Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2)

by Specter, Wolf

  He wasn’t really here. I was alone.

  I rolled over in the empty bed, aching to feel his warm body next to me, longing for it to be real. Willing myself back to sleep, so I could be with him again.

  9

  ~ Maksim ~

  Devin was practically naked, which was making it really, really hard for me to keep my hands to myself. Okay, maybe loose swim trunks didn’t count as “practically naked,” but there was a lot of smooth skin showing that I desperately wanted to touch. Lick. Taste. Have underneath me.

  “Dude, seriously? You’ve never been here before?” Ty asked my mate as the two of them climbed the stairs to the Howlin’ Tornado waterslide at Great Wolf Lodge.

  I followed them up, trying to keep my mind out of Devin’s pants.

  “I didn’t even know this place was here,” he answered Ty.

  Even without seeing his face, I could hear the smile in his voice. I loved knowing that my mate was happy. Devin was good at doing the right thing, I’d discovered, but he didn’t seem to make much time to do fun things. I, on the other hand, was good at fun. And even if it couldn’t be in the bedroom yet, I was determined to show him some.

  “I can’t believe they were able to fit a full water park inside a hotel,” Devin was saying, stopping for a minute to look down at the shallow children’s area where Sarah and Wes were splashing with the girls.

  Devin’s pause gave me a chance to catch up to him, and even though I knew I shouldn’t, I couldn’t resist slipping a hand around his waist and planting a kiss on the back of his neck. He melted back against me, making a soft sound of pure need that had me instantly hard.

  I stifled a groan. Over the last couple of weeks, I’d managed to push aside some of the urgency I felt about claiming my mate, and I’d genuinely enjoyed the time spent getting to know him. I’d been surprisingly content just to be in his company, happy with the little touches that he allowed me—holding hands, resting my hand on the small of his back when we walked, brushing non-existent lint off of his chest.

  Ever since I’d made Devin panic the first time I’d touched him—a simple caress on his cheek, but with the full force of my own burning desire flowing through that connection—I hadn’t pushed for more. I’d forced my dragon to be patient and trained myself to stop thinking about fucking him every time I saw him. Although today that was proving harder than usual.

  I’d grown to love everything about him—the sound of his voice, his quiet humor, his quick mind. I respected his determination to honor his commitment to Sarah and Holly, and the genuine caring and tenderness he felt for them tugged at my heart and made me long to start a family of my own with him.

  Physically, I’d been attracted to him from the moment I’d laid eyes on him, and I was pretty sure that it would have been true even if he hadn’t been my fated mate. His slim good looks were exactly what I’d always been drawn to, and the fact that this beautiful man was quite literally my other half turned that attraction into an irresistible force. One that, frankly, I was amazed I’d been able to resist as long as I already had. Bringing him here for the day and getting the chance to see him free for a few moments from the responsibilities that always seemed to weigh him down, hearing him laugh as his eyes lit up in delight, it made me happy in a way I couldn’t remember feeling before.

  I’d never tried to deny myself someone that I wanted before, and I’d never wanted anyone the way I wanted Devin. When Dane had first found his Wesley and had tried to tell me about the all-consuming connection he’d felt for his fated mate, I hadn’t really understood. I’d thought I did at the time, but now, experiencing it, I realized that I’d had no clue.

  It was more than want. It was more than need. It was more than love. It was all those things, but deeper. It wasn’t a choice, or something as fleeting as a feeling, it was part of who I was.

  Devin was essential. Necessary. Now that I’d found him, I could no more be without him than I could be without air. It had become so much more than just my body’s need for him, or my dragon’s drive to mate with him. I’d fallen in love with him, in every sense of the word.

  Having my hands on him here on the stairs, even for a moment, was delicious torture. With his warm body pressed against mine and his happiness rolling off of him in waves, all of my restraint deserted me and I was suddenly desperate to fuck him. To finally claim him as my own. To fill him with my fire, and bond the two of us together the way my dragon kept pushing me to. To make him mine forever.

  Being surrounded by so many other people should have made it easy to avoid the hot rush of need that flared up within me. It should have, but it didn’t. It didn’t matter how many other people were around, Devin was all that existed for me. I needed—

  “Fuck, Maks, get a room,” Ty said, glancing back at us and rolling his eyes. “Seriously, dude.”

  At Ty’s words, Devin straightened up with an embarrassed laugh and continued up the stairs. I could see a rosy flush creeping up his neck, and of course that made me want to do exactly as Ty suggested. I wanted to make that flush spread all over his slim body, all over that smooth, pale skin that my hands burned to touch. I willed my cock back down and did my best to calm my dragon’s sudden burning urgency, discreetly adjusting myself and trying to be satisfied with the memory of the sexy little sound Devin had let escape when I’d kissed the back of his neck.

  I’d respected Devin’s need to honor his wedding vows since it was obviously important to him, but since he admitted that it was a marriage of convenience I didn’t fully understand why he was so adamant. I’d wondered whether Devin actually felt the mating pull with the same intensity that I did, because if he did, it was hard to believe that he would be able to tell me no. Dane and Wesley had assured me that Devin must feel it, but in some ways that only made it all the more frustrating. For the first time in my long life, I’d wondered if a man I wanted actually wanted me back. I’d felt… insecure.

  I’d decided that I wasn’t going to push Devin, and so far I’d been able to stick with that resolution. But here, now, knowing that he’d welcomed my touch… hearing that sound he’d made… suddenly I couldn’t remember why not pushing had seemed like such a good idea.

  I wanted him, and I knew he wanted me, too. It was time to do something about that.

  * * *

  “Hungry?” I asked Devin after we’d all gone down the slides a few more times.

  I ignored Dane’s knowing chuckle, grabbing my mate’s hand as soon as he nodded and pulling him out of the water park area. As soon as I found a quiet hallway with a degree of privacy, I pulled Devin toward me, sliding my hands around his hips and fitting the two of us together the way I’d wanted to for so long. Perfectly.

  “Maks,” Devin said breathlessly, flattening his palm against my chest to keep a little space between us. “No.”

  I groaned, leaning down to rest my forehead against his. “Why not, love?” I asked, sliding my thumb over his lips and making him suck in a sharp, shallow breath. I tried not to sound as frustrated as I felt. “I’m not asking you to abandon Sarah and Holly, but I need you.”

  If his small gasp hadn’t given away the fact that he felt the same, the hard evidence of his arousal trapped between us would have been enough. I really didn’t see how it would hurt anyone if we did something about it.

  “I need to make sure Sarah makes it through the pregnancy all right,” Devin said, squeezing his eyes closed as he said it. Pressing his hips into mine. I groaned. “I need to keep my marriage real, even if it’s not,” he added, that delicious flush creeping up his throat. “I know that doesn’t make sense, but Maks, I promised them, and I need to honor that. And…” Devin bit his lip, turning—impossibly—even more red. “I don’t think I could ever stop, if we started,” he whispered, almost panting as his sweet cock pulsed against mine.

  If he thought hearing that was supposed to make it easier for me to let him go, he was sorely mistaken. I knew he wasn’t trying to be a tease—I was the one who
had grabbed him, and I could hear how sincere his words were—but he’d also started subtly grinding his cock against me. I don’t even think he was aware of it. And that vein at the base of his throat that always captivated me was fluttering, faster and faster, as his breath started to hitch.

  “You’re killing me, baby,” I said, honestly not sure if I could keep resisting him this time. “How long?” I managed to ask. “Until her baby is born?” Human pregnancies took so damn long.

  But Devin shook his head.

  “Longer,” he said, swallowing hard. “Until I know they’re okay. They don’t have anyone but me. After the baby is born, I can’t just abandon them.” His eyes grew suspiciously bright, and his whole body went still. “I’ll understand… if you don’t want to wait.”

  He thought I would give up on him? Move on? My mate didn’t understand. I would lay down my life for this beautiful man, no matter how hard it was, I could find a way to respect his need to honor his vows… but seeing him doubt my devotion was too much. It made me want to claim him immediately, tell him what I really was, reassure him that we were meant to be together for much longer than a mere human lifetime. But I couldn’t do those things yet, and the pain in his eyes as he told me that he didn’t expect me to wait for him hurt me more than denying myself ever would.

  I wouldn’t push him again, but right now I couldn’t—could not—not kiss him.

  I wrapped my arms around him and lost myself in the softness of his lips, the intoxicating flavor of his mouth, the smooth perfection of all that skin pressed against mine. Devin clutched at my shoulders, but he wasn’t pushing me away. He pulled himself closer, whimpering into my mouth as he fit himself against me.

  My dragon approved, stoking the fire within me until it was a roaring blaze that needed to be released, to be poured into my mate, to claim him now. But I wouldn’t—yet—because Devin had asked me not to. So after a too-short taste of heaven, I stopped, and stepped back, and smiled down at the man I wanted to make my own.

  “I’ll wait,” I promised. “And you’re right. When we start, we’re not going to stop.”

  Devin nodded, biting his kiss-plumped lips and looking a little dazed, like he couldn’t quite remember what “stopping” meant, or why we would want to do it. That was going to make it hard, but as tempted as I was to start the backing off part later and keep going with the part where I got to have my hands all over him for just a little bit longer, he’d told me how important it was for him to wait. So now, because I loved him, I had to protect him from both me and himself. I groaned. Never in a million years would I have imagined that it was me who would be the one saying no to something we both wanted.

  I was almost grateful that Ty chose that moment to interrupt.

  “This is not what I meant about getting a room.” His voice startled both of us, and Devin jumped away from me, looking guilty. “This is not a room,” Ty continued, gesturing around us and obviously trying not to laugh. “This is a fucking hallway, Maks… and by ‘fucking hallway’ I do not mean a hallway made for that purpose.”

  Devin was turning red again, and he mumbled something about checking on Holly and Sarah and brushed past Ty with a last, longing look back at me. Ty was still talking, but I was having a hard time concentrating on whatever he was saying as I watched my mate walk away.

  I needed him. I would wait, but I was done doing it passively. I was going to have to find a way to help Devin get what he needed—to figure out a way to make sure Sarah and Holly were taken care of, so that he could be free to come to me without feeling like he’d abandoned them.

  “Dude, are you even listening?”

  “No,” I said, continuing to ignore Ty.

  I didn’t know anything about what a pregnant woman would need, or what it would take to make sure her children were cared for. Just the thought made me smile, though, because if I had my way, I’d have a very pregnant man on my hands, sooner rather than later, and I was going to have to figure all of that out for myself—for my family—too. Having seen Devin’s tenderness toward little Holly, I had no doubt that he would love having a child of his own… but it also reminded me that it wasn’t just taking care of Sarah and Holly that I needed to figure out before making him mine. I would also have to find a way to tell him about my dragon.

  He deserved to know everything before I claimed him, and as soon as I had that thought another one followed. One I wasn’t proud of. I knew that Devin wanted me—that if he hadn’t felt it would be a betrayal of his vows to Sarah, he would already be mine—and if I took him, claimed him, filled him with my fire and my seed and made sure that my child was planted inside him, he wouldn’t deny me. He would enjoy it.

  But that wouldn’t be fair to him. He had to know what he was getting into, and what it meant, and make his own choice before I fully claimed him. I suddenly wanted him to say yes because he wanted me, not because he was driven by heat or fate or simple lust, but because he chose me, too.

  And he would. He was my fated mate, after all. I was sure he wouldn’t say no. Well, pretty sure… even if nothing with Devin had been easy so far. But what if I told him the truth before he was bound to me, and he didn’t want it? Didn’t want me? Didn’t want to be plunged into a world where dragons were real and people were compelled to do things that they didn’t choose for themselves and, fuck, what if he only wanted me because my heat had touched him? What would I do if he only said yes because he couldn’t say no? Is that how fate worked?

  I started to feel that increasingly-familiar tension I’d had of late: insecurity. It really sucked. I’d have to ask Dane how he’d told Wes, and what his mate’s reaction had been. In fact, I should go find him right now—

  “Maks,” Ty said, waving a hand in front of my face to get my attention. “Fuck, man, seriously. Listen. This is important.”

  “What?” It came out too sharply. I liked Ty, but I’d almost forgotten he was there. Nothing was more important than finding a way to get my mate to say yes—and mean it—and at the moment Ty’s persistence was slowing me down.

  “Dude, chill. You’re steaming again. Did Dev ever tell you what happened to the father of Sarah’s children? No? Okay, well, I think it’s cool to share because, you know, fated mates and shit. It sounds like she got a really raw deal, and I thought maybe with your dragon voodoo you could get this fishing company to do the right thing by her. You know, take care of her and her kids.”

  “What are you talking about, Ty?” I asked, my irritation with him instantly forgotten. I was suddenly all ears.

  10

  ~ Devin ~

  I was starting to get obsessed with the idea of Maks fucking me. The better I got to know him, the hotter my need for him burned. And he’d finally kissed me. His touch was like a drug, and now that I’d had a taste I craved more of it with a desperation that was almost painful. It had been all I could do in the hallway to stop myself from begging him to take things farther. For the rest of the day, I’d half expected him to push me for more, and a part of me wanted him to—even though I knew that wasn’t fair, since I was the one saying no.

  But he hadn’t.

  And when he’d dropped Sarah, Holly, and I off at the end of the day, he hadn’t lingered. I hadn’t been ready to be apart from him, but I had no right to be clingy and I tried not to let it bother me.

  I knew I was being ridiculous, and I appreciated the fact that he respected my need to honor the vows I’d made to Sarah, even though it was becoming harder and harder for me to remember why that was so important when it seemed like—between Maks, Sarah, and me—I was the only one who felt strongly about it.

  It was the principle of the thing, I reminded myself. I didn’t break promises.

  “Holly and I will be fine tonight, Dev, if you want to, um, go somewhere with Maks,” Sarah had whispered to me earlier in the car.

  And I probably would have, I admitted to myself, if he’d asked.

  Since he hadn’t, I spent the rest of the night playing wi
th Holly. Sarah had had fun at Great Wolf Lodge, but the day had taken a lot out of her. She looked exhausted, and when I suggested she take a nap she didn’t even pretend to argue. I didn’t mind. I was happy—as always—to spend time with the cheerful toddler who I’d come to love.

  Before this thing with Sarah, I’d never really let myself think about having a family of my own. It had seemed so unlikely, if not downright impossible, that I just hadn’t let my mind go there. But after Sarah and I had gotten married—before Maks had come into my life—I’d found myself ridiculously content with it, even though I regretted the circumstances by which it had come about. Luke’s loss was still painful, but I loved being a father, even if it wasn’t real.

  I knew my marriage to Sarah and the little family we’d become weren’t going to be forever. Even though I was determined to stay as long as she needed me, I did hope, for her sake, that she would find love again someday.

  And, if he was really willing to wait, I needed to be with Maks.

  I still didn’t know how we would make that work, but whatever happened, Sarah would always be my best friend. Even if there came a time when she didn’t need me as her husband, I had no intention of disappearing from her life, or Holly’s. I loved them both.

  Some of the guys I worked with who also had kids complained about getting bored with how their little ones liked to do the same thing over and over and over again, but I thought it was cute. I loved Holly’s high energy and enthusiasm. Watching her figure things out and discover the world around her always gave me a thrill, and she was exactly the distraction I needed right now.

  I had to stop thinking about Maks. I tried to tell myself that my feelings for him felt so intense simply because he was the first guy I’d ever been involved with, but even thought that explanation made sense, I couldn’t make myself believe it. There was something more between us. Something I had no name for, something I was a little scared to let myself believe in, but something that felt like forever.