The Mating Power Read online

  “Maybe if all three of you weren’t using her, any energy or whatever you get from fucking humans would help you out some more.”

  And now they were looking at him as though he’d touched their sore spots.

  Zack really needed to keep his mouth shut.

  “Listen, I appreciate the offer, but I really do need to get out of here. My roommate is waiting for me back home.”

  “I thought you had someone waiting for you inside the coffee shop?” asked the third dragon.

  Motherfuckers.

  “Yeah, well it doesn’t matter where anyone is waiting for me because I’m out of here.” He tried to be cool and push the hands off his shoulders, but it turned out he was a little weaker than he thought because that definitely didn’t help him. The guy gripped him tighter.

  “Just listen. I don’t think you understand.”

  “I understand and I said to fuck off.”

  “Let us explain a little more.”

  He punched at their hands this time, desperate to get them off him, but that didn’t seem to work either.

  What the fuck were these guys made of?

  They laughed at him, and so did that dumb bitch who tricked him into coming into the alley in the first place.

  “Holy shit, feisty!” said the dragon holding him, laughing.

  The woman behind him cackled, too. “I picked a good one for you, didn’t I? Remember I did that!”

  “You stupid bitch, I was trying to buy you a sandwich. You didn’t find shit!”

  For however this strange transaction went, even if he got fucked over, he was going to make sure she didn’t get any credit for what was happening here.

  “Zack? What the fuck, man?”

  Oh no. This kept getting worse.

  The dragons glanced back toward the mouth of the alley. It had gotten so much darker in only a few minutes, but Mike stood out like there was a light behind him. He had his hoodie pulled over his head, but Zack could see his eyes.

  Much as he said he liked dragons, he looked like a cornered animal.

  Like he was scared out of his mind.

  “Mike, get out of here!”

  “Hey, you want to make some money with this one? Let’s see your hair!”

  Mike immediate pulled the hoodie a little tighter around his head, but it seemed that was a dead giveaway as the three dragons laughed. Two of them moved in on Mike. Zack tried to go to him, to get away again, but those hands were a little too tight on his shoulders and it was as though he was chained in place.

  Poor Mike looked frozen in place as he was approached by two massive dragons who might have been able to give Draggis Boromir a run for his money.

  “Mike! Get out of here!”

  Mike didn’t move. He watched, body trembling, as the two approached, but they never touched him as two blurs dropped down from above, landing on the dragon shifters and pummeling them into the wet pavement.

  It was enough to make Zack jump a little, and Mike actually fell backwards, his eyes rolling to the back of his head.

  “Mike!”

  One of those blurs reached his hands out and grabbed Mike before his skull could crack wide open on the ground, but Zack still wasn’t relieved since he had no idea who those two were. But the dragon holding onto Zack gripped his shoulders tighter, tight enough that he grunted from the pain, his shoulder muscles on fire from being held like that.

  Oh God, that was the worst.

  “Stop it!” Zack yelled, but the larger male didn’t seem to hear him.

  Not when he was busy screeching at the two males who stepped into his territory. “You fucking shitheads! Tory! This one is mine!”

  “Fuck you, I don’t belong to anyone!” Zack snapped. “Especially not some sack of shit dra…” He immediately trailed off, the thinking piece of his brain figuring it might not be a good idea to talk that way about dragons when a couple of them were coming to his rescue.

  And when one of them was so damned… handsome.

  The most gorgeous looking male he’d ever seen in his life was standing right there, staring him down with the most intense looking green eyes he’d ever seen in his life. It was crazy. Zack couldn’t believe it. He’d seen photoshopped photos that were nowhere near as bright as those eyes were, and he was immediately sucked into the beauty of them.

  Not to mention the broad shoulders, the wave of his sandy hair, and the cut of that chin? Holy God, Zack never thought he was a shallow person before now, but he wanted to climb into that guy’s lap and lick him from neck to groin.

  Emphasizing on the groin part.

  Now his heart was racing and his cheeks felt warm. Unfortunately for him, the dragon holding onto him took it as some sort of sign that Zack was responding to him when he definitely wasn’t.

  “You see? He wants me anyway! I’m going to take this little redhead and kick your fucking ass!”

  Zack snapped out of it. “I don’t have red hair and you’re not doing shit to me! Let go!” He tried to push the other man away again, but it didn’t work, and the dragon named Tory took another step forward.

  Which was also bad because the closer he got, the more Zack’s heart rate seemed to go up. The more his blood warmed and quickened in his veins.

  He was getting hard while the wrong person was holding onto him, and that wasn’t something he wanted to deal with.

  “Boris, you let that man go right now or I will break your fingers one by one.”

  “Find your own human to fuck!” Boris snapped, spittle flying from his mouth.

  Fucking ew.

  But Tory didn’t step back. The taller man kept coming, one slow, menacing step at a time. Those intense green eyes seemed to get brighter. It took Zack a minute before he realized they were glowing.

  Then he felt a little scared.

  And also turned on.

  “You let that human go, right now, or I’ll give you a fight to make your grandkids feel it. You’ll never walk right again after I bust your kneecaps.”

  Green scales begin forming at the man’s shoulders and his neck. He only wore a black T-shirt, and it was so tight that it left almost nothing to the imagination, but even with that, Zack could still see the impression of arrowhead-looking scales forming beneath the cotton. As though he was getting ready to transform right in the alleyway and have a dragon fight.

  Zack didn’t like dragon fights. He thought they were too brutal and savage and worthless.

  Why bother with fighting like this when things could be settled properly?

  And yet, despite believing that, Zack found himself more and more excited about the prospect of being fought over.

  Not just that. He found it exciting that he might be able to give one of these men enough of a boost in power that they could really kick ass. What would it feel like? Other humans had talked about what it felt like to give their dragon lovers that power boost that came when they were part of the fight. Some humans snidely referred to it as a form of Pokémon, at least for the humans who slept around with multiple dragons at the same time, participating in their battles.

  Gotta catch all the dragons.

  Zack had never been interested, but now more than ever he wanted to go to this man. He wanted to be on Tory’s side and help him win the fight. He wanted to cheer him on and give his energy and power to the male.

  Not that he knew how to do that, but he would figure it out pretty fast. For a face like that, Zack was willing to do just about anything.

  But then Boris gripped Zack’s shoulders even tighter, forcing him to look up into those crazy eyes. “All right, baby, give me something I can use.”

  Without warning, Boris kissed him hard on the mouth. Zach inhaled a deep breath, which was kind of bad because then he ended up breathing in a lot of the man’s smell, eating it, tasting it, smelling it, and he didn’t like it. Not that he smelled anything like the cowardly woman who was now probably hiding behind the dumpster behind them, but there was something especially off-putting abo
ut it.

  Not just because he didn’t want to be kissed either.

  Boris pulled back quickly, frowning down at Zack as though he had done something wrong. “That all you’re going to give me?”

  Zach just about lost his damn mind. “What the fuck do you mean is that all I’m going to give you? Get the fuck off of me!”

  “Fine.”

  He didn’t expect to be shoved away so roughly, which was why he told himself that he didn’t catch himself and ended up scraping his palms on the dirty cement beneath him.

  Ow. Fuck that really hurt.

  But then nothing else mattered as the two dragons flew at each other. Not literally, but it sure seemed like it in that moment.

  Most interestingly, the fight was over quickly—as quickly as Tory launched his nuclear fist into the other man’s cheek.

  Zack swore he saw an intense orange glow around the other man as he sent Boris flying backwards. It was like watching an anime character get his ass handed to him as he crashed into the dumpster, and the woman who had lured Zack back here squeaked and scuttled away, abandoning her partners.

  The only thing that was missing was the track marks made out of fire.

  Holy shit that was intense. Zack’s entire body trembled from the adrenaline rush of it. Then, the shadow of Tory stood above him. Zach looked up at the man as he offered his hand.

  “Are you all right?”

  Zack blanked out. His brain felt a little bit slow, and he was pretty sure his mouth was gaping open. Not that the handsome devil above him seemed to notice or care. The smile Tori gave to him could melt icebergs.

  He slowly came back to reality and was able to reach up and grab at the other man’s hand.

  Mostly he just wanted to see if it was real, or if he was dreaming this.

  The way his hand was gripped and his body pulled upwards until he was on his feet, as though there was no effort required at all to do that, proved that he was very much awake, and this man was real. And this very real man put his hands on Zack’s shoulders as though to study him.

  The best part about it? The grip wasn’t tight enough to make him wish for pain medication.

  “Are you hurt? Can I bring you anything?”

  He could bring Zack a tall glass of water to go with this heat stroke he was having. And if he did it while he was naked, all the better.

  “Uh, who are you? I mean, I know who you are, that other guy said your name, but… What I mean is…”

  Why was it so damn hard to get the words out of his mouth when Tory smiled at him like that? Not even just the way he smiled at him, but there was something familiar about all this that made Zack want to get started on that body licking.

  “I was able to defeat him so easily because of you.”

  Zach didn’t understand that. He also didn’t understand how his hand ended up being held gently by both the hands of this dragon.

  Not even just that, but he also noted the way the scales were gone, as though they had sunk back into the other man’s skin.

  Zack felt so hot that he struggled to breathe through it.

  Touching this man was almost too much, but to stop touching him seemed like it would be the worst thing in the world to happen to him. Like he wouldn’t be able to handle it if he never got the chance to be in this man’s arms ever again.

  As tired as he was, he never felt more alive.

  So conflicting.

  The dragon male looked down at him, those green eyes like emeralds—if emeralds had shooting stars in them.

  “I think you might belong to me,” Tory said.

  Zack was in no mood to fight him on that one, even though he’d just fought off another dragon with all the strength in his body.

  “Yeah. Sure.”

  Chapter Three

  Zack may have blanked out after that. He couldn’t seem to figure out what was going on because the inside of his head looked like a potato, and he had the energy of one.

  So when he realized he was being taken somewhere, and that Mike was still with them, and still passed out, he blinked and came back to life.

  “Wait, what’s going on? Where are we going?”

  “I need to get you alone,” Tory said.

  A thrill of excitement rushed through Zack just thinking about that, but he couldn’t help but look over at the other dragon who was still holding onto Mike. The guy had Mike slung over his shoulder as though he was carrying a bag of cement.

  Sometimes Zack forgot how strong a dragon could be.

  He didn’t think he was ever going to forget it again after tonight.

  “What if I want to leave? We don’t live far from here.”

  “All the better,” Tory said. “We can go to your place.”

  He thought about the bugs, how shitty his apartment looked, and he absolutely could not have this man there. No fucking way. The idea of it terrified him so much that he found himself grabbing onto Tory’s huge bicep and holding on tight.

  “Actually, no, can we not?”

  Tory looked at him. Even that other dragon stopped what he was doing to have a quick glance back.

  “You don’t want us to take you home?” Tory asked, but there wasn’t any hints of glee in his eyes, as though he thought this meant he was about to get laid. He almost looked genuinely worried. In fact, he was genuinely worried. Zack could feel it in the other man, and it was exhilarating. to feel his strength and his emotions.

  The connection between dragons and humans. Was this it?

  Tory glanced up toward the other male. “Think we should take him back to our place?”

  “Do you get the impression he wants to go?”

  Zack couldn’t stand this anymore. “I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

  The dragon stared at him with dead eyes, and now Zack knew for sure that he was having some sort of bond with Tory, because if it weren’t for that look, he wouldn’t be able to tell what was going on in that guy’s head other than he didn’t want to be there.

  “Tristan.”

  “Oh, okay. Nice to meet you. I’m Zack Sweeney.” He held out his hand.

  Tristan adjusted the weight on his shoulder, as though to prove that he had his hands full, and he didn’t offer his last name either.

  “Right, sorry.” Zack backed off from the man. “Just wanted to say thanks for saving me.”

  A thrill of amusement fluttered across Zack’s nose, and in that moment, he knew it was coming from Tory.

  “Don’t worry about him. He’s a grumpy ass. If you want me to take you back to my place, if you need a few minutes to calm down, I can absolutely give it to you.” Tory took Zack by his hands. His giant palms absolutely dwarfed Zack’s. “I’m sorry that happened to you. Those fucks have been trying to get in on my territory for a while and they were looking for someone with red hair to help them.”

  “I don’t have red hair. It’s strawberry blond.” He looked up into those gorgeous green eyes. “It’s not the same thing.”

  And yet, despite that, it didn’t stop him from feeling as though there was something massively intense happening between him and this man here. As though he was getting a Red Bull shot right into his veins.

  But it was a little different than even that because he got the impression all that energy was coming from Tory.

  “I think your hair is perfect,” Tory said.

  Zack swallowed.

  They were long gone out of the alleyway now. No one looked twice at Triston as he kept carrying Mike over his shoulders, because of course they didn’t. Dragons owned this world and did pretty much whatever they wanted. There was not going to be any scenes happening here.

  “Do you not like your hair?”

  “It’s fine,” Zack said, his voice a little high pitched as the air around him continued to get warmer and warmer. He needed to get out of his clothes. He was burning up.

  “I just don’t understand how it can have this effect on you and me when it’s not the same as the red hair other hu
mans have.”

  “You don’t necessarily have to have full red hair to make for a powerful mate,” Tory said. “There’s other things involved.”

  Zack wasn’t so sure he believed that. All the mates and lovers of the more successful and prominent politicians and fighters all had the brightest red hair imaginable. Everyone knew that the redder the hair, the more powerful the match was.

  Not that anyone could figure out why. Though it was said that this was the original reason redheads and carrot tops were shunned in early society.

  Because they attracted the dragons to their villages.

  But he thought he was going to jump right out of his skin if he didn’t get Tory in bed.

  “Can we just… get to your place. I need… you know what I need.”

  “I do,” Tory said. “How about you and I take a little short cut? Tristan, don’t wait up for us.”

  “I won’t,” Tristan drawled.

  “What?” Zack didn’t understand what was happening at first, but then he felt himself yanked up and into Tory’s enormous arms, held tightly by the other man, and this time people did stop to look as he brought out green wings. There were gasps of awe and amazement, but also some looks of shock and sadness at the damage.

  The holes in the wings, the scarring.

  Zack got really scared just then, even though he could feel the confidence dripping from the other man.

  “Hey, wait! Are you actually going to try to fly? With those?”

  He didn’t mean to be insulting, but he would be insulting all day long if it kept him alive.

  “They can still take us into the air, we’re not going far,” Tory said, pulling Zack so close that their lips almost touched. He wanted them to, so badly, but Tory didn’t do more than whisper hotly close to his mouth. “With you in my arms, I could fly around the world and not break a sweat.”

  Again with the confidence, and Zack found himself believing it. He wanted to give this man anything, including his blessing for a flight.

  So he did.

  “All right.”

  He regretted saying that almost immediately as Tory crouched down, wings spread out far and wide before he jumped up into the air with a heavy whoosh from those impressive wings.