STORY EXCERPT 

Sneaking into the bedroom of his greatest enemy was probably the worst idea of Jake’s life.

Sneaking in through the window, knife in hand, in the middle of the night, during a dragon mating season, was even dumber.

There he was.

Arthur King, weird name, was the leader of his clan of dragons, the reason why Jake’s mother, step mother, and father were all dead and his pack was on the brink of being wiped off the face of the earth.

And Jake was about to climb into bed with him.

His heart pounded. He swallowed hard, brought the knife up to his throat.

His cut was gentle. Just enough to make him bleed along the shoulder and a little down his collar bone. He didn’t want to die or anything, but he needed to get the senses of this dragon blazing.

He needed to make this dragon ready for him.

Jake wore no shoes. He barely had any clothes on now. Just shorts and a t-shirt. The shoes were gone because he didn’t need them. He could run through the woods without them as sleek and quietly as any deer. He wore few clothes so they would be easy to get out of the way.

He slept so peacefully beneath the canopy bed. It was pitch black, but Jake could still see well enough. This house was a fine home. The room was large, spacious, better than anything Jake had ever had growing up.

Why the dragons didn’t want to stay here, why they had to insist on fighting when they already had so much, Jake had no idea, but he was putting an end to it tonight.

He padded his way to the bed. The lace curtains were pretty, a disguise for what they were actually for.

To keep the bugs out.

Jake pulled them aside, and more and more his heart clashed with the inside of his ribs.

Sweat trickled down Jake’s forehead. He was either going to puke, pass out, or have a heart attack.

Remember who this is for.

He put his knee onto the bed, reached out—

And found himself grabbed, spun around, and pinned beneath the much larger, much more powerful body of a dragon alpha.

A man whose shoulders had to be at least twice the size of Jake’s, who could probably snap him in half with little effort if he really wanted to.

A man who had killed so many, who had terrorized Jake from the moment he was born.

A man who smiled down at him as though he was a cat who had caught a mouse in his claws.

“Brave little thing you are. Brave and stupid.”

The sword tattoo on Arthur’s cheek pulled up with that smile. A smile that showed off the man’s fangs.

Jake swallowed, realized he was still clutching the knife, and he released it. Better than that, just to make sure the dragon got the right idea, he batted it away with his fingers.

Not so easy to do, considering his wrists were pinned down, but he wanted to make the dragon understand him.

Then all that was left to do was to wait. He stared up at the dragon, noting the way those dark eyes seemed confused, how that gaze turned to Jake’s hand, and the knife, before landing back onto him.

He was handsome. More handsome than Jake would have thought.

Fuck. Did he not make it to the right bedroom? What if this wasn’t Arthur King, but someone else, someone much less important?

No, this was the master bedroom, so that had to mean this was Arthur King.

“You look confused, pet,” Arthur said. “Were you sleepwalking up the mountain with that knife?”

Was he talking to Jake? Yes, he was talking to Jake. Shit. Answer him!

“I...no. I came to see you/.”

“I can tell that much.”

“Not to kill you.”

“You wouldn’t have had the chance.” Arthur’s grip tightened on Jake’s wrists, enough that it hurt, enough that Jake grunted from the pain of it.

“I know that,” Jake said. “I came because it’s your mating season.”

Arthur sputtered. “What?”

Had he miscalculated? No. He couldn’t have. This was right, he was sure of it. Everyone knew the dragons went into heat in the spring.

Did the dragons consider it spring yet? Jake didn’t think it would happen like this. He’d thought he would be grabbed, sure, but he also thought he’d have been stripped naked by now, turned onto his stomach, and claimed.

They seemed to be talking instead. That couldn’t be good. There was no way something like this was good.

Why were they not fucking? They needed to get to that as soon as possible.

“It’s your mating season.” Jake prayed it was. It was still cold out, especially since he’d come a little farther up the mountain, but not so far up that he couldn’t find housing, and even wide and far stretches of flat surfaces. It was a large mountain, after all.

Please don’t let him have come to early. If he’d come early and it wasn’t actually the mating season for the dragons, then this was for nothing.

“I came for you to mate with me.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“How many lovers have you had before this?”

The relaxed body on Arthur’s bed suddenly tensed. “I’ve had a couple.”

Right.

Arthur smiled at him. He twisted the wooden cap and scooped out a healthy amount of the oil. He let it drip from his fingers back down into the jar, making his flesh slippery and greasy.

“I have!”

“I believe you.” He did not believe this man.

It made him wonder for a second time about the sort of father that would not only send his son into a situation like this, but also a virgin son.

Had Arthur been the cruel sort, he could have fucked Jake raw, until he bled and begged for mercy.

Noah either did have a real hope that Arthur was a reasonable sort of man, or he was every bit the monster he liked to think Arthur was.

Jake watched Arthur’s fingers, his throat working in a swallow, and then he turned and pushed himself to his hands and knees.

Arthur chuckled. “No, not like that.”

“No?” Jake seemed confused as he sat back down, and then even more so when Arthur pushed him to his back again.

“Lift your hips for me. There you go, I want to see the knot of your hole.”

Again with the deep blushing. So beautiful. Arthur was never one who took too much pleasure in taking virgins, but this seemed...important.

“Like this?” Jake did as he was told perfectly.

Arthur nodded. “Just like that.” He grabbed the man’s ankles, pulling them up and onto his shoulders. It made the man’s let ankle a little greasey, but that was perfectly all right as far as Arthur was concerned.

Because then he had Jake right where he wanted him.

He still couldn’t believe the man thought the mating heat worked as simply as that? Did he not stop to think that any lower ranking dragon in his clan could simple wait until the time was right and force a mating on him if that was the way it worked?

Arthur pushed two fingers inside of that tight pucker. The body tensed, which was to be expected when something new and uncommon was pushed inside him.

Then it relaxed.

Jake took his cock in hand, stroking it, though he hardly looked as though he needed the help to keep himself hard.

Arthur growled at him as he thrust his fingers back and forth, a preview for what he planned on doing to the man in good time.

“Don’t you dare let yourself come. Not until I say so,” he hissed.

Jake nodded, though it didn’t matter because then it looked as though he didn’t hear a word Arthur said.

Arthur found his sweet spot, the little nub inside him that Arthur knew how to use to make the strongest male sing for him.

And sing he did. Perhaps Jake was really a little bird shifter and not some coyote. That would make more sense in the current situation.

His nostrils flared. An energy and desperation unlike anything Arthur ever before experienced hit him like an iron hammer to his skull.

He wanted to fuck. He wanted to claim. He wanted to push his cock inside of that tight hole and feel its grip around him and he never wanted the sweetness of that feeling to stop.

Which was possibly why he pulled his fingers back much sooner than he probably should have, and then pushed the blunt head of his dick against that sweet ring of muscle.

Jake sucked back a harsh breath when he finally felt it, and Arthur felt only the satisfied rush of victory when the round head popped through, and he was inside.

Sort of. Just the head, but the way Jake’s body gripped him was more than enough to satisfy.

For now.

“Oh God!” Jake cried out. He clenched his teeth, fangs showing off between those tight lips. His hands fisted the sheets beneath him, and Arthur reminded himself to take it a bit slower. It didn’t matter if he’d oiled himself or this man. It was still a first.

So he kissed and petted the man’s skin, soothing him, trying to force him to relax so that he could better take what Arthur was giving.

He kissed and sucked on his nipples, letting his hands slide along Jake’s ribs, up his neck, and back down again to his waist.

He stroked and massaged the length of his cock and balls, satisfied that Jake was still hard, but he waited patiently for the signal, for the proof that this was something his coyote could handle.

When it happened, when Jake blinked and his body seemed to come down off that strange high, Arthur couldn’t hold back anymore. His dragon had been roaring in his ear, demanding satisfaction, and Arthur growled when he recognized his chance to finally take it as he plunged his cock the rest of the way inside.

Somehow, Jake managed to fit him all the way. The man moaned, Arthur groaned. He was going to leave bruising on those slender hips as well when this was done with. Bruises that would need to be kissed away.

For now, he held still for the hardest moment of his life before he allowed his hips to take over and do what they needed to do.

He slammed into the man, again and again, showing him no mercy because now Arthur was beyong the point where he could give it.

And it was glorious. The way the smaller man hung on, as though for dear life, was by and large the most wonderful sensation Arthur ever experienced in his life.