Page 6 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons
I snort. ‘I didn’t do it for them, nor for you. These males have been travelling too close to our borders without permission. We were going to kill them anyway.’
Her eyes widen. ‘Then what was the point of the deal we made?’
My face lowers so that our eyes are level. ‘The deal was for the women. Did we kill any of them?’
She shakes her head, staring at me.
‘I’ll have my payment from you when I ask for it then.’
I turn away only to swing back, narrowly missing her with my tail.
She scowls at me and I’m almost amused.
Almost.
‘If you try to run, wewillcatch you.Easily. And then you’ll be punished to ensure you don’t do it again.’ I huff in her face and enjoy the way she cringes. ‘We have better things to do than spend all our time watching you.’
‘What would my punishment be?’
I frown. ‘Does it matter?’
She shrugs. ‘Might be worth trying it if it’s something silly like a lashing on my back with a stick.’
My eyes narrow at her. I hadn’t actually thought of what I’d do, just vague notions of violence and pain as is the way with humans and us. I know that some of the disobedient females in the caverns are whipped or put in cells alone for days, but that isn’t one of my duties. They used to be burned though Drey has banned the practice since he took leadership.
‘I’m not sure,’ I answer finally, ‘but I’ll make sure it’s so awful that you never put one of those tiny human toes out of line again.’
She regards me for a moment, as if trying to glean everything she can from my expression. What she sees must indicate that I’m in earnest though because she nods.
‘Nowhere to go anyway.’ She turns away.
‘It’s time,’ I say to Orin in Human.
‘Time for w?—’
I don’t hear the rest of what she says as I leap high into the air and spread my wings.
I hear her scream and I chuckle to myself as I look back to see Orin’s talons locked around her torso. She looks terrified as we rise and the land falls away, the trees and paths becoming masses of green with winding lines cutting through them.
She screams again and I hear Orin tell her to stop making that fucking noise.
I hope she stops soon, or my young student is liable to crush her in a fit of pique. I hope he doesn’t though. I don’t want tohave to punish him and then go back and track down one of the females we set loose to replace this one. What a waste of time that would be.
The human stops screaming, thankfully, and when I next have the chance to look back at Orin, she’s hanging limp in his talons. We fly north for several hours until we reach the first of the snowy peaks. There’s still a ways to go, and we could do with a night’s rest after the past few days. There’s a place close by where we sometimes stop when we come this way.
I make sure Orin is watching and I dive quickly, not wanting to be spotted if there are humans roaming. I land in a clearing and unclip the small pack that sits on my back under one of my wings as I hear Orin thump down close by.
I change, my black wings receding and my arms and legs morphing from giant and scaled to small and soft. My hair grows on my head and around various areas of my body. The tips of my ears round. I yawn as I stretch in my human form, grabbing some thick canvas trousers from my pack and a shirt. My coat is lined with fur because in this body I do sometimes get cold, and I don’t like the feeling at all.
I glance back at the youngster and frown. He’s transformed and is getting dressed. The female lays at his feet in a pile of old snow. I stride forward.
‘Are you not tired?’
His now human brow furrows. ‘Course I am.’
‘Well, if the female that is dressed in naught more than a negligee dies of exposure, you’re the one who’s going to be flying back to find another,’ I snap. ‘So, get her out of the fucking snow.’
He scrambles to pick her up, hefting her over his shoulder easily but the clothes she’s wearing aren’t anywhere near long enough to prevent me seeing a tantalizing flash of her ass and what’s between her legs before I look away.
