Free Sacrificed to the Dragon: Part Two by Jessie Donovan Page B

pestering you with questions. And since I just sent for Samira to meet you at your cottage for a chat, I think you want to get there as soon as possible.”
    Mel placed her hand in his and straightened her shoulders. The memory of Tristan’s kiss, his act of leaving her, and the whole news of a dragon’s mate frenzy was starting to sink in and it was overwhelming. She needed to find somewhere private to process everything that had happened to her in the last twenty minutes. As it was, she was on the verge of an information overload-related breakdown. Nevertheless, she was half-British. She could keep a stiff upper lip like the best of them and contain her emotions for a little bit longer.
    As Bram maneuvered her down the stairs and through the crowd, she kept her gaze fixed ahead on nothing in particular. She just needed to make it to her cottage, and then she could change her clothes and try to figure out what to do from here.
     
    ~~~
     
    Thirty minutes later, Melanie was curled up on the couch in her cottage trying not to cry. Despite changing into her favorite cotton pajamas and taking out all the pins in her hair, relaxed was the last word she’d use to describe her situation. All she could think about was how a half-crazed dragonman wanted to fuck her until she was pregnant.
    Yes, “fucking her” was the appropriate phrase to use. She could hardly call a dragonman crazy with lust thrusting into her until she collapsed or conceived as doing anything else. It certainly wouldn’t be making love.
    She squeezed the pillow in her arms for comfort. She’d never expected a fairy tale ending by coming here, but at the very least, she’d wanted a day to get to know Tristan before getting naked with him. She’d spent more time with the single one-night stand she’d had during her undergraduate years than she had with the dragonman who intended for her to bear his child.
    Now more than ever, she wished some of these practices had shown up in her research. Of course, she could understand why the dragon-shifters kept the mate frenzy a secret. It would deter a large number of women from ever signing up to be sacrifices, and considering the uneven birth rates of thirty-five percent female to sixty-five percent male amongst the dragon-shifters, they needed human women if their race was to survive.
    The fact that dragon-shifters needed humans to survive was ironic considering the humans were the ones who had decimated their numbers in the first place.
    There was a knock on the door. Melanie tossed aside her pillow and jumped up to answer it. She desperately needed a distraction.
    She opened the door a crack, but it was Samira, so she opened the door wide. She tried to smile, but failed, and tears started to roll down her cheeks. She didn’t want to cry, but she couldn’t help it. Losing her family, being thrust into a new culture she didn’t understand, and finally, being the object of a dragon’s frenzy despite the fact he hated her was enough to make even the strongest person break down.
    Samira put an arm around her shoulders, closed the door, and guided them toward the couch. Once they sat down, she said, “There, there, dear. I know it sounds scary, but it doesn’t have to be. Dragonmen in a frenzy can be overpowering and passionate, but they will also protect you with their life.”
    Mel managed to blink back her tears and wiped her hands across her eyes. “That doesn’t sound like what Bram told me.”
    Samira tsked. “Of course not. His dragon has never experienced a mate frenzy, and he thinks humans are too fragile to survive it. Yet dragonwomen deal with the frenzies when they happen without a problem. They’re quite rare, you know, the mate frenzies.”
    “Maybe so, but at least the dragonwomen know what to expect.”
    Samira took Mel’s chin in her hand and forced her to look at her. “Listen to me. Imagine the best sex of your life with the hottest man you’ve ever known. Not only that, but a man who