Page 2 of The Naga Warlord’s Virgin Mate

“Aser! Where are you?” I roared when I passed from the passage into the cavernous halls where we made our home. My second in command, a male recently assigned to the position by the Queen herself, found my side only a couple of coils of my tail later. I didn’t care for the male who was a bit too much of a sycophant for my liking, but he was effective when I gave him a task.

“Yes, Warlord?” he drawled in a sibilant hiss that was made more pronounced because he was missing several of his upper front teeth. He hadn’t told me how he’d managed to lose his teeth, and I hadn’t asked, but I had a feeling it wasn’t from a fight. The male was awfully violence-averse for the second in command to a warlord.

“Find some people to fix that stink, it’s time new latrine holes were dug,” I snarled, curling my lip at the male to let him know just how angry I was at having to deal with this detail myself. The Queen should have someone fully take-charge of the important jobs around the Hearth Caves, food storage, drinking water, rationing, and the latrines.

“Yes Sir, of course! But Sir, you should know…” Aser started to prattle. I was crossing through the central gathering place which was ringed by as many homes as could be squeezed together. To one side much space was taken up by the extravagant building that housed the Queen. It was busy, Naga coming and going as they carried the freshly crafted spears and ammunition from the crafting area to the exit of the caves. Children were playing everywhere and the sad bleating of some of the cattle we kept for their milk and fur added to the noise.

I saw far too many thin faces and it made something hot and angry churn deep in my belly. I had been warning the Clan about this for years but it wasn’t until the first food stores had been emptied that the Queen saw fit to listen to my demands. We needed more space for our always-expanding Clan, the biggest Clan in all the territories.

“Why aren’t those children in school?” I demanded of Aser when I spotted a few younglings too old to just be toddling about at this time of day. Aser spluttered since I’d interrupted him in whatever inane thing he was trying to bring to my attention.

“How would I know, Sir?” he said. When I turned my head and pierced him with a glare he let out a squeak of fear. Of late, too often children were skipping school or kept out of it by their parents, which was even worse. Everyone should be learning to read and write the ancient script, learn all the lore kept by our clan, and then apprentice with a craft specialist or hunter. It worried me greatly that things were slipping and the Queen did nothing.

“But Sir! You should know that…” Aser tried again and I paused my rapid pace to pin him in place with a look. He knew he shouldn’t be bothering with any of the sniveling things the Queen’s advisers wanted to tell me. That was his job, to listen to their prattling so I didn’t have to. Nothing they said was ever helpful, the Queen just kept them around because she liked how they praised her. She kept me around so shit actually got done, and that wouldn’t happen if her goons could bother me.

“Sir,” Aser dared to try yet again, which meant that whatever he was told to convey to me was serious enough for him to risk my wrath. The last guy they had made my second hadn’t lasted more than a couple of weeks before I’d made him quit. Aser had actually lasted the longest yet, because he was really good at not bothering me with the suck-ups’ complaints.

“What?” I snapped out, my voice thundering across the gathering place with such force that everyone fell silent to stare at me. The two male warriors that had accompanied me back to the Hearth Caves quietly backed up and lowered their spears toward Aser in warning. A whole crowd of red, yellow, or orange eyes peeked at me from whatever job or play they were doing. I flicked out my tongue, drawing in the disgusting scent of too many bodies packed into these caves. My eyes narrowed in derision at the many dirty faces I saw.

“A patrol encountered a sky-ship falling from the skies, they captured one of the abominations alive. The rest escaped!” Aser hissed in a low voice, aiming now to keep the information between us instead of sharing the knowledge with the entire cave. An admirable attempt but fruitless, I could see the nearest Naga shiver with excitement, tails twitching on the dirt-streaked, stone tiles that covered this entire area.

“Where is it?” I demanded, willpower kept my own tail from twitching or the scales on my back from rattling. They had captured a creature from the skies? I tried to recall the lore on such creatures but I only remembered that the skies meant danger, nothing about any creature in particular. Curiosity was stronger than fear in this case. What would such a creature even look like? Would it have a tail like me? Scales? Or fur like the tasty Arazel I liked to hunt?

My assistant pointed with a clawed hand without uttering another sound.

Chapter 2

Naomi

My hip ached and phantom pains were tingling up from my knees through my thighs. I had a very limited ability to move my hips since the accident, with no feeling at all from the knee down, and only intermittent sensation on my thighs. With braces and walking canes, I could hobble around the house on good days, but usually, I just used my wheelchair. I had none of that here to help me.

The bastards had even tied my ankles together and I was worried about the rough rope on my skin. I couldn’t tell if it was too tight or not, I already had no sensation in my toes, and I couldn’t wiggle them to help circulation. I definitely knew they’d tied my wrists too tightly, my fingers were all pins and needles and my skin was abraded.

The creepy asshole that had carried me here had dumped me onto the dirt floor in this dank, dark cave without ceremony. They hadn’t bothered to tie me up any further, just locked a heavy wooden door on their way out and that was it. Nothing was said, I was just dumped and abandoned. I was pretty sure that meant they were saving me up for something really bad.

Visions of being tossed into an active volcano as a virgin sacrifice marched across my brain. My mind had a sick sense of humor some days; this wasn’t helping. These creepy snake people weren’t sacrificing me, I was clearly the dirt beneath their feet. They wouldn’t want to toss me to their Volcano God.

My stomach rumbled, telling me it was empty and my bladder told me I really needed to go. I doubted a pee break or dinner were in the cards for me. They hadn’t even left me with any kind of light. When they’d brought me in here, I’d had just enough time to see that it was just a small dark room carved out of the rock, empty except for some broken crates and barrels.

Rolling to my belly, I dug my elbows into the dirt and pulled myself toward what I hoped were the remains of those wooden crates. If I was lucky, there might be nails or something there, something sharp I could use to cut the ropes. They had tied my hands at the front and I used my elbows and fingers as much as I could to pull myself along. Reaching out to run my hands through the dirt with each pull to search for anything useful.

I hissed with excitement when I touched the first piece of wood, it felt solid and big. Maybe I could use that as a weapon once I got myself out of these ties. Beyond the door I knew lay a giant cavern, lit with hundreds of fires and torches. Huts and dwellings were built around a central hub, squeezed together so tightly that everything was a maze of tiny paths and giant fire hazards.

When Vera had woken me from that stasis pod, accompanied by three blue Naga I had been a tad worried. They were big and scaly and muscular. Each of those males looked like they could crush even fierce Kalani in their coils like it was nothing. But there were only three of them and they had seemed nice enough, trying to get us out of that sinking space wreck and hurrying us to safety.

Earlier, my captors had paraded me through that central hub before they tossed me in here. I’d come face to face with so much hatred and anger that it still frightened me to hear the noises of their many voices beyond that door. I’d been spat on, my hair had been yanked, and people had reached out and pinched my flesh. I had bruises on my arms to show for it, and I worried about how bruised my legs might be since I couldn’t feel that. Without light, I couldn’t properly inspect my injuries, if I was bleeding, that was bad.

When my fingers touched something cold, a surge of elation soared through me. Yes, that was it! Wriggling with my extended fingers I managed to get a good grip on the sharp piece only to discover that it was a bent piece of metal, not exactly a nail but it could still work. In the dark, I couldn’t tell what it had once been and now that I thought about it, these Naga seemed a little too barbaric to have mastered metalworking.

I was desperately sawing at the rope around my wrist, not even bothering to pull my body into a more comfortable upright position. That was how he found me when the door suddenly swung open and light spilled into the dark cave. Sprawled on the ground, the metal between my palms. I couldn’t have been caught more red-handed than this.

The light that spilled through the open panel briefly blinded me. Forcing me to squint while my heart raced, my body jerking backward from the surprise, causing me to roll to my side. I saw only a big outline of a pair of shoulders and a head at first, huge and shadowed; clearly a male. Then he raised a hand, a lantern dangling from his clawed fingers and it illuminated him.

A Naga like the others; red scales gleaming along his long, sinuous body. He was towering on the base of his thick tail and gold shimmered along the edges of the scales on his shoulders and belly while the deep red slowly turned darker along his tail toward the tip.

He wore a leather belt and a weapon harness that crisscrossed his chest; a huge sword strapped with it to his back. That alone already said he was different from the ones that had hauled me in here, they had only carried spears and bows. The savage expression on his face clued me in on the major jerk vibes that clung to this guy.

So this is who they saved me for, their major asshole of a boss. Instantly, my mind filled with all kinds of images of being interrogated by this guy. My eyes already scanning those belts on his hips to see if he was carrying pliers of some kind. The fact that I couldn’t spot them wasn’t a relief; I was sure he’d find inventive ways to make me babble all kinds of things. Which wouldn’t help because we didn’t speak the same language.