“It’s okay, baby,” he said, his hand cupping my cheek as he looked down at me the way he had in the car, before the dragon thing. As if he really meant it when he said he loved me. “I know you don’t believe me, Devin, but please trust me. I would never hurt you.” And then, as if he could read my mind, he gave me his sexy half-smile and added, “I do love you.”
He kissed me again, and then he walked away from me, putting some space between us as he moved back toward the middle of the yard. I wasn’t sure what he expected me to do… follow him? But then I forgot to wonder. My vision blurred, and I blinked to clear it. Maks’s body seemed to ripple, so I took my glasses off, cleaning them on the edge of my shirt.
When I put them back on, he was gone.
“Oh… my… God.”
“Devin,” the dragon said, lowering its huge head down to rest on the ground in front of me. “Let me take you home.”
My heart was pounding so hard that it felt like it was going to bounce right out of my chest. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. Dragons didn’t actually exist, and yet… I was looking at one.
Maks had turned into one.
He looked just like every illustration I’d ever seen of the mythical creatures. Except, real. He was silvery white, the color of moonlight, with wings and scales and… he was really, really big. Exactly as he’d told me in the car.
“Oh, my God,” I whispered, finally remembering to breathe again.
I stepped closer. Reached out to touch him. Watched the fire whirl in his eyes, exactly as it had when he was driving. He was amazing, and suddenly it burst out of me, relief and excitement and sheer joy cascading out of me in peals of laughter as I doubled over and tried to catch my breath. Every doubt I’d had was wiped away, because he’d been telling the truth. He was real… and that meant that everything I’d felt for him was real, too. I was in love with him, and he loved me back. I didn’t hesitate when he told me to climb onto his back. I would go anywhere with him. He was a dragon, and I was his.
Forever.
17
~ Maksim ~
My mate was happy. I could feel it through the connection we shared, and it was intoxicating.
I’d flown through the night, and after a while he’d slept, kept warm by the fire that always heated my otherself. Kept safe because he was mine, and I would never let him fall. As I led him into the house I’d lived in for the last ten years, I realized that for the first time, with Devin here, it really did feel like“home.”
Anywhere that he was would feel like home to me.
“Are you tired?” he asked as I closed the door behind us. “You just flew across the country.”
His eyes sparkled as he said it, and a warm flush spread through me at the sight. Yes, I wanted him, but this wasn’t that. His happiness made me happy, and I grinned down at him as I pulled him into my arms, where he belonged.
“Not tired,” I told him, holding him close enough that he could feel the hard evidence of just how awake I still was. “And done waiting.”
“Good,” he said breathlessly, molding himself against me. “Because now that you’ve told me your big secret, I’m done waiting, too.”
“There’s more. It will change you, love, when I claim you.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t you want to know how?”
“No. Not right now,” he said, pulling his shirt over his head and then reaching for mine. “I just want you inside me, Maks. The rest can wait.”
He was right, my dragon agreed. My otherself reached for Devin through our bond, the heat rising in me so hot and fast that I could actually see his body flush as it passed into him.
“Yes, that,” he moaned. “Maks, please.”
He pressed himself against me again, making it impossible to say no. Not that I wanted to. I pushed him away just long enough to finish getting his clothes off, and then mine. I’d been gone for over a month and the house was cold, but neither one of us felt it. I meant to take him into the bedroom, but the minute we were both naked he made that impossible.
“Maks,” he whimpered, his hands moving over me as I tried to walk him down the hall. “I want… God, I don’t know exactly what to do,” he said with a sexy little laugh. “I’ve never… you’re the only one…”
I groaned, his eagerness slaying me. I gave up on the idea of getting him to walk out of the living room and picked him up instead. He wrapped his legs around my waist, trapping his leaking cock between us and rubbing his ass over my straining erection. The slickness of my own desire lubricated his crease, and I pretty much stopped walking too, sliding him over my shaft until he started begging.
“Please fuck me,” he gasped into my mouth. “Oh, God, Maks. Please.”
I could feel his hole quivering, and even though I’d meant to take my time, he felt so fucking good that I just couldn’t. I flipped him around and bent him over the back of the couch. He arched his back—fucking beautiful—and looked back over his shoulder at me.
“Your eyes,” he whispered, grinding his ass against me. “I can see the fire in them. Oh, God, Maks. I can feel it. Is that… is that weird?”
“No, baby,” I groaned, barely stopping myself from driving my cock all the way into his virgin ass. Instead, I spread him wide and slid it over his pucker, rubbing against him until his head fell forward and the sounds spilling from his mouth forced me to stop before I spent my seed too soon. “You should feel my heat. My dragon is giving it to you. It’s how I’ll claim you. It will make you fertile. It will make you mine.”
I don’t think he even heard me. I reached around him and lubricated my fingers with his pre-cum, his sweet cock jerking in my hand. He whimpered when I let it go, but then gasped as I pushed my slick finger against his hole, circling, circling, and then easing my way inside. He tensed at the intrusion, and then he was pushing back against me, letting me stretch him, letting me know how good it felt as I worked him open. I added another finger, bumping his prostate, and then, when he asked for it, another.
I groaned, wishing he was facing me so I could see his face when he made sounds like that. As much as I wanted to be inside him, watching him enjoy my attention had me transfixed. I wanted to make him moan again. I wanted him to forget everything except my name. I wanted him to ask for…
“More,” he gasped, fucking himself against my fingers. “God, Maks. Please… more.”
Just like that. I couldn’t resist when he begged so prettily. The head of my cock was already shiny with precum, and I’d have to trust that that plus my heat would be enough for him, because I couldn’t wait any longer. I slicked it over my length and pushed inside him.
“Fuck, baby,” I groaned. “You’re… so… tight.” It took everything I had not to drive forward and bury myself completely. It was more than how good his hot channel felt as it gripped my shaft—being inside my mate was right. The rush of emotion was just as strong as the rush of heat, and it had me digging my fingers into his hips to slow myself down. I didn’t want to use him too hard.
“Oh, God, Maks,” he whimpered. “That’s what I… needed… you’re… don’t… don’t hold back. Please. Fuck me, already.”
His words scorched through me, burning away the last shred of my resistance. I wrapped an arm around his waist and thrust into him, giving him what he’d asked for.
“Ahhhh,” he half screamed-half gasped, arching his back.
I pulled him upright, sliding my hand around his throat so I could turn his face toward me, holding him tightly in front of me as I started to fuck him, hard and fast, all thoughts of holding back gone as he panted into my mouth. His body was perfect. He was perfect. And as I pounded into his sweet, tight ass I let the fire blaze inside me, forgetting everything except the feel and sound and taste of him.
My heat moved through him, readying him, and I wrapped my hand around his cock as I felt my own balls start to tighten. I was going to fill him with my seed. I was going to breathe my fire down his throat. I was going to
claim him. But first—
“Come for me, love,” I ordered. Or begged. Or maybe I didn’t even manage to get the words out—but he knew what I wanted anyway.
“Maks!” he shouted.
With a shudder that moved through his entire body he spilled over my hand, his ass clamping tightly around my throbbing cock and pushing me over the edge. I swallowed his shout as I came—a hot rush of pure bliss as I emptied myself inside him.
This time I could finally give him everything. I let my dragon’s fire pour down his throat, the flames shooting out of me like a second orgasm, filling every part of the man I loved with my essence, changing him forever. Finally making him mine.
18
~ Devin ~
I woke up alone in Maks’s bed, warm from the inside out. I could tell by the frost on the window and the visible plume of my breath in the air that it was cold in the room, but I could still feel his heat inside me and the cold didn’t bother me at all. Maks had said that claiming me would change me, and now I wondered what exactly that meant. Was this inner warmth part of it?
And where was he?
The room was so bright that I figured it must already be the middle of the morning. I didn’t normally sleep in this late. I bit my lip, holding in the smile that threatened to burst forth as I thought about being kept up all night by Maks. And then I laughed, unable to contain it, because I realized that, one, Maks had turned into a dragon, and two, I was no longer a virgin.
Of the two, I was spending way more time thinking about the sex than the fact that my lover was actually a mythical creature. Not that the dragon thing wasn’t amazing, too. But God, the sex was… better than I’d imagined. Incredible.
And I wanted to do it again.
As if my desire had conjured him, Maks walked into the bedroom. He was carrying two steaming cups that smelled like coffee and had a bag in his hand with the name of a bakery on it. He set it all down on the nightstand and kissed me. I tried to pull him back into bed, but he resisted.
“You need to eat something, love,” he said, laughing and sitting down next to me as I sat up.
His eyes were doing that glowing-with-fire thing again, which made me think that I could probably talk him into getting back into bed with me pretty easily… except that all of a sudden the coffee smelled really good, and when he opened the bag and pulled out an assortment of pastries, I was suddenly ravenous.
“I’ve been talking to Dane and Anik,” he told me as he handed me one of the cups. “They’ve been telling me what to expect now that we’re fully bonded.”
The coffee was sweetened, with cream, and I smiled as I sipped it. I couldn’t remember ever telling him how I took my coffee, but he’d obviously noticed and remembered. If I’d ever doubted that he loved me, the way he paid attention to the little things would have proven it.
“Dane and who?” I asked. I’d met Wesley’s husband, but I didn’t recognize the other name.
“Anik is a mated dragon shifter who lives up north. He’s my friend Ben’s father.”
My eyes widened as I jumped to the obvious conclusion. “Are you saying that Dane is a dragon shifter, too? How many of you are there?” The world had seemed so normal before yesterday. Today I felt as if a curtain had been pulled aside, revealing enchantment and magic and things I’d never dared to dream of, all of which had been hiding in plain sight. “How did I not know that things like this existed?” I whispered, my lips curving up.
“Well, we like to keep it that way,” he answered, laughing. “And yes, Dane is also a dragon. There really aren’t that many of us. Just four in North America.”
“Ben?” I guessed, then smiled when he nodded. “All men? What about Ben’s mother? You said the other one… Anik? Is his father? Is his mother a dragon, too?”
Maks’s eyes softened, and his smile got even bigger. “That’s actually something I needed to talk to you about, baby. It’s one of those mating changes that Anik said would make you hungrier than usual today… and for a while.”
He was right about the hungry, I suddenly realized, reaching for a croissant. My glasses were next to them on the nightstand, and I grabbed those first out of habit, slipping them on without thinking. And then I blinked, and took them back off. They must have been dirty, because everything had become blurry when I’d put them on.
“I’m warm,” I told Maks as I tossed the glasses back on the nightstand and bit into the croissant. “Is that one of these ‘changes?’”
He nodded, and the way he was looking at me was making me even warmer. I always felt warm around him, actually. I’d dismissed it before, but now I realized that it was probably a real thing. That same delicious heat I’d come to associate with him now felt like it was a part of me, and it had flared inside me when he’d fucked me the night before, burning me from the inside out in a way that wasn’t painful at all. It had been almost orgasmic.
Okay… not “almost.”
Was that a dragon thing? What we had done had felt like more than just sex to me, but I didn’t really have anything to compare it to. My memory of arriving at Maks’s house the day before was hazy with the desperation I’d felt to finally have him fuck me. It was a blur of his big hands and thick cock and that exquisite heat licking all over me, through me, moving inside me—and then coming so hard that I hadn’t been able to remember my own name, much less care about these “changes” he’d been trying to tell me about before we started. And then he’d carried me into the bedroom and fucked me again. And then again. All night long.
And every time, I’d felt like I could feel Maks, inside me—I mean, obviously—but not just in my body… also in my head. In my heart. And there had been…
“Fire? Do you breathe fire?” I asked, certain details suddenly coming into focus. “Did you breathe it… into me?”
“I did, love,” he said, cupping my cheek tenderly. “It bonded us together, for life. It lets my dragon’s power flow to you. And it made you fertile.”
I blinked. “What?”
He slid his hand down my body, flattening it on my stomach, just a couple of inches above my very-happy-to-see-him cock. His touch was much more interesting than croissants or breathing fire and it made me want to get back to what I’d been thinking about before he walked in. What we’d done all night. I put my coffee down and covered his hand with mine, trying to push it lower. He resisted, stroking my taut stomach and ignoring the part of me where I wanted his attention.
“After last night… you should be pregnant, Devin.”
He wasn’t cooperating, wasn’t moving his hand where I wanted it, so I decided to try another strategy. I would have to ask for what I wanted. I pushed the covers off and straddled his lap.
“Maks, please fuck me again.”
That seemed to work. He groaned, pulling me against him and giving me a hot kiss. I ground myself against the hard length of his erection, as hungry for him as if he hadn’t just been inside me a few hours ago. I had wanted him for so long, and now that I’d had a taste I felt like I would never get enough. I was suddenly desperate to feel the hot rush of him coming inside me again. Just thinking about it made me… Wait. He’d come inside me, filling my body with his seed, and now he was saying—
“Pregnant?” I leaned away from him, going still. “Did you say ‘pregnant?’ Me?”
He nodded, looking at me like he wanted to lick me. I’d clearly succeeded in distracting him from whatever he’d been telling me. He was kneading my ass with his big hands as he rocked underneath me, and God, it felt so good that I… but no. First I needed to know whether I’d actually heard him correctly.
“Maks, stop.” It didn’t sound like I meant it, because I kind of didn’t, but this was important. I pulled his hands off me. “Do these dragon powers you keep talking about include getting me… me… a man… pregnant?”
“Yes, love. It’s how dragons father children. Human men carry our babies. You asked about my friend Ben… he doesn’t have a mother, he has two fathers.
Just like Elise has Dane and Wes.”
I caught my breath. “Wesley… he’s… they’re both her fathers? Biologically?” He nodded, and my heart started racing with excitement. “Wes is human, right? Just… normal. Like me? And you’re saying that he actually… he was pregnant, with Elise? He gave birth to her?”
The flames in Maks’s eyes started to dim, and a look of concern crossed his face. “Yes,” he answered me cautiously. “I tried to tell you before I claimed you, Dev. My heat makes you fertile. It’s part of being my mate and… I hope you’re okay with it, because I’m pretty sure it’s already happened. I love you, baby, and I want you to bear my child.”
I was almost afraid to let myself believe him. I knew that men couldn’t get pregnant. But then again… up until the day before, I’d also known that dragons didn’t exist. But Maks was a dragon. I’d seen it, ridden it, felt his fire. And if that could be true, then how could I doubt it when the man I loved told me that he’d gotten me pregnant?
“Devin?” He was looking at me anxiously. “I’ve seen you with Holly. I thought you liked kids. Are you— oh, shit.” I hadn’t realized I was crying until he wiped the tears off my cheeks. “I’m sorry, baby,” he said softly. “I’ll… I don’t know. Fuck. We’ll figure something out. I’ll ask Anik—”
I kissed him.
He pushed me away, his eyes filled with worry. “We can ask Wes about the pregnancy, Dev. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before—“
I kissed him again, the happiness bubbling out of me until I was laughing into his mouth. I pushed against his shoulders until he fell back on the bed, and then I crawled on top of him, smiling so wide that I couldn’t talk.
I was pregnant!
I’d never wanted to be. How could I have? Before Maks, it had never been an option—but he’d changed everything. He was giving me every single thing I’d ever dreamed of, including the things I had never let myself want. Everything.
Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) Page 10
