STILL IN THE LIZARD ALPHA'S SWAMP
"Search the perimeter!!" Lizard Alpha Kayden commanded. "Perhaps were being visited by a spy." The search party fanned out across the clearing.
Torches blazed arrows sharpened.
"Check the eastern vines!"
"There's nothing here, Alpha!"
"Search the western tunnels!"
"Clear!"
Korvus directed the operation with frantic hand gestures, his grey tail twitching nervously. Bryn stood near the stage, still trembling, his pale scales almost invisible in the red glow of the floating orbs.
Kayden had not moved. His hand still gripped Mira's. His golden eyes scanned the treeline with predatory focus.
"Report," he commanded.
Korvus hurried over, bowing low. "My Alpha, we have searched the bushes surrounding the clearing. There is nothing. No tracks. No scent. No sign of anyone."
"Nothing?" Kayden's voice was ice.
"Nothing, my Alpha. We have expanded the search to the outer perimeter. The guards are checking the cameras as we speak."
Minutes passed and still nothing!
A young lizard runner burst through the crowd, nearly tripping over his own tail. "Alpha! The cameras show nothing. No intruders. No movement. The figure on the stage... it was not there when we reviewed the footage."
Kayden's grip on Mira's hand loosened. "What do you mean, not there?"
"The cameras show the dancers leaving. Then the lights go out. When they come back on, the stage is empty. There is no figure, no shadow, no steel." The runner swallowed hard. "It is as if... as if it never happened."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"A trick of the light?"
"Perhaps we've had too much fermented sap?"
"Perhaps we are all seeing things."
Kayden raised a hand and the murmurs died.
"We will not panic," he announced. "We will remain vigilant. Double the guards at all entrances. Increase patrols along the borders. If someone was here, they will come back. And when they do, we will be ready."
He turned to face his people.
"But tonight—we celebrate. Whatever we saw, whoever it was, they did not ruin our party. They did not take our joy. Dance. Drink. Be happy. Tomorrow, we hunt. Tonight, we live."
The crowd hesitated and the dancers returned to the stage, picking up where they had left off.
Kayden pulled Mira close.
"You are shaking," he observed.
"I saw something," Mira whispered. "On that stage. It was real. Someone that looked strang e is spying on us."
Kayden tilted her chin up with one clawed finger. "Either way, you are safe. I will not let anything happen to you."
He kissed her.
**********
Morning came slowly and Mira woke first. She lay still for a moment, listening to his breathing. He was still in his lizard form, green scales rising and falling with each breath, tail wrapped around her leg like a possessive vine.
She should have felt trapped but instead, she felt... warm.
Then Kayden stirred.
"Good morning," he finally said.
Mira blinked. "Good morning?"
He never said good morning. He usually grunted. Or ignored her entirely. Sometimes he shoved her out of bed and told her to fetch breakfast. He always treated her badly but today was different. Why so?
He wore a real smile and proceeded to ask about her night. "Did you sleep well?"
Mira sat up slowly, pulling the blanket around her shoulders. "Who are you and what have you done with Alpha Kayden?"
He laughed.
"I am preparing," he said.
"Preparing for what?"
"For when I am human again," he said. "Permanently human."
Kayden shifted and stretched his arms above his head, wiggling his toes.
"Do you know what I am most excited about?" he asked.
"Tell me."
"A bed. A real bed. Not this stone ." He patted the hard surface beneath them. "I want an orthopedic mattress. One of those expensive ones that molds to your body. I want soft sheets and fluffy pillows. I want to wrap myself in a duvet with AC instead of this habitat for a lizard."
Mira stared at him.
"I want to sleep on my back without my tail getting in the way," he continued. "I want to stretch out without worrying about my claws tearing the blankets. I want to wake up and look in the mirror and see a man looking back at me."
He sat up, grabbing her hands.
"I want to walk through a store without people screaming. I want to eat at a restaurant without being chased out with torches. I want to feel the sun on my skin without it burning my scales."
Mira had never seen him like this. He was always brooding. Always angry. Always calculating.
But this morning, he was giddy, excited. Almost boyish.
"You have thought about this a lot," she said.
"Three hundred years, Mira. Three hundred years of dreaming about normal things like beds, blankets and sunlight." He squeezed her hands. "I want to wear shoes that are not custom-made for reptilian feet. I want to open a door with my hands instead of my tail. I want to hug someone without accidentally cutting them."
He released one of her hands and cupped her face instead.
"I want to wake up next to you as a man. A real man. And I want to see the look on your face when you realize I am not going to turn back into a lizard at breakfast."
Mira's throat tightened. "Alpha Kayden..."
"I know. I know." He dropped his hands. "I am getting ahead of myself. We do not have the lycan yet. We do not have the cure yet. But soon. I can feel it."
He swung his legs over the side of the stone bed and stood up.
"I will build a house—a real house, above ground, with windows that open and a garden where I can grow flowers."
"Flowers?" Mira almost laughed.
"Flowers," he confirmed. "I have never grown flowers. My claws are too big. My scales crush the stems. But as a man..." He held up his human hands, flexing his fingers. "As a man, I can do anything."
Mira watched him from the bed. She had never seen him so happy or so vulnerable. So... human.
It terrified her.
Because the higher he climbed, the harder he would fall.
But before she could say anything.....
KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.
They were three harsh pounds on the door.
"Alpha!" a voice called from outside. Breathless and urgent. "Alpha, we have news for you! You need to come quickly!"
Lizard Alpha Kayden shifted back to his lizard form and barked angrily. "Who's there?!"