“Stop!” I snap. “You will alert othersss to our location.”
“Let me go,” she cries when I lower my hand from her mouth. “I won’t be your plaything!”
I catch her fist before she slams it into my face and hold it tight, trapping her other arm next. She struggles until her burst of energy leaves her. I watch it happen, and the clarity of her situation returning to her eyes.
She’s panting and stiff—fear and confusion etched across her face—when I loosen my hold. When she doesn’t start hitting me, yelling, or trying to get away, I slowly relax. She doesn’t, I notice. I miss her pliant body lying against me.
How fleeting it was.
She’s watching me with fear and defiance, her confusion diminishing. She tries to curl her limbs into herself and make herself small, but the space we’re in doesn’t allow it. No matter where she moves, my tail is pressed up against her, holding her open for my secret perusal.
If only she were naked…
I would like bare flesh on my scales.
I can’t believe she’s here.
She glares at me when she’s done searching for a way to escape from my limbs.
“I won’t let you go,” I say.
“I know that now.” Still, she scoots her feet closer, her knees to her chest. “I’ve forgotten…”
“Forgotten what?”
“That I don’t want to escape.”
I go still. Has she…? Has she accepted me? Chosen me? I can hardly believe it after she tore into me, but perhaps I scared her. She did wake up in a new place and in the dark. “You will not fight me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
My eyes narrow. “Then you have not accepted what’s between usss.”
“There’s nothing between us. I don’t even know you. I don’t know what you plan on doing to me…” she trails off.
So she doesn’t know. Her males have kept her in the dark.
I puff out my chest. “I will give you shelter, food, clothing, and a place to nest,” I announce. “A home where the monsters of this world cannot reach you or our future brood. I will provide everything you need and protect you.”
“Monsters?” Her eyes shift to the darkness outside our small shelter, straining her neck. “Brood?”
I slip my claws along the column of her throat. “Do not be afraid. They cannot get to you now that you are with me.”
She tears off my hand and shakes her head, grabbing it, burying her face in her hands. A dry sob escapes, and it hollows out my gut. I reach for her, but she shies away from my touch.
“I won’t let them hurt you,” I tell her, softening my voice.
She cries harder, shaking and rubbing her eyes. It re-emphasizes how tiny she is compared to me. She was the tallest human on the plateau, taller than even the human men. Yet, next to me, she is small. She is not safe in this world of mine, and she doesn’t belong. She belongs in the sky, among the stars, where all hope and dreams thrive.
But she’s here now, and I won’t let her go. She will get used to it. I will help her.
I will be her protector.
She cries for a time, and I sway part of my tail to pet her in comfort. Her sniffles are the only noise breaking the quiet night. I wait, knowing she needs this. She cannot accept the future if she does not grieve the past.
An hour passes before her tears dry.
When she wipes her nose on her sleeve and looks at me, I know she’s done.
“I vow it,” I tell her. “Nothing will hurt you as long as you are with me.”
For I am strong and vicious, and a master against anything that might lurk in these woods. She will come to see this soon.
“It’s not that.” Her voice hitches. “I had a life, a job, ambition—and then some fuckers took that all away from me like I don’t matter, like I’m just a bargaining chip. And for what? Technology that may or may not help us with the Ketts? For something we may have discovered ourselves in due time?” Her voice gains steam. “Fuck them. Fuck Peter, fuck all of them. And to think I was friends with Peter? I thought he was a good boss, a good man—”
I grunt. If I see this Peter again, I will stab him with my spear.
“—and he does the worst, most cowardly thing a man in his position could do: force others to make all the sacrifices. I hate him. I hate all of them.”
“You’re better off with me, sssafer with me.” Yesss, I coo, petting her hair.
“Am I, though?” Her voice lowers, her fury vanishing. “Are you going to rape me?” she whispers, hugging her arms tighter.
Rape? She thinks I would rape her? “I will have you,” I growl. “I will have you in every way. But I will not rape you.”
She looks away. “Then you will never have me.”
My anger ignites. “You deny us? Still? I have caught you. You belong to me now! You ran and I caught you, my bride. Baring yourself to me and giving yourself over to my protection is all that is left!” I want to grab her, pull her to me, and shake her with sense. “It is what I have won! What I am owed!”
Her face shudders in shadows. “I owe you nothing. I didn’t choose you.”
I slam my hand against the side of the shelter. It goes through the metal with a pop, sending the metal around it crumbling down. How dare she? How dare she deny me? She thinks she can have my protection for nothing in return? She thinks her actions will not have consequences?
“Mates fuck,” I snarl, jerking my hand back. Her eyes widen. “They fuck,” I say again, feeling my member pulse under my scales. “You understand this.”
“Vruksha is it?” Her voice is hesitant, low. I nod. “Just
