Kennedy couldn’t stop the warm prickle of tears in her eyes, but at least she knew these ones were from happiness. The mug was ludicrous in all the right ways. She held it close to her chest, still laughing at his attention to detail and the things she mentioned.
Wyatt moved to pull her closer, but she snatched the other paper-wrapped mug from the bag and pushed it at him. She was no longer sure he would love it. She worried that her art was shoddy and that he’d take one look at the fat dragon on the mug and chuck it across the room. The last thing she wanted to do was offend him, especially after he’d given her something so adorable.
He watched her as he tore back the paper. She scowled and gestured to the mug, as if to say pay attention to what you’re doing. Still, he held her gaze a moment longer, like he couldn’t bear look away from her until the last moment. She smiled, unable to deny the fuzzy feeling blooming in her chest.
Finally, he looked down at what lay in his lap. Her heart stopped beating, her breath held until he did something. Anything. A minute ticked by and still he hadn’t reacted.
Kennedy worried that everything they thought was a farce, that she wasn’t truly his mate and that she was still only a rebound. Then, his lips spread into the widest grin she’d ever seen before. Her heart thumped once, slamming so hard she thought it might burst.
“You only saw my beast once and you still managed to capture it perfectly!” He held the mug up, twisting and turning as he inspected all sides. She watched him run his thumb over the small, raised scales where she’d carefully laid paint over and over. The look of awe on his face was worth every painstaking moment.
She inched close to him and tucked herself beneath his arm. He let it fall over her shoulder and pulled her closer into his body.
“We should use these for something.”
Wyatt frowned. “I forgot to buy a coffee maker. Who forgets the coffee maker? I have donuts and coffee mugs, but no coffee.”
She laughed. “You bought nearly a whole house’s worth of furniture. Besides, I’m sure they don’t offer coffee makers on the furniture showroom floor. Not unless you plan on stealing the one they use for complimentary coffee, and those make just plain bad coffee anyway.”
Wyatt let his head fall onto her shoulder, laughter shaking his body. It was the happiest she’d seen him and knowing that she was the cause of it made her happy, too. Kennedy knew it wasn’t her job to provide his happiness all the time, but it felt good in that moment. They had a long way to go.
While they knew they were fated mates now, neither had lived with the other. They still barely knew one another. The next few weeks would be a trial, at best. Kennedy hadn’t lived in any one place for longer than a week or two. Her new stationary life would need time for adjustment. She’d laid down roots, but they were still uncomfortable and new.
Chapter Eighteen
Kennedy’s belongings had arrived. Wyatt helped her hand the art she’d gathered across the world, and laughed at the triptych painting of octopus tentacles she insisted on hanging in the bathroom. He thought it looked like a mythical kraken trying to break through their wall, but he let her have it.
Learning to sleep beside someone took Kennedy a week to figure out. She’d spread her feet and try to take up most of the bed, kicking him in the process. He would push her back to her own side of the bed each night only to have her try it all over again. Eventually, he learned to gather her into his arms. There, she stayed still and content, letting them both sleep through the night.
His beast liked it better that way anyway. The creature had returned to its docile self, never pushing too close to the surface unless Kennedy was in danger. Or, the beast thought Kennedy was in danger. It was overprotective of her, but she always shrugged it off, taking her life one second at a time. The things that happened no longer mattered in the moments to come.
He loved her for that. No matter what happened, she would turn to him and say that it no longer mattered. Whatever they had to fight about, whatever trouble fell into their laps, wouldn’t stay in their lives long enough to break the love they had for one another.
His life had become the very thing he’d been searching for all along. He knew now that he’d been going about it all wrong. Every time Wyatt had been presented with an opportunity to find love, he’d tried to force it into spaces where it wouldn’t fit. Kennedy was an open book, or an open field. There was no forcing anything as it all fit perfectly.
“Are you sure you want to do this again?” Wyatt asked, eyeing her with his own hesitation. He’d tried many things over and over, and this was the one thing he didn’t think he’d ever get used to.
Yet, she insisted. Week after week.
***
“Don’t be such a big baby,” Kennedy told him, waving off his trepidation.
How many times had they done this now? Wyatt should have become accustomed to it, but she was seeing that he still dreaded it every week. She deflated, trying to come up with something more encouraging.
“There’s no avoiding this. You know that, right?” She knew this wasn’t the right thing to say. Pausing, she tried again. “This isn’t going to kill you. At best, you’ll leave with a few scrapes. Maybe a bruise.”
Wyatt grumbled, unbuckling his seatbelt. Seeing him give in, she twisted and reached for the cake carrier in the back seat. The moment Wyatt’s door opened, Ashton came barreling through the front door of the house. He swept Wyatt off his feet. Her mate pleaded with his eyes as Ashton spun him around and around, but she couldn’t stop laughing.
These family nights weren’t as bad as Wyatt made them out to be. For once, Kennedy felt like she belonged to a family. Everyone here, even Jasper, cared about her. Makenna came and took the cake carrier from Kennedy’s hands, ignoring her mate the entire time. Griffin passed by on his way inside, waving over his shoulder like he couldn’t be bothered to be as enthusiastic as Ashton.
To be fair, no one was as enthusiastic as Ashton.
He was the heart, she thought. Her mate was the brain, and Ashton was the heart. She’d yet to figure out what roles Jasper and Griffin played. There were walls around them that they kept locked tight. Nothing got in and nothing got out.
The smell of slow roasted beef filled the air the moment she stepped past the doorway. It was rich and made her stomach rumble. Jasper was a fair cook, though he would never tell her who taught him. He kept his secrets to himself. That was fine, because Kennedy resolved to use his future mate against him.
Some woman would come by and break through the walls he kept held so tight. Then, Kennedy would use the power of sisterhood to convince his mate to spill the beans. At least, she hoped there would be mates for Jasper and Griffin. Both needed someone in their lives if they refused to let their family in.
“What are you thinking about?” Wyatt whispered when he tugged her into his body. “You look worried.”
She snuggled into his shirt and coat, savoring his warmth. “I was thinking about your family, how the others need mates. They deserve that kind of happiness. The kind we have. You know?”
He nodded and laid a kiss on the crown of her head. “Maybe then they won’t be a couple assholes. Just wait. I heard Ryker will be here in a few days. He’ll be worse than Ashton. I can guarantee it.”
Kennedy couldn’t imagine anyone more rambunctious than Ashton. The thought was almost frightening. “He’ll have a partner in crime.”
Wyatt snorted. “Or someone else to butt heads with.”
They followed the others deeper into the house. Snow drifted outside the windows. While it didn’t bother the dragon men, it was still too cold outside for Makenna or Kennedy, so they chose to stay inside for the night. That meant crowding four dragon shifters around a table to play a board game.
The first five minutes went well, but the game quickly devolved when Griffin and Ashton started to argue over money. Kennedy used the moment to steal away from the table in search of a bit of silence. S
he knew she’d suggested attending the family night, but even she had her limits.
She crept outside to lean against the deck railing. Snow had recently fallen over the world of Grove, like a heavy down blanket. She closed her eyes and soaked in the silence it had brought with it until familiar hands found her. Wyatt’s warmth sank into her as he ran his hands along her back. She leaned into him as if he were the sun and she a plant.
“It’s cold outside,” he warned her, voice filled with concern.
While she was human, she was no longer only that. Part of what made Wyatt magical had seeped into her. It granted her a few small gifts like her sense of smell and a newfound warmth. She liked to think it was because she had a beast of her own now. The primal voice in her head hungered for Wyatt, making her twist in his arms so she could take his face in her hands.
Mine, the voice whispered, proud and happy. All mine.
“Do you think they’ll notice if we slip away?” Kennedy asked. Her voice was husky with desire.
Wyatt grinned. His cheeks darkened, turning a shade of brick red. “No one will say anything. Not until we come back. Then they’ll tease us.”
“I can handle some teasing.” She looped her arm around the back of his neck. It was a fair trade if it meant she and Wyatt got to be alone for a while.
They slipped past the dragon men raging around the flipped boardgame. Only Makenna saw them, and promptly looked away, lips sealed. Kennedy laughed under her breath and urged her mate up the stairs. They sought out a room as far from the chaos as they could manage, so that no one downstairs could hear them.
Kennedy wondered why every room had a bed until they passed one full of matching recliners and a big, white screen. She looked up at Wyatt, brows raised in question. He looked as surprised to find a home theater as she was.
“Why aren’t we watching movies in here on family night?” Wyatt whispered.
“Maybe all Jasper owns for movies is porn,” Kennedy said with a shrug of her shoulders. “Didn’t we rent the last one online?”
Wyatt laughed, but shook his head. He flipped through the stack of movies near the projector. Kennedy was not so patient, though. She grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. When their lips connected, he let out a low groan and pulled her into his body.
This was right where she belonged. They made love in one of the reclining chairs, making quick work of their orgasms with the excitement of getting caught hovering over their heads. When they finished, they collapsed into one another, a mess of tangled body parts and contented laughter.
She laid her head on his chest and sighed. “Is this all you ever wanted?”
Wyatt stilled beneath her. She didn’t know what she’d said wrong. When she pushed herself up to look in his eyes, they were guarded. This was her mate, her forever, and somehow, she’d managed to push a button she hadn’t known existed. It was proof that no matter how long they lived together, a relationship would always be work.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
Wyatt shook his head. The ghost of a smile on his lips slowly turned into one more real, and it lifted the shadows from her heart.
“You didn’t do anything wrong,” he assured her. “Our bond is new, and I didn’t know when to bring this up, so I’ve put it aside. I didn’t want you to think that I was pushing us or disappointed with anything.” He was rambling, but Kennedy quickly caught on.
Perhaps it was the mate bond that allowed her to read him so easily. Maybe, just maybe, it was the fact that they wanted similar things. She laid her head back down on his chest and smiled. Slowly, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.
“You don’t need to be afraid to ask things of me,” she reminded him. “I want everything you want. Someday, we can try to have children. Not now. Probably, not even this year. But eventually we can try. I would love to see a little Wyatt stumbling around.”
Kennedy paused, a thought occurring to her. “Oh man, our baby would be a little dragon man. Right? I’m not even sure what that means. Am I going to lay an egg?”
Finally, she broke the awkward tension. Wyatt’s laughter filled the room. He hugged her closer, as if they could meld into one soul.
“I take it that means no eggs?” She smiled hopefully up at him and earned another laugh. “I’m serious, though, about having kids. I want to raise kids who know they’re loved. I want to eat family meals together and talk about our days. Let’s give it a year to get settled in, to get used to living with one another.”
“Then it’s a deal,” Wyatt said before laying a kiss on the top of her head.
As if they were waiting for the conversation to finish, the door burst open. Ashton strolled in with a bucket of popcorn cradled in his arms. Behind him, Jasper and Griffin looked worse for wear, having taken their frustrations out on each other. Makenna was the last to enter. She shook her head at the dragons ahead of her. One by one, they all claimed a seat in the theater.
All save for Ashton.
“At least we know Jasper doesn’t have any homemade porn stashed up here. I haven’t seen him look at a woman since the third grade,” Ashton proclaimed.
Jasper rolled his eyes.
“He was in love with Mrs. Finley,” Ashton continued.
“I remember her,” Griffin said, picking up the conversation. “She was a warthog shifter. Wasn’t she? Had a big wart on the side of her nose, but Jasper followed her around like a puppy.”
Kennedy couldn’t hide her laughter. Even Wyatt snorted.
“Change of subject,” Jasper announced. His voice shook the room and silenced everyone. When he turned to Kennedy, her stomach flipped. “When are you going to host family day? Ashton and Makenna’s house isn’t finished yet, but you two have a nice place.”
That was what he wanted to ask? “Like hell am I letting any of you into my apartment. It could barely fit all of you. Someone would eventually go out a window, and I’m not going to have that.”
She was a lady of Jasper’s court, mate to one of his knights. It was a strange kind of family, but Kennedy found that here was where she belonged.
RYKER DRAKE
Emilia Hartley
Chapter One
Ryker wanted nothing to do with the mountains. He’d escaped Grove years ago and being dragged back by Jasper’s intolerable beast only made him grumpier. He kicked aside a carboard box, waiting for the satisfying thunk when it hit the wall.
The sound never came. Ryker scowled and turned to find Wyatt clutching the box. His cousin scanned the mess that was the second-floor landing with disdain written all over his face. Ryker shrugged and turned back to the boxes blocking his path. The small sound of his foot hitting carboard filled the offensive silence that had suffocated him for days.
He couldn’t take it. His ears rang, a tinny sound that wouldn’t leave him be. He longed for screaming, for electric guitars, and bass beats so loud his bones shook. Left alone with himself, he was forced to face the beast living inside him. The creature was just as uncomfortable as he was, and it was starting to grate on them both.
“Have you even started unpacking?” Wyatt asked, incredulously. He chucked the box to the side.
“That’s a dumb question. The boxes are all empty. Aren’t they?”
Wyatt’s brows fell. He was not amused. “Then why haven’t you gotten rid of the boxes? The packing wrap or the foam peanuts?”
Ryker shrugged. He didn’t tell his cousin that the mess was a form of noise, that the chaos settled the restless beast inside him. It gave him somewhere to focus his frustration when he could no longer keep it contained.
“I can’t believe you bought this massive house and you’re going to let it look like a pig’s sty.”
Ryker rolled his eyes after turning his back to Wyatt. “There’s nothing wrong with the way I live. If you don’t like it, then you can leave. You don’t have to be here.”
Wyatt grumbled something Ryker
couldn’t pick up. The ringing in his ears was too loud.
The beast paced just beneath his skin. He could feel its tail thrashing and the impatient toss of its head. If Ryker was alone, he would have taken something outside and destroyed it. An old bookshelf, a record player that was no longer working, or just a pile of boxes that he could burn with dragon fire.
Anything was better than this tedious argument with Wyatt.
“You need help,” Kennedy said, boldly, when she appeared at the top of the stairs. She put her dainty nose in the air and waded through the mess toward them.
Ryker would have snapped at her if she hadn’t brought half a cake. He’d learned to put up with Wyatt’s presence because it meant his mate had baked again. The human woman was testing recipes for her blog, or that was what she told him. Ryker didn’t understand any of it. All he knew was that she brought the most delicious food.
More than once, he’d offered Kennedy a place in his home. It was a joke, but he would not have minded the feminine presence or the smell of vanilla she often left in her wake. Also, the teasing flirtations rankled Wyatt, which was well worth Kennedy’s unamused stares.
“I mean it,” Kennedy said. “I can’t come back here until you clean it up.”
Ryker felt her rejection like a knife in the heart. A butter knife, blunt and brutal in its execution. But he didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t like he was going to clean. That wasn’t even an option in his mind.
Wyatt growled as he snatched three boxes off the floor and stacked them together until his mate touched his shoulder. There was a glint in Kennedy’s eye that made Ryker want to take a step back. He’d learned long ago not to trust human women. They were always far smarter than him and his interactions with them never ended well.
“I’m going to call a maid service,” Kennedy said before turning her gaze on Ryker. “And I’m going to put it on the company budget.”
Aurum Court Dragons: Boxset Books 1-5 Page 27
