Chapter 1

After my dragon mate bought me at the auction with the highest price of the entire session, which crushed everyone else's bid.

Then, I became pregnant.

Dragon-kind struggled to produce offspring. Yet I carried three little dragonlings to term in a single birth.

But the male who had once been so possessive he bordered on obsessive now regarded me with cold indifference.

"Honestly," Drakar said, "I regret it."

I looked up at him in confusion.

His gaze swept over my full chest and the curve of my waist and hips.

"I shouldn't have let my temper get the better of me back then. I shouldn't have chosen you just to spite Lyara. Looking at you now — you're nothing, just knows how to breed. And that's how you've come to live such a wealthy life."

"While my Lyara," he continued, "has suffered all these years because of me."

My whole body went rigid. My eyes slowly burned red.

I whispered a quiet protest — told him he couldn't live without me.

But Drakar wasn't moved in the slightest. If anything, he grew more animated, already scheming about how to bring his true love back to him.

He turned that contemptuous gaze on me one last time.

"You think I'd have ever kept circling back to you if your body weren't what it is?"

"Don't worry. You gave me offspring, so I won't throw you out. As it happens, my brother still doesn't have a female. When he comes back, you'll move into his quarters."

Dragon-kind were creatures of deep appetite. Once they'd been with a female, they couldn't go without. And his brother — that male had been sneaking around trying to get close to me when we first met.

---

"Are you certain you want to transfer the original female's registration to your brother's name?"

The orc clerk at the record office clearly thought he'd misheard.

He looked at me — full-figured, abundantly curved — and then looked at the frail, paper-thin female cradled in Drakar's arms, the kind who looked like a strong wind might carry her off.

"Once the transfer is filed, it cannot be reversed without the consent of another registered male."

But Drakar acted as though he hadn't heard a word. He furrowed his brow impatiently.

"Of course I'm certain. Please make it quick — my female was just brought back, she's not adjusted to the environment here yet, and I need to get her settled at home."

The clerk swallowed his irritation and crossed out the name behind Drakar's, replacing it with a new one.

My name was now filed under a dragon-kin called Caelun.

"Done. Your brother still needs to come in and press his mark. When does he return?"

Drakar was too busy soothing the female in his arms to give a proper answer. "Tomorrow, probably."

---

When we left the registration office, I stood alone to one side.

I watched Lyara pout and cling to Drakar, sulking about how he'd abandoned her all those years ago — and how he'd stood right in front of her and bought another female at auction.

Drakar coaxed her with tender patience. When he finally finished, he glanced back at me.

In the cold wind, I must have looked small and desolate.

He paused. Something flickered across his face — words that never made it past his throat.

In the silence that followed, I spoke first.

"Am I moving out today?"

Drakar's brow creased. "You don't have to rush—"

"You're Amber, aren't you?"

Lyara cut in suddenly, looking me over from head to toe with naked jealousy.

"I remember you. You were the most sought-after female at that auction."

"Orcs just love that type, don't they?" She smiled thinly. "Tell me honestly — don't you find it embarrassing, carrying around a body like that? If I looked like you, I wouldn't leave the house."

She glanced sideways at Drakar, her expression going soft and wounded.

"Drakar... you like that type too, don't you?"

Drakar's face tightened at once. "Who said anything like that? It disgusts me."

I went completely still. My eyes stung.

Disgusts him.

But every single night, he'd wrap his dragon tail around me and pull me close, taking and taking until I was trembling and boneless. His scales would brush the length of my spine, slow and deliberate.

Sometimes once wasn't enough.

He needed twice. Three times.

Only when I was completely spent would he finally be satisfied.

And all of that, apparently, disgusted him.

Lyara curved her lips in a small, satisfied smile and hooked her arm through Drakar's, watching me with practiced pity.

"Don't take it personally. If Drakar hadn't bought you that day, do you think you'd be living as well as you have been? You should really be thanking me — if I hadn't had that falling-out with Drakar, there never would have been room for you."

I looked at Drakar. He didn't react. I let out a dry, hollow sound of agreement.

Seeing that I had no fight left in me no matter how she twisted the knife, Lyara lost interest and pulled Drakar forward, demanding to go home.

He followed her with an indulgent smile. After a few steps, he glanced back.

"Amber. Since you want to move, go ahead."

"Don't take it to heart. We're still family."

Family.

Yes. We were still family.

Only I was no longer his female.

I belonged to his brother now.