STORY EXCERPT

“He’s mine.”

Seth raised his head to that new voice, stumped to see the largest man he’d ever laid his eyes on. This new stranger practically took up the entire space, bigger even than Raul. Ripped. Hot. Sexy. Even though his hand felt like it had been doused in flames, he could feel desire stir in his jeans. An inappropriate reaction.

Then Seth saw the newcomer’s eyes and swallowed. Slitted green eyes, like that of a snake’s, inhuman, flat and cold. 

“You’ve strayed very far from home,” Blake remarked. 

The vampire lord lashed out with his leg, caught him in the ribs. Seth groaned. He didn’t know why, couldn’t understand why the next time Blake kicked him, Seth avoided it. Crawled a little closer to the shifter that commanded all the presence in the room. Suddenly, it felt hot in there. Unbelievably so, like Seth had been suddenly transported to the desert. 

Sweat trickled down Seth’s back. Margo stood next to Blake, flashed fangs at the stranger, who didn’t seem affected by her venomous stare. The dragon shifter only crossed his arms, stared her down.

“We seem to have come to a misunderstanding. That hunter is our prey. Look what he did to poor Raul.”

Seth glanced at the vampire still choking out blood on the couch.

“Him?” The dragon shifter snorted, opened his mouth. Seth fell on his ass as a jet of flame emerged. The couch Raul sat on instantly caught fire, consuming the screaming vampire along with it. The entire roadhouse fell deadly silent. This time, conversations didn’t resume. From the corner of his eye, Seth could see more vampires surging forward.

“What have you done?” Margo shrieked, about to lunge at the shifter, but Blake shoved her backward.

That action told Seth that even an arrogant immortal like Blake was cautious of this dragon shifter.

“We have no quarrel with you, Noah Savage.”

Seth’s mind blanked out at that name. One didn’t need to be a hunter to know about the Savage brothers. The destructive dragon shifters had been in the media for decades. Two of them had been responsible for razing cities. Another took Simon away from him. 

Whatever desire he initially felt for Noah disappeared, replaced by a mix of fear and hate. Seth started to shake. His dominant hand might be shot, but he still had his other hand, his knife. The next thing Seth knew, he had the blade in his hands. Energy renewed, he lunged at the shifter. Noah easily gripped his wrist, his hold like steel, then flicked the blade away like it was merely an annoyance. 

His pulse leapt at the contact of Noah’s big callused hand on his skin. Seth fell to his knees, yanked his hand away. Noah released it. Did Seth imagine the look of amusement in Noah’s eyes? Damn him. Why did he come, interfere? How did he even find Seth?

Too many questions. Seth remembered Viktor Savage warning him to stay away. If he ever set foot on their land again, he was dead meat. Maybe Viktor changed his mind, decided to send his brother to kill him instead.

“He’s a feisty one, isn’t he?” Blake asked in a more relaxed voice. 

“What this hunter gave to your vampire has no cure. I did your vampire friend a favor. I’ve heard the Devereux are cooking strange things in their labs, shit that will kill our kind.”

“You’re not a vampire. You’re an abomination of nature,” Margo said.

“Forgive my second. Clearly, Raul’s death has devastated her. They were the best of friends, you see? Margo, Noah means us, the supernatural as a whole.”

Our kind. Noah Savage clearly stood on the side of monsters. So what would Noah want with him?

“How did you know about the formula?” he whispered.

Noah ignored him completely, like he was a mere flea that didn’t matter. Seth gritted his teeth. He could try to get away while the monsters talked among themselves. Get into the car, ask Dana to drive for the hills. Would they make it out in time? A car might be able to outrun a vampire, even if leeches possessed inhuman speed, but Noah? Noah had wings. 

“Doesn’t change the facts. That human is ours,” Margo said. 

“Why are you here, Noah?” Blake asked.

Seth wanted to know the answer to that question. Badly.

“Me? I’m visiting a vampire pal of mine, two towns over. Lora, vampire queen of West Church City. Decided to stop for a drink. Saw him. After my brother made a Devereux hunter into his pet before killing him, I decided I wanted to try it, too.”

“His pet?” he demanded. 

Seth played that scene over and over in his head. Simon declaring his love for his One-Winged dragon, telling Seth he wanted out of the hunter life. Simon saw hunting as a profession. It wasn’t. Hunting evil was a greater calling. At least that was what the old Seth used to believe. These days, he didn’t know what the hell he was doing. 

Why had Noah lied to these vampires about Viktor and Simon? To protect them? He knew Noah altered the truth because he’d seen the same possessiveness, the devotion in Viktor Savage’s eyes when Viktor looked at Simon. Seth even envied it a little when he was in the privacy of his own bedroom. 

Both his father and brother fucked monsters. An unforgivable act, but if he discarded the fact they were monsters—both Simon and their dad seemed happy. 

And as for being Noah’s pet? Like hell Seth would allow that to happen. He’d take his own life first.

“I know Lora,” Blake finally said. 

“I’m tired of talking. I know you vampires like to talk all night but I’m a simple guy with basic needs,” Noah said. “Either you give him to me or I’ll raze this entire place to the ground. Simple.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Noah neared him, and he didn’t back away, simply stood still as the predator in human skin hovered behind him. Noah’s chest touched Seth’s back. So warm, Seth thought, like a furnace. Noah could burn him inside out, he realized, and part of him liked that. Fire would incinerate whatever rot he allowed to take root inside of him. Would kill the deadly addiction he developed, his thirst for blood.

“I know plenty,” Noah said. “I know about your extracurricular activities. You go out every night, looking for a monster to sink your blade through. Does the high from the kill purge your mind of your father and brother’s betrayal?”

Seth shook, twisted in Noah’s arms to stare at him, open-mouthed. Not even his fellow hunters knew what he did after a mission. 

“How—?” Seth began, then thought about Noah’s words. “You had me followed? Why?”

“Curiosity.”

“Curiosity killed the cat.”

“But I’m no kitty, human.” Noah licked the shell of his right ear, then his neck, his tongue wet, like sandpaper. 

For some reason, Noah standing so close made his heart race a litter faster, jolted his dick away. Noah slipped his hand under his shirt, big and callused fingers touching skin. His. Seth leaned against Noah instead of pushing him away. He could feel Noah’s hard-on, resting against his borrowed jogging pants. Dick rubbing against dick. 

He must be massive, Seth thought, instantly ashamed by the admission, by the way his body reacted. Seth never bothered with relationships, considered them hazardous to his profession. Sure, he’d gone on one-night stands, quickies in the men’s bathroom. Never further. None of those nameless guys ever made him feel this way. 

“No,” he whispered. “You’re dangerous.”

Noah circled his tongue around his pulse point, raised his head. The dragon shifter tilted his chin upwards with his finger, traced the day-old stubble there. 

“Take me.” Seth didn’t realize he uttered those words out loud. Too late to take them back.

Noah parted his lips with the tip of his finger, then the dragon shifter moved in. Claimed his mouth like a ravenous beast. Noah kissed him roughly, thrust his tongue down his throat and damn. That only made his cock harder. Noah shoved his hand past the hem of his pants, curled them around his shaft, began to stroke him. Back and forth. Slow and fast.

His mind emptied. So good. Seth gripped Noah’s shoulder, began thrusting his shaft into Noah’s waiting hand like a horny animal. When Noah pulled his mouth away, Seth whispered, “This is wrong. I can’t be doing this with you.”

“Your body says otherwise. Why fight, when it’s easier to yield to me?”

“You’re a monster.” Seth didn’t mean those words, but once more, they slipped out. They didn’t seem to dissuade Noah. “I am, too.”

Noah smiled, cupped his cheek and took his mouth again. He melted in the arms of his green dragon. Turned into puddle. Noah pushed heat through his body and it travelled to the rest of him, cleaning him of the taint he’d carried for so long. They might be doing this outside, but there was no one to watch them. Judge them.

Noah was right. Seth was in the safest place in the world, free to do whatever the hell he wanted. Pursuing this course of action might be a monumental mistake but Seth couldn’t bother to think about the consequences, not when Noah held him like he owned him. Body and heart.

A wonderful illusion, but Seth would live with that lie tonight. 

“Are you going to fuck me here, on your doorstep?” he asked when Noah released his mouth.

Seth panted, wanted, craved so much more. For Noah to erase last night’s error, all the mistakes he’d made over the past few months. Seth wanted to let go, to stop hating himself. To see himself in Noah’s eyes. Desired. 

Noah shoved him against the front door, pinned his arms above his head. “Dirty hunter, you want to be fucked out here?”

“Why not? Doubt we’ll make it inside.”

Seth groaned when Noah gave his dick a squeeze through his jogging pants. “You got me all twisted up in chains, dragon.”

“Best spot to be in ever, hunter.” Noah reached for his shirt, literally ripped the fabric off him like it was paper. 

Seth found that incredibly hot. His pants followed. Finally, Seth stood there, in all his naked glory, exposed, vulnerable, and wanting his dragon to take him to places he never knew existed.

“Glorious,” Noah said, making him blush.

“I’m not. Really.”

Noah silenced his next few words with another deep kiss. Seth forgot about the vampires, Dana and Rico who left him behind, and the rest of his kin, the ones he devoted his entire life to. Purposeless. Afloat. Identity broken but he’d let Noah sweep all those troubling thoughts away, replace them with something better.

Seth reached for the button of Noah’s pants. “You’re still dressed.”

Noah took a step back, so Seth could undo his pants. Seth knelt, tugged the rest of the denim now. Once they pooled at Noah’s ankles, Noah kicked them away. Finally, clothing no longer stood in the way. Seth looked at Noah’s package, at the long, thick and erect dick curving upwards. Seth licked at his lips. He never had anything so big inside him before.