The red Draegon's huge arms wrap around my waist, pulling my back flush against his rock-hard chest to break our descent. His wings snap open with a deafeningcrackagainst the wind.
The tips of his wing talons scrape down the exposed skin of my thighs. It stings, a sharp tear of intense pain.
“What the fuck?” I ask, the words lost on the wind.
Within a millisecond, a wave of scorching heat sears through my bloodstream. I moan in pain, all my sureness flying out of me as fast as we launched from that damned space ship. My skin feels as if I’ve been thrown into the sun.
And then? A blinding spike of pure lust hits me, so intense my eyes cross. My heart hammers against my ribs, an undeniable biological need melting my brain cells and telling my girl parts that we need something down there real, real bad.
Behind me, the Draegon lets out a deep, gravelly groan, something long and heavy pulsing violently against my lower back.
That’s a dick. That’s the alien dick I wanted.
Be careful what you wish for.
I clutch at his bicep, my chest heaving as the liquid fire cooks me from the inside out. I didn't read any biological addendums. There was no mention of a fever in the primary terms and conditions.
My confidence in this scheme might have been misplaced.
Uh oh.
CHAPTER 4
VAEL-TORIN
This place is a trap.
I know the design of prisons; I know how tyrants construct cages.
For a decade, I held the border walls for the Draegon king before turning my back on his court. The Roth organizers of this game speak of rewards and peaceful colonies on Sueva, but I am a military architect. I know an ambush when I step into one.
I drop from the sky, my ruby-red wings catching the thin air currents of this miserable moon to break our freefall. When my boots slam into the earth, I roll immediately, tucking the small, delicate human female against my chest to absorb the impact. I will not have her fragile skeleton shatter before we have even begun.
She is innocent in this. And now she is also mine to protect.
A growl of satisfaction rips through me. I may have been forced into this fucking game, but at least I will get a mate out of it, for whatever short time we are able to survive here.
A perfect one, too, soft in all the right places, perfect for squeezing and holding and biting.
Rising swiftly, my tail slashes through the underbrush, clearing a defensive perimeter. There are things that hide in underbrush in all planets, of that I am sure.
I’d rather see whatever’s coming than be caught unawares.
I track the dark canopy of the forest, eyes narrowing. There are no royal executioners. No Roth mercenaries waiting in the shadows. Only the low, mechanical drone of the flying eyes tracking our movements from above.
A soft, pathetic whimper draws my attention downward.
My throat goes completely dry.
The human female I claimed—the one who pointed her fearless, dainty finger at me through the glass barrier—is staring up at me.
She is a vision. Her hair is the color of raging fire, an echo of my own scales, and it frames a face that is more beautiful than any I could have dreamed up.
And her body... gods.
My hand immediately goes to the curve of her waist, my talons twitching with an urge that threatens to dismantle my discipline. My female possesses thick, glorious thighs, a lushly rounded abdomen, and breasts that swell beautifully against the thin, shimmering garment she wears.
Then my gaze drops to her feet, and I freeze.
