Naomi Lucas
Turn the page for King Cobra, Naga Brides Book Two!
King Cobra Blurb
Daisy. Daisy. Daisy.
From the moment her name is spoken, it is all I can hear. Her frightened tears bring me anger. I vow to wipe them off her face and banish her fear. To make her my queen.
But I have to catch her first.
I have to convince her to trust me.
I have to show her she is safe.
But only with me.
Because if any other naga male tries to take Daisy away from me, I will kill them.
And if she runs?
She’ll find out there’s no escape.
I’ve paid the price to mate her, and she needs to know a gilded nest is better than freedom in my world.
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King Cobra
Naga Brides Book 2
King Cobra, Chapter One:
Daisy
Gemma yanks my arm and I stumble forward, my boots catching over a bush. Not getting a chance to catch my footing, I trip and Gemma twists back, helping me rise.
“Don’t stop,” she gasps, eyes wildy looking around. “We can’t let them gain on us!” She turns and runs.
Panting, I take after her through the trees but lose her.
“Gemma,” I wheeze, bracing against a tree.
She comes back, grabs my arm again, and we keep running.
The forest is thick, filled with so much overgrowth, it’s hard to move through it. Leaves, branches, thorns from alien plants abrade and rip at my clothes and exposed skin. Rasping, haggard breaths push my lungs to their limits and still I can’t keep up with Gemma.
She’s fierce, a fighter. She would have made a great soldier.
Communications Officer, Gemma, like me, is being traded to alien men for the tech they have in their possession. Gemma’s presence is the only thing giving me the slightest hope of rescue right now. If she’s here, someone on the Dreadnaut will notice she’s gone.
Because I won’t be missed…
Someone dishonorable like me? Piloting the first team down to our homeworld? It was legendary. I was going to be planetside for the first time in years and it was going to be on Earth of all planets.
My boots catch again as the land slopes sharply and we both have to pause, eyeing the trek downward. I don’t know where we’re going, only that Gemma’s taken the lead.
“It’s not safe,” I croak, staring at the sharp ledge downward, the trees between us and the top. “We’ll never make it.” It’s almost too painful to speak.
“We have to try!” She takes off to the tree nearest to her and flings her body against the trunk. She does it again, bracing her feet at an angle to stop from tumbling forward. From one tree to the next, she slowly makes her way down the mountainside.
Setting off after her, I take it slow at first, shunting from one tree to the next. I see her reach the bottom, way ahead of me, and she glances back. “Daisy! You can do it!” she shouts.
I flinch, fall into another tree.
Something snaps behind me, I hear a breathy hiss.
No!
Pushing myself off the tree, I stumble to the next one and slip.
Screaming, I fall forward, tumbling down the slope, crashing against the side of a bush. Sprawled out, I stare at the branches above, stunned. Pain shoots up my side as Gemma’s face appears above me and she tugs me to my feet. My long hair snags on the bush’s branches and rips from my scalp.
“Come on, Daisy, you can do it!”
I don’t know how long we’ve been running or how far we’ve gone, only that the shadows are thickening. We started running when the Earth’s sun was at its zenith, when Peter and Collins dragged us out of the skiff, only to take a box from the large alien male who made all of this happen, and then flew away, leaving Gemma and I at the mercy of the alien and his friends.
The big, scary one had come right up to me. I nearly relieved my bladder from terror. He leaned down, looked directly into my eyes, and scowled.
He scowled like he was furious at what Peter and Collins presented him with, me. As if he knew I was a cast-off of my people. And all I could do was stare, even when Gemma grasped my hand and jerked me behind her, all I could do was stare.
Because for how giant and frightening the alien was, he smelled really, really good.
He said something to Gemma, Gemma said something back, and then we started running.
I hear a crashing noise behind us and Gemma sprints forward, leaving me behind. Pain radiating my chest, I try to keep up. I can’t lose her. She’s the only thing keeping me from losing my ever-living mind.
The noises grow louder. A tear rips from my eye.
I can feel hands grabbing at me, catching my hair, and capturing me. I’m about to scream for her when I run into her back. She stumbles forward as we nearly tumble to the ground. I shout, dropping to my knees.
She grabs my shoulder and squeezes and I almost lose it.
“We have to climb,” she gasps. “Go!”
I look up to see what she means. Right before us is a ledge and a short rocky slope of boulders. It’s the only way we can go.
The sounds of pursuit grow louder. They’re coming from multiple directions. I snap to my feet and take to the ledge. Gemma catches my foot and hauls me up.
Pivoting back to grab her hand, something yanks me off the ground.
No!
I don’t get a chance to scream as Gemma gets smaller and smaller below me. But then she’s gone and my hair whips across my face as I’m jerked brutally around and into a hard, muscled chest, my legs flailing everywhere. Pain lashes my side as a thick arm presses hard against it. The scent of musk invades my nose as I see trees blur past me.
The smell makes me vomit.
My arm snaps back when we go flying through the air.
