Page 23 of Kidnapped By The Messy Dragon

Baby, you have no idea.

I smirk at her. “Why, thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment. The town calls me Messy Jay.”

She glares at me.

10

ZURI

Jalen starts out stacking papers one pile at a time. Then he picks up speed, and I quit keeping up. He crosses the room in flickers, and the paper drifts disappear a lane at a time. The floor ends up clean.

I watch the whole show from his bed. There’s a lot of arm happening over there. His shoulders fill out his clean shirt to the last stitch. Between the arms and the chest of him, I forget I’m a hostage.

He turns around smiling.

I narrow my eyes at him.

“If you need me for anything,” he says.

Oh God. He can smell it when I get worked up.

I put my face in my hands and regret it immediately, hissing at the bruise.

I stand up off the bed and consider making a run for it.

Then Jalen’s pointed ears twitch. He cocks his head toward the door and breaks into a smile.

“My—“ He catches himself. “Our sisters are home.”

He flashes across the room so fast I gasp, and he grabs my hand.

“Come on. Come meet the clan.” He pulls me out of the room mid-word.

“They’re back from shopping.” He tows me down the hall. “The women of this clan shop about every other day. Brandy’s redesigning her craft room, and Jules is building a nursery.”

By the time we hit the bottom of the stairs, the house is loud. Shopping bags cover the entry bench with tissue paper sticking out of the tops. Keys land in a dish. Two women are talking over each other somewhere under the archway. It’s a family coming home, and it’s so far from my silent apartment that I stop on the last step.

Malachi is already pulling a woman into his arms. She’s tall, deep brown skin under a crown of short coils, in a camel coat with gold at her ears, throat, and nails done to match. She kisses him hello with one hand flat on his chest, and she runs even the kiss. That must be Brandy, the Luna.

Behind them, a mountain of a dragon sets down an armload of bags without a sound. He’s the biggest of the three by half, thick through the arms in a rolled-sleeve flannel. He has a shaved head, a short black beard, and the warmest brown eyes in the room. Big as he is, he moves like he’s worried about the furniture. He bows his head to me the same as Jalen did earlier, and he doesn’t say a word.

All three brothers share the pointed ears and the sharp teeth. Everything else came out different, the builds, the coloring. Malachi’s eyes are a burnished copper, Dorian’s a soft brown, and the green-eyed one is still holding my hand.

And then there’s the pregnant one. She’s small, glowing brown skin and long locs gathered over one shoulder, in a flowy dress with paint flecks dried on her knuckles. That’s nursery paint, I’d bet. She spots me, and her whole face opens up. She crosses the room with her arms already out.

She pulls me into a hug, her belly bumping mine. She smells like shea butter and fresh paint.

“Hi,” she says into my ear. “Welcome to the clan, sister.”

Then she pulls back and lays a light palm along my sore cheek. “Oh no. What happened to her?” She frowns up at Jalen.

“I was attacked,” I say. “Jalen and your Alpha saved me.”

“Brother,” Malachi says. “Zuri, you’re family here.”

I suck in a breath and decide not to argue with a dragon.

Brandy keeps hold of Malachi’s hand. “Does she have clothes?”