Forbidden Dragon (The Bride Hunt Book 5)

by Charlene Hartnady

  “Easy has never been my thing.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

  “Lie down,” she half-whispered. “Please let me help you.”

  Granite gripped the needles and yanked them from his chest, letting them fall onto the stainless-steel table. A loud clanging sound reverberated around the room. “You can’t help me,” he growled.

  “I’m sure there’s something I can—”

  “Sex …” his voice was low. Those dark eyes locked with hers. It took her a moment to realize what he had said. Her jaw dropped open and she struggled to breathe.

  He took a small step towards her. “You can let me rut you.”

  Chapter 3

  Sex.

  Rutting.

  Why had he said that?

  The alarm went off and Rock sauntered in.

  “Fuck off!” he snarled, trying to keep himself from swaying. He already felt marginally better now that the needles had been removed. He still felt weak and sick to his stomach. It was like nothing he had ever experienced before.

  “No, stay,” the human stammered, her head whipping in the direction of the lesser male.

  “Out!” He didn’t take his eyes off the little female.

  She narrowed her green orbs, giving him another one of her scathing looks. Funny, he’d had females flutter their lashes at him. They usually looked at him with unbridled lust, but the filthy looks she flung at him interested him far more. She gave a small shake of the head. “Those needles need to come out and I need to examine ...” her voice grew softer as Rock walked back towards the door, obeying his king. Damn straight!

  The female put a hand up as if to try to stop the male from leaving. “Take the needles out!” she shouted after him. Rock gave a nod and then shut the door behind him.

  “On the bed.” She pointed to the thin hospital cot in the corner. “Let’s get this over with.”

  Granite felt his lip twitch as he held back a smile. He was not on friendly terms with this human. Or any human for that matter. He didn’t trust them. If he smiled, he would give her the wrong impression. She might think he liked her or something. He did not. “You want me to lie down so that you can get it over with? It might be easier if you take your clothes off first.”

  “What?”

  “Sex. It’s easier when naked. At the very least, naked from the waist down. You could even leave that coat of yours on.”

  She swallowed thickly and folded her arms across her chest. “That’s not funny.”

  “Do I look like I’m joking?” A wave of nausea rolled through him. Maybe he had gone a little too far. The effects of the silver were worse than he had anticipated.

  “I’m not having sex with you.” Her eyes were wide.

  “You said you wanted to help me.” He had to fight to keep his eyes on hers. To stop himself from checking her out. Not that it was possible to achieve with that ridiculous coat covering her from neck to knee.

  She rolled her eyes. “Not in that way. I meant clean your wound, maybe dress it for you. You can forget about having sex with me. Besides, it would be in breach of my contact and I’m sure I heard somewhere that dragon shifters are only allowed to have sex with humans on their Stag Runs and if they manage to win someone at The Hunt. There are strict rules. Any type of relationship would be strictly forbidden.” She picked up a file on her desk and hugged it to her chest.

  “I never once mentioned a relationship. I was referring to fucking. You know when—”

  She made a squeaking noise and then quickly pulled herself together within seconds. “Forget it. Even if I wanted to—” her eyes widened and she hugged the file tighter, “and I don’t,” she put emphasis on the word ‘don’t’, “it’s strictly forbidden.”

  “So you’re one for obeying rules?”

  “What and you’re not? You’re a leader.”

  “I enforce rules.”

  “But you don’t live by them? Double standards if I ever saw them.”

  “Sometimes rules are meant to be broken.” Why the fuck was he pushing this? The human was small. Too small for his taste. It was the silver. He was weak. It was affecting his thinking. A good, hard rut would help.

  “Rules are in place for a reason.” She licked her lips, looking deep in thought. “Not that I’m in the least bit interested,” she cleared her throat, “but I need to know, for scientific purposes if sex really would help or was that just a line?”

  He couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him. “Scientific purposes?” Granite nodded. “Yes, sex would really help. A good rutting session would speed up my recovery time.”

  She put the tip of her pen into her mouth for a moment and sucked on it. He watched as her pink lips closed over the object. Fuck, but this silver was affecting him. He could imagine those lips wrapped around something else. Then she tapped the end on her lower lip twice. “That’s interesting, I need to look into it.” She tucked a strand of hair that had fallen from her tight bun. It was bright orange and wild. There was a smattering of freckles across her nose and upper cheeks. They made her look younger than she really was. Then he realized what she had just said.

  “Look into it,” he growled. “How do you plan on doing that? Don’t think about fucking any of my males.” His voice was rough.

  Her eyes widened and she sucked in a breath. “I would never—” Her voice had a high-pitched quality and she looked completely shocked. “I’m a professional. I take my job seriously. I’m not having sex with you or anyone else for that matter. Stop being so vulgar.”

  The little human thought to give him orders. His dick stirred. What? His reaction to her insolence irritated the fuck out of him. It couldn’t be helped though, the doctor intrigued him whether he liked it or not. She had been here for seven weeks. Had been back to Walton Springs twice in that time and he had yet to scent a male on her. He had yet to scent any form of release on her. Self-inflicted or otherwise. Why he had even noticed was beyond him.

  “A professional?” he raised his brows, trying to keep his thoughts out of the gutter. Who was he kidding? This female was prissy, somewhere beyond uptight. There was no way she was going to do something so forbidden. “Good! Keep it that way.” Blaze would have a shit-fit if any of his males broke the sacred ‘Don’t fuck with humans’ lore anyway, so best he put it out of his mind. “When should I come back for my next treatment?”

  She shook her head, her eyes blazed. “I still don’t think this is a good idea.”

  A wave of dizziness rushed through him and he grit his teeth till it passed.

  “Are you okay?”

  He ignored the question. “When?” he said, a little more harshly.

  She narrowed her eyes. “Day after tomorrow. I will put together a rush program in the meanwhile.”

  Granite headed for the door. He stopped and glanced back. “Keep in mind that we are shifters. We’re much stronger than humans. I want to see this program before it is administered.”

  She rolled those gorgeous green eyes. Gorgeous! What the fuck? They were okay at best. She was very average; small and weak. No curves to speak of. No! She was not worth his time or energy.

  “Fine,” she huffed.

  “Six months, female. I won’t hesitate to replace you.” It was the last thing he wanted. The more humans who set foot on dragon territory the higher the risk.

  “Wait just a minute.” She put her hands on her hips and he turned back. “Blaze hired me. Not you. I will run this by him before proceeding.”

  “I told you—”

  “No!” she snapped. It sent another bolt straight to his cock. Her composure returned. “I’ve listened to what you had to say. Thank you for your feedback, I now know your feelings on this.”

  “Feelings have nothing to do with it.”

  “I understand your requirements then.” She didn’t completely lose her cool like he had expected. Instead, she cocked her head. Although she had a calm exterior, he knew she was pissed. Her flushed cheek gave her away. Anot
her tendril of bouncy curls escaped the bun. He had a stupid urge to pull her hair free. To see what she would look like without the coat and all the doctor get-up. She licked her lips ‒ soft, pink flesh ‒ and swallowed hard. He watched her throat work. Granite forced his gaze back to hers. Blazing and hard, there was determination in the depths of those eyes. “I don’t take orders from you. I respect you … I do, but I wasn’t employed by you. We were instructed to work together as a team. Please, can we try and get along? I will report back after speaking with Blaze.”

  “Make no mistake that this is my territory.” He stepped forward and into her personal space. Granite took another step. The female looked up at him, having to cock her neck to maintain eye contact. “I may not have had a say in who Blaze chose to run this originally, but I definitely have a say as to whether or not you stay. Do your reports and feedback to whomever you wish but if I’m not happy with what you come back with, you are gone. Do you understand that, female?”

  She grit her teeth but didn’t say a word.

  “I will replace you in a heartbeat.” He clicked his fingers and this time she flinched. “There would be sweet fuck all Blaze could do about it. I hope we have an understanding.”

  “In other words, we’ll get along just fine as long as I do exactly what you say.”

  He pretended to think about it for half a second. “That sounds about right.” He knew he was acting like a dick but she needed to know her place. After today, they all needed her to step it up. They were sitting ducks. This was no time to play nice guy and to sugarcoat his approach. Either the female was tough and would do what she had to or she was gone.

  The healer narrowed her eyes. Just when he thought he was going to have to get really tough, she gave a nod.

  He exhaled, suddenly realizing that he had been holding his breath while he had waited for her response. The last thing he wanted was to start again with some other doctor. It would add to the time pressures, add to the risk. No! He was glad she was staying. Granite spoke as he headed for the door. “Good. I’ll see you tomorrow then, you can present your program to me. Make it good!” He turned and headed out, not giving her a chance to respond.

  What a complete asshole!

  What a jerk!

  She felt like throwing something at his retreating back. No, make that his head. If she had a couple dozen eggs, he’d be covered in yolk and the gloopy white stuff … albumen. That’s it, albumen, she couldn’t even think of the basic word for egg white. Her brain had stopped working.

  Having him that close. Smelling his really manly, really delicious scent drove her insane and she’d pretty much let him walk all over her. Treat her like a doormat. It was not right.

  She was crushing the file in her hand, yet she couldn’t seem to force herself to let the thing go. This was the most exciting, most interesting assignment she had ever had. It sure as nuts beat her last one. The treatment of rhinitis with the main focus on dust mites. Yawn!

  This was ground-breaking stuff. If that meant sucking up to the gorgeous, dickhead king then she’d deal. If it meant having to walk the very thin line between both kings, then she’d do it and keep both of them happy if she could. She’d sell the rush immunotherapy to Blaze like it was her idea – he might not bite if he suspected Granite had given the directive. There was no love lost between the dragon tribes. They might get along ‒ only just ‒ but they didn’t like one another.

  Then she’d get the permission from her patients; but what she wouldn’t do ‒ what she would refuse to do ‒ was to put anyone’s life at risk. Forget it! Granite could go to hell on that one.

  There was a soft clang. “Don’t mind me, Doc,” Rock smiled at her. “Just returning your needles. I took them out ages ago. Thought you might want them back. I don’t have any use for them.”

  “Oh,” she managed to get out. Louise forced herself to smile. “Thanks. Are you feeling okay?” She finally forced her hand to ease its crushing hold on the file.

  Rock nodded. “Yeah, I’m doing great.” He frowned. “I hope you don’t mind but I overheard the conversation you had with Granite.”

  “Mmmhmmm?” She wasn’t sure where this was going.

  “He’s right.”

  “Well, he can fire me if he wants but I’m not putting any of you at risk.” There was a crunching noise as she crumpled the paper in her hand. Damn!

  “No, not about that, although, he does have the authority to send you packing. I mean about us being able to take more. We’re really tough.”

  “You’d feel very ill. It would hurt.”

  Rock laughed. “We are built to take pain. We are warriors.” He flexed his muscles. He had a fantastic build and was incredibly good-looking, yet she didn’t feel a thing. Really weird. Rock was such a nice guy. All five guys who were on the immunotherapy were really nice and super polite. If she had to be attracted to one of them, why couldn’t it be someone like Rock? Why did it have to be Granite? King Asshole, as she liked to call him.

  “Also, he acts all tough but he’s actually a good male. The best kind of male.”

  “Who?” Like she had to ask.

  “My king,” Rock paused. “Granite takes his role very seriously. He worries about us. He doesn’t sleep at night. He trains harder than any of us. Sacrifices heavily for his people. Deep down inside he is good and kind.”

  “You could’ve fooled me,” she mumbled, yet somehow, she believed Rock. Granite worked hard. She never saw him having any fun. It was all work. All the time. One small thing they had in common.

  The shifter smiled. “You’ll have to trust me on this one. He tends to lash out when he is stressed or particularly worried about something. He doesn’t trust humans. He has been on several hunts and has won several females but has yet to claim one and bring her home.”

  “Because he doesn’t trust us?”

  Rock looked confused for a moment, then he shook his head. “I think that is part of the reason, for sure. He says that he is looking for a female who is sweet.”

  “Sweet?” Louise made a snorting sound. More like agreeable. Someone who would obey his every command and fall at his feet. “There are plenty of those kinds of women out there.” Ladies who would swoon as soon as they caught an eyeball full of him. Not that he needed the ego boost. The guy was just about as arrogant as they came.

  “I think all females are sweet,” he winked at her. “Especially doctors.” Despite his flirty behavior, she got the feeling that Rock was just being nice. She didn’t get that yucky, ‘wash yourself with soap’ feeling she got when guys sometimes flirted with her.

  Louise rolled her eyes. “Yeah right.”

  “I don’t understand how he can just walk away from an opportunity with a female.”

  “Yeah, it must be tough with so few dragon shifter women.”

  Rock nodded. “We have a couple of shifter females but they prefer to spend time with many of the shifter men. They can have their pick and don’t want to settle with just one. There are those of us who would be happy to mate with one of them but they choose not to.” He sighed.

  “It sounds as if you like someone in particular.”

  Rock nodded; he had this faraway look. “Her name is Quartz. She is beautiful and kind but she refuses to entertain the idea of us being together. She says that she doesn’t want to tie me down. She thinks that I will end up despising her because we would have a childless mating. She feels that no male should be denied offspring. I wish I could change her mind. As much as I would love to have a child, I want her more.”

  Louise gripped Rock’s forearm for a second. “You are a really nice guy. Don’t give up, especially if she has similar feelings for you.”

  “We get along really well. We’ve been seeing each other for a couple of months. It’s not exclusive but neither of us has been with anyone else, which is rare for an unmated dragon female.” He grinned. “Who am I kidding? It’s unheard of. She still refuses to take things further. She keeps insisting that I go on
the hunts. There’s a Stag Run in a few weeks … she told me I should go, but I don’t want to.”

  “Don’t give up.”

  Rock shook his head. “I won’t, Doc.”

  “One of these days she’ll realize that you guys are meant to be together.”

  “I hope so. That’s why I volunteered for this project. I did it for Quartz, in the hope that we can overcome our affliction to silver.”

  “How will that help Quartz?” she asked when he didn’t elaborate.

  “You would be able to operate, using a silver blade. Maybe you could fix her.” There was a desperation in his eyes. “Not just her, all of our infertile females. You would be able to help all of the non-humans.”

  Non-humans healed too quickly, making regular stainless steel blades useless. Yet, they died too easily if silver scalpels were used. Making any form of surgical procedure impossible. “You are slowly developing a resistance to the metal. You should also start to heal quickly after coming into contact with silver. You might heal too quickly to perform surgery. I’m not sure that your idea would work.”

  His head dropped and his shoulders sagged. “I had really hoped it would be possible.”

  “Look, it is something I will keep in mind. Although, I am not a fertility specialist so I would not be able to test your women or perform any kind of surgery on them.”

  “It might be possible though?” he raised his brows.

  The last thing she wanted was to get his hopes up. “I don’t know. Maybe,” she added the last when his eyes clouded. “A friend of mine from college specialized in Gynecology, I will contact her.”

  “That would be great!” Rock grabbed her hand and squeezed.

  “Ow!!”

  “Sorry, Doc. I sometimes forget how soft and breakable you are.”

  “Well please don’t, it could be detrimental to my health,” she had to laugh. “Listen,” she pulled in a deep breath. “Don’t get your hopes up.”

  Rock shook his head. “I’ll try not to.” Then his expression turned more serious. “You’d better run it by Granite before you contact anyone from the outside world.”