Free Dragon Fae (The World of Fae) by Terry Spear

Unless she moved to the head of the table.
    Then Brett would be more defenseless against both her brother and Alton. She wouldn’t do that to him.
    That’s when she noticed Ryker looked puzzled as to what to do with the human who didn’t want any wine.
    “Can’t handle it, eh?” Halloran taunted Brett.
    She hated to ask Brett what he wanted to drink other than wine. Soda? They didn’t have stuff like that here. Water? Milk? That was about all they had to drink other than wine.
    “Get him some water,” Ena said, without bothering to ask Brett. She didn’t want it to appear that she was treating him like he was supposed to be a special guest.
    “Maybe someone can pop into the human’s world and pick him up one of those goddess-awful carbonated drinks,” Halloran said. “Water?” He shook his head.
    Ena shouldn’t have done it because she had no idea which direction her action would lead to, but she patted Alton’s leg and said, “Alton drinks water. Don’t you? Nothing wrong with it at all.”
    Now, Alton could be a hard-scaled dragon-man and shake his head and agree with her brother, or he could try to get on her good side and agree with her.
    Halloran turned to Alton, who was now put on the spot. Alton smiled easily. “Water in coffee works, sure. Without it, it’s just all powdered flavoring or coffee grinds.”
    Halloran laughed. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
    Brett took that moment to tell Ryker as he brought him a glass of water, “I’ll take coffee. Thank you.”
    Ryker immediately looked for Ena’s input. He was not about to give her prisoner something he’d asked for when she had not okayed it.
    “He can have water,” she said, annoyed with Brett for forcing her to take a stand. She knew her brother and Alton were sitting on the edge of their seats, waiting to say something if she had allowed Brett to have his way.
    If her brother and Alton hadn’t been here, she would have allowed him to have coffee, or tea, which she belatedly recalled she could have offered also. Or milk. Whatever they readily had available that he would have preferred. But not with her brother and his friend watching her every move, listening to her every decision.
    She was about ready to send the human to his room without his supper because this whole business of having him here was way too nerve-wracking. Except if she mentioned it, her brother would realize she had given the prisoner a guest room and was not sending him to the dungeon. Not even her brother knew she hid all her treasure in her dungeon cells. Any dragon shifter worth their treasure would have caves to store their bounty in and a dungeon to store their prisoners in, when they captured one. They were usually the unfortunates who tried to steal from a dragon’s treasure and got caught at it. Although, when she reconsidered the point, those who hadn’t been captured, were usually piles of ash, scattered in the winds often plaguing caves high up in the mountains so she supposed they might be considered even more unfortunate.
    She expected Brett to be upset with her, when she shouldn’t care, but she did. He just nodded to her, and then to the butler, as if accepting his fate. Her brother eased back in his chair and said, “Well said.”
    Alton kept his mouth shut for which she was grateful.
    She sighed, took a sip of her wine, and hoped the meal would be over with quickly, when she’d really looked forward to a nice long enjoyable dining experience, not wanting to think about the older man that she’d had to eliminate.
    She really hadn’t wanted to kill the human, wishing he’d given up his quest to manacle her. But she hadn’t had much of a choice either. Either he killed her and Alicia, or she killed him and saved the princess.
    She noted Alton was watching her, probably wondering why she wasn’t eating anything.
    Ever since last year, he had changed, she thought, again considering the way he was pressing his advantage. He’d been