Madja folded her hands in her lap. “I didn’t enter your lair. I was taken here against my will and left as tribute.”
Sevrrn gave a detached nod. “I see. Well, that means you are mine, ergo, your possessions are now mine as well. Now that that is settled, tell me, what is the purpose of this spoon?”
He held it up in front of her, much the same way he’d held up the objects she’d appraised the night before. Madja exhaled through her nose, waiting for her anger to simmer down before she spoke.
“You eat food with it, but that’s not why I want it. It’s all I have left of my father.”
He brought the spoon closer for inspection, before delivering her a look of doubt. Madja would have smiled, were she not still annoyed.
“He’s not smelted into the gold. The spoon belonged to him. He was an appraiser. He had a lot of nice things before the nobles took it all away from him.”
He arched a fine brow. “Appraiser?”
“It’s a job, one that requires a lot of expertise,” she explained, reaching for the spoon. He evaded her again. “Appraisers work in trade cities. When goods come in, by land or sea, they inspect them and inform prospective buyers of their value. Some of them also work for the government to make sure that foreign merchants aren’t peddling fraudulent goods.”
“And you are an appraiser as well?”
Madja frowned and shook her head. “Women can’t be appraisers. It’s a man’s profession.”
“Why?”
She sighed. “Believe me, I’ve been trying to figure that out for a long time. Look, can I please have the spoon?”
To her surprise, he placed the spoon in the palm of her hand. She meant to thank him, but was distracted when one corner of his lips curved into a half-smile.
“You may hold on to it for me,” he informed her as he stood. “Now, get up. We have things to inspect.”
Madja stood as well, and was amazed all over again by how much he dwarfed her. She had always been an abnormally tall girl, and an even taller woman, often standing nose to nose with the rare man who came to court her. It was such a strange experience to stand beside a man and hardly measure up to his shoulders.
“Inspect what?” she asked him.
Sevrrn pointed at a pile she hadn’t seen before. It was taller than any of the coin piles and consisted entirely of artifacts. Her eyes bulged.
“You want me to appraise all of that?” she asked, torn between exasperation and excitement.
“I took this form so that we may discuss each item, its history, and its value.”
Madja rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “Well, I’ll do my best, but I can’t tell you the value of everything. I’d imagine that most of this stuff is nearly invaluable.”
This seemed to displease him. “So it is all worthless?”
“No, no, just the opposite. To some people, these things would be worth—well, everything.”
Chapter Four
Madja made it through three appraisals before her stomach growled voraciously. Sevrrn glanced at her midsection and arched a brow. Madja pretended that she wasn’t embarrassed.
“I haven’t eaten anything in over a day,” she told him. “The guards didn’t bother wasting their rations on me because they thought you were just going to eat me.”
“I do not generally eat humans,” he informed her.
The ‘generally’ gave her pause.
Sevrrn went on to say, “Most of them are more bone than meat. I vastly prefer cows. You are fortunate to not be a cow, otherwise I would have most certainly devoured you.”
She offered him a weak smile. “Well, you wouldn’t happen to have any beef lying around here that I could eat, would you? This is an awfully big pile of treasure. I’ll probably starve before I appraise everything.”
Sevrrn appeared pensive and then finally nodded. “It is important that you not die.”
Thank the gods that we’re both in agreement on that.
“I will acquire meat for you. Stay.”
The command irked Madja, but her irritation was quickly forgotten as she witnessed Sevrrn shift for the first time. The golden scales of his robe became sentient. Melding to his skin, they swallowed up his large form and rapidly expanded.
In the blink of an eye, Sevrrn the man had disappeared, the gold dragon springing into existence in a silent explosion. She knew that there was more to it, that the shift happened quicker than her human mind could perceive it, but it was astounding just the same.
The dragon spared her a brief glance before expanding his enormous wings. He took a few steps forward, beating his wings once, and then twice, before he became airborne. She watched as he headed for the passageway she’d entered from the night before.
It seemed farther away than ever before.
***
After a meal of burnt chicken—deep fried in dragon fire—Madja resumed her appraisal of Sevrrn’s ‘trinkets’.
His word—not hers.
When he’d arrived back with her breakfast, the dragon had also brought with him a gilded throne. Madja initially assumed that Sevrrn wanted her to appraise it, but it turned out he’d brought it to sit in while he watched her dig through his possessions on the floor.
Madja couldn’t help but shake the feeling that she was nothing more than a passing amusement to him. Very soon, he would become bored with her. She could only hope that by then, she’d figured a way out of this lair.
“If I were to guess, I’d say that this belonged to Vasyndru’s second wife,” Madja said, scrutinizing the flower pattern on a dress. “See here, it’s faded, but this was purple dye. His second wife was a Dvorian princess and purple is their royal color.”
“I want to see you wear it.”
Madja’s head snapped up to regard Sevrnn with confusion. He’d been asking questions whenever something sparked his curiosity, but this was the first time that he’d made a request of her.
“Um, okay.”
She stood and scanned the area, searching for a suitable place to undress.
Sevrrn snapped his fingers. “What are you waiting for?”
“What, do you expect me to just get naked in front of you? Here, I’ll go over there, behind that—”
“Do you possess a deformity?”
She folded her arms beneath her breasts. “What are you talking about?”
“I do not understand why you feel it is necessary to hide your body from me.”
“I’m not trying to hide anything, I—”
“If you have nothing to hide, then you will have no problem undressing before me. Why is your face so red?”
She resisted the urge to stamp her foot. “Men shouldn’t see women naked. It’s inappropriate.”
Madja had spent much of her life contesting conventions. She couldn’t believe that she was lecturing anyone on propriety—least of all, a dragon.
Sevrrn served her a bored look, making it clear that he was not swayed by her argument.
She said, “Look, I’m not comfortable undressing in front of you. What if you, you know, became aroused?”
His dark eyes narrowed. “Like an animal?”
Genuinely perplexed, Madja asked, “Don’t tell me dragons are above arousal?”
“Not all of us,” he said. “There are those of my kind who have fallen prey to desires of the flesh, but I am not among them. I find the thought of debasing myself with a human to be most distasteful.”
Madja never thought she would hear a man sound quite so smug about being a virgin.
“All right, whatever, you win,” she said, shaking her head. She couldn’t believe that she was about the strip in front of a dragon.
She stalled for a moment, cracking her neck and stretching her arms. After receiving an impatient look, she heaved a sigh and tugged at the bindings of her gown. She let it fall to the ground and began working on her underclothes.
She watched his face as she undressed, searching for any sign of masculine awareness. His expression held, at mo
st, a clinical interest.
A small part of her was disappointed. While she hadn’t expected him to salivate over her, it would have been nice to think that he found her body even moderately appealing. She’d always thought that, were it not for her height, she would have been quite pretty.
The dress was old, but not in a bad way. It was remarkably well-preserved and came from a culture that valued simplicity and freedom of movement over flamboyance. Aside from the hem being too high and the bust being a bit snug, it was a comfortable fit.
Smiling, she gave a twirl.
“How do I look?”
She halted at the sight of Sevrrn’s disapproving look.
“Do you not find clothing to be bothersome? Why do you even feel the need to wear it?”
Madja scratched her head, confused by the sudden change in his mood.
“Well, for starters, you’re the one who told me to put this on. That aside, I wear clothes because it’s the proper thing to do. Why do you wear clothes?”
He pinched his robe. “These are my scales. I fashion them into a robe so as to affect a more human-looking skin. Would you like me to remove them?”
“No,” she said, holding her hands up defensively.
He somehow managed to look irritated and amused. “Do not bother lying to me. I am aware that this body”—he gestured at himself—”is a remarkable example of beauty and masculinity. There is no shame in admitting that you desire it. You are, after all, only human.”
Madja gaped at him. When she realized he being completely serious, her lip curled.
Dryly, she said, “You’re absolutely right. In all honesty, I can hardly contain myself in your presence. You see, that’s exactly why I don’t want to see you naked. I would just hate being able to see you in all of your glory and know that I couldn’t have you for myself. In fact, I bet the sight of you would simply ruin all men for me.”
Apparently, Madja was the first person who had ever been sarcastic with the dragon god, because he nodded as if her reasoning was perfectly sound.
“Yes, I can see how that would be… What is that word?”
“Frustrating?” she grumbled.
“Ah, yes.”
Madja took a seat on the floor and grabbed the next object from the pile, a jade necklace. As she examined the piece, she mulled over her interaction with Sevrrn.
Absently, she asked, “Haven’t you ever wanted anything you couldn’t have?”
As soon as she’d asked the question, Madja realized how naïve it was. If the legends could be believed—and they’d yet to be wrong—Sevrrn was quite nearly as old as time. In the span of her life, there had been many things she’d wanted that she couldn’t have. And being as old as he was, Sevrrn no doubt had countless—
“No,” was his immediate reply. “I would not know what that is like. I am not so weak that I could not take anything that I desired.”
Well, there goes that theory.
Chapter Five
Madja looked up and down, and then left to right, making certain that Sevrrn was nowhere in sight. He’d been gone for at least an hour, and now that the coast was clear, she was going to do what she’d been waiting to do all day.
Take a bath.
It had been nearly a week since she’d been left in Sevrrn’s lair, and aside from cataloguing the treasures of the ancient world, bathing was Madja’s favorite thing to do.
The lake was utterly breathtaking in the daylight. Much like the rest of Sevrrn’s lair, it was filled with treasures. A gentle tide lapped against the alluvial pearls that littered the shoreline. Several paces into the water, the pearls gave way to dense gemstones of all shapes and colors, which gave the lakebed its iridescence.
At noontime each day, Sevrrn would leave, giving Madja a few hours of privacy. She assumed that he went off to nap, given that she never saw him sleep. Even during the few hours each night that he allowed her to rest, she would often wake to the sounds of him digging through one of his piles. Each morning, when he woke her at the first whispers of daylight, the pile of items he wanted her to appraise had somehow managed to grow larger.
Madja shed her outfit—embroidered sheepskin slippers and a green dress of fine Kaletani silk—and all but flung herself into the warm lake.
After washing up, she floated for a while. Bath time was the only time she truly had to herself and as such, she should have been using the time to formulate an escape plan. Instead, she spent most of her bath times wondering why she had no interest in formulating an escape plan.
While Sevrrn still possessed the ability to terrify her, he rarely exercised it. Most of the time, she found his company to be quite enjoyable. He was the only person she’d ever known besides her father who was just as interested in history as she was.
And though she’d never admit it to him, Sevrrn was more than a little pleasing to look at. Oftentimes, Madja would become wrapped up in a long tale, only to glance in Sevrrn’s direction and become temporarily spellbound by his beauty, as though she were seeing him for the first time all over again. There simply was no getting used to the way he looked.
Having a nearly endless array of treasures to catalogue was also quite enjoyable, but more than that, being able to work as an appraiser—even doing so at the mercy of a dragon—gave her a deep sense of satisfaction. It was the type of satisfaction humans could only attain from doing the thing they were passionate about, and if there was one thing Madja was passionate about, it was appraising.
Her father, Jaren O’aer, had been a world-class appraiser. In his youth, he had studied history under several renowned Mandurian scholars. Then, he had travelled the world, studying cultures of the past and present while making a name for himself as a fair and knowledgeable appraiser.
Jaren had been in his forties when he’d wooed Madja’s mother, Latia, a bookish spinster only a few years younger than himself. The two had been all set to spend their lives sailing the world, when Madja was born, rather unexpectedly. Deciding that the seas were no place for a young girl, they settled down in Erda, using Jaren’s considerable fortune to worm their way into high society.
Neither of Madja’s parents had tried very hard to make her into a proper young lady. Madja had inherited her mother’s impeccable memory and her father’s love of history, making her a natural-born appraiser. They were proud of her and encouraged her talents, but after her mother’s passing and later, her father’s execution, she had found herself adrift in a world where single women had few rights and even fewer prospects. Only a week before the chancellor’s guards snatched her from her bed, Madja’s uncle had announced that he was arranging a marriage for her.
Madja did want to marry and she did want a family, but not if it meant sacrificing her passion. Perhaps that, above all other reasons, was why she was not eager to return to the city. There was nothing back there for her. At least, nothing worth the incredible opportunity that lay before her.
After a nice, long soak, Madja waded back to the shore, wringing the water from her hair as she went. After drying off, she turned to collect her clothes, only to find Sevrrn standing a few paces away, his dark eyes perusing her nude body.
On reflex, Madja’s hands moved to cover her breasts. Whether he wasn’t attracted to humans, or he was just plain asexual, it still unnerved her to be naked in front of a man—especially one that she found so appealing.
“How long have you been standing there?” she asked, reaching down to scoop up her dress.
“Why are you covering your breasts?”
Turning her back to him, she stepped into her dress. “Why are you so interested in my breasts?”
“I am only interested in them because you hide them,” he informed her. “I would not find them interesting if you would stop wearing clothing.”
As soon as her assets were covered, she turned to face him again. She waved at her breasts in a quick motion.
“They’re just regular, ordinary breasts. There’s nothing special about them.”
“Then let me see them.”
She cast him a dubious look.
“I don’t understand why you’re so insistent on getting my permission.”
Realizing the statement sounded like an invitation, she hastily amended it.
“I mean, we both know that you’re stronger than I am. You could take anything that you want and I wouldn’t be able to stop you.”
He lifted one shoulder. “I am not interested in seeing them. I am interested in you showing them to me. It is part of the fun.”
It was the first time he’d ever mentioned anything relating to fun and she couldn’t help but be intrigued.
“Okay, I’ll show them to you.”
His back straightened, the only outward sign of his surprise.
She added, “But we’ll have to negotiate.”
Madja recognized, belatedly, that it sounded an awful lot like prostitution.
Sevrrn stared down at her through suspicious eyes. “I do not make deals.”
Flatly, she said, “You know, I don’t get how someone as disagreeable as you has lived so long.”
“I have survived because I am the most powerful being in existence.”
Her lips twitched. “In existence. Really?”
After six days of constant interaction with Madja, Sevrrn was beginning to recognize sarcasm.
With marked impatience, he asked, “What is this deal you wish to make?”
“All right. How about, for starters, you grant me my freedom?”
She didn’t really want to leave, but it would be nice to know that she had the option. Unfortunately, Sevrrn dashed that hope.
“No.”
She frowned. “Okay, well, how about when I do leave, you let me take—”
“You will never leave. Now, either offer a rational deal or stop wasting my time.”
“Because you’re clearly so busy,” she muttered under her breath. Before Sevrrn could respond, she threw her hands up. “Fine, how about you tell me where it is you go when you’re away?”
Taming the Alpha Page 3