Pib's Dragon (7 page)

Pib quietly seethed while his cat
purred. Mentally he tried to figure out what was behind the
purring, but he decided that it had to be the scenery below as they
flew through the air, and not the dragon holding them.

Yeah, right
.

In no time at all, they came to the
edge of the village and Dray landed on his back legs before
carefully depositing both of them on the ground. Pib stood and
looked around, seeing if there was anyone nearby when the dragon
licked his back from head to tail.

Jumping away from Dray, Pib shifted
back in seconds. “What the fuck? Why do you keep licking me, you
crazy dragon?” His serval had no issue with the dragon licking his
coat. If the dragon wanted to keep them clean, then his serval was
happy to lie there and let him help.

When Wil burst out laughing, Pib turned
to glare at him, but before he could say anything, Wil shocked him.
“Haven’t you figured it out? He’s marking you, giving you a scent
since you’re masking yours.”

Swinging back to look at Dray, Pib
opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out.

****

Dray found it amusing, watching Pib
stand there opening and closing his mouth like a fish. Chuckling
mentally to himself, Dray shifted and walked over to the other man,
using two fingers to gently close his mouth.

“
I’m just making sure that
the next time you’re in my cave, when I can’t find your scent,
there’ll be a faint scent of me in amongst the nothingness,
revealing you were there.”

“
How do you know there’ll
be a next time?” Pib asked, a stubborn look on his face while his
eyes twinkled.

“
Because like you said,
cats like shiny things, and my treasure cave is full of them.” Dray
smirked, then whispered so low that only Pib would hear him. “And
you’ve been coming there for over a month, leaving me messages and
pictures.”

“
You started it, I’ve just
been responding,” Pib whispered back.

“
If you two are done
flirting, let’s go and get some food,” Wil said from the
side.

“
Flirting!” Pib exclaimed.
Dray suspected it was more to do with being surprised rather than
objecting to the fact that they were flirting.

“
We’re done for now,” Dray
replied, then laughed when Pib turned to glare at him.

Walking past, Dray inhaled, and while
he still couldn’t pick up Pib’s natural scent, he could pick up his
own. As a wave of possessiveness surged through him, his dragon
rumbled happily. Somewhere along the way, his dragon had decided
that the thief was theirs.

Wil was shaking his head, but there was
a smile on his face so Dray wasn’t worried. The grumbling he could
hear behind him let him know that Pib was following
them.

Good, otherwise I might
have had to grab him and carry him…again.

The three of them entered the tavern
and found a table to occupy, then made their food orders, taking
turns to clean up before their meals arrived. Once they were all
sitting with their food in front of them, Dray asked a question
that had been bugging him.

“
So how long have you known
that the lords destroyed the previous houses?” he asked, glancing
from one man to the other.

Wil sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “I suspected
from day one, but without any proof, there wasn’t anything I could
do. Hell, even
with
proof, there probably wouldn’t have
been anything I could do about it.”

Dray nodded, then turned to Pib,
raising a brow. He got an eye roll and a huff, but Pib did respond.
“I suspected as soon as Wil told me what happened to the other
houses and the materials they’d been construct from. Those
jackasses are lucky to still be walking,” Pib growled
out.

“
Why did the soldiers run
when they saw your face?” Dray asked, looking at the captivating
man in front of him. He didn’t know if Pib realized his hood was
still down, but Dray suspected that he did. Very little seemed to
get past the man. Staring into his eyes, Dray saw wariness creep
into them before he appeared to steel himself about whatever he was
about to say.

“
There are no soldiers here, which means they would have
come from one or more of the kingdoms. I’m
lucky
enough to
be known throughout almost all of the kingdoms.”

The way Pib practically spat the word
lucky
was
enough of an indication that Pib didn’t consider it a good thing at
all. Dray wanted to cuddle the man close, but he suspected he’d end
up with a hissing, biting, scratching serval in seconds so he
restrained himself…barely.

“
Why were you known?” Dray
asked, instinctively knowing that the answer was
important.

The resignation in Pib’s eyes was almost his undoing, but
his words chilled him to the bone. “Because I was the right hand of
the man now known as
Prince
Geraint.”

Pib watched as terror followed the
shock on Dray’s face, and his heart plummeted. It took everything
he had to keep his face expressionless while inside he was slowly
shattering. He hadn’t realized until this moment how much he’d come
to enjoy the exchanges between him and the dragon, but there was
nothing he could do about his past.

“
We need to go,” Dray
said.

“
Okay,” Pib responded and
turned to eat his meal. He’d just taken a bite of meat when
suddenly he was looking down at his meal, his cutlery still in his
hands, but he was no longer seated at the table. He blinked as Wil
took the cutlery and placed it on the table before Pib was carried
out of the tavern, Dray holding him with an arm around his
chest.

“
We’ll meet you at your
cottage, Wil. You go one way and I’ll carry Pib another,” Dray
said, never slowing down. He changed his grip so that one arm
supported Pib across his back and the other was under his
knees.

“
I’ll see you there,” Wil
said, then shifted and took off.

“
What’s going on?” Pib
asked, feeling confused and somewhat strange.

“
I’ll explain when we get
to somewhere safe,” Dray replied.

Looking up at the man, Pib noticed the
worry on his face. Seconds later, great big wings sprouted from his
back, and before Pib could utter a word of protest, Dray pushed off
the ground and they were flying.

Dray leaned close until his mouth was
by Pib’s ear and then whispered, “Pib, you need to tell me where
your cottage is.”

Shivering, Pib focused on his
surroundings, and when he recognized where he was, he pointed.
“Over there.”

Pib enjoyed the warmth and smell of the
man holding him, knowing that it would soon disappear for good.
When they landed, Pib tried to get his feet back on the ground, but
Dray just tightened his grip.

Looking up into Dray’s face, Pib was
surprised by the expression. “What—”

“
Why should I let you go
when I finally have you in my grasp?” Dray asked, smiling down at
him.

Pib frowned. “I’m…confused.”

Dray chuckled and started walking
toward the door before replying, “I can see that.”

As Dray carried him over the threshold,
Pib suddenly felt like some blushing bride, he just couldn’t decide
what he thought about that. When Dray took a seat on the couch and
Pib ended up on his lap, Pib turned and opened his mouth to object.
Before he could make a sound, Dray’s hand was holding the back of
his head and he’d sealed his mouth over Pib’s.

The second that Dray’s taste reached
Pib, he groaned. Giving into the urge, he quickly maneuvered
himself until he was straddling Dray, their lips remaining locked
the entire time. Thrusting both hands into Dray’s hair, Pib cupped
his head and held him in place while he took over the kiss. His cat
urged him to claim the dragon as theirs, mark him so that no one
would dare to lay a hand on what was theirs. Grinding his cock
against Dray’s equally hard member, Pib lost focus of everything
around him except for Dray.

“
You know, if you wanted to
be alone, you could have just said so, rather than making me go
home the longer way.”

Pib broke off the kiss and turned his
head to see Wil standing in the doorway, his arms crossed and a
smirk on his face.

“
Oh believe me, if we want
to be alone, I have no issues telling you to fuck off,” Dray
replied.

Pib snickered and turned back to Dray,
smiling to see that he wasn’t the only one out of
breath.

“
Well, if you didn’t want
to be alone, then what’s going on?” Wil asked.

The memory of Dray’s reaction to Pib’s
past surfaced, and he tensed. Before he could move away from Dray,
his arms were around Pib’s back and he cuddled him close, kissing
his temple.

“
The idiot Geraint is
trying to find Pib.”

Of all the things Pib had expected Dray
to say, that wasn’t even on the list. Memories of having to do
Geraint’s bidding, the killings he’d had to commit all rose to the
surface. He didn’t know how long he was in his head, but when he
came back to himself, Wil was sitting on a chair facing them and
not only were Dray’s arms around Pib, his wings were
too.

“
I guess I should find
somewhere else—”

“
No!” Dray and Wil yelled
in unison.

“
You’re not going
anywhere,” Wil growled out. “If this idiot thinks he can take you
away, he’s got another think coming.”

“
And I’m not about to let
you get away, not now after I’ve finally got you in my arms,” Dray
declared.

Looking from one face to the other and
back again, Pib knew that if he were to leave, they’d follow him,
and if they did that, there was no guarantee that they wouldn’t get
hurt.

“
Okay, I’ll stay, but what
are we going to do about Geraint?”

****

The relief that flowed through Dray
when Pib agreed to stay would have made him sway had he been on his
feet. Instead he released the breath he’d been holding and relaxed
further into the couch. Judging by the expression on Wil’s face,
Dray wasn’t the only one relieved.

“
Well, Geraint is a prince
now, so he’ll need to appeal to the local prince in order to be
able to visit here,” Dray said, thinking aloud.

“
There is no prince here,
so what’s plan b?” Wil asked.

Glancing at Wil, Dray realized he was
serious. “Um, actually there is a prince.”

“
Who?” the brothers asked
in unison.

“
My brother Del. His family
have been the local monarchs for centuries. People just forget
because they don’t throw their weight around and don’t live in
mansions or castles.”

“
So, then you’re a prince
too?” Pib asked, the expression on his face changing, and Dray’s
gut told him it wasn’t a good thing.

“
No. I met Del when he was
barely walking. His father was hunting, and for some reason, he’d
decided to take Del with him—to this day I don’t know why he did
it. Del stumbled across me sleeping on a grassy ledge. He wanted to
play, but when he realized I wouldn’t, he went to leave. I thought
he was going to go back to his father, but my dear brother is very
clumsy. He’d only taken a few steps when he tripped on something, I
don’t know what, and went tumbling along. The next thing I know,
he’s standing at the edge of a drop, people are screaming and
rushing to him, and he turns to them and loses his
footing.”

Dray swallowed while the other two
gasped. “I didn’t think. I threw myself up and over the ledge and
hurtled down after him. I managed to catch him and get us up in the
air so we didn’t hit the ground and then carried him back up to the
others. Once I got a good look at them, I recognized the king and
realized I was holding his son, the prince. I gave him back, but
they insisted I come with them to the village for a feast. The king
never took Del on the hunting trips again, but Del would always
somehow sneak a ride with the men and then go looking for me. In
the end, they asked me to move in with them to look after the
prince, and while I liked them as people, I didn’t want to get too
attached.”

“
I can see how well that
turned out,” Pib teased, and Dray laughed in response.

“
Yeah, well, Del was determined. Up until that point, he
hadn’t spoken. His parents were worried so they had called someone
to come and check on him. When the man arrived, he was introduced
to Del and then he asked who I was. Del just clung to my hand and
said,
Dray, brother.
We were all at a loss for words, but
it did make us realize that we had actually become a family of
sorts. So from that day forth, I became Del’s older brother and the
king and queen became my parents. However, since I wasn’t their
child by birth, I could never claim the throne, which is fine by me
since I don’t want to be a prince or a king.”

Dray waited as they absorbed what he’d
said. When Pib relaxed again, Dray leaned forward and gave him a
quick kiss.