Bound by Thorns (The Dragon Soul Series)

by Sean Michael

  Luke leaned back on the counter, drawing him to rest hard against the strong body. The ease with which Luke held him was a testament to the strength of the man. The fact that Luke cared for him, made things easier for him, spoke of his gentleness.

  He reached up and cupped Luke’s jaw, holding on.

  This was magic.

  It is magic.

  Luke continued to kiss him, the words echoing in his head.

  He gasped, eyes searching Luke’s. Was that you?

  Who else would it be, Pet? I’m your soul mate, no one else.

  Okay, weird. How much can you hear?

  Strong thoughts. Anything directed at me. It’s new. It’s the bond. Luke stroked his back, soothing him. It was almost like contact with Luke was a drug.

  Say something out loud. So he knew this was really Luke and not...someone else.

  “What do you want me to say?” Luke asked, smiling down at him.

  “That worked. Did you know that was a thing?”

  “I knew it might be a thing. There’s lore associated with soul mates.” Luke checked the oven and rescued the garlic bread, the surface nice and crispy looking, and shining from the butter.

  “Lore? No one’s done it before?” That seemed unlikely.

  “Sure they have, but we don’t exactly spend a lot of time together. Deke and Jake are both pretty newly soul mated and we haven’t discussed a lot of the specifics. My brother Mark was in pretty deep with a soul mate—we hardly ever saw him after the bond.” A shadow crossed Luke’s face. “The guy was killed. Mark was decimated.”

  “Oh.” Dude. That was...shitty. “I’ve already proven the landmine couldn’t kill me. I think you’re safe.”

  “My soul mate comes in extra tough.” Luke touched his cheek, fingers so careful. “I like it. I’m not letting any murderous bastards near you, either.” Luke shook his head. “No, that wasn’t fair. Mark wasn’t at fault. And it really did damn near kill him. Nobody talks about it around him and out of all of us, he’s the one with experience.”

  “Well, I’m sorry that happened to him. That sucks.”

  “It does. It was awful for a lot of years.”

  “This whole thing is fascinating—you and your brothers. Dragons and soul mates. Are there legends? Is there a book or something?”

  Luke shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s anything concrete anywhere. It all seems to be rumours and stories.”

  “Someone should track everything down. Make an archive or something.”

  “It’s not a bad idea.” Luke touched the steaks, then took them off the grill. “Caught ’em before they went too far. You’re okay without vegetables, right? We’ve only got frozen and canned, so they aren’t my favorite.”

  “That’s cool. I’ll get plates.” He eased up, balanced and realized he didn’t have his crutches.

  He’d left the bedroom without even thinking to grab them. He’d come into the kitchen and stood at the counter, cutting up garlic. He looked down at his legs as if he expected them to suddenly give out from under him.

  “Easy, Pet. I told you.”

  “I stepped on a landmine! You don’t get fixed from that!”

  “You were already feeling better before I sealed the bond by coming inside you. Now things will work faster. You’re changing. That’s why you need to eat a lot—your body is working hard.” Luke dished up the huge steaks and added the garlic bread to the plates. “Let’s sit. We can talk over breakfast.”

  He nodded, but he didn’t move. He couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t focus.

  Luke put the plates on the little table, then came back to him, and put a hand on his back. “Greyson.” His name was a growl turned into a word.

  “I—” He shook a second, then looked to Luke. He couldn’t breathe.

  Luke cupped his face in both hands and pressed their mouths together. Air flooded into his lungs. “Better?” Luke asked, staring into him.

  He nodded. Blinked. “Yeah. Yeah, better.”

  “Good.” Luke picked him up, wrapped those strong arms around his body and lifted him up off the floor. He was carried over to the table and set back down onto his feet next to one of the chairs. “You need to eat. I’ll keep saying it until you do.”

  “Okay. I’ll let you.”

  “You need to eat.” Luke handed him a fork and a knife.

  “Thank you. I just...”

  “Eat, Pet. Now.”

  The steak and garlic bread did look and smell amazing and his stomach snarled at him, adding its own voice to the demands for him to eat.

  He took a bite, so hungry he was almost nauseated, then he started to feast. It was only when he was about three-quarters of the way through the steak—and he hadn’t eaten so much at one sitting in a very long time—that he realized Luke had already finished his and was watching him like he was the most fascinating thing Luke had ever seen.

  “Sorry. Sorry. I was being rude, eh?”

  “Were you? How so?” Luke asked.

  “Not stopping to chat?”

  Luke snorted. “I told you to eat and you ate. Finish your plate and I’ll get us something for dessert. There’s a bunch in the freezer. Cheesecake, crumbles, layer cakes, cream puffs, ice cream. What’s your pleasure?”

  “I don’t think... You made brownies. Let’s eat those.” God, he was starving.

  “That’s right, I did. We’ll have ice cream with them. You finish that up and I’ll get the dessert plated. Unless you want another steak or more garlic bread first?”

  “No. No, I’m going to bust if I keep going.”

  “I doubt it. You needed to eat more even before I came inside you. Now your body is going to need a lot more to keep up.” Luke touched his cheek. “I like watching you eat.”

  He leaned into the touch and closed his eyes, luxuriating in it. A low rumble came from Luke, making him shiver deep inside. He loved the sounds Luke made—loved them.

  “I could lose myself in you,” Luke murmured before kissing Greyson. “Hold that thought for after dessert and we can see who tastes better with ice cream on their lips.”

  Luke gave him another quick peck, then moved into the kitchen to pull down bowls and grab the brownies, then the ice cream from the freezer. “You’re going to have to tell me what all your favorite foods are so I can make you wonderful meals. And so I know what to add to the order when the snow thaws.”

  “I like food. I guess my favorite is chicken parm, but I like most things.”

  “Chicken parm is the one with the crumb coating, tomato sauce and cheese, right?” Luke dished up the brownies and added ice cream to both their bowls before putting the container back in the freezer.

  “Uh-huh.” He finished the steak, then carefully walked the plates to the sink. Without his crutches and without falling. He wasn’t going to think about that too much right now, because it freaked him out a little if he did.

  Luke set a spoon in each of the dessert bowls before handing one to him. “How about we sit on the sofa? We could see if the satellite is working and if it isn’t we could watch a movie. Or we could talk. I know you have questions.”

  “The sofa sounds fine.” Did he have questions or were they more concerns?

  “Good. I like being both comfy and close enough to hold you.” Luke led the way to the sofa.

  He followed, feeling a little less steady this time, like he was getting tired now. He made it, though, dropping down next to Luke. Luke’s arm immediately went around his shoulders. It felt warm, heavy and right.

  They ate, both of them, and the ice cream made him shiver. Luke grabbed a blanket from the arm of the couch and settled it around his legs, then tugged him closer. The man’s heat was unending and it poured over him. He wanted to drown in it.

  Luke set his bowl
on the coffee table when he was done, and when Greyson finished his a few seconds later, Luke put it on the table, too. Then Luke drew Greyson onto his lap, cradling him. “Now you’re where you belong.”

  He couldn’t argue that fact. He was perfectly comfortable, settled, and happy. “That I am, Dragon.”

  Luke rumbled, and it vibrated against him where they touched, almost making him a part of the sensual noise.

  He hummed, trying to match the sound. “You make me feel good, man.”

  “I want to. It’s important to me that you’re happy, satisfied, settled.” Luke rumbled again as he stroked Greyson’s back.

  “Is it?”

  “Of course it is!” Luke replied immediately.

  “It’s just... Well, you didn’t get to choose me as your soul mate. I was thrust upon you, so to speak.”

  “I prefer to look at it as you were gifted to me. The perfect mate created for me. I’m very happy that you are finally here in my life.” Luke sounded pretty sure.

  “Okay.” Greyson could accept that answer. Luke didn’t strike him as the kind of guy to make shit like that up. In fact, he was pretty damn sure Luke wouldn’t. He closed his eyes, enjoying their closeness.

  “I could love on you some more,” Luke suggested. “I want to do that forever.”

  “Don’t you have to work?” Greyson was on disability, but Luke wasn’t.

  “I do have to patrol once a day, and there’s more to do in the summer, too. And we need to break to eat, bathe, etc. I still want to love on you forever. Just because I’m not doing it, doesn’t mean you’re not always on my mind. You should know I’m always thinking about you.”

  He leaned in, his cheeks burning. Luke bent and brought their mouths together, lips soft against his. The kiss stayed light, easy, but he could feel the promise of more right there.

  Luke reached down, cupping his hip, one thumb drawing lazy circles on his skin.

  “You wanted to talk, right?” Luke murmured against his lips. “I’m happy to, but I have to admit to being easily distracted. I’m trying to be good, though. I really am.”

  “Did I? I think I wanted to ignore everything.”

  “I can help you with that endeavor,” Luke noted, then rubbed their noses together. “As long as I’m not included in the ‘everything’.”

  “You make me smile, man.” He shook his head, rubbing noses again.

  “I do more than make you smile.” Luke cupped his ass and shifted him so he was straddling the strong body instead of curling up against it. Then Luke brought one hand around and rubbed his growing cock through his sweats.

  “I can’t straddle anymore...” He spoke the words automatically, but not only was he doing it, it wasn’t the first time since coming here.

  “Shh. Don’t worry so much about what you can’t do. I’m loving on you—you should love on me and that’s all that’s important.”

  “Right.” There was something addictive about this whole dragon thing.

  “Don’t stress the changes, rejoice in them. We’ll be together forever, you know? That’s a long time to get used to things.”

  “You know that I’m only human. I don’t have forever. I have until I get old.”

  “I told you that your body was going to be changing. Part of that is long life.”

  “That’s scary, Luke.” Nobody wanted to live forever. Not really. Right?

  Luke gave him a surprised look. “I thought everyone wanted to live forever?”

  “Do they? How many wars have you seen? How awful has it been? How old are you?” He had a million questions.

  “I thought they did. I don’t think most people think of the wars. Or the loneliness. But don’t you see? I have my soul mate now, so I’m never going to be alone again.”

  He didn’t know how to process that. He wasn’t sure Luke could explain what he needed to know anyway. Luke had no experience with a finite life, from what he could see. “I’ll do my best.”

  “Do your best at what?” Luke asked.

  “Making sure you never feel alone.”

  “You do, just by being. This isn’t a burden for you. It’s a joy for us to share.”

  “No. No, I didn’t... It’s just big. You being a dragon, that’s okay. But me changing? That’s big.”

  “You’re not going to turn into a dragon,” Luke told him. “Although, that’s a shame because being a dragon is good.”

  “I know! No fair. You get to fly. I’m always going to be me.”

  “I promise to take you flying anytime you ask me to. Anytime.”

  “Yeah?” He took a kiss. “You remember that you don’t like people in your woods, right?”

  “You’re not people.”

  “No? Are you sure?” He felt like people.

  “I’m sure. You’re my soul mate, and that’s not the same thing as people at all. You’re special. You’re mine.” There was conviction in Luke’s voice.

  “Good to know.”

  Luke brought their mouths together, sliding their lips along each other. “What else do you want to know?” Luke’s fingers moved on his back.

  “Why me?” His eyelids got heavy.

  “Because you’re mine.” Luke said it like that’s all there was to it.

  “Did you pick me?” He couldn’t keep his eyes open.

  “That’s not how it works. The universe made you for me and then put you in front of me.” Luke kissed his eyelids.

  “Oh, I like how that sounds.”

  “It’s the truth. Or maybe the truth is that the universe made me for you and finally put me in your path.”

  “Either way, it’s better than you only picked me because I showed up.”

  Luke laughed. “I still would have saved you from freezing to death, but that’s where it would have stopped if you hadn’t been you. Hells, I’ve done it before.”

  “Have you? Have you seduced them, too?” That thought made him rumble.

  “Easy, Pet.” Luke tugged him closer. “I rescued them from themselves and the cold. I got them to civilization and out of my hair as quickly as possible.”

  “Good.” Okay, hold on. Breathe. This wasn’t like him.

  “I like possessive Greyson. You know how I feel about you now. It’s part of the bonding.”

  Was everything from now on going to be because of “the bonding”?

  “No, Pet, but right now it is. Right now we’re in flux.”

  Okay, that answering questions he hadn’t asked out loud thing was going to take getting used to.

  “You will. That’ll settle, too. At the moment you’re very loud, but eventually I’ll mostly hear what you’re deliberately aiming at me.”

  “I hope so. What if I have a secret to keep?”

  Luke’s eyebrows drew together in a frown. “You don’t need to keep secrets from me.”

  “Sure. What if I buy you a present? What if I have a secret thought—that happens, you know. Like a jack-off fantasy or a nasty thought that you don’t mean.” What if he didn’t ever want to burden Luke with his memories from when he was deployed?

  Luke shrugged. “I don’t know. Seriously, I don’t. I’ve never actually done this, either, you know?”

  “I guess we’ll figure it out together.” He guessed they’d have to.

  “We will. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather do it with.” Luke pressed their mouths together again, more kisses that stole his breath and warmed him through.

  He melted, exhaustion making him boneless. Maybe they could stay right here for a while, rest.

  Of course we can, Pet.

  Luke’s words and his warmth flowed over Greyson, relaxing him further. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the peace.

  Chapter Eight

 
Luke kept an eye on the weather and when it was clear the next day, excitement ran through his veins. He wrapped his arms around Grey. “We can go flying today.”

  “But...what if I fall off?”

  “There’s a spot for you that’ll be perfect. You won’t fall.”

  He could feel his pet’s doubt and worry and excitement, all blended together.

  He turned Grey in his arms and cupped his face. “Trust me.”

  “I do. I’m just... This is a new one.”

  “You’re dreaming about flying, though.” Luke rubbed their noses together. “I’d go by myself, but I don’t want to leave you home alone. It’s an amazing thing, anyway. You should enjoy it.”

  “I want to come. I don’t want you to go without me. I’ll get bundled up.”

  “You don’t need to wear anything if you don’t want to. I’ll keep you warm.” He knew once they were connected nothing could reach his boy. He started to strip himself, so as not to ruin his clothes.

  “It’s bitter cold out there, Luke. I’ll get frostbite. You must not feel it.”

  “I’m a dragon, remember? I’m built for it. And that will extend to you. You don’t have to believe me, though. I’m not going to force you to ride me naked.”

  “I’m not freezing my nuts off, you crazy old man.”

  “Your loss and I’m only old compared to you.”

  “How old are you?”

  “I don’t know exactly. Maybe nine hundred years old.”

  Grey looked at him with wide eyes. “Wow. That’s... How could I ever be someone you wanted to talk to?”

  “Don’t you know you’re fascinating?”

  “Like I have anything to offer you. You’re...you’re a fucking dragon.”

  “And you’re my soul mate. That makes you pretty special.” Luke grabbed his arms and tugged Grey in for a kiss. Grey pressed closer, emotions a swirl around him. Goddess, he really could do this forever.

  He slowly stripped Grey down, then led them outside. Grey didn’t have to strip down to skin, but he didn’t want his bonded getting all decked out for winter—he’d never feel all the wonderful things like that.

  Grey followed him, staying close.