by Marcy Jacks
Ares didn’t yelp with pain, but he did pull back and examine the bleeding marks on his arm.
That same arm moved with such a speed that Cole didn’t see the coming slap until it was too late, and his face exploded with heat and pain.
“Little bitch, you’ve got some fight in you after all, don’t you?”
Cole didn’t think that was a question he was supposed to answer. He couldn’t answer even if he wanted to, his face burned too much and a swelling began almost immediately.
Ares reached down, grabbing him by his wolf ears.
Cole couldn’t contain his groaning then or his yell of pain when Ares gripped his ears so hard that he punctured several of his claws and fingers through the thin flesh.
Cole struggled, but he didn’t know how to get away without doing more damage.
The dragon was going to tear his ears off!
Ares growled and shook him, and then suddenly his hands weren’t there anymore.
The brief, cool kiss of relief didn’t last long, as his ears throbbed with heat and pain from their wounds, and Cole fell back against the floor, clutching his face, pushing himself in the corner by the tub, trying to become small and unseen as he struggled to contain the pain that rushed through him.
He barely noticed the shouting at first. His brain wouldn’t let him focus on anything other than his pain until he heard the shattering of glass and Evzen’s enraged voice.
Cole had never heard the man sound so dangerous. So deadly.
He was almost afraid to look up and see what his mate would look like.
When he did look, he really wished he hadn’t.
Cole had seen dog fighting before. The vampires sometimes enjoyed certain baser entertainments.
Cole hadn’t liked watching. It seemed cruel, and the animals had torn at each other with a wild viciousness. It was especially bad when one of the dogs was scared and didn’t want to fight. Cole had once tried to comfort that dog in his cage before a match. His hand had been bitten instead.
He hadn’t blamed the dog, and he’d been saddened to see it fight, but happy when it finally died. At least then it was no longer suffering.
This was like that. The only difference was neither man looked as though they didn’t want to fight, and the ferocity with which Evzen lifted Ares up and slammed him back against the broken mirror and then down on the bathroom counter, the stone countertop breaking wide open…
Cole just couldn’t wrap his mind around the fact that those hands had been so gentle with him last night, that they had touched him in a way he’d liked, had wanted more of.
To know those same hands had the power to do this was…unnerving.
“Don’t you ever touch him again! You hear me? Ever again!”
Ares spat at Evzen. Even slammed his fist into Ares’s face again and again. They fought almost right on top of Cole. He pushed himself deeper into his corner, hoping against hope that they would not notice him. That they wouldn’t accidentally step on him.
Evzen finally threw Ares out of the bathroom, back into the bedroom where the other dragon lay unconscious on the floor and a slew of other dragons awaited their alpha.
Evzen took one look down at him, and something in his eyes changed as he looked at Cole. He roared. Cole flinched, watching as long fangs punched out in a bloody mess from Evzen’s mouth, as his flesh changed to bring about his black, spiked scales.
He looked as though he was donning his suit of armor before rushing back into the bedroom and flying at Ares, one of the men he’d introduced to Seth as a trusted friend.
Cole didn’t understand. What was happening? Why did Ares attack him if he was a trusted friend?
His first thought was that he must have done something wrong, but…
No, he couldn’t let himself think like that anymore. He’d done nothing wrong, he was sure of it.
Unless, Ares had taken issue with Cole being in his room. That could have been it. The other dragon—Ares had called him Tiny, though that seemed more of an insult than anything—had tried to fend Ares off. Tiny had even said it wasn’t appropriate to be in these rooms.
Cole wiped his palms over his eyes, careful of the pain and bruising he felt forming there. It hurt so much.
He picked himself up off the floor, rushing to the door to see what was happening.
“I’ll fucking kill you! Do you understand me? I will fucking kill you!”
Evzen had Ares pinned to the ground, his knees down on the other dragon’s arms, both of them looking as if they were ready to start spitting fire at each other.
“Fuck you!” Ares fired back, his gaze turning and finding Cole, and he bucked and growled beneath Evzen’s weight. “You fucking traitor! You’d take a fucking wolf? A fucking wolf?”
Cole lifted his hands to his head, finding his ears. They throbbed to the touch, and a bit of skin felt as though it was flapping awkwardly…
He pulled his hand away quickly. He didn’t want to know what was wrong with his ears. He was just glad they were there, but more and more, this looked as though it had nothing to do with him coming in here to clean up the bedroom.
“Hey, come with me.”
Cole jerked, glancing up. The dragon with the rose tattoos all up and down his arms, Lasius, held his hand out to Cole, his expression gentle.
“This isn’t the place for you to be. Come on.”
Cole looked around, struggling to keep his body from completely freezing up.
He looked up and found Seth standing over the two fighting dragons. He looked to Cole. “Do as he says. You’re safe with him.”
Even as Seth said it, he growled at Lasius, which was something else Cole didn’t understand.
He didn’t think his presence was helping, however, and when he looked to the door, he spotted Miles. Not quite inside the room, clearly keeping his distance, but his smile and outstretched hand was enough to get Cole moving.
Even if he didn’t want to be away from Evzen, he figured this was an alpha thing, something Evzen needed to release from his body before Cole would be well enough to see him again.
“What did I do?” Cole asked when he made it to his friend.
Miles put his arm around Cole’s shoulders, shaking his head. “Nothing. Let’s get your ears cleaned up.”
* * * *
Evzen couldn’t see straight. He could barely breathe, hardly think about anything other than the outrage and spitting venom that flowed through his blood.
He wanted to kill Ares. He wanted to kill his friend. Even long after he’d managed to calm himself down, he couldn’t pull himself away from Ares’s body. He had to keep him pinned, had to make sure the stupid shit face didn’t try getting up so he could run after Cole again.
“You’re a fucking traitor,” Ares huffed. “Jesus Christ, I can’t believe you have the gall to be mad at me about anything.”
Evzen put his hand around Ares’s throat. “That’s my mate you’re talking about, you dumb cocksucker.” So furious. So damned angry he could hardly take it. “Call me a traitor again. I fucking dare you to. I’ll strangle the life right out of you.”
Ares said nothing. He glanced to the side, to Theron. “You all right with this? It was your brother. He’s shitting all over Theon.”
Evzen barely allowed himself to look at Theron. When he did, he noted how the man just stood there, his arms crossed.
“I wasn’t going to attack a hundred-forty-pound omega. You damn near ripped the guy’s ears off.”
Ares bucked, his anger coming back in full force when he seemed to realize that he wasn’t getting an ally out of the most likely source. “Like you fucking care! This is Theon we’re talking about!”
“And Theon was never your mate,” Evzen said, clutching his hand a little tighter around that unworthy throat. “He was mine. My mate. He never loved you, he loved me, and this is not your revenge to take.”
“You never cared about him!” Ares snapped.
Evzen could hear the rush
“What are you going to do with him, Evzen?” Seth asked. “He’s threatening your mate, already attacked him, and one of your men.”
Evzen clenched his jaw. “How’s Tiny?”
“Knocked the fuck out, but fine,” Theron answered. “Don’t know what he was doing in here, but it’s lucky he was here. No knowing what shit head there would have done if Tiny hadn’t fought him off before we could get up here.”
And that made Evzen all the more angry. Cole had probably thought to go about his chores. He’d come into Ares’s bedroom, and then Ares found him here. Had Tiny rushed out of his room next door when he’d heard the scream?
He was going to have to find out the details later. There was something more important to take care of.
“Evzen, I want your answer on this.”
“He’s not my dragon anymore. He’s yours,” Evzen said, looking to Seth. “This is your call. It was the entire point of coming here.”
“I know,” Seth replied, a small nod of his head. “I also don’t care. I want to see how you would have handled this when you were leading this clan on your own.”
Evzen growled down at Ares. The man stared back up at him defiantly.
He wasn’t remotely sorry for what he’d done. Not even for Evzen’s sake.
Evzen tightened his hands around Ares’s throat, watching as the man bucked, struggling to take in a proper breath, but then was unable to do so.
Evzen could strangle him right now. He could end his fucking life and be justified for doing it. Ares had attacked the mate of his former alpha. Attacking the mate of an alpha was worthy of a death sentence, Evzen supposed he could still get away with the sentence even though he was no longer leading his men.
Ares’s face turned blue. Evzen released his neck, standing up as Ares turned onto his side and coughed, clutching at his throat and wheezing.
“I would spare his life. Not because he deserves it but because he has been a loyal member of this clan for long enough, has saved my life on one occasion, and I owe that to him.”
Evzen looked to Seth. “That’s my decision.”
“Would you keep him in the clan after this?”
“No,” Evzen replied. “But it’s not my clan anymore.”
Seth nodded. “Right, well, it’s good to hear that because I’m not going to have someone in this house who attacks the omegas.”
“Oh, fuck the lot of you,” Ares wheezed, sitting up. “Pretending to be so high and mighty when you want to spit on Theon, mating with a fucking wolf.”
“In case you forgot, you dumb motherfucker, Sethraghck is mated to a wolf. So is James, and so am I.”
“I don’t care,” Ares said, shaking his head, glaring up at Evzen. “Don’t do me any favors, stupid prick. You want to kill me then do it. You just want to feel good about yourself when you kick me out of here.”
“It won’t feel good to see you walk away,” Evzen said. “I’m not doing this. You did.”
Evzen looked to Seth. “Whatever time you give him to pack up his shit and go is fine with me. I need to see to my mate.” Cole had been taken out of here, and Evzen didn’t know where he was. He needed to get that fixed and fast.
Seth nodded as Evzen walked through Stefan, Lucian, and James, the dragons getting ready to come in here and take care of some business of their own. “Will do.”
Chapter Ten
Cole tried not to hiss, to twitch his ears whenever he felt the sting of the needle puncturing his ear again and again, but it was difficult. He couldn’t seem to make his body cooperate and give him what he needed so Lasius could get his work done.
“Try to stay still, little wolf,” Lasius said, pulling the curved needle back so Cole could see the thread.
He immediately looked away from it, clutching Miles’s hand tighter in the sterile room used for medical problems. “Does it look bad?”
Miles’s fox ears twitched as he looked up to see the damage.
“Uh, not too bad, no.”
Cole wasn’t the smartest man in the house, but he could tell when someone was lying to him to spare his feelings.
He tried to be strong, he really did. The trembling in his bottom lip gave it away. “Will they have to be cut off?”
He didn’t want his wolf ears cut off. At his age the ear holes might never close, and then he could get infections, and it was supposed to really hurt on windy days.
“I wouldn’t worry too much about that,” Lasius said gently. “I think you’re fine, though if you really want, we can mark this occasion with some earrings.”
“Earrings?” Cole managed to keep his ears from twitching. “What do you mean?”
Lasius shrugged. “Well, I’m getting these all nice and sewn up, but we could leave some space open so you can make your ears look really good. Scars and piercings are sexy, you know?”
“Yes, but on you, not on me.”
Lasius laughed at him. “Right, well, I’m never telling Evzen you said that, but here, hold still for a second.”
Lasius put down the needle against Cole’s shoulder. Cole didn’t think it was going to stab him, but he also didn’t dare move as Lasius brought his hands up to his human ears, pulling out several rings and studs.
Well, two rings and one stud.
“Here we go. These are gold, so if you’re allergic to silver, then you should be fine,” he said, and then Cole felt him doing something to his wolf ears.
He didn’t feel a puncture mark from a piercing, but Cole supposed that was only because Lasius was putting the rings through the spots that had already been torn and sewn shut. He would just have to push the stud through a bit of already torn skin.
“All right, a ring and a stud there. Now for your other ear. This one isn’t that bad. I’ll put the ring on the higher spot right here. Does this hurt?”
It did hurt, but only because of what Ares had done. What Lasius was doing felt like not much trouble at all, so he shook his head.
“No.”
“Perfect.” Lasius pulled his hands back, taking the needle again. “Miles, is there a mirror somewhere in here?”
“Right.”
Miles hopped off the stool next to Cole, taking a hand mirror from the metal cabinet along the wall. He brought it back just as Lasius cut the string with his claw and pulled away.
“Have a look,” said the dragon.
Miles grinned at him. “He did a really good job.”
Cole was still worried about taking a look. He did it anyway.
On his right ear, one of the gold rings was up high, pushed through one of the spots where the stitches met. The holes Ares had made would have been way too big for any kind of proper piercing that Cole knew of, but after Lasius tended to him, it seemed to fit nicely.
“Your other ear looks good, too,” Miles said.
When Cole saw it, he knew his friend was lying to him.
His other ear looked terrible. A piece of it looked as though it would fall away if the stitches weren’t keeping it together, but the stud and gold ring at the bottom did sort of take away from how hideous his ears looked.
He shook his head a little, feeling the rings move. He smiled up at Lasius. “They’re very nice. Thank you so much, and for tending to my ears.”
“Not to worry,” Lasius said, reaching back for a jar of cream. “Just make sure you leave those in while you’re healing. We wouldn’t want the wounds to entirely close up and then we’d have to pierce your ears again. The proper way this time,” he added, leaning in and applying some sort of cooling cream to the stitches.
It tingled in the most wonderful way. Cole shivered and groaned.
“Does that hurt?”
Cole shook his head. “That feels nice.”
“Good, because your other ear is getting some more of it.”
Lasius added more of the cream, and Cole honestly thought he’d gone to heaven with the wonderful way his ears suddenly felt. He wondered if he could take the entire jar to bed with him tonight.
He wondered if Evzen would have him in his bed.
“Are you sure I didn’t do anything wrong?” Cole asked. “Ares just came from…nowhere, and Evzen was really angry.”
Lasius looked at him, but he didn’t smile. He continued to gently apply the cream with soft dabs of his fingers.
“He was angry because the person he loves was in trouble. He was angry because you were covered in blood.”
“I don’t want anyone to get into trouble,” Cole said.
Miles put his hands on Cole’s shoulder. “Sometimes that needs to happen. Whether we like it or not.”
Cole really didn’t like it. He didn’t want anyone to hurt over him, but he also didn’t want to be the one getting hurt.
He just wanted to live in peace, with Evzen.
“Does Evzen really love me?”
He probably shouldn’t be asking Lasius such questions as that. It might be enough to get the man in trouble if he answered one way or the other. Cole didn’t want that for him, but what choice did he have but to ask?
Something inside him felt as though he would lose his mind if he didn’t know the answer to that question.
Lasius looked down at him, as though shocked. “Well, you should know the answer to that.”
“And he does know the answer,” Evzen said, stepping into the room.
Cole’s entire body seemed to react to the other man. He could hardly focus on anything else, as though a tunnel vision of some sort had taken him and only Evzen mattered. Evzen called to Cole without saying a word, and Cole hopped off his stool and ran to the man.
Evzen opened his arms to him, allowing Cole to rush into them, be enveloped by them, protected by them.
And when he was there, he didn’t know how he could have ever doubted the man.
Evzen’s large, powerful hand came to the back of Cole’s head, stroking, touching. He might have touched Cole’s ears, but he felt the way Evzen stopped suddenly.
-->