by Marcy Jacks
He yipped and yowled as though they were in the middle of cutting off his ears, and he didn’t care how pathetic it sounded. Erin’s mission was to draw as much attention to himself as he possibly could.
He wasn’t going to stop. He wasn’t going to let them take him!
A roar sounded above his head.
A dragon roar!
Silver!
Erin glanced up just as the warlocks and witches dropped him, but it wasn’t the black and silver dragon coming down to his rescue. It was the albino dragon, the green dragon, and the black dragon with gold trim who swooped down on him.
Lightning seemed more pissed off than anything as he landed in front of Erin, his maw wide open as he roared at the warlocks. The dragon didn’t need to puff himself up to make himself appear any more threatening, but that was exactly what he did as he charged at the people on the ground, stomping his paws and flapping his wings, his tail wild and flipping behind him.
Erin shifted, falling into Gold’s arms as the dragon changed back into a man.
He could hardly breathe. His throat was dryer and harsher than sandpaper, but as Gold asked his questions, Erin had to get his say out.
“S-Silver!” He swallowed, trying to wet his mouth. “Th-they have Silver! By…by the water!”
He pointed the way, even though he was fairly sure Gold already knew the direction. Of course he had to. He lived here.
“They have Silver?”
Gold’s bright golden eyes flashed to a dangerous shade of ruby red. He glared at the warlocks, who seemed to be paying him no attention as they focused on keeping their distance from the albino dragon determined to bite their heads off.
“Fuck. I need to see to you, first.”
Erin shook his head. “N-no, you need to go back. He’s got a trap on his—”
Erin’s next words were cut off by the sound of a second dragon roar coming from the distance, and this time, he knew that roar could belong only to his mate.
Silver’s black and silver dragon body, in full dragon form this time, rose up above the trees, highlighted by the moon and stars behind him.
He was impressive, even larger in size than Gold, and the most handsome sight Erin had ever seen in his entire life.
The image would have made for an epic fantasy poster. Erin could hardly look away from him as Silver swooped in.
Erin always thought dragons looked perpetually angry. It wasn’t their fault. It was the brows that did it, and the scales, and the teeth, and the occasional horns.
Silver, however, looked beyond pissed off.
Erin almost felt sorry for the warlocks and witches, even as they seemed to decide that now was the best time for them to make their great escape.
They were outnumbered. There was no point in fighting this fight anymore.
Maybe that was why they took off like a bunch of cowards.
It was so fast, over and done with so soon that Erin was enraged by it.
“Where are you all going? Come back here!”
He took several steps forward. Rey had to grab him by the shoulder and yank him back before he could give chase.
He wasn’t thinking, but he didn’t care about that either. Those motherfuckers had set out traps in the woods and by that nice-looking little lake to try to get him, and he’d never even done anything to them.
Instead they got his mate.
“Stay back, Erin, that’s not your fight to get into.”
Rey clutched Erin’s shoulders a little tighter, as though to make sure he wouldn’t be going anywhere, but Erin could still hardly bring down the heated anger that boiled up inside him.
Those were the guys who had made this physical. Those were the guys who had tried to go after him for no apparent reason. He wanted blood for that. He wanted them to suffer.
“Erin! Stop it!” Rey shook him a little, and only then was Erin able to really bring himself under control.
The anger still simmered, but he could think clearly at least. Think about the stupidity of chasing after people who were well and beyond more powerful than he was.
Then he looked at Silver.
Silver, even in his dragon shape, where he was large and definitely in charge, panted for breath. He looked tired. He wasn’t sweating—could a dragon even sweat? They were reptiles—but at the same time, he did appear to be under a lot of duress.
That was when Erin noticed his hind leg.
“Silver!”
Erin ran to him. He didn’t want to bother with the warlocks in their insane fantasy cosplay getup anymore. He only cared about the way the black dragon with silver trim was holding up his back leg, and how some of the scales looked incredibly messed up.
The dragon looked to him as Erin approached.
Erin didn’t know where he wanted to put his hands first. The only thing he did know was that he did need to put his hands somewhere on him.
He touched the wide chest and scales first, feeling a beating heart beneath the cool scales.
“Are you okay?”
Stupid question, and as he looked down and to the side, he wanted to cry. His eyes burned.
“Does it hurt?”
Silver shook himself off, a hard exhale escaping his lips.
“Leave him be for a minute,” Rey said.
Erin wasn’t even aware of when the man had walked up behind him like that. The other man put his hand to Erin’s shoulder, pulling him back a little.
“But I—”
“No, little wolf. He needs a minute to collect himself. He’s fighting not to go after them either. Just stay quiet and wait for him to change back.”
Erin wasn’t sure he liked hearing a dragon other than Silver call him a little wolf. It seemed like a nice pet name from Silver, even when the man was hissing and being mean.
At the same time, Erin did as he was told.
He backed off.
Much as he wanted to put his hands onto his mate and hold him tight, Erin knew well enough that not everyone responded in the same way to that sort of thing whenever they were stuck in the heights of their transformations.
Sometimes the wolves needed to be let out, to play, to exercise, and nothing could contain it.
Was it the same for dragons? Or was that only the case right now because Silver had just escaped from an animal trap around his leg?
He watched his mate limp around, always holding his hind leg off the ground. The dragon groaned and let out strange, pained noises, each one going right to Erin’s heart.
Erin swallowed hard over the lump in his throat, fighting against the urge to go to the man, to wrap himself around Silver and lick his wounds.
Dragons and wolves were different. He reminded himself of that again and again.
After a few minutes, Silver finally melted back down into something more human-sized, then his wings melted against his back, then the scales vanished, leaving only smooth skin and the pair of shorts he’d put on before leaving with Erin for their run.
His back leg didn’t look quite so bad after another transformation, not as bad as Erin thought it should.
It certainly wasn’t dangling off and barely holding on by a bit of skin, which was what he’d feared.
There was still blood, and that was the only thing he cared about.
Gold went to his brother, clasped his shoulder in a way Erin wished he could have done.
The worry in the other man’s eyes was apparent. Of course he was free to do that. He was Silver’s brother, after all.
“Silver, what the hell happened? What did they do to you?”
In this form, Silver was sweating a little, the pain evident in his face and eyes.
“Those fuckers. I need a full sweep of the property. They put down animal traps. I fucking stepped in one.”
Erin ducked his head at that.
The only reason why Silver had stepped in a trap was because Erin had wanted to go out running. He was standing here naked and unscathed while Silver was the one still balancing
himself on one leg.
“All right. I’ll help you back to the house.” Gold tried to grab his brother’s arm, but Silver yanked it away.
“Don’t touch me. Don’t bother with that right now. Go and find those traps. Sniff them all out and get them off the property.”
Silver’s bright red eyes landed on Erin, and this time Erin wished he could make himself vanish under that stare.
Without any help, Silver limped his way over to Erin. Erin didn’t move. He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen when his mate suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders and yanked him in, their mouths crashing together in a kiss that could barely even be called a kiss.
Teeth clashed, the pain was heavy, but it was the warmth of Silver’s mouth and body that kept Erin from pulling away from it, that kept him from yanking back under such brutal strength.
In fact, that strength had the opposite effect. Omegas were pulled toward strength. They were pulled toward alphas, their alphas.
And their mates.
Erin knew what this was. His mate was relieved. So was Erin, which was why he looped his arms around the other man’s neck and kissed him back with everything he had.
Silver groaned. He brushed his hand through Erin’s hair again and again, even when he pulled back. “Are you safe? Are you injured anywhere?”
Silver began pulling at Erin’s arms, turning his body this way and that, until he found something on Erin’s back that made his eyes soften with pity, before hardening again with rage.
“Those sons of bitches. Motherfucking whores and cowards. I’ll kill them all.”
“What?” Erin looked down his back, and he was stunned at the giant red scratches.
Like teeth marks down his shoulder blade, lower back, and even some of his upper thigh.
The bleeding was light enough that it feathered into the tiny lines in his skin, but it was still there.
Which was when Erin remembered the traps he’d barely pulled himself away from as they’d snapped closed. They must have scratched him as their teeth came a little too close. He’d been so hopped up on adrenaline as he tried to escape that he hadn’t noticed.
Erin smiled up at his mate, gripping his arms. “I’m all right. I barely feel it. I want to take you home. I want to get your ankle looked at.”
“My ankle will be fine after I’ve hunted them down.”
Silver didn’t even sound human when those words left his mouth.
Gold had to step in. “Silver, we’ll get to work on this right away, but you should do as your mate asks. Can you bandage a wound properly?”
The question was directed at Erin. He tensed. “I…I don’t know first aid, but it’s just some alcohol and a bandage, right? Will you need stitches?”
The red in Silver’s eyes simmered down a little, until he started to look a little closer to his old self.
“No, I won’t. I’ve shifted twice now. It will heal shortly.”
“You need stitches, Silver.”
Silver’s answering growl to his brother would have made any alpha proud. He was an alpha, really. Erin didn’t see the point of denying that he was one just because he was a dragon. At least by his personality type, he was an alpha.
Even humans could have alpha personalities, even if they weren’t alpha shifters.
Erin swallowed. “Okay, then we’ll go home and get whoever does that to help you. I’ll do what I can with them.”
Silver still seemed unsure. “Erin, do you know why they were after you?”
Erin shook his head, and that was a question he really did wish he could answer. It was so unfair. Such utter bullshit that this could even happen in the first place.
First the Dog Catchers, then these guys? Why?
“I have an idea,” Lightning added. The man had his arms crossed, his gaze in the direction the warlocks and witches had fled in, as though waiting for them to return.
So he could attack.
“Warlocks and witches don’t just do the things they do for ingredients. They could have easily been sent here to try and pick Erin up if they knew the Dog Catchers were after him. There are rewards for that sort of thing sometimes.”
Lightning’s red eyes looked right into Erin’s soul. He wasn’t sure if it was made all the more creepy because Lightning’s eyes weren’t red because he was angry. They were just naturally like that.
“There’s no telling if they came for you specifically, or if they were made aware of the other omegas we’ve been hiding here. From now on, keep your exercise and running to the daylight hours, and make sure you have Silver or anyone else with you if you ever want to visit the lake.”
Erin didn’t think he would be going back there anytime soon. Not after the way his first visit had been tainted.
He looked back toward the dark trees.
Not being able to run whenever his wolf needed was going to present a whole different set of challenges.
He didn’t know how he was going to control himself when the urge to run hit him.
And it eventually would. Hard.
Silver put his hand to Erin’s shoulder, pressing some of his weight to it. “Help me walk home. I just want to see to it that you’re safe.”
Erin nodded, though he couldn’t help but feel as though he’d brought something to this place that the dragons here could have done without.
Chapter Eleven
Silver bit down on more than one yowl of pain as the needle punctured his skin, the thread pulled through, and then the process was started all over again.
He fucking hated needles. Not that he was ever going to let his mate know that he had such a weakness, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that he despised it whenever an injury couldn’t heal as fast as he wanted it to, and he was forced to get stitched back together.
Silver had needed stitches plenty of times before throughout his life, and he hated it every time. He never got used to the feeling, which was why he always went out of his way to avoid receiving them whenever possible.
With his mate here, and his damned brother ratting him out, Silver decided to just get it over with.
He sat on his couch, his foot extended while one of the healer dragons, a young female named Helena, calmly and serenely tended to his wound.
“Can’t you just put some of your energy into it?”
She looked up at him, her pearly eyes glimmering with amusement. She had white-blonde hair, and her dragon looked as though it was made of freshwater pearls. It tended to draw even more attention than Lightning’s dragon, so she didn’t often change.
“That would be a waste of energy. You’ll be fine by tomorrow. This is just to keep you from bleeding out anymore tonight.”
She held the needle in her nimble fingers, as though there was nothing off-putting about that.
“Why? Are you in pain?”
He grit his teeth. “No.”
Erin sat next to him. His small omega clutched at Silver’s hand as though he were the one in pain, and not Silver.
“Are you almost finished?” Erin sounded very close to being ill. “I can help with the rest.”
The healer smiled at Erin. She pushed forward a small jar of cream. “When I finish, gently apply this to the stitching tonight before you bandage the wound, then in another four hours when you change the bandage, and tomorrow when the bandage comes off. I’ll return tomorrow after lunch to take out the stitching.”
“If it itches too much, I’ll take them out myself.”
Erin clenched Silver’s hand a little tighter. “Silver, please.”
Silver looked at his mate, then sighed.
The look in Erin’s eyes…it was unbelievably unfair. How was he supposed to be able to fight against something like that?
So, Silver put up with the stitching for a little longer.
Helena stood, somehow managing to not get a single drop of blood onto her summer dress. Erin saw her out, thanking her profusely along the way.
It was almost enough to annoy
Silver even more.
He was injured. Not on death’s door.
When Erin came back to him, Silver couldn’t stand the sorry look on his face. He growled at the man. “Stop that.”
Erin tensed. “Stop…what?”
“That. Stop looking like you think I’m going to attack you.” He pointed down to his foot. “You didn’t do this.”
The shamed expression didn’t leave Erin’s face. It just got worse. “I know, but I feel like I brought it onto you. We didn’t have to go running.”
“You wanted to go, so we went. That has nothing to do with you, and you’re not responsible for what those warlocks did. We don’t even know if it was you specifically they wanted.”
Though Silver was leaning toward the answer being yes. How could he help but think otherwise after he’d rescued Erin from the Dog Catchers? He’d flown away in front of those people. Could there have been something spying on his territory since then? It wasn’t hard to fly a drone overhead without it being seen, or heard. They could have searched out any dragon clan, looking for the omega they wanted, and found a small goldmine of omegas waiting here to be picked up.
He wasn’t about to tell that to his mate. Much as he wanted to, Erin wasn’t Ajax. He didn’t have the emotional or mental fortitude to hold off on hearing something quite so damning.
“Come here.”
Erin looked up at Silver sharply. Silver held his hand out.
His mate went to him. Silver grabbed the man before he could sink to his knees.
“No. Sit with me.”
“But I need to put the cream on your foot. I need to—”
“Later.”
Silver curled his arms around Erin’s middle, holding his omega close.
Only now that Erin was finally in his arms was he really able to relax. Erin was here. He was all right. He was warm and alive and no one had taken him from Silver.
They’d tried their damnedest to do it, but he hadn’t let them. Those motherfuckers were going to have to walk barefoot over hot coal, spiked nails, and a pit of vipers before Silver would allow them near what belonged to him.
They stayed silent like that for a time. Silver soaked in the warmth of his mate, comforting himself with it. Erin apparently noticed something was wrong.