An Unexpected Thing

by Marcy Jacks

  Jason growled. “I know that,” he whispered, but even that noise sounded a little too loud in the space they were in.

  They were all heavy breathing, the sound of the chains clanking on the ground, and heavy heartbeats.

  It was intense, and it was beautiful.

  It was definitely a shame when those fingers pulled out of him, but they were quickly replaced with something better. Jason held his breath, tense, and a little worried when he felt the head of Marek’s cock touching his hole.

  He’d had it in his mouth only a few hours prior. This should be nothing. He could handle this. It wasn’t as though he’d saved himself for this.

  Marek took his time. He seemed to be waiting for something as he slid the head back and forth, teasing Jason’s hole. He certainly did a good job of that. Jason forgot all about what the point of this was supposed to be as he lost himself to the pleasure of it, pressing his forehead against the cool concrete of the wall in front of him.

  And then he was breached.

  Marek gave him no warning that it was coming, and maybe that was for the best since Jason probably would have tensed up again.

  He opened his mouth and sighed when the burn came, when he was being filled so much he didn’t think he could take anymore.

  Marek put his hand back around Jason’s mouth.

  “Gotta be quiet,” he said.

  Jason nodded, though he hated this so much. He didn’t want to be quiet. He wanted to shout and scream. It was already so good that it felt as though his mind was turning to marbles and he…he couldn’t…

  It was a good thing Marek kept his hand over Jason’s mouth. He had to put his own hand there, too, just in case the other man got it in his head that it would be a good idea to stop.

  The pleasure brought him up high, too high and too fast, but that was something of the point. His orgasm was already within sight, and Marek showed no signs of stopping. He breathed like a racehorse in Jason’s ear, and even that seemed too loud as Jason moaned beneath their joined hands and came hard.

  Marek was not far behind him. The warmth of his orgasm spilled deep in Jason’s body. He groaned, every nerve ending feeling weak and helpless. His body trembled as Marek sped up the pace and jerked his hips.

  And then there was nothing else.

  It was done.

  It was over, way too fast. Had they had more time, Jason would have been kind of annoyed with it.

  The first time he enjoyed being penetrated, and he didn’t get more time than that?

  Not that he could do any outward complaining. There was a very specific reason why they couldn’t take their sweet time.

  Marek lowered his hand. He leaned in and kissed the side of Jason’s mouth. When it felt as though he were about to pull back, Jason grabbed his arm.

  “No, wait. Stay there.”

  To intimate. There was no reason why he should be asking for something like that, especially right now.

  Marek hesitated. “We don’t have much time.”

  Jason knew it, but that didn’t make it any less disappointing to know. To let Marek go…

  He did. Jason let him go. Marek pulled back, and when he was no longer inside Jason anymore, he felt suddenly empty. A little sensitive, but definitely cold.

  He wanted Marek back inside him. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough and this felt…strange.

  Marek pressed another kiss to Jason’s shoulder. It was comforting, and Jason was willing to take all he could get at this point.

  “I’m sorry. I wish it could be more. I really do.”

  “Do you?”

  Jason looked back at him. There was no hurt on Marek’s face. Nothing to suggest he was angry at the subtle accusation. He looked as though he’d expected it.

  The man shrugged. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me. I barely trust myself at this point. Believe me, if I had the time, I’d keep you on the edge of pleasure for hours if I could.”

  Jason hoped the other man wasn’t aware of the shiver that just passed through his skin. “That sounds a little overconfident. Hours? Really?”

  Marek’s green eyes darkened. “Yeah, really.”

  Jason swallowed, and it turned out that it was a good thing they’d pulled back from each other and righted their clothes, because that was about when there was another light knock at the door, and it opened.

  “I’m not looking,” Dylan said, his hushed voice sounding filled with panic. “But you both need to hurry it up. The elders are coming, there’s a problem out here.”

  “We’re decent, Dylan, you don’t have to hide.”

  “Thank God,” Dylan sighed, opening the door. He let himself in, quickly shutting it behind him. He looked right at Marek. “Which clan did you say you were from again?”

  Marek frowned. “You know what clan I’m from. I’m with Keagan’s men.”

  Jason didn’t get it, either. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s a fuck ton of dragons heading our way. We don’t think they’re from Keagan’s clan, but they already blew a huge fire ball at Angelica and nearly blew her away, so we don’t think they’re friendly.”

  Jason tensed. He looked at Marek, who glared at him. “Don’t you even think about leaving me here like this to go out and fight. Jason!”

  Too late. Jason was a warrior. He needed to be out there helping with the battle at hand, and he was sure as hell going to make sure he did it with the others.

  Chapter Seven

  Jason felt bad for ignoring the shouting behind him as the door slammed shut on Marek, but what could he do? He expected to have one or two, or even all ten of the elders marching toward the little storage shed where he and Marek had just fucked, angry that he’d gone for a visit.

  He didn’t expect to leave the shed and see all hands on deck.

  The children and caretakers were quickly getting out of the way while all warlock warriors and anyone who could wield a wand and throw a proper frost spell got ready for the attack that was coming.

  “Are we sure this is an attack?” Jason asked, looking to Dylan.

  “What else is it going to be? We don’t even know who these fuckers are.”

  “We don’t need to know them,” Jeremy said. “They attacked one of our own. Jason, you should probably get out of here.”

  If he’d had hackles, they would have raised up high at the insult. “Are you kidding? I’m going to stay and help.”

  “How are you going to do anything while wearing that?” Dylan tapped the shackle still around Jason’s wrist.

  Jesus fucking Christ, he’d entirely forgotten about that.

  He was so screwed.

  “I guess…fine. I’ll go and make sure the kids stay calm. Make sure it’s an actual attack before you start throwing spells. We don’t want to fuck up the peace agreement with Marek’s clan.”

  “Screw Marek’s clan if these people are here to take from our resources,” Jeremy said, his mouth twisting in a hard sneer.

  “I’m just saying this could be a misunderstanding, dickhead,” Jason snapped back, and then he walked away.

  He had to. In the distance, he could see the small shapes of the dragons coming getting larger and larger. They were in a duck formation. A flying V.

  The dragons didn’t usually do that, in Jason’s experience, unless they were actually coming to start something.

  This was bad.

  Cursing the shackle on his wrist and the nasty fucking timing it took for this to happen to him, Jason rushed to the community center.

  He stopped at the door, looking back at the shed. Would Marek be safe in there? He was a dragon, so the dragons coming wouldn’t want to hurt him, right?

  Dragons picked fights with warlocks all the time for their own stupid reasons. They made a habit of blaming the attacks on their victims, as well. Jason had no idea why this clan was doing this, and he was pretty sure that even when he found out the reason, it would make no sense to him, but for now, he needed to take care of
business.

  The kids had to come first, even before Marek.

  The guy he’d just fucked.

  “Shit.”

  Jason went inside.

  There was loud chatter. The older kids were getting closer to the windows despite their teachers and parents telling them to get back, but it was the younger children who took up most of their time. Of course, they couldn’t put all their effort into watching over the tweens and teenagers when the little kids were crying.

  Jason went to one of the parents, immediately asking for a job to do, and it was to drag the older kids away from the windows before something happened.

  And something did happen.

  Yeah, it was an attack. One of those fucking dragons out there blew a fireball at the property.

  He didn’t think it hit the building, but it was definitely close enough that the windows smashed. Glass shattered around them. The little kids screamed, and the older ones finally seemed to think it was a good idea to get away from the glass.

  “Everyone back away from the windows, get back!”

  Jason hadn’t been trained on what to do to calm three dozen crying and screaming minors and children, but he could follow orders pretty well. That was part of what a warrior’s job was, actually. To maintain order and to do as those higher in command told him to do.

  So, when he saw the teachers and parents quickly rushing the younger children to the little cubbies where they kept their shoes, that part of his training kicked in.

  As a warrior, he was expected to know what the kids were going to do in the event of an attack. Making sure they were well secured and protected was one of those tasks.

  The little kids fit neatly, because of course they did. The older kids had to huddle in front of them, knees up and heads down while Jason and the others quickly slid the tables over their heads. He didn’t think that would do much if the building actually sustained more damage and the roof fell over their heads, but it was better than nothing, and he supposed the idea was to make the kids themselves feel more secure as the community center rumbled.

  The shouts could be heard from outside. There was a distinctive roaring sound, and one of the kids started setting off sparks around his hands and face from an excess of magick and stress.

  The last time it had been anything like this, Arty had been taken away by Keagan’s clan.

  What the hell did these people want?

  “Shouldn’t you be out there fighting with them?” asked one of the parents. She held onto a crying toddler, apparently deciding that the child was safer in her arms than he was in a little wooden cubby.

  “I can’t.” He wouldn’t explain why right now.

  Was that storage shed still standing? He should check on it to make sure.

  “Why not? Why are you hiding in here with us?” asked another teacher. “You’re one of the warriors, aren’t you?”

  “I’ve been demoted,” he said, lifting his hand that had the shackle around it. But apparently what it was flew right over this guy’s head.

  “I don't care about that! Take it off! Get some metal cutters and take it off.”

  As if it was supposed to be that easy, but it was clear he couldn’t stay in here. The parents didn’t want him wasting time in here, and he didn’t want to be around them.

  He wanted to be out there.

  He wanted to make sure Marek was all right.

  He turned and left. He still couldn’t join the fight, but the parents didn’t know that, and he wasn’t about to tell it to them, either.

  The floor trembled beneath his feet as he went to the front doors, waiting, hoping that nothing else would be blown at the building and he wouldn’t have to pick glass out of his face.

  It seemed the warriors were doing their jobs all right, bringing the fighting farther and farther away from the community center where the kids would be hidden, but that didn’t mean there weren’t a couple of stragglers around.

  Jason looked out the tiny, square glass windows, and he saw one.

  A big one. Maybe as big as Keagan, or a little bigger. And Jason remembered how big that guy had been in his dragon shape after that fight. The dragon had been bum-rushing the community center, because that was where the elders happened to be at the time.

  Where were they now?

  Either way, when the dragon started sniffing a little too close to the windows of the craft room where the kids and parents were, Jason’s blood chilled.

  The glowing flames that burned in the dragon’s nose gave a horrifying impression that the creature would snort fire right into the room, and as it inhaled deeply…

  Jason pushed hard against the doors, bursting out of the community center, making sure he was loud and stopping in front of the narrowed, diamond-shaped eyes of the dragon.

  Yeah, it saw him.

  Everything seemed to move in slow motion. Jason’s limbs were more sluggish, he didn’t feel as fast as he normally did as he turned around and ran the hell right out of there before that thing could get anywhere near him.

  He chanted under his breath a quick incantation that was supposed to make him lighter on his feet, to make him run faster, but that block was there again as the shackle around his wrist prevented that magick from surging forward, and he was stuck using his own legs. No help. He felt the heat of the dragon behind him, getting closer.

  Jason ducked behind one of the apple trees just as he heard the loud snort of the dragon behind him, and something so scorching hot it singed his robes just barely missed him.

  The apple tree exploded, Jason was blown right from his feet.

  The smell of baked apples rose up into the air, and Jason desperately slapped at the small fires burning on his robes as he crab walked backward, desperate to get away.

  “What do you want?” he shouted, the dragon easily sidestepping the damage he’d done and standing over him.

  Jason screamed as it pressed a huge paw down on his leg, stopping him from moving, and, oh God, it felt like his leg was being broken. He screamed long and loud, but he turned that pain into something enraged as he screamed up at the thing leaning over him.

  “We didn’t do anything to you! What do you want?”

  The dragon tilted its head to look at him, and the gesture was such an animal one, like a bird eyeing a worm before it would get ready to snack.

  There wasn’t much in the way of intelligence in those eyes. Nothing that would make Jason think there was a person in there who could think about what he was screaming at it and actually answer him.

  It was as though this were an actual animal.

  The itch around his wrist picked up, the pull of magick he couldn’t touch reaching for him, trying to tell him something.

  But the dragon opened his mouth, and Jason pulled helplessly against his own leg, trying to free himself before he was cooked alive.

  Not like this. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready!

  The whoosh that came next stopped his heart. At least, that was what it felt like, but then his leg was free and the heat of the fire ball flew over Jason’s head as another dragon tackled into the one that had been holding Jason down.

  He dragged himself away. Inch by inch, even though he still wasn’t safe being so close, each little bit of space he put between himself and those two snarling and fighting dragons was something.

  The huge grey dragon that mercilessly attacked the larger red one was just…unreal.

  He’d seen a video on YouTube once of a dog fight, and that shit had been traumatizing to watch. This was like that, but with two dogs that happened to be the sizes of elephants.

  They hissed at each other, the grey dragon pushing the red one back as it whipped its tail from side to side.

  Its tail happened to be longer than its body, so every time the grey dragon swung it, it smacked the red dragon on the shoulders with the large bulb at the end.

  Holy shit. He was pretty sure that was Marek.

  It had to be. He’d never seen Marek in hi
s dragon shape, not even when they were in Keagan’s territory, but everything inside him pulled him to that dragon. Screamed out that this was Marek.

  This dragon was his.

  Which didn’t mean he couldn’t still get hurt being here, so Jason dragged himself to his feet.

  To his foot, he should say. His other leg wasn’t about to hold his weight, and it hurt to put weight on it, but he could still stand.

  Jason held out his hand, willing his magick to flow, to do something, literally anything that could be used to help.

  “Ice. Ice so cold it burns. Come to me. Come on!”

  His hand barely chilled. He couldn’t do anything to help. Marek was entirely on his own as Jason stood there, feeling something he didn’t like experiencing in any sort of battle—helpless.

  Marek, on the other hand, was beautiful to watch. His grey body had a blue sheen to it as he twisted and turned in the sunlight and the firelight that the red dragon tried to shoot at him. Even the muscle beneath his scales was impressive. The horns on his tail and head, and the way he slashed his claws down on the outstretched red wings of his enemy made Jason feel as though he were in the presence of a higher being.

  He was in awe when the red dragon backed off, when Marek roared at him a noise that would make Godzilla proud.

  Knees trembling, Jason sank down to them, watching the creature he was pretty sure was his mate take on a giant.

  And he was pretty sure he was in love.

  Chapter Eight

  The dragon continued to back away, step by step, as though it were conceding to an alpha. A true warrior.

  Jason only liked it because his life was being saved. That was the only thing he was going to admit to, but Marek didn’t take his eyes away from the other creature until it was a fair distance away, turned, and rushed off.

  Probably to be with the rest of his dragon friends.

  Only when it was out of sight did Marek snort. Soot rushed from his nose as though he were burning something within him, too.

  Then Marek turned. He looked at Jason on the ground. Jason realized the image he must have made up. He looked terrible. He was on the ground and injured, and Marek actually had to save him before he could be eaten alive. Or burned alive. He wasn’t sure which, but Jason couldn’t seem to get back on his feet as Marek rushed to him, shifting back into his naked human shape before his hands reached for Jason’s shoulders.