"We still have a battle to win."

The werekin stepped up to Jay, gripping his arms in a firm hold. "Never fear my mate. I won't let you down. If Dragonspawn thinks he can take you away from me, he doesn't understand anything about mates. I would follow you into the depths of hell and fetch you back out again."

Thomas' eyes were intense, the pupils blown with the force of his passion.

Stepping closer into his lover's embrace, Jay rubbed Thomas' back. "I'd like to think I wouldn't go to hell." He laughed, trying to lighten the situation. "But I appreciate the sentiment. We'll get through this and then we'll decide where we want to go from there."

Thomas pulled away enough to look into his eyes.

98.

"What does that mean?" he asked, frowning.

"It means whether I go back to school or decide to go directly to taking my magical study exams. I have a feeling my father sent me here to meet you. I can't think of any other reason. These people don't have anything to teach me."

Tension drained out of the werewolf. "I thought you meant about us."

Jay shook his head. Capturing Thomas' face in his hands, he placed a soft kiss on his mate's lips. "We are bound forever, Thomas. I might not be werekin or even understand all of your ways, but I am yours as you are mine, and neither man nor fate will ever permanently part us."

Thomas' smile was slow and predatory. "Good."

Before Jay could get his bearings, Thomas' fingers were sliding inside him. Moaning, it took a minute for Jay to realize he had to stop his lover.

"Wait."

Thomas' fingers stilled inside him. "What?"

"I have to be inside you."

"What?" Thomas' eyes were wide with shock.

"Why?"

Reluctantly, Jay slid away from his lover's questing fingers, moaning when he was left empty and bereft.

99.

"I have to spill my seed inside you for the bonding to be complete."

Jay could see Thomas nervously swallow. "I've never had another inside me before. In wolf culture, it would mean I was the lesser wolf." Seeing Jay's expression, he rushed to explain. "Not the lesser man but the less strong wolf. As you don't even have a wolf side, I'm not sure how my wilder side will react."

"The bonding isn't complete until I am inside you in all ways." Jay had to be firm despite his need to take the panicky expression away from his mate.

Thomas took a deep breath and slid next to Jaynell to lie on the floor. "If my wolf starts to snap, use your magic to restrain me. I'd never forgive myself if I harmed you, my mate."

Jay kissed Thomas with all his pent-up love and passion. Trying to convey his depth of feeling for the other man through touch, Jay kissed his way up and down Thomas' body until he got level with his lover's cock. With a swipe of his tongue, Thomas bucked beneath his touch.

"More," Thomas demanded.

"In good time." In order for the binding to work, the werekin would have to be on the edge of passion. Licking and nipping his way across Thomas' wide expanse of skin, Jay mouthed the werekin's pebbled abs, nibbled on one hip, 100 *

licked at the crease between hip and thigh and sucked his lover's balls in his mouth until he felt Thomas pant and moan beneath him.

"Please, Jaynell," Thomas cried out. "Please."

Jaynell reached across his lover's body and grabbed the lube. Popping the cap, he made sure his fingers were covered in the slick lubricant before breaching the werekin with one finger.

"More."

Another finger pressed inside. The silky heat of his lover almost made Jaynell come from that sensation alone.

A soft whimper brought his eyes up to look at Thomas' desperate expression.

"Shh. Soon. I don't want to harm you." He would rather cut off his own arm than tear his lover.

"I want you, now!" Thomas demanded. For a brief second, his eyes went wolfish.

Fuck, that was a turn-on.

"Easy, love," Jaynell said, soothing Thomas.

Removing his fingers, he pressed inside, keeping his motions slow and easy.

Thomas' face contorted a moment with discomfort.

"Relax."

Fangs popped out of Thomas mouth. "Restrain me,"

Thomas growled in a voice much deeper than normal.

101.

With a word, Jaynell called forth long bands of golden power. They wrapped around Thomas wrists, pulling them up and binding them to the headboard. Fangs receded, and Jay could feel the tension seep out of his lover. Now that he was certain he couldn't hurt Jaynell, Thomas' eyes were clear.

"Fuck me like you mean it, mate."

After a slow glide inside to ease the way and make sure his mate was ready, Jaynell pounded into Thomas, pouring all the love and passion he felt for the man into his lovemaking. Sending out more bands of power, he slid his arms beneath Thomas' knees, lifting them higher so he could peg his lover at just the right angle.

Thomas howled beneath him, filling the space between them with spurts of sticky moisture. Unable to resist the constriction around his cock, Jay followed his lover's orgasm with one of his own.

Jay's golden bands dissolved as he felt stronger, invisible ones stretch between them, binding the pair together for eternity.

"It's done," Jay said, gasping in surprise at the strange sensation of their bonding.

"No," Thomas said as Jaynell slid out of his body.

"It's only just beginning."

102.

Chapter Four.

The air was cold as Jaynell approached the dueling field. There was a good chance he was going to die today.

Despite his big talk to Thomas, it was often cunning more than force that won the day. Dragonspawn knew Jaynell's tricks, having taught him most of them. Jay was at a disadvantage because Michael had hundreds of years of dueling experience behind him and Jay had none. Although he knew in theory what to do in a duel, he'd had very little actual experience.

A rush of wings brought Jay out of his daydreams.

An enormous griffin landed in the field. Dragonspawn's avatar was a gigantic creature with beady eyes, an enormous beak and claws as sharp as knives. It whipped its lion tail in an angry frenzy as it stared at Jaynell. Tilting back its head, it let out an ear-splitting screech.

Battle cry.

There was no sign of Michael around.

Jay sifted through his mind for the dueling rules.

Damn, the avatar could combat him by itself. There was no rule that stated the owner of the avatar had to be present during a duel.

As the griffin reared back on its hind legs, Jay took a step back warily, keeping an eye on the claws slashing the 103 *

air before him.

He needed Gideon.

Gideon, come to me, he called in his mind.

A scream warned him in time to dodge to the side.

He ducked to avoid the swipe of claws.

He could feel his avatar coming closer, but he doubted he would come in time.

"How does it feel to be prey, little one?" Michael's shout distracted Jay. The avatar took that moment to slash its claws across Jay's cheek. Blood sprayed in a warm sticky shower across his ear and neck.

Pain knifed through him. Jay gasped for breath, trying to regain his focus. Gideon's voice whispered across his mind. Master, I come.

Jay felt Thomas' anger flash through him. His lover was connected to him on the psychic plane, following the battle as it happened, a supportive shadow in his mind. Jay hoped the temperamental wolf didn't lose control and rush onto the field. Thomas was strategically placed, but Jay would only use him as a last result. With a wave of his hand and a few words of power, Jay propelled himself across the field. A scream filled the air as Gideon answered the griffin's challenge, landing on the field between them.

Gideon spat a stream of acid across the griffin's face, blinding the beast. The noise was incredible. The 104 *

sound of agony filled the air as the creature screamed out its pain. So intent on what the avatars were doing, Jaynell didn't sense his real danger until it was too late.

"Finally, I have you," Michael said. Grabbing Jay with a cruel grip, the master wizard pulled Jaynell through a spinning purple vortex.

The howl of a wolf echoed in Jay's head as he lost consciousness.

His cheek burned.

Everything else hurt. The material he laid on felt like wood flooring, but his vision was foggy, and he couldn't make out his surroundings.

"Did you think I was going to let you stay with that mangy wolf?" Dragonspawn's voice crackled with power.

Jay blinked, trying to clear his vision as the other man ranted.

"I didn't spend those years convincing your father to let me teach you to have you throw it all away on the first shifter you found. You are mine. Mine! I have trained you, molded you, and now that you are old enough, will mate with you."

"You used the challenge as a ploy," Jay accused.

105.

Dragonspawn laughed. "Of course I did. Your dragon will kill my griffin. I have no doubt of that. I was done with that avatar anyway. I just needed you distracted enough so I could spring my trap and pull you away from your stupid wolf. Why would you want a shifter anyway when you could have the world's best wizard as your mate?

We will rule the magical universe with our power."

Exhaustion beat at Jay like a drum. His head hurt from the vortex travel, his cheek burned from the dragon's claws, and his body ached all over from the shaky landing.