Page 1 of The Mating Claim

Prologue

In the shadows,no one could hear youscream.

Screaming in this house did no good. It only upset Evie, and Lacey would never cause fear or panic in her littlesister.

Melanie shoved the filthy rag into Lacey’s mouth, causing her to nearly choke. Binding her wrists with rough rope, the woman tossed the hemp over a rafter and pulled tight. It forced Lacey to stand nearly on tiptoe. Muscles straining, she squeezed her eyesshut.

Maybe it would go quicklytoday.

Her foster mother’s moods swung like a pendulum these days. One never knew if she would reward her and Evie with ice cream for simply doing theirhomework…

Or beat her because Lacey had failed to pick up one dirty sock from beneath thebed.

Or simply punished her because their foster mother felt like it. Melanie looked like a thirty-year-old brunette human. Her Otherworlder true self was a dragon shifter, like them. But unlike other dragon mothers, Melanie held no affection for children. She hated witches and any time Lacey mentioned witches, or potions or witch magick, Melanie flew into arage.

Today’s punishment would be particularly brutal, for Melanie had caught her reading a book of spells and potions Lacey had borrowed from a friend whose mother was awitch.

The book ended up in thefireplace.

But Lacey vowed to remember the spells. They transfixed her with wonder, filled her with power. One, a vanquishing spell, sounded powerful enough to use on Melanieherself.

It was supposed to banish demons, and her foster mother certainly fit the bill. Lacey had memorized thatspell.

Lacey thought of the laptop holding the information on her file, the file she’d stolen from Melanie’s office. It contained information about her birth father’s last whereabouts. Scotland. A castle in thehighlands.

I’ll find you, dad. I know you and mom didn’t surrender me to the orphanage because you didn’t love me. I’ll find you, and mom aswell.

Her birth father was a mystery, but Lacey had to believe he wanted her in his life. Often she imagined him as a kindly scholar bent over ancient texts in a dusty study, immersed in researching their family’s ancient lineage. Dragons were fierce advocates of bloodlines. Parentless Lacey and Evie hadnone.

But she would someday. For now, she had to endure the brutalbeatings.

Evie was too little to take this kind of punishment. Lacey always did it for her to protect her foster sister. She had tougher skin. It had been broken time and again by Melanie’scruelness.

Then again, Melanie never seemed interested in punishing Evie. OnlyLacey.

No tears. Never let them see you cry. It empowered her fostermother.

“Disgusting. Simply disgusting. That book you read is obscene.” Melanie yelled. “You’re a witch! A bad, badwitch!”

Peering over one shoulder, she spotted what her foster mother held. Not the wooden spoon or her favorite blunt object – a leather belt. The beatings were tough, but sheendured.

Panic squeezed her stomach. She’d never survivethis…

She heard the whistling of the bullwhip through the air before it struck her bare back. Lacey bit hard on the rag as the burning painbegan.

Lacey clung to the ropes binding her, imaging her unknown father rushing into the tiny house, bursting through the door. Roaring as dragon, sweeping red flames over the stuffy furniture, bellowing with rage. Then shifting into his human form to address Melanie’scruelties.

“You hurt my little girl,” he’d yell. “You shallpay.”

And then I’d watch as Melanie dropped the whip and backed up, screaming in terror as Dad shifted into dragon. But he wouldn’t breathe fire on her. No, I’d tell him to be merciful, and get me and Evie the hell out ofhere.

She and her little foster sister would cling to the spikes on her father’s dragon back as he rose magnificently into the sky, taking them to his opulent castle inScotland.

Anywhere buthere.

She tried to hold fast, tried not to cry, but after the fifth blow, tears gushed from her eyes. Melanie chortled withglee.

“You have bad witch blood in you,” she yelledagain.