The Last Dragon's Bride

Freya had just finished her degree when the offer came: ten million to carry a child for Sylvan, a wealthy recluse living in an old castle in the mountains. One rule was made clear on arrival. Nobody speaks of dragons. On the first day Sylvan held a gun on her, blindfolded, to make the terms plain. She conceived within the month. Ten months later what she delivered was not a baby but an enormous egg patterned with dragon markings. Certain she would be executed for it, Freya hid the egg and said nothing, and Sylvan demoted her to servant work in the woodshed. The egg hatched into a small dragon with gold eyes. It stayed hidden until the day it saw Ginevra tormenting Freya, and then it breathed fire in her defence and gave itself away. It bolted, straight into Sylvan's arms, and the contact set off a resonance in the blood that neither of them could explain. Sylvan began quietly looking into where the child came from. Ginevra and her father brought dragon hunters up to the castle gates.