Ben’s face hardened. “They came from Europe before I was born, so I’ve only heard the stories. They intended to claim these lands. There has always been more here than my ata needed, which is why he didn’t mind when the two of you claimed these territories as your own. But the dragons who came before… they did not want to live in harmony with the people already here, so they weren’t welcome.
“And yes, he’ll keep Wesley and Elise safe,” Ben answered my earlier question. “If Ivan crosses into our territory to the north, he’ll let us know immediately—but this Ivan won’t be able to harm the humans my ata protects.”
His voice rang with confidence, and it put my mind at ease about the safety of our friends. And with three dragons here on the island, Maks’s brother wouldn’t be able to hurt any of us… especially not our child.
25
~ Maksim ~
Devin had already gone to bed by the time Dane arrived later that night. Ben and I met him down at the beach, and instead of heading to the house, we stayed down there to talk about Ivan. Ben gathered some driftwood and started a fire, and without having to talk about it I knew that all three of us felt better out in the open, where we could shift at will if needed.
“It’s disturbing to think that your sire has been tracking us all these years,” Dane said to me, frowning. “I don’t understand how he’s managed it.”
“Probably humans,” Ben said, matching Dane’s frown. “Based on the stories that my ata has told me, I’m sure he compelled them to act as his eyes and ears.” That made sense. “I just don’t understand why he’s so set on getting his hands on your child,” he added, turning to me.
My dragon raged at the mention of it, and Dane answered, sensing my distress.
“Our kind is too long-lived,” he said sadly, shaking his head. “The dragons I knew in my youth saw the world as nothing more than a territory to be continuously divided up, conquered, and fought over. They keep themselves so removed from humanity that the only thing that matters to them is the strategic power plays among their own kind. Maks’s sire fathered him not because he found the love of a mate, but because he wanted a pawn to help continue building his legacy.”
“He’s never forgiven you for ‘stealing’ me from him,” I said to Dane. “But it’s Ivan and his human father who paid the price.”
Mating for dragons was rare, and I knew that my sire wouldn’t have fathered another child after me for hundreds of years, if ever, had he been able to shape my destiny the way he’d intended. When I rejected him, he’d impregnated another human man as quickly as possible.
Without giving the man his fire, though, carrying Ivan had used up the human’s body, draining it of all vitality until the pregnant man had practically been a walking corpse. And then my sire had ripped Ivan from the man’s emaciated body, making him a corpse in truth and raising my brother to believe that it was his right to use, manipulate, and even kill humans for his own pleasure and convenience.
Thinking about how Ivan must view my mate—as a disposable vessel for the child within him rather than the necessary piece of my soul that Devin actually was—made me see red. But it also made me sad. Ivan had no doubt been so indoctrinated by our sire that he wouldn’t recognize his own fated mate if the man was standing right in front of him. My brother would never know the love and wholeness of that bond, and even now, two hundred years after I’d failed to save him, I was swamped by guilt.
I should have tried harder.
“We won’t let anything happen to your family,” Ben reassured me, squeezing my shoulder. “I can stay as long as you need me—until the child is born if you’d like—and Ivan will not get past the two of us.”
“Three of us,” Dane said. “I don’t really want to be away from Wesley that long, but if we can’t convince Ivan to leave you alone, I’ll stay, too.”
“If we truly can’t convince Ivan to leave you alone, we’ll need to decide what to do about him,” Ben added. “In the end, the dragons that my ata fought could not be reasoned with.”
“He killed them?” Dane asked, wincing. It was hard to kill a dragon, but Dane had done it, once.
“He killed two of them,” Ben said, his face full of regret at the necessity. “And then the others left.”
“No one is going to kill Ivan,” I said forcefully.
“If he won’t leave—” Ben started to say, frowning.
“No!” When Ivan had threatened Devin, I’d wanted to kill him myself—but when he’d stood before me on the beach in pain, my first instinct had been to ease it. Not that he’d welcomed my help, or even wanted it—and of course I would protect my family first—but no matter what else he was, Ivan was still my family, too.
Even if I had failed him when he was born.
“He’s still my brother,” I said. “We’ll find another way.”
Ben held my gaze steadily, then finally gave a sharp nod. “He’s family,” he agreed. “We’ll find another way.”
We talked long into the night, and when the moon finally rose I headed back to the house. Ben was going to fly to the mainland in the morning and find Ivan. He wouldn’t confront him, just keep an eye on him… for now. Dane would stay here on the island, and he and I would trade off patrolling the rocky perimeter in case Ivan came back without Ben having a chance to warn us.
* * *
Devin was asleep when I crawled into bed and pulled him against me. I didn’t need anything from him, I just wanted to hold him. I just needed to know that he was safe.
My cock, though, had other ideas.
As soon as he was nestled against me, the feel of all that warm, smooth skin started to work its magic on me. He fit against me perfectly, and even though I knew he needed his rest I couldn’t stop myself from growing hard when he wiggled his ass against me in his sleep.
My hands started moving of their own accord, sliding up his sides, curving around the roundness of his stomach, traveling up to graze his sensitive nipples.
“Maks,” he breathed, not quite awake.
He arched back against me, and I couldn’t resist nuzzling his neck. Licking at that spot that always got me, the soft vein that fluttered at the base of his throat when he got excited. I pressed my tongue against it, groaning a little when I felt his pulse start to race. Sucking on it when he reached a hand around and pulled me against him tighter.
“Oh, God,” he moaned softly, grinding against me slowly. “This is what I need, Maks. Please….”
I didn’t need much convincing, but then I remembered what had happened earlier and I forced myself to stop moving against him. I put my hand on his hips and pushed him away, putting a little space between us.
“The baby,” I reminded him. “It moved today. Dev, I don’t know if it’s safe.”
“It’s safe,” he said firmly. “Fuck me, Maks. Do it.”
I bit back a smile at my little mate getting all forceful. Sometimes I found it hard to believe he’d said no to me for so long, back when he’d been married to Sarah. Now that I’d claimed him he was… always eager.
“It’s fine, Maks,” he insisted now, wiggling his ass back toward me again. “I asked Wes.”
“You what?” I started laughing. Even in the dark, I could feel his skin warm as he full-body blushed.
“Just do it already, Maks,” he said bossily, rubbing himself against me. “Please. I need to feel you inside me.”
I needed the same thing, and I decided to trust him on this.
Every time I fucked him, I was blown away by how utterly right it felt. He was my fated mate, and being inside him was better than anything I’d experienced in the two hundred years before him. His tight heat had been made just for me, and right now I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in it. I spit on my hand, rubbing it against his tight little pucker.
“I don’t need that,” he panted impatiently. “I just need you. Fuck me, Maks. Please.”
I lined myself up and pushed inside him, my fingers tightening on his hips
as I thrust all the way home. It felt fucking incredible, and I opened myself up to our bond, letting him feel exactly how good his snug ass felt around my cock.
“God,” he gasped. “More.”
He didn’t wait for me to give him what he wanted, but started thrusting his ass back against me, sliding himself up and down my throbbing length. He angled himself so that I hit his prostate, and I felt his body shudder at the same moment that our bond let me feel the delicious tension move through him.
I wanted to give him more of that, and I knew what he needed. He wasn’t shy, but he liked it when he didn’t have to ask. I couldn’t roll him onto his stomach, so I put a heavy hand on his hip to hold him down and started fucking him hard and fast, driving into his sweet little ass like a piston.
I could feel his excitement building, and the breathy little sounds that fell from his mouth were almost as hot as the feel of him tightening around me. His rhythm was already familiar to me, and I knew he was close to coming, but suddenly close wasn’t soon enough. His hands were fisted in the sheets, and I loosened one and moved it down to wrap around his cock.
“No, it will be too fast,” he panted.
“Do it,” I ordered.
He wanted to resist. He wanted to draw it out, but I didn’t want to wait. After my earlier fear for him, I suddenly needed to feel his pleasure, to feel him come around me, immediately. I let him feel my need, and he gave in with a sexy little groan.
Fisting his cock as I pounded into him, his orgasm came fast and hard. He shot out over his hand, and even though it was what I’d wanted, it wasn’t enough. I was overcome with the need to give him more. To know he was safe. To make him safe. To do everything I could to make sure that this beautiful man who was mine was protected, cherished, loved. Forever.
Wrapping my hand around his throat, I forced his head back so I could fit my mouth over his and then, with a hoarse shout, my own release came. I let the fire pour out of my mouth as it did, scorching away my fears as it plunged down his throat, strengthening our bond and wrapping protectively around our child. I pumped my seed deep into his body and he trembled in my arms, surrendering himself to me the way he always did, his body clenching around me and milking every last drop from my swollen cock.
He accepted everything I had to give. My perfect fit. My fated mate. Mine.
26
~ Devin ~
Maks was patrolling the beaches while I made breakfast. Ben lounged on one of the barstools at the counter, watching me cook and sipping at a cup of coffee. He’d arrived a couple of hours ago, part of the routine that we’d settled into over the last six weeks.
For the most part, Ivan had stayed in Nova Scotia, venturing into New Brunswick a few times and once down to Maine. Ben had trailed him, but couldn’t tell what he was up to. He reported that Ivan had been acting almost like a tourist—a tourist who had no qualms about compelling the humans he came into contact with to give him whatever he wanted.
As far as Ben could tell, Ivan’s use of his dragon’s power hadn’t really caused any harm. He’d managed to get hotel upgrades and access to some shows that were sold out. He’d also hooked up with his fair share of humans, but Ben had checked up on them, and none had been impregnated or seemed to have come to any harm from Ivan’s attentions.
The only explanation we could come up with was that Ivan was waiting, and that made all of us tense. Dane had stayed with us for the first two weeks straight, but when he started to get too cranky, Maks had finally told him to go see his mate. Since then, he’d taken to flying up to visit his family at Anik and Mikkel’s place every week, taking him away for a couple of days. When that happened—like now—Ben would come back and take Dane’s place on the island, ensuring that there was always a dragon flying the perimeter and another here with me in the house.
If Ivan was waiting for the baby to be born before making a move, none of us could figure out how he expected to find out about it when the birth happened. We hadn’t allowed anyone else on the island, and I had even stopped calling Sarah with updates, on the off chance that Ivan was sophisticated enough to tap into that communication somehow. Still, he’d found us here once, and without knowing how he’d managed that, Maks took his continued presence as a sign that Ivan felt confident he could do it again.
Despite how harmless Ivan’s activity had seemed over the past few weeks, Maks had no doubt that his brother still considered me “disposable” and wouldn’t hesitate to take the child from my body if he had the chance. The thought made me shudder… even more so when I saw the memories in my mate’s mind of Ivan’s own birth.
But I knew that wouldn’t happen to me. Ivan wasn’t going to get through our defenses. Maks refused to risk leaving me alone, even for a few hours. It could have been annoying, except that I never got tired of being with him. Both Ben and Dane had proven to be good company, too, and by now I considered them friends.
“How does it feel?” Ben asked me now, eying my immense stomach. “Being pregnant, I mean.”
Dane had confirmed that I was definitely bigger than Wes had been—a lot bigger—but without being able to go get an ultrasound, we had to trust Maks’s dragon’s confidence that all was well. I kept holding out hope that maybe it was just an optical illusion—I was smaller than Wes, so maybe it just looked like my stomach was bigger—but whatever the case, I was ready for it to be over.
Being pregnant was an amazing experience. I loved feeling the baby move inside me, and nothing compared to the knowledge that I was growing a brand new person inside me who had literally been made from the love between Maks and me. It was… awe-inspiring.
And it also made my back hurt like hell.
This child was heavy, and my entire center of gravity was thrown off. My ankles were swollen, I had to pee all the time, my skin was splotchy, and I was tired of not being able to zip up my pants. I waddled, for God’s sake, and no matter what Maks tried to tell me, I did not—not—feel even remotely sexy.
Still, there was only one answer I could give when I saw the way Ben’s eyes lit up with a soft glow as he looked at my ridiculously bloated shape.
“It’s wonderful,” I said, grinning.
And really, it was true. I wouldn’t trade the experience for the world, despite the discomfort and inconvenience that the changes in my body had caused.
It was all worth it, and I couldn’t wait to meet our little one… which, as near as we could figure, should happen soon. Both Wes and Mikkel had given birth at around six months, and I’d already been feeling cramp-like twinges for days. Maks’s dragon would have to take the child from me, and I’d called Wes the week before, hyperventilating when I felt the first pain, asking how I would know it was the right time. He hadn’t had any pre-labor pains—another difference between us—but he insisted that when it was time, I would have no doubt, and Mikkel had agreed.
I leaned back against the counter and steadied my own coffee cup on top of the big mound of my belly with one hand. Decaf. God, the sacrifices.
Ben always asked about my pregnancy. I didn’t know if it was because he’d grown up with a human father and so felt more empathy for me, or if it was just a part of his gentle personality, but he was fascinated by it and never seemed to grow bored with hearing every detail. Maks was also attentive, of course, but both he and Dane were more interested in ensuring my safety than in hearing about the wonders of watching my belly button pop out or the results of switching to a new brand of moisturizer for the tight skin of my belly.
Ben, on the other hand, was almost as good as having Sarah around.
“Are your ankles still hurting?” he asked, a look of genuine concern on his face. “Because I was Googling some yoga positions that might help. It’s probably a lack of circulation.”
I laughed. I was definitely not flexible enough for yoga, but I appreciated the thought. “I can’t even see them, Ben,” I reminded him.
He stood up, smiling. “Let me show you, Dev. You should be able to do these
poses anyway, and the comments I read online said they really help—”
My sudden gasp of pain cut him off, and he was instantly at my side, catching my coffee cup before the mug hit the ground and steadying me as I doubled over.
“What is it?”
“I need Maks,” I gritted out. “Please get him, Ben.”
But my mate was already at my side. He’d felt it through our bond—the sharp pain gripping my middle like a metal band—it had been shocking in it’s intensity, but by the time his arms were around me it had eased. This was much stronger than the little twinges I’d been feeling, and as another contraction hit me I realized what Wes had meant. This was definitely it.
And God, it hurt.
Maks picked me up and started heading for the bedroom. But that wasn’t going to work.
“Maks, no,” Ben said, realizing it at the same time that I did. “If the baby is coming, Devin needs your otherself.”
“Where?” Maks said, freezing in place.
I tried to dredge up some patience as another contraction hit me. Obviously we had to go outside. Maks’s dragon was too big for the house, and I needed his dragon to take the baby. Feeling my pain had apparently burned away his common sense.
Between contractions, I felt a giddy excitement—it was finally happening, our baby would be in my arms within the hour!—but then another contraction would hit, blotting out all that excitement with pain. Our child was trying to find a way out where there wasn’t one. I needed Maks to get it together and get this baby out of me.
Thank God Ben was there. He grabbed Maks’s arm and pulled him out the door. It was October, and cold, but that wasn’t something that bothered me now that I carried my mate’s heat inside me. For a split second I worried that it would be too cold for the baby, but then I realized that that was ridiculous.
The little one would carry his fire, too.
Maks lay me down on a chaise lounge on the lower deck, and I immediately curled up and clutched at my stomach as another contraction ripped through me. His hands were all over me, trying to soothe me, maybe, or reassure himself that I was okay, but I batted them away impatiently. I didn’t need that. I needed him to shift, so his dragon could help.
Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) Page 14
