Dary had never been one to wake quickly thanks to his ursa genetics. One minute, he’d been dreaming about a sleek Japanese dragon curling around his shoulder and chest, sinking into his skin like a permanent tattoo, and in the next breath, he’d opened his eyes to find a large wolf pounced on his cub. He couldn’t have stopped his bear from bursting forth any more than he could have stopped the sun from rising. Every link in his DNA screamed for him to protect Rhoo and tear apart the intruder. But that didn’t mean his cognitive abilities kicked in as quickly as his instincts.
Watching Rhoo stomp into the bedroom and gently close the door snapped him out of his shocked haze quicker than if he’d slammed it. The quiet click of the lock might as well been a sonic boom.
“Thomas, you are an asshole. What are you doing here?”
“Don’t fucking growl at me. You’re the one who gave me a key in case you slept in. I popped by to return it and leave you a note letting you know we’ve been permanently assigned to parliament.”
Great news because it meant Dary could start searching for properties in the area and finally get a place. No more living in hotels. He liked the idea of being able to set down roots, especially since he’d hopefully found someone to share his life with. He glanced at the bedroom door. If I can somehow fix this.
“Thomas, let yourself out.”
“Dude, my clothes are trashed from shifting like that. What am I supposed to wear?”
Dary pulled a black trench coat from the hall closet and tossed it at him. “Careful, there’s a romance convention going on in the hotel. I’d hate to have your virtue besmirched by some horny woman looking for a mysterious hero.”
“I can only hope, but it’s cold in the hallway and my junk is going to shrink like a frightened turtle. How can I impress like that?”
“I have bigger things to fix right now.” Dary opened the door to the hallway, ignoring the glare and muttered curse words from Thomas as he walked out. This time, he flipped the security bar, preventing anyone else from waltzing in without warning.
Rhoo stepped out of the bedroom, shirtless, but with his jeans on. Dary vaguely remembered tearing that off him earlier, a wonderful memory from an amazing evening he wasn’t willing to allow to end like this.
“I’m really sorry about what happened.”
Rhoo shrugged. “No problem. We had our fun, but I’m going to leave. I’m tired, and you snore like a…well, like a bear, which now makes much more sense.” He averted his eyes, refusing to meet Dary’s, which angered his bear and upset his human side.
Dary grabbed Rhoo’s waistband as he passed, yanking the young man against him. “I claimed you, cub. Did you miss that part?”
“I’m not a cub, as your friend bluntly pointed out. I’m a dragon, a reptile. You’re a mammal.”
“So what? It’s not like we’re worried about matching our genes because we’ll be trying to have kids one day. We can always adopt if you wanted to raise some little ones with me.”
“This was a one-night stand, Dary.”
“Look me in the eye and say that.”
Rhoo met his gaze, swallowing a couple times before he spoke. “It was a one-night stand?” His voice rose slightly, more question than statement.
Hope blazed in Dary’s chest. Could there be more to this than a single night? “Have a coffee with me before you leave, please.” He tugged one of the belt loops on Rhoo’s pants, his fingers feeling the soft, smooth skin underneath, and his cock twitched in interest at the memory his cub had been forced to go commando since Dary had destroyed his jock.
He headed to the kitchenette and pulled a couple mugs out of the cupboard before putting a pot of coffee on. Memories of the dream he’d had earlier filtered through his brain, and he wondered if his bear had been trying to give him the heads up.
“Would you show me your dragon?” The question popped out of his mouth before he could question the wisdom of it, and Rhoo looked at him like he’d lost his mind. “I don’t know much about Japanese dragons other than a few tattoos I’ve seen. Do you have wings?”
Rhoo grinned and shook his head. “Nope, I can’t breathe fire either. A great injustice if you ask me. I’ve always wanted to be able to roast a marshmallow whenever I felt like it.”
Dary’s primal side calmed when Rhoo relaxed and sat. If his cub had tried to leave, Dary wasn’t certain he’d have been able to stop his bear from tearing the hotel apart, hunting for him. “What about Suzie, your roommate? Is she a dragon, too?”
“Suzie is my cousin, but she’s a full human. The recessive gene that allows me to shift crops up in a couple family members every generation or so. My grandmother was a dragon, but so far I’m the only one in my generation. But I have four younger sisters, so it’s possible it might appear in one of their kids. When I came out to my parents, they were more upset at the prospect of not having dragon grandchildren, even if there isn’t a guarantee my kids would inherit the ability.”
Rhoo accepted coffee from Dary, but placed on the table. “What about bear genetics?”
“Our DNA will dominate any other genetic coding. So if I fathered any children, they would be bears as well. The drawback is a very low sperm count; nature is all about checks and balances.” Dary hadn’t ever been bothered by the possibility of not fathering children. Those born to his clan were parented by everyone. “We tend to keep to ourselves. My parents live in a small village in New Brunswick, and I have a sister who’s only eight.”
“Eight? That’s a hell of an age gap between you.”
“Yeah, I’d say. I was in my late thirties when my mom got pregnant. We have a longer life span than the humans, so it’s not like they’re going to slow down any time soon.” The conversation stalled then, and Dary wondered what happened to the silky-smooth connection between them.
Their dessert still sat on one of the side tables by the couch. He’d had some plans for chocolate decadence, but everything had changed so much in the last couple hours. He wanted more than one night with Rhoo, but feared perhaps the young cub wasn’t ready to settle down.
Rhoo stared at the table, his fingers curved gracefully around the mug. He looked up and smiled. The sweet dimple pinched deep into his cheek, and Dary’s heart did a flip. I got what I wanted, but I didn’t stop to consider that Rhoo might not.
“I’m sorry if you feel I’ve rushed you.”
“What do you mean?” Rhoo asked.
“I mean, I went into this with my eyes open, but my heart hoped I’d find the one soul meant for me. Friends of mine found their perfect partner through 1Night Stand, and I admit I had hoped I might get as lucky.”
“I’m not sure what to say to that.”
“You don’t have to say anything, Rhoo. It’s not fair of me to expect you approached this night with the same mindset I did. I’ll completely admit I want to keep you for my cub. The idea of any other man touching you makes me want to tear the room apart.” Dary squeezed his fists and fought the urge to shift his fingers into claws. Rhoo caressed his fist, and instantly the need to shift subsided as his bear settled under his skin.
“You okay? For a moment, you looked like you were going to go hairy on me.”
“I’m okay now.” Dary rested his other hand on top of Rhoo’s, trapping them between his. He stared at the stark difference between their skin tones. “Your touch settles me better than I can settle myself.”
“Does that mean that your bear likes me?”
“My bear wants to eat you alive.”
Rhoo jerked. “What?”
Dary grinned at the wide-eyed horror on his face. “And then flip you over and fuck you silly again.”
He rolled his eyes, breathing what sounded like a sigh of relief. “You’re sick, Dary.” He pulled his fingers from between Dary’s and stroked his forearm. “You’re also hairier than any man I’ve ever been with before, and you’re a walking heating blanket.”
“I’m naturally warm all the time.”
He mentally formulated solutions to their sleeping arrangement if Rhoo overheated. He’d heard that excuse before. Maybe he could get a larger bed so Rhoo would have some room to roll away and cool down.
Rhoo slipped from his chair and crawled into his lap, their semi-erect cocks rubbing when he straddled his hips. Pressing their chests together, he wrapped his arms around Dary’s neck. Dary hugged his cub tight, staying silent to allow Rhoo to speak whatever he needed to get off his mind.
“Thomas is a jerk, but he was right about one thing; I am closer to a lizard than a mammal. I love to bask on warm rocks or stretch out in the sun.”
“That’s convenient because I happen to enjoy having you curled up in my lap.” Dary nodded toward the dessert. “We still haven’t finished our dinner so technically, I don’t think our date is done yet.”
Rhoo snorted. “I’d hate to rush things.”
“Sure, I totally agree. It’s not like we’ve rushed this at all.” Dary scooped him into his arms and returned to the bedroom.
“Why are we headed in here?”
“I don’t know about you, but I was having the best date of my life before Thomas fucked it all up. So, I’m resetting us to our last, best moment.”
Spilling him onto the bed, Dary reached for the waistband of his cub’s pants.
Rhoo grabbed his wrists. “Don’t you dare tear these off me. They’re my favorite pair.” He flicked the button and wriggled out of them.
Dary chuckled. That had been exactly what he’d had in mind. Instead, he settled with tossing them over his shoulder and crawling across the mattress. Catching Rhoo’s leg under his knee, Dary tugged him down, rolling him so they were nose to nose. He pulled the sheets and blanket over them, cocooning them in the bed.
“I don’t want you to leave.”
“I’m not going anywhere, unless you have any other surprises you want to share with me?” Rhoo said.
“I work for PRIDE.”
“I figured as much. Your detachment isn’t much of a secret in the paranormal world.” He lifted his head and pressed a kiss on the end of Dary’s nose. “Do you have a wife, kids, or a lover who are going to try to come through the door?”
“Nope. What about you?”
“My cousin, Suzie, will start texting if she doesn’t hear from me, but that’s just to make sure I’m not dead in a ditch somewhere. She’s a little paranoid.”
Rhoo had the most beautiful lips, and while Dary paid half an ear to the conversation, he’d also been distracted by the need to kiss his boy. “I’ll wake you in time to phone her and reassure her you’re still safe.”
“Does that mean we’re going to sleep?”
“Eventually….” He stroked his fingers along the side of Rhoo’s face, outlining the delicate bone structure. “You’re perfect….” He tucked some of Rhoo’s hair behind his ear. “Was I too rough with you earlier?”
“Are you kidding?” The surprised expression on his face did a lot to reassure Dary. He’d been afraid maybe he’d been too hard on him for a first date and scared him off. “I don’t think my brain can formulate the words to describe how you make me feel. You are the most giving man I’ve ever met.” Dary ran a hand over Rhoo’s butt cheek and squeezed. A blush tinted his cheekbones, and he wriggled slightly. “But I don’t think I’m up to a rematch quite yet, things are a little sore down there at the moment.”
“My poor cub.”
“Don’t try to act like you’re sorry, because I know you’re not, and to be honest, neither am I.” Dary rolled onto his back and took Rhoo with him so he straddled his waist. His cub grinned, running his fingers through the hair on Dary’s chest.
“I love how this feels on my skin. All this delicious hair is so soft and makes me shiver.”
“Come here.” Dary cupped Rhoo’s nape, drawing him closer. What started as soft, sensual, playful kisses quickly ignited the banked embers of their earlier inferno. Keeping in mind Rhoo wasn’t ready for another round, Dary fisted handfuls of his hair to avoid grinding his thickening cock between the cheeks sitting on his stomach.
Rhoo panted, dragging his fingers down into Dary’s chest hair, flicking his nipples with his thumbnails. The sharp scratches jolted through Dary’s system, and his hips jerked upward, his prick hungry for some friction. When his cub broke away from his kiss, a low growl rumbled.
“God, that’s fucking hot.” Rhoo nipped his lower lip, and Dary growled again, just because he knew Rhoo liked it. “Do you always top, Dary?” He rubbed his cheek against his and then moved to the edge of his face, flicking his tongue along his earlobe before sucking on it. “Let me have your ass, I’m desperate to bury myself balls deep in you.”
“If you’re feeling up to it.” Dary aimed for an even tone, but even he heard the breathless plea behind his words.
Rhoo continued to kiss a path along his neck, nuzzling his face in the crisp hairs below his collarbones. “There isn’t anything in the universe that would make me happier.”
Dary spread his legs, making room for his cub between them. Rhoo grabbed the lube from the nightstand. Dary’s heart pounded with excitement and desire. He couldn’t remember the last time someone had fucked him—they usually assumed he wanted to top. He might think of Rhoo as his cub, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t want to be claimed by this special man.
“You have to keep your hands to yourself for a little bit. I find them very distracting, and I need to concentrate here.”
Dary didn’t understand what Rhoo meant until a slow caress traveled from the crown of his dick to his sac. His thoughts splintered as heat pooled in his groin, his balls drawing tight against him. A teasing caress slithered around his girth, flicking the tip of his crown before delving into the small eye at the top.
“Fuck!” Dary fisted the bottom sheet, tearing the fabric in the process.
“Ssseeee? There are advantagesss to being a dragon,” Rhoo hissed, and Dary watched a long, thin tongue circle his shaft. Rhoo hissed again, and the forked tip vibrated against Dary’s sensitive crown, sending tingles along his length and straight to his balls.
“Oh, fuck.” His hips jerked in response to the visual and physical sensations. His clever cub slipped a finger into his ass, stroking deep. Dary’s voice dropped a couple octaves, proof his control had cracked enough to allow his bear closer to the surface. “Yes, Rhuudai, more.”
“I love it when you get all growly. It turns me on so much. I can’t wait to push into you and feel you grip me so tight.” Another lubed finger joined the first, and Rhoo was merciless in his endeavors to stretch Dary’s anal muscles. He appreciated the care Rhoo took, but the arousing assault to his senses pulled him closer and closer to the edge. Quivering, he wound his heels around Rhoo’s thighs, trying to pull him closer. When he changed the angle of his strokes to slowly, repeatedly drag across his prostate, Dary almost shot his load.
“Fuck me, cub. I want to be yours.” A moment later, the familiar burn radiated from his anus.
“Breathe, Dary, let me in. Let me claim you, too.”
“Yes,” he moaned, concentrating on relaxing, reveling in the stretch and burn as his lover’s cock burrowed into him before pulling out to the tip. The second stroke was much more forceful than the first. Clenching his legs, Dary encouraged him to pound faster.
“You have about as much patience as I do, Papa Bear.”
Those words held a seduction all their own, wrapping his heart in warmth. “I love you calling me that.”
“That’s who you’re going to be, right? This isn’t going to end tonight is it?” Rhoo punctuated each question with a sharp thrust.
“No. Never,” Dary growled. “Now, fuck me and make me yours.”
“Bossy, bossy,” Rhoo crooned, but didn’t slow.
Their lips meet in a violent, aggressive explosion of teeth and tongues. Kissing him as if their lives depended on it, Rhoo fucked him harder and harder, and then reached between them and palmed Dary’s rigid cock.
“You have the biggest, most beautiful club I’ve ever seen.” Rhoo’s clever tongue flicked against the roof of Dary’s mouth, teasing him. “I love these ridges and veins. I could feel every one when you fucked me earlier.”
“Yes, yes,” he chanted as Rhoo braced hand on his chest and hammered to the same rapid tempo he’d used to stroke Dary earlier. It was sheer perfection, ecstasy, and everything he wanted in a lover.
“I’m going to fuck you into this bed, Papa Bear. You’re going to come all over your chest and I’m going to lick every drop off.”
The orgasm Dary had managed to hold off ripped free at the mental image Rhoo’s words created. He roared out his release, thick jets of cum shooting between them, while Rhoo gripped his hips tight enough to leave marks and pounded to his own completion.
The little imp did exactly as promised, licking every drop of cum before easing his cock from Dary’s body and collapsed on the bed next to him.
“I’m never letting you go, cub.”
“Okay. Where you go, I go, Papa Bear.”
Rhoo might have been playing along, but Dary was completely serious. And somewhere between mutual blowjobs in the shower and the moment the sun crested the horizon, Dary managed to convince Rhoo to help him find a place to live and move in with him.
“You’re my cub, Rhuudai. I’d love to make love to you, hold you in my arms every night, and wake to your face every morning.”
“Even if I have disgusting morning breath?”
“You’re mine, now and forever.” Dary stroked his fingers through Rhoo’s hair. The cool, silky strands fascinated him and probably would for the rest of their lives. “I wasn’t kidding. I’m never letting you go.”
“Okay,” Rhoo yawned. “But no more sleeping with guns under the pillow.”
“What if something big and bad tries to attack us?”
“I don’t think anything out there would be that stupid. But if they are, they’ll get their ass kicked by a bear and dragon.” Rhoo patted his chest and rubbed his cheek against the crisp hair. “I love how warm you are.”
“You saying you love me, cub?”
A pregnant pause fell, and Dary feared he might have pushed too fast, but his brain was sleepy and the question had shot out of his mouth before he’d thought it through.
“Maybe I am.”
Joy filled every fiber of his sated body, and Dary smiled, tucking his cub’s head under his chin. “I’ll give you time to think about it. Maybe for the next seventy or eighty years?”