Chapter Four

 

 

 

Melanie stood in front of four pupils in the five-to-six-year-old age range. The dragon-shifter teacher was introducing her, but Melanie didn’t pay much attention to what the dragonwoman was saying. Instead, she focused everything on remaining calm on the outside and not betraying the butterflies banging around in her stomach.

Don’t let the little ones smell fear, or they’ll walk all over you. That had been Liam’s advice to her before she’d left this morning. People who taught human students probably gave the same advice, but since she’d been told how the five-and-six-year-olds were just learning to communicate with their inner dragons, not showing fear was doubly important—the newly awakened dragons were trying to find their own place in the dominance scale.

However, the longer she studied the faces of the three little boys and one little girl, the more confident she became. They weren’t staring at her with disgust or condemnation. No, they were just staring at her with wide-eyed curiosity.

The teacher turned toward her and nodded. Melanie nodded back and focused on the four students. “As the teacher said, my name is Melanie Hall. And I think the best way to get to know each other is for you to just ask your burning questions now.”

The little girl with dark hair and blue eyes raised her hand, and Melanie motioned for the girl to speak.

The little girl looked her up and down before she said, “My friend said humans aren’t allowed on Stonefire’s land because they’ll either scream or try to hurt us. Are you going to scream or hurt us?”

“No, I’m not. Should I be afraid of you?”

The little girl crossed her arms over her chest and it took everything Mel had not to smile. The girl said, “Well, I know important people. So you should be good or I can tell on you and my uncle will make you behave. He makes everyone behave.”

The teacher said, “Ava.” But Mel put up a hand to signal it was okay. “So, your name is Ava?” The little girl nodded. “Well, Ava, is your uncle here right now?”

The girl’s arms dropped as she lost a bit of her confidence. “No.”

She took a step toward the girl. “Could he get here before I could tackle you?”

Ava darted a glance to the dragon-shifter teacher and back. “No.”

Mel stood right in front of the little girl and placed a hand on her head. “Then using him as a threat is useless. You should always be thinking of how to take care of yourself in the moment.”

The little girl stared up at her with awe. After another second, Mel crouched down and tickled the girl’s sides. Ava started giggling and squirming, and Mel stopped but remained crouched to look Ava in the eye. “What do you think? Do you reckon I’m going to run off screaming or try to hurt you?”

Ava stared at her for a second before she answered, “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?”

“Because Drustan only tickles me because he fancies me. Do you fancy me, Ms. Hall?”

Mel laughed. “Not in that way, Ava. But I think I like you.”

Ava beamed and Mel stood up to talk with the other children. Within a few minutes, they were all relaxed and chattering away in the way young children did. She’d never thought of herself as a teacher, but maybe this teaching thing wouldn’t be so bad after all.

 

~~~

 

Tristan stood inside Melanie’s empty cottage and tried his best to forget what he’d done here less than six days ago. Spending time with the young had indeed calmed his beast to a level Tristan could control. But right now, upon finding Melanie was no longer staying here, his dragon was snarling for him to find her. Now.

Her scent was nearly gone. Only through sheer force of will did he resist finding something that still carried her scent so he could bring it up to his nose and brand her smell into his memory.

Of course, that was his dragon’s need hammering inside his head. It’d taken him five days to calm the bastard down, yet at the first whiff of the human, his hard work had all but evaporated.

Fucking fantastic.

He turned and left the cottage. If he was going to investigate the human, he needed to find her first. She could only be in one of two places. He decided to start with Bram since Samira would probably bar him outright from talking with her. That human female could be as fierce and protective as any dragonwoman.

After knocking on Bram’s door, Tristan entered to find a nervous Cait on the far side of the room, her eyes downcast. Since he knew how easily she spooked, he remained silent and kept his distance. Bram flashed him a look of thanks and then said to the woman, “That’s all for now, Cait. You can go.”

The woman nodded, and rushed out the back entrance. Once the door clicked closed, Bram turned toward him, and Tristan said, “Since when does Caitriona Belmont leave her cottage alone?”

“Since Melanie Hall started visiting her.”

What has she been doing? Where is she now? I want her. Why can’t I have her?

He silenced his inner dragon and said, “Where is Melanie now?”

Bram sat down in his chair behind his desk. “It’s taken you five days to ask me that question, which means either you truly do hate her, or you’re fighting yourself because of what happened to your mother.”

He growled. “You seem bloody trusting with the human female considering how little we know about her.”

“Ah, but you see, you’re wrong about that. She’s won over my niece. And if Melanie Hall can win over Ava, I’m confident she can win over most of the clan in time. Her straightforward-yet-kind manner has already won over Cait, Samira, Liam, Liam’s siblings, and three of your fellow teachers. The one who’s judging her without knowing her is you, Tristan MacLeod. But that’s about to change.”

The mention of some of the other teachers made him suspicious. “Not that it’s any of your fucking business, but how?”

Bram raised an eyebrow. “We’ve been friends nearly our whole lives, but even if that wasn’t enough to care about your stubborn arse, the way you treat the mother of one of our clan is most definitely my business.” He grunted, knowing Bram was right, and his clan leader continued, “Melanie has been working with the young dragons, and from tomorrow, she’s going to spend three mornings a week with your pupils.”

Three entire mornings in Melanie’s presence a week would most definitely set off his dragon. While he personally was trying not to think what it’d be like to fuck her sweet, tight pussy again, he was going to hide behind the excuse of his students’ safety. “And if my dragon gains control, what then? The scent of my child will trigger the beast’s instincts.”

Bram shrugged. “If you were living with her and fucking her on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be a problem. But since you’re letting your prejudice get in the way of recognizing how wonderful the human female is, then you have to deal with those consequences. If it means resigning from your teaching job because you can’t get your shit together, so be it.”

“Bram—”

“No. This discussion is over. As clan leader, I’m kicking your arse out of my office so I can do some work.”

Tristan clenched his jaw. Pulling his clan leader title out had been enough to stop him from arguing, as Bram well knew. “Fine. Will you at least tell me if she’s staying with Samira?”

“Yes. Now get the hell out and go deal with your bloody issues. They’re giving me a headache.”

Tristan turned on his heel before he said something he’d regret and left.

He had planned to visit Melanie, but now that he knew he would have to spend tomorrow morning with her, he needed to retreat to the teaching area. If he didn’t calm his dragon down again, his beast wouldn’t care if children were present or not, it’d jump the female at the first whiff of her scent.

 

~~~

 

Melanie made her way to today’s training area. It was her third day of working with the students, and she’d discovered that without all of the bias and hatred of the adults, she loved interacting with the young dragon-shifters. They were as curious about her as she was about them, which would be a welcome distraction in the coming months. Especially since she’d been told that human women who were pregnant with a dragon-shifter child usually developed morning sickness faster than if she were having a human baby. As it was, the smells of certain foods were already making her queasy.

She placed a hand over her belly and smiled. After winning over Ava Moore-Llewellyn, whom she’d later learned was Bram’s niece, Melanie actually looked forward to being a mother. Even if her baby was stubborn when he or she got older, all of this time teaching had taught her how to not only handle difficult children, but also what to expect when it came time to deal with her child’s emerging dragon. Apparently, since the shifting gene was dominant, all human females who had a dragon-shifter’s baby would have a little child capable of one day shifting, too.

That was something else she wished she’d found out during her research before coming here. Not that it mattered; she was determined to stay and raise her child. But it might help with other women who were on the fence about whether to sacrifice themselves or not.

She just hoped her child would take after her and not Tristan. The asshole had yet to say anything to her since he’d scented her pregnancy a week ago.

Don’t think about him. She had friends, a purpose, and an entire culture to study. If she could contact her family or let them visit, it would almost be perfect.

Of course, she had weeks before she’d be granted communication privileges, and only then if Tristan said so. Maybe if she excelled at this teaching thing, then Bram would grant her the privileges regardless.

Mel came up to the rock ridge sheltering the practice areas used for the young dragon-shifters. Since it was early summer, the teachers tried to bring the students outside as much as the northern English weather allowed, using the few months of sunshine for shifting practice.

She had yet to see any of the children attempt to shift, but hopefully the longer she worked with the teachers, the more they’d open up to her and let her watch some of their lessons. After all, she was a child when it came to dragon-shifter ways and if she was going to spend the rest of her life here, she needed to start catching up.

She came to the ten-foot-wide gap between the rock walls that formed an entrance to one of the “safe areas” used for the youngest children and stopped to wait for a natural break in the lesson to approach the teacher. But as she looked over at the far side of the clearing, she barely noticed the ten students. No, her eyes latched on to the tall figure of Tristan MacLeod.

He was currently talking to his students. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but the frown and broody attitude was mostly gone. Instead, Tristan had a patient, yet firm look on his face as he motioned for one of the students to come up front.

The little boy moved to stand next to Tristan. After listening to his teacher, the little boy closed his eyes. A few seconds later, his hand became something that wasn’t a hand—she was too far away to see clearly, but she guessed it was a dragon claw—and then opened his eyes to shout, “I did it!”

The sound echoed down to her, and she smiled as Tristan gave the boy’s shoulder a squeeze. After saying something else, the boy’s hand returned to a pale human one. The other students cheered as the boy went to stand back with his classmates.

Tristan was even smiling as he watched the boy return to his place. Then Tristan’s eyes roamed over his students, as if he were trying to think of whom to pick next, when his gaze found hers.

Even from this distance, his look sent a little thrill through her body. Melanie remembered everything he—and by extension, she—had done less than a week ago. Such as the feel of his hands on her ass; the sting of his bite on her neck; the fullness of his cock inside her as he took her against a wall.

The growl he made when he came.

Her cheeks went hot, but she didn’t break his gaze. She wasn’t embarrassed about their marathon of fantastic sex, let alone afraid of him, and she wanted to make sure he knew it.

With a deep inhalation and exhalation, she squared her shoulders, pasted a patient smile on her face, and strode toward the end of the clearing. By now, the students all turned to see what their teacher was staring at. When she was close enough, she could hear their murmurs of “Who is she?”, “Do we have a guest?”, and finally, when she was less than ten feet from them, “Why does she smell like Mr. MacLeod?”

Before either she or Tristan could say anything, one of the little girls said, “I know why! She smells like him because she’s carrying Mr. MacLeod’s baby! My mama smelled like my dad before my brother was born.”

The other students started to chatter, but then Tristan said, “Quiet,” and the students stopped talking.

She moved to stand next to Tristan. Despite the frown on his face, she remembered the patient version of him with the student, and she yearned to have that version of him holding her against his warm chest. That man she could actually like.

But the guarded look he always seemed to carry when she was around was back. It was best to get on with why she was here.

She raised an eyebrow and said, “They must’ve told you I would come to teach. Aren’t you going to introduce me to your students?”