Page 88 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons

Chapter Nine

MARI

The sun sets long before the dragons are finished talking and I doze between Tor and Brax, holding their hands, and feeling content for the first time in weeks.

I notice the silence stretching a little too long and I crack an eye, knowing that Del will be watching me. Again.

‘They touch the way dragon mates do,’ she mutters and then writes something in her notebook.

‘I told you I’m not an experiment, Del,’ I say with a roll of my eyes and smile when I feel Tor, Brax, and Drey’s eyes on me.

‘Of course not,’ she says absently, still writing.

I look at the little black and white picture she printed out for me that she’s adamant is the baby. It looks like a tiny potato, but I haven’t said that because both Tor and Brax have been fawning over it all evening, taking turns holding it up and exclaiming at it. They seem to have decided between them that it’s both of theirs and they’re treating the whole thing like it’s a miracle.

I guess it is.

To me it’s the culmination of my worst nightmares, though I’m trying very hard for it not to be because I am excited. I just want to bypass the labor and dying part.

‘Okay, I’m going to run some more tests from my room and then go to sleep,’ Del says pointedly, raising her eyebrows at me as she takes our hot chocolate mugs into the kitchen and disappears.

Tor and Drey barely acknowledge her leaving, deep in conversation with each other.

‘Shall we take you to your room, little rabbit?’ Brax whispers in my ear and my body flutters a little.

Does he mean what I think he does? Images of him and Tor flood my mind, making my body heat at the merest idea of them with me. My short time with them at the dam has left me with a hunger that hasn’t been sated for weeks. It’s been in the background while we were apart, but now that they’re here, the yearning for Tor and Brax deep inside me is like a force of nature.

And it’s not just them I crave.

I glance at Drey, taking in his broad shoulders and the hard lines of his torso and I swallow hard.

‘What’s this?’ Brax whispers, following my gaze.

I look up at him, trying to judge if this is okay, or not. He doesn’t give me much to go on, but I see a little of that usual playfulness in his eyes.

‘Fortune favors the brave,’ he purrs. ‘What do you want?’

‘Him,’ I say in a burst of courage.

Tor and Drey stop talking, both turning to stare at me, both looking surprised.

It’s Drey who stands first and stalks slowly across the room.

‘Do you understand what you’re asking, Red?’ he asks as he comes to stand in front of me, his smoldering eyes like embers in the fire.

I’m speaking to the dragon now. I know it. Next to me, Brax tenses and I get the sense from him that something about this is highly unusual.

I don’t reply and Drey leans over me. ‘If I have a taste of you, Mari, I don’t think I’ll be able to let you go.’

My eyes widen as he cages me in, his eyes flicking down my body and up again.

I glance at Brax and Drey snarls low. ‘Look atme, gorgeous, not him.’

‘B-but,’ I stutter. ‘Is this okay?’

‘It’s more than okay,’ Brax murmurs. ‘But you might want to make your decision before Drey here loses all the self-restraint he’s known for.’

I blink at Drey, who’s white knuckling the couch I notice now, and I swallow hard.