the Dragon's Clutch: Sent up mountain to poison A dragon. He kept her instead, and guarded like gold. Dark Dragon Monster Breeding Romance.: 3

She was sent up the mountain to poison a dragon. He took one look at the only hand that could read true gold from false - and decided to keep her. Esme is the finest assayer in the realm, the hand that can streak a metal on a stone and name its worth to the grain. The crown sends her up the mountain with a box of salted gold and one order: lay the false tribute in the wyrm's hoard and let it rot him from the inside. The dragon who finds her there is enormous, scaled, ancient, and entirely unwilling to let her climb back down. He has read the lie in the crown's gold the way she reads the truth in it - and he has decided that the one creature alive who can tell his hoard's worth from its poison belongs to him, in his deep, for good. Esme tells herself she stays to clear the bane from his clutch, that it is survival, that she will be gone the moment the work is done. She goes on telling herself that right up until the wyrm shows her exactly what it means to be the treasure a dragon chooses above all his gold. He sleeps on the wealth of kingdoms. He wants only her - every part, in every way there is. A dark, possessive monster romance with a brooding wyrm who hoards what's his, blazing heat, and a guaranteed happily ever after. Size difference. Fated mates. Standalone. Book 3 of Claimed by Monsters. Mature content, 18+.