by Eliza Gayle
Hell, she had a feeling she would crave it for the rest of her life.
They were both breathing heavy as she rode the aftershocks that wouldn’t quit. But reality began to creep back in. There was no way her brothers would sanction their mating and if they fought it, it would break her heart. She didn’t want to have to choose between Simon and her family. There had already been too much loss in her family.
Use magic.
The witch’s words flitted through her mind. She should have asked for more details. Except in a hospital room with a woman willing to die to have a child was not the right time or place for that discussion. They would never understand her decision to consider this unless she told them everything and she couldn’t.
She’d already told Simon and that was more than she was allowed.
“We should probably go back in before someone comes looking for us.” His words snapped Kenzie back to their present.
“You’re right.” Only neither of them made a move.
Her eyes met his again and she hesitated. There were so many things she wanted to say. There was only one decision to be made for them and it wasn’t for him to wait and see if he could find another way. When it came to shifters, science had its limits and he had to know that.
“I can’t stay away from you again.” He spoke low, but she heard him loud and clear. Like silence, Simon had hit his limits too.
She understood. She didn’t want to repeat the last few weeks of misery. “I’ll talk to the witch and have her talk to my brothers. I think if they believe the spell would work, they will give us their blessing.”
He glowered and pulled free from her. “That’s not what this is about.”
His suddenly heated tone caught her off guard as a cold chill swept across her body. “What do you mean?” Had she misread this whole situation? He’d said he loved her, but he also rejected the idea of using magic to fix this.
“You aren’t getting sterilized for me. I won’t allow it.”
A bit of her hope died at his rip-roaring, chest-thumping demand. She pushed him off of her and sprang to her feet as her magic shimmered over her until she was fully clothed.
“And I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that this is my choice. Try to get this through that pig-headed skull of yours. My body, my choice. Now repeat that over and over, asshole.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Kenzie arrived at her brother’s home to a flurry of noise and light. She’d waited for the sun to set before taking to the skies, but Galen’s house was lit up like an airplane landing strip on steroids.
Laughter filtered through the trees to her ears and after a moment of sifting through the music and multiple voices she took off at a run towards the house. She recognized those voices.
She slammed through the door, uncaring if she resembled a wild banshee after her tear through the woods. For a moment after her entrance, the house descended into silence as she stood and stared at the men gathered around a veritable feast strewn across Galen’s kitchen island.
“Sister!” three of her brothers cried.
A burst of chaotic noise engulfed her as all five men rose from their stools and one by one gathered her into their arms for a massive dragon hug.
“What are you all doing here?”
Ian, her youngest brother, pressed his hand to his heart and said, “Ouch, it pains me that you are not happy to see us.”
She smirked at him. “I didn’t say that. I’m just shocked is all. No one said a word about coming here.”
They all turned and looked at Galen, who was trying to bite back a smile. “What? I thought it would make a nice surprise.”
“You knew they were coming?”
He nodded. “Aye, I did. You should be grateful though. Coordinating their arrival was a lot of work I spared you from.”
She rolled her eyes and walked with them back to their seats. She glanced over the food and laughed when she spied barbeque, baked beans, green beans, corn on the cobb and of course, hush puppies.
“Barbeque. Why am I not surprised?”
“Have you tried it?” Connor, one of the middle twins waved a hush puppy in her direction. “It’s surprisingly good all things considered.”
“Oh I know. Galen eats it almost every night. I swear he’s obsessed with it.” She took a seat on one of the empty stools and grabbed a plate and began filling it with food. “I’m not sure what it will take for a girl to get a steak around here.”
“Aww, poor baby,” Galen crooned. “Maybe if you didn’t spend half your time up at that crumbling castle and the other half moping about over Simon, maybe you could arrange for a meal or two.”
“Who’s Simon?” Ian asked around a mouthful of food. “And why is she moping over him?”
Kenzie stared daggers at Galen. She could not believe him. He’d wasted no time at all throwing her under the bus. Now she had no choice but to get right into her predicament before they’d had time to recover from their trip.
“Local shifter healer. I met him my first night in town and yes, before you start your fifty thousand questions, I like him. Well, more than like him and I believe he is my fated mate. So go ahead, let’s get it over with. But before you start, know this, there is nothing you could ask or say or demand that I haven’t already thought of.”
To her surprise they stayed silent when she finished. At least until Aleck spoke up. Figured, as the oldest they were likely to all defer to him on this matter.
“You sound like you’ve come to some sort of decision about this Simon. Care to explain? Because no matter what you say we all know the outcome here. And we canna allow it.”
Forks clattered to plates and a couple of them even choked on their food. Her brother had not minced words, drawing the line in the sand, which as the head of the family was generally his right. Her stomach roiled. She’d never defied anyone in her family. Had never even wanted to.
Until now.
“All things considered. I thought I could walk away from him, but I’ve recently discovered that I cannot. I’m in love with him.” The room exploded before she could even finish what she had to say.
“Galen, what the hell? Why did you let this happen?” Aleck barked as her other brothers all piped in with their thoughts as well. Most of which she tuned out so as not to go on a murderous rampage as they argued about her as if she was daft.
“Let this happen?” he choked. “I let nothing happen. Have you ever tried to stop our sister from doing anything? You’re an idiot.”
Kenzie sighed. While this was going about as expected, she hadn’t quite been ready for it. She had half a mind to leave them alone and let them duke it out until they were ready to listen.
Aleck pushed off of his stool and stood his finger pointing at Galen. “Don’t try to turn this back on me. You are the one who was tasked to watch over her. If it wasn’t something you could handle you should have said so and we would have never allowed her to come here.”
Right about then Kenzie’s head exploded as did her mouth. “Excuse me? Allowed me? What the hell are you talking about? You don’t “allow” me to do anything. I make my own decisions. I didn’t even tell you I was coming here.”
Aleck glared at her. “We’re royal dragons. We didn’t need to be told what you were up to. And we graciously let you go because you were taking your first mating heat particularly hard. So what’s the problem? Well, other than you have gotten yourself involved with a shifter. I take it that means you two have already had relations.”
Kenzie pressed her fingers to her temple and willed her temper to behave. “Please tell me you did not just ask about my sex life because that is absolutely none of your business. Do you see me questioning you about yours?”
“I tend to agree with Kenzie. I don’t want to talk about let alone think about her doing anything like that.” Ian winced as he said it.
“Too late,” Aleck snapped. “That cat is out of the bag so to say. And once out there’s no pu
tting it back. However, whatever you think you have going on with this Simon has to stop. I know that first time can be spectacular, but sex does not equal love.”
Everyone around the kitchen groaned except for Aleck who didn’t seem to know when to shut up.
“I am not a child nor an idiot. Something I can’t say about you right now since this is the ridiculous conversation we are having.”
“Kenzie,” Aleck started again and she braced for what she knew was coming. “Have you forgotten what will happen if you continue down this path?”
It was official. Aleck had gone so far past too far she had to temper a now murderous rage. “How dare you! I have considered every fucking detail, brother of mine, because I remember it like it happened yesterday not years ago.”
“Aleck you need to shut the fuck up and sit down,” Galen warned. “And maybe listen. She didn’t come here without a plan.”
“I don’t see a plan. I see a damned mess.”
Galen stepped to Aleck and shoved him in the chest, making her brother fall onto his stool. “You are going to listen. Even if I have to tie you up and tape your mouth shut.”
Aleck glared. “You’ll pay for that.”
Galen turned to her. “You have the floor. Go ahead and tell them.”
Kenzie narrowed her eyes for a moment as she stared at Galen. He knew. She had no idea how he knew, but he did. Otherwise he’d be losing his shit just like the rest of them.
“Please, by all means, Kenzie. Tell us your plans.”
She took a deep, fortifying breath against Aleck’s sarcasm and launched into the information that Lara had given her. While it had yet to be verified, she explained that if true, it could solve many problems when these kinds of situations come up. And they all knew they were bound to come up. She had no idea why Mother Nature would torture them with a fated mate who would provide them with dangerous offspring, but now they had more than two options. The rest would be up to them on whether or not they would choose the right one.
“Are you really suggesting that you bind your ability to ever have children?” This time Lach entered the fray. “What about dragon kind?”
This was the argument she expected and she knew she could fight it. “That’s what you five boneheads are for. That’s what you came to America for anyways, right? I heard you are planning some sort of strange gathering, which I assume will include all the human women you can round up.”
Her brothers all looked around the room at each other without saying anything and she got the distinct feeling she was missing out on some important information. She absolutely did not have the time or inclination to figure it out now. There was enough on her plate and she wanted to get back to the clinic as soon as possible.
“Yes,” Galen answered. “Although you should know by now it’s not polite to listen to other people’s conversations without invitation.”
“Whatever. It’s not like I was trying to spy. You five are pretty much the worst secret keepers I’ve ever met.”
Again with the darting glances at each other. There was definitely something else they weren’t telling her.
“What about the boyfriend? This is what he wants too?”
Kenzie wrinkled up her nose at Aleck’s use of the word boyfriend. It sounded weird and all wrong. Aleck just couldn’t stop being an asshole. “His name is Simon and he is my mate, not my boyfriend.”
He ignored her. “That wasn’t an answer to my question.”
Shit. This part was going to be tricky. “Well, it’s not his first choice by any means. Simon is a geneticist and is convinced that if given enough time, he can find another way.”
“Like he did with your DNA?” Galen interjected.
She cringed at the renewed uproar of her brothers and their latest outrage. She frowned at Galen. “I guess calling me a spy is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, yes?”
“Somebody had better explain right now or we’re going to go find this healer ourselves and maybe have an extra midnight snack. Then all of our problems would be solved.”
Goddess, she was having a hard time not punching Aleck in the face. She couldn’t wait until he found a human to toy with instead of her. Of course she also hoped that she gave him the hell he deserved.
To her utter shock, when Galen gave them the details of Simon’s experiments, they seemed fine with it. Oh they grumbled a bit, paying a bit of lip service to her trust. Blah blah blah. In the end, however, they weren’t that concerned. As long as Galen was able to retrieve her remaining DNA to avoid further testing.
“Already way ahead of you.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. How the hell had he even known, let alone had time to go to Simon’s clinic and steal back her—
“Don’t look so surprised, Kenz. The minute I heard what happened I took care of it. We cannot risk a dragon egg lying around unprotected where it could potentially be contaminated with other shifter DNA.”
“You disposed of it?” Aleck asked.
Galen nodded and she didn’t know how she was supposed to feel about all of this. Other than she was certainly tired of people making decisions around her as if her say so meant nothing.
“What about this witch? Can we trust her?”
“She’ll be here in about five minutes so you can determine that for yourselves. I’ve been assured by someone I trust that she is loyal to shifters.”
Kenzie held up her hand. “Wait. What? She’s coming here now? How is that even possible? This idea literally just came up today and she’s at the clinic with her friends.”
“I made arrangements, Kenz. I knew this was coming the moment all of this went down.” He walked over to her while the rest of her brothers fired comments and questions throughout the room, and bent to whisper in her ear. “And for the love of the Goddess, if you and Simon are going to have sex outside, check to make sure none of us are within a mile of that insanity. I’m pretty sure I’m going to be scarred for life.”
The blood drained from Kenzie’s face as she burned with embarrassment. “You—”
He held up his hand this time. “Nope. That is officially off the table for even a little discussion.”
If she wasn’t mortified by the idea that Galen had heard them, the abject horror residing on Galen’s face right now would have made her laugh. In a way she saw it as payback for his not only spying, but butting into her life. It was called karma and it had smacked him in the face.
“Enough arguing. We need to make a decision before the female gets here. And just so you know she will be accompanied by her mate, the Guardian of the Gunn clan and probably a hoard of other shifters who will remain in the woods. They don’t know us any better than we know them and they are understandably cautious.”
Connor was the first one to speak up. “I’m okay with it if she is. It’s sad, but we’ve all seen what the pull of a mate can do to someone’s sanity. I for one don’t want to see Kenz suffer any more than she has to.”
One by one all of her brother’s agreed until they got down to Aleck. While he wasn’t anyone’s staunchest supporter, she’d always considered him fair.
“I don’t like this. Not one bit. But you’re right. This is your decision to make and if any of us tried to make it for you then we wouldn’t be the people our parents raised us to be.”
Kenzie tried to ignore the tears gathering in her eyes. She should still be angry at him for behaving like an asshole. But as usual he knew exactly the right thing to say that would change her mind about him.
“But…”
Shit. She should have known it would not be that simple.
“I don’t like the idea of a witch having that kind of access to you for any length of time. So if this is your decision then it needs to be done now. We are not going to get into the habit of letting powerful magic users into our homes without being thoroughly vetted.”
“Good Goddess, Aleck. Stop whining about a witch. What are you going to do when—” Ian didn’t get to
finish his sentence before Lach punched him in the gut and took his breath away.
“I should talk to Simon first.” He’d been adamant about her not going through with this and giving him some time to find his own solution.
Aleck shook his head. “This is the only way we can allow this to happen. And before you get your panties in a twist, by we, I mean all of us including you. Because you are in this decision with all of us. We all went through this before and we’ll all go through it again—together.”
Kenzie bit her lip and nodded. She glanced around the table, meeting the eyes of each one of her brothers and decided that maybe they weren’t so bad after all. They’d all been through their family’s tragedy together and like it or not, it did feel right that they have a say so in this.
She only hoped Simon would understand why she decided to do this without him.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Simon tore through the woods in a violent race against the clock. Rafe had received an urgent text from Bhric about Kenzie and insisted Simon go to her. While he was reluctant to leave Kitty in case something happened, her vitals were still holding at normal levels.
And whether he wanted to go or not, which he did, his wolf would have driven him to it eventually. This way he got to control the timeline and his reaction when he laid eyes on Kenzie.
Bhric said she was going through with the binding spell tonight. The idea still scared the hell out of him. It was one thing when nature took the choice of children out of your hands and another when circumstances forced you to choose.
She chose me.
His heart nearly seized at the idea of that. While he’d told Kenzie that he loved her, she’d not said it back. Not that he doubted her feelings. It may have been difficult for her to voice her emotions, but she had no problem showing him.
His muscles tightened at the memory of being inside her and watching her come apart in his arms. Good Goddess, that sight had been burned into his brain and he hoped it was the first thing he saw every morning when he woke.