Free Scorch: M/M Gay Shifter Mpreg Romance (Dragon's Destiny: Fated Mates Book 2) by Wolf Specter, Angel Knots

but seeing him doubt my devotion was too much. It made me want to claim him immediately, tell him what I really was, reassure him that we were meant to be together for much longer than a mere human lifetime. But I couldn’t do those things yet, and the pain in his eyes as he told me that he didn’t expect me to wait for him hurt me more than denying myself ever would.
    I wouldn’t push him again, but right now I couldn’t—could not —not kiss him.
    I wrapped my arms around him and lost myself in the softness of his lips, the intoxicating flavor of his mouth, the smooth perfection of all that skin pressed against mine. Devin clutched at my shoulders, but he wasn’t pushing me away. He pulled himself closer, whimpering into my mouth as he fit himself against me.
    My dragon approved, stoking the fire within me until it was a roaring blaze that needed to be released, to be poured into my mate, to claim him now. But I wouldn’t—yet—because Devin had asked me not to. So after a too-short taste of heaven, I stopped, and stepped back, and smiled down at the man I wanted to make my own.
    “I’ll wait,” I promised. “And you’re right. When we start, we’re not going to stop.”
    Devin nodded, biting his kiss-plumped lips and looking a little dazed, like he couldn’t quite remember what “stopping” meant, or why we would want to do it. That was going to make it hard, but as tempted as I was to start the backing off part later and keep going with the part where I got to have my hands all over him for just a little bit longer, he’d told me how important it was for him to wait. So now, because I loved him, I had to protect him from both me and himself. I groaned. Never in a million years would I have imagined that it was me who would be the one saying no to something we both wanted.
    I was almost grateful that Ty chose that moment to interrupt.
    “This is not what I meant about getting a room.” His voice startled both of us, and Devin jumped away from me, looking guilty. “ This is not a room,” Ty continued, gesturing around us and obviously trying not to laugh. “This is a fucking hallway, Maks… and by ‘fucking hallway’ I do not mean a hallway made for that purpose.”
    Devin was turning red again, and he mumbled something about checking on Holly and Sarah and brushed past Ty with a last, longing look back at me. Ty was still talking, but I was having a hard time concentrating on whatever he was saying as I watched my mate walk away.
    I needed him. I would wait, but I was done doing it passively. I was going to have to find a way to help Devin get what he needed—to figure out a way to make sure Sarah and Holly were taken care of, so that he could be free to come to me without feeling like he’d abandoned them.
    “Dude, are you even listening?”
    “No,” I said, continuing to ignore Ty.
    I didn’t know anything about what a pregnant woman would need, or what it would take to make sure her children were cared for. Just the thought made me smile, though, because if I had my way, I’d have a very pregnant man on my hands, sooner rather than later, and I was going to have to figure all of that out for myself—for my family—too. Having seen Devin’s tenderness toward little Holly, I had no doubt that he would love having a child of his own… but it also reminded me that it wasn’t just taking care of Sarah and Holly that I needed to figure out before making him mine. I would also have to find a way to tell him about my dragon.
    He deserved to know everything before I claimed him, and as soon as I had that thought another one followed. One I wasn’t proud of. I knew that Devin wanted me—that if he hadn’t felt it would be a betrayal of his vows to Sarah, he would already be mine—and if I took him, claimed him, filled him with my fire and my seed and made sure that my child was planted inside him, he wouldn’t deny me. He would enjoy it.
    But that wouldn’t be fair to him. He had to