Page 3 of Caress of Fire
She turned the paper over to display the seal of the Draekon, unmistakable at the bottom. Ignio Marula straightened, his eyes latching onto the seal, greed twisting his mouth into a grimace.
He looked at her genetic compatibility letter, one second melting into the next until time held no meaning.
“You have yourself a deal.” Ignio Marula looked up from the paper and smiled. “Produce an heir for the Draekon Lord, and you can pay your brother’s debt.”
“You’re a fool if you think I’ll give you all that money,” Marielle said, knowing she had the advantage now. The fee she would get for her Mating Contract was more than anything a man like Ignio Marula would see in his entire lifetime. “You get double what Devan owes you, nothing more.”
“Triple.” Ignio pursed his lips in an ugly smirk.
“Fine.”
Ignio Marula nodded once, then turned around and headed for the door. Smoothly, like trained dogs, the Ferlin twins followed. At the door, Ignio paused. “Oh, I almost forgot.” He turned to look at Marielle, and she felt all heat desert her body. “I can’t leave without insurance. In case you change your mind once you meet your all powerful Draekon Lord.”
Marielle understood his intent, but it was too late. Ignio Marula jerked his head toward Devan.
She shot up in front of her brother, protective instincts surging through her body like fire.
“No! You don’t touch him!” she shouted, not caring to spare the thug’s feelings. She had the upper hand anyway—and they werenottaking Devan.
Ignio Marula stared at her, his thin face like stone, unmoving, unfeeling. Then she understood. She had been wrong to think she held any sway over him—the lure of money only gave her a bit more time.
“You think you have the advantage over me, but you don’t.” Ignio Marula smiled again, and it churned her stomach. “I could kill you both right here and leave. I would still get something out of it—if only fear from all the others like you. But you… you are the one with something to lose. I will leave now and I will take Devan with me. There is nothing you can do to stop me. Betray me and I will make him pay for the insult you gave me today.”
Marielle watched helplessly as Ignio Marula slid his gut-wrenching stare to Devan, then turned and walked out of her house, quickly followed by the Ferlin twins.
Devan didn’t even try to fight them off as they dragged him away.
For a long time, Marielle stared at the door, swinging idly in the night wind. She had bought her brother some time.
Now all she had to do was risk her life in the arms of a Draekon Lord.
* * *
“What I don’t understand is,why now?”
Fedryc turned on his heels and walked back toward the sleeping figure of Nyra. The dragoness snored softly, a steady stream of smoke escaping her fiery red snout. He still couldn’t believe she’d accepted his father’s order so easily, but then again, Nyra wasn’t one to do as expected.
“It doesn’t matter why,” Henron answered behind him. “Lord Aymond summoned you to Aalstad for his Mating Ceremony, and to Aalstad you’ll go. There’s no point debating about it.”
“But why summon me for this, after all this time?” Fedryc couldn’t let go of the anger that had taken hold of him for the last two days, ever since he’d received the letter from his father, summoning him to his kingdom on Earth. “He hasn’t bothered with his son in thirty-five years.”
“I know,” Henron spoke again, but softer this time.
Fedryc extended his hand and flattened it over the dragoness’ large neck. Nyra’s scales were warm and smooth, and he ran his palm up her neck, all the way to the hollow behind her ear. As his fingers rubbed the sensitive spot, Nyra purred softly in her sleep and a wave of well-being traveled up from the dragon to his mind, quelling his anger, soothing the edges of that dark abyss of fire and fury he felt every time he thought about his father.
Henron waited, knowing without being told that the communion of mind with Nyra was what Fedryc needed.
“My father found a compatible mate.” Fedryc swallowed past a throat that felt suddenly coated in sand. “I didn’t even think he was looking.”
“He’s not necessarily looking.” Henron spoke softly, but his tone was anything but. “They test every woman on Earth, like they do on Dagmar. He’s simply been handed a positive result.”
“It doesn’t matter. The Mating Ceremony is in two days. Maybe he will finally have the son he always wanted.”
Henron looked down at the folded note in Fedryc’s hand, then back at him. Something dark and haunted passed across his orange eyes, but he nodded anyway. Henron understood more than anyone what it felt like to be left out, to be forgotten.
“Maybe he just wants to get to know you better,” Henron suggested without conviction. “Now that he might have another heir, he wants to spend time with you.”
“Knowing me is not on his agenda.” Fedryc pulled his hand away from Nyra’s scales. He couldn’t have those feeling traveling down the link to her. Aymond Haal didn’t deserve his anger, didn’t deserve his pain and surely didn’t deserve Nyra’s anguish. “There has to be something else.”
