Rough Ride [The Exiled 3] (Siren Publishing: The Lynn Hagen ManLove Collection)

by Lynn Hagen

  “Hello?” The woman knocked again. “Either you get your ass down here or you’ll force me to open this door, and it won’t be pretty.”

  “I like her.” Dog laughed. “She’s got spunk.”

  “I’ll be right back.” Nazaryth turned and headed for the staircase that led down to the hangar.

  “Tell me you’re not going down there,” Trigg said. “You that big a sucker for a pretty face?”

  “What the hell are you talking about? I’m mated.” There were times when Nazaryth wondered about his men. “And if she’s telling the truth?”

  “And if she’s not?” Trigg asked. “You’re just gonna go down there and offer yourself up?”

  Nazaryth nodded. “Pretty much.”

  No matter what she might be, he couldn’t take a chance that she was telling the truth. Still, how had she found the place, and how had she gotten rid of the hounds? He’d placed some pretty powerful spells around the mountain. The hounds shouldn’t have found their way here either. Was Morgan some kind of homing beacon? Nazaryth wanted answers.

  Trigg shrugged. “Fine, but I’m goin’ with you. Someone needs to come back up here and tell Theo you died of stupidity if she kills you.”

  Nazaryth’s zaterio was the least of his worries right now.

  “Just focus on what you look like human.” Renato brushed his hand over Morgan’s fur. “Think of your head, arms, and legs. Think of a furless body.”

  Renato kept his voice low and soothing as he helped Morgan shift back into his human form. His zaterio had lost it as soon as they’d entered the bedroom. He’d raced around the room, backing into corners, and knocking things over. Renato caught hell trying to catch the massive dog, but now Morgan lay at his feet, his head lying on his paws.

  The irony that he was becoming just as relaxed wasn’t lost on Renato. He was on the floor, his back against the bed, his ankles crossed as he petted his mate. There was something soothing about the two of them just sitting there, a quietness that Renato hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  His back was killing him, and it had to be close to dawn, yet Renato wasn’t tired. All he wanted to do was touch Morgan. Even the mating heat had abated. He wasn’t sure how long that would last, but he would enjoy the reprieve. This was the first time he was able to touch his zaterio without either chaos reigning or the two of them going at each other’s throats.

  “I still feel like I’m in some sort of dream,” he confessed. “It’s hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that you’re alive and here with me.”

  Renato kept petting Morgan, even after his mate shifted back into his human form. His hair was silky soft, his skin flawless. Morgan curled on his side and wrapped his arms around his stomach. “I can’t believe I changed into a dog.”

  “I’ve seen worse,” Renato admitted. “If you want my opinion, I think it’s totally badass.”

  “Get serious.”

  “I am. You’re freaking huge, zaterio. Not too many will mess with you.” Renato felt himself grinning for the first time in forever. “I have my own personal watch dog.”

  “It’s not funny.” Morgan pushed to a sitting position, and Renato’s gaze dropped to the man’s groin. The mating heat returned, making Renato feel as if he was once again on fire. His body grew tight, his fangs elongated, and his cock became ramrod straight, pulsing heavily in his pants.

  “What the…” Morgan rolled away from Renato and stood. “Why do you look possessed?”

  Renato shook his head, trying to clear it. “It’s the mating heat.”

  “W-we can’t have sex.” Morgan began to back away. “It isn’t safe.”

  “I won’t hurt you,” Renato said as he rolled his shoulders, his body tight and hot.

  “No, but I might accidentally hurt you.”

  “Because of the shifting thing?”

  “No, because there are other things wrong with me, Renato. Things I haven’t told you about.”

  Renato was pretty damn sure anything Morgan had to tell him wouldn’t stop him from wanting his zaterio. And it wasn’t just the mating heat either. For so long he’d wished for a do-over, to erase that fateful day or that he’d made it down to the plant room in time before his mate had been attacked. Now that he had Morgan right there with him, Renato would never give the man up.

  “Okay, I think I can handle anything you throw my way.” Renato pushed to his feet, his gaze zeroing in on Morgan’s exposed cock.

  “I bleed black blood.”

  Renato’s gaze snapped to Morgan’s face. “That’s a curveball.”

  “Ya think?” Morgan asked. “A tiny drop on you and you’ll be writhing in pain. I’ve seen it happen.”

  “So have I.” Renato remembered when Nazaryth’s mate, Theo, had gone through hell because of a hound. Theo was a shifter, and that was the only reason he’d survived. Only the hound hadn’t bleed on Theo. He’d bitten the shifter. “There’s no need to get upset about it.”

  “I’m a walking biohazard, Renato. How can I not get upset?” Morgan glanced at the floor, and Renato knew there was more that Morgan wasn’t telling him. His eyes shifted around, the way a person’s eyes did when they were hoping you didn’t dig deeper.

  Renato dug deeper. “And?”

  “And what?”

  Renato sighed. “Out with it, Morgan. What else is there about you that I should know?”

  “I need some clothes.” Morgan grabbed a pillow from the bed and covered his groin. “You know I might believe what you’re saying about the whole mate think. I might. But I still don’t know you. I’m not about to spill my guts to a virtual stranger.”

  Renato was trying really hard to concentrate on the conversation, but seeing Morgan standing there without a stitch of clothing on tempted him in ways he couldn’t fight against. Not when the heat had a hard grip on him. He started around the bed, his steps measured.

  “What’re you doing?” Morgan backed away. “There you go again, looking like you’re gonna attack me.”

  Renato knew he couldn’t just take Morgan. If at any time during their mating, Morgan refused him, they wouldn’t bond. It was a delicate balance between making sure his zaterio accepted him and not freaking the guy out.

  And his mate looked pretty freaked out.

  “I’m not going to attack you, zaterio.” Renato reached behind him, grabbed the back of his shirt, and yanked it over his head, tossing it aside. He hid his satisfied smile when Morgan’s gaze dropped to his chest.

  “What’re you doing now?” Morgan’s breathing became shallow as he licked his lips.

  “It’s hot in here.”

  “No, it’s not.” Morgan watched as Renato unfastened his belt buckle and then unsnapped the button on his pants.

  “You can’t tell me it’s not hot in here, Morgan. I’m covered in sweat.” Zipper down, boots kicked off. “Besides, you have me at a disadvantage.”

  “How?”

  “You’re naked, and I’m not.” Jeans gone.

  Morgan blinked rapidly as he stared at Renato’s hard cock. The pillow he’d been holding in front of himself slid slightly as his fingers gripped the material tighter. “I…uh…you can’t…”

  “Can’t what?” Renato asked as he stretched, purposefully flexing for Morgan. “Get comfortable in my own bedroom?”

  Renato never thought to claim his chosen one. He hadn’t known that his zaterio had been alive all this time. He’d suffered in the pit of despair, tortured himself for over two decades because he thought he’d allowed his mate to die. Nothing on heaven or earth would stop him from taking Morgan and claiming his mate.

  It didn’t matter to him that Morgan was a hellhound. It should. He’d been hunting the creatures ruthlessly for so many years, blaming each hound he’d killed for his mate’s death. He’d tried to end it all more than once when there seemed no way out of his tortured misery.

  His head had been fucked for so long that he’d even tried to push Morgan away after discovering who the man w
as. It was more than possible that the mating heat drove him forward when all Renato had tried to do was run away. Even when Crow had been whipping him, all Renato had thought about was fucking Morgan, making the hound shifter his. His zaterio might not have been formed in the bowels of hell, but he was still a hellhound, and that was a mind fuck all on its own.

  But none of that mattered. Nothing else in the world mattered right now except getting to Morgan and fucking his brains out. Renato’s skin was extremely tight, his fangs throbbed to sink into flesh, and his beast was roaring for Renato to claim Morgan.

  Renato closed the distance and ripped the pillow away. Satisfaction made him smirk when he saw that Morgan was just as hard. “Tell me you don’t want me.”

  Morgan inhaled sharply, and his head lolled to the side when Renato palmed the man’s sac, massaging it as he ghosted his lips over his zaterio’s neck. The man smelled of sweat, lust, and fear. “You were created for me, Morgan. Fate herself handpicked you for me.”

  “Th-that’s not possible.” Morgan’s rigid stance started to become relaxed.

  “You can say that after everything you’ve seen, everything you’ve gone through?” Renato nipped Morgan’s neck. He not only heard the wild thump of Morgan’s heart beating but smelled the blood just under his skin. The vampire in Renato was starving for a single draft, a single swallow, but he forced himself not to sink his fangs deep.

  Usually, a hound’s blood smelled noxious, but Morgan’s didn’t. Renato wasn’t sure how that was possible, but it didn’t. It smelled sweet and inviting.

  “You’re making it hard to think,” Morgan said with a soft groan.

  “I don’t want you to think. I only want you to feel, to want me just as much as I want you.” Renato cupped Morgan’s jaw and lightly slid his lips over his mate’s. “Tell me you don’t want me, Morgan.”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Renato.”

  “You won’t,” Renato said. “The blood of hellhounds doesn’t affect us.”

  Morgan’s eyes widened slightly. “Why didn’t you tell me that already?”

  “There’re a lot of things I haven’t told you.” Renato slid his hand along Morgan’s jaw. “Like how, if you deny me at any point during this, our bond won’t seal. Or how winged beasts claim their mate with their very soul.”

  Morgan pulled back slightly as he worried his lower lip. Renato braced himself for his mate’s rejection.

  “I’ve been alone for so many years,” Morgan said. “Not even Kyle could fill the void that lived inside of me.”

  “You slept with him?” Renato’s mind automatically went there, and he felt murderous at the thought.

  “God no.” Morgan shook his head. “Kyle is like a brother to me. But he tried to make me happy, and sometimes he’d get a laugh out of me, but we both had our own demons to deal with.”

  “I don’t understand what you’re saying.” Was Morgan rejecting him or not?

  “What I’m saying is that, after being alone for so long, I now have to make a split-second decision about letting you bond to me.” Morgan frowned. “That’s what you said, right? It’s called bonding?”

  Pulling his zaterio closer, Renato asked, “Do you still feel that void?”

  Morgan opened his mouth and then closed it. “I’m not sure what I feel right now. Things have been going way too fast, and I feel like I haven’t had time to breathe. Ten minutes ago I was a dog. I find out more about myself in one day than I knew in twenty years. I remember my family. I remember my childhood. I remember my last name is Raynes and not Seamen. I remember the attack. It’s a lot to take in.”

  “I may not have gone through what you’ve gone through, but there have been a lot of revelations for me as well.” Renato kissed Morgan’s jaw. “I mourned my mate’s death, only to find him alive and he’s the very creature I hunt and destroy.”

  A thought struck Renato. He tilted Morgan’s head to the side and brushed his hair away from his ear. His heart plummeted when he saw the mark behind Morgan’s ear. The mark was the one vulnerability the hounds had. If stabbed in that mark, Morgan would die. Renato cursed.

  “What? What is it?”

  Renato explained the mark to Morgan.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

  “No one else has to know about your mark,” Renato said through a clenched jaw. “I’ll protect you, zaterio. I thought I lost you once. I’ll move heaven and earth to keep you safe.”

  “Renato,” Morgan whispered. “This is all too much.”

  “I know.” He pulled Morgan into his arms and pressed his face against the man’s hair. “I promise that I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  When Morgan’s hands slid down Renato’s back, he hissed. “Morgan…”

  “I’m sorry,” Morgan said. “I know you’re like supernaturally horny and touching you isn’t playing fair.”

  “I don’t want you to play fair,” Renato said. “I want you to let me claim you.”

  “Because you’ll go mad if you don’t?”

  “I don’t care about that.” It was true. Renato had been looking to go mad for two decades, although now that he knew the truth, he knew why he never had. Morgan hadn’t died. “I don’t want to claim you just to save my sanity. I want to claim you because I’m tired of going this alone. I’m tired of the heartache and pain, and I know you want that void gone as well.”

  “I do feel a connection,” Morgan admitted. “I’ve felt it since the very first time you talked in my head.”

  It was still hard for Renato to believe that Morgan had heard him all this time. In a way, that brought him comfort, knowing he had been there with his zaterio—even if his mate had tried to drown Renato out.

  “Bond with me, zaterio. Let our souls become one.”

  Morgan shivered as he drew in a deep breath. “Okay.”

  Chapter Eight

  Sitting behind his desk, Xaphan brushed his hand over the hound’s head. So far Morbius and Rythicam hadn’t brought him Morgan. He was growing impatient. Xaphan knew for a fact that the hounds had infiltrated the winged beasts’ fortress before. It shouldn’t be a problem now.

  He needed Morgan brought to him and those incompetent fools… Xaphan breathed out slowly. The last time he’d gotten this upset, an entire city had caught fire. He breathed in through his nose and out through his mouth.

  Since those two idiots were taking their sweet time, he’d send his hound. “Fetch me Morgan. Fail me, and I’ll peel your skin from your bones for a thousand years.”

  Alastair growled before he got up and padded out of the room.

  “You want to explain to me who you are?” Nazaryth asked. He stood in his living room, his winged beasts surrounding them. “And if I don’t like your answer, I’ll make damn sure you regret showing up here.”

  Nazaryth was still trying to figure out how she had accomplished that. His spells and wards should have compelled her to turn around and leave. Instead, she’d made it all the way to the hangar and had gotten rid of the hounds. That alone told him she wasn’t human. Nazaryth just hoped he didn’t regret letting her in.

  “My name is…well, we’ll just call me Sophia since my true name is a sentence long.” She glanced around the room, as if looking for someone. “Tell me you have the bastard child.”

  “What?” Nazaryth shook his head. “We don’t have any children here.”

  She moved around the sofa. “Quite the setup you beasts have. I wouldn’t have expected a castle in the side of a mountain to be so modern.”

  “Lady, tell me who you are and why you’re here, or I swear to fucking god I’ll toss you over the balcony.” Nazaryth was losing his patience. Any minute the hounds would return. He didn’t have time to play games with this woman. His instincts told him to put her out on her ass and let her try her luck with the hounds. That was what he should’ve done. He wasn’t even sure why he’d let her in.

  “I’m referring to your human-hound.”

  Everyone in the
room bristled. Nazaryth narrowed his eyes. “Wrong answer.”

  She held a hand up when Nazaryth stepped toward her. “Hear me out or I’m the least of your worries, beast.”

  “You still didn’t answer my question,” Nazaryth said.

  “I say we stop playing footsie with her and feed her to the hounds,” Nikoli said. “I don’t trust her.”

  Neither did Nazaryth.

  “To answer your other question, I’m a demon.”

  Nazaryth’s fangs elongated. “You don’t smell like rotten eggs.”

  She snorted. “Nice way to insult a lady.”

  “You’re no lady,” Nikoli said.

  “I said you didn’t smell that way,” Nazaryth pointed out. “But I can arrange to have you sent back to hell if you don’t tell me why you’re here.”

  Sophia took a seat on the recliner, tossing her legs over one arm. Her long hair hung like black water over the side as she eyed each man standing in the room. “I’m here to save all of you.”

  Nazaryth gave her a disbelieving look. “Lady, I need a reason with a little less bullshit smeared all over it. You’re one demon. We’re twelve warriors strong. Try again.”

  She shook her head as she sat up. “Brute strength isn’t always the answer.”

  “I beg to differ.”

  “Then your all gonna die,” she said before she rose from the recliner.

  “I feel like we should exchange some rings or something,” Morgan said as he felt his cheeks and neck heat with a blush. He’d had sex before, but it hadn’t been to bond with someone. Not the way Renato was talking about. And crap, he was blushing like some virgin on his prom night.

  “If that is what you wish, zaterio.” Renato slid his hands down Morgan’s back, sending shivers through Morgan’s body.

  “Seriously? You’d do that?” Morgan was trying to hang on to the conversation in hopes that talking with Renato would calm his nerves. He was about to bind himself to this man for all eternity. Talk about pressure to perform. There was a nervous bubble of laughter in his throat that he fought not to release.

  “You keep blushing and I’ll give you the world at your feet.” Renato nuzzled Morgan’s neck. “But don’t think you’re the only nervous one here.”