by Marcy Jacks
“I’ve never had a mate before!”
Sure, he’d been told what to expect, but now that the moment of truth was here, he couldn’t exactly make himself believe that, mating or no mating, he could be this important to someone already.
Rey stared at him, his lips thinned before he glared down at Brad, picking himself up and off the other man.
“You are never going to show up on my doorstep again. Got it?”
“Yes, yes, fucker,” Brad moaned, pulling himself to his feet.
Jonah shook his head. “Look, Rey—”
“Save it,” Rey snapped.
“We’re just concerned. We didn’t want it to go this far.”
“You’re the ones who came to my door and demanded to know what the hell I was going to do about my mate. Like you didn’t want him to be here.”
“We don’t want anything dangerous coming here!”
It was the woman outside with the child who spoke up.
Aiden cringed.
Rey pinched the bridge of his nose. “Christ, all of you, get the fuck out of my house. Right now. Go.”
Brad growled a little as he walked out. Jonah went in silence, though he did throw back a sorry expression to Aiden.
Aiden didn’t know what to think of any of this, and he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do when Rey slammed the door shut behind them, locking it.
“They have a right to be concerned.”
“They don’t have rights for shit.” Rey glared at the door as though he could see the people through it. “If they don’t want to worry about Warlocks or Dog Catchers, or other dragon clans, then they can fuck off.”
Aiden frowned. “That’s not fair. They were here first.”
Though, even as he said it, his heart leapt to hear his mate defend him like that.
It leapt, and it ached at the same time to see the blood coming from Rey’s mouth and nose. He wasn’t exactly leaking blood all over the place, but the dripping was more than enough to make Aiden worried.
He went to his mate, reached up, touched his face. “I can take care of this.”
“You don’t have to.”
“I want to.”
Aiden hesitated, not sure his mate would understand before he leaned in and licked some of the blood away that had formed at Rey’s jaw.
Rey’s eyes popped wide.
Aiden smiled, feeling shy all of a sudden. “Wolf thing.”
Rey nodded, accepting it. He lifted his hand, gently touching the spot of Aiden’s jaw that hurt the most.
He pulled his hand back when Aiden winced.
“I’ll be fine,” Aiden said.
“I should beat the piss out of Brad for that.”
“I believe him when he said it was an accident.”
Rey groaned, lowering his head briefly. “God, do you have to be so accommodating? It’s all right to be angry. That piece of shit hit you.”
“Because I got between two fighting alphas. It happens.”
“We’re not alphas, baby. You have to stop thinking like that. We don’t behave the same way.”
Rey said that, and maybe he believed it, but even the short amount of time Aiden had been here was enough to show him that the dragons had more in common with alphas than they believed.
The way the men seemed to fight around here at the drop of a hat suggested something very alpha-like.
Aiden had to admit, as much as he didn’t want his mate fighting over him, he kind of liked the vibe. The whole my property, don’t touch thing Rey had swirling about him where Aiden was concerned.
He felt safe because of it. Treasured, even.
“I’m accommodating because I’m new here. I’m your mate, I understand, but at the same time…” How should he put this? “I don’t want to assume anything, and I don’t want to take advantage of people just because I’m your mate. They want me gone, but you want me to stay. I get that it’s not their decision, not really, but it doesn’t seem fair to exclude them from it entirely. I doubt warlocks will be coming after me. I’m just a wolf.”
“You’d be surprised,” Rey said.
Aiden didn’t understand. “I think you’re being a little paranoid, and even then, just because the warlocks aren’t coming doesn’t mean the Dog Catchers won’t be sniffing around here or that dragon pack. Even if they don’t notice that I’m gone, at the very least, they’ll be wondering where Tim went.”
Rey closed his eyes and sighed. As though he hadn’t thought of that and was pissed off with himself when he did. “Fuck. I completely forgot about him.”
Aiden smiled.
Rey narrowed his eyes at the man. “No one is kicking you out of this clan. This place is your home now. If you want it,” he added.
Aiden smiled. He reached out, took a hold of Rey’s hand, and squeezed it tight. “I want to be your mate because I want to get to know you. I want to date you.”
Rey chortled. “We’ll date and get to know each other after the commitments have been made.”
Aiden nodded. “I like the sound of that. Just, ah, I don’t want to be too much of a pest, but if we could only do that after my mom and dad are free, that would be great.”
Rey shocked Aiden with the kiss he swooped in to give him.
“Baby, for you, I’ll go tomorrow at the crack of dawn for them.”
Aiden jumped into Rey’s arms, kissed him, and said against his lips, “Baby, I love you.”
THE END
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