“You are.” He leaned into my space and touched our noses together, inhaling deeply. A rumble of something rose from histhroat, and he leaned in to press his lips to mine in what took me an embarrassingly long time to realize was a kiss. Nobody had ever kissed me before, and when I opened my mouth, his tongue lashed out, licking into my mouth with a hungry groan. I froze in place, unsure of what to do, and dropped my pen and paper. His hands circled my waist, sharp points pricking my back as his fingers pressed in ever so gently.Claws?He had trouble containing his form in ways I’d seen before.
And in response to his kiss, the closeness of his bare chest to mine, the low hang of pajama pants mere inches away from exposing his stiffening cock, my cock twitched to life in my pants in a way it rarely ever did. Sure, mornings were a little stiff at times, but I’d never been aroused like that. My breath caught and body shuddered in a way that told me I needed to get off. At least in the shed back home I had that privacy, but it was so rare.
Once he finished his kiss, he pulled back and slid his hands free of me. His nose twitched and he scowled, shaking his head. “Shower. I’ll have something fresh for you to wear, and I’ll have Father check your head. I may have been a bit too jumpy.”
I sniffed myself and withdrew. I couldn’t wash the smell off me, not of what I came out of. I was so accustomed to it that the underlying odor of poverty and other males didn’t occur to me at first. I reached for the pen and paper on the ground and scribbled a quick note.I scrubbed so hard and I could still smell them on me.
His face hardened. “Why did you let them do that?”
I stared at the floor for a moment before I wrote.If something isn’t cheap or easy, they steal it.
A dawning look of horror overcame him, and he took another step back. “That’s awful…”
But as long as I have food, I won’t have to charge for it anymore.When I offered him the pad again, his brow furrowed tight, and he shook his head.
When he opened his mouth to speak, his voice came out in a low growl. “We’re going shopping today after you spend some time with Aster.”
I wrote again.Nobody is going to ask me to do that, here?
Again, Marcus stared at what I wrote like something foul he’d stepped in, and I flinched when he snatched the page and crumpled it in his fist. Smoke curled around his fingers and ash rained down onto the floor I’d spent so long cleaning. He leaned down and tilted my chin up again. “Not a single person here would demand that of you. Your body is not for sale. And as pissed as I’d be to let it happen, even if you want to leave, you’re free to go. We don’t hurt people like that.”
I wrote again.If I use lube, it doesn’t hurt none.Thinking better, I glanced down.You might need some time to get used to.
A flush crept over Marcus’s cheeks, and he snatched that page, too. Instead of flame, he stuffed it in his mouth and chewed, grumbling as fire consumed his mouth, and he swallowed. “Shower. And nobody’s dick goes near you. Nobody sticks their dick in my treasure. You are part of my hoard. You are—”
He shook his head and huffed. “Go.”
And I did, because if I could get away with it, I was going to make myself feel good.
Chapter Seven
Marcus
I could still taste the bitter words he wrote. Burning them wasn’t enough. He wouldnotbe fucking my clanmates. He wouldn’t ever— Of course not. I soothed myself with the fact I was the only unmated male in the keep.
He’d bathed not hours before, when he’d arrived. But it wasn’t enough; I could still smell the mark of others on him. And he acted like it wasnormal. Like it was another chore he was expected to earn his food.
I’d feed him whatever he wanted. I’d give him all he ever craved if only it would make him smile and fix him. But he wasn’t broken, was he? He smiled and appreciated so gleefully. Mute as he was, he wasn’t mentally unfit. My mind reeled as I gathered an outfit for him and marched him out of my quarters and down the halls to the communal playroom. A room that had once housed me, where I spent my idle hours while Lyphus and Marcus fawned over me, read me stories, and showed me all the affection I never expected from my birth parents.
And his hair… The choppy locks sat on his head like a mop. He needed a real haircut. He needed spoiling, touch, another scrub because, by fuck, I could still scent that rancid odor on him of fear, of disinterest, and another man’s cum. But it wasn’t his fault, and I needed to remind myself to make sure he knew my reaction wasn’t for that. I wasn’t angry at him. I was angry at others. His instinct, as he’d proven to me, was always to fawn, to lay and take it, to not fight.
I squeezed his hand and brushed his hair back from a soft forehead, revealing the snow-pale expanse of his skin. His mouth was mine, though. His mouth wasn’t touched. His breath still had a note of my own on it, my toothpaste, my tongue downhis fucking throat. I huffed as his innocent stare penetrated me, that lapin submission resigned to his fate. “Don’t look at me like that.”
He held up his hands in uncertainty.
Fuck it all, I wanted him, but my dragon snarled at that scent. But his mouth, pale lips parted, I claimed. I leaned in and kissed him once more, reveling in how inexperienced he was to it. Still, he reciprocated, cock hardening through his trousers as the faintest scent of arousal rose and I pulled away panting. “I’ll bring you something to eat.”
And by the look at him, he could have very well eaten me.
I stormed off down the hall to cool my temper and ransacked the kitchen for whatever I could shove into an air fryer from the freezer. We had some jalapeño cheese things and mozzarella sticks and curled fries that I leveled off and hit the magicgobutton of goodness.
It gave me fifteen minutes, exactly, to brood. Fifteen minutes I would not get.
“Good morning, baby.” Baba strolled in and leaned over to give me a one-armed hug and a kiss to my lower cheek, highest he could reach on me. “Sleep well?”
I didn’t miss the insinuation curling in his voice.
“I slept like the dead, but not because ofthat.” I huffed as the air fryer blasted too many scents out of it.
