Accidental Mates: Ladon

Chapter One

I woke with the sun beaming on my face and tested my limbs. No pain. My body had healed itself. Glancing around, I noted I lay on a cot in the corner of a small room. Tables lined the walls, and on each were jars of colorful substances. On a counter near the door, a purple-spotted plant sat with gloves and a gardening tool next to it. While the place was spotless, it looked nothing like a doctor’s office. I wasn’t sure where Ladon had deposited me.

A moment later, I heard his voice outside the door. The woman he spoke to was a frequent visitor to the bar where I worked and was my new friend. I hoped he hadn’t told her I was there.

Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I discovered I was still naked. “Bastard.” I stood, and the door opened. Ladon paused to sweep his gaze over me. I stood my ground daring him to comment.

He shrugged. “Aren’t you going to produce scales to cover yourself?”

“I don’t live like a dragon anymore,” I snapped at him. “I told you last night. It was last night, right?”

He shut the door behind him and moved to the counter with the gloves and herbs. “One night too many. You’re healed now. You can go back to wherever it is you live.”

I found a shirt lying on the bottom of the bed and slipped into it. “Why do you have all these jars? It looks different from when you ran the clinic on Earth. What are you up to now?” He ignored me, barefoot and bare-legged next to him. When I reached to examine a jar, he smacked my hand.

“Get out, Tiam. I let you stay here. Your precious humans don’t know you’re a Drelconian. Oh, and you’re welcome for saving your life.”

“Thank you.” I stood there staring at him, taking in the long black ponytail, the ruggedly handsome features almost identical to all Drelconian golden dragons. Yet, the kindness which had marked Ladon, a gentle guard who cared more about his people than anything seemed long gone—dead. “What happened to you? Why has your heart died?”

“Spare me.”

“You’re not the only one who has ever lost someone they love, Ladon. Arnetta was—”

He was on me faster than I could blink. Something crashed to the floor, and tall as I was, Ladon had me inches off the floor, held up by my arms. “Say it again! Say her name again. I dare you.”

His teeth sharp, and his nostrils blowing smoke, he waited for me to take his challenge. We could fight it out, and neither of us would win or lose unless we were willing to kill. A Drelconian didn’t die easily.

I kept my mouth shut. After a while he lowered me, but did so in a way that made my body glide along his. I fought to free myself. “Let me go.”

He was stronger. The wiggling around pleased him. “Do you have a lover?” he breathed, running his nose along my neck and taking in my scent. The sudden switch had my head whirling.

“I . . .”

“I haven’t had a woman in years. We would be compatible in bed, I’m sure. I won’t take a human again.”

Placing my hands on my hips, I tilted my head to the side examining him. “With the hate I see in your eyes vying with the lust, I wouldn’t take you to my bed if you paid me.”

“Don’t worry. I wouldn’t pay for it.”

I had been abused enough. I moved around him and headed for the door. A peek outside revealed an empty street. No one came out when the sun was hottest for three hours in the day. I didn’t understand the science behind it, but it allowed me wonderful freedom. I had done some silly things during high sun, as the humans called it, even running down the street naked. The only thing I hadn’t done was shift into dragon form and fly. As I had told Ladon, I put shape-shifting behind me. The only reason I had done it the night before was to try to save my life, what little good it did me.

Thoughts of the attack reminded me that I wanted to ask him what he had sprinkled on those creatures to make them let me go. He probably wouldn’t tell me.

I strolled to the edge of the boundaries and held a hand up to my eyes. Heat waves distorted the mountains in the distance. The creatures lived near there. I had been caught halfway between the mountains and here. In a smaller outcropping was a key ingredient to my best-selling drink at the bar. Its creation got me off the hook when I rejected my boss’s advances. His eyes constantly glued to my rear indicated he wanted one thing only.

The drink I made was popular among the colonists. They consumed it by the buckets, which was why I had risked travelling beyond the barriers to get it at night. I had learned my lesson.

After a quick change at my tiny mud home, which was on the other side of the settlement from Ladon’s place, I headed out to my sweet spot past the barrier. My boss assumed I had gotten the spice from the north side where the area was safer, greener. The colony rules didn’t apply to leaving the compound over there.

Finding my bag and the spice inside, I slung it over my shoulder. I kicked around my shredded clothing with bits of an odd substance clinging to it that looked like water but couldn’t be in the heat of the sun and with what happened. No one would come out here, so I left it and headed back.

While I walked, I thought of what excuse to give the humans about my disappearance and about why I had missed work. I only hoped my friend, Sandy, hadn’t come by looking for me and found my place empty. But as I struggled to come up with a plausible explanation, all I could think about was Ladon and his proposition.