To Mate a Dragon
Venys Needs Men
Naomi Lucas
Contents
Blurb
Venys - Land of the Comet Map
1. The Coming Storm
2. The Downpour and the Dragon
3. Zaeyr Surfaces
4. Facing an Alpha Dragon
5. Zaeyr Loses All
6. Aida Drags Home a Dragon
7. Dragon Desires
8. Zaeyr in Heat
9. The Elders
10. Sleeping with Dragons
11. Mating a Human
12. Delina and Zaeyr
13. Red Comet Rays
14. The Chase
15. Submission
16. The Journey Home
17. Accusations
18. Mine
19. The Final Night
20. Loving a Dragon
21. A Future Full of Dragons
22. Mating Ritual
Epilogue: Aida’s Paradise
Author’s Note
To Touch a Dragon
Venys Needs Men Collaboration
Also by Naomi Lucas
Copyright © 2020 of Naomi Lucas
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission in writing from the author.
Any references to names, places, locales, and events are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, or events is purely coincidental.
Edited by Mandi B., and LY
Created with Vellum
To Tiffany Roberts, Amanda Milo, and Poppy Rhys. Because you guys are the best!
Blurb
The human race is dying under the red comet soaring through the skies above...and with it, the sounds of dragons are in the air.
My name is Aida, and I was destined to lead the Sand’s Hunter tribe into a new generation—promised to mate with one of the last born males along the Mermaid Coast. But before Leith was delivered to my tribe, my younger sister came of age and the elders chose her to be his mate instead.
Then a messenger came from the north with rumors of dragons turning into virile males from a single, human touch. Fresh hope blossoms within me as I plan to reclaim my rightful place as future matriarch to my people, and with that hope, I ready my supplies to hunt down one of these dragons to make my own. To touch him, to claim him, to take his seed and honor my people with a new generation.
But a storm is on the horizon.
And with that storm, soars an alpha dragon in heat. He’s heading straight for me.
He sees me.
All my plans crumble under his dark draconian stare.
1
The Coming Storm
Laughter fills my ears.
So much laughter. I long to join in but my sorrow weighs heavy on my heart. Everyone in my tribe is joyful but me, and they know it. They ignore my hurt because it’s easier, and not wanting to be a burden, I try and ignore it too.
A breeze hits my skin, and a streak of red shines down upon me as the clouds move overhead. I glimpse the comet.
Many weeks ago, the red comet appeared in the sky above, lighting the land with a faint sanguine glow. A hush had fallen across the tribe as we gazed up at it, knowing its meaning.
Change. Wild, unpredictable change. That’s what the comet means.
When it first appeared, long, long ago, even before my ancestors traveled to the Mermaid Gulf and settled down, joining with an established tribe already settled here, was the day the world twisted. Or so the stories go…
Our people didn’t realize what it would do to us until many years later. But generation after generation, our peoples’ ability to produce males diminishes evermore. Each generation is worse than the last.
This curse didn’t only strike us, but the other creatures living across Venys. Many only produce female offspring as well. We know because our cattle are predominantly female and the merfolk say they have felt it too; though because they live long lives, many of their males are still around.
Now, the red comet comes every couple of generations to plague us anew. What will it mean for us this time?
Are things going to get worse? I sigh.
I check the ties of my net instead, testing them with my fingers. The net is not as large as I would like it to be—not for the journey I have planned—but it’s the best one I have.
One thing is certain, I note, biting down on my tongue, pulling at the net. A change is in the air.
A week ago a messenger came down from the north, telling tales of a huntress finding a dragon. A dragon! A rare beast of old that my elders say they haven’t seen since they left the wastes.
And sacrificing herself, the huntress went out to lure the dragon away from her tribe’s hunting grounds. But when she went up to it—while it was slumbering—she touched the dragon’s hide, and when she did, a fateful change happened. The dragon turned into a powerful, strong, human male.
I didn’t believe it. No one in the tribe did… until the messenger said she was looking to invoke a mating pact with a tribe along the coast, for the child coming from the union of the huntress and dragon.
A rare male child, or so this dragon male proclaimed to the tribe he now lives with. Such a mating pact is a rare and special event—one that ties tribes together for generations to come.
It is not done lightly. It was then I believed.
After the messenger left, shrieking calls assaulted the land and the sky. The wails of a giant beast somewhere off in the jungle wilds bordering my home. Calls that my people have not heard since before my birth.
The calls of a dragon seeking a mate.
Perhaps… Maybe, maybe these dragons are the salvation for my people.
Which is why I’m preparing this net, planning to catch one for myself.
I have to try. If not to prove my worth to my people, to at least see for myself if this hope inside me is real. I will never forgive myself if it is, and I did nothing…
Giggles prick my ears. Looking up, I see Delina nearby in Leith’s arms. He’s kissing her neck.
A thorn of pain pierces my heart. Leith was to be my promised mate, the last male born in
