Omega For The Dragon: 3 Book Bundle (M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Paranormal Romance)

by TJ Cross

  "I'm not okay, but I will be. It's just a bug, nothing worth seeing the doctor over, they won't be able to tell me anything I don't know. Rest and keep my fluids up. That's exactly what I'm doing already," Tobias told him, half-smiling at his friend.

  He appreciated that Brad was concerned about him, he'd never had anyone care about him like that before.

  "Well just text me if you need anything," Brad told him, "I hope you get better soon."

  "Thanks, I hope so too," Tobias told him.

  "Oh, and I almost forgot, Professor McAdams was asking about you yesterday. I told him you were ill but he said he still needs you to go to his office so he can write off your missed classes. Guy's a freakin' jerk," Brad said, "catch you later."

  Tobias froze up at mention of the professor's name. It wasn't as though he hadn't been thinking about him non-stop already. Thinking about Nathaniel being inside him... then about him acting all crazy the next morning. The guy surely had a few screws loose. It wasn't that he didn't think Professor McAdams was a dragon shifter, in fact now that he knew it, everything made sense about the man. His short temper and need for control, the darkness behind his eyes.

  But he didn't understand why the man thought that Tobias was one too. Tobias was nothing but an ordinary human. He'd never shown any signs of being a shifter. But everything the professor said played over and over again in his head that it started to scarily make sense. He wondered if he really was a shifter, if he'd really gone into heat.

  Every time those thoughts popped into his mind he pushed them aside though. No way. No fucking way. The professor was just playing some kind of trick on him, or ever worse, using dragon magic to control him.

  There was no way he was going back to Professor McAdams' class. He'd do anything to avoid seeing the man again. When he was feeling better he'd go straight to his dean and tell him he was changing his schedule, it was still early enough in the term for him to do that.

  Nausea struck him again right in his belly and he got out of bed making a dash for the men's room. What the fuck is wrong with me?

  And then he realized. No. He shook his head. There was no way he'd actually gone into heat. But if he had... what if he had? Did this mean he was pregnant?

  Tobias refused to believe it but in his gut he knew something wasn't right. As much he wanted to run, as much as he wanted to hide, he knew he'd have to face the professor again. After all, he'd told him he'd be there for him when he needed answers.

  Tobias didn't know what to think anymore but those words repeated themselves in his head. The professor knew he'd seek him out again, maybe that's why he wasn't coming after him right now. He knew that eventually Tobias would need to find him.

  And what were the answers he needed? If only Tobias knew about his parents, about where he came from. It was that, coupled with Nathaniel's words that made him second guess himself. He didn't know where he was from... he didn't know who his parents were. What if? Jesus. What if they were dragon shifters?

  Nothing made sense anymore. Tobias pulled out his notebook and wrote everything he was thinking down. He tried to clear his mind, tried to forget any of this ever happened. It didn't work though, his thoughts were in overdrive, they were flooded with thoughts of Nathaniel. And then the fire, the dream he'd always had for as long as he could remember. Suddenly he realized something he'd never known about it before. The man carrying the baby. For the first time he could make out his face. The man carrying the baby in his dream was Nathaniel.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Nathaniel

  It had been seventeen days since he'd seen the kid and he was on the verge of losing it. He'd been waiting for Tobias his whole life. Been waiting for his mate. His omega.

  This was not how it was supposed to go down. First of all, Nathaniel always imagined he'd be the one doing the seeking, not the other way around. And he certainly didn't imagine being sought out by an omega who didn't even know he was a dragon.

  Everything seemed beyond fucked up and he was beginning to think Tobias would never come around. He was beyond worried about the kid. He knew he was pregnant too, he'd figured it out when he'd stopped coming to class. And he sensed it, he sensed his omega now. Nathaniel sensed that Tobias was in pain, he knew that the pregnancy was hard on his body. He needed Tobias to find him soon so he could help him.

  He wondered every day if he should go after the kid, it took all the strength in him not too. Nathaniel knew he had to wait for Tobias to come to him though, he had to want to find the answers himself. If Nathaniel fucked things up then he'd risk losing the kid forever.

  It shook him by surprise when he pulled into his driveway to find the kid sitting on the front steps of his townhouse. Relief washed over him. About fucking time.

  "Hey," Nathaniel said as he approached the kid.

  He was dressed in a loose hooded sweatshirt and sweatpants, yet he still looked good to Nathaniel. Better than good, the kid oozed a certain kind of sexual energy that had Nathaniel desperate for him.

  "Hey..." Tobias replied nervously, looking up at him with those innocent eyes.

  "Come inside," Nathaniel told him.

  Tobias followed him inside the town house and they went straight to the living room.

  "You want anything to eat or drink?" Nathaniel asked him.

  "I just came here for answers, Nathaniel," Tobias said, "I want to know what's going on..."

  He sat down on the couch next to the kid and thought about where to begin.

  "Where do I start? You must have figured it out by now kid. That you're not fully human," Nathaniel said. "I just don't understand how you didn't know. Don't know how I didn't sense you either. Where is your family?"

  Tobias shifted in his seat looking uncomfortable at the question raised.

  "I didn't know shit until you put ideas in my head," he said. "And as for family, my parents died when I was a baby. Don't have any other family. Was raised in the foster system."

  Nathaniel's heart squeezed at the pain in his omega's voice. He could tell Tobias tried to hide it but he wasn't able to keep it from Nathaniel. They were mated now, connected, he felt his pain.

  But what he was saying didn't add up either. Although dragons held immortality, they were still able to die -- but it wasn't such an easy feat. They couldn't die from illness or anything like that, but there were some things even dragons couldn't survive.

  "How did they die?" Nathaniel asked him.

  "Don't know," Tobias shrugged, "don't know anything about them except that they're dead."

  "I'm sorry," Nathaniel said to him, placing his hand on the kid's thigh.

  He was surprised that Tobias didn't shake it off, and grateful too. He'd wanted to touch him again for so long.

  "I don't want your pity. I want your answers. How and why do you think I'm one of your kind?" Tobias asked him.

  "Usually I'd know from the beginning. I'd be able to sense you. I didn't though, and I'm sorry kid, for the way we met, the way I treated you, for the things I did to you..." Nathaniel told him.

  "You didn't do anything I didn't want done to me," Tobias interrupted.

  Nathaniel felt anger boil inside him. Not at Tobias but because Tobias felt that way. He was angry at himself and angry at the world that Tobias had grown up thinking he wanted to be treated like that. To be used like that.

  "Yeah well..." Nathaniel continued, "I didn't sense you in the beginning like I normally would. There was something about you though, obviously, I don't make a habit of screwing my students. When you came over that night you went into heat, I figured you'd known and that you'd sought me out. As much as I thought it was strange that I didn't sense you, and the way you'd acted towards me, the fact that you didn't tell me. I was an idiot, I let my dragon get the better of me. I claimed you as my mate that night."

  "You claimed me... what does that mean? What does that mean for us?" Tobias asked.

  Nathaniel took a deep breath in. He couldn't believe he was actually having to tell h
is fated what that meant. This wasn't the way things would normally go, not that he knew, this was a once in a lifetime thing. Dragons only had one mate in their life, Tobias was his, whether he wanted to be or not.

  "Well it means you're mine now, kid," Nathaniel said, "and I'm yours."

  Tobias bit his lip and they looked at each other properly for the first time since he'd gotten there. Lust grew rampant through Nathaniel's body. He wanted to reach out and stick a finger right in his omega's sexy mouth. To kiss his lips, to press him against a wall and go at him like nothing else mattered. Nothing else did matter.

  "I feel it..." Tobias finally said, "there's this force inside me, I think it's always been there. He's always been there."

  "That's your dragon," Nathaniel told him, "he's just waking up. It won't be easy dealing with him on your own. And especially with the other thing going on..."

  Nathaniel bit his tongue. He didn't know if he should say it just yet. Telling the kid he was pregnant right now seemed like it would only make the kid more freaked out than he already was.

  "You can say it, I've already figured it out. I'm pregnant, aren't I?" Tobias replied, "I don't know how the fuck it's possible but I can feel the baby inside me too."

  "Yes, when you went into heat I claimed you, not only as my mate but also with my seed. If I'd had any idea you didn't know, believe me, I would have tried to restrain myself," Nathaniel said.

  He hated that Tobias had to find out everything this way. He wished he'd had his parents there growing up, anyone who would have been able to teach him these things. Nathaniel couldn't help but also feel his heart swell with joy at the confirmation that he had a hatchling on the way.

  "I don't-- I don't know how to feel about any of this Nathaniel," Tobias said, "I'm scared, scared I'm not strong enough. Not just physically but my head too... I was always on my own. Always expected I'd be on my own."

  "We'll figure it out Tobias," Nathaniel said, trying his best to reassure him, "I'll help you, I'll never leave your side."

  "There's something else I haven't told you," Tobias said.

  "What is it?" Nathaniel asked him, he could see the fear in Tobias's eyes, "you can trust me, kid. I won't let anything bad happen to you."

  "My whole life I've had this dream. I don't know what it means, don't know if it has anything to with my parents or where I came from. Anyway, in this dream there's fire, smoke filling my lungs, a baby crying. And there's this man, he carries the baby out of the flames. That's always the point where I wake up. The man looks just like you, Nathaniel. I never saw it before, but I see it now."

  Nathaniel's body trembled for the first time in his life. This couldn't be, Tobias couldn't be who he thought he was.

  "That's because it was me."

  CHAPTER TEN

  Nathaniel

  The revelation shook Nathaniel to his very core. Everything made sense now. The kid hadn't sought him out after all, it had been Nathaniel all along.

  "What happened? It was my parents, wasn't it? That's how they died, why were you there?" Tobias searched his face, hopeful for answers.

  Nathaniel hated that he was the one who had to break it to him. He knew it wasn't going to be easy for Tobias to hear as much as it was hard for Nathaniel to tell him.

  "I was there when your parents were killed," Nathaniel said.

  "Killed?" Tobias repeated.

  "Eighteen years ago. There were more of us back then than there are now. We were trying to escape from those who wanted to kill us. A group of dragon-hunters had found a way to exterminate us. They'd invented a biological weapon, a poison that dragon shifters somehow weren't immune to."

  Tobias gasped and Nathaniel grabbed his hand, squeezing it tight. It was hard for him to tell the story, but he knew Tobias needed to know the truth. Only then would he be able to accept it.

  "We were going to escape North America, most of us already had. We'd boarded a plane set for South Africa, there was a safe place there for our kind. But not long after the plane took off we were attacked. They'd rigged the plane's ventilation system, they wanted to gas us all to death. It wasn't long before the plane went down. Most of us were dead before the crash. I was one of the lucky ones, only eight of us survived."

  "My parents?" Tobias asked, his hands shaking.

  "I knew them. They died before the crash, Tobias. I'm so sorry."

  Nathaniel pulled the kid into him, stroking his hair as he felt tears weep from his eyes. He pulled back a moment later.

  "Then what happened?" Tobias asked.

  "I carried you from the wreckage, gave you to a couple that were heading to Mexico. We had to split up, had to go into hiding. It wasn't safe to stay in touch anymore," Nathaniel told him, "I tried searching for you for years, I wanted to know you were safe but I got word that the couple who took you had been killed, I assumed you had been too. I didn't think there was anything I could do."

  Nathaniel clung to his omega. He hadn't known it then but it made sense now. The boy had come back to him, it was meant to be this way. They were always meant to be together.

  "But it's over now. We won, those people were killed and their weapon against us destroyed," Nathaniel told him, "we still keep a low-profile though, but there are many of us out there. You're not alone anymore. You have me. You have all of our kind to look out for you."

  Nathaniel knew it wouldn't take away the sting of what had happened to Tobias's parents. He knew he'd always carry it with him, nothing could ever replace that. The bond between dragon kin was too strong.

  "I remember them now, for the first time in my life I can see them," Tobias said.

  "They loved you," Nathaniel told him, "I knew that they did, they fought to protect you till their last breath. That's how you came out alive."

  "What were their names?" Tobias asked him.

  "Drake and Andre."

  "Thank you," Tobias said, "for telling me... it mustn't have been easy for you to think about either."

  Nathaniel nodded. There were things even someone like Nathaniel couldn't bear to remember. That day was one of them. It left a darkness in his soul that he thought would never go away. Only now did he start to wonder if maybe Tobias could break through it, maybe he could be the one to let light into him again.

  "Like I said kid, I'll do anything to protect you," Nathaniel told him, "and our hatchling."

  He placed his hand over Tobias's belly. He could already feel the tiny bump forming there and it sent a warmth through his body like nothing ever before.

  "It's true, isn't it? That I was brought to you for a reason," Tobias asked him. "Were we always supposed to be mates?"

  Nathaniel smiled for the first time in forever. Tobias could feel it now, he could tell. The energy that pulsed between their bodies was present. They were soul-bound.

  "We were. I didn't know it back then. You were just a baby. It makes sense though. We were connected from that moment. Our souls have always been searching for each other."

  Tobias nuzzled himself into Nathaniel's chest. It stunned Nathaniel, he'd never known that he'd find comfort this way. He had always been a hard man, after the things he'd been through he never thought there was an inkling of softness within him. Yet somehow with Nathaniel's head resting on his chest like this a whole new range of emotions flooded him.

  "It's going to take me some time to understand this," Tobias finally said, "but I want to understand it. I want you to guide me through this."