by Lynn Hagen
NAZARYTH
The Exiled 1
Lynn Hagen
EVERLASTING CLASSIC
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Chapter One
Theo leaned against the counter, talking with a few of the mates when he noticed the man who seemed to make him forget his own name sitting at the bar. Theo hadn’t remembered him walking in but could feel the man boring a hole in his back with his eyes.
He talked a few more minutes with Toby and Jasper before excusing himself. He didn’t want to seem desperate, so he grabbed a hand towel, tossed it over his shoulder, and took another patron’s order first. The stall tactics may have been working to delay him rushing over, but they didn’t help his hardened cock or his racing heart.
Finally, after Theo thought enough time had passed, he sauntered over. He was hard-pressed not to look the man straight in his eyes. He knew the stranger would see the longing, and Theo wasn’t going to put himself out there like that again. Once was enough to keep his heart guarded, and he knew this man would steal his heart if he allowed him.
“Michelob?” Theo asked with a steady voice.
The stranger’s sexy-as-sin lips pulled back into a smile that Theo could only describe as wicked. He nodded his head as his eyes openly assessed Theo’s body. He could feel his body flush at the blatant perusal.
Theo grabbed the beer, popping the cap and setting it on the counter. “Name’s Theo.” He didn’t dare hold his hand out for a shake.
Theo feared touching the man and losing control.
The man gave Theo a low and erotic chuckle as he lifted the beer from the counter. “I know who you are.” Right. It’s not like his name wasn’t over the door. Theo felt kind of foolish as he stood there for a moment with a blank mind.
“I am Nazaryth,” the man said as he slid his hand across the bar, palm up.
Theo wasn’t so sure he should take the man’s hand. His gut told him to run as far away from Nazaryth as possible. Against his better judgment, Theo slid his hand into the stranger’s and gasped as images assailed him.
The stranger leaned in closely, pressing his lips to Theo’s ear. “I am the leader of the Winged Beasts of Zanthar, and you, Theo, are my mate.”
Theo pulled his hand back, his head snapping around to see if anyone had witnessed the exchange. No one seemed to be paying them any attention, but Theo felt as though the whole room was watching him. He stared into the man’s dark eyes, wondering if the guy had lost his mind.
To hear the word mate again was a blow to his mind. He never thought to hear the word again applied to him. After his mate’s senseless murder it had taken ten years for Theo to get past his mourning, another five for the numbness to finally wear off to where Theo actually cared about another being. He had finally taken joy in life, if only day-to-day.
Now this man sat here and claimed to be Theo’s mate?
“You have the wrong person, buddy,” he snarled as he grabbed the hand towel and slung it over his shoulder, angered that anyone would put such a claim to him. “I don’t care who you claim to be. You’re not my mate. He died a long time ago.”
“I am aware of Dorian,” the man spoke low, his voice a touch gravelly as sympathy shimmered in his eyes. Theo didn’t want sympathy from this handsome stranger. He wanted to be left alone.
The longer he thought about it, the more pissed he became that this man would even speak Dorian’s name.
Theo spun around, glaring at the man sitting at the bar in his tavern claiming to know his long-dead mate. His Dorian. “Get out.” The man pushed away from the bar, giving Theo a slight but arrogant nod. “I’ll go. But rest assured, I’ll be back.” Of that, Theo had no doubt. The man seemed inflated enough to do just that. Theo watched Nazaryth walk out of the front door, a sense of loss immediately following the man’s departure. It was insane that he would feel anything other than lust toward the guy.
Nazaryth was not his mate. There was no pull, nothing to indicate otherwise. So why was he wanting to run after the man? Theo wasn’t sure. There should be no sense of loss in him.
There was only a hard cock and horniness. As it should be. No, Theo was imagining the need to make the man come back.
The guy was off his fucking rocker. Theo glared at the man’s broad shoulders as Nazaryth left his tavern. How did Nazaryth even know about Dorian? He hadn’t spoken his deceased mate’s name aloud in almost a decade, and only in the darkest of night when he was alone. Theo had never told anyone Dorian’s name, not even when he was mourning his loss. It had hurt too badly to say the man’s name.
Even thinking about Dorian right now hurt like a bitch. His stomach instantly tied into knots, and Theo was on the verge of tears.
He cleared his throat as his eyes scanned the tavern, wondering if a day would ever come when he could think of his mate without pain.
No, Nazaryth was not his mate and would never be. That part of his heart was dead, along with his mate, and no other would ever claim it. There was definitely an attraction, a strong one to that hot ass man, but it wasn’t a pull. Theo had been mated already. There was no second time around.
“You okay?” Torem asked as he took a seat.
Theo watched the door for a moment more and then nodded.
“Yeah.” He had to shake off the empty feeling. Theo guarded against negative feelings that threatened to send him back into his dark depression.
“Someone giving you problems? You know I’ll take care of anyone fucking with you, Theo.”
And Theo appreciated the gesture. He just wasn’t sure Torem would be able to help him out with this problem. “No, I’m fine,” Theo lied as he shook his head as he walked away.
Nazaryth swung his leg over his motorcycle, glancing at the tavern for a moment longer before starting his bike and pulling away.
After a lifetime of searching, he had finally found his mate. If the shifter thought he was going to toss Nazaryth out on his ass that easily, Theo had another thing coming.
“Did you tell him?” Dog asked as his bike drove up next to Nazaryth’s on Route 14. He wasn’t sure how Dog knew where he was, but he should have known the man wouldn’t be too far behind.
Dog had served him well over the past twenty centuries, always at his side, the first to jump in and fight when chaos reigned.
The guy was lethal when it came to fighting, but he was also on the quiet side, and Nazaryth knew those were the ones to watch out for.
“Yeah. And he jumped for joy,” Nazaryth said sarcastically as he sped up. He knew what was coming. “Right before he kicked me out,” he said into the com-link built into his helmet.
He could hear Dog’s hoots of laughter as Nazaryth clenched his jaw tightly. He was glad his best friend found it so damn funny. He, on the other hand, did not.
“He’ll give in. Of that I’m sure. Who could resist any of us?” Dog teased in his calm and deadly voice. Nazaryth shook his head at the bantering as he glided down the country road, heading back up into the mountains that lay east of Pride Pack Valley.
Nazaryth never thought he would find his zaterio, his mate, especially in a small town such as this one. He had stopped into Theo’s Bar and Grill on his way home and discovered his destiny behind the bar serving drinks. It had taken every ounce of self-control Nazaryth had not to pull his zaterio from the bar and take him home where he belonged.
Theo was a shifter. He was not aware of the customs of Nazaryth’s people. He was going to find out soon though. There was no way Nazaryth was going to allow his zaterio to get away from him. Time was of the essence, and Nazaryth had a small window of time, two days, before the mating heat became so unbearable that he would wish for death
if he didn’t claim Theo in that allotted time.
It really sucked some days to be a winged beast.
After a few hours, Nazaryth saw the small access road leading to the base of the mountain. He and Dog turned off of Route 14, heading in that direction. He didn’t like the feeling he was getting. They were coming up on their two-thousand-year anniversary of being exiled, and something always happened on the winged beasts’ anniversary.
Too bad it wasn’t flowers and a dinner.
No, King Zephyr would send the winged beasts a special gift to remind them of their banishment. The gift occurred every century, and they were coming up on their twentieth. Nazaryth had to admit, the king was creative.
“You feel that?” Dog asked from his com-link.
“Yeah. The king is up to something.” Nazaryth swung his bike around a large storage shed. It was roughly forty-by-forty in size.
Anyone who saw it would think it was a long-ago-deserted small hangar, and that was exactly what the winged beasts wanted.
Nazaryth had placed spells around the small building—a gift from his friend Boromyr—making anyone who came near feel a need to get away fast. So far, since they discovered this place a couple centuries back, the defense had worked.
Hopefully Zephyr didn’t blow down their house of cards. The rank bastard would do it just to piss Nazaryth off. Nazaryth came to a stop and slid his hand inside his leather, hitting the remote that opened the bay door.
Home sweet home.
He rode inside the building, parking his bike in a row of many as he cut the engine and removed his helmet. Dog rode in behind him, parking right next to him. Nazaryth hung his helmet up on the hook on the wall as he sauntered over to the back wall. “I don’t want to hear any shit from you. You’re not allowed to tell anyone about Theo,” he warned Dog.
The man snickered as he hung his helmet. “What’s wrong, boss?
You don’t want anyone to know you were put out of the tavern on your ass?”
Nazaryth growled at Dog’s laughter. The man was as loyal as they came, but his sense of humor sucked. Dog was the type to have your back while teasing the shit out of a person for getting into the mess in the first place. “Fuck off. He did not put me out on my ass.” Nazaryth snorted at the truth. “I walked out on my own.” This only made Dog laugh harder as they hit the code on the side of a long-dead panel, or so anyone who managed to get past their defenses would think. The back wall slid open to reveal a well-lit passageway that led upward into the winged beasts’ home.
“That may be just as bad.” Dog hooted with laughter.
Nazaryth ignored him as he jogged up the carved-out stairs and stepped into the cavernous room. He grunted when he saw Tyson sitting on the couch watching some old black-and-white movie. That man was addicted to those classics.
“How’d it go?” Vydeck asked as he walked out of the kitchen. He had a large mixing bowl in one hand, his finger swiping around the rim.
“He got tossed out on his ass,” Dog said as he dropped down on the couch next to Tyson.
“Thanks.” Nazaryth curled his lip up as he walked over to his desk.
“Seriously?” Vydeck asked, staring at him with a despondent look on his face. “Tell me it ain’t so.”
“Why do you look so hopeless? It wasn’t your mate that told you to piss off.” The more Nazaryth thought about it, the angrier he became. Theo was his zaterio, and that should have mattered to the man.
From what Nazaryth had learned, shifters could feel some sort of pull when they found their other halves. It was different with winged beasts. They were created, not born. There was no pull, no instant need to be with the other. Winged beasts could just feel their zaterio in their very bones.
“If he’s turning you down, then what chance do we have?” Vydeck asked before shoving his finger into his mouth, a look of pure bliss on his face.
“Stop riding his jock.” Tyson tossed a Nerf football at Vydeck, who dodged the flying missile. “Not everyone drops to their knees around Nazaryth.”
Vydeck smirked at Tyson. “I’ve never dropped to my knees in front of him, but I hear you’re pretty good at it.” Nazaryth rolled his eyes. He’d never had sex with any of these men, but they loved to fuck with each other, each stating that the other man had. He would never understand them. There was nothing special about him to cause these men to tease each other like this, but when you lived as long as they had, shit got boring.
“Have you guys felt anything in the air lately?” Nazaryth asked as he sat back, tucking his hands behind his head.
“No, but I’ve been looking out for some sort of sign,” Vydeck said as he leaned against the doorframe leading to the kitchen. “It’s our twentieth-century anniversary. Zephyr will try something. He isn’t the type to let bygones be bygones.” There was a strange vibe all around them. Nazaryth could feel it.
He just wished he could see it. He hated anticipation and the unknown. It made a man jumpy as hell. “Where is everyone?” Tyson shrugged. “Out.”
No shit. Nazaryth had gathered that much by their empty home.
“Silo was supposed to debug my laptop. It doesn’t look like he’s done it yet,” Nazaryth grumbled when the page wouldn’t load.
“He also said that we were buried in a mountain, so getting satellite in here was iffy at best,” Vydeck reminded him. “He’s out getting something to enhance the reception, or at least that’s what he said. I’m not too sure what the guy is talking about half the time.” Nazaryth slapped his laptop closed and reclined back in his chair, thoughts of his mate stealing his attention. Theo was one gorgeous ass man. Nazaryth had never met someone with such pretty amber eyes before. Not on a man at least. He wondered if those eyes would beg prettily as Nazaryth fucked Theo until his zaterio was singing his name. Just the thought of having Theo under him was making him hot and horny. He was ready to go back to that damn tavern and have it out with the man for his right to claim him.
Nazaryth held back the groan when he thought of fucking Theo’s tight little ass. It would be magnificent. He just knew it.
“Hey, Nazaryth.” Trap smiled as he walked into the living area from the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Nazaryth had known this place would be perfect when he scouted the area a few hundred years ago. Finding a castle already built into the side of a mountain was perfect. He could see why the previous occupant had it built. There was an ever-present mist that surrounded the front of the castle, blocking any view from the ground below. The only thing to indicate anyone was around was the hangar, and it looked long-ago abandoned.
But living in the side of a mountain had its disadvantages though—like no fucking signal for his laptop.
“Wolf told me to tell you that he had heard a rumor about some disturbances to the west of us. He and Layne went to go check it out.” Nazaryth sat forward, the front legs of the chair slamming against the marble floor. “What rumors?” Theo was west of here. Why hadn’t he heard any rumors? Nazaryth was out of his seat and heading for the door before Trap could finish speaking.
“Rumors that there is unrest within the shifter community. He thinks it’s Zephyr,” Trap called out as Nazaryth ran down the steps that led to the building below them and his bike. He hadn’t felt anything when he was at the tavern, but his mate had distracted him.
He should have known better than to let Theo take all of his attention.
Things went bad fast when Nazaryth wasn’t on constant vigil.
Dammit.
“Need company?” Dog called from the top of the carved-out steps.
“Not this time, Dog.” Nazaryth grabbed the keys to his bike from the hidden compartment in the wall of the hangar and jumped onto his bike, starting it as he hit the remote to open the bay door. He gunned the motor and then shot out of there, remembering at the last second to close the door.
If the king were truly causing trouble as he did every one hundred years, then Nazaryth needed to make sure that Theo was not caught in the middle
of it.
If the king banished them two thousand years ago because he thought the winged beasts were a threat to his throne, then Zephyr hadn’t seen shit yet if he fucked with Theo. The guardians who had sworn to protect any king that held the throne were tossed out of paradise. The newly crowned king had decided to be a piss-poor leader and he didn’t want anyone to stop him from ruling with an iron fist. His first order of business, get rid of the beasts that upheld justice.
Fucker.
Theo laughed as Sammy, Trevor and Knox’s mate, and Tristan, Quinn and Hunter’s mate, danced on the dance floor. Those two didn’t have an ounce of rhythm combined. They made quite the spectacle as they flounced around, but it was all in good fun.
It honestly hurt sometimes to watch the mated men in his tavern.
It only reminded Theo of what he had lost so long ago. But Theo had learned to deal with the pain of being alone, taking it one day at a time.
Besides, owning a tavern kept Theo from being secluded. He knew in his heart that Dorian wouldn’t have wanted him to waste away, but to enjoy his life the best he could. So Theo had bought a tavern, thinking that being around people would help combat his depression.
Most of the time it worked. Theo kept busy with his customers.
But it was times like this, when he saw the raw love on the men’s faces as they gazed at their mates making a spectacle of themselves, that Theo felt his gut twist into a knot of longing for his dead mate.
“I’ll have another beer,” Dino, the foreman who had built Zeus’s new home, said as he took a seat at the bar.
“Coming right up.” Theo reached below the counter and pulled out a cold beer, handing it to Dino. He noticed two men sitting at one of the back tables, watching Sammy and Tristan dance. But Theo wasn’t stupid. He knew who those men were really watching, and it wasn’t the small mates.
He smiled at Dino as he took the ten from the foreman’s hand, and then walked over to the register. He could feel the strangers staring a hole into his back. Theo gave Dino his change and chanced a glance.
The two men were staring right at him, not hiding the fact that he was their main interest. One inclined his head, giving Theo a lecherous smile.
