STORY EXCERPT

Argyle sipped from his wine. “I would like an offer sent to the former owner of this slave. I would be willing to pay good credits for a ruined one such as he.”

Ren shook his head, still smiling. “You said it yourself. It’s only a tattoo. It’s nothing to remove it.”

Argyle shrugged. “It’s the trouble of going through with it that would be a bother, and if he was already shared with the dragons on that ship, then it wouldn’t matter. That is something that cannot be washed away.”

Ren chuckled. “Well, will you speak now, boy? Did those pirates share you and the other slaves as payment for taking your lot on?”

They hadn’t, and they weren’t pirates either. The stuff they smuggled wasn’t bad.

Not as far as Adam had seen.

“Answer. That is not an option,” Ren snapped.

Adam cringed.

He shook his head.

“Speak.”

Adam swallowed hard over the lump in his throat. “N-no, sir.”

The general’s milky-blue eyes widened, as though he was shocked before they bled into a pitch-black color of the shark that he was. When he grinned, he pulled his lips back to show off his rows of sharp teeth, and he leaned in close. “So, you speak at last. Are you certain of this? You’re not lying to save yourself from being sold to my friend, are you?”

Adam trembled. Those teeth. He didn’t like shark teeth. “No, sir,” he answered again, feeling the burning in his eyes.

It was too much. It was too humiliating, and he wouldn’t allow himself to be brought down like that. He couldn’t allow it.

But even as he barely held his tears back, it was obvious to everyone around him that he was on the verge of crying.

Some of the elite on the sofa chuckled at him. Ren did not, but there was pleasure in his eyes at Adam’s discomfort.

“Well, I’m afraid you’re in for some trouble there, Argyle,” said Ren. “He’s not as damaged as you think.”

“That’s easily fixed. You there, dragon.”

Setana stepped forward. Argyle pointed at Adam.

“See to it that you take him a few times. Scar him a little in the face. Not too much, though. I want him easily fixed, but to be unseemly enough to turn away the previous owner.”

Adam tensed. No way. This couldn’t be happening. He looked up at the dragon beside him, hardly able to believe it was a dragon at all, but he was. Some dragons were in the service of the sharks, as some sharks were loyal to the dragon royal family.

Adam sucked back a hard breath, terror rushing through him while Ren laughed, and the others on the sofa made noises of disgust.

“My friend, you have severely lost your wit. You would admit that being defiled by a dragon would turn others away, but you would still take him.”

“I want, what I want,” Argyle said smoothly, turning back to Setana and Adam. “Bruise him just enough to be noticeable. I want to take photos and send him to Ren’s neighbor. What did you say the good man’s name was?”

“I didn’t.” Ren told him, and Argyle nodded. “Right. I want to be able to take my property home with me as soon as possible. If we can get this transaction made while in the air, all the better.”

General Ren whistled. “Even I must admit, that’s a step I certainly would not take, pretty face or not.”

“He is a pretty face.”

“Who does he remind you of?” asked the general.

“Someone from a long time ago,” said Argyle, what could almost be a dreamy expression on his face.

Not that Adam noticed or anything because these men had just given some of the guards permission to rape him. In fact, they’d ordered them to do it!

Argyle waved his hand at Setana. “Go on now, and remember what I said.”

Setana nodded. “Bruising and some scarring.”

Argyle nodded. “Correct. You may take him a couple of times for yourself as well. Loosen him up for me. I’m not as young as I used to be.”

Adam was going to be sick. He was going to throw up all over the nice carpeting beneath his feet.

“Should I take him to my quarters?” Setana asked. “I will be able to quickly administer medical care there, so he will not bleed on you when I return.”

Argyle rubbed his chin. “A dragon on a ship such as this with his own space.” He looked to Ren. “You must trust this one.”

General Ren smiled. “Setana has proven himself. Believe it or not, but I am proud to say he has another six months left in his contract, and I will offer him a salary.”

Argyle’s eyes widened. “Truly?”

Ren nodded. Adam couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Setana was a slave, too?

“He has done fine work. Only the few and the strongest can pull themselves from the pit. I admire that, dragon or no dragon.”

Argyle laughed. “Well then, so be it. Take him to your quarters for the night. Put all the love bites of a dragon on him, do whatever it is you do for that sort of thing, just make it look good. Consider yourself rewarded for good service.”

Setana nodded. “Thank you, my lord.”

Adam’s stomach clenched. He could hardly breathe. His feet ached to bolt, to run away from this.

Setana put his hand on Adam’s shoulder, however, and he tensed. “Come now. Don’t make a fuss.”

Feeling very much like one of the sweeper robots he’d seen on the Shark Fin, Adam turned and walked in a daze out of the stuffy, luxurious space, and followed Setana and the other guard down into the darker halls of the ship.

ADULT EXCERPT

Setana hooked his fingers, the blunt fingertips sliding against…something. No, he knew what that was, and oh God, it felt good. Oh God.

“If you say that any louder, the people in the other rooms will hear us.”

He’d been talking out loud? Adam hadn’t realized that, but he reached for the thin pillow he’d seen on the bed and promptly smothered himself with it just to keep the noises down as he moaned freely into it.

Even though he couldn’t see Setana’s face, Adam got the distinct impression the man found this amusing. He didn’t stop playing with Adam’s prostate. Every time his fingers touched that sweet spot deep inside him, they lingered there, and Adam thought he was going to lose his damned mind from the rush of pleasure that had nowhere to go.

God, it was like he’d hit a ceiling. The pleasure that had been building inside him, that was building and sweeping still, felt exactly as if it wanted to burst and rush out of him. His testicles were tight and he was ready to come, but there was something stopping that from happening. Adam couldn’t come. He wanted to, he moaned for it, he ached for it, but he couldn’t seem to make himself have the orgasm he wanted.

Frustration swelled up inside him along with the pleasure. He couldn’t handle this. He yanked the pillow away from his face and stared accusingly at the other man.

Setana blinked at him as if he couldn’t see what the problem was.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked through clenched teeth. He shot his hands into his hair and gripped it tight, but only because he desperately needed something to hang on to.

“What do you mean? Are you in pain?”

Adam wanted to yell at him that he was not in pain, and to tell him to stop asking already, but that would’ve been mean. Even in his lust-fogged brain, he could recognize that much.

“Please stop teasing me and be inside me. I want you inside me already.” Adam had to admit, he sounded somewhat petulant and whiney when he said that, but he couldn’t help it. The pain he felt was real. He needed to have Setana inside him.

It was the mating. It had to be. Never before had Adam been overcome by such a feeling of desperation that he could think of nothing else but his own lust. It was making him lose his mind. It was making him come undone.

“Do you really want me inside you?”

Adam nodded. “Yes. Why are you even asking?”

Setana pulled his fingers free from Adam’s body. He was quick when he yanked Adam’s knees over his shoulders. Adam gasped for breath. He’d barely had a chance to get used to the position before he felt the blunt head of Setana’s cock pressing between his ass cheeks, touching his hole, and sliding back and forth. More teasing, but the anticipation was rising.

So close. He was so close to feeling Setana inside him. Adam squirmed helplessly beneath the other man. “Please. Please, I need it.”

Setana nodded. “I know.”

Setana pushed his cock deep inside Adam’s hole. It was sharp and painful for the first moment. Adam cried out from the sudden pain, but then there was only pleasure as the head of Setana’s wonderfully thick cock was pressing against his prostate, taking up the teasing where his fingers were no longer doing so.

Adam moaned. He arched his back and was desperate to push his ass back against that wonderful feeling, but it was too hard when he was in this position. He could barely move, and he had to rely almost entirely on the sudden fast movements of Setana’s hips.

He wasn’t wasting any time.

“That’s it. Oh God, that feels nice, please,” Adam begged, though he wasn’t sure why he was begging because Setana was giving him everything he wanted.

Setana’s eyes turned to a bright shade of red. They looked like the alpha eyes of a wolf shifter. Adam hadn’t known dragons could have eyes like that, and it was a bigger turn-on.

This was the man he was being claimed by. Adam hadn’t been given to just anyone, he’d been given to his mate, and he was lucky for it. He was blessed for it. He never wanted to leave this man’s arms.

Setana didn’t stop the movements of his hips. He was fast, fucking Adam almost to the head of the bed. He knew this when he raised his arms and realized there was a wall there, but it wasn’t just that. Adam realized why Setana’s eyes were red when he touched the infinity-symbol tattoo over Adam’s heart.

“Th-this is no more.”

Adam shook his head.

“I’ll put my mark here.”

Adam nodded.

The deep, throaty moan that Setana let out after that probably meant he was glad for Adam’s answer. He definitely seemed pleased if the sudden way his hips picked up the pace was anything to go by.

Adam bit his lips together, trying his absolute best to hold back the noises that rose up his throat and chest.

He couldn’t seem to keep them back. It felt too good. When was the last time anyone had ever cared about his own pleasure like this?

Never like this. This was different, special. Adam reached for Setana. He wanted to hold him tightly, get as close as he could to his body and stay there.

Setana leaned down, bending him almost in half, grunting as their mouths came hotly together, and all the while Adam’s prick was trapped against his belly. He couldn’t reach it, but he didn’t want to. With Setana canting his hips, it felt almost like a slow burn, a tease the way his firm abs brushed against the sensitive shaft.