Power to His Dragon Mate

by Marcy Jacks

  Instinctively, Mike and Zack grabbed onto each other, ducking down low, getting out of the way of any glass shards that came at them.

  This wasn’t like when Tory and Tristan had their fight and came back. It wasn’t accidental. The glass seemed to purposely move for them, and Mike shut his eyes to keep them safe from being sliced. Before he did, he was vaguely aware of Tory bringing his wings out, spreading them wide and using them as a shield to keep any more glass as the rest of the windows shattered from hitting him and Zack.

  What was going on now?

  “How many dragons did you fight with?” Mike asked when it was over, but he had a feeling he knew the answer already.

  “None,” Tory said, his voice tense, his eyes burning, and his body looking ready to jump back into another fight. He hadn’t been fighting with any other dragons, which could only mean one thing.

  Whoever this was wanted a challenge.

  They wanted something from Tory.

  “Hey there, big man,” said a sultry voice Mike never heard before, but when he looked, he recognized the face. It was the homeless woman who had lured Zack into the alley to be attacked. Only she looked… kind of amazing. Her hair was clean and glistened in the light. Her clothing was form fitting and looked like it was worth more than a month’s rent. Those leader boots crunched the glass beneath her heels, and she looked like she was ready to shove those boots where the sun didn’t shine.

  Behind her, a couple of dragons stood, and Mike did recognize them. His blood chilled.

  “Do you remember us?” asked the woman.

  Mike did remember them, even though she wasn’t talking to him and had eyes for only Tory. These were the people who had ganged up on Zack back in that alleyway.

  When the woman looked at him, she smiled.

  “Don’t faint on me again, sweetheart. We need you to see who the real dragons in charge around here are, and you,” she pointed a long, red nail at Tory, “you’re going to pay for what you did to Boris. Starting right now.”

  Chapter Seven

  Boris? Mike’s brain didn’t seem to be working fast enough lately, but he was able to piece together what was going on.

  A little bit, at least.

  Right. Boris. The guy leading that gang of dragons. Bald and kind of stocky. And a dickhead.

  Mike hadn’t been there when Tory and Zack tracked him down—though he wished he had been there to see—but when they tracked Boris down, they challenged the prick to a fight. A perfectly legal fight, too. They went to a public arena where there was a referee and everything, paid the fine, made the offer, and then proceeded to beat the living hell out of Boris.

  The stupid bastard apparently thought he could win in a fight with Tory. Mike had seen Boris, and looking at Tory now, even if he didn’t have Zack there to take the man’s energy and power him up, it was stupid of the other man to think he stood a chance against him.

  Apparently, Tory might have broken something that would take a long time to heal, even for a dragon, and Boris wouldn’t be fighting for pride or money for a long time.

  “Well?” the woman asked. “Have anything to say for yourself? There’s three of us against just you, now. Not so tough anymore, are you?”

  Tory didn’t pay her any mind. He looked to the two dragons with her. “The both of you need to take your whore and get her out of here before I lose my temper. A blonde isn’t going to help you no matter how many times you’ve fucked her.”

  Holy shit. Mike never in his life saw a woman turn red so fast before.

  “How dare you! My hair is strawberry blonde!”

  “Looks pretty mousey to me,” Tory said, no hint of ire in his voice, as though he was having a normal conversation with her. “Zack has strawberry blond hair. You don’t.”

  “Shut up! I do have red hair! It glints in the light!”

  Mike didn’t see it. Tory clearly didn’t either. Zack was doing his best to pretend he was invisible. Mike couldn’t blame him.

  Fuck, what if Mike passed out again? What if he became a burden they needed to take care of?

  No. He wasn’t going to let that happen. Sure, there was a lot of blood rushing to his ears, but he was going to stay awake, and if worse came to worse, he was going to fight back.

  He wasn’t going to let them scare him like last time.

  Mike was not going to repeat that incident, no matter what!

  He reached out, grabbed Zack’s hand, and held on tight. There wasn’t much he could do against a couple of dragons and the woman they were sucking their energy from, but at the very least, he could take Zack and run the fuck out of here if he needed to. He could be useful in that way.

  Tory seemed to be doing an excellent job of at least distracting them. Mainly by picking on the woman and her blonde hair that clearly had no traces of red in it. Not that he could blame the other man. Honestly. If she was going to lie to herself, then at the very least she could put the effort in to dye her hair. How else did she expect anyone to take her seriously?

  “Stop right there!”

  Mike and Zack halted.

  The woman glared at them, as though they were doing something wrong by trying to get away from her craziness. She sneered. “You’re both staying here. You especially, you bastard. You cheated. You gave this one too much energy and refused to let Boris fight with a lover. He was outmatched.”

  Zack bristled up at the accusation. “He was the one who said it didn’t matter! He said I couldn’t give that much anyway! It’s his fault he can’t fight anymore!”

  The woman snapped her fingers, and the two dragon males she was with stepped forward.

  Mike’s heart raced. His knees trembled. He forced them to lock, though it was uncomfortable as all hell.

  Didn’t matter. He was going to stay upright. He wasn’t going to pass out again. He wasn’t going to put that burden on Zack or his new mate.

  “Zack, stay close to me,” Mike said softly.

  Zack, showing a thousand times more bravery than Mike had in his whole body, steeled himself. He glared at the two dragons and the woman with them before pulling his hand out of Mike’s. “No. I need to be with Tory. I have to give him my energy for the fight.”

  Mike couldn’t believe it. He reached out to take Zack’s hand again, only to pull back at the last second, clasping only air.

  Zack didn’t need Mike to protect him. He was perfectly capable of standing on his own two feet, and he was brave as fuck for doing it.

  Mike clenched his hand to a fist, wishing he could…

  No point in dwelling on that. It wasn’t the time, and he could deal with his own insecurities when their lives weren’t in danger.

  When this was done, he was just going to have to make sure Zack knew what a brave motherfucker he really was, and then they were going to have a beer together.

  Meanwhile, Mike would help by not getting in the way.

  “Want to fight now, do you? No troubles going up against a woman?” taunted the blonde.

  She was really starting to piss Mike off.

  “You had no problem dressing up like a homeless person to trick me and Mike into coming into that alley with you,” Zack snapped, and he actually popped his knuckles. “You’d better hope I don’t get anywhere near you, because woman or not, I’ll make you bleed.”

  Holy shit. That was the toughest Mike had ever heard Zack sound.

  He was actually really proud of the guy.

  The woman frowned at the threat. She didn’t respond to it. No back and forth jibes, just right to the point as her dragons stepped forward. Tory did the same. Zack stayed behind him, and the woman stayed a few feet behind her own dragons.

  Mike realized what was going on, and he couldn’t believe it. “Hey, wait a minute, you’re not seriously considering having your fight here, are you? There’s no room for a proper dragon fight?”

  “Scared?” the woman demanded. “You’re free to leave. I don’t care about you. I just want to fight them.”
>
  Mike was ashamed of himself, but the offer to leave was a tempting one. One he really wanted to take.

  No.

  He wasn’t going to do that. He wasn’t going to give in and he wouldn’t be a coward.

  “I’m not scared of you,” he lied. “I just don’t think it’s fair. How is anyone supposed to get their wings out and have a real fight when the ceiling is so low? There’s three of you.”

  The ceiling wasn’t, in fact, low at all. It was probably nine feet up there. More than enough for a full transformed dragon to stand up straight with.

  But for three of them? That was a bit different. What if they ended up stretching their wings out? Or slamming their tails? Dragon fights could get pretty intense, and this place might be open concept and all, but it was no arena.

  With less space, there was more of a chance Zack would get hurt trying to give Tory his energy.

  Mike had no doubt in his mind that this bitch and the two dragons she was fucking wanted to go for exactly that. They were going to use the smaller space to their advantage, knowing Tory would hold himself back to keep Zack safe.

  Mike steeled himself. He grabbed his phone out of his pocket and pretended as though he had some kind of authority here.

  Years of watching the Ultimate Dragon Fighting League did give him a bit of an edge.

  “If you even think about trying to have a fight in a residential area, I’ll make sure the police get here. The police that deal with dragons.” Which meant dragons who were police. “They’ll lock you up so fast for breaking the rules of the fight and for threatening everyone who lives in this building. You’ll never get to have another legal fight in your life.”

  “Go ahead, call the police then.” The woman shrugged her shoulders and crossed her arms. Was she purposely trying to make her boobs look bigger by doing that? Even with the leather jacket, it seemed kind of obvious.

  Mike shrugged right back at her, perfectly happy to play the I don’t give a shit game. “Fine.”

  He immediately dialed the number. 9-1-1 wouldn’t do it. The emergency hotline for anything dragon related was a four digit number, and he knew she heard him type in each digit.

  “All right! Stop that!” she snapped. “We can go somewhere else.”

  Mike immediately hung up. “If they call me back, I’ll tell them I dialed by accident, but if you don’t get the hell out of here to someplace official, with a referee and everything, I will tell them what you’re up to.”

  Humans didn’t often have the balls to threaten to call the police on dragons, and even though she was a human, she was the lover of two dragons, and it wasn’t just on her.

  The three of them were clearly looking for a fight, and an unfair one.

  “We won’t forget this, just so we’re clear,” she said. “You get your dragon and make sure you’re ready, because if I ever catch you by yourself, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.”

  He was pretty sure she meant it. Mike didn’t get the impression there was a lie in that.

  “Whatever. You don’t scare me, so get the hell out of here with your whore-ass. You’re making this place look bad.”

  She totally scared him and he didn’t understand why he was struggling so hard to keep his mouth shut. Still, it seemed to do the trick. She nodded, snapped her manicured fingers, and without another word both of her dragon friends turned and walked back toward the window with her.

  Mike wasn’t sure if she was totally nuts or if she did this sort of thing all the time, but she actually jumped out the window in a graceful leap without waiting for the dragons to make the first move.

  Both men smirked back at Tory, Zack, and Mike. One of them even winked at Mike in a way that left him with a super gross, crawling sensation all over his skin. Just watching them take their sweet time to jump after her was giving him all kinds of anxiety, though. When they finally spread their wings and jumped after her, even though Mike couldn’t give a shit about the woman, he felt himself breathing a sigh of relief—a feeling that got even more powerful when they appeared in the sky after a long dip, that blond woman on the backs of one of them, her hair rushing behind her in the wind.

  Mike clutched at his heart, sinking to his knees. “Jesus Christ, that was intense.”

  “We should follow them,” Tory said. “Are you ready, Zack?”

  “Ready and waiting. Let’s go!”

  Mike blinked at them. He couldn’t believe how eager they sounded. “Wait a minute, you’re just going to go after them? Right now? I got rid of them, though! Fuck their stupid fight. Just stay here and call the cops.”

  Tory shook his head. “I need to teach them a lesson. I might not break their knees, but grounding them seems like a good idea.”

  Mike shook his head. He wanted to protest some more, but it was Zack who pressed his hands firmly to Mike’s shoulders.

  “We’ll be fine,” he said. “Go and stay with Tristan. He’ll protect you until we get back. Don’t say anything to me about it now. I know you don’t get along with him so well yet, but he cares about you. He’ll keep you safe.”

  Mike felt like a fish gasping for air for a moment. What the fuck was going on? Was he in crazy land?

  “Since when are you all gung-ho about going into a dragon fight? I thought this wasn’t your scene?”

  “It’s not,” Zack said, his tone serious. “But if it keeps them away and ups Tory’s reputation, then I might as well.”

  There was a time when Mike would have loved for their positions to have been reserved. He would have loved it if he was the mate of a dragon, standing back while his lover got ready for a fight, offering the other man or woman his love and energy, powering that person up for the fight.

  Making them stronger.

  Meanwhile, Zack used to hate hearing any words on dragon fights. He constantly pestered Mike about all the money he spent on merchandise, and how unrealistic it was to want to be a dragon’s true mate, or even a lover that his dragon would respect. Because everyone knew that most dragons only fucked a human to get their energy from them. To get stronger in a fight.

  But Zack had lucked out. He was mated to what appeared to be a genuinely good guy. A guy who wanted to protect him, and in turn, Zack wanted to be in battle with him, to protect Tory in turn.

  Now, Mike was trying to convince Zack to take it easy, to not rush into things and to think about what the consequences of his actions might be instead of the other way around.

  How the hell had this happened?

  Zack squeezed his shoulders. “I promise, everything will be all right. Go talk to Tristan. I know he cares for you. He will protect you. You should give him a chance.”

  “Why?” Mike asked. It was sounding more and more like Zack was trying to suggest something was there that really wasn’t.

  Or maybe something was there that Mike didn’t want to admit was there.

  Zack hugged him, he smiled, and when Tory spread his wings, Zack pushed himself up onto the man’s back, wrapping his arms around Tory’s neck and trusting his mate to run and jump off the side of the building.

  Mike followed them out to the edge of the balcony. The railing was fucked, but he could see them as they flew away. And he did feel a little jealous of them. Of their trust for each other. Of Zack’s trust for the dragon he was clearly so in love with.

  “Are we going to follow after them or what?”

  Mike tensed, looking down and to the right. Tristan was there, arms up on his own railing, leaning against it like he was bored.

  When those red eyes looked at him, Mike felt that connection that scared the hell out of him one more time.

  “It seems like maybe we should help them, don’t you think?”

  Chapter Eight

  The guy was scared. Tristan could tell that much, but he could also tell how much Mike wanted to go. Even if he didn’t want to admit it.

  Mike looked away from him, off in the direction Tory and Zack had flown off in.

  Trista
n could sense his desire to be with them, to be useful.

  “You should be the one to go. I’d only get in the way.” His eyes suddenly popped wide open, and he looked at Tristan with a hopeful expression. “Unless… you and I had sex recently, right? So that makes me, like, your lover, doesn’t it?”

  He was finally beginning to pick up on it. Tristan’s mate was a little dense, but he was cute, and his heart was in the right place.

  “Something like that.”

  “Well then, would that help? I’ve got red hair, and we had sex not too long ago. Would that make you powerful enough to go after them? I mean, you can already go after them? To help in the fight, I mean?”

  “I could do something like that. Your energy would be beneficial.”

  He could go with or without Mike at his side. Tristan was still a powerful dragon, and even without a mate beside him to offer his strength and energy, his own strength would be enough to make the battle more even. But he wanted Mike to go with him. He wanted his mate to realize on his own what this was, and to not feel ashamed of having it or even wanting it.

  “How would I… I mean I’ve seen other people do it on TV, but how would I give you my energy? What would I do?”

  Dragons who fought professionally brought their mates to the fights. They didn’t get in the ring, but they stood just outside, cheering on their lovers or mates, giving their spirit to increase the strength of their fighter.

  Some human once figured out that watching this process through a thermal lens allowed everyone to see how the process was done. People could watch how the warm energy of a mate pushed into their dragon, as well as the effect it had.

  Though Mike was right to be concerned. There really wasn’t a manual for this kind of thing, was there?

  “To be honest, I don’t know how humans do what they do. You all always seem to work on instinct.”

  Mike deflated. “Oh, well… maybe I could ask Zack?”

  Tristan watched the other man. He was in no hurry. He knew Tory’s life was in no danger, despite being outnumbered, but Mike didn’t seem to know that, and Tristan could sense the man’s anxiety growing.