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

distract myself and think about something, any thing, other than crossing the room and begging a man I’d never seen before to fuck the living daylights out of me.
    What was wrong with me?
    And then I felt it—the man was on the move.
    Other than that first, breathless moment when I’d walked in and seen him, I hadn’t allowed myself to look again. But as crazy as it sounded, I didn’t need to look to know. I could feel it. He was walking across the room now, coming closer. Coming for me . Exactly what I wanted… and what I couldn’t let happen.
    “Sarah, I— I’ve got to go,” I blurted, interrupting her conversation with Wendall. No , Wesley .
    I didn’t wait for her response or offer any excuse. If I didn’t leave Right Now I was going to break every vow I’d made to my wife by throwing myself on this stranger who I suddenly wanted with such a desperate, unreasonable urgency.
    And I couldn’t do that.
    I loved Sarah. I loved Holly. I even loved Luke’s baby, growing in Sarah’s belly. I’d promised to take care of all of them, and I never broke my word. Ever.
    So I ignored what my body and mind and heart and soul were telling me to do, and instead, I did the only thing that would make it possible to keep all my promises.
    I ran.

3
    ~ Maksim ~
    E verything was different now , and yet no one seemed to notice but me.
    Dane was practically licking his lips, still looking across the room at Wes as if his mate were one of the cupcakes piled on the table next to him. Ty had walked up and joined us, and he and Dane were talking about something while Dane undressed Wes with his eyes. About his daughter, Elise, maybe. Or the undersea exhibit on the first floor. Or maybe gas prices, or football, or knitting, or The Walking Dead , for all I knew.
    I wasn’t listening.
    I didn’t care.
    It was all background noise.
    A moment ago, I’d started walking toward my mate without thinking, pulled toward him as inevitably as if by gravity. When he’d left so abruptly I’d stopped mid-stride. Frozen. I didn’t even notice that Ty had followed and put his hand on my shoulder until he gave me a little tug. I ignored him.
    I’d just found my fated mate and then realized that I couldn’t have him, all within the span of a few heartbeats. And he had left . My mate— Devin— had left. Without even looking at me.
    How could he not have felt it?
    My dragon was thrashing inside me, burning with a fierce urgency that was totally out of character for my normally relaxed otherself. It was pushing me to go after the beautiful man and claim him— immediately —but the human part of me couldn’t stop staring at my mate’s pregnant wife. With a sinking feeling of despair, I realized that it wasn’t going to be that easy. I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to calm my dragon.
    “Maks,” Ty said, giving me another sharp tug. “Dude, you’re steaming. I mean, literally. I think you should get out of here.”
    I let Ty lead me out of the room, which as a bonus served to quiet my otherself, since we were moving in the direction that my mate had gone. Once we were outside the building, Ty pulled me around the corner and stopped.
    “Okay, spill,” he said. “What’s going on, Maks?”
    I couldn’t answer. I was in shock. I’d wanted this, wanted to find him … but now that I had, it was the most painful thing that had ever happened to me. And I didn’t like pain.
    “‘Smoke coming out of your ears’ is just a figure of speech for us mere humans,” Ty went on when I’d been quiet for too long, wafting his hand through the air around my head.
    The movement disturbed hot clouds of vapor that I hadn’t even noticed. I was steaming.
    “I’m going to take a stab in the dark and guess that something dragon-ish is going south,” Ty continued. “Is there anything I can do to help you calm down before you explode into some sort of fiery, winged shit that will be hard to avoid questions about?”
    He was right. I had to get