Aeryn Jaden Hard to Kill

Return of the Originals

Hard to Kill

All the Originals, beings that created all the supernaturals, have
vanished long ago. Kale Daminion is one of the last living beings

with the blood of an Original. A drakon. His mate killed himself to
save him and Kale had never been the same after his death. But
now he can hope again, now he sees him... Alive.

Aeri Callen wakes up to a world ruled by a mate he doesn't really
need or want. If coming back to life isn't hard enough, dangers

lurk in the shadows, enemies wait to destroy them, and his big
bad mate appears to think Aeri is a frail wallflower. Should he give

his mating to Kale a chance? They don't know each other. Aeri
doesn't want to care. Then everything Kale protects is threatened.

How can Aeri leave now? The man may be the new ruler, but he is
lousy at taking care of himself.

Notes: Note: This book is written in first-person point of view.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal,
Shape-shifter
Length: 32,963 words

HARD TO KILL

Return of the Originals

Aeryn Jaden

EROTIC ROMANCE

MANLOVE

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IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

HARD TO KILL
Copyright © 2014 by Aeryn Jaden
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-820-1

First E-book Publication: May 2014

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DEDICATION

For You. You know who you are.

HARD TO KILL

Return of the Originals

AERYN JADEN

Prologue

This was a terrible mistake.
Kraken watched the flame engulf the valley and kept his silence.

This was the second terrible mistake he had done. This
child…Kraken’s friends, Mira and Aeol. They didn’t deserve to die.
Not because of who they loved or who they were. Just because their
child was the first child Original to be born and probably stronger
than all of them put together didn’t mean that he was a threat and had
to be killed like this.

The flames burned hotter and Kraken continued to pool his power

together with the others’. He could not show regret or doubt. There
was already talk about going after the ones not present and bringing
punishment for refusal to come and help. He had to do something
about that. His precious love would not be hunted. Kraken had hurt
his mate too much already. He would make sure his mate would have
only peace from now on. Their friends were absent, also. A lot of the
Originals had refused to participate. Their Ruler had decided
otherwise and most of his brothers had fled, tired of listening to
orders that made no sense and only hurt innocent ones. Kraken had
been unable to refuse the summoning. He had to buy some time for
everyone and try to save as many as he could. They had orders to go

Hard to Kill

after his brothers, the Originals not present after they finished with
this atrocity.

How had it come to this? When had they become so weak and

easily manipulated? Led by terror and blackmail, unable to see a way
out. They needed hope. They needed someone stronger than an
Original, someone that could defy their Ruler and win.

Any doubt in his action would be seen by him and treated as

treason. They were dead already anyway. As dead as Mira and Aeol.
May they rest in peace and someday forgiveness be granted to all of
those present today.

Kraken poured more energy, making the ground melt and a lake

of lava appear in the place where the small cottage had been. He had
to. He had to burn everything, make it hotter than the sun. He had to
think, to plan and do something.

A lake of lava would be good enough for now. It might just save

the innocent that their Ruler so feared. This child wasn’t the one their
Ruler should fear, his mate had told him so and what was to come.
This child will bring into being their saviors. He’ll bring back hope to
the world and remake it from the ashes. How fit for a fire bird.

He’ll keep him safe somehow. He’ll keep everybody safe.
He was a drakon. An Original. It was his duty to keep everybody

safe. Especially when it was his future family in danger.

Aeryn Jaden

Chapter 1

Mating sucked. Everybody was always talking about how mating

made one better, the sun shined brighter, birds sang in harmony, and
you were instantly happy and content.

This “everybody” must have lived in la-la land.
I was not being cynical about this happy-ever-after business. I was

actually speaking from personal experience when I said that one had
to be crazy to look forward to the day that you meet the one that has
the power to rip your guts out and shred your mind into little pieces
while he carefully makes a meal out of your poor, naive, and wrongly,
overly excited heart.

Oh, yeah! Happy mating, everybody!
On the first day of our mating Well, to be fair we weren’t

technically mated yet. He’d tried to kill me. Namely by running me
over with his big, manly truck. It was a very big truck, which had
matching tires. Tires I had the honor of seeing up close repeatedly. No
biggie. But what was up with the phallic symbol? Did he have issues
concerning his masculinity or what?

It shouldn’t have been a surprise what happened on the second

day. It just showed that a man still had things to learn, even at my
venerable age. Now imagine a rerun of the first day, only more
creative and with slightly more precise methods. As in high-precision
rifles. Take my advice, people. You see one pointed at your head, you
run. There’s no talking to those beauties. That, I could have ignored.
The silver bullets were harder to forget. And let me tell you road rash
is like an itch compared to what those babies can do to our kind! I

Hard to Kill

should know! My darling mate introduced me to their joys in just two
days of his acquaintance. Wonder what eternity will bring at his side.

Not.
I was more than anxious to forget I ever met my so-called “other

half of my soul.” Don’t jump and judge me, or try to remind me who
he is to me. Thank you, but no, thank you.

Huh. It actually made sense in a way. I’d always felt I was lacking

something. Ah, yeah, a soul. I was described at best as being cold,
clinical, and hard to engage in normal people activity. Passion, love,
caring, attachment, tenderness, mercy, empathy—you name it, I’d
never done it. My hobby was caring for my knives. What? They kept
me alive! Apparently, I wouldn’t get to do my mate either. Pity, such
a nice ass.

The fates could go screw themselves! I had some very not nice

words for my twice-removed third cousins, and they’d better stay out
of my way for a long time to come.

Still, he was gorgeous. The bitches knew what they were doing.

He was exactly my type. Which didn’t say much when I fucked just
about anything that had a pulse and didn’t stink. Got to have some
standards, heh.

He was about six foot, like me. Okay, maybe he was a bit taller

and me a bit shorter than six foot. Fit with a swimmer’s build, not an
ounce of fat on him. Dark hair, silver eyes, with dark tattoos running
down his arms just begging for me to track them with my tongue. And
did I mention his ass? Gods, I could spend years trying to describe
that perfect bubble. I wanted to lick, tease, bite, possess…Ugh.

I didn’t need a mate. The bitches should have left it alone and not

meddled with my love life. Or lack of one as I had been more invested
in my carrier during the last centuries. I had to, it was the only way of
keeping a tab on the Council and assure the safety of my adoptive
fathers. Nobody knew they were alive and it will stay that way even if
I had to silence all the council members. Badar and Killa were
thought to be dead and although the paranormal world would be

Aeryn Jaden

happy to find out two living Originals, my fathers have sworn me to
secrecy. They had secrets of their own and I got the feeling that they
were hiding or running from somebody. I would do anything to keep
them and their band of adopted misfits safe. Thus my current job: star
assassin for the Council. I actually enjoyed it, the rush of a good hunt.
And I only kill those that annoy me or my sense, not of justice mind
you, maybe of the existing balance in the world? Anyway, why oh
why did I ignore my instincts and took this job? The councilman had
sold me a story about how Kale Daminion was a threat to the Council,
like I care, and the head honcho responsible for the death of four half-
breed pleasure slaves. Yeah, apparently he has some ring of flesh
trafficking of something. What a bunch of bullshit! If this guy was
dirty I was the devil himself. Not to say he didn’t give a dangerous
vibe with his intense eyes and those delicious muscles covered in
tattoos, but really? I may be out of the loop but even the people on the
street stopped to say hello to him and to thank him for different
things. He was like a teddy bear. He actually got rushed by kids once
when I was following him. Yeah, see I have this good habit of making
sure the info the Council provides me is true and not a bunch of
garbage. And thinking about his muscles or how much of a Goody
Two-shoes my mate was did not help at all. Now, I had to make a run
for it with a steel rod between my legs. I could almost sense him
approaching my room. It was like my internal radar went crazy
whenever he was close by. My damn smaller, and much, much
stupider, head was insisting on doing a standing ovation to greet our
mate. Fuck. I was practically waving my tail like a puppy. Oh, the
irony.

I finished gathering my stuff and strapped on my weapons—not

the knives, I actually took those even to the bathroom with me—and
let myself sigh in exasperation. This mission had been a clusterfuck
since day one. First, my intel was not so exact, as in the target was not
where it was supposed to be, and he was a person of somewhat
political power even I, the hermit, knew about, not at all the criminal I

Hard to Kill

expected. To top it all off, he was…wait for it…my goddamn mate!
Go figure! I must be really loved by the guys upstairs. In various
different positions and without lube.

My other target was my mate’s good friend, some doctor dude,

Kanael. He was also something I couldn’t put my finger on, yet he felt
somewhat familiar, as if he was from my past. The Past, before I, as
me, came into being. It’s difficult to explain. Regardless, I would have
done my job as I didn’t care who lost in political games. In my
opinion, if they were stupid enough to play, and stupid enough not to
hire me first, well this planet had one extra stupid dude. The contact
with the Council was nonexistent, regardless which route I tried. My
emergency number was ringing in vain, the e-mail bounced and
some…Huh. Other observation measures I took in the Office were not
transmitting any data. It started to smell fishy. I had to get out of a
dead end yesterday. Well, the day before that would have been
preferable as my mate was still an unknown detail for me then.

I knew I had little hope of surviving this. It was going to be either

my mate or the Council. Guess who was better looking? Now, don’t
frown. I’m not joking. I mean, whose face would you rather have as
the last thing you saw?

You see, I had a little extra something in my body. My mandatory

tracking implant would blow my head off at the smallest
transgression.

So here I was, sensing my mate approaching with, I must say, a

very zen attitude. It was too late to get the fuck away. The light of the
setting sun reflected on the shiny dark blade. Yes, the sun was setting.
I’m not kidding you. It was like a freaking western. I was facing the
door, counting his steps as he came toward my motel door. Him and
his army of eight, no, nine men. Was he a chauvinist? The best
assassins I’d had the pleasure of eluding had been women. The light
reflected again on my favorite knife, reminding me of the stormy gray
eyes of my mate and the murderous look in them. Like the sick
bastard I am, my prick hardened further, and I shivered at the

Aeryn Jaden

remembered intensity. I bumped the head, shushed at the impertinent
moron, and got back to contemplating my knife. Gods, I really loved
my shiny knives.

And this would hurt like hell.
I heard the hurried steps getting closer still and smiled. I turned to

properly see him, my blade ready and my hand steady, as the door got
kicked in.

“There you are, honey.”
My mate. Beautiful. I saw those sharp eyes widen in recognition,

a strange look filling the shocked orbs. I realized he hadn’t known
who I was. Oh, well. Facts were still facts. His sidekicks caught up
with him, guns quickly pointed at my head. My knife was quicker.

“No!”
He ran. I fell. Shots reverberated in my ears. I felt fire for a

moment then coldness creeping down my spine. The biting pain was
muffled as if I were underwater just to become crystal clear for sharp
moments. I sighed, or thought I did, relaxing in his arms. He felt like
heaven, holding me tight against his hard trembling body.

“What the fuck? You bastard! Don’t you dare!”
I gurgled at him to be nice to me. Couldn’t he see I was dying? I

don’t think he understood. Christ, choking on your own blood was no
fun. Must remember to avoid it in the future. I glanced at my knife
and saw the blurred shape of the tiny chip next to it. Good. He was
saying something. Sorry, my mate, I can’t give you your info with my
neck slashed. I looked up into his eyes, trying to smile, feeling as if
the last drop of blood was leaving my body despite the hard pressure
he was putting on my jugular.

He shone brighter than my knives as he stood above me,

splattered with my blood. His eyes widened with another strange
expression, and I felt something wet drop on my numb face. I smiled
again reassuringly at him, trying to convey that it was going to be
okay. He could let go now, no need for him to look so upset or to ruin
his nice leather jacket.

Hard to Kill

I guess I was a sucker for gray eyes. The fates had kicked my ass.

A roar filled my ears as I slowly felt myself slip. I held my eyes open
and imprinted his devastated face in my memory. The first, and the
last time, my mate really looked at me.

Huh.
This mating shit? Maybe I should give it a shot.

* * * *

Kale let the door close behind him without a care of the loud

noise. He didn’t care much about anything nowadays, the least of all
for the Council’s sensibilities. They knew that. They were being extra
careful when dealing with him lately. He guessed, soon, they’d put
him on their so-called secret list for termination. They were pretty
scared of him, and they hadn’t seen anything yet.

His uncle was trying to keep things civil but not having much

success. Derek had always been too patient and sly for his own good.
This last attempt on the members of their family wasn’t the first and
unexpected. The three of them—Derek, their uncle and the current
Council “boss,” Dale, their race’s librarian and guardian of secrets,
and him, the muscle—had hits put on them every couple of months.
They were used to it by now. Kale, as the enforcer and head of
security for all paranormals, was usually amused by their enemies’
perseverance.

Usually. Not this week. Not since the last assassin had been his

mate. Not since his mate had cut his own neck in front of him and his
guards in an attempt to remove the ticking bomb implanted in him.
And not since all Kale could see and dream was his mate’s blood and
that serene smile pointed at Kale. He had as good as killed his mate.
He didn’t even know the man’s name. He wished for numbness. No,
on second thought, rage was what he needed. Useful in what he had to
do. Not only for him. How many mates had been put in the same

Aeryn Jaden

situation by the Council’s greedy and corrupt Elders? To choose
between their life and their mate’s?

The guards and other messengers loitering the halls ducked as he

smiled with a cruel grimace. Kale Daminion was starting a war.
Heads were about to fall.

Hard to Kill

Chapter 2

I slept more than I expected to. Again, thanks to my lovely mate.

Those silver bullets were hell on my body’s healing abilities. Contrary
to popular belief, a phoenix does not burst into flames. Well, not
usually.

After healing bullet wounds with little to no blood in my body,

there was the problem of asphyxiation. Being six feet under, literally,
and in a metal box were hard on anybody’s lungs. Not to mention that
in my weakened state it was somewhat difficult to break out of my
interred prison. I died a couple of times more trying to push my way
out little by little each time I awoke. Lucky for me, I wasn’t after all
quite six feet under. The crypt was actually nice if you looked at it
from outside. He guessed. A bit strange as all my neighbors were
buried in circles all around and not in concrete but earth.

I was confused. I wasn’t me. I was my phoenix.
The phoenix didn’t register the stale air in his joy to finally give

his abused body the long needed oxygen. Finally air. His ribs were
showing and his former red-gold hair was a shaggy, dull brown mass
of tangled strings. No shine. He preferred to think rather than imagine
the crawlies and the dirt in this place and on him. At least he knew he
had been protected somewhat in his metal box.

There was light shining on the phoenix from somewhere above.

He was too tired to look and feared he was going to die for good this
time. He had never felt this weak. The combination of silver bullets,
the loss of all his blood, and suffocating time after time in his coffin
had taken its toll on his body’s abilities. Even he had a limit and as he
felt the cold seep in his bones he reckoned he had reached his. He

Aeryn Jaden

needed to eat yet he couldn’t find the strength to reach and grab a
crawly. He rested his head on a bed of flowers—strange how they
grew in the coldness of his crypt—and weakly tried to bite something
that moved near his head, only to spit it out when he discovered it bit
back.

The noises registered almost too late. The light coming from the

now-open door made him react and hide in the darkest corner, using
his last bit of energy. His eyelids felt like iron curtains and he
absently heard two men enter his resting place. He curled into
himself, making his now-skeletal frame a smaller target hidden by one
of the tombstones. Their noises hurt his raw senses.

“Man, Daminion is a crazy son of a bitch!”
“Shut up, you moron! I don’t wanna be on his shit list. Things

happen to those who piss him off! I heard he sends them to do the
nasty military jobs for the government. Most don’t come back
whole.”

The young man shivered and continued toward the middle of the

third circle of tombs. He might be just a lowly guard compared to his
friend, who was a security detail at the mansion, but he knew better
than to dis his ruler. He wanted to continue breathing. He had his eyes
on that yummy redhead from Ewengreen and being dead or worse
would not help his cause.

“Why the hell are we doing this again?”
“Because Daminion said so. You want to ask him his reasons?

Just shut up and bring those flowers over here.” Actually he thought it
was sweet the devotion their ruler had even in death for his lost mate.
Someday he’ll have that, too. Well, minus the dead part. Wow, he was
being macabre today!

“I heard he killed his mate himself so why…”
They stopped in front of the disrupted tomb and froze in shock.

Where the earth was disturbed, a hole could be seen. A hole in the
metal casket. No body in sight. They dropped the seedlings and held
the gardening tools as weapons in front of them.

Hard to Kill

For a moment the phoenix watching them considered his options.

Their blood would rejuvenate him. Unfortunately he was too weak to
take what he needed to survive. They would probably finish him
before he could reach them, but did he have any other option? As he
tried to find a last drop of strength, the guards sprinted to the exit. The
tension left his body and he slouched against the stone that hid him.
He took two more deep breaths, fighting the blackness before he was
lost again. His chest didn’t rise again.

* * * *

“What the fuck are you two doing here? Haven’t I told you your

tasks already?”

Caden frowned at the two idiot guards, trying to make sense of

what were they gesturing with their flying hands. Both were out of
breath and were sweating like pigs. He considered again upping the
physical training required for guards. He should talk to Kale about
some new exercise programs or new triage methods. Lame didn’t
even begin to cover the state these guards were in. After the
paranormal war had ended two years ago, the soldiers had seen hardly
any action and it showed. Lost in his musing and worried about his
friend, Caden almost missed the younger guard’s words.

“Say what?”
“General, it’s true! We both saw it.”
“Whoa, whoa. Say that again.”
“We both saw it?”
Idiot. He was surrounded by idiots.
“Oh! Yes! The earth is disturbed and there’s this big hole in

Daminion’s mate casket. Almost like something got out. The body is
missing also.”

Maybe he would reconsider bringing that therapist on board. He

had to be hearing things.

“Whose body is missing?”

Aeryn Jaden

One of the guards threw him a superior look and he made a note

to reassign the cleaning tasks.

“The domin’s mate is missing.”
Caden’s face blanked. He was thinking decapitation. They should

know better than to fuck with him.

“The domin’s mate is dead, soldier.”
The guards straightened their posture at the not-so-subtle reminder

that Caden was still their general. The stupider one of the two
continued with a barely restrained snicker. “Yes, sir. As we were
saying his body is missing from the tomb. We went to plant the
flowers as ordered and—”

“Whoa, whoa! Back up! You say the tomb is empty, open, and

there’s no body?”

Caden felt his blood slowing and a coldness spreading in his

veins. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck. This was bad. No, this was
catastrophic. Kade would go ballistic. And they’d just finished with
the last war!

“Show me.”
“Yes, please do.”
And they were fucked. He turned toward his best friend and

totally understood the terror his enemies felt before they were
eliminated. Kale’s eyes were so sharp, they cut through you. His
tangled, dark hair further completed the wild, dangerous, and lethal
look he had going on.

“Kale...”
“General Davin. After you.”
Well, at least they had had two years of peace.

* * * *

Somebody would die for this. Kale marched before his guards and

Caden, his steps firm and determined. He would not stop before he

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found those disturbing his mate’s final resting place, even if half the
paranormal world had to die. Again.

He kicked open the stone door and almost ran to his mate’s tomb.

The stone marking the spot was dark, the writing simple and still
incomplete. He still didn’t have a name for his fated one. He caressed
the silver letters proclaiming who was interred there and that he
would be missed, abstaining to glance again at the gaping hole. He
frowned and signaled Caden to come closer, needing his friend’s
support. Huh.

“Caden, what do you see?”
His friend kneeled beside him and his eyes widened in reaction to

what he was seeing.

“Kale.”
“No. What do you see?”
Caden regarded him carefully and for a moment Kale regretted the

lost closeness between them. The war had taken its toll on everyone.
Kale had maybe succeeded in ridding the world of some powerful
paranormal scum but not without paying the price. His mate had only
been the catalyst. But now, he found himself with enough power to
change things for the better, to make sure innocents would not suffer
anymore. He had made deals with the government so they could
govern themselves. The general population still didn’t know about the
existence of paranormals and the human governments were happy to
keep it that way and let them worry their people. The humans didn’t
even care about themselves. All they cared about was money and the
paranormals had plenty of them to keep them satisfied and out of their
way. He had bought the valley and established the first towns only
with and for paranormals and their mates and friends. Their world
was changing. Soon they would make themselves known and stop
hiding. Not yet though. Kale was adored by his people; he was their
savior and their hope for a safer and better future.

Kale was more alone than ever.

Aeryn Jaden

“The metal is bended toward the outside as if something pushed

its way out. The way the ground is disturbed seems to sustain that
theory also.”

“I was here just last night. Everything was normal. I also don’t

smell anyone or anything strange or foreign.”

“You don’t think that…Kale, I understand, I really do, but you

have to know that it is impossible. It’s been five years now since he
died.”

Caden did have a point. But still…Kale knew things were not

always logical or as they seemed. Some things were not as impossible
as they seemed.

“Did he? Better yet, do we know what he was? We still don’t

know his name or anything about him. The Council took care of any
useful files that could incriminate them.”

“Don’t do this to yourself.”
He got up, avoiding the pity in his friend’s eyes. It hurt. It hurt to

hope, to doubt. And it would probably end in just more hurt.

“Gather a search party. Capture and retain anything that moves on

a range of fifty miles and doesn’t belong to us.”

He faced the black stone again and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

Nobody moved and Kale forced himself to stand still and wait for the
guards to depart.

“Now! You two out. You—go and notify the other generals.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Right away, sir!”
“Kale—”
“General Davin, I gave you a direct order. Also, send for my

brother immediately.”

Kale heaved a sigh and turned to face Caden only to find that he

had already left. Silent son of a bitch. Kale had some long due
apologizing in his imminent future.

He sighed again and turned slowly around, carefully examining

every dark nook for any clue as to what happened here. Generations

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of family tombs, starting with the very first of their line. Adar
Daminion, the son of the last Original. His uncle Derek was now in
one of those tombs, having been killed a year after the start of the
war. It was supposed to be him. The Council’s fears regarding his
family had been proven right when Kale had mercilessly butchered
the lot of them. None of this would have happened if not for their
stupidity to kill his mate. The Daminion line was the last line of
Originals. Surely just that would have warned them to leave them and
their mates be. Although diluted by crossbreeding with humans and
other paranormals, his family retained some of the Originals’ traits,
such as being almost impossible to kill if you didn’t know some
family secrets. Huh. He had never considered that those secret
weaknesses could be used so easily against him and his family until
the day his mate had been sent to kill him. Now he felt just like before
he had first glimpsed the gorgeous assassin. Something was coming,
changing. Funny thing, as Kraken, the Original they descended from,
was not an Oracle, but by now he knew better than to dismiss his
feelings. Nobody knew the real extent of their Fathers’ powers and
they were known to differ from Original to Original. What they had in
common was speed and the capacity to almost fool all senses with
their freaky camouflage. They…

He rested his eyes on the freshly disturbed grave, contemplating a

crazy idea. Originals could come back from the dead. To kill an
Original, you had to kill their Spirit first, not just their Body.

“Oh. My. God.”
“Brother.”
He turned, wild eyed. The more he thought about it the more it

made sense.

“Dale. How do you kill a member of our family?”
Dale watched him warily and took a small step back. Kale

looked…fervent. Crazy. Almost like he did in the middle of battle,
minus the usual gore, body parts, and blood. Better he answered
quickly.

Aeryn Jaden

“We are of the Originals. To kill us, you first have to kill our spirit

then our body.”

“And how do you kill a paranormal’s Spirit essence?”
“Huh?”
Kale smiled like he hadn’t smiled in the last five years, maybe

even before that. Tears gathered in his eyes as he had the sudden
impulse to hug the ever-loving shit out of his brother. His freaked
expression only made Kale’s smile widen.

“Think, Dale. What would really kill your Spirit?”
He saw the moment his brother figured it out and glanced in

reluctant wonder at Kale’s mate’s empty grave.

“The Council send your mate to kill you or die trying. Son of a

bitch! How did they know you have to kill the mate? They must have
had a Seer working for or with them.”

“Still have a Seer. Nobody has heard of one being born in

centuries. Such a resource would be heavily guarded. We never
caught Daggart. We have to assume it was him leading the others, he
knew a lot about our family line.”

Seers were rare and everybody feared and coveted them. To see

the future of anything and everybody was a scary thing. Information
had come that Daggart had a Seer enslaved. That still hurt, Daggart’s
betrayal. He had been their most fervent supporter and a family friend
until he had killed Derek, Kale’s and Dale’s uncle. They still didn’t
have squat on his whereabouts or reasons.

Dale was still muttering something under his breath before sharply

coming to a stop. “Your mate knew. You said he had a chip
implanted, that he dug it out with his knife and destroyed it before
you could see what it did. He was trying to save you. The chip would
have probably killed you both if activated.”

“My thoughts exactly. Now come closer and look at this. Tell me

what you see.”

Hard to Kill

Kale showed his brother to the disturbed ground, waiting for a

reaction as he had done with Caden previously. He wasn’t
disappointed.

“Impossible!”
He smirked in satisfaction.
“Daggart fucked it up, Dale. He failed when he sent my mate to

die.”

“Kale. Impossible. There must be another explication. Don’t do

this to yourself. We’re the last ones of the blood.”

The fuck they were. And proof was standing right in front of

them. Why hadn’t he realized it sooner? My Gods. All this time.
Dammit. His chest hurt with hope that it wasn’t too late. Five years
too late.

“What happens when an Original’s Body dies but not their

Spirit?”

“No, Kale. Don’t. No.”
His brother’s incredulity and pleading almost made Kale doubt

himself. He knew that being wrong would kill him inside all over
again.

“What happens, Dale? I’ll tell you what. When the Body dies, the

Spirit can live on and actually revive and in some cases reconstruct
the decimated Body. The death of my mate was supposed to kill my
Spirit essence, but still my body continued to heal from any wound
received in battle. And there were some pretty nasty ones as you well
know. Some rumors that I can’t be killed are starting to float around.
Why is that, Dale? You should know the answer better than me. Now
this. There are no impact traces on the casket. The metal is bent from
the inside toward the outside. It’s as if he dug himself out. What if as
he’s my Spirit, I’m also his? What if he’s an Original?”

* * * *

Aeryn Jaden

Something smelled incredible. Really, really good. Better than

steak and fries and chocolate and that was saying something
considering how hungry I was. Well. The phoenix was, as I was still
just watching, from a distance, what happened. It was like looking at
reality through a foggy mirror when my beast took control.

The phoenix was hearing voices nearby. Two. Males. One, lighter

tone, almost panicked or afraid and excited. The other voice was
deep, resonating through the air to almost make the Phoenix recoil at
sensing the rough but soft timbre.

I must have made a sound or it was just the rasp of my new first

inhales that alerted the males they weren’t alone. My survival instinct
urged me to hide, to run, to jump the nice-smelling male. Confused, I
stayed put. I was weak and growing weaker with each breath. I was
also forgetting the reason why I was trying so hard. The only thing
keeping me alive was my beast still fighting to live. Maybe I’d die
before they figured out where I was. Oblivion was better than how I
had lived so far. Still…so afraid. I knew that there was little chance of
him waking again. My heart was beating fast for a moment just to
plummet once more. No good.

To my eternal shame, I shrieked like a stabbed pig as a heavy

hand almost toppled me when it landed on my bony shoulder.

“Who the fuck are you?”
Oh, we could die listening to that voice. My beast agreed for once.

It was really okay now. Apparently the man that owned that could
create those marvelous sounds disagreed.

“Dale, back up now. Away!”
Growls were fine, too. Yum. I must have been worse than I

thought if that was possible, as even watching through my phoenix
eyes, the world seemed bent and fuzzy. I was brusquely picked up and
surrounded by warm, strong flesh. The muscular arms steeled around
my trembling body and my hands followed the path of tattooed
markings on them. Pretty.

Hard to Kill

“Oh my gods, oh gods, oh yes…” Kale panted, his body trembling

with the effort to abstain himself and not startle the skinny, bony
miracle in his arms.

The phoenix lifted red-blooded, hungry eyes to the man gently

cradling us. My beast was sorry. I wanted to scream at my phoenix,
myself, and stop but I couldn’t. We struck directly at the juicy vein
pulsing with life right in front of us and moaned in delight.

“Hey! Kale! Let go of him!”
The one named Kale, the one I was sucking the life out of,

surprisingly tightened his arm more around me and his voice rumbled
under my ear.

“Leave him be.”
Our prey wasn’t fighting us and a bit of the red-blood haze lifted.

The phoenix retracted our fangs and slowly licked shut the puncture
holes left behind. It was meant as an apology. We were sorry.

“There now. Take it easy. Take more if you need. Whatever you

need.”

A large hand cupped the back of my head, tangling in my hair and

pulling me closer to his jugular as his voice cracked with unknown
emotion. I could feel his other hand caressing my spine. He had gray
eyes, dark hair, and a warrior’s hardened face. Random scars shined
lighter on his tanned skin. I knew that face, we knew it. That
expression in those gray eyes, knew this man, knew…

“K–Kale?”
The blood had helped for whatever reason but still my voice was

just a painful whisper. He reacted as if it was the sound of a gunshot.
Then to my surprise I felt his laugh starting from the middle of his
being, rattling my tired bones inside the prison of his arms.

“Alive. Alive!”
Duh.
“What’s your name? Who are you? What? Oh, gods. Alive. Your

name? My mate.”

Aeryn Jaden

Mate? Uh-oh. Maybe. The phoenix acknowledged the claim to my

chagrin while I silently panicked behind the now thinner veil
separating me from reality.

As for a name, sure, I had one. My phoenix was just not ready to

let me be me and frankly I was starting to see the wisdom of that. He
was also not shy in taking advantage.

“Food. Shelter. Rest.”
The raspy words stopped Kale’s continued ramblings and he took

his first good look at his freshly raised-from-the-grave mate. He saw
the bones almost breaking through the dry skin, the limp hair, and the
ashy color. His mate looked like a corpse, which, to be fair, he
formerly was. An alive corpse. He almost jumped at his brother’s
voice close by. He had forgotten he wasn’t alone.

“I think your mate desperately needs a doctor. Like last year.”
“More like he needed a doctor five years ago when he got buried

alive.”

They both froze as the barely alive man almost disappeared from

Kale’s arms to the other side of the crypt, he was moving that fast.

“No doctor.” He hated those. “Food. Eat. Recover. Rest.”
Kale rose carefully and slowly approached the huddled, pitiful

sack of bones. He nodded when he got in front of his mate and even
slower put his hands back where they belonged. He would never let
his mate out of his arms.

“Food. Okay, we’ll get you anything you want just don’t ever

leave my arms again. A soup. No? Meat, fruits, anything. Dale, call
whoever we have on kitchen duty at the guard’s barracks and tell
them to prepare something.

Dale retreated one more step at the tension coming from his

brother and pulled his cell phone. Kale was barely hanging to his
sanity. Dale, also, for that matter. This should be impossible! Even his
family had lost the gift of coming back from the dead. He was looking
to an honest-to-gods Original. He was looking at his brother’s mate.
Alive. An Original. Fucking hell.

Hard to Kill

Kale tenderly picked up his mate and stood up with his precious

cargo. He took the blanket offered by Dale, unashamed at the proof
that he often slept near his mate even when he had thought the man
dead. No surprise that pretty much everybody thought he was a bit
loony. Not so crazy anymore now, was he? He covered his mate the
best he could, careful to not let any sun reach him. The man had
sucked his blood, so maybe he had a sensitivity to light like most
bloodsuckers he knew. He barely ventured a step outside the crypt,
already thinking how to better protect his resurrected mate while he
was recovering, when Caden rushed directly in his face. Kale growled
and only the fact that he had his mate in his arms kept him from
attacking his best friend for daring to approach in such a manner
when his mate was so defenseless.

“What the fuck? Are you out of your mind? I get it that you lost

your mate and this is a shock but I can’t continue to keep silent when
you—”

“Back. Off.”
His smart brother hastened to do as he ordered and tried to pull

Caden with him. Stubborn bastard as he was, Caden was not moving.

“He has his mate in his arms, Caden. He’s really not in a good

mind frame right now, to put it lightly. Better do as he says.”

Caden’s frog impersonation would have been funny any other

day.

“His mate? He found his body! Good. What the hell is wrong with

him? Has he gone completely bonkers? He keeps growling at me!”

“Caden, for fuck’s sake!” Dale tried to pull Caden aside by the

arm, unwilling to let his brother kill the pest no matter how much
Caden annoyed him.

Kale advanced menacingly determined to reach safety and provide

for his mate. His instincts were running wild. He would protect.
Nothing would ever touch again the frail bundle he carried.

“Back. Off.”

Aeryn Jaden

Caden saw the blanket move fractionally, an arm just bone and

skin slipping out.

“Ugh. He really does have his mate’s corpse under there.”
A snort was audible coming from the same place as that bony arm

and just to be a douche I pointed my middle finger toward Caden’s
general direction. I smiled when he let out a higher-pitched squeal
than I had previously.

“He’s alive?”

* * * *

“I swear I should have taken a picture. Or recorded it. You went

all pale and shit and almost gave me a freaking heart attack when you
squealed like a little girl. Not to mention landing on your ass after that
impressive backward jump.”

“Shut it.”
Caden frowned darkly at Dale and tried to will the little pest with

his mind to silent mode. No luck whatsoever.

“‘Alive?’ Oh my gods! I swear, that was epic!”
He was gonna shut him up manually. Kale’s brother or not
“Big bad general, terror of the remaining supernatural world,

badass king of Shifters—”

“Shut up or I’ll shut you up.”
“Try it, big boy. I can even suggest some effective preferred

methods.”

“For goodness sake, would you both just shut up! Or better yet, go

play outside like good little shits. Sometimes I think you’re both three
years old or just plain old retarded! You. Your brother’s mate is in
there, maybe dying yet again. As for you! He’s your best friend! And
don’t you have any work to do, General Davin?”

They both frowned at each other before turning on him together.

“Nope.”

“The big ape here stated it.”

Hard to Kill

Kanael just sighed. They were precisely like the kids he had never

had. Or wanted. What had he done wrong in his previous lives to
deserve this?

“Dale.”
The soft spoken word was so unlike Kale that the room silenced at

once. Kale looked terrible, as if he had aged centuries in the last few
hours. He also looked more alive than ever.

“Search the archives. I want all the info you can find on any of the

Originals. Be careful. I don’t want anybody getting suspicious or
making a connection after I announce my mate’s recovery. We still
haven’t caught all the former councilmen, Daggart included. We also
have no idea why all the Originals disappeared more than a thousand
years ago. This stays between the four of us. Not even the doctor was
let in. Not that I had a choice for that matter,” he mumbled with an
exhausted smile.

“A dummy will be placed inside the grave and the guards that had

discovered the disturbed earth will be placated with a believable story
of your choosing, Caden. Officially, this was an attempt to piss me off
by desecrating my mate’s grave but the body has been found and
placed back inside for the time being. Got it?”

Caden hesitated before getting up and away from one of the

annoying brothers. He pondered how to answer and decided what the
heck? He may as well provoke his ruler once more today.

“What about after your mate is better? Would it not be better to

make something up now to cover your mate being alive and all? Or
you plan to keep the man under lock and key?” He smirked.
“Probably tied to your bed and all.”

Kale slouched against the doorway with an annoyed and strangely

admiring expression. Thinking about trying to keep his mate in a
golden cage was a wonderful idea. Tied to his bed, even better. Pity it
was more likely to rain diamonds than him succeed in ordering the
man to do anything he didn’t want to do. He hadn’t had the chance to
meet his mate properly but nothing said the man had even one

Aeryn Jaden

submissive bone in his body. Plus there was the deal with him being
an Original a.k.a. probably stronger than all living paranormals put
together, Kale included. No, if anyone was getting tied, it would
probably be Kale. He didn’t mind. The current ruler and feared bester
of a large number of powerful beings was looking forward to just
being. Just staying close with the one he belonged to and belonged to
him. He never thought he’d have the chance.

“I need my mate to be strong before our enemies find out about

him.”

Caden conceded the point, shocked that Kale was actually taking

the time to consult with him and not tearing up his head. Since they
had started the war and then the reorganization of their world, Kale
had done whatever he wanted, regardless of any different opinion.
Not that Caden had any reproach to make, Kale had done a fantastic
job. Still, he liked to be asked not ordered around. They had been
friends before anything else.

“True. But our enemies are mostly dead or imprisoned. And your

army needs some reassurance that their domin is still of sane mind
after the show this morning.” Not to mention the last couple of
months.

Caden was right. Fuck. He rubbed his hand through his mussed

hair and ruffled it more until it was almost vertical. The other two,
Kanael and Dale, tried to maintain straight faces, not knowing if it
was safe yet to relax in Kale’s company.

“What do you propose then?”
Okay. Now why was everybody staring at him like that?
“Uhm. Maybe we won’t say anything for a couple of days? Just

until your mate recovers some more?”

They again looked shell-shocked when Kale only nodded in

acquiescence. Had he been so hard to get along with until now? His
attention returned to the room he had just minutes ago exited when a
small grunt of pain could be heard. He rushed in the room, his family

Hard to Kill

just a step behind him. The big mahogany bed that dominated the
room was empty, the sheets disheveled.

“Wha—mate?”
He really needed to find out his mate’s name. Five years of not

knowing was quite enough, thank you very much. Frantic with worry
when no answer came and his mate’s freaky camouflage powers were
making it impossible to know if the man was still close by, Kale
started to turn the room upside down, searching. Under the bed? No.
Bathroom? Empty. Behind the desk? There. His papers were scattered
and the desk had been moved to hide something from sight. Behind
the corner of a food tray could be seen and his mate was quickly
gulping down the food on it. Careful and not wanting to startle the
man, he made some noise, announcing his approach. Not being close
was not an option.

“Come to bed. You’ll feel better there.”
Reddish eyes lifted and met his, the caution wild look in them

warning Kale to thread carefully.

“Mate?”
The man started to eat again, dismissing him, and Kale didn’t

know if he should be offended or relieved that he wasn’t perceived as
a threat. Well, he supposed that this was an improvement compared to
the possibility of wanting to attack Kale. He refused to believe that his
mate could ever want to kill him. Past events had proven otherwise.

“Can you tell me your name?” No answer came as the barely alive

man finished the last of his meal. Now that Kale had finished
panicking and could again see clearly, he could already notice an
improvement in his mate’s appearance. The bones didn’t look
anymore as if they almost pierced the stretched skin on them and the
skin itself was gaining some color, little remaining of the pale
cadaveric look of before having eaten.

Meal finished, me and the phoenix were also pensively

cataloguing the male in front of us, as he did us. The lug was
lumbering as close as possible without effectively touching, hands

Aeryn Jaden

spread as if to catch me if I fell sidewise, keeled over or something.
Fool. As if. Still. Something felt funny when I saw the care and worry
on that rugged face. And wasn’t it just fucking peachy that the guy
had the macho male look down pat when I still looked like an
underage twink after all this time? And I actually liked that. Fuck no.
Unfortunately I wasn’t in the habit of lying to myself. There were
plenty of others willing to do that for me. This guy was different. My
memory was still hazy at best but that I was sure of. A big clue was
his smell, a drug that was already urging me to get closer and climb
him. He was like a trap for unsuspecting moths. Well I may have
wings when the mood strikes, but my fire burned brighter and I was
determined to keep my distance no matter how appealing his mussed
dark hair, bright happy eyes, yummy firm butt covered in black
painted-on jeans…Oh hell. I wanted some of that. Worse, my phoenix
approved and found the male worthy. I slightly inclined my head in a
bird-like move.

“Mate?”
Kale’s eyes bulged out a bit and he rapidly nodded.
“Yes! Do you remember me now? I’m Kale. You are?”
Kale. Huh. Yes, the phoenix thought, his carrier had some

memories about a Kale. Not so fond ones at that.

“You killed our body.”
The male recoiled as if struck.
“I…” The light went out in those gray eyes and me and my

phoenix were both sorry for that for some unknown reason. “I
suppose I did.”

“Kale!”
“Hey, he’s not the one—”
Kale stopped his busybody friends from meddling with a sharp

glare and the unspoken command to get out was loud and clear. This
wasn’t anything he hadn’t said to himself before. He just hadn’t
expected it to hurt so much when his mate was saying it in real life
and not in his recurring nightmares.

Hard to Kill

“I should demand retribution.”
Hawk eyes watched for a reaction and the phoenix wasn’t

disappointed. His intended mate had honor. I could just watch
helplessly as my fucking beast prepared to accept the son of a bitch
gorgeous male as our mate. Kale seemed to prepare himself for the
worse, although the phoenix already knew that the male was innocent.
Mostly. It wasn’t his fault that he couldn’t be as strong as us were.

“I will not demand retribution. You can call us by my carrier’s

name, Aery Callen.”

“Eri.” I was impressed with how breathless he could sound

without being in a porn movie. Should somebody be allowed to be so
happy just finding out my name? It wasn’t as if it had any real power.
Now if we were talking about our Spirit name…

“Close enough. Most know us by many other names. None good

enough for polite company.” And I was really proud of my reputation.
I was known as the best in my field. My adoptive family had taught
me so well how to survive and adapt that I was known as the Reaper
in some unsavory circles. Meaning I always killed my man, and if you
got marked by yours truly you were dead but didn’t know it yet. This
mating bullshit was bad for business and ruining my perfect score.

“Us?”
Really now. It was almost like speaking with a clueless human.

Lucky he was pretty.

“My carrier and me. Us.” I even spread my arms to show him who

I was talking about. If the man’s eyes bulged more they’d pop out of
his Kale-mate’s head.

“You…What? No, who are you?”
“You pose difficult questions, Kale-mate. I approve, but our Spirit

name is to be earned, not given away so easily.”

OK. Kale was officially out of his depth here and freaking out.

Kale-mate? And who was he talking to anyway? His newly alive mate
was acting weird. He talked as if somebody else inhabited his body,
like he was possessed or had a double personality. Some of that could

Aeryn Jaden

maybe be explained by the presence of an animal Spirit, if his mate
was a shifter, Kale supposed. He just had never learned of an animal
Spirit so strong that it could take control over the body.

He had a name now. He said Aeri. Aeri Callen. Soon to be

Daminion if he had his way. He wanted to posses the man, claim him
for all the world to see, and know what happened if anybody dared
touch him again. Any way he could put his mark on the slightly
shorter man, he would. He just had to sort this possession thing first
and get the fiery redhead that had led him on a merry chase five years
ago back. Piece of cake. He had him back alive, no?

“I…Are you my mate? What have you done with him? Aeri?”
The phoenix laughed. I laughed. And laughed some more. I just

couldn’t stop myself. Our mate was keeping us entertained. And
looked so hot when pissed off! Gotta remember to do that more often.

“I’m him. He’s me. I’m the Spirit, the Source. He’s my reason, the

mind. We live together, feel together, share a soul. We’ll die together.
Don’t look at us that way. No reason to panic again, I doubt we’ll die
this millennia.”

Great, what have I said wrong now? He looked at us as if he was

thinking of restraining methods so he could get a priest to perform an
exorcism on us. Been there, done that. I actually had the T-shirt or
had because I’m unsure where my stuff is. Not fun. Speaking about
my stuff…Fine. Our stuff, as my phoenix was growling at me when I
didn’t want to share the ownership of our shiny knives.

“You can say that I’m the animal Spirit only more developed and

Aeri is all the rest.”

Not really.
“Ri–right.”
My not-yet-mate was too clever.
Aeri’s eyes were starting to lose their red hue and gain some

green. Kale remembered that his mate had sparkling emerald eyes full
of mischief. He wasn’t sure he believed he was speaking to Aeri’s

Hard to Kill

animal Spirit but who knew how it was with an Original. He had
heard of weirder things.

“We have demands. We want our knives. We want to sleep now.

And you’re not to think about more troubling things until we’re well
enough to help fix them.”

The phoenix closed the distance and reached without hesitation,

smoothing with our fingers the deep furrows that had appeared on our
mate’s forehead. Our fingers were captured by Kale’s trembling hand
and kissed gently. I was glad that my phoenix was in control as I was
not ready yet to face the consequences of finding my mate.

“I’m so glad you’re here. And I’m sorry I failed you. I wanted to

tell you this for five years. I didn’t know that they were using you
against me. I’m sor—”

“Shh. You’ll wake my carrier if you annoy him by thinking you

were supposed to protect us. You don’t have to apologize, and I’ll
suggest to not try with Aeri either. I don’t lose time thinking about
what-ifs. You’re better off talking to me but Aeri will soon be back in
control. I just like to sleep, eat, fuck, fight. I’m a simple male.”

Traitorous phoenix. We shared a laugh with our mate and Kale

softly kissed the back of our hand.

“You should be careful. I like you. Hell, we both like you,

although Aeri will never admit it.” Damn right I won’t.

“I like you, too.”
So earnest. We smiled indulgently at our mate. So young.
“You don’t know me enough to like me. We do know you. We

had a two-inch-thick dossier on you, courtesy of your Council and
two weeks of following every step you took.”

“You don’t have to ever worry about the Council ever again.”
Worry? They should worry. Well, my mate’s expression told me

that there was a story there and it hadn’t ended well for the power
hungry wusses that ruled.

Aeryn Jaden

“The only thing that worries me is that metal casket. Promise me

next time you’ll give plain old-fashioned wood a try. Much easier to
break out of.”

It became hard to breathe from the strong grip around me. The

phoenix could have set us free of Kale’s arms but apparently he liked
it there and considered I could suffer through it. That’s my version
and I’m sticking to it.

“Don’t even joke about it!”
“I wasn’t. I died six times trying to get out.”
“What?”
Kale was looking more than a little pale with an undertone of

green. Maybe I should have left the details out. I was trying to take
control and the phoenix kept pushing me back, wanting more time
with our mate. I did, too, but I was imagining ways to kick his ass
because I just realized I was still sans clothes and all his friends had
had a good glimpse at my bits and pieces dangling about. The phoenix
liked our destined one. We always believed there was no one out there
for us, not that we needed some absurd attachment to some pathetic
weakling. Kale was nice. He was more than nice and we could feel he
was not a weakling. Good. Maybe then he’d survive Aeri, thought the
phoenix at me. Bastard.

“Aeri will be up soon. I should warn you but I think I’ll have fun

watching this. A piece of advice, though. Aeri appreciates action. He
takes that after me. He will want to leave, then force his way out. You
need to be prepared to earn his respect. If you want us to stay you’ll
have to fight Aeri for each and every day here. He can be a bit
difficult.”

Just wait, you traitorous piece of overburned…bird! I so wanted to

kick myself in this moment. I prayed I wouldn’t remember this when
I’d be in control or I wouldn’t be able to abstain myself from some
self-flagellation. Not shifting for a month was hell for my phoenix,
but it wasn’t pleasant for me either!

“I don’t understand. Fight Aeri? No.”

Hard to Kill

Kale wanted to cherish and pamper Aeri. He wanted to fulfill his

every wish and maybe after a couple of hundred years he’d be able to
forget the memory of his mate’s serene face as he’d cut his own
throat.

“You’re not gonna listen to me are you? Suit yourself. I’ll just

give you some background so you’ll be a bit prepared. First thing,
though, do not try to pamper Aeri. And no, I can’t read your mind yet.
You’re just that obvious.”

“Yet!”
“Aeri had a harsh life and I wasn’t always able to spare him. Any

sudden changes from that will seem suspicious. For example, the lack
of security around us, your former would-be assassin.”

“Aeri’s not…you’re not…What?”
“We could kill you even with the extra security. What? Just

saying. To assume otherwise is an insult to our skills. And yes, yet.
What do they teach you nowadays? Spirit mates develop a mental link
in time.”

Kale looked like he had swallowed a whole lemon but a bit more

comprehending. Looks like he was getting the point.

“I take it this won’t be a peaceful mating.”
“Who was talking about mating? First, you have to survive a full

day with us. Then think about how to keep Aeri put for the next day.
Mating can take years, time, and patience, regardless of how instant
and perfect you youngsters think it is.”

Ok. That’s it. His mate was fucking annoying. Aeri was what?

Twentysomething? Thirty? He doubted he was older, especially when
the Council had conned him so easily. As paranormals, they tended to
live a bit longer and Kale was four hundred twenty next month.

“Youngsters? Really? Who do you think—”
Before he could finish giving the smaller man a piece of his mind,

Kale was already immobilized on his belly, hands firmly held back,
the smaller body draped on him. An embarrassing position given how
easily Kale had been overturned to kiss the floor, but…Hmm, it had

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interesting effects on different parts of his anatomy. Who knew the
big bad boss liked to be controlled and restrained? Sometimes. And
by his mate. Kale certainly hadn’t known.

“Me. That’s who.”
“Uh-huh. What was the question again?”
The phoenix paused and then laughed, delighted with his Kale-

mate’s responses. We grinded our hips on the warm welcoming body
beneath.

“Such a wonderful surprise you are, my Kale-mate. But you’ll

need to remember and be careful to not just assume things.”

We breathed softly on the back of Kale’s ear, enjoying the tremor

we caused our big strong mate. The restraining grip became caressing
and I molded my body to the hard, muscled body beneath, exerting
steady pressure in all the right places and wanting to take control of
my body so I could take this further and bury myself between his
sculpted ass cheeks. We were both breathing faster and trying to get
even closer.

“Darling mate, can you guess how old Aeri and me are?”
“Thirty…ugh…a hundred?”
Reduced to a stutter already. Kale would have been mortified if he

wasn’t enjoying himself so much. Hands released, he now wanted to
touch back but he couldn’t. Aeri’s hands were mapping his body
already, leaving behind traces of fevered skin earning for another
touch. Down his sides, brushing his nipples, then down to his hips,
dangerously close to his protruding cock.

“Close. Try adding another zero and a hundred something to that.

I’m robbing the cradle with you sweet bums. Our 1150

anniversary

is just a month away. We want chocolate cake and our knives. Aeri
concurs.”

Aeri’s body stilled and seemed to soften and weigh more and

more. Those marvelous hands froze just a bit north of where Kale
desperately willed them. Stuttering mumbled interjections while
trying to dislodge his sleeping and loudly snoring mate from his back

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was not Kale’s idea of horizontal fun with his mate. Well, there was
his boner but it was just making it harder to move. And not fun at all!

After the bomb, meaning Aeri’s age, his mate had suddenly

stopped moving and started snoring in his ear. Kale studied the
comatose man and smiled. Aeri looked softer somehow, vulnerable
with his guard down and sleeping so deeply. This snoring Aeri,
twitching for time to time as if his hands were grabbing at something
even in his sleep, was quite adorable. Kale was starting to get the
picture and suspected the twitching was Aeri looking for his knives to
use them on anybody daring to call him cute in his face. His mate was
not weak and resented any doubt when talking about his strength.
Five years ago, his body had been covered in knives and other pain-
inducing utensils. As he tried to get in a more comfortable position on
the hard floor, not wanting to wake his exhausted mate, Kale was
starting to see that his idyllic view of how he’d spoil Aeri needed to
be slightly adjusted. Small things like replacing flowers with new
shiny blades and candy with cleaning products for those blades or one
or two moving targets to try them on. Courting Aeri would require
some out-of-the-box thinking. Him looking so frail and young was not
helping Kale remember who his mate was and what he was capable of
if he had survived on his own for that long. Reassuring himself that
his mate’s heartbeat was strong and healthy, Kale relaxed under the
precious weight. He could hardly wait to meet the other part of his
mate, the one possessing those emerald-green eyes. He’d rest a bit
then Kale had some preparing to do for his mate’s awakening.

* * * *

He needed to do something. Anything. The fucking arrogant

drakon had taken what was rightfully his! All his power, his
influence…Now he was running and hiding while Kale and Dale
ruled? No! He would succeed! The Daminion line would die and then
that pest Daggart would be next on his list. How Mikal Daggart, that

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pussy, had tricked him, he didn’t know, but he’d pay! They would all
pay!

All was set in place. Everything would go well, he just knew it.

The plan was his, the plan was brilliant! He had the Old Beast to help
him and his mysterious ally. He was a bit leery when thinking about
his ally. He was still sane enough to know when someone was more
powerful than him and therefore dangerous. But sacrifices had to be
made. If he sacrificed his life to his goal, then so be it.

The man continued to pace, counting out loud the stone plaques.

He was beautiful. He was dangerous. The Shadow had wanted him
from the day he had been born. He had him. He’d use him and his
hate for the Daminion line to get the cowards to leave their hiding
places and bend to him once again. He always watched and planned.
He may be weak after the traitors had pooled their energy together to
trap him in shadowy half existence, but he was still him. The Shadow
had ruled them all once, he’d rule them again. He was more powerful
than all the wusses that called themselves Originals and thought
themselves his equals. Never.

He’d just have to prove it to them once again.

Hard to Kill

Chapter 3

“What the fuck is he doing? I’m thinking he’s finally lost his last

marbles. I mean restraints? Silver and iron at that! And that…thing!
We use those when dealing with dangerous prisoners and plan to
interrogate them not too nicely. What the hell is he doing with those
in his mate’s room?”

“Are you done yet or do you need some more time to vent your

frustrations?”

“Kanael. One of these days…” He growled, ignoring the little

shit’s—meaning Dale’s—responding smirk.

“Well, you said it yourself. Dangerous prisoner, interrogation, and

restrains. Coupled with the fact that our domin has a brand new
assassin mate, it all seems pretty logical to me.”

“Sorry, Kanael, but I have to agree with Lassie here…”
“Lassie? Really? How original.”
“My brother doesn’t look quite sane. Really, did you not notice

that delighted smile he had on his face? It’s as if he can hardly wait to
imprison and interrogate his barely alive mate. Clearly not-so-sane
actions.”

“Depends on his mate. I’m sure when you find your mate, the

dude will have similar impulses. At the very least.”

Caden turned his eyes on the little shit when no immediate acerbic

response to his dig came. The pest averted his eyes, but Caden still
glimpsed the shock and pain there. Fuck, maybe he had gone too far
with that one. Shit, shit. He didn’t want to hurt Dale, he was just
trying to keep a distance between them.

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“Don’t play with me if you can’t handle what I dish back. Lassie?

Well at least it wasn’t Furry or Frisbee this time. Still haven’t
forgotten the Fuzzy from last week.”

Dale still wasn’t smiling and Caden looked at Kanael, pleading for

help. The little shit was annoying as hell and he usually had a
comeback ready for anything Caden said. He hadn’t meant to hurt
him. Caden should’ve known better than to approach the mate subject
with Dale, considering their history. It was just so easy to fall back on
their mutual teasing that he forgot some things shouldn’t be spoken
out loud.

Kanael looked back at him, equally surprised at Dale’s reaction,

before a crafty look appeared on his face. Uh-oh. Caden had serious
reasons to fear Kanael when those kinds of looks appeared. The guy
was the most laid-back and serious from the bunch of them but watch
out when he had some idea or plan cooking. Last time half of garrison
burned to the ground. Kanael had been pissed off by a soldier’s
complaints that he didn’t work faster and they needed a real doctor.
Thus, fire and brimstone when he deviously changed some of the food
ingredients to some unknown flashy powders. Uh-huh.

Meantime Dale was already running for the door.
“Hey! Shouldn’t we wait and see what’s the deal with Kale and

his mate?”

“Kanael is probably right. I have some stuff to do and you should

see to Kale’s tasks as I doubt he’ll leave his mate soon. He has some
conferences scheduled with those human politicians.”

“Don’t tell me what to do you impertinent…” He was talking to a

closed door already. Just great. And Kanael was still plotting by the
look on him. He knew the value of retreat when things looked too
sticky.

“Ugh, you’ll stay and let me know if something happens?”
“I’m the closest thing you have to a doctor. What do you think?”
Caden snorted in disgust.

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“No need to get lippy about it. You spend too much time with the

annoying brat.”

“Opposed to someone who should spend more.”
Uh-oh. On that note, he was so out of here.

* * * *

No way in hell was I going to open my eyes. I could feel them,

him in the room, waiting, watching. Best to preserve the status quo,
meaning my current state of being alive. After all, he did kinda kill
once before. Damn it, I hated that with a vengeance. I mean really,
how the hell did I let him, a pitiful half drakon, best me and corner me
in that hotel room five years before? Yeah, lucky me. Not. I was in
control now and I wasn’t in the mood to play nice. I was disappointed.
One would think that a drakon would have noticed that I was just
pretending to be asleep. I wasn’t that good an actor as I couldn’t stay
still more than five minutes in a row And after all, dragons as a
species still had some pretty useful abilities like accelerated healing,
shape-shifting, sharp eyesight, hearing, and smell. To top that,
supposedly he was half or just about half a drakon not dragon, which
meant all kinds of rumored kick-ass magic tricks added to those sharp
senses, something about manipulation of energy? Maybe the rumors
and legends had it wrong. Hmm. I kinda can believe he is capable of
breathing fire, he had looked the part of a fire drakon when he had felt
threatened earlier by his friend Cade or was it Caden? It would be
interesting to see which fire burned hotter, mine or his? Although I
wasn’t fair to him, my fire was not exactly fire, was more like
combustion and it could burn practically any kind of molecules. It
could probably consume his fire. I could sense that he had some
energy manipulation abilities, my internal freaky radar or whatever it
was had noticed the difference in his energy pattern immediately.
Supposedly the Original that fathered his line and the drakons could
manipulate energy in whatever elemental energy he wanted. He could

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not create only manipulate. As I said, my fire is totally different. It’s
an extension of me and I needed no external energy from nature to use
it as I saw fit.

And nope, he was still thinking I was asleep. I probably was just

that good at pretending. I couldn’t be caught with simple tricks. I
mean, really? How hard is it to maintain the same breathing rhythm?
Or regulate your heartbeat for that. Nah. How the hell did he manage
to catch me the first time? Or wound me that day? Well, beside the
confusing situation with him being my mate and all that. I was
outraged. I was beyond furious. I wanted to skin myself alive. Such a
stupid move on my part.

“Nice tricks. Still, your feelings are leaking all over the room. I’m

surprised you managed to hold your heart’s rhythm with all that pent-
up rage going on in your dense head.”

Fuck. I was a moron.
“Fuck. Off.”
Another amused snort close by alerted me to someone closing in

on me.

“That is Kanael. He’s sort of a doctor and he’ll check to see if you

got hurt while performing your little stunt. Again.”

Again my ass.
“Again my ass. If you’ll just stop this nonsense I could be out of

your hair in an eyeblink.”

That insufferable rasping voice curled around my again bound—

and naked, damn it—body.

“Tsk tsk. Your head must be harder that I thought. Now I can go

and resume my schedule without any worry. No head that hard could
be injured by a mere fall. Even if it’s from goddamn eighty feet!
Straight on your head! You moron!”

The sock provoked by the sudden outburst made me instinctually

watch for the threat in that furious voice. Meaning I made the mistake
of looking at my own glaring and spitting fire drakon mate. Damn it. I

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had resisted looking directly at the man for the last three days I had
been awake.

The man was drool inducing when he wanted to kill me.
“Rage does look good on you.”
Another man that I now noticed by the door snickered and tried to

cover his amusement by coughing when my enraged mate tried to
terminate him with his eyes. I just couldn’t help myself. This was fun.

“You should see a doctor for that.”
“Sure, Kanael, why don’t you go search for one to check you? Go

check it out and you can come after I finish with him!” his mate
added, incensed.

“Oh no. I couldn’t. I may be still needed here. To protect our

Regis Domin and all that.”

I thought I heard the man named Kanael add something about this

being the most fun he’d had in the last century under his breath, but I
couldn’t be sure. I could understand the feeling, though. Messing with
my mate was fun and relieved me of some frustration at being again
bound at Kale’s mercy. He was being smart this time I suppose, as he
had reinforced the bed’s metal frame and the chains with silver. Little
did he know. And what was with that Regis something shit? Well, at
least Kale thought that I was bound helpless to the bed. As if binds
that could restrain me existed. I could use this whenever I wanted to
cut my fun short. I didn’t want to wound his pride and prove him
wrong at how he had in fact not captured Aeri and was not holding
him hostage. I was finding that I was quite curious about my mate and
his gigantic ego. A most peculiar being this drakon that was looming
menacingly next to the bed I was tied to but that still carefully
watched the doctor, Kana something, while he checked my bumped
noggin. Therefore, I was staying put for a while and figuring out what
was the deal with that. That did not mean I wasn’t going to make Kale
work for it. Yes, that was it. I was failing on purpose in my escape
attempts so I could gather more intel. From what I could tell they had
a pretty sweet gig going on here. They seemed to have some sort of

Aeryn Jaden

deal going on with a human government to be left to their own
devices. Maybe the humans thought the supernaturals here the
members of some commune or something, or some high rank officials
knew what was going on and stayed out of it. There was also the
possibility that Kale had some supernaturals well placed in the
humans’ authority ranks. No matter. This valley was the only place I
ever saw so many supernaturals gathered. All around Kale and his
rule. Yay! If he expected me to behave like his groupies, he had one
coming.

Kanael did some glowing hand thing in front of my eyes and my

headache disappeared. Huh. Interesting doctor. I was interrupted from
my scrutiny by the sudden emotion I could feel coming from my
mate. Shit. I could already feel Kale settling inside a corner of my
soul, my connection to him getting stronger by minute. Shit, shit, shit.

“As good as new.”
He smirked in Kale’s direction and wisely opened the door before

speaking.

“Not that I can say the same about you. You look as if you went to

battle with a drasher and lost. Badly.”

“And I didn’t even touch him.”
He did at that. Look bad. Well maybe not a fight with a drasher

but close. A drasher was a sneaky big bastard, all teeth and claws with
a snake’s body when he transformed. They were big, bad and but
supposedly extinct. I knew for a fact that at least two of them still
lived prosperously, but I owed them more than I could say. Badair
and Killa, my fathers where good folks. Their kind had almost been
wiped out by hunters and they just wanted to live their lives
peacefully. Fortunately they had escaped the fate of their created race
but swore never to create another dasher after seeing the suffering
their people had endured. Badair and Killa had said that their type of
Original—who knew there were different types?—can create other
paranormals from humans by biting them or having sex with them.
And I should shut up about what I could do, as my fire was too

Hard to Kill

dangerous. This world was not so accepting to those they feared be it
because they were different or too powerful.

I was kinda more immortal than the Originals. They could be

killed if they were murdered at the same time with their mates. I could
too, kinda. The difference is that I just revived again after that. Huh.
That meant, Kale couldn’t die either as my mate. Now my head was
hurting again from too much thinking.

“Your friend is right. Maybe you should take a seat. If you untie

me, you can have the bed and rest a bit. I’ll even promise to not
disturb you.”

Not like I would disturb his rest while running for the other side of

the continent. Or play a bit of hide and seek with the guy. He was just
too easy to provoke. The most fun I’d had in centuries seriously now.

“I bet you will try not to disturb me while running for the hills.”
Damn.
“Your house is surrounded by mountains, not hills.”
“Uh-huh.”
Damn that traitorous bird! The damn beast was purring like a cat

under our mate’s attention. I remembered the warnings my phoenix
had given Kale and apparently Kale had taken them to heart.
Damnation. I wished I could not respect the man. I warily watched
my mate approaching the bed I was tied to spread eagle. What now?
He was starting to scare me after the first five minutes of just staying
on the bed by my side and watching me. Stalkers and lunatics had
looked saner than him with his pointed unblinking stare. I wasn’t
really afraid, but looking much longer at him made for curious
imaginings and some inventive sexual position to pop in my brain. I
for sure wasn’t acknowledging any weakness in front of any strangers
no matter how hot they were.

Maybe it was a stare contest.
We stayed silent watching each other for what felt like hours. I

knew myself and as stubborn as I was this was killing me! I was a

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smartass by birth and raising, and enough was enough. Besides,
certain parts of my anatomy were starting to wave hello to our mate.

“Okay, I give in. Just stop this! The silence is torturing my

neurons to death.”

I thought I saw a smirk but he wouldn’t dare.
“I was sincerely starting to doubt you have any of those.”
I sputtered, indignant by my lack of reply, and considered

exchanging our positions to give him a taste of just how awkward this
was. No, not yet. People tended to show their true colors easier when
they thought themselves as being in control of a situation. I’d just give
the guy enough rope for him to hang himself with and then I could
leave without any grumbling from my phoenix over leaving our mate.

“Nothing to say? Good. Maybe you’ll listen for a change. I had it

with chasing you around the compound and you provoking me to an
argument each and every time I wanted to talk to you.”

I wasn’t interested in anything he had to tell me.
“I know you know we’re mates. I didn’t know what you were,

though, until you awoke. For that I apologize. Had I known I would
have taken care of you immediately after you destroyed that chip and
killed yourself.”

Okay, maybe I should shut up and listen for a while.
“You’re frankly a miracle.”
I smirked as I had heard that before, but usually I wasn’t the one

tied to a bed and there was no talk involved to bring those words
about, just some heavy action.

“So people say.” I alluded to my perverted thoughts with a saucy

wink.

His expression turned thunderous and I felt a twinge of regret at

seeing him already showing his true colors. Now the beatings would
start and I’d be forced to leave earlier than I would have liked. People
were stupid like that and although I could easily overpower him if the
need arose, a part of me had started to think that Kale meant all the
things I pretended to not hear him saying. Why did everyone think

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that if I looked like a twink I must be weak and just ripe for abuse?
My only attempt at a relationship, a couple hundred years ago, ended
with me having to disintegrate a part of my sailor lover. The man had
thought that using his fists in an argument will make me see the light
and I’ll agree with him and submit to his and his friends’ whims. Uh-
huh. The lion shifter screamed higher than regular cats in heat when
they burn. What? It was only one hand!

I suppose I had to flee already. I didn’t want to hurt Kale while

defending myself when it got too far between us. I had considered
staying longer just to recover some more, mind you. He surprised the
hell out of me with his next move.

He fricking kissed me. Sure, just a peck, but still! Where were the

beatings and cursing that I dared talk lip back to him?

“Well, I guess I can’t expect you to be a virgin.”
Wait, what?
“Still I was talking about you being the only Original existent in

the world.”

Aeryn Jaden

Chapter 4

He was explaining what he meant if I had to hunt the man down

and tie him to his own bed! After Kale had said that peculiar thing
about Originals and me, somebody had called him out of the room in
hushed urgent whispers through the door.

I didn’t know what I was! Nobody did, and believe me I’d had

enough time to search for any clue about where I came from! There
was no phoenix Original and I would have known for sure if I was
one of them! My fathers would have known! I had tried to call them
on our emergency number but the number didn’t exist anymore. That
worried me but not excessively. I could still feel them alive and well.
You see, I had this sort of mental connection to those I loved and my
inner radar was placing them pretty close by my current location.
Which was weird. Even I wasn’t sure I’d revive his time. What were
they doing waiting for me to wake? Unfortunately, our
communication channel was closed. The bastards knew I was awake
and searching for them but didn’t want me to leave Kale to search for
them. What was this? A conspiracy? First my damn phoenix, now my
family?

This whole “helpless hostage” plan was clearly failing, or perhaps

that was just the sound of my nearly nonexistent patience snapping
already. I made quick work of melting the chains binding me and
barely avoided setting the bed on fire. Kale had been clever about
that. He had used a combination of silver and iron for the chains. Had
I been any type of known paranormal species, I would have been
helpless to get out of them. I wasn’t. But Kale apparently knew what I
was. I couldn’t be an Original! Never mind that I knew several other

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Originals that were in hiding so I was in no way the only one alive.
Not that I was one of them. Those grandpas had several thousands of
years on me and were all created or appeared whatever, at the same
time. And all were the father of some race or other. I couldn’t make
other phoenixes. Not because of lack of trying, as I enjoy the
occasional biting during sex.

I was hunting my mate down and getting those answers. Maybe I

would get the opportunity to play master and slave with him. My dick
heartily approved of some one-on-one time with our mate, and I
wasn’t the sort of guy to deny myself when I wanted something.
Unfortunately, for now it seemed I had a craving for a certain arrogant
drakon. He seemed to enjoy bindings. I was curious how he’d like
them from the receiving end.

The mansion—castle or whatever—was enormous. The main

building I mean, not taking into consideration that the mansion was
surrounded by tens of garrisons lived by his unmated soldiers. The
villages, two in number, were filled with some small, supernatural-
owned businesses and individual homes for his mated soldiers,
guards, or whatever Kale wanted them to be. He wasn’t a demanding
ruler apparently. I had heard some guards talking once and everybody
was singing the domin’s praises. How he made sure you liked what
you did, you had a home, and everything you needed, etc., etc. Bleah.
The mansion wasn’t pretty, with the big oppressive walls in front and
all the surrounding buildings, but it had its uses, like fast response in
case of an attack. At least the back of the mansion was another story
entirely. I loved the gardens with the ponds and the huge forest
around them. I had sneaked out there during the first two days and
basked in the sun like a lazy cat. That was until Kale thought better
about it and decided to also tie me to the bed, not only lock me in.

I was getting lost. Damn it, who needed all this space? This

blasted mansion had five floors and three separate wings. On the
ground floor was the kitchen, some saloons, and meeting rooms. That
floor I usually avoided, as Kale was around there during the day,

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doing his ruler impersonation and wasting time cultivating relations
with human leaders, checking on his businesses and generally making
the lives of others harder. Each floor except the ground floor belonged
to one of his family, cause no matter what he was telling himself,
Kanael and Caden were as much family as Dale. Of course, the
blasted drakon had to have the last floor. Thus my little bump when
escalating the window. Usually I was more limber than that.

The hallway was conspicuously deserted as I made my way out

and went in search of the drakon to pound some answers out of him.
That was weird. I would have expected at least two or three guards.
Either Kale was too confident in the restraining power of those now
melted chains or something was seriously wrong to pull them all from
guarding a prisoner—namely me. I refused to take into account that
“being mated to the guy and not a hostage” aberration that Kale had
tried to sell me. I would fix that soon enough. My phoenix just
snorted at my self-deluding thoughts. I kinda knew already I was in
deep shit when it came to the drakon and the mate business, but a guy
can dream, no?

A pained yell from not far away got my attention and of course I

ran straight into that direction. Goodie. My phoenix and I agreed.
Finally, a good fight to release some tension. I stopped when I
realized that I was hearing sounds of naked skin coming together and
smelled sex in the air. Odd. I could have sworn that was a grunt of
pain. BDSM? It was clear to me that the persons behind the closed
room in front of me were in fact having some pretty wild sex. The
grunts of pleasure were enough to strangely make me think about
Kale. Hell, no, I wasn’t going there.

Whatever. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t get to kick

some ass to get back in form. I made to turn and continue looking for
my not-mate when the smell of blood and fear reached me. I froze
mid-turn and the sound of slapping skin was louder in my ears now.
Obviously whoever was inside was close to climax. No, that wasn’t
right.

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I burst in the room, making the solid wood door fly to the opposite

wall. Not stopping to think and doubt myself, I rarely was wrong, I
jumped on the guy that was holding his victim facedown, immobile
under him. The other’s guy body was beaten and broken almost
beyond recognition. What skin I could see of him was covered in
blood and already starting to swell and blacken from the repeated hits
he had probably taken. I could see an arm hanging in an odd angle,
his legs scratched and equally bruised. My appraisal took just a
fraction of a second and before the rapist could react, I was already
upon him, pulling him brusquely and tossing him out the window. I
kid you not. He flew right through the glass and made a sickening
thud when he collided with the ground. This frustrated me to no end,
as I wanted to go and pick him up so I could do some more tosses
with the sick son of a bitch. I probably made a move to do just that
because when I heard the poor guy on the floor whimper, I was
already preparing to jump through the window in pursuit of my prey.
Fuck. I couldn’t just leave him on the floor like that no matter that all
my instincts were telling me to not let the creep get away.

“Hey now, you’re all right.”
He was not but what could I say?
I reached to touch his shoulder, probably one of the only places he

didn’t have scratches. If I didn’t know better I would have said that
mentioned drasher had gotten to him. Or at least a wild wolf. He
cringed, and my hardened heart squeezed in sympathy. He was small,
probably around two inches smaller than me. He had inky hair that
reminded me of Kale’s, and unfortunately a smell that marked him as
family to the man. Now that I wasn’t looking to jump and kill his
attacker I realized I knew him as Dale and fuckity fuck he was Kale’s
brother. That made it somehow worse, and I didn’t pause to analyze
the whys. I needed to get this guy some help and quick. I must have
been more out of it in my anger because it didn’t occur to me that I
was practically an escaped prisoner and the situation I was in didn’t
look good for me.

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Not that I cared, mind you, but I was quite surprised when after

picking up the now going in shock wounded man, I found myself
surrounded by those guards I missed seeing while making my escape.
They didn’t look that happy pointing all those shiny silver loaded
guns at me. Kale didn’t either.

Oh, well.

* * * *

“Dale!”
The new addition, a six-foot-five golden hunk with startling

sapphire eyes, rushed to the bed occupied by the quietly crying man.
Dale had not made a single sound after I pulled him out of that damn
room and even if I didn’t know the man, having only seen him once
while I was still out of it, I was getting worried. I had been allowed to
stay in the same room, probably because Kale wanted to know what
happened, and he couldn’t spare the time to properly interrogate me
when his brother was in that state. At least I wasn’t still on gunpoint.
Having well-developed wolf noses on staff had cleared me of any
wrongdoing. They knew I wasn’t the one to rape him, but they were
still casting bewildered glances in my direction.

Yes, they. All six of the guards, Kale, and even that worrisome

doctor. The dude was just creeping me out with his cold, calculating
look. He was of similar build with mine, but with a darker tanned
complexion and starling silvery eyes, similar to my mate’s. Though
small compared to the other men in the crowded room, I could tell
that he was more dangerous that even Caden—another oddball that
had pinged somehow on my radar. I couldn’t tell what Kanael and
Caden were exactly but I knew the Daminion brothers weren’t aware
of the difference between an ordinary paranormal and their two
friends. Thus I was keeping my mouth shut.

Caden, the hunky wolf that just entered, didn’t notice anything

beside the huddled figure on the infirmary bed. Dale for his part just

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cringed further under Caden’s hesitant touch and the wolf seemed to
go absolutely nuts after that.

“Somebody better explain what happened! I smell blood and

cum.”

Way to go.
“We don’t know yet. Dale isn’t capable of giving us answers as

you see. And I haven’t had time to ask Aeri.”

Kale seemed to be close to pulling his hair out. After all, it was his

brother in that bed, hurting. In the meantime, Kanael was doing his
weird glowy thing trying to repair the damage done to Dale’s body. I
was amazed seeing the wounds practically gluing themselves under
his hands.

“You! What have you done? I smell his blood on you.”
Distracted by the glowy trick Kanael was doing I found myself

taken to the ground under two hundred pounds of bloodthirsty
enraged wolf. I wasn’t worried much but all these instant accusations
were weighing down on me. And I didn’t like much to see those
wicked claws that close to my good looking mug.

“Caden!”
“Fuck off, Kale. Just look at him all cool and unaffected. He’s as

good as admitting it. What did you do, you freak? What? You better
not have done what I suspect or you’re done! Original or not!”

Okay, that stung. As the only one of my kind, I had always been

treated as an outsider and a freak. Even the few friends I had were
wary of me in certain situations. Gasps could be heard when he
referred to me as an Original and Kale cursed loudly before moving to
probably remove the wolf off of me. I moved quickly, using my
smaller stature to escape and overturn us so that now I was pinning an
incredulous Caden to the floor. My phoenix was worried all of a
sudden. We just knew that Caden was dangerous and we couldn’t let
him get in a fight with our mate.

“Enough.”

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All movement froze in the silent room. Even Dale stopped

whimpering. My pissed off deadly tone always had that effect on
people. Surprisingly, Caden was still growling at me from his spot on
the floor. My instincts were spot-on with this guy.

“Chill the fuck down before you piss me off. No harm came to

your mate from my part.”

The fight just seemed to go out of him. His eyes got hilariously

round and another set of gasps permeated the small room. I was
starting to get claustrophobic with all the tension in there. Kanael was
the one that put an end to the escalating situation.

“All right then. If you morons could stop for a second and talk

civilly maybe we’ll get somewhere and find just who is the fucktard
responsible for this.”

I was sure he wasn’t talking to me as I couldn’t conceive that

anybody would dare talk to me like that. Even if they didn’t know me
and what I was capable of, I emanated too much power for them not
to know I wasn’t to be trifled with. I let Caden’s neck go and was
satisfied when he took a couple of gulps. Kale was right there and
before I could avoid the impact, he was hugging the stuffing out of
me. With a sound of disgust directed at myself for letting someone yet
again get the drop on me, I let myself be carted and deposited on a lap
before again being squeezed to death. It actually felt nice and thinking
that just made me feel more nauseated. I was so screwed.

“Caden, stop grumbling and don’t look so dumbstruck. Dale will

be just…fine.”

The good doctor didn’t sound so sure. Maybe it had something to

do with the wolf’s glare. Kale tensed behind me and I looked at the
bed again. I felt furious. I had reached the man too late to do much.
Unfortunately, nobody could be fine after such a thing happening to
them, and everybody knew it. I was growling in tandem with Kale
and Caden to my surprise. The guards were warily watching the door,
nervously shifting in their dark uniforms and I barely abstained
myself from commenting on their negligent strapping of their

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weapons. Maybe if I have to stay longer around I could occupy
myself with some much needed training-torture-kick-ass fun for these
weakly paranormals. Kale made a gesture in their direction and the
soldiers hastened to get out and guard the room from the outside.
They were sure they weren’t supposed to have heard or seen the weird
things happening inside the small infirmary room and they were
further confused not knowing who was the man their domin was
hugging so tight, the man that their domin was so closely and
possessively clutching to his chest. Who was he? Not an Original for
sure. They have never learned about him in their history books. What
they were forgetting was that the history books are always made by
the victors.

Caden had calmed down somewhat, now looking more like a

kicked puppy as he unsuccessfully tried to approach Dale and do
something, anything to make the man feel better. It was a lost cause of
course. Only time would make it better, but Dale seemed to calm
somewhat when Caden was repeating mindless endearments in his
ear. Any touch made him cringe back. Even I could see how much the
wolf was suffering alongside his mate. This will change both of them
for sure and I didn’t know them enough to know if they would survive
it.

But to get back on course, I needed to let Kale know what had

happened as he was apparently the boss around here and the man I
had been too late to save was his brother. Had I been in Kale’s place, I
wouldn’t have been so patient with me. I would have been tearing
heads left and right.

“I left the room to search for you and get some answers when I

heard a yell. It was coming from a closed door and at first I thought
somebody was having sex and made to leave.”

I grimaced, it was not easy for me to describe what happened.

Usually I could describe the most gruesome situations witnessed
without batting an eye. It was hard this time because I could see the
men in this room clearly cared about the injured one and what I had to

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tell them would hurt them. Yes, I know. I was suddenly gaining myself
the title of Mister Sensitivity. Well, screw you, too. I had friends and
something like this happening to them would’ve hurt me. I tried to
finish my story of what happened quickly, aware that all ears were
straining to hear me.

“I smelled the blood and kicked the door open. A guy was on top

of Dale…Well, I threw him out the window, picked Dale up, and then
you found us.”

An eerie silence preceded the scariest sound I ever heard. Caden

slowly stopped making that sound when Dale whimpered, afraid. He
didn’t go back to trying to pet the man. His eyes were aflame when he
looked at us, his stony expression failing to hide his inner turmoil and
murderous thoughts. Big motherfucking teeth pierced his lower lip
but he didn’t seem to notice the blood trailing down his chin.

“Where is he?”
Unfortunately I didn’t have good news for him and I could tell he

knew.

“While everybody was occupied with me I heard him run. I

suggest you first get his scent from the room then track him from the
ground under the window. Kale already sent teams searching. He
could still be close by.”

Kale made to get up and stop Caden from storming out and doing

exactly what I suggested, and I pushed myself harder on his fricking
lap to stop him from interfering. There went my dignity.

“Caden!” my mate yelled after his enraged friend.
“Quiet.”
His shocked inhalation was followed by Kanael’s tired chuckle.

Frankly, if I knew going all alpha on my headstrong mate worked so
well, I would have tried it earlier.

“Let the man do what he must. Put yourself in his position.”
Oops. Forgot he had been in a similar position. Maybe I was

starting to understand a little. Kale just pulled me tighter to him and
sighed dejected. There now, I started patting the arms hugging me to

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death in an awkward move to console the pain and residual fear
pouring off the man.

“How is he really, Kanael?”
“I gave him a sedative to rest while I clean and close…the rest of

his wounds.”

“Son of a bitch!”
I flinched when I realized what he was talking about. Okay, time

to go now.

“Kale, we should let the doctor work.”
His incredulous look made me feel two feet tall. I knew I was

right. We could do nothing else here and seeing this pained my mate.
And if this made me a bastard, so be it, but I still wanted to get my
answers.

“He’s my brother!”
“You can’t do anything more here, Kale. Go see to your mate.”
Kale got an insufferable stubborn look on his face, a look that I

remembered from when he had refused to let me go the first time I
awoke chained to his bed. My phoenix huffed, appreciating the male’s
loyalty to one of his own.

Our standoff was interrupted by a reluctant knock on the door and

Kale slumped in defeat.

“What now?”
I huffed again, along with my phoenix. Our mate was cute. Damn,

I didn’t just think that.

“Sorry, domin. Reports of the other village being burned to the

ground just came in.”

“What! Be right there.”
Kale released me briskly and threw a pained look to the bed

holding his only relative alive.

“Fuck.”
I didn’t know what to do with myself and after a second of

hesitation I followed in his trail, softly closing the door after me. I
grudgingly nodded toward the guards. Now was the time to go if I

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wanted to get away. The man had other business to attend to. Who
was I kidding? Kale was practically assaulted with crises left and
right, and nobody paid me any attention beside some curious looks
thrown my way as they wondered whom I was. I should just go. I
don’t belong here and I probably won’t be missed for long no matter
that Kale was insisting on us being mates. He didn’t seem to need me
much after all. Uh-oh. That almost sounded as if I wanted him to need
me.

Well, no matter. I may not have been ready to accept the man as

my mate, but I hated when innocent people were hurt. Time to kick
some ass and take some names.

Hard to Kill

Chapter 5

Kale was trembling with rage. The village had been impossible to

save. There were victims, fortunately none dead, and for the most part
people had managed to get out before the flames could trap them
inside the burning buildings and they could be badly hurt. The village
was under his protection! Damn it! He was supposed to be some great
feared ruler! Freaking fake, that’s what he was. Couldn’t even keep
his brother safe inside his own home. He should have realized sooner
just how weak he was. Hadn’t failing his mate taught him that? For
his part, Aeri had been surprisingly helpful, directing people and
lending a hand where help was needed. The fires had been, for the
vast majority, extinguished by Aeri as he had some freaky powerful
control over fire. Not even Kale, who was a living and breathing fire
drakon, could do what Aeri could do with fire. Kale had intentionally
paid no attention to his mate through all this, giving the man the
opportunity to just cut his losses and go as far away as possible from
Kale. Aeri had been just fine before he had met Kale. He would be
fine without Kale putting him in danger. For now, nobody knew who
the intimidating redhead next to their domin was and as long as it
stayed that way, Aeri would be safe. The Council was gone and Kale
was making it his life’s mission to hunt down its last member,
Daggart. His uncle’s killer and the one that was probably causing all
the problems. He felt a twinge of betrayal thinking about Mikal
Daggart. He had been the one to find Kale and Dale after their
parents’ death and take them to safety. Him and Kanael were the
reason the brothers were alive today. He still couldn’t believe what he
had seen with his own eyes, Mikal killing his uncle. No matter the

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reasons, Mikal Daggart was dangerous. With him dead, Aeri was safe.
As for who had hurt his brother, his men were already closing in on
him. He was as good as dead. If they didn’t get him, Caden would tear
the man apart. That had been a surprise, Aeri referring to his friend as
Dale’s mate. Kale should have seen it long before. Kanael hadn’t been
at all surprised.

He was a failure, he thought, morosely watching the destruction

around him. They would be provided for, the families sheltered until
new homes could be built. He had failed all of them all. Kale though
he could see that realization in their sad and shocked eyes.

After they finished doing all they could to help contain the last

fires and organize something temporary to house the almost five
thousand homeless villagers, Kale and Aeri left the soldiers and
volunteers to do the relocation and anything else that needed to be
done. Kale had put in charge one of his lieutenants, a decent guy with
whom he had had the honor of fighting beside. He had given the man
carte blanche on covering all costs resulting from this disaster. Kale
just wanted to crawl beside his mate and safely tuck the man close to
assure himself that at least one thing was still right in his world, his
mate beside him, safe and sound. It hurt just thinking about not
having the quirky man beside him. He had just gotten his mate back,
hadn’t even bonded to him properly, and now he had to let him go for
his own safety. Maybe he could keep him safe and hidden…He
glanced at Aeri’s proud stance beside him and didn’t even bother to
finish that thought. His mate was a warrior. He would want to meet
head-on any danger thrown his way. Kale couldn’t stand the thought
of having his mate die in his arms again.

He had to be careful with how he went about this. Kale knew it

was for Aeri’s safety but it killed him to know he had to let the man
go after just last week Kale had been deliriously happy to find the
man alive. Unfortunately, Aeri was an Original and they had mated
the moment their eyes had made contact or he could have even gotten
another mate instead of Kale after a while. Not for Kale, though. He

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knew that even if he had not been of Original blood, Aeri would have
quickly become the only one in his eyes. As it was, it was a moot
point. As both of them had Original blood, there would be no one else
for them. Still, he’d be safe far away from Kale and all the enemies he
and his family had. If they were not together, they could not be killed
at the same time. Things were a bit tricky in Aeri’s case as his mate
could actually revive as long as Kale was alive and as Kale could die
only if Aeri was dead. They were practically impossible to kill for
good. Still, if someone killed them at the same time…No, it was
better this way. He’d allow himself one night with his mate. Kale
needed one last memory to last him the rest of his bleak eternity
without his mate by his side. Hell, he needed to know how it felt to
kiss the man properly, to memorize his mate’s taste and feel for all the
lonely nights that’d follow after the man’s departure.

“That was not a man-made fire, you know.”
“I know.”
That was another thing that scared Kale.
“That was drakon fire, Kale.”
“I know.”
Aeri threw him what seemed like an almost worried look and then

just shrugged.

“As long as you know and realize what that means.”
What it meant was that there was another drakon out there, beside

him and his brother. Another one of his family line was alive. A
drakon so powerful that he could target all the buildings in a village
and still manage to be strong enough to not leave even a trace of his
existence. No smell, no source of fire, no strong feelings that could be
smelled by Caden’s more talented wolves, nothing. Kale himself
wasn’t powerful enough to do that. Nobody alive was. Kale didn’t
notice the furtive looks that Aeri kept throwing him.

They reached the mansion slash garrison, both tired and in need of

a shower. Aeri was almost unrecognizable, covered all in black snot
with only his bright red braided hair to give some color to his new

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attire. Kale suspected the man had enjoyed some rolling in the dark
ashes to become that dirty. His mate really did like playing with fire.
He remembered having the same thought when he had first realized
he had the fiery assassin on his tail. The man had been bold but
unafraid and really, really good at his job. He suspected he wouldn’t
have noticed Aeri at all if some part of Kale hadn’t realized the man
was his mate. He had enjoyed baiting him for days until somebody
had tried to shoot his uncle and he had been forced to go after the
skilled assassin. Worst day of his life. Kale suspected that this day
would be close to it if not worse than that blasted day.

“I hope you’re not delusional enough to think we’ll take a shower

together.”

Without paying attention Kale had entered the bedroom after his

sarcastic mate. He wished sharing a shower would be on his to-do list
but a quick look at his incredulous mate dashed those hopes. He was
too tired to make a move and try to charm his mate, not that it had
gone too well during the last three days the man had been awake. At
least chaining the man to his bed had allowed Kale to sleep curled
around his mate for those last three blue-ball-inducing days. The
phoenix had been right. Just because they were mates didn’t make the
mating instantly happen and Aeri was a tough nut to crack. No matter,
that was irrelevant now.

“You can go first. I have to check on Dale.”
Kale missed another worried look from his mate. Just hours before

he would have rejoiced in seeing the little signs pointing to the small
cracks in Aeri’s armor. As he entered the infirmary, he dropped
heavily on the chair next to his brother’s bed. He had a million things
to do, and everything was falling apart around him. and Kale couldn’t
stop thinking about how soft looking Aeri’s lips were when his mate
was smirking at him and how cute that frown of his made him look.
He was already trying to make an inner list of what made Aeri unique
and perfect for Kale. To memorize all he could before he made the
man leave him for good.

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“He’s better now. I gave him another dose, hoping he’ll sleep until

late tomorrow and heal better.”

Kanael closely watched as Kale didn’t even look at him when

taken by surprise. He frowned. Kale was gearing to do something
stupid, he just knew it. The man looked as if the weight of the worlds
was pressing down on him. Sure, his brother had been brutally
attacked and his people almost killed. But Dale would make a full
recovery, Kanael had made sure of that, and he had heard nobody had
died in the fires. Why the glum face? He looked like he was preparing
to die himself. And where was Aeri? Kanael’s opinion of the man had
drastically improved after he had seen the man with Dale. Aeri had
done a good job supporting his mate today. Even the guards spoke of
him with stars in their eyes, saying that the reason nobody had died
was precisely Kale’s smaller mate. Oh yeah, rumors had already
spread and they had almost everything right. They still didn’t know
about Aeri being an Original. They thought Kale had been blessed
with a second mate. Kanael snorted. As if. The ignorants didn’t know
that things didn’t work that way when Originals or even half or
quarter Originals were involved. Originals had only one mate ever
and their life thread was interwoven. Well, it was for the best actually.
Certain people were not to find out of the union between two with
Original blood or there would be a price to pay. As it had once before
been. Huh. That was a thought. Where exactly did Aeri came from?
The man was too young to be one of the Originals but it seemed he
still was. Damn, he hoped he was right about this! Seeing that child
burn with his parents that long time ago had haunted Kaneal’s
dreams. He would ask Aeri later and see what the man said.

“Your birthday is coming soon. Just a full month away.”
Kale threw him an incredulous look.
“And that is important why?”
Kanael swore he was gonna lose it someday and just start bashing

heads when asked anymore stupid questions. Kale should have known

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immediately what Kanael was getting at. How could he be so
irresponsible?

“It’s important because this year was one of those years. A year

with a blue moon before your red month.”

He regretted that he had to give Kale another bad news, but the

man needed to be prepared. After all, Kale had a mate now and there
were things best avoided considering how crazy things were lately. A
child should have a safe environment when coming into this world.
Kanael knew better than anybody what he was talking about.

“God, no. Kanael, do something please. Don’t let that happen.”
Kale carefully let his head drop on his brother’s shoulder,

searching to reassure himself that the man was alive and well. He
raised reddened, bleary eyes to his oldest friend, the one who had
practically raised Kale and Dale after their parents’ deaths when
Derek had been too busy keeping the Council at bay.

“He can’t have his rapist’s child. No, Kanael.”
“We can only wait and see at this point but it’s pretty much

impossible to get one of you pregnant by anyone else beside your
mates. I just hope black magic wasn’t involved. I cannot take life,
Kale. I can only give.”

The defeated looking domin just nodded, resigned. They would

wait and see, nothing to be done about it yet. And if his brother was
with child, Kale would help him no matter what Dale decided. He
spared a fleeting thought at his other friend. He wondered why Dale
had kept silent and Caden hadn’t known they were mates. He
wondered if Caden knew of the possibility that Dale was with child
and how he would react. Not even Kale had immediately thought
about it. It was another close guarded secret of his family, the fact that
their males could have children during certain rare periods as the one
of a blue moon before their month of birth, otherwise called their red
month. He frowned.

“Kanael!”
“What? Keep it down, you fool!”

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“Kanael, who else knows besides us in this room?”
His friend looked as if he was beginning to think Kale was indeed

crazy before understanding lit in his eyes

“Nobody. Drake knew and even he didn’t know all. But he’s dead

and he was sworn to secrecy. You think this is not a coincidence.”

“A fertile period happens only once in a hundred years. Hell,

sometimes even in longer than that. The last one was two hundred
years ago. No, it wasn’t a coincidence.”

He rested his head again on his brother’s back, gently caressing

his still reddened, healed skin.

“Somebody purposely tried to impregnate my brother.”

* * * *

Being worried about somebody else beside me was a bit new for

me. My adoptive family, the drashers that had raised me, was
perfectly capable of taking care of any threats to their and themselves.
Kale was, too. My phoenix and I wouldn’t have accepted a weak mate
for us, but enough was enough. I was quite furious about all that
happened today. Having been out there and seeing front seat all the
destruction somebody had done for the sole purpose of hurting my
mate had opened my eyes a bit. I was now mellowed in my attitude
toward this mating. Kale needed me right now, and I didn’t have the
heart of kicking the man when he was already down. That didn’t
mean I wasn’t still waiting for the other shoe to drop. I didn’t believe
in fairy tales and this mate business had fairy tale written all over it.
Nobody, not even the Fates, could be trusted enough to find perfect
matches. What it did mean was that I was ready to try and see if this
thing could work.

I wasn’t going to just lay down and take whatever was thrown at

me, but for now I could stop being my usual sarcastic asshole self and
make sure my not-mate would get through this. And if it got me some
sugar from my hottie drakon, well I was going to behave and I

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deserved a treat for my efforts. After Kale returned to his irritating,
charming self, I could decide if I was really going to commit or not to
this mating business. Commitment was serious and final with me.
Once you got me to let you in, you were mine to protect and care for.
Surprisingly, I found myself already showing signs of possessiveness
toward Kale and his. Oh yeah, I didn’t to things half-heartedly. My
adoptive family and few friends I had knew that better than anybody.
My sister had probably been glad for the last five-year absence, as her
boyfriends had kept mysteriously disappearing if they misbehaved. It
shouldn’t, then, come as a surprise that I had actually wanted to go
hunt down whoever was attacking Kale and his family. Caden had
seemed more fit for that role, so I let it go before I freaked myself
completely with just how strong were the feelings I already had for
my drakon.

I had no doubt whatsoever that the village had been burned just to

distract Kale and the others while Dale’s rapist escaped. This was
bigger than just a random attack on Dale. This had been carefully
planned ahead. I had found out that before Dale’s attack. Kale and his
soldier guards had been busy putting out another fire in the other
village of the valley, leaving the palace with only Dale, a couple of
guards, and me in. Dale was apparently coming to tell me this and
stay with me while my mate was missing when he had been
ambushed and attacked.

I finished my shower, letting out some low and dirty moans of

appreciation for the hot water. I was surprised by the speed with
which Kale had exited the room earlier. It had been almost insulting.
During the last days Kale had barely let me go to the bathroom alone.
Now he was running as if I was the devil. I knew I was not being fair
to the man. He did go to visit his injured brother. Still…I liked teasing
Kale with my “look but don’t touch” rule. It was, after all, one of the
reasons I had let myself be chained to the man’s bed. Kale was a very
attractive man and I wouldn’t have minded too much if he had taken
some liberties with his prisoner—namely me. I would have been

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captive and incapable of escaping his evil clutches and thus could
have avoided succumbing voluntarily to my attraction to the man.
Good plan, no? Or was it fantasy?

Now what? It wasn’t in my nature to leave when things got hard

and while Kale was having problems I wouldn’t leave anywhere.
Meaning more time in his company. I was so fucked…And probably
soon if my stubborn dick had a say in it.

As I left the bathroom and entered his bedroom yes, he had

literally chained me to his bed I wondered how should I go about
fucking my mate without giving the man hopes that I was already
accepting this improbable mating. Really now, what were the Fates
smoking when they had paired the ruler of the paranormals with his
assassin? Not to mention that Kale was obviously of high upbringing
while little old me was nothing more than a street rat, a nomad
mercenary with no family beside those that had taken pity when they
found me as a small boy wandering half-dead. I boxed those glum
thoughts and turned toward the corner he was sulking in. And he was
sulking. Big bad drakon even had a pout going on.

“The bathroom is yours.”
“I already took a shower.”
Oh. Well, this was awkward.
“How is Dale?”
His eyes watched me as I shamelessly threw the towel on the floor

and rummaged through his drawers for some pants. I was comfortable
sleeping in the buff, but his attitude was making all kinds of alarm
bells ring inside my head. He had the same cold look I had seen when
he had come in that hotel room determined to kill me. I was disgusted
with myself and the fact that a simple look of his could affect me, for
I found out I missed the warm amused bantering between us from the
last three days.

“I don’t want to talk about that.”
“Oh-kay. What do you want to talk about or will we stare at each

other all evening? And you can forget about chaining me again. That

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stuff got old about the second you did it and I doubt the chains are
reusable after I finished with them.”

“About that. Why stay when you could have gotten away

anytime?”

“Who says I could?”
He just continued to calmly wait. It unnerved me the way he was

lazily slouching in that armchair, judging me with those cold eyes. I
could feel the danger, but I couldn’t find the source. Maybe he had
finally realized that we don’t fit together? Or was I a suspect in
anything that happened today? I couldn’t see why, though I admit it
was strange that so many things were happening just days after I
awoke. Bad timing? Or just good as he seemed to need me now more
than ever?

“Okay, you are right. I could have left anytime I wanted to. I was

waiting to see what you would do when you had me at your mercy.”

“When you pretended to be at my mercy.”
“That.”
“How many times did you leave this room before today? Gathered

all the intel you wanted?”

That hurt. It shouldn’t have. The same thought had crossed my

mind. I didn’t know him and he was right to doubt me, after all I had
tried before to kill him. We were just two strangers and it’d be better
if I didn’t forget that. My phoenix was curiously silent, and I was
getting annoyed that Kale had the power to hurt us even a little. This
was why I didn’t need or want a mate.

“Pretty much. You probably expect me to thank you for getting

rid of the Council or something.”

He flinched and I continued to stalk the room. Something was

happening for Kale to act so unusual. I needed to keep my head clear
and analyze, not respond to what he was throwing at me. I didn’t stop
to wonder how I knew what was unusual behavior for my mate.

“They were a threat to my family. I didn’t do it for you.”

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That I could understand and would have believed if I wasn’t sure

he was lying to me. Somebody should’ve remind the domin that every
emotion had a certain color and smell, and lies were the easiest to
catch. He wanted to hurt me, I realized. To push me away from him. I
knew that because he was using tactics I had long ago upgraded from
and he was terrible at scolding his body’s traitorous reactions.

“Good. I can take care of myself.”
Another barely there flinch and I was getting the picture. My

phoenix was now carefully watching, too, and agreed with my
conclusion. Kale was trying to distance himself from me to protect
me. Had I not seen the signs myself I wouldn’t have believed it. The
man cared about me. He was feeling guilty and still blamed himself
for my death five years ago. Top it all with today’s events and my
arrogant and self-important mate was cracking under the pressure. I
could sense all this almost as if I could read inside his soul. Fuck.
Damn phoenix was bonding already to our mate. Well, then. The ball
was in my court. Did I want to leave and let Kale believe he had done
what was best for me? It was the easy way out and I could avoid
putting myself out there to try to have some sort of relationship with
my mate.

“What is an Original?” I could tell I was confusing him with my

reactions. I needed some answers before I could give him what he
expected from me.

“The Fathers of all paranormal races are called the Originals.

They are not made, and from them we have all the other supernaturals
deriving.”

“Doesn’t that mean that all the supernaturals are their children?

Why then is your family considered special?”

Kale shook his head and seemed to forget for a moment that he

was trying to drive me away as he smiled patiently at my questions.

“All the supernaturals existing today derive from supernaturals

that the Originals made. Not given birth to but created with their
magic or their bite in some cases. The wolves for example. Their

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ancestors had been bitten by their Wolf Spirit, their Original. They
don’t have the blood or powers of an Original. They were created by
one.”

“Not like you or your brother. You have Original blood.”
“Yes, exactly.”
I tossed and turned the info inside my head. I think I understood.
“Where do the Original come from then? Who created them?”
“They aren’t created or born, they just are.”
That wasn’t making any sense. What about him and his brother

then? And me?

“But you and your brother?”
He smiled again at me and made a move as if he wanted to come

closer before his face tensed with what seemed like pain. He was
remembering again that he wanted me to leave. It warmed something
inside me and I felt another wall inside me crumble. He was mine and
I was keeping him.

“We aren’t Originals, just of their blood. Sure, we retained some

of that power but not nearly close to what our Fathers were.”

“Why do you say I’m an Original then? I am born not just

appeared from nowhere one day and I could be the same as you two
are, of Original blood.”

He was shaking his head again and this time I was the one getting

confused. I thought I was making good sense.

“It’s because you actually died and came back. Several times as

you said. Those of Original blood can be killed only if they are
murdered at the same time with their mates and then they die for
good, otherwise they just don’t die no matter how severe the injury.
You died. And then revived. I can only assume you are a true Original
and revived because your mate, me, was still alive. If you only were
of Original blood you wouldn’t have died at all. That, and you have
some pretty freaky-ass fire abilities I had never seen or heard of
before. And I should know, I’m a drakon.”

“And you are sure I was dead?”

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Right. Stupid question. After all, I knew that I had died. Several

times even.

“Don’t bother answering. I was dead.” Okay then. I was an

Original? A freaky unknown one at that.

“I remember growing up. I remember my birth parents.”
“That is odd. Originals don’t have childhoods. They don’t grow,

they—”

“—just are. I get it. Maybe I’m something else then. Or maybe

you don’t know all there is to know.”

That was said especially to shake his stubbornness. Not that it had

other effect than making him flinch again. The stupid fool thought he
had to keep me safe and that I wasn’t safe around him. I wasn’t much
for words and talks, I preferred action. Therefore, I wasn’t even going
to try to make him change his mind, although I wanted to kick his
arrogant ass all around the room so damn bad. The nerve on him,
thinking I was so easy to fool! And let’s not talk about how insulted I
felt that he thought me so weak and unable to survive his enemies. It
was because of my looks, I was sure. My slim and almost frail
appearance was the bane of my life. I hated that I always was
underestimated even if it had saved my life more than once. Well,
now I found that apparently I could not stay dead anyway. Unless I
decided to actually finish my last mission and fucking kill my stupid
stubborn mate!

“Do you need anything tonight?”
Really? Was that a trick question?
“So glad you asked. I do feel a bit tense. Let’s fuck.”
Kale appeared struck by lightning at my demand. Good, that’d

teach the stupid he-man to stop assuming things. And I wasn’t
bottoming either. No, sir. I, too, had a dick. It was big and I knew how
to use it. Kale needed to learn that I was a man, not his little wifey.

“Well? After all you do insist we to be mates. Fucking is a part of

that you know.” I made sure to maintain my expression calm and
slightly bored.

Aeryn Jaden

“But…Well, yes. Still…Aeri, are you all right?” He looked so

bewildered and cute that I was starting to let go of my anger. I
wouldn’t fuck him in anger, but I was still going to do this.

“Just fine. A little tense. You?”
“Great. I’m…great.” Liar.
“So?”
“Uhmm…Yes?”
I intentionally misunderstood him and nodded with apparent

delight.

“Awesome! So you have any preferred positions when you’re

being fucked? Or am I too crass to ask? I think it’s better to know this
kind of thing in advance so I can make it better for you. I’m not a
selfish lover.”

The poor darling was starting to freak out. I was starting to feel

amused by his out-of-water fish imitation. To give the final blow, I
took my pants down and pointedly looked at him and the clothes he
was still wearing. I wouldn’t ever admit this but my legs were faintly
trembling. I mean, I was taking a risk there. He could refuse me. I was
counting on those feelings I had read in his eyes and his gentle touch
these last few days. That and the tent in his pants that was pointing
my way. Now that I thought about it, I really, really wanted to bury
myself in him.

* * * *

Kale was shocked to the core. His mate had left him speechless.

Never had he seen this coming. Sure, he had thought earlier that he
would have liked at least one night with his mate but he hadn’t
imagined it quite like this. For one, he was supposed to have to
convince and seduce his mate, not have Aeri proposition him so
candidly. Secondly, Kale was a top. Always had been, never expected
it to change. Well, he had been curious a time or two, and he had
some toys to experiment with, but that was it. He stared at his mate’s

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long thick cock. That, inside him? Huh, he should have bought the
bigger dildo.

Did it matter? He was here. His mate wanted his ass. And they

had only tonight. Not so hard to decide after all.

“Well? Clothes? Or do you want to do this dressed? It’ll be a bit

uncomfortable but doable.”

Aeri was waiting. Right. He took down his shirt and pants but left

his boxers on. This was wrong somehow. He felt so odd. He felt
unsure and almost shy thinking about what they were going to do.

“Belt, please. Throw it to me.”
I caught and tightened my fist around at the erotic image of it

wrapped around his wrists. During the time Kale had apparently
decided to do this, I had all the night planned ahead. I could see it
clearly that just one time wouldn’t be enough with him. My cock
agreed. I adjusted at the last minute some of my plans when I saw that
my mate was behaving almost…shy. It was unbelievable from my
three-hundred-twenty-year-old mate old mate but it appeared that this
was something Kale hadn’t done before or at least it had been awhile
since he had been on the receiving end. I would have to proceed
slowly and get the man too deep in sensation for him to change his
mind. Then, in the morning, I’d lay down the rules and tell him just
how this mating would work from now on.

“If you can lay on the bed, please. Relax. I’ll say that I won’t bite

but I think that’s more your thing than mine. I can promise not to burn
you if you want.”

He laughed as I intended and gingerly lay down on the bed. He

was probably expecting me to just jump him and try to stick it in or
something.

“I got burned the minute I saw you watching me in that

restaurant.”

“Hey! You weren’t supposed to see me! I was working there that

night just to follow you! I was undercover, dammit and just a lowly
waiter!”

Aeryn Jaden

But I had known. That’s why I stayed away from his table, losing

the opportunity to spy on him and his dinner companions. One look
and I knew I was looking at my mate. Lucky the smell of food,
perfume, and the special lotion that I used to hide my smell had made
it impossible for him to realize it. That time.

“It was the hair. Never saw anything more beautiful than you. I

kept imagining you with long hair, like you have now, my fingers
running through it, like this.”

He passed those talented fingers through my hair, untying it with

care while making me moan under his gentle rubbing of my scalp
before pulling my head closer to him and capturing my lips. Oh, yeah.
The guy knew what he was doing with that mouth. I was planning to
try and see what other areas was he proficient in the use of that
mouth. Later on, much later, after I finished getting blown away by
my first kiss with my mate, I’d be fucking his brains out.

I tangled my tongue with his and aggressively stabbed inside his

warm moist cavern. Oh, yeah. I would get my dick inside there soon.
His plan to distract me with kisses worked in my favor as in no time I
had him flat on his back and straining to pull me down with him. Uh-
uh. Not yet. I had something to do first.

His belt was leather with some intricate patterns of interwoven

silver and iron. Kale apparently liked to have some useful toys on him
all the time. Good. I liked that he was always prepared. Small things,
like carrying a pen everywhere, having the keys and his cell phone
with him even at the bathroom made him just more endearing in my
eyes.

“Put your hands above your head.”
The spelled iron would not work on me, but it worked on dragons

just fine. I didn’t know about drakons but I didn’t want to
permanently restrain him anyway. Just enough so I could take my
time and slow him down in case he got the sudden urge to get up and
leave.

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He slowly and with some reluctance obeyed me, and I caught his

hands and tied them with his belt to the iron frame of the bed.

“Gorgeous. You’re like an entire buffet just for me to enjoy.

Where do you think I should start eating you up?”

I trailed a finger down his throat till a nipple.
“Here do you think? Do you like your nipples suckled or bit on?”
He just groaned and bucked under my sudden pinch of his nipple.
“Please.”
“I think you like them to be bit. I think you enjoy a little pain with

your pleasure. Am I right?”

Kale choked on his tongue when I sharply bit his other neglected

nipple. I wished I had some nipple clamps to better torture him with.
Next time.

“I don’t…Do that again.”
Oh yeah, he liked. His hard impressive cock had jumped to the

rhythm of my teasing bites and bit I did, until both his nipples were
wet, red, and swollen. Similar to his desperate penis. He had a
gorgeous piece. Probably as long as mine but thicker in diameter, and
he was covered in strange black swirlings of flamelike patterns all
over his pelvis. He even had some of those flames on his dick, leading
to a red, swollen, weeping mushroom head. Intermingled with those
strange lines were purple thick veins that would feel wicked when he
fucked me. I was intrigued. That dick didn’t look only gorgeous. It
looked positively yummy, and I could hardly wait to feel it deep
inside me. See, I was versatile like that. I liked just as much the feel
of a thick vein-rigged cock plunging deep and hard inside my hole as
the feel of warm heated insides clutching at my pole. I got a bit
distracted by the look of that circumcised monster but got right down
to business and circled that pulsing heat in my fist.

“Well, lookie here. What did I find? What a bad boy we have

here. Gorgeous fucker.”

“Bastard. You’re gonna torture me for hours, aren’t you?”

Aeryn Jaden

I didn’t respond just went eye to eye with his bad boy. My nostrils

flared at the pure smell of my mate. I wanted. I took.

“Oh God!”
My mouth made sucking sounds on his dick, looking to incite him

further with the dirty sound, and he jumped in his restraints when I
scraped the hint of a canine on the side of his dick. Oh, yeah. I was
good. I jerked the base of him with my other hand while I swirled my
tongue on the head of his dick. He was getting wild under me, jerking
hard every time I did an upward move with either my mouth or my
hand. I figured I had just a couple of minutes before he was close to
climaxing and he was well distracted for the moment by my clever
tongue. I had taken the lube out of the nightstand immediately after
tying him down and now it was easy enough to reach it and get a
couple of my fingers good and slick. I slurped up and met his flaming
eyes.

“Like that, do you?” My hand had clamped down hard on the base

of his cock, preventing him for reaching his orgasm and I knew that
had Kale had his hands free, he would have choked me right now.

“You’re a mean bastard and I’m gonna get you, just you wait.”
I smirked.
“Maybe, maybe not. After all I do have you bound to the bed at

my mercy. How does it feel to be my prisoner, mister big, bad and
dangerous? What would all your subjects say to see their all-powerful
scary domin pleading for pleasure? Pleading for little old me to let
him come?”

Hmm. He liked that. He got off on knowing he wasn’t in control

of his pleasure, that I had him and could do anything I wanted to him.
He relaxed under me and his body glistered with his sweat. He was
still battling for control, more for show. I wanted him wild and totally
lost. I wanted him to fall so I could catch him. Maybe then he’d
realize that I was worthy of his trust.

I stabbed his asshole with one of my lubed fingers and caught his

barely there whimper with hungry lips on his sinful mouth. His hole

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was tight and tightening rhythmically on my finger. I didn’t wait for
him to adjust. I knew I wasn’t hurting him by the hungry way his
mouth was devouring mine and his dick swelled in the grip of my
other hand. He was so tight, I just knew he hadn’t done this before.
His reactions, little jerks, and trembles showed how new all this was
for my mate. I was honored and determined to make sure he wouldn’t
ever regret this night with me.

One finger became two before he even knew it. Actually I don’t

think he noticed as he was busy moaning and grinding his dick further
down my throat at that moment. I made quick work with the third
finger while keeping him distracted with a slow hum on his dick and
deemed him ready to take my cock. I wanted to spend a little more
time getting acquainted with his cock but I could tell he was again
approaching orgasm and I doubted that belt would survive if I denied
him again. How to do this? He was taller and bigger than me and to
be fair, I didn’t think either of us was ready for a face-to-face fuck.
Sure, we were mates but we didn’t know all that much about each
other, no? Right.

“Turn around. I want you face down.”
If he looked a bit unsure again I ignored it as first time nerves. He

flipped on his belly and arched his back to present his ass like an old
seasoned whore. I moaned and I swear I could feel the satisfaction
pouring off him at my unrestrained lust. I wanted to spend a little
more time preparing him. Hell, who was I kidding? I wanted to
indulge in the perfect view and those perfectly firm and meaty cheeks.
He was getting tense again, ruining all my hard work of loosening
him up.

Oh, well.
He jumped almost clear off the bed when I made the first lick.
“Wha?”
He forgot he could form coherent words after that. Oh, yeah, my

dominant and controlling mate become putty in my hands for the feel
of my tongue in his ass. I licked around that beautiful hole before

Aeryn Jaden

stabbing inside again. I had to use almost all my strength to keep my
mate where I wanted him as he started to thrash around.

“Ugh!” He must have been totally zonked out if he hadn’t felt me

moving behind him. I didn’t push too hard, barely managing to work
my dick’s head inside before he clamped down on me, denying me
entrance. I rose to my knees and pulled his cheeks apart, mesmerized
with the view of my dick almost inside where no one had been before.
His back was glistening and all tensed up, curbed as he tried to shy
away from the intrusion. His arms strained against the belt and I
congratulated myself for having the idea of tying him up. I knew how
hard it was the first time and I’d sworn to myself to be patient and not
hurt him.

“Shh. Push out. Do it, it’ll be better for you.”
He grunted but slowly relaxed under my hands and I draped

myself on his back, mounting him properly. When he pushed out I
slowly but firmly pushed in until I felt my balls slap his. Oh man!

“Move, move, move! I’m gonna fucking kill you if you don’t

move!”

Never be said I wasn’t a good obeying mate. Yeah, right. Just to

torture us both, I slowly retreated, giving him a scare as he thought I
was pulling out, just to push back in just as slow. Oh, yeah. We’ll
both never going to forget this night. He was tighter than anyone had
been before. His body kept straining under mine, burning me alive,
undecided if he wanted to be closer or escape the invasion. After a
couple of minutes of slow steady fucking, Kale started to throw his
ass up to meet my downward thrusts and I knew he was ready for
more.

“You’re moaning like a bitch in heat. Like that cock in your ass,

do you not? Tell me, has anybody ever made you feel like this?”

I didn’t want to ask that but I was starting to lose myself in his

body and his pleasure. Kale just moaned louder at a harder push from
me and gave an incoherent answer that I translated as me being
awesome. From that point on I forgot all about making a point or

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finesse and technique. I flexed my ass harder and faster, pumping
inside of him ferociously, trying to brand him as mine. He grunted,
flexed, begged, and cried. He liked the slight burn mixed with
incredible pleasure, wanted it faster, harder, wanted me deeper, and I
was happy to oblige. I lost track of time, pushed him further into the
mattress, and let go, violently fucking him while my hand got back to
business and pumped his dick to the same rhythm. Only the slap of
skin on skin could be heard along our broken pleasured sounds. I held
him in position with my other hand and couldn’t control the urge to
bite down hard on whatever part of him I reached. I wanted to leave
my mark on him for all to see. I wanted him to look tomorrow
morning in the mirror and remember just whom he belonged to. No
more of that letting me go nonsense. Yes, I was a contrary being. I
had been cautiously biding my time until I had a good reason to desert
my mate until now. Now I wanted him to fight for me, to care enough
to want me to never be far from his sight and always just see me. I
was possessive that way and I guess I still was a bit angry with him
for making me care without me realizing, then trying to pull the rug
from under me.

I pulled out before he ejaculated and pushed back in hard,

triggering his orgasm and following him over the peak with a more
subdued shout than his was. I felt myself explode inside his trembling
sweaty body. Oh, yeah I was good. My mate was totally satisfied. I
couldn’t gloat too much as I was equally finished, and I had no energy
left to get up from my mate’s back and search for a towel or
something to clean us both.

We were so doing that again, just as soon as I could catch my

breath. After all, I did have some plans in store to get back at my
stubborn mate. He’d think twice before thinking he could survive
without me before this night was ending. Sure, Aeri. You’re teaching
him a lesson. You’re not practically dying to get back in that tight
hole and fuck the man until you both die of too much pleasure.

Aeryn Jaden

Chapter 6

Huh. I was sure this wasn’t where I fell asleep. For one, Kale

wasn’t anywhere close by and neither was the smell of our spent
passion. Actually, I wasn’t even in a bed, never mind in our bed, but
on some sort of hard and cold slab of stone. I couldn’t feel my hands
but I could feel my head all too well and I wasn’t so thrilled about the
harsh stabbing pain that I could feel with every breath I took. Now,
let’s think about this logically.

My mate had wanted to get rid of me last night. That was last

night I hope! I don’t think I dreamed the night’s events and I again
don’t think I imagined the raw emotion in my mate’s eyes when I
took him the second time, this time face-to-face. Could he be
responsible for this?

I searched the room for clues. Nothing. I was in a cold, dark cell

with no windows.

Nah, not my mate. He knew better than this by now and I didn’t

think I was wrong about what kind of man my mate was. And really,
the door wasn’t even iron and silver, just plain old wood with some
bars. Okay. Let’s think. What was the last thing I remembered? An
image of Kale with his legs on my shoulders, his hands clutching my
moving butt as his neck arched and he babbled with a grimace of
pleasure on his face, popped in my mind. Uh-huh. Good one but not
the last I remembered. I remember waking up, being a sap, and
watching Kale sleep for a couple of minutes while I tried to imagine
what life I could have if we succeeded to make something of this
chemistry between us. Then I went in search of the kitchen. The
building Kale and his family lived in was in fact a small chateau

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surrounded by several other buildings in which the Kale’s soldiers,
now the Regis domin’s guards, lived in. It was quiet and peaceful. I
loved the woods surrounding the valley and the mountains around us.
Very good choice, as it was difficult to enter the valley without
permission or a guide. The country road leading across the mountains
to our small valley was well masked. Shit. I was already starting to
point the advantages of making this valley my home. But to get back
on course, what happened after I woke up? I was searching for the
kitchen, found a nervous little kitchen help with a tray ready to bring
up for us, drank some of the juice…Fucking hell! What was I? A
newborn?

“I see my guest is already awake. Finally! You’re a weak one,

aren’t you? That drug wasn’t so powerful. Whatever, I guess it’s to be
expected. I can’t demand that Kale has some standards after the fiasco
with his mate. He sure likes them young and pretty, though.”

Huh. My headache was getting worse with all the useless noise

this guy was making. Who was this guy? I pulled myself into a sitting
position and noticed that somebody had entered my cell while I had
been busy reminiscing my stupidity. If Badar, the father that trained
me ever found out how many stupid mistakes I was making these
days, he’d skin me alive.

“I suppose it’s you I have to thank for these very hospitable

accommodations.”

I guess he was not so thrilled by my obvious lack of fear of being

impressed. I rubbed my stinging cheek after he slapped me and just
turned my now reddish eyes on him. Not that he noticed he was about
to be burned to a crisp. No, he was too busy pacing the cell and
ranting to himself as all good megalomaniac psychos do.

“…you just had to ruin it all. The fucking ritual is not finished!

Now that bitch boy is still there and I may have to wait another
hundred years until I have another chance of getting him to bear my
child! Maybe I succeeded…Your sorry weak ass will help me find out
and get him out of there and here! Then I can start training him! I had

Aeryn Jaden

to damage him too much and it may impede the pregnancy or even
make him lose the child. No, after a hundred years of good training,
he’ll know to listen and obey better. Nobody knows this, but
supposedly an Original can kill another Original. I’ll enjoy watching
the brothers be killed by their own blood, by Dale’s child! Then I’ll
find a way to get rid of it to.”

What! I was sure I couldn’t look more shocked if he had started to

sing while wearing a tutu. He was talking about Dale and getting the
man pregnant. He was off his rocker. Now that I was searching for it,
I could smell him as being the one that had raped my brother’s mate.
He also had the scratches to prove it. Good for you, Dale! Although
Dale was really a small little thing, way smaller that my five feet
eight, he had obviously fought back quite viciously.

“Yes. I believe that’ll work. I was surprised to hear that Kale had

himself a boy-toy after the death of his mate but this actually works
for me. I can use you to get my bitch out. You better hope your domin
cares enough to trade his brother for you.”

He got in my face and sneered. He was disgusting and his breath

smelled. He was a good-looking man, I suppose, but one could
immediately see something was seriously wrong with him. And I
wasn’t referring to the ugly scar marring his marble perfection that
complimented his dark hair and blue sky eyes. No, his eyes were all
wrong. Those gleaming clear eyes looked empty and vacant except
for the burning hunger inside them.

“You’re a pretty little thing. I bet you’re eager to obey, not like

those fucking drakons, all high and mighty in their self-importance. I
should have been the one to rule, you see. I was raised to do it.
Daman was weak, but still everybody preferred him. Even our mother
in the end! Mmm, maybe we’ll have some fun, what do you say?
Don’t be scared now, pretty, you like me don’t you?”

He was doing something or trying. My mind got cloudy for a

second and I gasped in shock when my drug-muddled brain
comprehended what he was trying to do.

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“Enchanter!”
He pulled back as if I’d struck him with that one word. I was

surprised myself. Supposedly no one could resist an Enchanter’s mind
control and not only had I resisted, I was actually not affected at all.
Huh, must be more of that me being an Original thing.

“What? How?” he sputtered some more, but now I was busy with

another realization to mind him.

“Hmm, you smell almost like family. You also smell as if I met

you before.”

His eyes got as big as two saucers and he retreated a couple of

steps, freaked out. Finally, the moron was noticing my reddish
glowing eyes and just how calm I really was. I had the air of a
predator, I knew that. And as his mind control trick wasn’t working
on me, he had real reasons to be worried about. I was, after all, going
to cut him into small pieces and deliver his head to Dale and Caden
on a silver platter. Maybe save his pinkie for my mate before I
cleansed the world of his existence.

“Maybe I should leave you to recover from your headache and

we’ll continue this later.”

Funny how a shift of power could bring all those good manners to

the fore. I got up studiously slow and let my hands transform in my
phoenix’s talons. See, I had wicked claws. They were also covered in
my fire. The chains, similar to those Kale had used, melted to the
spot, eliciting a startled gasp from my wannabe captor.

“I don’t think so. Why don’t you take a seat? Now.”
“The phoenix!”
My tone seemed to work on him much better than his controlling

mind trick on me or maybe it was the sight of my phoenix fire. He
stumbled to the slab I’d just vacated, his heart threatening to burst in
his chest, and desperately darted a last look toward the door. I cut his
view just in case. I didn’t want to be forced to kill him before I had
my answers.

“Now. I do believe we’ve met before, councilman.”

Aeryn Jaden

That was the moment the scumbag actually pissed himself.

* * * *

Kale was going crazy. Waking up after his incredible night with

his mate and finding that his mate was nowhere to be found had been
a nasty surprise. Initially he had thought Aeri was in the bathroom or
the kitchen as he was feeling quite hungry himself after the night’s
aerobics. His hearing quickly told him he was alone in the apartment
and by the cold place beside him, he had been alone some time now.

He had thrown on some clothes and hurried to the kitchen in

search of his wayward mate. The dark thoughts plaguing him just last
night had disappeared, leaving behind just the deep-seated satisfaction
of a well-used body and a burning need to spend every waking
moment with his fated mate.

Reality still waited to intrude and burst his bubble but for now,

Kale wanted to bask in the knowledge that his mate was well and they
had just consummated their mating. He wanted Aeri back in bed so he
could return the favor and torture his smaller mate with pleasure as he
had been tortured all night long. He wanted to cuddle him close and
kiss every inch of his glorious body, starting with those small ruby
nipples and that rosy ten-inch dick his mate sported. Oh yeah, that
baby deserved some attention after all the attention Kale had from that
monster. He was actually walking a bit funny this morning, drakon
healing notwithstanding.

He didn’t find Aeri in the kitchen but he did find their breakfast

tray spilled all over the kitchen floor. He could smell the drug they
had used in their food from the door. His heart stopped beating and he
shook his head in mute denial. His angry growl made the windrows
vibrate.

“Aeri!”
No answer came, not that he had expected it. Somebody had taken

his mate, taken Aeri from his home. What the fuck was happening

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here? First the attack on Dale. Now someone just waltzed right in and
left with his mate? Where were the damn guards?

A couple of them rushed to the kitchen right then, alerted by their

ruler’s shout. They took a look at their angry and pale domin, the food
spilled, and knew there was going to be trouble. Everybody avoided
angering the domin. The man was vicious and downright sadistic with
those that crossed him. That was why seeing an actual smile on his
face those last couple of days had freaked them more than his usual
frowns and moody self. They had feared the man had gone insane.
Now, confronted with his half-wild look and pissed off glare, the
guards were almost sure of that.

“Now you come! Where the fuck were you when someone stole

my mate!”

The man’s mate was dead, everybody knew. One of the guards,

having seen his domin with the fiery redhead helping to stop the fires
in the village, inched into the room and hesitantly met Kale’s glare.

“Sir, are you referring to the redhead that was with you

yesterday?”

“My mate! Aeri!”
“Right.”
Richard, the guard, gulped unsure. Apparently the domin had a

new mate and it was missing if he understood this well. This was bad.
This was really really bad.

“I saw him leave with Mara, the kitchen help. They were heading

to the gardens, she said he…umm…your mate needed some air as he
wasn’t feeling so well.”

“You let them go! You didn’t check!”
The guard kept his mouth shut, not hearing any questions in his

domin’s shouts. Fortunately, another guard chose that moment to
enter the kitchen, stopping the domin from taking his head off.
Richard was a vampyr, similar to the vampires of human tales, and he
was hardly a match for an enraged drakon. The newcomer seemed not

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to notice the tension in the room for he headed straight for their
domin, a white envelope clutched in his sweating hands.

“My domin, we just received a message. A woman’s body has

been dumped in front of the main gates with this.”

He handed the envelope and quickly stepped back as another

growl resounded in the now trashed kitchen. Kale had quickly
scanned the message just knowing it had something to do with his
mate’s disappearance. He was barely hanging to his sanity, wanting
his mate back right that instant. They were supposed to snuggle in bed
after their first night together. His guards were right to fear him in the
state he was. And unfortunately, he was right, the missive was about
his Aeri.

Somebody had him. The envelope had inside some of Aeri’s

flaming hair perfumed with the man’s smell and a short message
demanding Kale to hand over his own brother for his mate’s life. He
roared again then collapsed to the floor as Kanael did his glowing
thing again and instantly put him to sleep.

* * * *

“I don’t know if you did the right thing. He’s going to be mighty

pissed off when he wakes up and with good reason too.”

“He was going to butcher those guards. He wasn’t in his right

mind. They took his mate, Caden. How would you react?”

Kale opened his eyes in time to see the pained look his wolf friend

threw toward the sleeping form of his brother.

“I would have torn the land apart until I had him back in my

arms.”

“Caden, don’t be so hard on yourself. You ran yourself ragged to

find the man that attacked Dale. With no trace to track, you couldn’t
do anything more. It’s good you came back. We need you here. Dale
needs you here.”

Hard to Kill

Kale wondered at Caden’s grim look when Kanael said the last

thing. For now it didn’t matter much. He didn’t have the strength to
see beyond the pain of having his mate taken away from him again. It
was fortunate that he was feeling weak as a babe or Kale would have
probably been out doing exactly what Kanael feared. A small whine
escaped him and he weakly punched the bed he was tied in.

“You’re awake.”
“Kanael, you bastard. I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Kanael did his usual calm and collected impersonation and just

lifted an eyebrow at him.

“Mightier beasts have tried and as you can see I’m still standing.

Now, are you going to behave or you’ll force me again to knock out
your sorry ass?”

Kale just grumbled, knowing his friend would do exactly that if

necessary. He had to be smart about it and get out of this bed so he
could go and retrieve his mate. No matter that he didn’t know where
his little fighter was.

“Untie me, I won’t kill anybody.”
That was a lie and they all knew it. Kale would more than kill his

mate’s kidnapper. He’d toy with him first until the man begged for his
death. To his surprise, the lethargy that was keeping him in chains
lifted up and Caden released the binds.

“We have a place of exchange. The moron actually thinks you’re

going to hand out your brother to him with no fuss. It’ll be a bit
tricky. He’s a smart one. He chose the marketplace in Gallowinth. He
could be anywhere watching from the crowd to see if we bring Dale
or not and prepare for us.”

Kale growled again, remembering what the son of a bitch had

done to his little brother and suspecting why he wanted him.

“What time?”
“In two hours. Market’s busiest time.”
“Can we do anything to limit the risks for the villagers?”

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Caden tore his eyes from his bruised and battered mate and

focused. He wanted that asshole so bad. He wanted to feel his blood
coating his teeth for what he had done to his little minx. He would
bathe in his blood and bring his head back to Dale. Maybe then his
mate would look him in the eye again and forgive Caden for his
stupidity. He had denied his mate for more than two hundred years
and had chosen duty over him, not even knowing what he was doing.
Enough was enough, his minx had suffered to much already. Caden
would make sure Dale will get the life he deserved from now on.
Even if that meant he had to leave his friends and mate. He pulled his
eyes from the huddled form and answered Kale.

“Nothing. He warned us not to try or he’d start sending you parts

of your mate until you agreed to the exchange.”

“Fuck!” Kale thought for a second, trying to figure out who the

hell was this guy. Wolves had a sharper nose, maybe…

“Did you smell anything on that envelope or the woman’s body?”
Caden’s frustrated look didn’t bode well.
“Nothing. Well, maybe some stale water but that could be

anywhere in the valley. There are lakes everywhere.”

“Yes but by now everybody knows who my mate is and that he’s

missing, no?”

“Yes, I sent out all the guards.”
“If they hadn’t found anything maybe it’s because they’re not

here. Stale water could be also found underground. Remember the
passages?”

Caden shook his head, ruining his hopes.
“We already started to search those. No trace so far.”
“Fuck! Who the hell is this guy! Nobody should be able to hide

from us in this valley! We have you and your wolves, an army of
soldiers, my incomplete but strong bond with my mate, Kanael’s
radar thing, and nothing works! Nobody moves without us knowing!
What the fuck!”

No one noticed the way Dale cringed and shuddered.

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* * * *

Now this was fun. I wanted to enjoy my captor’s reactions a bit

more but time was getting short. If I was to believe him, and I did—
he was too terrified to even try and lie to me—I had two more hours
until this bitch had planned to exchange me for Dale.

“You know that’s not going to happen.”
Apparently he still had some stupidity in him as he sneered at me.

No matter. I swept my claws again, and the smell of burnt skin
permeated the room even before he had the time to screech in pain.

“Dale, he will come here.”
Huh. That did not make any sense.
“You were supposed to be dead! Why aren’t you dead, you

fucker!”

Okay, the dude was clearly slightly mad and a lot of crazy.
“If you would be so nice and to explain what you mean.”
I shouldn’t have even bothered. This guy liked to hear himself

talk.

“The Originals killed you! You were not supposed to be born, not

with two Original parents! Abomination! I saw you burn with your
bitch of fire witch mother and that winged bastard that fathered you!
The other Originals pooled all their powers to make sure you were
dead. You are dead!”

“I seem to get that a lot. I guess I’m just a bit hard to kill.”
The councilman twisted his lovely features in an ugly grimace of

hatred. The stupid bird was probably just harder to control because he
came from not one, but two Originals. All his plans…No! He had
gotten too far to let this moronic fire bird stop him. All the Daminion
line would die! They’d pay for killing his mother!

I felt him try his mind mojo on me again and this time it actually

hurt to keep him out. I would have to step up the game.

“Why this obsession with Dale?”

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The man laughed at me and steadily worked his way inside my

brain. I could not let him control me, not that I was too worried about
that. Still, soon I would have to kill him without getting those
answers.

“He’s weak, but a child with him, trained by me, will finally end

that cursed line. I needed a killer strong enough to kill that blasted
healer witch, Kanael and the last drakons. Unfortunately, they are
stronger than their parents and grandparents, that Daman wuss and his
mate. Did you know that Daman was my half brother? Yes, I am
actually the brothers’ great uncle. My mother died because he got
involved with their ancestors’ blasted progeny, Adair. They got killed
together because she became pregnant with Daman and the Originals
found out. She was half Original herself you see, and Originals are
not allowed to create life together. My mother was so beautiful…And
they killed her! They should have never been born! It was so
satisfying to see Daman dead. And killing Kale with his mate was
obviously a bust. Tell me, are you his dead mate come back from the
dead? I should have figured it out when he just didn’t die afterward in
battle. Stupid me.”

He was stalling, rambling and giving me a worse headache. I was

out of time. The door chose that moment to open up and let Dale
enter. Damn it. And he was singing so beautifully!

“Finally. Dale.”
“Uncle.”
Fuck. I instantly saw Dale’s eyes cloud and knew the councilman

Enchanter was controlling him now. And to believe that the douche
bag was their uncle! Something was amiss here, I could feel it. Drake
their supposedly dead uncle couldn’t have organized all of this by
himself. Somebody was maneuvering all of them from the shadows. I
got the feeling that my fathers would know who, that they were hiding
from he same person. Whoever it was, he made Originals scared
enough to hide. This was getting messy and fast. I needed to flush out

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the rest of the Originals as I had the feeling the last paranormal war
would be nothing compared to what was coming.

I saw in slow motion Dale charge toward me, probably ordered by

this scum. Wonder how that happened. But first things first.

Dale stopped midstep as Drake’s head rolled down after a swipe

of my deadly claws. Just to make sure the bastard stayed dead, I let a
bit of my fire roll out and his body instantly melted under it. There
now. Problem solved.

* * * *

You would have thought they would be glad to see us.
After I got rid of the problem, Dale shook the mind control and

promptly pulled out a cell phone to call base. He still was a bit weird,
subdued, and moving as if he was functioning in a daze. It probably
was to be expected after your own thought-dead uncle raped you with
some crazy notion of impregnating you with his babies so he could
then take that baby and train him to assassinate your family.

They came as if their asses were on fire. Kale, Caden, and a total

of twenty soldiers seemed to be ready to invade a small country by
their expressions. Kale flew in the cave in total enraged drakon form.
He was magnificent. His scales shone as dark, polished silver, and his
wicked claws could give my own a run for their money. His growl
made me instinctively check and see if the cave was solid enough to
survive my enraged drakon. I wasn’t too keen on being buried alive
again.

I was just cleaning my claws, just for show you see, when the

cavalry arrived. Caden promptly began to shout at Dale. I couldn’t
keep up with the expletives but I got the gist of it. Apparently my
brother-in-law matched my mate in stubbornness. Dale had snuck out
of the infirmary and rushed to “save me” by sacrificing his dumb ass.

But I didn’t have eyes for their lovers’ spat. No, I was busy trying

to figure out why my own mate was just standing there in the

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doorway after having shifted to his yummy human form. He was
faintly trembling and not moving an inch to reach me. I was so not in
the mood for another self-sacrificing act to keep little old me safe.
These drakon brothers really had some defected self-preservation
instincts. I was surprised they had lasted so long without getting
killed. Well, no matter. I was here now and was keeping them safe
from now on. Fortunately, he snapped out of it before I could snap at
him and I found myself yet again crushed in a warm, careful embrace.
The road home had never been so sweet. I was going home, our
home. And this time I was ready.

Hard to Kill

Chapter 7

Well, how ready one can be? We barely entered his home when I

was carried in his arms and not so gently deposited on his bed. Kale
still didn’t look pleased with me.

“You’re not to exit this room without somebody with you. A

guard will be permanently posted to—”

“Yeah, I don’t think so. You can try that alpha impersonation on

somebody else, buster, cause the only thing it does for me is annoy
me. Maybe slightly turn me on.” Better nip this in the bud. He wasn’t
so thrilled when I calmly got up but forgot what he wanted to say
when I just started to get undressed. I started with my shirt, slowly
unbuttoning each button. My giggling could barely be restrained
when he started to drool.

“I think I proved I was more than capable of taking care of

myself. If someone should need guards, that would be you. As I find
myself unemployed, I could maybe send you a résumé? I assure
you…I’m very skilled at what I do.”

Now that was just mean of me, but I bit my lower lip and licked it

again just to see him gulp one more time.

“You were kidnapped.”
“I bet my kidnapper regretted it before I burned him to a crisp.”
I could see the corner of his mouth twitch and knew I had him. He

thought I was cute.

“I’m sure he did. That’s not…the…uhm…point.”
By now I was butt naked and slowly rubbing my dick up and

down. His lust was threatening to choke me with its intense smell.

Aeryn Jaden

“Should I say something corny like, ‘I got a point for you right

here’?” I pouted for good measure and he started to breathe faster and
harsher.

“Aeri!”
“No reason to shout my name yet. I’m right here. You’re too far

and too dressed.”

He looked ready to pull his hair out in frustration. Before fucking

me blind. This time I did giggle. I was ready for the second part.
Right, I had a stubborn mate. Better stop ruffling his feathers—or was
that scales for a drakon?—and calm down his panic.

“Kale, I’m the phoenix. Your uncle pissed himself when he

realized that. Apparently I’m twice as strong as a regular Original, if
there’s such a thing. My mother was the Fire Witch and my father the
Wind Spirit. I doubt that anyone can kill me if all the Originals put
together hadn’t succeeded when they killed my parents. You don’t
look so surprised to hear this.”

“Kanael suspected who you were. Seems like he was alive and

present when your parents were killed. He says he tried to stop them,
the Originals, but I can’t imagine why he thought he could do
anything.”

I could see that his friend had a lot of explaining to do. I thought I

knew why Kanael had kept things quiet, but it wasn’t my place to
open the brothers’ eyes on their paternity. Kraken was their Original
ancestor that had fathered Adair, but who was the mother? Hmm, I
had my suspicions on that. Plus, I so didn’t want to get on that guy’s
bad side. And now I wanted my naked time! I was sick of intrigues
and plans and hearing about dead people from long ago. I wanted to
forget the screaming image of a redhead with her blond mate, burning
and dying just because they had dared to love one another and have
me.

“I like that you fuss so much over me but wouldn’t it be better to

just fuck me stupid to reassure yourself I’m alive and well?”

Hard to Kill

All was fair after all and it was his turn to ravish me. Kale was

trembling with suppressed desire, desperate to get inside my skin and
reassure himself I was there, alive and okay. And that was more than
okay with me. He needed to let go and just follow his instincts. I
wanted him to forget at least for a couple of hours all the questions
that arose with his uncle’s betrayal and drown in the pleasure of our
mating. Yeah it surprised me too but it seems I was a nurturer at heart.
I took care of those I loved and I pitied those that threatened them. I
was just careful not to love because that’s were it gets complicated for
me. I cannot do it halfway. Once you’re mine, you’re mine all the
way and you have to keep me also. Right now, we could take care of
each other and discuss later all the things that I found out or was
suspecting. No more intrigues and rushing to prepare for an incoming
war with a still unknown enemy that I wasn’t even sure existed.

I let out a surprised squeak that I’d forever deny when I got

tackled back in the bed. He moved fast. Me like.

“You’re gonna be trouble aren’t you? Gonna keep me on my toes

and run circles around me.”

I resembled that. I let a deep sigh of contentment. After more than

a thousand years alone and wandering, we finally found a home. My
phoenix was purring like damn cat, satisfied that I was finally
surrendering to the inevitable. And faster than he thought I would.

What could I say? The blasted drakon had grown on me. He was

cute when he was being all protective and shit. I liked that somebody
cared and worried about me, regardless if I needed it or not. I could
see that I was starting to be his entire world and could hardly wait to
see where we would be a couple of years down the road. I moaned,
successfully distracted from my self-analyzing thoughts. Kale had just
trailed his fingers and mouth down my body and swallowed down my
entire dick. The man had talents of his own.

I moaned as if he was killing me, lost in the heat of his mouth and

swearing I was going to learn that trick he did with his throat
convulsing so I could get back at him later. For now I was going to

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enjoy myself and find out just how his third foot would feel ramming
inside my hungry hole. Oh, yeah. I wanted it bad. I was lucky to have
such an accommodating mate. I felt his thick finger probe me quickly.
First one and when he found out just how hungry my hole was
sucking him in, he quickly added another two. We were both panting
and struggling to get closer, close enough to be in each other’s skin.
My dick felt as if it’d fall off if I didn’t come soon. His bad boy was
weeping and straining to reach me and give us both what we needed.

“Now, inside. Get inside already!”
“Bossy bottom.”
I frowned menacingly at my soon-to-be-dead mate.
“Look who’s talking. You practically fucked yourself on my cock

the second time we went at it last night.”

He turned a lovely shade of red and I smirked at him, daring my

mate to do something about my tight impertinent ass. Stubborn
drakon just smirked back at me, making me worry. He resumed
suckling on my dick, his eerie silver eyes watching me as if he was a
hawk and not a stupid drakon. His fingers pressed inside me further
and bumped my prostate. Oh yeah, that’s what I’m talking about! I
moaned louder and wondered for a second if I was bothering the
others with my bitch-in-heat imitation. All thoughts flew my mind
when he deep-throated me while stabbing a fourth finger inside me. I
came with a shout and Kale sucked me raw until he cleaned all my
seed and I could feel myself twitch inside his mouth from how
sensitive I was.

“Uhm. Come here, baby.”
I pulled him up and smashed my pliant mouth on his smirking

one. I got busy cleaning his talented mouth of my seed, getting hard
again just from that erotic taste of me mingled with him.

That was when I finally found out just how talented my mate

really was. He rammed inside me to the hilt with a shift move,
burying that wicked bad boy as far as he could go. We both groaned
when my ass spasmed around his impressive girth. He didn’t stop

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101

there, no sir. He pulled right back out and before I could protest or
cling to him, he rammed right back in. My hands clenched on his butt,
holding him locked inside me. I could feel his muscles flexing under
my palms as he slowly rocked inside my canal. The air swished out of
my chest when he made a sudden and harder thrust. I pulled my legs
higher and felt him go even deeper with the change in position. My
legs went around his waist, clutching him closer as my hands brutally
pulled at his hair and brought his mouth down on mine. I swallowed
his breathless laugh and bit viciously on his lower lip. He got the idea
and started pistoning inside my hole, each push harder than the last
one. Soon I could feel the bed creaking and some paint fell from
where the metal headboard was digging in the wall. My whole body
tightened. Kale had to work his cock inside my clenched hole.

“Fucking come. Come all over me. Mark me as I mark your

insides with my cum.”

He gave one, two, three more hard thrusts before touching my

cock. That’s all I needed to push me over the edge, and I locked my
legs and arms around him as I started to see fricking stars with my
exploding orgasm. When I came back down from the high, I felt as if
I was made of rubber and all my body parts were numb and sighing
his name. I lazily managed to lift up my head and met his burning
eyes.

“Mmm. Now if you had just done this the first night I woke up we

wouldn’t have lost so much time.”

He smiled at me, and it wasn’t nice. The predator in him was

coming out to meet me. I felt his back flex, his arms corded as they
sustained his weight posed over my body. Then he flexed again, this
time lower, and I felt the steel rod still burning me from the inside. He
hadn’t come yet.

“Oh, I think I can manage to recover some of that lost time.

Wouldn’t you say so?”

Arrogant, self-centered, mean, son of a bitch bastard! I could

hardly think of an answer when he was rubbing over my sweet spot

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with lazy strokes. He was behaving as he had all the time in the world
to make me lose my mind. His hands started to map my body in
equally lazy strokes and I felt myself heat up again. He was playing
with my body as if he owned me.

Oh, shit. I was totally screwed. And I loved every minute of that

night and the nights and mornings that followed.

* * * *

Another morning after and Kale was probably freaking out.

Enough was enough. Two mornings after and two near heart attacks
were too much for any man. Kale was freaking out indeed. He had
woken up all relaxed and smiling. Until he had turned to his mate,
expecting to see Aeri peacefully sleeping beside him.

Only I wasn’t snuggled in the bed. I was already in the kitchen

watching the show Kanael was entertaining us with.

When I heard the shouts, I was expecting Dale and Caden.

Instead, I found my way to the kitchen and caught Kanael growling
fiercer than Caden, who was supposed to be the wolf here. I needed to
stop setting foot in this kitchen. It must have been land mined or
something. I stumbled upon some barely not spoiled milk and fetched
the carton, fully intending to retreat and go back to cuddling with
Kale in our bed. An incensed shout from the floor above notified me
that my cuddle bug was wide awake and not happy to find me gone.
Not that I could blame him. Last time I had set foot in the kitchen I
found myself being kidnapped. And if the tension between these two
was to judge, I wasn’t any safer now. Kale was putting a freezer for
snacks in our apartment or it was good-bye booty call for him. Who
was I kidding, I was not capable of abstaining from sex with my hunk.

Kanael was acting weird. Well, weirder than the usual for him. It

wasn’t just my opinion. His oldest friends, Kale and Caden, thought
so, too, if their small, inquiring looks were proof. Kale having come
right behind me to snatch me from the evil kitchen was now watching

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the show with undisguised confusion. Apparently, Kanael was usually
the sane one. Oh, goodie.

“Who else, Caden? And don’t bullshit me! Someone else was in

that cave with you and those guards!”

The cave he was referring to was probably the one the guys had

come to collect me and Dale.

“I can smell him all over you!”
“Well, excuse me that I didn’t have the time to take a shower and

prevent your meltdown!”

Kanael whined and sniffed at Caden again. Weird guy, that one.

His eyes grew big when Kale stopped right behind me. I followed that
shocked look and see what he was looking at. Kale had a small
portion of hair that had turned all silvery to match his gray eyes. It
looked awesome on him.

Fuck. Kanael just continued to stare at us with his mouth hanging

open and I started to worry. He quickly got back to sniffling at Caden
and I swore those were tears in his eyes. Whoever he was smelling on
Caden, Kanael cared deeply about him.

And that silver hair that Kale had now? Apparently I caused it.

Well, it was a joint effort really. Turned out, I was right to worry. And
that sneaky bastard Kanael knew all along and left us to find out for
ourselves.

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Epilogue

The silver hair thing? It meant I was going to be a daddy. Lucky

for me, my badass drakon was the one going to give birth to our small
one so initially I wasn’t so worried. More like dumbstruck that it was
possible in the first place. Apparently, the drakon brothers had some
healer witch blood, Kanael explained. He knew all about healer
witches, as he was one himself, which wasn’t quite a surprise for me.
Everybody was under the impression that healer witches were all
females. Turned out Kanael was one of the exceptions as apparently
Kale and Dale also, although they didn’t have that glowing healing
shit and that meant males capable of giving birth. Never heard of
anything like it. Freaky dude, that one. Nothing fazed him for long.
You would think that would be the end of the surprises but no, no
way. No matter that I hadn’t even imagined myself ever playing the
daddy part. The real surprise came when fifteen months later, Kale
gave birth. Yes, you heard right, I said fifteen months of him being
kinda pregnant. Fifteen months of living hell with a cranky, stubborn,
moody, arrogant drakon I absolutely adored. I almost smothered Kale
in his sleep several times before our children could be born.

Yes, that’s right. Children, as in three! We had managed to create

some new species. Unknown combinations of both me and Kale, our
children had quite the abilities. I feared for their safety. They were
unique even among the unique ones. I took to sleeping with my
knives close by. First was our lovely water and wind drakon, all well
behaved and serious. Kael was fast like the wind, could do some
pretty scary things with water and air, and as a miniature carbon copy
of his big bad and mother hen of a drakon father, he was the one that

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105

herded his little brothers. He always tried to take the blame for their
misdeeds. The second one born was Allani. Allani was the smaller
one of the three brothers. He’d also burned the nursing room when he
burped the first time. Apparently, he was a phoenix like his papi. He
also had the freaky ability to not get caught whatever mischief he was
getting into. I swear it was as if the boy could see the future! Last
born was our little miracle. We’d thought Han was dead at first. Until
he did that freaky glowing thing on himself and let us know with a
banshee scream that he was alive and kicking. He was now starting to
get bigger than Kael. The little demon could also “persuade” us to
give him extra cookies. Yes, I’m talking about mind mojo persuasion
as it seems our third son had some strong Enchanter blood running
through him. We weren’t so trilled about that after the thing with
Kale’s uncle, Drake and his use of Enchanter abilities.

They were running me ragged and my mean mate just sat around

and enjoyed the show. Maybe I was not being fair. But then again,
how could I when he just had to look at them and they behaved like
little angels while I was apparently fair prey? And Kale did have the
pretty demanding job of managing his small army and ruling over the
supernatural world. If you asked me, he needed not two assistants,
more like ten or twenty. I caught myself a proper dictator it seemed,
always ready to order and meddle. I’m kidding. He was a fair ruler
and the supernatural world was lucky to have him. When I let them.
And fortunately things were still peaceful, no sign yet that my
suspicions were correct. I was still wary and was getting worried with
each year that my fathers hid from public knowledge that there were
still Originals that lived. Anyway, we were deliriously happy. Uh-
huh. Eventually.

We were a family of five in under two years of mating. Yes, well,

in my defense I’d already said that when I did something I didn’t do it
halfway. We got there eventually, crazy in love as we were still crazy
in lust with each other. Not that it wasn’t a bumpy road sometimes.
As when he didn’t let me near him for a week after we found out we

106

Aeryn Jaden

were expecting. Kale was not impressed. I was supposedly going to
be the bottom in this mating indefinitely, no matter that he could only
get pregnant once and only on some blue moon thing and there was
such a thing as condoms. Huh. Should I tell him that bottoming for
him is no punishment at all? Nah, I think I’ll enjoy it for a little while.
I loved to let him “torture” me with his big bad cock. Anyway, I
doubt he’d resist much longer before he’d wait for me in the bedroom
with that belt around his wrists.

THE END

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I'm twenty-seven going on fifty and bored to death living in a city

in a forgotten country called Romania. I spice my life by reading all
that I can get my hands on (with an unhealthy predilection towards
more perky genres like erotic literature and addictive m/m stories). As
for writing, I've started doodling at the age of seven, at eleven I
shocked my lit teach with a sci-fi short love story (by then I was well
acquainted with my mom's hidden stash of Sandra Brown and Sidney
Sheldon) and...lol.

Finally, after like fifteen years of avid reading I've said what the

heck, I should try putting those dirty thoughts on paper. Now I'm
hoping my readers will be harder to shock.

You can visit me at my livejournal address,

www.aeryn13.livejournal.com. Or better yet as it’s the Facebook era,
you can find me at www.facebook.com/aeryn.jaden. Cheers!

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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