Arik: Alien Adoption Agency #7 by Tasha Black

Author:Tasha Black [Black, Tasha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 13th Story Press
Published: 2021-11-01T18:30:00+00:00

17

Arik

Arik watched from afar as Lucy began to put up their tent with baby Flora on her back. Lucy was so brisk and efficient in her movements, that she would have it all squared away in no time. It was easy to forget the small, pretty woman had once been a soldier. Moments like this one helped him remember.

He had come down to one of the hot spring pools to clean up before bed. The warm water felt incredible, but he was eager to get back to Lucy and Flora.

He stepped out and used a cloth to dry off before pulling on his clothing.

When he looked up again, he was less pleased with what he saw.

Miles was helping Lucy with the tent.

She doesn’t need help, idiot.

The two of them were talking. Miles was smiling and saying something to Lucy, and she was laughing. Laughing.

Arik usually thought of himself as a laid-back guy. The usual complaint from the handful of women he’d dated was that he was too cool to feel anything.

Well, he was certainly feeling something right now.

And that something was white-hot fury. The dragon stirred in his chest, sniffing the air for the danger Arik seemed to have sensed.

Not physical danger, he told it. Just a man. Too close to our mate.

The dragon prickled under his skin, and he had to close his eyes and will it back down. He hadn’t felt this way since adolescence - the claws stretching to erupt from his fingertips.

What are you doing to me, Lucy?

He strode across the oasis, moving up the slight hillside, past the sleepy bison. The herd had eaten until they couldn’t move. Now they were curling up together to sleep peacefully.

But Arik didn’t feel peaceful at all. He was fantasizing about punching Miles in the nose.

“Hey, Arik,” Miles called out, giving a big dumb wave.

Arik resisted his impulse to do something he might regret, and glared at him instead.

The goofy cowboy was so intoxicated at Lucy’s presence that he didn’t even seem to notice Arik glowering at him. He turned back to Lucy and began talking again.

“I’d be happy to start a campfire for you,” Arik heard him saying as he approached.

As if some dopey cow hand could make a fire half as well as an actual damned dragon.

“Oh, we’re fine, thanks,” Lucy said with a smile.

She shouldn’t smile at him, the dragon’s growl echoing through his head implied.

Well, Arik agreed. And if she wanted to stand around smiling at that idiot, he certainly wasn’t going to get in her way.

“Hi Arik,” she said as he threw his bundle of soiled clothing into his bag next to the tent. “I thought we might turn in.”

“I’m taking first watch,” he said, even as the dragon groaned at the idea of what “turning in” with her might bring.

He headed to where Charley stood between the oasis and the frosted plains, leaving Lucy to figure out where she’d gone wrong.

“Taking a shift on watch, eh?” Charley called out to him in a friendly way.

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