I’ve never seen a dragon before.
Now I’m about to be married to one.
Sol takes me down a set of stairs. I struggle with them, the height of the individual stairs different than I’m used to. Once we reach the ground floor, we start seeing other dragon people.
I’m too shell-shocked to remember not to stare, but it’s just as well because they’re staring at me, too. Some of them have breasts, which surprises me, though I don’t know why it surprises me. Sol is obviously a dragon person, rather than just a dragon. He has pecs, for fuck’s sake.
Moving helps keep my panic at bay. I can’t quite make the details of the place and its people stick in my head. The only thing I truly register is that the dragon people seem to be a wide variety of shades of either brown or green.
Another door leads us outside to a heavily wooded area with a neatly maintained gravel path. There, Sol slows until he’s walking next to me. “The ceremony won’t be long, and then you can rest.”
I miss a step. No matter how I cling to the calm, it’s slipping through my fingers. “I don’t want to be married again.” I agreed to it. I signed the damn contract. It doesn’t mean it’s what I want, though. I should be going along with this, making him happy, but I can’t quite manage it.
“It’s necessary.”
I have every intention of keeping my mouth shut, but this has been too much in too short a time. “In case I have a kid.”
“Yes.”
Later, I’ll appreciate that he’s not trying to talk circles around me and make me doubt myself. Maybe. I lift my chin, staring up into his dark eyes. If he opened his mouth, he could probably bite my head clean off. “How would that even work? You’re massive and I’m human. Having a kid would kill me.”
“The magic mixes in a way that prevents that.” He’s holding still, answering me patiently even as the answers make me want to flee. “To my understanding, children are born humanoid in size and features and then become more dragon-like as they grow in the first year or so.”
“To your understanding,” I repeat. “You don’t know.”
“There hasn’t been a human-dragon child in generations. It’s why you’re here.”
I stop suddenly. “Azazel says you can’t force me.”
He rears back, his crest flaring a deep orange flash that startles me. Sol makes that hissing noise. “No one is going to force you to do anything. I don’t know what it’s like in the human realm, but we’re civilized here.”
The giggle I’ve been fighting to contain bursts free. “Civilized. Right.” I wrap my arms around myself and bend in half, gasping for breath. “As if there’s a society in existence that doesn’t have sins. Please.”
The bones go out of my legs, and I start to slump to the ground. Sol moves faster than he has a right to, scooping me up and continuing down the path as if nothing happened. I try to tense up, to demand he put me down, but my body and brain won’t cooperate.
Instead, I slump against his broad chest and let him carry me, his long strides eating up the distance and taking us away from the building. His body is so warm, his scales curiously soft against my cheek. No, soft isn’t the right word. Maybe smooth? He’s almost pebbly in a really pleasing way that makes me want to drag my fingers over him.
That thought brings me back to myself.
I will not be touching this dragon man in any way that might be construed as an invitation. I open my mouth to tell him to put me down, but the path opens up, the trees falling away to reveal a clearing tucked back against a low cliff face. A small waterfall trickles down into a pond about the size of a very large hot tub. The soft sound of water instantly loosens something in my chest. Or maybe it’s the golden light that filters through the trees overhead. Something about the space feels like I just popped one of my fast-acting anxiety meds. “What is this place?”
“The sacred grove associated with this part of our territory. There are four in the dragon lands, and the location of the keep was chosen for its proximity to this spring.” He carefully sets me down, his big hands spanning my waist and then some. “All our rituals and important events happen here.”
I turn in a slow circle. The clearing is larger than I first thought; the sheer size of the trees make it feel more closed in than it should be. Still, if there are only four locations in…dragon lands… “Are they all this size?”
He follows my gaze. “No. This is the smallest of the four. It’s meant only for those in the keep and my family.”