Sacrificed to the Dragon (2 page)

He looked up. “So rather than give me a female who will just let me fuck her and walk away, you’re giving me one that will probably fight me every step of the way? Are you sure you’re my friend?”

Bram smiled. “She’ll be good for you. A weaker willed human who would let you fuck her and walk away would prevent you from overcoming your prejudice against humans.”

Tristan narrowed his eyes. “Don’t bring my dead mother into this.”

Bram’s smile faded. “It’s my job to help you, and by extension, strengthen our clan. You can’t keep hiding yourself away by spending all of your time training the young dragons. It’s been ten years, Tristan. You need to let it go and focus on what you can do in the here and now, which is to help our clan—and all dragon-shifters, for that matter—from going extinct.”

“It’s not my bloody fault our numbers are so low. The humans hunted us for thousands of years. The only reason any of the human governments created protections for us over the last two decades is because of the deal we made when we exposed the secret of our blood, to end the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. To this day, they only value us for the healing properties of our blood and are willing to throw women our way, even if it means possibly killing them in childbirth, to get it.”

“I don’t care about any of that. Let them value us for our blood. In the meanwhile, the dragon-shifters need to repopulate so that one day we don’t need to rely on this barter system to survive.” Bram pierced him with his blue-eyed alpha stare. “Now, read the damn contract and sign it. Our healers are waiting for you to shift so they can draw the necessary amount of blood to complete our end of the agreement.”

Tristan could refuse and walk away. Despite the shitty odds, he would probably do just that if it were only him. But he couldn’t abandon his sister Arabella; especially as he was the only family she had left.

And damn Bram, he knew that.

Tristan held out his hand. “Give me the bloody contract. But if you think this is going to magically cure my hatred of humans, you’re in for a surprise.”

His friend handed over the papers. “We’ll see, Tristan. We’ll see.”

Chapter Two

Melanie stood with her parents in front of the well-guarded entrance to Stonefire’s land. She knew someone from the clan would arrive at any minute to take her inside, but saying goodbye to her parents was harder than she’d imagined. She was a grown woman, for crying out loud. Yet as she looked from her mom to her dad and back again, she realized this might be the last time she ever saw them, unless her assigned male granted her privileges. Yeah, the idea of a male being in charge of what she could and couldn’t do didn’t sit well with her, but she’d have to suck it up if she wanted to survive.

She really couldn’t say anything to ease their worry, and she’d never been good at lying. Still, she forced a smile and decided to stretch the truth a little. “Mom, Dad, it’ll be all right. Just look after Oliver for me. I expect a full report once I have access to a phone line again.”

Her dad cupped her cheek. “I know everything is done, but I wish you would’ve talked to us about this, Mel. We could’ve found another way.”

She stared at her father with his slightly balding head and wire rim glasses, careful to burn the image into her memory. “You know there was no other way. Without an injection of dragon’s blood, Oliver would have died. I’m aware of the risks in doing this, and Dad, I’m more than old enough to make my own decisions.”

“I know, love. But we’re going to miss you on the annual summer holiday to Scotland this year.”

She might be a grown woman, but her family had a tradition that Mel still looked forward to. Every year they took a trip to Scotland, and every year they visited a different castle. Her parents were determined to visit each and every one before they died, and the thought of her missing out on the trip for the first time in over twenty-years made her chest tighten.

Mel cleared her throat. “Just make sure it’s one of the dodgy, crap castles, and then I won’t be that upset to miss it.”

Her British dad then pulled her into a hug, the action very much the influence of Mel’s American mother. He murmured against her hair, “I love you, Mel-bell, and I don’t know how I’ll ever thank you for saving Oliver’s life.”

Mel squeezed and stepped back from her father. “Just take care of him.” She looked over to her mother, who was being unusually quiet. “Mom?”

Without saying a word, her mother rushed over and embraced her. Mel closed her eyes and held her mom tight, memorizing the light lilac scent of her mother’s lotion before saying, “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too, dear.” Her mother pulled back and took Mel’s face in her hands. “You can call us and let us know about anything, anything at all, once you have access to a phone.”

She fought the tears in her eyes and forced a smile. “Of course.”

Her mother’s face went stern. “I mean it. I don’t care if my grandchild ends up being half-dragon, I will love him or her with all of my heart.”

At that remark, tears started to roll down Mel’s cheeks. “You don’t know how much that means to me, Mom.”

Her mother patted her cheek. “I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks; my family comes first, no matter what their genetic heritage.”

Mel pulled her mother into another hug. While pregnancy was highly likely, she’d been afraid her parents wouldn’t approve if she did have a child. But she should have known better than to doubt her parents.

She had taken them for granted all these years. If she survived the birth and ever got out, she’d treasure them, as they deserved to be treasured.

A deep, unfamiliar male voice spoke up behind her. “Ms. Melanie Hall?”

Mel pulled away from her mom and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her cardigan before she turned around to find a tall man with dark hair and eyes, looking at her and her parents with what could only be called suspicion. The thick, black tattoo that crawled out from beneath his short sleeves to just above his elbow told her the man was a dragon-shifter.

The only question was whether he was to be her dragon-shifter or not.

Regardless, she had decided over the last two weeks that she wouldn’t be afraid of them unless they gave her a reason. Even then, she’d do everything in her power not to show her fear. She had a feeling the dragon-shifters would appreciate a show of strength.

She squared her shoulders and raised her chin. “That’s me.”

“I’ll give you three minutes to say your final goodbyes. Come to me when you’re done.”

With that, the man went over to a patch of trees, crossed his arms over his chest, and stared. Even from fifteen feet away, she felt the intensity of his gaze, and she was starting to understand how most women would freak out at it. However, Mel had dealt with worse during her part-time jobs all throughout university; first at a bar and later a restaurant. A grumpy, verbally stunted jerk would be like a walk in the park in comparison.

Determined not to waste what precious time she had left with her family, Mel turned back to her parents and tried to ignore the heat of the dragon-shifter’s gaze that was undoubtedly still trained on her back.

~~~

Tristan watched the short, curvy woman with reddish brown hair and green eyes as she hugged her parents. She was a bit rounder and softer than the females of his people, but at first glance, he didn’t find it unappealing. The woman’s tits alone should be able to get his cock hard enough to do his job.

Provided he could get her naked first. He wouldn’t force her, but thanks to Bram’s choice of sacrifice, it was probably going to take more than a few caresses to get her willing. He glared in Melanie’s direction as down payment for the trouble the woman was going to cause him.

If Bram thought Tristan was going to turn into a gentle, flattering male for the human female, his clan leader was in for a surprise. The human female was here for one purpose, and one purpose only—to breed. He’d do his duty and fuck her until she became pregnant. Then he could go back to his life until the child was born. If she managed to survive the birth, he could only hope the woman would flee back to the humans and leave the child’s upbringing to him.

Like most dragon-shifters, Tristan cherished the gift of children, even if his would be half-human.

However, he was getting ahead of himself. Melanie would have a two-day adjustment period before she was required to have sex with him. He just wanted to hurry up and get it over with, but he’d signed the sacrifice contract and he wouldn’t embarrass his clan by breaking it.

The woman’s time was up. He was about to go fetch her when she gave a wave to her parents, picked up her suitcase, and strutted toward him. He’d discovered one thing about her—she was punctual.

When she was only a few feet away, he put out a hand. “I can carry your bag.”

She shook her head. “I don’t even know your name, so how am I supposed to trust you with my things?”

No matter how much trouble it’d be later, he still preferred feisty to whimpering or scared shitless. “I’m Tristan MacLeod of Clan Stonefire.”

She peered up at him with her light green eyes and Tristan frowned. Why were human women so short?

Melanie stared at him for another two seconds before she offered him her bag. “That still doesn’t really tell me who you are, but since I’m staying with Stonefire for at least the next six months, I can hunt you down if you run off with my things.”

He pierced her with a stare. “If I decided to run off with your suitcase, I guarantee you wouldn’t be able to find me. I have wings.”

“Right. You’re a dragon. I’m not sure how I forgot about that.” She offered her bag again. “Well, take it then. I’d say it’s heavy, but you look like you can handle it.”

She’d forgotten he was a dragon?
Fuck
. So much for using the rumors of dragon brutality to get her to leave him alone. The female was going to be a bigger challenge than he’d anticipated. His preemptive glare had been justified.

For now, he just needed to deliver her to his clan leader. He could worry about how much trouble she was later.

He took her bag. “We have a meeting. Follow me.”

He turned and started walking. Since he didn’t try to pace his strides with her much shorter ones, she had to half-jog to keep up.
Good
. Maybe if he kept her winded, she wouldn’t try talking to him. He had no intention of getting to know Ms. Melanie Hall.

~~~

Melanie wasn’t sure what she had expected on meeting her first dragon-shifter face-to-face, but Tristan MacLeod hadn’t been it.

Yes, he was tall, lean, and muscular—okay, she’d admit sexy—but he could probably snap her in two if he tried. Manners and politeness definitely weren’t his forte. She doubted he even knew how to smile.

And yet, she had a sinking feeling he was the male who had been assigned to her.

Best not to jump to conclusions, Hall.
Right. She was a social scientist. She needed to observe and obtain more information before forming any sort of definitive opinion. Maybe the dragonman was merely having a bad day.

At least, the walk was doing some good to help calm the fluttering in her stomach. She might’ve put on a brave front for the dragon-shifter, but inside she was nervous as hell, and she’d only been on the dragon-shifter’s land for ten minutes.

She took a deep breath and remembered her decision to treat her time with the dragon-shifters as nothing more than a difficult fieldwork assignment.

Observing Clan Stonefire as an anthropologist was going to be her coping technique. Yes, she would have to get naked with some dragonman and possibly bear his half-dragon child, but she was going to make the most of her six months here, or longer. If she played her cards right, she might be able to write her doctoral thesis on something to do with the Stonefire dragons.

She’d been struggling to come up with a good thesis idea, but a close study on how the dragon-shifters lived would be groundbreaking since very few true facts were known about them. In Mel’s opinion, giving humans a glimpse into their daily lives might help ease the fear surrounding the dragon clans. Far too many parents still told legends of how dragons would swoop down and pluck children from their parents to eat them as part of the nighttime story routines.

A sound that was a mixture of an eagle’s cry and a lion’s roar echoed through the air. Mel stopped in her tracks as she clapped her hands over her ears against the noise. Before she could look up to see what had caused it, she had to close her eyes against the wind as it whooshed over her. Two seconds later, she opened her eyes to see the receding shapes of a gold and red dragon fade into the distance. She could only make out their wings and large bodies before they disappeared from her line of sight, and disappointment rushed over her. One of the perks of living with the dragon-shifters was that she could finally see a dragon up close, but it looked like it wasn’t going to happen quite yet.

She looked over and saw Tristan standing with her bag. Before she could stop herself, she asked, “Do you ever take humans up with you when you’re in dragon form?”

His neutral expression became dark. “We’re not pack animals at the mercy of human masters.”