STORY EXCERPT

“Come home to me, and he doesn’t get hurt. I will give you what you want. I will change if that’s what you need.”

Gary’s heart stopped for a split second at those words. “What did you say?”

Keaton practically growled. “I said come home to me. Please. That man is an imposter. I’m your mate. I’m your true mate. I was there for you first.”

“I know,” Gary said. Keaton had been there for him first. That was the hard part.

Gary had good memories with him, but he also had the terrifying visions of all the evil Keaton had been doing.

Alistair told him to remember and care about what Keaton used to be because the man he’d loved was gone. Keaton would never be able to change.

“So come back to me. Come home to me, and I will prove myself to you. I will release him. Unharmed, as well as all of his brothers.”

“You caught them all?” Gary could barely contain the horror within himself at that revelation.

“I am using their phone, am I not?”

It was like a punch in the stomach. Of course. Keaton had Maxwell’s phone and was calling Gary on it. He had them. He had them, and there was no telling how badly they were hurt.

“Keaton, I promise, right now, that if you hurt Carlisle, or his brothers, I will never forgive you. If you kill any of them, I will never forgive you.”

“I know,” Keaton said. “Come home to me. I need you.”

It hurt to hear him say that. It hurt even more that Gary was considering it. “You’ll let Carlisle and his brothers go if I come to you?”

“I will,” Keaton said. “But you must make your decision now. While on the phone with me. Tell no one. Just walk out the door and come to me.”

“Walk out the door?” Gary didn’t understand.

“I’m just outside the wards. You just have to walk to me. Take the paths within the trees. Stay off the roads. I don’t want Alistair to see you. If he does, he will stop you from coming, and I will have no reason to release these men.”

That was true.

“And you promise to let them go?”

“Only if you come to me now. They are unconscious. They are waiting here for you. We will walk away from them together.”

Gary swallowed. Keaton could be lying. He might just kill them instead of letting them go and take Gary for himself anyway.

If Gary didn’t go, then it was a hundred percent fact that Carlisle would die.

“Where are you? Where exactly are you? Is Carlisle with you?”

“He’s not far. He’s being guarded by some of my men.”

The dark witches. Carlisle wasn’t going to like that. He hated the witches that Keaton had created. They were human, but not, which ultimately made it harder for Carlisle, Alistair, and their brothers to kill them.

They had been created to protect humans, not hurt them, but these men and women had made the decision to give up part of their humanity, and Gary told himself that he didn’t care about them. He hoped Carlisle woke up and killed them before Gary got there.

“How do I know this isn’t a trick?” Gary asked. His voice sounded shattered, even to his own ears. That wasn’t good. He needed to get his shit together if he was going to do this. “How do I know you have him and you’re not just using him to get to me?”

There was a brief hesitation on the other line. “Give me a minute. I’ll send you something.”

“What?”

Keaton didn’t answer. He heard the other man fumbling with the phone, and then there was another notification in his text files.

He looked at it. It was a picture. Of Carlisle’s sword.

A soft cry escaped his mouth. He had to cover his mouth with his hand to keep any more noise from getting out.

It was the blood on the sword that really did it. That was what made Gary panic, and his mind immediately rushed to imagine all the horrifying ways that his mate could be suffering, in pain. Hell, he could be bleeding to death right now and those dark witches wouldn’t do a damned thing to help him.

Just because he was immortal didn’t mean he couldn’t die.

Keaton’s voice came back. “Do you understand now?”

There was something about the calm tone to his voice, the way Keaton presented himself as being almost the good guy, that made Gary want to strangle him.

“I told you that if he dies I won’t forgive you,” he said.

“Then get here quickly,” Keaton said. “I’ll stay on the phone with you and guide you here. Hurry.”

Gary looked around his bedroom, more determined than ever to get to Carlisle, even if this was just a sick trap. He didn’t want anyone to see him leaving the house, so he couldn’t exactly use the front or back doors.

The window would do it. He’d have to get onto the roof and then jump down. It was only one story, and there was a bed of soft grass beneath him. It would hurt like hell, but he would be able to do it.

If it meant keeping Carlisle alive, he would do anything.

He opened the window, stuck his leg out, and climbed onto the roof, sliding down to the very edge and peering down. He put the phone back to his ear. “You swear to me that you’ll let him go when I get there. Swear it on my fucking life, or I won’t go.”

“I swear. I swear on your life,” Keaton said, his voice trembling, excited, eager now that he knew he was about to get what he wanted.

And Gary would give it to him to keep his mate safe. He jumped.

ADULT EXCERPT

Gary started to move immediately. He couldn’t not move. It also seemed to help push Carlisle deeper inside him at a faster rate because, before Gary knew it, he felt the rough hair on Carlisle’s balls touching his skin as Gary used the strength in his thighs to ride the other man.

Carlisle moaned, his strong arms perfectly curling around Gary’s middle, drawing him closer, their body heat almost becoming one, becoming too much for one man to handle, and Gary couldn’t get enough of it.

“God!” He cried out, again and again, throwing his head back, his eyes squeezed tightly shut from the pleasure of being filled, of having the head of Carlisle’s prick continually touching and teasing his prostate, making his blood run hotter and his body come alive.

It got so much more intense when Gary suddenly felt the wet heat of his mate’s mouth and tongue touching his nipples.

One at a time, the other man licked them, sucked on them, and even gently bit him.

Now Gary was growling, fighting through the pleasure threatening to take over his entire body.

There was almost too much sensation for him to handle. His own cock was trapped between their bodies. Gary was a little softer in the middle compared to Carlisle—okay, a lot softer, the man had rock-solid abs—and with his dick trapped between them, the friction of their combined bodies drove him further and further toward that edge.

As Carlisle kissed and licked at Carlisle’s chest, sucking on certain spots that were definitely going to leave hickeys behind, Gary couldn’t help but thrust not just up and down but back and forward. He wanted to bounce on Carlisle’s lap as hard as he could, pushing the other man’s cock as deep inside him as it could go, but he also moved forward so he could press his dick harder against the man’s stomach, loving the way it felt whenever he did that. He wanted more. He needed more. He wanted to come and yet wanted this to last as long as possible.

If only it was possible to have one hundred percent control over an orgasm. Mankind would never stop fucking.

He almost laughed, but it came out as a sputtered moan. Carlisle didn’t seem to notice. He grabbed Gary by his hair, roughly yanking it to the side so he could attack Gary’s neck with that wonderful, wicked mouth.

Gary let him. It felt so good that he was almost completely lost to the pleasure. He wrapped his arms around Carlisle’s neck and held on tightly for the ride, noticing for the first time that Carlisle’s strength alone was taking care of much of the sex here. Gary was really just holding on, trying not to get bumped off the other man’s lap while Carlisle powerfully thrust up and into him.

The way Gary bounced in his lap was funny. He laughed, and Carlisle used that as his chance to kiss him on the mouth, their lips locking together immediately and Carlisle’s tongue sliding inside in a clear sign of ownership.

Carlisle did own him. Gary held on to him tighter, moved by the heat of their bodies, the adoration and love he felt from the other man.

Carlisle owned him, and Gary was never going to betray him. He was never going to leave him, and he was going to do everything he could to make Carlisle as happy as possible because of it.

The pleasure that had been building inside of him, that had been climbing higher and higher, to levels Gary could no longer contain, finally crashed down on him in one enormous weight that would have buried him alive had it actually been something physical.

It almost felt physical in that moment. It was certainly having a powerful effect on him. Gary’s entire body clenched around Carlisle’s. He squeezed the man’s cock with his asshole without intent, but it wasn’t as if he could control himself when he was in the middle of having an orgasm.

Carlisle didn’t seem to mind. He released a guttural moan, holding Gary even tighter, tight enough that it was getting hard to breathe, and Gary still didn’t care because, as long as Carlisle held him like this, Gary would still be able to feel how much the other man wanted him. He could still feel Carlisle’s love for him.

He exhaled a hard breath when the last of the aftershocks finished rushing through him, and he slumped against Carlisle’s body.

His heart raced. He could hardly focus on anything other than the warmth he felt in Carlisle’s skin and how much he liked the smell of the other man, the feel of him.

Carlisle’s hands slid up and down Gary’s back, his touch soothing and definitely welcome.

“Was that okay? My dragon came out a bit.”

Gary grunted a reply that he was pretty sure sounded like a yes, but he couldn’t be entirely positive about anything when he was feeling so boneless. He tried to nod, probably succeeded, because he heard the sound of Carlisle’s chuckle.

“It wasn’t too much?”

“No,” Gary said. “You can do that whenever you want.”

Hell, if Carlisle let his dragon side out like that every time they had sex, then it was going to be a fantastic sex life.

The thought shocked him. Gary pulled back, letting himself look into the other man’s eyes.

Carlisle frowned, concerned. “What is it?”

Gary smiled, and he shook his head. “I just…I just had a thought about being with you for the rest of our lives, and it didn’t freak me out. I was okay with it. I wasn’t even thinking about…you know.”