Page 31 of The Naga Outcast’s Unwanted Mate

Khawla and the hunters that surrounded me were headed that way and I tried my best to resolve the shapes I could see behind the curtains. My heart started racing when I thought that the bigger shape at the center might be Zathar. I knew it was going to upset him to see me right now, but I was still happy they were bringing me to him.

“I’ll take it from here, scout,” a female voice interjected and I winced and ripped my eyes from the promising sight of my mate. Rising high on her slender tail was Astrexa, a wicked grin on her sharp features. I could see the set of sharp fangs on either side of her mouth and when she flicked out her split tongue I winced back. On her, that was definitely creepy, but that was mostly because I was pretty sure she was savoring the taste of my fear.

Khawla met her bright blue eyes with his own purple orbs for a long second. It looked to me as if the master scout was briefly considering objecting but then he inclined his head respectfully and with a gesture of his hand, he and the other hunters started to melt away. The sneer on Astrexa’s face was briefly directed at his departing back before it settled back on me and I felt about ten inches tall beneath it. That look rivaled the ones my mother used to level at me and the response was instinctual.

I wasn’t the same person now that I was back on Earth. I could feel it in the way my fear made way for rage at that look, I wasn’t going to let anyone treat me that way any longer. Lifting my chin and squaring my shoulders, I ignored the urge to cower beneath her and glared right back.

She curled her lip at me, “You are nothing, hu-mhan!” Her hiss was strong, filled with venom and though I tried to dodge, she was whip-fast when she grabbed for my arm. Her tail slinging around behind me and caging me in. “I know you can understand me, prey,” she said, slitted eyes narrowing on my squirming arm, excitement filling her features.

“If you wish to live, you are going in there and renounce him as your mate. Make it sound good and I won’t eat the flesh of your bones and use your ribs for hair combs like I did with the last female who dared to stand in my way.” For emphasis, she lifted a clawed finger to the bone-white decorative combs stuck in her black hair. I stared at them with horror, vaguely recognizing the curved shapes of rib bones, had she really done that? Wouldn’t her previous opponent have been a female of her own kind? Did she just admit to cannibalism to me?

Whether it was true or not, I was definitely terrified. Not only did it sound like a horrible fate, but I didn’t want to contemplate the pain and horror that Zathar would feel if that happened and he was forced to mate her afterward. Having to see his horrible mate prance around with my ribs in her hair day after day. It was the stuff of nightmares; I couldn’t let that happen.

I gave her a nod and she smiled with satisfaction. Snapping out a hand, she curled it in my hair and yanked, a scream escaping my throat as pain seared my scalp. Then she was dragging me by the grip she had, and though it hurt, I knew this was as much for show too. She was going in there dragging me like she’d conquered me, showing everyone inside that I was a nobody, that I was weak.

My growls were not as impressive as those of a Naga, but I growled in anger at the treatment, furious with myself too that I wasn’t strong enough to stop this. But I was strong, I knew that, and I was wanted which mattered even more. For Zathar, I would endure anything, because that’s what you did for those you truly cared about. Faith was there too, faith in him and his skills.

When Astrexa dragged me inside, the drapes parted around us by two young Naga, probably young teens. My eyes locked on Zathar, for a moment his azure orbs were all that I saw, drawing us together as if there was no distance between us at all.

The drapes behind him parted and the Queen curled her long body onto the dais, every shimmering blue scale glowing with a sheen of oil. Gold covered her arms and chest, and draped in chains around her waist. She was smiling smugly at her son, and I knew that they’d kept him waiting while they went to search for me. They were convinced they held all the cards. I knew differently, but was the threat we came to warn them of enough to convince them to let us go? Now I suddenly doubted that as she wanted to gain control of her wayward son so badly, she might do so at any cost.

“Yes, Zathar,” the Queen drawled as she casually coiled her long body on the pillows on the dais. She was acting so damn casually, obviously enjoying my discomfort and pain, and Zathar’s absolute fury at seeing me restrained. He’d moved toward me but several females had risen from around the edges of this little receiving hall and blocked his way.

Our eyes were still locked and I willed him to see that I was okay. Astrexa was yanking hard on my hair and sure, I was losing a few strands because of it, but that was all. I was alright and he needed to say his piece now that she was here, make it clear that he wasn’t here to submit.

“Now what is your plan, my son? Did you come here because you finally realized what a weak thing she is? Are you ready for a proper female?” The Queen laughed haughtily and pointed in my direction. This must have been some kind of sign for Astrexa because the female yanked harder on my head, making me tilt back and raise myself on my toes to relieve the awful pressure.

Zathar growled and shoved toward me again, pushing the Naga females that blocked his path roughly out of the way. Immediately several males darted through the curtains and held him back, spears aimed at his chest, forcing him to freeze in place. “I’m okay, it’s fine. Don’t worry!” I told Zathar, though I was definitely worried. I didn’t want him to try to fight to get me free, we had to use our words or we’d never make it out of here.

Zathar’s eyes searched mine over the row of spears and scaled shoulders that separated us. He shot a furious glare at Astrexa that just made her laugh and curve her tail to coil it around my body. Now I was really pinned, trapped. This was what it felt like to be trapped by a python, the muscled loops of her body tightening around me with every breath I took.

“So this is how you repay the loyalty I am showing?” Zathar snapped, swinging his head around to his mother to pin her in place on her throne. “I came here to warn you of the approaching danger. I came because despite being cast out by you, I did not wish any harm to befall the Clan. And this is how you treat my mate? Forget it!”

While the Queen rose, opening her mouth to respond. Zathar swung around, his tail moving, his hands slashing through the air. Astrexa seemed to know what was about to happen better than anyone here, her body tightening as she threw us to the side, out of his path. With the sound of a roar accompanying him, he bowled straight through the handful of males blocking him, instigating total chaos for the next few minutes.

Astrexa tried to retreat with me, her claws rising to my throat as if she intended to threaten my life. While the other Naga females present were backing up as if they weren’t about to get in the way of the fighting males. I could see why, though much bigger and stronger than me, the Naga males were nearly double in size sometimes. They could very well get flattened like pancakes in this scuffle.

There was one moment, a single second frozen in time that Zathar’s eyes met mine. He was enraged and completely focused on ending this standoff. Then they dropped to the claws at my throat and I worried he was going to surrender at the sight of it. A blow from one of his opponents caught him in the back of the head and with a roar, he spun around to retaliate.

The female holding me hostage hissed out a laugh, certain she was going to get what she wanted. I snapped my head back, catching her face with the back of my head in a blow that reverberated through my skull. Ouch, that was far more painful than they made that look in movies but I had no time to whimper. I had to suck it up.

Letting my head bounce forward, I used the momentum, opening my mouth and closing my teeth around the fingers near my neck. I bit down as hard as I could, so hard that my teeth and jaw ached from it. Blood swirled over my tongue, the taste strong and metallic. Astrexa screamed in agony, yanking her fingers free but I hung on like a fucking pitbull.

With a whoosh, her coils loosened from around my body. I dropped to the wooden floor and I finally released her while I forced myself to move, out of her reach. She had claws and fangs, my bite was all blunt teeth and pressure, but when I looked over my shoulder I realized I’d done significant damage anyway. Her fingers were bleeding badly and she was cradling the hand against her chest, staring down at her fingers bent at awkward angles with horror.

“Vera, duck!” Zathar yelled and I hit the floor without a second thought, throwing myself to the ground. A tail raked the air above me, whistling through the air. When I looked up, the three males Zathar had been fighting were all down on the ground, scattered around him like fallen trees. Then Astrexa screamed and the Queen demanded that he end this now.

I started to get up just as Astrexa leaped through the air toward me. Her entire body coiled in a rapid strike like a cobra might. Zathar was there, blocking her strike with a single punch of his closed fist. He struck her right in the face and she crumpled like a paper towel in a pile on the floor at my feet.

Leaping up, I threw myself into his arms and he curled himself protectively around me, his chest heaving and slick in a few places from blood. “Enough!” he roared over the chaos that reigned inside the wall-less room. “Vera and I are leaving and you can just choke on your own fucking doom.” With that final snarl, he turned around and heedless of the bodies strewn about, started to glide away. Turning his back on his mother like she was no threat to him at all. I could see her shocked expression over his shoulder as we left, the way her gaze lingered with distaste on Astrexa’s prone body before snapping back to us. No, to me.

“Wait,” she called out. “What do you know? What is about to happen! You must tell us, you can’t doom the entire village over something as minor as this!” Oh, did she really just say that? The bitch. I wanted to crawl over Zathar’s shoulder and bite her stupid finger too; see how she liked that. Minor? They had tried to separate us, tried to enslave Zathar to a life of total misery.

Zathar paused at the edge of the room, the drapes already opened. When I looked at what he was seeing I realized that the entire village had turned out to witness our altercation. Males and females alike had gathered in the town square, and they were all staring at us. There were kids too, young Naga clinging to their fathers, and some to their mothers too. I even spotted a female with a tiny baby Naga curled in her arms.

Oh shit, this had to be heart-wrenching for Zathar, no matter how furious he was. Facing all these people meant he couldn’t possibly walk away without warning them. His mother didn’t deserve it, neither did Astrexa, but these people, Clansmen he’d grown up with? They definitely did.

“Minor?” Zathar hissed out, turning to look over his shoulder at his mother while his arms tightened around me. “You threatened to kill my mate. Astrexa nearly did, you think to call that minor?” He lifted his chin to look at the people gathered around him, “It isn’t me dooming you, that’s on the Queen.” He jerked a claw at his mother and I realized she’d actually gotten off her throne to move closer to us and she finally looked rattled.