STORY EXCERPT

Maddox gripped the bars tight as the blond unlocked his door.

“What’s happening?” Maddox demanded.

It had to be something big for Quinten to be releasing him, like the entire castle was on fire.

“Hunters are in the castle. The warriors are outnumbered,” Quinten had said, looking up into Maddox’s face when he got the door open, nothing separating them for the first time since he’d come into this prison. “We need your help. They’re going to kill the omegas and the civilians.”

Maddox didn’t need to think twice about what to do then. He held out his hands so that Quinten could unlock his shackles, and then he waited for the dragon to do the same with Chris.

Chris still had a look of distrust on his face, but Maddox needed to only glare at the other alpha once before Chris lowered his eyes. He wasn’t going to make any problems.

“Tell us what to do,” Maddox said, and he inwardly made Quinten his leading alpha for the time being. He had to. As an alpha himself, he was incapable of following a man who did not have authority over him. So, in his mind, he had to make the spiky blond-haired dragon his alpha.

Maybe that was why Maddox found himself in the shitstorm of a problem he was in now.

Although he and Chris had managed to help save the clan, had taken out a few hunters, and earned the right to walk around the castle walls without chains on their wrists, Maddox was still chained down to someone in particular. He was chained to that fucking dragon with the stupid, cheerful smile always on his face. How in the hell could someone be a warrior and still manage to be happy like that at all times? It made absolutely no sense.

Of course, Maddox was just angry because he was stuck here. Despite being free to roam around the castle, he still had to have Quinten following him around while one of the other warriors made sure Chris wasn’t getting up to some stupid shit, and because Maddox and Chris were part of the group of alphas that had tried to attack and abduct Joey and Cameron, that meant they weren’t allowed to leave the castle either.

Duncan didn’t want to risk that Maddox and Chris would try to escape and run down to tell Clyde about the attack or let him know about the layout of the castle or any small little thing that could be used against the dragon people.

It was smart of him, considering Maddox and Chris had allowed themselves to be captured on purpose for that very reason. Clyde had made absolutely sure to tell all the alphas that if any of them were caught, and he expected some of them to surrender, then they were to be very observant. They had to look around their surroundings, check for any weaknesses the warriors had, and then search for any and all entrances and exits. The castle was in the mountain, but it wasn’t easy to get inside unless someone flew in or knew the exact paths and the location of the doors.

But Maddox couldn’t even do that. He couldn’t. He’d tried to. He’d wanted to do as his alpha had commanded him and search for the weaknesses. Hell, that was the only reason why he’d started talking to Quinten in the first place. If that dragon was willing to let something slip, some secret that he shouldn’t have told, then Maddox wanted to be there to take advantage of it.

But in the days that he’d been inside of the castle, waiting for Quinten to come to him with that annoying smile, a tray of food, and some good conversation, Maddox had done something that ruined other infiltrator missions.

He’d started to like the damned dragon.

That wasn’t the worst of it. Because he’d been so invested on helping Quinten with taking out those hunters, he’d had to make Quinten his alpha. It was as easy as flicking a switch, and maybe it only seemed so easy because of the desperation in the moment. After all, Maddox’s mission was to try and get the omegas back and see if there were any weaknesses in the castle, but he didn’t want any of the omegas dead, and hunters would have surely killed them all if given the chance. He’d needed to fight off those hunters. The bastards had all deserved to die, and the ones that had lived were just lucky to be alive.

But now Quinten was his alpha, and Maddox was going to gnaw off his own arm before he betrayed the man. That was just the way his wolf thought about it. Which was insane! Wasn’t his denial of Clyde as his alpha and taking Quinten as such a betrayal to his former alpha? Why didn’t his wolf have a problem with that? Why didn’t the stupid beast snarl and growl whenever Maddox thought about turning his back on Clyde?

He was fucked. He was so fucked.

Especially because Chris still seemed to think that the mission was on.

“What are you thinking about so hard?” Quinten asked.

His voice was enough to yank Maddox out of his thoughts. “What?”

Quinten’s grey eyes were sparkling, and that cute, annoying fucking smile was back on his face as he pointed his fork at Maddox’s food. “You’re glaring at your sandwich like you’re trying to light it on fire with your mind. What’s up?”

Again, for someone who was a warrior, who had the body of a warrior, he didn’t much act like one. Hell, Quinten was the same size as Maddox was, and Maddox wouldn’t be shocked to learn that they were within five pounds of each other. That was how much muscle was on Quinten’s body. His face was boy-next-door enough, Maddox supposed, if he ignored the piercing at his brow, but it was just one small hoop, and a piercing like that was considered so tame nowadays that it didn’t take away from Quinten’s handsome features.

ADULT EXCERPT

Seriously? He was going to come just from being kissed and having his dick stroked outside of his pants? He wasn’t a pup or anything. He was more than old enough to know what he was doing, and the wolf inside of him growled that he needed to be taking some command of this.

Quinten pulled away before Maddox could give him any similar treatment by pushing his back against the wall and making him submit. The man’s gorgeous eyes were half-lidded and cloudy with lust. “I’ll fuck you right here in the hall, and I won’t care who sees us,” he said.

He looked incredibly serious about that, too.

Maddox got a little rough then. He put one of his hands behind Quinten’s neck and the other behind his head, yanking the blond close again so their mouths meshed together in a hard, bruising kiss that was all teeth and tongue.

Then Maddox did finally get to spin the other man around and push him against the wall, just like he’d wanted to. The moan that Quinten released against his mouth vibrated through Maddox’s body, and he pressed his hips harder against Quinten’s, feeling the man’s hard cock beneath the pants he wore. He needed to rip those damned things off of him as fast as he possibly could.

“If anyone’s going to do the fucking, it’s going to me,” Maddox said, his voice all rough and tumble now that he had Quinten right where he wanted him.

Quinten’s eyes flashed. Not in the same way that Maddox’s, or other shifter’s, did whenever they were excited about something. This was slightly different, mainly the snake-like slits that appeared there. It was oddly erotic, and Maddox thought for a moment he was going to be hypnotized by them, like in a cartoon or something.

“The wolf thinks he’s got prey, does he?” Quinten asked.

The fact that the dragon seemed less than impressed, and more amused than anything, was severely annoying. “Who says you’re not my prey?”

Quinten reached down between Maddox’s legs and used his palm and put a lot of pressure on Maddox’s cock through his jeans. Maddox sucked in a breath through his nose, and he nearly shut his eyes. His knees became so damned weak that he had to hang on to Quinten’s shoulders just to keep himself from sinking down to the ground.

This made no sense. No one had ever pulled a reaction like this from Maddox before. No one. How could this be happening?

Quinten just chuckled at him, as if he had Maddox right where he wanted him.

Maybe Maddox actually was the prey.

“You sure you want that?” Quinten asked, his voice whisper-soft and his breath warm over Maddox’s cheek. Maddox shivered again, and he moaned when Quinten pressed his palm a little tighter against his cock.

His body shook. He had no control over anything, and the only reason why he was still on his feet was because Quinten had curled his free arm around Maddox’s waist and was holding him up.

Too much. It was too much too soon, and he was going to come right there in the hallway. Quinten was so good, and the promise of letting himself be taken by his alpha just made the trembling even worse. He was actually trembling. Like a frightened virgin omega.

“Answer me,” Quinten said, his voice a little rougher this time, but that only made it sound even hotter.

Maddox tried to work his mouth, his tongue, and his lips, but even they weren’t working to full capacity, and when he could only get out a few inaudible sounds, he quickly nodded his head.

That wasn’t enough for his alpha, however. “Say it.”

Quinten could be tough beneath that constant smile he always wore. Damn.

It took Maddox a couple of tries, but eventually, he did manage to get the word out of his mouth. “Y-yes,” he said.

“Good,” Quinten replied, and then his mouth was back on Maddox’s. He took command of the kiss, pushing his tongue inside of Maddox’s mouth and just owning him, despite the fact that he was not in the dominant position.

Maddox was going to have to rethink what it meant to be dominant because at the moment he was more than willing to give up everything to this man. As was proper to do for a leading alpha.

“What are they doing, Mommy?”

Maddox yanked himself away from Quinten’s kiss, suddenly full of energy again as the child’s voice surprised him.

A woman was there, quickly covering her toddler’s eyes and turning him away from their lewd groping.

“Nothing, sweetheart. Let’s walk the other way around,” she said, glaring over her shoulder at them.

Maddox’s inner wolf bristled. He thought he was being insulted and sneered at because he’d been caught kissing another man, but Quinten didn’t seem to have the same problem with it, as he burst out laughing.

Maddox glared at the man. “That wasn’t funny.”

“It was hilarious. Did you see the look on her face?”

Maddox still scowled in the direction the woman had left in, but Quinten’s laughter did make his anger simmer down enough for him to see the situation for what it was.

He was in a clan of dragons, with many of its members being mated to the same sex. That woman wasn’t glaring at them for kissing each other. She was just angry that her son had caught them doing it when they’d rounded the corner.

“I guess I can’t take you in the halls,” Quinten said, and he grabbed Maddox’s hand and laced their fingers together. “That’s a shame. It seemed kind of sexy and naughty.”

The smile on Quinten’s face when he said the word naughty was especially stupid. Maddox couldn’t help but laugh and shake his head again. “Fine, well, if the mood wasn’t completely killed—”

“It wasn’t.”

“We could go back to your room.”