Mated To The Alpha Dragon (A BBW Paranormal Romance) by Rachel Red

expressions masks of shock; and some women held crying children, their faces white as sheets. 
                I turned to Julia and spoke in a low voice. "Victor said there's a chance, although slim, that some Oppressors could get in here, under the mountains. And if there's even a chance of that happening, I think we need weapons."
                "But there will be at least a dozen guards outside the doors."
                "Guards can be injured or disabled. And there are kids in here to protect. I really think we need weapons."
                "But... what kind of weapons? And would they even do any good? Oppressors can only be temporarily stunned from any injury inflicted by a human. They can only be killed by being hit with fire from a Keeper's mouth in dragon form, and then stabbed in the eye by a dragon claw or other sharp thing."
                "I know. But it doesn't even matter if we can't directly kill an Oppressor ourselves. If we can get some sort of weapons, we can at least temporarily disable or slow them, buying us a little time until a Keeper arrives."
                Julia nodded. "Okay. Well, what kind of weapons should we try to get? Like knives, or-"
                "I just had an idea. Are there any crossbows in Stonebrook? Like, anywhere?"
                "Five in Sam's and my rooms alone. He uses them to hunt wild game in human form. I don't really know how to use them, though. And I don't think any of the other women here do, either. Do you?"
                "Well-"
                "Oh my gosh, I forgot! You won the Haverbrook crossbow competition three years in a row when we were teenagers! I just totally forgot. And with your last name …"
                I gave her a little grin. "Yep. With a name like Archer, my family always took archery pretty seriously. I know I can defend us if need be. I can stand by the doors and protect us. Just on the off-off-off-chance that something were to happen to the guards."
                "I'll go get you a crossbow and some arrows."     
                A short while later, Julia returned, just as the guards were preparing to shut the hall doors.
                One of them glanced at what she carried. "You won't need all that. More power to you, though, I guess, if it makes you ladies feel better."
                 Once the doors had been shut, most everyone went to sit at the dining tables, murmuring. But Julia and I remained standing, and her gaze went to the large, high windows carved into one rock-walled side of the hall. Strips of metal had been drilled or fastened over the windows earlier so that Oppressors couldn't get in. Scaffolding still stood by one of the windows.
                Julia turned to me. "Let's climb up and watch the battle for a little bit. I want to see Sam fight in dragon form. I want to make sure he's okay."
                "How sturdy do you think that scaffolding is, though?"
                "Very. I saw five two-hundred pound men on it at once a while ago."
                "Okay. But if it starts wobbling even a little, we're coming down."
                It actually was very sturdy scaffolding. Julia and I climbed up it, and it didn't even wobble or sway at all.
                Once atop it, we peered through the metal strips covering the window in front of us. I spotted Victor in front of a massive group of Keeper men, only several hundred feet away in a clearing area at the foot of the mountains. He appeared to be giving a speech. Sam stood near him, on his right. Presently, everyone spread out and, in the blink of an eye, shifted into dragons. Victor was massive and dark, charcoal-colored, like his eyes. His wingspan was at least thirty feet. His enormous claws, probably each a foot long, glinted in the sun. He launched himself into the air, breathing