“Centuries ago, our species were hunted and persecuted by the humans. I’m told that there are stories and legends of armor wearing knights on great horses. These knights carried swords and spears. What the stories and legends do not mention is that these blades were silver. We were hunted and slaughtered until only a few of my forefathers remained. We were forced to flee, to abandon our homes. We sought refuge here in the mountains, forced to keep our existence a secret.” He decided not to tell her of the stag runs, for fear of scaring her. “With our numbers being so low to begin with when we went into seclusion, we have continued to lose numbers as the years have gone on. Therefore, when we discovered that the vampires had a program that allowed them to breed with human females we felt we had no choice but to give it a try.

Although she pretended not to be interested, he could see how she leaned forward and held her breath. “We would have preferred to have approached human females instead of just taking them. In the vampires’ breeding program, the females voluntarily sign up to meet with vampire males. It seems that all of the nonhuman species are suffering with fertility problems. This program has been a success. The first of the children are about to be born. We cannot allow for our existence to become public knowledge through the methods that they used though for fear that the persecutions would begin again. Do you understand that?”

She ignored him so Coal went on. “Although dragon shifters are much more powerful than humans, there are so few of us comparatively. We would never stand a chance.” He turned the the stick and the hare sizzled, its flesh was becoming a beautiful golden color. The meat was nearly ready.

“Cry me a freaking river,” the female mumbled. “Tell someone who actually cares.”

“We have been left with very little options. It was either take human females or die out. Since we couldn’t announce ourselves, we were forced to—”

“Just take what you wanted anyway?” Her eyes flashed to his. “That’s wrong. You can’t go around kidnapping women and you have to know that.”

“It’s not ideal.”

“Not ideal?” She huffed out a breath. “Cavemen, barbarians, that’s what you all are.”

Coal had to suppress a smile. Such a feisty female. He didn’t know much about humans but he suspected that she was rare.

“We have little choice, we proceeded by handpicking the females. It was important that we choose unmated, healthy specimens who—”

“Specimens? Really? We’re not handbags or cattle or scarves or something, we’re human beings. We have feelings and rights. What you are doing is not fair. It’s wrong, don’t you see that?” Her nostrils flared with her emotion.