by Marcy Jacks
“God, I’m so sorry I wasn’t there.” Evzen leaned down, kissing Cole on the mouth. “I love you so damned much.” Another kiss. “I love you. Never ask that ever again because I really love you, understand?”
“I…yes,” Cole was dumbfounded. He couldn’t entirely explain why, but it was just how he felt. “I love you, too.”
Evzen’s answering smile, as though he was relieved to hear such a thing, made Cole happy. He was happy to make Evzen happy.
Evzen’s happy expression turned to one of pain when he looked at Cole’s wolf ears. He touched one of the rings with his finger. “Where did these come from?”
“I gave them to him,” Lasius said quickly. “Thought it would help take his mind off his ears.” Lasius took the jar he was using, handing it to Evzen. “I figured you would want to finish him off.”
Evzen nodded.
Cole thought he might have understood what was happening when Lasius put his hand on Miles’s shoulder and together they left the room, giving Evzen and Cole the privacy they both desperately needed.
Cole sighed when they were gone. As kind as Lasius was, and as much as Cole liked Miles, being here with Evzen seemed like a much better deal.
He stayed in Evzen’s arms, even as the man walked him back to his stool.
Evzen got down to one knee before him, but with his height and size, he was still nearly as tall as Cole was sitting down when Evzen was merely kneeling.
“Sweetheart, you’re not in any trouble, okay? I promise, but I need to know what happened.”
Cole’s ears instinctively tried to press back against his head, but he stopped shortly, wincing when he felt the stiffness and the pulling of the stitches.
Ow. That wasn’t fun.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes,” Cole said, reaching up and gently scratching beneath his ear, even though he really wanted to scratch the wolf ear itself. “I just…have to get used to this.”
Evzen nodded. “You want to tell me what happened?”
Cole’s heart sped up. “I…I woke up, and you were gone. I was late to get my chores started, so I got out of bed and got my bucket, and I went to the wing where your men were first. I thought it would be nice to do their rooms.”
Evzen smiled softly at him, as though proud but also still sad. “Then what happened?”
“The big dragon with the scales on his arms, Tiny?”
Evzen nodded, not missing a beat.
Strange name for a dragon. Especially a dragon as big as him.
“Well, he said I shouldn’t be cleaning his room, so I went to Ares’s room. He followed me inside. He took my spray bottle and paper towels. He started cleaning the high places I couldn’t reach. I didn’t want him doing that, but he insisted.”
“Tiny can be a stubborn idiot. I think he was trying to be kind to you. Most everyone just found out that you and I were mates. He wanted to be friendly.”
Cole’s tail wagged at that. “He did?”
Evzen nodded.
“Is he okay?” Cole felt terrible for not asking sooner. “He tried to protect me from Ares. Ares came in, and he seemed so angry…”
“He’ll be fine. He’s just knocked out and needs some bandages. He can recover just fine in his bedroom.”
Cole swallowed hard, nodding, accepting the answer, even though there was so much more he wanted to ask.
“Why did Ares attack me?”
That seemed like the most important thing.
Evzen sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Because he’s a stupid fuck.”
Evzen looked up at Cole. Cole blinked down at him. “He didn’t seem stupid.”
Evzen smiled wryly. “I’m going to have to remember that you take things literally sometimes.”
Cole smiled at that, but only because Evzen was smiling, and it seemed to entertain his mate that Cole was still trying to learn so much.
Evzen didn’t treat him like he was stupid for not knowing so many things. He remained good and kind, which was why Cole loved him.
“I love you,” Cole said. “I don’t want to be trouble for you.”
Evzen continued to run his hand through Cole’s hair, still careful to avoid his ears. “You could never be trouble for me.”
“But what happened to your friend—”
“Don’t worry about Tiny. He’s going to be fine, and you’re never going to have to see Ares ever again after this. You got me?”
Cole still wasn’t too sure about that, but he couldn’t stop himself from being glad either way that this was going to be his life. That he was lucky enough to have Evzen here with him and that Evzen loved him.
“Ares isn’t going to be in this house anymore. I want him gone, and Seth agrees. No one is going to be in this house who thinks they can ever put their hands on you.”
Evzen looked at Cole’s ears, pain flashing across eyes as he reached his fingers out.
It was a gentle touch. Cole felt no pain from it, but Evzen still removed his hand quickly, as though worried Cole would feel that pain.
“It didn’t hurt,” Cole said.
“It hurts me,” Evzen said, looking into Cole’s eyes, briefly pressing his lips together and then cupping his cheeks. “I swear to God that shit will never happen to you again on my watch. You hear me? That’s my promise to you as my mate. I’ll give you everything you can ever possibly want, and I will never fail you again.”
Cole cocked his head to the side, thinking.
“What is it?”
Evzen seemed to be ready to jump out of his own skin.
Cole thought about all the possible ways he could say this, and he didn’t want to hurt Evzen’s feelings on the matter.
“I just…I don’t want you to make yourself unhappy with this. Give yourself some nice things as well. Don’t focus on me.” Heat climbed Cole’s neck and settled into his cheeks. “I want to be able to give you nice things, too. Eventually,” he added, knowing it would be a while before he was able to do anything of the sort.
Evzen grinned. “You already give me everything I could ever want. Trust me on that one. As long as you’re here with me, everything else can go to hell.”
Again with that heat in his cheeks, and Cole didn’t want to be greedy, but he thought of something his mate could help him with right now.
“Actually, there’s something I do want, if you were able to help me, that is.”
Evzen’s thumb gently across Cole’s cheek. “Whatever you want. Just name it.”
Cole still couldn’t stop himself from blushing about it. There had been a time when this sort of thing wouldn’t have brought about this kind of reaction from him, but with Evzen, it was different. Cole liked Evzen and wanted to please him, so he figured that must have been the reason why his body reacted like this.
Because he loved and cared about his dragon. He never loved or cared about the vampires.
“Well, I was thinking maybe you could…do what you did last night?”
Fucking. He knew what the word was. He used to say it all the time.
And yet, that wasn’t what Evzen did to him. Even when they were in the middle of making love harder and faster as time went on last night, it had never been fucking. Cole could always tell he was loved, and he wanted that feeling right now.
The way Evzen smiled at him relieved Cole, and it let him know he was about to get what he needed right before Evzen’s powerful arms curled around his waist, picking him up.
Cole wrapped his arms and legs around his mate, looking down into Evzen’s eyes as the man walked him over to the dresser. “We’ll need to be quick in here, and then I’ll take you back to our room and make love to you the way you deserve.”
Cole nodded, his hands pulling at the hem of Evzen’s shirt. “You promise?”
Evzen nodded, raising his arms so Cole could pull the shirt off his head, and then Evzen opened Cole’s pants.
“Are these the same clothes you wore yesterday?”
Even though Ev
zen smiled as he asked the question, Cole couldn’t help but be a little embarrassed as he lifted his hips so he could get his pants off. “Yes. I didn’t have time to get another set of clean clothes from my room.”
Evzen opened his fly, revealing the hard length of his cock.
“It’s fine. I like the smell on you.” Evzen’s mouth kissed and sucked on the side of Cole’s throat, making him shiver and moan.
And Cole needed more than this. “In me. Hurry, please.”
It was a nice feeling, being able to beg for sex. Maybe Cole wasn’t as broken as he used to think. He was so glad it was Evzen he could thank for that.
Evzen lifted Cole’s hips, and Cole immediately felt the thick head of the man’s cock against his hole, pushing inside.
Then a hesitation. “Shit. I should get something.”
“No.” Cole gripped Evzen’s shoulders tightly. “Stay here. I don’t need anything else. Just you.”
Evzen looked at him, as though judging whether or not he could trust such a claim.
And then the alpha pushed inside him, stretching him, burning him, claiming him.
Evzen growled low in his throat, that same growl that made Cole love him so much more than he already did.
And Cole could only sigh as he was filled, as he felt the first, sweet push-and-pull motions of Evzen’s hips and the first glorious touches of his cockhead against his prostate.
“After this, back in our room,” Evzen said with a moan. “In our bed. I’ll give you what you need for as long as you want, long after the mating heat is said and done with.”
“Yeah,” Cole moaned. That sounded pretty nice right about now, and when his mate kissed him, Cole returned that kiss with everything he had.
His dragon wanted to take care of him. If that was the only gift Cole could give to him, then he was going to allow it.
At least until he could offer something more substantial to his mate. For now, his body would have to do, and he was more than happy to give it.
THE END
MARCYJACKS.COM

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