Onyx Dragons- Amber Page 5

"He's not family."

  "He's our employee!" Mal snarled. "What were you doing last night? You never deviate from work and lair and work, but there you were, in a back alley alone, begging someone to mistake you for a human."

  "I wanted to attend the welcome back drinks for Pyro and Amy."

  "Why? Pyro's right here," Mal gestured at the screen. "Every day. Pick up the communicator. You can talk and drink coffee together at any time."

  "It's not the same."

  "Why?"

  She pinched her sleeves. "Because..."

  Her brothers stared at her.

  Her anger built to a glow, the earliest stage of what could be a dangerous blowout. "You don't understand."

  "You're right. I don't! How can you traipse around a human city lighting things of fire when we have a product to launch, a company to protect, and aristocrats to beat!"

  Syen's face, immobile behind shielding sunglasses, twitched. He was one of the fallen aristocrats who'd lost everything and been saved by Sard's generosity.

  Since taking over, Pyro had stopped ranting about hating aristocrats, but Mal was single-minded in his focus.

  "Mal." Jasper's steady gaze tried to soothe the room. "The human who approached her was ill and unable to perceive well. And Amber did not singe him much."

  "A third-degree burn on his torso is a significant injury!"

  "He moved suddenly. She didn't have a chance to warn him."

  Her skin prickled. "I told him I was late for a meeting and that I didn't have time to talk. He attempted sex."

  Her brothers struggled to hide their skepticism. Even Mal didn't defend her.

  She uncrossed and then re-crossed her leg. Darcy's lace garter rubbed her thigh. "Human males do initiate sex."

  "With other humans. Not dragons. No human male would be so stupid as to initiate sex with you."

  But Darcy had.

  Mal's derision and the rest of her brother's open skepticism hammered into her chest. Darcy was teasing. Everything is a joke to him. He would never be so stupid as to initiate sex with a female dragon like you.

  "The human could have died," Mal continued. "Don't underestimate your power to terrify males."

  "I'm not," she snapped.

  Everyone jumped.

  Amber took a deep breath and let it out. She mustn't let her brothers get to her. Darcy would make a quip that soothed and amused, but she only had one talent. Repress, repress, repress.

  "I am very sorry that I lost my temper. I won't let it happen around a human."

  "You'd better not let it happen at all," Mal growled. "Because—"

  "I am here!" The second wall screen showed Chrysoberyl Carnelian.

  The stocky aristocrat was shorter than his imposing brother, but was still bald and pierced with the weight and importance of his family. He wore a formal black suit embroidered with yellow-green threads that matched his eyes. Aristocratic silver dangled from his brows, cheeks, and nostrils, and his bared teeth gleamed.

  "The meeting can now begin." He lifted his imperious chin. "The first order of business today is the violent human attack against small, weak, helpless Amber Onyx."

  An unsettled silence followed.

  Amber curled her fingers around her coffee mug. "Thank you for your sympathies."

  Mal cleared his throat. "Now that item of business has concluded, we can—"

  "Of course it's not concluded!" The yellow-green dragon seethed. "I read that ridiculous so-called 'incident report' and it took all my restraint not to send it to your mother! Ridiculous, insipid, silly—"

  "You didn't, though." Amber straightened. "Did you?"

  He calmed and faced her. "Did I send the report to your mother? No, Amber, I did not. I didn't want to alarm her with what was obviously an attempt to trick your human partners and avoid revealing our true power as the rightful rulers of this worm-ridden planet."

  "Great," Mal barked. "Now, on to—"

  "I sent the report to the office where it belongs: The Gentleman's Society. And, out of deference to me, they have kindly agreed to dismantle the Onyx Corporation for undragonlike behavior!"

  Chapter Seven

  Taut silence descended over the conference room.

  The Gentleman's Society affirmed the social strata of dragon society. If needed, they stripped male dragons of everything — titles, land, money — and exiled them to the Colony Wars where they would be sent to the front lines and, essentially, executed.

  Jasper, pale, asked the critical question. "When are they coming?"

  Chrysoberyl sneered at him. "Right now."

  The intercom beeped.

  Jeanine, their gravely-voiced receptionist announced, "Mal. Three scaly suits are coming up."

  "Give them a full security detail!" he snarled. "No one dismantles anything until they see me!"

  "You got it." Jeanine closed the intercom.

  Chrysoberyl chortled. "You can play your security theater however you wish, Malachite Onyx, but now you will regret not giving me your company when you had the chance."

  Mal smacked his hands on the conference table. His fingers shifted to claws and embedded deep while his green eyes filled with fire. "No one takes my company."

  "Your company?" Chrysoberyl laughed. "A company ruled by low caste males could never succeed. Obviously Amber, as the dominant female, truly rules the Onyx Corporation."

  "That's a lie."

  "No, Mal, your lie has gone on long enough. Pretending Amber was helpless to avoid the consequences of her temper tantrum opened my eyes to the truth. Soon, the inspectors will prove it. Your days of subterfuge have ended."

  Mal shut off his screen.

  Chrysoberyl's eyes widened in surprise just as the wall went dark.

  Mal pointed at the younger siblings. "Jasper. Alex. We need ideas. Call Flint."

  They shook their heads.

  Alex crossed one leg over his perfect knee. "Kyan is the only one who knows how to reach him."

  "Syen?"

  The security dragon was no longer visible behind Pyro. "He's managing security."

  Mal gritted his teeth. "Think!"

  Cheryl stroked Mal's bony knuckles. "I thought you came to Earth so you didn't have to play by dragon rules. No one cared about you being in charge before."

  "They cared. But they let it slide until we became the top-ranked company outside Draconis—and beat the aristocrats."

  "How dare a company run by dragon males succeed?" Jasper told Cheryl, quoting what the dragons back home must think. "They must have a puppet CEO who's ruled by his dominant sister."

  No one looked at Amber.

  "I don't want to take the company away from you," Amber told Mal.

  He focused on her. "Then don't."

  How?

  How could she stand up to the investigators? Fighting them would prove Chrysoberyl right. Somehow she had to repress her dragon even more. She had to become human.

  It was impossible.

  On cue, their mid-fifties receptionist Jeanine led in three dragons in long, white, scholarly robes. They had partially shifted, with impenetrable scales, elongated snouts, and hard eyes, but otherwise held their human form. They looked exactly like dragons stuffed into human clothes.

  This was practical. If Amber went rogue, the inspectors needed to protect their vulnerable human skin with heat-proof scales, and they could shave a few microseconds to escape her fury.

  Amber's heart thudded in her chest and her stomach twisted, squeezing the coffee.

  She was not angry. She was not angry. She was not angry.

  The trio waited to be announced, but Jeanine just said, "Here's Mal. Don't wander." The stocky receptionist turned on her broad heels and walked out.

  The trio murmured to each other, straightened their robes, and then ignored Mal.

  They turned to Cheryl.

  "You must be the matriarch." The leader tipped his head. He had a barrel chest and his scales shimmered kelp forest green. "I am Serpentine. You are clearly
the dominant female. Yes. I call tell by your voluptuous, female dragon form."

  Cheryl clutched her napkin to her ample chest and blushed hard. "Uh, Mal?"

  Mal shouldered in front of her. "Leave her alone or I'll make you leave her alone."

  The milky-yellow dragon on the other side sniffed. "Look, Graphite. He tries to bluster as if he's in charge."

  Graphite, the slender, blue dragon in the middle covered his face with his electronic notepad and murmured out of the side of his mouth. "Amusing or awkward, Ulexite?"

  "Definitely awkward."

  Graphite recorded it on his notepad.

  Serpentine pressed a monocle with clear glass to his left eye; he hadn't gotten the memo that monocles went out of human fashion centuries ago. "This business is no longer, and never has been, yours, so-called CEO Malachite. Know your place and don't make this any more awkward."

  "Awkward?" Table splinters lodged under his claws. "You're stuck half-shift. You look ridiculous."

  The trio drew up. Yellow Ulexite tut-tutted, blue Graphite murmured behind his pad, and green Serpentine lifted his snoot even higher into the air.

  "No one can confuse our status," Serpentine replied. "Uneducated humans and low-caste dragons see that we are superior."

  Jasper stepped in, ever the mediator. "Perhaps your aristocratic bearing and clothes alone are enough to awe everyone."

  "Nonsense." Serpentine twitched his robes. "Look at how difficult it has been for your CEO to acknowledge his lesser status."

  Mal's eyes flared a dangerous fiery color.

  "Mal's like that with everyone," Jasper hastened. "It's why we couldn't let him marry a—"

  "She is quiet," Ulexite observed, still talking about Cheryl.

  "Respectful? Or wise?" the blue asked.

  "Respect for us is wise. She is respectfully wise."

  Graphite noted it.

  Serpentine intoned to Cheryl, "You may arise, Amber, and take your correct seat as the head of the company. This farce has gone on long enough."

  "Mal?" Cheryl's voice squeaked.

  "Such a musical voice," Ulexite commented.

  "Tonal? Or mellifluous?"

  "For a dragon, enchant—"

  Mal snapped. "She's not a dragon, she's my wife. And before you dare ask Cheryl to do anything, you're going through me."

  The dragons pinched up their noses like they'd smelled raw sewage.

  "Cheryl?" Serpentine repeated. "She's a human?"

  Ulexite murmured urgently to Graphite. "She's mute as an animal. And when she speaks, her voice makes a sharp bleat."

  Graphite nodded as he furiously changed his notes.

  Mal's claws lengthened. "That better not go into any report."

  They froze. Despite his low caste and their high status, they were in his building surrounded by his siblings. Outside the door, a security force had appeared to escort them. Superior as they might be, they weren't complete idiots.

  "Amber's there." Mal pointed down the table without ever taking his gaze off the inspectors.

  They followed his gesture and settled on her.

  I am not angry.

  She folded her hands in her lap.

  They stared.

  She stared back.

  "Boss." Ulexite leaned over Graphite to speak with the green leader. "Is that a dragon?"

  "Ah..."

  Amber waited, calming her internal feelings, so they would get no indicators. Her body was the wrong size. She was demure. On purpose.

  Except for the garter belt... and how Darcy had picked it out himself...it was almost like his fingers were circling her thigh. Could his hands circle her thigh? Not as a dragon, but in her human form...

  Darcy was teasing. No male would ever initiate sex with a female dragon.

  "Amber," Mal said.

  She jerked out of her reverie. "What?"

  "Don't give them any doubt. Introduce yourself."

  She rose. Obedient employee. "I'm Amber Onyx, Chief Financial Officer of the Onyx Corporation, and fourth in command." She sat once more.

  Ulexite fumbled for the words. "She's firm yet decisive. Speaking only when she chooses. No one tells her what to do."

  "I literally just introduced myself because Mal told me to," she pointed out.

  Graphite scribbled on his pad.

  "And she boldly addresses her forthright speech to the handsome, intelligent inspectors," Ulexite continued, gaining confidence. "Courageous. Direct. Unapologetic. A leader in disguise."

  "I'm not in disguise."

  "Very disguised," Ulexite emphasized.

  "But I'm not—"

  "Amber." Mal's warning only made her more frustrated.

  "They're writing lies either way." She tried to keep the fire out of her voice. "It doesn't matter if I talk or keep quiet."

  "Yes, it's clear boys," Serpentine crowed. "We will complete this evaluation before lunchtime. It's a clear case of forging paperwork A-38. She's the true leader."

  She faced them. "I'm not, though."

  Ulexite ignored her. "Deny though she might, the humility of a great one is overshadowed by her greatness."

  "Two greats in that sentence," Graphite noted.

  "Mmm. How about 'abundance'? As in, 'The humility of a great one is overshadowed by her abundance.'"

  Graphite tapped his lips.

  Amber flexed her unpolished fingers on the wood, wishing to extend her claws like Mal. "How about not?"

  Jasper licked his dry lips. "Don't get mad."

  Her anger fired heat through her body. "I'm not!"

  Her hair crackled.

  Alex paled more than usual.

  Oh, no.

  "She puts the male in his place!" Ulexite narrated excitedly. "Not only the CEO but also the rare Alexandrite whose coloration almost made him the only male to be recognized into the aristocracy."

  "Almost," Graphite repeated.

  Alex's eyes flashed with fury, which meant someone was about to have their worst secrets dug up and used against them.

  "Not surprising," Serpentine replied patly as though the interview were over. "The so-called CEO weakly united with a backwater female. What idiot marries into a species that can't shift?"

  "The other two eldest brothers have as well," Ulexite said.

  "Weakness? Or low intelligence?" Graphite asked.

  "Both," Ulexite said.

  Serpentine mused. "Must be a family trait."

  The conference room dropped deadly silent while the blue dragon scribbled onto his pad. The silence was so taut Amber could see her siblings shaking. Any second now one of them would explode into dragon and rip the so-called inspectors' arms off.

  And then there would be real trouble.

  Chrysoberyl appeared on the screen again. His shirt rumpled and he breathed hard. "Serpentine, Graphite, Ulexite. You see that Amber is the rightful CEO of the Onyx Corporation."

  They nodded in sync.

  "Then you know what we must do." He drew himself up to formal vitriol. "Exile the males! Strip their assets and send them to the Colony Wars!"

  "No," Cheryl whispered, curling her fingers around Mal's.

  Amber stood. "You can't do that."

  Serpentine pinched his lips. "Of course we can. We represent the Gentleman's Society."

  "But Mal, Pyro, and Kyan are married. Their assets belong to their wives."

  "Do not dare to suggest that the consequences of behaving in an undragonlike manner can be reduced because they married backwater humans!"

  "But if I am the dominant female and I forced them not to acknowledge me, what choice did they have but to obey?"

  "So you admit that you are the dominant one!" Ulexite turned to Graphite. "This was an easy investigation. We will not stay for lunch."

  Graphite nodded as he scribbled.

  "Amber..." Mal warned.

  "I just mean that if I'm in charge and I instructed you to lie...then you're behaving in a dragonlike manner. I'm dominating you. We are acting
like dragons."

  The trio froze.

  "Right?"

  Chrysoberyl raised his index finger. The silver rings caught the light. "No, no, Amber. If you're dominant, then you broke the Dragon-Human Treaty last night. In which case, my uncle declares martial law and we forge a new, glorious future with myself as ruler."

  "Not quite." Alex uncrossed his legs. "To become ruler of Earth, you must fight the other aristocrats on the planet plus any aristocrats who visited prior to your arrival."

  "Plus any non-aristocrats who want to fight." Pyro's eyes gleamed and radioactive rivulets appeared on the backs of his knuckles. "Think of the hundreds of fights you have ahead. Nothing but months of teeth-to-claw combat."

  Chrysoberyl whitened but kept his smile. "Do you think the nephew of a military commander has no skill? I will defeat any challenger."

  "I wouldn't be too sure," Pyro snarled.

  "Especially if they piled on, one after another, in days and weeks — even months and years — of endless, bare-knuckle, teeth-to-claw fights." Alex smiled coldly. "Don't forget to take your piercings out. Loose metal is the easiest to rip out of the skin."

  Chrysoberyl swallowed hard. "We know it won't come to that because ... because ... because you low caste males have been acting above yourselves for too long! And even if I don't rule Earth right away, having your company gone and myself returned as the rightful head of Carnelian Clothiers is all that matters."

  Amber tuned them out. This was her fault. She wavered and then sat. Her skills were not interpersonal threats or negotiations. She handled numbers. She handled them well.

  The rest of her brothers stared at her as though willing for her to come up with a new argument.

  Mal was right. They needed Flint. He thought of everything.

  She rubbed the small scrap of lace at her thigh. Darcy...

  "Amber." Chrysoberyl's teeth gleamed with silver. "There is another solution. I could make this go away. You could even keep your company intact with your brothers. Become the CEO you were always destined to be."

  She fixed her gaze on Mal.

  Mal didn't lift his glare from Chrysoberyl. "And then what?"

  "And then, my dominant Amber, you marry me."

  "Now, wait just a minute." Mal's claws grew out again. "Why would her marrying you make the charges of the Gentleman's Society 'go away'?"