by Wolf Specter
“Did your sire raise you, Dane?” Anik asked in a tight voice.
“No,” I answered, debating whether to tell him the truth. I was in his home, with his family. How would he react to knowing I had killed one of our kind? He was waiting, watching me expectantly, and letting out a slow breath I realized that I really had no choice. I wanted to understand what he knew about the mating bond. If I expected him to give me information, I would have to be as open as possible, too. “My sire fostered me with humans until my first shift. When he revealed himself to me, I couldn’t do what he asked.” I squeezed my eyes closed for a moment, pushing the memory aside. “I killed him, to protect my parents. I mean, my mère and père, the humans who raised me.”
Anik’s face remained calm. I couldn’t read him. “And then?” he prompted me.
“And then I tried to continue to live as a human, for as long as I could. Until I realized that my body wasn’t aging, and people… noticed. I claimed my sire’s territory, although I didn’t realize that that’s what I was doing at the time.”
“Following instinct,” Ben interjected.
I nodded. My dragon had found the boundaries of my sire’s territory and marked them. “Eventually, I found another dragon in my territory. Maksim. I befriended him before his first shift. After, I explained what I knew about what we are. I met a few others over the years. Older dragons who hold territories in eastern Europe, and Maks’ father. I didn’t like what I saw from them, the way they treated humans. And each other. Maks agreed, and we mostly kept to ourselves until we came here.”
Anik nodded, looking a little sad. “Better to be ignorant of your nature than to follow in the footsteps of the European dragons,” he agreed. “But that leaves you with nothing other than the instincts of your other self, and you have denied them. Your mate — you said he still lives?”
“Yes.”
“Then it is good you came.” He smiled at me warmly. “Our kind is too much alone. But you have found the rare gift of your fated mate—” he pressed a kiss to the top of Mikkel’s head. “And soon you will have a child. You are blessed, youngling. Now, ask me your questions quickly. Every moment without your fire is a hardship on your mate.”
I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding, and the hope I’d been clutching in my chest started to blossom into the promise of a future.
A future with Wesley.
19
~ Wesley ~
Ty was staring at my stomach.
Again.
All things considered, he was taking the whole thing pretty well.
“So, this is weird.”
“You want to touch it, don’t you?”
“What? No.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Okay, maybe. Is that weird?”
“Not as weird as being the one who’s actually pregnant.”
Ty laughed, then reached out and lay a hand on my stomach. “Holy fuc—, uh, sorry. Wow. It feels really… hard.”
I laughed at his self-correction. “I don’t think the baby can hear you yet, Tee.”
“Well, what if it can, though, right? Fuck. Shit! I mean… ‘shoot.’ I’m going to have to learn to watch my mouth.” And then the baby did that wiggle thing that never got old. “Oh, my God! It moved, Dub!”
He put his other hand on my stomach, too, and the look of wonder on his face made me smile. Ty was going to be a great uncle, even if his language did slip now and then.
It had been two days since Dane had left, and even though I missed him, the bond between us didn’t seem to be affected by distance. I wasn’t sure exactly how far away he had gone, but my sense of him hadn’t diminished at all.
And for the last day, he had felt so happy.
“What are you smiling about, bro?”
“Dane will be here soon,” I answered without thinking. Huh. How did I know that?
When his knock came a few minutes later, Ty shot me a curious look. “Is that him?” he asked, only half joking.
I nodded.
“This dragon shi— er, stuff, is kind of freaky, Dub,” he said as he let Dane in.
Even though I’d felt his happiness through our bond, seeing him in person was a revelation. It hit me that I’d never actually seen Dane happy. Content, tender, amused — sure, but when he walked in Ty’s door the pure joy in his face almost made my heart stop.
“Dude, either you heard some really good news or you are way more into my brother than I gave you credit for,” Ty said. And then, a few minutes later, with a self-conscious laugh: “Bennett, get a room, man. Seriously.”
Dane set me down and turned back to my brother. “Both,” he said.
“What?”
“Good news,” he said. And then, with a wicked smile: “And I am definitely ‘into’ your brother.”
“TMI, man, TMI.”
I rolled my eyes at Ty. That’s not what Dane had meant, and he knew it. But then I saw my mate’s eyes flare and thought, huh, maybe he had meant… that. I blushed.
“We have to go, treasure,” Dane said to me. “I did get good news, but we need to do the thing we talked about right away.”
“You mean the breathing fire thing?” Ty asked eagerly. “I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around that, but dude, can I watch? If you guys aren’t fucking with me — oops, sorry, Dub — that sounds totally awesome.”
“You told him?” Dane asked me, arching an eyebrow.
“He’s my brother,” I said with a shrug. “And he was curious.”
Dane’s lips quirked in that sexy almost-smile. “That’s right. I’d forgotten how persistent Byrne can be.”
“Relentless,” I agreed.
“Tenacious.”
“Determined.”
“Obstinate—”
“Whatever,” Ty interrupted with an exaggerated eye roll. “So do I get to see this fire thing or what?”
“No,” Dane said. “Get your stuff, Wesley. We can head home as soon as it’s dark enough to fly.”
“Bennett, seriously. I want to see you breathe fire. I’m still not sure if I believe it, but dude, that would be fucking amazing.” He glanced at my stomach and groaned. “Er, ‘freaking.’ Shit, this uncle thing is going to be harder than I thought.”
I rolled my eyes, stifling a laugh.
“Come on, Wesley,” Dane said, grabbing my hand.
“Dude, for real. Let me watch.”
“Byrne, to complete the bond I need to give your brother my fire while I’m—” I shot him a look, and he had the good grace to look a little chagrined. “You’re not invited,” he finally said to Ty.
My twin looked back and forth between us for a minute before it dawned on him. It was a sex thing. “Oh. Oh! Okay, then.”
Awkward.
This time when I laughed it made me start to cough a little. It really was getting harder to breathe. “So what exactly did you find out, Dane?” I asked once I’d caught my breath. “Is it going to help me handle the pregnancy better?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling with his whole body. “Once you take my fire, we’ll be fully bonded. Connected, in all ways. My dragon’s powers will flow to you as easily as this awareness does.” He tapped his temple.
“So… I’ll be able to heal?”
“You will, and as long as my dragon is alive, you will be too. Wesley, I met Anik’s mate. He’s in perfect health.”
I knew dragons were long lived. Was he saying…? “How long have they been mated?”
Dane hesitated, glancing at my brother. He wasn’t used to being so open with humans, and I realized he would need some time to trust Ty like I did.
Ty came through, sensing that a subject change was called for. “Can I at least come see the dragon? And for fuck’s sake, stop making gooey eyes at each other. You guys are ridiculous. Come on. I’ll drive.”
Dane pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. But he was smiling. “Four hundred years of secrecy…”
Ty threw his arm a
round him. “Fuck, Bennett, I don’t even know if you’re kidding. But you hooked up with a Byrne, so get used to being part of the family.”
I followed the two of them out of the apartment, and I didn’t have the heart to point out to my brother that he’d just dropped two more f-bombs in under a minute. He was trying.
He was also still talking Dane’s ear off. I thought I heard my mate mutter a “God help me,” but our bond couldn’t lie — my annoying brother’s charm was working on him.
Family.
20
~ Dane ~
I knew my mate had questions. I could sense them brewing in his mind and I had felt it in the restlessness of his body as my dragon carried him back to the cave. He wanted to know everything Anik had told me, to understand what was in store for him.
And I wanted to tell him — but later.
Knowing that I could finally give in to the need that had been building in me since I’d found him, the instinct to not just fuck him, but to fill him with everything I had, was irresistible. Knowing that it would bind him to me forever made the anticipation so sweet it was almost painful.
As soon as Wesley dismounted at the mouth of the cave, he turned to me. His eyes were shining with excitement, and he was fucking beautiful. “So, Dane, how do we do thi—”
I dropped his bag on the ledge and shifted, cutting off his question with a kiss. I’d rather just show him.
I backed him into the cave, pulling off his clothes and letting them fall along the way. He gave a breathless little laugh and wrapped his arms around my neck, but his mouth kept moving.
“Are we—”
I kissed him again.
“Is this—”
I kissed him again.
“So we’re going to—”
I kissed him again.
“Okay,” he finally said with a breathy little sigh that was so sexy it made my already-hard cock twitch with the need to be inside him. Immediately. “You can explain later.”
We’d finally reached the bed and I’d managed to get him naked, two things for which I was infinitely grateful. I ran my hands down his smooth back, cupping his ass and pulling him against my body as I took one more taste of his soft mouth.
The roundness of his belly kept a distance between us, but for the first time I didn’t resent it. He was carrying my child, I realized as a thrill shot through me. I hadn’t let it sink in before now, any pleasure the knowledge could have carried having been overshadowed by my misunderstanding about what my dragon wanted from me.
But that was over now.
Wesley was my fated mate. It was something that sounded too mystical to be real, except that from the moment Anik had explained my dragon’s destiny, the truth of it had resonated in the deepest part of me. My dragon hadn’t just been drawn to Wesley because he was a man who could carry our child, but because he was truly the other half of my human soul.
Wesley’s happiness was my happiness, and right now I wanted nothing more than to make him very, very happy.
I turned him around, indulging in a quick kiss to the spot behind his ear that always made him tremble before pushing him forward. He braced himself on the bed, looking back at me with hooded eyes and licking his lips. His breath came in short little gasps that gave away just how ready he was.
“Dane, please… tell me that this fire thing means you fuck me.”
I nodded, groaning and pulling his hips back against me until my straining erection nestled between his cheeks. Heaven.
“Thank God,” he panted, wiggling his perfect ass in a way that almost ended it for me before we began.
He arched his back, looking back at me as he silently begged for exactly what I wanted to give him. The friction as I thrust against him was intoxicating, and I almost lost myself from the expression on his face as I rubbed against his sensitive hole.
I made myself stop, dropping to my knees behind him and spreading him open for a taste. His head fell down onto his hands as I licked up his taint and over his hole. He quivered against my tongue as I breached him, sending a surge of satisfaction straight down to my cock, but the quiet little sound he made as he rocked back against my face — half gasp, half groan — made me completely forget my own urgency for a moment. The soft, needy sounds that fell from his mouth made me want to stay there forever, fucking his hole with my tongue until I made him explode.
But then he started begging, and his breathless little pleas made me hotter than the fire I was about to give him.
“Dane, please fuck me. Please. I need… give me something… more, God, Dane…”
I groaned. There was no way I could deny him anything.
I stood up, reaching around to stroke his sweet cock a few times while I fumbled for the lube, liberally coating my fingers and shaft. Pushing one slick digit into him, I thrust gently until I felt the spongy bulge of his prostate.
“God!”
I pushed a second finger inside and almost came myself at the raw sound of my name on his lips.
“Dane, please, I don’t need… just hurry… please.”
I lined my cock up with his hole and slid into him, shuddering with the overload of sensation as I breached the tight ring of muscle and felt him clench around me. He uttered an indescribable sound of pure pleasure, and it almost brought me to my knees.
Wesley’s back glistened with a light sheen of sweat. He was full of heat, the back of his neck flushed and red, and he was quite literally the most perfect thing I had ever seen.
It was time to claim him.
This time, I didn’t have to hold anything back. Anik had told me so, but I could also feel it through the partial bond we’d already formed. I thrust into him, gripping his hips and relishing the fact that I could finally trust the instinct I’d been fighting for so long. Giving Wesley my fire wouldn’t hurt him, it would save him.
And it would save me.
I’d lived a solitary life for so long, deliberately keeping myself separate — even from the people who I considered friends. Now, though, I could feel Wesley inside my heart, inside my head, surrounding my body, cracking open a barrier inside me that I hadn’t realized was there until he broke through it.
It wasn’t my destiny to be alone.
He was my destiny, my perfect match, my everything.
And he was about to come.
I pulled him up against me, his back pressed against my front so that I could feel as much of him as possible. I wrapped one arm around his waist, holding him tightly as I drove into him again and again.
Sliding my other hand up his body, I felt every trembling vibration as he got closer to his release. I wrapped my hand around his throat, tilting his head back until I could capture his mouth with mine.
My whole world narrowed to the beautiful man in my arms. My love. My mate. I breathed him in, swallowing his cries when he finally came undone in my arms. The hot spray of his release coated my arm as his ass clenched around my cock. Heat surged through me, and I thrust into him one last time as I let it all go, pouring everything into him, my seed filling his body and dragon’s fire erupting from my mouth.
The flames licked over him, dancing across his skin and pouring down his throat, burning away any separation between us until I lost all sense of where I ended and he began.
What had been separate was made whole, and even when our bodies finally pulled apart, our souls remained one.
And it was forever.
21
~ Wesley ~
“You do not waddle, my treasure.”
I glared at Dane, waddling across the room to finish packing the things we’d be taking to Ty’s before the baby was born. In most ways, I loved the new closeness that our mating bond had brought. Instead of the vague sense of my mate that had been with me in the beginning, I could now hear his thoughts as clearly as my own.
And unfortunately, he could hear mine, too.
Dane was sitting on the edge of the bed watching me. He laughed at my internal grumbling and g
rabbed my arm as I passed him. Pulling me between his legs, he kissed away my crankiness. He put his hot hands on the small of my back and gave me some heat, easing the constant ache that carrying this child put there.
I cupped my hands over my enormous stomach, leaning into my mate and letting him soothe me. “I can’t believe I got this big in just six months.”
He chuckled, kissing my neck in a way that wasn’t soothing at all. I squirmed against him, catching my breath as warm tingles spread throughout my body.
“Just be glad it’s not a human pregnancy, love. Can you imagine having to wait for three more months?” he asked, nibbling his way up to my ear.
The subject of the impending birth of our child was one that usually left me with a mixed bag of emotions. On the one hand, I couldn’t wait to meet the little hatchling. My arms literally ached at times, desperately wanting to hold the child that Dane and I had made together. On the other hand, the idea of being a parent still made me want to hyperventilate if I thought too hard about it. I had never had to be responsible for anyone but myself before, and if it hadn’t been for Dane’s calming presence I would have been a basket case.
And then of course, there was the matter of the actual birth.
Anik had told Dane to “trust his other self” when it came to what I liked to think of as the c-section, but my mate and I had agreed on a plan that made us both feel a little more confident. As soon as I finished packing, Dane was going to fly us to Ty’s. We would stay there for a few days, out of sight, and then Dane would take me to a private clinic where he’d scheduled an actual c-section, with a real doctor.
Dane was supremely confident in his ability to compel the doctor and other staff to perform the surgery without questions and then forget it had happened, but I was a little less sure. The only time I’d seen him try to compel anyone — Ty — it hadn’t seemed to take. Dane insisted it was because my brother’s mind was tied to mine, and I couldn’t be compelled because I was his mate.
