Page 32 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

‘Not for me,’ I mutter. ‘Guess I’m fucked either way, huh?’

Brax’s dark smile is a little unnerving, especially when he leans down toward me and his nostrils flare like he’s taking the scent of me deep into his lungs.

I shrink back into the couch without meaning to.

‘The difference,’ he purrs, his amused eyes ensnaring my wide ones, ‘is that we’ll make you scream in pleasure, not pain.’

I snort mostly to cover my embarrassment.

‘You doubt me?’ He leans even closer, and I put my hands up.

‘I believe you. I believe you,’ I say, scooching to the other side of the couch to evade him.

‘Good,’ he says low, straightening as his lips twitch on one side as if he’s fighting a smile. ‘What’s your answer?’

I regard them both for several seconds, but he’s right. There isn't a choice. Two is better than twenty.

‘You’ll take care of me?’ I whisper, searching Brax’s eyes and then Tor’s.

‘You’ll be well pleasured, female,’ Brax grates out.

I roll my eyes. ‘Sex won’t keep me alive,’ I tell him. ‘I mean food, clothing, a roof over my head, protection from your kind.’

Tor nods. ‘You’ll be fed and watered. Receive medicine.’ He snorts. ‘You’ll probably be healthier than you are now in a few weeks with regular meals and medical care.’

‘Okay.’ I whisper.

‘Great!’ Brax says enthusiastically, his eyes trained on me. ‘Take off your clothes.’

‘What?’ I draw back, my heart beating almost painfully inside my chest.

He grins a little menacingly. ‘Did you think it would be a church wedding, human?’

‘I…don’t know,’ I whisper.

‘There’s only one way to make it airtight with the rest of the faction,’ he tells me. ‘You need to be marked by our scents. Thoroughly.’

I have vague notions of them peeing on me, or something gross like that and my nose wrinkles.

‘How will you do that?’

I try to hide the fear in my voice, but they must hear it because they glance at each other.

Tor is the one who sits down next to me slowly, like he’s trying not to spook me.

‘Our combined essence. Our seed,’ he explains. ‘It will change the way you smell to our kind.’

‘So…you’ll both, like, jerk offontome?’ I ask in a small voice.

Tor shakes his head.

‘No, human, we both nutintoyou,’ Brax says, watching me closely.

Tor gives his friend a dirty look. ‘You’re not helping.’

His hand touches mine and I look down at it. But I don’t move away. ‘Both of our scents and yours will intermingle. It’s how it’s done in a nest even with a dragon female. It’s like a sign to other dragons that you’re spoken for. The same scent will be carried on us by spending time with you.’

‘So, you both need to?—’