Hey, book buddy! Good to see you here on my blog. This post is part of a series called HEA Hypothesis, in which I try to dissect and analyze why different scenes in romance novels work well. You can see past post here. For the sake of clarity, I have formatted the conversations between Tristan and his dragon in italics, but also made bold Tristan the man’s part. This was not done in the original text, but because of my formatting limitations in WordPress, I wanted to make sure it was clear who was speaking; I’ve changed nothing else.

Okay, here’s the context, and then we’ll dive in. Melanie Hall is a British-American human writer in an alternate universe where dragon shifters exist and are supposedly to be protected by British law. Dragon blood has healing properties that her brother needs to stay alive; dragon shifters need human women to help them conceive and perpetuate their race. So an exchange is made: Melanie agrees to be paired with Tristan in exchange for what her brother needs. Unfortunately, the man she’s paired with, Tristan, has some serious trust issues when it comes to humans, because his mother was killed and abused by hunters. As we pick up the story, Mel is living on the dragons’ land, newly pregnant, and he’s been hiding from her because he’s a dirty coward.

As they passed one of the Stonefire’s eateries, the smell of steak and kidney pie filled his nose, making his stomach rumble. No doubt, after losing her breakfast, Melanie would be hungry too. He was about to ask her if she wanted something to eat when she buried her head against his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist. He stopped walking and said, “What’s wrong?” Her voice was muffled. “That smell…it makes me want to vomit again.” “So you’re burying your face against me to cover me in sick and get revenge on me for impregnating you?” She shook her head against his chest. “For some reason, your scent calms my stomach.” His inner dragon hummed. Our scent helps her. She will want us always by her side. Tristan brushed the remark aside, determined to remain unaffected. “Let’s keep going. We’re nearly there.” “If I move my head away before we clear that smell, I’ll be sick. And this time, I’ll make sure to aim for you.” He nearly smiled. Even when facing a humiliating situation, like being sick in public, Melanie Hall didn’t back down (pg. 108, Donovan).

Power struggles. They’re nothing new in a romance, but what I found so intriguing about this particular book is that we have so many different power struggles happening, and here we see the first one: man vs. instinct. As is common in shifter romances, there’s a “mated” status that’s beyond anything the shifter could rationally choose, and that’s what happened to Tristan. His dragon chose Mel, and now he’s stuck with a human he doesn’t feel he can trust. But she’s carrying his child, and for Tristan the man, that changes things…his instincts are conflicting. He feels a strong desire to protect Mel because she’s carrying his child, but he’s obviously still assuming the worst about her and resisting the desire to embrace her as a mate.

Since she was suffering in part because of him, he looped an arm around her waist and said, “I can carry you or guide you until the smell clears. Which method do you prefer?” She hesitated a second and then said, “Guide me, but make sure to walk slowly.” His dragon let out a soft snarl inside his head. Carry her. I want to feel her soft body pressed against ours. Not now. She doesn’t feel well. Comfort her first and maybe we’ll feel her body against ours later. At the promise of feeling the human female’s curves against his skin, the dragon retreated. Tristan tried not to think too hard on how cooperative his beast was being, because that would mean thinking about how attached his dragon was becoming to the human. He tightened his grip on Melanie’s waist and started walking, careful to time his steps to her sideways walk (pg. 109, Donovan).

Inevitably, our second power struggle is man vs. dragon. Tristan’s dragon is Mel’s #1 fan, but the man part of him isn’t sold. As a result, he’s trying to push both her and his dragon away emotionally, even though he can’t push her away physically. This is a common struggle in literature as in life: the dragon is the personification (beastification?) of those parts of us that react at a gut level. That blow up without thinking. That feel deep desire and want selfishly . The dragon is all pride and smug satisfaction in a way that the man isn’t allowed to be. Let’s consider the alternative: if Tristan didn’t argue with the dragon, we’d question his motives as a character. Dragons don’t seem to care much if the woman’s interested in sex. But by arguing with his dragon and denying him what he wants, he’s literally tearing himself apart for the sake of a woman he claims not to love…

He nearly ordered her to walk faster, but then he remembered Lia’s words about taking care of Melanie. If his mother were alive today and saw him barking at a pregnant woman, carrying his baby no less, she would’ve frowned and give him a cool, even look. His mother had never been one to raise her voice, yet Tristan and his sister had known better than to disobey her. Thinking about his mother squeezed his heart. He’d pretty much locked away his memories of her for both his and Arabella’s sakes, but he was starting to wonder if it was time to address both the pain and the memories of his mum. He had a feeling that during their visit with Arabella, he wouldn’t have a choice. Samira and Liam’s cottage came into view and he caught traces of Liam’s scent in the air. His dragon snarled and tried to take control. A male lives inside that house. He will take our human many times until he erases our scent. We must take her away and protect her from all other males. I will protect her. Now, stop being daft. Liam has his own mate. But ours is better (p. 109, Donovan).

Here, we get a humorous moment where the dragon boldly pronounces against reason that the other male would *obviously* be attracted to Mel and want her despite his own commitments. But it also highlights our third power struggle: man vs. community. The dragon is more afraid of his own clansmen stealing her away, while Tristan is afraid that they’d judge him for the detached way he’s tried to deal with Mel. At the same time, one of the things preventing him from embracing her is his fear that his sister Arabella won’t accept his human mate. Donovan does an excellent throughout the book to demonstrate the ways that a community, a family, can influence a relationship. Their commitment to their other relationships both pushes them together and forces them apart at times. That’s a theme I’m working through in my WIP, Could be Something Good, too (stay tuned to the blog, and I’ll give you a taste of it later in the week). In my mind, a new relationship that forces you out of your old relationships is probably unhealthy, yet we see it all the time in literature. They turn their backs on the world for the sake of their romance.

Ignoring the remark about mates, Tristan said, Stop it or I will shut you out completely. His dragon grumbled and allowed Tristan’s human-half to remain in control. At least, for the time being. He tightened his grip on the human to further soothe his dragon. The feel of her soft curves warm against his hand, arm, and chest calmed the beast. He hoped Liam was out, or his dragon would try everything he could to break free, resulting in a rather spectacular display of protectiveness and possibly a fight. They reached the front door of Samira’s cottage. Tristan gave his dragon one last warning to behave before he said, “We’re here” (pg. 110, Donovan).

Donovan, Jessie. Sacrificed to the Dragon (Stonefire British Dragons Book 1) (pp. 108-110). Mythical Lake Press, LLC. Kindle Edition.

Needless to say, I really enjoyed this book! And at the time of this writing, the first book in the series is FREE! You can get here: Sacrificed to the Dragon by Jessie Donovan. I do participate in Amazon Affiliates, so I get a small kickback if you use these links, but the cost to you is the same. (Tea money, anyone? BOOK MONEY?!)