Learning to Love [A Dragon's Growl 9] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Read online

  A Dragon’s Growl 9

  Learning to Love

  Zane is still getting used to living under dragon rule. He escaped the vampires so he wouldn’t have to be ruled, but now he is here, forced to make the best of his new situation, even with the nightmares from a traumatic past, and one annoying, handsome dragon, who seems determined to never leave Zane alone.

  Marxus was only supposed to watch over the new human, to make sure he was trustworthy, but it turned into so much more than that. Marxus sees a deeper pain within the human, something that won’t be tamed so easily, and he wants to be there for him. He wants Zane for himself, if only Zane can let him in.

  The house isn’t safe, and when an old enemy comes looking for revenge, Marxus will prove to the human that he can rely on someone else, that Zane can trust Marxus to keep him safe. And to love him.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 27,717 words

  LEARNING TO LOVE

  A Dragon's Growl 9

  Marcy Jacks

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  LEARNING TO LOVE

  Copyright © 2017 by Marcy Jacks

  ISBN: 978-1-64010-562-1

  First Publication: August 2017

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2017 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada and enjoys writing about gorgeous guys falling insta-love in tricky situations ;) You can get in touch with her at [email protected]

  For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Landmarks

  Cover

  LEARNING TO LOVE

  A Dragon's Growl 9

  MARCY JACKS

  Copyright © 2017

  Chapter One

  Zane woke up in a cold sweat. In the middle of the night. His heart thudded, and he glanced around the blue darkness of his room, searching for the intruders who had been threatening him.

  No one. No one was there. The moonlight didn’t exactly show every inch, and some corners were left a little too deep in shadow, but he knew when he was alone.

  He huffed a sigh, settling back into the pillows and sheets.

  Pillows and sheets that had once been used by the vampire lord Varrick’s esteemed family and guests.

  If that man ever managed to take back this property, which had been stolen from him, he would skin Zane alive for ever thinking it was an appropriate idea to be settling himself into the sheets.

  At the moment, he didn’t care. Zane ran his hand through his hair. Sweaty and getting long. He needed to cut it. After being taken as a sort of hostage by the dragons, he’d let himself get sloppy, and hair long enough to grab in a fist was a problem.

  Kind of like in his dream. The omegas he’d turned a blind eye to hadn’t exactly been happy when they’d circled him, put him and his brother to their knees, and the knives had come out.

  But that wasn’t real. He shouldn’t be thinking of it like that because that hadn’t happened. There was nothing for him to be concerning himself with. The omegas looked at him strangely from time to time, but none of them had ever given him the impression they wanted to hurt him or his brother.

  Not in the way they’d hurt Sorin.

  Zane checked the clock. Three in the morning. The horizon would soon start to brighten with the sun. He was usually up at five or so anyway. He thought about going back to sleep, but he had to piss, and that dream didn’t really make him want to sleep.

  The noises he heard outside were a little more interesting anyway.

  Zane got up and checked the window.

  When he spotted them, spotted him, he knew he had to get down there for a better look.

  But first, the bathroom. Might as well get that out of the way. Zane never could get back to sleep when he woke up in the middle of the night needing to go, and the sight of the two dragons wrestling around down there, in dragon form, was something he’d been dying to see for a long time.

  Especially since Marxus was down there.

  Zane got his shoes, grabbed a T-shirt, and ran downstairs wearing the shorts he slept in.

  He wanted to see Marxus in his dragon form before they stopped. Zane had never seen the man in his dragon form until now.

  He ran quickly but quietly. Zane was trained to do that. He didn’t want to wake anyone.

  He made it downstairs and to the front. There had been a time when he wouldn’t have been allowed to go three feet unescorted, considering his former profession, but now, for the most part, he was free to go where he wished, which allowed him to quietly open the door and slip out the front.

  He stayed close to the walkway, watching the two dragons square off against each other. They rushed each other, but as if they were aware of the time of night, or day, they didn’t roar. They barely hissed. The loudest sound was the noise their bodies made as they crashed into each other, and the sound of one body slamming into the other was absorbed, for the most part, by the lush grass beneath their talons.

  They were the size of large horses. They were a little smaller than Zane remembered them, but he supposed the last time he’d ever seen a dragon in its dragon form had been when he’d gotten his ass knocked out and his brother Josh had been forced to take care of him.

  Marxus hadn’t been there that day, the day the dragons had come to kill the vampires and take over the house, freeing the omegas and setting up shop right here.

  A lot of the guards—humans, vampires, and alphas—had been killed that day. Zane would have been one of them had the dragon alpha, Seth, not been there to take mercy on Josh.

  Josh had begged for Zane’s life, and Seth had given it.

  Now Zane watched as Marxus battled it out with Lucian, a powerful rock dragon, the color of wet sand. Zane knew him well because he’d seen the man in his dragon shape before. Seth wasn’t in his dragon shape. He watched the two dragons sparring from the other side of the lawn, as though to make sure things didn’t get too bloody.

  Zane wasn’t sure how he knew the onyx-colored dragon was
Marxus. He supposed it was just something he felt deep in his gut. Somehow, he knew that was Marxus, despite never having seen him in his dragon shape.

  Something in his gut just couldn’t picture that black-scaled dragon as being anyone else.

  It was him, and his scales glimmered in the moonlight, the few horns he had bright and shining, as though they had been polished for aesthetics instead of for use in battle, whereas Lucian’s horns were rougher, giving off a more weathered look.

  Lucian shook his head, and he stamped his front paw. Was that a paw? Did giant lizards have paws or was that something else?

  Whatever, he stamped his front foot like a bull and then charged like one, as well.

  Marxus returned the charge, and they both met each other in the middle.

  Zane nearly jumped at the crash.

  Jesus Christ, weren’t they afraid they would hurt each other? Marxus was a powerful dragon, but Lucian was stronger than Marxus was. What if he got hurt?

  “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”

  Zane jumped again, glancing to his right, and he sighed. “Jesus, Sorin, scare the shit out of a person, why don’t you?”

  Sorin scratched the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly. “Sorry. I never thought I could sneak up on you.”

  Which went to prove how sloppy Zane really had become. “Yeah, I guess I got distracted.” He looked to the shorter man, the vampire Zane used to serve, the son of the man every omega in his house hated more than anyone or anything. “How have you and Lucian been holding up?”

  It occurred to Zane that this fight might be happening for Lucian’s sake. Something for the dragon to blow off a little steam after what had happened to him.

  Sorin ducked his head, as though he were ashamed.

  “We’re…holding up.” Sorin looked toward his mate. “He says he’s fine, but then he needs to have these sparring matches, so I don’t know.”

  The worry in Sorin’s voice couldn’t have been clearer.

  Sorin had been forced to do some awful things to Lucian when they’d both been captured by Sorin’s father. Apparently, Lucian, at one point, genuinely thought Sorin had betrayed them.

  Zane didn’t know all the details, but he wanted to comfort the man next to him. He just wished he knew how.

  Zane reached out, wanting to put his hand on Sorin’s shoulder, but then he pulled back. Touching the man he used to bow his head to seemed a little too casual.

  “I think I know you well enough to say that I think you’re innocent.” Sorin looked up at him. Zane tried to smile. He wasn’t sure how well he pulled it off. “I’m pretty sure Lucian knows it, too.”

  Sorin shook his head. “He says he’s forgiven me, but everything I did…”

  “You didn’t see him when he was taking care of you,” Zane said. “He barely ate or slept. He was paler than a ghost waiting for you to wake up. Trust me. He knows you did what you had to do.”

  “Then why does he have to do this?” Sorin looked up at Zane, a desperation in his eyes that Zane had never seen on the man before. “Why does he have to fight like this?”

  Zane looked away from the man, back toward the dragons as the two rolled in a desperate attempt to pin each other. Seth occasionally called out commands, being the good ref that he was.

  “This may or may not be what’s going on, and I’m not a dragon or anything—”

  “But you are a warrior,” Sorin interjected.

  Ah. Now Zane understood. Sorin was hoping Zane would have some sort of insight into this behavior Lucian was exhibiting.

  Zane shook his head. “I’m not a warrior. I was just a bodyguard with probably a little too much stupidity and bravado, and I’m a human, and he’s a dragon. Those are big differences.”

  He pretended to be a warrior when he carried his weapons around to protect the vampires, ignoring the omegas and humans who needed his help. Zane had met actual Navy SEALs who became bodyguards, real warriors in his profession, and he knew they would have been sickened with him if they’d known what a coward he’d been.

  Marxus used to like to throw that in his face, but he hadn’t done that in a while.

  “Anyway, those things aside, it’s possible this is just his way of blowing off steam. Some of the other guys and I, back when I still worked for your dad, if everything got to be too much, a good way to get it all out was to go downstairs and beat the shit out of a punching bag. Or another person. Not for real,” he said quickly when Sorin’s eyes widened. “But like this. A sparring match. To release the steam.”

  Sorin’s eyes turned sad as he looked back at the scene before him. “Then he is still angry with me.”

  “I didn’t say that,” Zane said, realizing he was fucking this up incredibly badly. “There’s a difference between him being angry with you and him being angry with your dad and with that other dragon everyone around here hates. What was his name again?”

  “Van.”

  “Right, that guy,” Zane said. “Don’t confuse the two. He was broken up to hell and back when you were recovering from being burned. You should have seen him.”

  Zane didn’t exactly think that sharing all this information about how torn up Lucian had been would be what Lucian would want, but it seemed to be what Sorin needed at the moment. “He felt so guilty. He thought what happened to you had been his fault. He was angry at himself for leaving you behind.”

  Zane decided not to tell Sorin about the many other fights there had been, about the things that had been smashed when Lucian had been going through the extreme lows of that time.

  More than once, Seth had to step in and calm the man down, usually with a fight, a real fight.

  Zane had once stupidly gotten in the way of it, thinking he could break up two angry dragons.

  Because reasons, apparently.

  Had Marxus not been there to grab him by the back of the neck and pull him back…

  Well, Zane might have ended up having to get his body sewn back together. That wouldn’t have been fun.

  Sorin didn’t entirely look convinced by what Zane had said anyway, which wasn’t good. Zane had wanted the man to at least feel a little better. He didn’t want Sorin to be depressed and sad about things that had been out of his control.

  “For what it’s worth,” Zane offered, and this time he did touch the vampire’s shoulder, “I know you’re a good person.”

  Sorin shook his head. “I’m not. I’ve done terrible things.”

  “If you’re guilty of doing terrible things, then what do you think that makes me?”

  Sorin looked up at him, his blue eyes flying wide.

  Zane smiled. “You’re not the only one in this house with regrets. Try not to worry too much about the stuff you can’t change. It’s done and over with.”

  “But how do I fix this thing between us?”

  How did Zane end up becoming a therapist?

  “I don’t think there’s anything you and Lucian need to fix between you, but if it’ll help, everyone says talking is always the best approach.”

  Sorin nodded, though he pursed his lips, as though that was the last advice he wanted to hear.

  Zane smiled down at the man until Sorin looked up at him. “Are you and Marxus going to talk it out?”

  Zane cocked his head to the side. “Talk what out?”

  Sorin pointed at both dragons, who seemed to be coming down off their desire to rip each other’s wings out. “Marxus. You’re together, aren’t you?”

  The question, asked so innocently, actually made the breath in Zane’s lungs catch. He pulled his hand away, staring down at the other man and then back up at the two dragons as they began to melt out of their dragon shapes. Seth passed them both small towels to wipe their brows with, but then the three of them seemed to notice they had company.

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” Zane said, even as he was further paralyzed by the intensity in Marxus’s bright blue eyes. They were a different blue than Sorin’s. Sorin’s eyes had littl
e bits of green in them. Marxus’s eyes were the color of frost. Pretty, and intimidating as all hell.

  Especially when the man looked at Zane as if he wanted to devour him.

  Zane was still figuring out if that was meant to be in a good way or not. He still wasn’t sure about that.

  Lucian jogged over to Sorin, briefly glancing at Zane and then giving his mate all of his attention. “You all right?”

  Sorin nodded, but now Zane was stuck, still looking at Marxus and trapped in the memory of when Marxus had pulled him away from Lucian and Seth before they could accidentally slice him in half.

  Zane had hated Marxus back then. The man had been his jailer, essentially, ordered to follow Zane around pretty much wherever he went, and Zane had hated it. They fought all the time, and then, out of nowhere, Marxus had saved him.

  Zane could still feel what it was like to be pressed against the man’s chest. Marxus was only a little taller than Zane was, and wider in the shoulders, but having his back pressed against the man’s perfect chest had been something Zane honestly hadn’t expected to affect him so much.

  He’d assumed, at first, that the pounding in his heart had been entirely because of the fight he’d gotten in the middle of, and had been nearly killed by.

  But even after Marxus righted him on his feet, Zane’s legs had trembled, his body had been so warm, and he’d had to run away and find someplace private where he could take care of his cock.

  Touching him, like that, those powerful arms wrapped around him, protecting him, had been enough to make Zane hard.

  And now here he was. He’d woken up to a nightmare and had rushed downstairs to see Marxus fight.

  As if he were a teenager chasing after a high-school crush on the football field.