The Dragon's Dilemma (Lochguard Highland Dragons 1)

She bobbed her head and ignored her thundering heart. “Yes. What is it?”

Finn replied, “If I can manage to transfer your sacrifice contract, would you accept Fraser?”

Holly looked down at Fraser’s face, relaxed in unconsciousness. “Will I have to deal with his dragon again?”

Finn’s voice filled the room again. “Clever lass. And the answer is yes. Since you are his true mate and Fraser is not very good at containing his dragon, Fraser will go into a mate-claim frenzy the second he kisses you. As you probably know, that means Fraser and his dragon will continue to have sex with you until you’re pregnant. The charming, flirty dragonman you know will most likely disappear until the frenzy is over since the idiot never learned to control his dragon properly.”

While her body wanted nothing more than to strip Fraser and lick every inch of his muscled body, her mind had a conscience and wasn’t ready to commit just yet. Holly met Finn’s gaze again. “And what about Fergus?”

Finn crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to lie to you. Fergus will be devastated at both his brother’s betrayal and his loss of you. Fergus had his heart set on winning you over, Holly.”

Holly’s heart squeezed with guilt. “I never planned for this to happen, you know.”

Lorna walked around Fraser’s unconscious body and put an arm around Holly’s shoulders. “We know that, child. A dragon’s instinct is unpredictable.” Lorna took Holly’s chin between her fingers. “This isn’t your fault. Fraser is the one who allowed this disaster to happen.”

Holly could remain silent and allow Fraser to take all of the blame. However, she’d never be able to sleep soundly until she told the truth anyway, so Holly decided to get it out of the way. “He isn’t the only one. I ignored the connection between us.” She darted a glance to Finn, but he was merely watching her without judgment, so she continued, “We nearly kissed inside Finn and Arabella’s greenhouse this afternoon.” Holly met Lorna’s gaze again. “But I really was trying to do what I was sent here to do. I never intended to hurt Fergus. He’s a nice lad and he’ll find a lass. Please just make sure he knows I never would’ve hurt him on purpose.”

Lorna squeezed Holly’s chin. “I’ll tell him myself once he cools down.” Lorna released her grip. “Speaking of which, how do you want to handle this, Finlay?”

Finn uncrossed his arms. “I’ll call Grant to come over and help carry Fraser to my cottage. Holly will stay here for the time being, in Faye’s room. That way, Faye can watch over her.”

Lorna asked, “Do you think Faye’s ready?”

Finn frowned. “The job should give her a purpose, even if it’s small. I think it’ll do Faye good.”

Holly found her voice. “You want me to stay in the same house as Fergus? I’m not sure if that’s the best idea.”

Finn shook his head. “I never said that, lass. I’ll let him cool off in one of the empty cottages before I have a chat with him in the morning. I have a job for him on the Isle of Skye, which should keep him preoccupied for some time. I was going to assign it to someone else, but with the recent happenings, I’ll give the assignment to Fergus.”

Lorna clapped her hands. “Right, then. Let’s set things in motion. I don’t know how much longer Fraser will be unconscious and I certainly don’t want him to wake up with Holly in the room.” Lorna placed a hand on Holly’s back. “Come, child. You can wait in my room with the door locked until everything is sorted.”

Lorna gently pushed against her spine, but Holly stood her ground. “When will I see Fraser again?”

Finn answered, “Probably tomorrow.” Finn took out his mobile phone and typed something. “I’m going to ask the doctor to come over and put Fraser’s dragon in a time out for at least a day. That way, he can have a rational conversation without his beast clawing for control.” Holly wanted to ask what that meant, but the second she opened her mouth, Finn cut her off. “Not now, Holly. I know you have questions, but they’ll have to wait until morning. If all goes to plan, you can see Fraser during a supervised visit at the surgery tomorrow.”

Lorna pressed harder and Holly finally followed the older dragonwoman’s lead. As they walked around Fraser, Holly’s training urged her to check on him.

However, Lorna’s grip moved to one of her wrists. The dragonwoman had fingers of steel.

Lorna gently tugged her arm. “Leave him be for now, hen. If Fraser wakes up before the doctor sees him, all hell will break loose.”

With a nod, Holly took one last glance at Fraser before she moved with Lorna out the door and into the hall.

She barely registered Lorna telling her how to lock the door before Holly was standing alone in the middle of a strange room.

Up until fifteen minutes ago, Holly had known what to expect during her stay with the Scottish dragon-shifter clan.

But now, everything had turned uncertain. If that wasn’t bad enough, she would have all night to think about what might or might not happen with Fraser. Even if Finn could transfer the contract, there was so much she didn’t know about her auburn-haired dragonman, let alone his dragon.

Her biggest concern was the mate-claim frenzy. She knew it consisted of lots of sex and a dragon-shifter’s dragon half being in charge for a good chunk of it, but she had no idea if Fraser’s dragon-half would ever stop until she was pregnant. The thought of not showering or eating for days was bad enough, but a cold thread of fear shot through her body at the image of her being tied to a bed and used like a brood mare.

No. Deep down her gut told her that Fraser would never allow his dragon to treat her that way.

Of course, that wasn’t Holly’s only concern. The DDA had never explained what happened once the mate-claim frenzy cooled. Holly needed to return home to Aberdeen for her father’s sake since humans weren’t allowed to live on dragon-shifter territory unless they were a sacrifice. But she had no idea whether a dragon-shifter would allow his true mate to leave or not once the child was born.

Holly resisted placing a hand over her lower abdomen. A frenzy with a true mate always resulted in pregnancy at least once. It was no longer the case Holly might become pregnant; she would for certain.

And she could die.