by Marcy Jacks
They slammed his back into the wall. Jason was vaguely aware of the women clapping and cheering for their men. Their heroes.
Assholes.
“You want to say that again?”
Jason thought about letting it go, about apologizing and taking his beating like a good boy, but he couldn’t. He was going to get the hell beaten out of him anyway, so he might as well go all the way.
Jason forced a smile through the pain on his face. “I said that your girlfriend over there, the brunette, I’ve seen her walking around with five other guys this last week alone. Word around the servants’ area is that she’ll blow anything and has got an awesome mouth. Not that I would know personally or anything since her crooked teeth bug me out.”
He heard a squeak from one of the girls, but he wasn’t looking. His eyes remained fixed on the two men who were about to mop the floor with his face, and probably leave Jason to clean it. Their faces were so red Jason half expected to see blood pooling from their eyes and noses as the fists lifted up.
“What’s going on here?”
No way. That was Kraigan’s voice. How in the hell had Jason gotten so lucky?
He turned to see the other man, noted that Kraigan was just as red as the two men who had been about to teach him a lesson, and the look on his scowling face seemed to be enough to make the two of them back off, lifting their hands away from Jason as though that were a peace offering.
“He insulted us and our women, sir,” said one.
“We were just defending ourselves. Right?” asked the other, looking to the females, who both nodded vigorously.
“He called me a slut!” shrieked the dark-haired one, unable to hold back her anger anymore.
“Defending yourselves?” Kraigan asked, looking down at Jason, who had slid to the floor because his shaking legs wouldn’t hold him up anymore and then over to the four dragons. “You all don’t look like you were in any danger.”
The two brothers stared at Kraigan as though he hadn’t heard them. “He insulted us!”
“And me!” snapped the female.
“I heard you. I also don’t care,” Kraigan said. “If I ever hear of this sort of violence again, much less see it, I’ll make sure the both of you lose a hand. Dravick’s still in a piss-poor mood after what happened to his mate.”
The two brothers became pale in the face incredibly quickly. That was before they took on a look of absolute and utter outrage.
“Are you fucking serious?”
“For a cleaner? A human cleaner?”
Kraigan appeared to have had enough. He reached forward, grabbing both men by their collars, one man in each hand, and yanked them close. Close and off their feet.
It was by far one of the better things that Jason had ever seen in his entire life.
“Now you listen to me, you worthless little shits. I don’t care about what you think you can or cannot do. I’m telling you what to do, and that is to stop fucking around with the humans. I don’t care what they say to you, or what they say to your girls. You will keep your hands off and be on your way, or I will personally make you bleed all over this hallway and make you and your women clean it up yourselves!”
It might have been Kraigan’s mean face, the way his eyes bulged as he roared at them, or perhaps it was a combination of both along with how easily he held the men, two fully grown adult dragon shifters, by the necks of their expensively tailored tunics off the ground.
They nodded quickly, and when Kraigan dropped them, it was so suddenly that they landed on their asses in a puddle of the soapy water they’d kicked over when they’d brushed into Jason.
The slippery soap made their leather boots squeak as they struggled to get to their feet. The asses of their leggings were soaked through, and Jason entertained himself with the idea of how much it looked as though they had soiled themselves because of the fright that Kraigan had given them.
He laughed softly as the males ran off with their females, struggling not to slip now that they had soapy water on their feet.
Then Kraigan’s shadow loomed over him, and Jason looked up.
Though the man hardly seemed happy to see him either, Jason smiled. “I think that was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Kraigan’s eyes widened. “You were attracted to that?”
Jason shrugged, and he had to hold his hand against the wall for purchase as he pushed himself to his feet. “Yeah, I can definitely see the appeal of having a big, brutish hunk walking around and threatening to kill anyone who insults you. I just thought those women were stupid, but now I see why this is so hot.”
Kraigan shook his head, but Jason could tell that the man was fighting off a small smile. Yeah, Kraigan thought he was cute. At the very least, Jason was getting the man to think that much about him.
“You shouldn’t be irritating other dragons and picking fights with them,” Kraigan said, not offering Jason any help in getting to his feet.
Jason couldn’t quite tell if it was because Kraigan was being polite and attempting to spare his pride or if it was because the man really just didn’t care as much as Jason wanted him to.
He was going to go with the former of those two options. Besides, he got to his feet well enough on his own anyway and didn’t need any help.
Then Kraigan’s words sank in, and all Jason could feel was irritated and attacked once more. “What are you talking about? They’re the ones who started it! Those two dickheads knocked into me and kicked over my bucket while their bitchy girlfriends laughed. What exactly about that is supposed to be my fault?”
“The part where they could have hurt you if I wasn’t here to stop them,” Kraigan said, growling each word through clenched teeth as he got up into Jason’s space.
Jason was absolutely stunned into stupid silence as he stared up into Kraigan’s eyes.
Even back when they’d first met, back when Jason couldn’t stand to be around him and hated getting Kraigan’s bullshit, petty threats, the man had never looked this angry. He’d always just been irritated enough for Jason to be comfortable with teasing him, with taunting him and even making fun of him to his face, but this…this looked really serious.
Jason frowned, stopping himself from completely gawking at the man. “So what’s it to you if you hadn’t been here? I’m not your responsibility, you know. I can handle myself.”
“I can see that,” Kraigan said, his gaze flicking down just barely but enough for Jason to see that Kraigan wasn’t looking Jason in the eyes but at what was beneath his eye.
The throbbing heat that suddenly picked up was a big reminder that he’d just been punched in the face, and when he brought his hand up to touch it, he hissed and yanked his fingers away, clenching his teeth and fists.
“Fuck, that hurt!”
“It looks like it did. Your eye will be swollen completely shut soon enough.”
“It’s not swelling now.”
“It will,” Kraigan said.
Great.
Kraigan sighed, rolled his eyes, and then grabbed a little, rectangular black something from his hip.
It took Jason a few seconds to realize what it was. He didn’t get to see technology like it all too often, so it was easy enough for him to forget what a walkie-talkie looked like.
Kraigan pressed the button, called out some instructions, and then waited for a reply before putting the little black device at his hip and reaching down to grab Jason’s wrist. “Let’s go.”
Jason tried to dig his heels in, but then he just nearly made himself slip and fall again with all the soap. He had no choice but to keep on walking, or he was going to be the one falling on his ass. “Wait a minute! I have to clean all that mess up. I’m going to get into trouble!”
“No you’re not, and since when do you care if you get in trouble?” Kraigan asked.
The way Kraigan lifted a big, bushy red eyebrow at him immediately made him think of the time when Jason had been caught trying to break the most sa
cred of all rules in the dragon nest. Leaving and going back to his village.
He was lucky he hadn’t been put to death for that, and the only reason why he hadn’t been was because of Adam and his connection to Novik.
Not that Jason wanted to go back to his village or anything. He hated it there and hoped that every single person who’d tied him and Adam to that stake, and allowed Athy to be married off to that prick, were all looking over their shoulders, terrified of the big, bad dragons coming to get them. He’d only wanted to go after his sister.
Now that she was safely here, he had no reason to want to break any of the rules that had been set out for him.
“I just don’t want anyone thinking I abandoned my post,” Jason said, glaring at the back of Kraigan’s head now.
“I called someone who will come over and see to the rest. You’re still coming with me.”
Jason was getting more and more curious. Not even his stubborn nature that usually kicked in was making him want to stop, not even for the sake of irritating Kraigan. “Where are we going? Why are we going?”
“We’re going to get your eye seen to, and then you’re coming back to my room,” Kraigan said.
There was something in his voice when he said that, that made a shiver pass through Jason’s body, and for the first time since Kraigan had grabbed him, he noticed that the man was touching him skin to skin.
He got the feeling that they were going to get naked when it came time to get to Kraigan’s room.
Chapter Six
Stupid. That had been by far the most utterly stupid and reckless thing that Kraigan could have done in his entire life.
What the hell had he been thinking? Grabbing those two by the collars like that? They were clearly the sons of some wealthy merchant, if the looks of their clothing had been anything to go by, and though no one stood higher than the king, a rich merchant, a man that many people in the nest looked up to, could cause some problems if he felt the need to cry abuse when it came to his boys.
And all because of Jason.
Those two little runts had been right, as much as Kraigan did not want to admit to it. Jason was just one human servant. He was not powerful or important enough by far to warrant the fuss that Kraigan had made over him. He couldn’t help himself when he saw what had been happening, and he’d rushed forward, letting his anger get the better of him.
Now Jason would be an even larger target for anyone looking to take their anger out on the humans. Jason had already been targeted twice. Once with that idiot ex of his and another time when he’d been kidnapped and smuggled out of the nest.
Kraigan could not be there forever. He couldn’t always protect Jason, and it was clear to many in the nest that Jason was one of the humans who received favorable treatment.
The fact that he was not mated to a strong dragon to protect him made him vulnerable to attack, more so than anyone else in the entire nest.
Kraigan needed to do something, and he needed to do it quickly.
“Uh, are you okay?” Jason asked.
“I’m fine,” Kraigan gruffed, not looking back at him. He loosened his tight grip on Jason’s wrist anyway, just in case it happened that it was the reason why Jason was asking.
“I was, uh...just noticing that you’re limping,” Jason said. “You’re limping, Kraigan. Where’s your cane?”
“I don’t need it anymore,” Kraigan said, but when he took stock of himself, he realized that he, indeed, was limping again, and his leg throbbed where the break had taken place.
Fuck. Lifting those two little twits had put a strain on his leg that he could have done without. It would be fine once he rested it. He just needed to take Jason to the healer and then get him back to Kraigan’s room where he could protect him until he figured out what needed to be done.
This would be simple. Nothing was ever as difficult as it seemed when some thought was put into it, and Kraigan had every intention of putting all of this to right.
The stupid healer, Cormoran, blasted idiot that he was, had taken one look at Jason’s eye and offered some cream, charging an obscene amount for it that Kraigan paid for, grumbling about it the entire time.
“I’ll pay you back later,” Jason said, taking the jar from his hands before he could pocket it.
“You will do no such thing,” Kraigan said. How could any of the humans afford any health care when something as simple as a soothing cream cost so much gold?
“Seriously, it’s not like I have other expenses,” Jason said. “I can pay you back.”
Kraigan looked down at him, and though he had no intention of ever touching one coin of Jason’s money, he nodded. He didn’t want the argument. That was all.
“So, why are we going to your room?” Jason asked, unscrewing the wooden cap and dipping his fingers carefully into the cream so that a small dab came out on his fingertips.
He carefully tapped it onto the flesh below his eye, likely recalling the pain that had come the last time he’d touched that spot. He didn’t cry out, but his shoulders did bunch up.
Kraigan tensed. If that healer had given him the wrong cream, then he was going to go back there and skin the bastard alive.
Jason’s eyes fell shut, and his mouth slowly dropped open, as though he was experiencing the pleasure of having someone else’s hand on his cock and balls for the first time.
“Oh, Sun God, that feels sooo amazingly good,” he said, moaning the word and dipping his fingers for more cream, his previous question forgotten as he applied it and rubbed it into his skin.
Kraigan was glad that he’d forgotten because he had no idea what he was supposed to say to him, what excuse he could give that would be good enough for him to convince Jason that he needed to stay with Kraigan and not leave.
At least, not for the foreseeable future. It wasn’t until they made it back to the wider, cleaner, more expensive hall where all of the dragon warriors slept, and where Kraigan’s room was, that Jason seemed to recall his question.
“So, why are we here?” he asked as Kraigan pushed his key into the lock and turned into. The familiar sound of bolts and metal sliding out of place calmed him, even as the sound of a door opening and slamming shut nearly made him jump.
He looked to his right, and so did Jason.
Tatsu. He’d just left his room, and Kraigan was unsure of why he would even be in there at this time of day, but there he was.
And the man stared at Kraigan with those wide, almond-shaped eyes. Then his gaze flicked down to Jason.
Jason seemed intent on staring at his boots.
Kraigan nodded to Tatsu, and Tatsu nodded back, though there was something of an accusation in the man’s eyes. At least, Kraigan was sure he’d seen something to that effect when he finally managed to get the damned door open and let himself and Jason inside.
He shut and locked it immediately behind him. He wasn’t sure why he was in a hurry. It wasn’t as though he and Tatsu had said more than a few words to each other ever since the day when Tatsu had kissed him.
Kissed him in front of Jason.
Kraigan was glad their rooms were not directly beside each other. The last thing he would want was for a man nursing a broken heart to be forced to hear any noises that came from Kraigan’s side of the wall when he was trying to give Jason some pleasure.
Jason stepped inside and looked around, seeing Kraigan’s living space for the first time and clutching his jar of eye cream as though it was a small stuffed toy that could comfort him.
Kraigan cleared his throat, and he said the first thing that came to mind. “Take your clothes off.”
Jason tensed, and then he grinned. “If that’s what you wanted to do all this time, then all you really needed to do was ask.”
He wanted to play, did he? All right. Kraigan grinned back at him, loving the challenge and perfectly up for one. “I’ll get you naked for my pleasure in good time. Right now, I just don’t want you dripping water and soap all over the floor. You need to c
lean up.”
Jason looked down at himself, and to be perfectly fair, he wasn’t exactly dripping. They’d walked through much of the nest and spent a few minutes in the healer’s clinic so that he’d mostly dripped dry, but he was still incredibly damp. That was never healthy, right?
“You need to dry off and…” Kraigan trailed off, realizing there was no point in him getting dressed in anything of Kraigan’s. For one thing, Kraigan’s clothes would be much too big on him. For another, his plans were to get Jason naked anyway.
Jason’s smile was catty, the petulant child who’d gotten away with thieving from the sweet shop. “Dry off and what?” he asked.
“Do you want me to hit you?” Kraigan asked.
“I’ve actually been wondering about that,” Jason said. “And of all the times you’ve threatened to hit me or kill me, you’ve never actually made an attempt at either. I think you’re all talk.”
The little wretch. Kraigan stepped into the man’s personal space, both irritated and proud that Jason did not fall back in fear. The man continued to stare up at him, that damned smile on his face, eager for whatever Kraigan planned on doing with him.
He knew where this little game they played was going. There was almost no point in beating around the bush. “I’ll punish you well enough, but I won’t until you get out of those filthy clothes.”
“Don’t want to touch me when I’m all wet, do you?”
“Perhaps if you were a woman.” He said the words without actually thinking about them and immediately tensed his shoulders.
Jason burst out laughing, dragging his tunic over his head. The sound wasn’t faked. Kraigan could see that much when he finally got a look at Jason’s face again. The laugh went all the way to his eyes, and Jason stared up at Kraigan as though he’d just heard the funniest thing of his life.
Jason assumed Kraigan had made the joke on purpose. Kraigan was not about to correct him on that. He was more focused on the amount of skin that was now visible to him when Jason pulled off his tunic.
For a human, he was in good shape, though it always interested Kraigan how small the humans could be in comparison. From his understanding, Jason was not particularly tall, but neither was he short for human standards, and yet Kraigan was almost a full head taller than he was. The man had good muscle definition from years of working as a wood and stone cutter, but those muscles did not bulge out the way Kraigan’s sometimes did from years of battle and sparring and training.