Page 5 of Rescued By The Dragon

Why?

Her bedroom door cracked open, and I ducked out of view, to see the silhouette of someone before they shut the door behind them. Her mother? It smelled like a woman.

Curiosity got the best of me, and I glanced back into the window to see movement, and then the light of a laptop brightened the room.

She knew her mother would check on her.

Her face lit up with the screen. Her elfish features were pretty, her mouth lush and her cheekbones high.

It was natural beauty all the way. Something I didn’t see too often in the kingdom. The amount of face paint these girls wore made it hard to see their true features beneath it.

For the briefest of moments, I felt sorrow for her, which was weird. Dragon Shifters didn’t sense others' emotions. Then she glanced up. A soft gasp slipped from her mouth.

Her gaze settled on mine, and she froze as if I couldn’t see her if she didn’t move.

Smiling, I put my finger up to my mouth and fought the urge to break into a human’s window. What would it make my family look like if I snuck into a human girl’s house, and had my way with her?

Nothing good would come of it.

She nodded gently, her breathing picking up, as she attempted to scoot to her headboard and hide behind her laptop.

I stood up, and bolted into the sky, ignoring the tug in my chest.

I’d see her at the ball, and I’d judge why this little human intrigued me so much.

Chapter Three

Amara

“Amara,” my stepmother’s voice sliced through the silence of the morning air. It was the first word spoken to me every morning. Rain or shine, her shrill voice greeted me.

“Yes?” I asked, turning to face her.

She looked picture-perfect. Not that I expected any less. Her ebony hair was twisted in a tight bun, the angles of her face were sharp, and her eyeliner was drawn on thicker than my hair.

“I need you to go pick up this list of things from the market, and none of that cheap stuff like last time.”

I looked at the mile-long list and mentally groaned. “Yes ma’am.”

She placed her hand on her slender hip and adjusted the top of her skin-tight maxi dress with her other hand. “I need you to pick up Stasa’s dry cleaning, and Zella’s homework. I’m keeping her out today because she’s not feeling well.”

Zella didn’t feel well one to two times a week. I did not know how the girl was going to graduate next year. “Yes ma’am.”

My stepmother eyed my worn boyfriend jeans and dad’s old college t-shirt. If she recognized it, she didn’t let on. Maybe it was the stepchild in me, but I never thought she truly cared about my father.

She looked at him and saw dollar signs, which paid for her Botox injections every three months, and her trips to Europe every summer. Not to mention the lavish lifestyle she lived because of the restaurant.

She walked toward the kitchen island, grabbed a banana, and slowly peeled it. “I put you on the schedule for tonight at the restaurant. One of the girls quit. The lazy pig.”

I froze in the doorway to the kitchen. I knew she was talking about Kelsie, because she’d called her that before, and I’d never wanted to strike her more than I did then. Kelsie was a good worker, and the customers liked her, too.

“Kelsie?” I asked.

She waved me off. “Whatever her name was. When you get a chance, I emailed you some applications. Give them a look and make sure they look—presentable this time.”

The knife lodged in my heart twisted. She’d been worried about appearances since I’d known her, which was for far too long. I’d almost felt bad for her girls because I didn’t consider myself one, and the pressure she put on them to stay pretty.

It was nauseating.

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