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Mahinui– A drakengate.
Konaka– T’Wanu phrase with a broad meaning ranging from “clever bastard” to “stupid dumbass” depending on the context.
Lamo’o– A type of large jungle tree.
Ahevamai– A celebration party.
Iwas a slut; I could admit it.
My cousins, Thran and Visir, were a bit more modest in how they viewed their proclivities, but I had absolutely no problems with proudly announcing how it was.
But now, they’d gotten mated. They’d chosen to sacrifice the benefits afforded to Othos omega Protectors. Visir was the latest leaf to fall. He and I had left our home forest for the very first time in our lives, traveled across land and water to T’Wanu Na Island to help our friends open a magic drakengate portal, and finally had our pick of real, hot-blooded, available alphas—and of course, he went and fell in love.
The whole thing had been both surprising, yet completely expected. He’d left Shen, Enry, and I to pay a favor to our host by pretending to be his betrothed, and ofcourseVisir would take his job so seriously it would end up with himactuallybetrothed. Duty gives way to booty.
Was I jealous that I was now the only cousin without a mate? No! We’d once shared the solidarity of never finding mates and always living together as the three strongest Protectors of our clan, but that was fine. What mattered was they were happy. And now, I didn’t have to worry about sharing. Because I was a slut.
Allow me to explain in more detail.
The Othos had no alphas, so omegas, especially those belonging to the elite group of warriors called the Protectors, were encouraged to take as many beta partners as we desired. The purpose was, of course, to make hatchlings. But with the demands of the job, there was no time to think about eggs and babies. Most of us fucked for the sake of fucking. Some used special herbal concoctions to prevent pregnancy, but I saw beta seed as too feeble to be worth worrying about. Pump me full of it and it did nothing—I was still starved for more.
And now, I was trapped on T’Wanu Na until the drakengate was finished, with a whole island full of delicious sea dragon alphas. It seemed like I was spoiled for choice, and yet two months into this mission I still hadn’t experienced a single one. It was the day of Visir and Kai’s mating ceremony, and I was determined to change that.
I walked through the harbor at Maintown, looking for the sailboat belonging to Theo and Eli, who were family to our extended flight of dragons back home. Eli was a healer, and healers knew herblore. I had a specific set of requests for him.
Theo was up on the deck, sleeves rolled up to his shoulders, tanned arms gleaming in the sunlight as he coiled up a rope on a spool. He was a graying fire dragon alpha, old enough to be my father, with an open and welcoming demeanor that could make anyone feel at home. He nodded to me and lowered a wooden plank for me to board as I came down the dock.
“Eli mentioned you were coming,” he said. “He’s down below.”
I bowed graciously and proceeded down the stairs into the boat’s quarters. This was only my second time being on one of these floating death traps. The first was the journey to T’Wanu, on a much larger ship that had driven Visir and me ill from the constant rocking. This boat bobbed gently in the water, and I had to take a second to gain my footing.
I’d spent my life rooted to the soil; I wasn’t made to float. I didn’t even know how to swim. But once I’d adjusted, I could appreciate the space Theo and Eli had created. Light poured in from large glass windows along the walls and ceiling that reminded me very much of the skylight tunnels that provided sun to the caves back home. A warm, toasted floral scent hung in the air, like mountain herbs and burnt tree bark.
To my left was a small table and cabinet filled with scrolls. A map was unfurled on the table, held open at the corners with metal weights, and there was a line marked across it in a length of red string. I took a closer peek and found where the line ended—a patchwork of shapes like the spots on a deer’s rump marked T’Wanu Archipelago. I traced the string all around the map until I found its origin—Old Shore Port. I knew of this place. It was where a portion of the flight came from. Which meant…
I moved my finger around the green mass, looking over the various names scrawled onto the paper, and finally found it.
Silver Mountain. Home.
So that was where it was. When seen on a map, it didn’t look as far away as it felt. But it was far. No going back, not unless I could catch a long and miserable ship ride, or until the drakengate was finally completed. We exchanged frequent letters with Thran and others, but it’d been months since I’d seen the mountain and the clan. I was here for a purpose, but I still occasionally felt like I wasn’t keeping my responsibilities as a Protector by being away. I helped Shen and Enry when they needed me, which was much less than I’d expected.
“It’s a vacation!” Enry had told me. “Don’t worry. Just relax.”
That was easy for him to say.
He was busy, and he was pregnant! He was the one who should’ve been relaxing. I just wanted to feel needed, dammit.
“Istil, thank you for coming,” said Eli, coming out from behind a dividing wall.
“Eli,” I said with a smile, turning away from the map. “No, thank you for accommodating my request.”
He gestured for me to join him, and I followed him to the front of the boat. Around a dividing wall was another table next to a long bench covered with a blanket and pillow.
“Take a seat,” he said.
The table had a set of brass scales, a stone mortar and pestle, a small brazier, and a cabinet lined with many glass cups and jars, some large and some adorably tiny. The surface of the table stayed perfectly steady even as the boat swayed on the water.
“It took some time to find local ingredients that would do the job,” Eli said. “Thankfully, everything was plentiful.” He placed two white packets in front of me. “This will remain effective for roughly one month, after which, your fertility will return to normal, and you’ll need another dose if you continue to wish to ward off pregnancy.”
