STORY EXCERPT

“Joey! You get back to your room right now!” Clyde snapped, and out of the corner of his eye, Joey watched his alpha storm over to them. He needed to get this out quickly before this dragon was ambushed or something.

“Those omegas are going to go up the mountain and kill you all. They were ordered to lie low, get in bed with anyone who asked them for sex, and then attack when they weren’t being watched!”

Joey yelled out in pain when his hair was grabbed up in Clyde’s strong fist, and he was yanked to his feet.

And then he was immediately released again when the big dragon-man with the metal-looking fists and claws opened his mouth and roared at him.

It was a sound much more terrifying than anything Joey had ever heard coming from an alpha. Maybe that was just because he’d never heard a dragon make that noise before.

The other dragon, the one who was starting to look a little ill with all the purple scales growing on him, called out to his leader. “Duncan?”

“Just one second,” Duncan said, not even looking back at his friend as he reached for Joey. And though his grip wasn’t any more gentle than Clyde’s was, when he took him by the arm and yanked him behind his back, Joey gladly went just for the protection.

God, his stomach hurt. He felt like he was going to be sick. Standing hurt too much, so he got back down to his knees, if only to make the need to puke go away a little.

“Is what he said true?” Duncan asked.

Clyde immediately got defensive. “Now, you listen to me, he’s just a scrawny omega, he’s not even all that smart. He gets confused and I’ve had to take care of him since he was a pup, so don’t you go taking that tone with me on my territory.”

Joey had to look up at the dragon, if only to see the look on his face when Clyde announced this land as his territory. That was debatable, considering wolves and dragons fought for territory all the time, and neither side ever wanted to give it up once they’d settled.

Duncan’s neck was tight, a vein throbbed there, and his eyes, those bright green eyes he had, were flashing as his nostrils flared. He was totally pissed. When he looked down at Joey, Joey flinched. Fuck, that was a scary expression.

“Tell me what’s going on. I want to know what you have to say about all of this.”

Joey’s eyes widened a little. He was, well, stunned. No one ever wanted to hear what he had to say about anything.

Clyde growled a little, such a low sound that Joey barely heard it, though he did, and he also got the clear threat that came with it.

Joey swallowed, and he looked over at the lineup. Cameron was over there, and the man was biting his lower lip as he stared at Joey. If Joey said the wrong thing, then his friend was going to die, and that would be on his head. Hell, this dragon could decide not to help them at all. He could use his dragon powers to punish the lot of them then leave them all here, still in Clyde’s care, and then Clyde could finish him off in the most painful way possible for fucking up his master plan of finally getting rid of the dragons.

“If I say anything, you need to promise me that you’ll still take them all up the mountain with you. Me, too. I want to go with you.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” Clyde snapped.

Duncan lifted one of his dark brows as he stared down at him. “You want to go up the mountain with us?”

The other dragon didn’t seem to like that idea in the least. “Duncan! You’ve got to be fucking kidding! They were going to kill us!”

“Shut up, Iver,” Duncan said, never taking his hard stare away from Joey. “Tell me why you want to go up the mountain,” he said.

“To get away from Clyde. He’s…” Joey spared a glance to the man. “He’s not a good alpha. He makes us do things we don’t want to do. The alphas, everyone. The omegas over there, they were just going to follow orders. Clyde had them all convinced that you were bringing them up the mountain to force matings on them. To rape them. They didn’t know. I found out and he didn’t want me saying anything to you.”

“Is that why you’re not in the lineup?” Duncan asked.

Joey lowered his head. “I’m…I’m not in the lineup because I’m his mate.”

The hiss that came from the high dragon above him was a little shocking. He had to look back up at the man, and he saw the surprise, and the hurt, that was on his face.

Really? He was hurt by that? Why?

“You’re–You’re mated to him?”

Joey nodded. “Yeah, in name only though, unless some other alpha wants to make a claim on me.”

Which he was really hoping for. He wanted to go up the mountain and get away from Clyde, he didn’t want to be mated to him anymore. He didn’t want to share a bed with the man anymore or dodge his roaming hands. This was his only chance to get out of here, for his friends to get out of here, and he needed to take it.

Duncan was quiet again for what had to be the longest minute of Joey’s life. This was the high dragon, and Joey had just outed his entire pack as a bunch of untrustworthy traitors.

The fact that Duncan wasn’t speaking at all made it seem all the more important that Joey keep talking. “Please don’t kill my friends. They didn’t do anything wrong. We just—”

“Be quiet,” Duncan said, his voice so damned sharp that Joey had no choice but to obey.

ADULT EXCERPT

Joey lifted his arms, barely taking his hands off of Duncan’s shoulders while the man lifted and yanked his T-shirt off and then threw it to the floor. A self-conscious worry sprung up inside of him when he was bare chested, and he wished he’d thought of this earlier, but he hadn’t, not until he was too late.

Though Joey didn’t think he was ugly or overly small, he wasn’t exactly the best looking omega in the world either, and he had nowhere near the muscle tone that Duncan had. Joey wasn’t a twink, but next to Duncan, he might as well be.

“You look so fucking good,” Duncan said, leaning in and pressing his mouth to one of Joey’s nipples. He actually kissed it and then pressed his teeth gently down on the hard nub.

Joey shivered, and a groan left his throat that he couldn’t even contain. He didn’t want to contain it, because somehow giving a voice to this pleasure he felt made everything that much better.

Duncan moved his lips away from Joey’s nipple and then put it on the other, suckling it, and then gently biting, just like before. “I’m going to fuck you,” he said. “Then you’re mine.”

Joey shivered. “I like that idea,” he said.

Dragon or not, this man was definitely an alpha, and he was behaving like one. It must’ve been driving him crazy to not be able to take Joey the first time he saw him, back when Joey could smell the lust in the air from those first few moments they had in the same room. That was definitely the reason why he’d been brought here in the first place instead of going off with the other omegas.

Now the man was clearly not going to hold back and Joey was perfectly fine with that.

His first thought was that they were going to do it in that nice, big bed over there. He’d never had sex in a bed before, and the sheets were incredibly inviting, but that didn’t happen. Duncan put Joey down on his feet, quickly, as if they were in a race to get naked, like their clothes were on fire and needed to be removed pronto or something.

Then Duncan took him by the hips and quickly turned him around so that he was facing the wall. Ah, so this was going to happen standing. That was all right, it was probably better for his first time with Duncan to be like this anyway. From what he was able to feel through their clothes not too long ago, the man’s cock was huge. This position would likely be the most comfortable.

Despite that thought running through his head, there was still the very real worry that what he was about to experience wouldn’t be as intimate, or feel as right, as those kisses from before had felt. Would their first time having sex be something cold? A quick fuck that was over before he realized it? Joey hoped not, and the more Duncan’s hands remained on him, sliding over his skin, his bare stomach, and then hooking into his jeans before working the button and zipper, sliding them down his legs and, well, he was fairly sure that this wasn’t going to be something he would hate to think about in the morning.

Duncan’s rough hand was gentle when his fingers curled around Joey’s cock, giving him a nice, leisurely stroke before removing his hand altogether.

Joey groaned when the tough of that hand was gone. He wanted it back. “Don’t stop, keep doing that,” he said.

That was his voice? He sounded so damned out of breath, like he’d been running or something. How was Duncan doing this to him?

The man even chuckled at him, as if Joey had said something funny. “If I keep touching you like that, you’re going to come. Your cock is so hard already.”

Joey felt all kinds of heat climbing up his neck. He moved his hand down to touch his cock himself, but then Duncan slapped his hand away, but even that was a gentle tap compared to what Joey thought the man could really do.

“No touching,” Duncan said.

“But I need to!” Joey said, his voice whiny even to his own ears, but it was true. He felt like if he didn’t come, then he was going to implode or something.

Duncan pressed his mouth to the side of Joey’s neck, and then his teeth grazed the shell of his ear, and Joey shivered. “Holy fuck,” he said, gasping the words. “How is it…how is my ear that sensitive?”

Duncan chuckled again. “Every part of your body is sensitive, and I’m going to make every single one of them light up like they’re on fire,” he said and then pressed his lips to Joey’s skin again, on his shoulder, and then down his back.

A small drawer opened off to the left of them. Joey had a look, and it looked like just a small end table or something, and Duncan’s hand was fishing around in there. When he pulled out the black tube of lube, anticipation swirled within him. It rose up higher and higher, especially when Duncan held it in one hand and opened the cap with his thumb. Duncan took his hand away from Joey’s hip just long enough to pour some of the clear liquid-looking stuff into his palm. Joey noticed right away that Duncan stroked it onto his cock first before he pushed apart Joey’s cheeks and pressed a slick finger to his hole.

“Oh yeah,” Joey said, and he spread his legs a little wider, wanting that finger to be inside of him, stretching him wide open. “Right there,” he said. “Put it right in there.”

“You’re very eager,” Duncan said.

“That’s a good thing, right?” Joey asked, and then rose up on his toes and moaned when that finger pushed inside of him.

“Very good,” Duncan said, letting his hand slide around Joey’s stomach until he was holding him close, until his back was pressed against the man’s much larger chest.