Tempting Treasure (Ashland Pride Book Ten)

by R. E. Butler

“That’s good,” Brian said. He picked up her hand and gave it a squeeze. “We just want you to be safe. It’s no way to live, always looking over your shoulder.”

  “Are you okay?” Kevin asked.

  Her mates helped her up again, and she leaned against Kevin, with Brian pressed to her back and kissing her shoulder.

  “I am. You and Brian, and the pride, are my people. When the fae killed my parents and then my aunt, they ceased to be my people. And the dragons can go to hell, too.”

  “He might have been an ass, but I think the king was simply trying to do what was best for his people,” Brian said.

  She turned in Kevin’s arms and gave Brian a curious look. “What do you mean?”

  “The ass part?” he teased.

  “No, about him doing his best.”

  He shrugged. “He’d be a poor king if he didn’t want to tempt a gorgeous, powerful dragonfae to join him.”

  “I guess so. I hadn’t really thought about it. In the end it doesn’t really matter, though. I couldn’t be anywhere but here with you two. You’re not just my mates, you’re my heart.”

  “You’re ours, too,” Kevin said, nuzzling her neck.

  She shivered, and her dragon trilled. “Let’s go home. Since it’s after midnight, it’s the first day of the newest chapter of our lives, and I have a great way to spend it.”

  “Oh?” Brian asked, wiggling his brows.

  They headed toward their home, her mates walking on either side of her and holding her hands. She didn’t look back at the tree. There was nothing there for her anymore but the sweet memories of her mates. They didn’t have to sneak out at night anymore. It was a heady feeling.

  “I was just thinking how lucky we are,” she said. “That we can do what we want now. This time on our honeymoon is our own. No work to pull us apart. And no curfews.”

  “It’s about time,” Brian said. He swung her up into his arms and carried her the rest of the way to the house.

  “I was just thinking the same thing,” Kevin said.

  “Take me to bed,” she said, curling around Brian and giving him a love bite on his neck.

  “Whatever you want, sweetheart.”

  “Our mate has the best ideas,” Kevin said, holding the door open for them.

  She gave him a smile over Brian’s shoulder as he carried her upstairs. Her stomach flipped at the thought of the pleasure that awaited her; falling apart in her mates’ arms was an excellent way to start the first day of their mated life.

  “Mrs. Fallon,” Brian said as he set her gently on the bed. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she said.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Brian hated to see their honeymoon draw to a close. As long as it took for them to get to their ceremony, he’d hoped the week would drag, too. But time was funny like that, always speeding by when one wanted it to slow down.

  “Man, this sucks,” Treasure said, looking out the kitchen window.

  “What does?” he asked, joining her.

  “The sun’s setting. It means we have to go to work tomorrow.”

  “That does suck.”

  “I have an idea.”

  “I love your ideas.”

  She took his hand and led him to the family room, where Kevin was lounging on the couch. “Let’s have a picnic.”

  “It’s dark out,” Kevin said. “Is there such a thing as a candlelight picnic?”

  “There is if we say there is,” she said. “Let’s pack a meal and go to our tree.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Brian said. “I’ll get the cooler.”

  He grabbed a soft-sided cooler from the storage cabinet in the laundry room and filled it with a bottle of wine, some bottled water, and plastic cups. After grabbing an ice pack, he met up with Treasure and Brian, who added plastic containers and utensils to the cooler. Treasure took the padded blanket from the hall closet and met him and Kevin at the back door.

  “Did anyone grab candles?” Brian asked as he slung the cooler over his shoulder.

  “I’ve got something special for that,” she said. “It’s a surprise.”

  “Well, let’s get on with it, then,” Brian said. He held open the door and ushered Kevin and Treasure through, then closed it behind him.

  When they reached the tree, Treasure said, “After I closed myself off from the fae realm, I got to thinking about my powers. I’m dually natured, but I spend so much more time on my fae abilities and don’t really give much thought to my dragon. When I was dealing with the dragons from the other realm, I realized how little I actually know about being a dragon. But she’s got that knowledge – I just have to unlock it.”

  “What do you need to do that?”

  “I have the books from my dad’s library. I haven’t been able to sleep well these last few nights, so I’ve been reading them.”

  Brian glanced at Kevin, who looked as concerned as he felt.

  “Why didn’t you tell us you weren’t sleeping well? We would have stayed up with you.” Kevin asked.

  “I didn’t tell you for that reason. You couldn’t really help me anyway. I used to think the dragon was like a shifter, but in reality she’s more magical than that. So her powers are a complement to my fae powers, and I think that’s why the fae came for me in the first place all those years ago. It’s why my dragon wouldn’t let the king call me out. I’m more than either a dragon or a fae, but it’s not just a mixture of the two; they can work together.”

  “Reading your dad’s books helped with that?” Brian asked.

  “Yep. I started to focus on my dragon, and I discovered that tapping into her powers can enhance my fae abilities.”

  She shook out the blanket and spread it on the ground, and then she stepped into the center of it and raised her hands, palms upward, fingers spread. Her dragon made trilling sounds that spilled from her throat like a song. Her hands began to glow, and little sparkles lifted from her palms and began to swirl lazily in the air. She lifted her hands a little higher as if she were pushing them upward, and the sparkles moved into the tree, twirling and sparkling among the branches and dancing on the leaves. They glowed like tiny stars, illuminating the area enough for them to see as they knelt and pulled the contents from the cooler.

  “That’s cool as hell,” he said, gazing up at the trees.

  “They’re called lumins. I can make them any size. They’ll last until I pull the power back into myself or the sun comes up.”

  Kevin kissed her cheek. “Amazing.”

  “What else have you been learning about your dragon?” Brian asked.

  She told them she was learning to control her fire, changing the temperature and even the color of the flames, and that she’d been working on pulling her dragon wings from her back like she did her fae wings, without fully shifting into her dragon form.

  “Just having my dragon wings out will increase my strength and speed, and I believe that with some work I can actually fly with them.”

  “No shit?” Brian asked, his brows raised. “That would be awesome.”

  “I think so, too.”

  He looked at his mate, the glittering lights above bathing her in a soft glow that made her look like an angel. “You look happy.”

  “I am.”

  “No, I mean more than just us being married and mated now. It’s like you were missing something and now you’re feeling whole, and that makes you even happier.”

  She smiled. “I think that’s the perfect way to describe it.”

  They ate and then lounged under the tree, staring up at the twinkle-lit branches and the star-filled sky beyond. Brian kissed the top of her head. “It’s a pretty damn good way to end our honeymoon, I think.”

  She rubbed her cheek on his shoulder, her arm stretched over his chest so she could hold Kevin’s hand. “Definitely.”

  * * *

  Several days later, he and Kevin left Treasure at the boarding house with the females for Hope’s bridal shower, and headed out into the w
oods with the pride males for a bachelor hunt. They’d had the same event before their own ceremony. It was one of the pride traditions that they were always happy to participate in. The pride hunted in their territory regularly. They generally went on the full moon, because as a wolf, Callie felt compelled to hunt during that time of the month and the pride liked hanging out in their shifts together. As a youngster, he’d looked forward to shifting and hunting, anxious to be able to join the adults out in the woods.

  He missed Treasure, though. He was so used to hunting with her, her pink and blue wings stretched out and her dragon prancing around the yard. He was used to having her with him and not being able to run full-out in his shift because she had to fly at a slower pace to dodge the trees. She could easily soar over the treetops, but then they couldn’t see each other and none of them liked that.

  Flexing his paws, he sank his claws into the dirt and glanced at Kevin. Ahead of them, their cousins, who were the guests of honor, were waiting for the males to finish shifting. Once the last male had shifted, Ben, Nathan, and Owen lifted their voices together in a loud roar and everyone took off running. Brian launched himself forward, hurtling into the woods and racing to find prey. In the woods were any number of small creatures, from rabbits to squirrels, birds that were too full of bones to bother with, and his favorite – deer. Kevin raced beside him, their paws pounding on the ground, their cats on high alert as they hunted.

  After some time, they found a herd and gave chase, the two of them taking down a buck while the pride went after the others. While generally they would eat their kills, the pride had given the bachelors the opportunity to choose what happened with the prey, and they’d chosen to butcher them and save the meat. Brian wasn’t a fan of venison, but Treasure loved it, so he was happy to be dragging a big buck back to the house. Once they’d left the deer at the back of the pride’s property, they headed out to run some more and enjoy the time in their shifts. He and Kevin caught up with their three cousins and tumbled around the woods with them like they did when they were younger. They’d grown up together and he’d always considered them more like brothers than cousins, since they were all close in age and had lived next door to each other in King, and then on the same floor in the boarding house.

  Brian skidded to a halt by the picnic table where he’d left his clothes, chuckling inwardly as Nathan overshot the pounce he’d planned and tumbled head over tail past him. Brian shifted and tugged on his jeans.

  Nathan followed suit, and so did the others. “Did you know I was tailing you?”

  Brian nodded. “I stopped just in time.”

  “Damn it, I thought I was being pretty sneaky.”

  “Don’t forget that I used to try to sneak up on him all the time when we were younger,” Kevin said. “He’s got ears like a bat.”

  “That was fun,” Ben said.

  “It was,” Kevin said. “We’re normally doing our own thing when we hunt because of Treasure.”

  “Are you guys ready for your mating day?” Brian asked.

  “More than ready,” Owen said. “It feels like it’s taking forever, and we haven’t had to wait nearly as long as you guys.”

  “Females are always worth the wait,” Aaron said, joining them. “Wyked and Fate invited anyone who wanted to join them to go to the field and hang out until the females are done. We need to haul the kills to them anyway so they can help us butcher them.”

  Brian glanced at Kevin, who shrugged. “Sounds good to us,” Brian said.

  “Us, too,” Nathan said.

  James, John, Aaron, and Grant joined them in taking the four deer that had been killed to the field behind the boarding house where the panther clan spent each summer. The pride had purchased the field from the farmer years before to ensure the panthers always had a place to park their RVs.

  “I always kind of thought the pride would build here someday,” Kevin said.

  “Me too,” Brian said.

  “We’ve talked about it,” James said, “but even though the property is there and we’ve offered it to mated groups, no one’s wanted to leave the boarding house.”

  “If Rhett and Lisa hadn’t offered us land on their property, we would have definitely wanted to build a house here,” Brian said.

  Panther males waved at them, and their group carried the deer to the place where they were going to butcher them. One of the males said, “Nice haul tonight. Does anyone want the hides?”

  Owen said, “We just want half the meat. You guys can do what you want with the hides and the rest of the meat.”

  “Thanks,” the male said. “We’ll send the meat over once it’s prepped and packaged.”

  Brian and the mountain lion males joined Wyked, Fate, their father Dag, and their uncle Hanai, who were seated in folding chairs around a roaring bonfire. After greeting everyone, they accepted cold drinks and sat in the empty chairs around the fire.

  “How is married life treating you?” Fate asked.

  “Great,” Kevin said. “You guys understand the waiting, though.”

  Wyked and Fate’s people had a custom to wait until everyone in the mated group was twenty-one. When they met Jilly, she’d only been eighteen. The panther clan, which was nomadic, had moved their caravan to the field and stayed until Jilly’s twenty-first birthday. Then after their mating day, she’d left with her new family.

  Wyked nodded. “It eats at you.”

  “But it’s worth the wait,” Brian said.

  Dag’s mate, Dionne, walked out of one of the RVs with twins on her heels and a little girl in her arms. “Sorry to crash the after-bachelor party, but the kids are begging for a bedtime story and Grandma is apparently not cutting it.”

  The twins – Aliyah and Miraj – climbed into their dads’ laps and snuggled. Miraj had dark hair like his fathers, and Aliyah looked just like Jilly, right down to the blonde hair and blue eyes. Two-year-old Lyra was a mixture of her parents, dark-haired with sapphire-blue eyes.

  “You giving Grandma a hard time?” Wyked asked Miraj.

  “She doesn’t do the voices, Dad,” Aliyah said, leaning against Fate’s chest with a yawn.

  “I tried!” Dionne said.

  Dag took little Lyra and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “What about you, princess?”

  “Not tired,” she said as she yawned.

  Kevin said in a low voice, “Man, I want that for our family.”

  “Me too,” Brian said.

  Fate stood with his daughter in his arms. “I’ll take care of this.”

  “I think it’s your turn anyway,” Wyked said as he put Miraj on the ground. “Night kidlets.”

  Dag gave Lyra back to Dionne, who bent to allow Wyked to give her a goodnight kiss. Once the kids were back in the RV, Wyked settled in the chair and looked across the fire at them. “You guys talking about babies yet?”

  Brian nodded. “We’re ready for whenever it happens.”

  “We felt the same way,” Wyked said. “We were excited to start a family as soon as we were mated, because we’d waited for three years to be together.”

  Their trio was definitely ready to start a family. He couldn’t wait to hold his son or daughter in his arms.

  Brian heard the sound of footsteps drawing near and his cat sat up in interest. He could feel Treasure drawing close before he saw her; he rose to his feet and smiled at her as she crossed through the woods into the field. He and Kevin met her a few yards from the bonfire and embraced, his cat always thankful to have her back in his arms.

  “How was the shower?” Kevin asked.

  Brian pulled a folding chair between his seat and Kevin’s for Treasure. They all sat down, Jilly joining Wyked, Sam joining Aaron and Grant, and Rue joining John and James.

  “Really great,” Treasure said.

  “Is Hope coming?” Nathan asked, looking toward the boarding house.

  “She’s loading up the truck with her gifts, and said to send you three back there to help,” Rue said.

  “Cool
,” Owen said, rising to his feet.

  “Thanks for the bachelor hunt tonight, everyone,” Ben said. “See you later.”

  A chorus of goodbyes followed the males as they returned to the boarding house.

  “How was the hunt?” Jilly asked.

  “Good,” John said. “We got a few deer. We’re sharing the meat with the clan.”

  “Nice! The kids love venison,” Jilly said.

  After Treasure unsuccessfully stifled several yawns, Brian stood and said, “I think it’s time to head home.”

  Treasure hugged the females and they said goodnight to everyone, heading back to the boarding house to get in their truck. The night air was humid, and insects buzzed loudly in the trees as they passed by. Stars lit up the sky, peeking between the branches of the trees.

  “We missed you tonight,” Kevin said.

  “I missed being out in my shift with you, too.”

  “I’d say we’ve got the full moon coming up to hunt together, but we won’t be shifting,” Brian said. The full moon was in a few days, and then Hope would be casting the spell to contact the goddess. Then a few days after that was the quartet’s mating ceremony.

  “Maybe after their mating ceremony,” Treasure said. “We can hunt here in the fields. We haven’t done that in a while.”

  He and Kevin enjoyed the occasional run through the fields in their shifts, with Treasure flying above them. There were small creatures to hunt there, and it was a wholly different experience than being in the woods. He didn’t much care where they hunted, just so long as they were together.

  When they got home, he kicked off his shoes and walked into the kitchen for a drink, bringing glasses of iced tea to his brother and mate. They got ready for bed, rehashing the bachelor hunt and the bridal shower, and talking about the future. After seeing Wyked and Fate’s kids, it had set off a longing in Brian’s heart for kids of their own.

  Treasure snuggled between them, yawning and rubbing her cheek against his pecs. “I think we should sleep in and go for breakfast at the diner in the morning.”

  “That’s an excellent idea,” Kevin said.