Page 29 of The Naga Scavenger’s Precious Mate

“I gave that robot back its core, it’s damaged but it probably still works,” I confessed. That gave me much greater worry than the water and darkness that surrounded us. I was trying not to think about the prospect of having to dive beneath the rock to escape this tunnel. It was our only option, so I was going to have to suck it up and do it.

Zeidon shrugged his shoulder, then hissed when that made his ribs ache, but he did not let go of me. “It is what it is. We will deal with him later. The others? Did they get freed?” I felt a little guilty for not even having spared them a single thought. Our doors had closed, but so had theirs. That, I’d seen on the screens as Zeidon had raced us for the water and our intended exit. I had no clue, and I had not purposely included them in my demands for release; I had only thought of Zeidon drowning the longer I took. His life and safety had been all that filled my mind.

I shook my head, “I don’t know. I only demanded he release our doors so you could get out. You were drowning Zeidon, I thought he might have killed you when that hatch slammed down on your chest.” I shuddered against him, and my throat closed up with emotion at the recollection. I could have lost him, again. Clutching him tighter around his neck, I mumbled against his scaly throat. “I love you, Zeidon.”

That was quick, we had only known each other such a short time, although it was longer for Zeidon as he cared for me when I was sick and unconscious. My dad always did say I wore my heart on my sleeve; it was the biggest reason I’d given up on dating back on Earth. I’d gotten hurt a few times when I fell in love but my feelings weren’t returned, or I’d discover they weren’t who I thought they were. It hadn’t seemed worth the risk, but with Zeidon? It definitely was.

“What?” Zeidon husked out against the crown of my head, his head buried against my wet, messy hair. I could feel the warmth of his breath coast over my skin, feel how his agile, serpentine body held and surrounded me beneath the water. He felt so strong and vital now, but I could not shake the moment from my mind when he’d been limp and unconscious, his markings fading. “What did you say?”

His bioluminescent glow was not quite bright enough for me to properly read his expressions, but I made an attempt anyway. Tilting my head back, I leaned against his arms so I could see his eyes. I thought that maybe he looked a little shocked and baffled but why would he be? Did he not expect me to say that? Was I moving too fast? A hint of fear shivered through me but it faded almost immediately; no, that was not it. He called me his mate, his forever partner, this was about something else, language.

“I love you, Zeidon,” I said louder, so I knew he couldn’t have heard me wrong. Like conquering the water, this was another thing I could do with more confidence. I’d grown; learned things about myself I hadn’t thought I had in me. I didn’t feel like a regular Jane now, not after I’d made a robot back down and release us, not after I’d become the precious mate to a male as sexy and caring as Zeidon.

He was silent for a long, drawn-out moment and it felt like my heart stuttered in my chest as I waited for his response. He seemed to be thinking about it, his head cocked at an angle, his eyes roving my face. “You love me. You love me? That’s…” The green shine of his eyes drifted to my right, where Srazz clung to the rocks and watched us, Buzz’s lavender eyes peering at us from his back.

The man seemed so confused that I brushed away my own uncertainty to cup the side of his face and stroke the edge of his jaw. “Yeah love, you know that warm fuzzy feeling you have for those you care about, but it’s more, stronger, when it’s for your mate, your lover…”

He held me tighter, protecting me against the chill of the river. Then he did that thing he always liked to do; he clasped the back of my head and held me so he could take my mouth for a kiss. His tongue tangled with mine, his taste flooding my senses. It was saltwater and spice, it was a taste all him, and a pleasure I’d known only in his arms. “Yesss,” he hissed against my lips. “We are mates, and mates love. You love me,” he sounded like it was a revelation to him. “I love you, but you love me too because you are human.”

His kiss barely left me with the faculties to parse the meaning of his words. First, I just heard that he said it back, he loved me too. Then I realized how sad the rest of that statement was, did he not expect me to love him? Was that not what the females of his species did in return? I recalled our conversations of his village and the way the males of his Clan were made to roam, and connected the dots. It did seem that way. No wonder he craved a family just like I did, no wonder he wanted children and animals and a mate to fill that void.

“Yes, I love you, Zeidon,” I said when he pulled back to gasp for air. The words brought forth a rough growl this time. It filled the cavern and echoed back at us, a deep primal sound that made me aware of just how different he was from a human man. This was Zeidon and he was barely civilized, a little wild, and a whole lot stubborn. Too stubborn to give up on a small unconscious human, too stubborn to die, and too stubborn to give up on his dream. I was going to make darn sure that he knew that he was loved for the rest of his life.

Chapter 21

Zeidon

My mate was the one thing that could always pull me from the darkness, and now she had given me a gift so precious that its light was blinding. She loved me. A word that most Naga males only used for their offspring, a word we knew we felt for our mates even if they could not return it the same way. At least, that was the way it was for the Water Weaver Clan. Females needed their space; they needed us males to roam while they wove their cloth and raised our younglings. But Farah? Farah wanted to share it all with me. She was human; she did not expect any of the same things that a Naga female did. It was my wildest imaginings come true.

We were not safe yet, not entirely, and my ribs ached. Some were fractured and those were dangerous injuries that could still fell a male if he did not take care. No matter how badly I wished to bask in this moment and seed my mate, pleasure her until she saw stars, we had to leave this cold water first.

Curling my tail, I pushed it beneath Srazz so the Ayala could get a break and soak up some of my warmth. He did not make grumpy noises or growls, just laid against my scales, his tongue briefly lapping at me in a sign of affection. The dive was going to be tough on the little ones, and I was not sure how my female was going to take it either. She did not seem scared of the water now, but what would happen when we had to submerge ourselves entirely? The water closing over her head would surely strike her with the same panic as before.

“Farah, my precious mate…” I started. She had taught me the value of words over this past week, but it still didn’t feel natural to speak so much. I did not know how to ask her about her fear or what the swim would do to her. “The dive to the outside is not long, only about twenty feet. We must do it now, before you get too cold. I will hold you the entire time. You have nothing to fear.”

She bit her lip and I was tempted to lean in to nibble at that soft pillow, it looked so tempting. “It’s fine. Let’s do it now.” I was so very proud of her for saying that; she sounded confident, like she did not fear it. Already, she’d proven that she could manage the water. She had swam after me when the hatch had been released, she had woken me from my injuries and pulled me back from the healing sleep. The river was calmer here, but it still pulled and tugged at our bodies.

“Hold Buzz and Srazz,” I said to her, and I pushed with my tail so the two small animals rose high enough for her to pick them up and tuck them between our chests. I did not need my arms free to swim, my tail would propel us where we needed to go, but my lungs ached from the pressure and still, I forced myself to take deep breaths in preparation.

I watched her face carefully as I angled us for the best spot to go under. Her eyes were determined chips of sapphire, her jaw set at a stubborn angle. Her heart rate was elevated, pounding loud enough for me to sense it against my palms, but she was not succumbing to any panic and fear. When I dove beneath the water and started our swim, I felt her clench me tighter, but it was the Sleara that panicked, not my mate. He scrabbled with his claws against my chest, digging them into my scales with enough force that I felt pinpricks of pain where they penetrated.

Srazz was calmer, freezing in place because he was not new to this despite his dislike for water. Farah held them both, and I worried that the little Buzz would turn his claws on her fragile skin, so I forced myself to greater speed. It made my chest burn and sharp pain lanced through my side; fractured ribs that were complaining under the stress.

I could see the light ahead of us and with a final boost of strength threw us toward the surface and then angled us toward the nearest river bank. Farah released the Sleara from her grip as soon as we came up for air, and on soggy wings he launched himself in the air, indignantly screeching and chirping as he circled over our heads.

Srazz remained with us until he could scamper up the river bank, furiously shaking out his fur and snorting water from his nose. I pushed Farah onto the bank behind him but struggled to pull air into my laboring lungs, panting through pain and dancing spots in my vision. That was worse than I thought it would be, but my mate was fine, that was all that mattered.

“Zeidon, come on, you can do it.” Farah was speaking but it sounded like her voice was coming from far away, her voice frantic as if she’d been talking to me for a while. I felt her small hands beneath my arms as she tried to help pull me out of the water. It wasn’t possible for one so small to move me, I had to do it myself. My tail felt twice as heavy as it should but I curled and wriggled until I was lying face down on a patch of luscious purple grass.

She laid down next to me, curling herself against my arm and rubbing a hand over my shoulders in gentle motions. “Yeah, just rest a moment. That was a tough swim. But we got there! We’re out now. Do you think you can point me in the direction of that Outcast Haven? Where the other humans are? Are we close by?”

I tried to focus on her words and her many questions. Yeah, rest was good. I needed to rest so I could heal, I needed to breathe slowly through this pain in my chest and hope that a rib had not pierced my lung. She said ‘Outcast Haven.’ That was important, but I struggled to make my mind work enough to figure out why. Safety? Help? It was the place she needed to go to if I couldn’t make it, she would be welcome there, and safe.

Rolling over was too much for my burning lungs, and at the back of my mind I also knew that moving too much could aggravate this injury beyond repair. I had to settle for turning my head along the grass, first left, then right. Oh, I knew this place. I recalled that I’d already scouted it out on my first swim, this wasn’t too far from the Haven. But as I calculated the distance in my mind, I knew that I wouldn’t make it. Not with a lot more rest, but the swim had caused more damage to my injured body, I did not know if this would heal on his own.

“Precious Farah,” I whispered as I turned my eyes to her face. If I was not able to heal from this, then I wanted her face to be the last that I saw. “Follow the cliff,” I instructed her, and I flicked a finger weakly at the gray rock that rose to our left, the foot of the mountain was a steeply cut rock wall here and it would curve around toward Ahoshaga. All she had to do was follow it and she would be safe.

I despised how exhausted I was, how weak this injury had made me. I had pulled myself from my den to Ahoshaga before while injured, why couldn’t I do it again? But that had been blood loss, this was an internal injury that was filling my lungs with blood. I could feel it bubble at the back of my throat and fought not to cough and scare my female.