DR. ADRIANA ADAMS
Crash! I fell hard against the wall, as I was thrown about the Drackon spaceship known as the Beti.
“Strap yourself in, Adriana!” Mordikye, the weredragon warrior, shouted at me in anger.
“Don’t hurt him! Please! I beg you!” I shouted as I held onto the walls, trying to make my way over to Mordikye to plead with him not to fire on Terik’s ship.
“Strap her in!” Mordikye shouted to one of his crew warriors.
“Yes, Captain!” the warrior replied as he grabbed me forcibly by my arms and lifted me off the ground. I landed with a thud into the seat as the weredragon warrior loomed over me and buckled me in. Tears were flowing out of my eyes, making my vision blurry, as I stared out the windshield of the spacecraft. In front of our ship was another smaller but faster ship maneuvering wildly from side to side in evasive action.
“Get ready! Fire!” Mordikye shouted.
“No! No!” I shouted, as I unbuckled my belt and slid out of my seat onto the ground. I had to stop him.
I never thought I would be in this position. How did I go from treasure hunting geologist to being in a firefight in deep space between two weredragon aliens? I guess it all started with the Montana expedition…
...I had been digging for gems deep in the Montana ridges with my geology partner Richard Sanders for months now. We had an RV set up at the base of the mountains where we lived and had our lab. Every other week a few University students would come work with us and they would set up tents. At that moment Richard and I had been working alone for a few weeks and not expecting any company, so it was a surprise when Xander Black rolled up in an off-road jeep that day.
Richard and I were outside washing off our latest finds. “Adriana, do you ever get a little tired of this?”
“Of what, Richard?” I asked him as I scrubbed a beautiful white and purple geode that was sparkling in the sunlight. I was excited for my find.
“Of this… rocks. Just plain old rocks,” he said. I looked at him in surprise. “How can you say that? I love this. I love my work. It’s not just rocks and you know that. It’s the science of it. I love it and everyday is exciting for me. We never know what we’re going to find.”
“Yes we do. I mean, in general we do. All of the rocks on this planet have been found and classified. We are just looking for what has already been found. Don’t you wish we could find something new?” Richard asked.
“Yes of course. Are you talking about going spelunking? There might be some rocks that have not been found in caves,” I said to him, wondering where this was all coming from. Richard had a large passion for geology, just as I did. We had met in college and soon after became friends with benefits simply based off our love of geology. Now we were partners sharing a grant to dig in this area, and of course we still had that friends with benefits relationship, but nothing serious. So it was a shock to hear him talk like this.
“No, that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about rocks not from Earth.”
“Like meteors? I’m confused, Richard. Are you getting burnt out and want to change professions? What’s going on with you?” I said, putting down my geode and walking over to him. I put my arms around his neck, getting up on my tiptoes to reach him. He was very tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a perfect physique and reminded me of a Ken doll. He was very rugged and outdoorsy, which I liked a lot.
He put his hands on my arms and rubbed them up and down. His hands were large and at the moment very dirty. “No, I’m not burnt out. I love it. It’s just that the feeling of discovery is gone for me. What can we really discover now that all rocks have been discovered? Plus the pay is shit.”
“Pay? You’ve never cared about money before; otherwise, you wouldn’t have chosen a career that you have to beg for grant money just to have a crap salary,” I said wondering what the real culprit here was.
Richard looked at his watch and then looked at the road in the distance. “Right on time.”
“What? Who is that?” I said, looking in that direction, as Richard pulled my arms from his neck and walked toward our parked cars to wait for the jeep to pull up.
“It’s a new friend. His name is Xander Black and I think you’re going to like him. He has something to show us,” Richard said.
“What is it? Richard, what is going on here?” I asked walking after him.
“It’s out of this world,” he said as he turned and put his hand around my waist and pulled me toward him. He planted a firm kiss on my lips and then grinned. He was excited. I hadn’t seen him this excited in a long time. Then he pulled away from me just as the door opened to the jeep.
“Xander! Welcome to our little base camp!” Richard shouted happily as he walked fast toward the man in the suit who carried a briefcase.
“Good to see you again, Dr. Sanders,” the man said, shaking Richard’s hand.
“Please come over and meet my partner, Dr. Adriana Adams,” Richard gestured toward me. I smiled and wiped my dirty hands on the back of my high waist jeans. I wasn’t exactly dressed for company with my long black hair in a high ponytail and dirt smudged on my face. My blue and white plaid shirt was tied in front exposing a little bit of my belly because it was a hot day. Even my rugged lace up boots made me feel very underdressed as I looked at Xander’s polished shoes.
“Nice to meet you,” I said holding my hand out to him. He smiled and shook it.
“So did you bring it?” Richard asked him.
“Right here. Shall we take a look?” Xander said, as he patted the suitcase.
“Come into our lab,” Richard said, leading the man to our RV, which was part lab and part living space.
A few moments later we were standing around the small kitchen island as Xander laid the suitcase on it and opened it.
“It’s very rare so you have to be careful,” he said as he grabbed a velvet pouch from the suitcase and delicately pulled out a shiny orange rock. I had never seen anything like it.
“What is that? Has that been painted?” I asked, getting a closer look.
Richard laughed at my reaction and then moved in closer to the rock. “It is fascinating Xander just like you said. May I?” Richard said as he gestured to hold it.
“Yes, be my guest. That’s why I am here,” Xander said. Richard picked up the rock and looked it over. He handed it to me as he moved to the lab and set up the power microscope. I held the shiny orange object in my hand and knew that I had never seen anything like it. Not only was it something I had never seen, it was also something that was not known to the science community. It was beautiful. It was just as shiny as polished silver or gold but it was bright orange in color. It felt solid and heavy in my hand. I was mesmerized by it.
“Here, Adriana,” Richard said, motioning me over to the microscope. I placed the rock on the microscope.
“Unbelievable,” Richard said as he looked through the eyepiece. “This is just astonishing. It’s almost as if it’s alive.”
“Yes, exactly. The amount of energy that one small rock contains can power a whole city for five years,” Xander said.
Richard and I both turned to him with our mouths open. That was impossible and unheard of for any rock.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It’s called flagion by the Drackon. It comes from the planet of Mooreah.”
“This is an alien rock?” I said, suddenly feeling excited and suddenly knowing exactly why Richard had that pep talk with me earlier.
“Yes, Dr. Adams, it is,” Xander said.
“This is the future of geology. Man, this is amazing!” Richard said happily. I smiled and took my turn looking at the flagion rock through the microscope. Richard was right. It was as if the rock was alive with energy. It was beautiful.
“Yes, and you and Dr. Adams can have exclusivity in studying it in our labs if you can help us secure more,” Xander said.
“But how can we do that? We search the Earth for rocks, not Mooreah?” I asked.
Xander looked at Richard in shock and said, “You didn’t tell her?”
“Tell me what?” I asked, confused and suddenly starting to question how these two knew each other in the first place.
“No, I was just about to when you rolled up,” Richard said to him.
“Tell me what? Richard, what is going on?” I asked, getting angry.
“Dr. Adams, we need a trained geologist to go to Mooreah and find a cache of flagion and report to us the exact location,” Xander said.
“What? How can any one of us do that? The Drackon don’t exactly let anyone go and scope out their land,” I said.
“Well, they do let women go to Mooreah. You are a woman, Dr. Adams--a single woman,” Xander said.
I gasped as I realized the full extent of what he was asking. “You want me to register?! But how? If I am married off to a Drackon I can’t exactly come back to Earth to study the flagion, now can I?”
“Yes, you will. We will take care of that. We will have a ship dig out and pick up the flagion from Mooreah, and I guarantee you will be on it when it returns to Earth.”
“But…” I couldn’t get the words out.
“Come on, Adriana. Just think about it. You don’t have to answer now. Just think, we will be the only two geologists that get to study this alien rock from deep space. It’s unlike anything. It’s exciting and new,” Richard said, getting in front of me and putting his arms on mine.
“I’ll need an answer in two weeks,” Xander said, as he picked up the flagion from the microscope and placed it back in his suitcase. Then he was walking out the door.
“I’ll walk you to your car,” Richard said as he left with him. I was left in the R.V. with shock on my face. What the hell had just happened?
Two weeks later I found myself at a familiar place, the registration building in Billings, Montana. It wasn’t the first time I had showed up to this building expecting to be put on the registration list. A year before I had come, fully ready to register to be the wife of a Drackon--an alien weredragon warrior. I had grown tired of my life and it seemed that almost all the women on Earth were eager to sign up. I had convinced myself that I wanted a new adventure, and a husband I had never met. But when I showed up and stood in line, I panicked. I was almost to the head of the line when I left the building. After that I forced myself to accept my life as a geologist with a friends with benefits relationship. I mean Richard was hot as hell and he was someone to hang out with, mixing work with pleasure, so who was I to complain. But the fact was that I did not love him. I wanted more. I wanted passion and craziness and that feeling of being in awe. So now I had that feeling, but in a different way. I was in awe over this flagion rock and I was passionate about studying it and crazy enough to go after it by getting married to an alien. How’s that for career dedication? So that is why I stood in my best maroon dress and pink heels with my hair curled, outside the registration office in a long line that snaked around the building. I could not believe it. I wasn’t expecting this many women in line.
“This is my fifth time coming. I haven’t been matched yet so I just keep trying. How many times have you come?” the woman behind me said. I suddenly realized that she was talking to me.
“Oh, um, hello. This is my first time,” I said a little nervous.
“Oh honey! Congrats on making that decision. It’s a big step to take. But don’t be too nervous. Some women go through the matching cycle for years so, just think of this first time as practice,” she said.
“Oh, okay. What’s the matching cycle?” I asked, realizing that I really didn’t know much about what I was doing.
“I’ll tell ya. I’m practically an expert. So after you do all your boring paperwork, the fun part happens. The registration office will let you scroll through the photos of all the registered Drackon,” she said.
“Scroll though? How many are there? I mean, registered Drackon?” I asked.
“Thousands. I usually stop at one hundred and pick my five from that,” she said.
“Your five?” I asked.
“Yes, you get to pick five Drackon and place them in order. You know - first choice, second choice, and so on of which you prefer to have as your husband. Then you will be photographed and your photo and information will be sent to the five that you chose. Then a couple of weeks later the office will contact you and let you know which of your five have chosen you in return, and you have a match! But if none of them chose you, or even responded, then you have to wait a few months and go through the match cycle again.”
“Oh, that’s a lot of work. I didn’t realize it would take so long. I sort of thought you just showed up and was matched on the spot and shipped off the next day,” I said, realizing that waiting months would put our research behind.
The woman laughed at me and said, “No, it’s a crap shoot really.”
“Forms! Registration forms!” a woman shouted as she walked down the line. “If this is your first time here then you need to fill this out!”
“Right here! Right here!” the woman behind me shouted as she pointed at me. I felt embarrassed.
“I’m already in the system but this is her first time here,” the woman behind me said. The lady with the forms handed me a thick stack of forms. I was astonished at the amount of paperwork. “Fill these out and keep them with you.”
“Thank you,” I said as she continued down the line, handing out forms. Then a loud roar of an engine cut through the noise of chattering women. A large truck pulled up, followed by two more. They were military vehicles. The doors opened and out stepped six Drackon warriors. All the women in line began to swoon over them. I had never seen one in real life before but I had seen them in photos and in video. I was shocked by their size. They were very tall, almost eight feet. They were muscular and toned. I was sort of disappointed that they weren’t shifted into dragon form at the moment, but they were still very impressive. One stood taller and stronger than the others and he walked ahead of them as though leading them. He had long blonde hair down to his shoulders and his startling sea green eyes could be seen from a distance. Even the cat like vertical pupil was obvious in his eyes. His tight pants and boots hugged his lower body and his form-fitting top reminded me of a scuba suit. He grinned an impressive smile as he turned to look at the women in line. The women seemed to collectively let out a sigh as he did so. I was also awestruck by this Drackon and my grip on my stack of papers loosened. A few of them caught on the breeze and flew out of my hand.
“Oh no. Crap!” I moved after the pages as they fluttered across the courtyard toward the building door. I felt like such an idiot. I was not this clumsy, yet here I was chasing pages. I reached down to grab one as I caught up with it, just to have it snatched away from me by a very large hand.
“Lose something, human?” a voice said. I looked up and into the face of the blonde Drackon. He was holding both pages that I had been chasing.
“Yes. That’s mine. The breeze pulled it from my hand,” I said, gesturing for him to hand them back.
He let out a little laugh and looked at his warriors behind him and said, “This one is beautiful but obviously weak.” Then he pushed the papers back in my hand.
I gasped at his remark. “How dare you! I am not weak. I will have you know that I am a strong able woman. I am a geologist.” I said it with all the anger and courage inside of me.
He furrowed his brows at me. Obviously he did not know what a geologist was or that I worked outside in a rugged fashion, but I didn’t care. Then he motioned to his warriors and they kept walking inside. I was left feeling really dumb, angry, and a bit turned on by the encounter. I turned and found my place back in line.
“Holy crap! What did he say to you? I can’t believe that just happened. He’s a captain and very powerful!” said the woman in line to me, as soon as I took my place.
“He called me weak,” I said, pouting.
“Oh. That’s not good. You see, they are known for wanting strong women to birth their offspring. Sorry, bad luck,” she said.
“No, it’s good luck. Now I know not to pick him if he’s such an arrogant ass,” I said to her. I angrily filled out the paperwork as I moved slowly forward in line. I was totally pissed off by the encounter, but I could not stop thinking about him, this Drackon captain.
I sat down in front of the registration official as she shuffled through all the forms that I had filled out. “You need to sign at the bottom of all of these, while I witness.”
“Sure,” I said, taking the pen from her and signing my name. I couldn’t believe I was actually doing this. It was insane and yet, exciting. I could not get the Drackon that I encountered earlier off my mind. I didn’t want to be matched with him, but then again… I did. It was a complex battle in my mind.
“Good, now move on to station two. There you will pick your Drackon,” the lady said, as she grabbed the stack of papers and put them in a file, all except one. She handed the paper back to me. It was a wax paper with several pick and peel labels on it with a printed number, Z808, and my name Adriana Adams.
“Take that sheet with you. It’s important,” she continued as she waved me away.
“All right. Thank you,” I said, getting up from the chair and looking around the bustling area stuffed with women as I looked for a sign that read Station Two.
I walked through the obstacle course of women, all hustling to get registered or go through the match cycle again. There were even women in moments of reunion after not having seen each other for years. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been forever! I can’t believe you’re here too! What happened to you and Michael?” were the various lines I heard as I maneuvered toward the back wall and station two. I realized that it was a place of broken marriages, divorce, and women seeking a fresh start. I wondered if I was the only one there registering because of espionage. “You must be insane, Adriana,” I whispered to myself as I stopped to get my bearings.
When I arrived at station two there was another very long line of women. Registration was nothing but long lines; pretty much like the DMV, only this was for a license to marry an alien of sorts. It was silly, really.
Finally, after standing in my heels for an hour, I made it to the front of the line.
“Next!” the lady shouted. I handed her my label page. She pulled one off and slapped it on another paper as she said, “Have you done the match before?”
“No. I would like…” I began to say but she cut me off.
“Lucy! This one needs a tour!” she shouted. She handed my page off to Lucy, who smiled at me and gestured for me to follow her.
“Hello…Adriana,” she said as she looked down at my page for my name.
“All right, so follow me. You are going to scroll through Drackon choices for a husband. When you find one you would like to choose just write down his identification number and last name on this sheet. Write very, very, clearly in block letters,” she said, as I followed her into a doorway and into a very large darkened room. There were many stations. Each station was a cubicle with a chair in front of a small counter that had glowing buttons on it. On the wall in front of the counter was a large screen with photos and short playing video cycles of Drackon warriors. It was like internet dating, but to the extreme.
“Fill out the form according to whom you’d like as a husband. The first choice of husband goes under number one and so on. There are five choices on your sheet. If you make a mistake, draw a very thick line through your mistake and write in the new I.D. number of the male that you want. Here is your station,” she said, as she sat me down in a chair in front of the large screen.
“The left and right arrow buttons are self-explanatory. When you are ready to start hit this green button. You have forty-five minutes and that is all. The screen will turn off when your time is up. Good luck,” she said as she quickly moved away from me and back to the other room. I looked around at all the women in the dark room. Some were smiling, while others seemed depressed, and it made me feel like I was in a husband-finding factory.
“This is ridiculous. But you’ve come this far, Adriana,” I said, picking up a pen from the stack and placing my sheet on the counter. I hit the green button and my screen turned on. “Hit Right Arrow” the screen read. I hit the arrow and the first Drackon husband choice popped up. He was an attractive brown-haired and brown-eyed alien male. I stared at his picture, realizing I really didn’t know what I was looking for. The first time I came here and ran away I was hoping to find passion and escape, but now that had changed. Then I remembered what Xander had said. “Try to find a Drackon in a position of power. You will have better access to the Drackon world.”
I looked at this warrior’s two-line bio, which read, “Thion Durin. Warrior in the 76th battalion infantry.”
Well, that wouldn’t do. A mere soldier was not going to have access to anything. I hit the right arrow button and began to scroll through fast. I did not look at faces anymore; I only looked at the bio. It definitely made it both easier and faster to have this sort of guideline. Finally I landed on one that looked promising. “Mordikye Nezis. Flight Captain. Beti Command,” I whispered to myself. My gaze moved from the bio up the screen to the photo. My mouth fell open. It was the same Drackon that I had an encounter with in the courtyard! What were the odds?
“No, no, no,” I said as I hit the right arrow again. The next Drackon was another soldier. I sighed. The Captain was the first Drackon of power that I had come across in twenty minutes of searching. I hit the left arrow and went back to his photo. I stared at it while I weighed the pros and cons of making him a choice. First of all, I had already seen him in person. There would be no surprises there that he was not like his photo. In fact, he was hotter in person than this photo made him out to be. Two, he was already on Earth and maybe that would speed things up for me. Three, he was an ass! I knew that should be a con, but in this case it was a plus because then I would feel no remorse in leaving him when the time came. I did not foresee myself falling for him at all. He was exactly the kind of male that I would have a one-night stand with when I was looking to just blow off some sexual tension. The more I thought about it the more he seemed to be perfect for this particular mission I was on. I pulled my sheet toward me and wrote down his information in the number three slot, hopeful that I would find other Drackons more suitable than him. I sighed and continued through my scrolling for a husband.
Then I lucked out. “Terik Vuna. Land Sentinel,” I read out loud. I looked up at the photo and my mouth fell open once more, but for a different reason. This Drackon was gorgeous. His jet black hair fell past his ears and his stubble beard was rugged on his square jaw. His brown eyes were soulful, even with the unusual vertical cat like pupil. He looked strong and youthful, but mature. In all, he was perfect and I quickly wrote down his information on my sheet in the number one choice. I didn’t really understand what a Land Sentinel did but it obviously had something to do with the land of Mooreah and that was exactly what I needed. I suddenly felt a tinge of guilt as I thought about betraying this gorgeous Drackon in front of me in order to study flagion. But maybe I would luck out and he would be just as infuriatingly irritating as Mordikye.
Beep. Beep. I looked at the screen. Ten minutes was left on the counter. “Shit!” I quickly scrolled through and picked out one more Drackon, a warrior. I felt like I couldn’t really fill out all five places. So I moved Mordikye up to the second spot on the list and the Drackon warrior into the third spot.
“Time is up,” the screen flashed and then went dark. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be to pick a Drackon husband. “Is this your first time registering?” a lady asked as she came to my station.
“Yes, it is,” I responded as I stood up from the chair and grabbed my pages.
“Then you will need to be photographed. You can hand me your choices,” she said.
I handed her my choices page feeling really anxious. I couldn’t change my choices after I gave it to her. It was such a final thing.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Adriana Adams,” I said. She looked the page over and then said, “It all looks good. This way to photography.”
I followed her out of the dark room back into the massive warehouse. “You see that sign that says I.D. on the wall,” she pointed across the room.
“Yes.”
“That is where you will go. Take your I.D. labels with you. That is your last stop. Good luck,” she said.
I quickly moved across the massive room to the I.D. station to find another line. I got in line and waited another hour before finally making it to the top. There was a wall of mirrors where women were prepping their hair and applying lipstick.
“Well, can’t hurt,” I said pulling lip gloss out of my bag and applying a fresh coat. I plumped up my hair and straightened my dress. I hated getting photos taken of myself. “That’s as good as it’s going to get,” I whispered to myself.
“Next! Hand me your I.D. page and then step on the X on the floor,” the lady shouted at me. I moved quickly to hand her my page. She scanned it with a red light. I looked at the X on the floor and noticed that my I.D. name and number where now projected on the blue screen. I stepped in front of it on the X mark and stood tall. I smiled my brightest smile. “Ready in three. One, two, three.”
Flash! My photo was taken. “Now turn to your right,” she said. I suddenly realized this was probably a full body shot. I turned to my right and stuck my chest out and arched my back. She counted down again, then Flash!
“You’re done. Next!”
“But how soon will I know?” I asked.
“I’m just the photographer. You’ll have to go to the information desk for general questions. Next!”
I sighed, as I had already seen the very long lines at the information desk. No thank you. I was done with the registration chaos. I needed to get out of there. I didn’t know if this would even work, considering I only picked three choices.
I moved out into the hallway where a group of women were waiting for the elevators. Great, another line. Ping. The doors opened and women scurried in, at capacity. Then another elevator opened and the same thing happened. Now I was the only one waiting for the elevators, but I could see another group of women down the hall making their way to the elevators. Ping. The elevator opened and I quickly stepped in. As I did so I saw that two Drackon occupied it, and one of them was Mordikye. I gasped. I was caught off guard. I thought about stepping off, but the doors closed.
I felt the warmth of breath on my neck. “You. Human. What is your name?” Mordikye said, from behind me. I took a deep breath and turned to face him. I turned and faced his strong chest. I tilted my head back and looked up at his chiseled face. I felt my whole body go warm from the heat these two Drackon were giving off.
“Why do you want to know? I’m a weak female, remember?” I said angrily, throwing in his face what he had said to me earlier.
He laughed and said, “Yes, physically weak, but spirited inside.” His eyebrows arched as he looked down at me and took a step forward. I took a step back. He was ominous. “Hmmph. If that is supposed to scare me, it doesn’t.” I said, crossing my arms across my chest. He looked at the other Drackon and they both laughed. I only narrowed my eyes at their outburst.
“I must know your name, human,” Mordikye said again.
“Adriana Adams,” I said.
“Did you register?” he asked.
“Yes, I did, but that is none of your business sir,” I said as I poked him in the chest with my finger as though I was chiding a child. I almost hurt my finger doing it. His chest felt like steel.
Mordikye looked at the other Drackon warrior, who nodded his head as though he understood what Mordikye’s look meant. I did not.
Ping. The elevator door opened to the lobby. I stepped off and took a few steps and then turned to give Mordikye a piece of my mind, but they were not behind me. I saw the elevator doors close and realized that they had not stepped out. My heart was beating so fast. Now that I was free to react to the encounter I let it all out. A hard breath escaped my mouth as though I had been holding my breath. I put my hand on my chest and leaned against the wall. I wasn’t having a panic attack exactly, it was just an unexpected encounter. I had never been alone with two dragon shifters before. It was a very intense situation to be in, especially when they were antagonizing me. But what I could not get off my mind was just how hard his body was when I touched it. If I didn’t know any better I would have thought that he had a metal plate under his shirt. I had never touched an alien before and it was not what I was expecting. I was intrigued. I wondered what else on his body was rock hard. I smiled as I gathered myself together and thought that filthy thought. I was a woman after all. I was allowed to be sexual. I walked with confidence, swaying my hips as I left the building. Maybe this flagion mission would be dangerous but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have fun with it and indulge. I strutted all the way back to my hotel.
“What happened? What did they say?” Richard asked as soon as I walked in. I had been daydreaming about Mordikye’s hard body so deeply my entire walk back to the hotel that I almost forgot that Richard was in the hotel waiting for me. “Fuck, that took hours. What the hell did they have you do?” he rambled on.
“It was chaos. I stood in so many lines for so many hours. It’s a whole process. You know, it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. You have to pick five Drackon and those Drackon are shown your photo with all the other women that have chosen them that week and they choose from that stack. It’s possible I might not be matched this round. I was talking to a woman who had been through the process five times already and is still not matched!”
“What? No, we can’t wait that long,” Richard said, shocked by the bureaucracy of it all.
“Well, there’s not much I myself can do about it. We just have to wait. Maybe I’ll get lucky,” I said, winking at him. Richard didn’t lighten up. He was anxiously pacing back and forth.
“What are you doing? Sit down. There’s nothing we can do,” I said. as I opened one of those miniature tequila bottles from the bar.
“We’re not the only ones,” he said.
“What do you mean?” I said, shooting down the tequila straight. I needed a little something to take the edge off after my run in with the dragon.
“Xander Black approached another with the same proposition. He said whoever is able to get a Drackon arrangement first would be the ones to get the flagion study exclusive.”
“What?! Why didn’t you say this before?” I asked.
“Because he said he was giving us a first shot before approaching anyone else. I thought you would be on your way to being a Drackon wife before he even had a chance to find another geology team. I didn’t think it was important, but now that you say it could take months or even years to get a match, I’m worried.”
“Shit,” I said as I sat down and finished off the small bottle. We were screwed.
I was worried then, but the next day my worry vanished and became panic.
Ring! Ring! The phone rang as I sat drinking my morning coffee while Richard was in the shower.
“Hello? This is she,” I said over the phone, expecting that it was the front desk.
“Who is it, Adriana?” Richard asked toweling off his wet hair.
“Okay. I’ll be right down,” I hung up the phone and looked at Richard with wide eyes.
“What is it?” he asked.
“It was the registration office. They have a match for me. They want me to come down right away. They said it was the fastest match in the registration office’s history.”
“That’s great!” Richard shouted. My heart sank to my stomach. It was all really happening. I knew exactly whom I had been matched with. There was only one Drackon that could have been available so quickly to make a decision like that.