A Mate to Treasure (Dragons of Mount Aterna Book 1)
Page 19
“Emma.”
Her head rolled to the side so she could see him, but when the look on his face registered with her brain, Emma immediately rolled up onto her side.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, concern seeping into her stomach.
Asher propped himself up onto an elbow. “Nothing’s wrong,” he said, shaking his head. “I just have a question for you. Something I’ve been meaning to ask you, to talk to you about for quite a while now.”
“Okay, go for it. You know you can talk with me about anything, right? I’m an open book to you, Asher. No secrets between us, my love. That was your rule, don’t you remember?” she teased, leaning forward to kiss his nose before he could stop her.
“I remember,” he said quietly. “This isn’t a secret though. Just…well, it’s personal, in a way. I’ve never asked this of anyone else before.”
“Oh.” Now she was intrigued. What was it he wanted to ask her? “Ask away darling.”
Asher nodded, looking skyward for a bit as he gathered himself. Whatever it was, it was a big deal to him, and Emma vowed to give it her utmost consideration.
“I was wondering if you would be interested, you know, um, in being mine. Like, for good.”
“Your what?”
Asher sighed. “I want you to be my mate, Emma. Permanently.”
She mulled it over. “This sounds like a proposal.”
“I…” Asher made a face. “We don’t really do that among dragons, but if it helps you to understand the severity of what I’m talking about, yes. I want you to be with me. Forever. I know you don’t believe in fate, but I believe fate has given you to me, has put us together, to give us the chance. Now it’s up to you if you choose to stay or not.”
Emma watched his eyes, seeing them sparkle as he talked, shining brightly while his emotions bled through. He wasn’t hiding anything from her, wasn’t keeping any secrets, that was for sure. This was what Asher wanted. Completely and totally.
Her.
“You don’t want to trade me in for a newer model?” she joked.
“Never,” Asher rumbled. “I want to grow old, with you. Only you.”
She shivered, goosebumps running down her spine at the pronouncement of permanence that he was proposing.
“I like the sounds of that,” she said, knowing her answer without even having to think about it.
“Great!” Asher exclaimed, leaning in to kiss her.
The moment went on for some time, to the point that she wondered if he was going to roll on top of her and renew their closeness. Asher eventually pulled back, until he was but a hair’s breadth away, staring into her eyes with unbridled joy.
“You want me to live here?” she asked, suddenly struck unsure about her choice.
Leaving her grandfather’s home wasn’t something she’d ever expected to do. Emma had just assumed she would maintain it until…until, well, she hadn’t thought that far.
“I understand that you’re unsure about leaving,” Asher said. “I get it. It makes completely sense. Your grandfather meant so much to you, and his house is most of what you have left of him.”
“It’s one of the oldest buildings in Five Peaks,” Emma said. “I don’t want to lose it.”
Asher smiled. “The master craftsmen I hired from Kennewick Falls will be starting work on the repairs shortly. Trust me, you won’t lose it. You won’t even know that it was damaged when they’re done.”
“I know,” she said, kissing his forehead. “And I love you for that, among other things. But that’s not what I meant. I just, if I move here…”
Asher grinned, much to her surprise. “I thought of that, thought that you might bring that up. Which is why I went ahead and did this.”
Without waiting for her, he rolled over, pulled open his nightstand and withdrew a folder full of papers, which he handed over to her.
“What is this?” she asked, looking at it in confusion.
“Read it,” Asher said eagerly. “The first page at least.”
Confused, but with intrigue growing by the second, Emma flipped it open.
“Five Peaks Historical Commission is proud to confirm that the house located at…”
She looked up at Asher. “That’s my address. Of my grandfather’s house.”
“I know,” he said, grinning like a fool. “Read on.”
“Has been selected as a Heritage Site on this day and will be preserved as such going forward…Asher,” she gasped. “How did you do this?”
“As soon as I realized that the house meant so much to you, and learned some of its history, and your grandfather’s, I applied for it. Whether you choose to keep living there or not, nobody will ever be allowed to tear down that house. It will be kept as a monument to Five Peaks’ early days and the people who helped build this town. Like your grandfather. They will remember him. In fact, buried in the papers in there is an opportunity to turn it into the Emmett Starling House if you ever move out, a historical site dedicated to the early miners and their families who settled in the area. The Commission has plenty of other things they would love to display there.”
Emma shook her head, overwhelmed. She tried to continue reading, but the page was growing blurry, and a moment later she put it down.
“Is everything okay?” Asher asked, confused, worried. “I…I thought you would like that.”
“I do, Asher,” she sobbed. “I do. Oh, this is just wonderful. This is the nicest thing anyone has ever done. You just understand, you get it.” She flung herself at him, wrapping the giant dragon shifter up in a hug so tight even he reacted. “I love you, you know. So much.”
“I love you too.”
“I know,” she said quietly. “I know. Because this must have taken you a couple of weeks to do. Which means you started it before we exposed Doran. Before I realized how I felt about you.”
Asher shrugged sheepishly. “I told you I felt bad about what I did. I just wanted to make it right.”
“You did,” she said. “You did, and so, so much more. I don’t know if I can ever thank you enough, Asher,” she said, sniffling loudly and wiping away some more tears as they continued to fall. I don’t know if I can thank you enough.”
Chapter Forty
Emma
“You weren’t joking,” she said, looking at the sheaf of papers in her lap while Asher drove. “You really did do it.”
“Of course, I did,” he said with a derisive snort. “I told you I would, and I did.”
“I didn’t think you were serious.”
“All this time, and you still don’t believe me when I say I have a treasure.” Asher sighed dramatically and she was sure he was rolling his eyes too, but she was too busy looking at the signed documents.
“How do I not believe you?” she said back with a smile. “You strutted around like a peacock for days after you got it back from Clan Rixa’s vault. Anyone with a brain could have seen it.”
“Not you,” he pointed out.
Emma shrugged. “I don’t want you for your money. And I’m not going to apologize for being uncomfortable about going back to your mysterious vault in the middle of nowhere. In case you remember what happened last time I was there. You left me locked in the dark room. Alone.”
Asher groaned. “Not this again. Please, not this!”
“Oh yes, this again. I was trapped, Asher. Fearing for my life, I thought you had left me there. Abandoned me to my fate, while you went back to town, feeling all high and mighty. It was terrifying, and I don’t want to do it again!”
“Whatever,” Asher said deadpan. “I’ve made good on my promise that the only thing I would lock you up in from now on was handcuffs. Haven’t I?”
Emma blushed, looking in the back seat. “Just ignore that, okay?”
Logan and Clarice just shrugged and looked around, whistling innocently.
“Thank you for the overshare dear,” she ground out. “Though if you’d really like to get into the topic of things that have been used
, I could tell them about the time I had the—fasdfhd.”
She glared at Asher from behind his hand as he slapped it over her mouth, muffling her words.
“Nope, I don’t think we need to do that!” Asher exclaimed. “We can just focus on our trip today. That’s all. No need for you to visit the vault, it’s fine. We’re good. Right? Okay.”
The pair in the backseat laughed raucously.
“Never gonna live that down,” Asher muttered under his breath. “And they don’t even know what you were going to say.”
“Don’t need to,” Logan said.
“Shut up,” Asher growled, turning the pickup off the main road onto the side street.
Emma grew silent. The houses were all familiar to her. She’d passed them by day after day on her commute to and from work.
A commute that was a little longer now, but she didn’t mind. The drive up into the mountains was just as gorgeous, if not more.
At least I’m still making the drive.
She looked down in her lap at the papers that Asher had handed her. Papers indicating that the Aterna family had bought one Five Peaks Quarry & Limestone. The company she worked for.
Asher had been true to his word.
“Here we are,” Asher said, pulling the truck up to the curb.
Emma looked up.
“Oh, Asher,” she said quietly as she viewed her grandfather’s house.
No, it wasn’t just her grandfather’s house now.
It was the Emmett Starling House. A piece of Five Peaks history, and it was ready to be opened to the public.
She was to be its first visitor.
***
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Thank you for reading A Mate to Treasure. If you enjoyed it, please consider leaving a review so that others might enjoy the adventure as well.
Next Book: A Mate to Defend (Late March/Early-April 2020)
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Other Books by Riley Storm
Thanks for checking out my other books!
Below you can find all my novels, divided up by series. The brackets indicate which of my worlds the series is written in. So dig in!
Storm Dragons (Winterspell Academy)
Stolen by the Dragon
Trapped by the Dragon
Dragon’s Chosen Mate
High House Ursa (Plymouth Falls)
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Includes:
Bearing Secrets
Furever Loyal
Mated to the Enemy
Shifting Alliances
Blood Bearon
High House Canis (Plymouth Falls)
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Savage Love
Blood Mate
Moonlight Bride
Shadow’s Howl
Royal Alpha
High House Draconis (Plymouth Falls)
Fire Dragons Bride
Mated to the Water Dragon
Ice Dragon’s Caress
Earth Dragon’s Kiss
Claimed by the Dragon King
About the Author
Riley Storm
Riley is one of those early-morning people you love to hate, because she swears she doesn’t need caffeine, even though the coffee-maker is connected to her smartphone. She lives in a three-story townhouse by the good graces of a tabby-cat who rules the house, the couch, the table, well, basically everywhere. When she’s not groveling for forgiveness for neglecting to pet her kitty enough, Riley is strapped in to her writing chair coming up with crazy worlds where she can make her own decisions of when feeding time is and how much coffee can be drank without her friends—of which she has three—holding yet another intervention that they threaten to post on the internet.
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