Chapter Six

“Oh my Lord.” Every inch of Emmaline’s exposed skin turned the same color as an overripe tomato. “Maybe I am too old to hear about kinky dragon rituals.”

“I warned you,” Aiden muttered. He glanced at Dana and found her wearing an expression like she’d spotted a semi truck hurtling straight for her at one hundred and twenty miles per hour. “As for the why—it dates back to a pact that was drawn up almost nine centuries ago between the ruling dragons and the neighboring village. In return for a human sacrifice, the Drakoni promised not to ignite their homes.” He winced. “My ancestors were sort of pyromaniacs.”

Dana sped up the circles she was massaging into her temples. “What exactly does any of that have to do with the here and now?”

“Tradition is important to the Drakoni, which is why every two to three hundred years a pool of candidates is chosen for sacrifice and contracts drawn up.”

Dana stopped drawing figure eights into her temple and gaped at him. “Pool?”

Jesus, he hated being the one forced to explain it to her. Everything about the damn custom was distasteful. Archaic. Everything he stood against in his quest to make his clan embrace the twenty-first century. Shit, at the rate they were going, the Drakoni might successfully join the rest of civilization right around the same time dinosaurs re-inhabited the earth.

Dana continued staring at him, patiently awaiting answers. With great force of will, he unclenched his jaw. “Several centuries ago the Drakoni realized the wisdom in creating a pool of potential candidates rather than relying on a solitary sacrifice.” He offered a half shrug when her forehead wrinkled in confusion. “People get married, have children. Model the latest in sheet-metal fashion during a lightning storm. Always a good idea to have a backup plan.”

He detected the gleam of consideration in her eyes. “It’s too late for you to get married or have children. And I don’t advise trying the last option.”

Her shoulders visibly sagged in tandem with her long sigh. “Right. So how exactly did I luck out and end up in the pool, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“Your birth coincided with one of the years they sought candidates, during the full talon moon.” He met Dana’s puzzled look and hurried to explain the significance of something he knew would probably make no sense to her. Hell, many of the Drakoni traditions made no sense to him. Most of them were passed down from generation to generation solely in hopes of persuading the younger dragons to toe the line. “It’s a sacred moon phase to my kind. Trust me, you won’t find reference to it in any astronomy books. Drakoni representatives were dispatched to various hospitals throughout the country and given the task of convincing the parents of any females born that night to sign the sacrificial contract.”

A spark of triumph flashed in Dana’s green irises. “Ah-ha! I knew there had to be a mix-up. No way would my father have willingly signed me away to a bunch of dragons.”

A blanket of weary frustration settled over Aiden, and he cursed the council all over again for putting him in this unenviable position. “Dana, you don’t understand. Your father wouldn’t have been given a choice. The representatives would have seen to that. Much like our predecessors, the old guard Drakoni weren’t opposed to using intimidation and threats to get what they wanted. Most of the parents went along with it, naturally, and quickly learned that going to the authorities would earn them nothing but a trip to the local shrink.”

Emmaline gasped. Aiden jerked his head in the older woman’s direction and noticed she’d pressed her trembling fingers against her lips.

“What is it?” Dana pushed off the overstuffed arm of the sofa.

“Nothing. Just a Charlie horse in my leg.” Emmaline smiled reassuringly but Aiden didn’t fail to notice the slight tremor at the corner of her mouth.

“Take a load off. You’ve been on your feet too much today.” Dana patted the couch cushion, apparently not picking up on the anxiety wafting from her aunt. Emmaline’s gaze shifted in Aiden’s direction before she dutifully obeyed her niece’s request. Yep, she was definitely hiding something.

“I still find it hard to believe my father would have agreed to any of this.”

Aiden sucked in a deep breath. If she wanted proof, he could oblige. “We brought along a copy of the contract.”

“I’ll get it,” Jace offered, striding to the door.

In the wake of his brother’s departure, a strained silence filled the small office. It didn’t help that Dana and her aunt kept a wary eye on him the entire time. Yeah, nothing like being the solitary dragon in the room. Finally Jace returned and handed the sheaf of papers to Dana. Her gaze fell to the name scrawled at the bottom of the top page and she went still, her breathing seeming to cease.

Emmaline rubbed Dana’s back. “Hon, you know your father didn’t willingly sign that. Like Aiden said, your pops was forced into it.”

Dana released her breath in a rush, her uncertainty vanishing. “You’re right. I just wasn’t expecting…” Worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, she shook her head and scanned the remainder of the document. “Other than the basics—like my personal info and the word sacrifice—I don’t understand most of this.”

“A lot of it is archaic terminology. That’s the problem with relying on a nine-hundred-year-old scroll,” Aiden said dryly.

Dana fidgeted with the corners of the contract. “I guess my main concern now is do I need to worry about your relatives torching my aunt’s restaurant if I don’t agree to sacrifice myself?”

When it came to the council, he didn’t know what to expect. “I wouldn’t rule out the possibility.”

“Great.” Dana let go of the papers and they plummeted to the floor. She clasped her knees tight enough her knuckles whitened. “So I have sex. With you both. Then we go along our merry ways?”

“Not exactly.” He saw no way to avoid killing the spark of hope in her expression. “Next Sunday marks the first phase of the Talon Moon. That night, Jace and I will claim you. Completely. Bindingly.”

The muscles in Dana’s graceful neck worked as she swallowed hard. “What are you saying?”

“You’ll belong to us. For as long as you live.”

Dana surged to her feet, her eyes snapping fire. “That sounds an awful lot like slavery.”

Aiden gusted a weary exhale. “More or less.”

“Well screw that. I’m not going to be the live version of a blow-up doll the two of you will pass back and forth whenever you’re horny!”

Jace cleared his throat. “It’s not like we’d only be using you for sex.”

Her face livid, Dana swung on Jace. “Let me guess—I’d also get the honor of doing your laundry and scrubbing your toilets. Wow, I should probably bow and kiss your feet for such a privilege.”

“Good going,” Aiden growled beneath his breath to Jace. He schooled his features into a less threatening mask before facing Dana again. “You don’t have to decide now. There’s almost eight days to make up your mind.” That gave him and Jace a little over a week to persuade her to accept the claiming. In whatever way it took.

“Gee, that really takes the pressure off.” Dividing a hot glare between him and Jace, she stalked from the office.

In the wake of Dana’s departure, a tense silence descended on the room. Emmaline broke the mood by plopping onto the sofa with a groan. “All these years I thought my poor brother was suffering delusions caused from the trauma of losing his wife.”

Aiden narrowed his gaze on the woman. “When I was explaining the candidate pool earlier you looked like someone walked over your grave.”

“I was reliving a memory. One that’s going to haunt the rest of my days.” Emmaline pinched the bridge of her nose. “I always wondered if I somehow betrayed my brother by allowing the hospital to forcibly admit him into the psychiatric ward. Now I know I did.”

A heavy weight anchored in Aiden’s chest. “Let me guess. Your brother suddenly started ranting about dragons wanting to take his baby?”

Emmaline brushed a tear from her cheek and nodded.

“It isn’t your fault. You reacted as anyone would.”

She stared at him, her expression doubtful. “I should have believed him. Especially after he joined the hunters.”

A shiver of dread raced along Aiden’s spine and crawled inside his head, unfurling into an unpleasant realization that refused to go ignored.

Dana’s father didn’t become a hunter because he was crazy. He became one to protect his daughter.

From me.