She focused back on Cait, stroking her hair and making soft noises. Eventually, the woman stopped crying. As Cait wiped her eyes with her hands, Mel forced herself to ask, “Tell me, Cait. Why do you want to go home? Is it really so bad here?”
Cait’s eyes went to where Samira was entertaining her son. She looked back to Mel’s face and said, “What Samira has is rare. Her dragonman loves her, loves their son, and he would die to protect them. Mine left six months ago, as soon as I was pregnant, and no one’s heard of him since.” She placed a hand on her belly. “He didn’t want a child, but all of the men take at least one turn. I was terrified of him in the beginning, which didn’t help matters. But he didn’t want me, and he doesn’t want our child. I’m tired of the looks of pity and people tiptoeing around me. Everyone here talks, as you’ll soon find out, and I just want to go back to being normal.”
“What about your baby?”
Cait held her stomach with both hands. “This baby was a way to pay off the debt my ex-husband left me with, nothing more. As soon as it’s born, I’m leaving.”
Samira’s voice interrupted them. “That’s enough for now. If we don’t get Melanie ready for the welcoming ceremony, we’ll hear from Bram. Clean yourself up, Cait. Melanie, come with me.”
Samira stood up and went into one of the side rooms. Mel gave Cait one last hug before she followed. Once she was in the room, Samira leaned down to her ear and whispered, “Cait’s dragonman was banished for cheating on his sacrifice, yes; but don’t let her words poison you. That dragonman had always been a problem. Bram thought he could make him behave, but he was wrong. Don’t worry, Tristan is different.”
“How, exactly? He wants nothing to do with me.”
Samira leaned back enough to meet her eye. “Ask him to take you to his job tomorrow. Then you’ll see.”
Mel opened her mouth, but Samira turned around and set her son down on the large bed in the room. She went to the side closet, pulled something out, and turned around with an armful of a shimmery light green material. “Right, let’s get started.”
Chapter Five
Tristan smoothed the material held around his waist with a belt, tossed the remaining length of fabric over his shoulder, and secured it with a pin. His clothing was similar to the old belted plaids of Scotland except that it was made of a solid dark red wool. Most humans didn’t realize that the kilt style had originated with the dragon-shifters first; the garment easily allowed a dragonman to slide the material off his shoulder and shift at a moment’s notice.
He left his dwelling and headed for the main hall. His flight had eased some of his tension and calmed his dragon, but as soon as he was within range of Melanie’s scent, the battle would start all over again.
Spending all day with her tomorrow was going to be hell. At this rate, he’d be trying to take her at midnight tomorrow.
As he neared the dragon-shifters’ former castle with its towering stone keep, crumbling walls, and massive four-story brick building that served as the dragon-shifters’ main hall, he could hear conversations in a mixture of English and Mersae, the dragon-language. Nearly everyone, including the children, would attend tonight’s gathering. Bram liked to say it was to give everyone a chance to meet the new sacrifice, but Tristan believed it was to show off the new possible threat.
He passed a few of his fellow trainers and nodded a greeting. No one offered any sort of congratulatory remarks, which was to be expected considering the near meltdown of the last female sacrifice eight months ago. Unfortunately, Caitriona Belmont had conceived. And she was still with them. As much as Tristan hated humans, he almost felt pity for her. Neil, her assigned male, had broken the sacrifice contract and disgraced the clan.
Tristan had far too much respect for Bram to do the same.
He pressed through the throngs of people and headed inside to the main raised dais in the front of the room. Bram was already there, but there was no sign of Melanie or Samira, the human female in charge of getting her ready. They were late.
When he was close enough, Bram caught his eye and signaled for him to come up onto the dais. Tristan approached his leader and said, “Did you send someone to check on the human females?”
Bram glanced at him. “Anxious to have your First Kiss?”
“No. I just want to get this over with as quickly as possible.”
“You do know that you’ll be seeing her again tomorrow. And probably the day after that. While it’s my job to scare her a bit into behaving, you need to stop pushing her away if you ever hope to get your cock anywhere near her.”
He looked at his friend. “How do you know I’m pushing her away?” Bram raised an eyebrow. “Hey, I’m following my contract to the letter. I won’t physically harm her or force her. That’s all I care about.”
“Harm comes in more than just physical injuries, Tristan. Look at what Neil did to Cait. Words and actions can be just as harmful as punches.”