Accidental Dragon Spell [Fury 3] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Marcy Jacks

  “Give me a couple of minutes. I’ll get dressed and head on over to Silver’s. That’s where we’re meeting, right?”

  Blaze nodded, he and Drake already half turning to go, even though they still looked at Gold as though uncertain about something.

  “Yeah, sure thing. See you in a few minutes.”

  Gold shut the door after them. He still couldn’t bring himself to look at his mate, even as he turned around.

  “Will you do it?”

  Gold stopped. He rubbed his mouth. “Do what?”

  He glanced back. Sebby stared at him with an unreadable expression on his face. “You know what.”

  Gold turned away. It…hurt. It really hurt him to look at his mate like that when Sebby was in such clear pain and there was nothing he could do about it. “I don’t know.”

  Sebby winced.

  Gold cursed. “Look, I’m going to get dressed, and I’ll go speak with my alpha. You can have a shower now if you want. I’ll probably be gone within the hour.”

  “When will you come back?”

  Gold shook his head. “Not exactly sure, most likely after dark. Don’t wait up just in case.

  * * * *

  The dragon didn’t have to say any more than that. He moved for the stairs.

  Sebby didn’t move. He couldn’t. He could only stand there, his heart slamming, a strange kind of fear setting inside him.

  Fear at the thought of losing what he didn’t have a right to claim. Not just fear, full-blown terror.

  But if this was what Gold wanted, what right did Sebby have to stand in the way of that?

  He went to the upstairs bathroom. He needed to be there. He needed to clear his head, and he needed to get under water hot enough that it scolded.

  Anything to take his mind off of this pain that burned inside him.

  Chapter Ten

  “Gold, I need to talk with you for a minute.”

  Gold blinked at his brother. He didn’t understand. Then he shrugged. “All right, what about?”

  Silver motioned with his head. “Alone.”

  Silver looked around the room to the other men standing around, to Rey, Lightning, Drake, Storm, Blaze, and Jonah, who wasn’t a warrior but had volunteered to go and watch the rear to make up for the fact that Lightning would not be coming with them.

  The men looked amongst each other, as though not sure whether they were the ones being asked to go or not, but Silver made the decision for them when he walked around the room and to the doorway of the dining room.

  He glanced back at Gold, as though to make sure he was following.

  Gold did follow, biting back on a sigh in his throat.

  This could mean only one thing, and he wasn’t sure he was going to like it.

  His brother wanted to talk to him about Sebby.

  They made it partway down the hall before Gold didn’t want to move another step.

  “You know, you can tell me right here if you don’t want him around.”

  Silver stopped. He glanced back at Gold, his eyes narrowed. “What?”

  Gold shrugged, crossing his arms. “I don’t know. If you don’t want my mate here, you can tell me now. We don’t have to be all secretive and shit.”

  Silver stared at him for another hard minute then turned and faced him full-on. He crossed his arms next.

  Had it not been for the silver scale tattoo beneath his eye, Gold might have thought he was looking at his reflection.

  “You want to get all defensive about that warlock now?”

  Gold narrowed his eyes. “He’s my mate.”

  Silver nodded. “Yeah, and you’ve done your best to make sure everyone knows how badly you do not want him.”

  “I have not.”

  “Yes you have.”

  Silver clearly wasn’t ready to let this go.

  And it annoyed the hell out of Gold. “What the hell is your problem?”

  Silver shook his head.

  “What? You don’t know?” Gold asked. This entire thing was annoying him beyond all reason and seemed to be just a huge waste of time.

  “Look, Gold, I don’t want to tell you what to do. Not really. You’re an adult, so you can be an asshole to your mate all you want, but I just don’t want this to bite you in the ass.”

  The irritation that rushed him, that seemed to hit him out of nowhere, was so sudden and stark that Gold wanted to turn around and walk away.

  Or punch his brother in the face.

  “I have not been an asshole to Sebby. He’s my mate.”

  “And you were telling everyone how pissed off you were that he forced the mating with that spell. You made sure everyone knew.”

  “So what? That’s what happened.”

  “You know, I really did want to have this conversation somewhere more private. Where we wouldn’t be overheard by the rest of the guys.”

  Gold rolled his eyes. “All right, you want to go to the garage or something? Because I’m pretty sure, no matter where we go, they’re going to hear us.”

  “I’m trying to be polite.”

  “Then be polite and mind your own fucking business.”

  Gold could say with all honesty that he’d never seen his brother glare at him quite like that before. The man had a look on his face that suggested he might want a fight.

  Jealousy rose up inside Gold’s chest. “What? Do you want my mate now or something?”

  Silver’s eyes flew wide, and then he looked positively disgusted. “No! Are you fucking insane? He’s your mate. I wouldn’t…and I have a mate of my own.”

  “Then why do you care so much about what happens to Sebby?”

  “Because he’s your mate,” Silver shot back.

  Gold definitely picked up on the emphasis in the other man’s words.

  “I care because Sebby is now your mate, and it doesn’t matter whether you wanted him in the beginning or not, you both belong to each other now.”

  Silver paused briefly before bringing up the same thing Drake and Blaze had spoken of outside of his door.

  “Unless you find a warlock who will break the spell.”

  His defenses could not have gone up any more than they already had in that moment.

  It was the same feeling he’d had in his doorway when the option was presented to him.

  An option he wasn’t sure he wanted to take.

  “To break things off with my mate. Why do you care so much about whether I do or not?”

  Silver pressed his lips together then seemed to look at anything in the hallway other than Gold.

  “You need to either forgive him and decide whether or not you can move on with your life with him or tell the guy that you’re done and you’re either going to try breaking off the mating on your own or seeing if a spell like that can be reversed when we find the warlocks.”

  “I don’t want the spell reversed,” Gold snapped, though he felt as though he was just being stubborn to spite his brother at this point.

  Silver didn’t seem to pick up on that or to care.

  “Then you should let your mate know that.”

  “I would rather you stayed out of my business.”

  “I would like that, too.” Silver nodded. “But until you can stop acting like a child, I can’t.”

  Gold clenched his fists. Silver kept right on talking before Gold could say anything.

  “He’s your mate, and I get that you didn’t ask to have these feelings for him, but even if it was a natural mating, you could have wound up being in lust and love with someone you didn’t want either. A mating is basically two people coming together because instinct compels it. That could be considered force by anyone’s definition.”

  “So it doesn’t matter that he cast a spell on me without my consent? That he tried to turn your brother into a slave?”

  “Shut up, Gold. I know you don’t believe that shit any more than I do. He wanted to get away from his coven, from the high wizard.”

  “God, again with that. What’
s so scary about the wizards? Sebby was around them all the time. He knew what they were like. He knew what he was getting into when he joined up with their group.”

  “Some people are born into their covens.”

  Now Gold was the one to lift a brow. “What’s going on here?”

  He didn’t understand why his brother was doing this. He didn’t see the point to any of this. It wasn’t as though he was abusing his mate. He still treated the man with dignity and respect.

  He didn’t force anything onto Sebby. He gave the man entertainment, books to read, movies to watch, clothes to wear, and games to play. The man even had his own bedroom.

  A bedroom Gold enjoyed visiting from time to time. Okay, every night, but that was a different matter entirely.

  “I treat my mate well. Just because things are a little awkward between us doesn’t mean I’m mistreating or abusing him.”

  “I get that. I wasn’t going to use the word abuse, either.”

  “No, you just think I’m an asshole to my mate.”

  Silver had the gall to smile at him. “You are.”

  Gold clenched his fists. “Silver…I swear to God—”

  “You need to decide whether or not you forgive him. Whether or not you believe he was telling the truth when he said mating to you was an accident. I’ve seen you around the man. I know you want to forgive him. I know you want to be out in the open with him. I see the way you look at him.”

  Gold looked away from his brother. “That’s only because of the mating.”

  “Right, but you still have that mating. You want to protect everything your mate is. You want him to be a good person. You want to help him be a good person if you can. You want to forgive him, but you haven’t because you’re still furious.”

  Gold shook his head. He wasn’t sure how much more of this he could take. As it was, he was so fucking angry with the way his brother insisted on reading him like this.

  As if he thought he had any right to do that.

  “I’m not cruel to him.”

  “Stringing the poor guy along and making him think there might be hope for forgiveness is pretty cruel, Gold.”

  Gold couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe he was hearing these things out of his brother’s mouth. “Are you fucking serious? Poor guy? He’s the one who put us in this position!”

  “And he’s feeling the mating heat just the same way you are,” Silver countered.

  Gold jerked back at that. “I know that.”

  “Do you?”

  Gold narrowed his eyes. “Don’t play armchair psychologist with me. I do not care if you’re in charge of this property. Sebby is still my mate, and if I decide to break it off, that’s no business of yours.”

  The man is my brother-in-law for as long as your mating stands, and I don’t care if it’s not my business. I can’t stand to see a guy like that walking around as though death was hanging over his shoulder. The way you’re treating him is having an effect.”

  Gold blew up. “How am I treating him?” He stared at his brother, waiting for an answer. “He’s not being locked up! He’s free to come and go whenever he wants! I’m not denying him the mating heat, so it’s not like I’m torturing him! Tell me what I’m doing wrong!”

  Silver shook his head. “Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t know what goes on in your bedroom, but either way, I don’t give a shit. Either make the decision that you’re going to find a way to break this off with him, let him have the chance to mourn you, or forgive him and build a life. You can’t hold this over his head for the rest of his life and keep him as a mate. That’s a cruelty I won’t stand for on my property.”

  There was something about being told what to do in such a way that made Gold want to dig his heels in, made him want to deny what his brother was suggesting, and made him want to just double down in general.

  He didn’t do that. He pushed against the urge, and it was incredibly strong. Instead, he thought of the softness of Sebby’s voice when he tried asking if he really would break off the mating with him.

  He thought of the man’s trembling thighs as they clenched tightly around his waist while he thrust leisurely inside the man, spilling his seed, making Sebby smell like him as he claimed the man.

  And he thought of the hopeful eyes the man gave him every night as Gold dressed himself and prepared to leave the bedroom they’d shared.

  He didn’t like these thoughts. Gold had been so sure that Sebby had forced the mating on purpose, that he’d cast his spell for some nefarious reasons. After all, warlocks were sort of known for doing that.

  At the same time…

  Silver approached him. The man reached out. He gripped Gold on the shoulder.

  Gold looked at the man, at his brother. One of the few dragons in the world he respected.

  Silver sighed. “I don’t like that this happened to you, but we’ve questioned him again and again. You don’t have to say that what he did was right, but if you want to keep him and make him, and yourself, happy, you’re going to need to let this go. Forgive him and move on, or sever the ties right now. We can find a warlock who will break the spell, preferably with minimal damage to the both of you, or you can try doing it the natural way. It doesn’t matter, but this is turning you into someone you’re not, and it’s destroying your mate.”

  Gold didn’t like hearing that. He didn’t want to hear that his mate was being destroyed because of Gold’s action. He didn’t like thinking that he might be the bad guy in this scenario if it really was an accident.

  He didn’t want his mate to be hurt. He didn’t want his mate to suffer.

  And he especially didn’t want his mate to suffer those things at his hands.

  “We’ll be going in an hour or so. I want you to tell your mate right now what your plans are.”

  Gold looked up at his brother, shocked. “Right now?”

  Silver pulled his hand away. “Right now. We’re not going to torture him by making him wait until you come back. We could be gone for hours. Maybe even a full day or two. Go and tell him what you want to. Or stay here and hash it out while the guys and I go take care of business. I heard you didn’t want Lightning to be the one guarding him anyway.”

  Gold shook his head. No. He really didn’t want that. Lightning could be a definite asshole at times, and the man had made it no secret that he really didn’t like Sebby.

  “I’ll go and talk to him.” Though he had no idea what to say. “I’ll go with you on the raid.”

  Silver nodded. “Good. You got my phone number in case you change your mind.”

  Gold growled at the man and then decided to face the music. He turned and walked away.

  To forgive his mate and let it go? Gold was a stubborn son of a bitch. He wasn’t sure if he could do that.

  But if he didn’t, it would mean he would either have to let the man go or stay with him and make them both miserable for the rest of their lives.

  He didn’t want that for his mate. He didn’t want to be the cause of Sebby’s suffering.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sebby had pulled himself out of the shower and then decided to clean up the kitchen.

  If only to keep his mind occupied. His fingers still stung. If he’d known any healing spells, he would have used them, but considering how bad he was at using the skill given to his people by the gods, supposedly, he thought it best to not take the risk.

  With his luck, he’d only end up opening the wound even further and then giving himself a nasty infection.

  Gold wanted to be away from him. Gold was going to find a warlock and imprison him, or her, and force that warlock to remove the spell.

  He wouldn’t be the man’s mate anymore.

  Sebby finished rinsing the dishes and put them into the dishwasher.

  Shouldn’t he be happy about this? Essentially, the man was going to get what he wanted, and Sebby would be released from the guilt of what he’d done.

  And yet…

  He br
ought his hand up and rubbed at the sore spot on his chest.

  He needed to get out of here. He needed to go for a walk. He needed to clear his head.

  Thinking about his mate, a man he only loved and cared for because of his own stupidity, was getting him nowhere.

  Sebby grabbed a jacket.

  He’d been given permission to wander around the property two days ago. At the time, he didn’t understand why, and when he asked, Gold had growled at him.

  “You’re my mate now. You need me as much as I need you. I know you wouldn’t run.”

  He’d said it with such venom in his voice, as though he wished Sebby would take the risk. As though he wished Sebby would be gone from his life forever.

  Sebby put on his boots and made it outside. He looked to the sky. Some of the dragons were already there, circling, getting ready to go.

  The pain in Sebby’s chest increased dramatically. Gold would be up there soon. He’d fly off, and when he came back, the spell that bound them together would no longer be in effect.

  He might even come back with the intent on getting proper revenge on Sebby for what he’d done.

  Sebby didn’t think he could handle that.

  His heart ached too much to think of Gold actually hurting him.

  Would Sebby be heartbroken when it happened? Would he feel the loss? It wasn’t a natural mating, so he imagined he wouldn’t.

  At the same time, not being heartbroken over something so serious seemed…off. Sebby was already sure he would feel that heartbreak when it happened. That the cracking would cut deeper into him when Gold returned, no longer mated to him and no longer instinctually driven to protect or care for Sebby.

  If Sebby were in Gold’s position, he might just beat the shit out of the guy who had forced a mating onto him.

  Honestly, it was the least he deserved, but he was a coward.

  He didn’t want Gold to hurt him, which meant he needed to get as far away from here as possible before Gold came back, his head clear and wanting revenge for what had been done to him.