Slave Dragon: Earth Dragons Series: Book4

by Hartnady, Charlene

  “She wanted to know a whole lot about fertility. About…” She scrunched up her nose. “She used strange terminology, but I got the gist of it.”

  “What kinds of things?” Macy asked.

  “She was thorough. She wanted to know all the ins and outs of a woman’s menstrual cycle. She wanted to know how we could manipulate that cycle using drugs. In short, she wanted to be able to make a woman ovulate more quickly in her cycle. She also, and most importantly, wanted to ensure that the woman did indeed ovulate. That she was in the best possible position to become pregnant. Now I know why.” She sighed. “It’s sick. I can’t imagine how the two of you must feel. You’re strangers. Strangers who might not think of one another in that way.” She was speaking more to him than to Macy, which made him feel uncomfortable. “And you’re expected just to get into bed together.”

  “What’s even worse,” Macy piped up, drawing the healer’s attention back to her, “is that we would be expected to just give up our child were I to become pregnant.” Her eyes took on a faraway look. “I would have to carry to term and hand my baby to that psycho bitch.”

  “That’s not going to happen, Mace.” He clasped her hand for a second. “I told you that. And I meant it. We’ll find a way out of this.”

  She gave him a ghost of a smile. Then she looked at the healer. “What happened next? Did she give you one of her hugs?” Macy grew angry. Her jaw tightened.

  The healer made a choked noise and shook her head, her lip trembled again but she bit down on it. “Don’t get me started on the hug,” she finally said, “It was terrifying.” She visibly shivered. “No, she told me to talk her through a treatment plan, as if she were the patient needing to get pregnant. She wanted to know everything, step by step. Then she made me pack the bag. She told me to take everything I needed to perform the procedure, as well as secondary, fall-back drugs. I told her I needed an ultrasound machine. I told her I needed to be able to perform blood tests, that I would need to check if a patient was a good candidate for fertility treatments, but she wouldn’t listen.” She took a sip of her water. “Certain individuals should not be on fertility drugs. Also, there are various options, so we should choose drugs based on the results of the tests.” She frowned. “Anyway, there was nothing I could do to convince her, so, I packed a bag, like she asked. Then, I got myself a hug.” She shivered again, her face pale. “I thought I was dead, for sure. Then I woke up here.”

  “Amazon woman wants you to kickstart my ovulation and to ensure that I get pregnant.” Macy looked pale as well. She sat down on the edge of the bed.

  “We’ll find a way out of this,” Sand said. His words sounded hollow.

  “Just before she hugged me,” the healer swallowed thickly, “she told me I had better get the job done or that she would kill me. That she wouldn’t hesitate. She told me she has a good sense of smell and that she will be able to tell whether or not the drug regime is working. She told me not to try anything. By the look in her eyes…I believed her.”

  Chapter 17

  Two hours later…

  Dr. Baker put her hand on the bag next to her. “Are you sure you want me to do this?” she asked, eyebrows raised.

  “It’s not like we have any choice,” Macy said. “If you don’t, she will kill you. I believe it. You looked into those eyes. You said you believed it too. Do you want to die, doctor?”

  “O-of course not, but—”

  “But nothing.” Sand stepped forward. “If you don’t do it, Macy will die as well. If one of those creatures is thrown in here with her, she’s dead. Her death will be agonizing. We need to do this.”

  “Okay, okay…” Macy felt the icy tendrils of fear slide their way through her, threatening to take hold. “That’s enough. I don’t want to think about that right now, but only because you’re right. Sand is right.” She directed the last at the doctor.

  “I’m sorry.” Sand drew her attention back to him, and it was probably her imagination, but his eyes softened when they landed on her. “I just need the…doctor to understand the ramifications if we don’t do everything the Feral requests.”

  “Feral?” The doctor frowned.

  “It’s my name for her,” Sand responded.

  “Oh…okay.” She nodded. “It actually works. She is rather feral, although, at the same time, it’s a little unnerving how intelligent she is. I definitely got that from her. She may have limited knowledge of our society, but she’s no fool.”

  “Yes, that’s why we have to do what she says,” Macy said. “She’ll know if we don’t.”

  “So, you’re just going to roll over and give her what she wants?” the doctor asked.

  “No,” Sand said. “Not at all. Don’t be alarmed but,” he paused, “I’m a shifter,” he admitted.

  Dr. Baker sucked in a breath. “A shif…oh…I see…” She gave him the once-over, taking her time about it.

  Not getting jealous!

  Not!

  Then she went on. Finally. Her eyeballs were probably getting tired from all the perusing of his body. Not going there! “Oh…a shifter… How will that help us? I take it you can’t overpower her, or you would have done that already?”

  “I tried and it didn’t work out so well. Not only is she strong, but it’s like she was carved out of granite or something.” Sand shook his head. “The Feral are much stronger. They are the strongest of the non-humans. Look, we’ve been down this road of thinking before. Based on conversations with this creature, we have established that the majority of her species most likely have no idea what she’s up to. We need to identify who she is. We need something on her. A name…something personal…anything along those lines…anything.” He pulled in a deep breath. “I’m not sure where we go from there, though. It’s up to Macy as to how we proceed. We’ll either have sex while she is in heat, or....”

  “There’s a strong possibility she’ll become pregnant if you do. Both of you need to understand that, and the implications.”

  Neither of them said anything. Macy didn’t know what to say. She’d always wanted a child so badly. Thing was, she wanted a family as well. She wanted it all. Not like this. Never like this.

  “I would be removed once you were with child. I would hopefully have something on that bitch by then. Something to take to her people so that they could help me find her. I’m sure her king would not accept these actions. This could result in full-scale war against the Feral.”

  “You just said they’re stronger, though,” the doctor responded. “Why would they care about a war?”

  “I doubt it would come to that. I am sure they would care, since all of the non-humans would band together in an instance like that, in which case they would be greatly outnumbered.”

  The doctor nodded.

  “The other option is not to have sex during your cycle,” Sand went on. “I would be removed fairly quickly. Hopefully, I would find you again before she did something rash.”

  “Yep. Throwing a guy version of her in here with me could be termed ‘rash’.”

  Sand folded his arms. “It’s definitely the riskier route.” He shook his head. “I don’t like it. I’m all about minimizing risk.”

  “Wait just a minute,” the doctor said, clearly deep in thought. “We just need to make her believe it. What if we could make it seem as if you were pregnant.”

  “What?” Macy asked.

  “I have hCG hormones in the bag as well. They’re the same hormones your body would make if you were pregnant. I could give you the hormones and we could fake your pregnancy. You’d get a false positive response on a test. No sex, no baby, no—”

  “That wouldn’t work.” Sand shook his head.

  “Why not?” the doctor said, frowning.

  “She’d be able to smell if we were having sex or not. She’d be able to scent whether or not Macy was in heat. She’d know we weren’t actively trying for a baby.” He ran a hand through his hair, looking frustrated.

  “That’s crazy!” T
he doctor looked bewildered for a few moments. Then she grinned. “That’s easy to rectify, you could use condoms during sex. I have those.” She tapped the bag. “I help out with a local outreach program.”

  “There’s a good chance she’d smell it,” Sand interjected. “Human coverings stink to high heaven. She’d go berserk if she found out we were trying to trick her.”

  “So, condoms are out.” She scratched her chin. “I wouldn’t recommend any kind of oral contraception, not after manipulating your body into ovulation. It would be too risky. Also, most of those would prevent ovulation, which she would smell.” She lifted her eyes in thought, making a humming noise. “There is one other option if you’re dead set on the having sex route.”

  “We don’t have a choice in the matter. If we want to keep the Feral calm and happy, we have to have sex, bottom line.”

  It shouldn’t hurt, but his words stung. At the same time, it was a good reminder. Sand was having sex with her mostly because he was being forced into it. Chances were good it would never have happened otherwise.

  She noticed how Sand had leaned in, waiting to hear what Dr. Baker had to say. “You could take the Morning-After pill after having sex.”

  “That would kill the baby.”

  Macy was shocked at the level of animosity in Sand’s voice.

  “Um…no…not technically. I’m not getting into religious discussions here. We’re going to stick to the facts. You would take a pill like that within seventy-two hours of having unprotected sex. In your case, you’d take it much sooner.” She paused. “There’s a good chance the sperm and the egg will not have even met yet, and if they do, no division will have taken place. It’s too early on in the conception for it to be considered—”

  Sand held up a hand. “Okay, doctor…thank you for the explanation.” He didn’t look convinced.

  “You can call me Britt.” She smiled at Sand.

  Sand didn’t say anything.

  “The doctor is right,” Macy said, watching as Sand scrubbed a hand over his face.

  “I’m sorry, I just…it felt… it felt wrong to me. We’re wired to protect. To preserve.”

  “To procreate,” she offered. It was what he had told her when they had first found themselves in this predicament.

  “Yep.” He nodded. “I guess so. More so than I imagined. I guess you learn new things about yourself all the time. Especially in situations like this.”

  “We don’t have to decide yet,” Macy said. “I need to take those drugs, and then we need to figure out who this Amazon bitch is, so that you can get back here to rescue me.” She worked hard at staying strong. She believed in Sand. She knew he would do everything and anything to make that happen.

  “So, back to my original question, are you sure about this?” the doctor asked.

  Macy nodded.

  “Okay then.” The doctor rummaged in her bag for half a minute, taking out an inconspicuous box of drugs. She removed a small white pill from the blister pack and placed it on Macy’s palm.

  “So,” Macy said, looking down at the drug, “this is going to make me ovulate…yesterday.”

  “No,” Dr. Baker shook her head, “that’s going to bring on your menstruation. I have a drug call Clomid in my bag of tricks, that’s going to make you ovulate. We’ll discuss that part of the process when the time comes. I don’t want to overwhelm you.”

  “You don’t happen to have any pain meds in that bag of yours, do you? I normally get quite hectic period pains.” Macy made a face. “I don’t mean to come across as a baby or anything.”

  The doctor nodded. “Yes, no problem.” She tapped the bag.

  Macy pushed out a sigh. She put the pill in her mouth and drank it down. “That one wasn’t so bad then.”

  “It’s the…” Dr. Baker began and then sucked in a breath. “I have an idea. Why didn’t I think of it sooner?” She rummaged in her bag, pulling out a cellphone from one of the side pockets.

  Macy wasn’t so sure what she was so excited about. “There is no reception all the way out here. That’s useless.”

  “No, it’s not,” the doctor smiled broadly. “It has a perfectly good camera.”

  Chapter 18

  The next day…

  The lock clicked open. Macy’s heart raced. She glanced at Sand, who was lounging on the sofa reading one of those magazines. At least, that’s what it looked like he was doing. When he noticed her watching him, he winked, looking back down at the magazine.

  Macy looked over at the doctor, who was standing next to her. She could see that Britt was having a mild panic attack inside. “It’s okay,” she mouthed to the other woman, who nodded once.

  The Feral stepped into the enclosure. She sniffed the air.

  Sand turned a page and folded the magazine in half, his eyes shifted to the Amazon woman before going back to the book. “No more prisoners today then?” he asked, sounding bored.

  “Do as I ask and there will be no need for more prisoners,” she said, her eyes narrowing in on the doctor.

  Britt took a step back, putting a hand to her chest. “I did what you asked me,” she blurted. “I started her on the medication.”

  “How soon will she be ready to breed?”

  “In roughly two weeks’ time, but it’s not—”

  “That is not soon enough, healer.” Her voice took on this angry edge. “You need to do more.”

  Britt stepped back. “I’m not some kind of miracle worker. I can’t make anything happen. I can help the body along, but that’s it.”

  “The female,” Amazon lady glanced at Macy as she spoke, “will have her heat and will become with child! It must happen! Do you understand?”

  Britt nodded. “Yes! There is a very good chance of that happening.”

  “Good chance?” The Feral cocked her head. “Good chance isn’t good enough!” she snapped.

  “It’s the best I can give you. Bring me an ultrasound machine and I’ll give you more decisive answers. I’m flying blind here, which means I do the best I can with what I have.” Macy liked that she had grit.

  “The female specimen is perfect for breeding.” The Feral looked her up and down. “Nice, wide hips. She had a good, strong heat before. The male will have good seed. With your help and them actually doing as I ask,” she threw Macy a dirty look; Macy, in turn, had to bite her tongue, “this breeding will be successful. Your lives depend on it.”

  “They are good candidates,” Britt stammered, telling the Feral what she wanted to hear.

  Britt wrung her hands together and licked her lips. “I can leave the medication for Macy. I wouldn’t need to stay…”

  “No!” The Feral screeched. “You will remain here. You will make this happen, or else.”

  Sand shifted on the sofa. “We will do as you ask,” he muttered. “We didn’t need the healer.”

  “This is going to happen. Do you hear me?” she screeched. “You will make it so.” She pointed at Britt who cowered, tears streaming down her cheeks. “The two of you will rut during the human’s heat. I am giving you one last chance!” she screeched.

  Sand jumped up, still holding the book. “We’ve told you that we’re on board. None of us want to die. You are scaring the females.”

  Britt was breathing heavily. She was going to need a paper bag soon if she didn’t calm herself down.

  “We’ll do it,” Macy said. “I will make sure everything happens as discussed. No one needs to get hurt.”

  She watched as the Feral calmed down. Her chest slowed its rising, and her hands unfurled. “Don’t disappoint me. I brought more food. I will be back.”

  “We need clothes,” Macy said, stepping forward. “You can’t expect the three of us to walk around half-naked.” She took a deep breath, realizing that what she had just said meant very little to the creature. “Humans prefer to be covered. We are more comfortable that way. The healer will be able to work better, and I will be less stressed. Females who are stressed have less chance of becomi
ng pregnant.”

  The Feral’s eyes narrowed and for a second she was sure she would tell her to go to hell. Instead, she nodded once. “I will see what I can do.” Then she turned and left.

  No one said anything for a while. When she couldn’t wait anymore, Macy turned to Sand. “And?”

  “That was perfect.” He grinned. “I’m sure I have it all.” He handed the phone to Britt. It had been between the folds of the magazine.

  “Let’s have a look.” Macy noticed that the other woman’s hand shook as she held the phone. “We don’t have much battery life left, so I really hope this worked.” She was swiping the screen.

  The sound of their earlier conversation came out of the device. Macy looked around Britt, at the screen, and there she was. The Feral, nice and visible on the device.

  Sand punched the air. “We have her!” he yelled. “I’m going to need to keep that though.” He gestured to her phone.

  “That’s fine,” Britt sighed loudly. “I don’t care about the phone. As long as that…thing is taken to task over this. I’ll buy a new device. I don’t care.”

  “Thank you,” Sand said. “I’ll take it with me when I go.” He turned to her. “They’ll know who she is, and the clip is damning. She threatens us all. Her leaders will have to help us find her, and then we’ll find you.”

  She smiled back at him.

  “Have the two of you decided what you want to do?” Britt asked. “Not that you need to make a decision just yet.”

  Macy felt everything in her tighten. She felt nauseous at the thought of sleeping with Sand and actually becoming pregnant. She felt just as sick at the thought of taking those pills to stop herself from becoming pregnant. Macy wasn’t sure she could go through with it. She might have to. Like Britt had said, it wasn’t as if a baby will have formed yet. It wasn’t taking a life, or in this case, two lives.

  Two lives.