Treasured by the Dragon (Stonefire Dragons #10) - Jessie Donovan Page 0,2

a few males—wanted to see and touch the spot for luck or to make a wish.

Granted, it was better than when he'd been younger and everyone had teased him for it, calling it the dirty spot.

To avoid the attention, both good and bad, Blake preferred working by himself and living alone in a small cabin just outside Stonefire's main living area.

Only because he loved volunteering with the children at school, hoping to encourage them to study the sciences, had he ended up helping with the children's play.

Which meant he needed to get it right. Especially since he'd been paired with a human volunteer who would probably be of no help at all.

His dragon grunted. Stop assuming the worst. Just tinker with whatever you need to make more smoke come out, and then it'll give us more time to peruse all the human females coming tonight. They won't care about our spot or want to touch it for luck. It can just be sex, and more sex, until we pass out.

With a sigh, Blake walked back toward the small area being used as his base for controlling the special effects. We can fly and hunt tomorrow instead. You like that.

If we do any more of that, I'll be too fat to fly soon.

I don't want to talk about this anymore. Now, be quiet so I can finish this on time. Otherwise, we'll disappoint the children.

Since inner dragons treasured children, it was one way to get his beast to stop talking about mates and sex. Fine. But once the play is over, I'll be back.

Blake doubted his dragon would stay silent that long, but he didn't argue.

He retreated to the room being used to control the special effects. As he adjusted the various settings, time flew by. Only when Tristan MacLeod's voice—he was one of the teachers in charge of the play—blared from the in-room speaker did he snap out of it. "Blake, your human volunteer is here. Come meet her in the great hall."

Since the speaker system in the small room wasn't two-way, Blake reluctantly turned from his computer and exited the room. It'd been a long time since he'd met an adult human who wasn't mated to one of his clan members. Some of them went lust-crazy over dragon-shifters. Even if Blake wasn't the fittest of the males on Stonefire, he did his fair share of flying and had enough muscles.

Not that he cared. They seemed to attract unwanted human notice.

His dragon grunted. Good. Dragons like attention. I wish you'd embrace it.

Blake picked up his pace until he reached the small door that exited into the biggest room inside the great hall. As he hovered there, he scanned the crowd for the little human girl named Daisy—it was her mother he was to work with—and finally spotted her curly blonde hair. Someone was in the way of the adult with her, but they finally moved, and Blake drew in a breath.

Daisy's mother had lovely blonde hair to her chin, a smile that could warm any dreary day, and a little experience in her gaze that told him she wasn't some brainless teenager looking for a quick score.

His beast huffed. Then go talk to her.

His dragon's words snapped Blake out of his trance. I will. But just because she's pretty doesn't mean anything. She's Daisy's mother, and I won't risk hurting her. Not when that human child seems to be so important to all the dragon teachers and Bram.

Why do you assume we'd hurt her?

I don't have time for a ready-made family. We're on the verge of a breakthrough in our latest project, which will help protect the dragon-shifters.

There's no reason we can't do all of it, both the work and a family. It's not as if you can work twenty-four hours a day.

Not wanting to go in circles, Blake ignored his beast, stood tall, and walked toward Daisy and her mother. The best way to make it all go quicker was to pretend he hadn't seen the humans. That way they'd think him aloof and maybe dissuade them from conversation. Blake wouldn't be rude, but he wasn't going to encourage anyone, either.

And so Blake was careful to keep his glance only on Freddie, one of the young male dragon-shifters, and the boy's mother as he made his way toward them.

Dawn had just finished meeting Daisy's best friend on Stonefire—a boy named Freddie Atherton—when another tall dragonman with light brown hair, pale skin, and hazel eyes marched up to them. He