by Marcy Jacks
“He was tying you up and leading you around on a leash,” Aiden said, aghast.
“And if that’s what he needs to do to make things right, he can do it. He’s right to suspect me. I am hiding something from him. I just…if this is what it takes to make amends so he doesn’t kill my aunt, then I’m fine with it.”
“Why would you defend a woman like that?” Rey was suddenly torn with guilt over the things he’d been saying to Lightning. Telling him to get over his trauma, belittling his pain. Fuck. Meanwhile one of the objects of Lightning’s hatred was standing right here.
Tim shook his head. “I don’t know. She was horrible to Lightning, but never to me or to my other cousins. She wasn’t just good to her own children, she was amazing to them. To me. She took care of us. She fed us and clothed us after the sickness hit our parents. She loved us and read to us at night. I don’t know why she was the way she was with him, but she loved me, and I don’t want him to hate her. I’ll tell him eventually. Just, please, don’t tell him this. I’ll take the punishment. I’m fine with it. I can do it. Just don’t tell him.”
Rey glanced back at Silver and Gold. Blaze had come in to hold down Lightning’s feet now. He was clearly terrified someone would make off with Tim. He fought as though death was coming for him if he didn’t reach his goal.
Something clicked in Rey’s head just then.
No, that wasn’t possible.
Rey deliberately didn’t look at Tim. He didn’t need to. If it was true, the other man would have known it, would have sensed it.
A mating was a two-way street. Right?
No. Rey was wrong. Lightning was just going crazy because he was having flashbacks about his time with his father and stepmother.
Rey couldn’t blame him for that, but even as the man calmed down, his eyes still blazed with fury.
Tim didn’t look frightened, just resigned to his fate.
What else could Rey do but let him meet it?
If a man didn’t want to be saved, there was nothing anyone could really do about it.
Chapter Nine
“Your friend Lightning…he won’t actually hurt Tim. Will he?”
Rey shook his head, though with how furious Lightning appeared, there was no guaranteeing that.
“Lightning isn’t the sort of dragon who would take out his rage and anger on someone weaker and smaller than he is. Not physically, at least,” Rey added when Aiden looked up at him.
The smaller man looked away quickly, and more and more Rey was becoming aware of just how badly he was fucking this up.
He should be doing so much better than this. He should be enjoying his mating heat right now. Aiden should be sliding into his arms at every available opportunity, but it seemed that, more and more, his mate wanted to drift away from him.
And it left Rey with a horrifying thought.
He and Aiden were no longer in the dining room. They were back in Rey’s house, sitting on the sofa together. Trying to talk. Trying to ignore the lust that pulled them to sit so close their legs touched.
Trying to figure out where to go from here.
Rey realized that his mate wasn’t simply thinking about where he should go from here, but whether he should continue on with Rey.
“If you don’t want to be with me, I’ll…figure something out for you. It will be safer for you in the clan, however.”
Aiden clenched his hands into fists on his knees. He didn’t look back at Rey. “Your alpha is offering to go to the compound. That’s…more than enough for me.”
Rey tried to smile. He couldn’t exactly pull it off. “Silver isn’t my alpha.”
“He’s in charge though, isn’t he?”
Rey shrugged, and this time he really could smile at his mate. He liked to be able to explain things to him.
It made him feel a touch less useless. “Sort of. I guess that’s the way animal shifters think of it. He’s the guy in charge. He owns the property here. He does everything that needs to be done to see to the safety of the people living here, but he’s not technically an alpha. We don’t have those. We follow him because we respect him, not because he gives off pheromones or whatever it was that you and betas and omegas sniffed out.”
“I guess that makes sense.”
Aiden sighed.
Rey could feel the man’s rising heat within his body. He could sense Aiden’s need for Rey to touch him, to bring him to his pleasure once more.
And Rey wanted to. He wanted to so badly he could almost taste it.
He could still taste what it had been like to have Aiden’s cock in his mouth.
He wanted that again. He’d never liked going down on other men before, but with Aiden, it was positively a treat.
“I don’t…I’m just real confused about all this,” Aiden said. “I’m real sorry if I don’t come off as grateful for everything you’ve done for me.”
“You don’t have to be sorry.”
“But I do.”
Aiden looked up at him again, that same vulnerable expression Rey was getting used to with him. The same watery eyes that made Rey want to find everything wrong in Aiden’s world and fix it.
“You really don’t have to be sorry. I get it. Dragons hurt you. Now you’re mated to one. We were fighting. That’s…got to be tough.”
Even as Rey said it, even as he tried to come off as understanding and sensitive, he could think of nothing else but how wonderful it would be to push Aiden down, lift the cotton T-shirt he wore—Rey’s T-shirt—and lick at his stomach and chest.
What would his nipples taste like when Rey sucked on them? Would Aiden make those adorable little noises like he’d done two nights before when they’d consummated the mating?
He shook his head, banishing the thought.
Not a good time. This wasn’t the best time.
“Please, just tell me what you want me to do.”
Rey tensed. “Me?”
Aiden nodded. “I…I don’t know what to do. You haven’t told me what to do once. You keep waiting for me to make the first move, and I don’t know what to do with that. It’s…do you want me?”
Rey thought his eyes were about to pop right out of his head. “Of course I want you.”
“Then why do you keep hinting that you want me to go?”
Was that what Aiden thought Rey was doing?
Rey shook his head. “I’m not trying to ask you if you want to leave. I’m trying…fuck, I’m trying to be nice about it. In case this is too much for you.”
Aiden blinked at him, as though he really didn’t understand that level of thinking.
They could only stare at each other for so long before Rey gave in.
“Fuck it.”
He held Aiden’s face in both of his hands as he leaned in and crushed their mouths together.
Aiden gasped against his lips. Rey, bastard that he was, used the shock to his advantage and thrust his tongue deep, licking his mate inside his mouth, curling his tongue around Aiden’s.
Coaxing the man into participating with him.
And it was beautiful. The most beautiful kiss he’d ever received in his entire life.
Aiden mewled. He pushed himself closer, getting to his knees and practically crawling right into Aiden’s lap.
He was so fucking beautiful that it hurt.
The pleasure, the touch of Aiden’s tongue against his own, of his lips, it made Rey’s lips, mouth, and tongue feel like they’d each individually taken a breath mint.
Tingly and cool. That was what this felt like.
Despite that feel-good sensation, he pulled back, still holding Aiden’s face tightly in his hands.
“Is this an omega thing?”
Aiden blinked at him, as though he’d become drunk from the kiss. “What? Is what an omega thing?”
Rey looked into Aiden’s eyes. He searched for…he wasn’t quite sure.
Either way, he saw a sincerity in the man’s eyes that made him realize his mate really didn’t underst
and and wasn’t being coy.
Rey nodded then kissed him again, pushing Aiden down onto his back so Rey could settle himself on top of the man.
Aiden didn’t need to understand. Rey was pretty sure that he already did.
Aiden was an omega and Rey a dragon. Not an alpha. Not in the shifter sense of the word.
Rey settled himself between Aiden’s legs, thrusting against him, feeling the man’s hard cock beneath his borrowed pajama pants.
And it was so fucking sexy the man was wearing Rey’s clothes while they did this. He couldn’t get enough of it.
Even through that pleasure, the delicious friction and the heat of Aiden’s searching hands, Rey figured he was going to have to ask Silver a few questions about this when he had the chance.
Was Erin anything like Aiden? Did Erin need to be commanded when in bed? Or was this strictly something that happened to only befall Aiden because of a personality trait, not because he was an omega?
Whatever. He’d figure that out later because, at the moment, his mate wanted something from him, and Rey was going to deliver.
Aiden grabbed at Ray’s shirt. He scrambled to pull it up and away from his waist where it had been sloppily tucked into his pants.
The man’s nimble fingers worked quickly, and when the cloth was free, Rey sighed at the sensation of those hands pushing up beneath the material, touching heated skin. Scorching skin.
Aiden’s hands were the only cure for that heat.
He sighed. He gasped and began thrusting his dick against Aiden’s once more as the man found his nipples.
Aiden pinched them. He flicked them with his fingers, and God, it was the greatest feeling he’d ever experienced in his entire life.
No one else had simply touched Rey’s chest like this and brought out this kind of reaction from him.
“Inside me,” Aiden begged. He leaned up, kissed at Rey’s collarbone. “Please, fuck me, just like you did before.”
Rey snorted a short laugh. “Fuck you until you sleep for a day and a half? Don’t you think we should get to know each other a little before that happens?”
He looked into Aiden’s gorgeous eyes. Gray eyes with flecks of green.
Rey liked that green color. Just the hint of it was enough to make him believe this really was meant to be.
Rey was a green dragon, and Aiden’s eyes had green in them.
He didn’t care if it was a stretch or if it was corny and stupid, this was what he wanted, and he was sticking with it.
“I…I don’t think I’ll sleep for a day and a half this time. Sorry. I was tired.”
Rey leaned in, pressing their mouths together again.
He could never tire of kissing this man. Kissing this man felt too much like coming home.
“Stop apologizing, sweetheart.”
“Sorry.”
Rey shook his head. Until he could break Aiden of this habit, it looked as though he was going to be stuck with it for the near future.
“You’re so fucking cute. God, it’s kind of gross how cute you are.”
“Oh, sorry?”
Rey laughed. He couldn’t help himself.
Aiden could have had a meter over his head that measured the level of his cuteness. It went up quite a bit as he blushed.
“Don’t laugh at me!”
Of course that just made Rey laugh all the harder. He collapsed on top of the man.
Even as Aiden seemed to become angry, Rey couldn’t stop. “I’m serious!”
“S-sorry. Can’t help it. Fuck, you’re so damned cute.”
Rey kissed his mate on the mouth just as it looked Aiden was about to start yelling.
That calmed him down quickly. His mouth was soft, and Aiden’s eyes were wide, but then they lowered to half-mast as the heat of the kiss worked its magic on him.
Good. That was very good.
Rey reached down, the heat of their bodies combining, but he knew there was so much more he could get than just this.
Aiden gasped when Rey’s palm found his hard cock beneath his clothes.
He stroked the man through his clothes, enjoying the little gasping noises Aiden made.
“You like that, don’t you?”
Aiden brought his fist up, as though trying to hide his face behind it. He still nodded.
“You should see yourself right now.” Rey leaned to the side, and his mouth found the shell of Aiden’s ear. He toyed with it, using his mouth and tongue.
Aiden shivered.
“So glad you’re mine. So happy you want to stay.”
He didn’t think it was right to convey just how terrified he’d been of the idea that his mate wouldn’t want to stay here with him, that Aiden really would want to go and risk the side effects of breaking off the mating.
But he was here. He was staying. They had a chance to get to know each other and make this work.
Funny. Two days ago, Rey never in his life would have understood it. The fact that a mating could, suddenly and without warning, make another person an integral part of his life like this was terrifying, actually.
Silver had tried to describe it. Mated pairs in the clan had talked about it, but Rey never got it.
Now he did.
If Aiden walked away from him, it might be easier to handle if Rey ripped his arm off rather than deal with that.
Maybe his hand. Either way, he had a new limb now, and he couldn’t live without it.
Rey tested out how it would feel to lick around the shell of Aiden’s ear.
He didn’t exactly push his tongue inside. Just a tease. Just to listen to that little whimpering noise one more time. That was all he wanted.
Aiden thrust his hips beneath Rey. His body seemed to move of its own free will. Aiden squirmed and thrust, moaning and shivering as Rey stroked and licked him.
“F-feels good,” he said.
Rey smiled at that. He felt a little wet patch forming through the pajama pants Aiden wore.
Rey would never wear them again. They belonged to his mate now.
And as much as Rey liked that Aiden wore his clothes, he needed to get his mate out of them.
“Baby, I want to fuck you. It’s been two days.”
Still gasping for breath, Aiden blinked those pretty gray eyes wide open. He looked at Rey, as though shocked to hear such a thing.
“Oh, right,” he said, chest still rising and falling with heavy breath. “I was sleeping all that time.”
Aiden looked at him, and this time he was the one chuckling about it.
Rey smacked the man upside the head. Aiden continued to laugh.
“Little bastard,” Rey growled. “Do you have any idea how hard it was for me not to wake you?”
“I remember you trying.”
“You do?” That shocked Rey. He wasn’t sure what to think about that.
Aiden smiled at him and nodded, looking very much like a cat that knew a secret. “Yes. You kept shaking my shoulder, asking if I was okay. I remember those parts. Though knowing what you were really after makes your concern for my well being a little less romantic.”
Rey coughed at that. He looked away from his mate, and, yeah, Aiden laughed and laughed.
He sounded like he would be laughing about that for a while.
And then Rey laughed with him. It was kind of funny when he thought about it. The both of them on the couch, dicks hard, laughing at their own stupidity.
Rey swooped in for another kiss.
He didn’t just love his new mate, but he liked him, a lot.
He was going to like having Aiden for a mate.
Chapter Ten
Aiden held on tightly around Rey’s shoulders. He wasn’t sure where the other man wanted him. For now, he seemed content to kiss Aiden’s mouth, to lick deep inside, and to thrust his cock against Aiden’s.
And it was good. So achingly sweet.
Their cocks were out. Rey had undone his pants, and the elastic waist of Aiden’s borrowed pajama pants were pulled down ju
st enough to free his dick.
Rey kissed him, kissed him sweetly, as though he really meant it, with both of their cocks in his fist, thrusting against him.
Aiden lifted his knees, holding the other man place, cradling him.
Even from between Rey’s thighs, Aiden could feel the power emanating through Rey’s body. He felt the strength, the muscle, the firmness that encompassed every inch Aiden could put his hands or his thighs.
And in a strange way, Rey’s power made Aiden feel powerful. Despite being an omega, and despite the fact that he was the one doing the submitting in this situation, having this man on top of him, a man who was like an alpha in every way possible except for his breed of animal, made Aiden feel powerful.
His power came from knowing he had this kind of control over the other man, that he was so important already as to make Rey fearful of losing him. That Rey was willing to do almost anything he could to pleasure Aiden made Aiden feel like he owned the man.
Not in a bad way. In a sexy way. Especially as their mouths came together again and again while Rey stroked him.
His hand moved up to the heads of their cocks, finding the pre-cum gathering there and slathering it down Aiden’s prick.
He clenched his teeth together, threw his head back, moaned, and shivered.
“That’s…that’s nice. Just like that.”
He opened his eyes and had to look down at what Rey did to him.
The dragon shifter moved his hips as though he was a dancer. A perfectionist. A master.
He was all of those things and more.
“You want my dick inside you?”
Another shiver. Aiden nodded. “Yeah.”
God. Definitely yes.
Aiden always wondered if being an omega would make him want to bottom more than top. He’d been with only one other person besides Rey, and he’d always feared that his partner would want to bring other people in. Or worse, that he would find a mate who would force the issue.
This was a different kind of bottoming altogether, however.
Even as Rey pulled back and reached for the bottle he’d grabbed earlier from his downstairs bathroom, when it became apparent they were going to do this in his living room, Aiden felt nothing less than excitement and eagerness.