Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 (7 page)

She had ducked when she saw his head turn
toward her and Hobbler. The guy was huge! He had darker skin like
the other males, a deep golden tan and the biggest set of muscles
on his arms that she had ever seen.

His hair was long, black and pulled back
from his face so that she could see his high cheekbones and the
faint mark that ran around his right eye before ending at the
corner. His left hand had played with the long knife at his waist
as he looked around, making him even more intimidating.

She had ducked back down and tried to stay
hidden so he wouldn’t know she was there as she continued to watch
him. She would have been fine if the door hadn’t suddenly opened
and a golden creature in the shape of a huge dog trotted in. She
had been totally distracted by the floppy-eared shape. When it
tripped over its enormous ears, she couldn’t suppress the giggle
that escaped. It had looked so darn cute!

Of course, it had given her away when it ran
over to her. Her fingers stroked the smooth, silky surface of the
symbiot. She had seen a few of them before, but this was the first
time she had been this close to one. She sank down as her shaking
legs gave way.

“You aren’t scary at all, are you?” She
whispered. “Not like that warrior that was in here.”

The golden creature rubbed up against
Melina, enjoying the contact as she continued to rub her hands over
its surface. Melina wondered what it was made of, and then decided
some questions were better left unanswered. Instead, she just gave
in to the need to feel the comfort the creature was giving her.

“He’s gone,” she added as she turned her
face into the smooth surface. “He’s gone, and hopefully, I’ll never
see him again.”

*.*.*

Calo ran down the corridor, skirting around
a warrior pushing some equipment. His symbiot just dissolved so it
could flow around the man and machine before it reformed in front
of Calo. The warrior turned to stare at both of them in surprise,
but Calo ignored the male.

He had felt the shock ricocheting through
Cree, while his dragon and symbiot, both as much a part of Cree as
he was, burst into action. He had been resting when his dragon
roared out that it had found its mate. He had thought he had
dreamed it until he realized he had partially shifted in the middle
of his living quarters.

He rounded the last corner on the first
level and saw Cree leaning back against the wall, his head hung and
his eyes closed. Cree’s symbiot burst around the corner coming from
the opposite direction at the same time. Both symbiots ignored
them, instead they surged toward the repair bay doors.

The moment the doors opened, they both
disappeared inside. Calo drew in a deep breath as Cree looked up at
him with burning eyes. He opened himself to his brother, something
that they had refrained from doing lately in an effort to protect
each other.

Is it true?
Calo demanded, stopping
in front of Cree.
Is it our true mate or just a desperate desire
for one like Brogan and Barrack had?

Their symbiots did not react like
this,
Cree replied.
You heard what the people of the village
said, only the dragons wanted the girl in the village. Barrack lost
control of his dragon. Their symbiots tried to stop them, but
couldn’t without destroying everyone.

Where… where is she?
Calo asked
hoarsely, clenching his fists at his side.

“That’s just it,” Cree said grimly, looking
at his brother in wary amusement. “Our
mate
is the human boy
that was rescued from the Antrox mine.”

“Human?” Calo exclaimed in shock.

“Yes,” Cree said, waiting for the second
word to sink in.

“Boy?” Calo asked faintly, glancing at the
door as shock washed through him. “How can the Goddess give us a
boy for a mate? Surely, if we were meant to have… I’ve never
thought of being with a… Dragon’s balls.”

Cree chuckled bitterly. “I’ve never
personally been interested in them. This is going to be...”

“Awkward,” Calo muttered, looking at the
door again. “I want to meet him. I need to know for sure that…
well, that he is our… true mate.”

Cree shook his head. “I could barely control
my dragon. It wanted to hunt him down and capture him. Besides,
Carmen ordered me out. The old man and boy do not want anyone
inside with them. The boy... Mel, attacked two warriors this
morning with a shovel. He, our mate, isn’t quite right in the head.
To top it off, he’s mute too.”

Calo turned and fell back against the wall
next to his brother. His mind was swirling in a mass of confusion.
Never in his life had he ever been unsure of what to do next.

“So, what do we do now?” Calo asked, looking
at Cree with dark worried eyes. “My dragon is practically purring
he is so happy. I haven’t felt him like this since we were
younglings.”

“We stay close to our mate,” Cree said.
“We’ll try to get him to respond to us, make sure he is protected,
and wait for him to grow up. Perhaps… perhaps by then, we’ll know
what in the universe we are supposed to do with him.”

“Perhaps, we can work on training him,” Calo
suggested. “If he is as small as you say, it might be…”

“Don’t even say it,” Cree grunted. “I’m not
sure if I’m ready to think about mating with him. From the little
glance I got of him, he has a lot of growing to do.”

“At least my dragon is finally happy,” Calo
said glumly. “He is rubbing on me, wanting me to let him out.”

“Mine wants to chase,” Cree grumbled.
“Goddess, this is not how I expected things to work out. Why? Why
couldn’t we have just died in the Great War like a true
warrior?”

“Because Creon would have been pissed,” Calo
reminded him. “The few times one of us came close to dying, Creon
said he’d hunt down our parents and tell them that we were cowards,
not warriors.”

Cree frowned. “Why didn’t we just kill Creon
when we had the chance?” He asked, disgruntledly.

Calo chuckled. “Because you insisted we
swear our loyalty to him and the royal family for eternity, so that
wasn’t an option,” he reminded his brother.

Cree glanced at Calo and scowled. “I was
drunk when I made that declaration,” he snorted. “It shouldn’t have
counted.”

“Well, Creon accepted and had it recorded,”
Calo said, pushing off the wall and yawning. “He made sure to
remind us both before every mission.”

Cree stood up and stretched next to his
brother. “It still shouldn’t have counted,” he insisted. “I need to
release some energy. You feel up to a little session in the
training room?”

Calo glanced at the closed doors to the
repair bay. “What of our mate?” He asked.

“Both Creon’s and our symbiots are in there.
I think Carmen will be safe. I did not get the feeling the old man
would harm her,” Cree said.

“What about our mate?” Calo asked.

Cree paused, glancing at the closed door. He
closed his eyes and touched the symbiot wrapped around his wrist.
Warmth, happiness, and something else flowed through it to him. He
opened his eyes and looked at his brother. A slightly confused
smile quirked his lips upward.

“They are with the boy,” Cree responded.
“They are not leaving any time soon from the feel of it.”

“Then, I accept your challenge,” Calo
laughed, lunging and slapping the back of Cree’s head. “First point
to me!”

“That wasn’t fair,” Cree growled, taking off
after his brother who was already jogging back down the corridor.
“You’re mine, brother! Prepare to taste defeat.”

Melina silently laughed as the two massive
gold symbiots rolled over each other as they tried to get closer to
her. The golden creatures had burst through the door shortly after
the warrior had left. She had been stunned when they ran straight
for her. As soon as they did, the one that belonged to Carmen
brushed up against her one last time before walking over to lay at
Carmen’s feet.

Melina listened as her grandfather talked
with the other woman. She was fascinated to see another human.
Carmen was the first one Melina had seen in four years. The fact
that Carmen was a woman made her all the more interesting, as far
as Melina was concerned.

Reaching up to finger her hair, Melina
noticed that it was growing longer. She liked that she wouldn’t
have to cut it again. She hated having it so short, but it had been
too dangerous to let it grow longer. She had been having a hard
enough time concealing that she was a woman since her body suddenly
decided to start blossoming. Since the Antrox abandoned the mine,
though, her grandfather had not mentioned cutting it and she hadn’t
said anything to remind him.

Today was also the first day she had not
bound her breasts in the last two years. She blushed as she
remembered how her nipples had hardened when the huge warrior came
into the room. She decided it must have been a combination of the
coarse material of her shirt and the cooler air of the warship. The
material had rubbed against the tips, making them extremely
sensitive.

She glanced over to where her Gramps and
Carmen were sitting. She wished she could go over and sit with
them. It had been so long since she had talked to another living
creature besides her grandfather and the Pactors.

A sigh escaped her as she slid down to the
floor next to a tall stack of crates. Gramps and she had talked
last night about whether she should continue to act like a deranged
boy. He thought it would be safer. While this species seemed to be
nicer than the Antrox, they were still aliens.

“Just for a little while longer, Melina,”
Gramps had said. “Once we’re back on the farm, you’ll never have to
pretend you’re a boy again.”

Deep down, she knew her grandfather was
right. What was a few more months compared to the last four years?
Besides, she had new creatures to talk to and she could listen. It
wasn’t like she had a lot of things she wanted to talk about
anyway.

“At least I can talk to you,” she whispered
as she reached out to touch the new symbiots that had arrived. “I
wonder what you are?”

She jerked when her hands suddenly sunk into
both of the creatures. Fear rose inside her when she tried to pull
back, but couldn’t. She opened her mouth to scream for her Gramps
when warmth wound up through her arms. It was almost like they were
trying to tell her something.

“I… I don’t understand,” she whispered in a
trembling voice.

Images began to flicker through her mind.
Melina tried to pull back again in terror, but the images suddenly
stopped until one solid one formed. It stayed in her mind for
several seconds before another one took its place.

“You… you are trying to talk to me,” she
breathed as understanding began to dawn.

A gentle wave of warmth engulfed her. It was
as if they were trying to let her know that they agreed with her.
Melina bit her bottom lip and nodded before she bowed her head and
closed her eyes so she could focus better on what they were trying
to show her.

Her fingers curled inside the swirling gold
bodies of the two symbiots as images began to play as if she were
sitting in a movie theater. She shuddered, but refused to give in
to her fear as sounds began to mix with the pictures. She didn’t
try to understand how the creatures were able to do this. If she
did, she might very well begin to scream.

*.*.*

Melina’s breath caught in a stuttering gasp
as vivid images of two little boys formed in her mind. They were
identical when she first looked at them so she thought she was
seeing double. It took a while, but slowly little things they did,
the way they moved, began to stand out for her making each boy
different in his own unique way. Her lips curved as she saw them
running and laughing together. They looked like they were maybe
three or four years old.

Her mouth opened to cry out a warning when a
huge topaz and black dragon swooped down behind them with its claws
extended. The boys squealed as the claws wrapped around them. She
snapped her mouth closed when she realized that they were laughing
up at the creature instead of screaming in terror.

“Father, higher!” One of the boys yelled.
“Go higher.”

“And faster,” the other laughed. “Go faster
than a falling star.”

The dragon released a rumbling roar that
sounded almost like laughter as it did as the boys instructed.
Melina gasped in delight when a smaller, more delicate lavender
dragon, suddenly appeared next to the large male. She knew
instinctively that this must be the boys’ mother.

The scene changed and the boys were a little
older. They looked like they were about seven or eight. They were
walking along a wide path through a dark forest. A thick mist
swirled around them as they walked. One of the boys was carrying a
large stick in his hand and swatting at the ferns that hung down
over the trail. They were talking so quietly that she couldn’t hear
what they were saying.

Melina started to fall backwards when a
green and white dragon, bigger than the one before, suddenly
dropped down in front of them. The dragon shifted into a man as it
stepped forward. She shook her head in confusion. The change had
happened so fast that she thought the symbiots had changed images
again on her, but something told her they hadn’t.

The male had several long scars running down
one side of his face and neck. She was amazed that the boys didn’t
run from him. She would have been terrified if something like that,
dragon or man, had been standing in front of her.

“Twins,” the male growled.

“What do you want, Brogan?” Cree growled
back, straightening up as tall as he could.

The male, Brogan, walked slowly around the
two boys as another dragon silently landed a short distance away.
This one didn’t shift. He just watched them with an intense
stare.