Dragon Joined by Rebecca Royce Page B

that just…sucked.
    Dean looked up for a second, staring in her eyes. He made a
nonsensical noise and looked back down into the corn. “No offense, Princess.
But when I’m studying corn, I don’t want to be touched with scaly hands.”
    “Your nastiness will be ending soon. We have found you a
match to join. After he is with you, all will be better.”
    Princess had to be deluding herself. The leader might want
to join with her for strategic purposes, but no ruler wanted to subject
themselves to another monarch. This had to be eating the other dragon alive. He
wasn’t going to immediately fall in love with Princess and start spewing
romantic poetry. Not that she’d ever heard of a dragon doing such a thing.
    Dean pulled his head out of the corn. She expected to read
horror in his gaze. Instead he didn’t seem the least bit concerned about that
at all. He stared at her for a moment with a blank expression on his face. “Has
anyone taken any of this corn? How about any of the other vegetables? How is
the food distributed?”
    Princess opened and closed her mouth once before she spoke.
“You are quite obsessed with this.”
    “It’s a hobby.”
    Amanda wanted to laugh. Dean Andrews had no time for
farming. Oh, he’d make sure the agricultural needs of New Strauss were taken
care of. They’d be as safe as he could make them, but Amanda doubted Dean had
ever looked at a vegetable he wasn’t eating before in his life.
    “And you are more concerned with it than your future?”
    Dean wiped his brow. Amanda never knew if it was hot or
cold. Princess could regulate her body temperature both in her dragon and her
non-dragon forms. But if Dean was sweating, that meant it had gotten really hot
outside. Not that it ever really cooled down in the jungle. Some of the dragons
were less concerned with their humans’ comfort. They let their joined be very
uncomfortable. For that, Amanda could count herself lucky. Princess always took
care of the small details.
    Her obsessiveness over things made her a very formidable
enemy.
    “I don’t really consider you to have much to do with my
future. But that corn.” He pointed to it. “I might eat that. It matters.”
    With that, he turned his back on her and stormed from the
room.
    Princess called after him, “Your dragon will be here in a
few hours.”
    She hadn’t been able to resist giving him the information
she felt he needed, even though he’d been uninterested. Amanda sighed. Some
things were predictable.
    Princess put her hands on her hips. “Infuriating little
creature. Maybe I should have killed him.”
    How on earth was she going to get Dean her intel while she
remained trapped in Princess? She couldn’t very well make her lie down and
start sexually fantasizing about Dean.
    * * * * *
    Amanda watched as they dragged Dean into the room. He had a
black eye. It had been hours since she’d seen him. What had happened in that
time? Princess must not even know or Amanda would have heard it too. Her heart
stuttered. How badly had they hurt him and why?
    Flapping of wings made Amanda look upward. Four black dragons
swooped in from the hole in the ceiling. No wonder Princess had dragged Dean
in. His dragon had arrived.
    Princess had spent the day like any other—inspecting,
cleaning and ordering her dragons around. Several had returned from a raid on a
local village. Apparently the villagers had been caught in areas of the jungle where
they didn’t belong. They’d paid for that with their homes and some with their
lives. Princess didn’t feel anything about the news. To her, punishment had to
be doled out like vitamins. It made everyone stronger.
    Amanda suspected that the villagers hadn’t seen them coming.
Her heart broke thinking of their families. Why did she have to be so totally
incapable of stopping Princess from doing these things?
    Dean looked up at her. “I’m fine.”
    Princess shrugged. “No one asked.”
    She appreciated him letting her know. What had