Page 18 of Bitten in the Wild

She shoved me through the door and I woke up in the nest with Nycto’s head resting on my chest. He and his mother wereboth asleep. My heart pounded in my ears. Pounded so loudly that I expected Nycto to startle awake at the sound.

“Was that a trip or a vision?”I poked my dragon.

The scaley guy was curled up with his head on his tail and tucked under his wing. He wasn’t asleep either and I didn’t want to know what he saw inside his inner sanctum that made him hide his eyes.

“Vision,”he said.“Definitely vision.”

Well damn.

I peeked my head out from under my mother-in-law’s wing. It was proper night now. The corners of my mouth turned up in a fuck-me-grin. It wasn’t even night when I imagined the stars trying to shoot me out of the sky. The real fuck-me was tomorrow I’d have to make a trip back into town to tell the others what I saw. It wasn’t something I was willing to explain over the phone or flight link. If I were closer to the ship and my clinic, I’d have drawn my own blood for medical research, but it wasn’t next door anymore. Instead, I hugged Nycto closely and kissed the top of his head. It was a bloody miracle that we made it this long without me eating a damn mushie and tripping the scales off my balls. In the future, I’d have to be more careful.

Chapter Six

Nycto

I woke up when Mom left. She was hungry and wild dragons couldn’t go long without food unless it was a real emergency. Her leaving reassured me that Izora would survive the poison I unknowingly fed him. When a wild dragon lost a mate all the others gathered close around as if to fill up all the empty spaces such a loss must leave imprinted on one’s soul. She left and the others were going about their own wild business, so we were probably out of the woods. Well, health wise we were out of the woods. I wouldn’t blame Izora if he packed up and left saying he never wanted to see me again. The only thing that kept me from pacing the nest was his strong arm holding me tight to his body. That would surely change when he woke up.

“What?” Izora grunted out the word.

He was always disoriented before he drank his too sweet coffee. Good thing I never used the sugar the flight sent for anything else or he’d have been out the first day he was here.

“I’m sorry, Izora,” I said, clinging to the arm he still had wrapped around me.

“It’s okay. You can wake me up when you’re scared,” he said, blinking at the bright sun peeking down through the thick forest canopy.

“No, I’m sorry about the mushrooms. I eat them all the time. I grew up eating them. My parents eat them. All the wild dragons eat them,” I said, holding on to him tighter with each word I spoke. “I didn’t poison you on purpose.”

“The thought that you did it on purpose never crossed my mind,” he yawned. “Do we have anything to drink up here? Feels like I’ve been chewing cotton all night.”

“I’ll get something. Don’t leave before I get back, okay? I want to talk about this before you take off. I don’t blame you for leaving, but ---” the words got stuck in my throat.

“You’re not coming back to the ship with me? I just want to run some things by the captain and maybe do some bloodwork on myself to see what’s going on there. I’m not dying. At least it doesn’t feel that way. Moonscales and Starscales aren’t that different. It seems some of the flight members have turned mushies into a hobby. It’s not killing them. It probably won’t kill me.”

“To the ship? You’re going back to Earthside?!” My heart dropped into my belly.

“No!” Izora shook his head. “Mate, I’m confused. I’m not sure if it’s from the mushies or not having coffee or what, but you’re not making any sense. The ship is anchored for now. The captain and his family live there with his cousin. It’s not flying anywhere right now.”

“You’re not leaving me because I poisoned you?” I asked, holding back a sigh of relief I didn’t want to let out too soon.

“No,” Izora pushed himself upright and reached out for me with his eyes still squinted. “Why would I leave you?”

“Because I poisoned you! Last night was scary. I’ve seen other townies act weird after eating the mushies, but it was different with you. You’re mine and you didn’t eat them to be weird. You ate them because I cooked them for you!”

“Because you always eat them,” he nodded. “Mistakes happen, but I think this one might’ve been a lucky break.”

“Huh?” I asked.

“Let’s go in. I need something to drink. Maybe some coffee. It’s like my tongue is trying to stick to my mouth,” Izora said, shaking his head.

A moment later he stuck out his tongue and looked down as if trying to see it.

“It looks normal to me,” I said to help him out. “I’ll get you something to drink if you don’t feel up to going down the slide. I almost killed you.”

“I wasn’t dying,” Izora shook his head.

“It was like you weren’t even in your body for a few minutes,” I said.

“Come on,” he said, taking my hand.

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