~~~
Tristan watched as two seven-year-olds squeezed their eyes shut and tried to shift. One managed to turn a hand into a claw with talons, but only for a few seconds before it morphed back into a human hand. The second child succeeded in turning a patch of his skin on his neck deep red, which would be the color of his hide, before that also disappeared.
He whistled between his teeth at the two children and they opened their eyes. He said, “That’s a good start, but if you’re not working with your dragon, you’ll never be able to change and maintain the shape.”
The little female looked up at him with big, brown eyes and said, “But Mr. MacLeod, I am working with my dragon. I pet her and coax her, but it doesn’t seem to work.”
Since he’d been doing this for years, he resisted a smile at the little one’s innocence. “Right now, your dragon is young and she wants you to pamper her. But, Misa, your dragon will soon become a strong beast that will fight for control. No matter how much your dragon begs or pleads, you must learn to be the one in command. Only then will you be able to channel your inner beast and make the change into a full-fledged dragon in the flesh. Does that make sense?”
Misa nodded and Tristan looked to the lad. “Were you doing the same thing?” The boy looked sheepish, but nodded. Tristan pointed to the far corner of the clearing encircled by high rock formations that served as his outdoor classroom. “Take some time to get a grip on your dragons. In a little while, I’ll call you over and we’ll try again. Okay?”
The two young nodded and scurried to the far side. Since all ten of today’s pupils were attempting their first shift or, like the two students he’d just dismissed, were getting to know their dragons, he had nothing to distract him from Melanie, let alone from thinking about his unborn child.
If everything went according to plan, he was going to be a father.
When he’d first scented the change, joy had shot through his body. The new life would not only add to his clan, it might give him and his sister the new start they desperately needed.
But the scent had also made his dragon go from being slightly possessive of Melanie to downright domineering. Despite everything, he’d tried to keep his beast from forming a bond, yet the dragon had become attached.
And so, when Tristan had been in control of his dragon again early this morning, he’d left without a word and returned to his duties. Working with the young dragon-shifters was the only way to force his beast to be calm and collected; protecting his clan’s young was the highest instinctual priority. Hell, working with and overseeing the children were the only things he could do to both stay away from Melanie and please his dragon.
As he walked around, checking his pupils’ progress, his mind started to wander to the last week. The first day had been all about letting his dragon loose to fuck the shit out of the human, but as the week progressed, and not even his mate frenzy induced energy-giving semen could prevent the human’s exhaustion, he’d had to let her rest more and more often. When Melanie had curled against him in her sleep, he hadn’t had the heart to push her away. And before long, holding Melanie’s soft, plump body in his arms had become something he’d looked forward to.
He’d very nearly forgotten that she was human.
Some might say he was crazy for focusing his hatred on a random human female, but apart from the dips and curves of her body or her soft cries during an orgasm, he knew very little about her. He wasn’t going to let his dick overrule his brain on this.
He’d hide out with the young dragon-shifters for a few days. He hoped the distance would help lessen his dragon’s attachment and need to claim her for good. Once that was done, he could check on the future mother of his child and investigate if she was a threat to his clan.
And if she was, mother of his child or not, he would find a way to get rid of her after their child was born.
~~~
Two days full of rest with food and sleep had done wonders for Melanie’s mental state. She no longer felt like crying every two seconds, and her brain was working at full power again, which was great since Bram had asked to see her.
Since the asshole, her current codename for Tristan, hadn’t bothered to even stop by and say hi, she was going to turn to her other designated protector and find out what she was actually allowed to do here. If she had to spend nine months twiddling her thumbs, she’d go insane.
She passed an unknown female dragon-shifter and Melanie smiled in greeting. But the woman glared at her and hissed, “You shouldn’t be here, you human whore.”
She blinked. After spending so much time with Samira, she’d forgotten that not everyone accepted her presence here.