“Then we shall wait,” Neph said, giving his mates a grudging glance. “But I intend to remain cautious. I’ve assigned one of the Thiasoi to guard her while she’s here. And whatever she decides to do, he will accompany her to ensure her safety.”
“As long as you’re not trying to control her life, I’m okay with that,” Vrishti said. “She needs her freedom if she’s going to be able to grow.” She slipped beneath his arm and embraced him and they headed into the grand hall to greet Nyx and Nereus.
Chapter 2
A shadow fell across the sun and Gavra opened his eyes, blinking up at the silhouette above him. It took a moment before he registered the shape as that of a man and not some wayward cloud, and the grin as Silas’s.
“You’re in my sun,” he said, waving a hand in the air while he carefully cradled the bottom of the naked baby asleep on his chest.
“After a baby-shaped tan line, are you?” Silas asked. The sea breeze tossed Silas’s thick, dark hair around his head as waves crashed in a lulling rhythm several yards from Gavra’s feet.
Silas cocked his head playfully despite the dark circles under his eyes. His pheronesis had come on strong the day before, but with the baby’s near constant need for care, it had been difficult to divert enough attention to Silas. Gavra had offered to take the baby for a few hours so Assana could tend to Silas for the afternoon. He looked much better than he had this morning, which was a relief. Perhaps they could get back to normal for the rest of the day until they left for the Haven.
Gavra’s heart thudded hard. This feeling of complete domestic bliss was still somewhat foreign to him, even after a year of being happily mated. Add to that the past six months of basking in the presence of the tiny embodiment of the love he shared with his mates. Sylvanus looked more and more like his mother every day, and he could see the same adoration in Silas’s eyes as he felt himself whenever either of them looked at the boy. Their son.
“Just a nap. Finally got him to settle down. How are you feeling?”
Silas shrugged. He viewed his quarterly fertile surges as a debilitating weakness. “Still teething?”
Gavra tilted his chin down to peer at the inert little lump sucking its thumb and drooling onto his sternum. He gently brushed a hand over the baby’s head. “Horns came in . . . Can’t tell yet whether they’re satyr or dragon, though.” He pulled his hand away from the pair of nubs when the baby squirmed. With a slow exhale, he wrapped a coil of red healing smoke around his son’s crown and the baby gradually settled back to sleep, steadily sucking on his thumb once more.
Silas crouched down and leaned over with a hum of approval. “My money’s on satyr horns. You know how much Assana cares about duty. She’d probably try to single-handedly replenish the satyr population if she could.”
“There’s no telling what a hybrid will look like. Probably no way to know for sure until he’s older anyway. But I think you’re right, at least based on the location. They’re too far forward. Dragon horns are closer to the temples.” To illustrate, he summoned his own horns, which erupted from the sides of his brow and coiled back, plunging into the warm sand behind his reclining beach chair.
Silas eyed the big protrusions, licking his lips. He let out a soft grunt and shook his head as if to clear it. “Put those away, dude. I don’t need to be inappropriate in front of our kid.” Shaking his head again, he stood and adjusted himself in his shorts, then shot a pained look at Gavra before turning to walk away.
Gavra chuckled. “They’re almost as impressive as my dick, aren’t they?”
“I don’t know about that, but your dick needs to get it together. We’ve got to finish packing and head to the Haven soon. The in-laws want us there early.”
Gavra sighed and glanced down to see a pair of vivid aqua eyes gazing back at him. With eyes like those, Sylvanus was definitely a satyr. “Ready to meet your granny, Syl?”
Sylvanus blinked and popped his thumb out of his mouth, offering it to Gavra.
He chuckled. “Might need that later when Nyx is monopolizing all of your mother’s time. You, my boy, are going to have a sleepover with your cousins. How does that sound?”
The baby cooed and gurgled, then popped his thumb back into his mouth.
Gavra summoned a cloud of red that slipped around his body, condensing into a lightweight fabric sling that cradled the baby snugly to his chest. Getting up, he forced himself to shed the regret over leaving the idyllic island they’d called home for the last five months, ever since Assana’s delivery.
The three of them had spent the first few months after the war ended taking a tour of the human world. Gavra hadn’t mingled with humanity in thousands of years, and Assana had never even been outside the Haven. The youngest and most worldly of the trio, Silas was an eager tour guide, showing them all the wonders humanity had to offer, from technology to food to entertainment.
But after a life as quiet as the three of them were accustomed to, they soon longed to return to more solitary accommodations. So they’d chosen this remote island off the coast of Sumatra, close enough to the portals to their own worlds for them to travel quickly when needed, but far enough from humanity to avoid them if they chose.
The place they called home now had once been owned by a wealthy human who had either died or grown tired of it; Gavra wasn’t really sure. All that mattered was the comfortable, rambling house with all its twenty-first century luxuries and the nearby ocean to remind Assana of home. Sylvanus had been born in that house, but it was time to introduce the boy to the rest of their kind before he got old enough to start believing his entire world was comprised of just him and his parents.
That, and Gavra ached for some solitary time with his mates that wouldn’t be interrupted by a crying baby at the most inopportune moments.
Equinox had been tainted the year before by the deaths of so many of the higher races. It had been a bittersweet victory. This year they were reclaiming the day for its true purpose—celebrating life in the best way possible. Ideally that would mean doing nothing but fucking for the entire day. Silas certainly needed the undivided attention for a change.
As much as Gavra adored this life on the island, stolen moments with only one or the other of his mates while the third saw to the baby was getting old. He wanted them both in his bed again, and he meant to take advantage of the freedom the very second they dropped Sylvanus off in the Sanctuary and returned to the Haven. He gathered up his beach supplies and headed back to the house, eager to see what this year’s Equinox would bring.
Chapter 3
Aurum patted the rich soil down around the tiny green seedling, then paused and sat back on her haunches, her earth-darkened fingers resting on her thighs. She took a deep breath of spring air and basked in the surrounding beauty. A warm afternoon sun shone down over the budding dogwoods and azaleas. The brilliant blue of the March sky stretched above the Black Mountain range, the trees tinged pale green from all the fresh growth awakening after a long Appalachian winter.
“I see why you came back here,” she said, dropping her gaze to the human woman whose garden she was kneeling in.
Julia Proust smiled back at her. “It’s home,” she said. “Even when Alec and I were traveling, I couldn’t deny the pull to return.” She sent an adoring look down the hill to the big blond man maneuvering a riding mower around the grassy hillside.
“It’s a good place to call home.”
“Do you think the three of you will stay?” Julia asked, darting a glance at Calder and Nicholas, who were carefully stretching a new mesh shade cloth over Julia’s arched greenhouse. Spring was in full force and the plants she grew for her nursery business needed sunlight more than shelter now. Julia and Alec had spent the past year helping Aurum and her mates acclimate to life in the small human town of Tuxedo Falls, North Carolina. It was the least Aurum, Calder, and Nicholas could do to repay the favor.
Aurum smiled warmly, admiring the two shirtless men who owned her heart and soul. “I enjoy
being your neighbor, and I think the two of them are fitting in well enough. They deserve the freedom after all they’ve been through.” She regarded Calder a moment longer, her teeth catching her lip with apprehension.
“They’ve definitely made an impression in town,” Julia said. “And so have you with your baking. The town could do far worse. And now with Melody back with my granddaughter, it’s really starting to feel like home again. But something seems like it’s bothering you. Feel like talking about it?”
Aurum sighed and shifted down the row to dig her spade into the dirt for the next seedling. She glanced up at Julia, who looked back at her with faint concern in her lovely blue eyes shaded by the wide brim of her hat. “Nothing bad. It’s just that we’ve been invited . . . or more like summoned . . . to return to the Haven for Equinox. I know it’s supposed to be a celebration, but the place doesn’t exactly hold happy memories for me.”
Julia’s lips tightened into a hard line and she dipped her head. Quietly, she said, “I heard about what happened. I may be selfish for saying this, but I’m glad Alec stayed out of it, even though he was torn by the decision.”
The man on the mower caught them staring at him and grinned brightly. Julia beamed back, her aura flooding with pure joy that was as much from her natural state as it was from being mated to a Gold dragon.
“I don’t blame you one bit,” Aurum said. “But I fear I don’t have the luxury of saying no. I can’t keep Calder away from his family. The saving grace is that I think his mother might finally be a little more accepting of the fact that her son mated a dragon. She is family, whether she likes it or not, especially since my brother is mated to her daughter too.” She snorted softly. “Though I have no doubt Gavra has kissed Nyx’s ass enough to get back into her good graces already.”
Julia laughed and bent back to her work. “I would love to meet the rest of your family one day. They sound amazing.”
Aurum tilted her head thoughtfully. “You and Alec should come too. It’s the best chance you’ll get to learn more about the world you belong to, now that you’re mated to a dragon.”
Julia’s face flushed crimson and she shook her head, her gaze remaining fixed on the hole she was digging that was already deeper than it needed to be. “Oh . . . I don’t think I’d fit in . . .”
“You’ll be among friends, and I promise we all have many varied interests. We aren’t as hyperfocused on sex as you think.”
“Speak for yourself.”
Her gaze shot up to the dark-haired figure who stood at the end of the row. Nicholas grinned wickedly at her, his green gaze raking her hungrily. He held a large flat of seedlings in each arm and didn’t even tear his gaze from her as he set them down.
“You should go, Mom,” Melody said, arriving next to Nicholas and depositing the flat she’d carried up. “It sounds like the party of the year, and the Haven is definitely something to see. It’s like the ultimate beach paradise and only opens four times a year.”
Julia shook her head, setting her plant in the hole she’d dug. “No . . . I promised you I’d stay and take care of baby Mora while you and the boys go. I want you to live your life, honey.”
“You have a life too, Mom. Besides, we decided Mora needed to spend some time with other babies like her. Nicholas said we were welcome to take her to the Sanctuary. The ursa elders are watching the little ones for Equinox. She’ll be fine.”
Julia’s brows drew inward as she stared down the hill toward the baby happily swaying in the bouncy swing set up on the back deck. Garen and Skye worked nearby, cleaning dead growth out of the flower beds near the house. “Babies like her . . .” She let out a long sigh that Aurum felt deep in her own chest. “I keep forgetting.”
Aurum reached out and squeezed Julia’s arm. “Your granddaughter is a dragon, Julia. It’s all right to feel a little strange about it, but she does need to be with her kind as much as possible.”
As if cued by the conversation, the drone of the mower ceased and Alec approached, his golden gaze fixed on Julia as he climbed the hill. When he stopped at the edge of the tilled dirt bed, he rested his hands on his hips. “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to, baby, but it is a once in a lifetime experience. One I haven’t had since I was young. I’ll tell you more while we get dinner started.”
He held out his hand and Julia’s aura spiked a brilliant pink. As if pulled by his simple gesture, she rose and carefully stepped over the rows of newly planted seedlings. Once Alec’s arm was around her and they were headed back down the hill to the house, Melody let out a delighted giggle. “I guarantee no cooking’s going to happen for at least an hour or more. So much for planting, huh?”
“Sun will be setting soon,” Nicholas said, squinting at the sky. “We can still get these planted between the six of us.” He turned, and with two fingers in his mouth emitted a piercing whistle. Both Skye and Garen turned their attention to him. Garen hooked the baby into his arm and jogged up the hill behind Skye, then deposited the infant on a nearby blanket. “We making this a team effort?”
Calder loped over from the greenhouse and surveyed the remaining work. “If we each take a row, we can have it done in a snap.” He knelt on the blanket by the baby and cooed at her while Nicholas and Melody distributed the packs of seedlings down the rows to expedite the planting.
Aurum’s womb ached at the sight of her satyr playing with the infant, and she caught Nicholas regarding her. She smiled up at him and offered a slight shrug. Over the past year, the urge to have another baby hadn’t been as acute as it was now. She and Calder and Nicholas had returned to the small Appalachian town they’d escaped to in order to avoid Calder’s angry mother’s wrath. Nyx’s sanity had returned with the end of the war, but the three of them were eager to leave behind the unpleasant memories of the Haven where they’d nearly died at the hands of their enemy.
The time they’d spent in the Stonetree family’s house nearby had been some of the most joyful months in Aurum’s long memory, and the three of them had found that joy once again in that house. She was grateful to Eamon and Edward and their children for offering the place to Aurum on a permanent basis. The only condition was that they take care of it and continue to take in any travelers going to or from the Sanctuary.
She’d found close friends in Julia and Alec, and in Julia’s daughter Melody. And as it turned out, there were other neighbors who had been in the war as well.
Aurum glanced up at the sound of a truck engine approaching and wheels crackling over the gravel driveway. The engine turned off and two beautiful turul women hopped out. Anya and Vikki had fought beside them in the Haven, and apparently were Julia and Alec’s closest neighbors too.
Melody waved them over before they could head into the house. “Perfect! More hands to help!”
Anya crossed her arms and shook her head. “I knew we should’ve waited until sunset. Where’re Julia and Alec?”
“Alec’s busy explaining to Julia what Equinox in the Haven is like on a good year,” Calder said. He shot Aurum a look. “The more dragon magic, the better. It’ll finally feel like home again after this year, if all the races are there to celebrate.”
The dark-haired, impish Viki bounced on her heels. “I can’t wait! Only two more days. You all will be there, right?”
Aurum’s reservations dissolved amid the enthusiasm flooding off all her friends in waves. She smiled back at the other women, then returned Calder’s gaze with a silent promise of her own. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Chapter 4
“I will never get tired of the sound of her voice.”
Ked nodded in response to Marcus, filled with as much awe as his human mate. After a year of getting to watch Evie perform with her brothers’ band, he still couldn’t tear his eyes away. Her airy voice rose above the pitch of the dueling saxophones and she closed her eyes, holding the note from the last line of the song for several seconds while Ozzie’s drum beat slowed. Beside Evie, Ked’s sister harmonized in
to the microphone, Belah’s richer, throatier dragon voice a perfect complement to Evie’s delicate turul sound.
Ked darted a look to the side of the stage where Nikhil stood, dark gaze fixed on the band. His aura flared brightly at the end when the three targets of his attention turned toward him as if they were compass arrows aiming at true north. Belah smiled seductively at Nikhil, and both Lukas’ and Iszak’s gazes burned with the same intensity.
A flare of regret spiked into Ked’s gut at the memory of all he’d done wrong at the start. His sister could have had Nikhil’s love all along, if not for his foolish interference. But they were Fate’s children, he reminded himself. Their paths had been drawn for them. Where they found themselves ultimately had been no accident, of that he was sure, but where they went from here was their choice. Sophia North had assured him of that.
“Fate has more pressing concerns than to micromanage your lives, now that you all have mates,” Sophia had told him when he pressed her for information on his father’s plans. He’d gotten no more detail out of her despite pushing into her mind with his power. The ancient turul seeress possessed surprisingly strong defenses.
It had been difficult to let go of his suspicions, but the past year had been refreshingly uneventful. It was a small blessing after the ordeal they’d endured together the year before since the most recent—and final—dragon ascension.
The previously enraptured crowd in the club roared with excitement when the song ended, everyone rising to their feet and clapping, whistling, and hooting. Ked and Marcus rose as a unit and joined in. Ked’s heart thudded hard as Evie’s gaze found his across the sea of cheering bodies. Sweet Mother, how he adored her. He reflexively reached out and tugged Marcus into his side. The other man gripped his waist with one hand while pumping his other fist in the air.
Dragon Avenged: Immortal Dragons Epilogue Page 2