Page 5 of The Naga Warlord’s Virgin Mate

My words were met with eager shouting and clapping, the warriors roaring as they slapped their chests. The Queen settled back down on her pillows with a happy smile stretching across her once-beautiful features. “Well done, Krashe…” she drawled when the boisterous noises died down. She ran her hand over the swell of her bare breast, already thickened in preparation of feeding her coming youngling. “I should reward you for your work.”

The crowd, of which at least half were her own offspring, was completely silent as the Queen unspooled her coils and started winding them around me. To move away now would be a grave insult but I could not allow this to continue either. I hadn’t wanted to coil with her in years, and now that I had met Nomy, the thought made nausea rise in my belly.

I needed to distract her but the only thought that came to mind was to mention the prisoner; it would put an end to this immediately. I couldn’t get those words to cross my lips, it would put my mate in direct danger. It was already a miracle that the Queen had not heard of Nomy’s presence yet. She was unpredictable, if she knew, she might demand to see the prisoner, or she might not care at all.

“It is reward enough to serve the Clan, to find food for our hungry younglings,” I rasped out. Tapping my fist over my chest I added with a growl, “I serve them. Now I must leave to finish the work. Until then I am not deserving of any reward.” I dipped into a quick, slightly disrespectful bow and shook myself free of her insidious grasp under the collective sound of many Naga gasping in shock.

While the Queen threw back her head and started laughing, amused rather than insulted, I exited the palace. Glaring at sycophants that seemed to get in my way as I tried to leave just reinforced my reputation. I was the only one in the entire Clan that stood up to our ruler, and she liked it.

As soon as I was free of the palace and the stifling sweet scents that clung there, I headed for my private quarters. My home was the same as the one I’d grown up in, a small wooden building set up against the back wall of the Hearth Caves. It was a spot away from the wells of water and not too far from a latrine tunnel. Not exactly prime real estate and because of that I had more space than most, and also more privacy.

Inside my home, I locked the door behind me with the mechanism I’d made for it, and then I stripped myself of my weapons and belts and rushed for the barrel with water I kept on hand. With rough motions I started cleaning my coils, eager to rid myself of the sensations of the Queen’s touch. My thoughts spun as I contemplated my mate.

She changed everything. She challenged everything I thought I knew was right. She was found near a sky-ship, she came from beyond the stars, and I only knew what the lore said on that. She was supposed to be dangerous, a threat to our existence. A threat that had once played an integral role in the destruction of our entire society.

Then I pictured Nomy’s small body, her luminous blue eyes, and her so delicate and soft flesh. She was no threat, she had fought me at her best and all she’d done was nick my scales by sheer luck. The harm to her own hand had been far greater than the harm she had managed to do to me. No, she wasn’t a danger to my people. The only danger was to my sanity; I already craved to return to her side and wallow in her scent again.

Just remembering her made my cock stir in its pouch and I pressed the base of my hand to the slit to keep it from extruding. Nothing had ever stirred me the way she did. Mates that ignited the markings on our bodies were almost unheard of, a gift mostly remembered from the past. I knew my parents had been such mates, but they had been the last pairing like that in our Clan.

Mostly, the Queen picked males for the females to produce a youngling. Pairings that remained together to rear those young were uncommon. Usually a female weaned her youngling at the start of the first molting, and then handed it to the father to raise further. Younglings were raised by combined effort, in groupings that often remained brothers or sisters for life.

My mind flashed to my own upbringing. My mother and father had cared for me till my third molting, so I had no ties to other younglings as though they were my siblings. I was the only child they had, and they often journeyed beyond Bitter Storm territory, traveling everywhere with me. I had seen the insides of many ancestor caves and buildings, seen the marvels of technologies that my mother was supposed to report and destroy. And all she did was study them.

I hissed in anger. My mother had betrayed the Clan and our teachings, teachings she was supposed to uphold. And the Queen, then just one of many princesses, had been her closest friend. It was why I’d thrown my loyalty in her camp when the Queen, who was just called Lasra at the time, had taken out the previous Queen and assumed the throne.

Now I tried to push aside my anger at what my mother had done and focus on what I needed to discover. Lasra had taken on the lorekeeper role when my mother had died in a scuffle with another female. As her closest friend that had made sense, but I knew that my father had hidden all of my mother’s things from her before he’d vanished in the wilds a few years later. I needed to find those items and search for lore about the creatures from beyond the stars. I needed to know what danger they possessed. If the prisoner was any indication, it couldn’t be a physical threat.

Tossing the wet rag in a basket I cast my eyes about my home. I had some vague ideas of where my father would have hidden my mother’s lorekeeping things. I suppose I should be happy with myself that I had never given to the impulse to search for them yet so I could destroy them or hand them over to the Queen.

I had to arm myself with all the lore I could find before I faced my mate again.

Chapter 4

Naomi

I was confused. Really, really confused. It didn’t seem to me like my captor wanted to kill me or even harm me. I just had to glance down at the bandages wrapped around the injured palm of my hand to know this. And when I’d kept insisting on my name he had even given me his, shocking me to hell and back when he just barked out: Crash.

Who the heck called their kid Crash? That seemed weird but I had to remind myself that though he spoke English to me, the rest of his Clan didn’t. They spoke in weird hissing, sibilant tones that I couldn’t even begin to pick apart as a language. In his own language, Crash probably didn’t mean what it did. Besides, he pronounced it with a hard ‘k’ and a hiss at the end. Krashe…

Even more confusing, how had he learned to speak English? That made about as little sense as his proclamation that I was his mate. He hadn’t tied me back up either, I was now free to move around this small chamber. He’d also left his lantern so I had light to see by. See, confusing. Why was he treating me like that but still keeping me locked up in here?

I didn’t think the rest of the Naga outside in that big cave were going to be nearly as friendly as he had been. Actually, he hadn’t been all that friendly either, manhandling me, growling and snapping. He also hadn’t asked any questions, just sniffed my hair and licked my skin, and then he’d left.

I touched my uninjured palm to the side of my neck where he’d drawn that split tongue along my skin. I still vividly recalled the sensation of those sharp fangs bracketing my throat when he opened his mouth over my flesh. For a long second I had expected him to bite down and rip into me. Flirting with that kind of danger had made my body sing and I was thoroughly disgusted with myself about it. I couldn’t actually like that kind of thing, could I? That wasn’t normal… Was it?

Gah! I wasn’t even sure about that, considering how limited my experiences were when it came to romance and sex. I had barely left home for years… I barely knew how to say hi to new people, how did I deal with this?

Breathing out with a huff, I contemplated my options. I was untied, but I was pretty sure he’d only done that because he knew I couldn’t get out anyway. Just remembering how I’d stabbed him with that piece of metal made me growl angrily. He hadn’t even noticed. How did I fight a creature like that? Especially when my body seemed to like tussling with him. I couldn’t trust my own feelings and that really sucked.

Sitting around on my ass wasn’t going to solve anything, and now that I was free to move around, and I had light, I could at least explore. I still needed to pee too so the first order of business was to pick a secluded corner and do that. Relieved, I carefully picked my way across the rough stone floor to reach the door. I was hoping to find a crack I could peer out of; I needed to figure out what the situation was on the other side.

Holding my breath, I pressed my ear against the panel and listened. There was the constant din of many voices, the squeals of children and animals, and the sound of hammering. Beneath all that noise I thought I could hear the sound of scales sliding along the ground. Were those the sounds of guards standing outside this door?

I was pretty sure Krashe had yelled at people right outside my prison when he left. But he’d spoken in his own language so I had no idea what he’d said. Locating a crack just big enough to peek through, I leaned in and had a look. Oh boy. I was pretty sure I could see the tails of at least two Naga, no make that three. How many were out there?

There was no way I could get this door open and sneak past that many without being noticed, and where would I go if I did get out? I couldn’t cross an entire cave village without being seen. I shivered when I remembered passing through the first time. So many hate-filled looks, fear on the faces of the younger ones, and the pinching and stone tossing… Not fun.

I leaned over to run my hands along my legs, checking again that there was no serious damage I needed to worry about. Bruises as far as my inspection could tell, but no cuts. I could pull my legs to my chest in a good bend and rotate my ankles by hand. Everything seemed in working order and the pins and needles feeling was fading from around the thigh area once more. Good, but I would feel much better if I could rest up, I just didn’t think I’d feel safe enough in here to close my eyes for a bit.