Thankfully, due to her years of drama in school, she was able to not show any outward sign of her doubts as she said, "Innocent until proven guilty, Mr. Moore-Llewellyn. Tell me why you think I have an ulterior motive."

"Three words: Carlisle dragon hunters."

Evie's stomach dropped. How the hell did he know about them?

Raising an eyebrow, Bram said, "I thought so. You're pretty good at hiding your true thoughts, but right now, I can see the fear in your eyes. Tell me why."

Out of nowhere, Melanie's words from earlier sprung into her mind, "Be strong, be honest, and be open-minded. That's what it takes to soften a dragonman's heart."

Would the truth really work, even with the fierce man currently glaring down at her? Or would it push him away, dismissing her problem as none of his concern?

Considering she was trapped on the dragon-shifter's land with no allies, it wasn't like she had a choice. If she didn't tell him, he would probably kick her off Stonefire's land and right into the hands of the dragon hunters. The British government hadn't taken her seriously before about the death threats, and most certainly wouldn't now. She wouldn't have anyone to protect her.

Yet if she told Bram, then maybe, just maybe, he would help her; at least, if she were honest.

She had only one choice, really, and taking a deep breath, she tried to figure out what to say that would convince the dragonman not to instantly hand her over to the dragon hunters.

Bram could smell Evie's fear but he wasn't sure if it was for him or for the dragon hunters. From what he'd seen of the human so far, he'd guess the second. Yet she'd been lying to him since she'd stepped foot on his land, so who knew; she could be more afraid of him.

His dragon pushed forth in his mind. She is afraid. Not of us. Help her.

He wanted to ask how the bloody hell his dragon knew she was in trouble, but while he trusted his dragon with his life, his beast didn't like giving details.

Still, even if she were afraid of the dragon hunters, she needed to tell him the truth or he'd boot her off his land and ask for another inspector.

His dragon growled. Don't do that.

Before he could tell his other half to shut up yet again, Evie took a deep breath and he focused on her words as she said, "I requested to be transferred here from London so I could ask for your help."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why would you do that instead of asking your human government for help?"

"I already tried, but they won't help me without more proof. Rather than risk getting killed while I did that, seducing you seemed like the better option."

Bram frowned. "Seduce me? Lass, you'd better start at the beginning and get to the point. I have a dragon hunter to question."

Her eyes widened. "One of them is here?"

He grabbed her arms and instantly regretted it as her soft, smooth skin sent a thrill through his body. This close, Evie's scent was a mixture of woman and something wild, and he'd been trying to ignore it for the last five minutes. But with the combination of her skin under his hands, his cock was very much standing at attention.

If that wasn't bad enough, Evie continued to stare into his eyes as the scent of her arousal reached his nose.

His inner beast went crazy, and said, See. She is not afraid of us. She wants us. Help her and then fuck her.

Bloody hell, what was wrong with him? He hadn't been this randy since he'd been a lad of twenty. She was just a woman, for fuck's sake, and he could have his pick.

Growling again, his inner beast hissed out, Don't push her away. She is different.

Okay, he had no fucking idea what that was supposed to mean.

He pushed both his dragon and his lust aside to focus back on protecting his clan. "Start talking, Evie. Now."

"Let me go first."

Rather than argue and waste more time, he released her and crossed his arms over his chest again. "Now talk."

A defiant glint flashed in her eyes, but thankfully, the female had some sense and she started talking, "Over the last few months, the dragon hunters have been targeting DDA employees. And anyone who doesn't listen to their 'warning', which is more a death threat and being shot at, ends up dead."

This was the first he'd heard of this. From here on out, he would have his people monitor the human news channels more closely. "Wait, why? The dragon hunters want us and our blood; humans have nothing to offer them." She raised an eyebrow, as if to call him out on his claim, but he didn't back down. "Your blood can't heal diseases and be sold on the black market."

"You're supposed to be clever, Bram. We have value, more than you think. What do you think would happen if more DDA inspectors were killed and people stopped volunteering for the job?"

It was the first time she'd said his name, and the way her London accent rolled over his name pleased him.

Focus, oh, great leader, focus. He could just demand the answer from her, but for some odd reason, he wanted her to see he had a brain.

Then it hit him why the inspectors could be targets. "Without you and your coworkers, the human sacrifice system would cease to be. Without human females, our numbers would dwindle again."

She nodded in approval. "Right, which means with fewer dragons, the hunters can ask higher prices on the black market whenever they harvest a captured dragon."

"You say 'harvest' and I say 'torture'."

Shaking her head, she said, "Don't turn this into me not caring about your kind. I've pretty much given up my life to help the dragon-shifters, and what did I get in return? An endless parade of humiliation and irritation. Sometimes I wonder why any of us stay with the department."

His inner beast growled at the thought of anyone humiliating this strong woman. Bram agreed with his dragon.

His curiosity piqued, he said, "I'm not Marcus. You'll face no humiliation here as long as you tell me the truth." She looked unconvinced, so he continued, "You spoke with Melanie earlier today. Was she afraid of me? Did she have an endless line of complaints about me? Or anything else that contradicts my claim?"

She paused a second, before answering, "No. She's extremely loyal to you."

"Exactly. I treated her fairly from the moment she set foot on this land, just like I do with all the sacrifices. Hell, I was even helping Cait with her fear of dragon-shifters up until she died."

Both man and dragon took a second of silence to remember the woman who'd suffered so much and had tried to come back, only to die in childbirth. To this day, he blamed himself for assigning Neil as her dragon-shifter. The bastard never should've been allowed a human female. In Bram's opinion, banishing the arsehole had been too easy a sentence, but the only one that had legally been open to him.

Evie touched his arm and he looked back into her eyes as she said, "You truly feel sorry for Caitriona's death, don't you?"

"Yes."

Her eyes searched his for a few more seconds before she nodded. "I believe you. I'll tell you the truth."

Her acceptance made his dragon hum.

For a second, he stared down at the beautiful redhead standing before him and savored the feel of her hand on his arm. The urge to haul her against him and kiss her was overwhelming, but there were a million reasons why he couldn't.

Still, his voice was husky when he said, "So tell me how seducing me was supposed to help you?"

Licking her lips, her grip tightened on his arm before she said, "I was hoping that if you slept with me, I might be able to convince you to let me stay here. Sex was only part of my plan; I was hoping to make you care for me too, especially since one of the former DDA inspectors let slip that you can't have children and thus can't have a sacrifice."

As the words left Evie's mouth, she instantly felt equal parts daft and callous. She'd just admitted to using something extremely personal against Bram. Why, oh why, had she told him that part? Preying on his infertility would most assuredly sting his dragon-shifter ego.

Yet rather than shout or go mental like Skyhunter's leader most assuredly would've done, Bram merely stared at her in silence.

Okay, she'd admit that his cool, blue-eyed gaze was prodding her to fidget, but she wouldn't do it. She needed to be strong and plead her case. Evie refused to think of what would happen if she failed.

Bram took a step back, forcing her to release her grip on his arm. Her stomach flipped as her heart rate kicked up. Was the distance a sign that he was going to dismiss her?

When Bram finally spoke, his voice was low. "I don't know how any of you lot found out about that, but it's clearly my business and mine alone. Tricking me into helping you is also not the way to garner my help."

Since he hadn't outright dismissed her yet, she risked a question, "So, does that mean you'll help me?"

"To be honest, I don't know. But to even consider it, you're going to do something for me without putting up any fight."

Uh oh. She didn't like the sound of that. "What, exactly, am I supposed to do?"

Pointing to the couch, he said, "Sit down and wait there."

In normal situations, she would balk at following an order such as that one, but this wasn't just any situation. These next few minutes would determine her future, so she sat down.

Nodding, Bram headed toward his desk and fished something out of one of the drawers. When he stood up, he had a laptop in his hand. He waved it as he said, "While I go question the dragon hunter, you're going to type out everything you can think of related to the Carlisle hunters, the assassination of DDA inspectors, and what else you know about me and my clan."

So far, so good. "Okay, so if I do all of that, you'll let me stay?"

"I never said that. First, you're going to work on giving me a reason to need you. After all, if you stay on my land and aren't a DDA employee or a sacrifice, then I'll be breaking your British human law. You'd better have some bloody good information for me to try and fight that."

Before she could stop herself, Evie blurted out, "But I discovered a loophole for that."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And what would that be?"

"You're not going to like it."

"Lass, I already don't like this. Just tell me what you've found or you'll lose any chance of me helping you."

She absolutely hated that Bram held all the cards. Still, giving in to someone was better than ending up dead.

Taking a deep breath, she said, "While buried deep into one of the bylaws, there is a clause that legally allows a human to mate a dragon-shifter without being a sacrifice first, provided the dragon-shifter in question is a clan leader."

"Since when? Your government does everything it can to dissuade human-dragon-shifter interactions outside the sacrifice system."

"Yes, but all of their ads and talks are very careful not to mention it's illegal for all dragon-shifters. They use intimidating language and propaganda, and of course people assume it's illegal because of those messages. But when the sacrifice system was set up in the late 1980s, the British government was careful to keep the old law concerning marriages between clan leaders and humans intact just in case things devolved. After all, the old law was used in the distant past to help keep peace between human lords and dragon-shifter leaders."

If she'd surprised Bram with her words, he didn't show it.

"And how, exactly, do you know about this?"

She shrugged. "I have a friend obsessed with everything to do with the dragon-shifters. I reckon she knows more than just about any other human in the world. Well, at least those not living with the dragon-shifters."

Evie left out the part about how she'd been just as obsessed as her friend until she'd joined the DDA. Working for the DDA had killed any romantic notions she'd had of a dragonman sweeping her off her feet.

Bram frowned. "Right, and I'm supposed to mate you and feel grateful since I can't have a sacrifice myself? Or because I can't take a dragon-shifter mate without ruining my clan's future of independence?" He shook his head. "I don't know how you humans view marriage, but we dragon-shifters take mating seriously."

Evie felt her future begin to slip from her fingers. If she didn't say or do something, she'd lose her chance. Bram was by far the most understanding dragon-shifter clan leader in the UK.

Standing up, she took a few steps toward Bram to test out the waters, but he didn't retreat. After taking a few more, she looked up into his eyes and said, "I'll admit that when I first came up with my plan, I didn't take your needs or wants into account. I researched how best to seduce a man, and was going to try everything on that list to snare you, but I never expected for there to be this overwhelming attraction between us."

For just a second, his stern faade slipped and Evie pounced. "Before you try to deny it, kiss me. Just once. If you can pull yourself away and claim there's nothing there, then I'll leave and see if I can make it to America to seek out the number two most likely candidate on my list. Sure, the dragon hunters will probably find me first, but I'll do anything it takes to try to live. I'm not about to let the bastards kill me without a fight."

As Bram remained silent, her palms began to sweat. She'd just put all of her cards on the table. If this didn't work, she'd have to attempt to not only evade the dragon hunters probably waiting outside Stonefire's gates for her, but she'd have to find a way to America to try and seduce another clan leader.

Of course, that plan had been easier to accept in the abstract. Now she'd met Bram, she didn't think she'd ever forget him. No man's touch had ever set her body on fire before, and she wasn't daft enough to think the touch of the next dragon-shifter leader on her list would be able to do it too.

Bram was her best chance at safety, yes, but she also wanted to know what it'd feel like to be kissed by the dragonman standing in front of her.

Chapter Four.

After Evie threw down her proposition, Bram's dragon instantly said, Yes. Kiss her. We need her. She needs us. It is a good match.

Stop being so bloody opaque. Tell me why.

His beast growled. No. Kiss her and think later.

If not for the human female in the room, he would have let loose a string of curses. Since he knew his dragon was too fucking stubborn to ever back down, he could either listen to the beast and kiss the lass, or he could face days or weeks of the dragon arguing with him.

Looking over at the red-haired human, he had to admit he liked the way her skin felt against his. Not only that, despite working with the DDA for seven years, she'd maintained her spirit and her backbone. If not for the dragon hunters trying to attack his land, that combination might've succeeded in seducing him.

Now, however, he needed to make a rational choice without his cock getting in the way.

If the human became his mate, she could divulge all kinds of information about the inner workings of the DDA. Since Melanie Hall-MacLeod was writing a book about his clan to garner human understanding, Evie's detailed knowledge of human and dragon-shifter law could help Stonefire avoid any kind of lawsuit or possible backlash.

In addition, if she had a way of contacting this dragon-shifter obsessed friend of hers, Bram could find out more about the old laws and what he could or couldn't do in the present day.

Yet if he took her as his mate, not only would his chances of having children go from one percent to zero since all DDA inspectors were incompatible, he might never find the partner he so desperately wanted to help with clan matters. As he eyed her body in that tight yellow dress, he knew he'd enjoy fucking her, but he wanted more than just sex. He wanted what Tristan MacLeod had found with Melanie.

His dragon pushed to the forefront of his mind. Stop thinking and kiss her. It will be good.

The beast's words prodded him to make a decision. What his heart wanted didn't matter. He was clan leader, and provided the human female gave him information, she could help give his clan an advantage over both the sacrifice system and British politicians in general. That was more important than him finding love.

It was time to kiss the living shit out of her and see if she could handle a dragon-shifter. As much as she could help his clan, he would never be able to tolerate a life of her being afraid of him. He would give it his all and see how she reacted.

Laying down the laptop, he ordered, "Come here."