8. Terra

EIGHT

TERRA

The training area was everything I’d come to expect from the Drakarn: brutal, functional, and entirely unforgiving. Rough stone walls glimmered faintly in the light cast by heat crystals embedded in the ceiling. Their glow painted the cavern in molten oranges and reds, making the space look like it had been carved directly out of a volcano. The floor was worn smooth in some places, jagged in others, as if even the ground here would punish the unsteady.

A place like this didn’t care about mercy. And neither did the man pacing in front of me.

Darrokar moved with all the lethal grace I’d come to associate with him: dark wings half-unfurled, casting jagged shadows that danced along the walls. His tail lashed in sharp, deliberate arcs, its spiked tip threatening to slice through the air between us. His claws flexed and curled as though itching for violence.

But it was his eyes—those molten gold, slit-pupiled eyes—that held me captive. Anger blazed within them like a forge stoked too hot, but there was something more, something darker writhing just beneath the surface.

"Disgrace," he snarled, his voice a low rumble that resonated through the cavern. The word ricocheted off the stone walls, its weight as sharp as his claws. "To attack one not marked as warrior. No honor."

I watched him, forcing myself to remain still. Observing. Calculating. If I was going to survive there, I needed to understand these people—their rules, their fragile egos, their ideology. And right then, I was learning a lot about what made Darrokar tick.

He wasn’t just angry about my unsanctioned expedition into the lower tunnels. No, this was something deeper. Personal.

"The punishment is exile," he continued, the words more to himself than to me. His tail slammed once against the ground, sending a vibration through the floor strong enough to rattle my teeth. " But it should have been death. It would have been death—if—" He cut himself off, his teeth clicking together audibly.

That barely reigned fury of his could’ve suffocated weaker prey. But I wasn’t prey. Not his. Not anyone’s.

"Why did you leave?" he snapped suddenly, spinning to face me. His wings flared wide, nearly brushing the walls on either side of us. It was a deliberately intimidating display, but I refused to flinch. "Why risk—why go?" His words were clipped, as though speaking simply, hoping I would understand, cost him effort. His control was slipping by the second, and I couldn’t shake how those seething remnants of anger lingered alongside something far less definable.

I pulled in a breath, readying myself for what I was about to say. My mask of control was thin, but I wore it like armor. "Because I needed to," I said evenly. With the translator's help, I'd picked up a lot of his language, even if it wasn't programmed to help me speak. "And I’m not helpless."

His eyes widened, a flicker of surprise cracking through his glowering mask.

"I won't let you cage me."

The resulting silence was deafening. He froze mid-breath, tension coiling through his massive frame like an earthquake gearing up to strike. Slowly, deliberately, his wings folded back against his spine, and his gaze locked onto mine with renewed intensity.

"You speak our words," he said, the syllables slow and measured. His breath hitched, almost imperceptibly, as though he’d walked into an ambush deeper than he could have anticipated. “All this time, you understood?”

“Long enough,” I replied, meeting his stare head-on. “I wanted to hear what you’d say when you didn’t think I could understand.”

“Clever,” he bit out. The word dripped with distaste. And yet, beneath the disapproval, there was something dangerously close to admiration. “You should’ve stayed inside,” he said finally, his voice losing some of its heat but none of its growl. "You are—" He paused, seeking the translation in his mind. "—too valuable to risk. Reckless."

"I don’t need your protection," I said. The sharpness of my words sliced between us. "I’m a soldier—a warrior. Back on Earth, I led people into battles you couldn’t begin to imagine. I protected them when no one else would. My people. My team. That’s who I am. Not some … fragile ornament you get to keep locked in a room."

Golden eyes narrowed. He stepped closer, enough for the heat radiating from his body to waft over my skin. “You think this is about keeping you? Claiming you?” His voice dropped lower, a throaty growl that somehow vibrated against the hollow of my chest. “If I wanted to ‘keep you,’ little warrior, you’d already be mine.”

The way those words lingered—low and rough and laced with something that burned hotter than anger—made my blood ignite in a way I didn’t entirely welcome. I swallowed hard, refusing to let him see even an inch of ground. “Then prove it. Train me.”

He stilled. For one tense moment, he seemed to loom even taller, darker, his shadow stretching long across the cavern floor. “Train you?” he repeated, a new note invading his voice. His wings shifted, sharp-edged feathers rustling faintly as his head tilted to study me again. “You hope to challenge me, human?”

“No,” I said, the word delivered with pointed clarity. “I hope to survive. And if there’s anyone in this goddamned cavern who knows how to fight like one of you, it’s you.”

Darrokar exhaled sharply through his nose. “Arrogant,” he muttered, though there was almost … approval in his tone. “But not wrong.”

I’d barely registered the shift in his stance before he moved. One heartbeat he was standing several feet away, the next he was face-to-face with me, so close I could see the faint, bluish veins that webbed through the black scales along his collarbone’s jagged ridges. His heat washed over me again, molten and all-consuming, dragging my pulse into dangerous territory.

"Then fight for it," he rumbled, his voice raw. “There is no training without pain. No victory without blood.”

Good.

Darrokar didn't give me time to reply. A blur of black scales and wings filled my vision as his tail whipped toward my legs. I leapt back, barely missing the strike that would’ve sent me sprawling. His movements were fluid, natural—as if each muscle in his body answered to some ancient rhythm. There was no hesitation, no pause to predict his next move. He was testing me, and I knew damn well he wasn’t going to make this easy.

Good. I didn’t want easy.

He lunged again, faster this time, and I dropped low, rolling under one of his outstretched wings. My shoulder scraped the rough stone of the floor, sending a spike of pain up my arm, but I ignored it, springing to my feet. Before I could fully regain my stance, he was already moving, his claws slicing through the charged air in a controlled strike—not close enough to hit me, but close enough to remind me how sharp they were.

“Your instincts … they are not entirely pathetic,” he growled, circling me. His tail lashed behind him, coiled energy barely held in check. “But instincts alone will not save you. Not here.”

I matched his steps, refusing to let him hem me in. “Then maybe you should stop showing off and actually teach me something,” I shot back, my breath coming faster than I would’ve liked. He wasn’t even winded. Of course he wasn’t.

The corner of his mouth curved upward, a flash of fangs against his obsidian-black scales. “A warrior should never beg for knowledge. Take it.” There was a challenge in his voice, low and electric, and I hated how much it set my nerves on fire.

“I’m not begging,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “I’m demanding.”

Darrokar stopped, wings unfurling just enough to shadow me as he leaned forward, closing the distance between. His golden eyes glowed in the dim light, molten and unwavering as they fixed on mine. “Then demand it with more than words, Terra. ”

The sound of my name on his tongue hit me harder than any blow. It wrapped around me, resonating in a way that made my stomach tighten and my chest ache. But I shoved that feeling aside.

He moved again, and this time I was ready. As his hand came toward me, claws curving just enough to hook, I stepped inside his reach, deflecting the strike with my forearm. The impact jolted through me, and it became startlingly clear just how solid he was. Like striking steel wrapped in scales. But I didn’t back down—I pivoted, grabbing for the ridges along his arm to use his momentum against him.

It almost worked.

Almost.

But then his tail snapped against my calf, throwing me off-balance. I stumbled, and in an instant, he had me pinned. One massive arm locked around my waist, yanking me flush against his chest while his other hand braced my forearm, holding it immobile. His heat seared into my back, and when he leaned close, the low, rumbling vibration of his growl buzzed through my skin like static electricity.

“You rely too much on technique without understanding your opponent,” he murmured into my ear, his breath hot and smoky against my neck. His voice was calm now, almost uncomfortably so. “You fight to win. My kind fight to dominate.”

“As if there's a difference,” I said through gritted teeth, twisting in his grip. I managed to free one arm and jab my elbow back, aiming for what I assumed was a pressure point just below his ribs.

It didn’t have the effect I wanted.

Instead of releasing me, Darrokar laughed—a low, predatory sound that sent a flicker of warning through my gut. “So you do have claws after all,” he said, and then, so quickly I couldn’t counter, he spun me around and pressed me back against one of the cavern walls. His wings flared, closing in like walls on either side of me, boxing me in. “But they’re dull. You’d be dead before drawing blood.”

The worst part wasn’t the position—it was the way his gaze raked over me, a mixture of challenge and something far more dangerous. He wasn’t just testing my combat skills anymore. He was testing me . Every nerve in my body felt strung tight, as if this wasn’t a fight but a negotiation happening on some deeper, unspoken level.

“You think I’m done?” I spat, defiance burning away the unwanted heat pooling low in my stomach. “This was round one.”

Darrokar’s fanged smile widened, and a pulse of something fierce flickered in his expression. “ Now you sound like a warrior.”

Using anger as fuel, I shoved at his chest. He allowed the motion to unbalance him, only slightly, but it was enough for me to duck beneath his arm and put distance between us again. My breaths became ragged, and I tightened my stance, forcing my body to obey even while my senses screamed at how close he still was.

“Faster,” he said and then lunged, dropping to a crouch as he swiped low with his tail. I jumped to avoid it, but the movement shifted my balance just enough for him to catch me mid-air, claws skimming my side as he spun me around and pinned me again. This time, when his chest pressed to mine, the rough stone of the wall dug into my back, grounding me in an intimacy that felt explosive rather than suffocating.

His head dipped low, and for one impossible moment, I swore his lips were close enough to graze mine.

“What are you waiting for?” he whispered, a low rumble laced with maddening satisfaction. “Prove me wrong, Terra. Show me you are more.”

I was breathing too hard to answer, every muscle coiled and trembling beneath his unrelenting heat. And then—then he looked at me, really looked, and something unspoken passed between us. His hand, still braced against my arm, loosened slightly, his claws careful as if remembering how breakable I was. His tail, still coiled near my ankle, stilled.

The air between us was electric, charged not only with tension but something far deeper and infinitely more potent. My pulse thundered in my ears, drowning out the weight of unasked questions lingering between us.

“Fuck it,” I muttered.

And then, like a dam breaking, I grabbed the back of his neck and yanked him forward, slamming my lips up to his in a kiss that tasted like battle and surrender all at once.

At first, Darrokar froze, a flash of surprise breaking through his storm-like intensity. But the hesitation lasted less than a heartbeat. Then he was kissing me back—ferociously, flawlessly, with a heat that burned away reason. His claws bit into the stone at my side, fingers caging me even as his wings swept forward, shielding me completely from the outside world.

A growl rose from deep in his throat, vibrating through his chest and into mine. His lips were hot and firm against mine, his fangs grazing the edge of my bottom lip just enough to make me pull him closer, tighter, like gravity wasn’t strong enough to hold us together.

When I finally broke the kiss to breathe, we were both panting, bodies pressed so tightly there wasn’t space for air between us.

“Little warrior,” he rumbled, his voice laced with something I couldn’t pin down.

“Time for round two.”