Free The Bloodline War by Tracy Tappan

hate Devid.”
    Well, she could relate to that sentiment. She’d always thought her mother had been suffering from a severe case of postpartum dementia to have named her Antoinetta. But Shannon had always claimed she’d just been compelled to give her children majestic-sounding names, and to this day she was grumpy that Alexander went by Alex, and Antoinetta, by Toni.
    “Dev’s a Pure-bred Vârcolac,” Roth continued, “like myself and Dr. Jess. You can always tell a Pure-bred by their black hair and their ability to grow facial hair. A Pure-bred can also see in the dark and light up his eyes. You’ll be impressed by that, surely.”
    Dev bobbed his eyebrows at her and grinned broadly, displaying a mean set of canines.
    She took a step back. She couldn’t believe someone would purposely file down his teeth like that. It had to have hurt like hell. But then again, none of these men was altogether there in the sanity department, were they?
    “This is Thomal Costache and Kasson Korzha,” Roth introduced the other two.
    Kasson, the brunette, had a boyish-looking cowlick in the front of his hair, and what appeared to be a serious case of the fidgets.
    “They’re what we call Mixed-bloods,” Roth said, “meaning they have both Dragon and Vârcolac ancestry in their bloodlines. Dragons always have light hair: blonde, just like yours ,” he made sure to emphasize, “or varying shades of brown. The blonder they are, the more Dragon they have in them. Dragons can move with blurring speed. They also have a full dragon tattoo on their backs, but their creatures—unlike the washed-out tattoo that Dragon humans such as yourself have—are made of colorful scales. I thought we’d start by showing one to you.”
    “Ho, really?” Thomal’s face brightened while Bad Boy Dev turned his eyes to the ceiling and muttered a curse.
    “Kasson.” Roth gestured Cowlick forward. “Come here, let’s have you—”
    “God, no way!” Kasson jerked backward, his eyes rounding.
    A frown tugged at Roth’s mouth.
    “I-I’m sorry, sir, but I can’t get close to her. She…she….” Kasson closed his eyes and moaned. “She smells .”
    Toni tucked in her chin. I what ?
    “I’m afraid I might….” Kasson shook his head. “Oh, this is bad.”
    Roth looked nonplussed. “I don’t understand. Are you saying she’s more pungent than the other Dragons?”
    Jaċken answered that. “Definitely.”
    Flushing, Toni self-consciously squeezed her arms against her ribcage, closing off her armpits. Steeped in hospital yuk for a day and two nights, she probably did smell like an unpleasant combination of rubbing alcohol, latex, and orange Jell-O, but there hadn’t exactly been time to take a shower.
    “Interesting.” Roth turned to Dr. Jess. “Are you picking up on it?”
    “No.”
    “You two are mated males,” Jaċken said tightly. “For an unmated, it’s pure torture.” He gestured at the other men. “Trust us on that.”
    Dr. Jess crossed his arms, the finger of one hand pressed contemplatively against his lips. “What does she smell like?”
    Dev snorted. “Nothing that can be described politely.” He glanced at Thomal. “Was it this strong at the hospital?”
    “Vinz’s blood was around, so—”
    Hospital ! “Oh, my God!” Toni burst out. “You’re Nurse Fine Ass!” Glaring, she pointed an accusing finger at Thomal. “You drugged me, you big jerk!”
    Thomal’s expression flared wide with astonishment. “Hey, whoa!” He threw up his hands. “I was just doing my job, okay? Don’t get mad.”
    “Nah, get as mad as you want, Doc.” Dev slung an arm around Thomal’s shoulders. “And feel free to have this jerk bounced off your list of mate-choices. You have other options, you know.”
    Thomal shoved Dev off him. “She doesn’t want to get rid of me, Nichita. Weren’t you listening?” Thomal settled a pair of stunning blue eyes on her. “She just said I have a fine ass .”
    “All right, enough of