MARKUS Read online

  “Well, thank you for helping Val. She’s family to us here in Dragoon.” The older male named Sheriff Jenkins left.

  “Thanks for coming to my aid.”

  “No female should ever be manhandled.”

  She smiled at him. “I’m Valorie Castle, Val for short.” She offered her hand to him.

  He took her hand and held it in his, smiling at her warmly. “I’m Markus.”

  “No last name?”

  Last name? He paused imperceptibly before responding, “No, just Markus.”

  “Well, thank you. Let me get you a drink, on the house.”

  “Actually, I need to be going. My friends and I plan to camp out. Do you have any recommendations?”

  “Triangle T Guest Ranch. Some of the campsites aren’t level, so check the area out first before setting up your tents.”

  “I appreciate the information. Should you get your wound checked out?”

  “I’ll be fine.”

  “Should you call your male or family?”

  “I’m alone and can take care of myself.”

  If she belonged to Markus, he would never allow her to be placed in such danger. Unfortunately, she wasn’t his. He glanced over at the bar. His companions were standing and walking toward the door. “I have to leave. I will see you again, Valorie.”

  He sat outside the bar, guarding her to make sure that male JJ didn’t come back. When she came out of the bar by herself, he followed her down the street to a building he assumed she lived in. Once she was safely inside, he felt he could return to his waiting companions.

  Chapter 6

  “I have directions to the campsite,” Sonar told him as he approached his friends.

  “How far away?”

  “A few miles. We’ll need to drive there since shifting would draw attention to us here in the open.”

  They had bought a used vehicle with the gems they’d traded for Earth’s money. It took a few days, but eventually Markus had learned how to operate it properly. “Let’s go.”

  Markus was the only one that could drive the vehicle. Sonar sat next to him. Their third silent companion, sitting in the back, was Warrior Roan. The male had barely spoken a word since they’d arrived. The male was prepared to handle Sonar if he had another episode. Markus still resented having him there, but he would make sure Sonar was on his best behavior.

  It was late, but the ranch looked like its lights were still on. When he parked, someone came out onto the front porch. He greeted them when Markus got out of the car.

  “You boys are in luck. I was just about to go to bed. You needing a place to stay?”

  Markus approached him slowly. “Yes.”

  “Do you have your own camping gear or do you need to rent a cabin?”

  “We have no gear. Do you have a cabin farther out, away from everyone else? We like privacy.”

  The male looked from Markus to the two still in the car. “You aren’t troublemakers, are ya?”

  “No, we mean no trouble. We will be here a few days only, passing through.”

  The male still didn’t look sure he wanted them there. “I don’t take out-of-town checks.”

  “We have cash.”

  That got the male’s attention. “Cash? It’s going to cost ya a hundred a night because there’s more than one of ya.”

  “We will pay for a week, even if we do not stay the whole week.”

  “Seven days? That will work…I have a family coming in next week that wanted that same cabin.”

  “That will be fine. I’ll pay up front.” Markus walked up to the porch and pulled out the paper money. “I believe this is seven hundred.”

  The male looked excited as he reached for the money. He quickly counted it then smiled. “What’s your name? I’ll add you to the guest log.”

  “Markus.”

  “Markus what? What’s your last name, son?”

  He’d forgotten again that humans used both a first and last name. “Markus…Dragon.”

  “Dragon?” The male chuckled. “You sure did come to the right place. Take the dirt road on the right until it runs out. The cabin will be on the right.”

  “Is it locked?”

  The male looked at him like he was being ridiculous. “Son, we’re in the middle of nowhere. The cabin is bare minimum. There’s nothing to steal. No wild parties and nothing illegal. This is a family-friendly campsite.”

  “Yes, sir. Thank you.” Markus went to get back inside the car. He started it up and drove down the dirt and gravel road. It was really bumpy, and areas were slanted in some places. Pulling up to the cabin, he turned to his companions. “Let’s shift to dragon form and take to the sky. Stay away from the populated area. We need to look for any signs of other dragons.”

  They got out and undressed. Roan spoke for the first time. “What if we don’t find anything? How many days will we remain here?”

  “If we can’t find anything, I’ll send out a sonar call. That will reach for miles. We’ll give it a few days to see if anyone answers the call before we leave.”

  They shifted into dragon form. Sonar was a blue-and-black-scaled dragon, slightly smaller than his own golden-and-black-scaled dragon. Roan had red and black scales.

  They flew toward the Dragoon Mountains and over the nearby lake. It was a beautiful planet which differed in landscapes as much as the Drakonian dragons differed in the color of their scales. He was tempted to shift and take a dip in the lake. It probably wouldn’t be a good idea until they secured the area around the campsite.

  He nodded his head for the others to head back to the cabin. He flew up, letting the wind under his wings lift him higher and higher, then he opened his jaws and howled out a sonar call. Hopefully, they would finally find their people…maybe his mother and sister. He’d missed them over the years. His sister would be eighteen now or, actually…she would have lived hundreds of years. Would she still be alive? Maybe mated with children? He missed his family and had thought of them often. It was the one thought all of his fellow warriors had that kept them going when they could have given up and found a planet to live on. They all hoped to be reunited with their loved ones.

  It had been hard for them during the long years of space travel. There had been a whole year that went by that they had not found a planet that they could spend any time on where the atmosphere could accommodate his people. Markus found that outer space could be a dark and lonely place to be, even when surrounded by hundreds of his own people. Other than his best friend Sonar, he had not bonded to any of the few females they had on board.

  There had been three hundred warriors and a hundred females when they first left Drakonia in the midst of a battle with their enemy. They provided coverage while the other battle cruisers tried to escape with more of their people. He still could see the moment one of the escape cruisers was shot down in the sky. It would forever be with him. The other escape cruiser made it out, but they had no idea where it went. During ten years of searching, they had not found any of their survivors. The four hundred on board dwindled down drastically as some sought their final flight. Half of the females bonded with warriors on board, the other half found no bond. Many warriors felt the weariness of their travel, and at times the hopelessness. If they could have at least found a female to bond with, even one not of their species, it would have filled the emptiness many of them felt.

  Instead of going to the cabin, he flew back toward the small town, keeping high up enough that no one would see him. He intended to just do a perimeter check, but his dragon had other ideas. Without any real thought to it, his dragon sought the one female he had found interest in after all these years.

  Chapter 7

  Val stared up at the stars, wondering what it would be like to travel to a new world. This one had plenty to offer, but she found that she was restless—lonely. When she first came to Dragoon, Arizona, it was supposed to be a short stop over for her and her then-boyfriend, Roger. Roger had her quit her job and leave her apartment in T
exas to take an adventure traveling across the country.

  It was fun and exciting, until Roger blasted through her savings. One night in Las Vegas, he lost all the money she’d spent years saving. They made it to the little town of Dragoon when her car broke down. With no money and no car, it seemed they would have to live and work in Dragoon until they could afford to leave. What she didn’t realize was that she would do all the working while Roger sat back and did nothing.

  She worked at the saloon and the local diner long hours, and one night after a long shift, she came home to the single-wide trailer they rented and found that Roger was gone. All the money she had kept in a jar on the fridge, about two thousand, was also gone. He abandoned her without a second thought, and now she couldn’t even afford to get her car fixed. Luckily, the people of Dragoon took her in. If she needed food, the diner let her eat a meal after each shift she worked. The lady who rented the single-wide reduced the rent for several months until she got back on her feet again. She grew to love the people in this town and they showed her love in return. Some showed a little too much love, though.

  A year ago, she had been in a lonely place and was vulnerable… and in walked Deputy Sheriff Jason James “JJ” Dawson. He showered her with attention, and for six months she loved the attention even though she didn’t love JJ. One of the things she didn’t like about him was his drinking, but it hadn’t been a real problem until his mother died. Then JJ seemed to unravel and used alcohol to hide his pain.

  He drank and then he became aggressive and a little on the mean side. He never hit her but sometimes he would say hurtful things. She remembered one in particular.

  “He,y babe, you could get some work done to your body. I wouldn’t mind,” he slurred his words as he took another swig of the beer.

  She glared at him. “My body is healthy and fine. I’m not too big or too little.”

  “Yeah, yeah, but you could have a pair of tits like Tina’s.”

  “I don’t need big breasts.”

  “Well, at least you have a nice fat ass… it balances it out.”

  One too many hurtful remarks, and then he cheated on her with a college girl traveling through town. She ended things four months ago and hadn’t regretted it at all. In fact, she hadn’t missed him one bit. That said a lot about what their relationship had been like. Unlike Roger, who left her and didn’t give her a second thought, JJ couldn’t seem to get it in his head that they were not meant to be. He kept calling or coming in when she worked the saloon or the diner to talk to her. She cared about JJ, just didn’t want to be with him again.

  Since ending things with JJ, she hadn’t felt the urge to date anyone except as a one-time thing for guys passing through. The memory of the sexy Markus in his form-fitting jeans popped up in her mind. Now, that was a man she wouldn’t mind spending some time with. He was also the type to leave her brokenhearted if she wasn’t careful.

  She sat at the cheap patio set she’d bought and placed right outside the door to her single-wide. There were small potted plants lining the steps and across the way, her nearest neighbor, Jeb Jacobs, had broken-down cars in his driveway that he worked on over the weekend. One of those cars was hers. One day, he might just fix it for her and then she could drive away from Dragoon, if she wanted.

  She had wrapped a quilt around her shoulders when she came out. Arizona could get up to the 90s in the daytime, but at night it could drop down as low as in the 30s. Right now it was a cool 56 degrees. A distant noise in the sky had her looking up at the stars. Was that some kind of bird? Blinking she thought she saw something large fly by but she couldn’t be for certain.

  Standing up she took a walk down the dirt road, careful to stick to the lighted pathway. She didn’t want to come in contact with a rattler out there. That same strange noise had her stopping and looking up again. What was that? Suddenly feeling alone and vulnerable, she turned to go back to her trailer. Nighttime was not the best time to go exploring, not in the desert. Whatever was flying out there would have to find another snack, she wasn’t interested in getting eaten by a wild creature.

  Chapter 8

  The Next Morning

  Markus told the others he was going into town to get some supplies and for them to be on the lookout for any answering calls from their people. He hadn’t lied about where he was going, only didn’t tell them that he was making a little stop on the way to town.

  Pulling onto the little dirt road, he drove up to the small lodging that he saw the female, Val, sitting next to last night. He shouldn’t have tracked her, but his dragon refused to turn back. He found her sitting alone outside, his dragon called out to her—which was ridiculous, she couldn’t answer him back. When she walked down the road, he followed, wanting nothing more than to go to her. His dragon almost did, dipping low intending to snatch her up in its claws.

  “No, leave her!”

  “Want her, mate her,” his dragon had insisted.

  “Not yet, she doesn’t understand what we are.”

  “I want her!”

  “I do too, we’ll scare her!”

  “I would not, she would like me.” His dragon did raise up his head, shifting away from the female.

  “We’ll come back in the morning and talk to her,” he promised his dragon.

  That had been the only thing that got his dragon to agree to leave the female. He had no idea what he would even say to her. Markus had been warned by the researchers on board the Zyon that humans didn’t truly believe in other species and thought any shapeshifters were just fictional characters in their books or movies.

  What he couldn’t figure out was, how did they even come up with the idea of shifters to begin with? The researchers had theorized that humans encountered his people, the Drakonians, years ago and couldn’t believe what they encountered so they explained it as fiction or fantasy. If there was fact behind the fiction, then his people had to be here, and it was possible that they could still be alive.

  Markus hoped that if his people didn’t answer that he could find a human or two that would be open to the idea of shifters and help them search. Having a member of the indigenous species guide them through the world they were in would be the best option and help keep them from issues that might arise.

  He parked the car and got out. There was a male bent under the hood of a vehicle across from Val’s domicile. He wondered if this male was someone she would bond with. His attention was pulled away when the female, Val, came out. She halted on the steps, looking at him in surprise.

  Smiling, he hoped that put her at ease. “Hello again, Valorie.” He liked the sound of her whole name.

  She smoothed her hair with her hands and smiled back. “Uh, hi. What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to thank you for advising us on the ranch. We have a cabin and it’s exactly what we needed.”

  “Well, you’re welcome. I was going for a run.”

  “Shall I go with you?”

  Valorie looked at him kind of funny but shrugged her shoulders. “If you can keep up.” Then she took off running down the road. Perhaps this was an alternate means of transportation. He didn’t see a car in her driveway, so this must be how she got around. He easily kept pace with her.

  “Are you going to town? I could drive you in my vehicle.”

  She didn’t look at him but kept running. “No, I work this afternoon at the diner but I can take my bike.”

  “If you have a vehicle, why do you run?” This activity fascinated him because he only ran while he was in training, but normally he flew in his dragon form so running was not as necessary.

  Valorie glanced over at him with an expression that seemed confused. “I run to keep in shape.”

  “I see, you’re in training.”

  “I’m not training for a marathon or anything, I just like to run to keep fit. You look to be…in shape. What do you do to keep fit?”

  “Back on my ship, I would practice fighting with my fellow warriors. Since coming here, my c
ompanions and I lift bounders.”

  She stopped suddenly, breathing erratically, hands on her hips. The female looked delicious and he couldn’t help but lick his lips. His dragon made a rumbling sound in his chest, wanting to get closer to her.

  “I should have known you were in the military but it can’t be with the United States. We say soldiers, not warriors. Where did you come from?”

  “A far distant place called Drakonia. Are you tired? I could carry you back.”

  Blinking, she glanced behind them in the direction that they had come. “It’s about two miles. You couldn’t possibly carry me that far.”

  He bent and picked her up, walking back down the road that led to her dwelling. His dragon wanted to prove his strength and prowess so that she would agree to mate with them. Where in the stars had that thought come from? He couldn’t mate with her, she was human.

  “You can put me down, Markus.”

  Smiling down at her, he inhaled her scent. There was no trace of fear but her arousal was growing stronger. “I love how you say my name, Valorie.”

  Her face turned a little red and he worried about what caused that.

  “Are you okay? Your face is turning red. Do you need water?”

  Valorie struggled to get him to put her down but he refused. “I need to get you to a healer.”

  “I don’t need a damn doctor! I’m just not used to men carrying me around. Put me down, I’m too heavy.”

  “You are light as a feather.”

  Markus stopped just outside her domicile and let her slide down his body to stand on her own feet, but he kept his hands on her waist. He didn’t want her to fall and injure herself. Her shirt had ridden up and his fingers skimmed her skin. She was so soft, he wanted to explore all of her. His dragon rumbled in agreement.

  “What…are you growling at me?” Valorie pushed against his chest to get him to let her go.

  Sighing, he reluctantly released her. “I must go for now. I have to get supplies from town. Will you be working at the sa…loon?”