STORY EXCERPT

When they finally made it to the meeting spot, Quin could have dropped to his knees and thanked God. He definitely pulled a water bottle out of his bag and drank almost the whole thing before taking a breath.

Stan slapped him on the back, laughing at him the whole time. “That’s what you get for packing so much shit in your bag.”

“Or for packing more than one bag at all,” Garrett said, and even he was smiling.

“I have a love for my stuff, leave me alone,” Quin grouched. At least the dragons weren’t here yet, so he didn’t have to deal with meeting a future mate while he was all sweaty and gross.

A roar sounded from above, and Quin knew he shouldn’t have even thought such a thing when a large shadow flew over his head.

He looked up from his spot on his knees just as three Dragons swooped down and landed in a puff of rising dust on the small flat area that was even available to them.

Quin had to lift his hand to his eyes and turn his face away just to keep the dust from blinding him. When the wind from the landing and flapping wings finally settled, he got a good look down at himself, at his hands and clothes, and he groaned.

He was covered in dirt, and it was clinging to him now thanks to how sweaty he’d been. That was just fucking perfect.

He looked up, scowling at the three men who were standing where three dragons used to be.

He knew the one in the middle was Aris. Quin had already met him a couple of times, thanks to Conner’s constant visits.

Quin could hardly pay attention to him at all when his eyes zeroed in on the gorgeous specimen standing to his right.

That had to be Roman. Quin’s heart started pounding, and even though he was pretty sure he looked disgusting, he got to his feet and stepped forward, unable to take his eyes off of the man who was going to be his mate.

Not going to be. Was. This was so much better than just signing up for a mating for peace, because it turned out that the man he was supposed to mate to was already his destined mate. He could smell it in the man’s scent, and he could see it just by looking at him.

Roman had black spiky hair, but he didn’t look like he gelled it or anything. Somehow, it seemed like that was a natural look for him, which was amazing. Roman was taller than Quin was by almost a full head, which was normal since Quin was short for a beta at only five foot ten.

Conner never told Quin that Roman had the bad boy look going for him, what with the piercings on his nose, brows, and ears. He even had a black dragon tattooed on his throat, which was also amazing to look at with its Celtic design. It almost looked like the dragon was hugging Roman, which was about what Quin wanted to do right then and there. He didn’t care how filthy he was or the fact that he was only just seeing the man for the first time in his life. He wanted to grab the man by the hand, yank him to the nearest set of bushes for privacy, and demand to be claimed right then and there. His dick hardened at the thought. Not even the fact that his brothers were standing right next to him could deter his cock from wanting what it wanted.

The best part about all of it? Was the way Roman was staring back at him, nostrils flaring, like he wanted exactly what Quin wanted.

He was so fucked, and he couldn’t wait for it.

Garrett stepped forward, hand outstretched, which Aris took hold of and shook. “Good to see you again,” Garrett said, releasing Aris’s hand and stepping back. “How is Conner? I half expected him to be here to meet up with Quin.”

“Sick in bed, unfortunately,” Aris admitted, which was just enough for Quin to stop thinking with his prick and actually look at the redheaded dragon.

“He’s all right. He’s just nauseous. Kristoff is caring for him, and he’s still awake and very upset for being in bed. Quin can come and see him when we’re back up the mountain.”

Quin sighed. “Great, so let’s go,” he said, and he immediately walked up to Roman, smiling wide when the man tensed up at his approach. Was Quin about to be mated to a shy dragon warrior? That was so damned cute.

“You’re Roman, I take it?” Quin asked, and he offered the man his hand. “I’m Quin. I’ll be mating with you tonight.”

Roman didn’t move. In fact, now he looked somewhat horrified as he turned his gaze to Aris. “I don’t…Aris, what do I do?”

Quin slowly lowered his hand, and when he looked to his brothers, they both had horrified expressions on their faces.

Quin looked to Aris, and the man’s lips were pursed, but there was no irritation anywhere in his demeanor. He stepped aside, drawing Quin’s attention to the third man who had been standing beside him all that time.

He was also tall, broad in the shoulders as most warriors were expected to be. He had hair that went down to his lower neck, and unlike Aris’s bright color, this dragon’s was a darker shade. More of a red-brown than anything else. “I’m Roman,” he said softly. “I’m to be your mate. That’s Lennox.”

Quin tensed up, and he looked up at the black-haired dragon in front of him, who was staring back down at him with a mix of pity and sadness in his eyes. It was a look that was contagious, because now everyone was staring at Quin with that same expression.

Quin shook his head and stepped away from the man he didn’t know, but who his wolf had chosen for his mate. His wolf had chosen this man, but he was supposed to be mated off to someone else?

“No.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“Maybe we should think about this. Give it some time.”

“No more time,” Lennox said, his voice gruff. “I’m not going to let you mate to someone other than me. You’re mine. You might as well get used to that.”

“Yeah, but—oh!” Quin moaned and clutched Lennox’s leather jacket tightly in his fists when the man reached down and palmed his cock through his jeans.

Lennox knew just the right amount of pressure to give, and his tongue and lips were still kissing and licking at Quin’s throat, right before the man brought himself back up so that he could kiss Quin’s lips.

He felt like he was really being claimed, and that was the point of this whole thing, wasn’t it?

But if Quin didn’t put a stop to it, then there wouldn’t be a chance later on to go back, not without completely ripping his heart from his chest.

Denying a mate was supposed to be painful enough, but breaking up with a mate, with someone who had already offered the mating bite, was incredibly rare for how awful that could be.

Fuck. He was so screwed. Why did he have to mate with the wrong person? Why couldn’t he have looked at Roman and realized that was exactly where he was meant to be? George was going to raise hell just for the sake of getting attention, and stirring up shit with the pack. He was going to create a problem where there wasn’t one, and that could split the pack into two. One side following George, and the other following Quin’s father, Simon.

That would definitely be a big problem.

But only if George could make the pack believe that this was a ploy from the dragons, a way of getting out of the deal they’d made. So long as Quin made it abundantly clear that he was the reason why this was happening, that he was the one betraying the pack by not being strong enough to say no, then hopefully there wouldn’t be much trouble that George could cause.

“I don’t know what you’re thinking about little wolf, but I want all of your attention on me,” Lennox said, and then he really got Quin’s attention when he thrust his slick fingers inside of Quin’s hole.

It was such a new and shocking experience that Quin’s entire body tensed up and he grit his teeth. He couldn’t move for a few seconds as his body adjusted. It took his brain a few more seconds before he realized that he wasn’t in any pain. Not really. There was a burning sensation to be sure, and Quin had never felt this full before in his entire life, but it didn’t hurt. It felt like something else that he couldn’t quite place.

Quin breathed, finally, and he looked up at Lennox who was smiling down at him as he wiggled his fingers inside of Quin’s ass.

“So what do you think?”

Smart-ass. “I think that we should stop this.”

Lennox’s face melted into something that was completely and utterly unimpressed. “If you really thought that, you would be fighting me off right now.”

“Maybe I should!” Quin said, and he pressed his hands against Lennox’s chest and shoved him off.

Well, shoving him off had been the plan, but his body froze immediately on contact. Not because Lennox had found and teased Quin’s prostate. No, even he knew the difference here.

It was because he didn’t want to push Lennox off of him.

This was a mistake. This was a huge mistake.

But Lennox wasn’t forcing him to do anything. The man wasn’t holding his hands down and he wasn’t exactly using his strength to keep Quin in place. He was just staring down at Quin, waiting for him to do something.

Quin wanted to howl with the frustration. The burning pleasure was making his dick do the thinking for him, and he sighed and panted with how good it felt as Lennox slowly started to move his fingers back and forth. He thrust them in and out of Quin’s hole, mimicking an act that Quin had never experienced before.

Not like this anyway.

“Tell me what you want,” Lennox said. “I’m not going to rape you, that’s not what I am.”

Which meant that Quin was going to have no excuses for the things that were about to come out of his mouth.

“I think…I want…”

“Tell me,” Lennox insisted.

Quin glared up at the man. It was so damned strange to want someone, and yet be angry with them at the same damned time. “I think that I’m going to need you to do a lot more than that if you’re going to keep good on that promise of yours.”

Lennox’s eyes flashed, and it made Quin shiver, watching those bright green eyes, that were practically neon, turn into a blood red.

At first he thought that Lennox was genuinely angry with him, but then the man leaned down and quickly captured his lips in another searing kiss that had Quin’s toes curling.

“Mmph!” Quin said when Lennox thrust his tongue back into his mouth. It was so damned good, better than anyone Quin had ever had before.

And just like that, all the fight spilled completely and fully out of him, though the little voice inside of his head was still telling him how selfish he was being, it was too late. The fight was over, and Lennox, and Quin’s body, had won.

Lennox’s fingers continued to move inside of Quin’s hole, pushing deeper inside of him, stretching his pucker even more so that it burned and even did start to hurt a little despite the pleasure that was pulsing through Quin’s balls and his throbbing cock. Only then did Quin realize that Lennox hadn’t even pushed his fingers inside all that much.

Maybe he just had really long fingers.