Free Sacrificed to the Dragon: Part Three by Jessie Donovan

 
     
    Chapter One
     
     
    As Tristan led Melanie toward Samira and Liam’s cottage to freshen up before visiting his sister, Lia’s words from back at the clearing kept ringing inside his head: I knew your mum, and no matter what race the mother of her grandchild was, she would’ve expected you to take care of your future family.
    He didn’t want to admit it, but Lia was right. Due to the brutal, tragic nature of his mother’s death, he rarely remembered what she’d been like when she had been alive. Part of the reason he’d been interested in humans as a boy had been because of his mother. Jocelyn MacLeod had believed much as Bram did today, in that she’d envisioned a future where dragon-shifters and humans would work together.
    From what little information he’d extracted from his sister, their mum had believed that up until the end.
    After Melanie’s interactions with the children, and Bram’s support, he was pretty confident that Melanie wasn’t working with the dragon hunters. But the real test would be if she could win over his sister or not. Arabella had gone through things that would make a lesser person give up on life. While she mostly kept to herself because of her lack of trust in others, she had found a way to help the clan by studying computer programming.
    However, his sister was quite antisocial, to the point she may not open the door to let Melanie inside her home. He’d just have to make sure his sister could scent that Melanie was carrying his child. The faint trace of his scent in the human’s skin might be enough to convince Arabella to give her a chance, instead of slamming the door in their faces and retreating back to in front of her computer.
    And for reasons he couldn’t explain, he wanted Arabella to open the door and give Melanie a chance.
    As they passed one of the Stonefire’s eateries, the smell of steak and kidney pie filled his nose, making his stomach rumble. No doubt, after losing her breakfast, Melanie would be hungry too.
    He was about to ask her if she wanted something to eat when she buried her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. He stopped walking and said, “What’s wrong?”
    Her voice was muffled. “That smell...it makes me want to vomit again.”
    “So you’re burying your face against me to cover me in sick and get revenge on me for impregnating you?”
    She shook her head against his chest. “For some reason, your scent calms my stomach.”
    His inner dragon hummed, happy their scent could help her.
    Tristan brushed the remark aside, determined to remain unaffected. “Let’s keep going. We’re nearly there.”
    “If I move my head away before we clear that smell, I’ll be sick. And this time, I’ll make sure to aim for you.”
    He nearly smiled. Even when facing a humiliating situation, like being sick in public, Melanie Hall didn’t back down.
    Since she was suffering in part because of him, he looped an arm around her waist and said, “I can carry you or guide you until the smell clears. Which method do you prefer?”
    She hesitated a second and then said, “Guide me, but make sure to walk slowly.”
    His dragon let out a soft snarl inside his head. The beast had wanted to carry the human so that they could feel her soft body pressed up against his.
    Not now. She doesn’t feel well. Comfort her first and maybe we’ll feel her body against ours later. At the promise of feeling the human female’s curves against his skin, the dragon retreated. Tristan tried not to think too hard on how cooperative his beast was being, because that would mean thinking about how attached his dragon was becoming to the human.
    He tightened his grip on Melanie’s waist and started walking, careful to time his steps to her sideways walk. He nearly ordered her to walk faster, but then he remembered Lia’s words about taking care of Melanie. If his mother were alive today and saw him barking at a pregnant woman, carrying his baby no less,