by Zoe Chant
Athena’s breath hitched suddenly, her hips jerking, and her muscles spasmed, deep inside. For a dizzying moment, the mate-bond flared, and Santos could feel her pleasure echoing deep inside his own body. He shuddered, pulling Athena down against him, finding her mouth, wanting to be close to her in every possible way while she came.
Finally, her orgasm faded to shivery aftershocks, and Santos thrust up almost dreamily into her, drenched and quivering and attuned to every touch, pleasure like a physical thing around them. He came like that, like another wave consuming them both, carrying them away into the ocean together.
It was a long time before that golden haze started to fade. And even when it did, neither of them wanted to move.
“Mmmm,” Athena sighed finally. “We’re going to be stuck like this if we don’t do something soon.”
“Worth it,” Santos sighed, cupping his hands over her ass, which was generously curved and intriguingly well-muscled. “I never want to stop touching you.”
Athena inhaled, and Santos waited with some pleasure for whatever tart practicality she was going to deliver...but then she let the breath out and collapsed onto his chest again.
“I can’t really argue,” she admitted. “I don’t want to, either.”
“Guess we’re stuck,” he said contentedly.
She kissed him. “Guess so.”
Chapter 20: Athena
“We’ve been presented with an opportunity that we didn’t have before,” said Malachi.
They were all gathered at Lachlan’s—Malachi and his mate Elizabeth, Ronan and his mate Katie, Dr. Reid and his mother the mayor, and a whole group of other people. Including not only Rita, but her husband, Santos’ father. Athena hadn’t spoken to him yet, and she was trying not to stare, even though she was desperately curious about what kind of man he might be.
“We now know where the red dragons’ base is,” said Elizabeth, taking the floor. “We have some ideas about who might be approachable, and what the intra-clan politics are like. We’d like to send a small group to the clan to open negotiations.”
“It’s going to be hard to avoid being attacked outright,” Athena said grimly.
Malachi nodded. “That’s why we’d like your help. Yours and your brother’s, if he’d be willing.”
Athena bit her lip. Then she said, “The only way this will end without an all-out battle is if we try it when Jeremiah is away. Maybe Shiloh, too. Otherwise, there’s absolutely no chance.”
“Okay,” Elizabeth said. “Does he go away often?”
“No, but—sometimes. I can ask Alaric to let me know if he has plans to leave.”
“He might come here,” Malachi said thoughtfully. “If he wants to come get you back, if his son reports back to him. Maybe we could go there while he’s here.”
Athena nodded cautiously. “You’ll want your best fighters here.”
“We’ll have to think very carefully about who to send,” the mayor said, and everyone turned to look at her. “Who would best represent Oak Ridge, who would be able to approach the red dragons diplomatically, but still be able to defend themselves if necessary—”
“I’ll go,” Reid said abruptly.
The mayor looked at her son, eyebrows raised. “You’re volunteering?”
Reid nodded. “Athena says they don’t have a doctor there. They should—they should have the opportunity to see a doctor.”
He looked uncomfortable at the sudden attention, but resolute. Athena swallowed, feeling overwhelmed by everything that was happening.
“I’ll go with you,” she said. “You should have someone who knows everyone there.”
“Well, I’m not letting you both go without me, then,” Santos said, his rumbling voice feeling like a solid support behind her.
The mayor nodded slowly. “The three of you are a good combination, I think. Athena, if you could stay in touch with your brother and tell us when Jeremiah is away?”
“I will,” she said, exhilarated by the reality of what was happening. They were going to do something. They were going to find a real solution, something that would let Athena live with her mate without having to let her family go.
“Excellent. You three be ready to leave whenever it’s necessary, then.” The mayor spoke with a solid finality, and Athena envied her confidence. She sounded as though everything was already settled, as though there was no possible way this couldn’t work.
Everyone broke up into smaller conversations after that. Athena turned to Santos. “Ready to venture into enemy territory?”
Santos smiled at her. “I’d be more than ready to do that. I think meeting the in-laws is a bit more daunting.”
“You already met the most important one.” The only one, really, or the only one who counted.
“And that went so well.”
“Alaric will come around,” Athena said, with a bit more confidence than she really felt. Alaric’s mind could be hard to change. It made him loyal, but a real pain to argue with.
“Honey?”
Santos and Athena both turned to see Rita and her husband approaching them. Rita took Santos’ hands.
“I’m so proud of you,” she said, blinking quickly, “but did you really have to volunteer for something so dangerous?”
“It might be more dangerous to stay behind,” Santos pointed out, “if Jeremiah does decide to come back with some fighting dragons with him.”
Rita sighed. “I suppose so. Athena, honey, are you sure about this?”
Honey. Athena didn’t know if anyone had ever called her honey, and it was giving her an odd feeling in her chest to hear it. Not bad, just—soft, somehow.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’m not going to let them go without the best ally they could possibly have.”
“You’re both so brave,” she said. “We can keep little Olivia for you while you’re gone, if you need us to.”
“Maybe,” Athena said slowly. She was going to have to think about what would be safest for Olivia, who was sleeping soundly right now in the carrier on her chest.
“In the meantime,” Rita said, brightening, “this is Santos’ father, Luis.”
“Sir,” Athena said, holding out her hand.
“Oh, no, no,” Luis said, taking her hand in both of his. “You don’t call me sir. You’re our family now. Luis, please, or if you like—or maybe someday—you call me Dad.”
That idea was almost too big to hold in her mind. She blinked, and managed. “Thank you. Luis.”
He smiled. “And this is little Olivia, my new granddaughter? Look how happy she is. Hopefully soon I can meet her while she’s awake.”
He passed a gentle hand over Olivia’s fine hair, and his smile widened, the lines at the edges of his eyes deepening. This was a man who smiled a lot, Athena realized. A man who was happy to be kind, to be gentle, to smile.
She didn’t know why she hadn’t expected that of Santos’ father. She guessed it was just that her own experience of fathers was so—so different. Fathers weren’t supposed to be kind and gentle; that just wasn’t how they were.
But Santos’ father was. And, of course, she could already see that that was the kind of father Santos himself would be, for Olivia. There was no question about that.
Rita was smiling also, watching her husband with the baby. “Now how about you two come over for dinner, before everything goes all crazy again?”
Athena felt like her own smile was rising up out of her entire body, not just her face. “I would love that.”
Epilogue: Athena
“It doesn’t seem possible,” Athena said as they climbed up the stairs once more to Santos’ apartment.
Her apartment, now. Theirs, together, hers and Santos’ and Olivia’s. This was her home, more truthfully than any of the empty buildings that Jeremiah had found for them. A real home, that was really theirs, not taken from someone who wasn’t there anymore.
“What doesn’t?” Santos asked, unlocking the door at the top of the stairs a
nd letting them in. “Hang on, let me find my spare key.”
He went into the kitchen and started rummaging around in a drawer. Athena followed, Olivia in her arms, head heavy on her shoulder. “That there could be a solution,” she said. “That we could make it so that—so that your parents could meet Alaric, someday, and it wouldn’t be a fight. That our—our family—”
Santos looked up at that, his smile a blinding glow.
“Our family,” she repeated, her voice firmer, “wouldn’t be a—an act of war, just by itself.”
Santos’ face did something complicated, and Athena realized that she was starting to understand his expressions, rather than just wondering at the depth of emotion she could see, without being able to interpret it. He was so sad at the very idea of their family as an act of war, but so happy that she saw a way out of it.
Then he was striding over, long legs bringing him to her side in just a few steps, and catching both her and Olivia up in his arms, warm and safe and right.
He held them for a long time, and then he pulled back and held out his hand, with something small in it.
She reached to take it. It was a key.
“That’s for the front door,” he said. “Now that you live here, too.”
She stared at it. A key. A key to her very own home, where she lived with her family.
“Thank you,” she said, her voice small.
“Thank you,” he returned, and she looked up quizzically. “For coming into my life,” he explained. “For brightening everything. For making me realize how much fuller my life could be, and what happiness really is.”
“At this rate we’re going to be thanking each other all night,” she told him, “because I could say the same right back to you.”
He laughed. She loved his laugh, so deep and rich. “All right,” he said. “Let’s consider it a blanket thanks, and just acknowledge that we’re better together.”
“And there’s nothing we can’t do,” she added. It felt true. It felt like, with Santos’ strength alongside her, she could fly the highest and farthest, defeat any enemy and make any friend, raise ten more babies, and still sit down at the end of the day with a smile.
“You and me,” he said, and leaned in to kiss her. Athena kissed him back, and smiled.
The End
A note from Zoe Chant
Thank you for reading The Bronze Dragon’s Baby! I hope you enjoyed it. This book is the fifth in a series set in Oak Ridge, where plenty of lonely single parents (and their kids!) find love, family, and a little magic. Check out Ronan and Katie’s book, The Red Dragon’s Baby; Lachlan and Cam’s book, The Midnight Dragon’s Mate; Flynn and Lila’s book, The Golden Griffin’s Baby; and Malachi and Elizabeth’s book, The Dragon’s Pregnant Mate, if you missed them! There’s also a convenient box set of books 1-3 if you’d rather have them all in one.
Reid’s book will be next, and I can’t wait to share it with you all!
Please review The Bronze Dragon’s Baby, even if it’s only a line or two. I love to hear what my readers think.
If you’d like to be emailed when I release my next book, please click here to be added to my mailing list. You can also visit my webpage, or follow me on Facebook or Twitter.
Page down to read a special sneak preview of The Red Dragon’s Baby.
The cover of The Bronze Dragon’s Baby was designed by Belle Arden.
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The Red Dragon’s Baby
by Zoe Chant
Spe
cial Sneak Preview
There was a trail leading out from her cabin, and she stuck to it, as much as part of her longed to strike out into the woods, tramp through the underbrush and explore.
“Not with you here, baby,” she said to Noah. “Maybe when you’re older we can go camping together, huh? Mommy never got to do that when she was a kid. Grandma and Grandpa were too busy running their business to go on trips.”
They’d always said they’d travel the world when they retired. Katie swallowed around a sudden lump in her throat, and set off determinedly forward. This was supposed to be a nice nature walk, not a depressing trip down memory lane.
Noah, at least, did actually seem to enjoy the woods. He was staring around, wide-eyed, watching the leaves rustle and the squirrels run around.
Noah had never been in a forest before at all, Katie realized. He’d spent most of his little life indoors. They hadn’t even really been able to go to parks or anything. Had her baby ever felt grass? Maybe not. Katie resolved to find a park as soon as possible and set Noah down to crawl through the grass.
There were so many firsts waiting for them. Sure, it might be a little lonely, but they could keep each other company. All Katie had to do was make just enough money to keep them fed and housed. They didn’t need to be rich. They just needed to be safe.
For now, they seemed to be making an okay start. A beautiful cabin, a lovely woodland to walk through, maybe even a new friend in Rita. Maybe it would work out.
As she walked, enjoying the way the late-afternoon sun slanted through the trees, she started hearing a noise. A sharp, rhythmic thunk sound, repeated over and over.