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“Tristan,” she whispered and barely restrained herself from running to the dragon. She was hopeful, but not stupid. She needed more than an expression to convince her it was safe to approach.
She clenched a hand over her heart, took a steadying breath, and said, “If it’s truly you, flick out your tongue.”
While there was still pain, something that looked like amusement hovered in the dragon’s eyes. Then he flicked out his long, forked tongue and turned his head to the side, exposing his chin.
Cassidy’s voice came from right behind her. “Tristan is back in control. No dragon would ever expose the vulnerable, soft skin of his chin unless the human was calling the shots.” The woman moved to Mel’s side. “Calm him a little further and convince him to let my people near enough to heal him.”
Mel was on the verge of tears, but managed to push them back and nod. Her job wasn’t quite finished just yet.
She took a few more steps toward the dragon and said, “Tristan, let me touch your beautiful, smooth scales again. Blink if you feel I can do that without you hurting me.”
The dragon slowly blinked and Mel’s heart warmed. She fought the tears that threatened to fall and walked at a steady pace until she was less than two feet from the dragon. She raised her hand and slowly reached out until she could lay it on his snout. At the contact, the dragon gave a little hum.
She couldn’t hold back her emotions any more. She whispered, “Oh, Tristan,” before taking the last steps between them and then hugging his snout as she caressed the scales of his head and jaw. He might live.
She couldn’t prevent her voice from cracking as she said, “Please let the healers help you. I don’t want to live without you, you stubborn dragonman.”
The dragon chuffed and Mel decided that was a yes.
Only through sheer will did she convince herself to let go of the dragon’s snout. She quickly wiped her eyes before she turned and shouted, “He’s okay. Come help him.”
The healers didn’t waste any time and rushed forth. Cassidy, their leader, told Melanie, “Stay to the right side of his head while we fix him. Your touch and voice will help ground him and, most importantly, keep the human-half in charge.”
Mel nodded and moved out of the way, but she never severed contact with her dragon.
She looked into the huge dragon’s eye in front of her and whispered, “I know you’re all big and strong, but that wound has to hurt like hell and I want to help you forget about the pain. I’m not sure what to do, though, so I need your help. I’ll try scratching and caressing certain areas, and blink twice if it’s good or three times if it’s not. Now, blink once if you understand.”
The dragon blinked and Melanie smiled. “Good. I’ve always wanted to feel up a dragon.” She winked. “Now, where to start...”
* * *
Thanks to Melanie,Tristan had managed to battle back into control of his dragon-half.
His human was cleverer than he’d realized. Her threat of walking away to find another male had been enough to drive his dragon crazy and to turn to Tristan for help, asking what they needed to do to keep her.
And now she wanted to touch, scratch, and caress his dragon hide. She really was a different type of human.
While waiting to see what Melanie would touch first—he hoped behind his ears, because it itched like hell—someone poured something into his wound and a blinding pain rushed through his body. What the fuck? Were they trying to kill him?
He gritted his teeth and just barely resisted roaring into his female’s ear. His dragon pushed and growled to come out again. His beast said,We need to knock the dragon-shifters away again. The pain is proof they are trying to kill us. They will use our weakness against us.
Tristan growled inside his head.Our female is right next to us. If we roar or thrash about, we will hurt her, maybe even kill her. Is that what you want?
No. I never want to hurt her. She is our mate.
Then shut it and leave me alone for awhile.
His inner beast grudgingly retreated to the back of Tristan’s mind.
As the pain dulled slightly, he could feel Melanie stroking his snout. His human said, “It was just some antiseptic. Stop acting like a big baby.”
He tried his best to frown, but dragons didn’t do facial expressions all that well.
Still, Melanie laughed and the sound helped to ease both the dragon and the man. She gave him a pat and said, “Men. No matter if they’re human or dragon-shifter, they’re all the same. If you’re this bad when you’re hurt, I hate to see what you’re like when you catch a cold.”
Tristan growled and decided right then and there he was going to live because he wanted to feel what it was like to have Melanie take care of him.
Something must’ve shown in his eyes because Melanie tapped his snout a few times and said, “Don’t get any ideas. You have to be can’t-get-out-of-bed sick before I start giving you any special treatment. Faking a headache isn’t going to make me wait on you hand and foot.”
