
Alien males who can turn into what can only be described as a dragon are hardly the most stable of creatures, but it’s well known among me and my friends, as well as the other Sarkarnii we’ve been living with since we were dumped on this planet, the Sarkarnii warlord known as Dante is inherently the most unstable.
And he just bit me, claiming me as his mate.
“Are you really sure I’m the one you want?” I ask.
Dante shivers, his wings partially shifting and rattling against the spines which grow out of his back.
