Page 23 of Reaper

“Shoot…” I muttered when a series of symbols flashed on the screen, clearly indicating wrong code. “Sorry. Let me try again.”

This time, I blocked out the menacing sounds from the creatures and focused on plugging in the code. I could have wept with relief and joy when the soft rumbling of the system running the trap suddenly wound down, like an engine shutting down.

“Yes!” Reaper hissed, as if for himself. “Stran!” he shouted.

The Creckel mentally poked me, half a second before rolling onto the terrain. No glowing dots appeared before me, and no spikes came out.

“Well done, team!” Doom exclaimed with a grin, before winking at me. “And you, too, Janelle. You keep impressing me.”

My face heated in pleasure. He exchanged a look with Reaper who nodded in response to their silent communication.

“Let’s get you to safety,” Reklig said in a grumbling voice while pulling Madeline into his embrace.

A buzzing sound drew my attention. To my shock, a pair of bug wings, different from Reaper’s, flapped as he took off. At the same time, a long and scary tail began protruding from the base of his spine, easily reaching two meters in length with serrated spikes on one side, and a vicious looking blade at the tip.

“Let me take you to safety as well,” Reaper said, drawing me into his arms.

My head snapped to the left at the sound of cracking sounds. My jaw dropped and, for a moment, I feared my optical aid was malfunctioning as Doom began to morph into a terrifying appearance.

His scales appeared to thicken, some of them fusing into some sort of armored plate all over his body. The scales on his cheeks and forehead also fused into a sort of helmet covering his head and the upper half of his face. A series of vicious spikes protruded from his forehead and all over his arms and legs, while two scorpion tails emerged from his shoulder blades before recurving over his shoulders. On each forearm, long scythe-like blades grew from under the skin, aligning with his arms. And below the scorpion tails on his back, two frilled membranes with razor sharp edges and blade-like spikes came out of his back like the tiny wings of a nightmarish fairy.

Doom’s clothes were torn to shreds by the metamorphosis. He casually discarded them to the ground.

“Don’t be scared, my darling,” Reaper said in a soft voice while taking flight towards the ship as it landed. “This is simply our battle form.”

My head jerked back towards him, and I gaped at him with bulging eyes. “Our? As in you, too, transform that way?”

He nodded slowly. “But Dragons look more badass than the Xians.”

Although he had said it in a playful tone, I could hear some underlying tension in his voice.

He fears I might be repulsed by him.

I tightened my arms around his neck as he began his approach towards the ship’s ramp that had begun to lower.

“Then, I’ll have to see just howimpressiveyour battle form is,” I said with a smile.

His body relaxed against me, and his smile broadened, although it seemed slightly different. For a reason I couldn’t explain, it reignited the fire in the pit of my stomach. A delectable, spicy scent rose from him. It made my mouth water and fanned the growing flame inside me. For a second, I thought he was going to kiss me the way his head leaned forward. My lips parted with a will of their own, and Reaper’s arms around me squeezed me more tightly against his muscular body.

Then the wretched roar of a Zebier snapped us out of that trance where the rest of the world had ceased to exist.

Landing on the ramp, Reaper let go of me, caressed my cheek, and took a few steps back. My jaw dropped once more as he kicked off his boots while removing his shirt, and then proceeded to shed his pants as well. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the perfection of his body, even as Martha—Reaper’s Soulcatcher—came running out of the ship, carrying all kinds of weapons and attachments. When he discarded his pants, my brain just froze finding his crotch… empty? There was nothing there, not even some sort of seam indicating his reproductive organ had retracted inside the body. Only smooth scales, although they did bulge.

My shock, disappointment, and confusion must have shown as both Reklig and Martha started laughing, earning each a glaring look from Reaper and Madeline.

“Do not fret, little human, your mate is well-endowed. He just hides the goods,” Reklig said in a teasing tone.

“Reklig!” Madeline exclaimed, elbowing him, while Reaper and Martha gasped in shock, and my cheeks felt on the verge of bursting into flames.

“What?” Reklig said with false innocence. “I’m reassuring her! Poor Janelle has probably never heard of a loin plate!”

“What am I ever going to do with you?” Madeline asked in a reproving tone.

A predatory grin stretched Reklig’s lips. “I’ll tell you what later,” he replied in a voice so full of promise that evenIunderstood the underlying meaning.

It was Madeline’s turn to blush. With her albino skin, she all but turned crimson. However, before she could reply, Reklig took some weapons from Jessica who had come out of the ship as well, then flew towards Doom who was racing with Stran to face the incoming beasts.

Reaper initiated his own transformation. Within seconds, he had taken on a similarly terrifying appearance as Doom, except that instead of scythes growing out of his forearms, it was a pair of razor-sharp lances, and he didn’t grow those frills Doom had as Reaper’s wings occupied that space on his own back.

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