Kiera
There were several key phrases in what he said that made me pause. The first was 'venom'. Then 'I could not stop it' and 'my dragon refuses'. I had fallen into some sort of horror film. Between the arrogant, obstinate king and the selfish, possessive dragon, I seemed to have the lead role in this disturbing plot.
I noticed that he didn't seem the least bit regretful for changing me. But, of course, he wouldn't. Why would he be? First, he was a man. That was most of the problem right there. Second, he was king. He was accustomed to getting whatever he wanted. No one ever disobeyed him or told him no. Those two things put together, it probably wouldn't even occur to him that I may not even want any of this. I understood being lost in the moment. I had been the same. I refused to fault him for something I had done myself. But knowing that there was a chance that he could change not only who but what I was, as king and a decent person, he should have had the self-control to explain things to me first. Relationships were hard enough without this being added to it. More to the point, 'relationship' would have been enough to make me turn and run.
The nervous energy was getting to me. I stood up and began pacing in front of the cold fireplace. Pacing had always steadied my mind in the past when I had been working on a problem. The repetitive motions helped me focus.
With so little information, I didn't know what to think. He was changing me. On a fundamental level. It was as though he didn't care who I had been before. It didn't matter to him if I would be a good queen or an evil one. I knew nothing about being Drakian. Twenty-four hours ago, I didn't even know that they existed. Now I was going to not only be one of them but lead them? I like who I am. I had walked through fire, worked my ass off, to become who I was. I had come from nothing and worked my way up to manning my own space mission. That was no small feat. Then, at sixteen, I survived a trauma no one should have had to. Quite literally, I was the phoenix that had died and been reborn in flames. It was why I had the tattoo on my lower back.
"What is the next step?" I didn't stop and look at him. My brain was going in too many different directions. There were so many reasons why this wasn't going to work.
"Next, we mate, and I'll bite you again while we are one." Judging by the excitement in his voice, he was already visualizing it. The obtuse man wasn't even picking up on the fact that I was close to panicking.
I stopped pacing to glare at him. "Is this biting thing going to become a habit for you?"
Glacian nodded, not phased in the least by my tone. "Yes. The more times I mark you, the faster the change will happen. And considering how good it felt, yes, I am going to do it again and again and again." He leaned forward in his seat. Fire was blazing in his eyes as his horny dragon came to the surface again. "You cannot tell me you did not enjoy that just as much as I did. And once you have your dragon, you will mark me and the mating will be complete. After that we will begin your training to become queen."
I couldn't deny that I had enjoyed it. That was such a small thing in comparison to the bigger picture though. And he was so smug about it that I wanted to take him down a few notches. Somehow, I didn't think his royal, male sensibilities would take too well to being beat up by a girl. Especially one as small as I was. To him it would be the ultimate insult. Crossing my arms across my chest, I continue to glare at him. A hundred different ways that I could kill him ran through my mind. All of which were absolutely doable. A few that were anatomically impossible. Okay. It was safe to say I was feeling a little bloodthirsty.
"And getting this dragon? I assume it's not a simple process." I was determined to stay on track.
He lifted a shoulder, completely unconcerned. "It differs between species. We have never had your kind here so we do not know what exactly will happen. You look close to our species so it should be safe. If we were not compatible, there would be no mate bond. For other species there was pain, but Arc and I will be there with you to help with that. We cannot take all the pain, but we can shoulder some of it. At most it should only take a few sects."
My teeth ground together in irritation. Of course, he wouldn't think twice about it. He wasn't the one having to do any of the changing. Physically, emotionally, or mentally. He was doing all of this with the assumption that it wasn't going to kill me. The fact that he and his dragon didn't know if it would but had started the process anyway, frankly, rubbed me raw. All he seemed to care about was getting what he wanted. What I had to go through in order for him to get what he wanted, didn't matter to him.
"Is it reversible? Can we stop it?" I ground out. His blasé attitude and absolutely no concern for my well-being made the decision for me. I couldn't trust him. But deep down, I had already known that I couldn't. I had just been hoping that I was wrong.
He looked like I had just shot him. "No. Why would you want to stop it?"
Was he serious? Did he really not see any of the complications that surrounded this craziness? How the hell was he king if he couldn't look around and see all the possible issues that could crop up from any given situation? Maybe being king here was all about brute strength and no brains. He kept mentioning about how he and his brothers were the strongest dragons. But that was part of the problem. I didn't know. I didn't know anything about him, and he didn't seem to want to know anything about me. He just wanted to mold me into what he wanted.
I'd had enough. It was extremely difficult to get me so spit firing mad that I blew up. But once I was there, it was like a volcano blew its top. I always prided myself on being able to keep my lid on. His total disregard popped that lid and I exploded in spectacular fashion.
"Are you kidding me?" I almost screeched. "You are a king! Think with your brain and not your dick. There are so many ways this could go horribly wrong. Let's take a moment and completely ignore the fact that we haven't even known each other for more than a few hours. Let's completely ignore the fact that, so far, I don't even like you, much less want to spend the rest of my life with you. As king, you have a responsibility to your people. I can't be your queen. If it even means the same thing here as it does where I come from. I don't know anything about your people, this planet or your customs. You don't know anything about me, my species, what I want or even what I need to survive. I could be a demented psychopath and you would just hand over your kingdom to me? And how do you know that something about my genetic makeup couldn't harm you? How do you know that my genetics wouldn't be stronger than yours? My blood could kill your dragon, but you didn't think about that. How do you know that my species could even survive the process of getting a dragon? You may have just sentenced me to death, and you didn't think twice about it. What happens to my crew if something happens to me? What about your people? If I do survive, they are not going to follow someone that is a species they have never seen before."
By this point, I had worked myself up so much that I never noticed he had slowly stood and was stalking towards me. My brain just wouldn't shut down. Scenario after scenario ran through my mind and none of them ended up good, much less with anyone ending up being happy. One of those scenarios even consisted of me and my crew disappearing into the mountains. All it would take is a word from me and they would follow me. We were survivalists at our core. We could make it work. Given enough time, we could make sure we were never found.
My pacing came to a sudden stop when I hit a wall. What the hell? Looking up, I met purple dragon eyes full of fury. When he spoke, his tone was one of 'I am king and I know what is best'. Completely rubbed my already frayed nerves the wrong way.
"Kiera. I know there are going to be a lot of changes and new things to get accustomed to. Change can be scary. You are not going to be doing this alone. You will learn our ways and learn…"
"Exactly," I interrupted. "I'm changing. I have to adjust. What are you doing? Nothing. In the time that we have been together you haven't once tried to get to know me. All you've done is demand that I not even speak my own language. Did it ever occur to you that my human DNA may not be compatible with your dragon DNA? What happens if my body fights your venom, as it typically does, and fights the change so much it kills me? How would you feel if you were the one changing? What if my DNA is stronger than yours and instead of me changing, you lose your dragon?"
He opened his mouth to refute that but snapped it shut. From the look on his face, I could tell that he wasn't even considering it. He didn't understand why I would want to fight this.
"You will not be losing anything," he said in confusion. "You will be gaining a powerful dragon. No alien mate has ever died from the change."
But he was wrong. I would be losing something. Myself. My very being. Everything that I had scraped and bled for to shape myself into the competent strong woman I was.
I shook my head. He was so callous with my life. I knew that, right now, I couldn't trust him with it. Maybe it was time that my crew and I did what we did best. Survive. What happens if one of them finds a mate here? A small part of me was screaming at me not to go through with it. Not to leave Glacian. I knew that part was the new connection I had formed with him on that beach. But a larger part of me was determined to stay true to myself. I knew what he was wanting from me. To be everything for him, give everything I had to his people, give up who and what I was to be everything that he wanted and needed. That wasn't me.
A long time ago I had given everything of myself to a cause I had thought was worthy. And it broke me. Now? Now I was commanding and sassy, self-sufficient, self-assured, confident. I had literally picked myself up, bleeding, bruised, and cut, and came back stronger than ever. The thing I love most was being out in the wild with my crew, using my skills and knowledge. I was a tomboy that loved pants and camping and sports. This perfect mate he wanted to mold me into just wasn't me. He didn't want me. He wanted the idea of me.
Looking down at the tips of my boots, I nodded to myself as my decision was made. I had to stay true to myself. Anything else wasn't an option. And he wasn't the type to compromise. "I think you should go," I said quietly. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing left to say. He was never going to see things my way. Wasn't even going to try to meet me halfway. Whether it was his dragon or him, didn't change his stance.
He looked like he wanted to protest but something held him back. His frustration was obvious. "We will all meet in a little over thirty clicks. There will be a tour of the castle and then we will talk. Tomorrow you will get a tour of the market. There are clean clothes in the wardrobe. I will be back shortly to escort you."
I nodded, refusing to look at him. I heard him move toward the door but never heard it open. "What was the hand gesture the others gave you before going to their rooms?"
Lifting a shoulder, there was no reason not to tell him. It would be the only one they would ever see from us. "It is a code we have for when we are in unfamiliar territory and split up."
"What did it mean?"
Finally looking up at him, I made sure he knew I was serious. "Burn it down. If one of us disappears or is taken, we will burn the world down to find them." It was a code we had only had to follow through with once before.
Glacian couldn't contain his shock. "Do you really think you would be able to?"
My steady gaze said it all. "In more ways than one."