She then turned to grab her cell phone and exited the door just as another cry pierced the air. If one sound could ever encompass the epitome of pain, the anguished dragon’s cry was it.
~~~
Twenty minutes later, Mel approached the main landing area and couldn’t believe how many people were standing near but not too close to it. She hoped it was for support rather than as a spectacle. Dragons were too big to have any sort of privacy when hurt, and she might not be a doctor, but surely the stress of so many nearby couldn’t be good for a dragon moaning in pain.
Still, as she looked around the crowd, maybe one of them knew who was hurt. Otherwise it was going to take some creative ideas to get through the throng of tall, strong-ass dragon-shifters.
She’d had about a fifty-fifty success rate when it came to meeting friendly dragon-shifters during her time here. However, she wasn’t about to let that deter her. Tristan might need her.
Squaring her shoulders, she took a deep breath for confidence. What’s the worst they could do? Call her a whore again?
She went to the nearest female and asked, “Who’s been hurt?”
The dragonwoman turned and stared down at her with her piercing brown eyes, her expression unreadable. The woman may tower over her, but Mel wasn’t going to be intimidated. Especially not when Tristan’s life could be at stake.
The woman finally gave a sad smile and Mel’s stomach dropped as the dragonwoman said, “You are quite the brave one, human. Normally, I’d like to see what else you’re made of before giving out information, but I’ll make an exception in this case.” She gestured toward the landing area. “Go. Your Tristan is dying.”
Her heart skipped a beat. No. It couldn’t be true. Tristan was strong and brave, to an unbelievable alpha degree. He couldn’t be dying.
Mel turned toward the crowd. She’d just have to find him and convince his stubborn ass to fight for his life.
She searched out a path to the landing area and for once wished she had wings so she could fly over all these people. However, before she could ask anyone to move out of the way, the woman behind her yelled something in the dragon language. All eyes went to Melanie. Gone were the looks of contempt, disgust, or curiosity. Instead, they were now eyeing her with varying degrees of sadness and pity.
That definitely wasn’t good news.
Tears threatened to fall, but she forced them back. Get it together, Hall. You can’t help him if you turn into a blubbery mess.
As a path magically cleared for her, she kept her head high as she half-ran, half-jogged toward the landing area. She wasn’t in the best shape, but she ignored the shortness of her breath and kept up her pace. She wasn’t about to let a little thing like being overweight stop her from reaching her man.
Besides, Bram hadn’t tried to contact her, and if Tristan were truly dying, he would have.
For now, she had to believe that rumors about her dragonman were inflated. After all, gossip tended to do that to the truth.
She only hoped that was the case this time because if Tristan was dying, she might not be able to keep herself together. She’d not only start crying, but her heart would break. Not just because her baby would be without a father, but also because she would miss the odd combination of his grumpiness and his tenderness.
Please, Tristan, hold on for me. I’m coming.
Chapter Three
Pain. Blood. Death.
Those three words repeated themselves over and over inside Tristan and his dragon’s head. Tristan’s human-half was weak, and the dragon-half had taken control, which meant his beast had fallen back on instinct.
The human part of him was vaguely aware of the other dragon-shifters trying to help him, but his dragon-half was snarling and whooshing its tail through the air to keep everyone away. They would pounce on his weakness. They would kill him. He must keep them away.
No, they want to help us, he shouted at his beast. But his words fell on deaf ears.
He tried to muster the strength necessary to push his dragon back, but none of the tricks every dragon-shifter learned as a child had any affect on his beast’s pain-induced rage. Not even Tristan’s stubbornness was working. Due to the gaping, bleeding wounds on his chest and shoulders, Tristan’s usual inner strength was all but gone.
Yet if he couldn’t get control of his dragon, he would die.
All of the sudden, an image of Melanie naked in the grass, her gorgeous, pale curves on display and her eyes full of stubbornness, came into his mind. In his vision, she was rubbing her clit and beckoning him to thrust his long, hard cock inside her.
It was strange the things that came into your mind when you thought you were dying.
But then remembering Melanie also brought back the fact he might never see his child.
He tried to use the loss of Melanie and their baby as a way to garner the dragon-half’s attention, and for a second, he stilled. Then his beast’s pain-induced fit started up again and Tristan mentally let out a frustrated sigh.