Twin Dragons' Destiny

Chapter 1-1

Chapter One

Outer rim of Valdier - Centuries later:

“Are you sure we were supposed to return here?” Barrack asked, pacing back and forth in the engine room of their spaceship.

“You felt the pull as well. Our symbiots said this was where we were supposed to go,” Brogan’s muffled voice snapped in irritation. “Hand me the splicer.”

Barrack grimaced and looked through the array of tools spread out across the floor. Currently, he could only see half of his brother’s body. The top half was under the power console that controlled the main engines.

“I thought you already repaired this,” Barrack commented, handing Brogan the splicer.

“I did. The damn part that two-faced Tiliqua sold to me was faulty. I knew I should have looked somewhere else. Those two-headed bastards are always looking to make a quick credit,” Brogan grumbled.

“I told….” Barrack started to say before he clamped his lips tightly together when Brogan slid out from under the console and shot him a heated glare.

“Not one word or I’ll let you repair it this time,” Brogan threatened.

Barrack gave his brother a sour look. “You know I hate working on machines. They hate me too,” he retorted.

Brogan snorted. “’Hate’ is a really mild version of the word I would use to describe you and anything to do with this spaceship,” he replied before pulling himself back under the console.

“I can’t believe after all this time, we are finally going to meet our true mate,” Barrack said, lowering himself down until he was sitting on the floor next to his brother.

“What you really mean is you can’t believe my dragon and I have kept our heads together this long without losing it,” Brogan said.

Barrack chuckled. “That too,” he admitted, leaning his head back. “What do you think she is like? Is she from our village or the city? Do you really think that she can handle both of us? Goddess! Just the thought of her between us makes me hard.”

Brogan listened as his older brother, by mere minutes, speculated about their true mate. He could understand Barrack’s excitement. If his brother’s dragon was bouncing around inside him like his was, then it was amazing that they had not shifted and destroyed their transport ship by now.

The image he kept close to his heart nearly choked him. Despite the passage of time, the image and the softly spoken names of those who would guide him and his brother to their true mate were as clear as when he had received them. They were the only things that had kept him sane.

Not that I was all that sane to start with, he thought, thinking of the long scars that ran down the side of his face and neck. He’d kept them deliberately to remind himself of the dangers he and his brother faced if they weren’t careful.

The scars were the result of a fight he had with a group of youths from the village. They had separated him from his brother and his symbiot in the hope of killing him. The youths had listened to the fears of their parents. He hadn’t understood at the time that his sometimes volatile temper had fed into their fear.

He had broken free and escaped, but not before he was injured. Their father had decided against punishing the youths, fearing it would cause more attacks. Instead, he had cautioned Brogan and Barrack to never be caught alone again or without their symbiots.

Brogan had a tighter grip on his control now, because of her. He focused on his mental image of their mate’s eyes, her sun-kissed, creamy mocha skin, her full lips, and her shoulder length black-brown hair streaked with gold. Throughout the years, he had clung to that image instead of the other one the Goddess had also shown him – the one of their mate lying peacefully upon the pristine white silk inside a small box, her life cut short when it had barely even begun. Two threads of life revealed – one when Delilah was older and one when she was a child. Only they had the power to change her path.

“She is beautiful,” he said.

“Tell me again,” Barrack ordered.

Brogan’s lips curved in wry amusement. If he had a credit for every time he had heard Barrack ask him that, they could have afforded a fleet of transports. He had tried to share the image, but nothing worked. It was strange. He could share everything else with Barrack except this.

“She has sun-kissed skin the color of the bark of the strongest trees in the forest, yet as smooth as the finest silk,” he began.

“Meaning she can handle the fiercest storms,” Barrack said.

“Yes. Her hair reaches just below her smooth shoulders where the dark strands are threaded with gold streaks,” Brogan continued, knowing what his brother would say next.

“The touch of the Goddess to guide us to her and let us know that she is ours,” Barrack replied with a sigh.

Brogan chuckled. “Yes,” he agreed.

He bit back another chuckle when he felt Barrack kick his foot. They’d had this discussion a million times before, yet Barrack was acting as if it was the first time. He winced when Barrack hit his leg.

“Ouch! Be careful, my leg is still sore,” he stated.

Barrack grunted. “It wouldn’t be if you’d let your symbiot run over you again. You should have known there would be another mercenary hiding behind the counter,” he stated.

“It’s still mad at me for refusing to wear my armor. Is that why you let me go in first, so that I would get the knife in the thigh instead of you?” Brogan demanded, wincing when he scraped his knuckles on the edge of the console. “Why do they make these panels so damn small? Do they think only the Tiliqua work on these things?”

“Probably…. Tell me about her lips,” Barrack said.

Brogan finished splicing the wires together and pulled himself out from under the console. He sat up and laid the splicer next to the rest of his tools. He gave his symbiot a rueful smile when the gold creature trotted into the room.

He lifted his bleeding hand. The symbiot snorted, but melted. Warmth surrounded his hand, healing his new cut before moving up his arm and down his body, repairing the bruises and the deep cut on his thigh, which he had sealed as best he could with a portable medical kit.

“Her lips were made for us. They are full and lush while her eyes are dark and inviting. They glitter with determination and amusement. She loves to laugh,” Brogan said, leaning his head against the edge of the console and breathing a sigh of relief as the dull ache in his thigh faded. “Her breasts….”

“Her breasts were made to fit in our hands,” Barrack finished, lifting his hands and studying his palms. “I wonder if she will mind that my hands are rough.”

Brogan raised an eyebrow at that comment. “Don’t get all regal on me. I doubt our mate expects to meet nobility,” he dryly stated.

Barrack shot him an exasperated look, then rolled to his feet. Brogan grinned at Barrack when his brother shook his head at him.

“I don’t think you’ll ever have to worry about being mistaken for nobility,” Barrack stated, “but we are wealthy in our own right. We will have enough to build our mate a home anywhere she wishes, and we will buy her gowns – which, of course, we’ll rip off her luscious body – and then we’ll buy her more gowns and anything else she desires.”

“Why buy her gowns to rip off when we could just ask her to go naked?” Brogan asked, rising to his feet and collecting his tools. “My dragon would be happy if she remained in her dragon form for at least a century!”

“We could ask her about that,” Barrack agreed with a grin. “She could either remain naked or in her dragon form. Either would be acceptable.”

“I wonder if…,” Brogan started to say before he shook his head.

“You wonder what?” Barrack asked, helping Brogan put the tools back in the storage cabinet.

Brogan paused and looked at his brother. “I wonder how she will react when she meets us,” he said.

“She will love us at first sight,” Barrack said with confidence before he chuckled and slapped Brogan’s shoulder, reminding him of another bruise he forgot about. Brogan muttered a silent thank you to his symbiot when the creature moved over the tender spot. As he took the last of the tools from Barrack, the memory of their mate’s determined eyes flashed through his mind. Brogan wasn’t quite as confident as his brother about their reception. He wasn’t so sure what she had been looking at in the glimpse of her that the Goddess had given, but something told him that he and Barrack didn’t want to be on the receiving end of whatever had put that look in her eyes.