Amethyst Storms (Primordial Protectors #1)

4. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Ionus

How did he get this far and slip through the wards?

Quint’s voice came through our mental connection. Even in our human forms my brothers and I could communicate through it.

No clue. Let’s take him to the dungeons for interrogation.

Caro said the words I was unable to form.

Are you okay, brother?

While Mattias asked the question, all four sets of familiar eyes were upon me, frozen where I stood. Overwhelmed with unfamiliar emotions as my dragon restlessly stirred.

The human scrambled to stand and when my growl echoed through the cavern, dislodging several stalactites, he protectively covered his head and dropped to the ground.

“Hey, I don’t want any trouble. I was just exploring.” He held his hands up and his scent hit me.

Mate!

My errant dragon snarled.

Protect.

What the fuck was wrong with him?

Brother?

Mattias’ concern was clear through our connection.

Don’t.

It was the only word my brain could muster. I had no answers and if they dug any further it would send my dragon into the fitful rage that stirred within. The beast was barely contained, and any outburst wouldn’t end well.

Our first concern was the wards failure, that had to be fixed immediately. Our second…well, that one was on me.

My dragon lurched forward, snout to human nose, and given mine was larger than the human’s head that was saying something. My dragon purred as he drew in the human’s sweet scent. Loudly. The human froze, not a breath came from him as my dragon drank his fill.

Mine.

His audible claim had my brothers gasping from behind me as I shook my head and tried to shift, but my dragon wasn’t having that. A pain-filled war of human versus dragon ensued, one I’d likely lose.

Mine.

He snarled and snatched the human up in his claws, then down the tunnel and up into the shaft that led to my home we went. It wasn’t until we were back inside my house that my dragon allowed me to return to human form and I deposited the trespasser into a chair inside my office. He stared up at me, his mind I’m sure whirling with more questions than he could sort through.

“Stay!” I commanded while his eyes raked over my naked form and my dragon purred.

He likes us.

Don’t go there.

The errant beast and I were about to have words.

Up the stairs I went and hurriedly dressed. When I returned to the office there stood my four brothers as well as Raven. The human’s backpack sat atop my desk. My dragon did his best to resurface and protect the infernal man that had somehow managed to ninja his way past all our security measures. Holding my dragon at bay wouldn’t last much longer and we needed to get on with this interrogation. A flight would cool him down, but only just as I feared he wouldn’t let this man out of his sight.

Protect.

We need to find out why he’s here and how he got past the wards.

Mate.

Fucking insolent dragon.

“Brother,” Caro stepped forward. “Is there something you need to tell us?”

“No.”

“Really?” Odem cocked a brow, challenging me. “Your dragon seems to feel otherwise.”

“My dragon is an idiot.”

Do not test me, human. You are merely the puppet, and I am your puppet master.

“No, he’s not.” Raven gentled her voice before she addressed our captive. “What’s your name?”

“Al-Alex,” he stuttered. “What’s going on? Can I have my bag back?”

“Really? That’s the first thing you ask after being surrounded by dragons?” Odem shook his head. “This one’s not too bright. Good luck, Ionus.”

“You’ll get your bag once we figure out why you’re here,” Caro growled, and my dragon lurched forward. “Not your mate, huh?”

“The only way he could’ve gotten through the wards would be if he were of your bloodline, which I don’t sense, or he is indeed one of your mates.” Raven words were said so matter-of-factly it left no room for argument, though I’d try.

“Hmm,” Odem stepped forward and placed his hand on Alexander’s shoulder. “Maybe he’s mine.”

My dragon partially shifted but I stopped him with seconds to spare before he wrecked the office. Alexander’s eyes nearly bugged out of his skull as I stood before him, a hideous mix of man and beast.

“Don’t touch our mate!” my dragon bellowed through my voice. Everything in the room swirled in a rage of tornadic thunder and Alexander shivered. Hmm, strange reaction from a human. No elevated heartrate yet I scent…oh my.

Ravage.

No, we don’t ravage humans. We do not take what isn’t ours.

Ours.

He has said nothing of the sort. Get a grip.

He huffed and slithered back though he simmered just beneath the surface as my head and torso returned to human form. Thankfully nothing below the waist changed or I’d be calling the contractors back out. Our tails were a bit of a wrecking ball, and repairs had happened a time or…I’d lost count.

The tattered remains of my dress shirt fell to the floor and my eyes snagged Alexander’s. I preened under his watchful gaze as it slid down my chest and to the erection there was no way I could hide.

Not your mate, brother? We can all smell it. Being this close to you has triggered his heat.

Fuck. Mattias was right.

Focus. Focus.

“I’m afraid I’ll need to go through your backpack and ensure your intentions with our mountain weren’t nefarious.”

“Nefarious? Are you like, from the dark ages or something?” Alexander snickered and I had an overwhelming urge to take him over my knee. That idea further engorged my cock. Not where I needed the blood to be right now. “Who even uses that word anymore and how the hell did you manage to sneak up on me and steal my backpack?”

Odem grinned from beside him. “Hurry and go through the pack so we can leave you two love birds alone.”

“Hey, hey, hey, now,” Alexander rose, hands raised before him. “No. Not love birds. No, no, no. Dude, what’s wrong with you?”

Clearly this tiny human did not fear us. How was that possible? Was he broken?

“Ah, such a deserving mating.” Mattias thought he was funny. Wait until his mate comes along. I’ll be the first one in line to poke at that festering wound . “This will be fun to watch.”

“Nope. There will be no mating of this human.” Alexander vehemently fought that idea.

How did I, the strongest, eldest, and wisest of dragons end up with a mate worthy of Odem?

“Please, proceed with the bag search so I may leave this, wherever I am.” Alexander now stood beside me. His scent was so overwhelming I nearly tossed him over my shoulder and followed my dragon’s previous directions.

He is not to leave!

We can’t keep him against his will, that’s kidnapping. Humans frown upon that.

Pfft. Humans. What do they know?

One by one I removed the items from his bag. Climbing gear, thermal blanket, water, snacks, peanut butter sandwich, strange plastic divided dish with mini foods in it. No real meals. Not good. How had he survived off this?

Feed him.

“Ahem. Your bag is good to go. It would be impolite not to offer you dinner. Please, stay and dine with me. Err, us.” I glanced around at my brothers and waited for them to join in. Food was always at the top of their lists, and they never missed a free meal.

“You still haven’t told me how you snagged it yet,” the human grumbled under his breath. For now, I chose to ignore his question. He’d figure it out on his own, I was certain.

“Sorry, bro. Got places to go, omegas to see.” Stupid Odem wiggled his brows.

One by one my brothers declined the dinner offer and took their leave, only Raven remained.

“Raven?” I pleaded. Not my finest hour, I’ll admit, but I was desperate not to be left alone with Alexander. It wasn’t safe for either of us.

Mine.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and groaned. When I glanced up, Raven grinned from ear to ear.

“Sorry, prior commitment and all that. You gentlemen enjoy your evening.” With a wave and a flourish of her floor-length skirt, she disappeared.

Wide-eyed and full of curiosity, to my surprise, Alexander readily agreed. “I could eat.”

What did the Goddess have against me?

“All right, let me see what I have to make for us.” Good thing I could cook, though most of the time I didn’t bother because we preferred our meat raw. Fresh kill after hunting a worthy meal was the best. Humans couldn’t eat their meat that way, though. Right? There was much to learn about this Alexander.

“Whatever it is, if you could make sure it’s well done for me I’d appreciate it. Free of feathers or beaks would be nice, too.” If Alexander weren’t smiling I’d be angry, but damn. Now that I got a good look at the man he was absolutely breathtaking. Fucking dimples. Kryptonite to this dragon. There was no way I’d make it out of this with my heart unscathed.

He followed me to the kitchen where I proceeded to dig through the cupboards while the smart-ass hummed the theme song to Puff, the Magic Dragon , and I considered choking him. Briefly.

Would his death kill me as well if we were not fully mated?

Inquiring minds needed to know.

Protect. Mate.

Fucking dragon.

Where’s a Fate when you need one? Life should come with a manual. Fated mates and what the fuck to do with them. Maybe if I figured this one out I’d write the blasted book myself.

“Just for the record, Puff wasn’t real.”

“Really? My bad.” Though the smirk on his face said he was anything but apologetic. “Um, that’s a lot of meat.”

How had I not heard him walk up behind me?

“Yes. That’s the majority of my diet.” The oversized Sub-Zero unit in my kitchen was packed to the gills with fresh meat. The walk-in restaurant-sized freezer in the basement was as well.

“I take it dinosaurs don’t suffer from heart disease?”

“Dinosaurs? Would you like to be my next meal?” My dragon cheered though his idea of dining was more of the sealing of the mate bond type whereas mine was roasting this smart-ass over a fiery blaze of our doing. Rotisserie human for one, please.

I removed a package of steaks and proceeded to season them. Me, I didn’t care if they were seasoned or not but figured Alexander wouldn’t appreciate the grass-fed cuts without it.

“Dude, those are brontosaurus size. Holy hell, who eats that much?” He shook his head as I blankly stared back at him.

“Dragons are not dinosaurs and last I checked, the brontosaurus has been extinct for eons.” I feared for the public school systems and what they did or did not teach humans.

Alexander laughed. “Are you always this serious? It was a joke, man. But holy hell, that is a serious amount of beef.”

Annoying.

“Which piece do you want?”

He pointed to the smallest. “Can you cut that in half?”

“You don’t eat enough.”

“Yeah, well I also don’t transform into a woolly mammoth, either.” He shook his head and opened the fridge door. “Looks like Satan’s massacre in here. Do you have any veggies?”

“What is your fetish with the Mesozoic Era?” From what I remembered, the ghastly beasts stank to high heaven. Getting within a hundred feet of them was murder on the sinuses.

“Meh,” he shrugged, “archeology is a hobby of mine.”

“Archeology is not a hobby, it’s a career.”

“Potatoes, poh-tah-toes. It’s all the same.”

Alexander was going to break my brain.

“Vegetables are in the crisper drawer in the bottom of the fridge.” I fired up the grill atop my oversized gas stove to first cook his cut then to lightly toast mine so as to not turn his stomach. Gods forbid he ever hunted with me.

Jesus, forward thinking must be halted.

No. Ours.

Go to sleep.

Pfft.

“When you stare off like that are you talking to your dragon? He’s totally cool, by the way. I’ve always been a fan of the color purple.” Alexander rambled on as he got to work searching through drawers and cupboards for whatever it was he sought.

How was it that I wasn’t bothered by having another in my space? I loved living alone. No brothers to chase down, nothing getting broken during one of their ridiculous power play wrestling scenes.

“Amethyst.”

“Amethyst?”

“Yes. My dragon is amethyst.”

“Oh, like the stone. Got it. So each of you are the color of those giant jewels in the cave.”

Shit, I forgot he saw those…

“Yes. We are the protectors of the primordial gems.” How much was too much to share?

“How cool is that? Like, you have a purpose in life. I just roam from mountain to cave, exploring and diving as many as I can. Really I have no purpose in life.”

Was there a hint of self-degradation is his statement? Had he meant for me to hear a deeper meaning in his words?

“I’m sure you’ll find your purpose in life. You’re young and still have time.” Then it hit me. “If you want to explore our caves, I’d be happy to provide you with a guided tour.”

“Really? That’s great but I need to call my Gramps and let him know where I am. Only, where exactly am I?”

Way to think it through and engage the filter, Ionus.

“You’re in the town at the base of Satan’s Shaft. How you got up the side of that treacherous mountain I’ll never know.”

“Really? That would be cool. No one has ever gotten as far as I did from what all the spelunking blogs have said.”

“There’s a reason for that. We don’t want anyone near the caves.” Which you shouldn’t have been able to reach, though I purposely left that little tid bit out. “But I must insist you not make any mention of dragons to anyone. Understand?”

“Not only understood but they’d put me in a strait jacket and lock me up if I did. No thanks.” Alexander grabbed a dishtowel and dried his hands. “Let me shoot him a text.”

Glad the cell service here had been magically rerouted to pick up the nearby town instead of our exact GPS location. Took a bit of finagling but Raven eventually nailed it, as she always did.

“Everything okay?” I asked Alexander as he returned just as I had plated our food.

“Yeah. He was a bit concerned I was staying with someone he didn’t know but that’s Gramps for ya. It’s always been just the two of us and we climbed and camped as often as we could. Now that I’m doing it solo he gets nervous.”

“Your Gramps sounds like a wonderful man.” Alexander had a quiet upbringing from the sounds of it. Glad to hear he didn’t go it alone and had his Gramps to lean upon. “Please, have a seat and I’ll bring the plates over.”

Alexander grabbed the bowl of salad he’d put together as I brought over everything else. He’d filled a glass of water for each of us.

“Thank you.”

“Thank you,” he held his glass up. “For this fine meal and a warm place to lay my head.”

Forever, my dragon whispered.

In time, my friend. We must first woo him.

Woo him? No wonder our brothers torment you.

“So, Alexander, tell me about yourself.”

“Well, most people call me Alex,” he grinned. “I’m twenty-seven. Have no goals in life outside of spelunking and rock climbing. Gramps funds it as much as he can but he’s getting up there and won’t be around much longer.” Alexander grew silent and took another bite of food. His own grave words were hard to swallow, I’m sure. “Just never found my niche, I guess. Maybe when I get home I’ll open my own business taking others on climbing adventures.”

“Your place in life is just that—your place, however you deem it fits.” He nodded though I wasn’t sure my words sank in. “There is no one box for everyone to fit in.”

“I’m an only child, raised by Gramps. My parents were cave hounds, too, which unfortunately was how they died. I was two when it happened. I still don’t understand any of it. From what Gramps said my dad was diligent about checking their ropes. Any sign of fraying and he replaced them. But that’s what happened. One of the ropes failed and they fell a hundred feet down an embankment.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Alexander.”

“At least they died doing what they love.”

The desire to pull him into my arms and take his pain away was unbearable.

“But that’s it for me. Boring, huh?” His eyes met mine.

“Not boring at all. I quite enjoyed listening to you talk.” And sitting across from you, watching you eat, listening to your pulse… Nothing creepy at all.

In the words of my asinine brother, Odem, I was well and truly screwed.

Not much was said after that as we cleaned the kitchen together. I wasn’t ready to call it a night, but Alexander had now yawned several times.

“Let me show you to your room.” I led him upstairs to the guest room farthest from mine. That was safer for both of us. His scent, albeit wonderful, had increased in stature and was hard to ignore. “There is an en suite and everything you need should be in there. If you require anything else, I’ll be in my office downstairs.” Or in my hoard, though I purposely left that part out.

“Thank you, for everything,” he said as I turned and retreated, faster than need be but I barely held control over not only my dragon, but myself.

The more time I spent near Alexander, the more I craved every inch of him.

Once the door to the office was closed behind me, I sank into the comfortable leather desk chair and expelled a sigh, though no relief came of it.

My mate.

The one I thought would never come was now in the room directly above me. Likely undressing and sliding into a warm shower, naked. Without me. Did he sleep in the nude? Had we shared a bed I’d see that he always did.

How to make a human fall in love with you.

Yet another manual I’d need to write.

What the hell was I supposed to do now?