After arranging to get Wesland to a healer and have him reassigned, he headed for his room to find his lover.
Who wasn't there!
A quick glance around proved his suite was completely empty. Pushing the button on the communicator, he paged his steward. "Where's Jory?"
"Who, your highness?"
"Joriah, pretty man with blondish-brown hair and amazing silver-blue eyes?"
The servant on the screen shook his head. "No one came here, your highness."
Fear took over until an idea formed and he knew for certain where his mate must've gone.
Rai dialed Val's number on his com-link.
"How can I help you, your highness?" Val growled when his picture appeared on the screen.
Raiston knew it ate away at the duke that he could lose his mate to Rai if Borl, the matchmaking god, chose otherwise.
"You can give back my mate."
"He's not your mate until reveal day, and even then I'm certain he'll be mine."
"Fine. Bring me back your mate and I won't make a palace-wide announcement that you are desperately seeking a female mate."
Val narrowed his bright green eyes at the king. "What do you mean bring him back? I thought he was out sightseeing or something. We were supposed to meet back up for midday meal."
Rai shook his head. "He decided to sightsee at the barracks and beat up Wesland first. I sent him back to my room to calm him down."
A proud smile covered Val's face. "He pounded Wesland? I always thought that bastard needed a good ass-kicking."
"But now Jory's missing."
"Don't panic; my mate is around here somewhere."
Rai growled. "We'll have this out eventually, Val, but we need to find him first."
"Agreed. I'll meet you at his room."
"I'm going to retrace his steps."
The two men hung up, and Rai ran. Once outside, Rai closed his eyes and focused on becoming a dragon. Imagining his green scales, golden eyes and massive body, Rai felt the transition taking over. Thrashing his tail, he put his nose to the ground and scented for Joriah. After last night, the beautiful man's smell was imprinted on his soul.
With a low growl, he leapt into the air to get a better view. A loud cry caught his attention. A small dragon circled down below, making sounds of distress. How odd. Zeroing in on the little creature, Rai landed with a loud thump, shaking the earth with his impact. He'd never seen a black dragon before; he'd thought they were the product of childhood stories.
Jory lay on the ground still as death. A quick glance found the servant Rai had sent to accompany him lying dead beside him, his brain splattered on the sidewalk.
Rai quickly transformed back to his human form. Heedless of his nudity he rushed towards his lover.
As soon as he got close to Jory, the little dragon landed, placing itself between Rai and his future mate.
"Come on, little guy. You need to move so I can get to Jory," he said, trying to coax the small beast so he could see Jory's condition. He didn't want to hurt him because the feral creature was obviously trying to protect the fallen man.
The small dragon opened its mouth and let out a flame three times the size of the dragon. Raiston instinctively jumped back to avoid the fire. Because of his dragon blood, his skin couldn't be burned, but his human eyes could be damaged. "That's enough! Get out of the way."
It hissed at him, its gold eyes glowing with malice, then opened its mouth again. Rai braced himself to jump out of the way, but the little creature spat a glob of green goo at him. The liquid sizzled on the sidewalk, leaving a hole where the stuff hit.
Holy shit!
