Sheldon didn’t expect to be kidnapped, but especially not by a dragon.
Sheldon’s only sibling, Blake, has vanished. Sheldon is relieved when Blake finally calls, but Blake refuses to explain what he got himself into. That means Sheldon has to get involved before Blake gets in even more trouble—even if it ends badly.
And it does.
As a dragon, Morven doesn’t trust humans, not even his best friend’s lover, Blake. But now Blake needs help to save his brother, and Morven can’t say no. He doesn’t expect anything but a rescue mission, and he certainly doesn’t expect Sheldon.
Sheldon is terrified of the dragons who rescue him, but at least he’s with his brother. Who lives with dragons. Can Sheldon wrap his head around it? It’s an entirely new world. Ultimately, Sheldon will have to choose whether to stay with the dragon shifter who steals his heart or go home to his abusive parents and his empty apartment.
It would be an easy choice if he didn’t have dragons trying to kill him.
Sheldon couldn’t focus. God knew he’d tried. He didn’t love his job, but he was proud of the fact that he was good at it, at least usually. Right now, though, the images on the screen were blurry, and he couldn’t stop thinking about his brother.
He hadn’t heard from Blake in a while, and he was getting worried. He’d told his brother he shouldn’t be working at that bar, but Blake hadn’t listened. Sheldon couldn’t blame him entirely for that, either. Blake needed the money, just like everyone else, and he’d worked whatever job he could find. And now, he was gone, and Sheldon didn’t know what to do.
He opened his desk drawer and took his cell phone out. He didn’t usually make personal phone calls at work, but he knew his bosses wouldn’t care. If it helped him focus better, he was ready to do just about anything.
But when he tried calling, the phone was off.
It didn’t even ring, and it made Sheldon even more worried instead of reassuring him and enabling him to focus on what he was doing. What was he supposed to do now? He wanted to find Blake, but he didn’t know where to start. Apart from calling, there was no way for him to know where his brother was or if anything had happened to him. He had to find a way, though. His family might not care about Blake anymore, but he did, and he wouldn’t let his brother disappear without doing everything he could to find him.
His cell phone rang in his hand, startling him. His heart raced as he looked at the screen, hoping against all odds that it was Blake.
It wasn’t. It was his mother, and he didn’t want to answer. He let the call end, but before he could put his phone back into the drawer, a text arrived. He opened it, glad his parents didn’t know how to use the most popular messaging apps. This way, they wouldn’t know he’d seen the message and wasn’t answering.
Remember to come over tonight.
That was it. It didn’t explain why, but Sheldon didn’t want to go. He also was pretty sure he couldn’t have remembered, because he’d never heard about this before. He tried to spend as little time as possible with his parents and the rest of his family, but he wasn’t free of them, unlike Blake.
He winced. He knew that Blake wasn’t free of their family because he wanted to be. But he’d come out to their parents, and they’d kicked him out, declaring they only had one son. That son was Sheldon, and he couldn’t abandon his parents, no matter how much he wanted to. He knew they would freak out if they found out he wasn’t straight, which was why he’d never said anything. That was one more thing he was jealous of Blake for.
Blake didn’t have their family anymore, but he was free. He didn’t have to work with their expectations, to put up a brave front, to listen to them rant. If they had it their way, Blake and Sheldon would be treated like half-humans just because they liked men. It wasn’t fair, but then, there was no fairness in life. Blake might be sad he’d lost their family, and he might have to do whatever job he could find, but that was the point. He could do whatever he wanted.
Sheldon couldn’t.
Another text arrived. We’re expecting you at five PM.
Sheldon sighed. There was no getting out of this, no matter what his parents wanted.
He put his phone back into the drawer, closed it, then turned his attention back to the computer screen. He swallowed, because even though he’d done what he could, his brother was still at the back of his mind.
Where was Blake? What was happening to him? Why was his phone off, and why wasn’t he answering?
Sheldon had answers to none of those questions, and he didn’t know how to get them. He wanted someone to talk to about Blake, but he knew better than to go to their parents. They acted as if Blake had never existed, and Sheldon went along with it. Some days, he wished he could just leave them behind the way Blake had, even though his brother hadn’t wanted it. He had responsibilities, though. If their parents lost Sheldon, too, they would be alone. Sheldon would never forgive himself for abandoning them.
He wasn’t sure he could forgive himself for abandoning Blake, yet he was.
He sighed and forced himself to focus on his work. Obsessing over Blake or their parents wouldn’t help, and Sheldon needed his job. He couldn’t afford to lose it, which meant that he had to put his worries away. Then, once the workday was over, he could think about his brother.
The problem was that the thoughts were always the same. He didn’t know what had happened to Blake, and he needed to find out. He dreaded it as much as he wanted it, though.
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