He snorted. "Sure, say that. But don't worry. You've met Serafina, and she'll help you with overcoming your fear of dragons. Between her and the children visiting, your apprehensions should slowly melt away."
He spoke as if she were afraid on purpose, just to irritate him. Ivy leaned forward a little. "You can't just snap your fingers and make everything okay."
"No, but it's not as if you have a choice in the matter, do you?"
As they stared at one another, neither of them speaking, Ivy's heart rate kicked up.
The hard planes of his face should terrify her. And yet, the deep brown of his eyes drew her in, making her want to know more about him.
No. She moved as far away from him as she could manage, which wasn't much. Spending a prolonged amount of time near Zain was a bad idea, a really bad idea.
Because she could deny it, but she might start to want the dragonman if he were around all the time and showed the slightest hint of kindness.
And Ivy didn't want the temptation to distract her from her end goal of eradicating the Dragon Knights.
He slowly stood upright again. "And here's one last thing I'll leave you with—open up to me and work with us, and I'll ensure that whoever killed your brother and his partner will be at the top of my list of Knights to find."
So now he was dangling a treat in front of her? He didn't have to, which piqued her curiosity. "Why would you promise that?"
"I want all the Knights taken down, so finding one or a small group of them isn't that much extra work."
If Ivy cooperated with the Stonefire dragons, they'd find her brother's killers eventually anyway.
However, she may never know who they were.
No, this might be the only way she could learn the names of the murderers and get some closure. Because even if she didn't know them personally, names alone would allow her to blame a specific someone or someones.
Well, mostly. Ivy would never fully be absolved of her part in it all.
Not wanting to think more about that right now, when her future was being decided, she looked at Zain. She sensed he was right—she didn't have a choice. However, Ivy had one last question before agreeing to the ridiculous plan. "It will be a legal marriage only, right?"
Zain's pupils flashed a few times before he cleared his throat and said, "Yes. Despite what the Knights may have taught you, I don't rape females for sport. If a female is in my bed, she's there willingly."
He was cocky, for sure. That was one of the few things the Knights had told her that had turned out to be true regarding dragon-shifters, at least in Zain's case. "That's a non-answer."
He raised his brows. "Only if it means you intend to show the slightest interest in being in my bed."
Ivy pulled the covers up to her shoulders even though the thin material could do nothing to protect her from the tall, muscled dragonman not more than a foot away. She cleared her throat. "That won't be a problem for me."
"Good. Then Nikki and Jane will be by shortly. The next time you see me, it'll be to mate you."
Zain exited the room, and Ivy dropped the covers as she let out a huge sigh.
If someone had told her even a few days ago that she'd be mating a dragonman, she would've laughed in their face.
True, it wasn't like she really had a choice in the matter if she wanted continued protection. However, her former colleagues would've tried to kidnap her and chain her inside a cave rather than let her go through with it.
Of course, they weren't her colleagues any longer. No, they were her enemies.
So Ivy would go through with it. But if Zain thought she'd ever share his bed, he'd be waiting a long time. Even putting aside her fears and doubts about his species, human women who birthed half-dragon-shifter babies not only had a fifty-fifty chance of dying in childbirth, they were often ostracized by a large portion of human society.
Ivy didn't want any of that. She'd spent nearly five years of her life working in secret with the Knights, abandoning everyone she knew outside of their organization. She didn't want to have to face that all again.
Once the Knights were taken care of, then Ivy would find a way to escape and start over somewhere in the world with a new identity.
And that would be her motivation for surviving the mating ceremony and probably living with a grumpy dragonman for who knew how long.
Less than an hour later, shortly after Ivy had finally dozed off, there was a resounding knock on her door. She'd barely opened her eyes before two women entered the room.