Page 72 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

I put her in her bed, covering her with the blanket gently, then take out my phone. Luckily it’s not covered in stomach soup.

I message Del, telling her to get here as soon as she can.

That done, I hop in the shower and try not to be disgusted that the dragon doesn’t want me to wash off because he likes being covered in her scent, no matter where it comes from.

I ignore his annoyed pacing and snorting as I let the power shower do its job.

When I get out a few minutes later, I grab a bathrobe and see that Del messaged me right back. She has a keycard, so she’s probably already here.

I go out to the living room and smell her immediately. She’s opening a bottle of lemonade in the kitchen.

‘You don’t mind, do you, Commander?’ she asks flippantly. ‘I was in surgery from one am. One of the younglings decided to sneak out last night before the hunt to bag himself an elk and got his shoulder impaled on a length of old pipe in a botched landing.’ She shakes her head. ‘Dumb kids.’

‘Sure,’ I say, though she doesn’t need my assent since she’s already chugging it. I roll my eyes. ‘Go right ahead, Doc.’

When she’s done, she puts the now empty bottle down on the counter and looks at me expectantly. ‘What do you need, Dreythos?’ A practiced eye moves over me. ‘You look fine.’

‘Not me,’ I say, beckoning her as I go into the guest room where the Tribute?—

Mari, the dragon supplies.

Of coursehe’dremember!

WhereMariis still in her faint.

The faction doctor pauses when she sees her.

‘The Tribute.’

I nod.

She purses her lips. ‘I don’t usually get called for the humans.’

‘But you do know their physiologies?’

She gives me a look. ‘I worked at Johns Hopkins for years before the Fall, Drey. Of course, I know their physiologies. I just…don’t usually get called when they’re hurt, that’s all.’

She shakes her head. ‘No matter how many times I tell them to do so,’ she mutters.

Del moves closer to the bed with a frown, sniffing the air. ‘So, this is the Tribute I keep hearing about.’ She lets out a dry laugh.‘You pissed off quite a few people when you didn’t gift her to Aziel.’

I roll my eyes. ‘Well, she was already claimed, as you can no doubt smell.’

She chuckles. ‘Oh, yeah, I can smell, all right.’ She raises her brows at me. ‘Still quite strong, too. That must have taken a few hours, huh?’

Snorting, I throw myself into the nearest chair, mostly so that I don’t start trying to touch the human.

‘She got here over a month ago. I…’ I let out a breath. ‘I left her care to Dominick.’

‘Dominick,’ she mutters, removing the blanket and letting out a sigh. ‘Probably not the best human-sitter you could have chosen.’

‘That’s a fucking understatement. He and others, I think, have been smacking her around. She said something about not being allowed food, being worked for twenty hours a day.’

Del shakes her head. ‘I can believe it. Aziel’s favored are treated better, marginally, but the others… Well, they don’t last long here. What happened other than that?’

‘Well, Dominick was in here making her get out of bed. He hit her a couple of times. There’re bruises all over her though, so it wasn’t the first time. She was saying she’s tired and she hasn’t been feeling well for a couple weeks.’

‘Understandable with little sleep, abuse like that, and inconsistent meals.’