Sacrificed to the Dragon: Part Two (4 page)

And if she was, mother of his child or not, he would find a way to get rid of her after their child was born.

~~~

Two days full of rest with food and sleep had done wonders for Melanie’s mental state. She no longer felt like crying every two seconds, and her brain was working at full power again, which was great since Bram had asked to see her.

Since the asshole, her current codename for Tristan, hadn’t bothered to even stop by and say hi, she was going to turn to her other designated protector and find out what she was actually allowed to do here. If she had to spend nine months twiddling her thumbs, she’d go insane.

She passed an unknown female dragon-shifter and Melanie smiled in greeting. But the woman glared at her and hissed, “You shouldn’t be here, you human whore.”

She blinked. After spending so much time with Samira, she’d forgotten that not everyone accepted her presence here.

But before she could say anything in response, the dragonwoman was gone.

She instinctively put a hand over her belly. Liam had picked up Mel’s “scent of pregnancy” yesterday within seconds of entering his and Samira’s home. While she had yet to take any official pregnancy test, two dragon-shifters scenting it had made the whole thing a lot more real to her. Now that she had something to protect, she really needed to get to know the people of this community and weed out the threats from the allies.

She may not be a dragon, but she’d do anything to protect her family.

But since she couldn’t even go around Stonefire’s community without Bram’s say-so, she picked up her pace. She needed to convince Stonefire’s leader that she wasn’t a threat. Well, as long as no one threatened her, of course. She wasn’t about to take people’s crap just to keep the peace. Even if the asshole who’d knocked her up wasn’t going to protect her, Liam and his brothers and sister would. Liam was an actual nice guy, and for a second, Melanie had been jealous of Samira.

Then the jealousy had passed. Nice was a little too boring for her taste.

She nearly faltered at that thought. What? Did she prefer a broody, asshole of a sex god instead?

She shook her head and sprinted the last few feet to Bram’s office. She needed a distraction.

When she knocked, she was told to enter. Inside, Bram was at his desk. He gestured toward the chair. After she sat down, he took a deep inhale and said, “It’s true, then, about the baby. You’re well, I take it?”

She resisted being snarky since this man was the key to any sort of freedom she might have here. “As well as anyone in my situation could be.”

He nodded. “Good. While I wanted to see how you’re doing, the real reason I asked to see you is because I have a job for you.”

“A job?”

“Yes. Two, in fact. The first is more of a personal favor than anything, but I’m hoping you can help me out.”

Doing a favor might help her in the long run. “What do you need?”

“It’s about Cait.”

She leaned forward in her chair. “What happened? Is she okay? I wanted to check on her, but I was told I had to come here first.”

Bram stared at her for a second then said, “Before Tristan’s mate frenzy came on, you met with Cait. You know she’s had a tough time here, and it’s mostly my fault.” When she didn’t countermand him, he gave a sardonic smile. “Okay, it’s ninety-nine percent my fault she’s miserable. I never should have made Neil take a sacrifice. But it’s done and can’t be changed.” He leaned back in his chair. “You know she’s depressed and unhappy. What you might not know is that after talking with you the first day before the welcoming ceremony, she actually started venturing outside her cottage. Only short trips, mostly to watch some of the young play in the designated safe area, but she hasn’t done more than visit the healer for months now.”

Now, more than ever, she wanted to check on Cait. The woman sounded lonely. But Bram had yet to ask her for the favor. “And what does this have to do with me?”

“She has about three months before she’s due to give birth. I want you to be friends with her and see if she can be even marginally happy. She doesn’t like Samira because Samira has a dragon male who loves her. And even though I have moved her into a cottage next to mine and have tried to take care of her ever since Neil left, she’s afraid of all dragon-shifters, except maybe the children. Even though she intends to leave as soon as the child is born, I’d really like her to go back to her people as unbroken as possible.”

“Why? To protect your reputation?”

“No, because it breaks my heart that she’s been hurt because of me.”

Bram’s expression and tone made it seem as if he truly cared for Cait, but she didn’t know him well enough to know if it was all an act or not. And while she’d planned on trying to befriend Cait anyway, her gut told her that this was her chance to ask for what she wanted. “I’ll say yes on one condition.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You want to bargain with me?” She nodded. “Not many here would try to do that. There’s hope for you yet.”

She didn’t know how to interpret that, so she pushed on. “I want the ability to roam Stonefire’s land without needing your or some other dragon-shifter’s permission every time I go out.”

“Do you think that wise? While no one in the clan will physically harm you, especially now that you’re carrying Tristan’s child, I can’t control their likes or dislikes. Some of them will outright hate you for your intrusion here, and won’t be afraid to show it.”

Mel thought of the dragonwoman she’d encountered on the way here. “I’d rather take my chances. A few harsh words I can handle, but endless months of boredom I cannot.”

“There are a few sections which will remain off limits until I can better assess your loyalties. But provided you do the second thing I ask, I don’t see you roaming the unrestricted areas as a problem.”

Considering she’d been here just over a week, his caveats seemed reasonable. “Okay, so what’s the second thing you want to ask me for?”

“I want you to help teach the young dragons about humans.”

She frowned. “About what, exactly? I’m not a trained teacher. I’m studying to be an anthropologist.”

“I know that, and I think your degree will help you to present your people in an unbiased light. Isn’t that one of the tenants of anthropology? To try and limit personal bias?”

She decided to avoid getting into complicated theory about whether that was possible or not and simply said, “For the most part, yes.”

“Good. Then you’re exactly what they need. Our texts are outdated, and most of my clan is still somewhat biased against your kind due to our bloody, and often violent, past. You’ll be able to answer the children’s questions without peppering it with hate.”

She eyed Bram for a second. “Why are you so keen on changing the children’s perceptions? There is still a huge amount of bias against dragon-shifters in the human world. If the children get too rosy a view, it could end up harming them in the long run.”

He waved a hand in dismissal. “My other teachers can help balance your version with our recorded history, giving the children a better idea of the full truth. But I want to start the next generation on thinking that they can change the status quo instead of just putting up with it.”

Bram was cleverer than she’d originally given him credit for. “As long as there’s a dragon-shifter adult there too, in case things go wrong, I’ll try.”

Bram smiled. “Good. You’ll start in three days.”

Mel didn’t like the devious look in Bram’s eye, but at least she wouldn’t have to spend all of her time here doing nothing. Children were usually more honest and more open than adults were. She could probably learn just as much from them as they would from her.

Her only reservation was that Tristan taught the young dragon-shifters. If Bram thought to play matchmaker, he wasn’t going to be successful. Unless Tristan groveled and pleaded, which was highly unlikely, she wasn’t going to put herself out there only to have him shoot her down again.

The dragonman had made his choice. No matter how much she missed his presence in bed next to her, she wasn’t going to put up with his bullshit just so she could feel his hot, naked skin against hers again. The heartache wasn’t worth it.

Chapter Four

Melanie stood in front of four pupils in the five-to
-
six-year-old age range. The dragon-shifter teacher was introducing her, but Melanie didn’t pay much attention to what the dragonwoman was saying. Instead, she focused everything on remaining calm on the outside and not betraying the butterflies banging around in her stomach.

Don’t let the little ones smell fear, or they’ll walk all over you.
That had been Liam’s advice to her before she’d left this morning. She reckoned it was probably the same way with human students, but since she’d been told how the five-and-six-year-olds were just learning to communicate with their inner dragons, not showing fear was doubly important—the newly awakened dragons were trying to find their own place in the dominance scale.

But the longer she studied the faces of the three little boys and one little girl, the more confident she became. They weren’t staring at her with disgust or condemnation. No, they were just staring at her with wide-eyed curiosity.

The teacher turned toward her and nodded. Melanie nodded back and focused on the four students. “As the teacher said, my name is Melanie Hall. And I think the best way to get to know each other is for you to just ask your burning questions now.”

The little girl with dark hair and blue eyes raised her hand, and Melanie motioned for the girl to speak.

The little girl looked her up and down before she said, “My friend said humans aren’t allowed on Stonefire’s land because they’ll either scream or try to hurt us. Are you going to scream or hurt us?”

“No, I’m not. Should I be afraid of you?”

The little girl crossed her arms over her chest and it took everything Mel had not to smile. The girl said, “Well, I know important people. So you should be good or I can tell on you and my uncle will make you behave. He makes everyone behave.”

The teacher said, “Ava.” But Mel put up a hand to signal it was okay. “So, your name is Ava?” The little girl nodded. “Well, Ava, is your uncle here right now?”

The girl’s arms dropped as she lost a bit of her confidence. “No.”

She took a step toward the girl. “Could he get here before I could tackle you?”

Ava darted a glance to the dragon-shifter teacher and back. “No.”

Mel stood right in front of the little girl and placed a hand on her head. “Then using him as a threat is useless. You should always be thinking of how to take care of yourself in the moment.”

The little girl stared up at her with awe. After another second, Mel crouched down and tickled the girl’s sides. Ava started giggling and squirming, and Mel stopped but remained crouched to look Ava in the eye. “What do you think? Do you reckon I’m going to run off screaming or try to hurt you?”

Ava stared at her for a second before she answered, “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because Drustan only tickles me because he fancies me. Do you fancy me, Ms. Hall?”

Mel laughed. “Not in that way, Ava. But I think I like you.”

Ava beamed and Mel stood up to talk with the other children. Within a few minutes, they were all relaxed and chattering away in the way young children did. She’d never thought of herself as a teacher, but maybe this teaching thing wouldn’t be so bad after all.

~~~

Tristan stood inside Melanie’s empty cottage and tried his best to forget what he’d done here less than six days ago. Spending time with the young had indeed calmed his beast to a level Tristan could control. But right now, upon finding Melanie was no longer staying here, his dragon was snarling for him to find her. Now.

Her scent was nearly gone. Only through sheer force of will did he resist finding something that still carried her scent so he could bring it up to his nose and brand her smell into his memory.

Of course, that was his dragon’s need hammering inside his head. It’d taken him five days to calm the bastard down, yet at the first whiff of the human, his hard work had all but evaporated.

Fucking fantastic.

He turned and left the cottage. If he was going to investigate the human, he needed to find her first. She could only be in one of two places. He decided to start with Bram since Samira would probably bar him outright from talking with her. That human female could be as fierce and protective as any dragonwoman.

After knocking on Bram’s door, Tristan entered to find a nervous Cait on the far side of the room, her eyes downcast. Since he knew how easily she spooked, he remained silent and kept his distance. Bram flashed him a look of thanks and then said to the woman, “That’s all for now, Cait. You can go.”

The woman nodded, and rushed out the back entrance. Once the door clicked closed, Bram turned toward him, and Tristan said, “Since when does Caitriona Belmont leave her cottage alone?”

“Since Melanie Hall started visiting her.”

What has she been doing? Where is she now? I want her. Why can’t I have her?