Revealing the Dragons (Stonefire Dragons 2.50)

I couldn’t agree more.

Tristan touched Mel’s upper arm. “Say goodbye to the twins and let’s go. Bram’s waiting for us.”

Moving to the playpen used as a crib, Mel shot him a look. “I’m ready five minutes early, so hold your horses.”

He fought a smile and lost the battle once Mel brushed the cheek of each of their babies in turn. He was a lucky dragonman, and he knew it, too. He only hoped the world would change for the better after the press conference instead of for the worse.

~~~

Standing behind the front gates of Clan Stonefire, Melanie struggled to keep her jaw from dropping. Bram had agreed to host a press conference just outside their land, but she had never expected the sight before her eyes.

There had to be at least a hundred people standing near the stage with the podium. Sure, the sunny July day was part of the reason, but the other had to be curiosity. She refused to believe it was to express their hatred or disdain, no matter how much Tristan seemed to think it would rear its ugly head sooner rather than later.

Bram stood to her left and Tristan to her right. Bram looked down at her. “Kai has his Protectors in position. So, are you ready, lass? Say the word, and we’ll send them packing.”

For a split second, Mel wanted nothing more than to hide away in her cottage with her mate and two children and forget all about the outside world. But what sort of life would that be? The thought of her children never embracing or getting to know their human halves helped chase away some of her nervousness. She was doing this partly for them, Murray, and all of the other dragon-shifter children in the world. They deserved a chance to live without daily fear of what could be done to their parents or even themselves when they reached maturity. Dragon-shifters should be admired for much more than the healing properties of their blood.

Not only that, but if things went well, she might finally have the chance to invite her family and friends to visit her. She loved her life on Stonefire and was grateful technology allowed her to communicate with her family, but sometimes she missed talking face-to-face with other humans about her old life.

None of that will happen unless you grow a spine and stand strong, Hall. Straightening her shoulders, Mel answered, “I’m ready. Let’s get this over with.”

Bram nodded. With Stonefire’s leader on one side and her mate on the other, Mel felt safe. The two dragonmen would never allow anything to happen to her.

As they moved past the gate and toward the stage, the crowd fell quiet. The silence caused her stomach to churn and her palms to sweat.

Once Mel stood behind the podium, she forced down the butterflies in her stomach and took a deep, fortifying breath. Careful to project her voice since there wasn’t a microphone, she addressed the crowd. “Thank you all for coming. My name is Melanie Hall-MacLeod and I’m the author of Revealing the Dragons. As much as I’d like to answer all of your questions, there simply isn’t enough time in the day, especially as a mother of young twins.” One or two women in the crowed smiled. That was better than nothing. She continued, “I’m going to give priority to those who have actually read the book. If you ask about my personal life, you lose the privilege of asking questions and I’ll move on to the next person. Now, who’s first?”

Twenty hands shot up as everyone asked questions at once. Picking one of the women who had smiled at her comment, Mel pointed. “Yes? What’s your question?”

The rest of the crowd fell silent. At least, they were well trained. The woman with glasses and brown hair asked, “Your exposé makes the dragons appear almost human, except for a few minor differences. How do you respond to those who say your book is fiction and shouldn’t be taken as truth?”

Mel was careful not to frown. “I have a degree in Social Anthropology. I’m trained to observe and record what I find, with the least amount of bias I can muster. While it’s impossible to completely ignore my love for Clan Stonefire, I didn’t write about my own family here. I wrote about the clan’s history and practices as a whole. Those who wish to believe it’s fiction will most likely never change their opinion, so it’s pointless for me to worry about them.”

The same woman asked a follow-up question. “I did talk to a former sacrifice, who recounted her time with Clan Skyhunter. Her account differs greatly, in that she was treated as a second-class citizen and pretty much shunned the entire year she was there. How do you respond to the other woman’s statement?”

Evie had prepared Melanie for this question, so she answered without hesitation. “Each clan is semi-autonomous, almost like a country within a country. The easiest reference to compare are the Native American tribes in the United States. How one runs their tribe is different from another. Not all dragon-shifter clans will have the same opinions, customs, or behaviors. According to a former Department of Dragon Affairs official, Skyhunter has the worst track record for abusing the sacrifice system in the UK. A simple information request to the DDA would back up that claim, so I would take the former Skyhunter sacrifice’s words with a grain of salt.”

Nodding, the woman scribbled in her notepad.

From the corner of her eye, Mel saw a man push his way toward the front of the crowd and Tristan tensed at her side. She placed a hand on his arm in warning. The man wasn’t a threat, yet. He might just want to move closer to have a better chance at having his questions answered.

She focused back on the crowd. Now that the first question was out of the way, her confidence was nearly back to normal. She could take whatever they threw her way.

Tapping the side of the podium with her right hand, Mel pushed on. “Next question?”

A bevy of hands shot up again. Melanie pointed to one of the men in the crowd. “You with the green tie, what’s your question?”

Almost as if they had rehearsed, the crowd dropped their hands and fell silent again. The man with the green tie spoke up. “Is your book just a stepping stone into forcing Westminster to try to change some of the strict laws surrounding dragon-shifters?”

The same man from earlier inched closer to the front of the crowd. His short, dark hair made his blue eyes stand out, but nothing else about him was striking. His suit and tie combo were similar to all the other men in the crowd, yet his face was hard. The expression wasn’t one she would expect to see on a journalist.

If his appearance wasn’t strange enough, he had yet to raise his hand to ask a question.

Then the man’s piercing blue eyes met hers for a split second and the hairs rose on the back of her neck. Even with the distance between them, she swore there was a burning hatred in his gaze.

A hatred she didn’t understand considering she’d never met the man in her life.

Tristan squeezed her hand on his arm. Focusing back on the man with the green tie, she brushed aside the feeling for the time being. She needed to make a first good impression with the press. “I’m hoping to catch everyone’s notice with my book. It’s been thirteen months since I last hugged my mother and father because it’s illegal for them to visit me. It’s also been too risky for me to leave while I was pregnant and even more so now that I have young children who are half dragon-shifter. The journalists who came to Stonefire three months ago had special privilege; it’s my hope that the same right is granted to those without political connections in the near future.”