Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117336 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 587(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
They do not have magic, nor do they have the gift of mind-speech, but it seems they have other gifts.
Even so, I would rather return to my world, where I understand everyone. Where I do not have to figure out how to join my body to a female's.
Something tickles at the back of my mind. The captive drakoni I keep on the wall are silent, their minds asleep. This one is new. An interloper, judging from the mad flutter of thoughts that graze against my own. I close my eyes and focus, straining. At home, I could hold a hundred drakoni captive at once, without breaking a sweat. Two hundred, even. In this strange world, it takes everything to hold the six I have. The mind-speech doesn't work the same here as it does at home. There's some sort of deep interference that makes everything far more difficult, and so when I send out a lure, it's ignored. The drakoni male drifts out of range again as quickly as he drifted in, and I frown to myself that I've failed in this.
I am not setting a good example of a Salorian. Perhaps I've spent so long trying to blend in that I've corrupted what makes us strong. Perhaps I should send the female away tonight and remember what a Salorian truly needs—nothing. Instead of focusing on the humans of this fort and the gorgeous, dark-skinned female bathing to please me, I should turn my strength inward, tap into my reserves, and try desperately to contact someone across the Rift, back in my home world.
Decided, I shelve the book with the mating people on the cover and abandon my library for the evening.
One of the servants meets me in the hall. He's adorned in the pale colors I have insisted that my house servants wear, as it reminds me of home and the drakoni servants that would be waiting upon me there. "Lord Azar," he says, his expression brightening. "Your dinner is almost ready—"
I hold a hand up, silencing him. Human food is another appealing item a true Salorian would eschew. "I am not eating tonight," I declare. "I will retire to my quarters and wish to be left alone."
The human male nods at me. "Of course."
With an angry snap of my robes, I head for my rooms. I am not pleased with myself. The tickle at the back of my mind returns, and I send out another mental lure, but it's ignored again, and it just irritates me more. Here I have been so smugly pleased that I have not been driven mad like the drakoni, but I have been corrupted instead by humans and their meals and their beautiful females.
Or…one beautiful female in particular.
She will crow with victory when she finds out I've resolved not to touch her, and the thought twists in my gut like a dragon's claw. Perhaps I will not tell her for a while, then. I will let her wonder, and suffer, just to remind her that I am in charge. Decided, I march down the halls and close the doors to my rooms behind me. It's cool and dark inside, with only a single candle lit to provide light to see by. It's light I don't need, but human senses are much duller than my own.
And sitting on the edge of my bed, waiting, is the female—Melina.
Her smell is different. There's a freshness to her scent, with something like flowers and soap. Her thick, curly hair gleams in the candlelight, loose around her shoulders, and she wears a strange shift dress with two strings holding it over her shoulders and nothing else.
She gets to her feet as I enter, and my mouth goes dry. My traitorous cock hardens under my robes as she approaches, her feet bare, and crosses the floor toward me. I need to speak, to tell her that we are not doing this. That I have changed my mind and decided to embrace my Salorian discipline tonight instead of her.
The words don't come, though. I'm silent, wordless as the gorgeous creature moves in front of me. She doesn't look me in the eye, simply raises her hands to my throat and undoes the decorative clasps of my clothing. A few more tugs and then she pulls my robe off entirely, letting it fall to the floor at my feet. I do not bother with the underclothes that humans wear, and so my cock juts obscenely toward her, an obvious show of my rampant desire.
Speak, I chide myself as she gazes down at my cock. Say something.
I open my mouth…just as she falls to her knees in front of me. I’m stunned. This is happening…now? I’d demanded it, yet I somehow thought…
I don’t know what I thought. I don’t know what my expectations were. I’m shocked to my depths at this moment. My cock is suddenly bobbing in front of her face, in front of her full lips, and I remember what she said about taking me into her mouth.