“What do you want, Zerlix?” he asked, frowning. “Hadn’t you better get back to your seat? We’ll be landing soon.”
“You know what I want,” his Big Brother snarled, his forked tongue lashing. “I want what’s rightfully mine—the female I Claimed before you took her!”
Dragon felt something stirring within him—something huge and angry that was extremely protective of the female in his arms. It was almost like a set of invisible wings unfolding—as though some enormous creature was getting ready for battle.
“You never Claimed her—I did. And I have witnesses to prove it,” he growled. “I’m not giving her up or letting her out of my sight, so you might as well forget it, Brother.”
Zerlix’s eyes flashed, the nictitating second eyelid every Saurian had covering his slitted yellow-green eyeballs and making him look blind for a second.
“You’ll be sorry you took what is rightfully mine,” he snapped, his tongue lashing. “And you’d better keep an eye on her, Little Brother. Remember Nibbles.”
Then he turned and glided back to his seat, using the handholds as before, until he could buckle himself back in.
“What the hell is that guy’s problem?” the little female demanded. “And who or what is ‘Nibbles’?”
“You don’t need to know,” Dragon said darkly. He knew that no one else on the transport would understand his adoptive brother’s threat, but to him, it was perfectly clear. He was really going to have to be on his toes to protect the little female in his arms. The huge thing inside him—the thing he didn’t understand and had never felt before—turned restlessly inside him. A possessive growl rose in his throat and he swallowed it down with some difficulty.
“But—” she began.
“To answer your question, that’s the reason I took you,” he said, nodding at Zerlix, who had strapped himself in and was glaring at them from across the ship. “And it’s your own damned fault for bringing yourself to his attention. If you had just kept hidden in the back of the hut, he never would have seen you and you’d still be safe on Avria Pentaura.”
“I couldn’t stay hidden!” she exclaimed. “That was my friend’s egg he was trying to take! Her first egg from her very first mating and the fact that it was dark purple makes it sacred to the Orniths! I couldn’t just stand by and let him take it!”
“I wouldn’t have let him take the damn egg,” Dragon growled, losing patience. “But the minute you stepped up and shouted at him, I had no choice but to take you.”
“You did too have a choice,” she snapped. “You could have left me there, on Avria Pentaura! I’m sure he would have forgotten about me once the bunch of you got back to Saurous!”
“You don’t know Zerlix,” Dragon said shortly. “He never forgets. He would have come back for you and you wouldn’t have liked the result.”
“So you kidnapped me in order to protect me?” She didn’t bother to try and hide the sarcasm and doubt in her voice. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to do better than that.”
Dragon wasn’t sure how to respond to that—how to convince her that he’d taken her for her own good. But at that moment, the pilot announced over the com-link,
“Getting ready to enter Saurous atmosphere. If anyone’s floating, better strap in quick.”
Reluctantly, Dragon decided it would be better to put the little female back in her own seat.
“Hey, what are you doing?” she demanded, as he shifted her from his lap back to the metal chair beside him and started strapping her in.
“Putting you back before we touch down.” Dragon raised an eyebrow at her. “Besides, I thought you didn’t want me touching you?”
“I don’t.” She crossed her arms over her breasts protectively. “But, well…you are really warm. And it’s so damn cold in this ship!”
“Just wait until you feel the weather on Saurous,” Dragon told her.
Her eyes widened. “It’s colder than this?”
“Considerably.” Dragon leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, trying to ignore the way Zerlix was still glaring at him from his seat across the ship. “Just try to hold still this time, all right? Unless you want to be mashed like a bug by the G-forces.”
She didn’t reply but she didn’t unbuckle herself and try to run again, either, which he considered to be progress. He really was somewhat concerned about how she would handle the climate of Saurous, though. He would have to take her back home to his Clan’s family compound as soon as possible, he decided.
Too bad he didn’t have his vehicle parked at the spaceport—they had gotten there in Zerlix’s flashy red racer and there was no way he was asking his Big Brother for a lift. He didn’t want the Saurian male anywhere near his female.
The possessive thought made him frown. Really, the little feela wasn’t his at all—he had only taken her to protect her. But he couldn’t stop the low growl that rose in his throat when he thought of Zerlix getting anywhere near her.