Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 126848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 634(@200wpm)___ 507(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“It must be something that happens when you touch the plants the furniture is made of,” Iyanna murmured to herself. She wondered why Commander Rarev hadn’t said anything to her about it—it seemed like a detail he would mention to a botanist.
Well, maybe he had been too busy with showing her everything else to mention such minor details, Iyanna thought. But they were of great interest to her. She would have to start keeping notes on the different kinds of flora aboard the Monstrum Mother Ship and how each one reacted to different stimuli.
The thought of the new plants to study at last drove Ian’s blue eyes and sandy blond hair out of her head.
“It’s been six months,” Iyanna told herself firmly. “It’s time to move on. You have a new life and a research opportunity any botanist would give their right arm for. Don’t waste it feeling sorry for yourself!”
She felt better after the stern little self-lecture. It was getting late and she decided she would eat dinner and then take a leisurely soak in the gorgeous bathing pool before turning in for the night.
THREE
Dra’vik wandered aimlessly through the inky blackness on the Dark Side of the Monstrum Mother Ship. Like all Monstrum, Kindred, he had excellent night vision, so it wasn’t really dark to him—just unspeakably dreary.
He should still be asleep but he’d been having the dream again and it had woken him—the dream of a little human female with smooth brown skin, long, curling hair, and large, dark eyes. She was an Elite—one whom the Goddess had blessed with generous curves—and she was fucking gorgeous. Who was she? Was she real?
Unlike many of the inhabitants of the Dark Side, Dra’vik wasn’t nocturnal. But of course, day or night made no difference here since it was always pitch black on this side of the Monstrum Mother Ship. Once there had been many upright glow blossoms to brighten it up, but now the only ones left ran in a straight path through the middle of the Dark Forest.
Since there was nothing to differentiate day from night, Dra’vik slept when he was tired—but lately, every time he closed his eyes, she appeared.
He ran a hand over the smooth scales that covered his face and tugged on the long, curving horns that sprouted from his forehead.
“Who are you, little girl?” he rumbled in irritation. “And why can’t you leave me the fuck alone?”
It was no use thinking that he might be Dream Sharing with her—that she might be meant for him. No female was meant for him—ever. That Dra’vik knew well enough.
He was one of the last of his kind for a reason. His kind of Monstrum—the Dragon or Drake Monstrum—were too large to breed with most other species of humanoid.
Not to mention too damn frightening, he thought, narrowing his slitted yellow eyes.
She would fear him the moment she saw him—if she ever saw him, which he was going to make certain never happened. She would run screaming from him, thinking he was a monster come to eat her up. Any humanoid female would, he thought bitterly.
Commander Rarev hadn’t specifically asked Dra’vik to make himself scarce when the Monstrum Mother Ship reached Earth. The big Drake had done it voluntarily—going into isolation on the Dark Side of the ship and never showing his face to the humans. They had enough trouble accepting regular Monstrum—he didn’t want to make it worse for his Monstrum brothers by showing his face and scaring off the entire new race of humanoid females they’d found to mate with.
But though his exile was voluntary, Dra’vik couldn’t help feeling bitter. Despite his size and frightening outer appearance, he too had once dreamed of love. Dreamed of calling a female to mate with and cherish. But the females of his own kind were all gone—they had died out long ago. And none of the soft little human females would be brave enough to take him on.
Besides his size and his scales and the fact that he could breathe fire when the mood took him, there was also his Breeding Barb to contend with. It was a part of his shaft that a humanoid female would find even more frightening than his Bonding Knot. What female would willingly be pierced by such a barbaric looking piece of anatomy? Especially knowing that allowing herself to be pierced would result in an instant pregnancy?
A physician by trade, Dra’vik had studied the anatomy of the Earthlings, the better to advise Chief Commander Rarev about their new trade partners. What he had found was that an Earthling male’s shaft was a puny thing—often no longer than one of Dra’vik’s own fingers. It was soft and spongy without any kind of pleasure ridges or barbs or knots at all. If that was all a humanoid female could tolerate, then the curvy Elite with the lovely brown skin he kept seeing in his dreams would surely scream in terror if she saw his own equipment.