“You stole my painting?” Brendan laughed.
“It’s hanging in my study at home,” I told him.
“We’ll have to bring it here. I mean, if we stay,” he said.
“I think we could stay. Besides, I’m sure Seth wouldn’t mind having the house to himself. He stays there whenever he’s nearby. Maybe if he had the place to himself, he’d stay on land more often,” I took the necklace off and placed it on Brendan. “It reminded me that sometimes you have to kick up some dust to find what you want and that if we let a little pain stop us from chasing after what we want, we’ll never have anything. My professor and the other students freaked out because I squirted blood everywhere from my toe, but I was looking at the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. The man who was destined to be my mate.”
“What about your job?” Brendan asked. “I don’t want you to give up something that makes you happy.”
“I’m going to ask Clarence if we can change the format of the class. Maybe I can teach online or I’ll just teach the dig portion. It’s only a few weeks a year.”
“Or you could teach here. I mean right now it’s not much to look at, but when we’re finished rebuilding, I know you’re going to love it. That’s why I don’t want you to help me. I know it’s hard to understand, but sometimes when you think I’m not paying attention you look at me with this sad look in your eyes. A look that says you think I’ve lost everything, and you feel bad for me. I don’t want to make you feel that way. I miss my family, but I’m not unhappy. When the island is restored to its rightful state, you’ll see that my life wasn’t just a horrible tragedy before I met you. I want you to share in my joy.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Brendan
My lips hung parted waiting for a kiss, but I didn’t want to break the moment. Our gazes locked, our hearts beat in sync, and Rhett reached out to take my hand in his. Perfection. My six-year-old self could never have imagined being happy in a dusty magical storage space with butterflies rumbling his tummy. Now, it was the perfect place to be, because Rhett was here with me. I placed my hand over his heart and closed my eyes.
“It’s just like the lore says,” he whispered before he claimed my lips.
My hand roamed over his chiseled chest and abs exploring the contours of his body. His muscles flexed as he leaned in and deepened the kiss. Rhett’s strong warm hand traveled up and down my side tingling my nerve endings as he went.
“Take your shirt off,” I whispered and tugged at its hem.
He twisted and turned tugging at the fabric.
“Maybe we should move to the bed,” I laughed.
We crawled out from under the bed and Rhett pulled his shirt off over his head. I brushed the dust from the storage space off him and then he dusted me off. I sneezed as dust filled the room.
“You okay?” He asked pulling me close with his hands firm on my hips.
“I’m perfect right now. We’re perfect right now. Dust and all.”
“Dust and all,” Rhett let out a throaty laugh and kissed me again.
I stepped back towards the bed and misjudged how far away it was. The mattress hit the back of my leg and we fell into the bed a tangle of limbs refusing to break our kiss. A gentle heat spread over my body as Rhett pressed against me. His heart raced and his hard cock pressed against mine.
“I just realized there won’t be many moments like this when the eggs hatch,” I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck.
“We’ll squeeze them in. No matter how chaotic life gets I’ll make sure we always have time together,” he smiled and kissed my neck. Tingles danced up and down my body landing between my legs. I was already wet and ready for him, but just being close to him made me want more. I wanted this moment to stretch out and last for eternity. It was untouched by the outside world. Unspoiled by Corden or Matthew. Unspoiled by any modern thing trying to steal Rhett’s attention.
“You’re so tense today,” I whispered to him.
“Teaching always does that to my shoulders. It’ll stop after the dig is over.”
“Let me rub your back,” I said and crawled over him before he could answer.
I worked the tense muscles of his shoulders chasing away his thoughts of the outside world. Today we faced our first battle and we won. Sure, Matthew wasn’t a skilled warrior or strategic leader, but we faced him together and came out victorious.
“That feels good,” Rhett murmured.
“Just a perk of having a dragon for a mate. We have strong hands,” I teased.
“You’ve proven that before.”
“I plan to prove it every day for the rest of our lives. What I was thinking when I said you could teach here on the island, our island,” I said as I continued to massage the tense muscles of his back and shoulders, “was that your job is to teach about the past. You’re out there looking for clues and digging stuff up, but what if you could show your students a whole island city of what the past was. Sure, we’d need to hire some people or find people we could trust who wanted a place to live away from the chaos, but we could show your students in real time what they’re trying to dig up out there.”
Rhett turned over under me. His hard cock pressed against my ass. I forced myself to focus on his words and not the primal messages his body was sending.
“You’d really do that?” He asked after studying my expression for a few seconds.
“For you, yes. I want our children to grow up in a real community and I want you to be able to do what you love without leaving home. I know they’ll be other digs you want to be part of, and we’ll work that out, but if we turned the island into a community and a classroom, we could spend most of our time together. I think it’s time we let the Moonscale’s best kept secret out of the bag.”
Rhett smiled and pulled me down to him. Our lips brushed against each other and his hands found my ass.
“What do you say, Alpha? Do we go back to the modern time or do we stay here and raise our children in the world I know and the world you spent so much time chasing down?” I asked him.
“Let’s do it,” he said and kissed me.
“Mate or live here?” I laughed pulling away from the kiss.
“Both,” he said and pulled me back down.
With our future mapped out, I surrendered to the heat radiating between our bodies. His hands trailed up and down my back fueling the fire already burning inside of me. Reaching between us, I undid his fly and released the object of my desire from its prison. I wrapped my fingers around him, and Rhett moaned into the kiss.
“I love you,” I whispered the words we hadn’t said enough. I could speak them every moment of every day for the rest of our lives and never have said it enough to justify everything I felt inside.
“I love you too.”
Rising to my knees, I undid my own pants and pulled them down. Rolling off Rhett, I wiggled out of them taking away the last layer that divided my body from his. Then I stripped Rhett of his pants before settling back onto his lap. I kissed him hard wanting more of him. Pregnancy hormones, fate, or lust. It didn’t matter what drew us together or who conspired to bring us together. I just wanted, no needed, to be with Rhett.
His hands explored my body as we kissed. They seemed to be everywhere all at once. Caressing my face and neck, groping my ass, and trailing over my back and sides tickling every nerve ending until I was one big ball of arousal and need.
My waiting to be found was over. The wait to start living my life was over. This was it. The good, the bad, the ugly, and the thieves. The love and longing. The eggs growing in my belly. This is what I spent centuries waiting for and the wait was finally over. I blinked away tears as Rhett pulled me in for a long slow kiss.
Reaching between our bodies I wrapped my hand around him again. His warmth radiated into my palm as I stroked his smooth shaft. I traced my thumb around its thick tip before raising up enough to slide him between my cheeks. I was already wet and ready for him.
&nbs
p; Rhett let out a throaty growl as I slid his hard cock into my wet omega hole. I locked my gaze to him as I took my time sliding onto him. I filled my body with him inch by inch savoring the friction and tingling of my nerve endings. Bracing my hands on his shoulders, I kissed him hard. His strong hands found my ass and massaged roughly as we found our rhythm.
Rhett rose to his elbows to deepen our kiss as I finished lowering on to him. Our tongues danced together. Our mouths starved for more of each other. He wrapped his hand around my cock and stroked me in time with my moving up and down over him. Pleasure zipped through me, spiraled over my cock, and made it hard to think about anything except for my Alpha.
“So, what do you think, Alpha? Was I worth the wait?” I whispered between kisses.
“From the moment I first laid eyes on you.”
With his free hand on the back of my head, he pulled me in for a long hard kiss. His hand ran down the length of my shaft to my scrotum. His fingers stroked and rubbed the flesh before rolling my balls over his fingers. My body tightened around him wanting more. My concentration disintegrated and our kiss broke. I braced my hands on his strong shoulders and rode him hard taking his full length into me again and again searching out the pleasure I longed for.
Rhett held tight to my cock stroking and squeezing until all the sensation of lovemaking blurred together. A wave of pleasure washed over me and I threw my head back to the sky. His cock twitched inside of me telling me he was as close to coming as I was. Rhett’s thumb flicked over the head of my dick wiping away a drop of precum. The zip of pleasure spiraled over my cock and into the rest of my body. My cock trembled in his hand as he worked me until orgasm rattled my brains. He wasn’t far behind. I rode him like if I never stopped the pleasure would stretch out for the rest of our lives. His cock shook inside me again and I squeezed him tight with my body wanting to pull him into the waves of pleasure with me.
He let out a deep primal grunt of pleasure as his warm sticky seed exploded into me. I kissed him hard as we rode out the last of our passion.
“This is what we should spend the rest of our lives doing,” I rolled off him panting.
“Mating?” Rhett let out a panting chuckle.
“Yeah. It’s the perfect life plan. We’ll be too busy to ever have a fight or deal with any drama.”
“Sounds like a plan, mate,” he said and pulled me over to him for another kiss.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Rhett
For years, my life moved in slow motion. Classes blurred together in a continuous stream of students with few sticking out in my memories. Some days, I had to check the map to remember where I was digging at. The only ones which stuck out were ones filled with the promise of leading me to Brendan. Now, he was in my life and the future stretched out in front of us. Matthew’s antics not only improved class morale but brought Brendan and I closer together. Fighting against a common threat sealed our bond as true-mates. Despite our differences we were in this crazy thing called life together. Before, I was too busy figuring out how to catch Brendan up to the present modern world that I never considered going back in time as an option. Sure, the outside world turned without us, but we didn’t mind. Our future was on Moonscale Island.
I promoted Frankie to the leader of the south team. He and Lisa worked together to ensure whenever something was found, no matter how small, both teams got a chance to experience it. Everyone knew they were sneaking off after hours. Usually, I wouldn’t stand for it, but recently I’d gone soft on romance. Love might not be in the air, but it filled most of my thoughts. Eventually, they’d deal with the fallout when one or both of them discovered their true-mates, but that was their problem for later. This summer, I’d let them pretend the world wasn’t a wrecking ball.
Besides, my evenings were too full to go chasing around two consenting adults. Each morning, Brendan and I shared breakfast before he and David flew back to Moonscale Island. The construction crew worked hard to navigate the rubble of the past. Brendan arrived back to Moonstruck exhausted but smiling every evening. We showered together scrubbing the dirt and sweat of the day from each other’s bodies before having dinner. Our days of microwave meals were over. The Moonscale construction crew brought their own caterer who was kind enough to extend his services to those of us working on the dig.
Most days we fell into bed too tired to do much more than talk about the future. We traded stories of our daily progress and discoveries. A few times he brought broken objects for my students to restore. I’d lay with my head next to his belly talking to unborn babies.
“You know they probably don’t have ears yet,” Brendan laughed.
“Maybe not, but I believe they can hear over the pack link,” I said and kissed his stomach.
“Keep it up either way. This whole devoted and overprotective daddy phase is hot.”
“It’s not overprotective to make sure the crew knows you’re not supposed to do the heavy lifting. You’re pregnant and besides I’m sure Clarence is paying them well to do their own damn job,” I sat up.
“True, but there are some things I don’t want them touching. This isn’t just another dig. Those are pieces of my life.”
“Just promise you’re not over doing it,” I pressed my forehead against his.
“I promise, Alpha,” he grinned, “but a dragon’s definition of overdoing it is different than a wolf’s.”
“Maybe, but you’re a prince. You should be calling the shots.”
“Actually, we’re sort of kings now,” Brendan laughed. “Some say a king is only as good as his word, but if I’m not willing to put in some of the grunt work, do I really deserve to be king?”
“I think the rules are different for pregnant kings,” I said and ran my hand over his belly.
His pregnancy barely showed as a slight swell above his pubic bone. I rested my hand there hoping to feel a tell-tale sign of life. The chances were low since our babies were not only small but surrounded by the protective casing of their eggs.
Brendan sat up fast. I sniffed the air searching for the threat that tinged his scent with anxiety.
“Don’t go all cave-Alpha on me,” he laughed. “I just realized we haven’t even discussed baby names yet.”
“Do you have anything in mind?” I asked him.
“Not yet. I wish the ultrasound doo-hickey could tell us the sex of the babies.”
“Well, it could, if they weren’t hiding inside eggs,” I laughed and pulled him close to wrap an arm around his shoulders.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea or not, but if one of our babies is a little girl, we could name her Stacy. We don’t have too if it’s too hard for you or you think it would be too much for Seth. Moonscales like to pass down names.”
My heart melted.
“Stacy would have loved you to death,” I laughed to cover up the tears swelling in my eyes. “I think Seth would like that as much as he likes anything these days.”
“Mike, one of the guys on the crew was talking about this dating app thing on his phone. Maybe we should sign Seth up for it. I bet he’d feel better if he connected with someone.”
“I don’t think he’s ready for any of that I laughed. It’s a nice sentiment, but Seth will date when he’s ready.”
“Sorry,” Brendan bit his lip. “I just want him to be as happy as we are.”
“He was at one point.”
“We should invite him to live on the island,” Brendan said.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea. He has some problems outside of a dead true-mate,” I told him.
“He’s a recovering addict. I know. Between our claiming vow and learning how to use the internet with the crew I figured that much out. Maybe he just needs something to work on full time. If he’s clean we can keep him that way.”
“Seth’s the only one who can keep Seth clean,” I said climbing out of bed.
“Alpha, are you mad?” Brendan looked up at me.
“Getting a glass of wate
r. Do you want one?”
“Okay,” he followed me, “but you didn’t answer my question.”
“I’m not mad at you. I’m frustrated with Seth. I’m frustrated anytime I think about him. He’s thrown his life away and knowing what I know now I can’t even stay angry with him. Because if I lost you, I don’t think anything would numb the pain.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Alpha,” Brendan stepped in front of me and wrapped his arms around my neck. “I’m a dragon. I’m hard to kill. Corden knocked me out rather than fight me. I’ll be around for a long time. We’ll be together for a long time.”
“I know that,” I pulled him close. “I’ve dealt with Seth for a long time now and I’ve learned he’s the only one who can keep himself clean. All I can do is answer the phone when he’s in trouble and decides to call.”
“We could chain him up in the dungeon if he uses again,” Brendan smirked.
“I like that idea,” my wolf said.
“Then that’s the plan. We’ll detox him the old fashion way. Shackled to the wall until he comes down,” Brendan’s dragon piped in.
“What about names for little boys?” I asked him to change the subject away from Seth.
Brendan smiled at me. I knew the conversation was only on hold, but maybe after the dig I’d have more energy to deal with the Seth situation.
“I was thinking Elwin after my carrier. I’m named after Father. Someone should be named after my carrier,” he said.
“Elwin and Stacy,” I grinned and looked down at his slight baby bump. “I can’t wait to meet them.”
“What if they’re both boys? Or girls?” Brendan asked.
“We’ll figure that out in the morning,” I scooped him up and carried him back to bed water all but forgotten.
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