Of Dragons and Wolves 6

Falling in Love Again

Garret Abbot is an alpha wolf amongst a clan of dragons, and the
gorgeous healer, Kristoff, has caught his eye. Now he can't go

back to his pack.

Garret is driving himself and his wolf insane by keeping away. He
hasn't been interested in more than a one night stand since the

death of his mate and child, and now here is someone else he
feels the mating call for.

Garret feels it so intensely that he comes on too strong during
their first round of fabulous sex, and he bites Kristoff without his

permission, sealing them together forever.

Kristoff was forced once before, and he never wants to be in that

position again. If Garret doesn't want to lose his new mate, he will
do everything in his power to make up for his mistake, including
giving his life to make sure hunters don't harm the only man he's

come to love in years.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Contemporary, Paranormal,
Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 35,801 words

FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Of Dragons and Wolves 6

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN
Copyright © 2014 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-139-6

First E-book Publication: July 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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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

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Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

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FALLING IN LOVE AGAIN

Of Dragons and Wolves 6

MARCY JACKS

Copyright © 2014

Chapter One

Garret Abbot was an alpha wolf, and he was in a castle belonging

to dragons for one reason and one reason only that had nothing to do
with sex, or fucking the gorgeous healer that lived here.

His youngest brother, Conner. That was his reason and the only

person he should be focusing on. Conner had been mated off to the
high dragon of this huge castle a little over a year ago, and he’d just
given birth to his first child.

Yeah, dragons could do that with male partners. Garret thought it

was weird, and that was all he was going to think about that as well.

Conner was recovering nicely a month after the birth had actually

taken place, but Garret and the rest of his brothers continued to visit
to make sure he was being treated well, was eating properly, and that
there were no long-term side effects from not shifting into his wolf for
such a long period of time.

That was what Garret was here for. As the firstborn son of the

alpha, he was practically second-in-command of the pack at the
bottom of the mountain. Even his own siblings teased him from time
to time, calling him the mini-alpha.

Mini he definitely was not. Not at his over six-foot-tall height, but

brothers would be brothers.

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Marcy Jacks

And his brother was exactly what Garret was here for. His

extended stay had absolutely nothing to do with the handsome face of
the resident healer, a gorgeous dragon named Kristoff.

Garret had only ever seen the man maybe five times during his

whole stay. He met Kristoff the day Garret’s nephew was born, and
he’d got a good look at how professional and calm that dragon could
be when he took a needle and injected Garret’s baby brother with it,
right before getting a scalpel and cutting the man’s lower belly open.

Garret could barely focus on the event that had been happening

because all he could see was the concentration on Kristoff’s face, in
his deep blue eyes, as he worked to bring the dragon’s egg out of a
werewolf’s belly.

Garret didn’t even want to think of the specifics on how

something like that was even possible.

The insane thing about it was that Garret couldn’t even see

Kristoff’s face. The man had been wearing one of those surgical
masks as he’d worked on delivering Garret’s nephew, yet he still
couldn’t look away from him. He couldn’t stop himself from staring
so damned intently, like he was trying to set the man on fire with his
eyes.

Luckily, everyone who’d seen Garret that day had assumed the

same thing. They’d thought the intense stare was more about silently
threatening the healer should he do anything, even by accident, that
would harm Garret’s little brother or the baby.

Everything had gone smoothly. Kristoff knew what he was doing,

which was saying a lot considering Garret had never heard of a
werewolf carrying a dragon’s egg before.

Garret didn’t see what that handsome face looked like until the

very next day when it came time to hatch the egg, but he already
knew the blond dragon would be gorgeous. It was just one of those
things that he could tell the first time he’d seen him, even with the
mask over Kristoff’s face.

Falling in Love Again

9

No man could have eyes that blue, or a brow that perfect, with

creamy and skilled hands, and be ugly.

Garret hadn’t been wrong, either.
If on the first day Garret had assumed Kristoff was gorgeous even

with a mask on his face, then the next day when it had been removed,
there was no question in Garret’s mind that Kristoff was the most
sinfully handsome man he’d ever seen in his entire life.

And Garret wasn’t even that interested in men. Or at least, he

thought he wasn’t.

His chosen mate had been a woman, a beautiful woman, whom he

still missed and mourned, and yet here he was, lusting after a man
he’d barely introduced himself to.

It was very likely that Kristoff had forgotten who Garret was right

after their handshake had ended.

Garret had only wanted to test the man’s grip. He wasn’t sure

why. It wasn’t as if his lust would have changed if it was revealed that
Kristoff was limp wristed.

Or maybe he’d hoped that would be the case.
Nope. Kristoff had shaken Garret’s hand, accepted his thanks for

doing a good job on the delivery, and then promptly got back to work
like the professional that he was.

Like the touch of their palms had meant precisely dick all to him,

when all Garret could do was clench and unclench his fist, trying to
shake off the spark he was left with, the electric current that rushed
through his hand, up his arm, into his shoulder, and then spread out
through his body and down to his cock and balls.

Garret had to leave the room before anyone smelled the heavy

scent of lust and wondered what the fuck his problem was.

After all, what kind of sick fuck got an erection after a child was

born?

Garret had to return to the guest room he’d been given, and he’d

immediately rushed into the bathroom to take care of the problem
himself. He’d yanked open his jeans and, without even pushing them

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Marcy Jacks

or his underwear down, shoved his hand beneath the waistband and
wrapped his fingers around his cock in a tight fist that was damn near
painful. The pain was good, however, and he savored it, moaning as
he moved his fist up and down. There was barely enough room for
him to maneuver under the tight jeans, but that made it even better.

He hadn’t been so desperate to jerk off in years, but his body

screamed at him to do it, his cock throbbed and swelled, begging for
release like he was a teenager again.

His orgasm was certainly better than it usually was when he

touched himself, too, and the entire time, all he could think about was
those blue eyes staring up at him, peach-colored lips stretched wide
around the thick column of his dick as Kristoff’s head moved back
and forth, back and forth.

He imagined himself grabbing on to that perfectly formed blond

braid, and yanking it until it was messed up nice and good, stray hairs
splayed here and there, until Kristoff had the look of a man who’d
been rolling around in bed, the look of someone who’d been good and
fucked.

Yeah, it was definitely an amazing orgasm.
When he’d cleaned himself off, satisfied that he wouldn’t be

stinking of cum and lust, Garret returned to his brother’s side, but
even then he could still hardly force himself to look away from the
healer, who continued to bustle in and out of the room, checking
Conner’s pulse, making sure the infant was being properly held and
fed, and so many other things.

Garret made plans to leave shortly after that. He couldn’t be

around his brother, his family, and his newborn nephew when all he
wanted to do was grab on to the dragon healer, throw the man over his
shoulder like a caveman, and then snarl and snap at anyone who
would dare to come and try to take the man from him.

He didn’t leave. Garret stayed when he probably shouldn’t have.

When he knew he should leave as his other brothers slowly trickled

Falling in Love Again

11

back to the bottom of the mountain. The only other person who was
still here was his father.

At least Garret didn’t have to be the only other member of

Conner’s family who was overstaying his welcome. He felt less like
an idiot for walking around a place that was not his home, that would
never be his home.

When Simon and Aris, the high dragon of this clan, had come up

with the plan to mate Simon’s children with the dragon warriors, a
deal that would bring peace to both the pack and the clan who had
been fighting each other over territory for decades, Garret had flat out
said he would not do it.

He did not want to be mated to anyone else. As far as he was

concerned, his mate and unborn child had died years ago, and he had
no interest in being tied down to anyone else, no matter what the
reasons were.

His father and brothers had accepted that decision, and they’d

even promised him they would do everything in their power to keep
him from having to go up the mountain and hand himself over to
someone who would try and dominate him.

Something which ultimately wouldn’t work since he was an alpha.
Now…Now Garret was thinking that he might be having a change

of heart. It killed him a little on the inside just to think something like
that. It was almost like a betrayal of his dead mate, the woman he’d
loved and had made plans to spend the rest of his life with.

On the upside, it wasn’t like he could impregnate a dragon. Not

that he was aware, anyway. If that was true, then he wouldn’t have to
worry about getting the man pregnant with his child, and then
watching as that child killed him during the birth.

That, and there was nothing and no one telling him that he

actually had to mate with the man. Garret wasn’t even remotely
convinced that he was mated to Kristoff. This was lust, plain and
simple. Garret had hardly been celibate in the over fifty years since
the death of his mate and child. He was still a young and healthy

12

Marcy Jacks

werewolf who had the sexual needs of an alpha, yet he hadn't touched
anyone since first laying eyes on Kristoff. It had been a hard two
months. There had been virtually no time at all for him to be going
out to find someone to be with before the birth of his nephew,
especially with the wolf council constantly trying to stir up shit.

Then Garret had been here, looking out for his brother and trying

to not let his dick get in the way of what he should be doing.

But it was so damned hard.
His cock, not just the situation. He was constantly walking around

with his stupid prick straining against the metal zipper of his jeans.
Fucking pain in the ass.

It would be a pain in Kristoff’s ass if Garret would just stop being

a pussy and make a move already.

Which was exactly why he was standing outside of Kristoff’s

door. Garret had to ask another servant where he could find the
healer, making something up about having a cough just to get a
straight answer.

Just because there was peace between the pack of wolves and this

clan of dragons didn’t mean that everything was all sunshine and
rainbows all the time. Some people would always be dickheads.
Dragons and wolves included.

Maybe that was why Garret was having a difficult time just

knocking on the door. He’d raised his hand no less than five
Goddamned times, but he never knocked because he, an alpha, was
fucking worried that this dragon would laugh in his face if Garret
made a move on him, or invited him out for a coffee, anything.

So. Damned. Pathetic.
He growled softly at himself. He was an alpha! This was bullshit!

He wasn’t the one who was supposed to be having these terrible little
insecurities with himself. If anything, that dragon in there should be
thankful, grateful even, that Garret was even looking twice at him.

And if he tried to laugh in Garret’s face and send him away, then

it was his loss.

Falling in Love Again

13

Yes, that was exactly how this was going to work out. Garret had

it all planned, what he was going to say, how it was going to go down.
All of it. He was going to knock and demand that the dragon come
with him to dinner, or for a drink. Garret wouldn’t take no for an
answer because alphas always got their way and that was that.

He’d just raised his hand to bring his fist down for a couple of

hard pounds when the door yanked open.

Garret had to stop himself and pull back before he could do

something stupid, like accidentally punch the healer in the face.

Garret was caught off guard. He, an alpha, was actually stunned

because he hadn’t heard the healer walking to the door on the other
side of the room. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Ever.

The healer was rubbing his face, and yawning, as if he’d just

woken up from a nap.

Doctors and nurses were supposed to have long and irregular

hours, so it only made sense that this man would be resting on his
time off, even when the sun was still up and bright. And his day
clothes were still on, looking rumpled and cute.

“What can I do for you?” Kristoff asked, looking at him with eyes

that were only slightly puffy.

He looked good from his beauty sleep, not that he needed such a

thing to look good, but either way, the sleep-tousled hair reminded
Garret of his fantasy of fucking the man until that braid was good and
messed up, strands of hair everywhere.

He looked like he’d just been rolling around in bed all right. What

made the thought even better was that Garret couldn’t smell sex on
him, meaning he was alone in there.

Kristoff didn’t have a lover. He knew because he’d asked around,

and that was something that had kept Garret awake some nights.

“Garret?” Kristoff asked, and he stopped rubbing his face with his

palm. He stared with eyes that were somewhat clearer at Garret.

He was so adorable. So fucking sexy. So ready to be fucked.

14

Marcy Jacks

But this was a healer, not some one-night stand that Garret could

pretend didn’t exist. The man who cared for Garret’s brother wasn’t
about to vanish from Garret’s life.

There had to be a gentle way to approach this.
“Do you need to come in and sit down?” Kristoff asked.
Fuck the gentle approach. Garret wasn’t going to be able to hold

himself back when he had a straight-up invitation to enter the man’s
room.

In fact, not only could he not hold himself back, he couldn’t even

wait until they were in the room together. He grabbed Kristoff by the
collar of his rumpled white coat and yanked him forward.

In the split second before their lips touched, he caught the way

those blue eyes went incredibly wide, from fear or shock. It didn’t
matter, because then Garret had his hand behind Kristoff’s warm
neck, and then his soft lips were being smashed against Garret’s.

Garret took complete advantage of Kristoff’s shock as he thrust

his tongue inside of that warm, wet mouth. Kristoff let out a muffled
noise of surprise, and he grabbed Garret by his leather jacket, but he
didn’t attempt to shove him away.

He might’ve been too stunned for that. Garret didn’t really know

for sure. Either way, he was too far gone to stop himself, so unless
Kristoff did that for him, this was going to happen.

Kristoff’s eyes remained wide open as Garret pushed the man

backward into his room, kicking the door shut behind him.

Falling in Love Again

15

Chapter Two

Well this certainly wasn’t entirely unexpected. Kristoff just hadn’t

expected it to happen like this. Or at all.

Kristoff knew the man kissing him had been in deep lust with him

for some time now. It was difficult to not know about it when the man
continued to stare at him during the few times when they were in the
same room, and then avoid him ninety percent of the rest of the time.

Kristoff knew how this game was played, but he’d assumed the

part of avoidance was based off of the alpha’s hatred for dragons. Just
because there was peace between the clan and the pack of wolves
didn’t mean that there were a lot of people who were happy about it.

The only thing Kristoff knew was that Conner’s eldest brother had

no intention of mating himself to any of the dragon warriors. There
was only one logical explanation as to why, and now he had the
man’s tongue in his mouth, and Garret was very forcefully moving
Kristoff back to the bed he’d just vacated. The sheets were still in a
mess as Garret pushed him down and straddled Kristoff’s hips.

“You’re mine now,” Garret said, and his eyes were alpha red.
Kristoff shivered at the sight. A thrill of fear spiked within him.

He’d never been in bed with a werewolf before, much less an alpha.
They were supposed to be incredibly dominant and pushy when it
came to what they wanted. Did Kristoff even have a choice in this?

By the way Garret came back down and attacked Kristoff’s mouth

in a biting kiss one more time, he was willing to bet that the answer
was a resounding no.

Garret’s cock was hard through his tight jeans. Kristoff could feel

the thick muscles of his thighs as they squeezed Kristoff’s slim hips,

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Marcy Jacks

not to mention the pulsing of the man’s dick as he thrust down against
him.

Despite how concerning the situation was, Kristoff’s damn body

reacted. He didn’t even like werewolves, with the exception of the
omegas and one beta who had come to live in the castle over the past
year, and now he was about to be fucked by an alpha.

He’d never wanted to be put in this position again, and yet here he

was, and it looked like he was about to enjoy it. To enjoy being taken
like that, having someone put their disgusting cock into his mouth…

Fuck, no way.
Out of some strange reflex, Kristoff bit down on Garret’s lower

lip. He had to since the man didn’t seem to realize, or care, that
Kristoff was trying to push him off.

Garret let out a pained moan and pulled back. There was blood on

his bottom lip. Kristoff had actually managed to bite through the skin.

Garret stared down at him for a few long seconds, and Kristoff

thought he was really about to get it now.

Instead of being angry, or punishing him in a fit of violence,

Garret smiled. The pain had actually pleased him?

God, alpha wolves were so damned strange.
“You like it rough, do you?” Garret asked, and he grabbed on to

Kristoff’s wrists and yanked them above his head.

Kristoff swallowed hard, like there was literally something heavy

and dry in his throat, and he shook his head. “No.”

“No?” Garret asked. He was smiling, like he thought that Kristoff

was playing around with him or something.

“I can be a little gentle with you if you want, but only if you say

so.”

And even then, judging from the look on his face, Garret would

barely be able to do just that.

The interesting thing about this situation, however, was the fact

that he’d offered Kristoff an opportunity to say what he wanted at all.

Falling in Love Again

17

To be gentle or to be rough? What would he do if Kristoff told the

big oaf to get off of him completely?

He didn’t really get the chance to think too much about that as

Garret came down and pressed another kiss to Kristoff’s mouth,
pushing his tongue back between his lips and licking him deep.

Kristoff’s stupid body, his stupid, traitorous, worthless body was

betraying him again, just like he didn’t want it to do. Without even
really intending for it to happen, Kristoff pushed his own tongue back
against Garret’s. The slick glide as they moved against each other
made his blood sing and his dick throb.

Kristoff didn’t hate werewolves anymore, but he still didn’t trust

the alphas, and here he was, kissing this one, who had forcefully
kissed him, pushed his way into Kristoff’s room, and was pinning him
to the bed.

But the way Garret was thrusting his clothed dick down against

Kristoff’s felt too damned nice. Kristoff had one-night stands before,
events that he wasn’t overly proud of. Would this be any different? It
would just be sex and it didn’t have to mean anything, to either
himself or to Garret. For all he knew, the alpha was just doing this to
get this out of his system.

Well, maybe Kristoff needed to get something out of his system as

well. It had been a while since he’d had a cock inside of his ass,
spreading him wide and owning him. If he did this with an alpha, then
it would prove that he hadn’t been scarred for life, that he wasn’t
about to let some mindless fear control him for the rest of his life.

He could do this. He wasn’t going to say no. His answer was

going to be a yes because he wanted to know how well this guy could
take him.

Kristoff wanted to feel good for once in his life, and this was

feeling too damned good to say no to.

Kristoff wiggled his hands out of Garret’s hard grip, reached up,

and grabbed on to the man’s short black hair. It was just long enough

18

Marcy Jacks

for Kristoff to make a fist in, and when he yanked hard, another one
of those pained moans seemed to get yanked right out of him.

Garret might be giving Kristoff the opportunity to be a tad on the

gentle side, but clearly the alpha liked a little pain with his pleasure.
Fuck him, why did Kristoff think that was so damned exciting?

Garret really started to move his hips in earnest as Kristoff

grabbed him by the back of the hair and neck, and it felt way too
damned good to not participate in at least a little. Kristoff thrust his
pelvis forward, and it was so damned easy to just let himself focus
completely on the pleasure he felt rushing through his cock and balls
like an electric current. His brain wouldn’t let him focus on anything
other than that sensation of building ecstasy as they dry humped each
other.

It suddenly no longer mattered that Garret was even an alpha

werewolf, or that he’d practically forced Kristoff back into this room
and onto his bed. He just wanted to get laid by this incredibly
handsome man.

That was what Kristoff would pretend he was. Garret was just

another man, some human, or even another dragon he’d met, and they
were hooking up for some one-time-only fun.

And it was turning out to be so much fun indeed. Fuck, his body

was on fire. Garret tasted like hard alcohol, as if he’d taken a drink to
build up his courage before coming here.

Which was incredibly stupid because alphas didn’t need to build

their courage for anything. They had an unlimited supply of it.

And yet there it was, and the taste was burning against Kristoff’s

tongue as Garret thrust his tongue back and forth, in and out,
mimicking the act of fucking.

And Kristoff was no longer even remotely afraid of this. It was

hard to be when his hands were struggling to get beneath Garret’s
leather jacket, his dark T-shirt, and then touching that muscular chest.

There was some hair on his chest. Not a lot. Kristoff couldn’t see

it yet, of course, not with his mouth busy doing other things, but he

Falling in Love Again

19

could feel it. It was coarse. Would it be as dark as the hair on his
head? Or as his eyes?

Garret moaned as Kristoff continued to move his hands around, as

if his touch alone was enough to evoke pleasure out of his body.
Kristoff was moving his hands blindly as he closed his eyes during
the kiss. His dick pulsed with every forward thrust, and he could feel
his orgasm slowly building up from the bottom of his toes, all the way
to his lower back. He spread his legs wide to give the alpha better
access, and then he found Garret’s nipples.

The man thrust his chest forward and moaned through their joined

mouths as Kristoff tweaked them again and again. He clearly liked
this, and his enthusiasm was contagious.

Kristoff didn’t stop moving his hands, and his body heated almost

to the point that he couldn’t take it. He could hardly breathe. He
needed to get out of these damned clothes.

This time, when Kristoff pushed against Garrett’s chest, he put a

lot more effort into it than he was aware he even had. It almost wasn’t
enough, and he’d just managed to get their mouths separated so he
could speak. The warmth of the alpha’s breath in his face, which
smelled nice, unlike the breath of most people, was so damned
intoxicating that he nearly forgot what he was about to say.

“Get off me. I need to get undressed,” he said.
He wasn’t sure how an alpha would take being given a command

like that, but the words were out of Kristoff’s mouth before he even
had a chance to think about them.

Fuck, he felt tied down in all these layers he was in. How the hell

had he managed to fall asleep wearing all this?

Surprisingly, Garret not only did as he asked, but he did it quickly

as well. The man got up onto his knees, not completely removing
himself from Kristoff’s body, but it was more than enough for
Kristoff to get the white lab coat he wore the hell off of him, and then
he frantically started working on the buttons of his blue shirt.

20

Marcy Jacks

Garret yanked off his dark leather jacket and tossed it away as if

the thing meant nothing to him. His eyes continued to have that red
glow about them, and even as he lifted his own black T-shirt over his
head and threw it away, he barely took those eyes away from
Kristoff’s face.

The predatory gleam was scary as fuck. Despite the fact that

Kristoff had already decided he was going to do this, he couldn’t stop
himself from shivering at the idea that Garret just might want to eat
him alive.

That wasn’t what this was about. That was a stupid thought and he

needed it out of his head right now. This was about sex, about getting
off, and it was going to be a one-time thing and then it was going to
be over.

Though Kristoff had managed to get his shirt off, the lower half of

his lab coat was stuck under his ass since he was lying down on the
thing, and he couldn’t really do much with his pants. Not with the
way Garret was straddling him.

Garret was staring down at him, as if waiting for him to make a

move. All Kristoff could do was look at the perfect muscle on the
man’s chest. He could be a contender for Mr. America, or whatever
that contest was. He was definitely a fine specimen, the type of guy
who could have anyone he wanted, and very likely usually did.

Hence the reason why he was bothering with Kristoff.
Kristoff had been told from time to time that he himself had the

height and build of one of the dragon warriors, but those people were
looking at his physical size and nothing else. Kristoff never walked
around without something to cover his chest. Not that he felt there
was anything wrong with him. He had no scars, no disfigurements, it
was just how he was. Either way, he didn’t have that six-pack on his
abs, or a chest that was quite so large. If Kristoff spent a year in
training, he might come halfway to that, especially since he had size
on his side, but otherwise, he was fairly average, and now that he was

Falling in Love Again

21

staring at the alpha wolf’s stellar physique, he was starting to worry
about the softening of his middle.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Garret asked, like the

asshole he clearly was. All alphas were.

Kristoff scowled up at the man. Right. He’d been gawking too

long and that wasn’t exactly sexy. He wasn’t going to be a coward
about this. This was nowhere near close to being like the last time
he’d been under an alpha. Kristoff was going to participate and this
man was going to know it.

“I can’t get my pants off unless you get off me, you giant oaf,” he

said.

Garret’s eyes widened, and Kristoff waited with a quickly beating

heart for whatever the response was going to be.

Garret grinned, his lips curling up in a way that showed off some

of his fangs. That should have been frightening as fuck, the scariest
thing Kristoff had ever seen in his entire life. Instead, his dick pulsed
as if the man had just wrapped those smiling lips around the shaft and
given him a long, luxurious suck.

Holy fuck. He was so screwed.
Garret lifted himself off of Kristoff’s lower half, but instead of

waiting for Kristoff to get his pants off, the giant of a man actually
grabbed on to them himself.

A thrill surged through Kristoff’s body when Garret actually

snapped the belt with his bare hands. Ripping the pants he was
wearing after that must’ve been like snapping a hair in comparison.

It was terrifying, exciting, and fucking hot as hell all at the same

time.

Holy mother of fuck. Kristoff was one of those freaks who got off

on fear and adrenaline. He would never have expected that, but here it
was. There was no other way to describe it because when his dick was
exposed, springing free from his torn pants and underwear, Kristoff
moaned, and a shot of cum landed on his stomach.

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Marcy Jacks

He would have had an orgasm if he hadn’t quickly reached down

to grip his dick at the base.

Garret’s grin didn’t let up, and it was still so damned good-

looking that Kristoff had to look away from it.

He stared down at the man’s throat instead. Big mistake, because

then all Kristoff could see was the muscles working with every breath
and every swallow that the alpha made, which brought even more
jolts of pleasure to his stupid, impatient cock.

Okay, so that wasn’t working, so he was going to look at the

man’s chest instead.

Nope, because then all Kristoff could see were those dark,

budding nipples and the thin layer of coarse hairs that were spread out
along his chest.

His hands! Kristoff was going to stare at his hands! That had to be

a safe option at the very least.

Ha, no, because then all Kristoff could see was the way those long

digits were sliding along the side of his ribs and up his chest, and then
Garret was pinching Kristoff’s nipples between his thumbs and
forefingers.

“Holy fuck,” Kristoff said with a sigh, pushing his chest up

against those amazing hands. His fear of alphas, or at least this alpha
in particular, was practically nonexistent.

Good sex would do that, it seemed.
“You’re incredibly sensitive,” Garret said, and Kristoff barely

managed to get his eyes open so he could look at the man above him.

Garret definitely seemed pleased with himself.
“Weren’t expecting that, were you?” Kristoff asked.
Garret shrugged, and then his fingers pinched just a little harder.

Fuck! The pain was sharp, but weirdly enough that just seemed to
magnify the pleasure. Kristoff had to grip his dick tighter just to keep
from spilling his seed all over his damned chest.

Garret chuckled, and when he leaned down, Kristoff froze, not

knowing what to expect until the man sniffed at his neck.

Falling in Love Again

23

Right. Werewolf. Canine habits and all that.
“I can smell how thick your arousal is. Do you have any idea how

much that’s driving me crazy?” Garret asked, lowering his nose down
to Kristoff’s collarbone, and then his chest.

Then his lips were on Kristoff’s nipples, teasing and sucking on

them, using his teeth to pinch in place of his fingers.

Kristoff liked to consider himself a fairly intelligent man. He’d

managed to attend many prominent schools despite being a dragon,
and he was qualified to be a male nurse for humans as well as the
healer of his entire clan.

In that moment, however, none of them meant precisely dick. His

brain stopped working. He couldn’t think straight, and everything
turned into mush. He couldn’t even remember what he’d been
wearing before Garret ripped his clothes off.

All he knew was the feeling of that hot mouth and that slick

tongue on his chest, kissing and sucking and biting, so many good
sensations.

This was so much better than when he touched himself alone in

his room during the night. He should have thought to do this a while
ago.

“Oh fuck, that’s nice. Keep doing that,” Kristoff said. “Y–you’re a

lot gentler than other alphas.”

Garret immediately tensed, and he pulled away, putting a

complete stop to what he’d been doing.

Shit! Fucking Goddamnit, shit!
“You’ve been with other alphas before?” Garret asked, and he was

suddenly staring down at Kristoff as if he wasn’t sure he should be
doing this anymore.

Way too damned late for him to be having thoughts like that,

because if this giant oaf stopped now, Kristoff was going to find a
way to kill him for teasing him so damned bad.

“It was a few years ago,” Kristoff said.
Garret nodded. “That explains why I can’t smell anyone on you.”

24

Marcy Jacks

“Would it matter if you could smell someone on me?” Kristoff

asked, even though he already knew the answer.

Alphas were possessive as fuck. Worse than dogs with bones.
Garret actually growled down at him, proving Kristoff’s theory.

“You’d better fucking believe it matters.”

Whatever. Asshole. It wasn’t like this meant anything to either of

them. Garret just wanted to fuck, and Kristoff needed to prove he
wasn’t broken. The end.

Kristoff shoved aside any lingering fears he might have about this

entire situation. He didn’t need Garret’s approval, and the man had no
right to be acting like Kristoff needed it.

“Whatever. Are we going to do this or do I have to kick your ass

out of here?”

As if Kristoff even had the strength for something like that.
Garret’s nose flared, and his red eyes turned even brighter. The

man came down hard and fast, his mouth covering Kristoff’s in
another fast and furious kiss that left him feeling completely owned.

He wasn’t about to be the property of some alpha, but while they

were doing this, so long as the man kissed him like that, then Kristoff
figured he could put up with the whole caveman thing.

He jerked his cock while Garret kissed him, thrusting his tongue

back and forth inside of Kristoff’s mouth. It felt good, so fucking hot,
and Kristoff was overheating again even though he was completely
naked. Garret’s body heat was too damned much. Was that unique to
him, or was it a werewolf thing? Conner never seemed to have a body
temperature that was this high.

As quickly as the kiss had started, it ended. Not before Garret bit

down hard on Kristoff’s lower lip, however. Once again Kristoff
experienced the interesting effect of pain that brought about pleasure,
and all he could do was watch helplessly as Garret neatly jumped off
the bed and shoved down his jeans—not snapping the belt or breaking
the fabric like he’d done to Kristoff’s clothing, the jerk—and then he
was grabbing on to Kristoff’s hips and yanking him around.

Falling in Love Again

25

Kristoff let out a shocked noise as he was spun around. “Gah!”
“On your hands and knees,” Garret said, his voice gruff and going

straight to Kristoff’s cock.

“You could have just asked me,” Kristoff said, glaring over his

shoulder at the alpha.

He was irritated by this, but he didn’t do or say anything about it.

Of course it would be this position. Kristoff hated this position, but
going face-to-face seemed way too damned intimate for what they
were about to do.

Fucking and intimacy were two completely separate things. So

why he was he so angry that he was on his knees like this?

Then Garret’s hands were on his ass, spreading his cheeks wide,

and the sudden rush of anticipation that made goose bumps form all
along his skin made him forget about that spike of anger. Especially
when he felt one of Garret’s fingertips pressing against his asshole.

“You’d better not try sticking that in there dry,” Kristoff snapped.

That was the one thing he wasn’t about to put up with. If Garret told
him he was into that shit then this was going to end right now.

“Relax, I wasn’t going to,” Garret said. “I like it when you get all

pushy and angry. Lets me know that you’re not such a quiet guy after
all.”

He came off as quiet?
Kristoff was about to tell Garret where he could find his lube, but

then the man surprised him when he seemed to already have it. His
fingers left Kristoff’s ass cheeks, and when they came back, pressing
against his hole, they were wet and slick.

He looked over his shoulder again and noted the small bottle that

was sitting on his sheets. He hadn’t even heard Garret open the cap.
The man must’ve brought the stuff with him in his pocket.

Fuck, the man really had ninja skills to be able to grab on to the

stuff from the pocket of his clothes, which were on the floor, and still
manage to keep Kristoff from even realizing he’d left the bed.

26

Marcy Jacks

Then those fingers were pushing inside of him, and Kristoff hissed

at the sudden stretching, and then he groaned as the burn overcame
him, and all he felt was the pleasure.

Garret chuckled. “That’s it, baby. You’re mine now.”

Falling in Love Again

27

Chapter Three

“I don’t belong to anyone,” Kristoff said, but Garret just chuckled

again as he pushed his fingers deeper inside. He’d already found the
man’s prostate, and he was making it sing for him. Kristoff might
want to be stubborn about this, but Garret knew the truth and he was
willing to accept it now.

He just had to get Kristoff to do the same. It would be easier to do

that once the man experienced how good it could be, being with an
alpha.

“You say that now, but then you push your ass back against my

hand.”

Kristoff snarled back at him, and though his eyes didn’t turn red,

they did change. They became like a snake’s eyes, black slits in the
middle of that blue color. Had to be a dragon thing, which was strange
and exotic all at the same time.

“Fuck off,” Kristoff said.
No thanks, would rather fuck you, Garret thought.
And who said that an alpha had no self-control?
With the way Kristoff’s asshole clenched around Garret’s two

fingers, holding on to him in that strong grip, he couldn’t help but
imagine how tight that same grip would be around his cock. Hot and
tight, he needed it now more than he needed anything else with the
exception of air to breathe, and that was saying a whole lot.

So he did have some self-control, but apparently it just wasn’t a

whole lot because then Garret was pulling his fingers out of Kristoff’s
entrance and grabbing for the bottle of lube again. His hands shook as
he took hold of the thing and opened it up. That was how badly his

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Marcy Jacks

body was reacting. He was like a drug addict that was going through
withdrawal and was a little too desperate to get a fix. Anything that
would make the symptoms stop.

He needed to do this. He had to claim and man and do it right

now. He’d been walking around with blue balls for a month now and
he couldn’t wait anymore.

Literally, his balls were blue, he could see the color change

whenever he looked down at them, and not even a marathon of porn
and masturbation was helping with that either.

He coated his heavy prick with the lube. He was so damned thick

that his dick was nearly the width of Kristoff’s wrist. This was very
likely going to hurt the man, especially since he hadn’t done nearly
enough preparation to get him ready for what was to come, but he
couldn’t wait anymore.

If Garret’s wolf had to be patient for another two minutes, then the

damned animal was going to burst right out of him and start tearing
shit up. That was just the way it was.

“I hope you’re ready for this,” Garret said, and then he grabbed on

to his dick by the base and pressed the swollen crown between the
dragon’s ass cheeks.

He could hear the way the blond man’s heart rate sped up, but he

didn’t demand Garret slow down or stop.

“I’m ready. Was even starting to wonder what was taking you so

damned long.”

Little smart-ass. Garret liked it.
God, it was such a tight fit. Garret had trouble pushing the crown

past the tight ring of muscle. He had to use one of his fingers to help
push it inside.

When it did finally get in there with a hard pop, Garret was very

aware of the pained hiss that Kristoff released, and he noted how the
man’s claws were starting to form on his hands as he gripped the
bedsheets.

Falling in Love Again

29

Not just his claws. Scales were starting to appear where smooth,

pale skin had formerly been.

They weren’t red, a little too dark for that. More like a burgundy

color, and definitely not as bright as the red scales that made up
Garret’s brother-in-law’s hide.

It really was an interesting sight to see.
“You okay?” Garret asked.
Kristoff puffed out a breath of air, and he tilted his head to the

side slightly. “What?”

Maybe he hadn’t heard that. Fuck, Garret could barely summon

the will power to ask the question again when everything inside of
him demanded that he stop stalling and just fuck the smaller man into
the mattress and make sure he never forgot what it was like having
Garret inside of him.

He never wanted Kristoff to compare him to any other alphas he’d

been with in his entire life. Not ever.

Garret asked again, but this time he did it through clenched teeth.

“I asked if you were all right?”

The scent of sweat and sex in the room was getting too heavy. His

wolf was reacting to those primal scents and his cock was throbbing
before it was even all the way inside of Kristoff’s body. He didn’t
have much time here before he completely lost it.

“I’m…I’m good. You can move.”
The answer stunned him, actually. “You’re fine? Are you sure?”
He thought for sure that Kristoff, the proper and quiet healer,

wouldn’t be able to handle his girth.

“I said I’m fine,” Kristoff said, his tone snappish. “Hurry up and

fuck me before I change my mind.”

“I love it when you’re bossy,” Garret said, something he

absolutely didn’t mean to say out loud, but oh well, there it was. He
was going to have to make sure the healer knew to push his buttons
every time they were in bed together because there was just

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Marcy Jacks

something incredibly hot about being ordered around when he was
naked in bed with someone.

Because Kristoff had demanded it, Garret delivered. He pushed

his cock forward, stretching Kristoff wide in one hard, fast thrust and
he didn’t stop until there was no farther he could go. He was balls-
deep inside of that hot, tight grip, and Garret damn near collapsed on
Kristoff’s back.

Kristoff was cursing and gasping beneath Garret, and his arms

were shaking, but he managed to keep himself lifted upright. He
wasn’t about to be taken down by this.

Good man.
Garret’s hips were already canting forward before his brain had

even caught up to what he was doing. The pleasure was just shooting
through him, building up behind his stomach and at the base of his
spine. His balls were rising up into his body and there wasn’t much of
anything he could do to stop it.

He sped up his movements, gripping Kristoff’s hips so damned

hard he was going to leave bruises later, dragon or not, and every time
he slammed into the other man, listening to the smacking of their
flesh hitting each other, Kristoff moaned and yelled out loud.

He was loving it. The healer liked being fucked hard, which was a

good thing because there was no damned way Garret could be gentle
now. That had sailed out the window the second Kristoff had opened
his door to him.

“Oooh! Fuck! Harder, fuck me harder,” Kristoff yelled.
This wasn’t hard enough? Greedy, greedy little thing, one more

thing Garret fucking adored about the man.

And Garret gave him just what he’d been begging for. He

slammed into Kristoff’s tight ass even harder, faster than before. He
fucked the man clear across the bed, until he really had to use those
dragon claws of his to hold on, or else they both would have gone
over the other side.

Falling in Love Again

31

Kristoff moaned and yelled, and so did Garret. He couldn’t hold

himself back, and then Kristoff’s ass tightened around his surging
cock to the point that it hurt so damned much but felt so damned
good. Garret moaned as the scent of cum hit the air as Kristoff
spasmed and collapsed, half of his body falling right off the bed.

Garret had to hold the man up, and he gripped those smooth hips

even tighter to keep the man from going completely over the side of
the bed.

Garret couldn’t hold back, not when his dick was being squeezed

like that, and he shot his load deep inside of Kristoff’s body, putting
his cum and his scent all over the other man.

His inner wolf howled like it hadn’t done in over fifty years. Oh,

holy fucking Christ, this was it, this was what he’d been missing. It
was like living off of a shitty black-and-white TV from the sixties,
just to get a flat screen, seventy-two-inch HD model put in front of his
face.

He hadn’t known what he’d been missing until he had it, and he

was never going back to that colorless life ever again.

He leaned down and kissed the side of Kristoff’s throat, getting

more of that clean scent of sex and sweat, and he let his wolf’s teeth
push through his gums. Sharp, long, and powerful. He bit down on the
side of Kristoff’s neck, right where every mate put the mating scar.

The thing that would warn off other wolves and mark Kristoff as

belonging to him.

It was so damned good. The taste of blood in his mouth was

metallic and thick and at the same time as all of that so fucking sweet.
Not overly sweet though. He didn’t feel like he was chugging back an
entire jar of honey or anything like that.

Garret had no words to describe it, other than it was perfect. Just

fucking perfect, and he came again.

He barely got the chance to finish the second time around when

Kristoff bucked him clean off of him. The man was like a wild bull,
only with the mouth of a trucker.

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Marcy Jacks

First Garret’s teeth came free, and then his cock. That had

probably hurt the other man more than anything, despite the fact that
Garret was now softening, but the look of utter rage on the man’s face
didn’t give away any pain that he might’ve been feeling.

“You motherfucker! You cocksucking asshole!”
“What the hell did I do?” Garret demanded, and he had to grab on

to Kristoff’s fists before the man could smash them into Garret’s face.

“You fucking bit me! I never said you could bite me! What the

fuck is your problem?”

That was what this was all about? “What did you think I was

going to do?” Garret demanded.

“Not fucking bite me for one thing!”
This wasn’t happening the way Garret thought it was going to. He

hadn’t expected the man to jump for joy or anything, but this near
show of violence wasn’t on the list of things he expected either.

In fact, this outright show of anger was really starting to piss him

off. “You don’t want to be mated to me that badly? Fuck you, you
think I wanted to be mated to a dragon?”

“You didn’t ask me if I wanted to be mated to you! I’m not part of

your pack’s Goddamned peace offer!”

“Ask you? Ask you?” Garret roared. He grabbed on to the damned

man’s shoulders and gripped tight. He wanted to crush the man,
wanted to crush their mouths together was more like it. How could he
not see? How could he be acting this way when Garret didn’t have a
choice in the matter either?

“I never had a choice, you fucking dragon! If I’d had a choice, do

you really think I’d choose you?”

Garret’s own words shocked the hell out of him, as if someone

had sucker punched him, or smashed him in the head with a hammer.
Only then was he able to see through the rage that had consumed him
when his mate had denied him.

Falling in Love Again

33

His claws had come out, and he was gripping Kristoff so tightly

that they were cutting through the man’s flesh. Little drops of blood
were even rolling down that pale skin.

And it was very pale at the moment, as if Kristoff had bled almost

every drop of blood out of him, instead of just that little bit.

He was staring at Garret like he was the big bad wolf. That was

true and all, but Garret had no intention of eating the man.

Kristoff’s mouth was open slightly, as if he couldn’t shut it. Small

choked noises escaped him, and those baby blues were so damned
wide that he could see the whites all around them.

Garret was scaring the hell out of his mate. Not even just that. He

was terrifying the man.

Garret let him go. He was disgusted with himself, and he had to

get the hell out of here. Right now.

“I’ll be back, and we’re going to discuss this later.”
Kristoff was leaning away from Garret like he was the most

horrible person on the face of the planet. “Just get the hell out of
here.”

Garret’s inner wolf was still incredibly pissed off. He wanted to

grab on to Kristoff again and lay claim to the man, make the dragon
shifter know who he belonged to, but that wasn’t going to win him
any points, not when he’d fucked up so badly.

Garret collected his clothes, and without even dressing, he walked

out of the bedroom. He didn’t even care if there were people walking
around out there who would see him naked. There were a few
servants who liked to stare just a little too much.

Garret snapped and snarled at the lot of them. They all scurried off

at the sight of his teeth, and Garret quickly got his pants back on
before he started marching to Aris’s office.

He would be back. Kristoff was his chosen mate. Garret hadn’t

thought that would ever happen. He hadn’t wanted it to happen. He
didn’t want to forget about his wife, or his child.

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Marcy Jacks

But if he had a new mate, a new piece of his soul, then that was

someone who needed to be protected, and needed to be part of his life.
Garret was going to get Aris to approve the mating, and then he was
going to come to an agreement with his mate.

Falling in Love Again

35

Chapter Four

Aris blinked, and that was the most he was able to do as far as

showing how shocked he was by his brother-in-law’s offer.

“All right, when did this happen?”
“The day I met him,” Garret said.
“That was the day I gave birth,” Conner said, holding on to his

little red-haired baby, who was happily sucking on his fist and staring
at everything around him in the room.

Garret shut his eyes. “I know, but I couldn’t help it, I just—”
“It’s totally okay,” Conner said, getting to his feet and rushing to

his brother before Aris could even open his mouth to say anything
about the matter.

“You’ve been alone since before I was born. This is so great! I’m

happy that you’ve found another mate. I mean, I didn’t know your last
mate so I’m not trying to say…I don’t know what I’m trying to say,
but I just don’t want you to be alone.”

Oh Gods, his mate was really overtalking this. The man was

getting too excited. He wasn’t sensing the underlining problem that
Aris did. It was obvious with the way Garret’s shoulders were tense,
and how his jaw was set and tight, as if he expected someone to judge
him for something horrible.

“I thought you were all right with me being alone?” Garret said.
“I was, but then you walked in here and told Aris that you wanted

to mate with Kristoff, and he’s so nice. It’s going to be so great
having him as a brother!”

“Conner,” Aris said, needing to put a stop to this. “Baby, I don’t

think Garret is finished speaking.”

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Marcy Jacks

Conner looked over at him, and then up at his eldest brother.

Conner was only twenty-six, and while Aris couldn’t remember
Garret’s exact age, he knew it was close to a hundred. The man was
older, but he looked as young as a man who had just turned thirty. At
the moment, he looked even younger than that. The lack of blood in
his face suggested he was getting ready for a beheading.

Aris sighed and rubbed his face. “All right, wolf, what did you

do?”

“Aris!” Conner snapped, but then their son made a noise of

displeasure in his arms, and, mindful of the infant he was holding,
Conner started rocking him. He lowered his voice and spoke softly
before the boy could flat-out start a miniature riot.

Aris hated having to ignore his mate, but he wasn’t about to break

eye contact with the alpha in front of him. Aris was a high dragon, in
charge of protecting his clan and seeing to the safety of all. After the
territory war with the pack at the bottom of the mountain, he’d had to
learn how alphas worked, and he wasn’t about to gain the respect of
the man in front of him if he lowered his gaze and cowed.

“Well? What happened?”
“What makes you think anything happened?” Garret shot back,

and there was a challenge in the man’s eyes. Damned prick, this was
Aris’s castle.

“Because you came in here looking scared shitless. Not exactly

normal for an alpha demanding a rightful mate.”

Garret’s shoulders tensed, but very briefly. Aris might’ve missed

it had he not been looking for any outward sign that he was right.

Garret’s scowl never went away. In fact, it deepened. “I already

mated with him. He’s denying me.”

That made Aris’s brows lift up high. It certainly got Conner’s

attention as well.

“Kristoff…? Really? Why would he do that?” Conner asked, and

now he was starting to look at his brother with a touch of suspicion.

“What did you do?”

Falling in Love Again

37

“Why would it have been me?” Garret said, fists clenching.
The only reason why Aris didn’t immediately attack the man for it

was because he knew Garret wasn’t getting ready to hit his younger
brother. Garret was not that sort of alpha. None of the Abbot brothers
were toward their youngest sibling.

That, and Conner was holding on to an infant. If anyone was

about to make a move to hurt either Conner or the child, Aris would
react before any attacker even knew they were about to make a move.

No, Garret was just incredibly pissed.
“You said that you already mated with him,” Aris said. “Am I to

take it you’re talking about the traditional form of werewolf mating,
or did you seal it with sex?”

Werewolves didn’t have to fuck each other to know they were

mates. This might be one of those cases, but for Kristoff…

“He invited me into his room. We had sex and I bit him on the

shoulder. He didn’t take kindly to that.”

That really got Aris’s attention. “Kristoff invited you into his

room?”

“Yes,” Garret replied, nodding once.
Conner was looking at Aris now, sensing the problem but not

knowing what it was. “What’s the matter with that?”

“Kristoff would never willingly sleep with a werewolf. Especially

an alpha,” Aris said, and he let his claws and red scales form over his
body. He created a heavy armor for himself without actually shifting
into his dragon form, and he glared at the alpha in front of him.

Conner’s brother or not, he would tear into the man if the answers

he received were anything less than desirable.

Being an alpha warrior, Garret took note of this, and his own

shoulders bunched up. His wolf teeth sprouted from out of his mouth,
and his eyes glowed a shade of red that could’ve come from any
demon movie.

“You think I forced him to do something he didn’t want to do?”

Garret asked with a snarl.

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Marcy Jacks

“I think you bit him without his permission, and now you’re

trying to get me to hand him over to you. Fuck you.”

Garret snapped his teeth and released a feral-sounding canine

noise from his throat.

Conner immediately ran between the two of them before they

could lunge at each other. Aris would have, too. Even though there
was a heavy desk between them, one easy swipe of his arm and the
thing would have crashed into the wall, giving him all the room he
needed to attack.

His mate and child in his immediate line of sight snapped him out

of those hateful thoughts, and it must’ve done the same for Garret
because the man was no longer sprouting fur all over his body.

“Knock it off, the both of you!” Conner yelled, glaring at the both

of them. His raised voice and the sheer anger that was rushing through
his body was enough to wake their son from the dozing slumber he’d
fallen into.

The boy started to wail and cry, but that didn’t stop Conner from

snapping at either his brother, or Aris.

“You’re not about to start a fight while my kid is in the room.

Garret, fucking stop it. You’re in Aris’s house so show some
Goddamned respect. Aris, stop being a dick. Garret said he was
invited in. He didn’t rape Kristoff.”

“He has yet to say he didn’t,” Aris said. Just because he was

retracting his claws didn’t mean he was going to look at the wolf in
front of him with anything less than suspicion.

“I didn’t rape him,” Garret said. The man even glared sarcastically

at him. Gods, Aris would love to just go over there and smash the
man’s face into the wall.

Conner was right, however. Something like that was best not to do

around a hatchling. Especially his own.

“All right,” Aris said. He wasn’t entirely convinced, but he was

willing to let the man in front of him continue speaking. Only for
Conner’s sake. “So tell me what happened.”

Falling in Love Again

39

“I just did,” Garret said. “I was in lust with him because of the

mating. I only just went to him today. He invited me into his bedroom
and we fucked. He didn’t take the bite very well, however.”

“Of course he wouldn’t,” Aris said. “He hates werewolves. Only

the alphas,” Aris added quickly when Conner gave him a strange
look.

Kristoff had certainly never made a claim that he hated Conner, or

any of the other omegas who were living in the castle now. Hell, he
was even friendly with Quin, the beta, but it was alphas the man
despised, and Aris would never hold blame against the man for that.

“You say of course, like it should be obvious or something.

Whatever you’re talking about is not obvious to me, so I’d appreciate
it if you’d enlighten me. Right now.”

Pushy, shovey alpha prick.
Aris bit down on his lips, and then he turned to his mate.

“Sweetheart, we’re not going to fight or anything, but this is going to
be something that you can’t hear.”

Because Conner was such a damned good mate, he didn’t

immediately make a fuss. They knew each other well enough for
Conner to know that Aris wouldn’t treat him like that.

“This is private to Kristoff?” he asked.
Aris nodded. “Yeah, and I know you wouldn’t say anything to the

rest of the clan, but…”

Fuck, this was awkward.
His mate saved him from having to continue when he just smiled

at him and nodded. “All right, I’ll go check on our new friend in the
meantime.”

Aris still wasn’t happy about a wild fox being made into a pet, and

having it roam around the castle. “Just do me a favor and put Aris in
his crib with someone to watch him before you go and spend time
with that animal.”

“I will,” Conner said, but he barely spared Aris a backward glance

as he walked out the door.

40

Marcy Jacks

Why did he get such a bad feeling about this?
“You know he’s going to bring the kid to see the fox, right?”

Garret asked.

“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Aris said under his breath.
He and Conner might have a great relationship, but there were still

plenty of things that the younger man liked to do to irritate Aris from
time to time.

“So tell me what’s going on,” Garret demanded, yanking Aris

back into the present. “Why would he hate alphas so damned much?
He didn’t seem like he hated me when he invited me into his room.”

Aris despised this man’s tone. He had to remind himself again and

again that, as an alpha, Garret would be used to speaking this way and
having people respond to him. The only reason why he was going to
put up with this shit was because of Conner. That was it.

“I’m not sure what he was thinking of doing when he invited you

into his room, but he does stay professional at all times, even with
people he doesn’t like. Are you sure he was inviting you in for sex?
He might’ve been inviting you in for counseling or even a checkup.”

Garret opened his big stupid mouth, probably to deny that, and

then he stopped.

Ah, Aris had him there. The man had been so much in lust and too

stupid to think about the things that had been happening around him.

Garret had that scared look on his face again, and he went so

damned pale that it was kind of amusing to see. “No, he would’ve…It
wasn’t like that. He specifically told me to fuck him. I know that for
sure.”

Aris shrugged. “Fine, I wasn’t there, but I’m guessing the only

reason he would’ve done that would be because of the lust he felt.
Werewolf matings, true ones, are usually felt by both sides, right?”

And Aris only knew that for a fact because of when Quin mated

with Lennox. Then there was Oliver and Fraser, and Tom and Grant.

All they did was speak about how they’d felt it before they’d even

known it. It was enough to make Aris jealous at times. He and Conner

Falling in Love Again

41

had been mated for convenience, and though it had developed into a
true mating, neither of them had such an amazing certainty going into
it.

Garret nodded. “That could’ve been it.”
He was being very careful with his words.
Aris was going to have to be blunt if he wanted to get the message

across the first time.

“A couple of years ago, Kristoff was captured at the bottom of the

mountain collecting herbs, by a pack of alphas. They raped him
before any of my men could get down there and put a stop to it,
before we even knew he was missing.”

Garret completely tensed up, and whatever color was left in his

skin completely vanished.

Well, it had to be said. It was an ugly thing to happen, and there

was no nice way of describing it. “They taunted him, and they hurt
him bad. He didn't even look the same when we found him. That was
around when the animosity between my clan and any other shifter
changed for the worst. No one wanted to think that the same could
happen to them. That’s why he doesn’t like alphas.”

* * * *

Kristoff was just walking by Aris’s office. In fact, he’d planned on

knocking on the door, once he worked up the courage, when he heard
speaking.

“You can’t think it was someone from our pack that did

something like that,” Garret said.

Kristoff didn’t even get the chance to pace up and down the hall

once before those words hit his ears, and then he had to start listening.

What the hell was Garret doing in there?
“To be honest, I still haven’t ruled it out. Your pack is big, almost

as big as my clan, but there are other wolves in the area, and rogue

42

Marcy Jacks

packs. I know that. It made the decision to mate myself and several of
my men into your pack a lot more difficult.”

That was Aris. He wasn’t talking about…There was no way he

could be telling Garret about…

“Fuck me,” Garret said. “Holy fucking, and I—”
“You what?” Aris snapped.
“I didn’t force myself on him,” Garret said. “Fuck, I don’t think I

did.”

Holy mother of hell, they actually were talking about it. Kristoff’s

fists clenched. Aris was telling Garret about…And he swore he’d
never breathe a word of it to anyone!

How…How dare he!
Kristoff slammed his hand into the door and marched inside.

Garret spun around at the sudden noise, and Aris had the sorriest
expression on his face as he stared at Kristoff.

“Kristoff, I can—”
“Fuck your explanations and fuck you!” Kristoff snapped, and

then he glared at Garret.

Garret wasn’t looking at him with any of that indignant anger he’d

head earlier, an anger he’d had no right to feel then, and clearly knew
it now thanks to Aris’s big mouth.

Garret had the nerve to reach out to him, as if he wanted to touch

Kristoff’s shoulder. “I’m so—”

Kristoff slapped his hand away. “Don’t touch me. You’re never

touching me ever again and you’re out of your mind if you think I’m
going to be your mate.”

Garret bristled and his nostrils flared.
It was a great big reminder that he was still an alpha, and that

people didn’t often speak to alphas the way Kristoff was right now.

“If you didn’t want me then what was that shit earlier? You

wanted me then all right.”

“Only after you practically forced your way into my room and

shoved me down on the bed.”

Falling in Love Again

43

Garret stepped back as if he’d been punched in the face good and

hard. Kristoff wanted to do just that, but he couldn’t just let the man
think Kristoff thought he was a dirty rapist or something. That wasn’t
what he thought at all.

“You didn’t force yourself on me. That’s not what I’m saying.”
“No, just that you don’t want anything to do with me.”
“You weren’t supposed to mate with me!” Kristoff snapped.
“What did you think I was there for?” Garret snapped back.
They both stopped and took a step away from each other. The

move was so in sync that it would have been fun at any other time.

“For the love of the Gods,” Aris said, as if the entire situation was

ridiculous to him or something.

It sort of was. “You were there to mate with me?” Kristoff asked.
“Of course I was,” Garret said. “Wasn’t it obvious?”
“No!”
That seemed to get the man to stand a little straighter. “Well, I

apologize then if my intentions weren’t clear. I didn’t know you were
just accommodating me.”

Now Kristoff really wanted to punch him. The stupid alpha was

just lucky that he was taller and stronger and faster, otherwise he
would’ve had it coming and coming good.

“I wanted to have sex,” Kristoff said. “You were kissing me, and I

wanted to prove to myself that I wasn’t…” He didn’t want to say the
word broken. That would’ve been like admitting to too much. “I
wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and I did. You weren’t
supposed to bite me.”

“Well, I did,” Garret said. “I told you, you were mine before I put

my cock inside of you.”

“I’m a dragon. That means nothing to me.”
“I’m a wolf! It means everything to me!”
They both looked at Aris, as if he could settle this dispute between

them once and for all.

44

Marcy Jacks

Aris lifted his hands, surrendering already, the bastard. “I won’t

hand Kristoff over to you just because you bit him.”

“But he’s mine!”
“I don’t belong to anyone,” Kristoff muttered.
“And I agree with him,” Aris said.
Perhaps he wasn’t such a bastard after all.
“Garret, he didn’t know your intent was to claim him, and even if

it was, I’m not going to tell him that he has to go down the mountain
and live with you among a pack of wolves. This is his home, and he’s
comfortable here.”

Kristoff carefully watched Garret’s expression. How he reacted

would basically determine the ease of which this situation took care of
itself. Garret could make Kristoff’s life miserable if he decided to,
because whether Kristoff liked it or not, he did have Garret’s mating
bite on his neck.

Hell, he’d bandaged the thing and swabbed it with disinfectant,

and he’d even stitched it in the hopes that it would heal better and
leave almost no scar at all.

Garret was the son of the alpha at the bottom of the pack, though

it wasn’t very likely, especially with Conner here, he could make a
whole lot of trouble, for Kristoff as well as the clan.

Garret didn’t rant and rave. He didn’t shift into his wolf and try

attacking Aris before carrying Kristoff away, and he didn’t threaten to
renew the war between the clan and the pack.

Instead he took a deep, calming breath, which stunned the hell out

of Kristoff, and then turned to face him.

“All right, it’s clear to me that I have to earn your affection the

old-fashioned way, so that’s what I’m going to do.”

It was such an unexpected thing for Kristoff to hear that he wasn’t

sure his ears got it right the first time. “What?”

“You’re my mate, whether either of us likes it or not, and I’m not

about to let you go, but I won’t force you to do something you don’t
want to do either.”

Falling in Love Again

45

Kristoff had to fight to keep from wincing at the man’s words.

Whether either of them liked it or not? He hadn’t stopped to think that
Garret might be forced into this as well, whether from instinct or not,
it didn’t matter.

“Wait, so what are you going to do?” Kristoff asked. “I won’t go

down the mountain with you. I live here, my life is here.”

“I know,” Garret said, and he turned to Aris. “With your

permission, I’d like to stay on in the castle. Until Kristoff accepts me
as his mate or decides to leave with me. Either way, I want to be near
him.”

Kristoff was torn between being horrified and…kind of

impressed. He had to give it to the alpha. He really knew how to
shock a man.

Aris looked as if he was thinking about it, and his brown eyes

flicked from Kristoff and back to Garret. “What if he decides to never
accept your mating? He could easily just ignore you for the rest of
both of your lives.”

“I could,” Kristoff said, not even really knowing why he let that

slip from his mouth.

He regretted it the instant it was out in the open, but it didn’t seem

to bother Garret all that much. In fact, the man smiled at him, that
same sexy, predatory smile he’d given to Kristoff when they were in
bed together.

“You won’t.”
That sounded too much like a challenge for Kristoff to just

blatantly ignore. “I won’t? How do you know?”

Garret took another step toward him, getting all up in his personal

space, and Aris didn’t say a word about it. “I just know,” he said.

And that was all he said.

46

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Five

Roman leaned down and picked at the soft bed of grass. The

blades were pressed down, as if someone had been lying there before,
but the spot was cold.

This whole place was cold, but it had all the signs that there had

been a camp here previously. He could point out where the fire had
been based off of the burn marks on the grass in the center of the
clearing, not to mention the ruined soil.

Not human campers. Not even hunters, because he couldn’t find

any dried blood anywhere from a recent catch, and this was not a
good place for hunting or fishing, even though there was a stream
nearby.

Someone had been here and stayed maybe two days, and then

packed up their shit, tried to hide their tracks, and took off before they
could be found.

In the grass where this particular person had been sleeping,

Roman ran his hands along the area, searching, searching.

Then he found something, and he brought it up to his face to have

a look.

Three strands of short hair, dark brown, almost black.
Definitely Ailiwen, which meant Roman was back on track.
“Found something,” he called, and then held up his hand. He

waited for Clatcher to jog on over and take a look. “Does it belong to
him?”

Roman tossed the hairs away, wiped his hands on his pants, and

then got to his feet. “Yup. We’re getting closer.”

“Thank the Gods. I thought we’d lost him,” Clatcher said.

Falling in Love Again

47

If that had been the case, then Roman would have sent Clatcher

home, just to make sure the poor kid didn’t waste any more of his
time or something. Roman had no intention of giving up until he was
holding Ailiwen’s heart in his hand.

Not ever.
“This camp site’s not old. I’d say we’re three days behind him.”
“What do we do when we find him?” Clatcher asked. “He keeps

changing his shape on us. He could just turn into that snake thing and
fly away again and we wouldn’t even be able to get a proper grip on
him.”

Which was how the cocksucking asshole had escaped the last

time. Ailiwen had murdered Roman’s mate and the love of his life,
and Roman was going to chase the little cowardly prick to the ends of
the earth in order to stick a rusty, thin knife between his ribs.

Ailiwen had claimed to love Kendrick. He’d claimed to love him

so damned much that he’d harassed Kendrick and stalked him, and
nearly even tricked him into bed once before when the man had
changed his shape to look like Roman.

Then, after Roman had taken Kendrick away, Ailiwen had

patiently waited to make his move. He’d kidnapped Kendrick the next
time Roman came back to visit his best friend. Ailiwen had torn out
Kendrick’s wings so he couldn’t fly away, and when Roman refused
to let Kendrick go and Kendrick would not give Ailiwen what he
wanted, Ailiwen threw Kendrick over a cliff.

The man had rather see Kendrick dead than be with someone

other than himself.

Gods. Roman could still see the look on Kendrick’s face every

time he closed his eyes. He’d tried to catch his mate. He really had
tried.

He just hadn’t been fast enough.
Kendrick. Roman still carried the man’s blond braid with him to

remind him of what had been taken, and after he’d cut off his own
hair and tossed it into the fire along with his dead lover, he hadn’t

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Marcy Jacks

bothered to grow it out again. He wouldn’t either. Not for the rest of
his life. He always wanted that reminder of how he’d failed, and the
only thing that would make it remotely better was knowing that he’d
finally gotten revenge for Kendrick.

They hadn’t even been mated that long. Barely a chance to be

together before Roman was holding the man’s dead body and wailing
over it, begging Kendrick to open his eyes because they still had so
much more to do together.

“Roman?”
Roman blinked, and it was as if he was forcefully being yanked

out of those terrible memories by Clatcher’s voice.

The man had his hand on Roman’s shoulder. Something he always

seemed ready to do if it meant getting Roman to snap the hell out of
it.

“You still there?” Clatcher asked.
Roman had to shove the man’s hand off of him before he got the

wrong idea about this. “I’m fine,” he said. “Let’s go.”

There were times when Roman still had to fight with Clatcher,

usually whenever he tried to send the kid back to the castle by
himself.

Clatcher was a stubborn bastard, however. No matter how much

Roman verbally abused him, calling him every name in the book,
Clatcher refused to leave him be.

Roman wasn’t sure if it was because the kid was afraid that

Roman would kill himself, get killed by Ailiwen, or if the kid was just
letting his feelings for Roman cloud his judgment.

It might even be a mix of all three.
Roman wasn’t going to keep torturing the kid about that, however.

Clatcher had proved himself to be stubborn and loyal, and he
wouldn’t have been much of a dragon warrior if he’d let any petty
name-calling get in the way of the mission he’d assigned himself to.

But Roman was never going to love the kid. Every day he spent

with Clatcher, watching as the other man tried too hard to help Roman

Falling in Love Again

49

get revenge for a man that Clatcher hadn’t even loved was just more
proof of that love and devotion, and there were times when it made
Roman feel guilty as fuck.

He’d make it up to him when everything was said and done,

however. There was no way he could return to the castle on Black
Mountain without his hostage. One way or another, he was going to
catch that little shit and make him pay for what he’d done. Even if it
killed him.

* * * *

Garret was severely going to have to rethink his strategy on this

one.

Fuck, raped by alphas. That was one of the most horrible things

Garret had ever heard in his entire life, and meanwhile he’d just
charged into the man’s room and acted like, well, an alpha.

He’d thought carefully back to those specific moments for any

sign that he might’ve pushed too far, or demanded too much.

The only thing Garret could think of was perhaps the shocked

look on Kristoff’s face when Garret had kissed him. He hadn’t known
what Garret’s intentions were, but when he’d figured them out, he’d
gone along with them.

To prove that he could do it, or some such excuse like that.
Either way, before hand, considering the man’s past, Garret

must’ve terrified the ever-loving hell out of him.

Well, now was not the time to be an alpha. Garret couldn’t go

charging in and demanding what he wanted. That wouldn’t work in a
situation like this and dragons weren’t exactly impressed with that
sort of mentality.

He needed Conner and Quin, his brothers who were mated to

dragons on this mountain, an omega and a beta. They would have the
answers he needed.

He’d thought they would, anyway.

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Marcy Jacks

“Take him out on a date, woo him,” Quin suggested.
Garret cringed just thinking about that. “I don’t know how to woo

anyone.”

“Didn’t you ever give flowers to your last mate?” Conner asked.
Garret’s previous mate had died before either of these two were

even born. The only thing they knew about the woman was heresy.

“I think she would have laughed in my face before killing any

flowers I brought for her,” Garret replied.

He knew that for a fact because when she was being courted, by

himself and another beta, he’d seen her do it.

The beta had brought her roses, and she’d laughed before tossing

them into the nearest fire.

“She was an alpha, then?” Conner asked.
Garret nodded. “Powerful, too. We liked fighting and challenging

each other. We hunted together and rutted. That was how we spent
our time.”

Both Conner and Quin looked at each other. Even the damned fox

that was sitting between them stuck a paw over its face.

The creature was definitely smarter than most gave it credit for.

Where the hell had it come from?

“Yeah, well, Kristoff’s definitely not alpha material,” Conner

said.

“Though he’s got the size of an alpha. Almost, I guess, since

you’re bigger, but he’s way too gentle,” Quin said, and he was
absentmindedly stroking the huge triangular ears of that fox like it
was a domesticated pet.

It was really starting to creep Garret out. How had a fox even

managed to find a path up this mountain when his pack had been
searching for one for over a hundred years and come up with nothing?

“So then I should get him flowers?” Garret asked.
“Maybe, if he’s even the type who likes them.”
“You just said he’s gentle. What other type is there?”

Falling in Love Again

51

Conner smacked Garret upside the head. The only reason Garret

let the man get away with that was because he was the youngest. Had
it been anyone else, and a scuffle would’ve broken out.

“Just because he’s got an omega personality doesn’t immediately

mean he likes girly things.”

“It couldn’t hurt to try, though,” Quin said.
Garret was becoming more and more convinced that neither of his

brothers really knew what to do in this situation.

He had to try something different. “You’ve both lived here longer

than I have. What does he like? Any particular type of books or
movies?”

Both of his brothers looked at each other before glancing back

helplessly at him. “We haven’t ever really hung out with him,”
Conner said. “I mean, he’s great and everything around Aris, baby
Aris, I mean, so I know he’s good with kids, but that doesn’t really
tell you what he likes.”

Garret could still hardly believe it was tradition to continually

name the firstborn son after the father. A man would think something
like that would get confusing after a while.

After all, dragons lived as long as werewolves did. If there was

going to be peace then it meant that more generations would be
surviving to old age instead of dying on the battlefield.

Whatever, that would be their problem to deal with when there

were seven different Arises in the same family.

“Did you see any books when you were in his room?” Quin asked.
Garret shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair. “Only

medical texts, and I barely got a look at them.”

He hadn’t really been interested in looking at anything other than

his mate as he and the man had kissed passionately, and then
undressed each other on the bed.

Well, it was more like Garret had torn the man’s clothes right off

of him before spinning him around and fucking him like a dog.

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Marcy Jacks

Even he could admit that was no way to treat a man who had been

treated as Kristoff had been.

“I’m just going to have to put together what I do know about

him,” Garret decided, since it seemed that not many people around
here knew Kristoff very well, and Garret certainly wasn’t a favorite of
the dragons around the castle, so he couldn’t go asking them. “He’s
an intelligent healer, and according to the both of you, very gentle for
his size. More of an omega type.”

Quin shrugged. Conner nodded. “That’s what we were guessing.”
Aris had said that Kristoff had been attacked while trying to

gather herbs. “Where does he get his medical supplies now?”

Both men looked at each other, and of course, they didn’t have an

answer.

Garret sighed. “I’ll ask Aris. He’s bound to know.”
“So what are you going to do for him?” Conner asked.
He seemed to be the most interested in the fact that his eldest

brother was making an attempt to win over a mate.

Garret scratched his chin, and he didn’t have to think too long or

hard about it. “I’ll offer him my services for protection. If he ever
wants to go down the mountain again, he’ll just have to take me with
him and I’ll make sure nothing fucks around with him. I’m assuming
that for a man like him, getting other people to collect his plants and
herbs must be a pain in the ass. He seems like the kind of guy who
would rather do it himself. I’ll use that time together to find out what
books he likes, his interests and hobbies. Then I’ll know what gifts to
get him.”

Both of his brothers stared at him with a look of absolute shock on

their faces.

Quin was the first to snap out of it and actually say something.

“Garret, that’s actually very clever.”

“You thought I couldn’t be clever?”

Falling in Love Again

53

The beta very quickly shook his head and waved his hands. “No,

that’s not what I was saying, it’s just that I didn’t expect you to get all
detailed and mission oriented about something like this.”

Conner nodded, a big stupid grin on his face. “You are supposed

to be a tough-guy alpha, and that was actually kind of a romantic plan.
Getting close to him so you can find out what he likes.”

Garret couldn’t handle the way they were both grinning at him,

like they’d just caught him in some mega embarrassing act.

It was strange how even that mentality was enough to get a

reaction out of him, and he couldn’t stop his face from heating up, so
he quickly got up and turned around, heading for the door before they
could both see it.

He got the feeling he’d failed when they both burst out laughing

like a couple of teenage girls.

“Shut up,” he snarled, and they just laughed harder.

54

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Six

“You want to be my…my what?” Kristoff asked.
Garret cleared his throat in front of him, arms crossed over that

massive chest, and the leather jacket was just giving off more of that
incredibly attractive bad-boy aura that Kristoff’s stupid dick didn’t
know wasn’t good for either of them.

“I’ll be your protector. I asked Aris, and he told me that you rely

on servants to fly down and bring you the plants and flowers you
want. If you want to go down yourself, then I’ll be at your service.”

It was so damned ridiculous that Kristoff couldn’t help but smile.

There was no way in hell this guy was serious about this. “Uh huh,
and if I wanted to leave at two thirty in the morning and had to wake
you from a dead sleep?”

“I don’t sleep like the dead. I was trained to sleep light in case of a

break in by a rogue pack or a betrayal in our own pack.”

Kristoff stopped smiling immediately. Not only was he sensing no

sarcasm anywhere in that remark, but that also meant Garret was a
hundred percent serious. He hadn’t even flinched when Kristoff
mentioned such an early time.

“You…You mean it?”
Garret nodded. “Yes. And it would strictly be so you can get what

you need to. I wouldn’t even be the only one down there with you
either. I wouldn’t want you to feel exposed, but at least this way you
can feel safer doing what you need to do.”

“Are you sure this wouldn’t be just some alpha way of keeping an

eye on me?”

“It’s partly that,” Garret replied.

Falling in Love Again

55

“You’re very honest,” Kristoff said, and he crossed his own arms

as he studied the man.

“You were attacked at the bottom of the mountain by wolves. Any

time you leave this castle, I’d want to be there to protect you. I’d want
to be around to protect you no matter where you went, and I would
protect you, too.”

Kristoff knew better than to just take the man’s word on that.

Garret thought of Kristoff as a mate. Of course he would make that
kind of promise. The problem with promises like that was that they
could never always be kept.

That was why Roman had left the castle. He’d failed to protect the

one he loved, and now he was out there trying to make it up to
himself, and a ghost.

Still, the thought of leaving the castle was incredibly tempting.

Kristoff had a similar offer from Aris a few times before, and while
he’d appreciated it, at the time, he’d always been too damned afraid,
too much of a scared coward to want to leave his little hidey-hole. He
hadn’t left the castle since the day of the attack, not even to fly around
the castle itself, never mind landing closer to the bottom where the
plants he wanted grew.

Only once in a while did he feel that longing to stretch his wings

and fly. Only now did he find himself longing for the chance to get
back down into the dirt and pluck up the plants he wanted.

Why the hell not?
“All right.”
Garret blinked, and then his dark brows lifted. “All right? Just like

that?”

Kristoff nodded. “Just like that.”
Aris must’ve told the man that Kristoff never left the castle,

otherwise he wouldn’t look so damned shocked that Kristoff had
agreed to go with him.

“But there has to be a number of servants down there with us, and

a few dragon warriors as well.”

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Marcy Jacks

He wasn’t about to trust his life to just one man, no matter how

strong he looked, or how determined he was to keep every bad thing
in the world from Kristoff’s door.

Garret nodded immediately, which was a point in his favor. “Of

course. I have the schedule for when the next rundown is supposed to
be. Do you want to look at it?”

Kristoff already had that schedule memorized by heart. “I know

we leave tomorrow. I’ll be ready to go down when we take off from
the gardens. I don’t think I’ll be strong enough to fly you down and
back up,” he said, letting his eyes trail up and down the tall and
muscular expanse of Garret’s body.

Big mistake, because then his blood heated as he was reminded of

the last time he was between those strong thighs, or when those arms
had curled around him as Garret leaned in to make the mating bite.

Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard. Don’t get hard.
“I know. I spoke with Craig about that. He’s going to fly me down

and the both of us will watch over everything.”

“Oh, well, great,” Kristoff said, but that just left him with another

question. “So you already told Craig that you wanted to go down?”

Garret nodded.
“What would you have done if I didn’t want to go?”
“Then I would’ve still gone,” he said. “I volunteered to go and

watch over the other servants with Craig, even if you refused my
offer. Though with you there, my main focus will be you.”

Kristoff was genuinely touched by that. Garret was completely

serious. It was clear in his eyes by the way he stared at him.

Kristoff’s insides, well, they melted just a little bit at that. How

was he expected to be angry at a guy who had offered to do all of this
for him, and then continue to be helpful to the clan, regardless of
whether or not Kristoff went along with the plan?

The bite mark on the left side of Kristoff’s throat itched like crazy

just then, and he reached up to scratch at it.

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57

Maybe it wouldn’t hurt to give the man a chance, especially when

he was clearly trying so hard.

“All right then, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Kristoff said.
Garret nodded and left him alone, and then Kristoff was by

himself in his room, struggling to breathe and wondering what the
hell was wrong with him.

* * * *

Garret had very much expected the other man to back out by the

next morning when it came time to leave the castle. He could plainly
see the pale look of absolute dread on his face, and the way he bit his
lips shut and kept his eyes popped open wide was a big indicator that
the stress of leaving the safety of the castle was finally getting to him.

Instead of turning around and saying that he couldn’t do it,

Kristoff swallowed hard, undressed—and Garret really had a hard
time not staring at his ass at that point—packed his clothes into his
bag, and then shifted into his dragon.

His dragon was lovely. The scales didn’t glitter like Aris’s did, but

it was still a sight to see. He looked like something out of a medieval
picture book. His horns weren’t overly pronounced, so he didn’t have
that vicious look about him that a lot of Templars liked to accuse
dragons of having, and there were hardly any spikes on him either. In
fact, aside from the joints of his body, there were almost no rougher
areas at all, and he was for the most part smooth.

His neck was longer in his dragon form, and the burgundy scales

were darker on the top than they were on the bottom of his throat in a
trail that moved all the way down to his belly. The color was almost
pink in that place.

The bag that Kristoff had brought with him, which held his

clothes and books, stretched well enough to stay over his shoulder as
he spread his wings.

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His body shook out a little, like what Garret did sometimes when

he’d just let his wolf out and wanted to remove loose hairs from his
pelt.

Garret had been so focused on Kristoff, and how lovely he was in

his dragon form that he’d barely noticed Craig rumbling right up to
him, or how the darker dragon, almost navy blue with his scales,
pushed into him, like he was elbowing Garret in the ribs for staring.

The damned dragon even had a smirk on his face. “See something

you like?”

“Not your damned business,” Garret said, and then he realized

that most everyone was also ready to head on down the mountain.
They were just waiting on him. Fucking God.

Garret cleared his throat, and when Craig knelt down, still that

stupid-ass shit-eating grin on his crooked scaly mouth, Garret climbed
up onto the dragon’s back and held on.

“Just make sure you keep your eyes on Kristoff,” he said softly so

that none of the other dragons, Kristoff especially, would hear him.
“He hasn’t flown in a long time.”

“This isn’t my first rodeo. Relax yourself, alpha,” Craig said.
The damned prick was lucky that he was about to be flying with

Garret on his back, otherwise he might’ve decided to give him a good
solid punch to the head.

The takeoff was fine. Garret hated the hell out of it though. He

despised the feeling of his guts falling into his feet as the dragon
beneath him crouched down and then launched itself into the air. He
hated being in the sky, feeling like he was falling at all times. Conner
had claimed to enjoy flying on Aris’s back. Garret could say with
complete certainty that he did not enjoy flying in the least.

He preferred to have his wolf paws running on the solid ground

with the scent of pine and grass and earth all around him.

Despite that constant feeling of sickness, he kept his eyes locked

on Kristoff at all times. The dragons flew close together, but spread

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59

out enough that their wings wouldn’t be in danger of touching each
other.

Kristoff remained close to Craig. Garret hoped it was more

because he was on the back of the dragon than anything else, but it
allowed him to see the look in the dragon’s eyes as he flew for the
first time in years.

The wide grin on his face made the healer look anything but

vicious. He was in heaven. That much was very clear. He was
enjoying the wind through his small horns, the adjustment of his
wings as he moved with the current of the sky.

Garret was happy to be able to see it.
He was so fixated on Kristoff that he wouldn’t have noticed it was

time to land unless he got that weird flipping feeling in his guts that
he hated so damned much.

He grabbed on tight to Craig’s much larger horns as the ground

suddenly came at them incredibly fast. Garret clenched his teeth,
bracing for impact while at the same time telling himself that these
damned dragons knew well enough to not kill each other while they
were in the air.

The landing was smooth, but his heart was still pounding like

crazy, and it took everything he had to keep the ground steady
beneath his feet.

Fuck, he fucking hated flying so damned much.
Watching Kristoff come to a graceful landing next to him,

however, stretching his body out like a cat before folding his wings
up, was a giant dragon-sized reminder of why it was worth it.

He wasn’t just putting up with the trip from time to time in order

to check on his brothers anymore. This was his mate, and right now,
Kristoff was looking around his surroundings, claws digging into the
grass and dirt with every step he took, like a kid that had just walked
into an ice-cream shop for the first time, and everything was free.

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Everyone shifted back into their human forms, and as they did so,

Garret was struck with the urge to get into his wolf form so he could
prowl around and get a better feel for what was around him.

He did just that as Kristoff and the other servants got into their

clothes. Some of them would be heading into the shops that were
outside of the small town for books and basic supplies.

Garret had learned a while ago that Aris kept his clan to a strict

regime, and they were mostly self-sustaining with the exception of
certain fruits during specific times of the year, eggs, and some meats
that were commonly enjoyed.

Aside from that, the only thing the dragons ever left the mountain

for was to make sure no wolves pissed all over their territory, or to
buy books and check their mail.

If Garret’s father had ever found out that the dragons had to go

into town to the local post office in order to get their mail, then he
would’ve lost his damn mind over how normal it was.

Garret prowled around the area, watching Kristoff and

occasionally the other servants who remained in the area, but mostly
Kristoff.

The man seemed happier than a kid on his birthday as he looked

through his book and picked through all kinds of plants and flowers
that Garret couldn’t even recognize, comparing them to the pictures in
his book before tucking them away in his bag.

Craig was lounging around in the sun, looking more like he was

enjoying himself rather than guarding the servants who’d come down
with him.

Everyone was doing something, picking herbs or edible plants that

didn’t grow in the gardens at the top of the mountain.

There was no sign of trouble, no smells of people watching them

in the distance. The sky was blue, the sun was warmer down here than
it was so high up Black Mountain. Everything was peaceful and good.

Garret was sad that it had to come to an end, but still grateful he

got to see Kristoff in his element. He shifted back into his human

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61

form just as the dragons all undressed and got back into their dragon
forms, and then there was the damned flight to get back up the
mountain.

Kristoff even managed to smile at Garret and thank him for

offering to be his protector.

Garret thought it was so worth it. It didn’t even matter that he

hadn’t even spoken a word to the man, and he wasn’t going to pull a
dick move and ask for a kiss or anything either.

That would all come later, when Kristoff was comfortable enough

to give it on his own.

Didn’t stop Garret from having to take care of his stupid dick

during the night in the shower as he thought of how Kristoff’s skin
had looked, the swell of his ass, as he’d undressed himself to become
his gorgeous dragon form.

Fuck. He never in his life thought there was anything remotely

sexy about a dragon before meeting Kristoff.

Garret was ruined for anyone else for the rest of his life.
Jerking off in the shower aside, he made a deal with himself to be

on his best behavior around the other man, and when the next week
came around where they had to go to the bottom of the mountain
again, he watched over Kristoff again, and this time struck up a
conversation with him.

And Kristoff smiled and welcomed it.
He showed Garret what the tiny plants were with the little flowers,

how they could be used in a tea to help with illnesses and improve the
immune system.

Garret had seen those plants around before, whenever he’d gone

for a run, but he’d always ignored them as being worthless. The only
plant life he needed to pay attention to were the poisonous ones. It
had never occurred to him to learn about the ones that could be used
for healing. The pack had always relied on Western medicine for all
of their needs.

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This was probably just another reason why the clan of dragons

was so self-sustaining compared to Garret’s pack. Sure, they hunted
for their own meat from time to time, but eating fresh game was
considered a treat when there were omegas constantly making runs to
the nearest Costco.

He was going to have to tell his father about this and get the

man’s opinion on whether or not any of this could be useful,
especially if the pack ever fell into financial trouble.

Free medicine was free medicine after all.
Garret was just starting to get a little closer to his mate. They were

speaking like friends instead of two people who distrusted each other,
when a scent caught Garret’s attention.

It was close, and strong, which meant he hadn’t been paying

attention. He’d been too focused on Kristoff’s scent, which had
blended in with the medicinal plants and flowers he was picking at.

Fuck! He hadn’t been paying attention! Garret looked up and

around. He licked his finger and held it to the wind to determine its
direction. He needed to find out where that fucking scent was coming
from.

“Garret? What’s the matter?” Kristoff asked. His tone was no

longer carefree and playful. He could see how tense Garret was.

Fuck, what if there was a Templar pointing a weapon at Kristoff

right now? Was it even a Templar at all?

“Get ready to shift into your dragon. There’s someone out there,”

Garret said. He got the direction of the wind, which meant he knew
where the scent was coming from.

He turned his eyes into that direction and, yeah, gotcha. The trees

and shrubs were heavier way over there. An excellent hiding place.
Whoever was over there could have been there for hours, just
watching them, and they would have remained hidden if the wind
hadn’t changed like it did.

Garret growled and started getting out of his clothes. He dumped

his leather jacket and pulled off his T-shirt.

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63

Kristoff tried to grab his hand but Garret snatched his wrist away.
Craig, who was still in his own dragon form, also took notice as

Garret undressed himself while eyeing the shrubs and shady trees way
off in the distance like he wanted to set them on fire with his mind or
something. “What’s going on?” he asked, wings shaking a little, as if
he was getting ready to join him.

“Take everyone back to the castle. Right now. There’s someone

watching us.”

Then a sound in the distance, from those same shrubs and trees. A

metallic click, like a gun was being cocked or a round was being
chambered.

“Get them out of here! Now!” Garret yelled, and the hairs on his

body were already starting to form when an inferno punched into his
shoulder and knocked him back. He stayed on his feet, however, and
he just got incredibly pissed off.

The scent of his own blood sent his wolf into overdrive, and he

immediately shifted. It didn’t matter if there was a bullet in his
shoulder or if it hurt like hell to even move, much less run in this
shape. He bolted in the direction of the gunshots. Kristoff’s voice
called out for him to stop, but it was his voice that spurred Garret to
run faster.

Those motherfuckers in there could have hit him! They could

have killed Kristoff if they’d pointed their stupid weapons a little
more to the right!

More gunfire sounded, and all of it was aimed at him since he was

the one charging them, but Garret kept running in a zigzagging
pattern, digging his claws into the ground to suddenly switch
directions on them before they could get a shot off and blast him.

Then the shooting stopped, and all Garret could hear was the

sound of running feet. He wasn’t going to let them retreat. They
didn’t get that option after they’d looked at him and his mate through
the scope of a gun.

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Garret charged into the trees and shrubs. His wolf was completely

taking over, and all it wanted to do was kill whoever it caught. Didn’t
matter who it was, man or woman, it could even be a kid, the rational
thinking part of his brain no longer had control and he was all animal
as he went in for the kill.

More gunshots sounded, and he barely felt them as he opened his

jaws and brought them down on his victim.

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Chapter Seven

“Craig, we can’t leave, you have to do something!” Kristoff

demanded, grabbing on to the larger dragon’s horns into his hands
before he could take off.

Kristoff hadn’t even shifted into his own dragon yet. He couldn’t

fathom why. There was danger and that meant it was time to get the
hell out of there. He knew this logically, but he couldn’t bring himself
to move with those bangs sounding in the air, then human screams,
and then a whole lot of nothing.

He literally couldn’t do it. Kristoff couldn’t shift into his dragon

form and fly away like the rest of the servants who’d immediately
shifted and gone up into the air, scattering and making their way back
to the castle.

Kristoff knew he couldn’t do it because he’d tried. He’s gotten as

far as getting his hands up to remove the bag around his shoulder and
the loose clothing he was wearing, and then he’d stopped. He’d even
tried shifting through his clothes, but that didn’t work either. He
couldn’t leave Garret behind, and the only reason why Craig was still
here was because Kristoff wasn’t moving.

And the dragon warrior was clearly torn between leaving Kristoff

alone, where potentially anything could come and take him, and
rushing off to help a fellow warrior, regardless of whether or not it
was a werewolf.

The dragon’s long neck turned from the trees, to Kristoff, and then

back again.

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“Fuck,” he said, long tail swishing, and he glared down at

Kristoff. “Get down on the ground. I don’t want you standing around
like a target. Do not move from this spot. I’ll be right back.”

That was something Kristoff was able to do, and he did it

immediately. He got down on his stomach, using the taller grass to
hide the rest of his body.

Craig spread his wings and launched himself into the air, flying

off to where Garret had run over to.

Then it was completely silent. Kristoff could only hear the sounds

of his own breathing and heart. There was a caterpillar climbing one
of the fatter stalks of grass, and that was it.

He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. More gunfire? Craig’s battle

roar? The fact that he didn’t hear any of those things made Kristoff’s
stupid heart beat even faster.

He wasn’t dead. Garret couldn’t be dead. He wasn’t a dragon and

didn’t have the protective scales or anything like that, but he was still
a warrior, an alpha. They were strong and vicious when they needed
to be. There was no way in hell something so small like a bullet could
kill him.

He wasn’t dead. If he was, Kristoff was sure he would feel it. It

would burn in his mating scar, wouldn’t it? Wasn’t that was the
damned thing was for?

Finally, Craig let out a roar, and Kristoff looked up just in time to

see the large dragon warrior launching himself into the air, wings
spread like some sort of living nightmare. The wings and body
blocked out the sun in an impressive display before he came back
down.

Kristoff felt the boom of his bodyweight vibrating through the

ground, and he completely disregarded his orders and got to his feet,
running for the dragon, needing to know, needing to see.

Garret was no longer in his proud black wolf form. He was in his

human shape once more, and he had blood all over his pale skin and
body. He was draped lifelessly across Craig’s back. Craig got down

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67

on his haunches so that Kristoff could climb up his back and have a
look for himself.

His hands trembled as he searched for a pulse, and he didn’t

breathe until he found it.

“Is he alive?” Craig asked. He really hadn’t known when he’d

grabbed Garret?

A rush of emotion smacked into Kristoff when he felt that weak

heart still beating, but it also meant that Garret was still losing blood,
and they were wasting time.

Craig was a much bigger dragon than Kristoff was, but he

managed to climb on top of the warrior’s back, hold on to Garret, and
grip him and Craig tightly.

“Barely alive. Get us out of here. He needs medical attention I

can’t give him here.”

Even if he used his powers to push all the healing energy he had

inside of Garret’s body, with wounds like this, there was no telling if
he would survive the trip back.

Craig didn’t need to hear any more than that. His training meant

that he didn’t ask questions during times like this. He just followed
orders as he spread his wings, bent down, and then launched himself
into the sky one more time, taking the three of them home.

Even in the sky with the wind to carry away the scent, it wasn’t

enough to stop Kristoff from really noticing the blood, the heavy
smell, and the fact that Garret, who was so big and strong, appeared
so damned lifeless with those horrific holes punched into him.

Kristoff held the man tighter as Craig flew faster, rising up higher

to get back to their home. The normally five-minute flight seemed to
take a thousand years, and that was so much time that they really
didn’t have to waste.

* * * *

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Garret felt like he’d been hit with a truck. The big kind that

transported logs and cement, or even houses. Not only did he feel like
he’d been hit by it, but that it had backed over him and then dumped
its load all over his body just for good measure.

Every fucking inch of his body was in pain, but despite that pain

and the soreness, the scents in the room he was in were surprisingly
calm and soothing. He felt like he could really relax where he was and
maybe even forget about the pain.

Why was he…? Wait a minute. He was in a room and on a bed.

His eyes were open but he was confused as fuck.

There were flowers around him, covering every surface, and he

had to blink a few times just to place them. Yup, they were still there.
They hadn’t vanished.

That might explain why he was so damned confused. They were

all wildflowers, and a lot of them looked pretty damned similar to
what Kristoff had been picking in that field with the other servants.
When he’d opened his eyes, it looked almost like a weird dream
where that field was melted in with this room that he was in.

A room that had beeping sounds, and an IV hooked up to his wrist

and…ugh, other things that were attached to his nether region.

He must’ve been out for a good long while.
Garret couldn’t help but smile a little. These were the same kinds

of flowers that Kristoff had been picking all right. He recognized the
tiny blooms on some of them. They smelled just like he did. No
wonder Garret was so calm in here.

He closed his eyes again, wishing that the man himself was in

here with him, but he would accept this as a substitute for the
moment. When he slept again, he could almost imagine himself
blanketed with that smell, with Kristoff on top of him, snuggling next
to him,

When Garret woke up the next time, the beeping sound was gone,

and he was a little less sore. His werewolf healing must’ve been
taking care of business for him because he felt good enough to get up

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69

and get moving. When he shifted his legs, he even felt that the things
that had been attached to help him take care of body functions while
unconscious were also gone.

He really hoped it hadn’t been Kristoff who’d been taking care of

that. The last thing he wanted was for his mate to have to deal with
that for him because Garret had been out of it. Ugh.

He was so awake and aware it felt like someone had injected him

with liquid coffee. Garret wanted to get up and run. He wanted to
exercise, to find his mate and fuck him good and hard. He wanted so
Goddamned much right then that it was difficult to keep track of it all.

Voices sounded from the other side of the door. They were calm,

having a general discussion it seemed.

Garret could only hear Kristoff’s voice, to the complete exclusion

of whoever else was beyond that door. His brain just latched on to
Kristoff and completely ignored whoever else was over there. His
wolf wasn’t reacting either, which was good because it meant that his
mate wasn’t being stressed out about anything.

Then the door opened, and Kristoff walked in with Aris behind

him, and maybe Conner and Quin. Garret couldn’t be sure because the
only person he could see was Kristoff.

The man was wearing his blond hair back in a short braid again,

and he was back in his white lab coat that marked him as the clan
healer to everyone who looked at him.

His blue eyes were so damned wide as he stared at Garret, who

was staring right back at him on the bed.

He smelled just like the healing flowers that were scattered around

the room, and something else warm and brewed. Like coffee and
soap. He’d recently gone to clean up, it seemed. That was good.
Garret liked the idea that his mate was taking the time to take care of
himself at least.

Kristoff smiled at him, and it was Conner and Quin who rushed

around him to the side of Garret’s bed. Both of their eyes were wide
and worried, but happy. They touched his shoulders and came down

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for hugs, which he supplied them with, as if they were pups again or
something.

“We were so worried about you. You didn’t wake up for so long,”

Conner said.

“How are you feeling?” Quin asked.
Garret wasn’t going to tell them that he had woken up once before

already, but only because he didn’t know how long ago that had been.
“I feel pretty good,” he said, and he flexed his shoulder where he’d
been shot for the first time. The muscle pulled slightly, but other than
that, there was no pain beneath the bandage.

Kristoff walked around to the side of the bed that Garret’s

younger brothers weren’t hogging. He took the stethoscope from
around his neck and put it in his ears before pressing the cold metal
disk to Garret’s chest. “You were out for nearly three weeks. I had to
give you something to keep you from waking up.”

“You kept me unconscious?” Garret asked, but he didn’t really

give a shit about the answer since Kristoff’s face was so damned
close. Garret could smell the vanilla in his hair, likely from whatever
shampoo he’d been using.

“Your heart rate’s a little fast,” Kristoff said.
From the corner of his eye, Garret caught the way his two little

fool brothers nudged each other at those words, as if it was funny.

Kristoff then teased the ever-loving hell out of Garret by letting

his fingers dance all over his skin as the man removed bandages to
check on the healing wounds beneath. Many of which were scars at
this point that would take an even longer time to fade. Garret’s
brothers were in the room, which was the only reason why he did his
best to think of anything other than Kristoff’s smooth skin touching
his chest and shoulders. His damned cock was still getting hard,
however, no matter how many times he thought of elderly humans
naked.

Kristoff’s touch and scent were driving him mad, and meanwhile,

the man was just doing his job.

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This was bringing back every nursing fantasy that Garret had ever

had back when he’d been young and incredibly stupid.

Oh God, Kristoff was playing into a fantasy Garret had, and the

man didn’t even know it.

“So, uh, you kept me unconscious?” Garret asked. He needed

something to talk about, something else to think about other than how
nice Kristoff’s hair smelled, how good his warm fingers felt against
Garret’s skin, anything other than his dick that was slowly filling with
blood that his brain desperately needed in order to remain coherent.

“You were thrashing around and growling a lot,” Conner said. “It

had everyone worried.”

“It was my decision,” Kristoff said. “Your wolf was causing too

many problems, and I didn’t want it to interfere with your healing.
You seemed well enough today that I was able to take out a lot of
your tubes, and then give you the proper injection to wake you.”

That explained why he was so hyped up.
“You really took care of those hunters,” Aris said. “Probably

saved the lives of all the servants in that field.”

Hunters then, and not Templars. “What about the people who

went into town?” Garret asked.

“I sent Lennox out to retrieve them. Everyone came back safe and

sound, and now the whole clan is buzzing about how you protected
the people in that field and gave them the chance they needed to
escape. You’ve pretty much won over everyone, with the exception of
the insanely stubborn.”

And people like that always existed somewhere.
Garret didn’t care, however. Not when Kristoff was so very

clearly all right. If he’d been hit by a stray bullet, he would be in a
bed beside Garret, not up and about seeing to his wounds.

“Were they all dead?”
Aris nodded. “I sent Fraser and Grant to watch over the bodies

until the police could get there. They gave their statements already,

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but they kept your name out of it. No one wanted to risk bringing you
down the mountain in the condition you were in.”

Kristoff’s face heated up at those words, and it was a little too

obvious that he was trying to avoid Garret’s eyes. Did he have
something to do with keeping Garret from having to go to a human
hospital and being handcuffed to a bed? If so then that was fucking
amazing, and Garret fell in love with the man a little more in that
moment.

He settled himself a little deeper into the clinic bed that felt a bit

softer all of a sudden. “Thanks for that. Human police still frown
upon werewolves killing hunters.”

But because stealing dragon scales was such a huge problem, all

any dragon had to do was say that they were being attacked, and the
self-defense story always worked without question. Too many stupid
human horror movies involving dangerous wolfmen were the cause
for that. Meanwhile dragons were looked upon by most people as
beautiful creatures.

So unfair, but if Garret was going to be in good with this clan,

then he wasn’t going to complain too much about that.

Aris nodded. “Don’t worry about it. The hunters were all older

men, and they were all apparently known for illegal hunting, even of
normal animals. The police were basically waiting for them to go
after dragons or wolves for a thrill. No one will be coming to ask you
any questions.”

“Or lock you away until their satisfied you’re telling the truth,”

Kristoff said, his voice terse, and his mouth in a thin line as he
adjusted one of the twenty vases of flowers that were all over the
room.

God, Garret adored that man. He wanted him, his wolf wanted

him, and they both had to have him. Right then and there.

“Hey, can I speak with Kristoff alone for a bit?” Garret asked, and

when Kristoff whipped his head over to look at him, Garret could

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barely take his gaze away from those bright blue eyes to make sure
his brothers and the leader of the dragon clan even got the message.

They all seemed to know what was up. Quin squeezed Garret’s

shoulder and Conner gave him another hug.

Aris had some sort of smug smirk on his face as he wrapped his

arm around Conner’s shoulder, and the two walked out together with
Quin right behind, who shut the door.

When they were alone, Garret looked up at his mate expectantly,

which was strange because he wasn’t even sure what he was
expecting.

He didn’t have to wait long for something to happen because it

was Kristoff who made the first move, bending down lightning fast
and grabbing on to Garret’s ears in his tight grip before pressing their
mouths together in a kiss that was too damned rough and hard to be
romantic. Their teeth clashed, which caused a pain that was so
damned sharp and uncomfortable it was almost worse than being shot.

But there was nothing in the world that was sweeter.
Neither of them pulled away from each other, and soon their lips

melted out of the desperation to just claim each other, and then it was
more about greeting and love and…and…Fuck, Garret wasn’t good
with words. He’d need to be a poet to describe the beauty of this
particular kiss.

The only way he could describe it was that it felt like he was

coming together with his lover for the first time in years. It could have
even been that Kristoff had gone away on a business trip, and Garret
was kissing him again for the first time in months.

It felt like months since they’d kissed, instead of just over a week.
Wait, no, it was much longer than that. How long had Kristoff

said he’d been unconscious for? Definitely longer than a week. Didn’t
matter if Garret slept through most of it. His body was feeling it right
now.

God, he’s missed this, and way too soon, it was over as Kristoff

roughly yanked himself away.

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“Fuck, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“What? Why not?” Even as Garret asked the question, he was still

reaching out for his mate, trying to get a grip on his arms and pull him
back down.

He wasn’t done. He needed more. Christ, he was like a desperate

omega crying out for the attention of his mate, but Garret didn’t care.
He needed to be touched by this man.

“You’re still recovering.”
“You said that I was mostly done. That’s why you woke me up,”

Garret said, and he managed to get Kristoff down a little closer to
him. He was even able to reach up and put his hand behind the man’s
neck, just beneath that soft braid of his.

What was it with dragons and wanting to keep their hair in long

braids? He swore half the men he saw walking around here kept their
hair long with the exception of most of the warriors.

“But you just woke up,” Kristoff said.
He was voicing his objections, but he wasn’t doing much about

them.

That was a good thing.
“Shh,” Garret said, and he brought Kristoff’s mouth forward for

another sweet, warm kiss. He pushed his tongue inside, slowly forcing
Kristoff’s mouth open so he could taste him. It was slower this time,
some teeth, but the good kind that didn’t clash. Teeth were always
nice when they nipped at lips before the kissing resumed.

Fuck, he tasted so damned good. His skin was warm and alive and

wonderful against Garret’s lips and hands.

The man had definitely been drinking coffee. He liked it sweet,

that was for sure, which was going to be Garret’s new favorite way to
take the drink himself.

Then he could smell the heavy musk of Kristoff’s arousal, not just

Garret’s hung in the air like a heavy curtain surrounding them
anymore. Kristoff wanted him, and the tiny moan the dragon shifter
let out as Garret opened the buttons of that white coat and slid his

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hands inside, finding and pinching his nipples from above his shirt,
proved it.

That, and those sounds, went straight to Garret’s cock. It pulsed

between his legs, and his balls were tight and high up against his
body. He was already pushing himself deep inside of Kristoff’s body,
to savor his sweet ass and claim him all night long, and he hadn’t so
much as touched himself.

“I want you,” Garret said. He’d promised himself he would take

his time and put no pressure on the man, especially considering what
he knew Kristoff had been through, but the needy, pathetic-sounding
request escaped his throat like a raw cry for water after he’d been
trudging alone in the desert for weeks without so much as a drop of
liquid.

He’d be ashamed of himself later. He just had to get his mate in

bed with him and he had to get him now.

“Okay,” Kristoff said.
It was one word spoken through the noise of panting breaths and

kissing mouths, but it got Garret’s attention like he’d been shot all
over again.

“Okay?” he asked. He was going to be a hundred and ten percent

sure about this before he made so much as another move.

Kristoff hesitated for only the briefest of seconds, and then he

climbed onto the bed, putting one knee on either side of Garret’s hips.

“Yeah,” he replied, nodding before leaning in and kissing him

again.

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Chapter Eight

Conner briskly walked through the halls of the black castle,

Lennox at his side, and he was holding his son in his arms.

Little Aris was sleeping peacefully, but Conner couldn’t relax

after what Lennox had told him.

“Are you sure he’s there?”
Lennox nodded, but didn’t spare him a glance. The tall dragon

warrior was barely even slowing the step of his long legs so that
Conner, who walked with a limp, could keep up.

Conner was barely managing to stay at his guard’s side.
“It’s creepy as fuck. I’ve spotted him there at least four times, and

Craig and Aiken said that they’ve spotted him almost ten times
between the both of them whenever they patrol the halls.

And Conner was only just hearing about this now. He needed to

see it for himself.

He felt a spear of pain lancing through his heart as he walked into

the familiar corridor where Roman used to live, and then, just down
the halls a little ways off, he spotted it.

The fox that had miraculously arrived at the front door of the

castle, starved, dehydrated, and near death, was lying down, curled up
right in front of Roman’s door.

It looked like it was sleeping, but then its large triangular ears

twitched and it lifted its orange head, black nose wiggling as it sniffed
the air before putting its head down on its paws.

It didn’t do much more than that as they approached and stood in

front of it.

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“At first we didn’t think much of anything about it. That maybe it

just picked a favorite place to nap,” Lennox said, and then the man
sighed. “I don’t know, though. Sometimes it growls at us whenever
we or a servant tries to move it.”

“Why would anyone try to move him?” Conner asked.
Though the fox was, well, a fox, it was as good as tame. It never

lashed out at anyone, and Conner trusted the creature enough to get
down on his knees in front of it, even with his son in his arms, and he
gently put his hand on the orange hairs of the fox’s head. He
scratched behind the ears and stared into those sad eyes, wishing he
could tell what was wrong.

The fox just heaved a heavy sigh, and it didn’t do much else than

that. It barely looked at him.

Lennox also got down on his haunches, holding his hands in front

of him between his knees. “We just didn’t want the sight of it to scare
any servants, or to leave him alone for long enough that someone
would try and hurt him. We still don’t know where he came from, and
some of the mothers and fathers don’t like the idea of a potentially
wild animal wandering around the halls where their hatchlings play.”

That seemed fair enough. Conner had basically decided to keep

the fox as a pet, despite where it had come from. The fox refused to
leave the castle, and it fought anyone who tried to take him to the
gardens or the front doors. Conner feared that it would try to come
back if flown down to the bottom of the mountain, or worse, it would
be fighting so hard to stay that it would fall off the back of whichever
dragon had been carrying it and fall to its death.

Just like Kendrick had fallen to his.
Conner had made up his mind, maybe because he’d been so upset

about the entire ordeal. Though months had gone by since Kendrick’s
murder, Conner had still felt the loss of a friend, and when the fox
arrived, clearly in need of saving, he’d jumped at the chance and then
couldn’t let it go.

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Which was somewhat strange since he hadn’t even named the fox

yet. Not only did he not know what to call it, but nothing really
seemed to fit.

The idea that such a gentle creature could scare a dragon shifter,

regardless of whether they were servants or not, seemed so ridiculous
that Conner couldn’t really even wrap his mind around it. The fox
didn’t seem like it was hurting anything or anyone by just snoozing
there, and Conner hated that he was going to have to be one of the
people to tell it that it couldn’t stay in this spot any longer.

“Still is a strange place for him to keep on coming to. You think

he smells something inside?” Conner asked, looking up at the door.

The fox’s ears perked, and it lifted its head quickly to stare at the

both of them.

The move was so sudden that Conner jerked his hand away from

where he’d been scratching the fox’s head.

Even Lennox noticed it. “Huh. You think it understood you?”
“Only one way to find out,” Conner said, and he got back up to

his feet to check the door. Of course it would be locked. “Has anyone
been inside since…”

Fuck, he couldn’t even say it.
“Not since Roman left. I think all their stuff is still inside even.

Aris ordered that nothing be touched.”

All of their stuff. Meaning Kendrick’s luggage as well from when

he’d come to visit that last time.

Conner hadn’t even thought of going inside there, but now that the

fox was so interested, it piqued Conner’s interest as well.

“Do you have—”
“Right here,” Lennox said, producing a ring of keys. Of all the

keys on that ring, he held on to a single brass one between his thumb
and forefinger. “You sure you want in there?”

“Very sure,” Conner said, nodding to the door.

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79

He looked down at his new little friend, who had quickly pushed

himself into a sitting position, and was watching Lennox’s hands as
the man unlocked the door for the both of them.

The fox was so eager to be inside of that room that the second the

door was unlocked, and the handle turned, he nudged the door open
the rest of the way with his nose and pushed inside.

“Hey,” Lennox snapped, but the fox ignored him as it ran inside

of the room.

Conner almost expected it to be dark, and to smell like death.
It was neither of those things. Maybe a little messy, but other than

that there wasn’t anything about the room to give hint that something
bad had happened only a couple of months prior.

Light shone through well enough through the open curtains, so the

lights didn’t even need to be turned on. There was a thin layer of dust,
but it was barely noticeable.

Conner expected…He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. The fact

that the fox had continued to come here might’ve seemed like a sign
to him, but now that he was inside of this room, there was nothing.

It was weird. Conner had no reason to feel any hope, and yet he

had. Now it was dashed as he realized there was actually nothing out
of the ordinary about the room he was in.

The sight of Kendrick’s old clothes and pajamas, thrown over the

backs of chairs and barely hanging out of the hampers, along with
Roman’s own more neatly folded shirts and pants that were sitting on
top of the dresser, as if getting ready to be put away, made Conner’s
throat swell up with choked tears.

The fox, well, he had jumped onto the unmade bed, where Roman

and Kendrick had slept, and he curled himself on top of the sheets, put
his head back down, and then let out another small crying noise.

So fucking strange.
Lennox approached the fox and clapped his hands together. “Hey,

get down from there. Down.”

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“No,” Conner said, stopping Lennox before he could do anything.

“Leave him alone. I doubt Roman or Kendrick would mind now.”

Especially since Kendrick was dead and Roman was gone.
The fox let out another crying sound.
Conner was going to have to tell Aris about this.

* * * *

Kristoff probably shouldn’t be doing the things he was doing. It

was all too damned much, but he couldn’t help himself.

Garret’s tongue tasted so damned good inside of his mouth, and

he sucked on it harder.

He would have thought the man wouldn’t be ready for something

like this, but the hard cock that was tenting the thin sheets he was
under said differently.

The sheets were so damned thin, and so was the little gown Garret

wore, that Kristoff could feel the heat of the man’s hard cock pressing
against him.

It was as if the damned thing really did have a mind of its own and

was attempting to get as close to Kristoff as it possibly could.

There were some men who would say their cocks really did have

minds of their own, but that was fucking ridiculous.

Not that Kristoff’s dick was much different at the moment. The

thing was throbbing between his legs, and he swore a small orgasm
pulsed through him the second he agreed to give himself over and be
with Garret again. Even the werewolf mating scar that Garret had
given him was starting to give off a warm tingle. Every inch of
Kristoff’s body was calling out to the man in front of him, and he
could hardly stand it.

They were dry humping each other over the sheet and through

their clothes, and already Kristoff felt his orgasm building higher and
higher.

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He groaned as he ripped his mouth away from Garret’s, halting

the movement of his hips. “I need to stop. I need to stop,” Kristoff
said.

“No you don’t,” Garret replied, putting his large hands behind

Kristoff’s neck, trying to get him back down for more kissing.

He thought Kristoff meant completely stop, as in he’d changed his

mind or something.

As if that could happen at a time like this.
He almost laughed at the absurdity of something like that.

Couldn’t stop himself from smiling, however. “I don’t want to stop. I
just have to stop right now,” Kristoff said.

“What?”
“If we keep grinding against each other, I’m going to come.”
“That’s fine, do it. I want your scent all over me,” Garret said.
Kristoff was so stunned by those words that he didn’t know what

to do or say. He never thought another man would tell him to put his
scent on them, but then again, Garret was a werewolf, and he ran by
slightly different rules.

Kristoff was still so damned busy thinking about whether or not it

was gross to let himself orgasm in his pants like a teenager, that he
was totally and utterly helpless when Garret pulled him down for
another kiss.

Kristoff couldn’t even fight it. He didn’t want to. Those smooth

lips and the glide of that tongue into his mouth were too damned
good. He never wanted to fight it. He always wanted to give in.

Why the hell had it taken him so damned long to give in? Why

had he tried to deny this man what he’d wanted for so long?

He could feel Garret’s hips circularly moving up and down

beneath him, trying to get Kristoff going again, and it was working. It
was working very well.

Kristoff moaned and panted. His heart thumped in his chest, and

he was breathless like he’d just finished exercising or something, but
that wasn’t the case. Not at all.

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Though, this did count as a physical activity, after all. Just

because he wasn’t flying out in the clouds, or running on a treadmill,
didn’t mean that he wasn’t burning calories when he thrust his hips
back down against Garret’s cock.

Kristoff suddenly wanted nothing more than to take Garret’s dick

into his mouth, slide his tongue around it, and make the man come for
him, inside of him, down his throat. Kristoff wanted to swallow him
down.

He hadn’t done that the first time they’d been together. That had

just been a quick tumble in bed to sate a need they’d both had.

This was going to be different. Garret had almost died for

Kristoff, and it had scared the ever-loving hell out of him. He still
couldn’t believe that the man was alive and with him right at that
moment. It was too damned good to be true.

Though it left his balls tight and achy as all hell, Kristoff pulled

away from the kiss and stopped canting his pelvis and cock down
against Garret’s.

“No way, you’re not going anywhere,” Garret said, his voice as

panting and full of hard breaths as Kristoff’s surely was.

Kristoff grinned. “I’m glad I can get a reaction like that out of

you.”

Yes, he was definitely panting and breathless.
Garret’s eyes flashed to red, but there was nothing threatening

about it. His wolf was just coming out and the creature wanted to
mate. It was as simple as that. “Seriously, I’m not letting you go.”

“I don’t want you to,” Kristoff said, and then he smirked, feeling a

rush of confidence that wasn’t usually there. “I want you to hold on to
me tight when I put your cock in my mouth.”

Garret’s eyes widened, and the red flashed even brighter as his

nostril’s flared. Kristoff could see a part of that dark black wolf deep
inside of the man, and it brought a thrill of arousal to him. He
shivered as his dick pulsed.

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He half expected to see the animal coming out of his lover right

then and there, and he even felt a twinge of disappointment when it
did not.

He never thought he would find a wolf to be sexy before, but

perhaps it was for the best that it stayed locked behind the cage of
Garret’s consciousness.

As sexy as Kristoff thought the wolf was, he had no intention of

letting it have sex with him, and he certainly didn’t want to put off
what was about to happen between them either. This was supposed to
be all about the two of them, making up for lost time and making their
vows to each other with their mouths and tongues and bodies.

Garret nodded, and this time, instead of trying to keep a firm grip

on Kristoff, his hands were gentle on his shoulders as he gently
pushed Kristoff downward.

Kristoff kept his hands on the thin blankets that were over top of

Garret’s body, and as he went down, he pulled those sheets with him,
exposing more and more of Garret’s body, which was barely being
concealed by the paper gown that only went to his upper thighs.

The man’s hard, thick cock was perfectly visible. The outline of it

was, at any rate, and there was a large wet patch over the thin paper,
making it incredibly weak in that spot.

Kristoff half expected the man’s prick to break free and jump out

at him.

Wouldn’t that have been a sight to see?
Garret threaded his fingers through Kristoff’s hair. As much as he

could with the braid hindering things anyway.

Kristoff was going to have to do something about that. He was

going to start making habits of loosening his hair before going into
bed with this man so that his blond locks could fan around him,
curtaining his face as he went down on the man.

He lifted the paper gown, exposing Garret’s dark, pulsing

erection. He could see every bulging vein, and when he wrapped his

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hand around that thick cock, it was so full, so heavy, that his fingers
barely managed to touch each other.

He could do this. It wasn’t the same as the last time. Hell, he and

Garret had already fucked like animals, so why was going down on
him supposed to be any different? He knew perfectly well that Garret
was nothing like the alphas who’d taken him in that field.

Garret hissed in a breath, his hips surging forward, trying to fuck

into Kristoff’s hand.

Kristoff smiled. So damned impatient.
“Do it, sweetheart, please,” Garret said, and when Kristoff looked

up at the man, he wet his lips with his tongue. The tortured look on
his face was almost too much for Kristoff to deal with. This big,
strong man was becoming completely undone just for him.

“I’ve been thinking of nothing else but your mouth around my

cock for the longest time,” Garret said. “Please don’t make me wait
anymore. Seriously, I’m going to implode.”

Kristoff had to laugh a little at that. It was too damned funny. But

he also put the large wolf, his mate, out of his misery.

Kristoff wet his lips, took in a deep breath, and opened his mouth

around the crown of Garret’s cock and sank down around him.

It was surprisingly easy. Kristoff didn’t have any terrible

flashbacks about the last time he’d done this. The time when he’d
been forced to do it.

No, this was nothing like those other times. For one thing, Kristoff

had wanted to do it, and Garret’s hands in his hair were gentle. There
was nothing painful about this, and Kristoff could take his time and
enjoy it almost as much as his mate was as he bobbed his head up and
down.

No one was yanking on his hair, pushing him down farther than he

was able to take it. He could still breathe and he wasn’t choking.

And unlike the last time, Kristoff genuinely cared about whether

or not the man above him came to his pleasure. He wanted Garret to
come from this. He wanted to feel the man’s cock swelling inside of

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his mouth, and he wanted to taste how thick his cum would be before
he swallowed it down.

Even his cock tasted, well, normal. It tasted like clean skin, and

that was perfectly fine with him.

Garret moaned and sighed above him. His hips canted up and

down in a slow motion as his hands continued to play in Kristoff’s
hair. The gentle scratch of the man’s nails against his scalp was
soothing.

Did the man even know how much that was helping him in this

moment?

“Oh, fuck yeah,” Garret said, moaning and sighing every word

that came out of his mouth. “You look so damned good doing that.
I’ve been thinking about you doing that for so damned long. Made for
interesting showers.”

Garret was a talker when he was getting his dick sucked. Kristoff

liked that, and he hollowed his cheeks and tightened his lips,
wondering what else he could get the man to say.

“Fuck!” Garret yelled, and then he moaned when Kristoff raised

the stakes by massaging his balls. “I love you. I fucking love you.
Keep doing that.”

Kristoff froze for only half a second, but it was enough for Garret

to notice, and the man actually stopped what Kristoff was doing.

He pushed against Kristoff’s shoulders until he pulled away,

leaving Garret’s cock shiny with Kristoff’s saliva.

How he’d had the willpower to do something like that, Kristoff

was never going to know. That was going to bring about a serious
case of blue balls.

“I’m…I’m sorry,” Garret said, and there was genuine worry in his

eyes, as if he was terrified that Kristoff was going to jump out of bed
and get the hell out of there as soon as he possibly could just for
hearing that he was loved.

“Did you mean it?” Kristoff asked, knowing that sometimes men

said all sorts of things, including proclaimed their love, without ever

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really meaning a word of what they’d said during sex. Especially
while getting a blow job.

Garret stared him right in the eyes. He swallowed, but he was the

sort of man who could do a nervous gesture like that without looking
all that nervous.

“Yeah, I meant it, but I know you’re not really looking for that

right now. I won’t pressure you, I don’t want you to say anything
back, and I especially don’t want you to feel like you have to either.”

Garret was being careful with him because of what had happened

in Kristoff’s past, but that was all right because he’d said he’d meant
it.

He’d meant it.
Kristoff leaned in and kissed the man on the mouth. It was just a

quick kiss, and it was over with before his lover could even realize
what was happening.

Kristoff was too damned happy, and now he wanted to finish what

he’d started more than ever.

He put his mouth back over Garret’s cock, and this time, where he

would have felt some hesitation, now there was absolutely none.

He wasn’t looking up when he heard Garret’s head slamming

back into his pillows. The man was enjoying himself way too much,
which was a sign that Kristoff was at least doing something right.

He wasn’t broken, and this didn’t have to just be about fucking

and claiming. They could enjoy each other and have a good time.

He wasn’t broken. He wasn’t broken.
Kristoff continued to massage and roll Garret’s testicles in his

hand until he felt them tightening up.

Garret’s dick even swelled between his lips, and the thrusting of

the man’s hips became that much harder, and that much more intense.

“Oh, fuck! Kristoff!”
Kristoff moaned as he heard his name on those lips being spoken

like that as Garret jerked and came down his throat.

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It didn’t taste so great, but that wasn’t the point. The point wasn’t

even to prove that he wasn’t damaged.

This was about having fun and getting new experiences with his

mate.

He was really starting to get used to that word. It no longer

seemed like a bad thing to be with Garret. It felt real.

This feeling he had, it had hit him so fucking hard, but then it

stayed with him and soothed him, and now Kristoff couldn’t live
without it.

When he pulled away to look up at his mate, there was a lazy

smile on Garret’s mouth, and his eyes had slid shut.

When Garret opened his eyes and looked back down at Kristoff,

his eyes were no longer red. They were their regular, calm, dark color.

Garret’s hair was disheveled, and the look was never pulled off

better by any other man, not in Kristoff’s experience.

“That was great,” he said.
“Yeah?” Kristoff asked, and a weird rush of pleasure surged up

inside of him, just from knowing that he’d done something Garret had
liked.

“Yeah,” Garret replied, and some of that red color returned to his

eyes. “Now get up here.”

His hands reached down and grabbed on to Kristoff’s shoulders,

pulling him up Garret’s body.

Kristoff went quickly and willingly. He wanted this so damned

bad. He never thought he’d feel a need to have sex again, not this
intensely, but here it was.

Garret’s cock was still hard, thick, and dark, despite the orgasm

that Kristoff had just given him.

It could have been a product of his werewolf metabolism, or

maybe his body was just making up for all that time he’d spent
recovering.

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Either way, Kristoff was glad he didn’t have to wait. “If being

with a werewolf is anything like this, then it’s no wonder all the
dragon warriors keep taking wolf mates,” Kristoff said.

Had that really come out of his mouth?
Garret laughed at him, and this time, when he pulled Kristoff’s

clothes off of him, the clothes made it out of that experience alive.

There was more kissing and touching that drove Kristoff

absolutely wild. He loved the sensation of Garret’s warm hand
stroking his prick up and down, squeezing right before he was about
to come and preventing it from happening.

“You really know what you’re doing,” Kristoff said through

panting breaths and warm kisses that he couldn’t get enough of.

“You’re my mate. I know your body inside and out,” Garret said,

and the man continued his teasing even when he wasn’t stroking
Kristoff’s cock by letting his lips trail over the flesh of his throat,
even over his mating scar.

That made Kristoff shiver.
Without intending for it to happen, Kristoff thought about how

Garret was shot, and how he’d still charged toward the gunfire. He
thought about this strong man beneath him, covered in blood and
dying, and his heart couldn’t fucking take even the memory.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” Kristoff said softly.
Garret immediately pulled his lips away from Kristoff’s throat,

and they stared at each other for a moment.

He must’ve known what Kristoff was talking about because

Garret nodded. “I promise I will try, but I can’t promise you that I
won’t.”

For the first half of a second, Kristoff wasn’t happy with that, but

then he did remember that this was an alpha beneath him.

Garret was an alpha, and Kristoff asking the man to never put

himself in danger was the equivalent of demanding that the dragon
warriors never put themselves in danger either.

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They were made for that. They lived for it. They needed to be

strong for their clans, and they needed to protect the people they
loved.

Garret promised he would try. He was going to be careful, for

Kristoff’s sake.

That was going to have to be enough.
Kristoff found himself easily accepting that. He nodded. “Okay,”

he said, one simple word that meant so damned much to the both of
them. He found that he was using it a lot lately.

Garret smiled, and he pulled Kristoff down for another sweet,

lingering kiss.

Then his hands found their way lower, and he gripped and

massaged Kristoff’s ass cheeks, dipping his fingers between the crack
to tease and touch his entrance.

“Oh fuck, yes,” Kristoff said, panting as he thrust his cock down

against Garret’s own erection, and then pushed his ass back against
those fingers that tortured him so damned well.

“Do you have anything in here we can use?” Garret asked, and he

squeezed Kristoff’s ass once more just for good measure.

Kristoff grinned. “Yeah, I’ve got something in my pocket,” he

said, and he practically hopped off the bed to get at his clothes, which
were now on the floor.

Garret turned himself onto his side so he could have a look at

what Kristoff was doing. He had a great big smile on his face, and his
hand stroked his cock. “You’ve been walking around all that time
with a bottle of lube in your pocket?”

Kristoff looked over his shoulder and grinned, bottle in hand as he

eyed what Garret was doing to himself. “Like the idea of that, do
you?”

“Very much,” Garret said, his hand still moving in leisurely

strokes. “Seriously, though, why do that?”

Kristoff climbed back up the bed and straddled his lover. “It just

reminded me of you, I guess.”

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“You guess?”
Kristoff nodded, and his face flamed with the embarrassment that

rushed at him. “Yeah. It was hard seeing you lying in bed like that. I
missed you.”

Garret’s eyes softened, and he cupped Kristoff’s cheek. “I’m

sorry.”

Kristoff shook his head, and he grabbed on to Garret’s hand and

put the lube into it. “I’m just glad you woke back up. Now, no more
emotional talk when I’m this horny. You’ve got something you need
to take care of.”

Garret’s grin was nothing less than wolfish.

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Chapter Nine

Garret paid special attention to every reaction that came out of

Kristoff. Every shudder of the man’s body, every sigh. Garret even
noted every time the dragon above him slid his eyes shut and moaned.

He wanted to make sure Kristoff would be as comfortable as he

possibly could be, especially as Garret had two fingers inside of his
hole, stretched and readied him for what was about to happen.

The man’s cock was hard and pointing up at his bellybutton, like

it was trying to shout at him that it needed so much more attention
than just this alone. It was thick and dark with the amount of blood
that had pooled inside of the shaft. A drop of pre-cum was forming at
the slit, and as it slid down the crown of Kristoff’s cock, Garret let out
a small moan.

“You are so fucking hot,” he said, letting his free hand slide up

and down the man’s slim waist. He’d clearly lost a little weight since
that day out on the field. Garret was going to have to make sure he put
back on every pound. He wanted his mate healthy and glowing again.

“I love you,” Kristoff said, humping back into Garret’s fingers.

“Fuck, I love you.”

And holy hell, it was amazing hearing those words at long last.

Garret pinched and played with Kristoff’s budded nipples again as he
hooked his fingers deep inside of that warm, tight space. His dick
pulsed, and he couldn’t wait to be inside of that sweet ass.

Kristoff moaned and bucked as Garret found his sweet spot, and

he pressed his fingers harder against that little nub that was deep
inside, watching in delight as his mate shivered and jerked on top of
him.

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He pulled back quickly, however, to prevent Kristoff from

coming.

“Not yet, baby, not yet.”
Kristoff growled at him. He actually growled! And it was sexy as

hell.

“Garret, I’m being serious when I tell you that I will severely hurt

you if you keep teasing me.”

Garret burst out laughing. He couldn’t help himself, but he was

going to take that threat seriously at the very least. Kristoff certainly
looked like he was about to lose his patience with him.

He removed his fingers from Kristoff’s hole, reached for the bottle

of lube, and then squirted some into his hand. Without taking his eyes
away from Kristoff’s gorgeous face, he stroked his erect cock, coating
it and making it slick for what he was about to do.

Kristoff watched Garret’s hand working his cock with his mouth

slightly parted, giving Garret a nice view of that pink tongue as it
licked over those kiss-swollen lips.

Garret had many plans to place more and more kisses on those

lips when he finally put his cock inside of his mate.

“Are you ready?” Garret asked, one hand on his throbbing dick,

and the other on Kristoff’s hip. He was able to pull Kristoff toward
him, and the man easily came forward and positioned himself so that
his asshole was right on top of Garret’s dick. The crown was just
touching that tight pucker, and all Kristoff had to do was sit down,
and that would be enough.

“I’ve been ready for a while now,” Kristoff said, smiling down at

him.

He was so fucking sexy, the heavy scent of sex all over him, his

pale skin flushed for the want of sex, and his braid now stretched and
loosened, stray hairs sticking out from when Garret had grabbed on to
it.

Garret grinned back at his mate, and then he had both hands on

Kristoff’s hips as the man sank down slowly.

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Garret had almost forgotten that it had been several weeks since

they’d done this, and Kristoff had to be slow with himself, or else he
would be hurt. That was the last thing Garret wanted for the man. He
watched his mate’s face carefully as the crown of his dick popped
through the tight ring of muscle.

It was easier this time than it had been the first, but Kristoff still

let out a relieved breath, as if he hadn’t expected that.

“Phew,” he said, still grinning.
Garret was already sucking back a tortured moan as his cock was

engulfed by that very tight, very hot, space. Inch by inch, Kristoff
sank down, until he was completely sitting in Garret’s lap.

“Fuck, you feel good,” Garret said, still stroking his hands over

Kristoff’s hips, his stomach, and his thighs. He wanted to touch every
inch of that smooth skin, wanted to taste all over his body. He wanted
it all.

“Move, for the love of God, move,” Garret said, getting all

demanding and desperate.

Luckily, Kristoff was too interested in getting off himself to want

to bother with teasing either of them any more than they had already
teased each other.

He canted his hips back and forth, swiveling them from side to

side evenly, so that he was going in an almost circular motion.

There was about a second and a half of slow buildup, but then the

dragon was moving his hips and thrusting forward as if his life
depended on it, as if he would die if he didn’t have an orgasm and
have one within the next ten seconds.

“G–Garret! F–fuck!”
“Come on, come on,” Garret said, urging his mate to move faster,

gripping his hips tighter. He was going to leave bruises there, but
Kristoff didn’t seem to mind it in that moment.

“It’s all you, you got this,” Garret said. He wanted to give up

complete control to the other man. He needed Kristoff to know that if
he ever felt unsure about his place with Garret sexually, that Garret

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would lie back and let Kristoff do whatever the hell the man wanted
with him, whenever he wanted.

Kristoff would be in complete control for the rest of their lives

and it would always be perfect.

Though Kristoff wasn’t nearly as strong as Garret was, he was

still a dragon, and the force of his thrusts was still making the metal
joints in the bed they shared squeak and moan. The bed rocked
against the stone wall, and it almost sounded as if some of the little
screws were about to come loose.

Nothing in the world had ever been sexier than that. The

knowledge that his mate was about to wreck the bed they were on
with the force of his thrusting hips was beyond fantastic. Garret
sucked in a breath and held it, curling his toes and holding his orgasm
back as much as he could.

He couldn’t come yet. Not yet! He wanted Kristoff to have his

orgasm before then. Garret had already come first between the man’s
lips, and now it was his turn. Fair was fair. Kristoff had waited long
enough.

Luckily, from the way his entrance tightened around the shaft of

Garret’s cock, it looked as if he was very close to the end. Kristoff’s
moans had become more desperate. The movements of his hips faster,
but the forward push not so long.

“I–I’m coming, oh Gods, I’m close,” Kristoff said, squeezing his

eyes shut and arching his back.

Garret couldn’t resist taking hold of the man’s cock and

completely getting control of the situation. If he didn’t make Kristoff
have an orgasm, then he wouldn’t have one before Garret did. The
pleasure was already built up to the breaking point behind his stomach
and he could feel the energy just waiting to release all the way
through his legs and in his lower back.

Garret stroked Kristoff’s dick hard and fast. He touched the man’s

testicles and massaged them, feeling them tighten up higher toward
the man’s body.

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95

Then Kristoff was moaning louder, his asshole becoming so tight

around Garret’s dick that it was painful. The good kind of painful.

The scent of cum was thick in the air as ropes of white fluid shot

out of Kristoff’s slit. The man groaned and yelled out loud, and Garret
came inside of him, hardly able to stand any more of that sweet
torture as the sensation on his cock, the smell of cum, and the sight of
Kristoff’s seed itself landing on his chest and stomach became way
too damned much.

By the end of it, when all that was left was the heavy scent of sex

and cum, and the sounds of their heavy breathing, Kristoff surprised
Garret by grabbing on to the back of his neck and bringing his face
forward for a deep and lingering kiss.

Garret had been so caught off guard by it that he had no defense

for when the man thrust his tongue into Garret’s mouth, moaning as
he tasted him.

Garret allowed it. He enjoyed it. He put his hands into Kristoff’s

hair to hold him into place, the both of them kissing and touching
each other as the high of one fantastic orgasm faded away from them,
leaving the both of them warm and sated.

It hadn’t been just sex. Garret recognized this feeling because he’d

had it often when he’d been with his previous mate. He’d just made
amazing love to Kristoff, and it seemed the other man could sense that
as well, because he was positively glowing.

“I love you,” Garret said between soft kisses. “God, I love you.”
“Me, too,” Kristoff said, and then laughed. “I mean that I love

you, too, not that I love me, too. Shit.”

They both laughed at each other. There was something so

incredibly intimate about talking and laughing with another person
while they were naked in bed, while Garret’s cock was even still
inside of the other person. He’d missed that feeling so damned much.
How had he gone more than fifty years without it?

More kissing, more touching, and professions of love. Garret was

in heaven. Those bullet wounds had killed him and he’d died and

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gone to heaven. That was the only explanation he was willing to
accept for what was happening to him now.

“I think I’m going to have to tell my dad that I’m not coming back

down the mountain,” Garret said.

Kristoff tensed a little in his lap. “He doesn’t know about me?”
“I think he suspects,” Garret said. “All of my brothers, with the

exception of Quin and Conner now, always knew I never wanted to
hand myself over as a mate to any of the dragon warriors.”

Kristoff nodded. “Because two alpha personalities wouldn’t have

worked out together.”

“Not that,” Garret said, sliding his hand over the mess that had

become Kristoff’s blond braid. “Well, yeah, that, too, but it was
because of my wife. She died, a long time ago,” he said quickly when
Kristoff’s eyes shot wide open.

That shock turned into sympathy incredibly fast. “Garret, I’m so

sorry. I didn’t know. I never asked.”

“Don’t be sorry. It was a long time ago, but she and I were

mates.”

Kristoff pulled himself free from Garret’s lap, but he didn’t get

out of the bed like Garret feared he would. Instead, he stretched
himself out to lie down next to him. “Were you in love with her?”

Garret nodded, and very slowly, he let his hand trail up and down

the smooth expanse of Kristoff’s back. “Yeah, very much. We were
together for a long time. She was funny, but she always challenged
me. She was an alpha, too.”

Kristoff frowned at that. “I thought two alpha personalities

wouldn’t work? You just said they wouldn’t.”

“And in most cases, that’s correct. Someone always has to submit

at least a little in a pairing like that, or else it’s doomed to fail. There’s
no question about that. I would never have wanted to submit to one of
the dragon warriors who live here, and if one of them had submitted
to me, then I would’ve questioned the need to have someone like that
on a team of warriors at all.”

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“Oh,” Kristoff said. “I guess that makes sense.”
“But she just knew exactly how to push my buttons and get away

with it. We fit, you know?” Garret asked. Kristoff didn’t say anything.

He seemed more intent on listening to what Garret had to say, so

he continued.

“When she died, I thought my life was over. She was giving birth

to our son, but the…the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, and
she bled out. It was just a…a giant fucking mess.”

“Oh, Garret, I’m so fucking sorry that happened to you,” Kristoff

said, and there was real sympathy in his eyes and voice. He sounded
like he genuinely meant what he was saying, and not just offering an
apology over his mate’s dead wife because he thought it was the
proper thing to do.

Garret hadn’t thought he would get so emotional about it. It had

been years since he’d cried over the memory of what had happened,
and there were times when he could go several weeks without even
thinking about it at all.

“It was the hardest couple of years I had after that. My dad was

barely able to get me to come back to the pack. I was damn near wild,
but he pulled me through, and while I never thought I was fine, I
always thought that I would never find another mate, and if I could
help it, I wouldn’t choose one either. That’s why I didn’t want to mate
with one of the dragon warriors. Not because I thought it wouldn’t
work out, but because I just…”

“You didn’t want to betray her memory,” Kristoff said.
“Not betray,” Garret said, still stroking Kristoff’s back, enjoying

the warmth and comfort that the other man brought him. “She’s gone,
and I logically knew it wouldn’t have been a betrayal to her. I guess I
just didn’t want to forget her.”

Garret pointedly looked down at his mate right then. “That’s what

I need you to know about me. When I found you, caught your scent,
and realized what you were, I tried to fight it so damned much. I
didn’t want to be mated to anyone, much less a dragon. I still had

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some prejudices then,” he explained sheepishly when Kristoff lifted a
brow at him.

“I know it’s not an excuse, but that was why I was so rough with

you when I shouldn’t have been. It was like, I heard you inviting me
into your room, and my wolf, my instinctual side just took over. I saw
it as an invitation for something that it wasn’t. I immediately thought
you were requesting sex from me and I went along with it without
even thinking about it. I’m so sorry if that scared you. I’m sorry for
hurting you that day and for biting you without your permission.”

There. He’d said it and got it all off his chest. Now he just had to

hope that Kristoff’s love for him was enough for the man to see that
Garret was sincere with his words, his story, and his apology. “I’d
never hurt you. Not the way those other alphas did.”

Kristoff didn’t tense up or try to pull away. In fact, he snuggled

even closer and nodded his head before resting his chin on Garret’s
chest. “I know. I knew that for a little while now. I was just
being…stubborn.”

Garret smiled down at his mate and touched the man’s hair some

more. “I’m perfectly fine with you wanting to be stubborn. I like
stubborn.”

“Good,” Kristoff said. “And I’m fine with werewolves now. Not

all of them, but definitely you and your family.”

“I have other brothers who are alphas. My father’s an alpha, too,

remember?”

Kristoff nodded. “I know, but they’re your family. I don’t need to

meet them to know I’d be fine with them,” Kristoff said.

And with those words, Garret’s heart melted a little more for the

man. That shouldn’t have even been possible, considering he’d
thought he’d given all he could as far as his emotions went to
Kristoff, but there it was.

They were going to be fine. “I’ll tell my father that I’ve taken a

dragon for a mate after all,” Garret said, pressing kisses to his mate’s
face. His heart was pounding, but in a good way. He was so damned

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happy that it shouldn’t have been possible. He’d never been this
happy before in his life. Or if he had, then it was a long time ago and
he certainly didn’t remember feeling it now.

“Will he be okay with it?” Kristoff asked. “Will you still be able

to be the alpha of your pack someday if you have a dragon for a
mate?”

“Absolutely,” Garret said. “The council might try some passive-

aggressive shit to get their way on this one, especially since you’re
not a warrior, but they don’t have a say. The entire point of mating
members of our family to your clan was to bring peace, and this is
going to be a part of it. Kristoff,” Garret said, wanting to make sure
his mate was completely on board with this idea, and that he knew
what he was getting into. “It won’t happen now, but someday, for me
to be alpha, you’ll have to come down the mountain and live with me,
among a lot of werewolves. Will you be able to handle that?”

Just because Kristoff had said he was all right with Garret’s

family, didn’t mean he was fine with the idea of living with two
hundred or so werewolves.

He listened carefully to the beating of the healer’s heart, and he

knew how hard of a decision this must be for the man.

Kristoff sucked in a deep breath, and then blew it out. “From the

sound of it, your father is still very healthy, so I have a long time to
get used to that, don’t I?”

He did. Garret kissed him again, and their arms wrapped around

each other. They were going to be fine. They were going to work
through all the little problems that continued to plague them, and they
were going to be together.

Garret was going to do everything in his power to make sure that

his mate never regretted that.

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Chapter Ten

“I’m telling you, Aris, it’s the strangest thing. You have to see it

for yourself!” Conner said.

Aris could do little but follow his mate and nod his head. When

Conner set his mind on something, he was bound to get it.

“You still should have just shooed the creature off of the bed,”

Aris grouched.

As much as he’d come to like the fox that had almost become a

pet around the castle, he did not enjoy the idea of the little thing
making a nest on Roman and Kendrick’s bed. It seemed incredibly
disrespectful.

“I know, but you just have to see how it acts in there. It’s so

strange!” Conner was rushing along, ignoring his limp, and he was so
damned eager to get back to Roman’s old room that he likely wasn’t
even feeling any of his usual pain in his knee either.

Aris was going to have to speak with him about that at some

point. But then they were at Roman and Kendrick’s old bedroom, and
Aris couldn’t think about that. He couldn’t let himself think of
anything, or he would end up going back to how he’d failed his best
friend in the worst possible way.

Conner opened the door for him, and Aris sucked in a breath. The

room smelled relatively the same as it had the last time he’d been
here. Kendrick and Roman’s items were flung all over the place, as if
they had been taking their time to put away their clothing and other
possessions. Now they never would.

The fox was on the bed, curled up, right where Conner said it

would be. It was awake, and even though it was facing away from

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him, Aris could see how the creature’s small black eyes continued to
flick up to Aris.

Like it was waiting to be reprimanded or something.
“And you said it’s been coming here for a while now?” Aris

asked, walking over to the bed. He put his hand on the fox’s furry
head, and his heart cracked a little at the sad sigh it let out.

Conner nodded. “Yeah. I mean, this is the first time it’s been in

this room, but apparently he’s been lying around outside the door,
looking all depressed, just like now.”

Aris continued to stroke the coarse hairs before moving to the

softer ears. “You’d think it was Roman’s pet to be acting like that.”

“I know, right? But Roman and Kendrick never mentioned having

a pet fox, but he still keeps coming here. Like the smells are
comforting or something.”

Aris figured that made sense, but he also knew that his mate was

also working on guesses. Conner was a werewolf. Not a werefox.
Foxes were supposed to be dog-like in some aspects, but it wasn’t the
same thing.

“We can’t leave him in here.”
The fox let out a pathetic sounding cry, and it looked up at him

with begging eyes.

“Are you sure?” Conner asked. “He’s not hurting anything.”
Aris could see that. For a wild creature, the fox was remarkably

house trained. There wasn’t even anything chewed up anywhere, not
even in this room where certain items had been left on the floor.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Aris said. “This is my best friend’s

room, not your den.”

The fox cried again, but it didn’t fight him when Aris gently

scooped the small animal up into his arms.

Then something so unexpected happened that Aris damn near

dropped the thing.

The fox started to glow. It glowed and got slightly heavier.
“What the fuck?”

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“Aris!”

* * * *

“Fuck! God-fucking-dammit, fuck!” Roman snapped, and he had

to grab on to the trees behind him and grip tight as his body spasmed.

It fucking burned like the fires that Aris spewed from his mouth

when Clatcher poured the alcohol onto the open wounds on his chest.

Clatcher scowled at him, hardly taking any pity at all, the prick.

Of course, he didn’t look so great either, since he was the one who
had to rush in and save Roman’s ass before he could get killed. The
man’s normally bright, spiky red hair was all over the place, and not
because of any product he’d used in it. He had scratches and scraps all
over his face, hands, and shoulders, and his leather jacket was torn
from the fight he’d been in. There was a dead leaf sticking out of his
hair as well.

No wonder he was pissed.
“I told you, he knew we were there! And you just ran after him,

like an idiot!” Clatcher snapped. As if to punish him, the little shit
poured more alcohol onto Roman’s wound. The burn, the fucking
burn killed. It wasn’t the worst pain Roman had ever felt in his life,
but it was pretty damned close.

“He was right there, standing right there with his back to me. Of

course I was going to charge him.”

“Yeah, you charged him, but instead of listening to me, you did

what you wanted to do, and now you’re injured, and Ailiwen got
away.”

“Fuck you,” Roman snapped.
Clatcher didn’t say anything to that. His mouth thinned into a fine

line, however, as he quickly started to stitch up Roman’s wounds.
That was nothing. Roman couldn’t even feel the pain anymore. His
adrenaline was still pumping from having been so close to the man
who’d murdered Kendrick. He’d been so close that Roman could see

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the whites in the man’s eyes, right before he’d changed the shape of
his arm into what could only have been a long, metal spike, and he’d
stabbed Roman through the chest with it.

Luckily, Roman had managed to get some of his scales formed

over his body, which had provided enough protection and strength to
keep that metal spike from going right through his chest and out his
back. Nothing major had been struck either. Any deeper, and
Roman’s lungs would’ve been in danger, however.

“I thought Ailiwen could only turn himself into other living

things,” Clatcher said. “If he can change his body to be like the T-
1000 or something, then that’s a real problem.”

“Yes, it is,” Roman said, and then Clatcher finished with the

stitches, and he started working on the bandages. Roman leaned
forward so the man could wrap them all the way around his chest.
“I’ll have to rethink my strategy the next time I see him.”

“Because you had a strategy the last time?” Clatcher asked.
Roman glared at his friend, but then he went back to thinking

about what needed to be done.

“I’m going to need a gun,” Roman said.
Clatcher’s hands paused. “What?”
“A gun. Something with a scope. Also a Taser.”
Clatcher stared at Roman for a moment, then finished with the

bandages before leaning back to really look at him. “What will you
need those for?”

“To kill him with,” Roman answered simply.
The look of heartbreak on Clatcher’s face was almost too much

for Roman to deal with. “You’re just going to pick him off with a
gun? You don’t even want to fight him?”

Like a real warrior.
The words weren’t said, not even really implied, but there were

still there, hanging between them.

“I don’t care about an honorable killing,” Roman said. “I want

him dead more than captured. I want him dead even more than I want

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to torture him for what he did to Kendrick. I don’t care if I have to
hide in the bushes with a sniper rifle to get it done. I don’t care if it
makes me a murderer instead of a warrior either. I will fucking kill
him for what he did.”

And Roman meant every word of that as well. He would give up

every last ounce of honor he had if it meant avenging Kendrick’s
murder.

He thought Clatcher had already known that, or at the very least

that the warrior would understand. Instead, he stared at Roman with
nothing less than horror in his eyes, mouth slightly parted.

Then he shook his head. “No.”
“Clatcher,” Roman said.
“No!” Clatcher grabbed on to Roman’s shoulders and pushed his

back against the tree behind him.

The pain damn near blinded him, but he didn’t make a noise about

it, and Clatcher didn’t seem to care about that either as he glared at
Roman.

Roman was surprised for all of two seconds before he glared back.

“Get the fuck off of me,” he said.

“Fuck you, I won’t let you throw yourself away for this.”
“That’s not for you to decide!” Roman snapped.
“You really think Kendrick would be proud if he could see you

like this? If he knew that his death was doing this to you?”

“I lost him. You didn’t. Don’t you dare fucking speak to me about

him like that.”

“You lost him, but I won’t lose you. You were my leader and you

still are. I won’t let you kill yourself, but this is just as bad. You’re
talking about murdering someone in cold blood.”

“He deserves it!”
“I know he does!” Clatcher screamed, his grip tightening on

Roman’s shoulders so much that he could feel the pain of each
individual finger pressing through his worn leather jacket.

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The man’s words stunned him, so Roman stopped yelling. “If you

know he deserves it, then why try to stop me?”

Clatcher’s lips thinned. “You know why,” he said, and a pain that

Roman hardly ever felt in his life lanced through his chest.

This was a different pain from the sort that he’d felt when he held

on to Kendrick’s dead body, begging him to open his eyes, not to go.

It wasn’t as sharp, for one thing, but still very noticeable.
Roman pushed away that guilt and glared at the other man. “I told

you that I’m not in love with you, and I never will be. Don’t try and
guilt me into doing anything for you. It won’t work.”

“I’m not trying to guilt you,” Clatcher said, and he released his

grip on Roman’s shoulders. Blood rushed back into the spot where
he’d been holding on so damned tight, and Roman fought against the
urge to roll his shoulders.

“I’m not trying to guilt you, but I don’t want to see you lose

yourself to this either. You’re too good for that.”

“Clatcher—”
“I love you, even if you don’t love me, and I always knew that

you wouldn’t. Even when you were single, I never said anything
because you were my superior, and it wasn’t appropriate, and then
afterward when I realized you were in love with Kendrick, even when
you weren’t with him, I was still jealous of him. I didn’t think he
deserved you. I was just as cruel as some of the other men and women
in the clan who thought he was using Aris for his position, but he
wasn’t. You’re so good, and such a good judge of character, that you
could see that about him even when almost everyone else in the clan
couldn’t. I don’t want you to lose that piece of yourself. The piece
that’s honorable.”

“Not so honorable,” Roman said. “I spat in the face of our clan’s

laws in order to elope with him.”

And it had been the single best day of Roman’s life, holding on to

Kendrick’s hand and gripping tight, looking behind him to see the

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man smiling wide at him as they ran through the halls of the castle,
running to the exits so they could be together.

Clatcher actually smiled at that. Roman hadn’t expected that. “It

only made me admire you more. You’re so damned ready to give up
everything for the sake of the clan, but even I was worried about it. I
didn’t want you to be a slave to your honor or duty. You proved that
you’re not. You’re an incredibly strong, honorable, and brave man,
but you weren’t a slave to it either. You weren’t a robot.”

“A robot?”
Clatcher shrugged. “It’s the only word I can think of to describe it.

You’d given enough years to serve the clan, and even I was able to be
a little happy for you when you found a way to be happy, even if it
wasn’t with me.”

Roman couldn’t say anything to this. It was too much. He didn’t

want to sympathize with Clatcher’s pain when all he could feel was
his own. He only wanted to feel his own pain. He never wanted to let
that horrible emotion go, because then it would be like letting go of
Kendrick.

“I was jealous of him, but I didn’t want him to die. I didn’t want

to see you so broken on your knees, holding him and crying like that.
He wouldn’t want you to destroy yourself over this.”

“How do you know what he’d want?” Roman snapped, pushing at

the other man’s chest.

Clatcher barely fell back. Damn, he was a lot stronger than Roman

was in his current state.

Clatcher looked Roman right in the eyes. “If he was worthy of

you, then he wouldn’t want this for you. I’m not asking you to give up
on Ailiwen. I said I’d help you find him and kill him, and I meant
every word of it, but I want you to do it the warrior’s way, so that
when his head is on a pike, you don’t have to live with the guilt of his
death and Kendrick’s at the same time. You don’t deserve that.”

Clatcher seemed sincere enough, but Roman was still too angry

over the entire thing. He was angry that he’d charged after Ailiwen

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107

with only a long blade in his hand, and angry that the worthless little
servant boy had still managed to get the best of him, a trained warrior.
It was insulting.

“I…I won’t make any promises,” Roman said. “That’s the best I

can do.”

“Your best is enough,” Clatcher said. “It always was.”
The man leaned in as he spoke, and Roman wasn’t sure what was

about to happen until it did.

Warm lips pressed against his own in a gentle kiss. Clatcher’s

body was warm, and his heart was beating at an intense rhythm.
Roman could tell that just from the kiss alone.

He didn’t push against Clatcher’s chest, breaking off the kiss,

until the man tried to put his hand behind Roman’s neck.

“What are you doing?” he demanded, angry and excited at the

same time.

His stupid body had reacted from that one little kiss, and now

Roman’s own heart was racing like he was in a fight for his life.

Or in bed with Kendrick.
Neither of those situations was the case right now. So there was

no reason for his blood to be warming, his pulse to be racing, or for
his dick to be stirring, as if there was anything to be interested about.

“I want to make you feel better. I want you to feel good,” Clatcher

said, and he leaned in again.

Even when Roman turned his face away, the man still proved his

determination by kissing and licking along the side of Roman’s throat.

His cock pulsed even more until he was completely hard beneath

the pants he wore.

Fully hard, and he didn’t even have to touch himself, or have

anyone else touch him.

That was only because he hadn’t masturbated since before

Kendrick’s death. He’d been mourning the loss of his lover, so it
hadn’t exactly been on his mind.

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No sex and no touching himself for months, and because of that,

at the first sign of warmth from another person, his body had to react
this way. That was all it was.

“Clatcher, get off of me, right now,” Roman said. He wasn’t going

to turn into those lips, he wasn’t going to give any sort of hint that he
wanted to be kissed again. “I told you this wasn’t going to happen.”

“You told me you were never going to love me,” Clatcher said,

his breath warm and ghosting over the side of Roman’s throat.
Clatcher pressed another sweet, wet kiss to Roman’s Adam’s apple
before working on the other side of his throat. “That’s fine. I’m not
asking you to love me. I’m asking you to use me.”

“What?” Roman demanded.
Clatcher backed off enough so they could both look each other in

the eyes. Clatcher appeared more than serious. “It’s been a while. I
know it has. Let me make you feel good,” Clatcher said, and then his
hand was between Roman’s legs, stroking with just the right amount
of pressure.

“Ungh!” Roman said, moaning without meaning to. It was a

struggle to think straight beneath the pleasure he was feeling.

Clatcher moved closer. Always so damned close. The warmth of

his body was getting to be too damned much, but there wasn’t
anything Roman could do about it.

He was being swept away. He didn’t want to be, but it was just

sex. He needed it. His body needed the release, especially now that it
had woken up after so long of being asleep.

Roman pushed against Clatcher’s chest, separating their bodies. “I

can’t. I’m sorry,” he said.

He was going to have to find a private spot out in the woods to

take care of his stupid cock, and he was going to have to make a habit
of that, too, if he wanted to keep this from ever happening again.

Clatcher stayed back, but he didn’t get to his feet and back off.
“If you want, you can pretend I’m him.”

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109

Roman’s eyes snapped to him, and he stared at the younger man

in such absolute shock that he didn’t have any words to say to him.
Not at first. When he could speak, his voice stuttered. “Y–you can’t
be serious,” he said.

Clatcher’s cheeks darkened a little. He was going to be so damned

humiliated if Roman turned him down after this, but Roman couldn’t
allow that to sway him.

“I mean it. You can just close your eyes and pretend he’s here

with you. I know you want to.”

Fuck, he so did want to, especially now that the offer was on the

table.

Guilt-free sex, and he could fantasize that he was with the man he

loved as it was happening?

Roman’s body honest to God felt like it was screaming at him for

release. He wanted to get off, he wanted to hold Kendrick again, and
here was someone offering him his body, offering to let him pretend
for five minutes that his lover wasn’t dead.

“How could I do something like that to you?” Roman asked. “You

talk about me having honor, well, what sort of honor would I have if I
let you do something like that for me?”

The fact that he was even thinking about it was despicable.
“You’re not the one suggesting this to me, I’m suggesting it to

you,” Clatcher said.

Roman could hardly believe this was happening to him. He could

hardly believe that Clatcher’s hand was still moving between
Roman’s legs, and that he was enjoying it so damned much. He was
so close to just letting himself give in. That was how much he needed
this.

“I still dream about him,” Roman said, and there was only one

him that he could’ve been speaking about.

Ah, that got Clatcher’s hand to stop real fast.
The man looked so damned sad, but still determined. “I know. I

hear you calling out for him some nights.”

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“Do you know what he tells me?”
Clatcher shook his head. “What?”
“That he loves me, that he’s scared and wants to come home.

Sometimes he even tells me that he’s still alive. Then I’m always
stuck reminding him that he’s dead. It’s like being haunted by a
ghost,” Roman said, and he choked on his words on that last part.

It was so damned hard just admitting to that. He nearly broke

down. He kept it together. He didn’t make it to being the second-in-
command of Aris’s clan, and the leader of the dragon warriors,
because he made a habit of being overly emotional.

He thought that would be enough for Clatcher to back off, for him

to finally get the hint that Roman wasn’t going to love him, and that
he just couldn’t.

Instead, he leaned forward again. He didn’t kiss Roman this time,

however. He simply let his forehead rest against Roman’s collarbone.

It was so damned intimate, and so strange having another warm,

willing body this close after so long of being alone.

Roman was helpless against it. It felt too good. It was too good,

knowing that someone cared this much.

“I still want you. I still want to do this with you,” he said softly.
Then his mouth was back on Roman’s neck, his Adam’s apple,

and working all the way up to kiss his stubble-rough jaw.

When his mouth closed in on Roman’s, he not only allowed it, he

kissed back.

Kendrick was dead. This was not cheating, and Clatcher was an

adult who knew what he wanted, and if this was it, then Roman was
going to give in and do the both of them a huge favor.

He closed his eyes and opened his mouth when Clatcher thrust his

slick tongue forward. He didn’t taste the same as Kendrick did. For
one thing, Kendrick couldn’t grow a beard to save his life, and at the
moment, Roman wasn’t the only one who needed a shave.

There was also something in the way the man moved his tongue.

That was different as well.

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111

No, Roman didn’t want it to be like this. He wasn’t about to lie

back and let himself be taken. If he did this, then he was going to put
an effort into it.

He pushed his mouth back against Clatcher’s, searching for more

of that warmth.

“Mmph!” Clatcher said, clearly taken aback when Roman was

suddenly fighting him for dominance of the kiss.

There was an interesting battle between them just then as they

both struggled for control. They were both warriors, and someone
would have to submit.

Well, too bad for Clatcher. If he really wanted to give Roman

what he wanted, then he was going to learn that Roman had always
stayed in control when he’d been with Kendrick.

But Clatcher was not Kendrick. Though the man wanted to be

with Roman and let him pretend, even when Roman closed his eyes, it
was more than obvious about the difference.

His body no longer cared, and he tried not to think about

Kendrick, tried to ignore the guilt and the feeling that there wasn’t
enough air to breathe, because none of that was real.

Kendrick was gone forever, and Roman needed to get a grip and

realize that he wasn’t doing anything wrong right now.

Breathe. Breathe.
Roman fought hard, and eventually got control of the kiss that he

wanted. He pushed his tongue inside of Clatcher’s warm mouth, and
he licked the man deep.

They were just kissing each other, and Clatcher’s hand wasn’t

doing anything to Roman’s cock anymore, and that was still enough
for his body to react.

Roman’s heart pounded in his ears. It was all he could hear. Then

it happened. He was able to close his eyes and really see that it was
Kendrick he was kissing, touching, who was kissing and touching him
back, moaning softly as Roman slid his hands lower and lower.

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The heat of his blood was getting to be almost too much, but

Roman had to keep going. He had it. He was there. This was what he
wanted.

But then, as soon as he had it, it was gone again. Too many

differences to keep the mental image in place for very long.

Kendrick didn’t have this kind of muscle. He was smaller, his hips

more narrow.

He was going to be with the both of them while he did this, it

seemed. And that was all right, just so long as Kendrick was in this
deal.

“We should…Oh fuck,” Clatcher said, moaning as Roman started

to return his teasing gestures by lowering his hand down and cupping
the hard bulge between Clatcher’s legs.

Clatcher shuddered. Roman could feel it all throughout his body

as he held the other man tight. His wound was starting to throb, but he
ignored it as Kendrick came back into his mind.

This was Kendrick he was touching. Kendrick was thrusting into

his hand, whispering everything he’d said, exactly as he’d said it the
last time they’d made love.

“I love you so damned much.”
The man had always thought he hadn’t been worth Roman’s time.

He’d been so wrong. Roman wished he’d done a better job of
convincing him of that.

“I should…We should stay in this position,” Clatcher said, and

Roman was once again brought out of his fantasy by hearing a man’s
voice that did not belong to his mate. “Your wound. You shouldn’t be
moving around so much, so…”

Roman knew what Clatcher wanted, and he leaned back against

the tree. “Do it. Ride me,” he said.

He looked at Clatcher’s face just then. It would be insulting if he

couldn’t at least look at the man once or twice while they fucked.

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113

Clatcher’s eyes got a lusty gleam in them, and some of Roman’s

guilt left him as the younger warrior started frantically working on the
button and zipper of his pants, hurrying to get him out of them.

Clatcher wanted this. There was nothing to feel guilty about.
Not for him and not for Kendrick.
Roman had no idea what they were even going to use to ease the

way, but Clatcher hardly seemed to care about that as he finally got
Roman’s cock free.

Roman sucked in a deep breath when the cooler air hit his dick,

but it wasn’t nearly enough to make his erection go down. Not in the
slightest. Then Clatcher’s warm fist was wrapped around the length of
his pulsing shaft, and Roman threw his head back and bit down on a
groan.

“Kendrick,” he said on a gasp.
He hadn’t meant to say that out loud. Fuck! Roman looked down

at Clatcher, who’d stopped what he was doing.

The man shook his head. “I told you, it’s all right,” he said, and

then he pushed himself forward for another kiss. He moved his hand
up and down as their lips connected and tongues dueled it out for
supremacy once more. Clatcher was good, good enough to make
Roman forget about everything as his cock was expertly stroked.
Clatcher played with the foreskin and underside of the crown.

Roman was moaning and gripping the man tightly, wanting more,

wanting that body heat, wanting it all.

Then, without any more time seeming to pass at all, Clatcher was

out of his pants, and he was in Roman’s lap. Roman could hardly say
what they’d even used, or how long Clatcher had taken to get himself
ready, because all Roman could think about, his only focus, was how
warm and tight the man’s body was.

The guilt was mostly gone, but it was still there. Certainly not

enough to stop his hips from surging upward, pushing his cock deeper
into Clatcher’s pucker, making them both moan and hiss.

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Clatcher was a good man, young and very foolish, and he was

wrong about one thing.

Roman was not honorable. As of now, he was nothing like the

man he’d been before Kendrick had been thrown over that cliff.
Nothing at all, but he embraced it, because if he tried to go back to
that man he was before after having done this, then he was never
going to be able to sleep at night.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Clatcher said, as if he needed to comfort

Roman or something as he moved up and down on Roman’s cock,
moaning and panting his pleasure. “Fuck, that feels so good, I want it.
I love you.”

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Chapter Eleven

Kristoff hurried through the halls of the castle. Running was more

like it. Running and struggling to get the white lab coat he wore back
on his shoulders with Garret running beside him.

“There was no way, no way something like that is possible,”

Garret said from beside him, still working on the buttons of his shirt.

They’d just been pulled out of bed, and despite the fact that Garret

had only just woken up, he insisted on coming with Kristoff.

It seemed that he hadn’t wanted to let Kristoff out of his sights,

not after the scare they’d had with the hunters.

That had been weeks ago, but for Garret he might as well have

blinked and woken up a couple of weeks in the future. It had just
happened for him, which was why Kristoff was going to put up with
his alpha mate’s need to be right next to him, and protect him, even
though they were both perfectly safe in the castle.

“He never discovered his powers before, so it could be him,”

Kristoff said, thinking back to the avalanche of e-mails he’d gotten on
his phone when he’d been making love to his mate.

He hadn’t even noticed them, or the fact that his phone had been

continually buzzing, until after the sex had ended, and another ring
had sounded.

He almost hadn’t left Garret’s arms, but years of training had

forced his hand. He always needed to be on call in case of an
emergency.

“What if it’s that shape-shifter? Ailiwen or whatever?” Garret

asked, and he seemed to have finally finished with the buttons of his

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shirt, because he fixed the collar, and then he was running at
Kristoff’s side.

“That’s what I’m going for, and you’re going to be there to make

sure I stay safe, right?” Kristoff asked.

Garret grumbled unhappily at that, but there wasn’t much else he

could do or say to stop Kristoff from going.

To his credit, he hadn’t tried to talk Kristoff out of going either.

Kristoff was happy for that. Happy to know that the man who loved
and mated with him was going to understand his need to always be
there for someone who was sick.

When they got to Roman’s room, Aris was waiting right outside

the open door.

He seemed to be looking in from time to time, to check on his

own mate? Was Conner still in that room? If he was, then it must’ve
meant something that the high dragon himself had left his mate alone
with…

Well, whoever it was that was inside, Kristoff was about to meet

him.

He put his hand in Garret’s as they approached the dragon leader,

their fingers laced together, and when Garret looked down at him,
Kristoff smiled up at the man.

He wanted Garret to know how much he trusted him. He wanted

him to know that Kristoff completely and utterly had faith that
whatever was on the other side of that door, he would protect Kristoff
from it, just like he’d done from the hunters.

“Aris?” Kristoff asked, getting his leader’s attention.
Aris looked over at him, and the utter relief that was on his face

was so out of place that Kristoff almost didn’t know what to think
about it.

“Thank the Gods you’re here. You need to come and see this.”
“It’s him then?” Garret asked.

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117

“We think so. Conner’s still speaking with him, asking questions.

I’ve already asked him some things. Some personal things,” Aris said,
and the leader of the clan of Firethorn dragons actually blushed.

Kristoff nodded. “You don’t need to go into details. I know what

you mean. I assume he answered all your questions correctly?”

“Yes,” Aris said, nodding his head.
Kristoff had to look into the room to see for himself.
He almost couldn’t believe it, and he thought of the possibility of

the murderous shape-shifter returning, but if Aris had already
questioned him and Conner was still inside doing the same…

“What sort of dragon power could do that?” Garret asked, also

looking inside of the bedroom, likely to make sure that the man on the
bed didn’t try to harm his little brother.

Aris sighed and rubbed his hand over his face. “Some dragons

have claimed to have the ability to let their souls leave their bodies.
They were able to possess other animals or even other people. This is
incredibly rare, however. Some don’t even believe it’s a real gift, and
I’ve never heard of anyone possessing another animal after the death
of a body, not to mention shifting in that animal form.”

“The fox?” Kristoff asked.
Aris nodded.
Kristoff had heard enough. He needed to go inside and have a

look for himself. He looked up at Garret, and he squeezed the man’ s
hand once before letting go and walking inside.

He kept his steps slow, but direct. He walked right over to the bed.
Conner looked up at him first, and he got to his feet. He’d been

sitting in a chair next to the bed, looking at the blond who was on
Roman and Kendrick’s bed.

“Hello,” Kristoff said to the man, and then nodded to Conner, who

quickly exited the room, going back to his mate and brother.

The skinny young male on the bed nodded back to him, and

swallowed hard. “Hello,” he said, his voice low and weak, as if he’d
spent many weeks screaming and had a sore throat.

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It certainly sounded like him. “Does your throat hurt? I can get

you something for that. Nothing that will put you to sleep or anything,
don’t worry.”

“You’re not going to drug me?”
“No,” Kristoff said. “Aris already spoke with me. He said you

answered everything correctly, but I just wanted to ask a few
questions of my own.”

The man nodded. Though he looked very much like him, Kristoff

wasn’t comfortable even thinking that name in association with this
person until he had it confirmed.

“What’s your name? Your full name?” Kristoff asked.
The man on the bed swallowed, and Kristoff watched the nervous

bob of his Adam’s apple.

“Kendrick Ainsley,” he replied.
The flip in Kristoff’s heart was weird. Aris had said this man was

claiming to be Kendrick in his text, but it was strange hearing it for
himself.

“And, how old are you?”
“Fifty-one,” Kendrick said.
Kristoff supposed he was going to have to use that name after all.

It wasn’t like there was anything else he could call the man.

“All right, Kendrick,” Kristoff said cautiously, very aware of

Garret’s eyes on the back of his head, watching carefully. “What’s the
last thing you remember? Do you know how you came to be here?”

Kristoff hadn’t been there during the battle that had cost Kendrick

his life, but he’d heard the details, and when the funeral pyre had been
discovered, completely burned, leaving almost nothing left, he’d
believed that story a hundred percent.

Kendrick nodded. “I…I fell. I think I…I don’t want to say I died,

because I didn’t. I’m here, but…”

“It’s okay. Just tell me what you know. How did you get into the

body of the fox?”

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119

“I don’t know,” Kendrick said, looking so damned young and

helpless as he brought his knees up and grabbed on to his ankles. He
was just sitting naked in the bed sheets, appearing so damned lost. “I
just remember Roman crying, and he was holding me, and I was
trying to wake up, but I couldn’t. Then I was burning. I tried to tell
him not to, that I was alive, but I couldn’t get back into my body.”

Kristoff tried to recall any stories about dragons with powers over

astral projection being unable to return to their bodies if there had
been too much damage done to them. He’d been told that Kendrick
had hit his head and lost enough blood to fill an elephant. That
certainly seemed like a qualifier.

“So then what did you do?” Kristoff asked.
Kendrick looked so close to crying. Kristoff wanted to comfort

him, but he wasn’t entirely certain this was the real deal yet.

“I gave him a hug. I told him I loved him and that I’d come back

for him. I found the fox. It wasn’t really doing anything, and
everywhere I went no one could see or hear me, so when I saw it, I
tried to get into it, and it let me.”

“It let you?”
Kendrick nodded. “I can feel it even now. It’s still alive inside

me.”

That sounded like how werewolves referred to their inner wolves.

Garret certainly spoke of that gorgeous black wolf as if it was a
separate creature with different thoughts and needs.

“And how did you manage to find your way back to the castle

without wings?”

“Aris once told me about the small, hidden path. When we were

still together, I mean,” Kendrick said, and he glanced up and behind
Kristoff, presumably at Aris himself.

That made sense. There was definitely a path, every dragon knew

of it, but many didn’t know where it was. Kristoff didn’t even know
where it was. It was considered information for the high dragon and
his family only, and at one time, Aris had likely considered Kendrick

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to be his family, considering the years they’d spent together before
breaking up.

“The path was steep, though. I fell a lot, and sometimes I didn’t

think I could make it up. I kept trying to shift, to become me again,
but I couldn’t.”

“That would explain the state you were found in, and why you

never changed back,” Kristoff said. “Can you turn into a dragon
now?”

Kendrick shook his head. “I’ve been trying, but I keep growing

orange fur, and I don’t want to shift back into a fox in case I get stuck
again.”

Kristoff nodded. This was so damned interesting, and so

unprecedented. So few dragons in history had powers like this, and
maybe that was because they had all been like Kendrick at some
point. Maybe they hadn’t known about their powers at all until their
deaths, and when they returned as different shifters altogether, well,
who would believe them except for those who were close family and
friends? People who would have seen the faces of those previous
dragons and known about the similarities.

“I believe you are who you say you are, Kendrick, but just for the

sake of the clan, I’m going to need some of your blood. That’ll make
it easier to tell everyone what’s happened.”

Kendrick nodded, and then his blue eyes shone, as if he was ready

to cry. “Where’s Roman? I haven’t seen him around here at all. I
don’t know where he is and I need to know.”

Kristoff sucked in a breath. He looked behind himself at Aris,

Garret, and Conner, who all had similar looks of disbelief and sadness
on their faces.

How in the hell were they supposed to tell Kendrick the truth?

That Roman had run away to find Ailiwen and get revenge for what
had happened?

“Kristoff? Where is he? Is he alive? Is Roman okay?” Kendrick

asked, and his voice cracked.

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121

Kristoff took in a deep breath. He was happy when Garret at least

came into the room and put his hands on his shoulders for support.
He’d needed that so much.

“Kendrick, I’m sorry, but I don’t know where he is. None of us

know where he is, or when he’ll be back.”

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].

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