Onyx Dragons- Amber Page 6

  "These gentile inspectors are my long-standing friends, and I have convinced them that my guidance could bring any low caste dragons into line. Even a classless dragon like you, Malachite."

  The dragon inspectors preened as though proud of their connection to Chrysoberyl.

  These charges could go away if she married Chrysoberyl?

  The conference room grew too hot.

  Amber stood. "I'd rather face you in teeth-to-claw combat."

  "That's not an option." Chrysoberyl chuckled nervously. "You will marry me or your brothers — no, the whole planet — will suffer."

  "You're taking a big risk, Chrysoberyl. Marriage is hard and angry females are dangerous. The Empress herself chewed her last consort's arm off."

  He laughed while rubbing his arms. "But you will never become so angry with me. I am an aristocrat!"

  "You make me very angry."

  "No, no, Amber. You say that because you are surrounded by low caste males and backwater humans. Here, in the stars, amongst your equals, it is peaceful. Unlike your brothers, who are unbalanced enough to marry non-shifter humans and force you to play the lower role, I would treat you with respect."

  She sucked in a deep breath. "I'm glad to hear that, Chrysoberyl, because I need you to respect me right now."

  "I am the epitome of respect to a female dragon, especially to my very own fiancée. You'll see when I introduce you to my mother."

  "Because I cannot marry you." She straightened. "I am entertaining a marriage proposal right now."

  His eyes bulged. "No! What aristocrat has dared to cross me?"

  "No aristocrat. The one who wants to marry me is a man."

  Chapter Eight

  Everyone turned and stared at Amber.

  Chrysoberyl's mouth opened and closed. His face turned a more intense yellow. "But how can I take over Mal's company and crush the low caste dragons who dared embarrass me if you're married to another dragon?"

  "It's to a human," she corrected for a second time. "We're very serious. You're too late."

  "A human!" He squeaked out his shocked horror. "But ... no. Impossible. Do not dare to play with me, Amber. I will place Earth under martial law."

  "I understand, Chrysoberyl. Declare martial law and defeat the challengers. I forgot about that part, Alex. I suppose we will have a little time before Chrysoberyl rules over us."

  Without another word, Chrysoberyl pressed the button to cut the transmission. His view screen went dark.

  Another thought occurred to her. She turned to the dragon inspectors. "Is dating a human enough evidence that I'm not faking my role as CFO?"

  The trio blinked at her.

  "W-well." Serpentine looked wildly at his compatriots. "I, uh, we will have to, ah, investigate..."

  "The character of the human," Ulexite suggested. "Perhaps he is more dragonlike than human, uh, humanlike. Perhaps he uses prosthetics that approximate claws or fangs."

  "He doesn't," she assured them. "He's human through and through."

  "Still." The trio glanced at the darkened screen. Without Chrysoberyl, they seemed lost. "We must investigate the matter further..."

  Her brothers were also shocked.

  Jasper pursed his lips. Alex regarded her through narrowed, skeptical eyes. Mal looked confused like she'd executed a clever strategy he didn't understand. And Pyro looked like he hadn't heard her right.

  "Since when were you engaged?" Mal demanded.

  "Last night. I received a proposal."

  The trio of inspectors gasped.

  "A male proposed to a female?" Serpentine flicked his fingers at Mal. "Get Chrysoberyl back. He will see through this fiction."

  "Human males propose all the time on Earth. It's common," she told him, which was as well because Mal ignored his orders. "Anyway, I haven't accepted."

  Only Cheryl told her, quiet and shy, "Congratulations."

  "Thank you."

  "You haven't accepted?"

  "I wanted to improve my fitness before the marriage challenges." She eyed Chrysoberyl's darkened screen. "I have not practiced teeth-to-claw combat in years."

  "Who proposed?" Jasper asked.

  "Darcy."

  "Oh." Cheryl started to smile. "He's nice. I'm sure you'll be very—"

  "Darcy!" Pyro shouted from the view screen. "Stay right there. I'm coming over!"

  Pyro's suit shredded as he burst out the window. He'd arrive in moments. Another dragon in his office walked forward and turned off his view screen.

  The dragon inspectors murmured to each other at the unfolding drama. "You know this human?"

  "I've known him a long time," Amber replied. "He was trying to tell me his desire like a human and I didn't understand him. Last night, I understood."

  Their eyes narrowed.

  "Did you really?" Serpentine pushed. "Did he fly after you and try to master you?"

  "He's a human so that would be—"

  "This meeting is over." Mal tugged Cheryl to her feet and glared at the inspectors as he escorted her out of the conference room. "Amber! In my office! Now!"

  She followed him down the hall. Although Mal had only called her to his office, Alex and Jasper joined, so the entire conference moved locations.

  Mal's office differed greatly from when they'd first built the building. His division contained his desk and a multiple-times repaired conference room table.

  Cheryl's office nested inside his complete with sound-proof door and walls for shutting the dragon chaos out. She had refused the matriarch office in the same way she'd refused to take over Mal's CEO duties. Big computers, an art tablet, and plenty of monitors colonized her art desk. She also tended friendly potted plants.

  Normally, when a dragon female married into a male's family, she became the head. Chrysoberyl wanting to marry Amber to take charge of the Onyx Corporation was a bit backward. Either Cheryl had inspired him and thought Amber would demurely allow him to wreck her brothers' lives, or he had some nefarious plan to force her compliance.

  Either way, it wouldn't matter, because Amber would never marry him.

  Amber folded herself into a seat in front of Mal's desk. Her brothers milled around Mal's espresso machine, supposedly making coffee, but mostly making agitation.

  Mal spoke into the phone. "Where's Kyan? I know he's on his honeymoon. This is urgent."

  "Cheryl, can I get you a pumpkin spice latte?" Jasper asked her.

  Cheryl glanced out at the sunny July morning and shook her head, hands thrust in the summery hoodie. Her pinup dress beneath mashed up modern and past. "I'm fine. Thanks, Jasper."

  "I will accept a coffee drink." The green Serpentine swanned into Mal's office.

  The brothers growled, stopping the trio cold.

  "We're on a break." Mal slammed his office phone. "And you're in my office."

  "The Gentleman's Society must investigate the head of the Onyx Corporation. Which is Amber." Serpentine pulled himself up indignantly. "You will not deny us, low caste."

  "I'm the head," he snarled, "and I'm ordering you out."

  "We know that isn't true, and we're here to prove it by following Amber until she slips."

  "Follow her how far?" Jasper asked. "Not to her lair, I assume."

  "Lair? Oh, no." Serpentine laughed. "She'll head the company long before that. We do not need to leave the office building."

  "Nor desire to," blue Graphite said, and yellow Ulexite agreed.

  "And what about within the building? Are you going to follow her into her private chambers? While she's eating? The bathroom?"

  They swayed uncomfortably.

  "No, of course not," Serpentine finally said. "We only need to observe her conducting business."

  Alex smiled at Jasper for the first time warmth hitting his two-tone eyes. "Great. This isn't business. You can leave."

  Serpentine lifted his snout into the air. "Even if you are discussing this so-called human fiancé, who I doubt exists, you cannot use him as an excuse to exclude our
investigation."

  While they argued, Pyro flew down Mal's clear glass tube and landed, shifting from a radioactive red pyrochlore color to nude human form as his bare feet touched Mal's carpet.

  Cheryl whirled away and covered her eyes.

  Pyro rummaged in Mal's closet. Syen arrived, out of breath and still clad in human clothes, a moment later.

  "What are these guys doing here?" Pyro buttoned a borrowed white dress shirt and flipped his collar. "This is a private family matter."

  "Try telling them that," Amber said dryly.

  He focused on the inspectors. His lips curled back from his teeth and a crazy gleam glowed radioactive red in his eyes. "Do they want to challenge me? I fought in the Colony Wars and survived. How do you do in a fight?"

  The dragons stiffened.

  "You can't order around an aristocrat!" Ulexite protested.

  "Can't I?"

  Syen edged in front of Pyro. "Allow me to hold your shirt while you fight these inspectors, CEO Pyro."

  Pyro grinned at the interim security chief and cracked his large, scarred knuckles. "Thanks, but blood sprays on my shirt just matches my eyes."

  The inspectors swallowed. They were civilized dragons used to exiling others to a nasty fate, not to experiencing it themselves.

  "The roof is an acceptable arena to resolve a dispute." Syen tilted his sunglasses at the inspectors. "Even aristocrats respect privacy around marriage."

  "We will leave." Serpentine retreated to the doorway. "If we are ordered by the dominant female?"

  Pyro glared with unfettered irritation. "I'd rather smash your lips off your face."

  "Only the dominant female of this company can ask us to leave."

  Amber sat in the hot seat. She couldn't order them out or else they would get the proof they needed.

  Cheryl perched on the art stool beside Mal's desk, watching the tension close to her husband.

  "Cheryl." Amber caught her eye. "As the female married to the head male of the company, I believe the inspectors are talking to you."

  She blinked. "Me?"

  Amber nodded.

  She swallowed and stood, her cheeks blazing and her voice shaky. "Please, um, get out."

  The green scoffed. "We do not answer to any human."

  Amber turned in her seat. "Cheryl is the wife of the CEO and therefore the direct representative of the matriarch, our mother. She just enjoyed a wonderful honeymoon on our Outer Rim estates where my mother was delighted with her new daughter-in-law. If she hears you've disrespected her direct representative then there will be fire, pain, and many complaints to your supervisors."

  Serpentine swallowed. "Your mother? She knows this human?"

  "We went on a cruise." Cheryl smiled, her cheeks still red from shyness. "She's really nice."

  "Nice!"

  Pyro unbuttoned and rolled up one sleeve, a new gleam in his eye, and he started for the dragons. "That looks like insubordination to me. Don't worry, Cheryl, I'll enforce your order."

  His other brothers closed rank around him, a group of broadly suited dragons. "We all will."

  The trio scooted out the door.

  Serpentine hung back inside and pointed his finger at Amber. "Don't hide long, or we will know that you are the true leader!"

  Jasper swung the door hard on its hinges. Serpentine jerked his hand out of the way. The door slammed shut.

  Energy drained out of Amber. She closed her eyes and sighed.

  This was the part where her brothers chastised her for considering an engagement without delineating how many shares of the company Darcy and his family could expect, how much control his mother or any sisters could exert, and go line-by-line over her financial stake. They would ask her plan for how she, a couch-loafer, intended to defeat Darcy's mother, sisters, and any over-protective aunts or grandmothers in combat. How many females she'd hire for backup, and how much failures would cost her—and the company.

  Dragon marriages were expensive, bloody, and occasionally fatal. But mostly expensive. Sure, Mal and Pyro and Kyan had gotten away with no expensive bloodshed, but that was because they as males had taken the initiative.

  Technically, Darcy had taken the initiative too, but since he'd gone to Amber, had he gotten his female relatives' approvals? Everything could get messy fast.

  She loved numbers, but right this exact instant, she wanted to curl up in her office and take a nap.

  "Amber." Mal's voice was surprisingly quiet as he began chastising her. "It's not wise to lie to these inspectors."

  Lie? She lifted her head. "But Cheryl is technically the head of the company."

  "About your engagement."

  Her whole body heated. She squirmed in the chair. "I'm not lying."

  "Your lie endangers Darcy," Jasper said.

  "I'm not lying."

  Her brothers leaned back fearfully.

  She forced herself to calm and faced Mal again, the only one who hadn't so much as twitched. "If anyone threatens Darcy, they'll be dead before they hit the ground, our company be damned."

  Mal stared at her nonplussed. "So you will not retract your claim?"

  "There's nothing to retract. I accepted him as a candidate for marriage."

  Pyro rose to leave.

  "Where are you going?" she asked, seeing as he'd barely just arrived.

  "I have to give Darcy a head's up that you're saying he proposed."

  "Why?"

  "So he knows."

  "He knows, Pyro. He was there."

  "Wait." Jasper held up a hand.

  Pyro paused with one hand in the glass doorway, the wind whistling past the entrance.

  "This is the truth, Amber? A human proposed to a dragon? Is it possible?"

  "Yes."

  Everyone waited.

  She explained. "After the incident last night, I was sad to go home, and so Darcy invited me out."

  "Why?" Alex asked.

  "I didn't know," Amber said. "But he did. Half of you were there."

  Cheryl nodded. Pyro and Mal looked as though they were searching their memories.

  "Why waste your money on alcohol?" Alex continued. "Dragons can't get drunk. We metabolize too quickly. I have always thought your wish to engage in this human social ritual makes no sense, Pyro."

  "Humans do it for socializing."

  "Yes, but you socialize outside of work."

  "It's called having friends. Non-work people you socialize with."

  Alex still looked mystified.

  Pyro shrugged a shoulder but his focus reverted to Amber. "Having a beer is a far cry from proposing marriage."

  "We drank one beer and danced. He took me back to his family boutique, gave me lingerie, and asked me to consider him for marriage. And then he kissed me."

  "He kissed you?" Pyro queried.

  She nodded.

  "And it wasn't a joke? Humans have a strange sense of humor. Darcy especially."

  Heat flushed through her. "I ordered him not to tease. He said he was serious and that he'd never teased me."

  The skepticism in the room grew.

  "Darcy often says words he doesn't mean in your presence." Jasper's lips twisted as if he suffered her disappointment personally. "He says things like, 'you are demure today' or 'you are quiet as Cheryl.'"

  "He was commenting on my outfits."

  Jasper's gaze turned to pity. An awkward silence descended over the room.

  Of course, Darcy had often teased Amber in front of them. He'd said things like how he'd miss her when he wasn't visiting the office and that he wished they could spend time together.

  Pyro had used his techniques to pick up human women. He was a master at charming them with false words and a smile. That was before he met his wife, Amy.

  Alex looked up. "Has Darcy seen you in your dragon form?"

  "Not yet."

  No human would relax around her once he saw the deadly power of a dragon female. Males were small and cute. Females were ... well, they were more like the
legends of old.

  The first explorers to reach this planet had been females. They'd razed a few medieval towns for fun. Joyriding, basically. Then, a few hundred years later, Mal had seen the outfits and visited this planet as an untapped business opportunity. Their space ships sure had shocked the inhabitants. But they'd signed the dragon-human peace treaty and there'd be no more joyriding.

  Still, Amber's true form was horrifying.

  Mal rested on his elbows. "Amber. You are certain that Darcy proposed to you on purpose?"

  "...Yes."

  "Then take these inspectors to meet him. Prove his existence."

  "During business hours?"

  "Is that going to be a problem?" he asked, an edge to his tone as though he had caught her lie.

  "No." Her belly clenched with nerves. "Darcy told me to come by today."

  "Great. Go there."

  "But if I do this then I may accept his proposal."

  "I would rather you marry Darcy than a rock worm like Chrysoberyl."

  "She hasn't shown her true form," Alex repeated.

  "For the duration of this inspection, don't show Darcy your true form."

  Everyone looked at Mal in surprise. He voiced a devious plan for a blunt, straight-forward dragon.

  But when fighting back-stabbers like Chrysoberyl and his cronies, they had to use every weapon at their disposal.

  "I'd have to show him before we married," she said.

  "Don't," he said sharply. "Few humans can handle a male dragon. Fewer still can handle a female. Perhaps the only human as flexible is Cheryl."

  Cheryl smiled and leaned against her husband. His roaring had never frightened her.

  "And Amy," Pyro pointed out, arms crossed over his chest.

  Syen was silent but clearly thinking of his colorful girlfriend.

  "And Rose," Jasper said.

  Everyone looked at him.

  "She is a human who also handles dragons well," he justified.

  "Jeanine handles dragons without changing her complexion," Alex pointed out. "Rose changes her complexion and also avoids us."

  "Rose is lost in thought. Like Flint. She doesn't avoid us on purpose."

  "After I convince the inspectors Darcy is real, then what?" Amber asked.

  "Then we will uncover the true extent of Chrysoberyl's plan. Once he cannot marry you to gain access to our company, he will focus on proving that we have acted in an undragonlike manner. So we must launch our next product as if everything is normal. Even though nothing is normal."