Page 8 of Claimed By the Sinful Dragon
She grinned. “He knows how to swear. Cool. Really scary. It’s a good look for you.”
Another growl ripped from my throat, but she was already brushing past me. “What’s behind this door?”
“The flayed remains of annoying shifters,” I ground out, glaring at her back.
“Sounds messy. Do I have to clean that up, too?”
My hand twitched by my side. “You clean whatever I say you clean. That includes this corridor, by the way.”
“You’re aware there are only twenty-four hours in a day, right?”
“Yes. If need be, you can save time by not eating or sleeping. Ortalking.”
I strode on, and she hurried to catch up to my side.
“You were, um, joking about the flayed remains, right?” She searched my face, peeking through her eyelashes as she worried at her bottom lip. “You seem like the sort who likes to joke. A lot. About scary stuff. So it was a joke?”
I stared at her impassively as she babbled. “You’re still talking.”
She stopped mid-word as I cut across her, sparing me from having to decipher whatever she was rambling about. I’d never met a creature that made so much noise and so little sense. It was…
Enticing?
Annoying. Incredibly annoying. We don’t need a maid.
You don’t cook or clean, and we’ve barely eaten since—
I shut him out. I didn’t need his commentary on my life, and not for the first time, I wished he was as silent as the inner beasts of most dragons. We were unusual amongst shifters in that way, our beasts rarely communicating with us in anything more than flashes of instinct. It had been that way for me, too, before. I missed before.
Liar.
I rubbed at my temples and turned to the wolf shifter hurrying timidly behind me once more.
“There’s a supply room behind the kitchen, you’ll find everything you need in there. Should you find you need something not in that room, you will report it to me, and I will take care of it. You will not communicate with anyone outside of these walls.”
She swallowed. “Anyone?”
“Did I stutter, little wolf? You will speak to no-one but me, or you will speak to no-one at all.”
She nodded miserably, and I snapped my gaze away, irritated by her self-pity. Living in isolation was not the affliction she made it out to be. She should have been glad I was removing her from the chaos and danger of the outside world. Sheshouldhave shown some gratitude for the roof over her head.
She didn’t have the first idea what the world was like outside my borders. In some parts of the world, her kind were hunted. Others, just left to starve. There were far worse fates than being provided for, kept fed and safe in exchange for a bit of work.
Let it go. She’s had a rough day.
She doesn’t have the first idea about ‘rough’. You remember the mass wolf executions after the war? Because I’m pretty damned sure we were both there.
Butshewasn’t.
And she should be fucking grateful.
I rounded on her, snapping my words irritably.
“You’ll cook three meals a day, and you’ll clean up afterwards. You will keep the kitchen in immaculate condition atall times. You will mop and scrub every room down here every week.”
“The study?”
“Exceptthe study,” I snarled. “You’ll clean the windows until they shine, and if I’m not happy, you’ll do them again. You’ll keep the bedrooms upstairs clean and fit for guests at any moment.”
