Crimson Flames Read online

  Crimson Flames

  a gay mpreg dragon shifter romance

  Kindle Edition

  Copyright 2016 Alex DuBois

  All characters in this book are 18 and over.

  License Notes

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  About Alex DuBois

  More by Alex DuBois

  ARC Reviews

  Chapter One

  Malachai

  At the time, Malachai had no reason to believe that it wasn’t his own free will which brought him to that night club. It was a logical enough place to go, especially after a fairly long dry spell, which had been brought on by visiting his youngest brother.

  Not that he hadn’t enjoyed that, because he had. Malachai loved the heat, but going up to cold, snowy Canada had been a fun thing to do, for awhile. Besides, he felt a little paternal toward the boy, as he knew that their older brother Levi did, as well. None of them really knew each other all that well, but they cared about each other regardless. They were, after all, family.

  It had gotten boring, though. It took a fair bit to hold Malachai’s interest, and while hanging out on a university campus was fun at first, it didn’t take long for it to get old. Malachai had done it. He was over six hundred years old, and it sometimes felt like he’d done everything.

  Well, after spending some time in dragon form deep in the rain forest mountains of BC and Washington State, he was ready for a different sort of fun. Namely, he was ready to drink good whiskey, dance, and bring some pretty man home to play with.

  Not that he was in any hurry. He had all night, after all, so he scanned the crowd of jostling bodies as he drank down more whiskey than any mortal could have managed. It fed the fire within him, and he enjoyed the burn.

  The only real problem was, he wasn’t all that sure he should allow himself to bring a human home with him. He was feeling particularly predatory, for some reason. Usually, more often than not, Malachai brought home people to fuck him. It was amazing birth control and he always had a good time, even if it wasn’t his favorite thing to do.

  Sometimes, though, it was impossible for him to subdue his dragon enough to allow that to happen. In those times, when the dragon was close to the surface, it was usually best for him to just watch, then go home alone, no matter how frustrating that was.

  The dragon was very, very close to the surface, he realized uneasily as he scanned the crowd. Maybe it was all the time he’d spent in the forest. It didn’t feel like that, though. There was some sort of scent, or aura, or something like that, and it filled the room and made it hard for Malachai to think.

  And then he saw him.

  The young man should have been lost in the throng of dancers. He was just one more California pretty boy among so many. There was a grace to his movements unlike anything that Malachai could ever remember seeing, though. At least not in a human.

  The more Malachai looked at him, the more he saw his beauty. The green eyes, the slender, tall, strong body, the way he swung his hips and looked around, flirting with everyone and everything as he danced.

  He moved like the ocean.

  Without meaning to, without fully realizing that he was, Malachai stood up and started to move toward the man with the sea-green eyes and the sun-streaked dark hair. He stalked over to him, and when he whispered to the humans all around him to move out of the way, they moved.

  The young man looked up suddenly, and their eyes met. Malachai had read all sorts of books about the world standing still when the two lovers looked at each other for the first time, and he’d always thought it was pretty much bullshit.

  He learned better then, because the world really did seem to stand still. Or rather, it seemed to fade far into the background so that it just didn’t matter anymore, and all that did matter was him and this beautiful young man.

  Without a word, the dark-haired man held out his hand to Malachai. It was sweaty from dancing, but Malachai took it without the slightest hesitation. Using his grip on it, he pulled the pretty man close to him, wrapping his arms around him far too intimately.

  It felt right. It felt like they belonged like that. The human felt it too. At first, the young man gave a surprised gasp, but then he buried his face in Malachai’s shoulder and breathed him in deeply.

  When they moved together, it was a dance, yes, but it was also so much more than just a dance. It felt like that, anyway. Like it was nothing short of two halves of the same whole coming together.

  “I’m taking you home with me tonight, beautiful,” Malachai whispered, and even over the pounding dance music, he knew that the human would hear him.

  The man laughed, and it was beautiful. Everything about him was. Everything.

  “Unless I take you home,” he teased back, and his hands boldly slid down to cup Malachai’s ass and pull him close against him.

  Malachai gave a soft little groan. Yes, it was better, much safer, for this man to take control. Only everything in him screamed that he absolutely must take this man. Take him and own him and possess him.

  His dragon had never been so loud before. Not about a human. It was sort of terrifying, because it could mean something that he wasn’t sure he was ready for. In fact it pretty much had to mean that, didn’t it?

  “Come on. Let’s go.” Malachai let the full force of his personality come out then. Humans found themselves unable to resist. Most humans. With one exception. So Malachai tested out his crazy theory a little bit. “Now.”

  As he’d sort of half expected, it didn’t work. The man gave him a curious look, then shook his head.

  “Hold on. I just want one more drink.”

  That shouldn’t have been possible. It wouldn’t have been, for most humans. This one was special. This was the one that was fated for him. He hadn’t been looking to find that person yet.

  Bemused, Malachai followed the man to the bar. His body screamed at him to get the young human to a private place as soon as he could, but he was a little stunned by what he’d just realized.

  The only human who could resist a dragon was that dragon’s mate. Not to mention there had been a strange pull between the two of them, a pull, a call, that neither of them could deny.

  It all added up, and oh God, he was not ready for this. No matter how badly he’d wanted it, he wasn’t ready.

  His mate. It seemed right, somehow, even if he didn’t know the man’s name yet.

  “I’m Malachai,” he said, watching in approval as the pretty man folded his long, lean body onto a bar stool. “What are you drinking?”

  “Johnny Merin,” the young man introduced, and Malachai finally had a name to match the face of his mate. “And I haven’t been drinking. Or not much.” Johnny shrugged, then grinned. “Make it Crown, neat.”

  Malachai gave the order to the bartender, amused. Johnny was even drinking the same drink that Malachai f
avored. The signs were getting a little bit too numerous to be ignored.

  “Johnny. Hey.” Malachai turned his attention back to the young man. His name suited him, he decided.

  Johnny raised his glass to Malachai in a silent salute, then tossed the shot back without hesitation. He looked at Malachai, a maddening smile on those full lips. “Are you ready to go?”

  Malachai have a soft laugh. He’d been ready to go for awhile. He looked the young man over, then shook his head. How was he going to make himself bottom to this young man, when everything in him was screaming at him to bend him over the bar and take him now?

  Johnny hopped off the bar stool, and Malachai was right behind him. Maybe a little bit too close, because when someone walked in front of Johnny and Johnny took a step back to avoid walking into them, he ended up with his ass pressed tightly against Malachai’s crotch.

  Groaning softly, Malachai wrapped his arm around Johnny, his hand resting on his flat stomach, and pulled the pretty man back against him. His cock throbbed in his pants, demanding that he push inside Johnny right here and now.

  His dragon didn’t care that they’d get arrested for that sort of thing. All that mattered was that he’d finally, after six hundred years, found his mate. It was becoming pretty much impossible to deny.

  “I need you.” It was too loud in there for even Malachai’s sensitive ears to pick up those three words, but he did. When Johnny said them, he heard, just as he would hear everything his mate said.

  He could feel that need, too, practically radiating off of the other man. Driving him crazy. Encouraging his dragon far too much.

  Time to derail this. Right now, before things got even more out of hand.

  “I’m going to bottom,” Malachai said, and his voice might be firm but it wasn’t all that convincing despite that. “Take me home.”

  Johnny turned to give him a surprised look, then took his hand and tugged him outside where it was much quieter. Once he was there, though, he paused, biting on that sexy, pouty lower lip in a way that drove Malachai insane.

  “Look, I don’t really top,” the young man said, looking at him frankly. “Maybe this isn’t a good idea, if that’s what you’re looking for from me.”

  No. No, it really was not a good idea, but Malachai was too far into this to let his mate walk away. His mate. Now that he had him, he found that he couldn’t make himself lose him. Not for anything.

  “We’ll figure it out. There’s other things we can do.” Which his dragon found to be an almost hilarious concept. He had his mate, and he was going to claim him that night. “I need you.”

  Johnny sighed softly, running his fingers through that gorgeous, sweaty dark hair. It fell just to his shoulders, slightly wavy and very beautiful.

  “It’s not always that great when two bottoms get together,” Johnny commented, and Malachai wanted to laugh. Whatever he’d done out of necessity, he was not a bottom. Not anywhere even close. He never had been.

  “Just take me home.” Johnny opened his mouth to say something, and Malachai held up a hand. “You won’t find it hard to convince me to take you, but we need to talk first. Then we’ll see if you still want me.”

  This was his mate. Not some one night stand. He wanted to shift into dragon form, wrap his claws around the young man, and fly him off to a cave to have all to himself. He wouldn’t, of course. Once, he might have, but times had changed. That didn’t stop him from wanting to.

  Which meant that he was going to have to warn Johnny about what sleeping with a dragon could mean. He’d never told a human his secret before, but if anyone needed to know, it was his mate.

  “Are you sure?” Johnny asked, and Malachai just nodded. Oh, yes, he was sure. He’d never been this sure about anything in his entire life before. He needed Johnny, pure and simple.

  “Take me to your home,” Malachai demanded, and Johnny gave him a beautiful smile and a nod and led him through the salty, ocean-scented night.

  * * *

  It wasn’t a very long walk, which was a good thing. Malachai was itching to be with Johnny, but at the same time, there was the oddest sense of coolness, something very refreshing, about being with Johnny. Like stepping into a cold ocean on a very hot day.

  “Johnny, what do you think about supernatural things?” Malachai looked over at him, his hand in Johnny’s as the human led the way to a small, old apartment building. “Have you ever met a werewolf or anything like that?”

  It wasn’t really surprising that Johnny would give him a weird look, but the human answered.

  “Not while I was sober, nah,” he answered easily enough. Johnny seemed to take a lot in stride, unlike Malachai who wanted to know why everything was the way it was.

  “Well, this is going to sound pretty messed up then. I doubt you’ll believe me, but I have to try to tell you.”

  Malachai took a brief break to pull Johnny into his arms and kiss him thoroughly. If he scared the human off, he wanted to at least have that kiss. Johnny melted so perfectly into his arms, and Malachai got more than a little distracted.

  Stop talking, his dragon told him. Johnny was his mate. He wouldn’t run. He would never leave Malachai, and couldn’t, because they belonged together. Their first kiss went on forever, and it only seemed to reinforce what his dragon was saying.

  When the kiss broke finally, Johnny looked at Malachai, his hair mussed, his lips swollen from the desperate kisses.

  “Believe you about what?” he asked, and Malachai was glad to see that Johnny was just as aroused, just as desperate, as Malachai was. That seductive, sexy purr of a voice was deeper than usual, and when Johnny pressed close, Malachai could feel the hardness of his cock against him.

  Once they were inside his apartment, Malachai took a deep breath, tugging Johnny toward the bed. He couldn’t wait any longer, and he could tell that his impossibly sexy little mate couldn’t, either. Could he really be so lucky? To have found his mate, and to have him be so very beautiful?

  “I’m not like other men. If I take you, I can make you ...” Malachai shook his head. He’d never considered seriously what it would be like to tell a human about this. He’d always been so careful, after all. “I could get you pregnant. And yes, I know you’re a guy.”

  Johnny looked at him, and he got the most adorable thoughtful look on his face. Most humans wouldn’t give such a thing much thought at all, but Johnny was different.

  “I think,” Johnny said slowly, “That I drank more than I thought.”

  Gently, but insistently, Malachai pushed Johnny onto the bed.

  “Yeah, I know, I sound crazy,” he said, and then shook his head. “Just, if it happens, if I’m right, remember that I tried to tell you.”

  Johnny didn’t believe him. What human would? But Johnny had reacted far more gently than Malachai would have thought. This was a very, very special young man, even apart from being his mate.

  “I don’t understand the joke,” Johnny said, lying underneath Malachai and gazing up at him. Even while they spoke, they were both desperately pulling each other’s clothing off. Nothing could stop this now, Malachai realized. Nothing. It was going to happen. The talking should happen before the clothes came off, but Malachai needed it too badly.

  “There’s no joke,” Malachai whispered, looking Johnny over in complete amazement. The man was gorgeous. Toned, muscular, and tight, with broad shoulders and a slender, narrow waist. He really could not be more Malachai’s type.

  Johnny’s hand wrapped around Malachai’s cock and he groaned softly. He’d tried to warn the human, he really had. It hadn’t been easy, either, with his dragon screaming at him, demanding that he take the human and make him his. It had been a minor miracle that he’d been able to even try.

  “Johnny,” he growled, pressing his naked body against Johnny’s. The human spread his legs for him, and whatever this was, whatever was going on between them, it wasn’t just Malachai who felt it. He could tell by how eagerly Johnny opened himself up to him,
made himself vulnerable.

  “Malachai, take me, I need you,” Johnny whispered, and it was just like Malachai had suspected. There wasn’t a power on the planet that could keep him from doing just as Johnny asked.

  “Mine,” Malachai growled softly, then pushed Johnny’s willing legs apart. He lined himself up and took one second, one brief moment, to try to figure out if he should go through with this.

  Of course, there was no choice in the matter. Not for him, and not for Johnny. The truth was, Johnny was Malachai’s, but that went both ways.

  There was a sense of inevitability about the whole thing. Malachai knew that he was in no way ready to be a father. He hadn’t even grown up with one, how could he be one? But this was his mate, and when it came down to it, that was all that mattered.

  Malachai pushed. He slid inside Johnny, the human’s entrance tight and hot around him. Just like he’d heard, just like the stories said, Johnny’s body accepted him easily. It was like they were meant to fit together like this, like Malachai belonged inside of him.

  The whole mate thing made sex far more intense than Malachai could have imagined, though. He groaned and clung to Johnny, who was holding on to him, feeling it as his mate started to sweat, as their bodies desperately pushed together, like they could become one person somehow.

  Malachai looked down at Johnny, at his mate, and he felt a dangerous surge of possessiveness. This man was his. As he gazed down at him, his dragon took over, and a surge of intense heat filled him then manifested into bright orange flames.

  It was right at the moment of his orgasm, of course, which was why he couldn’t control it. Instantly, he tamped the flames down again, but it was too late. He knew that the moment he saw the black marks burned into Johnny’s sheets, showing up far too clearly on the light blue.

  The only good thing was that Johnny had come before the burning. The evidence of it was still hot on Malachai’s body.

  If there had ever been a doubt in Malachai’s mind that Johnny was his mate, though, it would have been long gone. Johnny was scared, yes, but those flames hadn’t burned him. That could only happen if Johnny were mated to him, truly and fully.