Page 34 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
“—then locked me up in this massive ivory tower you expect me to clean—”
“Ivory has been extinct far longer than this house has stood here.”
“—and then you spend days taking the piss out of me for not being able to cook,and,” I cut over him as he opened his mouth again, “you ask me a question and then keep interrupting when I try to answer.”
“It wasn’t a question,” he pointed out, his voice infuriatingly emotionless.
I bit out a growl of frustration and slammed my cutlery down. “You know what? I’ve lost my appetite.”
I got to my feet and he was up in a second, towering over me.
“Sit your ass back down.Isay when we’re done, not you.”
I shook my head, glaring at him. “You’ve been locked up here alone for too long. That isn’t how this works.”
He advanced the quarter step it took to put us almost touching, and I could see every taut muscle in his neck and jaw.
“This works however I say it works,” he snarled, “and you would do well to remember that,Tribute.”
My limbs trembled, torn between the need to run and the urge to sit, but incapable of either. I opened my mouth to say…something, but only a squeak came out. His hand came up to catch my jaw, squeezing just hard enough that I could feel thestrength contained in his hand. He could break me if he wanted, just one flex of his fingers was all it would take.
No. He could break my body, but he wouldneverbreak me.
I jerked my head free, spat at his feet, and raced from the room, blocking out his bellow of anger behind me.
Yeah, I sure as shit had better find a way to lock my door tonight.
Chapter 17
Rook
I couldn’t decideif I wanted to kill her or fuck her.
I have a preference.
You’re a horny fucking lizard,I mentally spat, raking my hand through my hair.Your preference is irrelevant.
I’m not the one who terrorized her village.
For Uther’s bene—
Fuck it. I wasn’t having this argument again. At least I knew where my desire to bend her over the table and fuck her until she screamed my name was coming from. BecauseIsure as hell didn’t want that. Shespatat me. If anything, I wanted to bend her over this table and spank her disrespectful ass until she screamed for mercy.
Same thing.
I ignored the beast, pacing the room with my hands curled into fists. I’d tried to make things pleasant for her here. I’d tried to be understanding of the fact she’d been taken from everything she’d ever known. I tried to punish her pack for the way they’d treated her. I’d even given her a book from my personal hoard—andthiswas how she repaid me.
No. I’d never allowed anyone—human, shifter, or even dragon—to insult me the way she had, and I wasn’t about to start now.
Then kill her and claim a new Tribute.
“No!” I slammed my fist down on the table, making the barely touched plates leap from its surface, and a small crack spiderweb its length. Fuck.
My dragon’s smugness rang through my skull, clearly reading more into my reaction than there was.
Clearly.
I didn’t want to kill her because I’d invested enough time training her already. I had no intention of squandering more time collecting and training a new Tribute. And anything else I might be feeling, that tightness in my chest, the pulsing in my gut, was purely my dragon’s reaction. Her death would be an inconvenience to me, nothing more.
