Jake: Ice Age Dragon Brotherhood #1.5 Read online

  Jake

  Ice Age Dragon Brotherhood #1.5

  Milana Jacks

  Jake

  Ice Age Dragon Brotherhood, #1.5

  Milana Jacks © 2018

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Unless you’ve seen dragons and wolves roaming the grocery store, any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Cradle the Fire

  About the Author

  Milana’s Backlist

  1

  Jake

  (The first scene in this chapter appears in Rise the Seas, book 1 in Ice Age Dragon Brotherhood available on Amazon.)

  * * *

  In the castle’s library, Lance and I sit around the whiskey bottle. S class. He pours me a swift one. Dry. We click our glasses and down the burning liquid in one gulp. Though it’s July in Los Angeles, endless icebergs accumulated during our decade of Ice Age cover the Pacific. I glance outside the window, and the habitat Cy aliens built for their cyborg pets stares back at me. Cyborgs stay in the habitat. We, Creatures of Earth, occupy the island off Los Angeles’ shore. They know better than to come here.

  But this morning, four dumbass cyborgs inside their Cy-mobiles sniffed around our settlement. Lance chased them away, in his dragon beast form, and breached the habitat plasma barrier, so we may or may not have a war tomorrow.

  Those mechatronic cyborg men make my fur rise. Mother Nature did not intend for humans to take on Cy alien parts and become cyborgs—that’s for sure. Creatures of Earth know a thing or two about nature, seeing as a decade ago, after Earth’s major volcanoes erupted, Mother Nature gifted some of us with animals. She gifted me with an alpha wolf.

  The whiskey burn lingers in my mouth but doesn’t leave a horrible aftertaste. I should take a bottle, go into my room, lock the door, and have at it. I understand why Lance spends roges, our new currency, on good alcohol. “Damn good whiskey,” I say.

  “Selena’s whiskey. Her family makes this.” He points a claw at the label, looking proud. Selena Salazar came from the habitat, and her presence here would cost us major problems. The cyborg who led this morning’s attack was looking for her, his human bride-to-be, who was loaded, and came here seeking Lance’s protection from husband-to-be.

  Lance didn’t seem to give a shit.

  “So, she comes from good standing over there.”

  “Mm-hm. Spit it out, Jake. You’re killing my joy.”

  “We need to send a bird inside,” I say. We need to send a Creature bird inside the habitat, a human woman gifted with a dove animal so she could spy on the cyborgs.

  “I agree. Make it happen.”

  I nod. Still, our main problem just walked upstairs into her room. “What do we about Selena?” The moment I say it, the tension in the library rises. My wolf stands on attention—a quiver under my skin, a tightening in my chest. Lance is irritated, and I like irritating him. A nice pastime.

  “We do nothing,” he says. “I do what I want with her.”

  I smirk. “She’s your mate.” Dumbass doesn’t have a clue that the new girl on the island is his mate. I’m pretty certain of it. I only wish I recognized mine as easely as I noticed his pattern of behavior around Selena.

  “I think she might be. When Mother Nature came to us, she mentioned that we each have a spirit. I have a working theory. I’m thinking there are women out there who are gifted with a… spirit. There is a spirit for each dragon. All we have to do is find them.”

  “And mate them,” I remind him.

  “Mm-hm. Now the question is, how do we identify a spirit?”

  I shrug. “Can’t help you there.”

  “I know mine, but Nenters will need help. Do wolves know their mate?”

  “Not on sight, if that’s what you mean. We have to have sex, to find a mate.”

  “Ah,” he says. “Now I understand why you hold orgies.”

  “Matings, dickhead. They’re called matings.”

  He tips his empty glass. “So what happens during the matings?”

  “We fuck.” As if it needs an explanation.

  “I take it you’ve fucked your entire pack.”

  I don’t fuck my pack mates. At least not in a traditional way. I go in via the anal route, because the pussy is reserved for when I’m actually testing out a mate. There’s only one girl I want to test. I’m not sure what I’ll do if she’s not my mate, but I’m certain I’ll break her heart. So I don’t even go there. Nope. “No comment,” I say.

  Lance smiles, and the indigo scales on his neck lift and take on an light purple hue. “Tell me how you know you’ve found a mate, and I’ll stop.”

  I rest my elbows on my knees. “During sex, the male releases a scent that marks the female as his. The scent release is involuntary and happens whether you want it to or not.” I rub the back of my neck, not feeling like sharing mating mojo with him, especially as thoughts of one pretty pussy occupy every second of my waking hours. “The female is marked, and then other males can scent it, so they stay away. The females can’t smell the mating mark.”

  “Hm. I haven’t released a scent. I’m not even sure I’m supposed to.”

  Again, I shrug. “I don’t know how it works for dragons. But I’ll tell you that, if we can impregnate a female, she’s definitely a mate. We can’t impregnate anyone but our mates.”

  Lance glances at the clock. “Do you think I can show face upstairs yet?”

  “I would give it another hour. Until Belle comes back.” I clear my throat. “About Belle. … I’m sending her to my brother’s pack.” She gets into fights with more dominant female wolves, and I fear they’ll tear her apart one day. I’ve stepped in several times so far, mainly ordering Belle to calm her shit and do what dominant females tell her to. She promises she will, but the moment I leave the settlement for a supply run, she’s back challenging their orders. Aside from making her shift into her wolf and caging her for days during my absence, I don’t know what else to do with her. She won’t follow their orders. Or mine, for that matter.

  Lance shakes his head. “Selena seems to like her. I want Belle here, at the castle.”

  Fucking great. I can discipline Belle—something I’ve never done with her, mainly because she’s still a pup in many ways. I can protect her from the females, but that’ll only make her seem weaker. I need her to grow into her wolf a little more, so she can bark orders at those who’ve previously bested her in a fight.

  My brother will integrate her with his pack, and Lance will deal with my decision.

  There’s a soft knock on the door.

  Lance paces the room, then chugs from the bottle. He seems preoccupied, so I say, “Come in.”

  Belle is at the door. A pretty blonde with big blue eyes and long slender legs. My wolf takes notice, but I have enough presence of mind to suppress the low growl in my chest.

  She folds her hands in front of her. “The party is on,” she says.

  “What party?” I bark, annoyed she’s not looking at me. She’s pissed at me. A sweet scent reaches my nose. I turn it up, wrinkle it, but can’t quite make out the smell. It’s faint, but if I change into my wolf, I’ll figure it out. Belle and Lance are chatting. My wolf is
all over the scent we can’t make out, so I’m not listening. My skin itches. I want to change now and sniff. It’s driving me crazy.

  “Any words of wisdom, Jake?” Lance asks.

  I open my mouth to tell him I’m busy sniffing, when Belle snorts and says, “Like he’d know.”

  I close my mouth, trying to replay their conversation, while Lance and Belle leave for the party. The moment the door shuts, I strip and change into my wolf. I rush across the room and sniff around the door, from the floor up. When I start licking the door handles, I know exactly what’s going on. That scent? That’s Belle’s pussy in heat.

  And in wolf form, I have little presence of human mind, so my tongue is hanging out the side of my mouth, and I’m whining at the door, wanting to follow her pussy. I rise on my hind legs and work the doorknob with my front paws. I bite the shit out of it, my paws scraping the door, and the sliver of my human brain is thinking Lance will kill me for damaging the wood.

  I can’t get the door to open. Thank fuck for that, because I change into a man and get my brain working. Naked, I pace the library, thinking about Belle. She’ll need to be serviced.

  Wait a second.

  I pause, hands on my hips. Did she say a party started? I know exactly what kind she meant—a mating one. And with Belle throwing hormones around, every male in the settlement will want in on that.

  Four days later

  * * *

  Belle is a young wolf. She’s ripe, with an unlimited pool of energy, and can fuck for days on end. Her heat lasts for three days, going on four. Seeing as I broke up the party the other night just when it got good, I took serious shit from my pack mates. I’m out of excuses. The mating party tonight is happening. They basically told me so. One female in heat seems to trigger another, which starts a cycle. Everyone is prickly and on edge.

  Belle is out of patience, too. She must’ve rubbed herself sore, because I made sure nobody else was around her to rub her. My dick is raw, my mouth wants a taste of her pussy, and my brain is not functioning. At this point, I want to live inside her.

  My wolf is on the surface of my mind, my skin itching. Belle smells of heat, and when this pretty submissive wolf goes unfucked, my wolf wants to put her pussy out of its misery, and I want to lick up all those heat juices.

  She is a fiery little wolf. And while I specialize in her brand of feisty, I can’t touch her, and it has very little to do with her barely-legal age—an excuse I tell Lance when he gets on my case about her.

  What if we fuck, and I don’t mark her as mine?

  She likes me far more than she should. I think about her far more than I should. But what if we’re not mates? I’ll be sorely disappointed, and she’ll be heartbroken. Yeah, yeah. I know the saying—if you never try, you’ll never know—but I don’t play around with Belle. I’ve known her most of her life, and she’s a good girl who takes care of me. Most of the time. Now, she’s just pissed.

  The mating party is in full swing. It’s been several hours, so everyone is nice and horny by now. Instead of mingling, I’m sulking in the corner, hoping the itch to fuck her will go away. Several females are in heat, which makes us males hard and aggressive. Another reason I’m getting out of the other males’ way. I don’t want to hurt my pack mates. That’s not my purpose. Not why Mother Nature gifted me with the alpha wolf. He’s a leader and protector, not a bully. But he can’t stand competition. I can’t, either. We’re a good match.

  I crack my neck and walk around a bit, then go stand in the corner near the band, even if my ears may blow from the noise. I cross my arms over my chest and survey the room from this new angle.

  Belle is dancing. All by her little self. She changed for the party. I knew she would; she always does. Around the castle, the matings are the highlight of our month, so she gets to wear the skirts she makes.

  They’re tiny skirts that show her long legs and the crease of her ass. I know she doesn’t wear panties. Wolves don’t do underpants—an extra piece of clothing gets in the way when we’re changing into our wolves.

  She’s in heat, so her pussy is sopping wet. Also, I know what it tastes like. I can still taste it on my tongue from last month, when she walked right up to me and told me to eat her pussy because it was her birthday. She said it in front of a dozen males, and I sure as fuck couldn’t refuse.

  Belle’s got serious sass. But she’s also sweet. Puppylicius. I want to put a collar around her neck and leash her, then walk her next to my leg. In her human form.

  My dick is angry, and my balls are heavy, full, and hurting.

  I grind my teeth.

  I’m trying not to bite anyone tonight. I’ll get through her heat. I always do by leaving for the supply run. I can’t leave the island right now, but I’ll make it through.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I catch a male making his way to the dance floor. He smells what I smell, and this particular male would treat her nice. He’d fuck her gently, and he’s alpha enough for her to submit in the bedroom with no problem.

  He’s also twenty-one, a decade my junior, and an all-American wolf with blond hair and blue eyes. Since Belle has blond hair and blue eyes too, if they’re mates, they’ll make matching pups.

  Except they won’t make any pups. Not even close, because I’m a selfish prick. I want her for myself, though I have no idea if she is my mate. I can’t just fuck her and dump her, either. I absolutely hate the fact that we can’t recognize our mates on sight—I hate that we gotta fuck, to find out. Oh, I loved it, until Belle turned eighteen and rubbed her sweet pussy on my face. She sat on my face and ground her pussy all over my beard, my tongue, and my mouth, and I’ve never in my life felt more marked as a male wolf.

  I didn’t release a marking scent then. I should’ve. Oral sex is still sex, damn it.

  Belle tucks her hair behind her ear as she chews on her bottom lip, every once in a while glancing at the door, as if expecting somebody. Brian, the male wolf, comes at her from behind. He hugs her close, not an inch separating their bodies.

  He must be hard. She can feel his dick on her ass. They should service each other—maybe even take up dating—until either of them found their mate. Or they could be mates.

  A growl rumbles in my chest, and thank holly fuck I'm standing near the band, so nobody can hear me.

  I clear my throat at the same time as Belle smiles up at Brian. She looks cute and… receptive. His hands roam all over her body, and when she interlocks her fingers behind his neck, I make my way to the dance floor.

  Or I try to make my way. My pack mates stop me and ask about the cyborgs, the dragon lord, Selena, our next run. I can't ignore them, so I stop to chat with a group of males, while keeping my gaze on Brian and Belle.

  They're making their way out of the room.

  I excuse myself, walk to the exit before they do, and open the door for them.

  “Thanks, boss.” Brian throws an arm over Belle’s shoulder.

  She says nothing, her big blue eyes locked with mine in a challenge.

  I started thinking about her after she made me eat her pussy. I think about her when I’m away, and find myself looking for her the minute I come back. It’s a clear sign that I should either have sex with her or send her on an extended vacation out to my brother Jason’s pack, in the South. There, she’d forget about me and perhaps even find her mate.

  I don’t rise to her challenge. I let them walk ahead and close the door behind us. Belle snorts, but I ignore her and follow them toward the males’ sleeping quarters, my brain conjuring all the different sounds she’ll make while fucking someone else. The growl I suppressed earlier bellows out. It echoes along the empty hallway.

  The couple takes notice, and they spin around, Brian's eyes as wide as Cy pods. I must look as homicidal as I feel, because he pecks Belle on the cheek and walks away.

  This leaves us alone. Now what?

  Honestly, I want to bail, and I wince when Belle puts both her hands on her hips.

  “What the hell
, Jake?”

  I can own it or play stupid. Should’ve stayed in my bedroom and jerked off. “What?” I ask, opting for stupid.

  She gapes. “You cockblocked me.”

  “I don’t know whatcha talking about.”

  “Oh, come on. You’ve eye fucked me all night. I think you think I’m not looking. I’m always looking, Jake. Always. You’re all I see.” She pauses, gives me a chance to say something.

  I stay silent, because anything I say is gonna be held against me.

  Belle curses under her breath. It’s cute. I can’t tell her that, because it’s gonna piss her off more. She doesn’t want to be cute. She wants to be known as tough. She’s loosing every fight but that means nothing to her. She’s hardheaded and gonna grow into a dominant female one day. Yet another reason why Jason’s pack is a great choice for her; he has no dominant females, while I have two strong ones and Belle.

  “That’s all you’re ever gonna do,” she says. “Eye-fuck me. Isn’t that right?”

  I close the distance between us and sniff. “You’ve been drinking. I’ll walk you to your room.”

  “I’m not going back to my room, and I can have a little bit of alcohol. Everyone is having it.”

  “A beer, two glasses of wine, and a shot of whiskey is not a little bit.”

  “But who’s counting, right?”

  Got me. I have been eyeballing her all night. “I’m putting you to bed.” I wrap my hand around her waist and tug. I expect her to dig in her heels, in which case I’ll throw her over my shoulder and carry her. She surprises me and follows, puts her hand around my waist, too. I chuckle as we stroll back the way we came, and I straight out laugh as she trails her small hand to my ass. She squeezes. “You’re so fine, boss.”

  I kiss the top of her head. Inhale the scent of her wolf. It burns in my lungs and makes my dick want to explode. I tighten my grip on her hip.