13. Zara

This was a mistake. I opened my eyes and realized that I could barely move, and it wasn't just from being taken and fucked within an inch of my life. It was the beast still between my legs and the man who owned it, holding me like I was something worth holding onto.

Fucking hell. What had made me think that the way I'd been turned on in my sleep could have ever been Gary? Even in my most vulnerable moment, the moment that I let my sister go, the moment that I lost what had been left of my family, even in the most broken moment, he still had never been a comfort. He had never been someone I wanted or craved. He made me feel sick to my stomach most days, but he had been something when my world crashed down.

I squeezed my eyes shut as the familiar drowning panic tried to resurface. I was trying on wedding dresses that he liked. Dresses I didn't want. No, a life I didn't want. I should have realized sooner.

Earlier, in that dress shop? I wasn't panicking because I was on an alien planet. I'd dissect that later. It was the memory of my bad life choice after my parents had died in a car accident. After my sister lay in a coma for a year.

"Mate? What are you thinking about?"

Shit. I hadn't even noticed Tarek was awake yet. When I didn't answer, he kissed my forehead.

"If it is more of this ex of yours, I have no problem trying to erase the memory of him more."

I sucked in a breath and not because I was surprised, but rather because his cock was already hardening, and my body was sore yet my stupid pussy was like a cat in heat, begging for more.

"I… No. It was more of why I panicked at the dress shop. I have a lot to unpack. The dresses? They made me think of a time I wasn't happy back on, well, Earth."

A giggle at how crazy I sounded died in my throat as I shifted and gasped.

"How are you even hard after the last two times?"

I looked up into his face, at those green eyes and that tousled dirty-blond hair.

"I'm still not certain I'm not dreaming and that I won't wake up in my own sad reality. Maybe, for now, you just keep holding onto me until I wake up."

He shifted, pressing his massive length deeper inside of me.

"Mate, I promise you that you will never wake up without me beside you if you let me."

The idea of going back to Earth seemed less appealing with every moment I stayed here with him.

"I'd like that. I think."

He shifted, kissing the top of my head again.

"The idea of waking with me? I would hope so, since my dragon would never let you go."

Why those words had my entire body relaxing confused the shit out of me. It should have scared me. Being owned? Caged? This idea of a human dome. But that wasn't what any of this felt like. Nothing told me these people weren't happy.

"Mate?"

He squeezed me tighter into him, if that was even possible.

"Yes, Tarek?"

Something vibrated through him like a purr, almost.

"My dragon likes when you say our name. But that was not what I wanted to say. I need to leave soon. A meeting has been called, and my brothers and I will need to go together."

My heart sank.

"I'll be alone? What will I do all day?"

There should have been panic rising to the surface, but with him? All I felt was safe and content. Wanted. Everything I'd once felt with my family before they had been taken too early. If this planet had less violence, less pain, I should just say sign me up.

"You will have your humans friends and—" he paused.

"And what?"

Shifting on the bed, I squirmed as his cock slid between my legs and my sore muscles.

"My mother. All the mothers. They will get you all ready for the ball tonight."

The air made its way against the tightness in my chest as I breathed in deep.

"Your mom? Is she?" I blew out a breath. "Is she kind of like you?"

His lips found mine, and for a moment it was answer enough that no matter what, he would want me. This kiss said everything I'd had no idea my soul had been asking for for years, and then, when he pulled away, I whimpered like a petulant child.

"Yes, Zara. She is kind. She is excited to know you. There has never been a dragon mother that hasn't doted on their youngling's mate. But I still have a few minutes before my brothers will demand I come with them. So let's use our time wisely."

With that, his mouth closed over mine again, and an instant heat flared alive within me like I could feel his dragon's power. Hell, the way he turned me and braced himself above me as he pressed his already hard length inside of me? I could feel him. Not just the way he filled me, but something in the way he watched me. Every emotion I'd ever needed somehow shone through his gaze, and I wanted more.

Sitting in a kitchen made for massive alien dragon men seemed rather empty with just the three of us and Aurora.

Aurora held her stomach, and something hit me as my eyes widened.

"You're pregnant, right?"

She smiled and nodded.

"Yes. I was probably with young at the moment of the abduction. I had no idea until the doctors fussed over me. The moon goddess certainly has a sense of humor, does she not?"

I sucked in a breath.

"I don't think a sense of humor is what I was thinking. How? I mean, well, shit. Do you have birth control on this planet?"

Aurora's smile widened.

"I'll assume you have a very specific green-eyed male that you are asking because of? Well, you'll be happy to know that without a mating bond, you can't conceive."

I looked at just about everything in terms of the kitchen that I could. I just needed something on this damn planet to make sense. But mating? Fated mates? I didn't even believe in soulmates.

"Okay. Sure. Yes. Him, but, why is that a thing?"

She shrugged.

"It's complicated. Or maybe it isn't. Without the magic of the dragon, we can't survive beyond the dome. Why would we be allowed to carry their young without the same gift?"

I pinched myself.

"Ouch."

Everyone in the kitchen watched me, but I was saved by the sound of the door creaking. My hands flew to the butterflies fluttering around in my stomach at the idea he was back. He had left, all the men had left, and it had been hours since we'd seen them.

I hadn't realized just how pathetic I was until the ache in my chest amplified when a whole group of women walked in, smiling and laughing. I shrunk back and tried to dissolve into the chair like that would save me from whatever this was.

There had been such a different feeling when the kitchen had been full of massive men. These women looked human. They were all human sized. Maybe that was why my entire body itched with a need to get out. The room seemed to close in around me.

The world slowed as I tried to catch a breath. I'd thought I'd worked through all this. I thought I'd finally figured out how to survive. But no. All I could see were the piles and piles of people that came to each and every funeral. All the empty I'm sorrys and the fake tears.

"Sweetheart?"

I blinked several times, and the memories faded back as I tried to focus on the woman talking to me.

I blinked again.

"Oh, Tarek mentioned that you were having a hard time."

Her voice wasn't saying I'm sorry. Take a breath. I could do this.

"You… you know Tarek?"

She smiled again, and it was then that I seemed to find the clearing inside the panic fog that allowed me to realize something about her seemed familiar.

"Of course, Zara. I am his mother. He told me you were having a bit of a hard time getting used to things here. I hope my son isn't being a problem."

I shook my head. A problem? No. Complication, yes. With him here, I wasn't sure I would ever go home. Or possibly it was that I would want to go home. Why would I want to go back though?

"No. He's been nothing but kind. He's been showing me around."

The heat that flooded my body and crept up my neck probably said just how much showing around he showed me last night and this morning. I placed my cooler hands on my cheeks, feeling the heat rising there. Shit.

"Oh, no worries, Zara. No reason to be embarrassed. The mate bond is pretty impossible to ignore. There isn't a woman in this room that doesn't know just how hard it is to resist these dragons."

I'm sure that was supposed to calm my nerves, but all it did was spread the embarrassment, knowing she knew exactly why I was flushed, or at least she had some idea.

"Come. The gowns were delivered and have been set up in the hallway."

I hesitated, and then she took my hand.

"It can just be the two of us. The others will go take care of Aurora and your human companions."

Tarek's mother smiled at me. There was nothing but kindness written across her beautiful face. How was she old enough to be his mother?

"You're really Tarek's mom?"

This time I took her hand because something inside me wanted so desperately to trust this woman. Tarek certainly filled a few holes in my heart and my soul. But seeing her? I swallowed down the lump in my throat.

"Yes. My name is Thalassa, but please just call me mom."

Swallowing became a war between the desert in my throat and my tongue.

"Mom?" That sounded so much more like squeak than I'd meant it too, but her smile?

"Of course. Perhaps you don't plan to mate my son, and I won't be the one to rush you. But while you are here on Pyroth, I would still be blessed by the goddess to love you as my daughter."

My eyes burned, and I didn't want to think about that too much.

"Okay. Sure. Mom."

I followed her to the hall where the rest of the women were. All the mothers to these dragon men, I supposed. They seemed to have gowns just the same as us.

"Let's go get ready. We do enjoy a good party. All of the males will be by before to escort us." Tarek's mother smiled at me with her arms full of one gown that must have been mine and one that must have been hers.

I followed behind her as she took the stairs slowly. She's said males. Males? The word wasn't wrong, but why not just men? Some things were the same here, and some things seemed so primitive, and I guess it was all okay with me. It was different enough I could escape here just a little and pretend like Earth had been an entirely different life.