by Marcy Jacks
A Dragon’s Growl 8
A Lesson in Trust
Sorin was still getting his life together and finding out his place in the world as the only vampire in a dragon clan, and son of the man everyone wanted dead. He mated with one of the alpha dragons and loves Lucian with everything he has, but when Lucian is captured and Sorin taken home, protecting his mate will mean hurting him. Emotionally, physically, every way possible. Because keeping Lucian alive will mean destroying their love.
Lucian knows the risk he took in falling in love and mating with the former vampire prisoner. Now the tables are turned, and Lucian is chained in a vampire mansion. His mate visits him, sometimes, but when he does, Lucian is having more and more trouble believing it’s all just an act. Lucian is starting to lose faith that his mate might just be faking the pleasure in his eyes whenever he hurts Lucian. When escape becomes possible, Lucian may even leave Sorin behind.
Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifters, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 30,044 words
A LESSON IN TRUST
A Dragon’s Growl 8
Marcy Jacks

Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
A LESSON IN TRUST
Copyright © 2017 by Marcy Jacks
ISBN: 978-1-64010-547-8
First Publication: August 2017
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada with her dog, and she loves writing about gorgeous guys in tricky situations, and extreme misunderstandings like the one you’re about to read about here ;)
For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
About the Author
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Landmarks
Cover
A LESSON IN TRUST
A Dragon’s Growl 8
MARCY JACKS
Copyright © 2017
Chapter One
Lucian pulled at his chains. Just because he had yet to find a weakness somewhere in the metal didn’t mean it wasn’t there or that he couldn’t create it.
Varrick was a powerful and rich vampire, but Lucian severely doubted the man kept himself up to date on every single little thing in his dungeons.
There had to be a weak link, a bit of rust, a screw that was loose or breaking off where the shackles were bolted to the wall above his head.
Something!
His wrists had long since chafed. Blood began to form and dry where his skin had peeled from pulling so much. Though he was a dragon, the shackles were still silver-plated. It wouldn’t do anything to him, but it was proof that someone had spent time in these chains before he’d come around.
Chances were that a lot of people had been chained up down here. Most likely the omega wolves and foxes. Maybe even a few alphas and betas. A vampire or two? They were known to be allergic to silver in small doses.
Someone in that time must have helped to weaken the chains, even if they hadn’t escaped.
Lucian would be the first to escape. He was going to escape, find his mate, take Sorin the hell out of this place, and then throw his mate over his knee and give him a proper punishment for scaring the living hell out of Lucian like this.
Of course, that was assuming Sorin wasn’t in on this. Lucian’s back still burned and throbbed from the lashing he’d gotten five days ago. Even his rapid healing couldn’t make that pain go away.
He didn’t know which was worse. The pain of being lashed. Or the pain of being lashed by his mate, by the man Lucian would have cut his right arm off for. He probably would have lashed himself if Sorin had needed him to.
Lucian gritted his teeth, growling at himself, pulling harder on his chains. If he could just break them out of the wall, that would be a step in the right direction.
Think about it later. He needed to think about all this later because, right now, focusing on what Sorin’s motives may or may not be wasn’t helping a damned thing.
It had to be an act.
It had better be an act.
His back really fucking hurt.
Lucian pulled hard on the chain in rapid bursts. He wanted the sudden jerking motions to weaken the wall. If the concrete and stone was old enough, it might just break on its own anyway, and then he’d be set.
He exhaled sharply each time he yanked hard, the chains digging deeper into his wrists, the blood coming a little thicker.
He pulled hard one last time and then kept pulling. Heat welled up in his face as that pain became almost too much for him to deal with, but he kept going. Almost there. Almost there! He nearly had it!
His body gave out. Air exhaled hard from his lungs as every muscle in his body finally seemed to let go.
He hadn’t even realized he was starting to cramp up when he’d been pulling like that.
Now his wrists burned and his fingertips tingled.
Lucian looked at his handiwork, expecting to see something, some sign of progress that would make the pain and trembling in his arms worth it.
Nothing. There was no sign of any change in the place where the shackles had been bolted to the wall.
The screws hadn’t come loose, and the metal looked just as deeply embedded into the stone as always.
Lucian laughed, letting himself slide down to his knees. He kept laughing, pressing his forehead against the cold concrete.
It helped. A little. He needed water, however. And food. He did get some water ever day, but feedings seemed to be scarce.
Not that it mattered since he’s been distrustful of any food offered to him. He’d refused to eat any of it, and now, because of that, the weakness throughout his body was a thousand times worse than what it should have been. He had no energy, no spare calories to burn, and he knew he was losing weight with every day he spent like this.
He knew rescue was coming. His alpha, and his friend, Seth, the red dragon who hated Varrick as much, or more, than anyone else in the clan wouldn’t let this stand.
Lucian just wished the bastard would hurry up and get here. Waiting like this had started to
blow three days ago.
He needed to focus. That was all. Lucian was a warrior. He was a goddamned alpha, and he ate the faces of his enemy for breakfast. That was what he wanted his enemy to think, at any rate.
He would get out of this, and eventually, he would be the one to have the last laugh.
Just as soon as he was well rested and had the energy to go to war against Varrick and his men for this.
But Sorin…
He didn’t have a chance to finish the thought of what he would do to his mate because, suddenly, the heavy screech of metal on metal sounded outside his door and well down the hall.
Lucian snapped his attention to his own door.
So far the only time he’d heard that noise was when he was about to receive a visitor. Either for food, water, or to change out the bucket he was forced to piss in.
Since that bucket had already been cleaned about an hour ago, he figured this was time for feeding.
He hoped so. Lucian couldn’t afford to go without the calories anymore. Even if it was just another small bread roll, he would take it.
Somehow, he knew. He knew it wasn’t food coming for him but something else. Something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end and the blood in his veins rush hot and sizzling throughout each molecule of his body.
He came alive in a way that food and water couldn’t give to him in that moment, and when the lock turned on his door and the heavy metal swung open, revealing the face of his mate, Lucian’s heart nearly burst from his chest.
Sorin. His Sorin was here.
He was well dressed, the suit clearly something that came from his closet and provided by his father.
Hell, it might have even been tailor-made in the time since Sorin and Lucian had arrived with the crisp way it hung on his shoulders.
His hair, a sandy color brown that reminded Lucian of the beach after it rained, was neatly combed and gelled. It might have been tied back in that old ponytail Sorin used to have it in before his hair had been cut.
They were slowly growing back in, and even though it was stupid, Lucian hoped Sorin wasn’t growing his hair in again. Lucian liked the way it was. Shorter, without the gel.
The gel made him look way too much like a vampire.
Sorin shut the door behind him, giving them the privacy Lucian had wanted since he’d come here.
“You’re here.”
“Yes.” Sorin locked the door with a quick twist of his fingers on the key. He gracefully dropped that key into his front pocket, as if he had no intention of handing it over to Lucian. “I’m here.”
Lucian listened carefully, and he couldn’t help but frown.
The sound of those words, their cold tone, held no trace of the love that Lucian knew could be there.
Lucian expected to see something in Sorin’s eyes, some sign that this was an act, that he was being forced to do this, if only to save his own life and Lucian’s.
Hell, even if it was just to save his own life, Lucian would understand. He wanted that. He wanted Sorin to stay alive, to focus on his own survival more than anyone or anything else’s.
Except those eyes, those beautiful brown eyes with the shards of green, like Mother Earth was sprouting tiny saplings, held nothing for him.
And Lucian searched. He searched hard, staring without blinking at the man who had, only last week, been tucked under Lucian’s arm, their bodies clinging to each other after Lucian had made love to him and Sorin shouted his name.
Nothing. There was nothing there.
Lucian cleared his throat. “You need to start telling me what’s going on.” So difficult. It was so damned difficult to hold back the anger, but Lucian had spent too long down here and he was losing his patience with all of this. “If this is some kind of trick—”
“You wish it was a trick,” Sorin said, his voice low, almost hissing.
Van might have ripped out his fangs, but they had grown back just enough so Lucian could see their tips as Sorin sneered at him.
And that look knifed him in the chest more than anything else. More than the painful lashing Sorin had given him just a few days prior.
He couldn’t handle it. He couldn’t handle the pain.
“You’re right. I do wish this was a trick because at least then I’d understand.”
Sorin snorted. He crossed his arms, turning away from Lucian. Giving his back as though Lucian meant less than nothing to him.
Lucian pushed himself to his feet. At least he was taller than Sorin, so that little back-turning thing shouldn’t have bothered him too much when he was on his feet.
Except it still bothered him. A lot.
“If you would just give me something, give me anything that I could hang on to, then I could go along with it. Does that key even open my shackles?”
“It does.” Sorin nodded, looking back at him. “And you won’t get it.”
Lucian bit his lips together. Angry. So fucking angry.
Hold it back. He needed to hold it back. This might not be what he thought it was, and he needed to know everything before he made his decisions about this.
“Okay. So what do I have to do to get it?”
“Nothing, because you won’t get it. I just came down here to see you.”
Lucian clung to those words. Sorin had come down to see him. All right, if this had been anyone other than his mate, he would have taken it to mean he was being mocked. Maybe Sorin just wanted to see how he was doing honestly. Hell, someone could be watching Sorin right now to make sure he was playing along.
If Sorin broke character, then Lucian was fairly confident Varrick would kill him.
Varrick had already proven willing to kill members of his own family to get what he wanted. Would his own son be any different?
Lucian swallowed hard. This was a level of chess playing that was outside of his skill set.
Should he play along? Should he assume this was real and rant and rave at his mate? Or should he tell Sorin he loved him? Maybe beg a little for the sake of whoever was listening in on them?
That second option might break Sorin out of character, might make him do or say something he regretted. Hell, even a look could give him away.
And all that hung on the presumption that this really was just an attempt by Sorin to keep him alive.
Lucian needed to say something. The silence was getting to him, and he wasn’t about to risk that this might also be considered strange behavior by whoever watched them.
“So, did you at least bring some food down for me? Or are you going to starve me to death?”
Sorin regarded him up and down. He opened his mouth, the mouth Lucian had kissed and sucked on while Sorin chuckled sweetly at him only days earlier.
Then he closed it.
“So you’re going to starve me. Great.”
“No, you can’t be starved,” Sorin said. “Until the mating can be broken off, I need you alive. My father doesn’t want me falling into some suicidal tailspin because of what you did to me. After I can break off the mating on my end, then you can die. Until then, I’ll have food brought for you.”
Lucian blinked several times. He tried desperately to read through all the hidden messages that could be in a sentence like that, and all he got was exactly what Sorin said.
And he was fucking furious. “You’re trying to break off the mating?”
Even if this was an act, his inner dragon, the animal instinct within him to protect and love the man in front of him, was insulted, enraged. It roared and spread its wings, desperate to protect the bond that kept him tied to this man.
A mating wasn’t easily broken off, though it could be done. The fact that it wasn’t such a common thing was, by its nature, the kind of bond that made each party not want to be separated from each other.
Even thinking about doing it hurt. Hurt and made his blood bubble and boil.
Sorin had said it without a single emotion on his face. As if he didn’t care one way or the other. Lucian c
ouldn’t stand that.
And Sorin still wasn’t answering him. As if he didn’t owe Lucian a damned thing.
Maybe he didn’t.
This could still be a trick. This could still be an act. Lucian needed to not take this so personally.
Except he was.
“I’ll arrange for something to come down for you. You look like shit.”
“You seemed to like what you were looking at when I was inside you.”
Stupid thing to say. It honestly just popped out of his mouth, a product of his anger and instinct to defend his bond with the man he’d just tried to hurt.
And hurt him he must have because of the way Sorin’s eyes popped wide right before he flew across the room.
He open-hand slapped Lucian hard across the face.
That shouldn’t have been enough to make Lucian fall to one knee. Sorin was smaller than he was, and he didn’t have anywhere near the same muscle definition.
Lucian was an alpha, and yet it felt as if his mate had just hit him with a brick.
“Don’t you ever bring that up to me again! Ever! Do you hear me! You never fucking say that shit again!”
Sorin panted for breath, clearly enraged, and after a few seconds his knee came up, catching Lucian under the jaw.
Lucian felt the thunk all the way to the top of his skull, and he fell back hard, landing on his shoulder and groaning.
Maybe he was much weaker than he’d thought from the lack of food because Sorin didn’t have this kind of strength. That hurt. A lot.
Lucian looked up at the man, at his mate.
Sorin puffed for breath, his eyes still wide, his cheeks flushed. His hands trembled as he pushed his hair back. A few strands had come loose from the gel, it seemed.
“Don’t even speak of that to me. You…you disgust me.”