Page 8 of The Naga Outcast’s Unwanted Mate

Her features grew dark and grim, her fingers clenching so tightly around the ration cake she was holding that it started to crumble between her fingers. I knew what slavery was, some of the Clans further south practiced that despicable custom. Enslaving the Naga of enemy tribes for a year of servitude if they were captured in battle. What Vera was proposing, sounded much more permanent.

“Hey, come to think of it, maybe we shouldn’t trust Reid either…” she hummed quietly to herself. “We are all here because we were accused and executed for something, who knows, he might actually be guilty of whatever crime he committed. What if it’s murder?” She didn’t mention Cosima in that same vein and I could see why, the female was the smallest of all of Vera’s people, and so… leaky. She couldn’t be a threat but Reid was big enough to pose a real risk, especially to my fragile mate or the other females.

“I understand,” I said easily, while I scanned our motley collection of people a little more thoroughly. Corin was still working on the pilot, his brow drawn in concentration; obviously, completely focused on his task and nothing else. Reid and Cosima sat side by side right next to the heat source, huddled under the furs while they ate without talking. The female was leaking again and Reid was just staring vacantly at the glowing red center of the device, oblivious to her distress.

Vera and I were furthest away from all of them, in the corner where my nest was. Our voices hushed as we spoke, especially Vera’s. I liked that she’d chosen to share what she had with me, it showed that she was starting to trust me; she knew in her heart that I was her mate. She wasn’t shying away, she wasn’t denying my touch, and she was eating the food I provided for her without hesitation.

“Zathar,” Corin’s voice pierced my quiet bubble with my mate, jerking my attention from the crown of her silky pale hair. “I need to splint her leg and make a poultice but I don’t have all the supplies…” My close friend looked exhausted when I glanced over; working with the healing device always took it out of him. I felt a hint of guilt, he was working, and I was just sitting around, and that while Iave was still missing.

“What do you need?”

*

Vera

When Zathar left to find supplies for the injured pilot I felt strangely bereft. I was already missing his presence after having been in his arms, or tail, for the better part of the day. I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I could trust him implicitly, and that was a feeling I’d never experienced before.

I felt abandoned when his long, azure body slithered soundlessly out of the cave. Shaking myself, I tried to take stock of my situation in a more rational fashion. I was injured, the concussion was making my head ache and my stomach so queasy I could hardly stomach the high-fat food that Zathar had handed me.

I was sitting on the edge of what could only be described as a nest. A pile of sticks, moss, straw, and furs that was shaped much like a bowl, one big enough for Zathar to curl his body into. Big enough for me to stretch out, reach my arms up, and only just graze the other edge with my fingers. If anything, it made it obvious just how freaking big these Naga were.

Without Zathar or that other one present, even Corin looked like a giant, his long silvery blue body stretched out around the nest that he’d put the pilot down on. His clawed hand was so pale it was almost white and he was holding a device in it that beamed light down on the woman’s chest. It looked like it had several bands going down around his arms, gleaming copper against his silver skin, and a loop over his middle finger to anchor a disk in place over the center of his palm.

I could tell it was costing him a lot of effort to do whatever it was he was doing. I’d never seen a healing device that took it out of the healer to work but I’d also never really seen a healing device that was able to work on such heavy injuries without actual surgery. There was no doubt that the pilot was suffering from internal bleeding, and he was using that thing he was holding to stop it.

If I were feeling less miserable, I would have gotten up and sat down with Cosima and Reid. I had to figure out what their stories were, I had to know they were safe to be around. Though it was fair to say that Cosima was very unlikely to be a raving murderer, she seemed to burst into tears at the sight of everything.

Feeling eyes on me, I glanced up from my food just in time to realize that Reid was staring at me. He appeared a little suspicious even, his eyes narrowed beneath an impressive frown. Oh… I hadn’t realized they might be harboring similar thoughts to my own. At least, he was. Had he recognized me too? Had he seen the spectacle of my trial in the media?

“You’re awfully cozy with them,” he said, hostility tinting his voice so strongly that Corin jerked his head up from his work and glanced his way. I was a little taken aback by the tone too, he’d been the one to help dig Zathar out. He’d looked on board with going with them, so why was he acting like this now? Or had he just been hiding his real feelings all this time?

“Uhm you do realize that Zathar has to touch me for us to be able to communicate? I just happened to be the first one he woke so I’m his go-to, that’s all.” I explained the situation carefully, trying to brush away the feelings of inadequacy that bubbled up. I was just convenient, there was nothing more to it, and that was oddly painful which just served to piss me off. I didn’t need anyone, I never had, so acting like I wanted Zathar to need me and me alone was utterly crazy. It wasn’t like he mattered anyway but that thought felt extremely untruthful and disloyal.

Reid got to his feet, bracing his hands on his hips and I was suddenly aware that he was a big man for a human. Well over six feet, with big shoulders, his chest and thighs packed with muscle in the green army fatigues he wore. A former soldier if the dogtags dangling around his neck were any indication.

“No Vera,” he said, twisting my name on his tongue to make it sound like he was talking to a complete idiot. “It only works like that for you. Not for any of us. I know, because I touched his scales when I dug him out. He thinks you’re his freaking mate, are you that desperate for approval that you’re going to let that snake touch you?” He outright sneered the last words and I nearly fell over backward from the force of the venom he was spitting.

My eyes growing wide, and then embarrassingly wet. Was that what was happening? Was I latching on to Zathar because he was being nice? And was he only being nice because he wanted to have sex? I felt so shaken that I didn’t have any kind of comeback for Reid, and he didn’t seem to be looking for one.

Satisfied he’d said his piece, he sat back down and pretended to ignore the shocked look Cosima was giving him. He’d done serious damage with his words, to me, my confidence, and my relationship with the other girl. Her eyes were turning grim and hostile when I met them.

Corin moved as silently as Zathar so I nearly screamed when he was just suddenly next to me. “Ah fuck, we need to put a freaking bell on you or something,” I said, and though I knew it would just make Reid think this was more evidence of how chummy I was with the Naga, I lifted my head towards the healing device in his hand when he stuck it out. Silently granting him permission to heal me. I needed a clear head if I wanted to figure out our future.

Heat blasted into my face from the light glowing from the red eye at the center of Corin’s palm. At first, it felt intense and bordered on pain, but as the heat washed over my skull, the throbbing ache started to ease. In just a few short minutes my headache vanished and my nausea eased. “Thank you.”

He vanished back to the pilot as silently as he’d approached me, not a word uttered. He hadn’t tried to touch me to help ease the language barrier, which just drove home that Reid was right. It was a thing exclusively between Zathar and me. And the excited beat of my heart told me how much I loved that, which proved his other point. I was desperate for approval, for a place to be wanted, and desired.

Zathar returned with his arms full of leafy things which he dropped at Corin’s side without ceremony and without a word. As he turned and faced me, my breath caught in my throat at the sight of him. He was magnificent, his scales glittering azure, with hints of green and silver in the warm light of the lanterns. His chest was sculpted with muscle, heavy pectorals, a row of washboard abs, and that lovely v-ridge leading to his groin area which was emphasized by his hips tapering into that giant tail instead of a pair of legs.

His azure eyes glowed like a cat’s in the light, the slitted pupils declaring their reptilian roots. I loved how alien his features were while at the same time being so similar. His chin jutted into a pair of pointy horns, bone-white compared to the rest of him. His eyebrows were a ridge of thicker, more arrow-shaped scales, and his long hair was tied in a topknot. The bright azure strands a slightly lighter blue.

My heart started racing, my mouth went a little dry, and arousal tingled through my belly, making it clench with a sharp lance of near pain. He approached, because he had never heard of a thing called personal space, and his tail slithered around my ankle as he settled next to me on the edge of the nest. “I am back, mate.”

If Reid hadn’t said what he said, I wouldn’t have been in this weird head funk, I wouldn’t have exploded. But he had so that’s what happened. I shot to my feet, anger washing over me. Anger that came from many things but there was only one outlet right now. It wasn’t like I could have another shouting match with my cruel mother or disinterested father.

“Stop touching me!” I yelled out, and grabbing that sneaky tip of his tail, I yanked it from my ankle. It curled around my palm, the thick muscle contracting and holding on tight. There was no escaping his grip, and when he rose on the thicker part of his tail, balancing over me, it was clear that I’d been dealing with his soft side so far. This was not the soft side of Zathar.

His face seemed more angled, fiercer, and more feral. He looked savage when gripped by his own anger, his lips growing thin, his eyes huge pools of blue as the pupils contracted even more. “I am touching you so that we can speak! You know this,” he hissed at me. His split tongue flicked out of his mouth, lashing the air before it withdrew again. His expression grew harsher, arrogant, with a hint of smugness that infuriated me even more.