Captured by the Alien Warrior Read online

  My eyes sting. “I…I never had a mother,” I say. “But I think yours would be proud of you. For not making the people here pay for what their ancestors did.”

  He’s silent for a long moment, and I sigh. So when Dragix found me with Alexis, he’d just come from slaughtering the Zintas who would have killed us, or worse. Then he found me talking to one of the people who he still holds responsible for centuries of being alone.

  “You acted like a jackass,” I say. “But I get it.”

  His eyes widen slightly at that.

  “I need you to promise me something,” I continue, and he stays silent, his eyes on my face. “I need you to promise that you won’t hurt the other human women. Or scare them.”

  His jaw tightens. “I told you I do not hurt females.”

  “I know, but if I see any of the other women again, I need you to try not to scare the hell out of them either.”

  He’s silent for a long moment. “And the Braxians?”

  “If you really need to swing your dick around, you can scare them. But no eating them.”

  “If I do this, you will be…pleased with me?”

  I blow out a breath. “Yes. If you don’t scare my friends, I will be pleased with you. Alexis is a nice woman, and she just wanted to talk to me. If you act like you could eat people at any moment, they’re going to think that I’m not safe with you.”

  His expression darkens. “I do not care what they think.”

  “I do.”

  Liquid-gold eyes examine my face as he considers it.

  “Fine,” he says finally, and I feel my shoulders relax.

  While I’ve got him in such an agreeable mood…

  “I want to go see the other women.”

  “No.”

  “Dragix—”

  He bares his teeth at me, and I frown at him. Obviously he’s not feeling as agreeable as I thought.

  “Why do you wish to leave me? Have I not kept you safe? Seared your food? Given you clothing?”

  Over the past few weeks, I’ve learned a lot about this dragon. And one thing I’ve learned is that he’s possessive as hell. What’s his is his. He speaks of his lair. His territory. His Maez. And once, I heard him call me his Charlie.

  I don’t know how much of this trait is a dragon thing—after all, he’s used to being the king around here—and how much is just…Dragix.

  “You have,” I say gently. “And if I haven’t seemed grateful, I’m sorry. I really do appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Even if you did steal me in the first place.”

  He stares back at me, zero shame or remorse in his expression.

  I almost laugh. “But humans can’t be owned, Dragix. I’m not a pet. I have free will, and I want to be able to at least talk to some of the women I came here with.”

  “You are…lonely. I will spend more time with you.”

  I sigh. “That’s not it, Dragix.”

  He moves closer. “You are disappointed with me.”

  “I don’t know how to explain to you that you can’t just take someone and keep them.”

  The lack of understanding in his eyes is all the confirmation I need. He believes he can. After all, he did.

  I turn to go, and he pulls me back, setting me on my rock and then moving back to his spot.

  “I cannot let you go to them, Charlie,” he explains as if I’m a small child, and I grind my teeth. “The Braxians are my enemies. What if they decide to keep you?”

  “Do you truly think I’d let that happen? Besides, I thought they had a code of honor?”

  “You may decide to stay.”

  “I won’t.”

  He’s silent for a long moment. “I will think on what you have said. I do not think you are a…pet.”

  I smile at that, but it feels like a sad smile. Then he smiles back.

  “I find that I now understand why you spend so much time in these pools,” he murmurs. “I am very…relaxed.”

  It’s a blatant change of subject, but I have a feeling that the dragon has compromised as much as he’s going to today.

  I examine his face. From the look in his eyes, if I glanced beneath the water, I’d find that he’s anything but relaxed.

  “Yes,” I say. “On that note, I’ll leave you to your bath.”

  “You interrupted my bathing,” he says. “You must give me something in exchange.”

  “Oh please,” I say. “Get ahold of yourself.”

  He glances down beneath the water, and I slide off my rock, backing away. “I don’t mean literally.”

  The puzzlement on his face is replaced by humor. “I would rather get ahold of you.”

  And then he pounces.

  I squeal and dart to the side, but he’s already anticipated my movement, and in the blink of an eye, he’s holding his arms on either side of me, caging me in.

  Ben stands in front of me, trapping me against the wall. “You should know better than to run from me,” he snarls.

  “Charlie. Charlie!” Dragix’s voice is harsh, and I realize I’m shaking, suddenly freezing in the warm water.

  “I’m okay.”

  “Why do you smell like terror?” He frowns. “Do you believe I’d hurt you?” The expression in his eyes is suddenly wounded, and I put my hands flat on his chest.

  He’s hot. So hot. And I’m so cold.

  “No,” I say, and I’m not lying. Somehow, over the past few weeks, I’ve learned to trust this dragon not to hurt me. It’s ludicrous considering my past, but I trust the biggest predator of them all more than I trust human men.

  “Then what is it?”

  “My…ex. He used to trap me like this.” I nod at his arms, and he instantly removes them.

  He frowns, and I realize he doesn’t get it. And why would he when he was raised by parents who taught him not to hurt women, even if you hold them personally responsible for your own family’s deaths?

  “He hurt me,” I say, and his eyes blaze with fury. “And no, I don’t want to talk about it. But that’s why.”

  He stares at me, and I go to move away. Whatever weird moment we had going on here has disappeared. The lust in his eyes has been replaced with…pity.

  It makes me grind my teeth.

  “I don’t think so,” Dragix says as I go to scoot past him. “You still owe me.”

  I narrow my eyes at him, and he narrows his back.

  “And what, exactly, do I owe you?”

  “You interrupted my bath.”

  I roll my eyes. “For a man who hasn’t used these pools in centuries, you’re suddenly awfully possessive of your ‘me time.’”

  He ignores that. “And you’re wearing clothes in the water.”

  “Because you pulled me in!” I can’t help but laugh at the sheer ludicrousness of his argument, and his eyes flare at the sound.

  “I like your laugh,” he announces. “Do that again.”

  His mouth is close to mine, and I can’t help it. I do exactly what I’ve wanted to do since the moment he shifted into a man.

  I reach behind his head and pull his lips to mine.

  He freezes, and I jolt away. “Oh God, did you not want to—I’m sorry.”

  He moves with me, but this time I don’t feel caged. Now I just feel completely mortified.

  “You touched your lips to mine.”

  “Yeah, look, I’m sorry. I obviously got the wrong idea.” My cheeks are hot with mortification.

  “Do it again.”

  I frown at him. “Kiss you…again?” He sure didn’t seem to like the first time.

  “Kiss…” He lingers over the word like it’s a fine wine, and my mouth drops open.

  His gaze instantly drops back to my lips.

  “You’ve never…kissed anyone before?”

  “My people do not do this.” His eyes are gold flames as he brings them back to mine. “I do not know why.”

  I’m definitely getting in over my head here.

  He moves closer still, and this time, he’s
the one who presses his lips to mine. He pauses, unsure of what comes next, and I sigh against his warm, firm lips. I brush my lips against his. Once. Twice. And then I lick his bottom lip, and he goes even more still against me.

  “Is that okay?” I breathe against him, my body suddenly languid, overheated. We’ve done nothing except press our lips together, but the feel of him around me, the hunger in his eyes…

  “More,” he orders against my lips, and I can’t help but let out a giddy laugh as I comply. I’m teaching a dragon how to kiss. How the hell did this happen?

  I stroke my tongue against his lips again, and this time, he opens his mouth with a growl. He trembles against me as I brush his tongue with mine, and then he buries his hand in my hair and takes over, angling his mouth against mine as he thrusts his tongue into my mouth. I moan, and he growls back. I’m not sure which one of us is shaking more, but his other hand drops to my breast, finding my hard nipple and rolling it as I groan.

  What am I doing?

  I pull away, and Dragix lowers his head to follow me, but I put one hand on his chest.

  “It’s a little too hot in here,” I say.

  He inhales, and the temperature drops several degrees. I laugh. I’d forgotten about that little trick.

  “That’s not what I meant. I need to go and get dressed. I’m going to pick some berries. I’ll see you later.”

  He frowns but doesn’t stop me as I haul myself out of the water. I wring out my clothes and then step gratefully into the cool of the mountain.

  What is wrong with me? Have I learned nothing from my experience with Ben? Or am I just a walking, talking victim who can’t help but fall for overly possessive, dangerous men?

  Men who believe I belong to them.

  I made a promise to myself when I left Ben. A promise that I would never allow myself to end up in the same situation again.

  I laugh, and my voice breaks. And here I am, cozying up to the dragon who stole me.

  The worst part? He’s trying. Unlike Ben, he truly doesn’t understand the idea of autonomy. He doesn’t get that I wasn’t put on this planet to entertain him. Because centuries of experience have taught him otherwise.

  Ben was a sociopath. He chipped away at my confidence, my sense of self, for years. Until I forgot that I could be free. That I didn’t have to live in fear. That I was worth something.

  Dragix isn’t a sociopath. At least, I don’t think so. He’s a different creature entirely. And he may try to see that I’m a person with free will, but he doesn’t get it. He may never get it.

  One kiss doesn’t change that. Even if I melted for him.

  I deserve better.

  Dragix

  After I finish bathing, I find myself restless. Usually, I would take to the skies, but I don’t wish to leave Charlie, who is sitting in the shade on top of my mountain. Her eyes are on the trees below us, but they’re blank, her mind elsewhere. Every part of her body is closed off, her shoulders hunched, arms crossed as she ignores me.

  Fine.

  I turn and walk back down into my lair.

  I find myself in Ezra’s room.

  My sister would know what to say to me if she were here. She would laugh and explain the nuances that I don’t understand. Of the two of us, she spent more time in her two-leg form and would often study the Braxians and other two-legs on this planet.

  I miss her.

  “I’m sorry,” Maez says as she walks in, a bundle of clothes in her arms. “I didn’t know you were in here.”

  I step back as she places the clothes on the bed and opens one of the large chests. She laughs at what she finds.

  “Did you know Charlie was collecting these?”

  I survey the chest, which has few clothes left, most of the space taken up by my…scales.

  The sight makes something in my chest tighten. Charlie does not know that my scales are used as armor on this planet. Does not know that she could sell these and live like a queen on Agron. The first time I lost a scale when we were flying, she made me land so she could pick it up. She insisted it was pretty.

  It does something to me. To see her collecting these small, discarded pieces of me.

  “I did not.”

  Maez glances up at my face and then wisely chooses not to comment, opening another chest and placing the bundle in there instead. She keeps her eyes on the clothes and her voice low.

  “Charlie has taught you more in days than you have learned in centuries. I’m happy to see you more like yourself. I have…missed the Dragix that I knew.”

  I examine her face. “I am sorry that I forgot I have this form. That I forgot who I was.”

  She glances up at me and then away, her dark hair falling over her purple skin. Seeing that movement, it reminds me of someone.

  “Where is your mother?”

  She stills. “You don’t remember?”

  “No.” It is difficult for me to admit, and Maez pretends to ignore the gaps in my memory.

  “When I was of age, she allowed me to take over from her. Once I had completed the oath, she moved to Sebe with my father.”

  I remember now. The blood oath allows her people to be as long-lived as dragons. Maez’s family have served my family for centuries, choosing to pass on the position when they want to grow old with those they love.

  What would that be like? I push the thought away.

  “Tell her…tell her thank you.” Maez’s mother served me during the years when I was most alone, before I chose to spend all my time in my winged form. It is likely only due to the blood oath I have had with her people that I did not go insane during the long centuries I spent alone.

  “I will.”

  Chapter Eight

  Charlie

  It’s so hot today that I spend most of the afternoon napping in the cooler temperature of the lair.

  Finally, when I start moving around, I find Dragix and beg him to take me to the river.

  Hopefully, the water is just as cold as it was on the day that he showed me the hot pools.

  He gazes at me, still in dragon form, and then nods his head. Neither of us has mentioned our kiss, although I often turn to find Dragix’s hot eyes on me, as if he’s ready to pick up right where we left off.

  Surprisingly, Dragix doesn’t love the heat either. I’m assuming that’s why he spends most of his time on this mountain. While he can bask in the sun during the day, we’re high enough up to still get a refreshing breeze, and the inside of the lair stays relatively cool even on the warmest days.

  Over the past few days, he’s spent most of his time in his dragon form. I don’t know if it’s because he tolerates the heat better in that form or if it’s because it makes it easier for him to avoid me.

  Whatever it is, he seems to become more…aloof as he spends more time in that form. More…predatory.

  I don’t like it.

  He tilts his head, gesturing for me to come closer, and I step forward as he picks me up and places me on his back. He waits until I’ve hooked my legs around his neck, holding on to his horns. I’ve thought about riding further down, closer to the top of his back, but there’s nothing to hold on to there.

  “Does it hurt your neck when I sit here?” I ask suddenly, and Dragix snorts as he crouches, readying himself to shoot into the sky.

  “Of course not. Your weight is minute. I would pay the same attention to an insect on my back.”

  “Wow, thanks for that.”

  He rumbles, and I realize he’s making fun of me.

  He stays in dragon form once we land, and I pad toward the river.

  I raise my eyebrow at him. “You’re not getting in?”

  “No.”

  “Your loss.”

  I brought one of the long pieces of material that I use as towels with me, and I lay it over one of the rocks so it’ll be warmed from the sun.

  Then I glance at the river, at Dragix, and back again.

  He angles his head, his eyes on my face.

  “Wh
at is it?”

  “I really want to strip off and jump in.”

  He displays his teeth, eyes dancing, and I realize he’s giving me the dragon version of a shit-eating grin.

  “Go right ahead.”

  I scowl at him. “You have to promise not to look.”

  A gust of warm wind hits me as he sighs. Then he’s the one who glances between the river and my body.

  “You plan to splash in that water unclothed and yet I cannot watch?”

  “That’s right.”

  He squints his eyes at me.

  “This does not seem fair. I brought you to the cool water, and I don’t even get rewarded with the sight of you enjoying it?”

  I glower at him. “Life isn’t fair, buddy.”

  I ignore what it does to my heart when he teases me. After the last few days of him ignoring me and me tiptoeing around while attempting to avoid thinking about that kiss, the amusement in his eyes is like a drug.

  “Fine,” he says with a huff. Then he curls up in the sun, the forest at his back, and angles his head away from me, facing the forest instead.

  “Thank you.”

  It feels weird being naked outside. But not weird enough to stop me from pulling off my clothes and striding into the river.

  The water is cold but not quite as bitterly cold as it was last time. It laps over my feet, and I sigh as I sink down into the water, shivering slightly as it hits my shoulders.

  The sun beats down overhead, and I splash some of the cool water up my neck, sighing again at the relief from the hot weather.

  “You are making the most interesting noises.”

  I glance over my shoulder, but Dragix is still facing away from me.

  “You can get in here and feel why yourself as soon as I’m done.”

  He snorts.

  I turn back to the river and shriek, crouching behind a huge rock. A woman is staring at me. A human woman from the ship. Ivy. I remember her because she helped me with my head wound. And she’s walking hand in hand with a Braxian.

  “You son of a bitch,” I say. “You couldn’t tell me they were coming?”

  Dragix yawns, showing off his sharp teeth as he eyes our visitors. The Braxian is carefully keeping his eyes averted, and Dragix’s gaze lingers on him for a long moment.