Sacrificed to the Dragon (19 page)

There was a flicker in his eyes, but it was gone before she could tell what it was. After a long moment, he nodded. “Very well. But if I come back to find that you wandered off or got yourself killed, I will bring you back to life so I can kill you myself.”

His words still didn’t tell her anything about how the phone call had affected him. For all she knew, he just wanted to ensure his unborn child’s safety.

She ignored the flash of sadness at that possibility. Not that she didn’t want to protect their child, but she wished he wanted to protect her too.

Enough.
She wasn’t about to turn into someone waiting around for a man to like her.

She raised her chin and placed her hands on her hips, not caring that she was standing naked with unruly hair in the middle of an outside clearing. “Again, your stubbornness isn’t quite that powerful, but I suppose I can live with that threat.”

She looked around the clearing. While she hadn’t seen Tristan in his dragon-form yet, she bet he was at least as big as those two dragons she’d seen on her very first day on Stoneware’s land and neither of them would fit here. She said, “Will you be able to fit if you change in the clearing?”

~~~

Tristan stared at Melanie and tried not to let his mixture of emotions show on his face. He had no right to blame the human female for what was happening to Miles, the teenager that had been captured, but some of his hatred of humans was seeping back into his consciousness. The sooner he could take care of the problem with Miles, the sooner he could spend more time with his female and work on ridding himself of his hatred for good.

Especially since his dragon was determined to keep her.

While he’d grudgingly agreed to let her return on her own, something his dragon was very much not happy with, now she was asking him about shifting and fitting into the clearing. He shook his head. “No, but you can get dressed and wait here for Samira. I’ll go beyond the trees where there’s more room and shift there.”

Melanie’s lips pressed into a thin line and then she said, “So you trust me enough to fuck me in the open, but not enough to allow me to see you shift into a dragon.”

Her tone ignited his temper. “I’m not a bloody mind reader. You didn’t even ask if you could watch me.”

She blinked. “Well, then, can I?”

“No.”

She closed the distance between them and punched him in the chest. “Good to see the asshole version of Tristan MacLeod has returned. I was starting to think you might be a nice guy under all that alpha anger.”

With her eyes blazing and her cheeks flushed, all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her. But he pushed that thought aside. “Again, you’re jumping to conclusions.” He grabbed the wrist of her hand still on his chest, her touch burning his skin. “Humans don’t handle seeing the shift well. And if this is to ever work between us, the last thing I need is for you to think of me as a monster.”

At that, Melanie blinked. Her voice was no longer angry when she said, “After all of this, you still think I fit the stereotype of a typical human? When will you start thinking of me as Melanie Hall and not just ‘a human’?”

His dragon said,
Stop it. She is ours. She is different. Tell her.

But Tristan denied his dragon. That conversation would have to wait. A teenage dragon-shifter needed his help.

Still, both halves of him wanted to feel her softness one last time before possibly taking on a group of dragon hunters. While he shouldn’t have to attack anyone since he wasn’t one of the clans’ trained Protectors, anything could happen.

He reached out and pulled her flush up against him. As the womanly scent that was Melanie filled his nose, a scent with a slight undertone of himself because of their baby, he decided this woman deserved a chance to watch him shift.

Over and over again she’d proven she was different, so it was time to see if she could pass the ultimate test. He said, “Give me a kiss and I’ll allow you to watch me shift.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’ll ‘allow’ me to watch? When you get back, Tristan MacLeod, we’re going to work on your domineering tendencies.”

Despite everything that was going on, he smiled. “There’s my little human, full of spirit. Now, kiss me and watch me shift.”

For a second, he wondered if she would acquiesce. Then she raised her face. “You kiss me and then I suppose I can watch you shift.”

His dragon loved that this human kept challenging him.
She will make a fine mother for our young.

Tristan lowered his head and took her mouth in a demanding kiss. He squeezed her arse as his lips swept against hers, her taste making him growl. He had wanted the entire afternoon for him and his human, but it wasn’t to be.

At least now he had a bloody good reason for coming back alive from the rescue attempt. He had many more dirty things to do to his female while his human-half was in charge, and even more creative ideas from his dragon-half.

He gave her one last swipe of his tongue before he retreated, bit her lower lip, and said, “Toss my shirt over you. It’ll dwarf you since you’re short, but it’s the quickest way to hide your nakedness from other males.”

She smiled at that and pushed against him. He reluctantly let her go and watched her walk over to his shirt and bend over. His cock took notice of her full, soft arse in the air and became as hard as steel.

Thankfully, she tossed the shirt on quickly and pulled on her underwear to hide her tempting curves. After reaching over to grab the rest of her clothes, she stood up and said, “There. Now I’m covered in your scent. I’ll keep it on until you get back. Will that satisfy both you and your dragon?”

Yes. Ours.

Tristan nodded, walked over, and handed her his mobile phone. After she tucked it into the pile of her clothes and shoes at her chest, he took her hand. “Now, come with me so I can shift and go help the teenager.”

He thought he saw sadness flicker across her face, but it was gone before he could be sure. Was his human female growing attached to him as well and sad because she didn’t want him to leave? His dragon crooned at that idea, and his human-half was more pleased than he would’ve guessed.

He tugged her gently behind him. When they reached the tree line, he dropped Melanie’s hand and scooped her up. She let out a noise of surprise, but he wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t as if he would allow her bare feet to become scratched by the fallen debris.

For once she didn’t argue and just curled up against his chest. He squeezed her tighter with his arms, as if to reassure himself that she was safe. He trusted the other Stonefire dragon-shifters not to harm her, but there were more than a few who despised the human female sacrifices. They could make her sad with words, and he growled at the thought.

Melanie looked up and said, “What was that for?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

Her eyes were skeptical, but she didn’t question him. Not that she wouldn’t do it later, but he reckoned she wanted to save the young dragon-shifter as much as he did and didn’t want to waste time arguing.

The brief flash of hatred that had coursed through him at the news of Miles’ capture faded. Melanie Hall would never be like the barbarous poachers who hunted his kind. Her heart was too soft for betrayal or deceit.

And for the first time, he started to realize how much of a bastard he’d been to the big-hearted woman in his arms.

Guilt was a distraction, so he pushed it aside. He needed his brain to focus on the upcoming take down and rescue operation. He could make it up to his female later.

He made his way through the trees, careful not to allow Melanie to get scratched by any of the branches. Within two minutes, they were back on the open landscape of the area. He set her down and said, “Stay here. I need more room to shift.”

As he walked away from her, he started to feel something he hadn’t felt in a long time—nerves. Tristan was nervous.

So far, Melanie Hall had been understanding about the dragon-shifters and their ways, but could she handle him changing into a dragon? Some humans found dragons beautiful, but a much larger portion saw them as monsters.

She won’t be afraid. She is strong.

He decided to listen to his dragon. Once he was about ten feet away from Melanie, he stopped and turned around to face her. Her gaze was curious and a touch impatient, which was a hell of a lot better than scared or nervous.

Hurry
, his dragon urged.

Right. The teenager. They needed to save the young. Delaying his shift wasn’t going to help anyone or change the way Melanie would look at him after this.

Tristan closed his eyes and let his dragon into the forefront of his mind. As he imagined his body merging with his dragon’s, a low hum of pain sizzled through his bones, signaling he was about to shift.

It was time to see what his human was made of.

~~~

Melanie watched Tristan walk away from her and it took everything she had not to run after him and jump back into his strong, muscled arms. Given the chance, she could revel in his heat while breathing in his spicy male scent for days and still not get enough.

Her dragonman’s touch was becoming addictive, and she didn’t think it was just because he was the father of her unborn child. No, she knew it was because she was growing to love it.

But to act on her impulse would be selfish. She wasn’t about to cost a teenage dragon-shifter his life.

Instead, she contented herself by lifting the collar of Tristan’s shirt she now wore to her nose and inhaling deeply. If his scent wasn’t enough to make her feel good, then his shirt, which dwarfed her despite the extra padding she carried on her hips and ass, did. It reminded Mel of how Tristan made her feel small.

How he made her feel desired and feminine.

Before her thoughts could keep wandering down that path, Tristan stopped about ten feet away and faced her. His eyes were unreadable and she wished she knew why.

But then he closed his eyes and she stopped fingering his shirt to watch as his hands turned into claws with talons, his arms elongated, his nose turned into a snout, and wings sprouted from his back. His skin gradually turned black as scales appeared to form his dragon’s hide. In less time than it took to say Mississippi five times, he was a fifteen-foot tall dragon with shimmering black scales and piercing brown eyes.

Slitted eyes that were looking straight at her.

For a second, her heart rate ticked up. Seeing a dragon up close was a little more intimidating than she’d imagined. As the dragon opened his jaw a little, she could see his long, sharp teeth.

Teeth that could shatter her arm in the blink of an eye.

But as the dragon continued to stare at her, she realized she’d seen those eyes before, whenever Tristan’s dragon-half had been in control.

And the dragon’s eyes weren’t fierce or threatening. She might not be a dragon body language expert, but if she were to hazard a guess, she would say Tristan in dragon-form looked uncertain.

No doubt, it was because of her.

The fact that her strong, alpha dragonman was vulnerable right now went straight to her heart. She needed to erase his doubts and convince him of how beautiful he was with the sun glinting off his scales and half-raised wings. Someday, she hoped he would allow her to touch those wings and see if they were as smooth as they looked.

Confident her dragon wouldn’t hurt her, Melanie took one step and then another, giving Tristan plenty of time to jump and fly away if he felt he was a danger to her. She may not know everything about him, but she knew deep in her bones that Tristan MacLeod would never willingly harm her. Even if not for her sake, then at least for the sake of their child.

But the black dragon stayed put. When she was close enough, Tristan lowered his head and bumped his snout against her shoulder. Not hard, or she would be flying across the clearing, but enough to make her lose her balance and grab onto the dragon’s snout to stay standing.

Once she was solidly standing on two feet again, she dared to stroke Tristan’s nose. To her surprise, his scales weren’t slimy or sleek, but rather felt like hard, grooved leather.

Taking a deep breath, she finally looked into her dragon’s eyes. They were huge and a deep sepia brown, the color reminding her of dark, unpeeled potatoes.

Okay, that might not be the most romantic description in the world, but she still loved the deep color and slitted pupils of the dragon in front of her. Hell, she would love any color as long as it belonged to her dragon-shifter.

She didn’t know how long she stood there staring into her Tristan-slash-dragon’s eyes, but the dragon let out a chuff of warm air. The feeling against her skin snapped her out of her trance and she said, “Right. You need to leave.”

She placed her hands on either side of the dragon’s wide jaw and stroked. The dragon started humming and she smiled. Then she remembered what she wanted to say.

Putting on a stern expression, she said, “You come back to me alive, Tristan MacLeod, or I will be the one to bring you back to life just so I can kill you.”

She was convinced there was laughter in the dragon’s eyes and she grinned. On impulse, she kissed the dragon’s snout, gave him one last pat, and stepped back. “Now, go rescue that boy and show those dragon hunter bastards that it’s idiotic to mess with a Stonefire dragon-shifter.”