Page 49 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

I shift in my chair, making it creak.

‘What’s going to happen to me, Brax?’

He looks at me, his expression softening.

‘Nothing,’ he says. ‘You’re ours now and you smell like it.’

‘Will I live…with you and Tor?’

He purses his lips. ‘That’s up to Drey. He’s the boss.’

‘But you know him,’ I persist, needing something to ground me in all these uncertainties. ‘Is he… Does he like humans?’

‘Not much these days.’ He lets out a breath and puts his book down, turning toward me. ‘It depends on some things. There are undercurrents. Politics. Drey hasn’t been in control of our faction for long. He’s trying to figure out how to get our kind on his side without resorting to violence. The more we fight, thefewer of us there are. We never had high birth rates, but they’ve completely tapered off over the past forty years.’

I blink at him. After giving me little to no real answers, he’s dumped a lot on me over the past few minutes.

‘Why?’

He stands up abruptly with a shrug and the mood in the room changes abruptly.

He looms over me, and I shrink back in the chair a little. He doesn’t look mad, but the man who was telling me about his home a moment ago is gone.

‘Take off your clothes,’ he says. ‘My dragon wants to see you.’

‘Why? W-what do you mean?’ I stutter. ‘Like it’s separate?’

‘Yes,’ he says abruptly. ‘He and I both inhabit this mind, though the body one at a time.’

‘Am I…talking to your dragon now?’ I ask, wondering if that’s the change that I’m feeling?

His mouth sets in a hard line.

‘What happens if I don’t do what you want, dragon?’ I ask, meeting his eyes, trying to show this dominant creature that I’m no pushover.

Even though I think I might be right now.

‘Well, my pretty human, now’s as good a time as any for your punishment for leaving the building.’

My heart pounds in my chest. What’s he going to do with me?

‘But you already gave me a punishment,’ I whisper. ‘Dangling me for the monster in the water?—’

‘No,’ he grinds out. ‘That was a lesson so you know what could happen to you if you didn’t follow the rules. This will be discipline for not doing as you were told.’

‘B-but I didn’t even leave on purpose,’ I say, my tone pleading.

He laughs low. ‘Do you want to run again, is that it?’ The growl he emits makes my eyes widen.

He wants me to, I realize, but my body already feels like I ran a marathon today and the thought of Brax’s dragon chasing me to punish me is overwhelming at the moment.

‘No,’ I say.

‘Then take off your clothes and bend over the table, Mari.’

He says my name slowly, like a caress. My skin prickles.

‘What are you going to do?’