She didn’t budge. The female folded her arms across her chest. “Are you going to make me?”

Coal shook his head. “You are tired and cold. It would be better if you sat down but if you would prefer to stand, that is fine by me.” He sucked in a deep breath. “There are very few females of our kind. One day, females just stopped being born. There were one or two but for the most part, that was the end. Essentially, we are a dying breed. Something needed to be done and soon. There are only a handful of dragon shifter females within the four kingdoms.”

For scale’s sake, by the way she was looking at him, he could see that this was news to her.

“So what? You decided to abduct a few women so that you could rape and impregnate them? Well, I have it on good authority that sex between our species does not work. Look how freaking big you are. How small I am.” Her voice quivered. Although he could still scent anger, her fear was back. “You’ll hurt me. Tear me apart. I would never survive it.”

“You have my word of honor that I will not touch you without your consent.”

“Your word means nothing to me,” she spat.

When he got back to the lair he was going to have a good talk with Scarlet. The female was upset that they hadn’t ended up mating, that things hadn’t gone her way. This was obviously her way of repaying him, all of the dragon males for that matter. They had no choice. He had no choice.

“I could’ve had you a dozen times by now.” He growled, unable to keep the emotion from his voice.

The female didn’t flinch and his respect for her grew.

“I could rut you right now and there’s not a thing you could do about it.”

The female gasped and took a step back. Her eyes were wide and filled with fear. Her scent turned acrid with it.

“I told you that I’m not going to touch you and I won’t. Sit down!” He couldn’t help the commanding edge that crept into his voice.

She did as he said.