Page 5 of Fated to the Dragon Warlord

For a start, he is enormous, well over seven foot in height. And he is most definitely ahein all senses of the word. Eschewing clothing on his upper half, his golden scaled body, all defined muscles, glistens at me. A long, sinuous tail wags behind him, covered with a healthy selection of bony spikes. Smoke curls from one nostril as if he’s just taken a drag on a cigarette.

Only there’s no sign of one—only the heavy laser rifle he holds in one hugeclawedhand. Long dark hair hangs around his face meaning all I can see is a pair of glittering eyes, focussed directly on me.

“Looks like I found a snack,” he growls, voice rasping its way to my ears in the way only a habitual smoker can do.

“Er…nope.” I pop the “p” as I get to my feet and dart away from him down a side passage.

I doubt very much I’m going to get far away from this behemoth of a creature, but I’m going to damn well make him work for his meal.

Who knows. Maybe I’ll also find an escape pod?

But seeing the shadows of other huge creatures coming out of the smoke tells me I have no escape. All this time in space, and I never considered being eaten was an option.

I guess I’m on the menu. And this tasty morsel has nowhere left to go.

KERRA

“Touch her and you die,” a familiar voice growls down the passage.

The shadows resolve into more of the huge scaly creatures, all massive, although not as huge as the one I ran into, literally.

“Darax,” one of them says, and the rest bow their heads, taking a pace back as the great male strides towards me.

“Darax?”

I say what I presume is his name and not some alien swearword (I hope). He stops in his tracks, not quite within reach of me.

“Darax, Warlord of the Sarkarnii, captain of theSilver Star, descendent of the High Bask,” he growls and thumps a fist over his heart, or where I would think his heart would be.

The rest of the creatures follow his action, thumping their chests loudly and filling the space with whatever the alien equivalent is of testosterone.

All I can concentrate on is the wordwarlord.

“I have claimed this ship and its spoils as my own,” he rasps, taking another step towards me.

I move away, but there’s nowhere to go. My back hits the grimy metal of the ship.

“I’m…not part of this ship.” I stumble over the words. “You should let me go.”

Pathetic, but who knows, it might just work.

He slams an enormous hand against the wall over my head and leans in, dominating me, giving me an eye full of bright scales as he lowers his head, long hair still partially obscuring his face, a puff of smoke making me blink furiously.

“I’ve nearly been blown to the ancestors, and I’ve lost my favorite jewel,” he says, voice low and deadly. “I am going to claim everything on this ship, including you, as recompense.”

“I can assure you, no matter what you say, I will never belong to you,” I retort.

If I’m going to be eaten, I’m going down with sass on my lips, and this alien can go to hell.

“Is that what you think?” He leans closer, scales glittering like the universe’s most dangerous disco ball.

Above me, huge claws sprout from his fingers’ ends, and the tipspierce the metal. In everything which has happened to me since being abducted, those claws and what they’re doing to a solid wall has me the most scared.

And I hate being scared. I hate how thisSarkarniiis making me feel, the big bully.

I lift my chin. “Yes, it is.”

He glares down at me, but his brow is furrowed. It’s as if he’s not used to being challenged. Smoke billows from his nostrils in two long streams.

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