Chapter One
Celeste
There was a rush in the air as we all stood in line, waiting to be chosen by a pack of gorgeous Weredragons. I’d been waiting for weeks to slip my hand into the scaled claws of one of the rugged men who were lined up in front of me, and now the day was finally here.
Only, it seemed my Weredragon choice wasn’t as fond of me as I was of him.
“Pleased to meet you,” I said, extending my hand to his as he looked down at it with little expression. I offered him a wry grin; people told me I was endlessly charming, and I foolishly thought it would help me in this situation.
“Sigisvult,” the alien shifter introduced as he shook my hand.
I was the second girl chosen in a line of girls who had pledged their allegiance to Riddell, an Earth organization that had unified with planet Udora. Part of this peaceful unification involved women pledging themselves yearly to the Weredragons to be chosen at mates to help repopulate their planet.
I was more than willing to participate.
“So,” I said clumsily and all but batted my eyes. “Welcome to life as my partner. I hate to be presumptuous, but I think it’s safe to say you’re going to enjoy living with me.”
He blinked and cocked a brow. “Is that so?”
“That is so,” I enunciated, feeling pretty confident that I was looking pretty adorable by now. I had no issues with confidence. I adorned my small body in a white lace dress that stopped just below my knees. I wore a crystal sash, and my hair was in a mess of red curls, a crystal headband tied carefully across my forehead. I wanted this to be just like a wedding day.
“Hm,” was all he said and his eyes quickly
“Not happy on this here, your faux wedding day?”
“Weredragons don’t have weddings,” he snapped.
“Yeah,” I shrugged. “But this has gotta be a close second. Besides, I’m a girl. So, you basically have to give me this one. Otherwise, I might never have a wedding and… Just, no.”
“Who’s to say you won’t be married at some point?”
“Uh.” I blinked. “Well, this whole arrangement is pretty much guaranteeing that, I thought.”
He shrugged and flashed me a perfect smile, his fangs bared and making me feel oh so attracted to his unique features. But, then he spoke again.
“Maybe you’ll get married once we’re done.”
“To you?”
He glared at me as if I were an idiot and shook his head.
“Why would I do that?” I laughed nervously.
“Well, once you bare a couple of my children I can release you if you like. If it’s that important to you.”
I raised my brows in utter shock and couldn’t help my jaw from nearly falling to the floor. “I thought…” I bit my lip. “I thought Weredragons mated for life.”
He raised his brows in surprise at the statement and then let out a casual chuckle. I frowned. Perhaps not exactly what I was expecting. I couldn’t deny that he was everything I was promised: tall, muscular, broad shoulders. He had dark, curly hair that fell to his neck and dark scruff covered his face and traced the cleft in his chin. I stared into his dark hazel eyes and saw the curve of his wide nose bridge.
He was just perfect… to look at, anyway.
Manners and charm could use some upgrading.
Still, I took my spot next to him and exchanged giddy glances with the girls who slowly piled into my row with their new shifter mates. We’d all been so excited to go to this new planet, to become mothers and mates to the sexual beings beside us. I’d pretty much wanted to sleep with a Weredragon since puberty. They were so rugged and enticing, so strange and different.
Even though it was a contract, of sorts, I couldn’t help but get a rush when I thought of how I might be treated on Udora. I wanted to be treated like a queen, a savior of their race.
“Sign me up for some of that,” a blonde participant said to me as she took her place beside me. Her name was Adalynn and we’d both been crushing on our potential mates for months now. “Is it bad that I want to get this pregnancy going as soon as possible?”
“The pregnancy or the process?” I teased.
She snorted into her hands and looked up at me with bashful eyes. “The process,” she continued to giggle.
“Skank,” I whispered with humor on my tongue. “Go get ‘em.”
We both laughed and watched the unique experience unfold before us. Dragons would rush up to the line of beautiful, educated women before them and with a large ‘whoosh!’ they would be back in the lineup. The shifters had scales that cascaded over their bodies in beautiful patterns. These would light up as they spotted the woman of their choice.
Zaphira told us this lighting was meant to signal that they could feel deep in their soul that they were already connected to their chosen one. Adalynn had been chosen by a gorgeous Weredragon with swarthy skin and beautiful purple scutes running down his body. His wings were large and powerful, his scales glowing with lust and love every time he looked at her.
I looked over at Sigisvult and couldn’t help but notice there was nothing glowing about him. He wasn’t even smiling.
I didn’t know if this was odd or unusual… but it unsettled me deep in my core.
After the rest of the Weredragons had chosen, we were all ushered into the glass hallways of the Riddell command center. They wanted us to fill out paperwork, of all things. As we made our way through the chilly halls of the government establishment, I just couldn’t help myself any longer. “Hey, big guy,” I whispered to my blue scaled boyfriend.
He looked down at me with a smile, though looked unimpressed. “Yeah?”
“Kiss me,” I demanded, and he grinned in compliance.
He grabbed the curve of my jawline in his hand and tilted my head up, taking my lips into his and engaging in a battle of kisses, both our mouths fighting for dominance over the other. He flicked his tongue into my mouth and sent a white-hot sensation through my whole body. When the kiss broke, he stared down at me with big eyes that seemed to refocus out of their lustful gaze.
He smiled, and so did I.
If nothing else, at least we knew that part worked.
And then it all went black.
A moment… A brief, indefinite interval of time. A period of importance, influence, or significance in a series of events. A moment was happening right now, and it wasn’t romantic… it was terrifying.
The lights in the building crackled above us and everything went dark, the loud sounds of a crash or an explosion filling my ears and surging a panic through my body that was so real I nearly collapsed. Shouts and screams from the crew and chosen ones filled the room with dread.
I screamed out for Sigisvult and then for Zaphira, but the ringing in my ears prevented any noise from coming through. I crouched down to the ground and only then realized the windows had shattered, glass covering my hands and scraping against my knees as I crawled along the marble floors.
The room was dark and hollow, with smoke billowing everywhere. I could feel bodies being pushed up against me, felt the ground moving as though on wheels. I shifted to try and see through the darkness before weakly grabbing at the person next to me, tiredly asking for Sigisvult. I was greeted with a woman’s whispered voice instructing me to stay quiet.
Light finally shone through the slats of the windows, illuminating the dimly lit room. There were agonizing minutes of silence and a song of hushed breathing shared by the lot of us before I felt a cold, slick hand land on my shoulder.
It was Sigisvult.
“It’s the rebels,” he said as he plucked me up into his arms and gripped me tightly. “Come on, let’s go.”
With one gust, his wings emerged and we flew to the front of the pack.
The next few hours were another blur before we were crammed into a safe house with Zaphira barking orders. She was the leader of Riddell, and there had been rumors of a rebel group on Udora for many years now. The rebels wanted to break away from the alliance with Earth.
“This is it!” she yelled, slamming her hand down on the glass table with fury and looking up at Galsthenn, a white Weredragon with blue eyes. He had taken over the Koth years ago now and made their big decisions.
I blinked in surprise at Zaphira’s outburst. She pointed to the commanding shifter and yelled, “We’ve had enough! This gets taken care of, or it’s over! This!”
She gestured around the room at the couples who had paired off together, the shifters now holding their women tightly. I noticed Sigisvult’s hands were nowhere near me as he listened intently.
“This is it,” the raven-haired leader reiterated.
“We understand,” Galsthenn said with no loss of professionalism in his tone and body language.
“This is the last batch you get. We won’t put any other girls in danger with this bullshit,” she seethed.
Galsthenn seemed to twitch at the harsh words and grit his teeth before standing from the table. “It’s being handled.”
“That’s what you’ve been saying for years.”
The white Koth leader gave the director a pointed look and nodded. “I said it’s being handled. We will give the women the option to stay on Earth with our shifters for the time being, but as soon as they become pregnant, we need to collect the child.”
This seemed to strike a nerve with Zaphira and her lips curved up into a wicked smile, annoyance washing over her features. “So be it,” was all she said.
I looked to Sigisvult with big doe eyes and he looked back at me, both unsure of how to proceed. There hadn’t been a disruption in a choosing ceremony since… Well, in my 21 years I’d never heard of it before.
The deep blue dragon put his arm around me and leaned down to meet my ear. “I’m not sure how comfortable I am staying here.” By ‘here,' I knew he meant Earth.
Yet another sign of his lack of chivalry.
“I’m fine going back to Udora,” I said simply, and my shifter seemed to appreciate the thought.
“So long as you’re fine with it,” he said slowly, his eyes making their way around the room with purpose. With that, he grabbed my hand, and we took our leave from the politics.