“You were beautiful,” I tell him, ignoring his reaction. “I’ve… searched for you for so long that I’d given up. I no longer had hope that I’d see a dragon one day, let alone bond with one… You were beautiful, and I—I didn’t want to change that. I couldn’t, not like that. Not so my hopes could come true. It felt wrong. It felt selfish.”
“A mistake, human.”
“Mistake?”
“For not taking the opportunity when it presented itself.”
“And you would have? If the roles were reversed?”
He glances at the meat in his hand. “Do you want to be bound to me?”
Taken aback, I stare at him. It’s a question I don’t know how to answer. Yes, I want to scream, but then the part of me that approaches with caution—with every possible outcome already played out in her head—hesitates. “I’d given up,” I repeat, as if that’s an answer.
His jaw ticks. “Why?”
“Because only the lucky among my tribe are given the honor to mate.”
“And you did not have that honor?”
His questions make me uncomfortable. No one else ever cared enough to ask these questions, and I don’t know what to do about it. As a protector of Sand’s Hunters, all my tribe cares about is that I perform my duties and that I remain healthy enough to continue doing so.
Perhaps that’s why I love our children so much. I gaze down at my hands, feeling my chest squeeze. The tribe’s children are so sweet and innocent and loving. You never had to wonder if you were loved by them. You knew it the moment they wrapped their little arms around you with laughter.
“No. I did not have that honor,” I say.
Drazak lifts his free hand, and I look up to see what he’s doing. Slowly, he brings it to my face and rubs the back of his finger up my cheek. Our eyes find each other again.
My chest squeezes harder.
“Milaye,” he says my name softly, and I don’t know why, but it makes the hurt worse. “Why?”
I shake my head.
“Why?” he demands, his voice getting rougher.
“My family… My mother only ever bore females, and her mother before that. When my sisters and I were born, the elders decided that they could not take any chances by pairing one of us to the last-born male of the coastal tribes. They chose a female from a lineage that had males in their recent ancestry. That, and she, being one of the youngest in the tribe, is closer in age to the male. The pairing made sense.” I see confusion etch across Drazak’s expression. “My sisters and I were raised knowing we would never mate.”
“I do not understand? There are no other males?”
Does he not know? Does he even know about the red comet? I can’t believe he would not know. “Male children are very rare. They’re rarer with every generation,” I tell him. “For nearly thirty years, my tribe and our neighbors at Shell Rock have only had one male child, Leith. Just one, in thirty years, the lowest birth rate our tribes have ever suffered, and the northern tribes are not faring any better. The chance of me being chosen for the honor of Leith’s mate was slim to none. His chosen mate is also six years younger than me. I had fewer childbearing years to give.”
“Why not have him take multiple mates? I have seen other species have multiple partners. Dragonkind only mate for a time, long enough to bring forth young. We do not mate for life… unless a human binds us,” he adds.
“Other tribes have their males take harems.” I swallow. I remember arguing that very point in the past, before I knew better. “I had asked the elders to allow me the opportunity to lay with Leith, even if he was to be mated to another, so I may have a child—”
Drazak growls.
“—but I was refused, like I knew I would be. They were right to refuse me. Pure bloodlines are imperative among the coastal tribes. They would not risk letting me be an exception, knowing other females of my tribe would want to do the same thing. If Delina—Leith’s mate—dies, then he may take another of his choosing, but until then he will remain Delina’s and Delina’s alone.”
“I would not like to share you,” Drazak’s voice lowers. “I am glad you were not chosen.”
His words sting as much as they give me pleasure.
“You are mine, human, mine. You may have not touched me willingly—if you are to be believed—but you have touched me nevertheless, and that makes you mine.”
“I did want to touch you,” I tell him. “Desperately. I was… I was also afraid.”
His lips twitch. “I instill fear in all,” he boasts. “But I will not have you be afraid of me, not anymore.”
“I’m not.”
His hand which had fallen onto my lap, comes up again, and this time cups my cheek. His clawed thumb softly grazes my lips. My mouth parts. He’s so close that his body heat envelops me.
“You will never be afraid of me,” he states.
I inhale. “I won’t be.” My want for him grows desperate. I feel myself becoming wet between my thighs.
“You will bow down to me.”
My brow furrows. “What?”
“As your male, you will allow me to protect you, human. I am healing fast now, and it will not be long until you are taken care of, until we mate.”
The butterflies in my stomach vanish. “I can protect myself, Drazak. Very well, in fact.” I push his hand off my face.
“You have hurt yourself, and that cannot happen again.”
My eyes narrow. “I have been hurt in the past and will be hurt again in the future. I can still protect myself—and you. I am a Protector of the Mermaid Coast. It is my honor and duty.”
“Now it will be mine.” He reaches for me again. “And I will give you the child you
