Romance: Bought by the Dragon: BBW Dragon Shifter Romance Standalone (Paranormal Romance) (Studly Shifters Book 2) Read Free Page A

once!”
    Jenna felt a fraction of her rage fade away as she caught the desperation behind the King’s cold anger. But she still kept her chin up in defiance, even with tears coursing down her cheeks. “Just because I have no family doesn’t mean you can just keep me. Kidnapping is illegal!”
    “Illegal? Girl, where do you think you are? My kingdom is far from the borders of your homeland. Even if you could escape, the land ends at the sea in all directions. Even if such things are illegal back home…” his lips twitched into a thin smile despite the flecks of blood on them.
    “This is not America. This land has its own laws. And you have no connections back home who might notice your absence. Not one. My men checked carefully. You will not be missed...and you cannot escape.”
    Jenna stared at him, her last hope dwindling. Then slowly, she felt herself crumble. Humiliated but unable to stop, she started to sob. She buried her face in her hands and wept. “Please...please let me go!”
     
    The King made a disgusted noise. “Why does every human woman assume that males will capitulate to them the moment they pour water from their eyes? Pull yourself together, woman. It’s not the end of the bloody world. It won’t take but a year or two out of your life to do your job here, and then you can go do whatever you want with yourself.”
    Grimald spoke up, his voice gentle and hesitant. “Miss...Taran isn’t cruel. He won’t hurt you.”
    “Is that supposed to reassure me?” she gulped and let out another sob.
    “Well...point is, things could be a great deal worse….”
    “Enough of this!” The King crouched down to stare Jenna in the eyes. “You will comply. We will see the two of you married, you will go to my son’s bedchamber and you will lie with him until you fall pregnant. You will carry to term, and should it live and be male, you will be set free. Otherwise you will try again until we have what we need.
    And in the meantime, you are never to tell my idiot son that you were forced into the matter. He will refuse otherwise, and I’ll be forced to continue this ridiculous search for a proper mate for him. If that happens…” His eyes flashed again. “I’ll have you walled into your cell and fed through a slit for the next fifty years.”
     
     

3: Taran
     
    The next few hours blurred past as Jenna sank deeper and deeper into despair. She was washed by two women (dragon or human, she couldn’t tell; they seemed as coldly indifferent to her plight as everyone else but Grimald) in scented water, dressed in a filmy white gown and veil, and bedecked with gold jewelry and multicolored flowers.
    She was brought before an aged, gray-silver dragon with tattered wings, who trumpeted some sort of hymn and then chanted over her in a language that she didn’t understand. A ring, in the same dragon-wing design as the King’s crown, was shoved onto her finger.
    The whole time, she stared at the marble-mosaic floor, tears slowly drying, but only because she was going completely numb. No way out, she thought dully as a pair of scaled acolytes slithered around her bearing massive, smoking censers. I’ll have to go through with it. A year, maybe more, of hell.
    The one thing that comforted her, the one thing that gave her any resolve at all to survive, was that possibility of freedom at the end of it. I’m going to get through this. I’m going to come out the other side, no matter how I manage it, and then I’m going to go back home to my aunt and make good on my promise. She’s as good as dead. If I can’t get my revenge on this monster King and his subjects, I’ll take it out on her for getting me into this mess.
    They were leading her down another hallway. The chains were gone, but the cream-colored dragon walked behind her, and nudged her (with surprising gentleness) when she hesitated. He had stayed quiet almost this entire time since returning with the key ring.
    But he seemed to be watching her