Of Dragons and Wolves 2

Falling for the Captive

Beta wolf Tom Parker only wanted to protect his little brother. He
didn't want to work for dragon hunting Templars. To make matters

worse, one of the dragons he brought in is his destined mate.

Grant Hamilton is disgusted when a wolf comes to him for sex,
although he cannot deny the lust he feels for Tom, who is

handsome, so he will play along simply for the pleasure. But he
also cannot deny the urge to protect Tom when the wolf helps him

escape.

Now Tom is a captive amongst the dragons, and though he has his

brother back, he is miserable because the mating is one sided,
and Grant's entire clan hates his existence. Though Grant tries to

stay away, he cannot, and when he learns that Tom mated with
him before being ordered to by the Templars, he will do
everything in his power to make up for bad behavior.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Futuristic, Paranormal, Shape-
shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 31,894 words

FALLING FOR THE CAPTIVE

Of Dragons and Wolves 2

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

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FALLING FOR THE CAPTIVE
Copyright © 2014 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-923-9

First E-book Publication: June 2014

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

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

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Jacks from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you.
Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

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FALLING FOR THE CAPTIVE

Of Dragons and Wolves 2

MARCY JACKS

Copyright © 2014

Chapter One

Thomas Parker had to walk away from the place where the cages

were kept. He couldn’t look at the creatures that were behind the steel
bars anymore. And he especially couldn’t look at the gleaming black
dragon, curled up on the floor and chained down, wings tied to its
back so that it couldn’t spread them.

The creature was beautiful. There was no other word for it. The

black sparkled under the fluorescent lighting in blues, reds, and even
purple colors, like gemstones were embedded into the scales.

He knew the dragon was a male, because he’d been the one to

help shoot the creature down, though he hadn’t actually pulled the
trigger.

Tom and the rest of the wolves who were stuck working with the

Templars didn’t have much of a choice in what they did. The
Templars, super religious zealots, had taken their pups, and Tom’s
younger brother. All because they wanted help with hunting down the
dragons, whom they hated so damn much.

They thought dragons were the minions of Satan, or something

like that. Tom hadn't really cared to find out what exactly their
problem was after they’d kidnapped his four-year-old brother.

Tom and the other wolves had to help subdue the dragons, but

when he and the others left them behind in the woods to search for the

8

Marcy Jacks

third dragon shot down, he hadn’t known someone had come and
picked them up.

He’d hoped the two magnificent black dragons would have

escaped in the chaos that happened afterward. Apparently not, and
now Tom had to go and give his report and pick up his brother.

The new problem now, however, was now that he’d seen that

black dragon up close, and looked into its eyes, could he leave it
behind? Tom had to run to the nearest restroom to deal with his stupid
cock after just looking at the creature. He’d had to. Tom was still
naked after his run and shift, and he didn’t want to deal with the head
Templar with his cock red and standing up.

And that had happened because he’d just looked at the damned

dragon. Just a look. Tom’s blood had run hot, and everything in his
body had called out to him to go to the creature, to comfort it and at
least tell it that he was so damned sorry.

There was only one reason why something like that would

happen, and he was praying that it wasn’t true, that it was just a
mistake. He needed to take Brandon and get the hell out of here and
never come back.

Finding out that his mate was one of the dragons that he’d helped

to capture complicated things way too much.

The basement of the church was almost like its own separate

building. There were no bingo games for senior citizens down here.
This was where the Templars came and made their plans to fight off
the spawn of Satan.

Normally, shifters who turned into normal animals, such as

wolves, foxes, and deer, were left alone. They were considered by the
Templars to be God’s natural creatures, which was a nice exchange
considering what the hunters thought of them as.

When Tom finished in the bathroom, he stepped out and looked

around himself, hoping no one had seen him do that.

Everyone seemed to be hustling and bustling around, too

preoccupied with two catches in one day to pay attention to him.

Falling for the Captive

9

The alphas and betas he’d gone out to hunt with earlier had all

made it back from the looks of it, and they were standing around
outside the office of the head Templar, arms crossed, and not looking
too happy at all.

Tom went to the shelf where the spare clothes were kept, and he

pulled off a pair of pants for himself and a T-shirt. Werewolves
weren’t given shoes or jackets. The Templars had decided such things
weren’t needed, considering the number of times wolves shifted.

“Hey, Jeremy, what’s going on?” Tom asked, stepping up to the

older brunet.

Jeremy was a beta, just like Tom was, but his build was bigger,

and he had a mean look on his face that wasn’t giving Tom a whole
lot of hope.

“Those dirty mother fucking…” Jeremy had to cut himself off,

and he looked around himself to make sure none of the staff heard
him.

Templars might have kidnapped the lot of them, and they were

doing dubious things to the dragons, but they still considered
themselves to be religiously moral, whatever that meant. All Tom
knew was that swearing was frowned upon down here.

Tom didn’t need the man to say more. He already knew, and he

was just as angry. “You’ve got to be kidding me. They said we could
get our pups back if we just brought in a couple of dragons,” Tom
said, hissing his words because he couldn’t speak too loudly. If he
did, he would start yelling, and then he was going to have to be
subdued because there was no way he was leaving here without
Brandon.

Jeremy rubbed his face, clearly trying to get control over himself.

The man had a daughter, a little girl who was younger than Brandon,
so Tom didn’t blame him for wanting to lose it.

“They said it wasn’t enough. We got two of them, but the one we

missed was the high dragon of its clan. We caught a couple of worker
bees, but not the queen. Their words, not mine.”

10

Marcy Jacks

“So what? A deal’s a deal,” Tom said, and he clenched his fists.

He hadn’t seen Brandon since yesterday, and he wanted to get his
brother out of this place, right now.

But the Templars knew how werewolves worked. Not just

werewolves, either. These were parents and siblings. The pack
mentality, along with the need to defend their young, would keep the
lot of them in line until the very end.

“Try telling them that,” Jeremy snapped.
As if on cue, the wooden door opened, and a woman stepped out.

She wore a gray suit with a skirt, high heels, and red lipstick and nail
polish. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a bun that was so tight it
stretched the skin of her forehead back. She was young, and looked
incredibly professional with a clipboard in her hands.

“Thomas Parker?” she called, announcing his name as if she

didn’t know who each and every one of the werewolves were and
needed them to step forward during a roll call.

He stepped forward anyway, wondering what she wanted with

him to begin with. “That’s me, Cynthia, you know who I am.”

She pursed her red lips, but otherwise ignored him as she stepped

to the side. He’d never seen such a disgusted look on her face before.
“This way, please.”

Tom was nearly ready to panic, and he was aware of the other

wolves watching him, also curious.

They hadn’t been called into the main office like he was about to

be. “What for?”

“Just follow me,” Cynthia snapped, and she narrowed her eyes at

him.

What choice did he have?
Jeremy put his hand on Tom’s shoulder, and he was grateful for

just that small amount of comfort as he stepped through the door as
Cynthia demanded.

The doorway led to another hallway, one that was cut off from

even the lower level Templars, and definitely to the wolves.

Falling for the Captive

11

Tom guessed it was supposed to be the last line of defense, should

any prisoner escape and try to come after the men in charge of this
place. He wouldn’t be at all shocked to find out if there were trap
doors used as an escape route somewhere in here either. It was all
ridiculous, but he couldn’t make fun of it too much since he still
hadn’t figured this place out completely.

If he had, he would have taken his brother out of here weeks ago.
Cynthia stepped up to a steel door, something that looked strong

and thick enough that even Tom wouldn’t be able to break it down,
much less an alpha.

A dragon might, if it had the strength and time.
Cynthia swiped a key card down the panel, and a green light

flashed before something heavy clicked. Then she opened the door.

Tom half expected there to be a robot voice over an intercom

bidding him welcome, but there was nothing like that at all. On the
other side of the door was a regular looking office.

Granted, it was an expensive looking office, but there were no

torture devices in sight among the mahogany bookshelves, which
were loaded up with bibles that had to be hundreds of years old, not to
mention books on law and dragon legends, that sort of thing.

“Do you like my collection?” asked the man behind the desk.
Tom scowled and faced the man who had taken him and his

brother. The man actually called himself Paul Constantine. Tom knew
that wasn’t his real name, though he had no idea what his real name
actually was.

“I’d like them better from a distance,” Tom said. “You promised

that if I helped to bring in a dragon that my brother and I could go.
You’re supposed to be about keeping your promises and having
honor.”

“I am,” Paul said, nodding his head as if it were the most obvious

thing in the world.

12

Marcy Jacks

The guy was human, mid-fifties or so, but still incredibly strong

and healthy for an age where things should be breaking down. He was
also staring at Tom like he had a mouse in his cat claws.

Fuck, this couldn’t be good.
“What do you want?” Tom asked. He knew he wasn’t going to get

his brother today, or even this week, maybe even this month. He had
to keep playing this horrible game.

Paul leaned back in his chair, regarding Tom with that same

creepy smile on his face. Then he reached for his laptop, and he
turned the thing around so that Tom could see what was on the screen.

He tensed up, humiliation immediately making his face and body

feel hot, and not the good kind from before when he had to rush into
the bathroom.

In fact, the video was of him in the bathroom. There had to be a

camera pointing down at him in the stall where he’d been. That was
the only way to explain the angle.

No one had been inside of that bathroom when he’d gone in. He’d

made sure of that before entering one of the stalls

Which meant the camera had been in that bathroom before he’d

gone in, and likely had been there for a while.

Tom glared up at the man. “I guess it makes sense that you’re all

secretly a group of perverts along with kidnappers.”

“I’m not the one who did such a lewd thing in the men’s room. In

a church, I might add.”

“No, you’re the asshole who’s watching guys when they piss, in a

church, I might add,” Tom said, doing his best to mock the man.

“And masturbate as well, it seems,” Paul replied, and it irked Tom

to no end that this man didn’t seem to care at all about the complete
lack of privacy in his own building. He didn’t seem to care at all that
Tom was trying to pick a fight with him.

Paul returned the computer to its former position, and then he

went back to watching Tom.

Falling for the Captive

13

“So what are you going to do? I jerked off in your precious lair.

Fuck off,” Tom said. Considering the position of the camera, he was
willing to bet that Paul touched himself behind that desk all the
damned time, which really grossed him out for some reason.

“I know how werewolves work. You’re all sexual in nature, the

good Lord made you that way. It cannot be helped.”

“Great, so can I go now?”
“However,” Paul said, and this time his eyes did flash a little. “I

checked the cameras from the rest of the building, and you were
staring at one of those dragons for quite some time.”

Tom’s heart sped up, and for the first time, he was glad that Paul

was a human.

Despite that, the older man smiled such an evil smile, that it really

was as if he knew he had Tom by the balls.

“So what if I was staring? I’d never seen a dragon up close before.

Give me back my brother and let him take a look and he’ll do the
same thing.”

“Possibly, but then it’s more likely that your brother won’t be so

overcome with arousal that he will be forced into the men’s room to
relieve himself.”

Tom cringed. “Don’t talk about my little brother like that, you

disgusting pervert.”

Again, the insult didn’t seem to get through the invisible shields

that Paul had up around himself. He was completely unfazed by
everything, and it was really starting to piss Tom off.

“It’s the natural way of the wolves to have their mates chosen for

them by nature. This either happens through sight, scent, or even
touch from what I’ve read.”

And it sounded like all this man knew about werewolf mating

came from books. He’d never sat down and had a conversation with a
wolf in his life. On that, Tom was willing to bet everything he had.

“So what do you care?” Tom asked.

14

Marcy Jacks

Paul shrugged. “After you let the high dragon get away, I have

every reason in the world to care.”

“That wasn’t our fault. If you want someone to blame, blame

those dead Templars that the high dragon killed. Those idiots are to
blame.”

“And what is your proof of this?”
“That they’re dead,” Tom snapped.
Paul went back to narrowing his eyes, and it finally looked as if

Tom was starting to irritate the man. Good.

“Your hormones and instinct demand that you mate with him. I

want you to do this. Today.”

Tom fell back a step, as if he’d been physically shoved. “What?”
“You are to go to the dragon and you are to mate with him. While

you’re at it, find out exactly how we can get up the mountain and into
their castle. There has to be a way without flying.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me! I’m not doing that!”
“Why not?”
“Why—! Are you serious? You’re telling me to mate with a

dragon, to fuck someone that I don’t even know, so you can find out
where his leader lives? Ten seconds ago you were giving me shit for
jerking off in the bathroom!”

“Watch your language, young man,” Paul said, frowning a little

now.

Tom scoffed at that. “I’m thirty-five years old. Don’t tell me how

to speak.”

“Yes, well, I can tell you all I like how to behave if you don’t

have the manners to hold yourself back. You will go to that dragon,
and you will bind yourself to him. Let him take you and trust you, and
you and your brother will be free to go. I’ll even throw in the other
pups and their parents as well.”

Tom swallowed. This was suddenly looking like a better deal, and

if any of the guys outside that hallway found out about this, then there
would be a lot more pressure on him to go through with it.

Falling for the Captive

15

“If I mate with him, then I’ll be tied to him for the rest of my life.

He doesn’t have to return the sentiment. I’ll be bound to him and he’ll
be free to go off and be with whomever he wants.”

“Yes, I’m aware that dragons can be crude compared to God’s

more natural creations.”

Tom really wished the man would stop with that. “That’s

not…Dragons just mate differently. They have the choice. He can
bind himself to me, but he won’t. I know he won’t. He’s already seen
me and he knows I work with you.”

“Well then, it will be your job to convince him otherwise. I’ve

already requested that Cynthia inform the rest of your little pack about
the plans for their release. Surely you won’t disappoint them or their
children? Or your brother?”

Tom sucked in a breath, and he wanted nothing more than to

lunge across the desk and sink his canine teeth into Paul’s throat.

The stupid bastard knew exactly how to yank on Tom’s chain,

how to make him act and squirm.

“Are you agreeing?” Paul asked.
Tom clenched his fists, and he had to look down at his feet,

because there was no way in hell he could stare Paul in the eyes while
he agreed to something as horrible as this.

“Get all the Templars out of there, and the other dragon. I don’t

want any cameras watching us either. If I’m going to whore myself
out for you, then I want some fucking privacy for it.”

“You won’t be whoring yourself. This is for the betterment of

your pack and mankind as a whole. It’s a noble sacrifice.”

“You’re going to use me to get a dragon to spill his secrets to you,

and you’re paying me with those pups. There’s no other word to
describe it.”

Paul shrugged. “I’m sorry you feel that way.”
Which was exactly what people said when they weren’t sorry at

all.

16

Marcy Jacks

“Cynthia will give you all the supplies you need. Find her and she

will hand them over. You may go and see your brother while
preparations are made. I’ll even let the other parents see their pups as
well.”

And that would just make those wolves all the more desperate to

get their pups out of this place, and put a lot more pressure on Tom’s
shoulders.

He left the office, and he couldn’t even summon the dignity to

hold his head high as he did.

He was about to give himself to a creature who would as soon rip

him apart than mate with him. He was going to try and trick the
dragon into giving up something that he couldn’t.

Tom felt so damned dirty.

Falling for the Captive

17

Chapter Two

Grant Hamilton watched as the Templars walked right into the

cell next to his, and he roared and fought against the chains that held
him down as they picked Fraser up right off the floor, four fully
grown men who struggled with the task, and then walked out with
him.

Grant pulled on his chains until they dug into his scales, and more

angry and helpless roars left his mouth. His throat was being
scratched raw by the harsh noises that came from him, but the
Templars ignored him as they took away his older twin brother.

To be killed? Experimented on? If they brought him back alive,

would he still have his wings? How many scales would they take?

Fraser was still unconscious from whatever it was they’d drugged

him with, and the bullet wounds that made a mess of his scales
weren’t helping him either. Maybe they thought Fraser was already
dying, and that was why they were taking him away from here.

Grant felt a swell of helpless emotion rising up inside of his chest,

like a fireball wanting to come out, but he had no fire inside of him.
He wasn’t that sort of dragon. He still roared, though, loud enough to
make sure everyone in this goddamned building would hear him, and
the walls and floor shook around him.

He was going to kill every single fucking one of these bastards

when he got the chance. If his brother died, then Grant would go to
his own grave taking as many of these lunatics with him!

Grant pulled at his chains until they cut into his scales, and he still

didn’t stop even after that.

18

Marcy Jacks

He didn’t stop until he was forced to, when more Templars came

for him, and they surrounded him.

With his wings and tail chained down, he couldn’t use those to bat

away the people around him, and his claws and hind legs were out of
the question as well. The chain and collar around his long neck didn’t
give him much slack for biting either, but he sure as hell was going to
try.

The Templars were good. They weren’t being cocky like some of

the men who’d attacked him and his brother when they’d landed in
the woods. Fraser, though he’d been shot, had managed to kill one of
them before he’d been taken down.

Grant, in his attempt to save his brother, had gotten sloppy, and

though he’d managed to kill three Templars, these guys weren’t about
to meet the same fate. Not yet, at least.

Grant let out a pained noise when he was stabbed in the crook

where his wing met his back, right where the scales weren’t as strong.

No! They were cutting off his wings!
But then he started to feel drowsy, and cotton filled his ears and

mouth. No, not a knife he’d been stabbed with, but a needle. They
were putting him out, too. He hoped that they would take him to the
same lab where his brother was. He wanted to see him before he died.

When Grant woke up, he was cold, and in his human form, and

someone was right beside him, rubbing him down with a blanket.

“That’s it, you’re okay. Come on, warm up already.”
Grant sprung, his hand flying out and snatching at the throat of the

smaller man who was in his cage with him.

He snarled at the guy, but then realized too late that he was still in

his chains, still naked, and still in a cage instead of strapped to a metal
table somewhere.

The man held onto Grant’s wrist, trying to yank his hand away so

he could breathe, and it would have been funny, the way the guy’s
mouth opened and closed in a desperate attempt to breathe if the
situation hadn’t been so damned serious.

Falling for the Captive

19

“Who are you?” Grant demanded. His throat was slightly croaked

from all the roaring he’d been doing recently, but he wasn’t about to
show this little pissant that he’d been in pain from doing that.

The man gasped and wheezed, desperate for air, and Grant figured

he should let the man breathe if he wanted his answers.

He relaxed his hold, but he didn’t let him go.
The young blond, who looked to be in his early or mid twenties,

sucked in a desperate breath, color returning to his face.

Recognition dawned, and Grant couldn’t believe the man’s gall.

“You’re that…you were outside, walking around. You looked at me.
You’re with them!”

“I’m not with them!” the man shouted, and now he was the one

who looked pretty damned desperate. He had a good reason to look
that way as well.

“Whatever,” Grant said with a snort. “Where is my brother?

Where did your asshole friends take him?”

“I don’t know. They’re not going to hurt him!”
“Yeah right,” Grant said.
“Please, don’t kill me,” the man begged.
Grant was tempted to do just that. He had wanted to take out as

many Templars and their underlings as he possibly could but even
though he willed his fingers to squeeze, to choke the life out of the
man he had in his grasp, they didn’t tighten anymore.

Grant could hardly move, and he was fairly sure that it had

nothing to do with drugs.

The man was handsome enough, even though he was terrified.

Blond hair that was cropped short, but not as short as how Grant kept
his own hair.

He also had an interesting shade of eye color. Like someone had

dipped a tiny bit of green into blue paint and mixed it around, but then
didn’t finish the mix, leaving the eyes with a sort of tie-dye effect.
He’d never seen that color on anyone before in his life.

20

Marcy Jacks

The smell also told him that this was a werewolf. The fact that

he’d begged for his life meant that he wasn’t an alpha, but his muscle
tone suggested a beta. He definitely wouldn’t be able to take Grant in
a fight, which was probably why Grant was still in chains, though it
was interesting to note that the man he held was also naked.

He’d been naked when Grant had first seen him, but hadn’t he

bothered to get dressed since coming back?

Grant was suddenly a hell of a lot more suspicious of the man he

held. He also realized that his chains had more slack to them, unlike
the ones he’d worn as a dragon. These would allow Grant to move
around a little. Maybe even stand up and walk around.

“What are you doing here? Who are you?” Grant demanded.
The cute younger man swallowed. “My name’s Tom. Tom Parker.

I’m a beta werewolf, and for now I work with the Templars.”

“Why?”
“Because they tell me to, not because I agree with them,” Tom

said.

Grant narrowed his eyes. “Speak plainly to me, or I’ll shut you up

for good,” he threatened, and he managed to get his fingers to squeeze
just enough to let the man know he wasn’t kidding.

Which was total bullshit because for whatever reason, Grant did

not want to kill this man.

“I can’t tell you anymore, all right?” Tom snapped. “I’m

just…doing a job.”

Grant let out a disgusted noise, and he flung the wolf away from

him, hating that he’d had to touch him at all.

The only werewolf Grant liked was Conner, his high dragon’s

new mate, and even that respect had been slowly earned by the man’s
genuinely cheerful nature.

It seemed that Conner was destined to be the only wolf that Grant

ever liked, because the one in front of him was bringing out the worst
in him.

Falling for the Captive

21

“So it’s your job to come in here naked and wrap me up in a

blanket?”

“You were cold. You were shivering,” Tom said, and he wasn’t

looking at Grant’s face, or even Grant. He was staring down at the
floor as he rubbed his arm. He looked nervous, and Grant shoved
away the tiny part of himself that felt sympathy.

They were both still on their knees, and now that Grant had the

reminder, he realized that it was indeed pretty damn cold on the floor.
A lot colder than he thought it was.

Grant scowled at himself as he reached for the blanket, wanting to

have a look for himself, as if he would discover there had been
something sinister about it.

It really did just look like a regular blanket, the only thing that

was off about it, was the fact that there was a small bottle of lubricant
among the folds.

Grant picked it up, and he looked right into the blond’s blushing

face. He guy was actually hiding his face behind his hand.

“You’re cute and all—”
“I can explain—”
They’d both spoken at the same time, and when that happened,

they both stared at each other, as if shocked.

“All right, explain,” Grant said. “Because more and more it’s

looking like you were sent in here to get me to fuck you. Do the
Templars want some cross between wolf and dragons? Because if
they want a hatchling, they’re out of luck.”

“Because you won’t have sex with me?”
“Because the conditions aren’t right,” Grant said, and that was all

he was going to say on the matter as well. He barely knew this man,
as cute as he was, so there was no way he was going to get into how
dragons could impregnate, and only during certain times of the year.
Sometimes they couldn’t even do it for years at a time either. With
such long life spans, it wouldn’t be the best thing in the world if
dragons repopulated like bunnies.

22

Marcy Jacks

Grant would need to go into heat. His body would produce an

immense amount of sperm, as well as a blank egg that would go
inside of his chosen mate.

The whole thing was supposed to be a painful process for males

who were chosen to carry the hatchlings, which was why everyone
had worried about the high dragon choosing such a weak mate for
himself. The men who went through with it had to have their entire
insides changed around as a womb was created to house the egg. The
egg would then take the DNA of the mother, and the sperm would do
the rest before it could start to grow.

It was so much easier and less dangerous to just have hatchlings

with another dragon, or even a female. They already had the innards
for that sort of thing, even if the egg itself always posed as something
of a problem after it started to get on the larger side, especially if the
shell cracked before the birth.

Grant couldn’t even remember the last time he’d gone into heat,

but he hadn’t impregnated anyone in years, and he swore to himself
that it wouldn’t take anything less than Armageddon for him to do it
again.

“Well, that works out just fine anyway, because I don’t want to

get pregnant, and don’t go around talking about wolf and dragon
mixes. You’re going to give them some ideas.”

It almost sounded as if this young man really was trying to help

Grant, but it could easily be a trick. Templars weren’t exactly known
for being honest or fair.

“So then, why are they putting you in here with me?”
Tom looked away from him again. “I told you, it’s a job I have to

do. It’s…it’s nothing personal.”

“I see. Well, if the Templars don’t want my sperm to make a

hatchling with, then it’s clear they brought you in here to lull me into
a false sense of security. I won’t reveal names from my clan or where
the castle is or how to get there.”

Falling for the Captive

23

“They practically already know where it is anyway,” Tom said,

and it sounded like the little brat was sulking! “It’s not like you all
make it hard for them to figure it out, considering you’re always
flying off in the same direction to get back home.”

Grant frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. When he got out of

here, he was going to have to speak with Aris, the high dragon, about
that as well.

“I still won’t say a thing.”
“Even if it means saving your brother?” Tom asked.
Grant immediately grabbed the man by the throat, and he

slammed him down onto the cold ground.

Tom’s heart started to pound, and those interesting blue-green

eyes stared up at him. There was fear in them. Grant hated that. “Just
so you know, I do not enjoy making smaller men fear me.”

The fun was only in making larger men fear him.
Tom glared up at him. “So it’s my fault you can’t control

yourself?”

“Yes!” Grant snapped, and then he had to hold back a groan,

because that did not sound the way he wanted it to.

They stared at each other for some time, and Grant only just

remembered that he and Tom were naked when the werewolf reached
down between them, and his warm hand wrapped around Grant’s
cock.

Grant’s entire body tensed up. “Are you serious?”
“Did I not come off as serious before?” Tom asked, but he wasn’t

even looking Grant in the face. He was staring down at his hand as it
moved up and down the hard shaft of Grant’s dick.

His cheeks were slightly flushed, and he started biting down on

his lips, which was giving them a naturally dark color.

Grant paid special attention to the sound of the man’s heart. It was

beating quickly. Tom’s skin was warmer as his blood flowed hotter,
and when he looked down between them, it was easy to see Tom’s
own erection, dark and standing on end between his legs.

24

Marcy Jacks

“You’re into this, aren’t you?” Grant asked.
Tom stopped what he was doing for only half a second, staring up

into Grant’s face with surprise, before his hand started to move again.
“Sure. You could say that.”

Weird, that this guy was into such kinky shit that he didn’t mind

being used like this, that he clearly wanted it. Christ, considering the
reactions from Tom’s body, Grant would be willing to bet that the guy
would be inside of this cage, trying to have sex with him regardless of
whether or not any Templars had ordered it.

And despite how weird it all was, Grant found himself slowly not

caring. His shoulders relaxed and he groaned and his body became
almost too limp to hold up. His and Tom’s chests were pressed
together, and he could feel the hard nubs of Tom’s nipples against his
skin, along with his warm breath.

It shouldn’t have been possible, but Grant wasn’t just having a

bodily reaction to getting his dick stroked. He was seriously getting
hot for this. He wanted to turn this wolf onto his hands and knees and
put his cock so deep inside of him that Tom would always remember
who he belonged to.

Grant had already decided his revenge. He was going to take this

man, and he was going to make Tom his. Tom wanted to be fucked by
a dragon so bad? Well, fine, but Grant was going to make sure that he
was the last person that Tom ever went to bed with.

He pushed himself away from Tom’s heat with only a slight

groan, and he stared down into Tom’s now yellow eyes. A clear sign
that the beast was just under the surface.

Grant already knew that his eyes were the same. He and the

dragon within him weren’t exactly separate entities, like how some
wolf shifters described themselves, but he still had the instincts that
shouted out for him to make a claim and take this prize for himself.

“This mean you’re going to do it?” Tom asked.
He looked so damn young. Grant was going to have to find out

exactly how old he was. After he’d fucked him.

Falling for the Captive

25

He reached for the little bottle of lube that Tom had brought into

the cell with him. “Yes. Get on your hands and knees.”

26

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Three

Tom did as he was told, but only after he quickly grabbed onto the

blanket and arranged it beneath his body. The cement floor was still
cold as all hell, and he didn’t want his first time with his mate to be
that crude where they didn’t even have the comfort of a blanket
beneath them.

And he wasn’t going to tell Grant that he was mated to the man.

Not yet. The fear of being rejected was too damned much. He just had
to do this, show Paul that he was more than willing to do what needed
to be done to get free from this place, and then he could take Brandon
before finding a way to free Grant.

It would be better if Grant did tell him how to get to the castle on

foot. If he could just get the dragon to let that information slip, then
Tom would go up to the castle himself and he would tell the dragons
where Grant was.

So many thoughts running through his head, and all of it was just

himself thinking about anything other than what he was about to do.

He’d always thought that finding his mate would be a happy

occurrence. He’d never expected it to be with a dragon in captivity.

A gorgeous dragon in captivity. When Tom had seen his mate

shivering like he had been on the floor, he’d been glad that he’d
thought to ask for a blanket from Cynthia, because his mission had
then become to keep his mate from freezing to death.

As he did, he was able to take in all the details of Grant’s face and

body. Wide shoulders, a jaw that was squared without being blocky,
and the mark on his cheek that Tom had noticed before turned out to
be a tattoo of a star. He wondered why the man would have that.

Falling for the Captive

27

Grant grabbed him by the shoulders and yanked him back around.

Tom was so stunned by the feeling of his large, strong hands on his
skin, that his mouth opened and closed as he stupidly thought of
something to say.

“No more fiddling with that damn blanket! Either man up or get

out of here,” Grant snapped.

The fact that he was calling Tom a coward, in a roundabout way,

and then telling him to get out if he couldn’t do this, was giving Tom
all kinds of courage that he didn’t have before.

He growled at the larger man, and Grant hissed back at him. Tom

was shocked that a forked tongue didn’t come out of his mouth.

Nope. Just a regular, good looking, pink tongue, and Tom wanted

it. He grabbed onto Grant by the ears and yanked his face forward,
smashing their mouths together in a kiss that was more biting and a
fight for dominance than anything else.

Tom was determined to win, if only to prove to this asshole

dragon that he wasn’t some precious little weakling, but then Grant’s
hands on his neck and shoulders were too damned strong, and Tom’s
inner wolf found himself responding to a perceived alpha.

Grant was stronger than Tom was, even though he was still so

damned weak from being drugged and left on the freezing cold floor
of his cell.

Tom’s body damn near went limp as the man’s grip on his neck

tightened. The throat was always the Achilles’ heel. Never fucking
failed.

But then Tom was moaning and making little mewling kitten

noises as Grant worked Tom’s mouth open, and then he thrust his
tongue deep inside, licking him everywhere.

He was so damned thorough. It was amazing. Grant tasted clean,

like water from a spring, which was interesting considering he’d been
here for a couple of hours already. Tom had never tasted this on
anyone’s mouth before in his life, and he knew for a fact that he was
never going to be able to kiss another man again.

28

Marcy Jacks

Grant could decide he didn’t want a wolf for a mate, especially

one who had worked with the Templars, and he would be free to toss
Tom away. Grant wasn’t the one who had insta-mated, like Tom had
after all.

That thought alone made the worst sort of pain flare up inside of

Tom’s chest, and a choked noise escaped him when that happened.

Grant immediately pulled back, and his grip on the back of Tom’s

throat lessened a little. “Did I hurt you at all?” he asked.

Tom licked his lips. They were so damned swollen from the

kissing, and they felt really good. “No. I’m fine.”

“Then stop making those noises like you’re in pain,” Grant said.

“If you are, just let me know and we can stop.”

“No!” Tom said, a desperate panic entering him at the thought of

not being able to finish what they’d started, “I can do this. I’m fine.”

Grant stared at him for a moment, almost like he didn’t believe

him. He needed to believe it because Tom wasn’t getting his brother
out of here if he didn’t.

He also wouldn’t get fucked by his mate if Grant decided that this

was too much for Tom to deal with.

Tom needed this. At least once. Even if this never happened

again, he needed this now. Tom forgot all about his little brother, and
the fact that they were sitting in a cold cell on a blanket that barely
kept the chill from the hard cement floor beneath them away. He
pushed against Grant’s chest, needing to use a fair amount of his
strength just to get the man to fall down on his back.

Grant made a grunting noise, which was about when Tom

remembered he wasn’t in such great shape.

“Are you okay?”
Grant scowled at him. “This doesn’t look like you on your knees,”

he said.

Tom grinned at that, recalling the command that Grant had given

him to get on his hands and knees.

Falling for the Captive

29

“I am on my knees,” he said, and he wiggled his ass a little over

Grant’s erection. “I’m just straddling you while I’m at it.”

“Come here,” Grant demanded, reaching for him, and Tom did as

he was told and bent over, and then he was on his hands and knees,
kissing and being kissed by Grant so sweetly it was almost as if Tom
could convince himself they were a real couple.

Grant sighed, and he let his hands roam all the way down to

Tom’s ass. The man squeezed each round globe, massaging them
before dipping his fingers into Tom’s crack.

Tom shivered, pleasure already thrumming through him, and that

was before Grant positioned his cock between Tom’s ass cheeks.

He tensed up, immediately ready to spring away. “You’d better

not be thinking of sticking that in dry,” Tom said.

“Of course not, just relax,” Grant said, and Tom grumbled at that.
He didn’t have to act like it was the most obvious thing in the

world that he wouldn’t do it. How was Tom to know? Tom had been
with some people in his life who had done it, and he’d never liked the
experience.

He figured he had no choice but to do as the man said. So he tried

his best to relax, and then he started to realize what Grant was doing.

The man was searching for friction for his cock, which now felt

even thicker than when Tom had been stroking it.

The man groaned beneath him, and Tom swore than he’d never

seen anything in his life as handsome as that. Grant was struggling to
keep his dragon eyes open as he pushed his head back into the
blanket, all the while thrusting his cock up and forward into Tom’s
ass cheeks.

“Fuck, what are you doing?” Grant asked, looking up at him.

“Move.”

Why hadn’t he thought of that?
Tom leaned down and pressed his lips to Grant’s in another

searing kiss. He thrust his hips down and forward as Grant moved up.
The friction of his cock against Grant’s hard abs sent shivers through

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Marcy Jacks

Tom’s body, and he groaned, making more of those helpless little
noises that he couldn’t stop as he put his arms around Grant’s
shoulder.

He just wanted to be touched all over by this man.
Grant moved his mouth away from Tom’s lips, and then he put

that hot mouth and his slick tongue right over Tom’s neck at the crook
of the shoulder.

Everything inside of Tom’s mind buzzed, like his brain cells were

exploding miniature fireworks in front of his eyes.

“Yes! Right there!” Tom moaned. He wasn’t even aware that he’d

spoken out loud until he heard Grant’s answering chuckle.

“Werewolves and their necks,” he said and then shook his head a

little, but he continued what he was doing despite his amusement of it.

Meanwhile, Tom’s inner wolf was dancing and yipping like some

overenergized puppy. It wanted Grant’s mouth there. It wanted the
mating bite that would forever mark Tom as belonging to him.

Tom wasn’t even thinking about the possibility of never being

able to see or speak with Grant again after this. All that mattered was
right now.

Grant didn’t bite him, which made Tom whimper. Grant must’ve

taken that as a noise of pleasure rather than disappointment, because
he didn’t comment on it at all, except to tell him to be patient.

“Calm down. You were the one who wanted to make sure you

were lubed up, remember?”

What the hell was he talking about?
Then Tom heard the pop of a plastic cap, heard the squeeze, and

then felt slick fingers touching his asshole. He groaned and shivered,
letting his head fall down onto Grant’s chest as those fingers pushed
deep inside of him.

They hooked and scissored. Tom’s entrance burned with the

preparation. He hadn’t had sex since, well the last time, and that had
been a couple of years ago already.

Falling for the Captive

31

Grant noticed, and he commented on it. “If I didn’t know any

better, I’d say you were a virgin.”

“I’m not,” Tom replied, but then he shivered and gasped again as

Grant’s fingers found his prostate, and they teased that nub, sliding
across it and making the damned thing beg and sing.

Oh wait, that was just Tom pleading and moaning for more.
Tom gasped and let out a shocked yell when Grant grabbed him

around the waist and lifted him right off the floor. “What are you—
gah!” he said as his back was slammed down onto the blanket. His
body was only halfway on the thing now, but he couldn’t feel any of
the cold from the hard concrete, as he was too fucking hot from what
Grant was doing to him.

The man pushed Tom’s knees apart and settled back between

them, and then his fingers were thrusting in and out of Tom’s
entrance. Mimicking the act of fucking.

“I like to be on top,” Grant said, leaning over Tom like he was his

prey.

Tom didn’t mind it in the least. “R–really? I wouldn’t have

noticed. Oh!”

“You have a smart mouth on you.”
“Want me to do something else with it?”
Grant chuckled. "Pickup lines are done and over with. You

already got me in bed, so now you’re stuck with me,” he said.

Goddamn, Tom was going to expire from too much pleasure.

Seriously.

He reached down and fisted his dick, needing to touch himself

because what he was experiencing was just too damn much for him at
the moment. He was panting but he couldn’t take in a breath, and the
pleasure was so monumentally good, yet he couldn’t come or get
enough of it.

“Fuck, that feels good. Don’t stop, please don’t stop. Harder!”
Grant made some comment about how eager Tom was for it,

about how his body responded, but Tom couldn’t be exactly sure of

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Marcy Jacks

what was being said. His brain was fried, and that was perfectly all
right.

Was this why no one ever strayed from their mates? The sex was

just too damned good? Or was it a combination of the sex and how
spiritually close wolves felt to their mates. Tom felt so close to Grant
right now that he wasn’t sure how he’d gone his entire life without
seeing this man, or feeling him on top of him, or even just knowing
his name.

He was never going to be the same after this. He had no idea what

he was going to do if Grant tried to leave him behind.

The fingers were removed from Tom’s body, and then the hard

length of Grant’s cock was being pressed against his stretched hole.
The crown was the hardest part to take, and Tom grit his teeth at the
slight pain. He’d forgotten about this, but then the head popped
through the ring of stretched muscle, and then Grant was sighing, his
body shaking as he slowly pushed in deep.

The burning was back, but the pain wasn’t so bad, especially

considering how big Grant’s cock actually was.

Tom could take him. He would take him and he would do it

gladly. He knew he could do it gladly when the tip of Grant’s dick
touched his prostate. “Oh fuck,” he moaned.

“That’s right, you’re never going to get anything as good as this

again.”

Tom shook his head. “No.” He would agree to that

wholeheartedly because he never wanted another man other than
Grant. “Move. Please, fuck, move,” Tom begged, and when Grant
didn’t do as he begged him to do in that millisecond, he tried reaching
back down with his hand to give himself some relief. His cock was
throbbing in time with his heartbeat, and he tried to even hump
upward to get more friction from Grant’s chest, but there was still
nothing. Not yet.

Tom let out a helpless wail when Grant grabbed onto his wrists

and pushed them above his head.

Falling for the Captive

33

Panic flooded him. “No, please no,” he said, squirming to get

away.

Grant misunderstood him, thank God. “You can’t touch that until

I say so,” he said. “No coming until I say so either.”

His words managed to bring Tom back from the brink of hard

memories, back to where he actually was and what he was doing. He
took in several deep breaths, trying to calm himself.

It worked. He just matched his breathing to Grant’s, and that

seemed to be enough to get himself and his inner wolf to completely
relax.

Grant grinned down at him, and he actually reached down and

pushed back some of Tom’s hair, even though it wasn’t in his eyes.
Just feeling the man’s fingers against his scalp was enough to make
Tom shiver.

He couldn’t give Grant back to the Templars. He couldn’t do any

of this, not even for his friends or their own pups. He was going to
find a way to get his brother and his mate out of this place when they
were done here.

Grant grabbed onto Tom’s wrist again, which he hadn’t moved

from its spot above his head when Grant touched his hair, and the
larger man leaned in for another kiss. Then his hips started to move.

Tom gasped, his mouth opening and allowing Grant’s tongue to

slide inside. Considering dragons didn’t claim their mates in the same
way that wolves did, Tom was feeling pretty damned claimed right
now.

Grant’s next forward surge was harder, and the one after that was

even faster. The pace was picking up, and Tom’s entrance was being
stretched and slammed into as Grant started to lose control of himself.
The man was groaning into Tom’s mouth, and Tom tried to swallow
each of those noises, moaning along with him as his body was plowed
into in the best possible way, and because Grant and he were
practically chest to chest, Tom’s cock was finally being teased with
more friction as it was trapped between their bellies.

34

Marcy Jacks

Tom needed more. He needed so much more. His balls were

tightening up but he just couldn’t seem to come, and not because
Grant hadn’t given him permission either. If his body was about to
erupt, then there was nothing anyone could say about that. That was
just biology.

Then he realized what he needed. “Bite me. Please bite me!”

Falling for the Captive

35

Chapter Four

Grant didn’t understand in the least what the man beneath him

wanted a bite for. Tom begged for it, seemed so desperate, that in the
beginning he was worried for the man.

But then he recalled that Conner wore a bite scar on his throat,

and the rumor that went around was that it had happened when he and
Aris had been in bed together. Werewolves loved having their necks
played with, and it seemed they also enjoyed being bitten during sex
as well.

“Grant, please!”
Tom’s body was tight, and he was sweating. His muscles twitched

and spasmed, and this looked like something he desperately needed,
so why not give it to him?

He let his teeth grow out longer inside of his mouth. The regular

sting and swelling came, but then that was gone in a near instant,
leaving behind only the slight taste of blood.

His teeth weren’t like a vampire’s fangs, or even like the canines

of a wolf. All of his teeth became longer and pointed. All of them.

“This what you want?” Grant asked.
He almost expected the sight of his teeth to scare the hell out of

the wolf, but it didn’t. The man still stared at him with that same lust
in his eyes. He was almost drunk on it, but he nodded his head.
“Yeah, right now, please.”

He was serious. Well, Grant might as well do it. He wanted to

start moving again. Tom’s body was like a hot glove around his prick,
and Grant wanted to come inside there.

36

Marcy Jacks

Tom guided Grant’s head to his throat, showing him exactly

where he wanted the bite to be. Grant pressed his lips to that spot, and
he opened his mouth wide.

Tom’s entire body tensed up, his ass rearing up and pulling Grant

deeper inside of him as he moaned.

Tom moaned. Grant almost couldn’t believe it. That he would get

pleasure from having the skin on his neck and shoulder broken was a
little strange, but now that Grant had the man’s blood in his mouth, he
was being consumed by the taste as well. It was warm and it made
him heady. It made his own blood run hotter and his heart beat faster.
He needed this. Grant didn’t suck on the blood like a vampire, but
even when he pulled his teeth away, he made sure to lick up the bits
of blood that flooded the small wound he’d created.

It was a mean-looking thing. Grant hadn’t meant to bite down so

hard, but there was nothing he could do about it now except press a
small, apologetic kiss to the spot just beside it. The spot that wasn’t
injured.

Tom didn’t seem to mind at all. He was panting and blinking as if

he was in a daze, and that was when Grant looked between them and
realized the man had come.

He’d actually had an orgasm from being bitten on the shoulder

like that.

“Sorry,” Tom said. “I couldn’t hold back.”
Ah yes, Grant had told him not to come until he was told. But

there was nothing to be done for it now. Perhaps he would find a way
to punish the wolf for that later on.

“Don’t be sorry. I still intend to finish,” Grant said. Knowing that

the wolf beneath him had actually reached his pleasure made Grant’s
cock twitch and swell. His balls ached, and he was going to do
something about that right now.

Tom still moaned, apparently feeling the pleasurable aftershocks

that still came after an orgasm, when Grant grabbed him by the legs
and lifted his knees above his shoulders.

Falling for the Captive

37

Staring down at Tom like that, splayed out for him to take, his

own cum on him and smelling like lust and sex was too fucking
much, and Grant wanted to fuck him for hours.

That was when he really started to move. He held nothing back.

His hips moved like they were attached to a machine, and the way
Tom still moaned was music to his damned ears.

How in the hell had the Templars managed to get their hands on

someone as gorgeous as this? Was he only here to have sex with
prisoners?

That made Grant incredibly angry. He hated the very thought of

Tom with anyone else, using them and letting himself be used like
that, and so Grant sped up the momentum of his thrusts.

His balls tightened up between his legs, and he was shaking with

the urge to hold himself back as much as possible. He wanted this to
last. It felt so damned good, so perfect. He was going to make sure
that when he left this place, Tom was coming with him.

Grant opened his mouth and let out a roar as everything inside of

him that had been building up suddenly spilled forward. His warm
cum filled up Tom’s insides, and he continued to milk himself fast
and hard while his cock was still erect. The addition of his sperm
made Tom’s tunnel that much slicker, and he was very disappointed
when he finally had to come to a stop.

Grant panted hard, pressing his face to the side of Tom’s leg. The

man’s body heat was actually cooler, which usually wasn’t the case
with dragons and wolves. It tended to be the other way around.

Grant stopped what he was doing when he realized he was

nuzzling the man’s calf.

Tom was practically passed out on the blanket, which had become

a mess beneath them. The man’s hands were still up and above his
head, and his eyes were glazed over and barely open.

“That was great,” he said, a tiny smile on his pink, swollen lips.
Grant had to wholeheartedly agree.

38

Marcy Jacks

It wasn’t until the tiny bit of affection materialized that he became

angry.

This wasn’t a meeting between lovers, or even friends. Tom had

come here stating he needed to do a job, and now that job was done.
He needed to go, before Grant got anymore weird ideas in his mind
about cuddling or holding the man while their hearts went back to a
normal rate.

He pulled his now soft cock out of the other man, and even then

he made sure to do it gently. He didn’t want to hurt the guy, after all.
“Now get out.”

That seemed to wake Tom right up, and his eyes widened as he sat

up on his elbows. “What?”

This was annoying. “You came in here to fuck me, for whatever

twisted purposes that the Templars wanted you to do it for. You did it,
it’s done, and I’m still not telling you how to get up to the castle. Get
lost.”

The tiny choked sound that came from Tom’s throat shocked the

hell out of Grant, and the man’s chin actually trembled a little before
Tom turned away. “Keep the blanket, it’s cold down here,” he said.

Grant just watched him get to his feet, and he didn’t know what to

do about any of this because he was actually feeling like a total
asshole. He felt guilty for apparently hurting the wolf’s feelings, and
he had nothing to feel guilty about.

Still, a part of him wanted to call out to the man as he left the

cage, shutting the steel bar door behind him. He didn’t do any of that.

Grant was pissed off after Tom left. How dare that little brat act

all hurt and betrayed, when he was the one working with Templars?
Werewolves and shifters everywhere would be up in arms if they all
heard of dragons teaming up with hunters. Tom was the one who had
something to feel guilty for, not Grant.

It only occurred to Grant after Tom was gone that he should have

tried to use the man as his hostage. Grant was in chains, but he’d been
holding onto Tom not too long ago. He’d been inside of him and

Falling for the Captive

39

bitten him with his teeth, and Tom had let him do all of that to him for
his mission.

And despite that, it hadn’t occurred to Grant to grab onto the man

and use him as a human shield, or even to kill him, like he probably
should have.

He already knew he would never kill that man. There was

something incredibly sinister about killing a person while making
love. He didn’t even like watching horror movies with that in them.
But still, having him as a hostage would have been useful. Maybe.

Why hadn’t he done it? Why had he completely forgotten about

his chance to escape? He needed to get out of here. His brother was
counting on him, and Grant had fucked up because he’d been too busy
getting laid in his prison cell.

He was so fucked.

* * * *

After a brief shower to wash away Grant’s scent, Tom went to the

bunk where he slept. His was the bottom bed, and he reached into the
chest at the foot of it for a pair of clean clothes.

The wolves who had been kidnapped by the Templars lived

sparsely in this place. Two pairs of clothes, all of which were used
and cheap in case they needed replacing, and no one got their own
personal room. There were bunk beds all along the wall, and Tom
could see the way everyone was staring at him out of the corner of
their eyes. They were curious. They wanted to know if Tom had
succeeded so they could take their children out of here, but no one
was asking.

Jeremy was the first to break the silence. “I see he bit you,” he

said quietly.

“Yeah,” Tom said softly. He didn’t even want to look up into his

friend’s eyes. He wanted to get under the thin covers of his bed and
hide away. It would be better if Brandon was at least in here with him

40

Marcy Jacks

so he could see for himself that his brother was all right, but he
already told himself that he wasn’t going to try for another visit until
tomorrow.

“Are you okay?” Jeremy asked.
No, Tom thought, and a flash of the anger and disgust that had

been in Grant’s eyes went through his mind. He never wanted to see
that look on the man’s face again. It had hurt too much.

The worst part, however, was how Jeremy would look exactly the

same if he knew that Tom was planning on running. Once he worked
out the details.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Jeremy asked.
Tom shook his head. He wanted his bed. He wanted to pretend to

sleep so he could think about what he was going to do tomorrow, how
he was going to get his brother and his mate out of this place.
Brandon was only four years old. He wouldn’t be able to defend
himself if he left without him, but he couldn’t leave without Grant
either. Not now that he mated with the man.

“I just want to sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow,” Tom said, and he

flopped onto the thin, ratty mattress of the bottom bunk, pulling the
covers over his head.

“Yeah, sure thing, man,” Jeremy replied.
Tom felt so guilty. Guilty and dirty. He was going to go to hell for

this.

Falling for the Captive

41

Chapter Five

Grant had been pacing in his cell, as much as the chains around

his wrists, ankles, and neck would allow.

Long after Tom had left, no one had come to him to diminish the

number of links in the chain, forcing him down onto the floor like
he’d been while in his dragon form.

A man had come to him with a plate of food, but Grant hadn’t

touched it. He wasn’t about to let the Templars drug him with
anything else. The problem was that he’d never had to keep himself
from eating before. He’d endured torture a time or two in his life, but
how long would he be able to go without food, especially when it was
put right in front of him, before he gave in?

He thought about his brother. He’d yelled at the man who brought

the food, demanding some answers, but he hadn’t spoken a word as
he pushed Grant’s plate forward with a stick, and then left.

Grant touched the star tattoo on his right cheek, thinking about the

man who was older than he was by a couple of hours. Their mother
had claimed that Grant had been stubborn, and hadn’t wanted to come
out into the world. When he did finally arrive, the stars were in the
sky.

Fraser and Grant had gotten their tattoos immediately when they

came of age. As fun as it had been to trick people in their youth about
who was whom, in adulthood they’d wanted their friends to know the
difference between them. Fraser’s tattoo was that of a small sun, and
just touching the ink on his own face was enough to help Grant feel a
little closer to the man, but farther away at the same time.

42

Marcy Jacks

He could be dead by now. Or strapped to a table. Was he awake?

Was he wondering what happened to Grant?

Grant was going to kill everyone responsible for hurting the man.
But then he always got to thinking. Why hadn’t he killed Tom?

The man had literally been helpless in Grant’s hands. Tom had been
distracted from the sex, his guard had been down, and Grant even
managed to get his hand around the man’s throat a time or two.

But he hadn’t done anything. He’d pretty much let the man go. He

had let him go. And now he was standing around in this goddamn cell
wondering if he was all right, too. As if it mattered.

Grant didn’t care about the man or what his sob story reason could

be for working with the Templars. It was unforgivable, and he needed
to pay attention to his surroundings and find a weakness that he could
exploit so he could get the hell out of here.

One of the metal doors in the basement where his cell was kept

opened and squealed as it was in a bad need of oiling.

He looked up and over at who this newcomer would be. Probably

someone who was just here to make sure he ate his drugged food.

He gasped at the sight of Tom, only half-dressed in a pair of gray

joggers, being dragged over to his cell by the arms. He wasn’t doing
anything to help the two men to put him away, and with his head
lowered, blond hair slick with sweat, it made Grant wonder if he was
even conscious.

Tom’s hands were shackled in front of him, and then, as one of

the two men used an old set of keys to unlock the cage door where
Grant was being held, Tom suddenly came alive and started to thrash
and struggle.

That surprised Grant, as well as the two Templars who were

holding onto him because it was suddenly a struggle to get Tom
inside of the cage.

“Hold him! Hold him!” shouted one of the Templars.
“I’m trying!”

Falling for the Captive

43

Tom kicked and roared. He bit and twisted his body around,

slamming himself into one of the Templars, taking the bastard down
onto the ground with him.

Grant watched, heart pounding as he thought that the wolf might

actually get free from the two men, but then a Taser came out, and
when it was thrust against the bare skin of Tom’s bruised back, the
man reared back and screamed.

So did the Templar beneath him. Either out of fear of getting

shocked, or maybe he even felt some of the pain that Tom was
feeling, considering their uniforms were made up of a lot of a lot of
metal plates.

Tom slumped over, and Grant hissed. His heart was beating so

damned fast, and he hated watching as these Templars treated another
being like this. It was disgusting the way they kicked at Tom’s body,
even as he curled up to defend his stomach, ribs, and head.

These men thought they worked for God.
Eventually, they stopped with their abuse when they felt they’d

paid Tom back enough for what he’d done.

“Stupid wolf,” one of them said, and when Tom didn’t move, they

just grabbed him by the legs, which were also chained up, and
dragged him into the cage with Grant.

“This is your own fault you know,” said the other Templar as

Tom’s legs were dropped unto the cold, hard ground.

Now that he was closer and no longer thrashing around, Grant

could see the huge, nasty-looking bruises that were on his face.

From the distance, and because of the way Tom had been moving

around, it had looked as if he’d just had dirt on his face or something.

In reality, he actually had a nasty-looking black eye that was

already swollen, and from the scuffle with the two Templars just now,
it also appeared as if the skin had broken. Drops of blood were
leaking from the ruined flesh.

44

Marcy Jacks

He also had a busted lip and a scrape on his forehead. Being tased

like that would also give him a nasty-looking bruise on his back later
on.

Grant hissed at the Templars and slashed out with his claws when

they came too close to him, careless as they dropped off the shifter
who had just caused them their problems.

They swore and danced out of the way. The lucky bastards didn’t

know what Grant would have done to them if he’d caught them.

“Fuck! He almost got me!”
“What did you expect a dragon to do? Lay out the welcome mat?”
“Fuck off, like you were paying attention,” the other Templar

grumbled, and then they actually started making jokes at Tom as they
left the cage behind. Grant had already learned that the door was the
kind that locked on its own when shut. The two men laughed off their
close encounter with a dragon as they walked away, and Grant wished
he could explode their heads with his mind. He really wanted
someone dead.

Tom groaned and turned over, hiding his face from Grant.
Grant’s insides twisted. He wanted someone dead, but he wasn’t

about to kill this man. “Are you all right? Can you come over here?”

Tom just groaned again, and Grant was seriously starting to worry

that he might be on the verge of passing out. It had looked as if some
of those kicks had landed on the back of his head, not to mention all
the abuse he’d taken before getting here.

He could have a concussion. Tom was a wolf, but what kind did

he say he was again? A beta, that was it, right? How fast did they
heal?

An unnatural amount of panic started to creep into Grant bit by

bit. He couldn’t take this, and he pulled against his chains but there
wasn’t enough room for him to get a grip on any of Tom’s limbs and
yank him closer. He was only a short distance away, the length of
Grant’s hand.

Falling for the Captive

45

“Tom, come on, don’t do this. Stay awake and come over here to

me. I know you can hear what I’m saying, come on!”

Tom made another groaning noise. He sounded nauseated, like he

was about to throw up. Grant had been sick a time or two after enough
beatings to his head. He knew exactly what Tom was feeling right
now, but the problem was that they were in a cell. Grant couldn’t just
take the man to a healer and call it a day.

“Tom, come on. Tom!”
Tom turned his head, and he seemed to be having trouble getting a

good look into Grant’s face, but there was a…hint of a smile? There
was nothing to be smiling about in their situation, so why would he be
doing it?

At least when he smiled wider, it showed that the Templars hadn’t

knocked any of his perfect teeth out of his mouth.

Tom uncurled his body and turned over, putting himself within

reaching distance of Grant’s hands, and he lifted his hand to show the
things he’d really been protecting.

The keys. Holy God, Tom had managed to swipe the keys from

those Templars just now. He must’ve done it when he’d slammed
against them and started fighting, and the two idiots had been more
concerned with embarrassing their captive than making sure they had
all of their stuff.

Grant grabbed onto the keys so he could unlock their chains and

get them the hell out of here, but Tom didn’t immediately let go.

Grant looked at him. “I need to get us out of here,” he said, not

even sure how much Tom could understand.

Tom nodded, and he looked so damned dazed it was breaking

Grant’s heart. As if he was responsible for the man and should have
protected him or something.

“Don’t leave without the pups,” Tom said, his voice so small that

Grant had to lean in just to hear it.

Even then he wasn’t so sure he caught that. “What? Tom, I

haven’t seen any pups around.”

46

Marcy Jacks

They needed to start moving. The longer they sat in this cell, the

more of a chance there was that one of those two dipshits would
realize the keys were missing, and then come looking for them.

“They’re here,” Tom said, slurring his voice a little. “M–my little

brother. He’s only four.”

Grant’s eyes widened. Ah, shit, that explained why Tom was here

helping the Templars. He basically had a hatchling to take care of. Or
a pup, as the wolves called them.

Grant nodded. “All right. I’ll go looking for them, but you have to

help me out with this, too. I need to find my brother first, okay?”

Tom didn’t answer. His eyes remained shut.
Grant’s heart damn near stopped. “Tom? Tom!” Grant snapped,

whispering the man’s name as loudly as he could, hopefully without
drawing the attention of one of the Templars in the building.

He grabbed Tom by the shoulders and started to shake him. He

still didn’t wake up, and Grant held his breath as he leaned down and
checked his wolf’s heartbeat.

It was there, slow and steady. The wolf had just passed out on

him, but Grant still sat up and let out a long sigh of relief. He wiped
the beads of sweat off of his forehead. That had been too damned
scary.

He hadn’t been aware that werewolves could be that fragile.

Definitely not an alpha. An omega wouldn’t have been strong enough
to survive that beating either, but Tom was still brave for taking it.

Grant couldn’t carry Tom around this place and expect to remain

hidden. It would be hard enough to sneak around with his size alone.
He was going to have to get dressed, but the first thing he had to do
was get out of here.

Tom would have to stay behind in the cage, for now. It would be

the safest place for him once he started releasing prisoners. Grant just
needed to find one of the Templars, someone wearing either their holy
robes, army gear, or even the steel plates on their chests with the red
material that they all seemed to love so much. He needed anything he

Falling for the Captive

47

could in order to blend in with the rest of the crowd. He and Fraser
could fight their way out, and they would even be back at the castle in
time for supper.

And Grant was definitely taking his little wolf with him. He owed

the man now, and he was going to pay that debt.

Grant unlocked Tom’s chains first, and then his own before he

carefully lifted Tom into his arms and brought him over to the blanket
that Tom himself had brought him just the night before.

No one had taken it from Grant, and he’d straightened it out and

folded it up a couple of times so that it looked like a long rectangle. It
worked well enough like that so he could lie down on it without
feeling so much of the cold, or the hard floor, beneath him. Not great,
but better than nothing.

He grabbed a corner of it, unfolding it just a little so that he could

put Tom down onto the little makeshift bed and then fold the rest over
him, tucking him in.

This would at least keep him a little warm while Grant was gone.

The blanket wasn’t exactly high quality, but he intended on being
back, and soon.

It was very unlikely that if a Templar walked in, they would take

one look at Tom and think the Dragon was simply sleeping next to
him. He hid the chains next to him, however, just so that it wouldn’t
be completely obvious he wasn’t in his shackles.

Of course, right when Grant unlocked his cage door and let

himself out, keeping it open just a crack so that Tom wouldn’t be
completely trapped if he couldn’t come back, the door that led to the
rest of the Templar lair opened. One of the men who’d dragged Tom
in here before beating him walked right inside.

It was clear he’d come back searching for his keys, and the way

he stopped dead in his tracks, frowning in confusion before all the
color drained from his face, was downright comical.

48

Marcy Jacks

The man was fast, but Grant was faster, and angrier. He lunged

forward and grabbed the Templar by the face, cutting off his scream
for help.

“Where is the other dragon?” Grant whispered into the man’s ear.
He released the Templar’s mouth just long enough to get his

answer. The stupid man snarled back at him. “Fuck you, you
monster!”

Grant let his claws come out, and he pressed them against the

man’s throat, cutting deep enough to draw blood, but he didn’t want
to kill him. Not yet, he just wanted to scare him.

“Let’s try that again. Where is my brother, and where are the pups

you stole from the wolves?”

Because of the location of his fingers, he was able to feel it

perfectly when the man’s Adam’s apple bobbed in a hard swallow.
“The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want…”

Grant was wasting too much time on this man, and he had to find

his brother and Tom’s brother before anything else happened.

He let his claws sink fast and deep into the Templar’s throat,

cutting the man’s prayer off before letting his limp body fall to the
ground.

He wasn’t sorry, and he wasn’t going to ever think about that

human again. Anyone who would shackle him and his brother, kidnap
children, and put their hands on Tom deserved to die.

He began picking at the Templar’s clothes before any blood could

spill on them. At the very least he needed to see if there was anything
on the guy that could be used. There was a stun gun, more sets of
keys, and just because he might need it, Grant took all the money out
of the man’s wallet as well.

Wasn’t like he would need it where he was going anyway.
He left the Taser next to Tom. He’d been so damned weak when

he was brought into the cage. Grant wanted him to have a way of
defending himself in case more Templars came back this way and
tried to pick a fight with him.

Falling for the Captive

49

He pressed his hand to Tom’s hair, not knowing why he wanted to

touch the man one last time before rushing off into a lair filled with
Templars.

Then he left.

50

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Six

Tom came awake with a pained groan. He shifted on his back and

realized something incredibly strange.

The first thing was that the air smelled incredibly good. Like meat

that was cooking in a pot of fat, and the next thing he knew, was that
he wasn’t lying down on hard cement. He was in something soft. His
own bed at home? God, if this was a dream than he really hoped he
wasn’t about to wake up.

“Tom? Tommy?” a small, whispering voice called to him.
Oh Christ, now he knew he was dreaming because that was

Brandon’s voice he’d just heard.

Tom lifted his hand to his face, keeping his eyes shut because he

just didn’t want to open them and see that he was hallucinating.

The problem was that hallucinations didn’t usually feel real, and

the small grip on his hand, along with the shouts after the fact, sure as
hell felt, and sounded, real enough to him.

“He’s awake! He’s awake!”
Brandon let go of Tom’s fingers, and small, but loud and quick,

footsteps stomped out of the room.

“He’s awake! He’s awake! He’s awake!”
Tom opened his eyes, and he groaned when the sharp pang of

light attacked his retinas. Fuck! Might as well pour acid into them.

He tried again, and this time he managed it.
He definitely wasn’t inside of the Templar church. He

was…somewhere a lot nicer.

The walls were made of black stone that shone in all different

colors in the places where the lights was the strongest. His bed was

Falling for the Captive

51

big and so soft and comfortable he thought he was going to lose
himself in it.

There was even a crackling fireplace carved into the rock, and the

fire was warm and soothing, spreading heat all throughout the room.

Tom tried to sit up, a smile on his face as he realized how real this

actually was, which was about when he noticed the shackle on his
wrist, and the attached chain that was attached to the stylish metal
post of his bed.

Brandon bounded back into the room and jumped on the bed. Tom

let out a pained noise when the kid landed on his gut, but he was too
damned happy to see him alive and well after all this time that he just
wrapped the kid up in a giant hug, forgetting all the about the chain as
he let his hands and nose roam all over.

He didn’t sense any hurt or discomfort, and Brandon smelled

clean, unlike the last time he’d been allowed to visit him in the
church, so someone had to have been taking care of him.

“How are you feeling?”
Tom jumped a little in his bed. He looked up to see a huge man

with long red hair, and it took him a half a second to realize who he
was looking at.

Aris Macleod. This was the man that Tom had been fighting with

a couple of days ago. Tom’s mission, along with the other wolves
working with him at the time, had been to bring the dragons in who
had just recently been shot out of the sky.

No one had realized that the red dragon had been the high dragon

of the mountain, and even though Aris had let Tom and the others go
at the time when everything had been discovered, now Tom found
himself chained to a bed, and he wasn’t sure what to think.

“I asked how you were feeling?” Aris repeated, though there was

no malice in his words. None that Tom could sense, at any rate.

“I’m…better,” Tom said, choosing the careful answer. He had yet

to see what he looked like, though Brandon didn’t seem overly
horrified. He must’ve been out of it long enough for his body to heal.

52

Marcy Jacks

“Why am I in chains?” Tom asked, rubbing Brandon’s back. The

kid was leaning against his chest, doing the thing that he did
whenever he wanted to go to sleep like that. Tom missed his brother
so much that he would let him, assuming he wasn’t taken away first.

Aris sighed and stepped into the room. “That’s for our safety. We

understand why you did what you did, but no one wants to risk that
you’re faking it, or that you’ll have some kind of change of heart and
then go back to what you were doing with the Templars.”

“I wouldn’t,” Tom said quickly, and he shook his head.

Everything he wanted, aside from Grant, was right in his arms, and he
never wanted to see another Templar ever again.

Aris nodded. “Good, but for the sake of my clan, you will be

confined to this room until a decision can be made about you.”

Tom tensed up. “What kind of decision?” he asked, and he was

starting to get so incredibly nervous. Brandon whimpered in his arms,
sensing the change in his mood.

Tom rubbed his back.
Aris crossed his arms, but there was nothing defensive about the

gesture. “When Grant called us and told us where the church was, we
went to retrieve him, and you.”

That meant Grant was alive, which Tom was incredibly grateful

for. “What about Jeremy, and the others? Did you get the pups out?
Are they all okay?”

Aris nodded. “They’re fine, though it would have been better if

you or one of the other wolves had bothered to tell us where the
church was before running off. You and Grant could have been
rescued some time ago.”

“I…” Tom was struck with how utterly stupid he felt. That was

true. He’d seen the high dragon and was spared by him, but when the
Templars he’d been with had been killed, he’d just run off, too
worried about Brandon to bother staying or telling the man in front of
him where the Templar church was. That could have saved so much

Falling for the Captive

53

time, and he’d completely panicked and nearly cost so many people
their lives. “I guess I never thought of that.”

“Which, unfortunately, is why you’re in chains. You’ll be kept

comfortable, however. This room is hardly a prison.”

“But I am still a prisoner?” Tom asked.
Aris smiled at him. “Technically.”
Great.
Tom continued to hold his little brother. The boy was very likely

just soaking up his puppy snuggles, but he didn’t realize how much
his hugs were helping out Tom right about now.

“What happened to Grant?” Tom asked, realizing that he couldn’t

remember anything after the two Templar guards tried to put him in
that cage. It was all a blur. “Is he all right?”

Aris nodded. “Yes, I sent one of the servants to go and get him

when your brother rushed out to get me.”

“Are we…” Tom looked around himself, hardly able to believe

that this was actually happening, and that he was really here. “Are we
in the castle?”

Aris didn’t seem overly happy about the question, but he still

answered it. “Yes. I was told that you were trying to get Grant to tell
you how to get up here without flying.”

Tom looked away from the dragon. He’d never been so

embarrassed about anything in his entire life. “It wasn’t…I wasn’t
going to actually tell them,” Tom said, not even sure if it was true as
he held onto his little brother, who was so small, frail, and had
probably been scared out of his mind while waiting for Tom to hurry
up and rescue him.

Aris, however, proved what a patient man he was by not calling

Tom out on his sort of lie. “I hope you understand that’s why we need
to take such care with you. There are people in the clan who don’t just
want to cast you out. They want to kill you.”

54

Marcy Jacks

Tom swallowed, and he immediately looked down at his brother,

happy to see that the kid was at least snoozing now and hadn’t heard
what Aris had just said.

“Sorry, but you should know. And it’s not everyone, or even a lot,

and despite what happened to Fraser, no one on my personal guard is
among those few,” Aris said.

“Fraser,” Tom said, and then he recalled that Grant had spoken

about a brother. His heart sank. “He’s Grant’s brother?”

Aris nodded.
“Is he dead?”
Aris opened his mouth, but then loud footsteps echoed through the

hall outside.

Then Grant appeared in the open doorway, fully dressed in black

pants, heavy looking boots, and what looked like a T-shirt beneath a
leather jacket. He looked good, and his eyes were right on Tom.

Tom blushed. He felt the heat in his cheeks and he didn’t know

what to do now. Why was Grant staring at him like that?

Aris put his hand on the man’s shoulder and he turned to walk out

the door. “I was just giving him the heads up. You can finish off
here.”

Grant briefly looked at his leader before he nodded.
“Jean will be in shortly,” Aris said, and then he was gone.
That just left Grant and Tom to look at each other like a couple of

gasping fish.

“How…how do you feel?” Grant asked.
Tom shrugged. “I’m a little nervous to see a mirror,” he said,

smiling as he tried to make a joke.

Grant wasn’t smiling back at him.
Tom’s heart stalled, and his lungs seized up. “I’m so sorry about

what happened to your brother,” he said.

Grant took in a deep breath. “Did you know?”
Tom shook his head. “No, I—”
“Would you have done anything to help him if you did?”

Falling for the Captive

55

That one really caught Tom off guard, and he tensed up. What sort

of answer was he supposed to give to that?

He was still thinking about it when a small woman knocked on the

doorframe, and she smiled at both Grant and Tom as she entered the
room.

Tom stared at her with suspicion as she came right up to him,

holding her hands out as if getting ready to take Brandon away or
something.

“May I?” she asked, smiling gently at him.
Tom shook his head. “No,” he said.
Was this lady out of her damn mind? He didn’t know her or where

she was going to take his brother. As if he would just hand over a
four-year-old.

“Tom,” Grant said. “You’ve been sleeping for three days now.

Jean was put in charge of watching the boy. She’s basically his
nanny.”

“What?” Tom asked, looking back up at the woman. She

continued to smile at him.

“Are you a dragon?” he asked, and then he wanted to bite on his

own tongue for even asking such a stupid question. “I mean, not that
it matters or anything—”

“I am,” Jean replied. “I was born in this castle. I’ve been showing

Brandon around to all the secret spots, and he likes going into the
kitchen for the pastries.”

Any four-year-old had a natural sweet tooth, but Tom still wasn’t

sure about her until he looked to Grant, and the man nodded his head.

Yeah, she was apparently considered safe among the other

dragons who lived in this castle.

Slowly, and very reluctantly, Tom handed over his little brother.

He watched as the boy clung to Jean’s chest like a little monkey, even
in sleep, and to her credit she was careful with him as she walked out
of the room.

A little of his worry had slipped away, but not all.

56

Marcy Jacks

“He’ll be fine,” Grant said. “It’s better he’s not in here anyway. I

still want some answers.”

Tom bit his lips together and looked down at his hands. More

specifically, he stared at the steel shackle that was around his wrist.
Nothing short of biting his wrist off would get the shackle removed
before its intended time, whenever that was.

“I guess, considering what happened to your brother. I owe you

that,” Tom said.

“Not I guess. You do owe me,” Grant said, and the irritation in his

voice made Tom wince.

“Right.”
Grant sighed. “Back to before. Did you know what was going to

happen to Fraser?”

Tom shook his head, giving the man only quick glances because

he was such a damned coward right then. There really was no point in
getting angry, or trying to defend himself. He’d gotten out of that
church with his life and his brother. Grant couldn’t say the same
thing.

“You didn’t know,” Grant said. “And, you and all those other

wolves were only with the Templars because of all the hatchlings?”

“They’re pups,” Tom clarified.
“Little kids, whatever, it’s all the same thing.”
Tom supposed that was true. “Yeah. The Templars…they’ve been

rounding up lone wolves who don’t have packs, only they’ve been
taking people who have pups with them. They separated us from the
kids and told us that they just needed our help with a few things
before we could get them back and go on our way.”

“Was that why you shot my leader and my brother out of the

sky?”

Tom winced again. “It wasn’t me but…yeah, that’s why. The

Templars were the shooters, and we were basically supposed to act
like hunting dogs.”

Falling for the Captive

57

“Makes sense. Use the wolves to chase down the injured prey.

Less humans get hurt doing that. Stop wincing. I’m not attacking you,
I’m not even angry anymore. I’m just trying to find out what’s been
going on,” Grant said.

That was fair enough, Tom supposed, even if he didn’t understand

why Grant was being so calm right now. He sat a little straighter.
“Your brother is dead, how can you not be angrier at me?”

Grant’s eyes widened, and his entire body tensed up. “Dead?

What the fuck are you talking about? He’s not dead. He’d better not
be dead!”

Now Tom didn’t know what he was talking about. “You just said

that…well, you were asking me if I knew!”

“Knew that he’d been taken!” Grant snapped. “I questioned one of

the Templars, a man who didn’t immediately start praying for his life,
and he told me that Fraser had been sent to another compound for
study.”

Tom’s heart went out to the man, and he was instantly sorry for

any part that he would have played in the capture. “I’m so sorry,” he
said.

Grant bit down on his lips, and his fists clenched. For a few

seconds, Tom figured that he was going to get punched or something.
After all, he was one of the wolves responsible for bringing Grant and
his brother down out of the sky.

He should just take it like a man. It was his fault, and if he

accepted his punishment quickly, then maybe Grant could start to
forgive him. “If you want to take your anger out on me, don’t hold
back. It’s all right. I get it.”

Grant jerked back. “What?”
Tom wasn’t particularly looking forward to a punishment, but he

was going to accept it if it would do anything to help. He pulled the
covers off of his legs. He was wearing a pair of cotton pajama
bottoms that he didn’t recognize. He swung his legs over the side of

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the mattress and got to his feet. He stepped as far away from the bed
as the chain on his wrist would allow.

He stood before the man, keeping his head bent low, but slightly

tilted to the side so that his neck was exposed. He was a beta, not an
alpha, so it was easier for him to submit to someone who was
stronger, especially someone he’d wronged.

Grant said nothing, and he didn’t take the obvious invite either.

After about a minute, which was a long-ass time when a man was
waiting to be punished, Tom took the chance to look up.

Grant had a look of disgusted horror on his face that Tom didn’t

understand in the least.

“You expect me to beat you?”
Tom tensed up, and his eyes scanned over all the muscles that

were on Grant’s body. If he ever wanted to beat up anyone, then that
person wouldn’t likely survive, werewolf or not.

“Not beat me, just punish me,” Tom said. “For what I did. It’s

okay, I would deserve it.”

That sick horror changed into pity, which Tom didn’t think he

liked. “Is that how werewolves treat their mates? They hit them
whenever there’s a problem?”

“No, of course not, it’s just that—” Tom stopped abruptly when

he realized what Grant had said, and he swore that every drop of
blood drained right out of his face. “What?” he squeaked.

He stared up at Grant, hardly knowing what to do, but even if he

wanted to make a run for it, he couldn’t because his legs were cold
and frozen, and his feet were staying right where they were, as if they
were locked in a cement block before a mafia hit.

Grant sighed, and he ran his hand through his short black hair. “I

thought when you asked me to bite you that it was just for the sex.
Since I’ve been back, I’ve been speaking with Aris about everything
that’s happened, and everything that I saw while I was in that church.
I explained you to him, and told him what happened. I didn’t go into
details, but out of curiosity I asked him if he bit Conner on the

Falling for the Captive

59

shoulder a lot. That’s Aris’s mate. Aris replied that wolves only
wanted bites like that when they were accepting a mate.” Grant
looked right into Tom’s eyes as he said that part, and he didn’t exactly
look too impressed. “I know that you mated with me. Without telling
me, by the way.”

Tom winced, and he was such a damned coward that he had to

look away from the accusation in Grant’s eyes.

“It wasn’t supposed to be like that. You’re not mated to me,

you’re not tied to me, but I am to you.”

“And you would do that to yourself because some Templars told

you to,” Grant said. He didn’t ask. He said. He already had a clear
idea in his mind about what he thought of Tom.

He didn’t know why he was bothering with it, but his defense

spilled out of his mouth anyway. “I didn’t do it just because they told
me to. I’m not some kind of man-whore, you know. They threatened
to never give me my brother back if I didn’t. I don’t know if you
noticed it or anything, but he’s practically still a baby.”

“I noticed,” Grant said. “Where are his parents?”
“They’re dead,” Tom said, and he sneered up at the man, daring

him to make some comment about dead werewolves, but nothing else
came from the dragon’s mouth.

Grant did sigh after a few seconds, however. He seemed to be

struggling with everything that was happening around him.

“Regardless of what happened,” Grant said. “You’re my

responsibility now. I’d wanted to go searching for my brother, but that
can’t happen now that I have to watch over you.”

Tom detected some bitterness in the man’s voice, and he winced.

“You really don’t have to stay on my account. Go looking for your
brother.”

“I did,” Grant said. “Aris gave me one day to go searching with

the others, because it was assumed that Fraser wouldn’t be too far
away. We didn’t find anything, and I had to come back.”

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Grant wasn’t glaring at Tom or anything, but he could still tell that

the man was fighting back a lot of anger.

“So punish me,” Tom said. “You don’t have to beat me. I’d hope

you wouldn’t, but this is my fault and I need you to do something.”

“I already told you that I’m not going to beat you. Putting my

hands on you in anger, regardless for how long, would be the exact
same thing.”

“You didn’t seem to care so much when we were in that cell

together,” Tom said, and he knew he was bitching now, but he
couldn’t help it.

“That’s different, you’re mated to me now,” Grant said.
Tom steeled himself. He clenched his fists and tried to keep his

body from shaking with the anger and the monumental heartbreak that
was rushing through his body, but it could hardly be helped. He’d
known this was going to happen, and he’d thought he was prepared
for it. He definitely wasn’t.

“How old are you?” Grant asked.
“Why?” Tom snapped, looking away from the man.
“Because you’re acting like a child that’s about to throw a

tantrum. Your little brother was better behaved than you are.”

Tom glared at the man. He loved him, but at this moment he

definitely hated him. “I’m thirty-five years old! I’m not a child!”

Grant’s eyes widened a little. “You look young even by a

werewolf’s standards. I thought aging was supposed to stop at thirty-
five, not twenty-one.”

Tom growled. “I look younger than most wolves and dragons, so

sue me.”

“Which means you are old enough to stop acting like such a child.

Had you actually been twenty-one, then there would have been a
reason for this, but there’s not. You’re acting like a brat and
demanding that I hit you.”

“I’m not demanding anything!” Tom snapped. The fact that Grant

was missing what Tom was trying to tell him was driving him insane.

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61

“It’s an alpha thing. You’re not an alpha wolf, but I see you as an
alpha. You have the body of one and I submitted to you in that cell.
Whenever a wolf steps out of line in the pack, he needs to be brought
back down again. I stepped out of line. I knew that as it was
happening. It’s okay for you to assert your dominance over me.”

Grant leaned in, slowly and carefully, and Tom’s breath hitched.

He almost thought that Grant was going to kiss him, but he didn’t.

“I am not an alpha wolf. I’m not a werewolf either. I’m a dragon,

and here, we punish soldiers with force, not weaker dragons, and
certainly not our mates.”

Tom swallowed hard, and then he nodded. This wasn’t going to

happen right now, so he might as well stop asking for it. “Then what
are you going to do?”

Tom was never going to tell Grant that he’d mated with him

because he’d felt it before he’d been told to do it. Grant was already
disgusted with him, and clearly he hated the fact that Tom was a
responsibility, as he’d called him. Tom was his burden, part of the
reason why Grant and his brother had been captured and separated,
and definitely the reason why Grant couldn’t go out looking for him
right now.

Tom was never going to drop that bombshell on him. It would be

too much for the man to handle. Enough control over his life had been
taken away, and what if he already had someone special waiting for
him inside of this castle? Tom didn’t want to get in the way of that.

Grant said nothing, but his hand did come down, and his fingers

gripped Tom’s chin before lifting his head.

Tom was frozen, and he was too damned stunned to move when

Grant’s mouth came down and covered Tom’s lips.

He really hadn’t been expecting the kiss, and he had no idea what

Grant was expecting him to do, until the man started to slowly push
him back toward the bed where he’d already spent so much of his
time asleep.

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Chapter Seven

Grant couldn’t bear to watch the man in front of him struggle with

his emotions. Tom was clearly struggling with everything that was
around him. He’d woken up in a nice room with heat and blankets,
and his brother, only to realize that he’d traded one prison for another.

Aris was walking a fine line with the rest of the clan by allowing

Tom to stay in a fine room such as this. There were few people who
wanted Tom dead, but most everyone else thought a sufficient
punishment would at least have been to give him a room with the
lower servants. Giving him a room with them, having a guard follow
him at all times, and making him work with the lower servants. Doing
all of the jobs.

They were really pushing for that punishment because they all

wanted to take a small vacation while Tom was forced to do the grunt
work. Everyone in a dragon’s clan had chores to do, even the
hatchlings of the high dragon and the high dragon’s mate, when they
got around to having some, but no one wanted to do the more
disgusting and difficult jobs.

The dragons whose entire jobs consisted of sweeping and

mopping the toilets and bathrooms, scrubbing the floors after they had
been swept, and then cleaning up the vomit of the younger hatchlings,
were really pretending to be affronted that there wasn’t more of a
punishment being handed out.

Grant had put a stop to that, and he didn’t have to fight very hard.

He’d simply told Aris what had happened and how Tom had helped
him to escape, and then he requested that the beta wolf not be woken

Falling for the Captive

63

up and brought to work immediately. Grant had wanted Tom to have
all the time he needed to rest and recover, and then some.

And now Tom was in front of him, asking to be punished, and

Grant was horrified. He was angry, but not necessarily at Tom.

Tom had been forced to do what he’d done, and now he was

tethered to Grant, like a dog on a leash for the rest of his life, all to
save his brother.

And despite that, or maybe because of that, he’d risked everything

to bring Grant the key to the cells and get him free.

This was likely a bad idea, but Grant wanted to kiss the man. He

wanted to comfort Tom and make him feel better. He didn’t have the
words to soothe. He only knew how to hurt with his words, which left
him with actions.

Tom’s entire body was stiff as the rock of this mountain, but then

his body became pliant in Grant’s arms, and he moaned as he pushed
back against Grant’s mouth.

His arms wound around Grant’s shoulders, and Grant was

genuinely shocked by the strength that was in the smaller man’s arms.
Though, at the same time, he was pleased to note that he was still the
stronger of the two.

Grant opened his mouth, and Tom did the same, and their tongues

came together, and despite all the time that Tom had spent asleep, he
tasted sweet.

Grant’s cock hardened, and he pushed Tom back against the bed

until his knees hit it, and then Tom made a shocked noise as he went
down, followed by Grant, who kept his entire body over the smaller
man.

He suddenly could no longer think about anything else other than

how much he wanted his cock inside of Tom. He wanted to fuck him
and make Tom scream out his name. He wanted all of him and it was
too damn much that he hadn’t had the man since, well, the first time
they were together.

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Grant pressed a kiss to the new scar that was still fresh and dark

pink on Tom’s neck and shoulder. “I want to bite this again. I want to
reopen this and make you come screaming for me just like the last
time.”

Tom shivered beneath him, but then his hands were on Grant’s

shoulders, and he was making an effort to push the man down. “Suck
on my cock. Please. Fuck, I’m burning up.”

Grant grinned and did as he was told. He didn’t normally take

well to being ordered around, but there was always something
excellent about having another man make demands of him in bed.

Grant slid down Tom’s body, pulling the elastic of his pajama

pants down with him. Tom’s hard cock sprung free from the confines
of his pants, dark and almost painful looking.

Tom’s hands were immediately in Grant’s hair and on his own

cock as he tried to guide himself into Grant’s mouth.

Grant pulled back just a little. “Patience,” he said, even though he

adored how much of a hurry Tom was in.

Tom shook his head desperately. “No I…I need…I need…”
“I know what you need,” Grant said, and he cupped Tom’s balls.

They were hard between his legs, and the man moaned and let his
head fall back as Grant massaged them, and when he wasn’t looking,
Grant wet his lips with his tongue before putting his mouth around the
crown of Tom’s prick.

He sucked hard on it, delighting in the way Tom’s hips sharply

thrust forward, attempting to fuck his mouth.

Grant had to release Tom’s balls and put both of his hands onto

the man’s hips. His little beta was becoming strong in his lust and
want.

Grant could even hear the speed at which Tom’s heart was racing.

His body really was hot as Tom thrashed around on the bed.

“Grant…Grant,” Tom moaned, and then he fisted his own hair

and yelled out loud as warmth flooded Grant’s mouth. A lot sooner

Falling for the Captive

65

than he’d expected, but he loved it. He moaned as the gamey taste hit
his tongue, and then he swallowed it all down.

Tom moaned and sighed, panting as Grant continued to move his

mouth up and down on the shaft of Tom’s cock until he was starting
to soften.

Grant let Tom’s prick slide from his mouth before looking up at

him. “I suppose this is the time when I ask if werewolf stamina is as
good as I hear it is,” he said, attempting to make a joke, but when he
looked up, Tom didn’t answer him. In fact, he was lying limply on the
bed, and for the first two second, Grant assumed that his little beta
was simply resting, but then he lifted himself up enough to see that
Tom’s eyes were actually closed. He’d passed out, and his face was
incredibly red.

“Tom? Tom?” Grant asked, and if the man had simply lost

consciousness, then he wouldn’t have thought much of it. It wouldn’t
have been the first time that a partner had been so overcome with
pleasure that their bodies had to shut down.

Something inside of Grant was telling him that this was not the

case. A panic settled inside of him that he’d only ever experienced
before when he was worried for his brother in battle, and Grant
grabbed onto Tom’s shoulders and shook him a little. “Tom!”

He didn’t wake up. He looked as if he was barely breathing, the

fast heartbeat that Grant had heard only seconds before was slowing
down incredibly, and Grant’s heart was the one that was speeding up
now.

What if Tom was dying? Grant’s heart stopped at the thought, and

he couldn’t breathe.

Grant grabbed Tom up into his arms and he tried to rush out of the

room when he noticed the chain. He’d still forgotten about the
goddamned chain.

It was thick, and supposed to be strong enough to prevent a beta

werewolf from breaking free from it. Grant grabbed onto it and

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yanked hard enough to snap the links. He rushed out of the room,
calling for a medic as he ran.

* * * *

“It’s just exhaustion. His body is using too much energy for

healing,” Kristoff said. The man was a medical dragon who had
healing powers. He could only heal a little bit, and never anything as
simple as a common cold, which always seemed to annoy the entire
clan.

Kristoff was also the kind of man who had the body of a guard.

He had the height and the build for the job, but the blond hair and
boy-next-door face prevented him from striking fear into the hearts of
enemies.

“He slept for days!” Grant argued.
Kristoff rolled his eyes. The man didn’t seem to be in the mood

for putting up with Grant’s constant questions. “Well, something
drained him. He needs to relax. Did he try shifting? Was he running
around the hallway? Anything that would release a lot of energy and
make him need to sleep again.”

Grant coughed and looked away from the man. A rare moment of

embarrassment overcame him. Kristoff was a good dragon, and he
was an excellent healer who cared about his patients, but there was no
way in hell that Grant was going to explain to the man that Tom had
lost consciousness because Grant had blown him.

“I’ll make sure to ask him what he was doing before being

chained to the bed,” Grant said.

“And make sure you tell whoever let him out of bed for exercise

that he’s not allowed to be running around or doing any hard
activities.

Grant nodded, but when Kristoff smiled at him and stared for a

little bit too long, he knew that the man was aware of exactly what
had been going on.

Falling for the Captive

67

Grant rolled his eyes and turned toward his mate on the bed. “Any

idea of when he’ll wake up this time?”

“I already gave him a little bit more energy for his body to work

with. It should be sooner than before,” Kristoff answered. “I’ll leave
you alone for now. I don’t think we need to worry that little boy about
his brother. Tom should be up before the boy notices.”

Grant nodded. That was a good idea.
He waited for Kristoff to leave the tiny room in the medical area.

Grant would be allowed to bring Tom back to his bedroom if he woke
up within two hours. Tom was already starting to shift around and
make little groaning noises in his sleep, as if he was swimming back
up toward consciousness.

Why did everything have to be so damned complicated? Grant

had so much to worry about, but his brother should be his top priority.
Yet Fraser was somehow second on the list now. Grant went and sat
down next to his lover, the man who had mated with him against his
will, and he took Tom’s hand and laced their fingers together. He
wasn’t sure if he was trying to comfort himself or not as he waited for
Tom to wake up.

Which he did, after only another half hour. Tom really did just

need rest, and he was likely sick of waking up to find himself in
strange places. First a room in the castle, and now in what was
basically the infirmary.

Grant was just happy that he was all right. Tom was somewhat

shocked to realize that he was no longer wearing the chain. Because
Grant had broken it, Kristoff had announced that it was pointless to
wear the shackle.

While it was off of him, Grant took advantage of the opportunity

and put the beta in the bath. Tom had complained profusely about
being bathed like that, but when Grant threatened to get into the water
with him, he settled.

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It was better than being sponge bathed. Grant was fairly sure Tom

wouldn’t appreciate knowing that had been happening as he’d been
unconscious.

Grant’s main problem was what he would be doing with himself

while waiting for Tom to recover enough for Grant to take him.

Considering he wasn’t mated to the man, he debated whether or

not that would be a good idea to even try for sex again. Would it be
leading the man on? What if Tom wanted a life with him?

That thought made Grant stop the motion of his hands as he

washed Tom’s back. Tom looked behind his shoulder, giving him a
curious stare. “What’s the matter?” he asked.

Grant shook the thought from his head. “Nothing,” he said, and he

could only hope that Tom would believe him.

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69

Chapter Eight

Four weeks passed while Tom stayed with the dragons. He and his

brother were officially guests, and apart from the mate of the high
dragon, they were the only wolves in the castle.

Tom still wasn’t allowed to leave the castle, not yet, which meant

that every time he needed to shift in a wolf, it needed to be done in the
garden.

At least he was no longer chained to his bed, constantly letting

Grant know when he needed to be unlocked so he could use the
bathroom.

The man had insisted that he stay in bed, especially after he

passed out from just getting a blow job.

It had been a great blow job, but Tom had never passed out before

while having one either.

To be fair, Grant had brought him a small library of books to read,

and he had to do no chores. He was visited often by his baby brother,
and Conner, who was a young werewolf and interested to speak with
Tom now that they were basically sharing the same space.

Still, Tom really wished that he could get permission to go down

the mountain to go running with Conner and his little brother. The
mate of the high dragon and a four-year-old were not the ones being
punished for suspicious activity, so they were brought down the
mountain to give their wolves some proper exercise.

Aris was down there as well, protecting his mate, along with

almost all of the man’s most trusted guards. There were many of
them, and they were all huge men. The only people missing were
Fraser, since he still had yet to be found, and then Grant always

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stayed behind to protect Tom. The man was still concerned about the
few dragons who wanted Tom to face the death penalty.

His worry was that someone might actually make an attempt on

Tom’s life, which he found to be incredibly unlikely since his
experience with people who wanted bloody revenge was that they
were usually too spineless to want to carry it out themselves.

Which was why he was dozing quietly in the sun. This spot on the

mountain was usually cold. Tom discovered that fast, and it made
sense, considering this castle was built into the mountain. He’d even
been told that the snow cap at the top of the mountain got bigger in
the winter, and that it could even snow in the garden during the off
season.

That was why he needed to get as much wolf time in as possible.

He was under a beam of warm sunlight, enjoying it before it vanished
for the day. If he couldn’t go running as a wolf, then the very least he
could do was nap as a wolf.

Then a shadow fell over him, blocking out the sunlight, and he

growled softly to ward away whoever was standing above him.

A boot kicked him in the side, but not enough to hurt. It felt more

like someone was trying to get his attention.

“Stop growling at me. You can smell that it’s me,” Grant said.
Tom opened his eyes, and though his heart immediately swelled

with love and affection for the taller man, he had to turn away from
him, groaning and sighing without actually intending to.

It couldn’t be helped. Tom never knew what to do about his

feelings for the man. They were getting stronger, which he suspected
was a by-product of the one-sided mating, and the fact that Grant
always had to be around him, but never seemed to want to be, was
just killing him.

“Tom, it’s time to get up. You’ve been lying there for too long.”
Tom growled again. He hadn’t been resting here for that long and

he wanted to be left alone.

Falling for the Captive

71

That really seemed to get Grant’s attention because the next thing

Tom knew he was being grabbed up by the scruff and carried away in
Grant’s arms.

He whined at first at the pain of being picked up like that, as he

wasn’t a puppy like his brother was, after all, but he didn’t fight it
when he was being held the way he was in Grant’s arms.

It would’ve almost been nice, if the man had liked him. Well,

Tom knew that the man liked him. Grant just tended to be a little
grumpy about certain things, and a little more so than lately, but he
didn’t like Tom the way Tom wanted him to.

He hadn’t even tried to touch Tom ever since the incident with the

blow job. Tom was still kicking himself for passing out.

Grant brought back to their room, which was shocking since Tom

thought he would be taken downstairs to where the roster of chores
was located and give him something to do.

Grant settled Tom down on the bed, then kneeled on the floor and

put his hand on top of Tom’s head. He even pet his ears, which Tom
liked.

“Are you sick? Are you not feeling well?”
Christ, Tom was going to have to shift. Grant wasn’t going to

leave him alone until he did.

He let the change come over him, his bones lengthening in some

places and straightening in others. The fur melted back into the pores
of his skin until he was right in front of Grant in his naked human
shape, but he could barely summon the energy to look at him. It was
hurting too damn much. Grant’s hands were on Tom’s bed, and that
was probably the first time the man had touched Tom’s bed in two
weeks. The man avoided going near it the second Tom’s shackle was
to permanently come off, as if the very thing Tom slept on was
diseased.

“I’m not sick,” Tom said, though he was actually feeling pretty ill

at the moment. His stomach was hurting from the stress.

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“Bullshit,” Grant snapped, and he grabbed onto Tom’s wrist to

check his pulse before putting his hand back onto Tom’s human
forehead, just like Kristoff had taught him. “You’re completely warm.
I’m going to get Kristoff and he can do something.”

“I said I’m fine. You don’t need to leave to get him,” Tom said,

reaching for Grant’s hand when the man got up to leave.

Grant stopped, but only long enough to look down at him, smile

softly, and then gently remove Tom’s hand from his wrist.

“I’m going. You’re clearly energy-drained, and Kristoff can help

with that.”

“I said I’m not fucking sick!” Tom snapped, unable to hold back

the absolute frustration anymore.

Grant just blinked at him, and his mouth dropped a little. He

clearly hadn’t expected that, and Tom couldn’t blame him. He’d
never actually yelled at Grant before. He’d growled at him, like he did
earlier, but Tom’s frustration never got to the point that he’d started
yelling.

He’d always felt too guilty about what had happened to Grant’s

brother, and had hated the fact that he was one of the few poor
suckers in the world who was mated to someone who was never going
to return the sentiment.

Grant rubbed a hand over his face. He took in a deep breath, his

wide shoulders lifting before falling again, and then he finally let it
out before looking back down at Tom.

Tom didn’t know what was going to happen, and though he knew

he should cow down, he couldn’t do more than look away from
Grant’s eyes. He was still glaring and clenching his fists, however.

“All right. Enough of this. Tell me what’s going on.”
“Nothing’s going on,” Tom insisted.
“Well, something is because you’ve been acting off for weeks.”
“Am I supposed to be all chipper when I can’t go running with my

own little brother?”

Falling for the Captive

73

“Don’t throw that at me. You know why you can’t yet. You told

me you understood.”

He had understood, but how was he supposed to get it through

Grant’s mind that it wasn’t enough anymore?

Tom couldn’t say it, so he said nothing at all.
And Grant continued to stand there. He was clearly not about to

go anywhere.

“Tom, I’m being serious. Tell me right now what’s going on. I’ve

been trying, okay? I really have. You don’t have to wear the shackles
around anymore, and you can even walk around the castle without an
escort for the most part. You know how much I don’t like that.”

“I remember,” Tom said, clenching his fists harder at the memory.
Grant had wanted Tom to have an escort with him almost all the

time. It was insane! How was he supposed to feel like he belonged
here when he was constantly being treated like he was a criminal?

There had been a big fight about that. Not a yelling and screaming

match, but Tom had basically refused to speak with anyone until
Grant relented. It had shocked him when the man had, but it wasn’t
like Grant had taken the defeat with any grace either, because then
he’d stopped talking to Tom for a while as well.

They’d stopped talking to each other for a few days, and then

Grant had made himself feel better about Tom not having an escort by
making himself Tom’s escort.

Tom had accepted that, because part of him still wanted the strong

dragon around him all the time, but the other part of him that was hurt
whenever Grant was in front of him, completely untouchable, sighed
in relief because Grant couldn’t follow him around all the time. The
man still wanted to keep track of the search for his brother, even if he
couldn’t physically be out there tracking the man down.

“So tell me what’s going on,” Grant said. “I’m tired of this.

You’ve been getting worse and I don’t know what to do about it.”

Tom bit down on his lips, and he turned away. Never was he ever

going to tell Grant that Tom had already been mated to him before

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going into that cage. He wasn’t going to tell the man that it was
killing him on the inside to not have his affection or his touch. He
missed the man and yet saw him all the time. He was shown the thing
he wanted more than anything else in the world, and now Grant
wasn’t even coming to bed with him anymore.

Not that they’d done a lot of that in the first place. They’d had sex

once and Grant had given him a single blow job that Tom had ruined.

Telling the man that he was in love with him, and that for him it

was a real mating, was out of the question. That would be worse than
death.

“You’re really not going to talk to me?” Grant said, and he was

clearly losing what little patience he’d had.

Tom looked away from him. He wished the man would just go

away and leave him alone. He couldn’t handle this anymore, and he
just wanted to curl up on his bed and wait for Conner and his brother
to come back. Being near other wolves always helped. A little.

“All right,” Grant said, and from the corner of his eyes, Tom

could see that Grant’s huge arms were crossed over his chest. “I’m
going to speak with Aris when he gets back. I’m going to tell him that
you have an attitude and that I’ve got a punishment to recommend.”

“Attitude? What fucking attitude?” Tom demanded, looking up at

the other man.

“That one right there,” Grant said. “You’re purposely being

stubborn, and you’re moping around here as if I’m beating you.”

“Well, you might as well be, considering—” Tom cut himself off.
Grant waited. He clearly thought he had something just then, but

got angry again when Tom didn’t follow up.

“Considering what? What am I doing to you that’s making you

walk around the castle like a ghost? There are people in this castle
who wouldn’t mind turning you into a ghost, you know.”

Tom couldn’t reply to that. He clenched his fists and kept his eyes

planted firmly on the ground.

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“Fine,” Grant snapped. “I’ll arrange it so that you can’t see

Brandon when he comes back.”

Tom snapped his head up. “What the fuck did you just say?” He

didn’t even care anymore that he was just a beta and that Grant could
kick his ass. Brandon was his brother, and considering Tom was the
only person that the kid had, he was going to protect him as if he was
more than a brother, as if Brandon was his own pup.

Tom got to his feet, and he could feel his inner wolf growling and

snarling, hairs spiking up on its back in preparation for defending his
brother.

But at the same time, it kept its distance. The wolf did not want to

come out and pick a fight with his own mate.

“I’ll ask Aris if Conner can watch over him for a while. He’s also

grown attached to Jean, and he’s been wanting to go flying some
more. With Conner and Jean with him, it’ll be easier to convince the
kid he’s getting some kind of treat. You’re hardly fun for a four-year-
old to be around anyway.”

Tom winced at that. Was Grant right? Tom had been spending as

much time with his little brother as the boy would allow. Once
Brandon realized he was safe, and grew to trust the many dragons
who were around him, he started running off to explore, to create
some independence for himself in the form of finding other children
to play with. He spoke about his knew friends all the time, and the
different colors they changed into as dragons.

Tom knew he never showed that much interest, always focused on

the color of the one dragon he really wanted, but he hadn’t thought
he’d been so bad.

Tom continued to scowl, wanting to fight some more, and to

prove Grant wrong. “And what the hell are you going to do when he
eventually starts asking for me? You can’t pretend I don’t exist and
keep me from him forever.”

Grant shrugged, and the movement was so damned annoying and

uncaring that Tom wanted to bring his claws and teeth out and just

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start swinging. He stayed right where he was because he was a
coward at heart.

“If you don’t tell me what the hell’s going on with you, then what

happens to your brother’s feelings will no longer be my issue. That’ll
be your fault when he asks to see you and he can’t.”

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Chapter Nine

Grant hated lying to Tom like this. He hated looking into the

man’s eyes and seeing this kind of betrayal. It was ripping his guts out
and making him feel like the shittiest person in the history of time, but
there was nothing to be done for it.

Tom wasn’t speaking to him, and it looked like he was wasting

away. Tom didn’t even realize that he was thinner, and every single
time during a meal when they sat down at the bench, it annoyed Grant
to all hell to see how little his wolf was eating, or how miserable he
was just to be sitting next to Grant at one of the benches.

He always looked as if he wanted to be anywhere else but where

he was, and it was breaking Grant’s damned heart.

His only hope now was that Tom would buy his bluff. Grant was a

hard ass at times, but he didn’t want Tom’s punishment to be shared
with a four-year-old.

Grant kept his eyes hard on Tom. He all but glared at the man,

willing him to finally stop being so damned stubborn and just tell
Grant what he could do to make this better.

Tom’s mouth opened trembled, like he was trying to speak, but

had suddenly found himself muted.

“You…you can’t do that! Grant! Are you out of your mind! You

can’t take him from me! I risked everything for him! I love him, he’s
my brother, he’s just a baby, don’t do this.”

Tom was clearly panicking, and Grant needed to hurry up and get

control of the situation again. “This will all be over with soon enough,
if you just relax and tell me how to fix what’s bothering you. Is it that
there aren’t more wolves around here? You said you had a friend

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named Jeremy who was back at the Templar church with you. Do you
want me to go and get him? I think he and his daughter are with
Conner’s old pack.”

Pain speared him at having to make an offer like that. What if

Tom had been in love with Jeremy before being told that he had to
mate with Grant? Tom was Grant’s now, but the man clearly didn’t
want to be around him. Grant had stayed away from Tom sexually in
the beginning because he didn’t want the wolf to overexert himself
while he was recovering.

Then it became apparent that Tom wanted nothing to do with him,

and what was Grant supposed to do after that? He wouldn’t force
himself onto the man, and it was bad enough that he was forcing his
presence onto him.

Grant waited for the answer, not entire sure what he would do if

he had to bring Tom down the mountain to visit another man.

Tom shook his head, and he ran his hands through his hair

desperately, gripping the blond strands. “It’s…it’s not about Jeremy.
I’m not sick and…I’m just so fucking tired, okay? Can’t you leave me
alone?”

That hurt so damn much that Grant had to scowl just to hide the

pain. “I’m not going anywhere. If you hate me so fucking much, then
that’s too bad. I didn’t do anything wrong, and you’re going to stop
acting like I’m torturing you.”

“You are!” Tom yelled.
The force of the emotion behind it, the wild wide eyes and how

they shone, as if Tom was on the verge of crying, was enough to
make Grant take a step back.

Had he gone too far?
Grant swallowed and composed himself. “All right. Tell me what

I’m doing, and I’ll stop doing it. If you want someone else to escort
you, then I’ll get someone else. I don’t care if it makes you upset
either or if you don’t talk to me for the rest of your life. I’d rather you
stayed alive and hated me than liked me and died because you were so

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79

damned stubborn to want to be escorted. That’s as much for your
protection as it is for the rest of the clan’s.”

Through all the wild sadness and anger that was on Tom’s face, a

little of it cleared away as he frowned. He was clearly confused.

But then he looked angry all over again. “Fine. Do whatever you

want.”

Even Grant knew that didn’t mean what it sounded like. “Stop

being a child about this! Tell me what I did to hurt you so much!”

“You’re not touching me!” Tom yelled back.
Immediately after, the room was loud with the sound of all the

quiet. There was only the two of them staring at each other, and
Tom’s chest was rising and falling as if he’d just finished running
with his brother and Conner in the forest.

“You claim that I’m torturing you because I won’t touch you?”

Grant asked.

Tom put his hands over his face, shook his head, and then turned

away from him. “Oh God, please just leave me alone.”

And leave Tom here to feel sorry for himself and slip further into

depression? Grant wasn’t about to do any such thing as that.

He walked over to Tom and put his hand on the man’s shoulder.

Tom didn’t turn around, but he flinched.

He flinched, and he was hunched over, a bundle of nerves and

emotions. “All this because I haven’t had sex with you?”

“You don’t get it,” Tom said, and it did sound like he was crying

now.

Tom wasn’t hiding his face because he was proud of it, however,

so Grant didn’t mention it. He was going to wait the other man out
and let Tom come to him.

“Is this a wolf thing? You need affection from your mate?”
“This is so fucked up,” Tom said. “You don’t even want me. I

shouldn’t be talking to you about this.”

All right. Fuck this.

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Grant yanked Tom around so the man had to face Grant. Grant

stared down into those shocked, wet eyes, and started talking. “I need
to make myself perfectly clear about something right now,” he said.
“You have no idea what I feel for you, so don’t assume that you know
that.”

“I don’t know you because you’ve been avoiding me,” Tom said,

and at least now he was glaring again. Grant would rather have the
man’s anger than his depression. Depression was a much harder beast
to chase away.

Grant clenched his teeth, and he gave in. “You’re right, and that’s

my fault,” he said. “Kristoff recommended rest for you, so I never
tried to touch you, even though I wanted to. I wanted to push you
down into the mattress and fuck you as hard and fast as I’ve wanted to
ever since bringing you here. Do you have any idea how difficult it is
to keep an arm’s distance from a man after blowing him?”

Tom’s face turned a little pink, but his lips were still thin. He was

embarrassed, but he didn’t want to admit to it.

“That…that was a month ago. I’ve been fine for weeks!” Tom

said. “If you really wanted me so damn much then why didn’t you
come to me?”

Grant narrowed his eyes. “You never wanted me near you. You

were always miserable just for having to sit next to me in the dining
hall. You couldn’t stand to be anywhere near me! I could see it in
your face!”

They were practically yelling at each other then, but Tom didn’t

yell back at him. His voice was so small when he responded. It was
barely more than a whisper that could have come from a frightened
omega, and not a capable beta.

“I thought you didn’t want me.”
It was such a ridiculous claim that Grant was struck dumb by it.

“S–seriously? You thought…how could you think I wouldn’t want
you? Do you remember what I did to you the day you woke up after
we got out of that church?”

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81

Tom didn’t blush, and he didn’t turn his head away, but his chin

trembled, and Grant’s heart cracked like someone had banged on a
glass bottle with a hammer. “I…I just thought you were getting
something from me because…well I’d mated with you, and I was
available…why wouldn’t you want to take advantage—”

“I was never taking advantage of you,” Grant said, gripping

Tom’s shoulders even tighter. “If I was making you think that, even
for a single second, then I’m so damned sorry. That wasn’t what it
was. I wasn’t fucking you, or trying to, just because I knew you
would give yourself to me.”

“So then…you were avoiding me because I wasn’t being very

nice, or social, or looked like I was happy when you were around,”
Tom said, and it wasn’t a question. He was pointing out all the things
that had been happening.

“And you weren’t happy to be around me because I stopped

touching you,” Grant said, and like with Tom, his words weren’t a
question, they were a statement. He touched Tom’s cheek, cupped it,
and then he tried to make the man lift his face so he could lean down
and kiss him.

Tom immediately skittered out of his hold. “No, don’t do that,” he

said, backing away from Grant, as if Grant didn’t have enough things
to be confused about.

“Why not?” Grant asked. “I thought you wanted this.”
“I do, I mean, I really do. I want it more than anything else in the

world right now. But you don’t want it.”

“I’m pretty sure that I do,” Grant said.
Tom shook his head. “No, you don’t understand. I get that you’re

trying to be nice and that you’re attracted to me, but I’m mated to
you.”

“And you just explained that the fact that I’m not touching you

and being intimate is hurting you. I want to solve that problem,”
Grant said. He so wanted to solve that problem.

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Grant tried stepping forward again, but like before, Tom stepped

back. “I don’t want you to do this if you’re being forced!”

“Forced? Do I look like I’m being forced into anything? You’re

not the one who’s supposed to be the protector in this relationship. I
want you because I want you.”

“You want me because you feel sorry for me,” Tom said, shaking

his head. “You think the Templars told me to mate with you.”

Grant frowned at that. “Didn’t they?”
Tom gripped his hair and spun around. The poor man looked torn

between retreat and standing his ground. Grant wanted to go to him
and comfort him, but until Tom gave in, that was out of the question.

“No,” Tom finally said. “They didn’t force me to do anything. It

was…I was already mated to you. I took one look at you in that cage
and I knew it was you. I hadn’t seen you up close, so that’s the only
thing I can think of for why I didn’t realize it when you went down to
find your brother. But when I got to the church and I took one look at
you, it was just…it was just there. I was so damned horny—”

Tom stopped himself and took one look at Grant, embarrassed

again, but Grant waited for him to continue. His heart was beating in
his ears, and he was liking what he was hearing.

“I had to…I felt it so fast. It was like my body got hot and there

were people around and nothing I could do about it.”

“Did you touch yourself?” Grant asked, and his cock hardened at

the thought.

“Yeah,” Tom said. He turned his face down, and the blush on his

face darkened a little. His shyness was cute, and a side of Tom that
Grant barely had the chance to see.

But then it was gone in a near instant as Tom’s blush turned into

an angry red scowl. “I went into the men’s room. I made sure there
was no one in there, and when I was done I got called into Paul’s
office.”

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83

“The man in charge of the church,” Grant said, remembering that

as one of the names mentioned when the wolves were questioned after
the rescue.

“Yeah,” Tom said. “There was a camera in the bathroom and he’d

been watching me. He knew that I was doing what I was doing
because I’d seen you.”

Tom was back to having that shameful look on his face, but all

Grant could think about was how much he wanted to find the man
Paul Constantine and punch him in the throat for violating Tom’s
privacy like that.

Tom was looking at him now, as if waiting to be judged and

executed right on the spot for admitting to something as meaningful
as that.

“You were mated with me before Paul Constantine told you to

come into the cell with me?”

Tom nodded. “He wanted to use me to figure out how to get up

into this castle. I already told you that, but he threatened to take
Brandon away from me for good. I wasn’t even…he wouldn’t let me
see him until I agreed to do it.”

Grant’s first instinct was to be beyond pissed off about that, but

then he realized he was doing the exact same thing. It was an empty
threat, but Tom didn’t know that.

“I wouldn’t have…Tom, I’m sorry. I was just trying to push you

to talk to me. You weren’t telling me what was wrong and I thought I
had to do something. I wasn’t going to keep you from seeing
Brandon, I swear.”

Tom’s eyes widened a little, and he laughed a soft, sad-sounding

laugh. “I guess I should’ve known. All that talk about wanting to
protect me. You wouldn’t want to hurt Brandon’s feelings even if I
had to be punished.”

“And I didn’t mean what I said about you not being all that fun for

him. You’re his big brother and I’ve seen the way you are around

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him, but he does get sad. He can tell when you’re depressed, even if
you still smile at his little jokes or play games with him.”

Tom seemed to think about that. “I guess…I just thought that any

tension I felt was because he was having trouble adjusting to life in
the castle with a bunch of dragons. There’s me and Conner, but I
figured that wasn’t enough and he needed a pack.”

“That’s not it, he misses you, and I do, too,” Grant said.
He took the chance and stepped forward again, grateful this time

when Tom didn’t step back. He did tense up, however, like he didn’t
know what to expect at all.

Grant put his hands on Tom’s shoulders, and he leaned down for a

kiss. Tom’s body tensed the immediate instant before their mouths
connected, but then it happened, and Tom melted against him with a
moan. His mouth opened for Grant, and his arms wound around
Grant’s shoulders.

He really had been starved for this, and so had Grant. He hadn’t

experienced it nearly to the extent that Tom had, but he’d felt it, and
he felt it even more the second they touched.

Tom really had been dying. It would have taken a while, but his

energy was being sapped from him for having to suffer so long
without the touch of a mate, and now that he was getting it, Tom was
like a dehydrated man drinking water after a week in the desert.

Despite that, Tom still pushed away from him. “Are you sure? Are

you sure you want this?”

Grant was already pushing the man back against the bed. They

were going to do this and it was going to be done right. Grant was
grateful that Tom was still naked, because then he didn’t have to
waste any time with removing his clothes, though he didn’t know how
much patience he could spare to get rid of his own.

“I’m sure. I’ve wanted you since the moment I saw you, and I

know it hasn’t been easy for you, but I’ve been thinking about you
every day ever since you came here. I want you, and I think I love

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85

you. I’m not sure about how this is supposed to work or even if it’s
too soon—”

Tom flung himself back into Grant’s arms, his hands gripping

Grant’s hair and yanking him closer for another biting kiss that was
all tongue and teeth, and Grant moaned and decided now was the time
to stop talking.

They’d done enough talking. Grant’s lover needed to be healed,

and not in the way that Kristoff could pull off with some pills or bed
rest.

Grant pushed Tom back to the bed, and the man didn’t fight him.

They went until the backs of Tom’s knees touched the mattress,
which Grant hadn’t been on since that fumbled attempt at a blow job a
month ago. They both fell onto it, and there was no romantic laughter
or staring into each other’s eyes. This was a claiming for the both of
them.

Grant was already thrusting his still-clothed cock against Tom’s,

they were both hard, and even through his jeans, Grant could feel how
his mate’s prick throbbed and ached.

Mate. That word flickered so easily through his mind that he knew

it was true. He didn’t just love Tom, he’d fallen in love with him, and
soon enough, he was going to give this wolf one of his black dragon
scales to wear as a jewel to show off to the rest of the clan.

“Y–you really want this?” Tom asked through their moans and

their kisses. “I…I want you for the rest of my life. I can’t…I can’t…”

Grant silenced the man with a kiss. He thrust his tongue between

Tom’s open lips and licked him deep before pulling back, staring
down into Tom’s dazed blue-green eyes. “I want you. You’re my
mate. I’m going to fuck you, take care of you, for as long as you need,
and then I’m going to give you one of my scales to wear around your
neck.”

Tom’s eyes widened, and a shiver passed through his body, but he

reached back up and grabbed onto Grant’s ears, pulling him down for
another warm and wet kiss.

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They stayed that way for several minutes, dry-humping each other

because they were just too caught up in the pleasure of what they
were doing that there seemed to be no time to remove any clothing.

But then Tom started tugging at Grant’s clothes, his hands in a

desperate search as he fumbled and pulled. He was panting, as if he
needed to get more skin-to-skin contact. Grant really did wonder if his
mate’s life depended on this. He’d been so sure, and Tom’s reaction
right now wasn’t giving Grant any confidence that he hadn’t
accidentally almost caused his mate to die of heartbreak. He was
going to have to ask Conner and Aris about this. They would know
more about werewolf mating rituals.

Grant helped with the removal of his clothes as much as he could.

He wanted to keep his hands preoccupied with touching Tom. He
wanted his fingers all over the man’s warm skin. A month. A whole
month of not having this, and now Grant was realizing how starved he
was.

He got his pants down to his knees and Tom ripped his shirt open

with an eagerness that made buttons launch to unknown places, and
that definitely put a smile on Grant’s face.

“Fuck me, please, right now. Fuck me and bite me,” Tom said.
“I will,” Grant replied. He wasn’t even going to tease the man

about it. There would be enough time for hours of foreplay and slow,
torturous paces later on. Right now Grant was going to give them both
exactly what they needed.

“Do you have anything?” Grant asked. He hadn’t exactly brought

any lube in here with him, and he was hoping that Tom’s depression
hadn’t halted a healthy need for masturbation.

“Yeah,” Tom said, and he leaned over to his side and reached

between the mattresses to yank out a small purple bottle.

Not exactly an original hiding place, but definitely not as obvious

as the nightstand either.

Grant took it and popped the thing open with his thumb. He

immediately squirted some into his hand and stroked his nearly red

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87

cock with it. It was so good that he nearly came from that alone. His
prick was dark and the bulb was damn near purple.

It pulsed in his hand, so he stroked it only once just to coat

himself, and then he removed his hand to keep himself from coming
too soon.

Tom was already fisting and stroking his prick, moaning as he

watched Grant touch himself. “Put it in me. Right now, don’t wait.”

Grant snorted a laugh. “I don’t think we should do that,” he said,

and then he added some more of the lube to his fingers. It tingled and
warmed his cock and his fingers on contact, and he wondered where
Tom had come across the stuff.

He also decided it didn’t matter. “I’m going to get you wet for me,

and then I’m going to fuck you.”

“Yeah,” Tom said, and his entire body was flushed with want. It

was good seeing him like that, seeing his body filled with life instead
of lacking in it.

Grant leaned down and pressed his mouth to Tom’s hole, licking

it and pressing his tongue against it, feeling the smaller man shiver
and listening as he moaned at the pleasure he was receiving.

Grant pulled his mouth away and replaced his tongue with slick

fingers. He pushed them inside, and Tom pushed his ass back against
the intrusion. The sight of Tom thrusting his hips like that made
Grant’s cock pulse and his balls tighten up. His mouth watered, and
he couldn’t wait much longer.

He had to remind himself that it had been an entire month since

they’d done anything even remotely sexual, and then it had been a
couple of days before that since Grant had fucked Tom at all.

He hooked his fingers within the ring of muscle, spreading the

lube as deep and as far as it would go.

Tom moaned, his gorgeous eyes squeezed tightly shut as he

gripped his hair and humped against Grant’s fingers. “N–no more.
Fuck me now. Right now, please!”

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Grant had to listen to the man because there was no way in hell he

could deny his lover, his mate, after all this time anymore.

Grant pulled his fingers from Tom’s hole, and he leaned down and

pressed a hard, biting kiss to the man’s swollen lips just as he gripped
himself by the root, lined up the head of his cock, and then thrust it
home.

Tom cried out and tensed up. His wolf’s claws had come out and

he was gripping Grant by the shoulders, digging into the flesh and
making him bleed, but he felt no pain because it was just so damned
good.

Tom was so damned tight. Grant had forgotten how hot and good

this felt, and the second his cock was buried within that heat, Grant
lost all ability to think of anything but ramming his hips forward and
taking Tom as hard and fast as he could.

Tom arched his back and dug his fingernails deeper into Grant’s

skin, and it made him that much hotter for the guy. For the first time
in so long, Grant was staring at the bite mark on Tom’s neck with
something other than guilt, and he leaned in and pressed his teeth to
the familiar scar as their bodies rocked together. Skin slick with sweat
and pre-cum that was leaking from Tom’s cock as it was trapped
between their bodies, Grant lost complete control of himself.

He came with a growl, his body becoming tight and his cock

swelling even more as the release surged through him like a rocket.

He spilled his seed deep inside of his mate, the pleasure rocked

him, and then Tom’s asshole was gripping him tight enough that it
nearly hurt.

Warm cum spilled between them as Tom opened his mouth and

came with a loud yell. The sight of his wolf’s teeth, the way his eyes
glowed that bright gold, was such a turn-on, and Grant thought he
could go again.

In fact, he knew he could go again. His prick was still hard and he

still wanted to keep the momentum of his hips going.

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89

Tom blinked as if he was in a daze. “Th–this is going to go on for

a while.”

“Yeah?” Grant asked, grinning a bit as he rocked his hips forward.

He was fully hard again within seconds, and soon he was thrusting in
earnest again.

“Y–yeah,” Tom moaned. “M–my scent, my ph–pheromones—”
Grant kissed the man, pushing his tongue between Tom’s lips and

enjoying the natural taste of his beta wolf. He didn’t have to say
anymore anyway. Grant understood. He’d already suspected this
would happen once he realized what was going on. They’d been apart
for too long, avoiding each other for weeks, and now they needed to
catch up on all that time lost.

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Chapter Ten

Tom woke up over the next five days feeling like he was having

his honeymoon. He’d been so lost to the heartbreak and depression of
the perceived one-sided mating, that he hadn’t done the smart thing
and at least spoken to Grant about it. All of that time he spent wasting
away could have been avoided. Tom could have put more energy into
spending time with his little brother and getting to know Grant, if he’d
only just asked Grant what he was feeling instead of jumping to
conclusions.

They’d done so much more than speaking, too, when that had

finally come around. The first day had been mostly made up of sex.
Amazing, hot, over-the-top kind of sex. Tom had been so damned
sore after it had all ended, that Grant had even picked him up and put
him into the bath. Exactly as he’d done when Tom had woken up after
the blow job incident.

The only difference was that Grant had gotten in with him this

time, and it had been amazing.

It had been all kinds of romantic, the type of romantic that Tom

had never thought he was the type for. The only thing the bath had
been missing was bubbles.

After washing each other’s backs and making out a whole lot,

they got out and had some more sex in their bedroom.

Grant moved Tom into his own room by the end of the night, and

Tom had never been happier to wake up next to anyone before in his
entire life.

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91

The next couple of days were perfect. They hardly ever left the

room except for Tom to spend time with his brother, and for Grant to
follow up on the search for Fraser.

Other than that, everything had become perfect in Tom’s world.

Aris had even declared that after four weeks of being little more than
an incredibly well-treated prisoner, that Tom and his brother were
officially members of the clan.

Being mated to one of the high ranking guards probably had that

effect. Word had gotten out that it was no longer a one-sided mating,
and even though Grant was still insisting on following Tom around
like a puppy, Tom was noticing that he didn’t have quite so many
people avoiding him anymore.

He was free to sit with Conner and chat at the table, and he

became easy friends with Kendrick, who was quiet for the most part
but seemed like a good guy. There were quite a few dragons in the
clan who were shunning that man as well, and now that Tom knew
how that felt, he didn’t want to be part of the group that did something
like that to another person.

Then there was Ailiwen, who was a servant, who had apparently

gotten into trouble for teasing Conner for a while, along with Joan and
Isolda.

Tom had been a little shocked about that. They didn’t seem like

the type for teasing, but maybe it was just how they were, and it also
explained why they had all been so quiet around Tom whenever they
had to share chores with him.

Tom was coming out of his shell, and now that the dark veil was

lifted over his eyes, showing him all the amazing things he could have
and did, he enjoyed being social again.

He enjoyed making friends, learning about Conner’s pack, and

learning about the dragons through Grant, Kendrick, and Ailiwen.

Then, at the end of every night, after reading his brother a story,

he went back to his new room with his mate, and he slept in the man’s
arms.

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Then came the day when Grant shifted into his dragon form, the

gorgeous, sleek creature that shone black and sparkled with every
other color in the rainbow whenever he moved around.

“I want to do this in private,” Grant said. It was always strange to

hear words come out of a dragon’s mouth. Maybe it was because Tom
couldn’t speak while he was in his wolf form, but he still liked it. He
liked watching Grant’s mouth move and his tongue form words while
he was in that form.

“Why in private?” Tom asked, coming to kneel down beside his

mate. He touched Grant’s scales. He’d expected them to be sleek and
soft, like a snake, but they were rough, like a cat’s tongue.

The sleek part didn’t reveal itself until Tom’s hand slid lower

toward Grant’s belly.

“Aris had his ceremony in front of the clan. He’s the high dragon,

and that’s expected. I’m just one of his warriors. I have no place for
requesting a large event, and to be honest, I don’t think we should
have one. It wouldn’t be the same with my brother…”

When Grant trailed off, Tom immediately understood, and he held

onto Grant’s long face and brought his mouth down to kiss the scales
between Grant’s eyes, and then on his forehead.

“I understand. We won’t do anything big until we get your brother

back. I’m so sorry about—”

“Don’t be sorry,” Grant said quickly. “It’s not your fault. It never

was. We’ll find Fraser eventually, and we’ll bring him home, but as
much as I want everyone in the clan to know you’re mine, it doesn’t
seem right to have a ceremony with friends when he’s not there.”

Tom agreed wholeheartedly. He listened carefully as Grant helped

him to decide which scale to pick. Apparently, taking one out was
supposed to be as painful as ripping out a fingernail, which explained
why dragons hardly ever gave their scales up for sale, even though
they were worth so much.

It also explained why some dragons went around searching for

dragon scale jewelry that was made illegally and tried to destroy it.

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This might even explain how the Templars managed to stay

funded, and it scared Tom to think of Fraser out there somewhere,
alive, and having his scales ripped out of him one by one.

He shivered, and Grant had to tell him to calm himself.
Tom didn’t want to pick out a big scale. He wanted this to be as

pain-free as possible. For that, he took his time, circling his mate
while he sought out the perfect one. He found a smaller scale on
Grant’s shoulder that glimmered red and blue in the light of the fire,
depending on how it was angled as Grant breathed.

“This one,” Tom said.
Grant took in a deep breath, and it was interesting watching a

dragon smile at him. “Great, grab the clippers.”

Tom did. His hand shook when he gripped the damn things.

“Okay, got ’em,” Tom said.

“Don’t be nervous,” Grant said, and he crouched down just

enough so that his scales pulled out a little, and were no longer flat
against each other. “Just get a tight grip and yank hard. I’ll make you
the greatest amulet you’ve ever seen before in your life.”

“I’ll just be happy if I can get this off you without scarring you.”
“Yank away and let’s see,” Grant said, and it was insane how

excited and giddy he seemed when he was about to go through what
was a painful procedure.

Tom took in a deep breath, used the pliers to grab onto his chosen

scale, and then he gave one good, hard yank.

* * * *

Grant hadn’t expected having the scale removed to hurt so much.

He’d barely bit down on a roar, and his poor mate had looked
horrified. He’d gripped the pliers so tight that Grant had worried Tom
would ruin the scale and another would need to be pulled out.

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He quickly shifted back into his human shape, a little stunned to

see that there was blood on his shoulder, but the wound was quickly
healing.

Thankfully, the scale was undamaged. It took a lot to damage

them, but Tom did still have the strength of a beta werewolf.

After praising his mate and assuring him that everything was all

right, he was unhurt and fine, he finally got Tom to stop panicking,
and the man even managed to smile a little.

Tom watched eagerly as Grant got to work on creating his amulet.

The first thing he did was carve his and Tom’s names onto the back,
and then, with the tools he’d had brought to his room, he drilled two
small holes on either side of the scale. He’d already found and melted
down enough gold and other metals to create a fine gold chain, which
he attached to the holes.

When he asked Tom which precious stone he would like in his

scale, he was at first disappointed, and then pleased when Tom
explained that he didn’t want a ruby or a diamond encrusted in the
scale. Tom wanted it just as it was, using only the natural glimmer as
its jewel.

Grant placed the amulet around his mate’s neck, wishing that his

brother could be here to see him and share his happiness, but he
would be just as happy with introducing Fraser to the man that Grant
had come to love.

He was so proud to see a piece of himself on Tom, and Tom

seemed equally pleased with his new prize. Though there was no one
around but for Grant, the man walked around the room with his chest
puffed out, occasionally looking into the mirror just to see himself. He
preened and smiled as though he’d been given a true gift.

It was the greatest compliment that Grant had ever received.
Of course, everyone noticed it when Grant brought Tom up to the

main dining hall for dinner. Everyone knew that Grant and Tom had
worked out their differences, but now they could see how official it
really was.

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Grant received strong handshakes and slaps on the back from

every one of Aris’s warriors.

Lennox made jokes and got everyone laughing. Roman shook his

hand and smiled softly, though Grant noticed when the man’s eyes
trailed over to Kendrick, who was standing off to the side, clearly
unsure of his welcome.

Clatcher, another one of the dragon warriors and a good friend,

grabbed Grant up into a large hug that actually pulled him off of his
feet, while Aiken and Craig got so excited with the good news that a
friendly wrestling match had broken out.

Aris had congratulated Grant and Tom together, and offered Grant

ten days off of rotation so that he and his mate could have a proper
honeymoon.

Everyone seemed more than happy to search for a reason to

celebrate. It was enough to take their minds off of the fact that one of
their own was still missing, and likely dead.

Grant still did not regret keeping them out of the room when Tom

had pulled his scale. He only would have wanted to do that if Fraser
was there to see it.

At the very least, he wasn’t going to begrudge the others for

wanting their fun.

Even the servants got in on the party. Drinks were passed around,

dancing broke out, and everything stayed PG for the sake of the
hatchlings who were invited in on the fun and games.

Grant smiled when Tom picked up his little brother, and the boy

touched the amulet curiously. “What’s this?” he asked.

“It means I got married,” Tom said, grinning.
“You did?”
“Yeah, to him,” Tom said, pointing at Grant. “So we’re having a

party to celebrate and you’re invited.”

Of course, that was what made a four-year-old excited, not the

fact that he hadn’t been there when the actual wedding ceremony had
taken place. Brandon squirmed out of his brother’s hold, and then he

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rushed off to go and play with the other hatchlings, who were still
being watched carefully by Joan, who was trying to keep them from
ingesting too many sweets.

Grant was in heaven.

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Chapter Eleven

Kendrick left the party. He was having trouble standing around

and watching as everyone was celebrating and being happy, when he
was still…not miserable. He definitely didn’t fall into that category
anymore.

But Grant was the second dragon to show off a mate, and a wolf

mate at that, in only a matter of a few weeks.

He thought of Aris, and how he’d once thought they would be

together. He was no longer angry at the high dragon, but he was still
sad, and it still hurt him the way some of the other servants turned
away from him.

It didn’t matter how much time had passed. It seemed he would

forever remain the clan’s whore.

“Where are you going?”
Kendrick stopped and spun around. His heart raced in his chest,

and he sighed at the sight of Roman, instantly relaxing.

“It’s you,” he said, and he managed to smile as the second-in-

command of the entire clan walked toward him, hands in his pockets,
and looking very official in his red sash and black steel chestplate.

Roman was giving Kendrick an interesting look, something that

made him a little uneasy.

“Yeah, me. I saw you leave and thought you might like some

company,” Roman said.

Kendrick pushed away any unease he might’ve felt. Of course

Roman would give off an aura like that. He was second in command
and the leader of the warriors that kept this castle safe. He wouldn’t
be good at his job if he looked overly friendly and approachable.

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Kendrick relaxed. “I just…wasn’t feeling up for dancing, you

know? Don’t think anyone wants to dance with me anyway.”

“Can’t imagine why,” Roman replied, and he stopped right next to

Kendrick, leaning against the cold wall and staring down at him.

Kendrick thought about the last time he and Roman had been this

close. They’d been in Kendrick’s room, right after it became apparent
that Aris wasn’t going to choose Kendrick over his new mate.

Kendrick had been heartbroken, and he’d felt used. He’d run to

his room to cry like some overemotional girl, and Aris hadn’t been the
one to comfort him, Roman had.

Roman always had a nice thing to say, even if they couldn’t

exactly sit down and chat. The man never made Kendrick feel
unwelcome or uncomfortable. In fact, his smile was becoming
something that Kendrick looked forward to seeing.

“So, do you want to dance with me?” Roman asked.
That caught Kendrick off guard, and he stared up at the other man,

feeling his face heat up like crazy. He even looked around to make
sure he wasn’t standing next to a source of fire, or a vent, or anything
that would produce heat.

Nope. He wasn’t. Which meant that he was blushing.
“Y–you want me to dance with you?” Kendrick asked.
Roman shrugged, and he had a confident smile on his face, the

likes of which Kendrick had never seen before. “If you’re that shy
about it we can dance right here. You can still hear the music they
started to play.”

That was true. Kendrick could hear it, and he couldn’t deny the

fact that Roman was handsome. He was probably one of the better-
looking men on Aris’s team of guards. When Kendrick had been in
love with Aris, he’d always secretly thought that Roman was good
looking. Of course, back then, Aris had been at the top of the list of
most handsome men in the clan, what with his red hair and blue eyes.
He’d braided his hair today, which was interesting since, at the party,

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Kendrick could have sworn it was just in a ponytail hanging at his
neck.

Roman stepped closer, getting right up into Kendrick’s space, and

he didn’t move a step back. His cock was hard, and it was right on the
tip of his tongue to just agree to dance. And maybe to something else
afterward.

Kendrick wasn’t exactly a good catch. He was considered by the

rest of the clan to be the local slut, even though he’d only been in a
relationship with Aris for the longest time in his life. Somehow,
getting dumped by the high dragon meant that Kendrick was damaged
goods. He also had no natural powers like Aris did with his fire, and
Kristoff did with healing. Even Roman could appear and disappear in
puffs of smoke.

Roman also had an incredible amount of strength. Kendrick had

been told that the man had once lifted a truck right above his head.

That wasn’t what had Kendrick so eager right now, though. He

thought back to how lonely this month had been, and how it had been
made even less lonely because Roman had never looked at him like
he was a stain to the clan.

He was suddenly filling with affection for the man. Even more

affection than he knew he was capable of having for another man
after what happened with Aris. Aris was not so amazing in Kendrick’s
mind anymore, and now that he thought about it, he hadn’t been for a
while now. Aris had slowly been replaced with someone else, and
Kendrick found himself happy for that fact.

“So, what do you say?” Roman asked.
“Here’s my answer,” Kendrick said, and he leaned up, gently

taking hold of the taller man’s face, and he pressed a kiss to Roman’s
mouth.

Roman moaned and curled his arms around Kendrick’s back. He

was holding onto him, crushing Kendrick to his chest, and then
Kendrick found his back being pressed up against the cold black stone
wall of the castle.

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Roman was rougher than Kendrick thought he would be, and there

was something almost violent about the kiss, about the way that
Roman thrust his knee between Kendrick’s legs and then claimed his
mouth with his tongue.

Kendrick didn’t mind. He moaned into the kiss, and with every

second that went by, he felt himself becoming more and more
Roman’s. He belonged to this man. He wanted to be his. He wanted
this to be different than every other relationship he’d ever had in his
life.

“Kendrick?”
Roman’s voice, sounding farther away than what he really was,

and shocked to all hell, stunned Kendrick enough for him to break his
kiss. He and Roman both looked over and saw…Roman?

“Roman?” Kendrick asked, and he looked up at the Roman who

was holding onto him, who had been kissing him so passionately only
a few seconds before.

“What’s going on?” other Roman asked, staring at the man who

was still holding onto Kendrick with clear hatred and suspicion in his
eyes.

Kendrick had to pull away from the man who was holding him.

Somehow, the fact that he was still staring at the other Roman down
the hall, with a strange little smile on his face, wasn’t inspiring any
confidence.

“Who are you?” Kendrick asked, and a sliver of fear rushed

through his body when this fake Roman turned to look at him. The
strange smile was off his face, but the stare he was giving to Kendrick
was beyond creepy. It was like the man was staring right through him.

This man was a stranger, and Kendrick had sucked his tongue into

his mouth.

The fake Roman’s entire face and body shimmered, and

everything changed. The man’s hair became shorter and lighter,
turning a near blond color. Fake Roman even shrank a little, and when

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101

his face cleared up, the person Kendrick was left looking at
was…Tom?

“What the hell is going on here?” Roman screamed.
Tom, the fake Tom, reached his hand up and gently touched

Kendrick’s cheek. Kendrick completely froze up. He couldn’t move
so long as that hand was touching him.

Then fake Tom smiled. “I’ll come back for you,” he said, and he

turned around and fled the hallway. Not just fleeing, he actually
vanished as he ran.

Roman gave chase, running maybe ten steps past Kendrick before

he realized he wouldn’t be catching up to…whoever the hell that was.

A doppelganger. Someone who could change his shape, even his

clothing, to be whatever he wanted. Kendrick had just been…that
person had tricked him and…

Kendrick slid down to the floor. He couldn’t look at Roman,

couldn’t even think about what he’d nearly done with a complete
stranger.

Not just a stranger either. Worse than a stranger. Kendrick had no

idea what that guy’s real face even looked like.

Roman was in front of him in the next instant, on his knees with

his hands on Kendrick’s shoulders. The man shook him a little until
Kendrick would look at him. “Kendrick? Kendrick! Look at me. I
need to know if you’re all right? Are you okay?”

Kendrick did look up at him, and then he glanced away. His

stupid cock was still hard, and staring into Roman’s, the real Roman’s
eyes, wasn’t helping in the least. He was so damned ashamed of
himself. Of course the real Roman wouldn’t be kissing and touching
him like that.

“Kendrick?” Roman asked softly.
Kendrick shook his head.
“No, I’m not okay,” he said.

* * * *

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“Roman, calm down, I’m looking into it,” Aris said.
But his best friend and second-in-command wasn’t having any of

it.

“A fucking shape-shifting dragon! Pretending to be me! Touching

Kendrick!”

“I know, I heard you the first five times,” Aris said. He didn’t

much like what had happened to the man either. They weren’t dating
anymore, not since before Aris had taken Conner for his mate. He was
happily in love with Conner, but the idea of someone doing that to
Kendrick, tricking him like that, was infuriating.

Infuriating, and even he wasn’t bouncing off the wall like Roman

was.

The man was pacing around the study, snapping and snarling like

he was about to tear the walls down.

“I’m going to kill him. I want whoever that fucking cocksucker is

found so I can rip his goddamn throat out!”

“And I’ve got Lennox and Craig out there questioning everyone

who wasn’t at the party.”

“How many people in the clan are shape-shifters?” Roman

demanded. “I want to speak with all of them!”

“All three of them were at the party,” Aris said. “All three that we

know of.”

“That we know of?” Roman said, rounding on him.
Aris shrugged. “It’s not mandatory that members of the clan

reveal what their powers are, if they have any at all.”

It was difficult to watch his friend struggle with that, and Roman

took in a deep breath, clearly trying to calm himself. “How many of
them aren’t registered?”

Aris needed to keep his friend calm. “The only people who need

to register their powers are the guards and warriors for obvious
reasons. Everyone else doesn’t have to.”

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“That has to be more than half the clan. There’s over a hundred of

us!”

There were nearly two hundred. “I know,” Aris said.
Roman’s shoulders didn’t sag, and he didn’t look like he was

about to lose any hope on this either. He had that determined look on
his face that told Aris Roman was going to do everything he could to
find this man.

“Why do you care so much?” Aris asked.
“What?” Roman asked, blinking in confusion and seeming to

come out of his angry state, if only for a moment.

“Why do you care? Kendrick wasn’t hurt, and you got to him

before anything could happen. I’m sure he’s all right.”

“He’s not all right!” Roman snapped, and now he was sneering at

Aris. “If you didn’t treat him like shit then you’d know that.”

Aris’s eyes widened, and he immediately flew at the other man.

He grabbed Roman around the throat and pushed him up against the
black wall of his study.

Roman showed Aris his teeth, which was the first time in his life

that his good friend had ever done such a thing. Aris was having
trouble keeping Roman against the wall. The man really wanted to
hurt him.

“Roman! Roman! Calm down now!”
“You think I’m lying? Or being too rude to the high fucking

dragon?”

“What the hell are you talking about? “Aris demanded. “We were

never going to work. We broke it off long before bringing Conner to
the clan. I never cheated on him or treated him poorly.”

“No, you just led him on after bringing Conner here. You broke

his fucking heart and decided it didn’t matter because you didn’t love
him anymore.”

“I never led him on,” Aris said through clenched teeth.
“You let him kiss you. You let him think there was still a chance.”

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“I never—” Aris started to say, and then he stopped himself. He

could remember the day that Kendrick had asked to speak privately
with him. The man had called him away from the table where he’d
been sitting with Conner. Aris had gone, suspecting he was about to
hear some more begging and pleading, but he’d gone anyway,
thinking that his next denial of whatever Kendrick was about to say or
do would finally show the man that he was no longer interested in
him.

Kendrick had thrown his arms around Aris’s neck and kissed him,

one last desperate attempt to search out any hidden affection that Aris
might still hold for him. Aris hadn’t exactly been kind about it. In
fact, he could see that Kendrick had been heartbroken when Aris
didn’t return the kiss and acted as though it had been nothing. At the
time, he’d assumed that the tough love was best.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt him,” Aris said softly, loosening the grip

of his hand on Roman’s throat.

“Yeah, well, you did,” Roman snapped, shoving Aris off. He was

still sneering. “You don’t even give a shit when the rest of the castle
calls him a whore to his face.”

“They…I wasn’t aware that was happening,” Aris said.
“What did you think would happen when the high dragon throws

away the man he’d been in a relationship with for years for a wolf?
Don’t look at me like that. I love Conner, you know I do.”

“It doesn’t sound like it,” Aris said.
Roman ignored him. “There are others in the castle who still have

their hang-ups. They think that because you left him for a wolf then it
meant he was only there to be your bed warmer.”

It hadn’t been that simple. Aris and Kendrick had dated on and off

again for years. They’d fought and fucked brilliantly, never really
clashing, but never entirely fitting together either. Aris hadn’t thought
about how taking another man as his mate would affect him. He
hadn’t thought it would be so rough for Kendrick, considering they
were always breaking up.

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But then he was brought back to the question of why Roman was

so worked up about this, and then he suddenly had his answer. It was
so unexpected that he was nearly knocked off of his feet. “You love
him, don’t you?”

Roman’s mouth dropped, and he stepped away from Aris. The

silence was very telling.

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Chapter Twelve

Tom wasn’t overly happy with having the entire clan of dragons

looking at him like he was the enemy again, but after what happened
to Kendrick, he kind of understood.

To be fair, it wasn’t the entire clan. Most people heard the story

that Roman had told to Aris, and they knew that it had been another
dragon, one with the power to change its shape.

Why a dragon would do that to his own, Tom had no idea, but

some of the dragons in the clan only latched onto a single fact. That
whoever it was had transformed into Tom before escaping, and that
was all they cared about.

It didn’t seem to matter that Tom had been in the great hall with

everyone else, dancing with his mate and stuffing his face full of cake
and sweets whenever he had the chance. In fact, there were some
dragons who thought that it had all been some kind of mind trick so
that he could go and cause trouble in the castle, impersonating other
people.

He explained to some people that his only ability was the power to

shift into a wolf, and while most believed him, there were always
going to be others who had their conspiracy theories.

And then poor Kendrick. Tom wasn’t the only one that the castle

was gossiping about.

Roman had been furious, and everyone, including Tom, could

hear the way the second-in-command of the castle had yelled in Aris’s
study, wanting blood from the man who’d tricked Kendrick and
nearly raped him.

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Tom agreed wholeheartedly with that. Tricking a person into

having sex was no better than being raped, and he wanted revenge for
his friend’s sake as well.

Of course, because of the perception that everyone in the castle

had about Kendrick, the gossiping against him seemed to have gotten
so much worse in such a short amount of time. It had gotten so bad
that Kendrick had banished himself to his room, and he barely
showed his face at mealtimes except to grab a quick bite and then run
back to the safety of his room.

Tom stood up for the man whenever he heard something, but he

was still one of only three wolves in a clan of dragons, and he didn’t
want to give a bad name to other werewolves by starting up yelling
matches. He wished he could yell at the people who smirked and
called Kendrick all sorts of mean names. He wished he could shift
into his wolf and claw their eyes out.

After the event with the shape-shifting dragon, Tom and his

brother had to be put on protection again. They needed escorts.
Brandon almost always had Jean with him, and the hatchlings never
seemed to care about the things that were going on with the adults,
but a guard was scheduled to work with Jean so that Tom’s brother
would always be safe.

Tom was the same. The only difference was that his escort was

always Grant. Unfortunately, that meant he was able to put even less
time into finding his brother.

“I’m starting to think that we won’t find him,” Grant said.
They had both been sitting on their bed, each of them discussing

how upcoming events would play out, and how long the escorts
would need to stay in place.

Tom hadn’t expected those words to come out of his lover’s

mouth, and he was stunned to hear them. Stunned, and angry, Tom
grabbed onto Grant’s shoulders. “No! You can’t give up!”

“It’s been weeks, Tom. Weeks and they still have him.”

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“There’s still a chance!” Tom insisted. He didn’t want his mate to

have to suffer the loss of a brother. He didn’t want that for anyone.

“There is,” Grant admitted, and when he looked at Tom, his

strong face was so sad and defeated that it was like being punched in
the gut. “But I want you to think about this. If hunters had taken your
brother, and he’d been missing for weeks with no trace of him, would
you think he was alive?”

Tom’s throat closed up. Just the thought of some evil hunter

taking and hurting his baby brother was enough to make him sick. It
was nauseating, and he didn’t know how Grant was keeping himself
on a functioning level.

But Tom still didn’t want him to give up. He wanted Grant to hold

out some hope until he’d at least seen a body and was able to say a
proper good-bye.

“You told me all about your brother. You said he once took out

five Templars all by himself when the both of you got cornered.

Grant managed a small smile. “Yeah, he saved my life that day.”
“And then what about the time you told me about when you were

both hatchlings. The both of you together beat up some creepy adult
who was trying to take you away from your parents.”

Grant’s smile became a little less forced. “We scared the hell out

of our parents, walking in all bloodied up. They thought we’d kicked
each other’s asses.”

“Your brother is tough, and he’s resilient. I doubt he would’ve

been made one of Aris’s warriors if he wasn’t.”

Grant looked at him for a few second, and then he took in a deep

breath before letting it out again. “All right. You’re right. You are. I
won’t give up on him just yet.”

“And don’t worry about me either,” Tom said. “Ask someone else

to watch over me so you can take some time off to go out searching.
You’re a good tracker. You should be able to do that.”

“But how can I trust anyone when someone in this castle tried to

trick Kendrick like that, and then pinned it on you?”

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109

Tom wasn’t entirely sure that the framing bit was intentional, but

that wasn’t the point of the conversation.

“I have a good sense of smell,” Tom said. “I’ll hang around with

Conner then. I know his scent pretty well, so I don’t think a shape-
shifter can trick me,” he said.

Grant took in another deep breath, and then he nodded. Then he

smiled, a real smile, before he took the back of Tom’s head in his
hand and brought his face forward for a soft kiss.

Then Tom was smiling. It was an interesting feeling, smiling

while trying to kiss, both of their lips pulled back wide.

Tom reached between Grant’s legs and gripped the bulge in his

leather pants. He delighted in the soft moan that released from Grant’s
throat.

Grant thrust his hips toward Tom’s hand, and then his own larger

fingers were opening up Tom’s shirt and sliding it off of his
shoulders.

Grant’s hands were rough but warm against Tom’s skin, and it

was fucking amazing when he kneeled down in front of Tom, yanking
his jeans open and then pulling out Tom’s cock, which was already
hard.

He immediately sucked the head into his mouth, and Tom nearly

came from that alone. He put his hands into Grant’s black hair, threw
his head back, and moaned. “Oh, yeah. Yes, fuck.”

The suction of Grant’s wet mouth and how tight the man kept his

lips was driving Tom insane. He thrust his ass forward on the bed,
trying to push his cock deeper into that warm mouth. It was so
damned teasing that he would have come embarrassingly fast if Grant
hadn’t pulled away.

The man had a look in his eyes as he licked his lips and climbed

up Tom’s body. He had the look of a predator stalking up to its prey.

Tom was not an alpha, but he wasn’t an omega either. For that

reason, he wasn’t overly submissive, and he wasn’t all that dominant
either. He was supposed to be somewhere in between, yet despite that,

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Tom fucking loved it when Grant gave him that look, and he fisted his
cock as his lover climbed over his body.

“Fuck me, please?” Tom asked.
“Hmm,” Grant said, letting his fingers trail over Tom’s nipples,

which hardened under the touch, and then he traced the edges of the
dragon scale amulet that Tom was still wearing. He didn’t like taking
it off, and he only reluctantly did so for baths and showers. “I think
you’ve earned it. You really wouldn’t mind if I was away half the
time? That wouldn’t make me a very good mate.”

“You would be a worse mate if you turned your back on your only

family. Go and find your brother, and come back to me only when
you’re satisfied that you’ve done everything you could to get him.”

Grant leaned down and kissed him. The man speared his tongue

inside of Tom’s mouth, and Tom gripped the man’s hair tightly and
moaned.

“I love you,” Grant said, and his eyes were shining, or maybe it

was just the light from the fireplace in their room, but he was
glowing. “I fucking love you.”

And now the man was going to claim him. Tom shivered with

pleasure at the idea of Grant’s huge sock spearing inside of him,
making him moan and shudder with helpless pleasure.

Tom wound his arm around Grant’s muscular neck, and he used

his free hand to continue his massage of the dragon shifter’s bulge.

“I love you, too,” Tom said. “Now, hurry up and take me.”

THE END

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her
at [e-mail].

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com