Page 69 of Claimed by the Savage Dragons
‘What the fuck are you doing?’ I ask when he doesn’t volunteer any information.
‘She’s indolent, sir. This is the only way I can get her up most days. The overseer is at his wit’s end with her. She won’t work. The other slaves have to pick up the slack. Look. You can see how she gains weight. See how her lower abdomen bulges? She’s gluttonous and lazy.’
‘That’s a lie,’ the girl grinds out, getting to her feet slowly. ‘I do everything I’m told to do. I get back here at past two every night and this asshole drags me out of bed at six thirty every morning. Every day. For weeks. He hits me and tells the overseer not to feed me if I don’t follow his commands fast enough. I haven’t eaten in two days. Maybe three.’
She sinks down with a long sigh on the edge of the bed, hunching forward. ‘I’m sick. I have been for a couple of weeks. I told him and the overseer, but no one…’
I take in her wan skin, the dark rings under her eyes, the bruises around her body in various states of healing.
‘Why didn’t you come to me?’ I snarl at her. ‘Brax and Tor both told you that if you needed anything then you were to come to me! I heard them, so don’t you dare pretend you didn’t know.’
I’m not sure why I’m yelling at her. Dominick was meant to be taking care of her. It’s him I should be railing at. But my dragon is furious. At me. Fuck, I’m furious at myself.
I hear him inside my head, snarling that I let Tor and Brax down, that I promised them I’d keep her safe and I should have kept a closer eye. That I’ve let her down as well because she’s clearly being abused here. That I should let him out to tear Dominick to shreds.
The girl’s gaze on me is unfocused.
‘When?’ she whispers. ‘I haven’t seen you since the first morning I was brought in. They keep me in the kitchen when I’m not here and you’re neverin here.’
I open and close my mouth.
‘You could have asked Dominick,’ I say, though by the way my aide suddenly looks even more shifty, I wonder how many times she did, and he didn’t pass on the request.
‘Was even one fucking thing in those reports the truth, Dominick?’ I ask quietly. ‘Or has every piece of information I’ve sent to Brax and Tor about their female been a lie? Has she even seen Del like you said?’
He stutters.
‘Tribute,’ I say, not able to remember her name right now.
She tilts her head back to look at me.
‘Have you seen Del?’
She looks at me blankly.
‘The doctor,’ I add. ‘A female with long curly blond hair and violet eyes?’
She shakes her head, and I turn on Dominick angrily. He lied to me.
‘Get out,’ I growl. ‘Your services are no longer required.’
He splutters. ‘But, Commander!’
‘Silence!’ I boom and he makes himself small as I feel my eyes change in the first instance of pure indulgence that I’ve allowed my dragon in over a hundred years.
I know he sees it because I smell him urinating on himself a little. He thinks I’m losing control, that I’m going to rip his throat out.
Good.
‘Be grateful that’s all I’m doing,’ I bite out in disgust at the weak male cowering in front of me. ‘I could banish you for this, Dominick. I might still once I’ve spoken to the human and found out how deep your treachery goes.’
‘But she’s just a human,’ he wails.
‘She’s Tor and Brax’s Tribute!’ I thunder. ‘You knew that and you still…’ I look over her body again, noting the many injuries I can see. I just hope they’re all superficial and that she doesn’t have any internal bleeding. She sure as hell looks like she’s half dead right now.
‘Get out, Dominick,’ I snarl in my dragon’s low timber, the words slightly garbled as my jaw starts to elongate. ‘Or I’ll let him rip you apart.’
He scampers across the floor like an insect and disappears out the main door after fumbling for his keycard which I bark at him to leave on the floor.
