Chapter 16
Rose shook hands with Whitney and Tanner. “See you guys later. Have a nice hot cup of coffee for me when you get home.”
Neither of the men smiled. “Are you sure this is a good idea, Rose? I don’t like leaving you here alone.”
“Thanks, Whitney, but I won’t be alone. Reyna and Ben are staying, too, and the Krataks have welcomed us.”
“The Command will be furious when you don’t come back and make a proper report.”
“I’m sure they already are.”
Whitney got into the shuttle. Tanner hugged Rose and then Reyna. “Take care of yourselves.” He got into the seat next to Whitney.
General Duncan came forward to face Rose and Reyna. “This is your last chance to change your minds. Come with me now. Come back where you belong.”
“We won’t change our minds.”
“You’ll have no way to contact us if you need help. The diplomatic team won’t arrive for some months, and I’ll pick up the other research team on my way out. You’ll be stranded here alone on a strange planet with... those people.”
Rose lifted her eyes to Harkniss Keep. Clan Harkniss watched from the doorway. Ben stood with them, holding hands with Asya. “We’ll take our chances.”
General Duncan followed her gaze. “This is no place for a young man.”
Rose smiled up at Ben, and her heart swelled with pride. “It’s the best possible place for him.”
“He could turn into a monster here.”
“Whatever he turns into, I couldn’t be prouder of him. He’s a real man now.”
General Duncan turned away to enter the shuttle. “Good-bye, Rose. Good-bye, Reyna. I’ll keep your commissions active with the Command in case you ever decide you want to come back.”
“Decommission us. We won’t come back.”
General Duncan didn’t hear her over the whine of the engines. Rose and Reyna stepped back, and the shuttle lifted off the ground. Tanner waved to them through the window. The shuttle banked and headed south. Rose shaded her eyes from the sun and waved back.
Reyna sighed. “Well, that’s torn it.”
Rose laughed and threw her arm around her sister’s shoulder. “Come on. This is going to be the start of our greatest adventure ever.”
They rejoined the family, and everyone congregated in the great hall. Rose stood with Rohn, while Reyna held hands with Damen. Ben and Asya sat side by side on a bench across the room.
The atmosphere changed so much Rose couldn’t recognize the people around her. None of them held her at a distance anymore. No one stared in front of them with a blank expression. Their eyes sparkled, and everyone talked at once about every possibility. A fever of excitement rippled through the room.
Old Rowan Harkniss’s voice boomed out. “This is a council of war.”
His words sent a shiver up Rose’s spine, but he was right. The Krataks had no better way to approach their future dealings with the Allies. They might not be engaged in outright hostilities—not yet—but that was only a matter of time.
“Your plan to obfuscate and delay the Allies is a good one, but we can’t take any chances. Now that we know their intentions, we must consolidate against them and prepare for the worst. We must send word to the other Clans to warn them of the Allies’ intentions. We must inform them of the need, first to keep our secret, and second to obfuscate to thwart the Allies’ desires.”
“Will they do that?” Rose asked. “Will they go along with our plan?”
“We will guide them in the process. We can assume Clan Assan already knows what the Allies have in mind, but the others won’t know. We must send messengers to the other Clans. If we obfuscate and frustrate the Allies here, they could turn to another Clans in search of someone more accommodating. We can’t let that happen. When the diplomatic team arrives, they must find the people of Kratak united in a single strategy, and they must never find out about our dragon nature unless relations turn to all-out war.”
Rose didn’t contradict. For once in her life, she welcomed someone else taking charge and commanding the situation. Her shoulders relaxed in relief to be told what to do by this powerful man.
Rowan pointed to Rohn, Damen, and Callan. “You three will fly as fast as you can to the nearest Keeps and tell them everything. Then you will fly on to another three and spread the word far and wide. The first three Keeps you come to must send their fastest fliers to another three Keeps, and so on, until all the Clans know exactly what’s happening and understand how to handle any ambassadors from the Allies that happen to drop in.”
Damen and Reyna looked at each other. Callan stood up, and Haya moved to his side. “Let me go, too, Father. I can fly as fast as the boys. That will help spread the word faster.”
Rowan smiled at her. “Very well, my child. I only left you out because I thought you might want to remain behind to look after Asya.”
Haya glanced at Asya and Ben. “I think Asya can take care of herself.”
“All right. Go, and bring back word that the other Clans are preparing for this invasion.”
The group broke up. Callan and Haya went one way, and Reyna and Damen went another. Rowan and Fay sat in a corner together and talked in low tones.
Rohn inclined his head toward the eastern entrance. “Let’s take a walk.”
Rose started to follow him when Ben approached her. “I want to help, too, Mom. Isn’t there anything I can do?”
“You’re already doing it, darling. You’re doing the best thing you can do by staying here and supporting Asya.”
“You don’t think I made a mistake, do you? Do you wish I had gone back to the Allies? I know you think I would be safer there.”
She laid her hands on his shoulders. “I think you did the right thing by staying here. You don’t know how relieved I am to be here with you, instead of halfway across the galaxy, wondering if you’re okay. You’ll never know how proud I am of you for making your own decision, even when I told you not to. You’re more a man than I ever dreamed possible.”
He flushed with pride and took Asya’s hand. “Thanks, Mom.”
Rose shot her eyes toward Rohn. “If you turn into a man like him, that’s more than I could ever hope for.”
Ben and Asya disappeared together, and Rose followed Rohn to the parapet overlooking the mountains. Nothing stirred out there. Where was Rahni? Had he taken Moira somewhere? Would she ever see Moira again?
Rohn bent down and kissed her. “So, what changed your mind? What made you decide to stay?”
“You did. Everything you said about the Allies was true. They’re militaristic and domineering. They’ll never rest until they conquer this planet and any other they set their sights on. I couldn’t let that happen to you, and I couldn’t be a part of it.”
“Did you tell that to the general?”
“I told her, but she didn’t understand any better than I would have when I first came here. No one can understand who hasn’t seen it from the other side. I only wish I had seen it sooner, but I had to come here and meet you to realize the truth.”
“I’m glad you decided to stay. I don’t think I could stand aside and watch you leave.”
“I think Reyna and Ben feel the same way. They got attached. Your people and this planet have a way of getting under a person’s skin.”
“Like the patterns in our skin?”
“Exactly like that. I’ve even felt them under mine.”
“I haven’t seen them.”
“Maybe it just takes time to develop them. Maybe they’ll show up after I’ve been on the planet for a while.”
“Maybe.”
“Are you sure you want me to stay? I understand if you don’t want to marry me and all that. I understand if you want to marry someone from your own people. I don’t have to stay here, at Harkniss Keep. If it doesn’t work out between us, I can go to one of the other Keeps.”
“You’re not going anywhere!” His eyes flashed.
“I only meant....”
“You belong here, with me. I never met any woman like you before. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet a woman like you, and I won’t let you go now.”
“I’m not too dominating, am I?”
“You—dominating? Ha! You’d have to try a lot harder to be dominating.”
She laughed. “I think I like things between us the way they are.”
He drew near. He turned her away from him and circled her waist with his arms. He whispered in her ear. “Do you think a dominating woman would have let me bend her over the bed and nail her that way? Would a dominating woman like it when I held her hands behind her back and fucked her sweet, tight cunt? No, you’re not dominating. You’re mine.”
He rubbed his prick against her ass, and her lower lips oozed their nectar into her pants. “Come on, baby. Give yourself to me one more time. I want you. I can’t keep my hands off you. Are you wet for me? Do you want to cream all over me again?”
She fought the temptation to give in. “Don’t you have to leave right away? Don’t you have to warn the other Clans?”
“They’ll find out soon enough. The others are fast fliers. Pretty soon, everyone will know. They’ll know long before the diplomatic team gets here, and they’ll find us united. They won’t be able to go behind anybody’s backs.”
“You shouldn’t leave this to the others. You have a job to do, too.”
He bent her forwards and purred into her ear. His hand groped down between her legs and came up hard against her clitoris. Rose moaned and writhed against his touch. His big middle finger massaged the spongy tissue around her opening until it ached. “Let’s get out of here for a while.”
“Where to?”
He nodded toward the wilderness. “Out there. Somewhere we don’t have to worry about anybody hearing us or seeing us.”
“When did you ever worry about that?”
“Come on. We’ll go so far away they’ll never find us.”
“How will we get there? We could be gone for hours, and you’re in a hurry.”
“I’ll fly. I have a nest out there on the mountaintop. I’ll fly you there in a few minutes.”
She stared at him. “You...have a nest? Do you mean like Rahni’s nest?”
“Just like that. We all have them. The nest gives us a place to rest when we’re flying around the mountains and we don’t want to fly back home. The lava rising inside the cone keeps us warm.”
She studied his face at close range. “I still can’t imagine you as a dragon.”
“You’ll get used to it. Come on. Climb on my back and we’ll go.”
He gave her another kiss and stepped back. She flattened herself against the stone wall and held her breath. In front of her eyes, his neck stretched to an impossible length. His legs got thicker and longer and bent forward at the knee. His toes elongated and curled into sharp claws.
Rustling leathery wings unfolded from his back and beat the air. His spine arched and bent forward, and he dropped to the ground on his hands. His fingers flexed, and rapacious claws sprouted from their tips.
His head bobbed on the end of his long neck, and a serpent’s tongue darted out when the jaws snapped open and shut. His tail whipped through the air. He lifted his head to the sky and let out a piercing shriek.
Rose summoned all her willpower to push herself off the wall. This was Rohn, the man she loved. Whatever he was, she wanted him. She wanted to accept him, to understand him, to embrace every part of him, no matter how strange. She would learn, like he said, to get used to this.
She came near and let her fingertips touch his greenish scales. The swirling patterns of his skin didn’t show up here, in his dragon form. They lay hidden under the surface, waiting for the transparent skin of a man to make themselves known.
An electric thrill ran up her arm when she touched him. He grumbled deep in his chest and turned his shoulder toward her. His green sides rose straight up in front of her in a sheer wall.
Rohn bent his head down next to her knee. She put her foot on it, and he boosted her up onto his back. She had to shift around for a minute before she found a secure place for herself in the hollow where his neck met his body. His muscles rippled under her, and the electric energy welled up from his body into her crotch.
She slid around on the slippery scales, but when he lifted his head and spread his great wings, she slotted into that hollow. Her legs wrapped around his neck, and she sat in perfect security. She couldn’t fall off if she tried.
He flapped his wings and rose into the air. They soared high above the Keep and made a complete circuit around the mountain. The wind blew Rose’s hair back from her face, and the sun shone warm on her skin. She laughed and sang to the skies in sheer delight. She swayed to and fro with his movements, and hot desire seethed through her body with the power of his flight.
Rohn banked and headed east, over endless forests and craggy mountains. In an instant, they left Harkniss Keep far behind. Rose looked back to see three more dragons taking off and separating in different directions. Then the whole scene faded away into the horizon.