Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Zohr noses me again, his thoughts a mixture of protectiveness and relief. I would say that next time, I will take the lead, but there will be no next time. I will not allow you to put yourself in danger ever again. If I have to fill your belly with my young to get you to hide behind me instead of charging forward, that is what I will do. His eyes gleam gold with pleasure. In fact, I welcome the challenge of such a task.
“Funny how it always comes back to sex with you, chacho,” I murmur, pressing my cheek against his scales. It feels good to just lean against his big dragon body and know that I’m safe.
Always safe with me, my fires. His thoughts are like a warm balm. You are everything to me, my love.
“So what now?”
I thought I told you? I fill your belly with young. His thoughts are both teasing and achingly sweet.
I chuckle and tap my fingers against his scales. “I meant right now right now. Not in the next few weeks. Do we go back and tell the others what we did? Do we run for the hills? What?”
Wherever you want to go, I will follow you. Do you wish to abandon your human friends and their dragons?
“It’s difficult,” I admit. “There’s a part of me that wants to run away and disappear with you. Old habit, I suppose. None of this would have happened if I had kept to myself, you know? But then I wouldn’t have you.” I caress his scales thoughtfully, gazing up into his fierce draconic eyes. I should be terrified of this monstrous, fierce creature, but all I can think about is the soul underneath. He’s not the enemy. He’s my other half. His life has been changed in the After as much as mine has.
I used to think the After was the worst thing possible to ever happen to humanity. To me.
Now, I think it might be the best. It gave me Zohr.
“Let’s go home,” I tell him, getting to my feet.
Home is where? he asks, nuzzling at my hair.
“Wherever we’re together,” I tell him with a smile. “But for now, we should probably go tell Claudia and the others that Azar’s been taken care of. Unless you have other plans?”
You know my plans. And he sends me a barrage of mental images of him and me entwined together that leaves no doubt in my mind what he wants to do.
I giggle. “Always with you and the mating, chacho.” I pretend to be exasperated, but in all reality…I think it’s a great idea. A nice cozy bed, my drakoni mate at my side, and all the time in the world.
It’s a very nice idea, after all.
EPILOGUE
RAST
A female.
Here, in this chaos.
Like a rainstorm cutting through a haze of smoke, my mind clears as I focus in on the scent that calls to me. The madness falls away, leaving me confused as I soar through the air. My wings miss a beat. Two. I manage to catch myself, flapping hard before picking up a fresh air current.
The female’s scent is growing fainter. As it does, the madness threatens to encroach again.
I tilt my wings, circling back, heading toward that elusive scent. It is faint, but I know it is there. Somewhere in this pit of horrors that is this human-infested world, there is a thread of hope. A female to anchor to, to mate with. A female to cherish and protect. To give me purpose.
The scent grows as I return to the old territory, diving lower. Somewhere in the grasses below, she hides. I sweep over the ground, flushing out rabbits and small game. A deer bounds away in the distance, and I snap it up between my jaws, a quick meal before I turn around. No female.
Did I miss her?
I fly over the spot rich with her scent, need and longing filling my thoughts. Where are you? Who are you? My mind is filled with her. She will be red-scaled, I think, her hue screaming of her need for a mate. Her eyes will be fierce and she will look at me with a sultry golden gaze before attacking. The thought fills me with pleasure and hunger both. Ah, how I long for conquest. It is the only sane thing in this world, it seems.
I land, and when there is yet no sign of the female, I lower my nose to the grasses and follow the scent. It is older, I think. Several days old. She will be nearby, then. I move along the ground, tracing her scent until I find…it.
A…skin? No, it is made of some sort of fibrous material. A cloth of some kind. A bandage? I do not know. All I know is that it carries the scent of her cunt, as if it has been clasped between her legs. She is…not drakoni.