“I do, too, Nyve. Really. I do want to be with you. I also want to have some time to be on my own. I had this exact conversation with my aunt. I need the space. The physical space to myself.”
“For how long?” I know that I’ll cave. I don’t have a choice because Austin is pretty single-minded about things he wants. I will fight it for as long as I can until I relent.
“Long enough for me to realize I want to be with you and I was a dumbass for trying to live on my own first.”
I can’t help the laugh that rolls out of me. “Fine. Have it your way. And I’ll be there to remind you I told you so.”
“Get in line with my aunt.” Austin relaxes and even though I don’t like this, I’m glad he’s holding firm to what he wants. I relax as well. “So will you help me find a place? I’m sure most apartment managers are going to see me coming a mile away. I’d like the back up to make sure I’m not getting railroaded by bad terms.”
“Yes.” I drain my beer and hold up the empty for the waitress to bring another. “We can start after lunch. There are some apartments up on Northside that just underwent renovation.”
The rest of the afternoon we spend looking at places to rent. He takes the information to study when he’s home again and not under pressure to sign. A couple of buildings really light up his face as he sees them. I can see the wheels turning in his head as he considers them.
Once he starts to wind down, we head back to my place, which is conveniently close by the last place we checked out. I’m not without my ability to be sneaky. If he notices, he doesn’t say anything.
I grab a couple of beers from the fridge and hand one to him before I collapse on the sofa next to him. He takes several large gulps. “Thanks for going with me.”
“Thanks for letting me go with you. Do you have any favorites?”
He teases out a couple of the brochures and lines them up. I see where he made notes. For someone so young, he’s surprisingly well-organized and intends to be well-informed too. “I’ll do some background research on them tomorrow. Right now, I want to let it digest.”
“Good plan.”
He leans against me, his head resting on my shoulder. “Nyve?”
I kiss his temple. “Yeah?”
“Does it hurt when you claim someone?”
My dragon loves where this is going. I’m pretty pleased as well. “Not that I know of. I haven’t heard anyone talk about it. It’s more of a mystical thing, but I will bite down on you as we’re knotted. I hear it’s pleasurable for the omega. I’m pretty sure it’s good for me, too.”
Austin falls into silence as he plays with his beer bottle. His fingers pick at the label. This is not a decision I want to rush him on. Obviously, I’d love it if I could claim him. It would make me feel more secure about him living apart from me.
It has to be his choice, though. I can’t make it for him.
He works the label off the bottle, handing it intact to me. “Will you claim me?”
Not jumping him right there takes all my self control. I drain my beer and set our empties on the coffee table. “Of course I will. If you’re certain it’s what you want and not you doing what you know I want.”
“I have a little more will power than that,” he says with a shy grin.
“I noticed.” I stand and pull him up to slant my mouth over his in a deep, claiming kiss. When we break, we’re both panting heavily. “I hope not too much.”
We’ve been in my bed before. This time feels different.
It is different.
I’m going to make Austin mine, body and soul. We are going to seal our fates together. This has been a long time coming for me. All these years I’ve searched for someone who’s mine, and now he’s finally in my arms. I’m euphoric. My dragon is elated.
Clothing falls beneath our impatient hands until we’re hard and naked, bared for each other. Austin sees me for who I am. An older dragon whose body has seen a few miles but is willing to do whatever it takes to have his mate by his side.
I pour my love into every caress. I breathe in every sigh. Austin is pliant in my hands as I stretch him out on the bed and cover him. His legs lift to cradle my hips. Our erections press together, friction keeping us gasping and groaning as I cover him in kisses.
His cock fits perfectly in my mouth and I suck to keep him shifting and moaning my name. I’ll never get tired of hearing it on his lips. My name, just for him to use like a prayer.
Fingers probe his ass and find him so wet. He’s ready for me even before we begin. His scent overwhelms me, hormones clouding my vision. All I need to see is him. I don’t need to see anyone else.
“Nyve, oh my gods, fuck me now,” he squeaks as my fingers breach his body. I want to make sure he’s ready to take me. My cock isn’t the issue but my knot will be. This is a claiming. I want it to be perfect for him.
Torn between bringing him off before I continue or hoping that when we bond we will find completion with each other, I am not given a choice when he grabs a handful of my hair and pulls me off him. “Now,” he demands with a glassy-eyed glare.
“Yes, sir,” I tease as I slide up his body. “This time, I need you on your knees.”
I help flip him over and he lifts onto his hands and knees. His muscles shiver when I move in behind him. My hand strokes soothingly down his spine as I breach the tight muscle.
He sobs quietly, dropping his face to the mattress. His hands stretch out overhead to grab handfuls of the sheet. I’m almost completely buried in him when he rocks back suddenly and our hips slap together.
Stars form behind my eyes as I fight the sudden surge of adrenaline that threatens to end too soon. Being this worked up for Austin will be my downfall if I don’t take control again. I lean over him and drop kisses along his tattoo. He shivers beneath me.
Once I have it, I start with small pulses. Thrusts that allow his body to adjust to my cock in him. The resistance along my shaft is exquisite. The moment his body stops fighting me and relaxes, Austin groans, the sound muffled against the mattress.
I pick up the pace, dropping into a rhythm that gives us both pleasure. The energy between us spirals like crazy. I can’t tell where I end and he begins as we move in unison, every thrust forward met with Austin pushing back. The room is filled with echoes of groans, the collision of our bodies. Blood pumps through our veins as we race together.
My knot starts to swell, a sign I’m getting close. It’s not too late to stop but neither of us wants that now.
Hooking a hand on his shoulder, I pull him upright to sit on my lap. It minimizes movement but allows my knot to slip into his ass to keep us together as I come.
I cover his neck with my hand and use my thumb to tilt his head out of the way. There, ready for me, is the beating of his pulse. My dragon sees it, smells it, desires it, and Austin’s answering moan is all I need for the last resistance to slip away.
My mouth latches down on his throat and I bite. It’s not hard enough to draw blood but the euphoria that shoots through my body lets me know that he is mine now. He is mine and will always be mine.
Austin stiffens in my arms and lets out a keening cry. His body clamps around my cock and there’s no more distance between us. Him. Me. Together as mates. I fill him with every pulse inside as I empty.
We’re locked together, body and soul.
Once he sags in my arms, I release his neck and lick over the claiming site. It sends a shiver through his body. His erection is still stiff and strong. I can’t leave him unsatisfied like this and swiftly stroke up the shaft, finding the perfect rhythm until he’s crying out again. His cock pulses in my hand as white heat strikes across my knuckles, my thigh, paints the bed.
I’ll gladly sleep in the wet spot.
Still locked together, I shift us to stretch out on our sides. Austin’s breathing matches mine as we float gently back to earth.
I hold him in my arms. “You’re mine now. I’ll never let you go.”
“I don’
t want you to ever let go. So I guess we’re square.” He starts to laugh. “Especially since you have to help me move now.”
I chuckle with him. “You’re going to kill me with all this shit you want me to do.”
He wiggles his ass. “Seems like you’re still going pretty strong.”
“I have to keep up with you.” I kiss him behind his jaw and get comfortable while we wait for my knot to go down.
“Nyve,” Austin says in the quiet, “have you ever had sex in dragon form?”
“Once. Damn near killed ourselves. Learned a lesson that day.”
He turns enough so he can look over his shoulder. “What’s that?”
“Never try to fly and have sex at the same time.”
Austin’s eyes narrow as if he’s trying to imagine that. “You’re lying.”
“I’d never lie to you.”
“Do you think we could do that one day?”
“What, have sex while flying?”
Austin pushes back with his hips forcefully and it makes me gasp. “No. Well… maybe.”
It’s a good question and brings up something that I need to know. I probably should have asked sooner but it never occurred to me until now. “Austin, what is your shift form?”
“Dragon. I told you that already. Didn’t I?”
I don’t remember. Maybe he did. “Probably. But I was too enamored with you to listen.”
“You’re going to listen to me now, aren’t you? I mean, we’re bonded now. You have to.”
“Hmmm?” I wiggle on the bed playfully. “I’m sorry, I’m drifting off to sleep.”
“Oh no you don’t. I won’t let you be the sort to fall asleep on me.”
“I think you already have that honor.”
“That’s a lie. You made me waffles. I wouldn’t fall asleep on waffles. I think you need to make waffles again.”
Austin’s mine now. Regardless of anything else that happens, we belong to each other. I’ll make waffles for him every day for the rest of our lives if that’s what will make him happy.
13
Austin
I don’t own anything and yet moving day has ended up being one of the most stressful days of my life. With the lease signing, the walk through, the deposit, and getting the keys, it’s all signatures and money.
Now, it’s mine and I’m standing in the middle of a small one bedroom apartment that is officially my new home.
Other than my clothes, the little bit of furniture in my room that my aunt lets me take with me, some dishes and cookware that she also insisted I take, and a small dinette with two chairs, that’s all I own.
Nyve splurges for some living room furniture for me. He wanted to buy top of the line pieces. I balked at the price tag. There’s no way I’d let him spend that much money on me. I talk him into something cheaper so at least I have a living room suite.
I opt not to have a television. I don’t watch it anyway. Most of the stuff I enjoy I can stream through various subscription services, anyway. I do have a small office area set aside in the corner with my laptop.
The guys from the shop came to help me get things squared away, which was really nice. Annika and her apprentice, Goldie, brought house warming stuff, mostly kitchen towels and cooking utensils.
Goldie says that it’s criminal to eat macaroni and cheese without wooden spoons. I’m not sure what that means but she was so earnest about it.
We camp out in the middle of my living room floor with half a dozen pizza cartons strewn about. Bronaz and Sako have managed to destroy two pies between them. Goldie is next to me helping with my Hawaiian pizza which everyone else turned their nose up at.
“Where’s Ronnie?” Nosko has to grab Charity before she gets pizza prints all over my new coffee table. She giggles when he turns her upside down and gives her a raspberry on her stomach. Her feet kick in the air and nail Taran on the side of the head and he grabs her foot to mock-eat, which sends her into more peals of laughter.
“He’s working on something. He’ll try to be by later.”
Taran grabs Charity and rights her in his lap so Nosko can eat. “How are you doing, Austin? This is a big change for you.”
“Mixture of a lot of things, I guess.” I try to get my straw in my mouth but Goldie keeps nudging my elbow with perfect timing to send it swirling away. I lean into her to shove her off balance with a laugh.
“I’m still trying to wrap my head around the idea that my dad is involved in this whole mugging and hatefest thing. It doesn’t make any sense to me. He married a mythical shifter. Why would he associate with people who mean to harm them now?”
“Grief can do squirrelly things to a person,” Nyve says with a kiss to my temple. “This may be how he’s dealing with it. To lash out at the person who hurt him, even though it wasn’t her intention.”
I lean into Nyve. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. His lashing out hurts me. Does he want to see me caught in this, too?”
“Maybe he thinks he can protect you,” Annika offers.
I’m not buying that. “Not sure how ‘sending muggers out to terrorize mythical shifters’ qualifies as protection.”
The guys all nod along with me. No one can put their arms around this whole thing, which just makes me feel worse. My own family is looking to victimize my friends.
“Maybe Ronnie and I will eventually dig something up that can be of use,” Varos says. He and Ronnie have been working very closely together of late, trying to dig up anything they can on who these people really are and what it is they hope to achieve by doing this.
The rest of the afternoon goes without incident. There isn’t a lot to do and my guests finally say their goodbyes, leaving me and Nyve alone.
“I’m sorry Ronnie wasn’t here to help.” Nyve kisses my claim spot. It’s still a little tender and sends a thrill up my spine. I lean back into him and hum softly.
“Want to try out the integrity of my bed?” My voice drops to a soft purr and I feel Nyve’s cock start to rise instantly.
As if to thwart my plans, the universe conspires against me.
My phone rings. It’s Ronnie. My eyebrows lift and I answer it. “Hey, you missed all the hard work. Everyone’s already left but there’s still pizza.”
“I’ll be there in a bit. I have something I want to drop on you.”
“You’re just a bastion of good news, aren’t you.” I glance at Nyve, who’s watching me intently over my shoulder.
“That’s me. Bearer of sunshine up your ass news. So, I’ve been digging around and I had a flash of insight to hit the dark net to see what I can find out about our stalkers.”
The dark net. That’s never a good sign.
“Turns out,” Ronnie continues, “our buddies have a recruiting post on some weirdo forum, tucked away. I almost didn’t see it. What flagged it for me was the address for a meeting that happened I guess a month ago. It’s just down the street from the building your dad works in.”
Damn it. Damn it. “So my dad is involved.”
“We don’t know that for sure. I’m sending you the URL. Make sure your virus protections are in place before you go in. Or you can wait until I get there. But I wanted you to know what I found instead of sitting on it. In case something happens to me.”
Any other time, I would tease Ronnie about being paranoid.
Considering the things that have been going on lately, it’s now a precaution. “You did cover your tracks, right?”
“Please,” Ronnie scoffs lightly. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to? But there are guys out there who are just as good at this as I am. I’m being careful. Just in case.”
“Then get here before the pizza disappears. Or bring your own.”
I kill the call. Apparently the look on my face instantly triggers every one of Nyve’s protective nerves. He wraps his arms around me.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Just heard from Ronnie. I need my laptop.”
I sit down at my
desk and fire it up, going to the link he sent me.
This is more than just a recruitment post. This is hate speech.
Nyve leans over the back of my chair. “What does it say? You’re killing me.”
“See for yourself,” I say, not wanting to repeat it out loud. I lean back from my laptop so Nyve can see.
As far as recruitment posts go, it’s standard. Black background with abundant use of reds and whites. Images of people who I’d assume are mythical shifters both in human and mythical form with a large red circle and slash through it.
Nyve leans in and squints. “‘Death to mythicals.’ That’s original. And those are real people. They list their names?”
I shake my head. “I don’t recognize any of these people. There’s no guarantee they’re even real. These sites look to stir up anti-whatever sentiment, but that doesn’t make it true. I’m not seeing any names.”
Nyve rests his hand on the back of my neck in a protective motion. “What else does it say?”
“Standard hate shit. All the negative stereotypes about us. We’re taking the bulk of the wealth from the middle class. Or the jobs. Or the positions of power. We’re stepping on normal shifters who are just looking to keep their families safe.” I tilt the screen back so Nyve can read. “Oh, this one is rich. Says that we’re attacking people for no reason other than we hate them and are jealous. We’re part of some big conspiracy to take over the country.”
I snort derisively. “Now that’s reaching.”
This is some scary hate speech shit. Especially if people are believing it.
“This is some low quality political rhetoric.” I wave my hand at the screen. “Who would believe this shit?”
“Anyone who has an axe to grind and needs someone to blame for the bad decisions they make in their life. The thing is, it’s not all untrue.” Nyve straightens and stands behind me to rest his hands on my shoulders. He gives them a squeeze. “For a long time, mythicals were very isolationist. Some of us have our wealth and we do keep it under close wraps. For centuries, we only stayed on the outskirts of society. With technology, we’ve started to integrate into society more. I can imagine many of the other shifter breeds are alarmed by our presence.”
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