Tropical Dragons Series Box Set - Naomi Lucas Page 0,38
dragon. No way to reach Sand’s Hunters before the dragon does.
Then I’m pulled and lifted off the ground. I don’t even fight; helplessness has already taken over. Kaos carries me back within the jungle and sets me down. Glimpsing his face, there’s anger in his eyes.
“One wave could sweep you off your feet! One!” he yells. Tears fill my eyes. “Why hide from a dragon only to kill yourself moments later for stupidity! I cannot lose you. Why are you crying?” His anger tapers off as his brow furrows.
“My brother, my friend,” I say. “And Sand’s Hunters tribe… they’re in the direction that dragon went.”
The rest of Kaos’s unhappiness falls away. He glances in the direction I speak of before looking back at me.
“There’s nothing I can do to warn them,” I continue, frightened for their lives.
“Zaeyr will not approach them,” he says, cupping my face. “He may not even know they are there.”
“Zaeyr? And he will! They live high up on the rocks along the coast. They won’t be missed, not by a dragon, not by that dragon.” The dragon’s stare, directly at me, still chills me to the bone. He knew I was standing on the beach. Even through rain and wind and waves, he saw me.
Kaos forces me to face him. “He won’t go near them.”
“How can you know?”
“For the same reason I would not go near them were I still a dragon. He will not risk their touch.” He huffs. “Had you ever seen a dragon before me?” he asks, confusing me.
“No.”
One sharp brow arches. “There is a reason for that. We make our homes in the wilds of the world, for peace, but also to be away from humans. Your species may be rare, but we are rarer still. There is no reason for our kinds to come across each other.” He cants his head. “Unless someone is searching…”
I try to hope, to find comfort in his words, but I can’t, not fully. I think he sees me struggling. My tears keep coming.
“Issa, Zaeyr is in mating heat. Do you understand? Look at me!” he hisses when I drop my eyes. They go right back to him at the command. “The femdragon is calling. She is near mindless at this point. Her pheromones are everywhere, and not even this storm will clear them from the air. Zaeyr will not be thinking of puny humans. He will be searching for her, for me—but not your brethren. Once they find each other, they will go to a safe place and nest, and you will most likely never see them again. They will not want their dragonlings near humans. Do you trust me?”
Do I trust him? I search his green eyes, blinking away my tears. Trust. It’s a heavy question to ask, and one I’ve barely considered—had any time to consider. We’ve only been together for several days.
But those days feel like an eternity, like I’ve known Kaos my whole life. As if he were waiting in the jungle for me, and I was destined to find him the moment he awakened. As if that moment was ours, and no one or nothing else.
I still can’t believe I went dragon hunting, knowing nothing but a simple rumor.
The red comet makes us wild. Perhaps the comet makes us much more than that…
I think of Aida, Delina even, and the guardian huntresses of Sand’s Hunters. They’ve weathered storms, sicknesses, and ape attacks. They’ll weather this. I know it, deep inside. And if Kaos is so assured that his kind—this Zaeyr—will not attack them, then I believe him.
Sand’s Hunters have that name for a reason, and their tribe is nearly double the size of my own Shell Rock.
And they have the caves to escape to. They will go to them like they do during all bad storms. They are stocked, and well away from the shore—hidden. I know this because I’ve seen them. Shell Rock has been invited to shelter there, if we ever had need.
A breath escapes me, staring at Kaos, his calm demeanor, his overwhelming strength, his heady assurance that he tries to relay to me in his piercing gaze. And it does pierce, through my heart and soul.
I trust him. Completely.
“I trust you,” I whisper.
A smile breaks his lips, and he leans down and kisses me deeply. He sucks me more into him, feeling me with his heat again, loving him with everything I have. The first kiss was wild, but this one… this one is eternal.