It is all very curious.
I pretend to sleep as they gesture at me, my mate making worried sounds. The other female reeks of her mate and makes reassuring noises, and they calm my mate. They speak for a time, and then the newcomers turn to go. As they do, I catch a hint of the new female's scent.
She is carrying a child. Interesting. I wonder what my mate will smell like when she carries mine.
They leave, and then my female turns back to me.
"Mhal," my female says, making a noise that almost sounds like my name. She sheds the skin she has wrapped around her torso and then approaches me, her arms out.
JENNY
All right. I can do this. Rachel explained to me what I suspected, and now I need to get on with the show.
It's funny, but I'm not frightened. I'm a virgin, and the thought of sleeping with one of the Fort Dallas guys always turned my stomach, but sleeping with Mhal seems like it'd be fine. Better than fine, even. Pleasurable. It's in the way he reacts to me in my dreams, the possessive, obsessive way he touches me, as if he can't get enough. I think I'll like sleeping with him.
I've just got to figure out how to get him to turn to his other form.
I'm relieved to hear from Rachel that he doesn't need to be in dragon form to make this whole “mating” thing happen. There's zero way that would work, and the thought of trying to entice a dragon seems…bizarre and unnatural. But Mhal should have a human form, just like her mate does, and I just need to make him remember to flip the switch, so to speak.
So I turn to Mhal and study him carefully. Here goes nothing.
I drop the thin blanket to the floor, standing naked in front of him, and extend my arms out.
The dragon just watches me through slitted, gold-and-black eyes.
I need to get those eyes to pure gold, Rachel explained. They're tied to his mood, and the more content he is, the more likely he is to be in his right mind. Okay, then. I need to make a dragon happy. It's just…how? Rachel said that Jurik transformed for her almost immediately, so she wasn't much help on that angle. She suggested I pet him a lot, talk to him in a sweet voice, and act seductive.
And if that didn't work, drag his nose to my pussy and let him get a sniff.
The mental image of that makes me squirm with discomfort. There's something weird about shoving a dragon's snout between my legs to try to turn him on. When I look at Mhal like this—as a big, plane-sized dragon—I don't see him as Mhal, the person. I still see him as an aloof, dangerous dragon. It's hard to reconcile the two when he's never given me any indication that he's the Mhal of my dreams. Even when I address him, he ignores me.
Not exactly setting me up for seduction, and the thought of shoving a dragon's snout between my thighs isn't getting my engine revving, either.
Azar's threats have made it clear, though—if I don't do this, he's going to take his frustrations out on the other girls in the program. I'll be kicked out, too, forced to live as a nomad. I think about Hailey's dead body, eaten by bugs, and shudder. Without my dad's protection, I won't last very long. Even the toughest women never last long outside of a fort.
I'm not appalled by the idea. I've always known at some point that sex was a commodity I could trade. It's now time to trade, and I don't hate the idea of having sex with the Mhal of my dreams. In fact, the Mhal of my dreams intrigues me…a lot. It's just the dragon part of him I'm having trouble with.
I eye my enormous companion. "I don't suppose you want to make this easier on me?"
The dragon gives me a long, uncomprehending stare. His eyes are still more black than gold. The sight of me naked hasn't done anything for him. I keep my arms up, though, and gesture that he should approach. "Come on. Come say hello to my tits."
He continues to gaze at me. Mhal blinks once. Slowly. Then he lowers his head to one of his forelegs and his eyes close, as if I'm the least interesting thing in the world.
I clench my jaw, my pride stinging a little at that. "Oh come on. My naked body isn't THAT bad. I've got boobs and everything."
Logically, I know that there's not a problem with me. He's just being a stubborn dragon who doesn't know me outside of his dreams. So I steel myself against my irritation and put a smile on my face. I change my voice to a cooing one, like I'd use against a wild dog or a child. "Don't you want me to be naked? I thought all guys were into this sort of thing."