My melethril!

I watch, powerless, as she’s carried off in the fangs of a great red. I knew the Qroqs would be close by on the Plains of Avik, but I didn’t expect them to appear so quickly.

I knew it was risky, but I couldn’t let Bodakin open the gate too close to Koti. I have to protect my people at all costs.

The moment the gate opened they were on me, and they beat me to the punch. It is as I had feared — my mate has been ripped from my grasp.

The Qroq in front of me controls his dragon well. I spread my wings out wide and dash forward, trying to reach my mate before she passes through the gate, but the red dragon in front of me lashes out at me.

I can only barrel-roll out of the way just in time to prevent my neck from being severed. I could sink my claws into the dragon’s exposed underbelly and rip his guts out, but if I did so, I’d be killing my own kin.

That’s what makes this damn war so hard to win. The foul Qroqs have enslaved my kind, turned my fellow Thalanil into crazed beasts whom they control by the use of shock-collars.

The damn thing provides constant electric shocks, preventing the Thalanil from ever shifting back into their regular form. The constant pain fills them with bloodlust. They become crazed, feral.

Dangerous.

Then the Qroqs sic my enslaved kin back on us, the remaining free people. We are forced kill our own people in self-defense.

It’s an affront to all that is good and just in this world.

My off-world bride disappears into the swirling vortex. I was so close! I held her in my arms, felt the touch of her skin, her scent completely surrounding me, my cock instantly growing hard…

And the Qroq ripped her from my grasp.

Like they’ve taken all the Thalanil women.

Like they enslaved my men.

Like they made a mockery of my rule.

A rage unlike anything I’ve ever felt takes hold of me. The saknar, the blind, feral rage a Thalanil slips into when he’s without his melethril, is already starting to affect me.

The anger is tugging at the strings of my consciousness, begging me to submit, to give into blind fury.

I try to resist — but I fail, as I’ve failed my people so many times.

My body shifts, changes, mutates. I grow even bigger. My wingspan increases, my fangs grow an extra few inches, and my vision turns to red as I strike. My sharp teeth sink into the red dragon’s slender neck, and I taste blood.

I thrash the dragon around, snapping its neck in an instant.

The Thalanil falls down on the ground, moaning in its death throes. With one whip of my tail I send the Qroq-rider flying off its back, smashing it against one of the metal boxes that are strewn all over the black road.

The gate!

It is fading rapidly. I kick off and rush towards it, and only barely make it through in time. When I find myself on the other side, back in my world, I see that my melethril is only a blimp in the distant horizon.

They are taking her to the Fortress of Bones.

I cannot catch up with them.

* * *

“What happened?” Eldrin asks when I stumble into his hut. “Where is your mate?”

“They took her,” I growl, balling my fists. “They were too quick, too many, I couldn’t, I couldn’t…”

My voice trails off. There is nothing that could excuse my failure.

“Oh,” is all Eldrin has to say.

He disappears into the kitchen while I sink into a chair and rest my head in my hands. Nothing is going as it should. Our gods, our prophecies… never have they foretold this war.

Nothing prepared us for this onslaught.

Eldrin returns a moment later with a steaming hot brew.

“Drink this,” he says. “You are tense. You need to unwind.”

“What I need to do is save her!” I growl, baring my fangs. “We need to launch an attack, now!”

“Calm yourself, prince,” he says. “You did your best. Of that I am certain.”

Did I? Did I really?

“I killed one,” I say bitterly. “A fire-red Thalanil dragon. Possibly Hintri, or Prosi’s boy. Bit right through his throat.”

“You did what you had to do.”

I shake my head. “I didn’t need to kill him. I had time. Could have simply wounded him. Instead, I gave into rage and… put him down like a beast.”

“May the gods have mercy on us,” Eldrin says. “The Qroqs forced your hand, my prince. Don’t let this weight rest on your heart; it is heavy enough as it is.”

I close my eyes and take a deep breath. There is truth in the shaman’s words, yet they provide little comfort. The only thing that can calm me is feeling my mate’s lips on mine, feeling her soft skin pressing against me, her hair between my fingers.

At first I worried I wouldn’t be attracted to an off-world bride — now I’m worried I won’t be able to control my impulses.

My cock grows hard at the mere thought of her. My inner-dragon wants to break free. It wants to abandon all sanity and give into my lust, my desire, my need.

And the longer my needs go unfulfilled, the stronger the call becomes, until I am driven mad.

“The saknar,” I grit through my teeth. “I feel it.”

“So soon?” Eldrin asks. “That is remarkable. I take it you are a match then?”

“I cannot even begin to describe how beautiful she is, Eldrin. I barely spoke a word to her, but we exchanged one look… and that’s all it took.”

“Hm. Do you know where they have taken her?”

“They were heading east, towards the Fortress.”

“Then all hope is not yet lost, my prince. All hope is not yet lost.”