He ran a hand through his hair. I want him to stay. But I should give the female a chance.
I say fight for custody. Especially since she's human, and she probably doesn't understand how claiming Rian means that she has to live permanently with a dragon-shifter clan.
That detail had been buried in the fine print of the contract the human—Delaney Murphy—had signed. Maybe she'd seen the clause, but he highly doubted it given how minuscule the text had been. And if she doesn't care about that? Then what?
His dragon huffed before muttering, Then I suppose she could stay here.
Well, Snowridge is more stable than the clan near Dublin in Ireland where she's from, or most of the Irish clans right now, to be honest.
Many of the clans in Ireland were in the process of picking new clan leaders. On top of that, they were under constant surveillance and monitoring by the Irish DDA. Not that Rhydian could blame the human oversight department. After all, two of the Irish dragon-shifter leaders had been hell-bent on killing the female leader, Teagan O'Shea, and had ended up dead themselves. The DDA needed to ensure peaceful transitions and good behavior for PR purposes, to avoid any sort of revolt or outcry by the human population.
His dragon grunted. We don’t know if the human is even brave enough to endure staying on Snowridge for any length of time, let alone anywhere else. Maybe invite her to stay for a trial period, and after she sees how distrustful of humans most of the clan are, she'll leave.
But she could leave with Rian if the DDA overrides our adoption claim and helps her find somewhere else to stay. And as much as I'm learning to trust Stonefire, I bet they'd take her and the boy if asked.
Technically, no, she couldn't take him. She missed the deadline. And we submitted adoption paperwork an hour before the human showed up. Given how Rian is half dragon-shifter, the DDA will probably rule in our favor.
He sat back in his chair. His dragon's suggestion to kick the female out and keep Rian would be the easiest, but the human female’s appearance brought up another issue he’d wanted to tackle—to change how his clan viewed and acted toward humans.
Snowridge's population had suffered as a result of shunning human mates over the last few decades. Dragon-shifter offspring skewed male, and not all females wanted to be mothers. Humans had filled the gap in the past, and Rhydian knew they needed to do it again if his clan was to survive long-term.
Delaney Murphy might be the perfect way to introduce humans to his clan and see how the members of Snowridge reacted. Yes, a slow, controlled experiment. After all, it would be easy enough to protect one human. The alternative would be to apply to the DDA for potential human mates, which meant following the new DDA policy of sending a group of females all at once rather than one at a time like in years past.
And ensuring a group's safety would be a hell of a lot more work.
Rhydian stood. I'll talk with the human female and judge her character. If she's strong enough, she may be exactly what I need right now.
But you're not giving up Rian, right?
No. He'll stay here, and it'll be up to Miss Murphy whether she stays with him, too.
Maybe some would think Rhydian was being selfish, or even callous, to want to keep Rian on Snowridge. However, more than him wanting to raise Rian as his son and give him stability, there was a chance Rian didn't have an inner dragon any longer and his beast could emerge later than most other dragon-shifters. And an untrained young dragon boy living among humans would equal chaos.
And possibly death.
No, Rhydian wasn't going to risk it. The best thing for the boy was to remain on Snowridge and not have yet another home and family ripped away from him. The matter of sharing guardianship with the human could be decided later, if she passed muster.
For the time being, as he made his way toward the cell where Delaney was being kept, Rhydian removed any expression from his face. He needed to be rational for his initial meeting with the human female, and maybe even a tad bit intimidating.
He'd give the human a chance, but only on his terms.
~~~
Delaney had barely fallen asleep before the door to her cell opened and the lights turned back on.
With a curse, she sat up and blinked. She'd lost track of how long she'd been inside the room and only knew it was dark outside now.
Her eyes finally adjusted and she glanced up at the visitor.
The male was tall, with dark hair and blue eyes. Maybe some would be intimidated by the three scars on his cheek, but Delaney had researched Snowridge's clan leader before coming.
Rhydian Griffiths may be taller, stronger, and older, but there was no way she would show fear. All that mattered was collecting her nephew and fulfilling the unanswered pleading in her sister's letter.
She stood slowly, taking her time to let the dragonman know she wasn't afraid of him—a feat she'd perfected in her former boxing career. When she finally reached her full height, she was still a head shorter than Rhydian.
When he finally spoke, his voice nearly made her shiver. "Delaney Murphy, sorry for the delay."
She could be polite, but from everything she'd read about dragon-shifters, they appreciated strength and honesty over formalities and speaking in circles. So she raised an eyebrow and replied, "I'm not so sure about that." He blinked, and she continued before he could say a word. "If you truly cared about my well-being, then you would've put me somewhere warmer. And maybe with a bed or sofa instead of a pile of blankets on a hard, stone floor."