Hours Later…
Jaeger lifted his head, sight finally returning to his healing eyes. He pushed up on shaky arms and felt someone immediately come to his side. He drew in a scent, not trusting his eyes.
Gator.
“You stayed,” he murmured.
“Yeah. Careful… you’re still healing,” Gator answered.
“Where’s Dario?”
“He left a few minutes ago to stretch his legs and get something to drink,” Gator said. “You’ve been out of it since the surgery.”
Gator helped him to sit on the side of the bed.
“Mind helping me to the loo? I don’t trust myself to stay upright,” Jaeger asked.
Gator seemed to hesitate a moment. “Yeah, sure. Of course.”
Jaeger rose to his full height and leaned on the soldier’s shoulder across the hospital room. The human helped steady him as he reached into his sweats and pulled his cock out. At this point, he’d lost all the shame of the last time. What was done was done. Both humans had seen him at his weakest point.
And yet they were still there, at his side.
Once he was done, he cleaned his hands haphazardly and used Gator to help him back to the bed.
He sat on the side, not ready to lay back down quite yet. As he sat there, he stared out the window. Through the slats of the metal blinds, he could see the day was gray. Rain hit the window in fat, blurry blobs.
He focused his sight on the window, and slowly his vision cleared. Jaeger smiled as he realized the fat, blurry blobs were actually sleet. He rose to his feet and took the two steps it required to get to the window.
“Where are you going?”
Jaeger pulled up the blinds. He turned to smile at Gator before letting some of his light blue scales skitter over his flesh. Pressing a hand to the window, ice crystals formed along the glass, curling into intricate patterns. He cooled his skin—which seemed to help the ache from his burns—and saw the patterns dance along his flesh and up his arm.
Gator stepped closer, frowning. His mouth fell open as his stare trailed along the swirling patterns. Jaeger reached out and grabbed Gator’s hand. The patterns moved from his hand up Gator’s arm.
Gator jerked slightly, a gasp coming from his lips. “It’s so cold.”
“Does it hurt?”
Gator shook his head.
“If you weren’t my mate, it would.”
Gator lifted his stare to Jaeger, a look of utter torment on his face.
Jaeger frowned, hating to see Gator so troubled.
“I have something I have to tell you.”
Jaeger took his hand off the glass and turned to fully face his human.
“I was on a plane that crashed in Bear Mountain. Captain White, who was under General Lore—he’d brought us out here to capture a mutant shifter—Jericho. Some of us survived, and we were imprisoned here.”
Jaeger was silent, his eyes wide.
“I work with the shifter army now.”
“Because you were forced to?” Jaeger pulled his hand away as if he’d just been burned. The patterns faded around them, the spell broken.
Gator shook his head. “No. I was transferred to Lore’s unit—which was beyond my control. He told us beings like you would destroy humankind. That you were savages, leaving a path of destruction behind them. I thought shifters were the enemy.”
Jaeger took two steps to the side and dropped onto the bed.
“It wasn’t until I came here and saw who shifters truly were—families and a community—that I knew everything I’d been told was wrong.”
Jaeger narrowed his eyes, anger filling him. “I don’t remember ever seeing you inside my prison.”
“I knew there were dragons inside the prison. I wasn’t a part of the team trained to handle them. So our paths never crossed.”
“How could you stand by and see the horrid things they did to us and not do anything?” Jaeger asked. “What they did crossed the rules set forth for military encounters with an enemy. You had to know that.”
“Lore said you weren’t human… that it was the false face of demons. He said the rules didn’t apply to beings like you. And I believed him.” Gator looked away. “I’m so sorry I believed him.” He sighed, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Lore force-fed us all Zed’s line. I knew Lore took things over the edge. I even questioned it when I first saw some of those things—but there was always a reason. There was always an excuse.”
“And did you do any of the torturing yourself?”
Gator swallowed. “Yes. But unlike some of my fellow soldiers, it turned my stomach.”
“Oh, it turned your stomach, so that’s supposed to make me feel better?”
“No,” Gator said, looking down. “I suppose it shouldn’t.”
Jaeger turned and saw that Dario hung by the door, watching, listening.
“I’d like some time alone,” Jaeger said.
“I’m sorry,” Gator said before heading for the door.
Jaeger saw the look the two shared before the Cajun left. Dario took a few steps inside. “Does that mean me, too?”
“Did you know?”
Dario was silent a moment. “I did.”
Jaeger’s head whipped up angrily, and he caught Dario’s stare. “And you didn’t tell me?”
“It wasn’t for me to tell.”
Jaeger turned away, his anger simmering just below the surface. “I’m tired.” He turned to gingerly lie down. Dario came closer to help, and he held up a hand. “I’m fine. I can do it on my own.”
Dario sighed loudly before he walked to the door. “He was a soldier, taught to follow orders. He did what they told him to do.”
“That doesn’t make it right,” Jaeger murmured before closing his eyes.
He heard Dario leave the room and his dragon roared within, angry that both his mates had left.
He had been the one to push them away.
Like an idiot.
But he needed time to process what Gator had just admitted.
My enemy is my mate. And I thought fate was ironic by giving me Dario.
* * * *
Friends to enemies…
Gator sat in the waiting room. His legs hadn’t been strong enough to carry him too far. The look of disgust and rage on Jaeger’s face had been as bad as he’d expected—yet somehow a million times worse. He had told Dario the dragon couldn’t forgive him.
Knowing it was even harder to swallow.
Dario walked into the waiting room a few minutes later, eyeing him.
“I told you.”
“He just learned the news. Of course he’s upset now.” Dario took the seat beside Gator. “And smart move dumping that on him when he’s trying to heal.”
“I figured he might be too weak to beat the shit out of me.”
Dario took Gator’s hand. “He’ll get over it.”
Gator remained silent. He’d been right about the dragon’s reaction. He was also right that he needed to prove himself. Now he just needed to figure out how. The shifters didn’t appear to fully trust him—they never had. He was given grunt work for a reason. He’d been a Zed soldier. Little by little, they’d relaxed around him, but he still hadn’t proven himself to anyone.
It was time to make them all see he wanted to be here—not because he felt forced into it, but because he believed in their cause. Lore was evil. Even when he’d been working under the general, he’d known it.
Yet he’d done nothing.
What could I have done? I was low man on the totem pole. I had no power over a man like him.
“I can smell the smoke coming off that head of yours. Don’t get any big ideas. Just give him time,” Dario said, squeezing Gator’s hand.
“Yeah, sure,” Gator murmured, not necessarily meaning to lie.