Marcy Jacks The One True Sacrifice

Of Dragons and Wolves 1

The One True Sacrifice

Conner Abbot is the youngest, and weakest, of many brothers. A
runt and an omega, he is unable to hunt after a dragon attack left

him scarred. Though he's worthless to his family, he knows they
love him, and he loves them. Which is why Conner volunteers to
mate to a dragon for peace, rather than watch one of his brothers

be taken away.

Aris Macleod, high dragon of his clan, wasn't happy with the

arrangement. Peace is more important than his happiness,
however, and he will go through with the mating, even when the

wolves insult him by sending him a weak omega.

Aris is stunned when the frail omega has some bite in him, and as

he slowly finds himself falling in love, he comes to the terrible
realization that Conner may never love him back, and the only
way to make his true love happy will be to send him back where

he came from.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Futuristic, Paranormal, Shape-
shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 36,602 words

THE ONE TRUE SACRIFICE

Of Dragons and Wolves 1

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Everlasting Classic ManLove

THE ONE TRUE SACRIFICE
Copyright © 2014 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-884-3

First E-book Publication: June 2014

Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

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THE ONE TRUE SACRIFICE

Of Dragons and Wolves 1

MARCY JACKS

Chapter One

“I think I should be the one to go,” Conner Abbot said.
The entire room fell silent, which was kind of amazing. Conner

had never managed to get the entire council to shut up before,
especially when they were in the middle of an argument.

The argument was on which one of the alpha wolf's sons should

be the one sent up the mountain to mate with the high dragon.

A peace treaty between a wolf pack and a dragon clan was never

going to work until someone gave in.

Simon Abbot, Conner’s father, stared wide-eyed at him. His

mouth even gaped a little. Conner couldn’t even bring himself to look
at his brothers.

Of course, one of the elders had to open his mouth, and he

sounded pretty happy. “There! You see? We have a volunteer!”

“That’s enough, George, this is my son,” Simon snapped.
“And he’s volunteering to go!” George said.
Conner wasn’t sure he wanted to listen to this argument.
The United States of America had gone through many changes in

the last couple hundred years, most notably the revelation of dragon
shifters. Other shifters and vampires already knew about them, but
after vampires and shifters came out to the human population, the

Marcy Jacks

dragons stayed behind. They’d dragged their feet on the issue until
they were completely certain there would be no problems against
them.

Were they ever wrong. The wars that humans had tried to start

against the dragons, wanting their scales for their value, and to make
expensive jewelry or armor with, were outstanding.

The humans hadn’t known what they were in for. Shifters and

vampires had to deal with hunters, who occasionally wanted to kill
them for sport, or even personal reasons, but after dragons arrived, so
did the Templars. Religious fanatics who believed that dragons were
the spawn of Satan. Dragons were so powerful that the fights almost
completely changed the map of the country, and there were mountains
now in places where before there were none, thanks to some of the
more powerful dragons who could control such things.

All of this happened well before Conner was born. Before his

father had been born and the pack had settled here, and currently,
Conner’s pack of wolves lived at the bottom of one particular
mountain from those stories. They had wanted to claim it for
themselves, but when the dragons came down and declared it as their
land, without any paperwork or proof, well, werewolves and dragons
never really got along. Especially werewolves from this pack and the
dragons from that mountain.

Eventually Conner’s brothers started speaking up, starting with

the eldest, Garret. He was eighty-five years old, but looked the exact
same age as their father, midthirties, though Simon Abbot was a
whole one hundred and twenty-five years old. “This could easily be a
trick, something designed to get ahold of one of us so that our father
will have to pay a ransom.”

Stan spoke up next. He was seventy-five, but still looked mid-

thirties. “Garret’s right. If we send Conner up there and Aris threatens
to kill him if we don’t leave, then where does that leave the pack?”

“I think Aris is telling the truth,” Conner said, and everyone

looked back at him.

The One True Sacrifice

Kyle came over and put his hand on Conner’s shoulder. He was

sixty, and he and Stan shared the same mother. Their father had
married a couple of times over his long life, so even though Conner
was only a half brother to all of them, they treated him like he was
full blood.

The only problem was that they also treated him like a frail little

kid. At twenty-five, he was the youngest, and with the problems with
his heart and his leg, it was difficult for his family to see him as an
adult. Or useful.

“What makes you say that?” Simon asked, and it was clear that he

was trying to be patient, but he was struggling. That was obvious by
the way his big hands clenched into fists. Those same fists that had
been gentle hands after Conner’s mother had been murdered in front
of him. He could still remember exactly what his father had looked
like when he’d broken down, holding his dead wife and nearly dead
son after a dragon had attacked.

“Because Aris wasn’t the one who attacked me and Mom. I’ve

seen the pictures of him, and he’s the new alpha, right?”

“They call their alphas high dragons,” Richard said, also coming

to stand beside Conner. He was forty-nine, and though he’d only be
old enough to officially be on the council when his birthday came
around next spring, his opinion was still listened to.

“Are we seriously considering this?” Quin asked. He was thirty-

five and a beta, and until Conner had been born, he’d been the baby of
all the brothers. Conner had awaited the arrival of a new brother, or
even a sister, for quite some time, but he’d long since gotten used to
the fact that he was going to be the pup of the group for maybe even
the rest of his life. His father certainly showed no interest in women,
or having relationships with them, ever since the dragon attack that
took his wife and turned his youngest son into a cripple.

Conner looked right at Quin, who was damn near his best friend

since they were the closest in age. “Would you rather you got sent
off?”

Marcy Jacks

Quin’s entire body went stiff. “I don’t want anyone to get sent

off!”

“But someone has to go if we want the fighting to stop,” Conner

said, and he looked at all of his brothers, and his father, who was the
alpha of the pack.

“Aris and his dragons have been on that mountain for at least as

long as we’ve been here. Fighting over it for this long is pointless.
Their old alpha, or high dragon or whatever, is dead, and Aris is in
charge now. He wants peace, and this makes sense.”

“How exactly does this make sense?” Richard demanded. He was

usually so calm, but his arms were crossed and he was glaring down
at the table.

Conner sighed, and he looked back at his father. “It’s what our

pack does. It’s what humans used to do back in the old days. If you
want to ensure peace then you have to join houses. That’s why he
wants one of us to mate with, not just any wolf from the pack but one
of our father’s children.”

“And why do you think you should be the one to go?” Simon

asked, and unlike Richard, his voice was calm, though there was a
great deal of sadness in it as well.

It was like he was already aware of the fact that he was going to

give in to what Conner wanted.

Conner sighed. “Because…if this does turn out to be a trick, then

you don’t want to give up any of your alphas or your betas. My
brothers are strong, I’m not. It won’t be a blow to the pack if I do get
kidnapped or killed, and at least this way I can be useful for once in
my life.”

“You are useful,” Garret said, always the leader of the brothers,

the mini alpha, they all liked to tease him as from time to time.

Conner shook his head. “No, I’m something for all of you to take

care of and defend. I can’t even go hunting half the time with all of
you because I’m so damned clumsy that I scare away the game. If
Aris wants one of Simon’s sons for his mate, then I want to be the one

The One True Sacrifice

to go. I want to take care of all of you for once.”

More than that, Conner wanted his freedom. If Aris was sincere

about peace, then Conner would be on his own. He’d be a mated wolf
and he’d go where he could be treated like an adult, though he would
never tell that to his well-meaning family.

“Even if this isn’t a trick,” Kyle said, who was also a beta, “then it

wouldn’t matter if you’re the first to go. Bringing together a pack of
wolves and a clan of fighting dragons will take more than one mated
pair. If this works out then others will have to go as well.”

“Then at least they can go knowing that they won’t be going to

their deaths,” Conner said, and he looked up at all of them, his family,
completely ignoring the council since they pretty much hated him and
his weakness anyway. “I know you all see me as some kind of little
kid, especially with how many more years most of you have on me,
but I’m not a kid. I’m old enough to make a decision on this, and I
want it to be me. If Aris accepts me for who I am, injuries and all,
then you’ll at least know that he’s sincere.”

George clapped his hands together. “I’ve never heard a better

argument before. Honestly, Simon, I didn’t know your little runt had
it in him.”

Simon growled at the council member, though Conner took no

offense to it.

George raised his hands. “Apologies, alpha, I didn’t mean any

disrespect, but it is honorable for him to want to care for his family
and his pack. I think we’ve all heard enough that you can make a
decision on this.”

Simon looked over and locked eyes with Conner, and Conner held

his breath. He tried to make himself look so much taller than his five
foot six and a half inches. He didn’t want his father to baby him. He
didn’t want the man to make a decision based on that bias.

Conner held onto that breath for what seemed like hours before

Simon finally sighed and gave his decision. “Send a messenger to

Marcy Jacks

Aris. I’ll have my youngest son ready for him by the end of the
week.”

The One True Sacrifice

Chapter Two

Conner trudged up the path of the black mountain, so named

because of the black rocks that were all over the damned place,
hurting his feet, even though he was wearing really good shoes.

Sweat dripped down his face, and though Garret and Stan had to

grab onto his hand and help him to walk a time or two, he refused to
be carried.

Damn. Dragons could fly. Why the hell couldn’t Aris have sent

one of his underlings to come swooping in and bring Conner up the
mountain? He didn’t understand, but if this was supposed to be some
kind of test, then he wasn’t going to fail it by making any of his
brothers carry him up the mountain.

They were all in their human forms, though Garret and Stan were

naked. They had been in their wolf forms at one time, but then the
steep inclines and awkward paths that eventually revealed themselves
meant that they had to use human hands and feet to help themselves
along.

It was no wonder that Conner's pack, the black mountain pack,

could never drive the dragons off the mountain. How could they when
they had so much trouble just getting on the damned thing?

“We’re here,” Garret said, and Conner was so busy panting for

breath that he’d almost missed what his brother had said.

Gasping for air, his whole body hot and sticky with sweat from

the climb and the humidity, Conner looked up and then had the breath
snatched right out of his lungs.

Three men, three huge men, some even taller than his two

brothers, were standing on what had to be the only bit of flat surface

Marcy Jacks

for what seemed like miles. They were just standing there, arms
folded, glaring, and very naked.

They all had hair that went down at least to their shoulders and

some had hair even longer than that. The one with the bright-red hair
that flowed in the wind had to be Aris. The pictures Conner had seen
of him didn’t do the man any justice. At all.

He was tall, as tall as Conner’s father, which meant he had to be at

least six foot three or so. He also had a square jaw, but it was
endearing without making him look like a caveman, even though he
had the long-hair-and-no-clothes thing going for him. Conner half
expected the man to just walk on over to him with a club, conk him
on the head, and then throw him over his shoulders so he could carry
Conner away to his nest or whatever.

He suddenly decided that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing. His dick

was definitely stirring in his pants. This was the exact sort of guy that
Conner got off on when he watched porn online, and when his eyes
looked down at the man’s dick, he had to let out a slightly terrified
breath.

Aris wasn’t erect, but he was still huge, and if they mated that

thing was going to go inside of Conner’s ass.

He was going to get wrecked by that. Holy God.
Aris stepped forward, leaving the other two men standing exactly

where they were behind him. They reminded Conner of bodyguards,
or betas. The sort of people who, in his pack, would be there to
protect his father, the alpha, or give him backup if a fight broke out.

“I see that Abbot didn’t go back on his word,” Aris said, and it

was strange, but Conner almost expected to hear a Scottish accent
coming out of the man’s mouth. He sounded about as American as
Conner did.

He had to remind himself that it wasn’t Aris who came from

Scotland, but his father and several of the dragon elders, many of
whom were now dead. A lot of members of the clan would be just like
Conner.

The One True Sacrifice

Except for the fact that they were all bloodthirsty, fire-breathing

dragons.

Garret and Stan both growled at him for the comment, but it was

Garret who spoke. “My father accepted the agreement. Of course he
would keep to his word.”

“You sound insulted,” Aris said. “As a wolf you should know

better than anyone how your kind is.”

“And how is our kind?” Stan asked.
Aris flicked his eyes over to him, but he continued to speak to

Garret. “Savage. Bullies, deceitful and greedy. Should I go on? I have
more.”

Conner’s heart jumped when Garret showed his teeth, and they

were starting to get long and sharp. “Keep your mouth shut. We came
here to make good on the suggestion for peace that you made.”

Yeah, Garret was totally still upset about the fact that Simon was

going along with Conner’s suggestion.

Conner was stunned with himself when he felt the hateful stirring

of anger and jealousy as Aris let his finger slide down Garret’s cheek.
“Yes, Simon offered his youngest son to me. While you certainly look
young enough, I can tell that you’re not. Too much power in you. So,
is it to be him?”

Conner was stunned again when Aris’s brown eyes completely

missed him as they looked over at his brother Stan. Aris’s eyes had an
interested look about them as they sized Stan up, and Stan’s entire
body went rigid. “I’m not the youngest either, you idiot!” he snapped.

Conner was still waiting for Aris to notice him, and he hated the

fact that the man frowned, as though he was confused. “I sensed you
have power in you, though not as much as your brother here. If you
were not sent to me then who was?”

Unbelievable. Was Conner really that small that Aris hadn’t

noticed him yet? It seemed that was exactly the case. “Me,” he said,
and he even lifted his hand a little to get the man’s attention.

Aris’s big brown eyes widened as he looked over at Conner, and

Marcy Jacks

yeah, from the look on his face, it was pretty damned obvious that he
hadn’t seen Conner there to begin with.

Conner told himself not to be angry. First impressions were a big

thing after all, even bigger than the guy’s dragon-sized cock, and he
didn’t want the rest of their relationship to be based off of one bad
first meeting. “I’m Conner,” he said. “I would be the youngest son
that my father is sending over for you to mate with.”

He was stunned when Aris narrowed his eyes, but the man at least

stepped toward him. He was staring hard at Conner now, which was
an improvement, and as the large man circled him, clearly trying to
get a feel for him, Conner started to get uncomfortable.

“You can’t be the one he sent for me,” Aris said.
“What?” Conner asked.
Aris crossed his enormous arms. “I request one of his sons for a

mate, to bring our houses together, and he sends me a runt?”

The two dragon men who’d arrived with Aris both snickered, and

for the first time in years, Conner’s face heated up with humiliation at
that word. He’d learned to live with people calling him a runt, even
though he technically wasn’t. He was a little on the short side, but he
was an omega, and the only omega out of his alpha and beta brothers,
so that made him look even smaller. It wasn’t his fault that a dragon
attack had hurt his leg and his heart.

“Do not call my brother that word,” Garret said through his teeth.

“He is an omega werewolf.”

“Whose heartbeat is strange. I can hear it.”
“You didn’t hear it before when you were thinking about fucking

my brother,” Conner said, glaring up at the man.

Aris fell back a step, as if Conner had physically shoved him. That

made him feel better.

“Send him back if you want,” Stan said. “Personally, I’d rather cut

off my own foot than hand him over to you.”

Conner appreciated and loved his brothers so damned much,

because he knew that he meant it, but he was going to show this

The One True Sacrifice

dragon that he wasn’t a pushover, even if he was weak. Alphas didn’t
back down, and even betas knew when to push buttons. Conner was
an omega, but he’d watched his brothers over the years, saw the way
they had looked at each other and fought with each other. Conner
stared right at Aris and barely allowed himself to blink. Even a dragon
had to recognize that as being a challenge.

He was the one who asked for the peace deal, and clearly he

hadn’t known that one of Simon’s son’s was nearly a cripple,
otherwise he would have specified not to bring him.

When Aris clenched his fists and bit down on his lips, Conner

knew that the man was either going to accept what was happening and
take him, or he was going to throw Conner back at his brothers and
demand that they get the runt out of his sight.

When Aris reached his hand out and clapped that big fist of his on

Conner’s shoulder, his already racing heart sped up even more. Not
all the meditation or calming chants in the world could get his heart to
go back down to a safer speed.

“Are these your things?” Aris asked, motioning to the bag that

was hanging off of Conner’s shoulder.

“Yes,” he said, and his mouth was instantly dry.
Aris didn’t smile at him. He just nodded and looked back over at

Garret and Stan. “Go to your father and tell him that I accept his
welp.”

Aris then snapped his fingers, and one of the other naked dragons

stepped forward and took the duffel bag from Conner’s shoulder. He
was a little reluctant to let it go, despite the urge to throw it aside
during his hard climb. He’d stuffed the thing with all of his favorite
clothes, a photo album in case he never saw his family again, his
electronics, and a solar charger for all of them just in case the new
place where he was going didn’t have electricity.

He really hoped it would.
“This way, my new mate,” Aris said, though his mouth was in a

crooked line when he said it. He clearly wasn’t happy about this, but

Marcy Jacks

it also looked like he wasn’t about to let himself lose face either.

“We’ll be coming back to check on him,” Garret said.
“He’s no longer your business,” Aris said, confirming the fears

that Conner had kept himself awake with ever since he’d made the
announcement that he wanted to be the first person to mate with one
of the dragons.

“The hell he’s not!” Stan yelled. “That’s my brother you’ve got!

Let him go, right now!”

Stan must’ve tried to step forward so he could grab onto Conner

because that was when the two men who were with Aris also jumped
forward, and when they roared, their teeth and claws were a lot bigger
than anything Stan and Garret had.

“No!” Conner called out, but he yelled it at his brothers, and not at

Aris or his men. In fact, when he rushed to Garret and Stan, Aris let
him.

“Don’t start a fight, please, this is for the pack,” Conner said, and

he had to reach up just to touch both of his brothers’ shoulders.

They stared down at him, and they glared back up at the dragons.

“They were the ones who started this war to begin with.”

The dragons snorted behind him at that. Conner wasn’t sure who

made that noise, and he didn’t care either.

“It doesn’t matter who started it. I don’t care if unicorn shifters

started it. We’re ending it. That’s the entire point of being here, and I
don’t want either of you putting this in jeopardy, okay?”

His brothers looked at him. Their eyes were equal parts sad and

frustrated. Conner knew that his family loved him, but now he was
starting to understand the turmoil that they were going through just to
go through with this bargain. He hadn’t really thought much of it at
all. He’d only imagined that he himself was the one paying the price
for this peace, whether it was death, or mating to a species of shifter
that hated his guts, it hadn’t mattered. He hadn’t realized just how
much this would affect his brothers and father.

This explained why the good-bye from his father had been so

The One True Sacrifice

short. At first Conner had been hurt, but now he realized that the
alpha of the pack just didn’t want to break down and show emotion in
front of the council, or the rest of the pack members who would see it
as a sign of weakness.

In that moment, despite how much Conner wanted to be treated

like an adult, all he wanted was to run back to his father and throw his
arms around the man’s neck and give him the big hug he’d wanted to
that morning when he’d set off. The hug that he hadn’t given because
he thought the alpha was angry with him.

He wanted his dad.
Conner sucked up that feeling and tried to make himself look

strong and capable for his brothers. “It doesn’t matter what this alpha
dragon says to me anyway. If I want to come and see you, then I’ll
come and see you. I’m going to be his mate, not his prisoner.”

“And if he doesn’t let you come and visit?” Stan asked.
Conner looked behind him toward his soon-to-be mate. The man

was watching him with an unreadable expression, but his eyes were
softer than before as he watched Conner. “Then it’ll mean that he’s
killed me, because the only way I would ever forget about my family
would be if I was dead.”

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Three

Aris Macleod could hardly believe what he’d seen. The entire

situation would have been laughable, had it been happening to anyone
other than himself.

He’d made the peace offer himself, so he had no one to blame that

the mate chosen from him out of all of Simon Abbot’s sons wasn’t
exactly what Aris had expected, but still, to know that this little whelp
had been chosen for him was clearly meant to be an insult. It had to
be a test designed to see whether or not Aris would go back on the
agreement that he himself had set up, allowing that wolf pack to
continue to have reason to attack his clan of dragons.

He wasn’t going to do that, even if the sound of the welp’s heart

meant that he was likely to drop dead at any moment, or even because
of that limp that he walked with. Aris would not allow himself to
bend down to the will of those wolves.

If anything, he would enjoy thinking about what Simon’s reaction

would be when his two sons returned without the youngest. It was
clear from the two older males that they cared deeply for Conner. He
was the youngest, as well, and with his size, that likely meant a good
deal of pampering happened back at his pack.

Well, the boy was in for a startling surprise when he learned that

there would be no easy treatment for him, regardless of whatever
conditions he might have. Everyone on the mountain had their chores,
even the high dragon, and everyone was expected to carry them out.

Still, as Aris paced in his den, it was interesting the way the

omega had made his demands, against both Aris and his brothers.
Bossy little thing. That implied either a certain level of fearlessness,

The One True Sacrifice

or stupidity, but whichever one it was had nearly caused Aris to
humiliate himself by sporting a cockstand in front of his men and the
wolves.

If he and the young wolf never got along, then at least Aris could

live knowing that he was sexually attracted to him, and a high dragon
was never denied from his mate. The mate never wanted to deny his
or her more dominant partner anyway.

There was a knock at the door. Despite the stone walls, which had

been carved right out of the mountain, there were many luxuries in
this place, many of which had been implemented after the death of
Aris’s father, who never had the time to oversee such things.

The main luxury was electricity, and doors that were on hinges

instead of having to use curtains which were put over every opening
to every room. Otherwise, the den, as big as it was, looked exactly the
same.

“Enter,” Aris called.
Roman, his second-in-command, entered, dressed now in casual

jeans and a black T-shirt, unlike when they had gone to pick up Aris’s
new mate. “I came to check on you,” Roman said, closing the door
behind him.

At eighty-five years old, Roman was only five years younger than

Aris was. Though his hair was long, like most other dragons on the
mountain, it was a pale red in comparison to how bright Aris’s hair
was. More of a red-brown color, and Aris envied the man that.

They were like brothers, and had been for as long as Aris could

remember, considering how close their parents were.

“It’s not me you should be worried about,” Aris replied, and he

looked down at the papers he kept on his desk. Letters back and forth
from the wolf pack to himself. He looked for anything inside that
would have clued him into the fact that he was basically being sent
the runt of the litter. He still couldn’t help but feel insulted about the
whole thing.

Roman smiled at him. “You were sent a small one, but he’s

Marcy Jacks

tougher than he looks.”

“Have you listened to his heart? Or watched the way he limps?

He’s weak and sickly. When I requested that our houses join, I
assumed that I would be sent someone stronger.”

“You can’t believe that you would have gotten an alpha to submit

to you,” Roman said, his mouth pursing a little with disbelief.

“Not an alpha, but at least a strong beta, or failing that, if he had

to send me one of his omega children, then at least someone healthy,”
Aris said. “What the hell am I to do with a mate like that? I thought he
would damn near die from the flight up here.”

“He knew we were all dragons. He was hardly stunned when we

shifted and you flew with him on your back.”

“His heart was beating so fast I thought he would pass out.”
“If you had seen his face, you would have seen him smiling the

entire time. Honestly, I think it was the flight that allowed him to
really enjoy himself and not be so upset over leaving his family
behind.”

Aris looked at his friend, but he knew better than to accuse the

man of anything untoward simply for having looked at Aris’s soon-to-
be mate. Aris then sighed. “I put myself in this situation. It’s my fault
he was sent here.”

“If you would speak to him, you would know that he requested to

be sent.”

That stunned Aris. “What?”
Roman nodded. “When I brought him to his room, he told me. It

was no insult from the alpha against you. The boy wanted to come
here. He volunteered out of all of his brothers.”

Aris’s mind immediately worked to find a reason for that. It

couldn’t possibly be because the young man was abused. Aris had
seen the reaction from his brothers when they climbed the mountain
to drop Conner off. Unless that was some sort of trick.

He decided to keep his mind open, just in case. He would discover

for himself what was going on.

The One True Sacrifice

“Who’s guarding him now?” Aris asked.
There were many dragons in his clan who were not the least bit

happy with the idea of the high dragon mating with a wolf. Perhaps
the fact that Conner was so small and weak might appease them, but
at the moment, he wasn’t willing to take the chance. Dragon warriors
and the castle guards would have to remain alert.

“I left Craig and Aiken with him. They’re guarding his door, just

in case, though I think Conner believes that he is being prevented
from leaving, or exploring the den.”

Aris smirked at that. “Did you explain to him why it was a good

idea for him to stay put?” he asked, and he looked into the mirror on
the wall, wondering if he should perhaps shave his face before going
to the young man. Aris hadn’t exactly taken this seriously, but now he
was looking at himself and wondering if he was presentable enough
for a mating night.

Roman nodded. “I told him how big the den was, said he could get

lost, and that some people didn’t like that he was here.”

“How did he handle that?”
“He said that anyone who didn’t like him for being a wolf could

go and fuck themselves. His words, not mine,” Roman said quickly.

Aris found himself smiling before he knew it. “He might not be

strong, but he has a spirit about him.”

“He does,” Roman said, and he sounded wistful.
That made the jealous monster within Aris rear its head. Not his

dragon. He was perfectly in tune with his dragon. They were one in
the same, but still, he was stunned with himself for hissing a little at
his friend.

Roman lifted his hands and took a step back. “If you don’t want

anyone snatching him up for themselves, then you should go to him.
Aiken and Craig could be falling in love with him at this very moment
for all you know. He is quite lovely when you look beyond the
weaknesses.”

That was very true, and something Aris hated to admit. The

Marcy Jacks

smaller man couldn’t be mistaken for feminine when it came to his
personality, or the way he walked, but he was as small as a woman,
probably as frail, too. It didn’t help that his pale-blond hair shone in
the sunlight, or that he had naturally pink lips that glistened whenever
the little wolf licked them.

“For their sakes, they’d better not,” Aris snapped, and he felt his

claws and protective red scales forming on his body. He was irritating
himself with thoughts of his new mate’s beauty. Why wouldn’t the
man be at least a bit on the homely side? Or have a belly? How did a
wolf even properly get his exercise with a limp like that?

“I thought you weren’t happy with him? Don’t you want to send

him back?” Roman asked, and the little shit was still smiling at him.

“There’s no time to send him back for a replacement. I want this

merger done as soon as possible. He’s here now and he’s mine. It
doesn’t matter whether I’m pleased with his health or not,” Aris
snapped.

Roman stepped out of the way of the door. “Then go to him

already. He’s been inside of his room for hours since you got back.

Aris grumbled, but Roman was right, so he stormed out of the

stone room that he used as an office of sorts, and made his way
through the halls toward his new mate.

* * * *

Conner had explored his entire room for the first half an hour after

his arrival. He was still a little shocked that Aris had agreed to take
him, especially since it seemed as if the proud dragon would send him
back when he realized that Conner had been sent to be his mate, and
not someone stronger and healthier.

Watching all three men shift into their dragon forms had been

pretty special, though. Conner didn’t think he would ever forget how
amazing it had felt to climb up onto a dragon’s back and ride away
with them. The last dragon he’d seen up close had been the one that

The One True Sacrifice

had attacked him and his mother, and his heart had beat so incredibly
fast when he looked at the ones who were ready to take him away.

He might even be the first wolf to ever ride a dragon, and that got

his ego swelling up nice and big.

Aris was a beautiful red dragon with scales that glistened in the

sun, and Conner had been so overcome with how gorgeous he was
that he didn’t even see the other two dragons. Aris was big, but only
enough to carry one person on his back, and as he reared up and flew
away with Conner, he never felt freer as the ground, and his brothers,
vanished beneath him.

The dragons flew clear to the other side of the mountain and

slightly higher up, to where he definitely wouldn’t have been able to
go had he stayed in human or wolf form. Regardless, Conner couldn’t
believe how close he’d been to touching the clouds, or how small and
green everything looked from so high above, or how blue and faded
the distant mountains appeared. He could even see the tiny village
where his pack lived, and though he was far away from it, seeing it
one last time made him feel better about everything.

Then Aris left him to do God only knew what, and Roman, one of

the dragons who’d been with Aris during the exchange, had to explain
why he had to stay inside of his room and have guards, two of Aris's
trusted dragon warriors, on him at all times.

Conner hadn’t been afraid. In fact, he’d kind of expected it. If

there were men and women back in his pack at home who could make
their voices heard against the alpha and the council, then it was more
than likely that the dragons had a similar problem. Some things were
universal like that.

So, while Conner waited for the man who would be his mate to

return to him, he looked around his brand new lodgings. All the while
he tried not to be creeped out by the fact that this room didn’t look
like it was lived in. This looked like a guest room that he was being
given, and Conner wasn’t sure how he should feel about that. Should
he be glad that his new mate didn’t expect to share rooms so soon? Or

Marcy Jacks

should he be upset about that? There was a lot less intimacy involved
when two people didn’t share a space.

He was just going to have to get a feel for the rules here, decide

whether or not he liked his new mate to start off with, and then he’d
ask to share a room.

Despite his insecurities, it was a nice room. Conner hadn’t known

that the dragons lived so well up here. It was almost like he’d been
given a suite in a five-star hotel or something. Everything looked as
though it had been carved out of the mountain itself, and when
Conner reached out to touch one of the colorful stone walls, he knew
he was right.

It was all black opal and onyx and likely a bunch of other things

that Conner didn’t know the names for. It was a little cold to the
touch, which explained why there were rugs on the floors, and even
those looked expensive. There were also windows, but they were
tinted, probably to keep anyone in a helicopter from flying over and
seeing where this place was.

Kind of ridiculous, considering the humans knew about

werewolves and dragon shifters. Maybe this clan just liked its
privacy?

The flat screen television stunned him, not to mention the fact that

his room was lit up with actual electricity instead of torches or
something.

There was also a bathroom with a toilet and everything, and it was

interesting how the tub itself was also carved out of the rock of the
mountain.

Conner took a bath. Even though he wasn’t what the high dragon

had wanted, Conner still wanted to look and smell his best for when
the mating happened. He had just finished climbing half the
mountain, after all.

When he finished, he pulled out his iPad to check if he still got

Internet up here.

Unbelievably, he did, so he shot off a quick e-mail to his brothers

The One True Sacrifice

letting them know he’d arrived and was fine. He also put in that he
loved them, in case having the iPad was really an oversight and it
would be taken from him after the fact.

For that reason, he hid it away before pulling out his PlayStation

Vita and playing a game on the big queen-sized bed that was in his
room. Aris was sure taking his damned time getting back to him.
Conner’s erection had gone away a long time ago, and considering
how rude the man was being to him, he was beginning to wonder just
what had been the big deal to begin with.

“Enjoying yourself?”
Conner snapped up into a sitting position and stared at Aris, who

was standing in the doorway to his room. Conner’s heart pounded. He
hadn’t even heard the door open.

Aris stared at him, a single brow raised. He looked…pretty good.

He wore a tight white T-shirt that showed off the muscles of his chest
and abs perfectly, not to mention his upper arms. His jeans were great,
too. Not as tight as the T-shirt, but still showing off what he had
incredibly well.

Why was that so damned sexy when Conner had already seen

those thighs naked? When he’d already seen Aris’s cock instead of
just a bulge between his legs?

“Are you all right?”
Conner put his legs over the side of the bed and got to his feet,

forgetting all about the game now that his mate was in the room. “I’m
fine. It’s really nice in here,” he said.

Aris’s mouth twisted. “I suppose you and your wolves thought we

all lived in squalor.”

“Well, we all thought you lived in caves in the mountains, which

is I guess what this is, but it feels more like a hidden castle,” Conner
said.

Aris at least smiled at him for that. His smile would probably go

away in a heartbeat if he knew that Conner hadn’t exactly been
joking. The wolves really did think that the dragons lived in cold and

Marcy Jacks

dirty caves in the mountains. Conner himself hadn’t expected this
place to have electricity, which was why he brought a solar charger
for his iPad and Vita.

Conner shifted on his feet, and he put his hands behind his back,

waiting for the huge man in front of him to do something. His inner
omega was coming out, which was why he suddenly couldn’t look the
bigger man in the eyes, at least until he got to know him better.

“So, are we gonna do this or what?”
“That eager for me to fuck you, are you?” Aris asked.
Conner scowled down at the rug beneath his bare feet. “I

don’t…yeah, I guess so. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”

Aris made a noise in his throat that could have meant anything,

and then Conner jumped a little when he felt the man reach for his
chin and lift his head up.

Conner was stunned into complete frozen immobility as he stared

up into those big brown eyes of his. Aris had bigger eyes than Conner
originally thought. They were actually very pretty.

“You volunteered to come here, out of all your brothers. Why?”

Aris asked.

“I…I knew they wouldn’t want to come. They’d fight you too

much and would want to come home. The peace treaty wouldn’t
work.”

“Is that the reason? Not because you were trying to escape from

them?”

Conner shook his head so fast that he almost broke contact with

Aris’s fingers. “No! I love my family. Are you…gonna keep me from
seeing them?”

Aris’s lips thinned a bit, but he didn’t look angry. He looked

thoughtful. “No,” he said finally. “Though don’t go expecting to see
them immediately. I want you as mine completely before you see
them again. That way they cannot challenge me.”

Conner’s heart started beating erratically. “So, I can still see my

father and brothers?”

The One True Sacrifice

Just the idea that the e-mail he’d sent off wouldn’t be the last

word he could send to them felt like a ton of pressure being lifted
from his shoulders.

Aris nodded. “Yes. If you love them that much, then of course. I

can hear your heartbeat. Are you all right?”

Conner couldn’t stop smiling now. Even if he and Aris never

loved each other, he could already tell that they were going to be
friends. A mating based on friendship was so much better than one
that was based off of nothing at all. He nodded and grabbed onto
Aris’s hand. “I’m great. Better than great.”

Without knowing what else to do, and because he had no finesse

whatsoever, Conner kissed Aris’s knuckles. From the way the man’s
eyes widened, he could tell he’d surprised him.

Conner looked back up into Aris’s eyes, and, yeah, total surprise

written all over his face.

Then he sighed, but he was still smiling. “Well, I suppose this is

as good of a time as any to take you for myself.”

Conner’s blood heated up in his veins, and it all went right down

to his cock. Now he remembered why he’d been so hard for the man
before. “Just do me a favor?” Conner asked.

Aris was already backing him up toward the bed, and there was a

predatory smile on his face. “I’m sure I can make an accommodation.
What would you like?”

As Conner’s legs hit the bed, he sat down on it before pushing

himself up the mattress, allowing Aris to climb on top of him. “Take
it easy on me. I don’t know how dragons mate, but if it’s anything
like a wolf, then I don’t want it to hurt so much.”

For the second time, Conner watched as Aris’s eyes widened.

“Are you saying…you’re a virgin?”

Conner sighed. He just fucking knew that was going to be a

problem. “Yeah.”

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Four

Aris could hardly believe what he’d just heard. Not only was the

mate he was sent weak, and an omega, but also a virgin. Perhaps that
shouldn’t have shocked him so much, but it had been decades since
Aris had taken a man’s virginity, and he felt a gnawing, horrible
sensation deep in his gut that this young man should have his taken
from him based on a peace agreement.

It was guilt. He was actually feeling guilt. Suddenly Aris didn’t

know if he could follow through with this.

“It’s okay,” Conner said with a shrug. “I mean, virginity is just a

label that people use. It’s a society thing. I know I won’t be any
different once we…do the deed.”

“Do the deed?” Aris asked. Could the man make himself sound

any younger or more innocent?

Conner just shrugged.
Aris sighed. This couldn’t happen. Not today at least. But Simon

didn’t have to know that. As far as that selfish alpha was concerned,
Aris was slamming his cock into Conner right now.

“It’s okay, really. I’m ready for it.”
“Well, I’m not,” Aris said.
He tried to turn around and walk away, but Conner grabbed him

by the shoulders. “No way!”

“Excuse me?” Aris demanded. Had this little omega actually

dared to grab him and make demands?

Not only had Conner done just that, but he was glaring up at Aris

right at that very moment. “This is so happening. I didn’t come all the
way up here just so you could blow me off.”

The One True Sacrifice

“Virginity should be taken by someone special, that you love.

This isn’t right,” Aris said, growling a little.

Conner let go of him, and now his frown was more confused than

anything. “I wouldn’t have thought a dragon would talk like that,” he
said.

“I’m not a monster. Even I have standards.”
“So, you’d fuck a man you don’t love, but you wouldn’t fuck a

virgin?”

“It’s not right,” Aris said again, and he wished that argument

sounded stronger inside of his own mind. Somehow, it didn’t.

“Well, we still have to do this. You can’t just ignore me now that

I’m up here.”

Aris stared down at his mate. Why wasn’t this little weakling

afraid of him? Anyone else his size would be.

The wolf was strong. Aris hadn’t expected that when he’d first

met him and realized that Conner was to be his.

“You won’t give up until you get what you want, will you?” Aris

asked.

Conner shook his head and stood a little straighter. That must

have been painful for his bad leg. “No.”

Well then, Aris was going to have to find another way of getting

around this, then. Perhaps if he scared the man enough, Conner would
back off.

Aris slowly started to push the smaller man back to the bed. He

wasn’t gentle about it either. He was going to treat this omega the
same way everyone else was treated. “Very well, but I won’t fuck you
tonight.”

“But we—”
“I don’t have to do anything I don’t want to do,” Aris said, and

with another hard push, Conner’s back landed against the sheets. “I
am the high dragon, and if I have no interest in fucking, then I won’t
do it. I will, however, put my scent on you. That’s what you wolves
love so damn much, isn’t it?”

Marcy Jacks

He could hear how erratic Conner’s heartbeat was again, and the

man’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed and nodded.

Aris’s hands were working on Conner’s pants. He could see the

outline of the omega’s hard cock beneath the material, and when he
pushed the pants down his hips, the organ sprung free, dark in color
and thick.

He wasn’t small when it came to that, but his cock still lacked the

girth that Aris’s had.

“Is this what you want?” Aris asked, and he wrapped his hand

around the hard shaft and slowly stroked Conner’s dick.

This was where he expected some virgin fear to get the better of

the man, and for Conner to be afraid of the pleasure he was receiving
at someone else’s hand. He expected Conner to back off, and then
demand that Aris leave him alone.

Instead, Conner’s head fell back, and he closed his eyes and

sighed. “Fuck, yeah.”

Aris wasn’t entirely sure that he was doing this right if he wasn’t

scaring the little virgin away. “What about this?” he asked, and he
leaned in, stuck his tongue out, and licked the man’s pulsing cock
from the bottom of his testicles to the crown of his cock. He let his
tongue slide into the slit and he licked away the pre-cum.

Conner bucked against his mouth, nearly thrusting his cock

between Aris’s lips. “Yeah!”

Without intending for it to happen, Aris’s own cock started to

react. It was throbbing and thickening at the things he was doing to
this beautiful man in his bed, along with the noises and mewls that
Conner was making.

He was going to have to step this up if he planned on scaring

Conner off.

Aris grabbed his soon to be mate around the hips and forced him

to spin around onto his stomach. Conner let out a shocked cry, but
otherwise he went.

Then he was moaning and thrusting his cock against the sheets of

The One True Sacrifice

the bed, getting his friction from there. “Oh, fuck,” he said.

Aris pulled apart the man’s ass cheeks. If this didn’t frighten him

off the idea, then nothing would.

Conner clearly didn’t know what was happening, because he

turned around to get a look over his shoulder. “What the hell are you
doing?” he asked.

Aris didn’t answer him. He just leaned in and licked Conner’s

pink asshole.

Conner tensed, then shivered and moaned at the same time.
It was loud, nearly a howl, which Aris supposed made sense,

considering he was a werewolf, after all.

Aris thrust his tongue inside of that warm space, and Conner

bucked against him, unintelligible sounds making their way out of his
throat.

He didn’t scramble away, however. Not even when Aris began

thrusting his tongue back and forth, rimming him as he massaged his
hips and ass.

“Oh fuck! Oh, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Conner said, again and again,

and that was the only thing that Aris could understand.

He pulled back so he could get a proper look at the man. Aris

wanted to see Conner’s face, but then Conner turned his head and
glared back at him.

“Don’t stop!” he yelled, as though offended that Aris had stopped.
Aris couldn’t help but smile at that. Perhaps Conner couldn’t be

scared off so easily. This omega was definitely not what Aris had
thought he was.

He still had no plans of putting his cock inside of the man just yet,

but his tongue, his fingers, those would do just fine for the moment.

Besides, Aris had teased himself too much along with Conner.

They were definitely going to find some relief together before an
actual claiming could take place.

Aris put his mouth back to good use, and he made his little wolf

howl for him some more.

Marcy Jacks

* * * *

It had been two weeks since Conner had arrived in the hidden

castle in the mountain, and in the time that had passed, he and Aris
had done everything except actually have sex.

Despite that, he still considered the man to be his mate. It was

hard for him to deny Aris that title considering the things they’d done.
At first Conner had thought Aris was terrified of the idea of being
mated to a virgin, but then he seemed interested in the idea, as if it
posed some sort of challenge to him that needed to be overcome. He
hadn’t fucked Conner that night, but he had put him down on the bed,
stripped his clothes off, and then kissed and licked almost every inch
of Conner’s body.

Aris’s tongue had paid special attention to Conner’s pucker,

pushing in and out of his asshole, nearly making him come several
times before he actually did. The man’s rough and callused hands
massaged Conner’s hips and thighs whenever Aris worked on him,
either putting his mouth around Conner’s cock, his balls, or on his
entrance.

Conner had never had so much fun in his entire life. So much

better than using his right hand.

Currently, he was sitting in the dining hall, his face beet-red while

two of Aris’s most trusted men watched over him. Not Craig or Aiken
this time. Today it was Fraser and Grant, a pair of twins who, unlike
most of the dragons in this castle, had short black hair, but they were
just as big and just as mean looking. It was easy to tell them apart,
however, since Fraser had a small sun tattoo on his right cheek, and
Grant had a star tattoo on his right cheek.

Apparently they’d gotten sick of people confusing them, so they’d

had it done to settle that problem.

Conner could hardly think of that right now, considering the plug

he had inside of him.

The One True Sacrifice

Having it there made it awkward to sit, especially when all he

could think about was sex, and how much he wanted to replace that
plug with Aris’s cock. Aris had insisted on it, however. The stubborn
dragon had wanted Conner’s body to be completely ready to take him
in, and even though Conner had been the one to agree to it, stupidly,
now he couldn’t wait to get the damned thing out of him.

Could dragons smell everything as well as wolves? Could

everyone in the dining hall smell how aroused Conner was at that
moment? Even though he was pretty sure they could, the only reason
why his face heated up was because of the way Aris continued to look
at him and smile at him, and once or twice already the man had
walked by him, letting his hand slide across Conner’s lower back.

Aris was sitting next to him after all. Conner was his mate, as far

as the rest of the dragon clan was concerned, even if they hadn’t
consummated it yet. It was only natural that Conner would sit next to
him. Fuck, he just wished the man would stop teasing him and take
him already. He was going out of his mind with lust and want.

Conner tried to focus on his toast and scrambled egg whites and

turkey bacon instead. His specific diet had taken the dragons aback a
little, but when Conner settled in, he realized that everyone here was
made up of incredibly nice people. Many of them genuinely tried to
accommodate him, even if there were some others who still clearly
hated his guts. The dragon clan was so similar to the pack that Conner
came from that it was a real shame the two didn’t get along.

Of course, that was what he was here for.
A blond head walked briskly up to the front table where Conner

was eating, and he barely looked up in time to see Kendrick leaning
down and whispering something into Aris’s ear.

Aris leaned into that mouth to better hear, but Conner couldn’t

help the tiny seed of resentment that went through him at the sight,
and he watched, helpless, as Aris got to his feet, but he didn’t say
anything.

“I’ll be back,” Aris said, touching the top of Conner’s head, as

Marcy Jacks

though he was a pup that needed comforting. Maybe he was,
considering how much of a child he was acting like right now, staring
at the two men as they walked off.

Conner looked up at Fraser and Grant, as if they could give him

some answers. Despite how mean the twins could look, they were
really nice to Conner, and Grant even smiled down at him, which
pulled at the tattoo on his cheek a bit. “Wouldn’t worry too much
about it. Kendrick probably has some personal issues to work over
with Aris, you know?”

“Yeah,” Conner said vaguely. The problem was that he did know.
He immediately thought back to the night he arrived, when Aris

had finished touching him, pleasuring him. Conner had been so eager
to learn that night, that he’d dove right into the whole sex thing, even
though they hadn’t actually had sex. It had been great, almost like
guilt-free sex with a stranger. Not that he knew what sex with a
stranger was, but he was certain that what he’d experienced with Aris
had been it. Maybe that had been why he’d been so eager to please
Aris in return, doing everything the man had asked of him when he’d
gone down on him, and then touching him in all the ways Conner had
liked to be touched.

Maybe that had also been why he’d felt that emptiness when, after

it had been over and Conner had woken up from the nap he’d fallen
into, he’d found Aris speaking with Kendrick outside of their room.

“I’m sorry, Kendrick, but this discussion is over, and you know

it,” Aris had said, and though Conner couldn’t see his face because
the man had been facing away from him, there was nothing in his
voice to suggest he was being cruel to the other man.

A man who looked to be about Conner’s age, had blond hair that

was brighter than his, longer, too. The guy stood straight, as if he
didn’t have back or leg problems, which meant he was healthy, and
probably a lot stronger than Conner was, too.

“I love you, don’t do this,” Kendrick said, staring down at his feet,

and Conner actually felt sorry for him when he saw the tears that were

The One True Sacrifice

forming in the man’s eyes.

He felt bad for a man that was trying to take away Conner’s own

mate.

Had Aris thrown away someone he actually loved in order to

make this peace treaty? It wouldn’t be the first time in history that
something like that had happened. With the humans, wolves, or
dragons. Leaders had to make sacrifices all the time, and for the first
time since arriving, Conner really started to think about what Aris was
giving up.

Aris had sighed and confirmed that the relationship between

himself and Kendrick was over, still being gentle about it, but then
Kendrick had looked up, as if to argue, before he’d noticed Conner
standing in the doorway.

Conner gasped at being caught, especially humiliated considering

what he and Aris had been doing not a few minutes ago.

It had been so much worse when Kendrick had glared at him.
And now Conner was sitting at one of the long tables, knowing

that his mate was off with an ex lover, someone he probably still
loved.

Conner pushed his eggs around on his plate, and he suddenly felt

the urge to let his wolf out and run. The problem was that he hadn’t
yet been able to leave the castle because it was so high on the
mountain. Until he could get Aris to fly him down lower to where the
grass and trees were, where the ground levelled out a bit, he was stuck
indoors.

That left a lot of time for him to be thinking by himself.
Conner looked up at Grant and Fraser, wishing that Roman was

here instead, but he wasn’t, so he would ask these two. “What would
happen if…if the high dragon took a lover other than a mate? Does
that happen?”

Both men stared down at Conner as if they were horrified, and this

was another one of those issues where Conner didn’t know if he was
breaking a rule of some sort.

Marcy Jacks

“Sorry, never mind,” Conner said, and he stared down at his plate

of food, as if he could vanish in it and the two men behind him
wouldn’t be able to see him anymore.

What if this was a cultural thing? Did a high dragon have more

than one sex partner? Some alpha wolves did. Some of them had
whole harems, but that wasn’t in his pack, and Conner had always
told himself that if he ever did get a mate, that he wouldn’t accept
something like that from him.

Yet now it looked like this was to be his life. He’d basically said

to himself that he would be happy if all he and Aris could have was a
friendship, and yet here he was getting jealous over the idea of him
being with another man, someone that he might actually love. Did
Aris love Kendrick? It certainly looked like Kendrick was still in love
with Aris.

Conner jumped a little when the chair next to his pulled back, and

Fraser took a seat next to him while Grant actually came to stand a
little closer, putting his hand on the top of the chair that Conner was
sitting at.

“This isn’t our place to really talk about,” Fraser started.
“But you’re new here, so we’ll try and explain,” Grant finished.
Conner looked between both brothers, desperate for some

answers. He told himself again and again that he had no right to be
upset or angry, but he couldn’t help that swelling of negative emotion
that was building up inside of him, and all that for a man he was
barely friends with. “So then, he and Kendrick are together?”

It was a question, but at the same time it wasn’t. Conner was

pretty sure he knew the answer.

Both brothers looked at each other, and then down at him. “No,

not anymore,” Grant replied.

Was it terrible for Conner to feel so relieved by those words?

Probably.

“So, what happened?” he asked, suddenly as interested as a

teenager in gossip.

The One True Sacrifice

“Not compatible,” Fraser said with a shrug.
Grant rubbed his chin. “I want you to appreciate that we’re not

supposed to be speaking so openly like this, but you seem pretty
upset, and we just want to help out.”

“I won’t go spreading anything around,” Conner said, shaking his

head quickly. “If they’re not together, even if Kendrick is trying to get
back together, then I wouldn’t want to embarrass him or confront Aris
about it. I’d probably humiliate myself first.”

Fraser sighed. “Well, you are the high dragon’s mate. Eventually

you will need to speak with him about it, especially if Kendrick
doesn’t learn his place.”

That confused Conner, so he listened.
He listened as the two men, who loved and respected their leader

just like any good beta would love and respect his alpha, spoke about
things that should have been private, but of course, were not.

Aris and Kendrick had apparently been together on and off for

several years. They had a history, even if Kendrick was only fifty
years old.

Sometimes Conner wished that werewolves and dragons could

just look their age, that way he’d never get shocked when he learned
that someone who actually looked as young as he did was actually
twice as old as he was.

Interestingly enough, Aris had not been the one to call off the

relationship. Not the last time, anyway. That had been all Kendrick,
and now that Aris had finally taken the situation seriously and found
himself someone to mate with, Kendrick was regretting his decision
to break up, and he wanted Aris back.

Conner felt bad for the other man by the end of the story. It

sounded as simple as two people who just weren’t compatible, but
there were always emotions involved in things like this. There could
never just be anything simple going on in someone’s love life.

Including Conner, whose love life had just started and now it was

already so complicated.

Marcy Jacks

“Don’t feel too badly for him,” Fraser said, a small smile from his

face as he reached over to Conner’s plate and plucked off one of the
grapes. He popped it into his mouth and chewed it. “Kendrick and
Aris were never going to work. They were never on the same level as
each other, always splitting up and getting back together, fighting at
the worst of times.”

“But that sounds like any relationship. That would almost be a

romantic setting if this was a comic or a book and they were the main
characters.”

Conner realized what he’d said way too late, and his entire body

chilled with humiliation as he slowly looked up at both brothers, who
were giving him odd stares.

Conner laughed it off as best as he could. “I…uh, read a lot of

manga and watch a lot of TV.”

“The romantic kind, apparently,” Grant said, and it looked like the

man was genuinely smiling at him, and not just getting ready to burst
out laughing at him.

“Well, it’s hard to get into any relationships when all the good

wolves think you’re kind of worthless. And weak.”

Conner bit his lips together before he could add many more things

and turn this conversation into some kind of a list.

Both dragons were looking piteously at him already.
“Well, you’re his mate now,” Fraser said, clearly in an effort to try

and cheer him up. “You have a place here with us, and we like you
even if your pack doesn’t.”

Conner tensed up. “That wasn’t exactly what I meant. My family

likes me well enough. It was just the rest of the pack.”

“Well, we’ll make sure that you don’t get too much of a hard time

around here,” Grant said. “You’re probably still going to have some
problems. I think you figured out by now that some of the dragons
around here are a little pissed off with a wolf, and an omega wolf at
that, being the mate of their leader.”

“Yeah, I sort of noticed,” Conner said, thinking back to some of

The One True Sacrifice

the nasty glares he got when he first started to explore the castle.

“Either way, back to your main problem,” Fraser said, scratching

the small sun tattoo on his cheek. “Some dragons take more than one
mate, but that’s a cultural thing. I think mostly Asian dragons do that,
but we have clans around here that try it out, and it seems to work just
fine for them. Personally, I can’t see myself wanting more than one
mate, and I’ve never met another dragon who did have more than
one.”

“So you mean, Aris won’t want someone else while he’s with

me?” Conner asked, and he was stupidly happy with that thought.

“Don’t get us wrong or anything,” Grant said. “Dragons have

cheated on each other before. That’s still possible, but no dragon
worth his pride would do that, and Aris doesn’t seem the type,
especially to me. Half the time he was with Kendrick, even when they
were broken up, he wouldn’t go looking for anyone else because he
still wanted to be loyal to the man. That could be why Kendrick wants
Aris back so much.”

“What do you mean?” Conner asked.
“Isn’t there a saying about how flattering it is to be loved, even if

you don’t love the person in return?” Grant asked.

“I’ve never heard of a saying like that,” Fraser said. “But it’s

incredibly crude for you to suggest that Kendrick never loved Aris at
all. I’m sure he did and still does.”

“Awesome, now I can keep feeling sorry for him,” Conner said.
Both the twins now were laughing at him, and that didn’t feel so

damned great.

Conner got up from his seat. “I’m going to go and find him.”
“To talk?” Grant asked hopefully.
Conner shook his head. “No. I want a lift down the mountain to

where the terrain isn’t so rocky or steep. I want to let my wolf out and
I can’t do it way up here.”

Again, both brothers looked at each other, but then they got up to

follow Conner. They were today’s bodyguards, so it only made sense

Marcy Jacks

that they had to.

“Do you need us to show you where to go?” Grant asked.
“Or send someone to find him for you?” Fraser chimed in.
Conner shook his head. “No. I can smell which direction he went

in.”

He was pretty much a worthless werewolf as far as hunting went,

but that was only because of his limp, which didn’t pain him nearly as
much as he thought it would once he got up the mountain, though it
was worse. Everything else on him worked just fine, including his
sense of smell, and his ability to track because of it.

The only thing he really hated was the fact that Kendrick’s scent

was still mingling with Aris’s the farther he walked. It seemed as if
the two had gone to the gardens.

There was a nice space carved out near the edge of this castle in

the mountain. It had flowers and some vegetables growing there,
including potatoes, which made Conner think that at one point,
someone had to have brought up a lot of soil for that to be possible. A
smaller section of the garden was basically used as the launch pad for
the dragons. Where they arrived after a mission, and the place where
they took off whenever they had to leave. Conner had seen it a couple
of times, and since it was the closest he could get to feeling like he
was on ground level, he went there often to admire the roses, climbing
vines, as well as the crops that grew up here, few that there were.

Though he could smell that Kendrick was still around Aris, when

Conner finally got to the sunlit spot where the garden was, he didn’t
at all expect to look through one of the stone arches leading inside to
see Kendrick’s arms flung around Aris’s shoulders.

Aris was faced away from him, but from the angle of Kendrick’s

face, which was very close to Aris’s, it was obvious what they were
doing.

The One True Sacrifice

Chapter Five

Conner was stunned into immobility. He felt rage more than hurt,

but the hurt was still there, and it made him want to lash out,
especially when he waited for Aris to have the response that he was
supposed to.

Namely, throwing Kendrick off of him and banishing him from

his sight.

That didn’t happen. Instead, Kendrick slowly pulled back from

their kiss, and there was a hurt expression on his face as he looked up
into Aris’s eyes.

“I hope you got that out of your system now,” Aris said, and there

was nothing remotely human in his voice. He could have been a robot
for all it mattered.

“But…but I thought—” Kendrick said, and then cut himself off

when his eyes darted to the side, and then widened when they caught
sight of Conner.

Conner must’ve really been glaring at him. Christ, he wouldn’t be

surprised if either Fraser or Grant would tell him that he was on fire,
but he wasn’t.

Either way, Kendrick gasped at the sight of him and stepped back.

His face was red, but not from anger. He looked so damned
humiliated as he took five whole steps away from Aris.

Aris, probably wondering what the hell the man was doing, turned

around to have a look, and then his eyes went wide enough for
Conner to see the whites all around those huge brown eyes.

“Conner!” Aris said, but there was so much shock and surprise in

his eyes and voice. The problem was that Conner couldn’t tell if it

Marcy Jacks

was the sorry for what he’d done, or sorry for being caught doing it
look.

“I should go,” Kendrick said.
Conner glowered at the man. “Yes, hurry up and get out of here

before I rip you apart with my teeth,” he said.

He had never felt this possessive before in his entire life. His wolf

never had this kind of control over him before. It was sort of scaring
even him.

“Little wolf is showing his claws,” Fraser muttered behind him,

but as Kendrick spun around and ran away as fast as he could, all
Conner could focus on was Aris.

Aris kept his look of stunned shock for two more seconds before

he composed himself, his visage and body language going back to the
whole I am the high dragon and I am in charge sort of situation.

“I can explain that.”
“Please explain,” Conner said.
“Are you angry with me?” Aris asked.
“Why would I be angry with you?” Conner asked. Then he was

pretty sure one of his knuckles popped from how tight he was fisting
his hands.

Aris sighed, and he looked at the twins standing behind Conner,

and nodded his head.

That seemed to be all they needed, because they then left Aris

completely alone.

Which was about when Conner noticed that there were no

gardeners or anyone else in this garden as well, which meant he’d also
sent the workers away so he could have his kiss with Kendrick.

“Do you want me to explain? Because it looks like you just want

to blow up on everything and anything right about now.”

“Should I not do that when I find my mate kissing his ex?”

Conner asked.

His skin started to tingle before it itched, which he knew to be the

sign that his wolf’s fur was coming out, growing quickly through his

The One True Sacrifice

pores as his face lengthened and a muzzle sprouted. It was a really
good thing that Kendrick had left, otherwise Conner just might have
gone through with his threat and tried to rip him apart.

Whether he could have actually pulled it off was something else

entirely, considering how weak he was. Kendrick didn’t look like
much, but he didn’t have problems in the joints of his leg, or have
heart issues either.

Aris sighed. “May I approach you?”
The question actually snapped him out of it a little, and Conner

looked at the other man, confused. “Why would you ask permission?
Isn’t this your domain? Don’t you do whatever the hell you want
around here?”

“This is my domain, but I’m not an idiot and you’re not a child. I

would only force myself on you if I wanted to drive you away
forever, which is what I don’t want. Now, that was a yes or no
question. Do you want me to come forward?”

Conner nearly fell over with how ridiculous that sounded. The

man didn’t want to be overbearing, yet he just snapped at Conner and
demanded an answer. Someone might have to explain to Aris how the
whole patience thing worked.

Still, Conner wanted to hear what he was about to say, so he

nodded his head. “Sure, come forward,” he said, and his wolf’s
muzzle slowly melted back into his face, and so did the furs that were
growing out of his body. His claws stayed right where they were,
however.

Aris walked over to him, and he stopped when he was right in

front of Conner. Like, right in front of him. They were practically
chest to chest, and considering the height difference, Conner wasn’t
sure how much he liked that.

He glared up at the dragon and snapped after a whole ten seconds

of no explanations or apologies. “What the hell do you think you’re
doing? You’re staring down at me like I’m the one who did
something wrong! Meanwhile you’re over here kissing—Mphh!”

Marcy Jacks

Conner was forced to shut up when Aris grabbed onto the back of

his head, leaned down, and pressed their lips together.

Conner’s entire body froze up. He couldn’t move his body, his

fingers. He couldn’t even blink as he stared up close into Aris’s eyes,
because he wasn’t exactly shutting his eyes for the sake of the kiss
either. They were staring right at each other, and then Aris’s eyes
melted somehow. Sort of. The little black dot in the center of the
brown color became a snake-like slit, and then the earthy brown color
that Conner liked so much turned red.

Red. The same as what happened when an alpha wolf was getting

angry, or trying to show off his power or dominance.

A muffled noise escaped Conner’s mouth when Aris slipped his

tongue between his lips, and then he was completely lost. Conner’s
entire body melted, and he pressed himself closer to the taller man.

What was he doing! He should hate him right now! He was still

pissed off to all hell! But at the same time, those warm and soft lips,
and that wet tongue were completely undoing him. The same as they
did whenever he and Aris were in bed together, doing things together.

Was this the proof that Conner wouldn’t be happy with a strictly

friendly relationship? How could he ever hope to share Aris with
someone else? He would have no choice if it ever came down to it
because Aris could do whatever he wanted as the high dragon and
there would be nothing that Conner could do about it.

Conner clutched on the robes hanging off of Aris’s shoulders.

More of those helpless noises left his mouth and throat as he struggled
to breathe, which became even more difficult when he tried kissing
back. It felt more like Aris was taking something from him and
forcing something else into him, than willing to let Conner participate
in anything.

Conner only then realized that Aris was holding onto his wrists.
When Conner felt his knees weaken, which was a real issue with

him, Aris pulled back.

The man’s eyes were no longer dragon, but they were incredibly

The One True Sacrifice

serious as he stared right at Conner. Conner could see his own
reflection in Aris’s eyes.

“The only person I want kissing me is you. Do you understand

that?”

Conner was breathless, and he shook his head because he didn’t

understand it. Not in the least. “Then why—” Conner cleared his
throat. His stupid voice had cracked! “Then why did you kiss him?”

“I didn’t,” Aris said.
Conner felt something deep inside of his mind snap, and he started

yelling. “Bullshit! I saw you, you damned liar! Do you really think
I’m that gullible that I’d believe you when I saw you doing it two
minutes ago!”

“Stop it,” Aris said, and he even shook Conner a little, which was

definitely enough to clear Conner’s head.

Now Aris looked a little angry. “I’m not going to fight with you,

so cut it out. I said I didn’t kiss Kendrick and I didn’t. He kissed me.”

“He…” Conner let that sink in, and as he did his brain started to

work on what Aris had just told him. He even got a visual of Kendrick
jumping into Aris’s arms, wrapping his arms around his neck and
everything. It would certainly explain why Aris hadn’t been moving,
had looked so stiff and statue-like. A statue might as well have been
what Kendrick had kissed for all the passion that Aris had returned to
him.

“I hope you got that out of your system,” Conner whispered,

repeating the words that Aris had cruelly spoken to Kendrick.

Then his face heated right up, and all he could feel was the

humiliation of what he’d just done.

“Oh, fuck,” Conner said, groaning and letting his forehead come

to rest on Aris’s chest.

“So that was Kendrick?”
“Yes.”
“And you weren’t…?”
“No,” Aris said.

Marcy Jacks

“Goddammit.”
Aris sighed, and when he put his hands on Conner’s shoulders, he

expected the man to push him away, but he didn’t. Instead he held on
tight and even pulled Conner a little closer to him.

“You are the only man I will willingly kiss again,” Aris said.

“Kendrick just has trouble accepting the change.”

“I’m sorry I yelled at you,” Conner said, and he let his arms curl

around Aris’s waist while the man was still in a good mood. “Fuck,
some of your men saw that. I don’t think they’ll tell anyone that an
omega was yelling at you. Will Kendrick tell anyone?”

“No one will tell, and even if they did, it wouldn’t matter

anyway,” he said. “This is my clan, and anyone who wishes to
challenge me for it based off of a spat with my mate will have some
big surprises in store for them.”

Conner hugged Aris just a little bit tighter, wishing he’d had some

more faith in the man than he’d just displayed. Of course Aris
wouldn’t be kissing someone else just for the fun of it. They didn’t
know each other that well, but already Conner felt like he should have
known the man better than that, especially with all of his friends
saying what a good man and leader he was.

Which Conner was really hoping would shine through right about

now. “Are you going to punish me?”

“Of course not,” Aris said, and Conner wanted to sigh and fall at

the man’s feet.

Being that angry and jealous took a lot of energy out of him, and

he was shocked with how drained he was, but he knew it would pass.

“Did you really believe that I would allow myself to go off and be

seduced by another man when you’re walking around with this inside
of you?” Aris asked, and while he didn’t exactly touch the plug that
was still inserted inside of Conner’s entrance, he squeezed one of
Conner’s cheeks hard enough to make him gasp and remind him that
it was there.

With the conversation he’d had with Fraser and Grant, and then

The One True Sacrifice

later thinking that Aris was cheating on him, it was like that part of
his body had shut off, making Conner completely forget that he had a
sex toy inside of him.

“I just…I guess I forgot that it was there.”
That definitely took Aris aback. “You forgot…that there is a plug

inside of your ass?”

The way he said it made it sound so much more hilarious than it

really was, and Conner laughed. He laughed, and then he moaned as
Aris began playing with and squeezing the globes of Conner’s ass
cheeks, dipping his fingers as far in as Conner’s pants would allow,
teasing the hell out of the plug that was inside of him.

“When Kendrick kissed me, my cock didn’t stir and my blood

didn’t heat up. I half expected it would.”

“Yeah? Why? And you’d better be careful with your answer,”

Conner said, and he was pretty much gasping out each and every
word that left his mouth. He was clinging to Aris’s shoulders now just
to make sure he didn’t embarrass himself and fall flat on his knees.

Aris actually chuckled at him. “We did used to be lovers. There

was a time when only his touch could make my fires burn, which was
why when he pushed himself on me to kiss me, I let him. I didn’t kiss
back, but I wanted to see if you had completely pushed him out.”

“Th–that’s kind of messed up. You shouldn’t play around with a

man’s feelings like that,” Conner said, but then he was moaning
through bitten lips when Aris’s hand came down between his legs, his
palm stroking his cock through the pants he was wearing.

“I’m sorry. To you and to him. I’ll apologize to him later, though

now I think he understands that we are done.”

“S–so, you weren’t just testing yourself. You were trying to prove

a point to him.”

“Isn’t that what I’ve been telling you?”
“But you barely know me!” Conner said, and Aris’s eyes widened

a little at the outburst, but Conner kept right on talking. “Kendrick is
taller than me, handsome, probably stronger. You have a history with

Marcy Jacks

him, and you and I have known each other for a short time. How can
you say that I pushed him out?”

Aris grabbed onto Conner’s chin, which abruptly shut him up.
“You are smaller and weaker than I thought you would be when

you came here, but your courage and your will have impressed me
greatly. I would never have requested a mate from one of Simon
Abbot’s children had I believed for one second there was still a future
for me and Kendrick.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds, and that was about

when Conner realized how silent it was where they were standing.
There was only the gentle breeze and the clouds that were overhead.

“Are you cold here? We are high up the mountain,” Aris said.
Conner wasn’t even a tiny bit chilly, and he quickly shook his

head. “No.”

“Good,” Aris said, because he came even closer than before, and

his hands seemed to be absolutely everywhere. “Because I’m fairly
sure you’re ready now, and though I might’ve felt nothing when
Kendrick had his arms around my neck, right now your body is
calling for me, and I can’t ignore it.”

Conner’s face, his entire body, flamed up. There was no way he

could feel any cold with that sort of heat raging inside of him. He
couldn’t take his eyes away from Aris’s face. “So then…are we going
back to our room?”

“No,” Aris said, and he pressed his mouth to Conner’s one more

time, pushing him down onto the soft bed of grass.

The One True Sacrifice

Chapter Six

When Kendrick made it back to his room, he slammed the door

and flung himself onto his bed. He grabbed onto the pillow and buried
his face in it, and he hated himself for it, but he cried.

He tried to hold back, he didn’t want to do it, but that was just

what was happening.

Aris had rejected him again, and now it was obvious that the man

wanted nothing to do with him.

He’d known they were in trouble. Their relationship wasn’t

always smooth sailing, but he hadn’t thought the man would throw
him away just like that, and for a werewolf from the pack at the
bottom of the mountain of all things.

Aris had rejected him, and to make it even worse, the omega that

was mated to him had seen it. Conner was the mate of the high
dragon. What if he wanted Kendrick punished, or banished? Would
Aris allow that sort of thing? Had the man ever cared for him at all?

The Gods knew that everyone in the castle only thought Kendrick

had been with Aris because he wanted the position as the high
dragon’s mate. He was looked down upon as little more than a whore
by most people for just that reason, and he was shunned everywhere
he went.

He always thought that the silver lining had been his love for Aris,

but it seemed even he was done with him, because he’d made his
choice, and it wasn’t Kendrick.

A hand on his shoulder had Kendrick jerking up, and for a hair of

a second, he’d hoped that Aris was coming to him. Coming to tell him
that he’d been wrong and apologize for tossing Kendrick aside.

Marcy Jacks

His disappointment at the sight of Roman was almost too much,

and now his humiliation was complete.

One of the high dragon’s most trusted men, Aris’s best friend, the

second-in-command and the leader of the dragon warriors, was seeing
Kendrick cry like a hatchling. He was too embarrassed to live.

“What do you want? Don’t you knock?” Kendrick demanded.
Just because most of the castle thought he was a man-whore didn’t

mean that he lost all of his pride.

Roman lifted a brow at him. “I did knock, and call your name.

You didn’t answer.”

So he just decided to come in without any permission. Wonderful.

“Are you here to punish me?” Kendrick asked, turning his face back
to his pillow.

“Does the high dragon’s second-in-command need a reason to

come and see you without it being a punishment?”

Kendrick shrugged, and then he sniffed and wiped at his eyes.

“What else would you be here for?”

Roman sighed. “To talk. To make sure you’re going to be all

right.”

“Why would you care?” Kendrick asked, glaring up at the other

man. “You’re his best friend. You knew that he was going to bring a
wolf here before I did.”

“I know,” Roman said, briefly looking away from Kendrick’s

face. When he looked back, Kendrick was genuinely shocked to see
the sympathy in the man’s eyes. “I don’t hate that Conner’s here. I
just hate what this is doing to you.”

Kendrick didn’t understand. “Why would that bother you?”
“Not everyone in the castle thinks you were using Aris.”
“Most of them do.”
“I never did.”
The statement, spoken with such conviction, forced a gasp from

Kendrick’s throat. He looked up at Roman, and he suddenly saw
something completely different than the man who was in charge of all

The One True Sacrifice

the guards in the castle. He saw a potential friend, something he
didn’t have right now, but really needed.

Roman patted Kendrick’s shoulder, and then he got up. Kendrick

hadn’t even been aware that the man had sat down on the bed. “I have
some errands to run, but I’ll be back. We can talk then if you like.
Maybe go get some food together?”

Kendrick was still so shocked, that all he could do was nod his

head.

Roman smiled softly, and then he turned around and left.
Five seconds after he was gone, Kendrick realized he was alone,

and that depressed him so damn much that he didn’t feel like getting
out of bed at all.

And despite how bad it was, he wasn’t crying anymore. He wasn’t

that far gone that he felt he needed to. He did feel slightly better, but
only slightly, and now the idea of showing his face to the rest of the
castle didn’t seem so frightening.

Having to apologize to the high dragon and his mate was going to

be the terrifying thing.

* * * *

Aris moaned as he thrust his hips down onto Conner’s hard cock.

Despite being so short, by the standards of many humanoid shifters,
he had a nice-sized cock that Aris couldn’t help but appreciate every
time he saw it.

Of course, the man was also cut, which he never really

understood. Aris wasn’t, and he would be damned if any offspring of
his would be snipped either.

Despite his cringing reactions to such an idea, he had to admit that

Conner’s prick was nice. It was long enough to give a man something
to be proud of without being so big that it was difficult for Aris to put
it inside of his mouth and properly love his mate.

The grass was perfectly soft, and thanks to all the preparations

Marcy Jacks

that Aris had been making the little wolf go through, he would be
more than ready to take in his cock.

Every once in a while Aris would look up and see the flutter of

clothing as servants tried to enter the garden, only to see them and
then run away to give the high dragon and his mate some privacy.

Aris was constantly smirking about that. He was stunned that the

werewolf beneath him, even if he was a weak little omega, wouldn’t
even notice them. The scent alone should have been enough, but then
again, perhaps his mind was preoccupied on something else.

“H–harder, Aris!” Conner said, and his hands came up and

grabbed onto Aris’s cloak, yanking at the clasps and pulling the
damned thing right off of his shoulders.

“Not yet,” Aris said, and he was stunned by how off his own voice

sounded just then. He was panting with pleasure. He wanted this. He
really and truly wanted this. This was more than a chore or a duty he
was performing for his clan. This was actually something that he
desperately needed. “I won’t have you coming until I’m inside of
you.”

“Ah!” Conner gasped, his back arching as if he was in pain, but

Aris knew better when he lifted himself up just enough to reach
between the smaller man’s legs, and he let his hand slide over
Conner’s cock, a gentle and loving touch, before he went even lower
than that. He found the plug, exactly where he’d told Conner to put it
that morning after they’d had their bath together.

He pushed it farther, wanting to tease the man’s prostate, if only

for the sake of foreplay since he was already well prepared, and then
he started to slowly pull it out.

Aris watched Conner’s wide eyes carefully. The man seemed to

almost be in shock, but then he let out a grunting breath as those
pretty eyes slid half-shut.

“I can smell your lust,” Aris said. “It’s better than anything I’ve

ever smelled before.” He leaned in and put his nose to Conner’s neck,
inhaling deeply as he moved along that long pale column, all the way

The One True Sacrifice

to his ear. “Do all wolves smell like this?”

“D–don’t know,” Conner said breathlessly. Then he shook his

head and glared up at him. “Wh–what does that matter anyway? I’m
the only wolf you’re ever going to be with!”

Aris chuckled. “As small as you are, you have a dragon’s fire, but

I’m glad you’re not a dragon.”

That seemed to get Conner’s attention, and he no longer looked

quite so irritated. “You are?”

“Yes,” Aris said, nodding his head. “Otherwise I wouldn’t be

doing this, knowing that you were going to be my mate.”

“O–oh! Right, because if I wasn’t a wolf then, because of the

peace treaty, we couldn’t be together.”

“Or we could. I would just have to sneak you into my chambers.”
Conner actually growled up at him. Did this little wolf realize that

he was incredibly cute when he was angry? Probably not. Aris was
going to have to keep that his own little secret. “Watch it,” Conner
snapped.

“Or the wolf will bite?” Aris asked, and then he slipped his fingers

inside of Conner’s stretched hole, testing for himself just how ready
his mate was.

He’d wanted this to be perfect for him. It had been decades since

he’d taken someone’s virginity before. He’d been young himself at
the time, and he wanted no pain, no discomfort. Only pleasure.

Conner was panting again as Aris found his prostate, and his face

turned bright red, though he struggled to answer. “Y–you’re damn
right I–I’ll bite.”

Aris chuckled and leaned in for a kiss. Conner’s mouth was open

slightly as the man struggled for breath, and it was too much for Aris
to resist. He pressed their mouths together and pushed his tongue
inside of Conner’s lips, enjoying the tiny moaning sounds that the
smaller man let out.

Almost as if he was delighting in a fine wine or moaning over a

chocolate sweet. Aris had seen the man do that from time to time, and

Marcy Jacks

those were always the most difficult for him to resist.

He tried to pull away, but then his own eyes popped open wide

when Conner used both hands to grab onto the back of his head,
yanking him back down.

“Con—”
Aris was cut off when Conner kissed him, the smaller man

moaning again as he pushed his tongue against Aris’s, clearly eager
for more.

Aris went along with it. If this was what his mate wanted, what he

enjoyed, then he would give it to him gladly.

Aris filed away the information that Conner enjoyed this sort of

kissing to be used later. The smaller man was incredibly pliant in
Aris’s arms, and he knew without a shadow of a doubt that this wolf
would forever be his from this moment on.

He finally managed to pull away, and he stared down at the

dusting of pink that was on Conner’s cheeks, as well as his nose.

“You are beautiful,” Aris said.
That seemed to make the color even darker on Conner’s cheeks,

and the man actually frowned and looked away from him. “Girls are
beautiful. I’m a guy,” he muttered.

“That’s nothing against your masculinity. Would you rather I

called you adorable? Or cute?”

“Well…sure.”
Aris hadn’t expected that. “What?”
“I mean—” Conner looked away from him again. “I wouldn’t

mind it if you called me those things. Not anyone else. Cute and
adorable. I guess those are names I’ve heard some of the mated
females call their male mates. I just…I hate being compared to a girl.”

Aris thought he understood, and he knew he was going to respect

the wishes of his mate. “Very well. You are very cute anyway. A man
as adorable as you should not exist, except within a cartoon.”

“You watch cartoons?” Conner said, and his eyes bright blue eyes

were so wide that Aris could see the whites all around them.

The One True Sacrifice

He knew he was about to embarrass his mate, but it was too much

to resist. “When I was a hatchling, perhaps, but then, you see, I found
where you hid your iPad.”

Conner tensed up beneath him, and Aris just had to go in for the

kill. “You don’t keep it password protected, and there are quite a few
interesting shows and comics on there. I’m surprised you like
watching cartoons where you have to read what the characters are
saying, though I didn’t much mind when it came to the sex scenes.”

Conner laughed nervously beneath him. “Y–you found my yaoi

anime and manga,” he said, and then he stopped smiling and groaned.

Aris laughed out loud, and then he leaned down and kissed his

mate again. His little wolf would learn soon enough that he had
nothing to be humiliated about. Aris loved him, regardless of whether
or not he was a geeky nerd.

Aris thrust his fingers forward, pushing against Conner’s prostate,

and drawing another moan out of the man, reminding him of what
they were doing as well as taking his mind off of his embarrassment.

Conner kissed him back, and the man’s tongue was wet and

delicious as he licked against Aris’s tongue, pushing back against it,
putting up only a small amount of fight before ultimately giving up
control, as was his nature as an omega.

“Spread your legs for me. I want you like this,” Aris said. Their

faces were so close that their noses were touching.

Conner nodded, and his knees fell apart, allowing Aris to slip

between them.

“You are going to enjoy this now, I promise you.”
He should have Conner walk around with a plug inside of him all

the time. That way he would always be properly stretched and lubed
up for the final act itself.

Of course, he doubted his mate would allow that, but it would be

interesting to see how much of a fight the smaller man would put up.

Conner’s heart pounded hard and fast in his chest, and it went

even faster when Aris pressed the blunt head of his dick against the

Marcy Jacks

man’s stretched asshole.

“Are you afraid?” Aris asked, looking up at the man that would be

his for the rest of their lives.

“No,” Conner said, shaking his head, and then he seemed to think

about it. “I mean, yeah, a little. But it’s not because I’m afraid of you
specifically. It’s just, this is so damned new, and it’s embarrassing,
even though it feels really good, and I’m scared that we’re going to do
this, and then you’re finally going to tell me that the romantic fun part
is over and that you never want to touch me ever again.”

Conner snapped his mouth shut at the end of that long ramble, and

then his fear became obvious as those enormous blue eyes stared up at
him. They were so bright, the color of a perfect flame, and they
flickered as well as Conner waited for Aris to speak to him.

“I would never…That’s what you think?”
Conner didn’t answer him. He just did that thing he did whenever

he was embarrassed about something. He shut his mouth and looked
away.

Aris grabbed onto the man by the wrists, and he held them down

on either side of his head right before he pressed another kiss to
Conner’s increasingly plump mouth. “I could never throw you away
like that,” he said against the man’s lips, and then he kissed him again
harder as he pushed his cock deep inside of Conner’s body in one
hard thrust.

It was warm and still so very tight, despite all the time and effort

they had both taken in preparing Conner’s body. It was as tight as a
fist, a strong fist that was warm and smooth and encased every inch of
Aris’s large cock. His balls tightened almost all the way into his body,
and he was suddenly struggling not to come too soon within the man.

Conner gasped and arched his body through the kiss, but Aris

wouldn’t, couldn’t allow him to separate their mouths. If Aris moved
even a little then he was going to spill. The pleasure was even making
his own muscles tight, and his hips wanted nothing more than to push
back and forth at the hard pace of a rutting animal.

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Aris swallowed all the little shocked noises that Conner made,

holding his wrists down until his body completely relaxed beneath
him. At about the same time, Aris felt that he was safe from coming
too soon.

Aris released the man when he felt that, and he smiled when

Conner’s knees squeezed Aris’s thighs tightly.

He chuckled a little, even through the hot pleasure that he felt.

Then Conner touched his forehead, pushing some of the strands of red
hair out of his face.

“You’re sweating.”
That was an odd observation to make, but then again, this would

be the first time that Conner would have noticed these things with
anyone. Aris was the man’s first sexual partner. Conner had never
been in this angle, or seen this side of a man before.

Not including those interesting cartoons he had piled up on his

tablet.

“You are, too,” Aris said, and he leaned down and pressed a kiss

to Conner’s damp forehead before pulling back and then smiling at
him. “Now, are you in pain?”

Conner thought for two seconds, shifted his bum a little, and then

shook his head. “No. I think this feels all right. Pretty good, now that
it’s finally you.”

“Good,” Aris said, and then all he could see beneath him was his

prey. “Because if you’ve been enjoying what we’ve been doing this
last week, and I know you have, you’re really going to love this.”

* * * *

Conner could hardly move, and it was getting to the point where

he thought he couldn’t breathe, even though he could hear his own
ragged breaths as Aris pulled back and then pushed forward, thrusting
his cock inside of him, moving his whole body with each forward
surge.

Marcy Jacks

He was…really fucking good at this. That was the only way for

Conner to think of it because there was no way in hell it was possible
that Aris was anything less than a professional, considering how he
yanked each and every single tortured moan out of Conner’s body,
and he did moan. Loud.

He was going to be so embarrassed when this was over with, but

at the moment he didn’t care. He didn’t have it in him to care when
the slippery movements of Aris’s cock inside of him was the sole
focus of his existence.

Conner had to have more of it. He needed to get closer even

though they were already so close that the flesh of their bodies was
slapping together, making lewd noises that Conner also wasn’t feeling
too embarrassed about in the moment.

Still, the urge was there, and even though it should have been

impossible, there was a stubborn part of his brain that was telling him
how very possible it was.

Which was why he lifted one of his knees and hooked it over

Aris’s ass.

Conner opened his mouth and eyes wide as he yelled. That

actually worked! Aris was deeper inside of him now and Conner
couldn’t get enough!

He pulled his other leg, his bad one, over and around Aris’s hip,

and then he locked his ankles together and it was done. He didn’t
even feel any pain at the awkward angle.

“Y–you’re really good at this. Oh, fuck!” Conner moaned,

pushing the back of his head down against the grass that was almost
too soft, considering how high up the mountain they were.

Aris shocked him by letting his tongue out and actually licking up

the side of Conner’s throat, not stopping until he made it to Conner’s
ear, and then he took the fleshy lobe between his teeth.

Conner shivered, and a tiny pulse of electricity shocked him from

his neck all the way down to his cock and balls.

He should have come by now. He definitely should have come by

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now considering how amazing this felt. Somehow, if he’d been
jerking off, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to hold back when
the pleasure reached this stage, but Aris was holding him back.

“Is–is this a dragon power?”
Aris stopped moaning, he stopped moving completely, and he

laughed. The vibrations of that laugh were felt all over and inside of
Conner’s body, and he had to bite down on his lips to keep from
overflowing with the pleasure that was buzzing inside of him.

“D–don’t stop,” Conner begged.
Aris grabbed him by the chin. “I won’t,” he said, and he kissed

him hard.

Conner made a choked noise when that happened. He didn’t mean

to, it just sort of came out and there wasn’t anything he could do
about it but cling to the other man.

No fucking wonder everyone lost their virginity when they were

still in high school. Conner had been the only one to keep his, thanks
to all of his insecurities about himself. He barely ever went on any
dates, and the men who would date him certainly had looked nothing
like Aris did.

How messed up and shallow was that? That Conner was

impressed with Aris just because he was insanely handsome and
apparently very good in bed.

But then Aris’s hips were pulling back and pushing forward again,

and Conner was completely lost to it.

Getting to know each other could come later. So much later. Like

after they’d finished fucking and claiming each other.

His fingernails turned into claws that he raked down the larger

man’s back, and it was a struggle to keep his eyes open and just watch
what Aris was doing to him.

The man was panting, mouth slightly open to reveal his pink

tongue, a thin sheen of sweat on his forehead as his body rocked back
and forth, his hair swaying with each movement, and his eyes were in
that slit shape again.

Marcy Jacks

Conner reached his hand up to touch Aris’s forehead, pushing the

hair out of his eyes to get a better look at them.

“Your eyes are gold,” Aris said breathlessly.
“Your eyes are like a snake’s,” Conner said.
Aris frowned a little at that, or maybe it was just the look on his

face that he got when he was getting off. Either way, Aris pulled away
from him so that their chests were no longer quite so pressed together.
He was on his knees now, still inside of Conner, and when Conner
tried to sit up, Aris put his hand on his chest and held him down.

“Stay there,” he said, and then he really started to move.
Conner’s head fell back, and he was suddenly clawing at the grass

as Aris completely threw all sense of slow and gentle loving out the
window. The man’s hips moved like they were part of a machine, and
Conner found himself being fucked across the lawn.

Well, not really, but he was aware of the fact that his body was

moving a little when he ripped the blades of grass out and felt himself
sliding a little.

Conner couldn’t take it, he couldn’t hold on. “Oh fuck, I’m close,

I’m close!” he said again and again, until he was reaching up and
gripping his own hair so tight that it hurt.

Aris moaned, and then his hand was on Conner’s tight balls,

massaging them and making everything inside of his body wind up
into one giant, glorious knot.

The man’s other hand touched his cock, and though his palm was

rough and callused from all the work he did, around the castle and as
a dragon guarding his clan and his property, shockwaves of pleasure
that Conner couldn’t hold onto burst free with each stroke of that
hand. Then Aris pushed one of his fingers against the slit of his cock,
and Conner immediately yelled out as he came.

He reached for Aris, wanting to hold onto him, to hug him, to kiss

him, to touch him anywhere as his body finally imploded and he
spilled warm cum all over Aris’s hand and on his belly, but Aris
stayed right where he was. The man suddenly had teeth in his mouth

The One True Sacrifice

that could rival even those of an alpha wolf as he bowed his spine
backward and let out a roar that echoed through the sky.

Conner shivered, feeling warm cum spilling inside of him. He’d

heard roars like that before, usually when the shifters were fighting
with the dragons, but he’d also heard it from the same dragon who’d
killed his mother and left him with so many physical and mental
problems after the fact. Right now, all he could think about was how
different that noise sounded coming from Aris’s throat, and why the
hell had he ever been afraid of it?

Aris’s body seemed to go lax a bit. He was panting and not quite

as stiff anymore as he looked down into Conner’s face. His brown
eyes were half-lidded as his large chest rose and fell with each breath
he took.

Conner reached for him, and this time Aris came down and met

him with a wet, long-lasting kiss. Conner moaned and mewled
pathetically as Aris put his hands on his face and hair, and Conner did
the same thing to him.

He needed to touch the other man everywhere that he could. His

hair was a lot softer than he thought it would be, all things considered.

There was just something missing in this. Conner realized what it

was when his tongue brushed across the sharp tips of one of Aris’s
teeth.

He pulled back, looking into Aris’s content face and waiting for it,

but all the other man did was smile down at him and run his hands
through Conner’s hair. “Now then, how was your first time with a
dragon?”

Ah, of course. Different mating rituals. The sex was probably

enough for Aris, but Conner needed a couple more things to be
content. “Bite me,” Conner said.

Aris pulled back sharply. “Excuse me?”
Conner burst out laughing, immediately realizing how Aris would

have taken that. “S–sorry. It was great. Better than…O–oh fuck! You
seriously think I was saying…that’s too funny!”

Marcy Jacks

“It’s hardly funny at all,” Aris deadpanned. “You ruined the

romantic atmosphere. Now why would you tell me to bite you?”

Conner had to wipe the tears from his eyes, but no matter how

much he tried, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. “Because
that’s how you show other wolves that I’m taken. You’ll bite down on
my throat, give me a scar.”

“I don’t want to scar you!” Aris said, and he looked torn between

sickened and shocked.

“You won’t be abusing me or anything,” Conner said, still smiling

as he tried to explain to his new mate how this worked. “Wolves,
we’re all about scent, right?”

“From what I understand, there’s a lot of sniffing rear ends in all

that.”

Despite the insult, even Conner had to laugh at that. “Not for

werewolves! W–we’re not actually wolves, we don’t do that! But we
do sniff necks, and when one alpha grabs someone else by the throat,
it’s a big deal.”

“So therefore, to make you as mine, the most obvious place to put

a mark on you would be your throat?” Aris asked, though it wasn’t
much of a question. The man was catching on quickly.

“Yeah, basically,” Conner said with a shrug, and he was only just

starting to feel cold now that the sweat on his body was cooling off in
the breeze. He didn’t mind, though, and he didn’t complain, as he
wanted to know what Aris said about this. “Why, how do dragons do
it?”

“We fuck each other,” Aris said with a toothy grin. “Then I would

be expected to make a jewel for you out of one of my scales and any
precious stones I could find.”

“That sounds really cool,” Conner said, really enjoying the idea of

wearing some awesome jewelry made from real dragon scales.

“Hm,” Aris said, cocking his head to the side a little and staring

down at Conner. “Is this what you want?”

Conner was nearly bursting with energy, whereas before, he

The One True Sacrifice

wouldn’t have thought he would have any, considering how much the
sex had drained him. “Definitely.”

“Very well,” Aris said, and it was as easy as that when he leaned

down and pressed his mouth to Conner’s throat, right where his neck
met his shoulder.

Conner grimaced and made a pained noise when Aris’s teeth sunk

into his skin, piercing him, and it hurt so much more than he thought
it would, but then it was done and Aris was pulling back, a look of
horror on his face, and Conner’s blood on his lips.

“Are you—no, you’re not. I hurt you.”
“It’s fine,” Conner said.
“You’re pale as all hell. I shouldn’t have done that!” Aris said.
“I said I’m okay. Stop fussing over me like my mother,” Conner

said, batting the man’s hands away, but he wasn’t angry, or even
irritated. He was amused. Despite everything, he enjoyed how this
powerful dragon seemed to worry so much for him. That would have
made him angry and frustrated had it been any of his brothers or his
father, but not Aris. Especially not in this moment.

“I always heard the mating bite was supposed to feel good. Some

people even said they got a second orgasm. I don’t see that
happening, though,” Conner said, and he winced when he brought his
hand up and touched the bite on his shoulder. It burned, oddly
enough. Must be because Aris was a red fire dragon.

Aris went back to his normal, smirky self at that. “I can give you a

second orgasm, but not like that,” he said.

Conner couldn’t help but laugh. He laughed at Aris’s crude

humor, this situation, all of it.

“Why are you laughing this time?” Aris asked. “Do I even want to

know?”

Conner looked up at the man, and he couldn’t stop himself from

smiling even if he tried. “You can pretend to be all put off and
grumpy all you like, but I see how you are.”

“What?” Aris asked.

Marcy Jacks

“You put up this sarcastic front, but you’re really a very caring

guy. I was scared when I offered to come up here, scared that it would
be a trick and I’d be killed or ransomed back to my family, or that it
would be true, but in name only and that you would be mean and
angry all the time. I like you, and it’s enough that you like me. I think
I could see myself spending my life with you and being happy about
it.”

“Oh, you think, do you?” Aris asked.
Conner tried to bite down on his smile, but it didn’t really work

out so well, and he nodded his head. Conner was happy now, knowing
that he wasn’t coming between Aris and someone he loved. Even if
Aris didn’t love him, even if he couldn’t ever love him because of the
whole omega werewolf problem, not to mention his heart and his leg,
then Conner could be happy enough just knowing that they were
friends. He could tell they were friends already. He didn’t need to ask.

The only thing that troubled him, and made the smile melt away

from his mouth, would be how he would react when Aris did
eventually fall in love with someone else, someone who was his own
kind. The twins had said that Aris wasn’t the type to cheat, and
Conner had pretty much had that proven to him, but would he be able
to keep Aris from someone he loved when it came down to it? If Aris
ever wanted whatever the dragon equivalent of a divorce was, would
Conner really be able to give the man one and let him go with a smile
on his face?

After everything that had happened these last two weeks, and even

in these last few minutes, he knew he wouldn’t. It was going to make
Conner miserable when it happened, and it eventually would. No man
was made out of stone, regardless of how honorable they were. Aris
would try his best, and even if Kendrick couldn’t pull him away,
someone, a strong, witty dragon, was going to catch his eye one day.

Fuck.
“I should take you back to our room. Enough people have walked

on by and seen us naked already,” Aris said, gently pulling his soft

The One True Sacrifice

cock from Conner’s body before standing. He was still smiling, and
Conner smiled back quickly before the man could see how miserable
Conner had become.

Aris reached down and grabbed onto Conner’s hand, helping him

to his feet before Conner caught what the larger man had said.

“What?”

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Seven

A month had passed since the day of the mating, and the bite,

which Aris still wasn’t too sure about.

His mate had been unable to keep anything in his stomach after

that, and had been sick in bed most of the next day.

Aris had called for all of his best healers, and even sent some of

his men into the town at the bottom of the mountain for a doctor, but
even that had been for nothing since it seemed that by that very night,
Conner was up and ravenous. The man had been shocked that he’d
slept so much, and he’d eaten his fill of all the leftovers that Aris had
brought from the kitchens.

Still, he was pleased when the doctors came and checked over his

new mate. It was always better to be safe about these things. Aris
knew perfectly strong, seemingly healthy dragons who had dropped
dead at young ages because they refused to believe that any disease
could touch them.

The doctors had been shocked over the fact that Conner was a

werewolf, and they took some notes and examined the bite on
Conner’s shoulder, which was finally starting to show signs of
healing, but otherwise, he was fine.

Aris drew him a bath, and the man was even able to walk to it on

his own strength.

It had been a struggle for Aris to not get in with him, to put his

hands between the man’s legs and touch his cock, or his ass. Once the
fear of an illness had passed by, all Aris wanted to do was kiss and
touch his mate.

It was proof to his strength how he was able to keep his hands to

The One True Sacrifice

himself after that, but Conner had demanded that they sleep in the
same bed at least. Aris had watched some more of the interesting
cartoons on Conner’s iPad while the man slept on his chest. Those
were always nice.

The things that were not so nice were the reports that Aris

continued to get on the attacks against his men whenever they went
down the mountain for supplies. Werewolves were still on the prowl
and they were still picking fights. One frightening thing was when
Lennox claimed guns had been involved. It was odd to think of
shifters with guns, but not unheard of.

Aris only wanted peace with his mate. He was still getting to

know the man, and he wanted nothing but a calm, happy experience
for Conner. Unfortunately, it meant that he couldn’t bring the man
down the mountain to visit his family yet. At least until he found out
why the wolves were still attacking.

After Conner’s illness passed, it was a complete whirlwind of

rituals and animal instincts that Aris hadn’t been expecting.

For example, the next day when Conner was feeling better, he’d

made the demand to go down the mountain. Not to visit his family,
which Aris was a little grateful for since he wasn’t ready to be seen
amongst the pack that his father had fought with for so long, but
Conner wanted to let his wolf out.

He’d actually said those words, as if the two were completely

separate entities.

Conner had to explain that in some ways, they were, and if

Conner didn’t give into his animal side from time to time, the wolf
would come out and take control without permission. It would stop
listening to Conner, and then Conner would be at its mercy instead of
the other way around.

Not only that, but Conner also wanted Aris to hunt him. He

wanted Aris to chase him through the trees, track him down, catch
him, and then make love to him in the woods.

Apparently that was another mating ritual that werewolves abided

Marcy Jacks

by, and they not only did it after a mating, but they did it during the
full moon as well.

So many things to learn about the people who had been his enemy

at one point. Aris had known that the werewolves like to fuck during
a full moon, and outdoors, but he, along with the rest of the clan,
chalked that up to the werewolves being a band of barbarians. He
hadn’t known there was a purpose behind it all, or that the
werewolves had to put so much energy in keeping themselves in a
human state of mind.

Conner had been rather shocked to learn that Aris’s dragon was

just another shape that he took, and not some other being that he
happened to share a body with.

So Aris had taken his mate down the side of the mountain,

followed by Roman and some of the other guards, Clatcher and Craig,
who always wanted to protect their leader, and now the leader’s mate.

Aris hadn’t been too certain of this. The mate of the high dragon

was always considered a worthy prize for kidnappings, but if Conner
was from the pack that Aris had once considered an enemy, then there
shouldn’t be a problem with coming down here at all, or being
watched all the time.

Aris watched as his mate limped over to a small clearing and took

off his clothes. He blushed and turned to his men, remembering that
they were there, and the lucky bastards were turned away, clearly
trying to give Conner some sense of privacy.

Good, or else Aris would have been forced to slash at their eyes.
When he turned back to see Conner, Aris had the breath stolen

right out of his lungs. He’d seen shifters change before, but those had
always been large, bulky alphas who were only interested in killing
Aris and his men as painfully as possible.

Conner’s transformation was not so brutally fast, and because

he’d taken the time to remove his clothes, instead of just allowing his
body to rip them up, Aris was able to see perfectly, as well as
appreciate, the fluid transformation.

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Conner’s body stretched out as the man fell down on all fours. His

legs were the quickest to change, otherwise the man would have gone
down on his hands and knees, instead of four paws.

He looked like any other wolf, but better somehow. Perhaps it was

the intelligent gold eyes that stared up at Aris, as though waiting for
his approval. Wolves were supposed to be intelligent, but they did not
trot over to other creatures and put their heads under human hands, as
if begging for attention.

He was a beautiful gray color, the shining color of silver, and for a

moment Aris played with the idea that Conner’s fur really was made
of silver strands, but he knew better than that. The fur was even a
little paler on the side where Aris had bitten the man’s neck, and
when he pushed the fur out of the way, he could see that even the
mating scar had made its way through the shifting process.

“You are so much lovelier than I thought,” Aris said.
Then Conner had yipped up at him, a sound that should otherwise

have never left a wolf’s mouth, and then turned tail and taken off
through the woods and started to run.

Aris’s instincts had grabbed a hold of him at that point, and he

commanded Roman to stay where he was as Aris changed into his
dragon and gave chase.

He flew overhead, searching out his mate and then quickly finding

him, but Aris had wanted it to be a proper hunt, so instead of
swooping down and grabbing his prey, ending the game before there
was even a chance for it to begin, he flew on ahead, landed, and then
used his wings, tail, and claws to pull up as many leaves and twigs
around him as possible before changing the color of his scales to
blend in.

Dragons were always better at sneaking, and Conner might very

well see this and assume that it was simply a pile of leaves. He might
even approach, which would allow Aris to better catch him.

It had worked.
Conner had come forward and sniffed, and Aris had to lunge

Marcy Jacks

before his mate decided to do something as ridiculous as lifting his
leg to relieve himself on what appeared to be a pile of worthless
leaves and twigs.

That didn’t happen, and of course, the little wolf was surprised

when his dragon mate appeared from the pile of leaves and dead
brush.

The lovemaking had been excellent. Aris was ninety years old, a

dragon, and considered himself a man of the land, and yet he’d never
in his life made love outdoors. The garden didn't count. Not compared
to this. The garden, still surrounded by stone walls, was too clean, too
maintained. This was the true outdoors, and feeling the cold leaves
and grass beneath his knees as he thrust his cock into the tight, hot
space of his mate’s body, making him moan loud enough that Roman
likely heard it back where they’d started, was beyond excellent.

There was some snickering among his second-in-command and

the other men when they came back, which Aris ignored. These were
his friends and trusted guards, and he could tell by the way that
Roman looked at him and Conner that it was all in good fun.

When it started getting around the castle, however, that the

servants were snickering about it, it was entirely different. It was not
in good fun the way they teased Conner about how he was turning the
high dragon into a lowly wolf.

He’d been shocked to hear it, and especially stunned with the way

the smaller man laughed and brushed it off, as though the insults were
all meant to be friendly teasing, instead of the biting comments that
they really were.

That had been three days ago, and Aris had waited around to see if

the teasing would lessen with Conner’s good attitude. When it didn’t,
he called three of the worst offending servants to the chambers
reserved for business.

When Isolda, Joan, and Ailiwen walked into what was basically

his office, it was clear from their bent heads and pursed lips that they
were nervous and agitated.

The One True Sacrifice

Aris watched them from behind his desk. The same desk his father

had sat behind when he’d been the high dragon, one that had been
carved by hand from a single tree the day he’d decided to build this
castle and settle here for the rest of his life.

“Do you all know why you’re here?” Aris demanded, his elbows

on top of the desk, his fingers folded together.

All three of them shook their heads, the liars.
Aris fought for patience. Conner had said over and over again that

he didn’t mind the teasing, but the fact of the matter was that Aris
minded it. He minded the forced smiles that Conner had to put on his
face just to act as if he wasn’t affected by what those fools were
saying. Conner had volunteered to come here for the sake of peace,
and because of scheduling and his illness, he’d done little more than
e-mail his family since he’d gotten here. Aris suspected that the wolf
council that Conner spoke of from time to time was also delaying the
visit, but while there was nothing Aris could do about that, he was
going to do something about this. This passive-aggressive shit from
the servants was going to stop right now, one way or the other.

Aris put his hands down flat on the desk, and he got to his feet. He

purposely did it slowly, and then he stood for two seconds behind that
desk before walking around it. He barely took his eyes off of the three
of them. The tension in the room thickened as he approached. They
knew they were in trouble, and they knew why.

Aris walked over to Ailiwen first. The man was young, very

young for a dragon. He was perhaps about Conner’s age. Still young
enough to be stupid and to gossip carelessly, but too old for Aris to
put him over his knee.

He slapped the man instead. Had he been a warrior, he would

have punched him, but Ailiwen was small and weak. He would never
be a warrior, so Aris wouldn’t hit him like he was one.

The crack of his hand against the man’s cheek was loud in the air,

and afterward, Aris was certain he could hear the sounds of all three
servants’ hearts beating.

Marcy Jacks

Ailiwen barely moved, but he was breathing hard. He almost

looked like he was getting ready to cry, and for that Aris decided the
man had enough. He looked over at the two women, who cringed and
looked away from him. Good. Let them fear getting the same
treatment because it was what they deserved.

“Now,” Aris said, and he put his hands behind his back as he

started to slowly circle the three of them, as if he was planning on
swooping down with his claws like a hunting dragon in flight would,
just for the kill before taking one of them away. “I expect to hear no
more of your teasing words against the high dragon’s mate. I know
Roman and Fraser took the time to speak with the lot of you about
your words, and how hurtful they can be.”

“Yes, sir,” the three said at once.
“Was there some sort of misunderstanding?” Aris asked. “Are you

all simple and need it explained to you again that the subject of
Conner’s shifting ability, as well as his weaknesses, is to be off
limits?”

“No, sir,” they all said.
Aris stopped behind them, and he frowned at the lot of them. It

was a good thing he was not the sort of dragon who could burn holes
with his eyes, otherwise the lot of them would be dead from the
injuries to the backs of their heads right now.

He tried to remind himself that even he had been cruel and

careless at their age. He’d been the son of the high dragon, and he had
complained and slouched and dragged his feet when it came his turn
to sweep the floors of the castle, or tend to the gardens. He’d learned
that he wasn’t better than that, and these three would learn as well.

“Good, now get out of here. You three are to apologize to Conner

when you see him, and if I hear one more word of you all speaking
horribly to him while he does his chores, then the lot of you will go
over my knee in front of the entire clan like the children you behave
like!”

His yelling seemed to do it, and the three of them cringed before

The One True Sacrifice

scurrying out the door.

Just because Aris was still attempting to learn about the nature of

his mate did not mean the rest of the castle had permission to treat
him so horribly.

“That was so sweet, Aris,” Conner said, and Aris spun around,

shocked to see his mate standing in the second doorway that
connected his rooms to his office. Conner was grinning as he leaned
against the stone frame. “You let them off with a warning.”

Aris frowned, and he turned away so that Conner wouldn’t see his

face heating up with a blush. “They’re lucky that’s all I did.”

“I appreciate you sticking up for me, but did you really have to

slap Ailiwen? That sounded like it hurt.”

“Was there no discipline in your pack?” Aris asked, and he

chanced a glance at his mate. The man was wearing an apron, and it
was dirty with grease. It must’ve been his turn to help in the kitchen
today.

“Well, yeah…I guess so, but he already seemed so scared of you.

What if they hate me now because of this?”

Ah, so that was the problem here. “Werewolves tend to fight

things out among themselves, don’t they?” Aris asked.

Conner ducked his head, and then his face was the one that was

heating up with the blush. “Yeah, they do, but I never really got to
fight my own battles because…you know,” he said, gesturing down to
his leg.

Though Aris had worried about the man’s heart in the

beginning—he hadn’t even really liked the idea of sending Conner off
to run away from him for that hunt, worried over what would happen
should his heart rate speed up too much—he’d learned that it wasn’t a
strong condition, or something to be concerned with all the time, like
with a human. The fact that Conner was a werewolf, even a weak one,
meant that he could still go running on occasion, still experience some
excitement, the only difference was that he couldn’t have too much of
that. A little stress was fine, like with anyone else. For that reason,

Marcy Jacks

Aris started thinking of his mate as being just like everyone else. He
was perfectly all right in Aris’s eyes, and he didn’t like the fact that
Conner still saw himself as being so small and insignificant.

“Your father and brothers always fought for you,” Aris said, and it

wasn’t a question.

Conner nodded. “Yeah. Whenever I mouthed off to the wrong

alpha, and sometimes I genuinely wanted to fight, even knowing that I
couldn’t win because I’m an omega, I still wanted to do that just to be
treated like any other normal pack member. A lot of people in the
pack resented me for that. I just don’t want anyone here to hate me.”

“They won’t hate you for their own wrongdoings,” Aris said.
“You can’t promise something like that, you know,” Conner

replied.

So, was this the true reason why Conner always tried to laugh off

the terrible things that had been said to him? He wanted to fight his
own battles and prove that he was worthy to be among the dragons?

“If it means that much to you, then I’ll attempt to stay out of it,

though I make no promises. I get insulted easier than you do, it
seems.”

Conner blushed. “I still can’t believe you slapped him.”
“That was nothing,” Aris said, waving it off and smiling down at

his mate. “My own father put me over his knee in front of the entire
castle when I was eighteen.”

“Really? For what? That’s kind of old to be spanked.”
Aris had thought he was done being embarrassed with that

memory, but hearing those words out of his mate’s mouth brought all
the old humiliation back. He could hardly contain any of it. Somehow
he managed, but he was fairly sure that every part of his body was as
bright red as the scales of his dragon. “Yes, well, that was something
of the point at the time. I had been acting like a child, so he treated me
like one. I never complained about my chores ever again.”

“So, does that mean that if I complain about my chores, you’re

going to spank me?”

The One True Sacrifice

“Don’t push your—” Aris stopped suddenly and looked at the

other man, only just now realizing what it was that Conner meant, and
he grinned as his cock thickened between his legs.

He looked down to see that Conner had put his own palm over the

bulge in his pants, and he was slowly stroking himself. Stroking
himself and watching Aris with a smile on his face.

How could Aris not rise to bait like that? “Get on the bed, right

now.”

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Eight

Conner almost forgot about his limp as he rushed over to the bed.

It wasn’t until he jumped on it that his knee throbbed and he
remembered his damned injury. He tensed up, fighting not to yell out
with the stabbing pain he felt, as if someone had hammered a nail
right into the joint.

“Are you all right?” Aris asked, touching Conner’s shoulders and

leaning in close. Conner hadn’t even realized the man was on the bed
with him now.

“I…I’m fine. Just forgot about my knee. Dumb, right?”
“Not at all,” Aris said, and he gently pushed Conner down onto

his back before his hands travelled to Conner’s belt and fly, loosening
them before removing his pants. “I’ll have to take a look for myself.”

Holy hell, the low, sensual way in which Aris said those words

made Conner think of anything but first aid, and then his pants were
off, and Aris was leaning in to press a gentle kiss to Conner’s
throbbing knee.

Conner swallowed a hard lump in his throat. “Fuck, my heart’s

beating so fast.”

“I know, I can hear it.”
Conner’s heart jumped. “I didn’t realize I’d said that out loud!” he

said.

Aris just chuckled at him. “You babble a lot of things when you

want me, little wolf,” he said, and then his warm hand gripped
Conner’s prick, stroking it twice to make it fully hard. Conner
moaned and thrust into that perfect hand. “Sometimes I wish your
heart wouldn’t beat so fast. I know you’re all right, logically. You’ve

The One True Sacrifice

told me that a number of times, but hearing it go off like that while
we’re having sex worries me.”

Conner hadn’t thought of that, and he stared down at Aris,

affection and love swelling inside of him. After a month of living
inside of the castle in the mountain, sharing the high dragon’s bed,
and getting to know him, Conner could finally admit to himself that
he did love this man.

“Hey,” he said, and without really thinking about it, he put his

hand into Aris’s red hair.

Aris looked up at him, stunned with the act.
Conner couldn’t pull his hand away now, even though it was

something of a stupid gesture, so he just kept right on smiling, and he
didn’t move his hand. “You know, humans can die while having sex.
Not me. I’m still a wolf, remember. It’ll take a lot before I could even
pass out.”

Aris’s eyes narrowed a little. “Oh? You’re saying that I don’t have

enough in me to make you pass out?”

Conner tensed, and he yanked his hand away. “That’s not what I

meant! I—”

Aris reached out and snatched Conner’s hand, and he brought the

knuckles to his lips. “Relax. I’m playing with you.”

Conner sighed, and then he glared halfheartedly down at the man.

“You could look a little less scary when you do that, you know?”

“You think I’m scary when I’m kneeling between your legs?”
The heat in Conner’s body started to rise again. Sometimes he

swore that this castle had major problems with the thermostat. “Not
particularly,” he said and then gasped, his arms going weak and his
entire body falling back when Aris’s mouth went down, and Conner’s
cock was submerged into that warm, wet space.

“Oh my God,” Conner gasped, and his fingers found Aris’s hair

again as he held on for the ride. Aris must have licked his lips before
he put his mouth around Conner’s cock, because his lips were moist.
It was such an easy up-and-down slide that Conner was so close to

Marcy Jacks

losing it already.

“A–Aris…fuck! That feels good.”
“Feel good, my little puppy?”
Conner glared down at the man, and Aris grinned right back up at

him, his hand slowly stroking Conner’s prick.

“You have no idea how gorgeous you are like that. Face red, hair

all over the place, and glaring down at me?”

Conner wouldn’t have thought something like that would make

him gorgeous, and it didn’t matter anyway because there was only
one thing he was interesting in right now. “Back to work, right now,”
he demanded.

“As you wish,” Aris said, reminding Conner of a movie he’d seen

a long time ago, but couldn’t think of the name for since his brain was
currently being sucked out through his cock.

“Ugh! Oh,” Conner said, and as he fell back against the covers, he

thrashed his head from side to side. Aris was way too damned good at
this. It should have been criminal how good he was, and within the
next ten seconds, Conner was already that close to losing himself
completely when he wasn’t ready for it to be over yet.

He had to stop this and push Aris away before he came way too

damned soon. He had to—

Someone knocked on the door. The office door, which was about

when Conner remembered that he’d left the door leading from the
bedroom to the office wide open.

The office door opened, and it was Roman’s voice that called out.

“Aris? You around here?”

Conner wanted to scream from the humiliation. Being caught with

his pants down by the second-in-command was not on his list of
things to do tonight.

Aris grabbed onto the side of the blanket and flung it over

Conner’s body, completely covering him from head to toe just as he
got to his feet.

Conner yanked the blanket down part way, kind of annoyed. “It’s

The One True Sacrifice

only my lower half that’s naked you—oh,” Conner said.

Roman was standing in the doorway, of course, but he was

looking at anything in the room but Conner. He wasn’t even looking
at his high dragon. That, coupled with the light blush on his face, said
enough. He had probably seen something, and Conner was too
mortified to think about what it could have been.

“What is it, Roman?” Aris asked.
Roman cleared his throat, and he even had a shy little smile on his

face, the bastard. “You told me to bring you anything I found about
that incident?” he said, still pink in the cheeks as he held up an orange
envelope.

“Yes, thank you,” Aris said, and he sounded so cold that Conner

didn’t understand the sudden change.

Aris took the envelope, broke the seal, and then pulled the papers

out to have a look. There didn’t appear to be much there at all, and
when Aris finished flipping through them, he looked back up at
Roman. “You’re sure of this?”

Roman shrugged. “It makes sense based on injuries and

scheduling.”

Conner didn’t know what was happening, but he didn’t like the

way Roman’s eyes kept right on flickering toward him. He was
nervous, and Conner looked back down at the papers in his mate’s
hands.

Aris put his hand on Roman’s shoulder and nodded to him.

“Thank you for doing this for me,” he said.

Roman nodded back before he left the room. Conner heard the

office door shut right before Aris closed and locked the door that
connected their bedroom to the office. They were alone again, but the
way Aris sighed meant they were done having sex.

“What was that? Some business?” Conner asked, shifting to a

more comfortable position for his leg.

“Something like that,” Aris said, pushing the papers back into the

envelope before sitting on the bed next to Conner.

Marcy Jacks

Something was clearly bothering him, and Conner didn’t like

seeing his mate so upset. He felt it himself when Aris was struggling
with something, so he wrapped his arms around his mate’s shoulders
and hugged him from behind.

He loved the way Aris put his hands overtop of Conner’s.
“You haven’t picked a scale yet, for your jewel,” Aris said softly.
Conner shrugged. “There’s no hurry. Besides, I heard taking one

of your scales was supposed to hurt.”

Aris chuckled. “That’s something of the point. You took a little

pain for me for your bite, so I will take some pain for you.”

Conner squeezed the man tight, loving him so much, and wishing

he could just say the words and get it over with. It wouldn’t matter if
Aris said them back. He knew that the high dragon at least cared
about him.

“Maybe I’ll pick one of your scales today,” Conner said, and

when Aris turned his head to look at him, Conner kissed the man on
the mouth. Soft, sweet, and quick before he pulled back. “After we go
down the mountain.”

“Now, how did I know you were going to make that request?”

Aris asked, sounded only slightly annoyed by it.

Conner grinned at his mate, putting on all the puppy dog charm

that he knew Aris couldn’t exactly resist. “Please? I actually…I
wanted to go and visit my family today. Or even sometime this week.
I know the council hasn’t approved it yet—”

“Absolutely not,” Aris said.
“But what are they gonna do? Throw me into lockup?”
“They very well could now that you’re no longer considered to be

a member of their pack,” Aris said, grumbling the words.

“But they won’t. I’m not some rogue shifter they don’t know. I’m

still the son of the alpha.”

“Ugh, please don’t remind me of that,” Aris said.
Conner jerked his hands away, hurt by the actual disgust that he

heard in Aris’s voice. Sometimes he forgot how much the dragons

The One True Sacrifice

hated the werewolves. It was easy to forget when Aris kissed and
touched him the way that he did, not to mention how he reprimanded
the servants for their teasing.

Aris looked at him, and then he sighed. “How am I ever supposed

to get anything done when you keep giving me those kicked puppy
stares?” he asked.

“I don’t give you kicked puppy stares,” Conner said.
“You’re pouting right now.”
“I’m not pouting! I just…I haven’t heard anything from my

brothers in a while. I don’t know, maybe the power went out in the
pack or something. That’s been known to happen considering how
rough the alphas can be, and the fact that they’re out there so far away
from everyone else.”

“The power goes out that often where you live? Even without a

storm?”

Conner shrugged. “One time my brothers Stan and Garret were

fighting, and they knocked over the only pole that kept the power line
up that fed electricity into the pack. There’s generators, but that’s for
emergency and won’t power the Internet connection. Please, it’s been
so long already since I’ve seen them. Even if the power were to come
back on, e-mails aren’t enough anymore. I miss them.”

Conner waited with held breath as Aris stared at him. The man

was clearly considering it, and he didn’t look at all happy about
having to make an unannounced visit to the pack of wolves that he
used to be enemies with.

He heaved a heavy sigh. “I’ll have to bring some of my men along

with me. You might have confidence that the wolves won’t try to hold
you against your will, but I don’t. And even if they don’t touch you, I
certainly can’t go there with just you. I’ll be attacked in an instant.
Peace treaty or no.”

“So, we can go?” Conner asked, hardly able to believe it.
Aris nodded, though he looked anything but happy. “Yes. Get

your things together, and we’ll go right now.”

Marcy Jacks

“All right! Thank you so much!” Conner threw his arms around

Aris’s neck one more time, and he leaned in and pressed a kiss to
Aris’s cheek before bouncing off the bed.

“Actually, stop,” Aris said suddenly, and Conner turned around.
“You’re not changing your mind are you?”
Aris got to his feet, his face still grim. “No, but before we go

anywhere or do anything else, we need to finish what we started
before Roman rudely interrupted us. That can’t wait.”

Conner was in too much of a good mood. He ran to his mate and

launched himself into the man’s arms.

The One True Sacrifice

Chapter Nine

Conner could’ve fist pumped the air when Aris finally gave in to

let him go back to his pack for a visit. He could have, if he hadn’t
been too busy holding onto his knees while the larger man plowed
into him, making him moan and yell out.

It had been harsher, and so much more desperate than any of the

other times when they had fucked each other. Not that Conner was
complaining. It had still been excellent. He wouldn’t mind doing it
again sometime, and he could hardly believe that they had almost left
the room without taking care of what they’d started.

They’d definitely needed to finish off with the sex. It had been a

brilliant idea and was proof to Aris’s competence as a leader.

After a brief period for rest, and then cleanup, Conner packed a

small overnight bag just in case it was needed. He would definitely
need clothes for Aris once they got down to pack territory. Though
Aris scowled at the sight of it, he’d still walked Conner over to the
gardens, called for the twins, Fraser and Grant, and then the lot of
them shifted into their dragon forms. Fraser and Grant were a
sparkling black, almost the same tone as the pervious stones that
made up the walls of the castle, but Conner only had eyes for his
mate’s shining, ruby-red scales.

The dragon was beautiful, as ferocious looking as anything seen in

picture books, but Conner had long since gotten over his fear of the
shape that his mate took, starting on the very day that he’d come to
the castle, riding on Aris’s back.

He’d sort of had to get over his fear right then and there.
Just because Aris had horns on his head, could breathe fire, and

Marcy Jacks

glittered like he was made of gemstones, didn’t make him dangerous.
He was nothing like the dragon that had killed Conner’s mother and
ruined his knee.

He got onto Aris’s back without a problem and he grabbed onto

the two horns on the dragon’s head to keep his balance, just like he’d
had the last time.

“Are you seated properly?” Aris asked, and it always shocked

Conner to hear words coming from that reptilian mouth.

“Yeah. I think I’ve got a good grip,” he said, still giddy with

excitement over getting to see his family.

“Good, let’s get this over with,” Aris said, and Conner frowned.
Aris was snapping an awful lot lately. He wondered what was

wrong with the man, but then recalled the orange envelope.

He hoped that the contents of that envelope wouldn’t make Aris

this angry and grouchy forever. He liked it much better when his mate
was playful and teasing, rather than nearly hostile.

Aris spread his long wings. They weren’t his arms either. In his

dragon form, Aris had to stay down on all fours, much like how
Conner did, though the man didn’t really have paws. The wings were
completely separate, and they were paper thin in some places. It was
enough to stun Conner when Aris was able to pull the both of them
into the air regardless of how weak his wings looked.

Conner’s stomach dropped at the sudden laughing. Aris flapped

his wings, creating whooshing sounds with each stroke. It felt a little
like Conner was bouncing, but then they evened out, and there was
nothing but the cool breeze in Conner’s face as he and his mate flew
through the skies.

Conner was never going to get over this. He shut his eyes and

took in a deep breath. It always seemed easier for him to breathe
when he was up here. The creatures and trees below were as tiny as
ants, and it was always so peaceful.

“I hope you appreciate this,” Aris said.
Conner frowned as his mate broke his peace, but then he backed

The One True Sacrifice

down, not wanting to start a fight. “I am. I’m very grateful. I know
you don’t want to go, so thank you for taking me.”

There. He’d thanked the man, was humble about it. That should

smooth things over.

Instead, Aris shook his head a little, as if Conner had just said the

dirtiest thing into his ear. Not that he knew where Aris’s ear was
when the man looked like this. “What’s wrong with you?”

“With me?” Conner snapped, his hands gripping the horns even

tighter, though they were just bone and scale, so for all he knew, Aris
couldn’t feel it at all.

“Do you two need a minute alone?” Fraser asked. The black

dragon was gliding nearby with his twin, and Conner had completely
forgotten they were there.

He groaned, hating that he’d nearly made a scene in front of them.

As loyal as they were, it wasn’t proper for the high dragon to be
caught in an argument with his mate. It was just like that back at
Conner’s pack, and it was the same with the dragons as well.

“No, we’re good,” Conner said, mumbling to himself.
A huff of smoke left Aris’s nostrils. “Get to a small distance,

please. I need to have a word with my mate.”

“What?” Conner demanded, but the twins, of course, were loyal to

their high dragon, and not to Conner. They nodded and flew off in the
other direction. Conner could still see them in the distance, but they
were little more than black dots before Aris started speaking.

“I want you to answer me before we get to your pack,” Aris

snapped, and the way he put emphasis on “pack” really let Conner
know that he was in trouble.

If Conner could have, he would have let go of Aris’s horns and

crossed his arms, but he needed to hold on, so he didn’t.

“Well, what? What did I do?” Conner asked.
Aris made a noise of frustration, if that was even possible in a

dragon. “Well, at least it’s back.”

“At least what’s back?”

Marcy Jacks

“And stop referring to that place as being your pack. They’re not

your pack anymore. You’re part of my clan, not their pack.”

Conner’s entire body tensed up with anger. “Or else what? They

still are my pack. I don’t care what the council says, I’m still one of
them. My father and brothers know that.”

“Yes, I’m sure they would be all too happy to take you back in

once you’ve grown tired of being on the mountain,” Aris said, and he
was really starting to sound irritated.

Conner’s anger immediately melted away. He always thought that

everyone had a cooking pot inside of themselves, something that
could contain their anger. Some people had a bigger pot than others,
and though Conner’s had been just ready to boil over a second ago,
now he felt like someone had taken that pot and dumped the contents
into the sink, letting him start fresh.

He was shocked now, and confused, but no longer angry.
“I…I don’t know why you’re so mad. Did it have to do with what

Roman showed you back in our room?”

“So it’s our room, now, is it?” Aris snapped, angling his head just

a little to look at Conner before turning his attention back to the skies
ahead. They were basically just flying in circles now, considering the
pack wasn’t that far off the mountain. “You call it our room now
when you insist on calling those shifters your pack?”

“What are you talking about? I don’t know why you’re so angry,”

Conner said, and now hurt was seriously starting to creep into him.
“What did I do? I just want to go and see my family.”

“Your family who easily sacrificed you to me, the big bad dragon,

whom they would have no trouble killing when I bring you down
there, or stealing you away from me to start a fight.”

“You brought Fraser and Grant to protect you,” Conner said.

“That’s what they’re coming for. That’s what the peace treaty’s for.”

“As if I would expect them to honor it,” Aris said, more smoke

leaving his mouth.

Conner still didn’t get it, but he stayed quiet and thought about it,

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and then he did understand. “You don’t think they’re going to honor
the treaty, because you weren’t going to honor it.”

Aris’s entire body tensed up beneath him, and Conner knew he

had the man. “That’s it, isn’t it? You really were going to ransom me
back, or kill me if my father didn’t get off the mountain, weren’t
you?”

“Of course not!” Aris snapped back.
Conner didn’t believe him. “Land, right now. I want you to land. I

don’t want to be up here with you anymore.”

Conner’s grip on the horns he held onto changed as Aris turned

his head to look at him, his golden eyes wide with shock. Even the
snake-like slits were round. Aris’s mouth was dropped open, but there
was no angry smoke that suggested he was about to throw some fire at
Conner’s face.

Conner couldn’t look him in the eyes, but he still could tell when

Aris scowled at him. “Fine! I’ll leave you back at your pack. You can
stay with them all you want. Don’t come back either. I don’t care.”

Conner gasped, and his throat swelled. “What?”
“Stay with your pack. I won’t hold you hostage anymore,” Aris

snapped, and while Conner thought the dragons all looked mean
before, it was nothing to the way that Aris scowled as he stared ahead.

That wasn’t what Conner had meant. He didn’t want to be away

from Aris forever…but if this was what Aris wanted, then was there
really anything he could do about it? He could beg. He could
apologize and promise to do better, but then what sort of life was
that? A life where Conner always had to worry about insulting his
mate even in the smallest way, otherwise the man would demand him
to be gone?

Conner had thought…he’d thought…
Conner’s eyes burned with tears that flew out of his eyes, which

Conner told himself was only a product of the wind.

This was it. The moment he’d feared. Aris was rejecting Conner

as a mate and sending him back.

Marcy Jacks

The worst part was how unprepared for it Conner felt, and that

was what made it all so much worse.

Maybe he only felt that way because it really was like a sucker

punch. He’d been trying to prepare himself for a life without love,
with only friendship, knowing that his mate would likely fall in love
with another dragon someway, but no, he hadn’t prepared himself to
be actually taken out of the castle and told to never come back.

Everything hurt. His heart, which was beating quickly, his head,

his throat, and even his eyes as he fought to keep from crying, or from
making any noise that would tell Aris he was crying.

Aris let out a sound from his throat, a sort of call that summoned

the twins back to his side. Conner hurried to wipe his eyes before they
came, but he knew they would still be red.

Fraser looked at him long and hard before he turned his attention

to his leader. “Everything all right?”

Conner kept his head ducked low, but he could just tell that Grant

was staring at him. Probably wondering what Conner’s problem was.

How had they gone from Aris defending him and making love to

him earlier today, to this?

“Everything’s perfect. Conner packed a bag. He’ll be staying with

his family.”

Fraser gasped at that. “But, sir, we can’t…are we really going to

spend the night on the property of the wolves?”

“No. We’re leaving him there,” Aris said, and Conner couldn’t

contain all the little sniffles and whimpers that escaped his throat.
This hurt too much. Aris could throw him away all he wanted, but
Conner was going to be attached to the man for the rest of his life.

The man was his mate, after all, and he was in love with the man.

He was in love with Aris, and today was the wakeup call he needed
that he was never going to be made happy by that love.

“Leaving him there?” Grant asked. “When will we come back for

him?”

“We’re not. He’s—”

The One True Sacrifice

“Aris!” Fraser’s scream was immediately followed by the hard

force in which the dragon knocked Aris to the side.

It was so sudden and the turn so sharp that Conner’s body flew

away from Aris. His hands immediately slipped off of Aris’s horns,
and he couldn’t grab on again in time. He started to fall.

He screamed as he spun in that air, hands searching and reaching

for something that wasn’t there. Something that would stop his fall.
Aris’s voice sounded far away, and Conner could no longer tell which
way was up and which way was down. He was going to die. He was
going to die!

Strong hands grabbed him by the shoulders, and a heavy weight

knocked into him, sending Conner completely off the course he’d
been one, which had been toward the ground. For a split second he
thought he’d made impact, but then realized he was still in the air, and
the hands that were holding onto him were actually Aris’s red claws.

Despite the wind everywhere, Conner’s face and whole body was

hot with all the rushing blood. He was terrified, even though Aris had
saved him. “Don’t drop me!” he yelled.

Aris looked down at him, his wings flapping, but he didn’t seem

to be trying to get back into the sky.

They were descending, lower and lower they went, and when

Conner’s body touched onto the hard surface of the ground, he
immediately went limp, gasping for breath against the cold, dead
leaves and twigs on the solid earth.

Aris was immediately all over him, his hands were human this

time, and he was touching Conner everywhere. It took a few seconds
for Conner to realize what the man was saying.

“Conner! Speak to me, goddammit. Are you hurt anywhere? Can

you hear me? Fuck!”

Aris actually sounded worried. That made Conner smile, and he

looked up at the man.

It took his churning vision a second to settle down, and the first

thing he saw was Aris’s terrified face. He looked a lot paler than he

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normally did, and he was clenching his teeth as he waited for Conner
to say something.

“You saved me,” Conner said, and holy God did his voice ever

sound weak and small. He only ever sounded like that when his heart
got really bad.

Aris recoiled as though someone had punched him in the throat,

and then his hands were back on Conner’s limp body, pulling him up
into his arms, squeezing him so tight that it hurt, but Conner didn’t
mind as Aris put his hands on Conner’s back and into his hair.

“Idiot! Of course I saved you! Did you think I’d let you die?

Fuck! Don’t you ever scare me like that again. Never again!”

Conner couldn’t stop smiling, and he managed to summon the

strength needed to lift his arms and put them around Aris’s naked
back. He couldn’t put any strength into the hug, despite how much he
wanted to.

Conner sighed, and though he wanted to stay like that forever, the

fact of the matter was that something dangerous had happened while
they were up in the sky. “Did Fraser attack you?” Conner asked. His
voice wasn’t getting much stronger.

Aris shook his head, and it took the man a second before he was

willing to let go of Conner. At least to pull away enough to look him
in the face.

“He was doing his job. The second he pushed me out of the way,

he was struck with something. He went down and Grant chased him.
Though I couldn’t blame him, and then I no longer felt your weight
on my back and saw you falling and—”

Aris didn’t say anymore. He just stared into Conner’s face, clearly

torn about something before his mouth was against Conner’s in a
strong, almost bruising kiss.

“Hmph!” Conner said, shocked, but then he quickly settled and

opened his mouth, allowing Aris’s warm tongue to glide inside.

Conner needed this as much as Aris did. He needed to taste the

other man, to feel his heat all over, around, and inside of his body. It

The One True Sacrifice

was proof that he was alive and that Aris was here with him. The
passion with which the larger man’s lips and tongue moved could
only come from someone who cared.

Conner no longer felt cold just then. He was warm all over, and

his heart was still pounding, but he was no longer trembling.

Aris pulled away and pressed their foreheads together. He looked

angry, at himself, and scared. Conner didn’t think he’d ever seen the
man scared before.

“Does this mean you’re not breaking up with me?” Conner asked.
That seemed to startle Aris back into reality, and he stared at

Conner as though he’d lost his mind. Conner wasn’t sure why he was
wearing that look on his face, considering he’d told Conner never to
come back.

Aris opened his mouth to answer, but then he shut it again as his

eyes widened. Conner knew why. His ears picked it up. Someone was
coming. They were close.

“Are we close to the pack?” Conner asked, looking around and

trying to get his bearings for where precisely he was.

“Very. Can you make it there while I handle them?”
It briefly occurred to Conner that it might’ve been his own family

who’d shot at Aris, but after everything that had happened, he could
no longer risk it. He loved this man and wanted him alive, even at the
cost of the lives of whoever had shot them out of the sky.

“I’ll change into my wolf. I’ll be back with help.”
Aris pressed his lips together and briefly shook his head. He

didn’t believe that help would be coming, but Conner would prove
him wrong.

“Get yourself to safety and don’t worry about a single thing more

than that. Go now,” Aris said, and he was already helping to yank off
Conner’s clothes so he could make the shift into his wolf.

The world was spinning beneath Conner’s four paws, which was

never a good sign. He was either going to pass out or puke, but he
didn’t stop when he started running. As much as he wanted to stay by

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Aris’s side, that would be too dangerous. He’d get in the way and cost
the man his life.

Conner loved him. He wanted him alive and he wanted a life with

him. He loved him and he was going to do anything to save him, even
run away.

The One True Sacrifice

Chapter Ten

Aris watched with bated breath as the man he loved ran away

from him. In wolf form, despite his limp still being present, Conner
was quick and sleek as he vanished through the shrubs and trees. Aris
wanted to go with him, wanted to protect him from anymore gunfire,
but he stayed right where he was. He wanted to confront the shooter.

There were no more gunshots. If anyone had shot at Conner, even

if they were using a suppressor on a pistol, then he would have heard
it. After a few seconds, Aris allowed himself to breathe. His mate was
safe.

He stood straight, eyes scanning the trees for wherever the coward

might be hiding. “I can’t see you but I know you’re there. Come out
and fight me, wolf!”

Aris thought he would shave to do a little taunting, perhaps call

out again before he would get any kind of answer. He was shocked
when the trees and small branches from shrubs rustled, and a man
wearing a green camouflage sweater and pants, along with brown
boots, stepped out.

He had a rifle in his hands, and it was pointed right at Aris’s chest.
Aris noted the face paint, which would also hide his pale skin

among the scenery, and he took a sniff of the air. “You are not a
wolf.”

“No, but I’ve got some friends who are,” said the man in front of

him, and Aris wondered if this was the same person who had
attempted to shoot him out of the sky, or if there were more. He
hoped that Fraser and Grant were all right.

“Hmph,” Aris said, hardly impressed, and he wasn’t simply

Marcy Jacks

pretending to be either. Then his eyes moved down the man’s body,
and throughout all the combat gear, the knives and clips of ammo to
more guns that were on him strapped everywhere, one thing stood out
amongst it all.

A cross, and not just any cross either. This one had a particular

design that made Aris so much more worried for his lover.

“You’re a Templar?” he asked.
The human didn’t grin. He barely moved. He was clearly trained

to not give too much away about himself through facial expressions,
which meant that he wanted Aris to know about the other men with
him when he told him. That hadn’t been an accidental slip from
someone who didn’t know what they were doing. “Get on your knees,
you fucking spawn of Satan.”

Aris glared at the man. “I will do no such thing, especially not for

some fundamentalist lunatic.”

Templars. He should have fucking known there were some

running around out here. They hated dragons about as much as the
hunters hated werewolves. They believed down to the core of their
souls that dragons were a product of hellfire and Satan. Apparently it
said that somewhere in the bible, but Aris wouldn’t know since he’d
never picked that book up before in his life.

“God is with me, you monster, and before I kill you, I’m gonna

cut off your wings and then mount them on my wall so everyone can
see how devoted I am.”

At least this man was a Templar and not a hunter. Templars

weren’t exactly known for their ability to see reason, but for the most
part, they left the shifters alone. People who could shift into natural
animals, that is. Some Templars even considered the werewolves and
werefoxes and whatever to be closer to God because of how in tune
with nature they supposedly were.

If any other Templars, or even the werewolves working with the

Templars, spotted Conner running away, then they were more likely
to leave him alone.

The One True Sacrifice

Aris would just have to see how fast he was. “My father had

always told me that life was about little tests,” Aris said.

“What?” asked the Templar, a little confused now that it seemed

Aris wanted to have a somewhat normal conversation with him.

Aris kept his head down, making absolutely sure that the Templar

couldn’t see the way his eyes were changing, though that wouldn’t
stop him from noticing everything else.

“He told me I would be tested from time to time.”
“I serve a different Father than you, you monster. Now get down

on your knees and turn around now!”

“You’re so strong, yet you can’t look a monster in the face when

you kill me?” Aris summoned the scales on his back first, and then
the backs of his legs. They were strong scales, and though they
weren’t diamond strong like some other dragons he knew, they might
offer enough protection against the gun.

“Shut up!” the Templar yelled.
Now Aris was getting somewhere. “Do you want to know what

test I’m talking about?” Aris asked.

Because he wasn’t looking directly at the Templar, Aris just

watched the way the man shifted his feet back and forth. He was
getting nervous. “What’s your test?” he asked.

“To beat my high score for how fast I can change into my

dragon,” Aris said, and he let the rest of the transformation flow over
him as he lunged at the Templar. The gun still went off, and he still
felt that blast of pain in his chest as he reached out with his claws.

* * * *

Conner raced all the way back to his former home. His leg was

killing him, and his heart was beating dangerously fast, but he didn’t
stop until he could see several familiar faces of the people who were
his family and friends.

Conner shifted into his human form, and the motion must’ve

Marcy Jacks

caught their attention because that was when everyone turned and
looked at him, clearly stunned to see him standing there, sweating and
panting for breath that he could hardly take in. “D–dad!” Conner
yelled, and he must’ve used up the last of his oxygen because he then
collapsed to his knees.

His father ran to him, and so did his brothers, who were rushing

away from their respective chores, or out of their houses, to gather
around him. They pulled him up into their arms and hugged him, and
they fussed over him and demanded to know what had happened, and
what Aris had done to him.

He must’ve looked bad from all the running. He was so out of

shape for a werewolf.

He shook his head and tried to speak, but it was hard until his

father snatched him out of Quin’s arms and held onto him tight. “My
boy…” he said, sounding so choked up. He regained his composure in
record speed, but there were still hints of strain on his face and in his
eyes. “Can’t you fools see you’re crowding him?” he snapped.
“Garret, go get some cold water for him to drink. Stan, bring back
some clothes.”

“Dad,” Conner said, and he was struggling to speak, feeling about

as weak as he’d felt when Aris had caught him before landing.

“Shh, son, you’re all right now. You’re home and you’re safe.

That’s all that matters.

Conner’s father lifted him into his arms, as if Conner weighed

little more than a sack of cotton, and he walked into the cool shade of
one of the porches to sit with him.

Conner’s brothers followed, not wanting to leave him behind, and

he was vaguely aware of the other pack members staring at him. No
one knew what was happening, and that was enough for Conner to
know that his family had nothing to do with the attack, wherever it
might’ve come from.

His father was wiping the sweat out of his face with the sleeve of

his shirt when Conner finally managed to spit it out. “W–we were

The One True Sacrifice

shot out of the sky. Aris is out there. Someone’s attacking him!”

Kyle was the first to respond to that. “Huh, well, good for you. If

he dies then we can still say you honored the bargain and the pack
will still have peace with the clan.”

Conner couldn’t believe his brother would say something like

that, and when Garret came back with a water bottle, Conner snatched
it out of the man’s hand and hurled it at Kyle’s face with more force
than he thought himself capable of.

It got him in the nose, and Kyle yelled as he held onto his injured

nose with both hands. Conner thought he saw blood.

All of his brothers were trying to talk over each other now, and it

was really starting to get on Conner’s nerves. Quin grabbed up the
water bottle, which was still sealed on the ground, and he handed it
back to Conner.

Conner was too thirsty to throw it a second time, so he opened it

and took several long drinks.

“What do we do?” Garret asked.
Stan arrived next with some clothes, but Conner didn’t want to get

dressed yet. Not until he had his family’s promise that they were
going to do something to help.

“Did you see who it was that attacked you?” Simon asked,

looking down into Conner’s face as he held onto his son.

Conner shook his head. “I just know that they tried to kill Aris

while we were coming here. We were coming to visit, and then Fraser
knocked him out of the way and he took a bullet.”

Conner left out the part where he fell. He didn’t think it would do

his family any good to hear that part of the story. “When Aris and I
landed, we heard someone in the bushes. Aris told me to run, so I did.
Dad, you have to do something! I thought I heard a gunshot before
getting here and he could be dying!”

“I thought I heard a shot, too,” Richard said thoughtfully.
Conner grabbed onto his father’s shoulders and gripped them

tight. If his father and brothers weren’t going to help, he needed to

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know it now so he could go back for his mate.

Simon looked anything but happy, but at least Conner’s brothers

weren’t saying anything else. Kyle was still gripping his bleeding
nose.

Simon sighed. “Gather up a search party. Put everyone else on

guard. We might have hunters in the area and I want a sweep of the
woods.”

Conner felt like he could cry. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Don’t thank me,” Simon said, and he looked down at Conner

with a sad, grim expression on his face, right before he reached down
and touched Conner’s bite mark. The sign that Aris had claimed him
for life. “The only reason why I’m doing anything at all for him is
because I don’t want you to suffer. This is for you and not for him.”

“You will not dare send out a search party for a dragon!”
Conner spun his head around, which was a mistake considering it

immediately brought on a stab of pain right above his ears. He didn’t
even have to look. He knew that it was George.

“I didn’t miss you either, George,” Conner snapped.
George glared down at him before he crossed his arms. “It’s as

your brother said. This pack no longer needs to be joined to a clan of
dragons. You did your part. Let the high dragon deal with hunters on
his own and see how well he fares. We will still have peace between
us and you can come home.”

“I live on the mountain!” Conner snapped. His teeth and claws

were starting to come out, but then it was Garret, Stan, Quin, Richard,
and even Kyle who stood in front of Conner, protecting him like they
always did.

Protecting him from a potential challenge against George?
Simon growled from his place on the porch, holding onto Conner

even tighter than before. “If you think I’m gonna wait around for a
vote from you and the rest of the council to get my son’s mate back,
you’re out of your fucking mind.”

Conner loved them all so much right then.

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101

George’s entire body stiffened with outrage. “You have to get the

vote of the council! Or the next vote will be whether or not to replace
you!”

“Then so be it,” Simon said, and he got to his feet before putting

Conner down on the chair he’d just vacated. “You’re going to stay
here, all right?”

Conner wanted to go. Everything inside of him screamed to run

charging to Aris’s rescue, but the reminder that he was small, weak,
and frail was always right in the forefront of his mind, and his logic
took over. It was better for him to stay behind and wait for his father
and brothers to come back.

“You can’t do that!” George screamed.
Richard flew at the man, and before George even realized he was

being attacked, Richard’s fist said a big fat hello to George’s throat,
knocking the man down on his back. The next noises coming from
George’s throat were ragged gasps and desperate inhales for air.
Sounded like the snorts and wheezes coming from a dying animal, but
Conner knew he would be all right.

“Let’s go,” Simon said, and all of his strong beta and alpha sons

nodded their heads before Simon turned his attention to the rest of the
pack. No other council member dared to approach him, not so long as
Richard was standing next to his father, protecting him. “Everyone
listen up. The safety of the pack is in danger, and I need strong alphas
to come with me to make sure the peace we created between the
dragons and our pack doesn’t get destroyed. There might be hunters
out there, so I need willing volunteers to come with me and others to
stay behind to protect the pack. Anyone up for it?”

There wasn’t a hesitation. At least twenty men stepped forward,

and Conner was able to breathe again.

Conner watched as everyone shed their clothes as fast as if they

were the ones being shot at right now, and then each and every single
wolf charged into the forest, searching for Conner’s mate.

Bring him back alive. Please, just let them bring him back alive.

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Chapter Eleven

When Aris finished snapping the neck of the Templar pointing his

rifle at him, he’d hoped that would be the end of it. He couldn’t have
been more wrong.

Wolves showed up. A lot of wolves, likely from Conner’s pack,

and he could only pray as he fought them off that sending his lover
back to the pack where he’d come from had been a good idea.

Aris dodged another set of claws and teeth. He was still in his

dragon form, but couldn’t fly away since the first couple of wolves to
attack had already done an excellent job of shredding his wings. They
burned with a raging fire he’d never felt before in his life, and he was
a fire dragon!

The wolves were relentless, and all the while, two Templars stood

off to the side, wearing the same camouflage gear that the first one
had worn.

The bastards were getting younger every year.
He had to believe that these same people wouldn’t hurt Conner.

They loved him. He was from their pack, and he considered them
family!

For that reason alone, Aris tried to do his best not to kill anyone,

but the instinct to defend himself won out over the need to protect
Conner’s feelings.

Aris didn’t know who these wolves were, and he could only hope

that Conner didn’t know them that well whenever he swiped out his
tail and smashed it into the face of one of the attacking werewolves,
sending the creatures flying.

Considering they weren’t made to fly, it would have been funny if

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103

Aris wasn’t in so much pain.

The fact that he could smell the blood of Grant and Fraser on

these wolves made him fight even harder. The bullet in his chest
burned when he tried to suck back enough air to breath fire into the
faces of each and every single one of these bastards, but he couldn’t
take in as much air as he needed, and every time he did send off any
flames, they were small and weak.

So he stropped trying to use them and focused more of his

attention on his teeth, claws, and his tail.

Damn them all.
“You all tore up his wings! We were going to use those!” one of

the Templars shouted.

“They’re no good to us anymore. Just try and get him alive.

Jeremy was too stupid. Thought he could take out a dragon all by
himself. We can all still bring him in alive, find out where the nest is.”

The fact that the Templars were here at all meant they knew it was

on the mountain somewhere, but that mountain was huge, the largest
one in the country, and considering how cold-blooded dragons were,
there would be no way the Templars could use technology to find out
where the castle was hidden.

Another wolf jumped onto his back, and its teeth came down onto

Aris’s neck, right near the back. The strong bite made Aris open his
mouth and cry out. He spun around and rolled, trying to dislodge the
wolf from his back, but likely he ended up losing more scales.

Without meaning to, he lost his focus, and his human shape

started to emerge as the need to become small enough to make the
wolf fall off of him became too powerful to ignore.

Not only that, he didn’t have the strength any longer to fight in

such a large shape.

He still managed to make one of the wolves yelp when he

slammed his fist into its black snout, right before his arms were
grabbed and yanked behind his back by the Templars.

“Fuck, hurry and get the restraints on him! I don’t want to touch

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this demon for too long!”

Aris growled and hissed. He couldn’t keep his dragon shape, but

his teeth and claws were still very much available to him. He tried to
bite at the faces of the men who were restraining him, and he
struggled to slash at them as his hands were bound in shackles and
chains, which were then clamped onto his ankles.

Templars didn’t mess around. They weren’t about to risk that Aris

could still get up to run away.

“There, we got him, back away.”
The Templars stepped back, as if Aris had a terrible disease or

something.

To them, he probably did. He was a dragon, the hated enemy of

them and everything they believed in.

“Holy shit, I can’t believe we caught three of them in one day!”
“Don’t curse. It’s sinful.”
Then Fraser and Grant were still alive. Aris tried not to let it show

on his face that he was relieved for that.

The wolves around him all shifted into their human forms. Of

course they were naked, but they looked anything but happy.

“We did as you asked, now keep your end of the bargain.”
“Not until we can take him back to the church,” said the older of

the two Templars. “We still need your help getting the other two back
as well.”

The werewolves growled. Aris didn’t understand. Were these men

really from Conner’s pack as he’d thought? He was fairly sure that
Simon Abbot didn’t owe the Templars a damned thing.

Of course, the wolves growled at that. “We made a deal! We help

you capture a couple of dragons and that’s it! We want our pups and
our mates back right now!”

Aris gasped. He couldn’t hold it back as he stared at the wolves.

“You’re all hostages,” he said.

The butt of a rifle smashed into his face when he spoke those

words. “Keep quiet, demon!” yelled the older Templar, right before

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he turned his attention back to the wolf who’d spoken.

The wolf looked young, perhaps in his mid twenties or so. He

could be an alpha, though it was more likely he was a beta since he
did not possess the sheer size that alphas had. Still, he was nowhere
near as small as Conner, which meant he was not an omega. There
was no telling how old he truly was, considering the way werewolves
aged.

He looked worn, his blond hair was dirty, as was his skin, and

there were several large slashes and forming bruises all over his body
which Aris had put there during the struggle.

For the first time, Aris felt sympathy for him and the rest of the

wolves, and he hated that he’d killed two of them. He pushed it away.
He had his own life to think about now, and he would feel guilt later.
He had to get out of here and find Fraser and Grant.

The blond wolf, along with all of the rest, kept their heads held

high and their fists clenched.

The older Templar scowled back at the lot of them. “Your mates

and pups are back at the church, so you have to go there anyway to
get them! So stop acting like a bunch of idiots and help me with him!”

“I’ll die before I let you take me to your fucking church!” Aris

shouted. His muscles tensed as he readied for a fight. He figured he
could still make things difficult for them in the least.

The older Templar looked amongst the wolves. “Tommy, you

want your brother released? Then get over here and hold him back. I
don’t want him biting my face.”

Tommy turned out to be the blond who had been speaking before.

Though the man looked completely red in the face with anger, he did
as he was told.

“I’m sorry for this,” he said.
Aris was honestly shocked to hear those words come out of the

man’s mouth. He might be forced to do these things, but he was still a
werewolf and Aris was still a dragon.

The older Templar got to his knees in front of Aris, and he held

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one of his butcher knives to the spot right under Aris’s eye.

“I know what you’re thinking, monster,” he said. “Get that

thought right out of your head. I don’t need to kill you to make you
comply, and they all eventually do when it comes to losing an eye.

Aris steeled himself, and he spat in the Templar’s face.
Clearly, the man hadn’t been expecting that with the way he

reared back, disgusted, as if Aris had spit demon spunk on him
instead of saliva.

The man roared, and then the knife slashed down on Aris’s face.

He tried to twist and turn away from it, and for the most part the wolf
behind him let him. Though he was willing to take several slashes to
the face, the last thing he wanted was for his eyes to be removed.

Still, when he was blinded by the blood in his eyes, he started to

think that it was too late, and that he already had lost one, or maybe
both. He could just barely stomp down on his rising panic.

He would not give in. He would not!
Howls sounded in the air, and Aris’s first thought was that the

shifters all around him were celebrating as they watched a dragon
have his face sliced, but then the Templar was pulled off of him, and
he was yanked back. Because of the chains on him, he couldn’t catch
himself as he fell, but he didn’t need to as someone caught him.

“Get those Templars out of here!” shouted a voice. It sounded

familiar, and it took Aris a second to realize it was Simon Abbot,
Conner’s father.

His lover had brought help. Thank the Gods.
“Get back to the church! Get your pups!” Tommy yelled, and

though Aris could barely see, he could tell when the other man shifted
and ran for all he was worth in the other direction with most, if not all
of the werewolves who were with him.

That was right. They had a good reason to want to leave this

place.

“Stop them!” Simon shouted.
“No,” Aris said, shaking his head. “Simon, they’re hostages. The

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Templars have their pups. Don’t hurt them. Let them go.”

His face might be slashed, and Aris was in chains, but his voice

was strong enough to get the message across.

“Goddammit,” Simon said, and it sounded like he’d cursed

through his teeth before he shouted at his men again. “Stop! Come
back here! Let them go! I said let them go. We have what we want,”
Simon said.

The blood was sloppily wiped out of his eyes, and when Aris was

able to see again, though barely, he noted the way Simon shook the
blood from his hand before wiping his palm on the grass.

“Your face looks like utter shit.”
He didn’t care. “Where’s Conner? Did he make it to you? Is he

safe?”

“He’s fine. He told us to come and get you,” Simon replied.
“I found keys on one of the dead Templars,” said one of the

wolves. Aris didn’t know him, but he was grateful when the man gave
the keys to Simon, and Simon unlocked his hands and ankles.

“You gotta bullet wound in your chest,” Simon said. “No exit

wound. We need to get it out of you before it heals up. Can you
walk?”

“My face and chest are hurt. Not my legs,” Aris said, and he got to

his feet.

He didn’t even want to see what he looked like. Probably terrible,

but if he was going to get back to his mate, then he was going to do it
on his own two feet.

“My men are still out there. Fraser and Grant. They’re likely

injured as well.”

“Conner told us about them. I’ve got another search party

scouring the woods. If they’re alive and out there, we’ll find them.”

Aris was more interested in them being found before they could

be taken back to the Templar church, wherever that was.

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Chapter Twelve

When Conner spotted his mate, walking with only a little trouble

next to Simon, he had to suppress a gasp of horror at the sight of him.

His face was bloodied, slashed up, and there was an open hole in

his chest from a gunshot wound. The man shouldn’t have been
walking at all, but somehow he was managing it.

Only after Aris stopped and noticed him and then stared back at

him did Conner snap out of it and rush toward his mate. He ran to
Aris like he was the only man on the planet, forgetting all about his
father and his brothers, but he didn’t dare throw his arms around the
man’s shoulders, despite how much his body screamed at him to do
so.

Not yet. Not when he looked as if he might pass out.
“Do I really look that bad?” Aris asked.
Conner wanted to cry at the sight of him, that was how bad he

looked. Instead, he reached his hand up and brushed some of Aris’s
hair out of his eyes. He tried to touch only where there was no injury,
but even then Aris flinched.

“You came back alive. That’s all I care about,” he said, meaning it

with every cell in his body. He needed this man more than he needed
food or water. He would die without him and now he needed medical
help.

Conner was weak, but he could still manage the people of his pack

when he needed to, and when he shouted for a medic, his call was
answered.

Aris fussed and yelled over being poked and prodded at, and he

really roared when the antibiotic was used to wash the wounds on his

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face and chest, but after a few hours of dealing with bandages, bullets,
and a whole lot of blood, Conner was satisfied that his mate was
going to be all right in record time.

He was demanding to get out of bed to help with the search for

Fraser and Grant the second his bandages were finished with.

Simon had to put a stop to that, in his own charming way. “If you

go out there while Templars and stray wolves are running around,
then you’re a bigger idiot than I thought.”

Aris’s nose flared and his eyes were angry and wide. He had a

look on his face like he wanted to slash out Simon’s throat. It was
probably the first time in the history of their pack and clan that a
dragon held back from injuring a werewolf.

“I’m not going to kill you for that because you are my mate’s

father, and because of what you’ve done for me,” Aris said.

Simon snorted and crossed his arms. “Don’t you dare hold back

because of some stupid-ass reason like that. I’ll treat you with as
much contempt as I always have, and I expect the same from you. If
you don’t want to fight me, then don’t, but don’t hide behind my kid.”

“Dad!” Conner snapped, looking between his father and his mate.
Aris was now staring at the older wolf with curiosity in his eyes.

“All right, I’ll bite. Why are you yapping at me?”

Simon’s mouth twisted at Aris’s choice of words, but otherwise he

answered the man’s question. “I’m going to be honest with you about
everything, and I don’t care if it ever hurts your precious little feelings
either. I said you would be an idiot, and I fucking meant it. You’re the
high dragon. Your responsibilities are to my son and your clan. Those
dragons who followed you knew the score when they wanted to be
your soldiers. If they’re stuck and my men can’t find them, then that’s
too bad for them. They’re going to have to wait until you’re all healed
up and my child is back safely in your castle where he can be
protected.”

“I’m not a child,” Conner snapped.
“Yes, you are,” Simon replied, and he was actually glaring at

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Conner now. “And you always will be my child. Don’t get it into your
head that it’ll change just because you’re getting older.”

Conner was so shocked by those words that he was stunned into

silence. He tried to speak, but he couldn’t. “I…Dad…”

Simon waved him off, as if the man hadn’t just accidentally had a

tender moment with Conner.

He’d always been hard around the edges, but his constant babying

of Conner never gave him reason to doubt the man’s love. Now
Conner was feeling it more than ever.

“There’s something you should know, if we’re going to be

honest,” Aris said.

Conner looked down at his mate. The man had his elbows on his

knees, and it looked as if he was doing his best to keep from looking
anyone in the eyes.

The sight was almost depressing, and Conner had to wonder what

the hell was going on.

“All right then, spit it out,” Simon said.
Aris bit down on his lips, and he clenched his fists before looking

up into his face. “My father was the one who killed your last wife.
Conner’s mother.”

Conner’s heart stopped, and he immediately looked to his father to

see the man’s reaction.

Conner was so happy that none of his brothers were in the room,

because he didn’t want there to be a pileup of angry wolves over
Aris’s body.

The thing that stunned Conner more than the confession, however,

was the fact that Simon was hardly reacting to it at all.

“What do you think I am? Some kind of idiot? I already knew

that,” he said, though he glared harder at Aris before he turned
around, giving the high dragon his back as he walked out of the room.

“Rest up. My men will be back soon enough with their reports. If

they can’t find your guys, then I’ll be more than happy to let you go
off and search for them, after you’ve recovered and brought my son to

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safety.”

“What makes you think the castle will be safer than your pack?”

Aris asked. “Isn’t this where his family is? The people who will
protect him?”

Simon tensed up right before he turned back around, and this time,

the sneer on his face was something that Conner thought could melt
concrete.

“What, are you saying you won’t love and protect him?”
“That’s not what I…Fine, just, please go, you’re giving me a

headache,” Aris demanded. It was clear that he was getting sucked
into the tiny traps that Conner’s father was setting for him.

Simon let out a huff, and then he turned around and was gone.
Conner and Aris were alone in the room, and now that there was

no one else to tell him what a bad idea it was, he decided to go and sit
down with his mate, brushing their shoulders together on the bed
where Aris had been examined and bandaged up.

Conner pressed a kiss to Aris’s shoulder, and he reached for the

man’s hand and laced their fingers together. He had to grip tight when
Aris tried to pull away from him.

“Stop that,” Conner said.
“You just heard me say that my father was the one who killed

your mother. He’s the reason why you have a limp, that your heart’s
bad and you can’t go running with the others in your pack whenever
you want.”

Conner shifted on the bed, getting himself just a tiny bit closer to

his mate. “I already knew that.”

Aris’s entire body went stiff, and he stared down at Conner like he

couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “Are you…when did you find
out?”

Conner shrugged. “The first time I saw you in your dragon form. I

was little when it happened, but I can still remember what the dragon
looked like. That shade of red doesn’t exactly seem common among
the other dragons. You looked similar with the shape of your face and

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the horns, but not exactly. I guess I didn’t know for a fact that it was
your father, but I knew it was a close relative. Considering your father
had died, I just assumed that your father was the most likely
candidate.”

When there was no answer, only a long, horrible silence, Conner

looked up into his mate’s face, and Aris was staring down at him with
an open mouth and stunned eyes. “You knew all this time? And you
said nothing about it?”

Conner shrugged. “I’d already agreed to go by then. I wasn’t

about to chicken out and run back to my brothers. If I did then one of
them would’ve had to go, remember?”

And Conner didn’t want to ever risk the lives of any of his

siblings. He was shocked to all hell that his father had known about
the connection, though. Maybe that was why he’d been against the
whole thing from the beginning. The fact that he’d saved Aris’s life
and was letting him stay on pack property had to mean that he was
willing to accept the man now, even if he was still planning on
verbally abusing him.

“I can’t believe you stayed all that time, and you knew!”
Aris was sounding a lot more shocked about this than Conner was,

and he was reminded of the orange envelope. “You didn’t know, did
you?” Conner asked.

Aris looked back down at him, and Conner was pretty sure he had

it right this time. “You were asking around, getting information about
who’d done it. That’s what was in the envelope. You’d just found out
your father was the one who—”

Everything else clicked into place. Aris’s foul mood, why he

didn’t want to let Conner come down to the pack, and why he’d been
so damn desperate to have sex right before leaving.

“You thought I was going to find out, and that I was going to

leave you?”

Aris looked away, and Conner was pretty sure that the man was

blushing for the first time in his life.

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It was sweet.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Conner said. He reached out and

grabbed onto Aris’s chin, doing his absolute best not to touch any spot
on him that was bandaged. He made the high dragon look at him, and
there was a vulnerability in Aris’s eyes that Conner knew he was
likely to never see for a long time after this, and he would never tell
anyone that he’d seen it either. Aris had a reputation to defend as a
high dragon, after all.

“You’re my mate. I love you,” Conner said.
Aris’s eyes widened a little. “You do?”
Conner was so taken aback by that, that his hand dropped away

from Aris’s chin. “Of course I do.”

Aris frowned a little. “You say that like it shocks you.”
“It does!” Conner snapped. "I thought you knew."
“You’ve never told me you loved me before,” Aris countered.
“Neither did you, until, well, just now I guess, and even that was

just you talking to my father.”

Conner shut his mouth and turned away quickly. This was quickly

getting embarrassing, and he didn’t know what to do about any of it.

It was Aris’s hand this time that reached out to grab onto his chin,

turning him back around so that he had to look his mate in the eyes.
“How am I supposed to know you love me, when you haven’t even
taken one of my scales yet?”

Conner blinked. “Your scales?”
Aris got that stubborn look on his face, the one that said he was

going to get what he wanted out of this. Considering he was the high
dragon, what he wanted, he usually got. “You had me bite your
shoulder, now the entire world knows I belong to you, but you never
picked out a scale so I could make something for you to wear. I’m
yours, but you’re not mine. And don’t give me that garbage about you
being afraid it would hurt. Your bite mark hurt you and you still took
it.”

Conner could hardly believe what he was hearing, but at the same

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time, he could, and he was loving every second of it. “The bite
doesn’t mean you belong to me, not really. It means I belong to you.”

Aris’s eyes widened a little.
Conner found himself smiling. “Things are always so much

clearer when we talk to each other. I wish I hadn’t been so stupid
before.” He looked up into his mate’s face. “I really was just nervous
to take one of your scales. As amazing as it was in the beginning to
think about wearing a jewel-encrusted dragon scale, I chickened out
after the process was explained to me. I never wanted to hurt you, or
wear something that proved I’d hurt you, but I guess it really is the
same thing as me taking the biting scar. I just never thought of it like
that before.”

“Then you will finally let me give you one of my scales?” Aris

asked. His tone was still a little gruff, as if he was getting ready to
handle a letdown.

Conner smiled. “Yes, I’ll wear one of your scales. I’m so sorry

that we’ve been fighting and that it was all my fault.”

“Not your fault,” Aris said, and he wrapped his arms around

Conner’s shoulders before kissing him on the mouth. It was a sweet,
closemouthed sort of kiss. In the beginning.

“Not your fault at all,” Aris said, and then he and Conner both

opened their lips for each other, and Conner moaned as Aris’s tongue
slid inside.

They’d had some amazing sex earlier that day, but there was

something about the adrenaline that rushed through Conner after
nearly losing his husband that made him want to climb into Aris’s lap
and have him again.

Aris seemed to be having similar thoughts, considering the way

his hands were sliding around Conner’s waist, and then between his
legs.

Conner groaned. “We have to do this fast,” he said. “This isn’t my

room, and I don’t want any of my brothers or my father walking in on
us.”

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Aris snorted, and his smile showed off his teeth. “Let them come,”

he said. “Then they can see for themselves that you really are mine.”

“Aris!” Conner snapped, but then he moaned as Aris’s palm slid

beneath the waistband of Conner’s borrowed pants. Of course, he
wasn’t wearing any underwear after what had happened. He’d been
too rattled to bother with getting dressed even after he got his bag
back, so Aris had nothing else in his way as he gripped and stroked
Conner’s cock, which was already hard and throbbing now in time
with each of his heartbeats.

“Are–are you sure you can—”
“Don’t even finish that sentence,” Aris said, and his eyes

transformed into those snake-like slits again, much the same way a
stubborn wolf’s eyes would turn gold. “I am perfectly capable of
servicing my lover. Now, on your hands and knees, right now,” Aris
said.

“Holy…yes sir,” Conner said, and he scrambled off of Aris’s lap

and did as the man commanded him to.

His pants were still trapped around his knees, but that was all

right. He didn’t need to get them entirely off for them to be able to do
this.

He looked over his shoulder, watching as his mate dug through

one of the drawers in the room that had turned into an infirmary. Aris
came back with a jar of something, and Conner wasn’t about to
question what it was since he was too damned horny to bother. One of
his hands had already made its way to his cock, and he was stroking
himself, teasing the head and playing with his slit as he watched Aris
get back on the bed.

Even with bandages wrapped around his chest, and the ones that

covered the healing cuts on his face, he was still the most gorgeous
man Conner had ever seen in his life. He was gorgeous, and he was
kind, and he wanted Conner.

“I love you,” Conner said as Aris settled himself behind him. The

man’s large hands were on the swell of Conner’s ass, and he was

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starting to feel the regular embarrassment that he usually did
whenever they were about to make love. When a slick finger touched
his asshole and pushed inside, Conner hissed, and then he moaned and
trembled as all the embarrassment melted right out of him, replaced
with only pleasure and warmth.

“I love you, too. I’m going to have you say those words to me

every day now. Once in the morning, once in the afternoon, and once
in the evening,” he said.

Conner gasped when those fingers pushed deeper inside of him,

and he grinned over his shoulder. “That same thing goes to you, too,
just so you know,” he said, and then his arms gave out, and he had to
press his face down into the mattress to stifle his moans.

Head down and ass in the air, Aris must be really enjoying this.
Then the man’s warm breath and voice were in Conner’s ear, and

he shivered. “As you wish,” he said.

Because of the sex they’d had earlier, Conner didn’t need too

much preparation. He was practically ready from the first moment
Aris touched him. The man’s fingers were replaced with the blunt
head of his cock, and as Aris pushed inside, Conner pushed out. The
initial discomfort quickly gave way to the pleasure that came after,
and he started to moan and push back against his mate almost
immediately.

“If it becomes too much for your knee, let me know and we can

stop to change positions.”

Like Conner was going to waste precious seconds doing that.

“Just fuck me already!” he snapped over his shoulder.

That had come out of his mouth sounding a lot harsher than he’d

meant for it, but then Aris was grinning as he held onto Conner’s hips
with an iron-tight grip, and he pulled back and plowed forward.

There was no way Conner could hold back the sounds of his

moans. They were long and drawn out, and loud. He was going to get
made fun of for this by his family later on, but he would deal with that
when it happened. The good news was that if he moaned loudly

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117

enough, then people would take the hint and no one would disturb
him. He was free to fuck and love his mate for as long as he needed to
in this bedroom.

He could hear the wild and fast grunts of Aris behind him. The

man was putting all the strength inside of his body into his hips, and
Conner was completely helpless to do anything about it as he was
fucked across the bed, until he had to push himself up and grab onto
the headboard before his head could bang into it.

It was hard and rough, fast and not exactly romantic. This was a

claiming by definition, and Conner fucking loved it. His balls were
tight between his legs and his dick almost hurt as the force of Aris’s
thrusts made his cock bounce back and forth against his stomach. If
Conner had the strength, he would have reached down to grab onto it
to stop that from happening, but he couldn’t.

“Oh, fuck!” Conner yelled, drawing out the syllables so that it

sounded more like oooooh fuuuuck.

“That’s it, little wolf. You’re mine,” Aris said. “You’re mine,

you’re mine, you’re mine!”

“Yes,” Conner moaned, and he would have agreed to anything in

that moment so long as Aris didn’t stop.

Aris roared as his body tensed up. His cock swelled a little inside

of Conner’s body, and that was when he felt a wet warmth flooding
inside of him.

That surge of fluid splashing against his prostate was the thing

that shoved Conner over the edge, and he came with a shout.

Aris was still hard inside of him, and the man continued to thrust

back and forth several more times, milking himself inside of Conner’s
body before he was able to make himself stop, and he fell on top of
Conner’s back. The tight grip of his hands had turned gentle, and
those rough hands were now sliding all over Conner’s body,
massaging him and soothing him. Conner could have fallen asleep
right then and there. He was being lulled by the orgasm, Aris’s body
heat, the sound of his heart, and his breath on the back of Conner’s

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neck.

Conner caught his breath, taking his time with that part since he

was always so damned frail, and it was something that Aris insisted
on as well. “Does this mean we’re okay now?”

Aris kissed the back of his neck. “Very okay.”
“And you don’t want me to leave?”
This time, Aris’s arms tightened around Conner’s body, as if he

didn’t want to let him go. “I’d curse my own tongue for saying
something like that if I could.”

“Good thing you don’t have cursing powers then,” Conner said.
Aris chuckled.
Conner was just starting to relax when Aris suddenly moved. Still

inside of him, and still holding onto Conner, he flopped backward and
to the side, so that they were now spooning on the wrong side of the
bed. Conner laughed. “You scared me. I thought I was going to land
on your chest for a second.”

“I wouldn’t be that careless,” Aris said, and then he kissed

Conner’s shoulder. “I never thought I would love you so damned
much. You’re a werewolf, and an omega. I thought when I made the
peace deal that I would never be able to have happiness like this, but
knowing that you love me makes it so worth it.”

“I do love you, I promise,” Conner said, gripping Aris’s hands

tightly.

“I believe you, and we will make this work, but I can’t promise it

will be easy. I’ll have to track down those Templars at some point if
Fraser and Grant aren’t found, and though I’ll try my best to always
be merciful for your sake, other werewolves are still attacking my
men. The ones who give up can be spared, but some won’t. I hope
you don’t hate me for some of the decisions I might have to make.”

Conner chuckled, and he didn’t even have to think about a

response to that. “If it was easy, it wouldn’t be real life. I’ll never hate
you, not for anything you do. Even if you break up with me, I won’t
hate you, so don’t worry.”

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119

Aris sighed, and he pressed another kiss to Conner’s shoulder,

right over the bite scar. “I’m glad you sacrificed yourself to me.”

“Me, too. You're stuck with me for pretty much the rest of your

life, now.”

“That sounds about right.”

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Chapter Thirteen

Tom ran all the way back to the church. He was exhausted and his

legs were shaking. Sweat poured off of him, but he got there.

He had to be careful about how he entered it, though. He was still

naked, and it wouldn’t do for the good and moral people of this
church to have a naked and exhausted man coming into the church
through the front doors.

Tom went to the back, but he didn’t even use the back doors. He

went to the cellar doors and let himself in through there.

He was relieved, but saddened at the same time to see two black

dragons, about the size of fully grown horses, chained to the floor
inside one of the cages.

Part of him had hoped that the dragons would have escaped, but

another part was glad, because at least this way he could take his
brother and leave this awful place. He would never come back, and he
would never think about this experience again.

One of the dragons was awake, shockingly enough, and when it

lifted its head to look up at him, Tom felt his heart stop.

There was an interesting tattoo on the cheek, or maybe it was a

birthmark. Whatever it was, he couldn’t make out exactly what its
shape was, but it was the eyes that had Tom’s blood running hot. So
damned warm that his entire body flushed like he’d just gone for
another desperate run.

All that, and it was air conditioned in here.
He tried to look away and tried to take a step toward the main

office, but his knees buckled and he fell down onto the concrete. The

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121

dragon let out a pained noise, and Tom didn’t even want to think
about what this pain in his chest meant.

It wasn’t true. It wasn’t true. It could not be true!

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her
at authormarcyjacks@gmail.com.

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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