Chapter 20
Dexter
I could taste Toby’s blood on my tongue, sharp and coppery. Just a little taste—I hadn’t bitten down too hard, but I’d broken the skin.
I hadn’t been able to help myself.
I had knotted Toby. I had never knotted a human before, but I hadn’t been able to control it. My hellhound had taken over, and I still didn’t feel entirely in control. My knot had gone down, but I couldn’t seem to make myself roll off of Toby, although I was careful to keep my weight from crushing him.
Because I would never hurt Toby.
Protect, protect, protect. Ours, my hellhound chanted in my mind.
When we had both orgasmed, when his blood had hit my mouth, when my knot had filled him up, it was like a tether had snapped in place between us. I was sure it was my imagination, but I felt like I was tied to him. Like we were linked together.
He was mine.
Mine .
“Dex?” Toby said, and he suddenly smelled… not scared, but not the good, soft, sated smell that he had a moment before. “I think the bed is on fire.”
I opened my eyes, and, yes, we were surrounded by blue and red flames.
Fuck. Fuckity fuck fuck.
The flames were mostly licking over our skin, and thank the nine hells that Toby seemed totally unhurt by them, which was something to contemplate later. I concentrated hard, reining myself in, and the flames disappeared like they had never been there.
The sheets were… well, probably ruined. They hadn’t totally caught fire, but they were smoky and maybe a little charred.
“Uh,” I muttered. Toby seemed to smell a little less stressed than when we’d actually been on fire, but he wasn’t smelling all happily content, either.
Oops.
I picked my head up and looked down at him, saying, “I don’t see a fire.”
Because, you know, I’d put it out.
Toby glanced to the side then back at me, raising one hand to cup my cheek while he stared into my eyes.
I slowly blinked them closed, concentrating on hiding my hellhound, except I could feel my hellhound right at the surface, and when I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t quite sure it had worked.
Sex with Toby had been amazing, and I’d definitely let my primal side take over. My demonic tail from my half form had even gotten involved, although I don’t think Toby realized exactly what I was doing. But fuck, feeling him squeezing around me, being inside him… it was by far the best sex I had ever had in my life. Then my knot… but he didn’t seem to know what had happened there, either.
“Um, Dex?” he said, still cupping my cheek.
“Hmmm?” I asked, trying to hide my head back in his neck, because fuck, he smelled so good. Only his hand was firmly holding my cheek, and I didn’t want to force it away.
“Your eyes… they’re like… on fire, too?” he sort of asked, and then he let me go so I could bury my head back in his soft, sweet scent.
I sniffed at his skin, giving a little lick, and squeezed him tightly. He gently ran his hands along my back, almost like he was comforting me.
“And, ummm…” Toby started, “well, the sheets are, like, smoldering a bit? So maybe I’m under a lot of stress and I imagined the whole flames covering the bed and your eyes glowing thing, but… yeah, the sheets were definitely on fire.”
“Just a little bit,” I admitted.
“Just.. a little bit? Dex, I don’t think things can be just a little bit on fire,” Toby said.
“Sure they can,” I grumbled. “And they’re out now,” I added, rolling over so he was on top of me as I started to pet his back. I wasn’t sure if a freak out was coming. He seemed calm for now, but he might’ve been in a bit of shock.
It’s not like I had a lot of experience telling humans what I was. Usually I was killing the ones that knew I was different. Or I was rescuing them, and they were all traumatized and stuff and didn’t ask too many questions. This was kind of outside my area of expertise.
“Ok,” he said, resting against me and tucking his head into my chest. At least he wasn’t struggling or running. That was good, right?
Not that he would run away, would he? Because I couldn’t have Toby not with me. That would be bad. Very bad. “If you run away, I’ll catch you,” I rumbled, gripping him tighter.
Probably not the best thing to say, but Toby was mine.
“My Toby,” I growled under my breath, unable to help myself. Hopefully he hadn’t heard that.
He snuggled in and started petting my chest, so apparently the catching him comment hadn’t freaked him out. That was good. You never knew what humans would get weird about.
I let my arms relax and went back to caressing his back. I was growling a little bit, and he could probably feel it, but I couldn’t seem to stop. I was still a little feral, and I knew it probably wasn’t the best time to have this conversation. But, yeah, I had set us on fire, so I guessed I had only myself to blame.
Even though it was only a little bit on fire.
Which brought me back to my flame. My flame didn’t hurt me or other hellhounds, but it sure as hell burned anyone it touched. I could control it, of course, only I hadn’t been in control of it during sex. And Toby was definitely not a hellhound. I would have known immediately if he had been.
Theoretically, it should have burned Toby. Only it hadn’t. It had been covering both of us, and he obviously hadn’t felt a thing.
The sheets… well, they were another matter. They didn’t get most of the flame, since it was on us, but they obviously got a bit. I took one hand and nonchalantly patted a slightly smoldering spot next to us on the sheet. Yeah, these sheets were done.
But… why was Toby immune to hellfire? Was he immune to all hellfire, or just mine? Or was it something I controlled without even knowing it during sex? I had no idea, and I was hesitant to test it. I didn’t want to hurt him if it was just a sex thing.
“Dex?” he finally asked after a few moments.
“Hmm?” I answered, kissing his neck, then giving it a little nibble where I had bitten down. He shivered underneath me. Maybe I could distract him…
“No distracting me,” he murmured.
Shit.
“It’s your fault,” I muttered. Which also probably wasn’t the best thing to say, considering I felt him get stiff. I hastily added, “I can’t control myself with you. You’re too fucking sexy, Toby.”
He relaxed against me again, smelling more content. I kept running my hand along his back. Maybe I could distract him—if not with sex, then with something else? He didn’t seem terribly panicked or anything. Maybe he would chalk it up to stress.
“Would you like me to make you something to eat?” I asked. “I can cook for you,” I added.
“Ok,” he said, lifting his head and looking into my eyes.
I blinked slowly again. Were my eyes normal? I didn’t even know.
Toby started to extricate himself from my grip. I knew I had suggested the whole getting food thing, but really I just wanted to snuggle up with him and hold onto him forever.
That wasn’t exactly practical, though, and after a tiny tug of war on his arm I finally let him go and stood up as well. He grabbed sweatpants to put on, and I couldn’t help the growl that escaped me. He only looked over, amused, and gave me a wink.
I sighed and put my own pants on, not bothering with a shirt. Then we sort of stood there until he mumbled, “Ok, food,” and opened the door and made an after you gesture.
I walked downstairs, and he followed, so that was good. We sort of… watched each other as we went. I kept looking back to make sure he wasn’t going to run for it. He seemed to be watching me intently at the same time, and it was almost like he was blocking my exit in case I decided to run for it, although why he would think I would leave, I don’t know.
We got to the kitchen and I started rifling around in the fridge. Toby didn’t have much, so I checked the freezer next. There were some frozen burgers that still smelled good over the icy smell. I’d seen bagels on his counter, so they would work for rolls.
“Burgers ok?” I asked.
He nodded, and I started searching his cabinets and drawers for pans and spatulas and stuff. He climbed onto the kitchen island stool and just watched me.
Maybe he wouldn’t ask questions. Maybe we could just chalk it up to sex weirdness. Surely humans had odd things happen during sex, right? What was a little flame, after all? And some tail play and a dick that had a knot? Those were probably the type of things that humans just ignored and didn’t talk about. That was fine with me. I could definitely do that.
I turned around and smiled, and Toby smiled back. Good. Everything was normal. Perfectly fine. I was totally human and the flames were just… a little misunderstanding. And the tail and the knot weren’t even noticeable. Just good sex.
Yup.
By the time the burgers were almost done, Toby was up and grabbing plates, the bagels (we obviously thought alike), and condiments from the fridge. He put it all at the table, and I brought the pan with the burgers over.
He had one bagel on his plate, and the remaining five from the pack on mine. Was six burgers too many? Was that weird?
One didn’t seem enough for him, so I slid the burgers onto the baels and moved a second one over to his plate. He smiled at me.
We could do this. All perfectly normal. Yes, definitely. We had sex and I was feeding him and we wouldn’t talk about flames or anything odd like that.
It wasn’t until I took my first bite that Toby asked, “Dragon?”
I choked a little bit on my burger before swallowing my bite. “What?” I asked.
“I’m going with dragon shifter,” he said, taking a bite of his own burger and staring at me.
“I… What? No… Dragon shifters don’t exist,” I mumbled, chuckling a little, even though it sounded odd even to me. “I’m just a perfectly normal human. Nothing to see but… you know, humanness. One hundred percent human.”
“Uh huh,” Toby said. I swear his eyes were twinkling like he was about to laugh. “You do know that insisting you’re ‘human’ is exactly what a non-human would do. Because we don’t usually have to defend our ‘humanness.’”
“Uh…” I said, then I took a large bite of burger, because then I couldn’t say anything else stupid.
“So there’s the glowing eyes. I thought I was imagining them, but I really wasn’t, and this wasn’t the first time. Then there were the flames, which I also didn’t imagine, and which definitely burned my sheets,” he said, staring intently at me.
“I’ll buy you new sheets,” I muttered between bites.
Toby waved a hand. “It’s fine. I’ve got lots of sheets. The point is there was fire. And glowing eyes. And then… I think you’re really strong. There are dents in my kitchen island. I noticed them the other day. They’re a hand space apart, and you were standing there. I think you gripped my kitchen island so tight that you dented the stone.”
Fuck. “I’ll replace your kitchen island,” I added.
“Dex, that isn’t the point,” he insisted. He continued, “Then there was the… well, I think there was you outside. The glowing eyes were familiar, the growl, the size… I mean, I thought werewolf at first…”
I snorted in reply. A werewolf. As if I were just a werewolf.
“...but then that wouldn’t explain the flames. That size didn’t seem big enough for a dragon, but maybe dragons aren’t house size after all, because how would they hide if they were, right?” he asked.
Then he was staring at me all expectantly and shit.
I took another huge bite of burger and made a mumbling sound with the food in my mouth.
“Oh,” he said, looking disappointed, although he didn’t smell disappointed. Then he added, “I guess you are just a werewolf then.”
“I am most certainly not a werewolf,” I insisted. “Werewolves don’t even exist. I don’t think,” I added, because I’d never run across one, but then that didn’t mean everything. There might be some things I didn’t know. Maybe.
As I was about to open my mouth again to say I didn’t even know what, the front door opened.
I should have heard the steps coming over to the house, but admittedly, I’d been distracted. Plus, the fuckers had been quiet.
“Hey, guys!” Jude says as he waltzed into the kitchen. Corbin followed behind, and of course he had a raven on his shoulder. Because that’s not at all suspicious.
I gave them both the stink eye and a growl. “I’ve got this,” I muttered.
“Clearly not, wolfman,” Jude joked, grabbing a chair at the table and sitting. Corbin leaned against the wall.
“So I can add excellent hearing to the list,” Toby mused. Then he suddenly seemed to realize something, because he turned bright red and looked mortified, staring at me in horror.
Fuck.
I guessed I was about to get the freak out I was hoping to avoid, and somehow I thought I could blame Jude and Corbin.