James's Savior [A Dragon's Growl 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Marcy Jacks

  “Okay, then tell me that he’s safe for you. Was he the one who took you? I understand you’re an omega, but you don’t have to feel any kind of loyalty to him just because this man took you. That shit’s over. It’s behind you.”

  Van seemed determined to want to help but also determined to not want to listen.

  Which was even more of a problem since Taylor didn’t want to lie to him.

  James had kidnapped him…but at the same time…

  “He did save me. From the fire.”

  A lie by omission would have been enough to get his back whipped with a belt until he bled. That was why he never did it. It felt strange doing it.

  “He pulled you away from the fire?” Van let go of his arm, and now he was looking down at Taylor as though trying to figure him out.

  Taylor nodded. “Yes. I wouldn’t have been able to run away from it fast enough.”

  Or know where to go. James really had saved him.

  “Some people were trying to take me, too!” he added, recalling the three other alphas who had been sent to stop James from fulfilling his mission.

  “And this James guy stopped them?”

  Taylor nodded.

  Every muscle in his body felt tense. He was on the verge of shivering from the energy his body couldn’t contain.

  He hated this. He hated it so much.

  Van didn’t entirely look as if he believed Taylor. Taylor never much liked that about him. He was nice, but there was something about the way he tried coddling some of the omegas that didn’t sit so well with him.

  There was something off-putting about it that he couldn’t figure out.

  “Huh,” Van said, crossing his arms. “I hoped if I brought you back then Seth wouldn’t have such a stick up his ass.”

  Taylor didn’t understand that at all. “What do you mean?”

  Van shook his head. “Nothing. Don’t worry about it. I’d like to meet this guy who helped you out. You have no idea how much the entire house has been worrying about you.”

  That was news to Taylor. “They have?” His heart started to pound. “Why weren’t they looking for me?”

  “They were looking for you,” Van said. And great, now he was staring down at Taylor as if he was out of his damned mind. “I went out looking for you at one point. We all took turns trying to track you when those motherfuckers took you. Because they thought you were Miles, right?”

  Taylor nodded. He was glad that it didn’t take much to explain this, that Van understood as quickly as James did when he found out.

  Taylor had been staying in the bedroom that Miles used to sleep in when he was Varrick’s favorite. Sometimes Miles even spent time with him in that room and they’d watch movies together or fall asleep in the same bed after Taylor’s other roommate found a mate for himself.

  Seth hadn’t seemed to like it so much whenever his mate spent the night in a bed that wasn’t his own, but he let it slide because he, apparently, didn’t see Taylor as a threat.

  It was all so complicated, and Taylor didn’t like talking about it. He didn’t like explaining it. It had been hard enough to explain it to James, so he was happy to know Van understood what was going on.

  “Where did this man go?” Van pressed his lips together. “I’m picking up some scents in the room. You sure you’re not hurt?”

  Heat climbed Taylor’s cheeks. Of course Van would smell the sex that was all over the motel room, still coming from the bathroom.

  “We’re fine. I like being with James. He…he treats me well.”

  If Van found out James had been the one to tie him up and take him from the mansion, it was going to be a bloodbath, and he wasn’t sure who would be getting the worst of it.

  “Well, since you’re here, and the fire is happening, mind if I hang around until this guy comes back? I can give Seth a call and let him know you’re all right.”

  Letting Seth and Miles and Sorin and Micah and all his other friends know he was alive and well, with the possibility of coming home soon, made Taylor’s heart soar.

  “Yes, please. Come in. I can bring you some water.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Van said with a smile. “I just want to make sure you’re safe. I should be the one offering to bring things to you. You’ve been through so much.”

  Taylor nodded. “I suppose so.” He was more open to Van being here now that he knew Van was going to call home for him, but he wasn’t sure he liked the idea of Van treating him like glass already.

  “Do you have any clothes? I should go out and at least get you some shoes before there’s an evacuation.”

  Taylor shook his head, and despite Van saying he didn’t want water, it wasn’t in Taylor’s nature, or training, to not serve someone who was above his station. He went and grabbed one of the little plastic cups in the bathroom and filled it with water.

  He bought it to Van, who smiled and took it, as though he didn’t think Taylor should have bothered, but otherwise he didn’t say anything.

  “How have things been back at the house? Is everyone okay? Was there another attack?”

  “A few matings took place,” Van said, but then his lips curled, as if he just said something that didn’t please him in the least.

  And Taylor didn’t understand. “That’s good, right? Do you mean some of the omegas mated with the dragons?”

  He liked the idea of that. There was Seth and Miles, and then later Andrei and Jesse seemed to be getting together. The entire thing was helpful for the omegas if the dragons were putting themselves together with them.

  It seemed to strengthen the bonds between both groups as more than just rescuer and rescued.

  It made them seem more like a family.

  Why didn’t Van look happy about that?

  The door opened. James stepped through it with a couple of paper bags in his hands, and he stopped short at the sight of the blond-haired dragon shifter sitting at the edge of the bed.

  His eyes immediately hardened. Taylor didn’t know much about fighting, but he could pretty much see the defensiveness rising up within the man and the attack getting ready to spring out of him.

  Taylor went to him quickly before anything could happen. “James, this is Van. He’s from the house.”

  “I know,” James said.

  “You do?” Van lifted a brow.

  No, no, no! Taylor needed to find a way to tell James it was all right and Van didn’t know. Otherwise, he would give everything away.

  “Uh, I think I might’ve told him about everyone at some point,” Taylor said quickly. “I mentioned a couple of names.”

  “Because he saved you?” Van never took his eyes away from James’s face.

  Taylor nodded quickly. “Yeah.”

  Nothing was said for a few long seconds. Taylor didn’t like that. He didn’t like it that these two men were looking at each other as if they were getting ready for a fight.

  Sizing each other up. That was how he’d heard Lucian describe it once before.

  “Taylor,” James said.

  Taylor jumped a little, still getting used to the sound of hearing his own name on James’s lips. He hoped Van didn’t catch that.

  “Yes?”

  “Take these bags.”

  James held out the paper bags for Taylor to take. He did, watching nervously as James stepped around him and faced Van. Van did not get to his feet.

  “You and I. We’re going to talk outside.”

  “You are?” Taylor didn’t like this.

  James looked at him. “There’s some sandwiches in there and some new clothes in the other bags. We won’t be long.”

  “Confident, aren’t you?” Van asked.

  James growled at him. “Get off my bed and get outside.”

  Van shrugged, and Taylor was happy when the dragon did as James demanded.

  “Why are you so angry? I don’t understand. You’re not going to fight, are you?” Taylor followed both men to the door, but he knew he shouldn’t follow th
em outside.

  If they were really going to be fighting with each other, was it smart to follow them? But what if he could stop them if he went after them?

  What if he got hurt because he intervened? What if James got hurt because Taylor distracted him?

  So many questions.

  James turned around, his hands coming to rest on Taylor’s shoulders. He gripped them gently. “Stay here. I promise I’ll be back.”

  Taylor’s eyes scanned between Van and James. He didn’t know what to believe, and the only thing he did know was that he didn’t want James to walk away.

  He shook his head. “No, don’t go.”

  James kissed him.

  For the first time, the touch of his lips didn’t send a rush of warmth through Taylor’s body.

  It buzzed him, and he wanted so badly to fall into that sensation, but he couldn’t. It wouldn’t let him.

  Because something bad was going to happen if he let James walk out the door. The problem was he had no power to stop him.

  As though sensing the lack of response from him, James pulled back from the kiss. His eyes were sad, and even though Taylor had just been thinking about how he hadn’t been entirely into it, he was suddenly struck with the very real urge to reach out and grab the taller man and force James to kiss him again.

  If only so he could bring back that feeling of being together with him, of being one, by force.

  “I’ll be back.”

  Taylor wanted to say something, but again, he was weak and there was nothing he could say.

  It broke his damned heart to watch James walk out the door with Van.

  Chapter Nine

  “So, does he actually think you saved him? Or are you just threatening to cut his throat if he steps outside the line?”

  James growled at the dragon. He knew this dragon. He’d seen him on patrol during the night when he broke into Taylor’s room and snatched the omega out of his bed.

  And it seemed Van knew who James was, too.

  “I was the one who took him.” Might as well admit it since Van clearly put it together.

  “Great.” Van threaded his fingers together and pushed them outward, cracking his knuckles. “Then I won’t have to feel guilty about killing you, and when I take him back to the house, Seth will let me back in.”

  Yappy little thing, wasn’t he?

  James couldn’t help but poke at the open sore Van had just exposed to him. “Banished from your clan, were you?”

  Van shrugged. “Not really. It was a bunch of trivial bullshit. Some asshole stole my mate from me, we had a disagreement, and the alpha tossed me out. Now when I bring Taylor back and explain how I rescued him from the shit-head assassin they’ve been chasing down all this time, and failing to catch, they’ll have to let me back in.”

  “And you think that will make you a hero in the eyes of the omega you lost, is that it?”

  Van growled at him. “I didn’t lose him.”

  “Right, that’s why he mated to someone else. You know, I have a real hard time believing people who claim they had their mates stolen from them. The chances of that happening are beyond slim, and it’s a tough thing to actually do.”

  Even an omega who felt blackmailed or coerced was required to give some form of consent. Otherwise, it just didn’t work out the way people expected it to. It became a halfway mating. And those were never supposed to be fun.

  “Right, talk to me like that,” Van said, leaning slightly to the side, as if he was checking on Taylor’s safety.

  Which James did not appreciate.

  “You’re the one who wanted to hand him over to be raped by some pig of a vampire. Though I suppose they’re all pigs.”

  James said nothing to that. He nearly clenched his fists, but he refrained.

  “What? Got nothing to say? Taylor was pretty adamant that you helped him. I nearly believed it until you walked in and he got nervous. You’re disgusting. You’re an abusive cock, and you were going to let that bastard do whatever he wanted to Taylor.”

  “Shut up.” James glanced back at the door to his motel room. Taylor had opened the blinds wide. He was looking out at them, his ears perked and completely out in the open for anyone to see.

  James had to get out of his sight. He didn’t want Taylor to see them fighting.

  He didn’t want anyone to see them fighting.

  Even the fire that on the hill in the distance wouldn’t be enough of a distraction for the police.

  “No, wait a minute, I just thought of something. Are you tricking him?” Now Van was smiling at him, something so utterly fake that it made James want to punch the man in the throat.

  Van hooted. “You are! You’re pretending to be all offended by what I’m saying, but really you’re just another asshole. You don’t care, and you’re still planning on taking him back to his masters, aren’t you?”

  “No! And will you shut the fuck up? People will hear you.”

  “Right, I’m the asshole when you’re the murdering accomplice to rape. What exactly gives you the right to do that to people?”

  “Rights?” He and Van left the parking lot, crossed a ditch, and were at least in the trees and shrubs. They weren’t thick enough to completely hide them, but they would have to do.

  “Yeah, you know? Those things that give you permission to do shitty things to people who can’t defend themselves?”

  “I have no rights, you fucking idiot. I never grew up as a free dragon.”

  Van crossed his arms, his gaze moving up and down James’s body, his nose curling as if he were feasting his eyes on fresh dogshit.

  “You’re a dragon? Christ, that’s shameful as all hell. I can’t believe I share a species with you. Well, I guess I can. Lucian is a dumb prick, too. And Stefan.”

  James knew those names. The other dragons in Seth’s pack. He’d been given paperwork on all of them, and unlike the slaves, he had been able to get photos of them.

  Even Seth hadn’t been able to completely hide away over the last two hundred years. He had photos taken when they had become more common.

  He also didn’t give a single damn about any of them. The only person he did care about was Taylor.

  “I’m not bringing him back to Varrick, and if you weren’t such an insufferable prick about it, I would let you take him back, but you were banished, so now I’m starting to wonder what exactly it is that was in your closet.”

  Van sneered at him, his eyes changing. James recognized that look. He knew it well.

  His vampire masters were known to give it to him when he was so much as in their presence. They weren’t known for being happy when one of their slaves was in their presence.

  “Right, like you get to take the high road on anything. I know how it works, you piece of shit. You do a nice job licking the bottom of vampire boots and every once in a while they throw their favorite slaves a couple of bones. I bet you took a couple of omegas when they didn’t want it either. Or you think that just because they’re not saying no when their masters hand them over that it gives you an excuse.”

  “I never took any omega against their will.”

  “Yeah right.”

  “Fuck you.” James wanted to kill this man more and more by the minute. “My younger brother and sister were both omegas. I saw what it was like when they were used like that and what happened to them when the vampires were too damned rough. They die. I know.”

  “Right. I’m so sure that’s a real story.”

  James couldn’t believe it. He couldn’t believe he’d just said what he’d said out loud, and he also couldn’t believe the reaction he received for it.

  Wasn’t Van supposed to be one of the good guys? Even if Taylor had not spoken so well of the dragons who had taken over the mansion, it should have been enough for a dragon who spoke of justice and freedom to hear James’s words and know they were true.

  “You’re looking to fight,” James said, going with the only logical conclusion he could think of in t
hat moment.

  “Fuck you, you don’t know a single thing about me.”

  But he did. James had become skilled at reading his vampire masters. He knew what was on their minds and how they thought about things, the reasoning they used to keep their hands clean, all of it. He knew about all of it.

  “You want to be important. You want to be a damned hero, so you pretend to care so much when you really don’t. Or maybe you do. I don’t care. Either way, you’re a fuckup.”

  “I was protecting the omegas back in the mansion. They wanted my help.”

  “I’m so very sure they did, and you preyed on the weak ones, said comforting words, soothed their pain, but you were just using them. Using them to make yourself feel important. Let me guess, you were jealous of Seth? You thought you could lead the clan better than he did, am I correct?”

  Claws began to form at the tips of Van’s fingers. He was clearly getting ready to attack. James didn’t care. He wanted it. He welcomed it.

  “You’re an accomplice to rape. You don’t get to look down on me or the things I do. I help people.”

  “Taylor doesn’t want your help.” James let his own claws and fangs pop out. “He doesn’t need it either. He might be better off getting help from the local police than he ever would be coming to you.”

  Van roared. James roared back. They flew at each other.

  * * * *

  Taylor followed at a distance. When James left the motel, Taylor quickly dressed in the clean clothes James had brought for him. He didn’t think he would blend in too well with the humans all around him if he walked around wearing the dirty pajamas that he’d been forced to wear ever since he’d been taken from his bed

  The sandals were also easier on his feet as he crossed the parking lot.

  When both men entered the bushes, Taylor was worried he had lost them, but no, they were still there. He was still able to follow them by perking his fox ears and listening for them.

  He hoped no human could see him like that, but it was a risk he was willing to take, and luckily, both alphas also stopped looking back to make sure he wasn’t following them, which made it easier to follow the sounds of their voices.