A Mate the Dragon Does Not Deserve [A Dragon's Growl 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Marcy Jacks

  Do it anyway.

  The voice seemed firm, and he wasn’t sure why he was thinking about it. This sort of thing…only a mate could do it for another mate. It was impossible for anyone to try.

  And yet that desperate piece of him, the side that couldn’t stand to let Jesse die because of his failure, to let him die after Andrei had cruelly and selfishly fucked him, decided to give it a shot.

  “Okay, okay,” Andrei said. Still desperate, still trembling, he held tightly to Jesse’s body, pushing himself to his feet and taking the dead omega to the bed.

  He gently set Jesse down. Someone could walk in right now and Andrei might not notice them. He was so utterly focused on his task.

  And God, Jesse’s stomach was a ruined and bloody mess. Andrei could see as much even as he used his claws to cut away at the shirt Jesse had put on, the one he’d worn into Andrei’s room before they’d fucked in this bed.

  With Jesse’s chest exposed and slices already in his body, Andrei didn’t have to add more. He leaned down, knowing this wouldn’t work but still praying that it would. His thoughts weren’t clear. He didn’t care. He would try anything.

  He slid his tongue along the blood staining Jesse’s stomach. Two good licks and swallows seemed like enough, though Andrei didn’t even know if he’d taken too much or not enough.

  He just did everything he’d overheard from elder dragons—before they’d died—that he was supposed to, and let his instincts guide him the rest of the way.

  Next, Andrei looked at his stomach, also bleeding with stab wounds. The slices along the rest of his body he’d sustained in the battle hurt like a queen bitch, too, but he just needed one of his scales. Just one.

  He found a good-looking one that appeared partly loose thanks to one of his cuts. Despite the slice through his scales and skin, this particular scale looked immaculate.

  Just what he needed.

  Without another thought for the pain, Andrei gritted his teeth and yanked the scale free.

  He couldn’t stop himself from grunting in pain.

  Oh God that felt as if he’d yanked out one of his fingernails. Christ.

  Quickly. Quickly. There wasn’t much time.

  Using his own blood, Andrei soaked the blue scale in it, making it red, and then pressed the sharp edge of the scale against Jesse’s hand, right above his knuckles.

  He pushed, using the scale as a sort of blade, a scalpel, slicing the skin and pushing the scale beneath it without ruining muscle or bone.

  Through the flesh of Jesse’s hand, he could see the blue shining through the top, as if he’d marked the man.

  When the scale started to glow beneath Jesse’s skin, a euphoria the likes of which Andrei had never known kicked in. His eyes flew wide, disbelief and joy swirling together with a number of other emotions he couldn’t name fighting for supremacy inside him.

  Honestly, it felt like a tornado in his gut, and he could have thrown up, but he laughed instead, hurrying to complete the ritual, to bring his mate back to life while the body was still susceptible to it.

  Andrei made a new wound on his palm, slicing it enough to make blood well up there. When it pooled enough, he put his palm to Jesse’s mouth, letting the warmth of the blood trickle down Jesse’s throat, where it would be able to help the scale in his hand. To speed up the process.

  When Andrei felt the wounds he already had opening up more on his body, and new ones yawning open on his stomach, where Jesse had been stabbed, he knew he was right to do this.

  It was working. Jesse would live, and Andrei didn’t care what happened to him anymore.

  He stroked Jesse’s cheek with his free hand while still having his mate drink the blood that spilled from him. Andrei’s eyes wouldn’t stop blurring, and he sniffed, but he was still happy, even as the weakness came to him.

  Now he understood what Seth had been talking about. Did his alpha know this for sure? Or had it been a guess?

  Andrei didn’t care. He understood now, and he just wished with everything inside him that he hadn’t been so desperate to turn a blind eye from what was right in front of him.

  He had a mate. A second mate. He never would have thought this would happen to him again, and perhaps he just hadn’t put together what was going on because Jesse was a male.

  Andrei groaned, sinking to his knees, his feet numb, unable to keep himself upright. He leaned his head against the bed, fighting to keep his hand to Jesse’s mouth.

  Straining his ears, Andrei focused hard, concentrating all of his attention between Jesse’s face and the glowing scale Andrei had put beneath his skin.

  He didn’t allow himself to relax, not until he started to hear the steady beating of Jesse’s heart.

  He smiled and decided then that it was a good time to give himself some rest.

  Jesse was alive. He would live, and now Andrei needed some time to recover.

  He heard a soft gasp as he struggled to stay awake and then a shout when his hand fell away from Jesse’s mouth.

  He could rest easy now. Everything was all right.

  * * * *

  Jesse felt punched back into reality by something so powerful it left his chest and stomach throbbing with pain as his eyes popped open.

  He gasped for breath and then nearly choked on the liquid trickling into his mouth.

  He shoved the hand away, turning to his side, coughing, coughing up something warm and wet.

  Oh God, what happened? How was he still alive?

  The vampires…

  Jesse pushed himself to a sitting position, his eyes scanning the room, searching for the threat that had been holding him down, desperate to keep himself away from it

  But it was…not quiet. He could still hear noises throughout the house, but it was as if the battle was over.

  No more roars of outrage, screams of pain, and Andrei…

  Andrei was right beside him. As if he’d fallen asleep next to Jesse, his head on the bed but while kneeling on the floor.

  And Jesse’s heart soared. Andrei had come back for him. Andrei had saved him.

  “Andrei!” He shook the man’s shoulders, needing to wake him, needing to look into his eyes, to thank him at the very least for saving his life.

  For caring. Because Jesse had known the man cared. He’d had his doubts but this…

  “Andrei?” Jesse frowned, really looking at the man and trying to figure out what was wrong. Because something was wrong.

  Andrei’s shoulder felt heavy, as if Andrei wasn’t just sleeping but completely passed out and beyond reach.

  Jesse’s hand hurt. He brought it up, looking at it, first his palm, and then the back, and he stopped when he saw the blue glow beneath his skin…

  Jesse wasn’t sure what it meant, but something deep within him said that Andrei had done it and, if he didn’t do something soon, Andrei wouldn’t be waking up.

  Jesse groaned, pushing himself out of bed, ignoring the bodies on the floor as he ran out of the room, desperate for help.

  “Seth! Stefan! Lucian! Someone help!”

  Chapter Seven

  Andrei groaned. His body immediately started to hurt, and he wanted nothing more than to sink back into the sweet, black oblivion of unconsciousness he’d fallen into after giving Jesse one of his scales, and his blood.

  He smiled a little, his head woozy, almost drunken. Jesse was his mate. Unexpected, and kind of nice.

  Except then there was his first mate, his wife…

  He stopped smiling, and instead of being a happy drunk, he started to feel a little more like a sad and depressed drunk.

  What would she think of him if she could look at him now? If she could somehow see that he’d cheated on her, even if it was just a cheat on her memory.

  He didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t like thinking of her beautiful, sad face.

  No, she wouldn’t be sad, and she wouldn’t cry because she was dead, gone, and if Andrei spent too much time thinking about her disappointment in h
im, he would let himself fall into a deep pit he might never be able to pull himself out of.

  Jesse. Andrei had been harsh with him, cruel. He’d growled at his mate, said horrible things to him, and then Jesse almost died because Andrei had left him alone.

  The worst part, the part that made him the most ashamed, was he didn’t know if he would have behaved differently if he had realized Jesse was his mate.

  Perhaps if he had known, he would have worked harder at avoiding him. Andrei had only wanted sex, to prove to Jesse that he was incapable of giving him the life he craved. Andrei never would have done that if he’d known sleeping with him could lead to this.

  But it hadn’t. Andrei only became so fearful, only let himself feel it and believe it, believe there was something there, when the threat of losing Jesse emerged.

  Jesse. Even now, Andrei wanted him. Wanted him so badly his heart ached with the desire for him.

  Not just to have him, though he did want to properly make love to him, but Andrei wanted to see him. He wanted evidence that Jesse was alive and well, that he hadn’t been too hurt by what happened.

  Andrei struggled with it, just the simple act of opening his eyes seeming to bring pain to the entire rest of his body. Andrei realized that it was only because he was clenching every muscle he had in the effort, but it didn’t matter. He had to see, had to know where he was.

  His eyelids seemed to part unwillingly, as if they were glued shut. He groaned, lifting his hand to his face at the sudden rush of light stabbing him in the eyeballs.

  God, how long had he been unconscious?

  Blinking, Andrei pulled his hand away, letting himself get used to the brightness around him.

  He was back in his bedroom. It looked…normal, cleaned up.

  Yeah, he’d definitely been unconscious for a while. Long enough for someone to come in here and clean away the blood and bodies. It definitely didn’t stink of death.

  The fact that he was in his bed meant he was lying in the exact spot where Jesse had been when Andrei gave him his blood and a scale.

  Andrei looked around, searching the omega out, hoping to see those gray wolf ears perked up on top of his head through his hair.

  He didn’t see him anywhere. That was the first problem. Jesse wasn’t here.

  Andrei tried to force his muscle to relax, to not let himself get worked up by that, but it was pretty much impossible to force himself to relax. In fact, that seemed like an impossibility, to force relaxation.

  But where was he? Was he dead? Had he not done it in time? Or, worse, had the mated blood bit just been a myth? Something mates said to each other as a romantic story to make themselves feel good?

  Jesse could be dead. He could be dead and gone, and it be Andrei’s fault.

  He pushed himself up so he was sitting. His abs shrieked for mercy when he did it, but he didn’t stop. Yanking the blankets off his legs, he turned his body, putting his feet onto the floor to steady himself.

  He’d just started working up the balls to get himself standing when his bedroom door suddenly opened.

  He turned his head, glancing back, his brain needing a half-second to process who he was looking at.

  It was Jesse. Andrei released a heavy, relieved breath. His heart actually skipped a beat, and that was more painful than it really should have been.

  Jesse stared at him, his hand on the doorknob, a white container in his other hand, which he promptly dropped as he ran around to the other side of the bed, reaching out, grabbing Andrei by his cheeks, and leaning down to put their mouths together.

  Again, Andrei’s body hurt. The position he was in, even if it was just a sitting position, his head tilted back while his omega kissed him was enough to bring actual tears of pain to his eyes.

  The kiss was good enough to make it worth it. He didn’t dare want it to stop. He definitely didn’t pull away.

  The softness of Jesse’s mouth was too sweet, something he’d barely allowed himself to enjoy when he’d taken Jesse for the first time, so he was damn well going to enjoy it now.

  Jesse pulled back, and Andrei was relieved to see he wasn’t the only one getting misty-eyed about this. Jesse wasn’t just tearing up. Tears actually flowed down his cheeks as he smiled.

  “You’re awake.”

  “You’re alive,” Andrei replied, with the exact same amount of wonder and happiness in his voice that Jesse apparently had.

  Jesse nodded, still smiling, his hands gentle on Andrei’s cheeks. “Yeah, thanks to you.”

  Andrei reached up, taking Jesse by his wrist, the right one. He pulled it down so he could get a proper look at the back of Jesse’s hand.

  And he could see it. The blue scale beneath his skin, sitting on top of his muscle and bone but tucked away now inside Jesse for the rest of his life.

  Assuming he never cut it out.

  “Seth told me what it means for a dragon to do this.”

  Andrei tensed at the softly spoken words of his mate. He looked up at the man, shame rushing through him. He hadn’t forgotten how cold he’d been to Jesse.

  “And?” he asked.

  Jesse didn’t look at him with judgment in his eyes. It was more than Andrei deserved.

  “He also told me about…your wife. Your first mate.”

  That was something Andrei genuinely didn’t like. In fact, he was angry Seth would have been speaking about something so private, even if it was to Andrei’s second mate.

  “He wasn’t supposed to tell you about her. That was not his damned business.”

  Jesse’s wolf ears fell flat on top of his head. “I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I was asking questions, and the more Seth and I spoke…it just sort of got brought up.”

  Andrei was still angry, furious in fact, but not with Jesse. He could never be angry with Jesse. At his mate.

  Andrei stroked the omega’s wolf ears, feeling the softness of the fur, and he smiled when they perked up for him.

  “I’m not angry with you, just…angry. That’s not supposed to be your burden to bear.”

  Jesse’s ears twitched under Andrei’s petting. He didn’t exactly look too worried about everything anymore, but at the same time, there was something still cautious about his expression.

  “I think I understand now why you didn’t want me around before, and I want you to know that I’m okay with that.”

  Andrei blinked. The haze from the battle, his wounds, and waking up were still getting to him. For a split second, he thought he might have misheard that. “What? What do you mean?”

  Jesse rubbed his arm, avoiding Andrei’s gaze. “I don’t want to be a burden to you, and I don’t want you to look at me and think you have to forget about your first mate. She must have been special to have come to you first.”

  “She was special,” Andrei said, his heart aching just to think about it, and then it ached even more when he realized how he’d said that, in front of Jesse.

  But he couldn’t take it back. He’d meant it. Just because he had a new mate in front of him, someone he was connected to through his soul, didn’t mean he would forget about how the last piece had been brutally ripped away from him.

  And now he was here. Happy that Jesse had lived through his ordeal, but at the same time, Andrei was now saddled with the guilt of how he’d been treating the man.

  The way Jesse looked at him, as if he knew he wasn’t Andrei’s first choice, was what made it all the worse.

  “I promise to take care of you,” Andrei said, looking the man in the eyes, recognizing Jesse for what he was, finally, and making this vow to both his mate and to himself. “It doesn’t matter who came first or not. You are my mate now. I’ll make amends, and I’ll care for you. What happened in here…” Andrei gritted his teeth. Just thinking about the way Jesse hadn’t been moving, how his eyes had been lifeless…

  Granted, he hadn’t actually been dead. The blood ritual Andrei had used would not have worked on a full corpse. His brain still had to be showing some small amou
nt of activity for it to work, but all the same, he’d been so still, likely beyond the point of anything CPR could have done to help him.

  They had been so lucky. Andrei didn’t deserve to feel this lucky.

  Jesse’s hand came up. It was gentle against Andrei’s cheek as he pulled his face up to look at him.

  Jesse’s expression was serene, as if he had made peace with something, something Andrei wasn’t entirely sure he wanted the man to make peace with.

  “It’s okay. You saved my life. You took my wounds for me.”

  At the reminder of them, they flared up on Andrei’s stomach.

  But he was glad for them, the reminder that they were now his wounds, his to bear, instead of Jesse’s.

  “They should have been mine to begin with. I never should have left you—”

  His words were cut off by the touch of Jesse’s lips against his own. Andrei’s eyes flew wide. Considering the tone of their conversation, he honestly hadn’t expected the man to kiss him.

  Then he realized, ah, yes, it made sense now. They were a mated pair. Not only that, but there were also the facts that Andrei had been avoiding his mate since he first met him, and then, immediately after joining for the first time, Andrei had taken Jesse’s injuries and needed time to recover.

  He wasn’t even sure how long he’d been unconscious. It could have been several days.

  That kind of separation for a newly joined pairing was never a good thing. It made certain feelings and needs build up to an almost unhealthy amount.

  Even now, even though his body was weak from his wounds, Andrei felt a rush of energy lighting up inside him, as if tiny explosions were going off beneath his skin. Fireworks. That was the right word for it. He had mini fireworks popping light throughout his veins, heating his blood.

  His cock hardened. He was in some sort of loose sleeping pants, so his dick had more than enough room to stand up, to throb as it tried to point accusingly up at him.

  Or at Jesse for bringing about this reaction. He couldn’t be sure, though he figured it didn’t matter either way.

  This heat, this desire, the touch of warm lips against his own, of a hand on his face and in his hair…it was not only something he’d missed, but feeling these things coming from Jesse seemed to make it that much more special. It made his body come alive when Andrei had been dying for so long.