Page 8 of King of Serpents

He flattened his gavo with annoyance. He could not allow himself to be taken in by her or fascinated with her human fragility. He was no longer the lead hunter of the nara. His life was no longer his own.

Jathella moved over the table on the opposite side of the chamber and set several bottles there beside his food. “Medicine,” she hissed. She glanced at the food left for him and hummed discordantly with her discontent. “I do not know if any of this is suitable for feeding a human.”

“I will see about acquiring adequate sustenance for her,” he muttered, rising from the bed. Jathella’s eyes followed him for a moment, and even Buosoa’s eyes narrowed on him curiously before exchanging a look with her sisters.

He ignored them. He was hiding the female as a favor in return for a favor, nothing more. Still, his scales itched, and his wings twitched restlessly as he made his way down the exit corridor to the interior palace residential cliffs, leaving the females to see themselves out. Opening his jaws wide, he released a clittering shriek that attracted the attention of one of the smaller males gliding through the open space of the palace, attending to their tasks. A small, yellow male whirled toward him and landed on the ledge with a deferential bow of his head.

Searching his memory for the things that were often fed to the females found and retrieved by the nara, he rattled off his request. The small male’s eyes lifted only momentarily in surprise before lowering again submissively. With a deferential nod, the male dropped away from the nest’s ledge. Therxian watched him go, his eyes following the male’s progress until he disappeared down another palace tunnel. Grunting quietly to himself, he withdrew from the ledge and returned to the comforts of his nest. He almost immediately became aware of the strong, astringent scent of medicine and ointment Jathella left on his table, but he did his best to ignore it as he settled once more onto his cushions and picked up another chunk of meat.

He would do this favor for the sisters and cement the bond between them so that he could confidently proceed. He would take very good care of the little female. When it came to the loyalty of the sisters, she was going to be his most valuable tool. Smiling, he ate the meat, a hum of anticipation quivering through him.

Anticipation of victory, of course. Nothing more, nothing less.

Chapter 6

Alex was ridiculously comfortable. She couldn’t remember a single time in her entire life where she had been so comfortable and had the luxury of languidly chasing dreams. Yawning, she turned and stretched. Her hand landed on something incredibly soft, with the warm scent of mellow musk and a hint of something like cedar and a touch of an identifiable floral. She moaned and buried her face deeper into the mercifully cool, plush fabric, breathing it in. As a non-gratas, she had only dreamed of the possibility of such pleasures existing.

Clutching the pillow to her, she rolled onto her back and released it so that draped over her face and upper torso. Lifting her hands over her head, she arched her back and pointed her toes as she languidly stretched. She immediately froze, however, as the surrounding bedding rippled. The soft pillows and cushions she was lying upon suddenly shifted and moved—several of them mounding up and toppling in response—as if something large was gliding through them. Alex’s hand went to the pillow covering her face and slowly pulled it back so that she could peer around its edge.

A serpentine tail of a deep indigo blue glided among exquisitely made pillows in a long sinuous path that she tracked upward, her eyes following the length of the tail until finally resting on a powerful indigo back with a dark line of a flattened fin running down the center. The edge of its large wings was visible, stretched over the shoulders and sides, leaving its back exposed. Seshanamitesh. But this was not the same as the one who had rescued her. For one, the color was wrong. For another, though it was smaller in size, its muscular build was broader with hard edges rather than the elegant, toned power of the female. The muscles bunched and then moved as suddenly one wing unfurled from where it was wrapped around the sleeping alien.

Alex shrank into her pillows, her back bowing and her knees drawing up as she attempted to make herself small. Please don’t look this way. Just ignore me and go about your business like I’m not even here.

The wings stretched, and the muscles of the male’s back rippled as he suddenly rose from the cushions, his wings fanning out and stretching widely around him. The strange illumination coming from the walls cast a muted light through the membranes of his wings as they continued to stretch, demonstrating their massive size.

Alex trembled, her lips moving in a silent prayer. What the fuck happened that landed her in bed with an alien? And a strange male at that! She had never so much as stood close to one of the intimidating hunters that dwelled alongside them in the colony. And now suddenly she was in bed with one!

Biting her bottom lip to stifle a sound of dismay, Alex began to wiggle in small, understated movements, backing away from the monstrous frame of the male. Suddenly, he shifted and turned, his gavo rising into twin fanned horns as he faced her. Dark red eyes fell upon her, and Alex’s breath locked up in chest as his gaze pierced her.

“Human,” he hissed with a deep, rumbling intonation that sent an unexpected quiver racing beneath her skin.

She was, quite literally, shaking with fear. She was going with fear because that was the only rational explanation for the feeling sweeping through her as if every nerve ending was exposed and raw.

Alex scooted back further but quickly ran into a hard surface that, upon a quick glance back to verify the matter, was a smooth stone wall. Her eyes darted back to the male only to find him regarding her quizzically as he rose slowly on his long tail. Something shifted next to her leg. Her eyes widened in horror and lowered as her mouth opened in a scream.

The sound choked off, dying before it could even rise fully into her throat, when the male lunged with a loud hiss, his body curling around her and his large hand slapping over her mouth as he knocked her sideways into the dense pile of cushions and pillows. Somehow, he managed to not crush her with the weight of his much larger body as they landed together, but he was so close that she could see the dark and bright striations with his red eyes and the perfect sliver of his pupil expanding very slightly in response to their sudden proximity. They remained there for several heartbeats, just inches separating their faces as they silently stared into each other’s eyes.

He slowly blinked, and an unreadable expression crossed his face before he shifted away, his body lifting from hers. His hand, however, remained firmly over her mouth as he regarded her.

“Be calm. If you scream, your presence here will be discovered.”

Alex’s brow knitted in response as she puzzled over his words. Wouldn’t that be a good thing? She was alone with a strange male. She should want others there to protect her—a whole damn audience that could bear witness—except, why did she have the feeling that his words indicated that this would be very bad? She licked her lips nervously as she peered at him.

“And that’s... bad?” she whispered, her left eyebrow rising in inquiry.

Surprise flitted across his face, only to be replaced with a faint look of amusement before it disappeared completely as his cool mask of scrutiny descended once again.

“It is bad. Unless you would enjoy being hauled up in front of an angry female who likely try to kill you as she attempted to do to the last human who was here?”

Alex gaped at him. She knew that relations were strained between Raza and the Aglatha shinara, but with all the mutual cooperation between their peoples, she hadn’t realized that it was that bad. It was no wonder Vi was so worried. Lori was somewhere out there among unknown aliens.

“N... no. I think I will pass on that,” she replied.

He inclined his head. “A wise decision,” he rumbled, and he slowly turned, presenting his back to her, as his tail wound among the cushions and pillows once more. “To answer the question that I am certain you have locked within you, you are here because you were ill and Kitanara and her sisters do not have suitable space to hide you. They came to me for help.”

“And you do? Have suitable space, that is?”

His head turned toward her, his eyes flicking dismissively in her direction before he gave a long sigh as he gestured to the piles of pillows filling the space. “What do you think? My bed is as spacious and comfortable as only the son of the queen can expect to enjoy... or an unfortunate male mated into one of the noble families,” he added with the faintest grimace twisting his lips. His gavo flicked, and he sighed again, this time quieter as he jostled himself out of his moment of reflection. “Then there is my nest which is not only these things but also considerably private. Few would dare to enter uninvited.”