“If he ruts for you, he will breed you.” Dyniis gives me a searching look. “If you ride his cock, and I presume you have ridden him.”
“He says not,” I respond. “If he doesn’t hook me.”
All three of the females burst out laughing.
“That’s the line the males are using these days?” Dyris guffaws. “They’ve been without females too long.”
“Hooking helps.” Dyoti leans into me. “It’s very pleasurable.” She studies my face. “But if you’re fertile for a Sarkarnii, you’re fertile for a Sarkarnii.” She puts her hand on my abdomen and holds it there. “And he’ll have filled you for sure.”
DALOX
“How have I ended up dragging your sorry hide?” I growl at Deus as I hold him upright and push through the heavy jungle floor.
Deus says nothing. He hangs his head and doesn’t help as if all the life has drained from him.
Most of the feeling is back in my limbs. I have a strength I didn’t before, and my ability to shift my form is returning.
I also have Deus, who hasn’t nevving spoken a word for the last nova-hour as I’ve endeavored to drag us both back to where he says his flyer is waiting.
Might have been easier in my dragon form, but I wasn’t sure I could trust my shift entirely just yet, and the chances were we’d draw more attention.
I need weapons. I need armor to defend against another bite, and I need to find my Gillian.
More than anything, I need to find her before my heart explodes and my rage is all consuming. If those females have harmed a single hair on her head, I’ll burn this continent to ash.
“You do know I can hear you.” Deus comes to life, extracting himself from my grip.
“I don’t care.” I glare at him. “And now you’ve decided to rejoin us here in the real world and leave the ancestors behind, either you’re with me or you are against me. Your choice, but don’t nev it up if you want to keep all your limbs.”
“I will help you find your mate,” Deus says.
“I don’t need help finding her, I need help defeating the Nostenii in order to free her. My Gillian is not lost, and she doesn’t deserve to be at the mercy of this clan either. She has been through enough,” I growl.
“The Nostenii are what is left of my female crew,” Deus says, looking away from me into the distance. “More survived than on the other ships.”
“None of our females survived,” I snap. “How many?”
“More than half. Enough to prove problematic if you want something they have.”
“They are Sarkarnii. They were part of my fleet.”
In a lightning move, Deus has gone from limp to at my throat, his hand clutching there, twisting at my skin.
“Don’t you understand, Dalox? They arenotas they were. They were the ones whorecovered. They might be Sarkarnii, but they are no longeryourSarkarnii.”
The memory and the stench of the room within Deus’s ship comes rushing back, almost as quickly as he grabbed me. The bodies, unburnt, left as they were as those who survived stumbled free of the confines of the ship.
“What happened to your males?” I grab his hand and pull it from my neck.
Deus’s shoulders heave in time with his ragged breathing.
“They did not survive. Only me and the Nostenii,” he says, his eyes unfocussed.
“Then what?”
“I went searching for you, Dalox. And my brother,” he snarls. “You had it all. Your sectors, your warriors, everything.”
“And we let you have it too.”
