Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 (25 page)

Melina’s eyes softened at his soft
admission. “If you are, then so am I.”

“What happened to you? When I saw your eyes
and the… the scales.” His voice faded as he searched her face for
evidence of what he was talking about. Instead, all he saw with the
pale face of a very, very sad young woman. “What did they do to
you?”

Melina sighed as she thought about how much
she should tell him. Looking over at the small stone seat, she
waved her hand toward it. He had seen too much already, yet he had
kept their secret. Something told her that he just needed to know
the truth.

“The story I’m about to tell you must not be
shared with anyone,” she warned in a quiet, but firm voice as she
turned and sat down. “My journey started almost five years ago,
shortly before my sixteenth birthday….”

*.*.*

Joe sat quietly listening as Melina Franklin
unfolded an impossible tale of alien abduction, survival, rescue,
and return. He knew she was telling the truth. There were too many
tiny details to her story that would have been impossible to make
up. Whenever he asked a question, she responded immediately.

“What about the things that I saw?” He asked
as her voice faltered as she spoke of the two men he had seen at
the station. “What about them?”

Melina’s eyes grow old and sad. “They are
known as the Twin Dragons,” she whispered. “The Valdier are a
dragon-shifting species. I can’t explain how, but I was able to
change as well.”

“Was?” Joe asked, studying her face as she
stared with sightless eyes out over the headstone covered
meadow.

“I can’t feel her any longer,” Melina
replied in a thick voice. “I can’t feel them either. I just feel…
nothing.”

Joe raised his hand to touch her arm. His
hand hesitated for a moment before he dropped it back to his lap.
He honestly didn’t know what to tell her.

“What you’ve told me is incredible,” he
finally said. “Thank you.”

Melina rose, stiff and cold from sitting for
so long. She turned to face Joe as he rose as well. A light breeze
ruffled the color of his jacket. She smiled up into his dark brown
face.

“Do you have a family, Detective
Manchester?” She asked quietly.

“Yes,” he replied, startled.

“Keep them safe and tell them you love
them,” she whispered. “The universe is a very large and dangerous
place. It is also an empty one without them.”

Joe watched as Melina turned away from him
and walked back to the old truck. Her head was held high and her
back stiff against the bitterly cold wind. Still, there was an air
of frailty that made him think of a spider web blowing in the
breeze.

He turned to walk back to where he had
parked his own car. Out of the corner of his eye, a glimmer of gold
caught his attention. A shiver of apprehension ran down his spine
and he glanced back to see Melina pulling away. His eyes swiveled
back to where he thought he saw the shadowy image, Melina’s words
haunting him as he stared.

The universe is a very large and dangerous
place.

“Shit,” he muttered as he hurried to his
car.

*.*.*

It was almost midnight before Melina finally
collapsed onto the bed in her old bedroom. She couldn’t stand the
thought of sleeping in the bed where Cree and Calo had made love to
her. Her hand reached out and pulled the Teddy Bear closer to
her.

Rubbing her cheek against it, she released a
tired sigh. She had finally been hungry and had devoured the whole
pint of Chicken Noodle soup. Between the lack of sleep, her full
belly, and the work she had been doing, she was exhausted.

Her eyes began to droop as she rubbed
against the soft material of the bear in her arms. They fluttered
for a moment when she felt a movement inside her before they
closed. As her mind became fuzzy, she swore she heard a soft voice
inside her whisper in glee.

They return. We go home now.

“How is she?” Calo asked worriedly as he
stepped into their living quarters.

“Still sleeping,” Cree replied in a husky
tone. “I think the combination of the sedative we slipped into the
soup and her exhaustion is the reason.”

“Do you… do you think we should have talked
to her about this first?” Calo asked as he sat on the edge of the
bed next to Melina.

“No,” Cree grunted, rising from where he had
been sitting watching her. He walked over to look out the viewport
into the darkness of space.

“She looks so fragile,” Calo murmured,
running the back of his fingers across her cheek. “I still can’t
believe that we found her.”

Cree turned to watch as his brother gazed
down at Melina. His fingers curled into a fist. The last two days
had been torture. They had pulled away from her, not left her. The
symbiot around her wrists and neck connected them to her the entire
time they were separated, so they were aware of where she was and
what she was going through. It had been necessary to give her the
illusion that they had left so that she could understand the
pain.

“She is stubborn,” he murmured.

Calo chuckled as he watched resignation
flash across Cree’s face. Yes, she was very stubborn, he thought as
he stared back down at her. He wouldn’t have her any other way. She
would need to be stubborn and firm, and so much more with the two
of them as her mates.

“She is perfect,” Calo replied. “We would
walk all over her otherwise.”

“You don’t have to enjoy it so much,” Cree
complained, but the small lift at the corner of his mouth belied
his words. “I wonder how she is going to handle finding we have
kidnapped her from her world.”

“Kidnapped is a rather… strong definition of
what we have done,” Calo grimaced, picking her right hand up in
his. “Perhaps we can say… borrowed.”

“To borrow gives the implication that we
plan to return her,” Cree pointed out as he turned and leaned back
against the wall. “I have no intention of returning her.”

“Kidnapped it is,” Calo muttered. “But, for
all the right reasons.”

“The only thing I worry about is…” Cree’s
voice faded as he stared broodingly at Melina’s relaxed face.

“Is what?” Calo asked with a frown.

“What if she requests assistance from the
royal family? We have sworn our allegiance to them. If she
approaches them and requests their help in returning to her world,
what will we do?”

Calo cursed and his hand tightened around
Melina’s slender fingers. He thought when Creon gave them
permission to escort her back to her world, that the Prince would
understand that they were claiming her. But, even with that
understanding, Melina could approach Zoran and ask for asylum. Even
Creon would be defenseless to help them. Zoran ruled the Valdier
since the death of his father. While his brothers could make
decisions, the ultimate decision would come from Zoran.”

“Zoran has a human mate,” Calo said in a low
voice. He looked at Cree. “Surely he will understand and deny
Melina’s request should she ask.”

Cree turned back around and gripped the edge
of the window. His lips tightened as he thought about all the
different scenarios. It was true that Zoran had taken a human
female as his true mate. It was what gave hope to the Valdier after
centuries of fewer and fewer females being born. Still, it was not
within a Valdier warrior’s code of ethics to take a female against
her will, true mate or not.

“We will not give her a chance to ask,” Cree
finally said. “As soon as possible, we will return to the Northern
Mountains with her.”

“To mother,” Calo said with a grin
brightening his face. “She will help Melina understand why we did
what we did. Mother will love her almost as much as we do.”

Cree nodded as a smile slowly lit up his
face at the plan. Calo was right. Their mother and father would
love Melina almost as much as they did. She would also know how to
talk with and guide Melina to understanding that they loved her
more than life itself. In the meantime, they would do everything in
their power to make sure that she was protected, cared for, and
thoroughly loved.

*.*.*

Melina instantly knew that she was not back
at her house the moment she woke. Two very distinctive things told
her that and they were pressed firmly against each side of her. She
blinked up at the ceiling, recognizing the structure of the
warship.

Told you they come,
the dragon inside
her hissed in a contented voice.

Now you talk to me,
Melina responded
dryly.
You were cheerfully silent for two and a half
days.

I mad at you,
her dragon replied.
You wake them?

No, I no wake them, you little hussy,
Melina retorted.
I know how you want me to wake them. I’ll be
lucky to get out of the bed as it is and I have to pee.

Humph,
her dragon snorted, totally
unsympathetic to Melina’s full bladder.

Melina thought of a few words as well as she
slowly shifted, hoping to wiggle her way out from between the two
huge bodies fencing her in. She knew immediately that she had
failed when two arms and two legs moved over her, trapping her to
the bed. She glared up at the ceiling in frustration.

“Where are you going?” A husky, masculine
voice murmured in her ear.

Melina felt a ripple of awareness shoot
through her. A light curse escaped her lips before she could catch
it. This is why her Gramps and Harry did it so often. It was a
wonderful way to express your frustrations, she thought as she
wiggled again as Cree’s leg rubbed along hers.

“I need to use the restroom,” she mumbled as
she sat up. Blushing, she realized that she was also missing her
clothing. “What happened to my nightgown?”

Calo rolled and reached down next to the bed
before rolling back over with it in his right hand. A boyish grin
curved his lips as he held it up. He pulled it out of her reach
when she tried to grab it.

“It was in the way,” he said mischievously.
“I like the feel of your skin against mine.”

“Can I please have it?” Melina asked between
clenched teeth as she held the sheet against her chest.

“For a kiss,” Calo replied with a raised
eyebrow, daring her.

“I’ll give you a kiss,” she muttered along
with a few other words. Bending over, she pressed a hasty, but hot
kiss against his lips. “Thank you.”

Calo and Cree chuckled at her insincere
words of thanks. She ignored both of them and slipped her short
cotton nightie over her head. Once she was decent, she pushed the
covers down and climbed toward the end of the bed.

The soft rumbling of the two males had her
scurrying for it as she realized that the nightgown was a little on
the short side and showed off more than she thought it would. She
barely made it to her feet ahead of the twin sets of arms that were
reaching for her. Breathless, she ran for the bathroom. She turned
right before she entered and stuck her tongue out at both men
before pressing her hand over the control to close the door.

The faint sound of laughter echoed through
it as she quickly used the bathroom. She glanced in envy at the
shower, but decided against it. Instead, she washed her face and
hands in the sink before searching for the device they used to
clean their teeth.

Opening her mouth, she watched in the mirror
as a small beam came on and ran over the inside of it. It still
amazed her how refreshed her mouth felt after she ‘brushed’ with
the weird beam. Returning the device to its container, she picked
up a comb and went to work on her tangled hair. Her mind reeled
with confusion, exasperation, and just a tiny bit of relief.

A tiny bit?
Her dragon purred.

Okay, a lot. But, I don’t want them to
know that. If they do, they will be impossible to deal with,
Melina informed the determined creature.

We two,
her dragon pointed out.

Yeah, but that would make them four if I
counted dragons, too,
Melina retorted.

Their dragons don’t think with right
head,
her dragon responded with a giggle.

“Oh,” Melina groaned. “You aren’t much
better than they are, you know that, right?”

Warmth and happiness flooded her. She was
learning very quickly that when her ‘dragon’ was happy, it was
impossible to not see the humor in the situation. The damn thing
was practically prancing inside her.

The last two day had also helped her to
realize several things. First, that being back on the farm didn’t
mean that she was home. Life on Earth had continued and while it
might not have changed very much, she had.

In more ways than one,
she thought as
she felt the dragon inside her.

Harry had also spent time with her as well
when he came to check on her. In his own unique way, he helped her
understand what her Gramps had been trying to tell her. All her
Gramps wanted was for her to be happy. She had fulfilled her duty
by bringing him home. There was nothing really left for her back on
Earth but memories. Her life now was tied to the two men that she
had been slowly falling in love with over the past several
months.

“I’m still just trying to get used to you
being inside me,” Melina whispered to her dragon, looking in the
mirror. “This is all new to me.”

Let me show you,
her dragon
whispered.
Call to me.

Melina bit her bottom lip as she continued
to stare at her reflection. Setting the comb down on the counter,
she drew in a deep breath. Her hands trembled as she whispered
softly for her dragon to show her what she looked like.

Awe spiral through her as soft, delicate
dark green scales rippled along her skin. Her pupils changed,
becoming elongated and the room seemed to sharpen and become
clearer. She raised her left hand up and watched as it changed.