by Zoe Chant
Just because Gus didn’t push dragon speech on you doesn’t mean you’re not part of the family, Radu told her, silent and stern.
And if you think we’re going to go hang out with a stressed-out Gus and Laurence and everyone else without you, we really have not been clear enough about our feelings, Sorin added.
“Your feelings about me, or your feelings about family togetherness?” Hannah asked.
Sorin just snorted and got up. “Clothes, though. We should probably all put on some clothes.”
“And,” Radu added, “Gus’s cook will no doubt feed us dinner, so that solves that problem.”
***
Hannah was still uncertain about whether she really belonged at the big house with the Gray family right now, but that only lasted until Gus greeted them at the front door. He brushed past his brothers to hug Hannah.
He didn’t speak, but she heard his voice. Welcome to the family. If these two give you any trouble, you just say the word.
Hannah let out a breath, relaxing into her friend—her brother-in-law’s—welcoming embrace.
Thanks, Gus.
Gus pulled back with a smile that told her he’d heard her loud and clear. He herded her into the house with Radu and Sorin on their heels. They hurried up the stairs to the third floor, and down the hall to the house-within-the-house, Gus and Cara’s suite of rooms in the castle-like tower.
Hannah had visited here a few times, mostly since Gus married Cara, but she’d never seen the big sitting room as crowded as it was now. It was always cluttered with Gus’s typical magpie hoard of precious things—some genuinely valuable even to non-dragons, some shiny, some just inscrutably important. An exquisitely painted porcelain bowl that Hannah was sure was at least three hundred years old was displayed proudly near the front of the room. For some reason it held a broken cell phone and a shimmer of gold dust.
Now the room’s usual busy contents were enhanced with piles of baby books, baby toys, a dozen or so wrapped presents in shiny gold-foil paper with pastel bows. The room was also full of Gus’s entire family, except for Cara.
“Okay,” Gus, said, looking around. “You’ll all stay put now? There are snacks, Mrs. Campbell is making dinner...”
Gus moved through the room, lightly touching half the gold-wrapped presents and every person as he went. He threw his arm briefly around Teo’s shoulders, squeezed Becca’s hand, skritched Mouse behind his ears, and brushed up almost accidentally against Laurence when Ilie gave him a quick hug. Gus hesitated on the first step of the stairs, taking one last look at all of them before he hurried up into the tower.
When Gus was gone, every eye turned toward Hannah where she stood between Radu and Sorin, and she abruptly realized this wasn’t just Gus’s family, or Radu and Sorin’s family—they were her family now.
“Hi,” Hannah said, offering a smile.
Ilie and Becca and Teo all smiled back.
Laurence stared at her for a moment and then shook his head and turned away, making a beeline toward the side table that held a variety of crystal decanters.
Ignore him, Radu and Sorin chorused silently.
Teo bounded over to them with his arms spread wide.
“Hannah! You said yes, right? Because you’re here, and also Radu is almost smiling. Welcome to the family.”
Hannah hugged her new baby brother and tried to focus on the positives.
***
Gus came downstairs every hour or so to circle through the room and reassure himself that everyone was present and accounted for. After the fourth time, when it was full dark outside and she had been curled up between Radu and Sorin on a couch for long enough that she was seriously considering falling asleep on them, she pulled out her phone and texted Maria at the election commission.
Cara is in labor. You might need to send a clerk up to the mayor’s house with absentee ballots tomorrow.
Gray’s Hollow took pride in nearly 100% participation in elections, but it did mean a lot of headaches chasing down all the people who turned out to be unable to get to the polls on election day. Advance warning was always appreciated.
She glanced around the room as she tucked her phone away. Teo was taking an extremely flirtatious selfie while Becca laughed at him just out of the frame. Ilie was standing in the furthest corner of the room, his back turned to everyone else. It took Hannah a moment to realize that he was talking to Laurence, and had positioned himself to block his next-younger brother from the rest of the family’s view.
She looked long enough in that direction to draw her mates’ attention. Sorin glanced over and said, “I don’t know why Ilie even speaks to him.”
“Ilie is the kindest of us,” Radu said.
He didn’t sound like that was entirely a compliment. Hannah raised her eyebrows.
He tilted his head. “I don’t know why he puts up with Laurence either. He doesn’t seem to like any of us, especially me and Sorin.”
“Oh,” Hannah said. She had rather liked him, the one time she talked to him; she didn’t like the thought that she’d joined the family and instantly made an enemy.
“Don’t worry about him,” Sorin assured her. “He’ll cast his vote tomorrow and vanish until Christmas. Now tell us what that text was about, your face got all businesslike for a moment there. Am I going to need to hold a press conference?”
Hannah grinned at her mate, shaking her head. “I told you, there’s no one to give a press conference to.”
But she told them about the text, and wound up talking about the logistics of gathering votes from the hospitalized, the homebound, and the otherwise unavoidably detained until the next time Gus came down to check on them all.
***
A little after midnight Hannah heard a baby cry, and then Gus’s jubilant voice: It’s a girl!
All five brand-new uncles got the same shocked look on their faces; Hannah and Becca were laughing at them even before they all cheered and started laughing themselves.
“A girl!” Teo yelled. “A girl Gray! When’s the last time we had one of those?”
“Great-great grandmother,” Radu said. “Elizabeth Gray.”
“Literalist,” Teo scolded.
There was a pop, and everyone looked to see Laurence mutely raising a bottle of champagne.
Hannah looked between her mates as Becca and Ilie started lining up glasses and Laurence poured.
“He has his moments,” Sorin allowed, and then he grinned enormously again and kissed her. “A niece! I’m an uncle! We’re all uncles!”
“Except those of us who are aunts,” Becca put in, holding out a glass to Hannah with a wink.
***
The first rush of excitement hadn’t worn off yet when Gus said, All right, come up. Quietly!
Hannah hadn’t realized that was what they were waiting for, but of course no one was going home, after all that waiting, without getting at least a peek at the new baby. Ilie and Becca went up first, Laurence on their heels.
When Teo hung back to let Hannah and the twins go, she realized that they had fallen automatically into age order. She shook her head, smiling.
They went up a single flight to the nursery, a square tower room with windows on all four sides. It had been decorated for the most part like a normal baby’s room, in yellow and green pastels, but there were glimmers of gold visible here and there—in the mobile over the crib, a rattle and some little toys here and there around the room.
Cara was enthroned in an armchair in the corner of the room, propped up with pillows and looking tired but triumphant. The baby in her arms was wrapped in a pink blanket that shimmered with flecks of gold, and as Hannah moved closer she realized that the pattern was reversed on the side against the baby’s skin. The blanket was a mesh of gold on that side, the pink barely showing through.
“I didn’t know there was one in pink,” Ilie said, kneeling beside Cara’s chair and reaching out to run his fingers lightly over the hem of the blanket. Mouse was at his side, his nose qu
ivering but not quite touching the blanket, his tail wagging gently.
“Someone put it away, ages ago,” Gus said. “Great-Great Grandmother Elizabeth was the last to be wrapped in it, apparently.”
Everyone looked at Radu, who said simply, “There’s a family tree on the wall in the gallery, it’s not my fault if no one else reads it.”
“Even baby dragons like to sleep on gold, huh?” Becca said, grinning at Cara as she leaned in to look down at her niece.
“Yes, and you have no idea how much I’ve had to sleep on in the last three months to keep her happy,” Cara said, bouncing the baby gently. “This is much easier. Would you like to hold her, Ilie?”
Ilie looked up, startled, and then looked around his assembled brothers and up at Becca. She gave his shoulder a little push, and Ilie looked back to Cara. He nodded, opening his arms for the baby. He took her carefully, like the most precious treasure imaginable, Mouse’s nose following the transfer carefully.
Hannah was impressed that Gus managed to restrain himself to hovering at Ilie’s side while he straightened up to stand and show the baby to Becca.
Becca and Ilie looked at each other. Hannah didn’t have to hear what they were saying silently to each other to know that the baby would have a little cousin before too long.
“Ilie,” Cara said.
Ilie’s attention shot straight to her.
“You were the first dragon I ever met,” she said with a smile. “And it’s thanks to you that I even met Gus. So we wanted you to be the first to meet our daughter, Ileana Dragomir. Elena Gray.”
“Oh,” Ilie said, ducking his head over his niece and touching a finger gently to her tiny round cheek. “Oh, hello there, sweetheart. Hello, Lena.”
Pretty soon Becca demanded a turn with Elena, and she handed the baby off to Hannah, who nearly staggered under the weight of the baby and her cloth-of-gold receiving blanket. Sorin wrapped an arm around her waist, and Radu added his arm under hers to take the weight.
The three of them leaned together, looking down at their newborn niece. She was pink-cheeked and perfect, with one impossibly tiny fist peeking out of her blanket.
Neither Radu nor Sorin actually said anything, out loud or silently. Hannah could feel how hard they were both working at not saying anything.
She tapped Elena’s tiny nose with the tip of her finger.
Maybe next year. Maybe!
Sorin leaned around her to kiss Elena on the forehead, and then Radu kissed her cheek and gathered her into his own arms. Hannah’s heart skipped a beat at the sight of the soft, sweet smile on her usually-serious mate’s face as he looked down at his niece.
She looked over at Sorin to see if he had an equally silly look on his face, and was surprised to see him looking stern, almost angry. He still had his arm around her, and she pressed closer to him and touched his hand, and he pressed his face against her hair and tightened his grip.
It’s all right, he whispered to her silently, and she knew that not even Radu could overhear. Just finding out about some all-new protective instincts.
Hannah leaned into him until Radu looked up, his fond look for Elena turning a little sheepish. He looked around quickly.
“Teo!” He took a decisive stride. “Your turn, come here.”
“I, uh,” Hannah looked to see Teo actually back up a step. “I should probably just... admire from afar, don’t you think? I mean... she’s so little.”
Sorin slipped away from Hannah, circling around behind Teo while Radu advanced on him holding Elena.
“You’re an uncle now, Teo,” Sorin said from behind him, making him jump. “You have solemn responsibilities. Like knowing how to hold a baby.”
Teo gave in, letting Radu and Sorin tease and coach him through having Elena transferred carefully into his arms. Watching them, Hannah wondered how often the twins had been the one to teach Teo something new and scary, as his next-older brothers. It only made sense that they were the ones to help him learn to be an uncle, even if they were just as new at it as he was.
It struck Hannah suddenly that they’d deviated from strict age order. Ilie, or Becca, ought to have handed Elena off to Laurence. When Hannah looked around for him, though, Laurence was nowhere in sight.
No one else seemed to notice. Ilie and Becca were standing by the crib having a low-voiced conversation while Mouse sat attentively at their feet. Cara was holding Gus’s hand very firmly to keep him from hovering over Elena and her uncles. Radu and Sorin, of course, wouldn’t notice or care if Laurence vanished from the face of the earth, and Teo was entirely occupied with the solemn responsibility of holding Elena correctly.
Hannah slipped back to the stairs, and went quietly down.
Laurence, as she’d half expected, was standing by the drinks again.
He glanced over at her, seeming unsurprised by her presence and not especially interested. He poured himself a drink and kept his back turned. Hannah walked halfway over to him, wondering what to say. She barely knew him, really. He was scarcely a part of the family she was just now joining.
“Do you know what they’re all thinking right now?” Laurence asked quietly.
Hannah glanced upstairs. Aside from Teo, she thought they were probably all thinking, I want one of those.
“Every one of them,” Laurence said quietly. “The second they saw her—every one of them knew he would burn down the world for her.”
Hannah blinked. It was hard to see that in the joyful, excited men upstairs, but... they were dragons, after all, and a protective father and protective uncles.
“I think most people...” Hannah began hesitantly.
Laurence barked out a harsh laugh and then gulped from the glass he’d poured. “Most people. These are dragons, Ms. Cole. We are dragons. It is not hyperbole for us.”
Hannah shook her head. She had seen Gus turn fierce now and again: as a mayor shielding his town from the state’s interference, in his private life being protective of Cara or Ilie. She could well imagine Radu being ruthless in the same circumstances. But she couldn’t imagine Ilie or Sorin or Teo hurting anyone at all, except in the most desperate situation.
“You don’t believe me,” Laurence said, half turning toward her.
He folded his arms across his chest and his sleeves pulled back slightly, revealing matching bracelets on each of his wrists. Unlike any other jewelry she’d ever seen a dragon shifter wearing, these were gleaming black, just barely accented with gold.
Laurence lowered his arms, shaking his shirt sleeves down, and she knew she’d seen something he meant to keep hidden. But she didn’t have time to think of it before he was suddenly coming toward her, stalking fast. Hannah took an involuntary half-step back, but Laurence came close enough to lean in and whisper.
“Dragons are creatures of fire,” he whispered. “And you think you can tame two of them? I really thought you had more sense.”
Hannah looked up at him, speechless.
“Laurence,” Radu said, his voice calm and cool.
Hannah backed up another step and looked to see both of her mates on the stairs looking identically, coldly furious.
Hannah suddenly could believe everything Laurence had said.
“By all means,” Laurence said. He turned away without a word, striding straight out of the room.
Hannah looked up again just in time to see Sorin take the remaining stairs in a single leap, rushing to wrap his arms around her. She leaned into him and reminded herself that she knew him, that he was her sweet, charming mate. Radu was there a moment later, coming to stand before her while Sorin was pressed against her back, holding her between them.
She reached up and put her hands on either side of Radu’s face, drawing him down for a lingering kiss.
“If he said something cruel to you...” Radu murmured as he pulled away. She could see the flicker of fire in his eyes.
“Just say the word,” Sorin added, tightening his arms.
Hannah shook her head. All these d
ragons trying to protect her from each other—even Laurence, she thought, in his misguided way.
“He’d been drinking,” she said gently, keeping one hand on Radu’s cheek and reaching back to Sorin with the other. Even if she didn’t need protecting, it felt so good to be tucked in between them.
“It was nothing,” she added. “I swear.”
“We believe you,” Sorin murmured. “But really—any excuse.”
Hannah shook her head. “Behave, both of you.”
She felt them both twitch a little at that, and they murmured, “Yes, ma’am,” in perfect unison.
You think you can tame two of them? Laurence had asked, but Hannah knew she already had.
“Can we go home?” Hannah asked, twisting in her mates’ grip so she could look up at both of them.
They nodded, their eyes dark and eager.
“Will you let us take you to our home?” Radu asked quietly. “We haven’t got our own house here, but we do have our hoard.”
Hannah felt herself get wet all at once, her heart beating faster. The hoard was part of the way she would become truly their mate, bound to these creatures of fire for good.
“Please,” Hannah said. “Yes, now.”
“We’ll fly,” Sorin murmured, taking her hand. “We’ll be there before you know it.”
***
Radu carried her this time, and Hannah snuggled against his chest, staring out at the starry night sky. She could see the lights of the town in the valley below them, small and tidy from this vantage point, and the sweep of the woods and the mountain slopes lit by the moonlight.
She felt perfectly safe against Radu’s enormous scaled chest with Sorin flying just to their left. She only wished the flight could be longer.
Another time, Radu promised her silently.
Hannah squeezed both hands around his massive foreleg, feeling love for her dragons nearly overwhelm her.
They soon landed at the entrance to a cave in a clearing on the mountainside. Radu and Sorin shifted back to their human forms right there under the sky.
