STORY EXCERPT

“Right, wouldn’t that hurt you if you’re mated to me?”

“I’m sure I’d get over it.”

The vampire snorted, quickly glancing away from him. “So why don’t you? Bring me back downstairs and let them roast me over an open fire if that’s what you want them to do so badly.”

Lasius took in a deep breath through his nose. “Don’t tempt me.”

He hated to admit it, but he was tempted. God help him, but he really did want to go back downstairs with his mate in hand and toss him into the sunlight and let him burn.

No, that would take too long. If the man screamed, then Lasius would crack and he would drag the man back inside. He wouldn’t let anyone else near him.

Lasius took the man by the throat, still holding the back of his head. “If I snapped your neck right now, it would be painless. I’d be doing you a favor, really. You wouldn’t be tortured to death, and it would get you out of my head and life before you ever got the chance to settle into it. I could recover quickly and move on.”

He hoped he could recover quickly. He’d heard stories, nothing that had happened in his own clan, but it was supposed to be common knowledge that if a mate was lost, then it didn’t matter how new the mating was. It was supposed to be like losing a piece of one’s soul.

Some dragons even said that if a mate was killed before finding their other half, then somewhere in the world, the one who should have been mated to that person spiraled into an unknown depression, never to come out.

No, Evzen had survived the loss of his mate, and Lasius had adored Theon. Theon had been killed in the worst possible way, and Evzen had still managed to move on with his life. He’d even taken another mate. A man with wolf ears.

Lasius could do the same. He could kill this man himself, and then, one day, if he was lucky, he could find someone else to spend the rest of his life with.

It wouldn’t be so bad. He could do it. All it would take was a simple, quick snap of the neck, something he should have done out there at the entrance to that tunnel when he’d found this man.

He could do it now. He needed to do it now.

The problem was in the way the vampire continued to stare at him, as though he expected nothing different. As though he thought he was supposed to die today.

Lasius…he wouldn’t do it. He wanted to. So badly he wanted to end the life of this vampire before he could cause any more harm to any other people.

But he couldn’t. He was done. He was trapped.

“Why you?”

Lasius released his grip on the man. He felt himself crumbling. He couldn’t look into the eyes of his own prisoner.

Why him? It was a good question. Why in the name of God did it have to be him?

Anyone but him. Anyone else in the world would have been great, so long as it hadn’t been him.

“Tell me your name,” Lasius said, not raising his gaze to look up into the vampire’s eyes.

The vampire said nothing at first. Lasius thought he was going to be ignored while his mate pretended to be tough. Or maybe he really was just that strong willed.

Then, Lasius finally got his answer.

“My name is Warren.”

Lasius blinked. His entire body froze up. He honestly didn’t expect to get an answer at all or to hear such a normal-sounding name.

But there it was, and it was a beautiful name.

“Warren? Warren what?”

“I have no last name. That’s not how it works.”

“Everyone has a last name.”

“No, not everyone.”

Lasius had no idea what that was supposed to mean, and he decided he didn’t care.

He was too weak. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t kill his own mate when it was probably the best thing in the world to do for himself, for the clan. The omegas were going to pitch a fit when they found out about this, and Lasius couldn’t bring himself to care.

He only wanted to keep his mate. He didn’t want anything to happen to him. He wanted to protect him, to love him, to make love to him.

And why in the hell was he bothering to hold himself back if that was what he wanted so badly?

He had him here, in his room, and Warren clearly knew the score.

Lasius finally looked up, meeting the eyes of his mate.

Those defiant eyes stared back down at him. “Aren’t you going to do something about this? You’ve been palming my dick for long enough.”

So he had.

Lasius pushed himself back up. He grabbed the back of the man’s head, threading his fingers through his hair in a tight grip, and he kissed the man hard on the mouth.

Those teeth sliced his bottom lip.

Lasius winced and pulled back. He touched his mouth, and pulling his fingers back, he saw a little blood.

Warren didn’t smile at him, but there was something in his eyes that was doing all the smiling for him.

“I’m hungry.”

Lasius nodded. “Right.” He pulled Warren forward, kissing him again, and then pushed the man down onto the bed.

If he was going to be mated, he might as well get this part out of the way.

The mating heat. Otherwise, Lasius was going to lose his damned mind.

ADULT EXCERPT

He was pushed back down onto his back and then turned onto his belly.

Warren grunted, and then he moaned again when the friction of the soft bedsheets beneath his cock had an effect.

“Goddamn,” he sighed, pressing his face into the sheets.

He looked back just as the shifter undid his belt, the metallic sound of zipper teeth being pulled apart, and then the dragon shoved his jeans down.

Warren’s eyes widened at the sight of the man’s cock.

To say he was impressive was an understatement.

“Holy shit.”

The dragon grinned. “Worried? Don’t tell me you’re a virgin?”

Warren glared at him. “No!” he lied. “Just get to it.”

As terrifying as the size of that man was, he was not about to let himself be cowed by something as simple as a cock.

He’d seen them before, plenty of times, just none that he knew were going to be inside him, and none that big.

The dragon reached out for the nightstand. He pulled out a small bottle from the little drawer.

It looked like hand lotion.

Warren wanted to snort. He’d half expected something a little less…stereotypical, but whatever. He was going to take what he could get, and he supposed he shouldn’t be too much of an ingrate if the shifter was going to bother preparing him at all.

He felt the first touch of wet fingers against his hole. It was strange. Warren had played around with himself back there before, but these weren’t his own fingers, or an object he’d found useful, but was someone else entirely. Someone who really wanted to kill him.

And maybe it was the excitement of it, that very reason that made Warren want to burst and come the instant those fingers touched his asshole, never mind how his body bucked and he struggled to contain himself when they pushed through his hole.

“You’re tight,” The dragon purred. “Been a while, hasn’t it?”

Warren nodded. It felt good, and he was in a good mood. Might as well be honest. It had been a while since he’d touched himself.

Right. He was strung up high because this dragon was in lust with him. It was having an impact on Warren’s body, and it had been a couple of weeks since Warren had masturbated. That explained this situation he was in nicely. He didn’t have to worry about anything else.

This was a normal bodily reaction. He wasn’t mated. He just wanted to be fucked.

Those fingers pushed deeper, slicking deep inside his body. It burned, especially when the dragon scissored his fingers. They were thick, and together they were thicker than anything else Warren had used.

They still felt good, especially when the dragon expertly found Warren’s prostate.

He threw his head back and moaned out loud. He didn’t care how loud he was being. He didn’t care if anyone heard him. He just had to shout it out loud.

Except the dragon’s hand came around and slapped over his mouth, holding the noise in.

“Shh!” the dragon hissed and then chuckled. “It’s bad enough I brought you up here. You can’t be making noises like that right now. Understand?”

Warren nodded.

“Gonna be quiet?”

Those fingers stroked his prostate again, and Warren moaned, shaking his head.

He was an excellent thief and assassin, and yet he knew that he wouldn’t have the strength to hold back the many noises he wanted to shout out while the dragon did this to him.

“You’re a trembling mess. Should see yourself,” the dragon rasped out, and then he chuckled. “I thought you would have a little more finesse than this.”

Warren growled at the man. He wanted to prove him wrong, to show him that he could have finesse and he could be in control of himself.

Ninety percent of the time, that was exactly the case and perfectly true.

It just didn’t seem to be the case right now, and it was entirely his fault.

“Just shut up and finish this.”

He couldn’t stand it. He couldn’t stand the fact that he was overcome with this intense lust, that it was taking away his sense of control, that he could barely force himself to function right when all he wanted to do was get off.

Even when he was horny, he could still control himself. He could still act like a normal person. He’d never been this…wound up before.

The fingers left his body. Warren groaned from the sudden loss he felt. He glanced back, a terrified thought popping into his head that maybe the dragon was just going to leave him like this instead of having sex with him.

He probably shouldn’t have bothered making himself worry so much because, when he did look back, it was to the sight of the dragon shifter slathering his huge cock with that lotion, and when their eyes met, the blond smiled at him.

It was hardly a friendly smile. “When we’re done, you and I are going to figure out how to deal with this.”