Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) by Wolf Specter, Angel Knots Read Free Book Online

again… because it had hurt him .
    Although I’d always had a do-no-harm and let’s-enjoy-the-moment philosophy toward humans, I’d never had the same protective instincts that Dane had felt for them… but with Devin it was different. Feeling him panic had awoken something in me that was determined to protect him at all costs, even if that meant safeguarding his heart from me . I swallowed, uncomfortable with the idea that my mate had felt the need to run away from me.
    I could tell that Devin was attracted to me, and normally that would have been enough for me to take what I wanted without any hesitation, but with him, I couldn’t… because even though it was obvious that he wanted me, it was equally obvious that he didn’t want to want me. And that a part of him wouldn’t be happy about it if he gave in to what we both wanted.
    I groaned. There was too much wanting and not enough having, and it was frustrating as hell. But not as frustrating as the thought that I might make him unhappy. I couldn’t stand that. Devin’s happiness mattered more to me than my own… which wasn’t a sentiment I was used to, but which I knew without a doubt was true.
    It was why I had left when he had panicked, and why I had stayed away, even though every instinct inside me was screaming to go back to him.
    “Dane,” I said, suddenly wondering if it was just me, or if this was something that all fated mates went through. “When Sarah took me to meet Devin, he would barely talk to me, would barely look at me. Was it that way with Wes? Does the mating bond scare humans?”
    “No,” Dane said. Not the answer I’d been hoping for. “Wesley was very… eager .”
    I could tell by the look on his face that he was enjoying the memories of just how “eager” his mate could be. A year may not be that long in a dragon’s lifetime, but it should have at least been long enough that Dane didn’t still look like a lovesick fool every time he thought of his mate, I thought with a grumpy scowl. A lovesick, horny , fool. I groaned, scrubbing a hand over my face.
    Or maybe that was just me.
    I’d never denied myself when I’d wanted something before—or someone— and I’d had no idea that it would be this hard. But then again, I’d never wanted anyone as badly as I did Devin… or cared as much about him wanting me, too.
    Being away from him made me feel like a piece of me was missing. I had survived two hundred years without the man and been just fine. How could everything change in a single week? I hadn’t been able to claim him yet, hadn’t given him my fire and completed the mating bond. I shouldn’t feel so connected.
    I swallowed hard at the thought of “claiming” Devin, stifling another groan. It could only be done when I was inside him, and the thought brought up such a vivid image that I could almost feel Devin’s tight heat around me. My cock instantly hardened and jerked against my stomach as my otherself urged me to jump straight off the ledge and shift, to fly back to claim my mate as fast as wings could carry me.
    I pushed the thought away, working hard to slow my breathing.
    My palm tingled, still carrying the impression from the one time I’d touched Devin. My sense-memory instantly recalling the slight end-of-day roughness of Devin’s jaw, the heat of his skin. I’d wanted to feel more, to run my hands over every inch of him until I knew his body by heart and learned all the ways he liked to be touched. It had been almost impossible to pull my hand away, but his look of panic had cut through me like a knife. As desperately as I’d wanted to fuck the man, to own his body and heart and soul, the thought of hurting him in any way was unbearable.
    I’d felt Devin’s alarm, and it had made me stop. It had made me leave. But even a week later and almost a hundred miles away, I could still feel him, and that made me yearn to go back.
    “Dane, you didn’t give Wesley your fire for months after you found him,”