Chapter 4
Chapter Four
MARI
Isit up, trepidation making my stomach churn as I take in the second man dragon leaning over me. His eyes don’t leave me.
‘Is it time to go already?’ I ask in a small voice, hating that it quivers.
Tor shakes his head. ‘Not yet. There’s something we need to discuss with you.’
The other one snorts. ‘Discuss denotes there’s a choice to be made. There isn’t.’
Tor gives his friend an annoyed look. ‘This is Abraxus. Brax. He’s Dreythos’ first lieutenant.’
‘Dreythos?’ I ask.
‘Our faction’s leader.’
Oh.
‘He was sent to find me because…’ Tor trails off, seeming to be grasping for what to say.
‘Because Orin said he was hurt,’ Brax finishes for him, and he nods, looking relieved though I’m not sure why.
They both glance at each other for a moment and something passes between them.
‘Just tell her quickly. Like ripping off one of those… A Band-Aid.’
Tor frowns at his friend, but when he opens his mouth, Brax beats him to it like a little kid who can’t keep a secret.
‘Tor would rather not bring you with us, but that’s not an option.’
I glance between them, more than a little confused. Earlier, Tor seemed adamant that he was taking me there no matter what. So, what’s changed?
‘Can’t you just… leave me somewhere if you don’t want to take me to your home anymore?’ I ask.
The darker haired man dragon snorts. ‘If he does that, he’ll be hunted down and probably killed, and you will be found and brought back anyway.’
‘I don’t understand. What are we meant to be discussing?’
‘You. Coming with us.’
I blink. ‘I thought that’s what was going to happen anyway.’
I struggle to sit up, not liking the way they’re both looming over me.
Tor pulls his friend back a little, giving me some much needed space and it means I don’t have to crane my head back so far to look at them.
‘Look,’ the other one says. ‘We aren’t explaining this right.’
‘You aren’t,’ Tor mutters.
‘You think you can do better?’ the other one huffs.
Tor rolls his eyes and then looks steadily at me. His unwavering gaze makes my stomach do a funny flip and I try not to think about what he did in the pool room, how good it felt.
‘Remember I told you about how the humans are treated where we live?’
‘How could I forget?’ I mutter. ‘Isn’t that why you…’ I find I can’t even finish the sentence. I feel my cheeks heating instead.
‘Yeah, well… Brax had another idea. It only works if he’s on board though. It’s a law. If it’s enacted, there can’t be any argument from the others in our faction about who you belong to.’
I give him and his friend a suspicious look, but anything’s better than becoming a sex slave to a cave full of dragons who hate humans, right?
‘Go on,’ I murmur.
‘It’s called the Nesting Law. A female can decide to nest with two or more dragons. They live together, only mate with each other. It’s a little like a human marriage.’
I stare at them in open shock. Of all the things I might have guessed, them asking me to marry them wouldn’t even have made the list.
‘But you barely know me,’ is all I can think to say.
Brax laughs dryly. ‘Marriages have been built on less in the human world. There was a time when most unions between your wealthy families were based entirely on quid pro quo.’
‘For thousands of years in fact,’ I whisper, and I register a spark of surprise in his eyes that I know what he’s talking about.
I plow on though, directing my next question to Tor. ‘Why would you do that?’
He shrugs. ‘There aren’t many females in our faction. It would be nice to have one, even if she’s human.’
The way he says the last word makes me cringe. He doesn’t like me. And yet I have a niggling suspicion that he’s not telling me the entire truth about his motivations.
‘So, you just want me for sex?’
He shrugs.
‘But…’ I rub my eyes, trying to steal a few moments to try to work out what’s happening.
‘So how is it different for me?’ I ask. ‘I’m a sex slave no matter what.’
Brax tilts his head. ‘Do you really have to ask? Two of us or a hundred of us, human. Is there really a choice to make?’
‘Not for me,’ I mutter. ‘Guess I’m fucked either way, huh?’
Brax’s dark smile is a little unnerving, especially when he leans down toward me and his nostrils flare like he’s taking the scent of me deep into his lungs.
I shrink back into the couch without meaning to.
‘The difference,’ he purrs, his amused eyes ensnaring my wide ones, ‘is that we’ll make you scream in pleasure, not pain.’
I snort mostly to cover my embarrassment.
‘You doubt me?’ He leans even closer, and I put my hands up.
‘I believe you. I believe you,’ I say, scooching to the other side of the couch to evade him.
‘Good,’ he says low, straightening as his lips twitch on one side as if he’s fighting a smile. ‘What’s your answer?’
I regard them both for several seconds, but he’s right. There isn't a choice. Two is better than twenty.
‘You’ll take care of me?’ I whisper, searching Brax’s eyes and then Tor’s.
‘You’ll be well pleasured, female,’ Brax grates out.
I roll my eyes. ‘Sex won’t keep me alive,’ I tell him. ‘I mean food, clothing, a roof over my head, protection from your kind.’
Tor nods. ‘You’ll be fed and watered. Receive medicine.’ He snorts. ‘You’ll probably be healthier than you are now in a few weeks with regular meals and medical care.’
‘Okay.’ I whisper.
‘Great!’ Brax says enthusiastically, his eyes trained on me. ‘Take off your clothes.’
‘What?’ I draw back, my heart beating almost painfully inside my chest.
He grins a little menacingly. ‘Did you think it would be a church wedding, human?’
‘I…don’t know,’ I whisper.
‘There’s only one way to make it airtight with the rest of the faction,’ he tells me. ‘You need to be marked by our scents. Thoroughly.’
I have vague notions of them peeing on me, or something gross like that and my nose wrinkles.
‘How will you do that?’
I try to hide the fear in my voice, but they must hear it because they glance at each other.
Tor is the one who sits down next to me slowly, like he’s trying not to spook me.
‘Our combined essence. Our seed,’ he explains. ‘It will change the way you smell to our kind.’
‘So…you’ll both, like, jerk off onto me?’ I ask in a small voice.
Tor shakes his head.
‘No, human, we both nut into you,’ Brax says, watching me closely.
Tor gives his friend a dirty look. ‘You’re not helping.’
His hand touches mine and I look down at it. But I don’t move away. ‘Both of our scents and yours will intermingle. It’s how it’s done in a nest even with a dragon female. It’s like a sign to other dragons that you’re spoken for. The same scent will be carried on us by spending time with you.’
‘So, you both need to—’
‘Fuck you,’ Brax says clearly, giving us both a pointed look. ‘Yes. Sooner rather than later if it’s going to take in time.’
Something beeps and he pulls out a phone from his pocket with an impatient noise. ‘Drey is already asking me for an update. Luckily, there was a storm rolling in when I was flying here. I’ll tell him you’re fine, but we’ll be delayed by the weather. That should buy us a day or so.’
‘Why not just you?’ I whisper to Tor, not sure of this other one. He’s hot, but he seems like more of an asshole than Tor is.
‘It won’t work,’ Brax says with a snort. He gives his friend an almost pitying look. ‘Tor doesn’t have the standing in the faction these days.’
I wonder what he means, but Tor says nothing.
‘Without me, princess, you’re just a pretty set of holes. They’ll keep you alive. Barely. But you’ll wish they hadn’t.’
I shiver at his words and make my decision. He’s a dick, but he’s right. It’s not just about survival, but quality of life.
I pull the sweater and the tank top smoothly over my head in one and watch both sets of eyes darken.
I stand there for a moment in front of them, not sure what to do next.
‘The rest,’ Tor whispers, and I’m sort of grateful for the order as I unbutton the pants and let them fall, stepping out of them and standing in front of the two men completely naked. I stare at the floor, wrapping my arms around my middle and feeling like a prize cow at the County Fair.
‘You have the run of the facility, but don’t try to leave it.’
I frown at him in confusion.
‘Your two minute head start,’ he looks at his watch, ‘begins now.’
‘What?’
His grin is wide. ‘We’re predators, little female.
No matter your species, we like a chase.
Whether for food or a decent fuck.’ He looks me up and down and lets out a low growl.
‘And it’s more likely for the scenting to take after a little Hide and Seek.
’ He looks at his watch again as I stare at him.
‘Ninety seconds. We catch you, we fuck you.’
Nope, I’m not a cow. I’m a rabbit, I realize as I turn tail and run for the nearest door. A helpless, naked little rabbit.
I shake my head at my rotten luck as I sprint down another concrete corridor, trying to ignore the way my stomach and other things clench at the idea of them catching me.
All the hallways look the same but I’m sure I haven’t been down this one before.
My suspicion is confirmed when it leads to a set of metal stairs that spiral upward.
Vaguely, I hear the door at the end of the tunnel, and I run up, taking two at a time until they end.
There’s another door which I burst through, finding myself in a long room of whirring machines with pipes and wires all over.
I look around in wonder. I’ve never seen anything like this, so many electrical things from before the Fall, and all of them working, all of them in what looks like pristine condition. I didn’t know things like this still existed.
A sound echoes from somewhere behind me, breaking me out of my amazed stupor and I scramble forward, breathing hard.
Another noise. He’s close. Too close!
I duck behind one of the machines as I hear the door to the room bang open.
‘Where are you?’ I hear Brax say. ‘I know you’re close. I can hear your heart fluttering inside your chest.’