by Olivia Myers
Chapter Five
Drake hated to leave Isaac alone so soon after everything that had happened. But there were matters he needed to attend to. Under different circumstances, Drake wouldn’t mind letting Isaac partake in them as well. But after the day Isaac had experienced, Drake felt it best to let him process in peace rather than take in more.
Drake rushed back down to the bottom floor and made his way to the conference room where he had told the triplets to meet him. He was relieved to see all three of the men there.
Once he was seated at the head of the table, he immediately passed the paper to Rowan who was on his right.
“Rowan, after you’re finished reading it, I want Raider and Rivers to take a look as well,” Drake instructed. “This is the email that I woke up to this morning. Naturally, I thought it was a lead to my parents’ killer. There were two men and one of them managed to stab me.”
“You were stabbed?” Rivers gasped.
“Yes,” Drake admitted. “But that’s not the point. I was taken to a human hospital and that’s how I met Isaac.”
Rowan passed the paper to Raider and asked, “But why did you bring him here?”
“He’s my mate,” Drake said.
All three men looked at him in shock but didn’t say anything.
Drake continued, “This doesn’t mean that anything changes.”
They all nodded in agreement.
Drake said, “Rivers, I have a job for you. I need you to get into the hospital database and erase all of my files. I also need you to see if you can figure out who this email came from.”
“I don’t think it matters who the email came from,” Rowan muttered.
Raider look at his brother in shock, “How could it not matter? Drake got stabbed.”
Rowan shrugged. “He’s fine now.”
Drake growled at the man. “I may be fine, but our secret was almost exposed. I was almost held captive in that hospital so I could be tested on. That is all I have to say on the subject at the moment. I want to sit down and talk again tomorrow after dinner.”
Drake may have liked a lot of privacy, but the four men had a family dinner every night. They were a pack of their own, and in a pack, it was important to create bonds. Drake felt as if dinner every night would be the best way to achieve this without being too much.
Without saying another word to the triplets, Drake rose up out of his chair and left the conference room.
Drake walked back upstairs to his bedroom and stopped outside of the door. He had to stop for a moment and take a calming breath. This was all new territory for Drake. He had never even been in a relationship, he didn’t know how to live with his mate. But he was no coward, so he shoved his fear aside and walked into the bedroom.
Isaac was in the middle of Drake’s bed, fast asleep. Something about seeing his mate in his bed stirred up Drake’s primal instincts. He never wanted Isaac to leave. Drake wanted to keep Isaac satisfied and safe in his bed. Alas, dinner would be served in little more than an hour and Isaac needed to come with him.
He walked over to his bed and gently stroked the side of Isaac’s face.
Isaac stirred immediately under his touch. His eyes slowly opened to look up at Drake. After a second, it seemed as if he remembered where he was and he sat up straight.
“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I was just going to lie down for a moment.”
Drake laughed at his mate and said, “I don’t care that you were asleep. By all means, if you’re tired then I want you to sleep in my bed. The only reason I woke you up is you need to get ready for dinner.”
“Dinner?”
“Yes, we will have dinner with the triplets every night,” Drake clarified. “I definitely have to shower. You’re welcome to join me if you’d like.”
Drake watched in satisfaction as Isaac’s face started to turn red and asked, “Uh, no thanks, but is it possible to take one by myself?”
“If that is what you desire, then you can take one after I finish. If you change your mind, feel free to come and join me,” Drake said.
Drake turned away while stifling a laugh as Isaac looked even more terrified than before. He walked into the bathroom and started the water before he stripped off his clothes. He threw them in the laundry bin that led directly to the laundry room downstairs.
The warm water welcomed him as he stepped underneath the stream. Drake could feel his muscles relaxing under the therapeutic stream. He craned his head back and let the water cascade over his face.
His thoughts started drifting and naturally, Drake started to think about Isaac. It was as if Drake’s hands started working on their own accord and traveled down his body. Drake grabbed his thickening cock, which strained underneath his touch. He was dying for some relief. It felt as if he had been hard since the moment he had met Isaac.
Drake let out a groan as his hand started working up and down his shaft. The seconds ticked by and his hand started working faster. His breath became more frantic and strained. It didn’t take long for Drake to be on the brink of his pleasure.
With his orgasm so close, Drake’s hand was working furiously.
“Fuck,” Drake shouted as he came.
Since Drake was slightly more stated now, he decided to get down to business and wash the remembrance of the day that was on his body. A couple of hours after his surgery, and there was a faint white scar in place. If he’d been human, he would’ve had a scar like this only after a couple of years had passed.
Drake was clean and wrapped a fluffy white towel around his waist before he walked back out into his bedroom. Isaac was sitting on one of the couches and was obviously trying to distract himself from what was happening in the bathroom behind him. Isaac may have been a human who didn’t know anything about mates, but there definitely had to be a feeling that he couldn’t explain. There was no way that Isaac hadn’t heard what Drake was doing in the shower, which doubtless made those feelings more intense.
Drake smirked as he walked across the room to his closet. He walked inside and didn’t bother to shut the door behind him. The towel fell to the floor as Drake started looking for clothes.
There were footsteps approaching and then Isaac peeked his head in. “Oh, God!”
Drake turned around and smirked, not bothering to cover himself, “If you wanted to see me naked, all you had to do was ask.”
Isaac’s face was red as he covered up his eyes with a hand. “I don’t want to see you naked.”
“Sure, whatever you say,” Drake said with a smirk.
“I was only coming over here to see if I could get into the shower now. I didn’t know you were going to be naked,” Isaac said.
“I think you’ve seen me naked plenty of times in the past few hours. However, the shower is all yours.”
Isaac didn’t bother taking his hands off of his eyes as he turned around to walk out of the closet. Drake watched in satisfaction as the man ran into the door jamb. Isaac uncovered his eyes so he could make it out of the closet, and Drake snickered when he saw the man’s eyes travel over to his naked body.
Drake was fully clothed and sitting at the piano when Isaac came out of the bathroom freshly showered. He paused his melody when he noticed that Isaac was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing before. They were no longer in the pristine condition they had been in when Drake had first seen the man. There was dirt, grass stains, rips, and tears.
“I apologize that you having nothing else to wear,” Drake growled.
Isaac looked slightly nervous under Drake’s gaze and muttered, “It’s fine.”
Something Drake didn’t recognize was taking over his body. His insides felt aflame and his throat felt as if it was closing up.
“It is not fine, Isaac. I’m the one who can’t even provide for his own mate.”
Drake had gotten up from the piano bench and turned to look out of the window.
Isaac answered him, “You don’t have to provide for me. I can
provide for myself.”
“That’s not how it works.”
Drake could hear Isaac scoff from behind him. “It doesn’t ‘work’ like anything. I am more than capable of providing for myself. It’s not as if I’m staying here forever, anyway.”
Isaac’s words felt like another stab to the torso.
Drake said, “You will be staying here until you’re safe.”
That much was true, but Drake knew that Isaac was going to have to stay longer than he expected. Drake had no intentions letting his mate slip through his fingers.
“Safe from what? I still don’t know what’s going on,” Isaac said.
“It’s a long story,” Drake sighed. “But I’m going to keep you safe.”
Drake didn’t want Isaac to respond, he didn’t want have to explain everything. Humans were fragile, and there was no doubt that Isaac was still trying to process seeing Drake shift. There was no way Drake would be able to explain mates right now. Isaac was going to need more understanding of Drake and his life before he could even begin to explain mates.
Drake turned away from the window and walked to Isaac. He said, “It’s time for us to go to dinner. We can talk about more about this later.”
Isaac looked as if he didn’t agree, but kept his objections quiet nonetheless. Drake wasn’t going to wait for Isaac to change his mind and demand an explanation now; he turned around and walked to the door not waiting to make sure that Isaac was following.
When Drake and Isaac walked into the dining room, the triplets were already waiting for them. Drake could hear their voices as he walked down the stairs. Once they walked into the room, all three of the men went immediately silent. All three pairs of eyes were glued onto Drake and Isaac.
Drake ignored the rude men and walked to his seat at the head of the table. The only problem was, a seat hadn’t been left for Isaac. They were seated as they were every night. Rowan to his right, with Raider and Rivers to his left.
Drake cleared his throat, “Rowan, move down if you please.”
Rowan’s body went completely rigid; he had not expected Drake’s request. Rowan looked at Drake with something close to pleading in them, as if he was begging Drake to change his mind. Drake wasn’t going to change his mind. From tonight on, the seat on his immediate right would be reserved for his mate.
The room was silent and all eyes were now on Rowan until he awkwardly moved down a seat. Isaac looked at Drake, a panicked expression on his face. It was obvious he didn’t want to be rude to someone. But it didn’t matter. Isaac was important and he would sit in his proper place.
Isaac’s shoes clicked against the marble as he made his way to the seat that was now open. Everyone was sitting stiffly as the chair softly scraped across the ground.
The servants had been waiting just outside of the dining room, waiting for the conflict to be resolved. Once Isaac was seated, they came forward to place the food on the table.
Isaac’s gaze darted around the table as he observed the four other men filling their plates. It looked as if a mouse had been thrown into a lion’s den.
Finally, Isaac seemed to decide that the best way to not get eaten by the predators was to try and blend in. Drake watched Isaac out of the corner of his eye as the man tried to ignore everyone sitting at the table with him. This was the tensest dinner that the tiny pack had experienced in a while.
Rowan looked positively furious, Isaac looked slightly scared, and Raider and Rivers looked as if they were trying to blend into the shadows. Drake hated when things were tense between him and the triplets. They were all each other had and times like this were a waste. What frustrated Drake the most was he couldn’t think of any way to defuse the situation.
Rivers was looking across the table in confusion. “Drake, why have you not given that man clean clothes? That’s a little rude, don’t you think?”
Drake turned his gaze in Rivers’s direction, “Well, I didn’t exactly know that he was coming.”
Rivers shrugged as he shoved food into his mouth. “You could’ve asked me for some clothes.”
There wasn’t any way that Isaac was going to fit into Drake’s clothes, considering that Drake was three times Isaac’s size. Rivers was the smallest out of the four of the men and the closest to Isaac’s size. But the mere thought of seeing his mate in another man’s clothes made Drake’s beast want to tear apart the room and destroy everything inside of it. But now that Rivers had said something to Isaac, there was no way Drake could say no without seeming even more suspicious to Isaac.
Drake glowered at his plate as he answered Rives. “That would be very kind of you.”
The rest of the dinner passed in silence. There were a few mumbles among the men. Neither Rowan nor Isaac said anything during the whole meal. Drake wanted to be angry, he had wanted his mate to be integrated into his close-knit pack with no trouble. The only problem was that it wasn’t realistic and it definitely wasn’t Isaac’s fault. If Drake had been in Isaac’s situation, he likely would’ve run out of the room five minutes into dinner. Isaac might not be saying anything, but he did better than what Drake had expected.
After dinner, Rivers took Drake and Isaac to get the clothes he had promised. Drake watched in disdain as Rivers piled Isaac with extra underwear, shirts, shorts, pants, and socks. It was almost as if Rivers was providing for Drake’s mate rather than Drake himself. His dragon wasn’t happy either.
“Thank you for the clothes, but I don’t think I’m going to need all of this for only a couple of days,” Isaac said.
Rivers didn’t respond before his nervous gaze shifted over Drake. “Well, just in case, then. Goodnight.”
The door was shut quickly and it was obvious that Rivers was eager to get away from the awkward tension and unanswered questions. Drake couldn’t blame him. He didn’t say anything to Isaac as they made their way back upstairs. He was trying to avoid conversations, not start one.
Once the pair were inside the bedroom, Isaac went to the bathroom immediately. Drake sighed and walked to the closet. Having a mate was proving to be more difficult than Drake had thought already. He was glad he had some time to explain being mates to Isaac, because he still had no clue what to say.
Chapter Six
Isaac immediately went to the bathroom to change into clothes that Rivers had given him. The man had given Isaac clothes to last him a couple of weeks.
Isaac still wasn’t sure how long he would be staying with Drake. The whole situation was too weird for Isaac to fully wrap his head around, but he did believe that he was in danger. There was someone that Drake was running from, that much was obvious. Isaac just didn’t know why. They were obviously a danger, considering that Drake had been stabbed.
He looked in the mirror to see that the clothes were still slightly too big for him. They were the best he was going to get, though. All the men in the house were gigantic and Isaac was average. He rolled the sweatpants a couple of times before he walked out of the bedroom. Drake was already lying on one side of the bed. Isaac hesitantly approached the other side.
“I can sleep on the couch if that would make you more comfortable,” Drake said.
Part of Isaac wanted to say yes, but he also didn’t want to kick the man out of his own bed.
“No, it’s fine. We’re both adults, I think we can handle sleeping in this gigantic bed together,” Isaac said.
The problem was that they were adults. And Isaac was an adult who was very much attracted to another adult. It didn’t matter if the bed was miles long, it still wouldn’t be big enough for Isaac to pretend that he wasn’t in the bed with Drake.
Isaac was still standing next to the open side of the bed and Drake’s eyes were burning into him, waiting for him to do something. He did the best he could to pretend that everything was normal. He lifted the blanket to slid in underneath it.
Once Isaac’s body hit the mattress, Drake turned off the only light that was left in the room. In the dark, without sight, it only left room for
the other senses to gain strength. Isaac could smell Drake’s delicious scent and he could practically feel Drake lying next to him.
His body was strung taut with nerves. It wasn’t like he was scared to sleep in bed with Drake. Well, maybe he was.
Isaac’s extreme attraction to Drake made no sense to him. Isaac had dated a few women in his life, but none of them interested him in the slightest. He had never dated a man, because they had never interested him wither. Isaac had become convinced that there wasn’t going to be anyone who did interest him. He was meant to spend his life married to his work.
Drake was the only person Isaac had ever met whom he had such an intense attraction to. It was intimidating. Especially when they were lying together in a dark room. Isaac might not have been able to see Drake at that moment, but he could vividly see the man’s rippling muscles. He could see the black ink that covered the man’s delicious skin. He wanted nothing more than to reach out and trace the lines with his fingers, and he barely stopped himself.
Isaac would never get to sleep without touching those tattoos. Which meant he would either be awake all night, or he could wait for Drake to fall asleep, then trace a line of tattoo on the sly.
Isaac concentrated on listening to the other man breathing. Within a few minutes, Drake’s breathing evened out and it was slow and deep. Drake was probably asleep and this was going to be Isaac’s only chance to fulfill his desire so he could go to sleep himself. He reached out with a shaking hand and gently placed his palm over Drake’s warm skin. He moved his hand slightly down the smooth skin to feel the hardened muscles underneath. Drake’s body felt better than anything Isaac could have ever imagined.
Drake moved and was hovering over him in the blink of an eye. Isaac let out a sharp yelp. His heart pounded painfully in his chest, and he was internally cursing himself for making such a stupid decision.