Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 538(@200wpm)___ 430(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“Ah, but they care about my permission, not yours.”
He’s not wrong. Damn it. “So why am I here? So we can establish the rules of when you give your permission?”
“Smart. I like that.” He clasps his hands on the table and laces his fingers. I try not to stare, but his nails are thick and weird. They’re cut short, but they look…strange. Inhuman. Dakh—Sasha’s dragon—had claws.
I avert my eyes and stare at my own hands. I don’t know what he’ll do if he knows what I suspect.
“You’ll be safe with my men as long as you please me,” Azar says.
Here it comes. I clench my jaw, then give him a stiff look. “So I’m going to be your whore instead of everyone else’s?”
His nostrils flare again. “Not quite. You will continue to make my meals. Let the other filthy females tend to the rest of the men.” He waves his hand absently. “Beyond that, I have no need for your services…”
I’m surprised.
“…Except one.”
I should have known. “What’s that?”
He studies me again, pale eyes narrowed. I keep waiting for his eyes to swirl like Dakh’s do, but they don’t. They just look strange and creepy. “Are you mating with any of the men here?”
“What? No.” I make a face. The quickest way to get in trouble is to hop beds. Plus, the men here are the definition of unappealing. Also…“mating”? Not fucking? Not sleeping with? Not having sex? My dragon-meter pings again.
“Good. Remain that way. As for your perfume, tonight I ask that you bathe and not wear it.”
My throat goes dry. “Because…you want me to sleep with you?”
“No. I require your clothing. The small ones you wear under your pants.”
“M-my panties?” Is he fucking serious?
He nods. “You will provide those to me in the morning. No perfume.”
Okay, maybe he’s not a dragon. Maybe he’s just a panty-sniffing pervert.
3
EMMA
I don’t find out what’s going on with my panties for days.
At first, I think it’s just more weirdness from Azar, and make sure to keep my distance from him. He doesn’t show interest in me otherwise, so I relax a little.
One morning, I wake up and when I emerge from my room, everyone’s staring at me and snickering behind their hands. I can’t figure out what’s going on. I rub my nose surreptitiously to make sure I don’t have something hanging off of it, and my fly isn’t down. My appearance isn’t out of the ordinary and breakfast is the normal, quiet affair. I fix Azar’s food, clean the kitchen, and start to head back to my quarters, but a smirking guard in the hallway makes me pause. I can’t figure out what’s going on.
Instead of heading back to my rooms, I go off in search of Boyd. My brother will know what the deal is. I can’t find him inside, though, so I stick my head outdoors to check on things.
That’s when I see a bunch of the nomads standing around with guns. Boyd’s with them, and he smirks at the sight of me. “Come to check on how things are going? We’ll let you know if we need a refresher.”
“Refresher? What do you mean?” I gaze from face to face, but I don’t see anything that gives away what the hell he’s talking about. Everyone stands around, guns loosely held in their arms. Someone looks like he’s wearing a flak jacket, and there are a couple of metal contraptions set up in the courtyard around the flagpole. “What are you guys doing?”
“What does it look like we’re doing? We’re dragon hunting. There’s a stiff breeze today, so it’s perfect conditions.” Boyd just smirks again. “Thanks for the help, by the way.”
The help? What? I glance up, and then horror curdles in my belly.
My panties—my used panties—are flying at the top of the flagpole. They flutter in the breeze, a bright red piece of fabric against the blue sky. No wonder everyone’s looking at me in that creepy way. This is some perverted nonsense. “Why are my panties up the flagpole?”
“Scent,” Boyd says bluntly. “Azar says the dragon will come here once he smells you in the air.”
I can feel my lips curl back in a mixture of disgust and shock. Is that why he wanted my undies? Because he’s trying to lure a dragon? “Why do we want a dragon here? I thought the idea was to keep them out of our hair?” I gesture at my brother. “Isn’t that why you’re always wearing deer urine, like Jack taught us?” He’s spread the word, apparently, because a lot of the guys are covering their scent. It makes for some serious stink inside the hotel, but no one complains.
“Not if we want to catch the dragon.”
“What dragon?”
Boyd frowns at me and shrugs. “I don’t fucking know. Any dragon. There’s one in this area. Why you busting my balls, bitch?”