“I’m supposed to be Matt’s mate.” That made Julia laugh a little, but she cut it off when the other woman’s face reddened. “What I meant was, I’m Matt’s mate. Aisling. I came up to see if you needed anything. The cook here, his name is Billows, is wonderful. Just yesterday, he made me some scones. I’d never had them before.”
“I hadn’t either before I met Patrick.” Aisling frowned. “That’s what I call Matt’s father. He has too many names to remember what to call him, so I settled on Patrick. I would so love a scone or two. If you’d join me.”
“I’d like that.” The little faerie that Julia hadn’t noticed before came to sit on Aisling’s hand. “Could you ask Billows to have someone bring us up some scones if he has any made, as well as some of his tea? It’s very good. I think you might enjoy it as well.”
“Yes, I love hot tea. Matt does as well, but I don’t think Patrick ever liked it. Something about it being too small of a drink for him.” They both laughed, and Julia smiled at the woman. “I don’t want to be rude and for us to start out on the wrong footing here, but you’re not nearly as young as you look, are you?”
“No. I’m several hundred years old. You’re very young. To me, anyway. I fought in a great many wars when I was younger. Your mate knew my family when my father was still alive.” Julia told her that she was sorry for her loss. “It’s been centuries since he’s been gone. I can barely remember what he looked like anymore. That is heartbreaking to me. My mother, sadly, is still hanging around.”
“She’s not a nice person?” Aisling told her what her mother had been up to. While Julia didn’t know a great deal about the reasons that dragons were killed and used up, she did understand betrayal. “My first husband, he was like that. He didn’t kill others, not that I know of, but he did try his best to kill me off when he could. It took me a long time to get over that and let someone into my heart. Patrick was a very patient man. I don’t know where I would have ended up if he’d not saved my life by loving me.”
“I don’t know what I feel for Matt.” When she got up to pace, Julia had a feeling that this woman, no matter her age or what she’d done in her life, was more insecure than she’d ever been. “He’s very nice to me. I mean, he’s supposed to be, I guess. I have the run of this house. Mostly I just think of it as me running it and not being in charge. I’ve never had to do that before. It’s very alien to me if you want to know the truth.”
“Did you have this room readied for me when I got here? Did you make sure that I had everything I needed by checking up on me? You did both those things. And in my book, that makes you a better hostess than most of the people I know.” Julia laughed. “I was staying with who I thought was a friend of mine once. I’d been there about three days when I overheard her talking to her husband about how I’d really overstayed my welcome, and she couldn’t wait until I left. I did, and since then, I’ve never been back to her home.”
“How do you know that I’m not saying that to Matt too?” Julia told her she thought that if she didn’t want her there anymore, she’d just come right out and tell her to get her shit together and get out. “Yes, I’d do that. Nicer perhaps, but maybe not.”
They both laughed. When tea and scones were brought in for them, like a lady of old, Aisling poured for them both as well as talked about the kind of tea they were drinking. Julia couldn’t help but be charmed by the woman.
“I don’t know what is in this tea, but it’s very calming. I suppose it could be magic. Billows is a faerie. But it makes me feel like I can just sit back, think, and make sure that I have all my ducks in a row before I have to do anything.” Julia asked her if that often happened, having to relax before moving forward. “Not as much as you’d think, knowing the little about me that you do. But there are times when I have to deal with one of the other women that I feel like I need to fortify myself. They’re very nice, but scary powerful. The family has a collection. A grand witch who is Bryce. The protector of dragons, Nicole. A necromancer who is scarier than them all if you ask me. Her name is Roxanna. As well as the queen of dragons, Kelly. All of their husbands work with them, but they’re not nearly as strong as the mates are.”
“I can’t wait to meet them.” Another knock at the door, and her mate, as well as Matt, came into the room. She didn’t want them there. Julia was enjoying just having a nice chat with Aisling. But almost as soon as they both sat down, she knew that something was up. “Tell me. I can handle most anything right now. I have my tea and a good friend to help me through it.”
“Rolland has been arrested. He was taken to jail last night. He murdered two police officers, and he’s in trouble for a lot of other things that are going to get him some serious jail time.” Patrick took her hand into his as Matt continued. “I’ll do whatever you want with this, Julia. I’ll even pay for him to have a good attorney, but—”
“No. He’s done this all on his own, and he can deal with it.” Julia looked over at Patrick. “Can we send something to the families that he hurt with this? I mean, to think that he has such a disregard for human life boggles my mind. I didn’t raise him to be like this.”
“No one thinks that you did, darling.” Patrick kissed her on the head, and she leaned into him to be held tightly. “I’ve also been able to find out some things that we can do for those other people that he’s hurt. Nothing as much as murder, mind you, but he did harm their businesses, as well as a few other things were destroyed.”
“We’ll leave you now.” Aisling got up, and Matt did as well. As much as she wanted to talk to Aisling more, Julia knew that she needed to be with Patrick right now. Rolland was worse than she’d ever dreamed he’d be. “If you feel up to it, Lady Julia, I can have the others come here for dinner tonight. Any night that you think. They’re very loud and extremely outspoken, but they can certainly make you feel better by not allowing you to wallow in self-doubt. I don’t want you to do that either.”
Julia looked at Patrick, and he nodded. Looking back at Matt and Aisling, she was startled by the look of love on her stepson’s face as he watched his mate. Forgetting what she was about to say, she looked at Patrick, who spoke for her.
“Yes, tonight would be wonderful. I’d love to see all the boys again. I guess they’re men now, but always boys to me. And see if you can get Susanna to join us if you don’t mind.” Matt said he’d make her if she didn’t want to. “Now that is something I’d like to see. You—or anyone, for that matter—making Susanna do something that she doesn’t want to. She’d have you by the balls before you could explain to her that she was requested to come over by me.”
They were still laughing when Matt and Aisling left the room. Julia looked at Patrick when he kissed her and told him how much she dearly loved him. She did too. Nothing brought home the amount of love she had for this man more than to have him laugh. It was a sound that she thought that she could never get enough of.
“Matt is in love with his mate. Do you think he’s figured that out yet?” Patrick told her that he knew, but he was giving her time. “Any more time, and they’ll be ravaging each other while we’re having dinner. She’s a timid little thing. But only until she’s pushed too far, I think. Smart too. Even though she says she’s not cut out to be the lady of the house, she makes a good impression of it. I very much like her.”
“I do, as well. And you’re right. I think that she could be an animal if things were pushed too far. Her mother, did she tell you about her?” Julia told him that she’d only said that she was still alive. “Yes, well, she’s a monster. How she had a child such as Aisling, I’ll never understand. Aisling’s father was a good man too. Someone that you could depend on, and his word was his bond. Matt was telling me that Medusa, Aisling’s mother, was responsible for his death.”
“You told me once a long time ago that a human and a dragon could never have children. I don’t know why, but I assumed that her mother was human. Is she?” He nodded. “Then how did t
hey have Aisling? Whatever she did, I’d like to do that with you. If it’s legal.”
“It wasn’t. But we can take a hatchling if you’d like. We could raise it as our own. I guess one of the boys left over forty of them when they came into their own. But back to Medusa. Aisling told Matt that she thought that her mother stole her from someone. Another dragon. If that’s true, then that’s worse than her selling off the dragons to the humans and other creatures to have them killed. A dragon’s entire body is worth a great deal of money and magic.” Julia asked if there was a way to find out. “I don’t know. I would imagine that Devon, he’s the king of dragons, would have a way of finding out. But if she did take the hatchling from a pair of dragons, I would imagine that she murdered them both to do so, or had them killed. Not an easy feat either, when a momma dragon is watching over her babe.”
“I like Aisling. She’s going to be good for our Matt.” Patrick told her that he could already see changes in his son. “Rolland being in jail is about the best news that I’ve heard in a long time. I know that he’s my son, but he’s been bad news since I divorced his dad. It’s like he’s slowly taking on the traits of his father without even trying. Do you suppose I had any DNA that contributed to that? I’d hate to think that I did.”
“You didn’t, honey. I promise you. He’s like he is because he’s stupid.” They both laughed. “But really. Rolland has it in his mind that he should have more than he does. Matt told me that he tells people that he’s a lord. He isn’t. Also, he thinks that Matt is only trying to teach him a lesson when he doesn’t bail him out of his deviltry. My son feels bad that he’s not doing more for him. He just doesn’t want you to be upset with him because he’s not working hard to get him out of his troubles. I think, if you don’t say something to him, he really will go ahead and help Rolland out. And I think that would be bad.”
“I’ll do that tonight. Yes, that’s a good idea to talk to him.” She looked around the room. “I love this room, don’t you? I mean, it is so much a reflection of both of them. Now that we’ve seen the world a couple of times, what would you think about settling down for a while? I don’t know if they’ll adopt, but I’d like to be around when they make us grandparents, wouldn’t you?”
“I would, for sure. I’ve been thinking of that since I heard from him that he’d found his mate. I love her, as well. There is something, just as you said, that makes me think she’s going to be a very protective mother. A silent killer, I think of when I see her.” Patrick laughed when she told him what that meant. “Well, she’s most assuredly not a fart in the wind. You and her, I like that you’re getting along.”
“I don’t think she’s had someone to just sit with her and talk to her for a long time. Sure, she has the other women, but not like we were. Sort of, and I know this sounds silly with her being so much older than me, but like a mother and daughter would talk. I loved it.” Patrick told her that her mother wouldn’t have passed any sort of time of the day with her daughter. “She is that bad, huh? Are we going to have to deal with her? I hope so. I’d like to tell her a thing or two about being a parent. However, I’m not sure I did such a good job. My son is in jail. More than likely for a very long time too.”
“He’ll never go to prison, Julia.” He kissed her on the forehead, and she braced herself for whatever he said next. “He’s going to die, love. He’ll just simply disappear at some point soon, and that will be when we can all realize that he’ll never bother us again.”
“Do you know who would do it? It won’t be Matt, will it? Oh, I don’t think he could live with that, Patrick. Matt is very strong, but I think, like you said, it would bother him because he’d think that I would hold it against him.” He said that one of the officers Rolland had killed was a wolf. “I see.”
Julia did see too. She’d been a witness to a trial of a pack. They’d only happened upon it, but they’d asked, since he was there, if Patrick would assist them in the trial and the way it ended. She was under the assumption there would be a trial. She was shocked when the man, a tiger, not only admitted that he’d done it but said that he’d done it because he could. Patrick had shifted to his dragon, and in front of the pack leader and the leap leader, the man was killed by fire. It was the scariest thing she’d ever witnessed.
Patrick had later explained that the man had been made to tell the truth. There would be no lies in his confession because his leader had forced him, through compulsion, to admit to what he’d done. If it had been self-defense or anything like that, it wouldn’t have ended in death for the man. But with the fact that he admitted doing it for no other reason than he could, it was fitting that he lose his life too.
Julia dozed in and out for a while. She had been able to heal her body when she’d been hurt, but it had taken a great deal out of her. Patrick said that she would have surely died if she’d been human. The fact that she was mated to him was the only thing that had saved her life. Every day she was more in love with the big dragon. And more and more, she began to depend on him to keep her safe. He was doing an excellent job of it too.
“Have a nice nap?” She stretched out and nodded at Patrick. “You look a good deal better since we’ve been here. It’s more than likely due to the magic that is here. We’re to have dinner in an hour. How about we take a walk around the house and see if your energy is good enough for me to jump your bones after dinner.”
“What a wonderfully unsexy thing to say. Jump my bones. You should work on that, Lord Patrick, or you might just find yourself down the hall while I have a nice big bed all to myself.” He tickled her until she screamed. “I love you, Patrick. So much.”
“And I you, Lady Julia. With all my heart, body, and soul.”
After another kiss, she got up. It was time she got herself moving, she thought. She did miss having Patrick beside her nightly.
~*~
After dinner last night with everyone, Matt had sat down with his father and Devon. As someone that had lived around here his entire life, Devon knew things that neither of them would ever know. Like how he thought the pack leader would take the fact that Rolland had killed one of their own. Apparently, not well at all.
Now, this morning, armed with information as well as things to tell Rolland, he was going to have a nice conversation with him. A conversation that Rolland wasn’t going to like. But then, he rarely liked anything that anyone said to him when it wasn’t to his advantage.
“Thank goodness, Matthew. I thought you’d forgotten all about me. You have no idea how they’re treating me in here. And no matter how many times I tell them that I’m a lord, they just ignore me.” Matt told him it was because they knew that he wasn’t one. “I don’t think you have that right. You’re a lord, right? My mom is a lady, though every time I think of that, I have to laugh. And your dad is a lord. That has to give me some sort of title, I think. I’ll look that up when I get out of here.”
“About you getting out of here. It’s not going to happen, Rolland. You might be able to leave this cell to go to and from the courthouse. However, I’d not count on that happening soon, either. The court system here is having a hard time finding a venue that will hold the number of people that they think will want to see you tried.” Rolland asked him why that was an issue. “They want you dead. And not in prison. You hurt a great many people when you started on this rampage that killed two cops. One of them was a pack enforcer. Do you have any idea how much trouble that alone is going to be for you?”
“Can’t you just pay them off? I mean, you have money. Don’t you? How else would you be able to afford that nice house you have? I hear all about it when they bring me my food. Which is subpar at best.” Knowing this was going to take a while, Matt opened the chair that he’d been given when he came down this hall. “You couldn’t get us a private place to talk? What good is being a lord if you can’t even manage that, Matthew? You’d think you could own this place for the way that they’re tr
eating your brother.”
“You’re not my brother, Rolland. You never will be. And I’m not a lord anymore. I’m a duke. My wife, Aisling, is the Duchess of Green Gables.” It felt good being able to say that to Rolland. He hoped that soon the two of them could come together on coming together. Smiling, he got back to business with Rolland. “I’ve spoken to Dad and Julia about what needs to be done to make sure that things are taken care of as far as you’re concerned.”
“I bet my mom had plenty to say about all this. And even if you don’t think of me as your brother, I think of you as mine. You and I need each other—or at least I need you around. What would I have done if you’d not been there to help me out a few times over the years? It would have sucked for me, that’s for sure.” Matt asked Rolland if he only thought of him as someone that could get him out of jams. “Well, of course. That’s what a family is for, to keep one another out of prison. Or, in my case, you keeping me in money. I like that arrangement very much. I’m surprised that you don’t.”
“You mean that I should like the fact that you only want me around for what I can give you? How about your mom? Or my dad? What good are they to you?” He looked confused, but Matt wanted an answer. “Are we just beings that can give you what you want when you want it?”
“Yes. I don’t understand, Matthew. You seem upset.” Matt told him he was, slightly. “Are you upset because you didn’t know how this worked? Or is it something else? I thought for sure that you understood that you had it and I didn’t, so that should be your job for me. To make sure that I have what I want, because—well, you have it and I don’t. You were doing a good job there for a little while. But now you seemed to have slacked off in helping your brother out. Like, here I am in jail again, and you don’t seem to be making any kind of provisions for me. Getting me out would be better, but you should at least make things better for me while you get things together and get me out.”
Matthew: House of Wilkshire ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance Page 7