Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) Read Free

recognized him. This man belonged to me.
    He was my fated mate.
    “Honey, come meet Wes and Elise,” Sarah said, crossing the room and hooking her arm through my mate’s. She pulled him over to the ridiculous pink cupcakes, and the little girl who had been holding onto her leg earlier lit up, beaming and reaching up toward him with chubby arms. “Wes, this is my husband, Devin,” Sarah said as my mate scooped the toddler up in his arms and kissed her on the cheek.
    My fated mate was named Devin.
    But Devin was married. He had a child, and a pregnant wife, and he stood a few feet away from me, holding his daughter, and chatting with Wes, and ignoring me completely.
    As if the whole world hadn’t just shifted on its axis.

2
    ~ Devin ~
    I could feel Sarah’s eyes on me, and I adjusted Holly on my hip, shifting her so that her little body blocked my wife from view. My wife . Two words that I’d never thought I’d be saying together.
    Sarah knew me better than anyone, and I had no doubt that she’d caught onto my tension, even if she didn’t understand it. She would definitely grill me about it later, but right now I didn’t want to talk about it—not even to the extent of exchanging glances. I couldn’t. It was all I could do to try to keep my attention on the conversation with the slim man she’d just introduced me to. Warren? Wallace? I couldn’t remember his name, even though Sarah had just told me.
    At the moment, I was having a hard time remembering my own name… much less anything else.
    Every nerve in my body felt hyper-aware of That Man, and no matter how much I tried to pay attention to what was going on in front of me, everything in the room that wasn’t him seemed to fade into the background.
    “…should get Holly and Elise together for a playdate this week,” William was saying.
    “We’d love that, Wes,” Sarah answered. Wes, not William. Wesley. Right. “Holly has a well-child check up tomorrow afternoon, but maybe we could get together the day after? If it’s not raining, we could bundle them up and take them to Priest Point Park.”
    Sarah and Wes continued to make plans, and Holly started squirming to be let down. Holding her was the only thing distracting me from my reaction to the devastating blond man across the room, and I squeezed her a little too tightly, hoping in vain that she would settle down and decide to stay in my arms.
    “Down , Dev,” she insisted, bracing her arms against my shoulder and pushing her upper body away from me with all her might. “Holly go down !”
    Giving in with a little sigh, I set her on her feet and rubbed my sweating palms against the sides of my pants. I wasn’t going to turn and look. I was Not Going To.
    Sarah was my wife —I’d known her for half my life and been married to her for two months—but that didn’t seem to matter. Within moments of stepping through the door a few minutes ago, I’d been blindsided by a hot, raging, carnal lust… for him.
    A man I’d never seen before, but somehow felt like I’d instantly recognized.
    I’d never felt anything like it. It’s not that I hadn’t been turned on before—I’d known I was gay, well, forever, and even if I’d never had the opportunity to do anything about it, I’d certainly felt attracted to other men—but this was different. My whole body felt flushed, hot and electric and instantly attuned to the blond man behind me in a way that felt almost mystical, as if I could literally feel him. It was a sort of hyper-awareness that told me exactly where he was in the room without having to turn to look.
    And, oh God, I wanted him.
    I was thankful I’d worn a loose shirt today. It was untucked, and hopefully that was enough to hide the rock-hard evidence of just how much this stranger was affecting me. I swallowed, trying to focus on slowing my breathing instead of on my reaction to him. Jesus, I was practically panting, and I knew I needed to calm myself down. I desperately needed to