As he entered the kitchen, Samira didn’t see him at first and she greeted Melanie with a smile, but it died when she looked at him. “What’s he doing here?” She glanced to Melanie. “Did he grovel and beg for you to take him back?”
He should hold his tongue, but he’d never been very good at that when it came to conversing with adults. “It’s none of your business, Samira. What is between Melanie and me is our business.”
Samira held up the wooden spoon in her hand and pointed it at him. “Seeing as your bastard ways have made it so she’s staying with me, it’s very much my business. I was on your side originally, Tristan MacLeod, but not anymore.”
Before he could reply, Melanie stepped between them. “Stop it.” She looked to Samira. “I’m just here to change my clothes and brush my teeth. Can I leave you guys alone for a few minutes while I do that and not worry about you two biting off each other’s heads?”
Samira lowered her spoon and stirred the contents of a pot on the stove in front of her. “Don’t you both have classes to teach this afternoon?”
Tristan beat Melanie to the reply. “Not anymore. Melanie’s morning sickness hit, and while she’s changing, I’m going to let Bram know and ask someone to cover for us.”
Samira’s expression softened as she looked at Melanie again. “Are you feeling okay now?”
Melanie nodded. “I’ll be fine.” She shot Tristan a look. “And I have something to do before Tristan changes his mind.”
Samira looked between them, but Melanie didn’t elaborate. Good. The human female was siding with him about keeping their business to themselves.
His dragon had been following the exchange, afraid someone might upset his human female, and now, it urged Tristan to give their female some kind of assurance. The other male is gone for now. She isn’t in danger. We should soothe her worries. Tell her we won’t cause any trouble.
Rather than fight his inner beast, Tristan said, “I won’t start anything. Go change.”
Melanie looked unconvinced, but she finally nodded and went upstairs. When she was gone, Samira asked, “Where are you taking her?”
Tristan shook his head. “I’m not telling you.” He pulled out his mobile phone from his pocket. “Now excuse me, I need to ring Bram before Melanie comes back downstairs.”
He turned to go into the living room but found the little boy standing in his way. Tristan raised an eyebrow, but the little boy just crossed his arms over his chest and stood his ground. This little one was going to be quite the handful when his dragon finally started communicating with him in a few years’ time.
Still, Tristan had spent more than a decade teaching children and he’d found being straightforward with them was usually the best policy. “Is there something you want to say to me, little one?” The boy nodded and Tristan said, “Well, go on then.”
“Be nice to Auntie Mel and don’t make her cry.”
Tristan’s dragon growled at the thought of Melanie crying.
Rather than argue with the child, he gave him a direct stare and said, “I need to get through. If you have anything else to say, then say it.”
The boy’s confidence faltered under the gaze of his. “That’s it.”
Tristan nodded. “Right. Then let me pass.”
The little boy moved aside and Tristan went to the far end of the living room where he’d be safe from Samira’s human hearing. He didn’t want anyone to know about his asking for this afternoon and tomorrow off. If things went well with his sister, they would stay the night at her cottage. If not, then Tristan needed a few private hours with Melanie to lay out the future when it came to their child and divided responsibilities.
He already knew which outcome his dragon was rooting for, but the human-half was unsure. To be honest, both halves of him were starting to hope Melanie would be able to help his sister. To wish for anything else would be selfish and unkind.
Of course, there was also the caveat that if Melanie helped Arabella, the human might let him fuck her on a regular basis, allowing him to better control his dragon.
But that was all to come. Right now, he dialed Bram’s phone number and tried not to think about how complicated things might become if his dragon-half became fully attached. When that happened, he would be forced to start courting Melanie or risk being completely lost to his beast.
On top of that, the little boy’s accusation of him making Melanie cry didn’t sit well, and if nothing else, he would make sure she didn’t cry again because of his actions. He didn’t want to become like Neil. The idea of Melanie becoming a broken recluse like Caitriona Belmont caused his dragon to growl as well as leave a sour taste in his mouth.
No, with a little effort, he could be civil. He couldn’t promise her anything else, but he could at least prevent her from being completely miserable because of his bastard ways.
Chapter Two
With a fresh change of clothes and clean teeth, Melanie felt almost normal again. The piece of warm naan bread she’d swiped from Samira’s kitchen on her way out had simultaneously calmed her stomach and stopped it from rumbling. A good thing, too, since their destination was turning out to be quite a hike from the main Stonefire living area.
While Mel had had some time to explore the “city center” equivalent of Stonefire’s community, they were heading somewhere new, away from the nearby lake and toward one of the hills not quite tall enough to be called a mountain. The contrast of the flat land with the sharp, jagged hills and mountains was breathtaking. She could see why people liked to holiday in the human sections of the Lake District.
She and Tristan had walked mostly in awkward silence, but when a lone cottage came into view, she asked, “Is that where your sister lives?”
“Yes. Arabella likes her peace and quiet.”
Mel had a feeling there was a deeper issue keeping Arabella away from everyone else, but she merely nodded. The last thing she wanted was to start an argument with Tristan. If his sister was anything like Cait, then she wouldn’t like strangers or unannounced visits. An argument could easily upset her or make her close in on herself, which reminded her, “Did you tell her we were coming?”
“No. If it were just me, Ara would stay put. But if she knew you were coming, she’d hike around the surrounding countryside for the rest of the afternoon.”
“Because she doesn’t like visitors or because I’m human?”
“Both.”
Mel knew she should keep her mouth shut, but she couldn’t do it. “I hope you’re starting to realize not all humans are bad, Tristan. Because if not, I should just leave right now.”
He glanced over at her. “So if I said I still hated all humans, you’d leave?”
She didn’t want to answer him, but she needed to stand her ground with the dragonman. “Yes.”
He grabbed her wrist and pulled her to a stop. “Before I give you my verdict, I want to know why you care so much for my opinion. You said yourself that you fulfilled your end of the contract, as have I. There is no reason for us to pretend for the sake of the child. I’ve heard that you want to stay afterward, but if family is so important to you, would you be able to live the rest of your life here without them? Humans aren’t allowed on Stonefire’s land, Melanie, unless they either come as a sacrifice or are with the UK Department of Dragon Affairs.”
She narrowed her eyes. “I do love my family, but I’m a grown woman, Tristan, and I’m not about to leave my child behind, no matter how much I’m starting to think you’d do a good job of raising him or her.”
His grip eased a fraction. “You barely know me. Why would you say that?”
“I watched you with the children before you noticed me. With no one watching, you were kind, patient, and understanding. Whatever your issue with humans, I believe what I saw back in the clearing is your true self. You may never act that way around me, and that’s fine. But I can easily see you acting that way with our child, and that’s the kind of father I’d want for my baby.”
&
nbsp; ~~~
Tristan had remained silent on the walk to his sister’s place to avoid saying something he’d regret. He couldn’t promise anything until he knew how things played out with Arabella.
But when Melanie pushed him on the issue of humans, he hadn’t been able to hold back. The last thing he’d expected to hear from her lips was that he’d make a good father.
He wanted to say he bloody well would be a good father; no one would ever harm his child. But talking of their child meant talking about the future. Tristan never made a promise he couldn’t keep, and all too easily, he could see himself starting to make tentative plans with the human. She intrigued both the man and the beast with her ability to stand up to him, face a new culture and a new way of doing things, all without blinking an eye.
But no matter what he was starting to think of Melanie Hall, he would never do anything to harm his sister. The sooner he introduced her to Arabella, the sooner he could start thinking about what he wanted. Or, rather, what he could have.
He released her wrist and nodded toward the cottage. “Can we finish this discussion later? Dragon-shifters have supersensitive hearing, and if we keep going at it, my sister might hear us and flee out the back door.”
Melanie’s expression relaxed a little. “She’s that skittish?”
He nodded. “Yes. I don’t make promises lightly, but after our visit with Arabella, I promise you we’ll sit down and have a proper chat about you, me, and the baby. For now, can we just put it aside and see how my sister is doing?”
Mel’s eyes searched his before she said, “All right, but if you break your promise, Tristan MacLeod, so help me, I will find a way to tie you down and get some answers.”
He fought the urge to smile, but couldn’t resist. He shook his head. “You might be a good foot shorter than I, and quite a few stone lighter, but somehow I think you’d find a way to accomplish that if you put your mind to it.”
Melanie raised her chin. “Of course I would. Everyone told me I wouldn’t be able to save my brother, that my odds of qualifying to be a sacrifice would be too great. Yet here I am, while Oliver is finally healthy and out of the hospital.”
He couldn’t help but tease her. “So through sheer force of will you made your DNA compatible? Somehow I doubt it.”
Melanie gave a shy smile and his dragon crooned at the same time his heart skipped a beat. He’d always found her attractive, but the shy smile made her look pretty and vulnerable at the same time. That made him want to haul her against him and protect her all the more.
But he didn’t have time for that right now. He motioned with his head toward the cottage. “Come, let’s catch Arabella before she disappears.”
She nodded and walked the short distance in silence. Apparently, the human could listen to something he said if she wanted to.
Once they arrived at the cottage, Tristan motioned for Melanie to stand off to the side. Then he took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He only hoped Arabella hadn’t already fled out the back.
~~~
Melanie stood a few feet off to the side of the door and tried not to be selfish and wish Arabella wasn’t home. She did truly want to meet Tristan’s sister, but a part of her wanted to see if she could get the dragonman to tease her again, as he’d done a minute ago.
Her intuition that the version of Tristan she’d seen with the children was the true one had all but been validated. He could be decent when he tried.
The question was, could he act that way all the time around her? And why did she want to try to find out if he could?
To be honest, she didn’t know. Or, rather, deep down she knew why she wanted him to act like that around her, but she wasn’t about to get her hopes up. Caitriona had admitted to being that way once, and Melanie didn’t want to end up the same way. True, she could never be as reclusive or shy as Cait, but it would be all too easy to lock her heart against any other dragon-shifter, especially since she had yet to meet one who compared with Tristan MacLeod’s ability to sear her skin with a touch, or make her instantly wet with a kiss. The man did things to her body she’d never dreamt could be possible outside of a book.
As Tristan knocked on his sister’s door, Melanie put her hopes and wishes aside. She didn’t think Tristan had exaggerated his sister’s pain, and if there was a way to help ease it, she would find it. Somehow, she knew winning over Arabella MacLeod would determine how her future would play out with Tristan.
After knocking for about twenty seconds, the door opened a crack. Melanie couldn’t see anything from where she was standing, but Tristan leaned toward the crack and whispered something she couldn’t hear. Then the door slammed shut and Tristan ran a hand through his hair. Melanie was about to ask what had happened, but he put up a hand for her to remain silent.
This time, Tristan didn’t bother to knock. He merely shouted at the door. “Arabella Kathleen MacLeod, open this door or I’ll break it down. The mother of your niece or nephew isn’t feeling well. Are you really going to make her stand out here in the wind and quickly chilling air? I might even scent a storm on the rise.”
Wow. As she glanced up at the cloudless sky, she realized that Tristan knew how to lay it on thick.
At first, she thought it wouldn’t work. But then she heard the lock click. Tristan turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door.
He took one step inside and said something in that language she couldn’t understand. However, it didn’t irritate her this time. For all Melanie knew, Arabella might hate English because of the dragon hunters who’d harmed her all those years ago.
The musical syllables of the dragon language stopped and Tristan turned back to her and said in English, “Can you come to the door but not enter quite yet? Ara wants to assess you before letting you into her house. I told her you were one of the good humans, but she is unconvinced.”
Her heart skipped a beat at his words. After all, Tristan had just admitted she was one of the good humans.
Before Melanie could reply, a woman’s soft yet sharp voice said in English from behind the door, “Belittling my judgment isn’t going to help you, Tristan MacLeod.”
Mel bit back a smile and decided it was best to approach the door without saying anything. Tristan still blocked the doorway, so she stopped beside him and waited. He reached out a hand as if to touch her, but then he lowered it before he could make contact with her arm. He stepped aside and Mel decided not to let his almost-touch bother her.
She took a deep breath and moved into the doorway. At first, all she saw was the outline of a tall, thin woman. But then the tall, thin woman moved into the light and Mel was careful to keep a faint smile pasted on her face as she got her first glimpse of Arabella MacLeod.
The dragonwoman was nearly as tall as Tristan, probably about six feet, and had the same dark hair and brown eyes. But that was where their similarities ended.
A thick, jagged scar ran from Arabella’s right temple, down across the bridge of her nose, and ended near the bottom of her left ear. The right side of her neck was covered in skin that had recovered from a very bad burn; the pink, crinkled skin told her that whatever had happened to Tristan’s sister had been painful both at the time and during the long recovery.
But it was Arabella’s eyes that Mel noticed most. A mixture of hatred, fear, shame, and sadness shown in them, as if Arabella MacLeod didn’t believe anything good would ever happen to her again.
She was on the verge of losing hope.
Tears started to prickle her eyes, but Mel took a second to fight them before she held out a hand and said, “I’m Melanie Hall, Mel to my friends. It’s nice to meet you.”
Arabella gingerly took her hand, but rather than shake it, the dragonwoman raised it to her nose and inhaled. As soon as she had, she dropped Mel’s hand as if it had burned her and looked at Tristan. “The human female is carrying your child. That is the only reason I will let her in here. But if her behavior makes me suspicious, you will leave. Those are my terms.”
Mel glanced over at Tristan, and he nodded at his sister before giving Mel a reassuring look, as if to tell her she’d done well so far.
She had no proper training when it came to dealing with survivors of tragedies, so she decided to fall back on her anthropology training. She would observe Arabella and her surroundings to find out what she could without talking to the dragonwoman directly. At least, until she could figure out how to deal with the woman’s less than cheerful past and her hatred of humans.
Tristan’s sister melted into the darkness of the corridor.
Standing her ground, Mel waited until Tristan placed a hand on her lower back and said, “Come. Let’s go inside.”
Mel nodded. Without realizing it, she leaned a little against Tristan’s side as the dragonman led her into the cottage. The contact reminded her that if she could deal with Tristan-the-asshole, she could very well deal with his sister. She just needed to figure out the best way to do it.
Chapter Three
As Tristan guided Melanie into his sister’s cottage, he breathed a sigh of relief. His argument for his sister to simply scent the human’s skin to find out if he was telling the truth or not had worked.
Unfortunately, his sister’s sense of smell was as keen as his own, and she had scented Melanie’s momentary sadness as she’d stared into Arabella’s eyes. Knowing what he did of the human, he didn’t think it had been pity. Rather, he believed it had been sadness at what had been done to his sister all those years ago.
Arabella, however, would think the worst of Melanie unless she found a way to change his sister’s mind. Not that he should be surprised. Tristan had acted the same way, and a very small part of him was starting to feel slightly guilty about it.
Melanie leaned against him as they made their way to the living room, and his dragon surprised him by crooning. His beast was usually quiet around Arabella. While his inner dragon had never told him why, he had a feeling it was in sympathy of his sister’s circumstances. After all, her inner beast had been silent since she had escaped from the dragon hunters ten years ago. After arriving on Stonefire’s land and shifting into her human-form, Arabella had never again shifted into a dragon.
Sacrificed to the Dragon: Complete Boxed Set (Parts #1-4) Page 10
