Wounded Love [A Dragon's Growl 11] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Marcy Jacks

  And because Theron had an idea of what was going on.

  The omega had only been free from the vampires for a couple of days. He was clearly testing out the boundaries of this new freedom.

  It was actually kind of cute, and brave, in a stupid, ignorant way.

  Theron would have even helped the man to come out here if he’d known it was what the omega wanted.

  He blinked away the thought.

  Really? That was what he was thinking about? That was what he chose to focus his attention on when he had so much else to get done? To worry about?

  No, he wouldn’t have taken the omega out here because it was too dangerous. Someone might steal his hat and get a look at his ears. He could be exposed, and that was something Theron didn’t want to happen.

  The men clustered around the omega as they put coins into the machine for him.

  Two other players took the extra guns, and then the thing was going off and they were blasting aliens.

  The omega smiled as he played his game.

  Theron didn’t like the melty thing his stupid heart did.

  No. No way. He wasn’t even going to let himself think like that. Theron was not going to let himself be attracted to a goddamned animal shifter. Theron was supposed to find a nice dragon mate, a beta who could fight with him, have his back. They could protect each other, but a beta mate also wouldn’t mind it when Theron took the lead.

  Theron wasn’t supposed to be looking at the smile of an animal shifter, especially not a broken, former slave who would need protection from absolutely everything.

  Including himself, in this case.

  That was too much baggage. Theron wanted nothing to do with it, and he’d be damned if he let that happen to him.

  No way.

  The omega laughed. Another sound that made something flutter in Theron’s stomach. Maybe he needed to grab something to eat to settle it. Especially if he was going to be having thoughts like this.

  He didn’t need this. Maybe there was someone he could take into the bathroom. Bathrooms in places like this were usually less than ideal, but he’d take what he could get so long as it would scratch this itch he’d found himself with.

  He needed to get laid. He needed to find someone in here that he could bend over the sink and show a good time and then never see them again. That would be amazing, and then he could stop looking at that omega.

  Theron watched carefully. The omega reached back a couple of times for his drink. He didn’t even know the golden rule. Never take your eyes off your drink in a bar. Ever. He kept doing it. His stupid fruit smoothie, one-percent-alcohol baby drink was totally unattended by him, sitting on one of the empty tables behind him while he kept returning to his screen.

  Lucky. He was so lucky Theron was even bothering with this.

  “Want something to drink? Or food?”

  Theron jumped a little. Fuck. Somehow the damned bartender had managed to sneak up on him. No one ever snuck up on him. That was insanity, and he couldn’t believe he’d let it happen.

  “Uh, sure, vodka.”

  “Straight?”

  “Uh-huh.” Theron did his best to look around the bartender, to pay more attention to what was happening with the omega.

  The bartender clearly noticed.

  “Popular one, he is.”

  Theron glared at the man. “Yeah, I noticed you didn’t ID him before giving him that drink.”

  The bartender shrugged. “He looks old enough, and that’s a baby’s drink anyway.”

  Theron wished he knew what the omega had been getting before now, but at the same time, at least there was that. It wasn’t a hard drink either way.

  “Are you police?”

  Theron shook his head. “No.”

  “Good, then mind your business. I’ll bring you the chicken wing platter, as well. You’ll like it.”

  Theron clenched his jaw, deciding it was best not to argue.

  The bartender walked off.

  At least the omega was old enough. Theron had tried to keep his distance from the omegas in the house. Animal shifters freaked him out, even the omegas, but as far as he was aware, none of the omegas Seth watched over were underage. They were young, to be sure, but not children. The youngest, Theron had heard, had just turned eighteen.

  It was enough to make him wonder what vampires did with the children of their slaves, but that seemed too horrifying to think about.

  He went back to watching the omega. He’d never bothered to learn the man’s name because he hadn’t wanted to get attached. It seemed like a moot point as he watched one of the men slide their hand around the little fox shifter’s waist, pulling him closer.

  And the omega smiled up at the man as though everything was all right with the universe.

  Theron’s claws came out. He scratched them down the table, his entire body clenching with an anger he’d never felt before in his entire life.

  He had to know. There was no way the omega couldn’t see what was going on around him. He had to understand that these men wanted something from him.

  Even if he was unaware they wanted to fuck him, how could he not pick up that they were closing in like that?

  A few of the others scattered, back to their game of pool, when they realized the competition was too great.

  That left only two other guys. One seemed to be really into the stupid game they were playing, as much as the omega was. They wanted to beat a high score, it seemed.

  The other two were giving off scents that even Theron could pick up in a dump like this.

  The smell of greasy food, body odor, and even the older scent of stale puke wasn’t enough to mask what the other two were after.

  It was incredibly subtle. Even though Theron was actively looking for it to make sure nothing would happen, he still nearly missed the deft fingers that fluttered over the omega’s drink and something dissolving in the ice.

  Then his omega reached out, grabbed the drink, and brought it to his lip…

  Theron flew forward. He was across the bar so fast it damn near made his own head spin as he slapped the drink out of the omega’s hands, watching it crash to the floor in a wet, sopping mess.

  “Hey!” The two men stepped forward, angry. The omega backed away, his mouth open, horrified.

  Theron had no time for that. He grabbed the man who had dumped…whatever the hell that was supposed to be…into the drink, and he squeezed hard enough that he heard bones cracking.

  The man screamed, shrieked like a little girl was more like it, as he dropped to his knees and held on to his hand as though he were cradling a dying kitten.

  “Motherfucker!”

  A fist flew at Theron’s face. He ducked out of the way quickly. Another fist shot out at him, and he ducked again then launched his own fist into the man’s gut.

  Theron felt the vibration and rattle of innards inside as he made them quiver with his strike.

  The guy wheezed for breath, hands around his stomach as he, too, went down, eyes bulging wide, snorting like an animal.

  And his omega ran for the door.

  “Fuck.”

  Theron looked to the bartender, who stared at the scene as though unsure if he should call the police or not. “Cancel those wings for me.”

  Theron burst out of the bar, the night air a thousand times more refreshing on his face than anything from inside that stale hellhole.

  He saw his omega, running down the road, not too far away. He would try to flag down the first car or truck that came along.

  Theron wasn’t going to let him. He was tired of this bullshit. He was angry, and he wanted to take the man home.

  Theron shifted. He didn’t give a shit if any security camera saw him either. No one would believe it. He launched himself into the air, flapping his wings, and soon he was swooping over the omega’s head.

  That wasn’t good enough for him, however. Theron made his claws as small as possible as he dived down, reached out, and grabbed the omega by hi
s arms.

  The little fox screamed and thrashed, but of course, his strength would be nothing compared to what Theron had.

  And Theron flapped his wings harder, pulling himself, and his prey, high into the air as he flew back home.

  Home, where he could teach his little omega a proper lesson.

  Chapter Three

  Angel tried his best not to scream, even though he was pretty sure he was going to die. Slowly and painfully. Oh God, he didn’t want to die. The ground was so far beneath his feet that if this dragon dropped him he would splatter like jelly.

  Heart pounding, during every second that went by, he waited for it. He waited for the dragon to decide it had enough of carrying him and to just let him go.

  Angel didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was frozen with terror or because he actually couldn’t get the words out that he wanted, but even if he could speak, he wouldn’t say anything to the dragon anyway.

  He didn’t want to risk that the dragon had somehow forgotten that he was carrying Angel in the first place and then decide to drop him.

  That would be the worst way to go.

  Angel gasped when he recognized the house in the distance, the mansion where Varrick used to live, where his son Sorin still lived, which the dragons had taken over.

  It felt like he was in the air for hours, but it couldn’t have been more than a couple of minutes.

  Angel also couldn’t stop himself from crying out when his stomach suddenly twisted, the butterflies pulsing and twisting until there were multiple wind storms happening in his gut as the dragon began to descend.

  “D-don’t drop me!” Angel screamed, unable to stop himself now that he felt death was so close.

  The dragon said nothing to him, and the ground came closer and closer still.

  He landed hard on his feet, rolling with the momentum on the grass, but he ended up on his ass, his limbs trembling, heart still pounding.

  He thought he was going to throw up on the pristine, dark lawn.

  Oh God, he was never going to sneak out of the mansion ever again. That was the worst thing in the world that could have ever happened to him.

  The dragon stood at its full height. It was a black dragon, like Evzen was, only without the tiny hooks and horns all along the scales.

  It was also speckled with white dots in random places. They looked like paint splatters. None of them could have been any larger than Angel’s fist, and some were so tiny he could barely see them at all.

  The dragon shifted, transforming into a face that Angel recognized. One of the new dragons, one of Evzen’s men who had come to live here and had promised to help take care of the territory.

  Angel stared at the man. He’d seen him in the bar, seen his enraged, twisted face, those blue-green eyes glaring at him when he’d slapped Angel’s hand.

  Angel’s hand still burned from the strike. It had hurt, and the sound of shattering glass had terrified him. He’d run away. It had been his first instinct.

  “Are you out of your fucking mind?”

  He wanted to run away right now. He didn’t want to be yelled at. He didn’t want this dragon to hit him again.

  The dragon, Theron, marched forward until he stood over Angel, staring down at him, his face looking like something in between a dragon and a man. There were scales on his face, and his eyes…his eyes glowed as they remained diamond shaped.

  Angel expected the man to breathe fire at him. He didn’t think he would ever see this dragon so angry. He didn’t think he would ever see any of the dragons so angry.

  “Answer me!” The dragon reached down, grabbed Angel by his shoulders, yanking him up and shaking him a little. “Tell me! What were you thinking? Do you know what could have happened?”

  Angel couldn’t speak. He cringed with every question the dragon asked. Had what he’d done really been that bad? Maybe the dragons here weren’t as bad as the vampires, Angel knew that much from his time living here, but apparently, they could still be incredibly strict.

  And Theron, the handsome dragon Angel had tried not to look at too much because he didn’t want to draw any kind of negative attention toward himself, glared at Angel as though he was the worst thing in the world.

  As though he was a fool. A simpleton. A worm.

  “Say something. Right now. Why did you do that?”

  Okay, that was a command if Angel ever heard one, and he couldn’t disobey a command.

  It was in his nature, ingrained into him from the moment of birth to obey.

  “I…I’m sorry. I won’t do it again.”

  Even as he said it, his heart ached.

  He’d liked going there. It had been fun, he was learning about humans, and he got to play games with people who didn’t used to be slaves to vampires. He was treated like a normal person.

  Theron snorted. “You’d better not.” The man yanked the bandanna off Angel’s head and threw it away. “You’re not going to be needing that anymore.”

  The hat must have fallen off and flown away when Angel had been in the air. Even with his fox ears free, he didn’t lift them. He was too embarrassed, too cowed, and even if he’d still had his tail, it would have quivered between his legs.

  Some of the lights in the house began to turn on. The house hadn’t been completely dark, but Angel still knew what that meant. He’d drawn attention to himself.

  “Please don’t tell the alpha,” Angel begged.

  Theron crossed his arms. “Are you kidding me? That’s the first thing I’m going to do when you decide it’s all right to put yourself in danger like that.”

  Angel ducked his head.

  Oh no. What if the alpha beat him? What if this was where he was proven wrong about everything?

  Angel had been living in this house for only a couple of days. The omegas who had been here before him had promised that everything was all right, and in comparison to Varrick, pretty much everything was better.

  “I don’t…I don’t want to get in trouble. Please.”

  “You’re already in trouble.” Theron’s powerful hand reached out, snatching Angel by his elbow. The grip was white hot and painful as the dragon yanked him along. “You have no idea what those men were going to do to you.”

  “They were just being nice.”

  Theron yanked Angel around so he was forced to face the man again, and this time, his expression, and his face, was demonic. “Just trying to be nice? Be nice?”

  Angel froze, unable to move under the strange way that Theron screamed at him, as though he was about to pop a vein in his neck, as though Angel had said something so utterly stupid that it couldn’t be believed.

  He froze up almost entirely. He could hardly breathe, and he didn’t want to be here.

  He didn’t want to be yelled at by this man.

  “You weren’t even watching your drink! They could have raped and killed you, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop them if I wasn’t there!”

  Theron kept shaking Angel as he screamed his words, his normally calm, blueish-green eyes turning a shade of red that suggested he was about to go into battle and kill someone.

  Angel’s eyes burned. He needed to get away. He needed to get away from Theron before the man could hurt him. The dragon was already hurting him.

  But he also couldn’t seem to keep his mouth shut, either. “Th-they weren’t going to hurt me! They were being nice. They were being my friends!”

  “You little…” Theron pressed his lips together, stopping himself from whatever he was about to say.

  His grip didn’t give Angel any slack either, however. The man’s claws started to dig into Angel’s skin.

  Theron might have stopped himself from speaking, but then he did something that Angel really didn’t see coming.

  Theron kissed him. Hard on the mouth.

  And then someone in the house started to scream.

  * * * *

  Theron had no idea what came over him when he kissed a terrified ome
ga, but it was just…there. The urge. The need to stake his claim since clearly this little omega had no idea of the dangers that were out there in the world, waiting for him.

  He kissed the man as though his life depended on kissing him. He kissed the omega as though he was planting his flag for the whole world to see.

  Because he wanted to drive away anyone who might get it in their heads that putting their hands on this fox omega was a good idea, that, in fact, it was the worst idea of their lives.

  If he could, he would go back there and do more than break one man’s hand. They were lucky they weren’t dead.

  The sweet mouth and plump lips were shocking. Theron hadn’t expected the omega’s mouth to be so…soft. He’d thought he would get something different. He wasn’t sure what that something was, but he just knew it wasn’t what he got.

  This was a real breath of fresh air and a good, tall drink of water.

  And then the scream ruined it.

  He pulled back from the omega’s mouth suddenly, glancing up toward the house. The scream came from one of the windows with the lights on.

  “Is there an attack?” asked the fox omega, his body quivering.

  Theron honestly had no idea. He strained his ears, his fingers unclenching as he released the omega.

  And then realized his claws had sunk deep into the man’s flesh.

  Guilt wracked him. He didn’t want to feel so terribly. He didn’t want to scare a former slave of the vampires by doing something so…

  Whatever, he was going to focus on it later.

  “Stay here. Don’t move a muscle, understand?”

  The omega nodded, his pretty hazel eyes wide.

  Theron nodded, satisfied he was going to get obedience with the command.

  He let his wings out but otherwise stayed in his human shape as he leapt across the lawn and landed hard on the roof. He ran to the window where the screaming picked up again.

  He glanced through the glass, expecting to discover an attack, to see a dozen of the men in black attacking the house, the omegas, and the dragons, forcing him to break the glass and make his swift entrance.

  No. What he saw inside was not an attack, and no one was being tortured to death.