To Wake a Dragon - Naomi Lucas Page 0,55

and grab Milaye’s form to my chest. “It is none of those things,” I hiss.

“Then what is it?”

“Me… It is me.”

19

Fighting Fire

“Milaye, fight it!”

I hear Drazak’s voice.

Fight what?

My skin is tight, as if it’s been stretched like an animal hide across curing poles. But it’s the sensation of being uncomfortably full that stirs my mind. And I am full. It’s this fullness that’s made my skin taut, I’m sure of it.

Every second that passes, my body grows even fuller, my skin tighter. I want to scream, but my mouth won’t open.

Make it stop! Please make it stop!

But I make no noise.

Though something does answer me, I realize it after a moment of anxiety. The lazy, relaxing heat I felt earlier roars to life, spreading through my limbs. The warmth takes away the pressure, easing my flesh to loosen up.

Though I still remain excruciatingly full, and that same heat has only worsened it.

The fire tells me to let it in, to surrender into it, to let it consume me. To let it keep filling me and filling me until I burst. I want to do as it asks… but something in me fights it. Fear. I think I’m afraid.

I don’t want to burst open. There will be nothing left of me if I do. I have a mate to live for, a baby to live for… I can’t burst. I can’t.

Someone takes my hand and raises it to their mouth.

Drazak. My heart thrums. He’s my fire. It’s because of him that I’m feeling better.

I fall back under and sweet, restful oblivion takes me again.

I wake to screams. Wrenching, ear-splitting screams, unlike any I have ever known. There’s screaming all around me, on every side. It’s coming from within me as well, but so many others.

Why are people screaming?

Pain rips through me, and I lose consciousness.

The third time I wake, I’m being carried. Someone is running and I’m in their arms. Each step sends blazing jolts of lavafire through me.

Drazak. I’m in Drazak’s arms. I want to smile, but my mouth falls open instead. Several of my teeth fall out. The pain returns, hot and fast.

“Milaye! Hang on!” Drazak roars.

And then I hear the screams again. This time they’re all mine.

20

To Wake A Dragon

I rush away from the humans, down the lift, and out onto the beach. Dragon fire rages behind me, but I do not stop. Zaeyr follows, helping me with my precious burden.

Milaye is in my arms, but she is not the Milaye I know.

She was not poisoned. After several days of caring for her with her tribemates, it became clear that what Milaye suffered was not what I had. She did not have poison dragon venom festering inside of her. No, I learned that was not the answer when she grew scales, her skin tore open, and her limbs expanded.

No, she is not sick at all.

She is transforming into a dragon.

The alpha dragon that I felt nearing, the one Zaeyr had felt as well. It was not this Kaos from another tribe; it was Milaye. She is the alpha closing in on us. She is becoming one of us.

A scream rips from her throat, and I tighten my hold. Her back arches, and a loud cracking fills my ears. Zaeyr stops next to me and sets Milaye’s tail in the sand beside her.

It burst from her backside just as we decided to leave, because with it, dragon fire began escaping from her lungs. She bathed the ceiling of her hut in flames that seemed to never end, and by the time it did, the tribe was in chaos, and I was covered in blood and soot.

Milaye’s screams have been unending since. Her mouth still smolders, the flames returning at random.

“I need to go back,” Zaeyr says quickly, rising to his feet. “They will need my help putting out the fire.”

“Go.” I lay Milaye’s convulsing body down.

“I will be back soon.”

Milaye writhes and anything else Zaeyr says is lost. He worries for his mate and younglings, and that is an honorable thing to do. Though he laid his hands on Milaye, I do not loathe him as much as before. He stopped my female’s sisters from gutting me.

He and his bonded, Aida, have offered my mate and me a haven. One for her to transform in, one that contains me while I watch over her.

I pet my human’s beautiful hair back.

Milaye’s eyes snap open.

“Human?” I grab her to me. Her gaze fixates on mine. Her mouth strains open into a