STORY EXCERPT

“How did it go for you?” Mindy asked, her voice a little on the quiet side. “With Adon?”

Quinn smiled, trying not to think of Adrick’s father now that things were finally looking up, though his namesake would always be there with him.

“He said he would give me a job. A week from now I start with you.”

He smiled at her, pleased as he watched Mindy’s eyes positively light up.

She went to him, hugging him, and he held her back.

Though there were some who were unsure of him, there were enough people in the clan who had hugged him, who were warm, that made everything else worth it.

The only thing that would make it better would be if Adrick came back to him from the dead, though that was never going to happen.

“That’s such good news!” Mindy stepped back, clutching her hands together, staring at Quinn as though he’d just won the lottery.

“Yeah. I mean, I’ll have to beg for sitters for Addy, but that will be fine. Soon enough I can start buying my own baby clothes and formula.”

“No one minds doing that.”

Quinn shrugged. He wasn’t so willing to believe that. Mindy was being generous, and not with her own resources, but her heart was in the right place.

Still, if she wasn’t careful, some of the simmering resentment for him might attract to her, and Quinn didn’t want that.

“What’s happening with Adon now? You just came right back.”

“Oh, he said he has a meeting with another dragon. Some guy from the Red place or something or other, to talk resources.”

“Oh! Very nice. Maybe I’ll go and check him out when he arrives.”

Quinn smiled. “Are we allowed to do that?”

“Well, I can. I know things are a little…delicate for you right now, but if he’s handsome, you never know, he might get the mating scent on me.”

She grinned as she said it.

She was a dragon chaser. One of the humans who actively sought out a dragon mate, hoping for the higher status that came with being mated to one of them, to giving birth to their children.

Humans, being the bottom of the food chain, so to speak, right beneath the animal shifters, with dragons specifically at the top, were only valued based on their ability to give dragons dragon children.

Any dragon who mated with a wolf or a bear shifter or any kind of shifter, always produced that shifter. Dragons who mated with other dragons couldn’t have children at all.

The only way to produce more dragons was to mate with a human. It was one of the few reasons why humans were considered useful at all.

Why there were some protections afforded to them.

Mindy squeezed Quinn’s shoulder before rushing outside. Quinn shook his head as she left.

He’d never been a dragon chaser. His soul mate had been handed to him on a silver platter.

He and Adrick had been childhood friends. Quinn the son of one of the cleaners in the clan, and Adrick the son of the clan leader.

They’d always been together, even before Quinn and Adrick realized there was a difference between humans and dragons at all. They’d had sleepovers, played in the lake with the other kids, and even as they got older, and Quinn’s parents began to hint that it might be inappropriate to hang out with the son of their clan leader, he couldn’t keep away.

He knew Adrick was hearing the same thing. It wasn’t right to spend so much time with one of the cleaners, to play games and eat together well into their teens.

That all changed when Adrick and Quinn realized they were mated.

Quinn smiled just thinking about it, his body warming as he stared fondly at his sleeping son.

He and Adrick kissed for the first time when they were fifteen.

Then things got a little secretive. They tried to hide it, their secret makeout sessions when they were sure the adults weren’t looking.

Little did they realize that things would only get better.

Adrick’s parents were thrilled when they realized it was a genuine mating, and not simply teenage lust. Quinn’s mother had been over the moon.

Of course, the familial support had started to suck the instant Quinn and Adrick realized they needed to be kept apart from each other from then on.

Their parents only let them near each other with parental supervision. No one wanted to risk anything happening before a wedding could take place.

Adrick turned eighteen first. He was seven months older, and he’d bitched the entire time about why Quinn had to be so much younger.

Quinn had taken a slight masochistic enjoyment of that, he wouldn’t lie.

They were married the day after Quinn’s eighteenth birthday, and everything had been perfect after that.

Quinn’s parents were offered a lump sum to retire on. It wouldn’t look good if the in-laws of the clan leader were cleaners, after all, and Quinn was welcomed into the fold with open arms.

Adrick and he screwed like bunnies at all hours of the day, but it was only after seven years of being happily mated that Quinn got pregnant.

Then the flooding happened in the valley.

Properties owned by the clan were damaged, businesses were lost, and the money got incredibly tight so fast it made everyone’s head spin.

Still, Adrick was sure they would weather the storm.

Until the attack.

Quinn pulled back from his child. He didn’t want his bad mood to somehow infect the boy and wake him. He would rather his child continue to sleep without his father’s bad vibes getting him.

But he couldn’t help it. Every time he looked at Addy, he saw his father. His dark head of hair, those deep chocolate eyes. They were all Adrick.

Quinn inhaled a sharp breath.

Adrick should have been here. He should have been the one to cut the egg out of Quinn. A mate was supposed to do that. Addy should have been held by him and kissed by him, but Adrick wasn’t here.

Neither were Addy’s grandparents on either side.

They would have loved to have seen him. Quinn’s mom had been excited for grandkids.

Adrick’s father had boomed with pride and pampered Quinn even when he hadn’t been showing.

It was so unfair this had been stolen from them.

His door burst open. Quinn whirled around. “Jesus!”

Mindy stood there, her hand still on the knob as she panted for breath.

Quinn glanced back at Addy. He scrunched his face, but stayed napping.

“What the hell?” he hissed, trying to keep his voice down even though he wanted to yell at her.

She hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “That guy meeting with Adon is here.”

“So?”

Even as he said it, the look on her face concerned him, and he was suddenly scared of what she might say.

“He’s asking for you.”

Quinn’s stomach turned to heavy stone.

“What does he look like?”

She shrugged, though her eyes remained wild, as though trying to think about what she had seen.

“Big, tall, like all warriors. A black guy, if that makes a difference.”

Jamal.

Quinn was going to be sick. He looked at his son.

“He’s going to catch my scent. Is there a car around here I could borrow?”

Mindy pressed her lips together. “You know him?”

Quinn nodded, hurrying to his closet, grabbing the bag he’d been given for baby supplies. He started to fill it.

“I need to go. He’s going to catch my scent here.”

Mindy looked like she wanted to cry, but she sprang into action. “I’ll help you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Adrick sighed. He pressed his lips to the scar on Quinn’s lower belly.

And it was one of the most beautiful, erotic kisses of his life.

“Does it still hurt?”

“Not anymore.”

Adrick ran his thumb over the scar, and Quinn shivered helplessly at the touch. “Are you sure you’re well? It’s still very red.”

“It’s healing. I can pick up Addy now, bend over, and do other small things. That’s all I care about.”

“What you will be doing with me will hardly be small. Are you sure you can handle it?”

There was no hint of teasing in Adrick’s eyes or his tone. He was being perfectly serious as he asked if Quinn wanted to have sex.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I just got you back. You aren’t getting out of here until you’ve had your cock inside my ass at least twice.”

Adrick snorted a laugh.

“Since when do you curse like that?”

“Shut up. I curse.”

“Hardly like that.”

“Well, you shouldn’t tease me like that and then threaten to not do anything.”

“Not a threat, sweetheart.” Adrick kissed his belly again, and then the tip of his dick.

Pre-cum formed there, and Quinn’s entire body tensed.

“I just want to make sure you’re safe when I do this. It’s not a threat. Not in the least.”

He put his whole mouth around the head of Quinn’s cock, as though that was supposed to make things better if he decided not to go further.

Hell, this might make things a thousand times worse as Quinn held tightly to Adrick’s shoulders, thrusting into his mouth while Adrick held onto his waist.

“Y-you’d better not…even think about not…oh God, don’t stop. I’m so close already. This is gonna be embarrassing.”

His knees wobbled. Quinn couldn’t hold back. The immediate pleasure, the fact that he’d waited for this for so damned long…

He came. It was humiliating and immediate. Quinn’s body tensed, shuddered. He tried to hold back but that release would not be contained no matter how much he tried.

And he did try. So damn hard.

Quinn sighed, heart pounding, gasping for breath as he finally opened his eyes just to watch as his cock slipped from Adrick’s lips.

Those normally dark eyes were bright, glowing red as he stared at Quinn with that familiar wanting.

“Sorry,” he gasped. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Even as he said it his cock twitched, still interested, blood flowing to his erection as his body readied to be taken by his mate.

“It was perfect.”

Adrick stood, never breaking eye contact. “You’re beautiful.”

“Yeah?” Though he couldn’t help but be a little embarrassed. “I’ve thought about this so much, about what it would be like to have you back, and now you’re here and I feel like I can’t control myself.”

“Me neither. That’s the point.”

Adrick’s warm, strong hand came behind Quinn’s neck, pulling him forward for another kiss.

Quinn shivered. His dick rock hard quickly once again even though he’d just had an orgasm.

The side effects of being mated to a dragon. When one’s mate touched them, the humans were able to keep up with their more powerful counterparts.

Quinn wrapped his arms around Adrick’s shoulders, pleased when the man kissed him deep, curling his arms around Quinn’s waist and pulling him off his feet, moving to the bed.

It was a twin, but it had always seemed too big and empty. Quinn had been so used to sleeping with Adrick. Now he worried it might not be enough space for the both of them to do what they wanted with comfort.

And as Adrick laid him down, the both of them getting out of the last of their clothes, even their socks, Quinn couldn’t help but feel kind of dumb.

He was Adrick’s mate. He should have known Adrick was still alive. No matter what he thought he saw, he should have felt something in his heart that would let him know Adrick was still out there, still looking for him.

He was ashamed for not knowing. He needed to find some way to make it up to him.

He didn’t know how in any way other than this. Other than giving Adrick his body.

Adrick pressed his body against Quinn’s, easily parting his legs, sliding his pelvis between them, their cocks sliding against each other as though saying hello.

Quinn sighed at the contact, the gentle, yet firm way Adrick’s hand gripped at his shoulder before their eyes met.

It was as though they’d never been apart. Their bodies seemed to fall back into old rhythms.

It was comforting. It made Quinn’s heart pound as Adrick leaned in, kissing his chest, his lips sucking on each of Quinn’s nipples as he thrust forward, their cocks getting the friction they needed, but it still was not enough.

And Quinn couldn’t keep his hands to himself. He slid them across Adrick’s head, his shoulders.

“I want you to fuck me. Please, I need it.”

He couldn’t wait anymore. He didn’t want the foreplay. He was ready to burst again and Quinn didn’t want anything other than having Adrick’s cock inside him. Stretching him. Marking him.

Adrick seemed to be on the same page if the way he pulled back from Quinn’s skin, the way he looked at him, was anything to go by.

“You got anything in here I can use?”