“I have no idea. That doesn’t mean we enjoy killing ourselves.”
“What else could it possibly mean?”
“I don’t know. It’s complicated. It’s always been that way. Thank you for saving me, but I have to go.”
The woman limped around him, still missing a shoe. She made her way towards the exit. Mylash used his heightened Draconian senses to locate the missing piece of footwear. He scooped it up quickly and strode after the woman who was walking swiftly down the sidewalk with her broken gait.
“Human woman,” Mylash bellowed after her. “I have located your missing footwear.”
The woman slowly turned around and faced him, crossing her arms. She waited as he approached. Without thinking, he knelt down in front of her and held out the shoe so that she could slip her pretty little foot into it. He took in her shapely legs, wide hips, and slim waist before his eyes settled momentarily on her voluptuous breasts. Finally, he made it to her full pink lips and then gazed into her eyes.
Mate.
His inner Dragon roared fiercely, louder than anything Mylash had ever heard in his entire life. As he stood, he almost toppled over from the force of it inside his mind. He felt dizzy and feverish all at once but forced himself to stand up straight.
The woman stared at him with a frown on her face. Her crossed arms pushed her plump breasts together and he could see the swell of her cleavage under the neckline of her blouse. He could feel himself stiffen as his mating impulse awakened within. Not good. Not good at all. This woman was clearly his mate. His dragon could sense it.
Usually, when the Draconians came to a planet to mate with the females there, they would take massive samples of DNA, sort them through a computer, and match them with the appropriate Draconian male. This was how the Draconians found their mates, usually.
But Draconians could sense their mates even without the help of the computer system. Because there was usually so much data to sort through, it was faster to use the computer. But when a mate was standing right in front of a Draconian, he would know it instantly without the computer’s help. This was one of those times.
Mylash never would have expected to find his mate naturally, or at all for that matter. He’d been against the idea of finding a human bride. Now his dragon insisted that Loretta was the one.
Mylash rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at the little woman standing in front of him. She was obviously irritated, and he couldn’t blame her. She had just been a hostage and was then saved by an alien male who had set fire to a wall. There were dead terrorists lying on the street all around. It had been a bloodbath. Considering all of that, she was holding up particularly well.
“What’s your name?” he asked her.
“Loretta Franklin,” she said with an irritated tone. “Why?”
“I am Mylash Shin, leader of the Draconian commandos. Have you entered the mating lottery, Loretta Franklin?”
“No. I just finished my MBA and an internship. I came here for my first job interview in the city. I have better things to do than to wait around for some alien mating lottery to save my family.”
“Your family?” Suddenly everything about her was intensely interesting. He wanted to know about her family, her job, her education, everything.
“My grandmother takes care of my little brother and sister. I just had a job interview. If I get this job, I’ll be able to send money back to them every month. They’ll be able to keep the house. Why am I telling you all this?”
Mylash saw a tear swell in the corner of her eye and trickle down her cheek. The woman was traumatized and here he was, keeping her standing at the scene.
“Come, come with me now. I will get you away from here.”
He took her hand and led her down the street to where his hover car was waiting. He would take her back to the consulate and make sure that she was all right. After he knew that she was fine, he would make her his bride.
Chapter 5
The huge, hunky alien opened the door of an expensive looking sports hover car and Loretta climbed inside. Usually she wouldn’t just run off with a stranger, but he had just saved her and all of the other hostages. Aside from that, he was probably the sexiest man she’d ever seen. A strapping seven foot tall superhero with faintly green skin and sharp fangs inside his mouth, Mylash Shin was a force to be reckoned with.
She sat beside him in the car as he drove across town and gazed at his muscled thighs inside his skintight uniform. She could see the swell of his thick chest and a hint of the massive cargo he held between his legs. She felt a quiver of desire stir in her lady parts. She could tell the guy was as hot as a lava flow, but it didn’t make sense to her why she would be turned on in the middle of the most traumatic event of her life.
She chalked it up to stress, sat back in the luxurious car, and waited until he brought her somewhere safe. He finally parked in front of the Draconian Consulate. He opened her door and tried to hold her hand as they walked up the stairs to the front door, but she pulled her hand away with confusion and looked up into his crystal blue eyes.
His face gave away nothing, but he opened the door for her and she stepped past. She was just happy to be safely away from the chaos on Wall Street.
“It looks like the secretary is gone for the day,” Mylash said, looking around the bright open building. There was no one sitting at the desk at the center of the room. She followed Mylash to a smaller room where there were couches and computers. She sat down, took a deep breath, and let it out.
“Would you like something to drink or eat?” he asked.
“Some tea would be nice,” she said. All she really wanted was to take the bus back to Alabama and hug her grandma and brother and sister.
“All right,” he said, looking around. “I’ll try to figure out what that is.”
He disappeared through another door for several minutes, then came back with a steaming cup of tea which he handed to her with a massive grin on his face. He stared at her like that as she sipped the warm liquid. It was unnerving how he looked at her, and she couldn’t understand why. Finally, he took a seat beside her. That goofy expression didn’t leave his face.
“Loretta Franklin, I have a proposal for you.”
“What?” she asked, hoping that he would explain why he was looking at her like she was the last piece of birthday cake.
“I have reason to believe that you are my mate. I would like to make you an offer.”
“Your mate? You’ve got to be kidding me.” She laughed and set the tea down on a side table.
“I felt it the moment I laid eyes on you. Believe me, I am as surprised as you are. I told Commander Or I would not be entering the mating lottery as I did not want to mate with a human. But clearly my inner dragon has other ideas. My mating impulse has already begun. I need you. I will do anything to have you.”
“Wait, wait, wait. What are you talking about? I thought the Draconians used a computer program to match them with their mates,” she said.
“We do. But only because it usually speeds up the process. If our mate is standing right in front of us, our inner dragon can identify her. Once the mate is identified, the mating impulse begins. If I do not mate with you, I will slowly lose my mind.”
“Talk about pressure,” she said, standing up and backing away.
“Loretta Franklin, if you enter your DNA into the computer program, I will ensure that you receive the full bride price of five hundred thousand dollars, even if we are not a match.”
“So let me get this straight. You’ll give me five hundred thousand dollars if I let you test my DNA?”
“Yes. Do you find this arrangement acceptable?”
“What happens if I am your mate?”
“Let us first test your DNA before we decide on that. My inner dragon insists that you are my mate, but I would still like a second opinion. If the computer program comes back that you are not my mate, my mating impulse should end. I will then be free to continue my mission on Earth.?
??
“I guess I can help you out since you did save me from the terrorists. What do I need to do?”
“I need a swab of your DNA.” He handed her a large Q-tip and instructed her to rub it on the inside of her cheek. He did the same with his before approaching a computer terminal. He tapped a few buttons and dropped both of the Q-tips into a dispenser. Mylash and Loretta both stood and waited while the computer calculated. A moment later, a blue light blinked with a soft buzzing sound.
“What does that mean?” she asked.
Mylash turned to her and put his hand on her shoulder. The smoldering look in his eyes was too intense to bear, and she had to look away.
“That means that you are my mate.” He grasped her hands gently in his and pulled them to his mouth. He pressed a passionate kiss to the pulse points on each of her wrists. It sent a shiver of desire down her spine.
“What now?” she asked.
As Mylash was about to speak, an insistent beeping sounded through the room. He flicked a spot on the wrist of his suit.
“Commander Or, what can I do for you?”
“General Shin, you need to return to the command ship immediately. The terrorists who attacked New York have just threatened further actions against humans if we do not leave the planet immediately.”
“I’m on my way,” he said before flicking the spot on his wrist again.
“I have to go,” he said, still holding her hands.
“What about the money?” she asked, somewhat breathless.
“I will bring it to you. Where are you staying?”
“I rented an inexpensive room in New Jersey.” She quickly wrote the address on a slip of paper she pulled from her purse and handed it to him. On one hand, he had offered her five hundred thousand dollars. On the other, he was giving her feelings that she couldn’t explain. Confused and disoriented, she didn’t know what was going on. Giving her address to a strange man was not the kind of thing she normally did. However, General Mylash Shin, leader of the Draconian commandos, wasn’t just any man.
Chapter 6
Regretfully, Mylash pulled himself away from the woman who was his mate. She had not entered the mating lottery and so had not agreed to abide by the rules. She was under no obligation to take his seed and bear his young. Nevertheless, Mylash was now being taken over by his mating instinct. His inner dragon roared to be mated with his bride and would continue screaming in his mind until he took her.
Having just arrived on the planet, he had little experience dealing with the native inhabitants. He had been studying human government and society since he was given the position. Yet none of his studies had taught him how to convince a human woman to be his bride. He knew he couldn’t force her. That was the very reason the Draconians had proposed the exchange of technology for the acceptance of the mating lottery. Draconians did not force their precious few women.
He would have to find a new solution. In the meantime, he would keep the existence of his mate a secret, even from the commander. He didn’t like the idea of keeping anything from his superior officer, but he was in a desperate situation. The woman was within her rights to leave him and never see him again. If she did, he would surely lose his mind.
Out on the street, he helped her into a taxi, then took the transport craft back to the command ship in the Draconian armada orbiting the planet. When he arrived on the bridge, there was already a newscast playing on the screen in front of the crew.
“A group calling themselves the Human Liberation Coalition has released video threatening the same kinds of explosions and attacks that happened today in New York on a global scale,” the newscaster said. “Eye witness reports from the Draconian intervention today claim that the Draconians are taking a new stance on their interaction with Earth. The single Draconian who took out the terrorists in New York is said to have told a police officer the Draconians were planning a more heavy-handed approach.”
“In my opinion, Larry,” a political analyst said, “this isn’t happening soon enough. The Draconians should’ve intervened the moment they offered humans advanced technology. It’s thrown our entire economic system into turmoil.”
“Are you saying that you are in support of Draconian involvement in our political system?”
“The fact is, the Draconians are millions of years more advanced than we are. I’m sure they’ve learned a thing or two about how to keep a civilization running smoothly if they’ve survived that long. Humans, on the other hand, are still busy killing and oppressing each other. Isn’t it time we found a better way?”
“Yes, but shouldn’t we do it without the dictatorship of alien overlords?”
“Absolutely, if we could. But in my opinion, we won’t get there any time soon.”
The newscast cut to a commercial and the Draconian crew stood on the deck blinking at each other. The human problem had escalated exponentially the very day that Mylash and his commandos arrived on the planet. No one could have foreseen that they would have chosen to go in this direction, terrorizing and threatening their own people in an attempt to rid their planet of their unwanted guests.
“We need to get to the bottom of the terrorist attacks, fast,” the commander said.
“I have meetings with the heads of states in several countries across the planet, including the one where the attack recently happened. I’ve been authorized to offer our resources and guidance by the president. He is dedicated to preserving the human DNA pool and wishes that the species be saved for further breeding trips.”
“You may have more luck with political organizations on Earth after dealing with the threat of the terrorists. Their opinion is not a popular one among the leaders of the planet,” Commander Or said.
“The human leaders are the ones who benefit most from the unbalanced social system that our technologies have accentuated. I doubt they will want to lose either our support or their dominance over the less powerful,” Mylash said.
“That is why the president has sent us, the deadliest fighting force in the Draconian military.”
“Indeed,” Mylash said. If reason and logic did not appeal to the humans, they could always be brought into submission by using the Draconian’s superior strength.
Chapter 7
Loretta found the little room that she had rented out in New Jersey. It was a dingy little hotel, but she knew that she would need time after her interview to recuperate before the long trip back to Alabama. She also wanted to wait it out in New York until she knew for sure if she was getting the job. She set her bag down on the scratchy bedspread and heaved a deep sigh.
Today had been the strangest day of her entire life. She’d had an interview with a high-powered financial brokerage firm in New York City. It was a dream come true for her. Then she’d been taken hostage, been saved by a dragon, who shifted back into a man – a man who was so breathtakingly beautiful he made her believe there was magic in the world. That very same man then turned out to be her mate. Whatever that meant.
Loretta’s head buzzed with confusion and half realized desire. She’d given Mylash her address and wanted more than anything for him to contact her as soon as possible. She had to remember why she had agreed to have her DNA tested in the first place. Her grandmother was responsible for her little brother and sister. The older woman’s pension was barely enough to scrape by. Now the house was being foreclosed, and they would all be homeless by the end of the month unless Loretta figured something out fast.
The money Mylash offered her would definitely save the house and there would be plenty left over afterwards. But to mate with an alien? Even though Mylash was the sexiest man Loretta had ever met, he was still a dragon shifting alien.
She had never entered the lottery. Mostly because she couldn’t spend her time wishing for something that she had no control over. But also because the idea of becoming the bride of another species gave her the heebie-jeebies.
She definitely didn’t want to go out into space and live on one of the Draconian
spaceships. The idea of that was downright terrifying. She also had a life here on Earth and people that she cared about. Her grandma would be incensed if she knew that Loretta been mated with one of the aliens.
Unlike Loretta, who didn’t care one way or the other about the Draconians and their mating game, her grandmother thought it was disgusting. Being an old-fashioned woman, she had plenty of her own prejudices. Distrust of the Draconians was one of them.
The last thing Loretta ever wanted to do was disappoint her grandmother. The woman had raised her from the time she was twelve years old when both of her parents died in a car accident. Loretta had gone off to college before the Draconians had arrived. But in the five years since they had landed on earth, her grandmother’s ability to take care of Loretta’s younger brother and sister had disintegrated.
Her grandma was a wonderful caregiver and still healthy for a woman her age, but her pension had been cut and the social welfare systems that had provided them with food and cash had been cut out completely in the last year. The only money that they had until recently were from Loretta’s overly expensive student loans. Now that she was done with school, she was over one hundred thousand dollars in debt and had no income for herself or her family.
The fact was, Loretta had considered joining the lottery. But finishing school and getting a job seemed the safer bet at the end of the day. She pulled her cellphone out of her purse and considered calling her grandmother but decided against it. She sent her a quick text instead and set the cellphone down on the bed. She wouldn’t be able to have a conversation with her grandma without revealing what had happened today. It wouldn’t be long before the woman knew that it was Loretta’s building that had been bombed. Loretta wanted to let her grandmother know that she was safe. If she talked to her grandmother, she was afraid she would blurt out that she met Mylash and that he wanted her to be his mate.
Loretta picked up the remote and flicked on the television, looking for some distraction from her racing thoughts. Unfortunately, the television was not going to offer her any relaxation. What she saw before her sent a shiver of panic into the pit of her stomach.