Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

I wanted to bring her along slowly…wanted to give her time to feel for me as I feel for her, Dragon thought. He was well aware that the little feela did not yet have the deep yearning for him that he felt for her. She was still angry—still didn’t understand that males owning females was the natural order of things. It was for their safety and protection, of course—an unowned female was a female that was in danger every minute of her solitary existence. And more than anything, Dragon longed to keep the curvy little feela safe.

But just because he had Claimed her and now owned her didn’t mean he wanted to force her into anything she wasn’t ready for. He had always felt that the Saurian way of taking females sexually when they were unwilling was deeply wrong—he didn’t want to do that to Bobbi.

Now, though, what choice did he have? It was the only way to ease her ache—the only antidote for what she had been given.

Besides, it’s not like she’s completely unwilling—I can smell her heat, he thought. Her wild, feminine fragrance filled his nose, making his shaft ache with desire for her.

But he knew that just because her body was ready, it didn’t mean that her mind was. Her body might yearn for his, but when he took her, she would still see it as a violation.

“What is it? What are you thinking?” she demanded, looking up at him with those big, blue eyes of hers. Gods, if only she weren’t so bewitchingly lovely! All his life, Dragon had been seeing only flat, scaly Saurian faces. He had even covered the top of his mirror to avoid looking at his own, non-Saurian face which seemed strange to him.

Bobbi’s cute little nose, big eyes, and soft, lush lips should have looked wrong and alien after years of seeing only the faces of his adoptive people, but they didn’t. It was as though her face was the sight he’d been searching for all his life—a piece in the puzzle of his life that brought everything together. She was beautiful and tiny and defiant and perfect.

And now I have to ruin it, ruin everything, Dragon thought remorsefully. Gods, he didn’t want to hurt her!

There is no other way and you know it, he told himself. And then, from deep inside himself he heard that wild voice saying, She is Mine—ours—and we must take her! We must bond her to us!

Dragon didn’t understand what the voice meant by “bond her to us” but he agreed with this strange new voice that was speaking from inside him, like a forgotten part of him that was starting to awaken. Somehow he knew that if he did what must be done, Bobbi would be tied to him—to them?—forever.

He just hoped she would forgive him afterwards.

“Dragon, what are you thinking? What was I given—I know that you know—now tell me!” she demanded, putting her tiny hands on her full, curving hips and glaring defiantly up at him.

“Bobbi…” He sighed and leaned down to put his forehead against hers and looked into her eyes. It was a gesture of intimacy among the Saurians—one reserved for lovers. “Bobbi,” he said again, stroking her soft, warm cheek. “I know what you’ve been given and I’m afraid there’s only one antidote for it.”

“An antidote? There’s an antidote?” she whispered, searching his eyes with hers. “What is it? Can you give it to me?”

“I can, but I’m afraid you won’t like it,” Dragon murmured. “Little one, I’m going to have to breed you.”

33

“What?” Bobbi jerked away from his hands, breaking the almost hypnotic gaze of his bronze eyes that had held her in thrall. “You want to breed me? No, huh-uh. I don’t think so!”

“Just listen to me…” There was pleading in his deep voice and he didn’t try to chase her when she backed away. “I believe you’ve been given a dose of Lust Induction—sometimes called ‘red hand potion’ by the Saurians.”

“Red hand potion?” Bobbi repeated wildly. Where had she heard that before? She was certain it sounded familiar…

Then she remembered her conversation with Keelah earlier that day, when the two of them were chopping the bullah bulbs. Keelah had said something about how servicing Zerlix wasn’t so bad because he gave his girls the red hand potion that made them eager for sex, rather that dreading it. Was that what she had been given?

“Was…was that the bitter taste in my wine?” she asked.

“I’m afraid so.” Dragon nodded.

“Zerlix must have slipped it to me,” Bobbi muttered. “I know Keelah wouldn’t do it to me, but every wine glass she poured passed through his scaly hands!” She rubbed a hand over her forehead. “Oh God, now all that crap he was spouting at me in the storeroom makes sense!”

“What ‘crap’ are you talking about?” Dragon’s eyes were hard with fury at his Saurian brother.