by L M Lacee
“Still I am in the dark.”
“She!” June said as she pointed at the shamed Claire. “Was placing furniture in here for the past three weeks. All ready for the big move in day. Which is in a week’s time or was!”
“Oh, I see!” He said as he looked at his dejected shadow.
June threw her hands up in the air. “Do you… Do you really? Why don’t you explain it to me?”
Lars took Claire’s hand in his and asked softly. “Claire my shadow, can you cook?” Surprised by the question they both looked at him.
June started to ask. “What has that…?
Lars raised one brow at her. She clamped her mouth shut on the rest of the question. Claire shrugged as she looked up into the gentle smiling face of her mate and sighed again. “I try but no I cannot.”
“I can attest to that!” June mumbled.
They ignored her as Lars asked. “You have no idea about a home do you?”
Relieved that he seemed like he understood. Claire answered. “No, I thought about it and looked at books and on the net but…” She fluffed her hair this was something she rarely did as she was very rarely flustered. “It was all so confusing…You know?”
He nodded. “I do!” At her skeptical look he assured her. “I do! Now as a dragon when we find our shadow, we can do two things!” Both she and June raised their eyebrows. Claire was the one to ask with a cheeky grin. “Only two?”
June asked. “What the hell has cooking, now dragon stuff to do with this?”
But again they ignored her. Lars grinned at Claire as he said. “Sassy! No I can do more than two things, which I will show you later.” Lars appreciated the anticipatory look that entered Claire’s eyes as he said. “For this exercise let us stay with this. Dragons will court their shadows, which can range from days to weeks.”
Claire scrunched her nose up at that. She wanted him with her and Kammy now. Shifters did not put off mating. Even half shifters could find themselves in trouble if they were courted for too long and too long was never an exact science. So not happening! Lars secretly smiled as his dragon did. Shadow does not like that!
Out loud he said. “I see like me that thought holds no appeal. So the other option is we can bond immediately!”
“What right now?” Claire on occasion was quite literal, she looked around at June as she asked. “Are you sure?”
He laughed as he hugged her. “No, not immediately I mean without courtship. It would entail you coming and staying in my apartment with me. And I will secure the help from June and Grace to furnish our home.” He looked at June who nodded. “Definitely Grace.”
Claire spread her hands helplessly. Oh…Oh! I like that. See I really just do not understand all that furniture stuff. You know?”
June said. “Why did you not say?”
Claire scowled. “I am a mother and an adult. I should be able to do this or at least that was what I hoped would happen.”
June nodded, as it all came together for her. The secretiveness, the never wanting to shop with her or Sage. Claire had never had a real home, not even in childhood. Her parents had been the criminal unstable sort, who traveled from city to city usually with police looking for them. So Claire would no more know what to place in a house to make it a home than she would be able to fly like a dragon.
June felt bad she should have realized and remembered Claire’s past, she hugged her as she said. “Yeah, I get that. We better include Sage. She will be pissed if we leave her out and then there will be sulking, loads of sulking.”
“True!” Claire said with a relieved laugh.
Lars said. “Same for Lady Verity. Mama will be upset but do not be fooled, that female is nasty when she is thwarted and this would be thwarting.”
They all grinned thinking of the sweet Verity being pissed. Finally, June asked them. “Okay so we have a plan?”
“We do?” Claire asked a little startled as she looked at her friend and mate.
“Yep, don’t worry, we have this. What do you think?” She asked Lars, who said with his arm around Claire. “Do you have a tablet?”
“Of course!” June took it from her purse.
“Well, let’s look around and make lists.” He removed his arm much to Claire’s regret and rubbed his hands together. “I love this, when I designed this house, I imagined it complete with furniture and fixtures.”
“Wait… Wait!” Claire said as June and she stood with opened mouths as Claire asked. “You designed this home?”
“I did! Several of us were asked to try and design a few homes, and this was one of mine. I can show you others I designed but I have to say this is the best of them.” He stood there, tall handsome and damn it, talented. Claire felt the lip of the well she was going to topple into. Love she knew was down at the bottom just waiting for her to dive feet first in.
“Oh my, is this fate or what?” June asked Claire who agreed. “It truly is!”
June said. “Yep! It is what we call magic!”
“Of course it is.” said Lars. “This is Dragon’s Gap!”
CHAPTER EIGHT:
T hey moved slowly through the house, every now and again Kammy would come and find them, if they were silent for too long.
Amazingly enough as they moved from room to room Claire did not find discussing furniture and fixtures. Now she knew what that meant intimidating or overwhelming at all or worse of all boring. With both Lars and June there to help and suggest items. Like it had been when she had spent hours searching for furniture. In truth they did most of the decision making which made it fun for Claire.
Lars said casually at one point. “As this is to be our home. We will have servants and luckily I have both a chef and butler that I know will be willing to work for us. I will ask them if they are interested.”
June nodded. “I am sure both Noah and Braxton will wish to come. Will they be live in?”
“Yes and no, the plans for this home included an apartment over the garage. I will have that installed, or they can live in town. In fact that may be a better idea as they both need to socialize, it has been a while since they did.”
June said. “I can sort that out. Would you like me to ask them both for you?”
Lars smiled and shook his head. “Thank you, but I will when they get back from vacation.”
“Oh, where did they go?”
“To a beach resort Reighn owns. It is a nice vacation place, you should visit.” June smiled and got a dreamy look on her face. “You know I just might. It sounds great.”
Claire came out of her daze that the words servants had put her in, and asked. “We what now?”
He and June looked at her as they all entered a kitchen that could be appreciated even by those that could not cook. All three of them sighed at the large room with gleaming granite counters in soft greys and whites. It came with a butler’s pantry and stainless steel appliances so new they shone. They stood on wooden oak floors that echoed the elegance of the kitchen and dining room.
The large separate dining area was stunning with large glass doors and soft grey painted walls. Lars said to Claire as she looked around her. “Braxton and Noah work for me. They are brothers former Hunter and Shield. Noah is the chef, a very good one. Braxton is a butler or man servant whichever you want to call him. He is trained and is very good. We cannot take one without the other.”
Claire smiled there was more to the story about the brothers, she could tell from the warmth in Lars voice as he spoke of them. She would ask about them at another time, for now all she said was. “Of course you could not. Will they want to work for Kammy and me?”
“They are dragons of course they will, but I will ask.” He said when he saw her doubtful face. “I swear they will.”
“Okay.”
Lars spread his arms out as he walked into the dining area and said. “Now I imagined a large twelve seater table here.”
Claire nodded and said. “Wood, with royal blue cushions on the chairs.” She looked out
the large glass doors that led out onto a huge covered in patio. “With a similar table and chairs for outside, it will flow, and we will need a swimming pool. Kammy needs to swim, tigers like swimming and a playground over there. That way we can sit on the patio and watch her.” She asked softy. “Can you see it?” Lars took her hand and kissed the work roughened palm. “I can, very clearly my shadow.”
June asked, “I thought you said you were no good at this?”
Claire looked puzzled for a minute, “I just know that it is right!”
June mumbled. “Oh okay then. Good!”
Lars tucked Claire’s hand in his arm and said. “For the lounge…” And on they went again with Claire voicing every now and again something she saw. Something she knew was meant to be there. Not once did June or Lars scoff at her ideas, they just wrote them down and added them to the list. In two hours Kammy was in Lars arms, and Claire was exhausted. June said. “Lunch and then nap for little tigers.”
Lars agreed. “Let me take you all to lunch.” And then he told Claire. “While Kammy naps, we should go to my place and see what we would like to have shipped here?”
“Well that is a new one on come and see my etchings!” June snickered.
“Hush female.” Snarled Claire, “Ruining the moment.”
June laughed as she went outside to hail the cab. Lars said just in case Claire was unsure. “Claire, my shadow. She is not wrong you know!”
“Oh, I know.” He was sure he heard her mutter as she walked out the door. “It better be what I am thinking!”
Shifters were impatient when they found their mates, bonding needed to happen to secure the relationship as soon as possible. Claire needed it sooner rather than later. Trust was an enormous issue for her, having Lars committed to their relationship, bound to her and Kammy was essential to meet her and her cat’s needs. To secure him physically to her so she would believe he would not leave her, was essential to her.
Lunch was a mixture of laughter and great food. Kammy fell more under Lars spell. She just loved her new daddy especially when Lars promised her, she could meet his dragon the following morning. And he would definitely take her for a fly over the castle so Molly could see she had a dragon daddy too.
When she grew, tired Lars placed her on his knee and his dragon sang for her. She joined in with her purr until she went to sleep, it was adorable. Claire lost what was left of her heart to the dragon. She fell into the well, just tipped right on over the side and yes there it was, love at the bottom. Like she knew it would be just waiting for her!
They drove back to the castle, and June took Kammy for her nap and to get started on the orders for Claire and Lars’s home. She was also going to notifying her work force.
Lars took Claire to his apartment. She was stupefied when she walked in and became more agitated as she moved through each room. In his kitchen was every appliance known to man. And every one of them looked as though they were used often. The same could not be said for the lounge suite. It barely looked used and when she peeked a look inside his expensive lavish bathroom she felt a whimper start in her throat. Which became more of a whine when she looked inside his closets and found it was full of expensive clothes. All types from suits to jeans.
On the walls throughout the apartment were swords and all manner of well-used weapons. When she came to a stop in the middle of his lounge facing him. She could not fail to see all the pieces of art mixed with weapons that decorated the walls and tables. The place was so not what she expected. She had thought it would be a bachelor’s apartment with beer, pizza boxes and clutter all over the surfaces and the normal male’s huge TV.
It was not, everything was in its place and tidy. So damn tidy. This was nothing like her, in fact as hard as she tried she was not a tidy person. She shook her head slowly from side to side.
Lars took a step towards her… She took one back as her hand curled over her heart. He stopped, his head tipped to the side studying her, softly he asked. “What is it my shadow?”
“Oh Lars no… No… This! She threw her hands out. “We can never work.” She whispered as she looked around the elegantly furnished room. Everywhere she looked was class and sophistication.
Lars’s dragon panicked when he saw his shadow start to fold in on herself. Fix our shadow! She is sad. Say something. What do we do?
Lars eyes narrowed as he thought back over the morning and then her attitude to himself and his family. He looked around seeing his home through her eyes and not his.
“My shadow, are you saying a few things that can be broken, replaced and discarded are more important than what we can generate together. What we can have, as a family? I live like this because I live alone. My apartment is well suited to a bachelor that has lived for many years by himself, to please himself. I have gone through the messy stage. The never be at home stage. The nothing in the house stage. The so cluttered Mama Verity threatened to burn the castle down just to clean it stage.” Claire was laughing now as she looked at him. “I am at the, everything in its place stage but that too will pass I am sure. And truthfully since Braxton and Noah arrived it is even neater and cleaner. They are good at that.” He shrugged as he saw her starting to relax. “I am sure you have been gathering things over the years as I have, while I waited for you and Kammy to enter my life. Unlike you I have had many more years to gather things. So I am asking are you saying no to us because you think I will weigh you against them.”
Claire wanted to shout. Yes of course I am! I am just a street kid who came from criminal parents. But as she stood there looking at her mate, a male that thought no more for the couch he sat on. Than she did for the shirt she had put on that morning. She realized three things. One, she was better than this weak female standing here before her mate with all these insecurities. And two, objects no matter how expensive they were, did not make the person. Only family, love and truth did! Three, she was no longer that street kid, that scared unwanted child who needed the camouflage of her clothes to hide from people. The same one who had kept people at a distance, to protect herself.
She was able to protect herself. She did so every day for her and Kammy. Armed with words and if needed, a gun and if she found she was unable too. Then this wonderful marvellous dragon, that stood here with her now and saw beneath the clothes to only her, would.
Softly she assured him. “No…No, I am not, but I also know I am better than what I have allowed myself to believe. I dressed like this!” She waved her hand down her body, not realizing Lars tongue became glued to the roof of his mouth with wanting. “For protection to discourage those that I did not trust. I used my camouflage well, but I suspect it is time to discover who I am now without it. So before this goes any further, can you help me with a new look? To find a new me?”
He stalked her, she could call it nothing else but stalking as he paced towards her. “I happen to like how you dress but in saying that I understand your need to change, as we all are doing. To evolve from the old to the new, so to that end we will keep your style but add quality agreed?”
She grinned. “Yes very much and hair, I like my hair but a little tender loving care may be in order.”
“Your hair is just fine as it is!” He said as she moved away from him and he tracked her. “I so enjoy hair that has its own personality. We will leave that alone!”
“Well if you insist.” She backed into the bedroom as she tore her tee shirt over her head. At the same time she kicked off her boots and brought a hand to her jeans zipper. She started to lower it. Every muscle in his body had tensed as she revealed her luscious breasts wrapped in some grey cloth, while her hand moved over the zipper he growled. “Wait!”
Her face paled. “I am sorry, I thought…”
He stepped quickly to her, growling low in his throat.
“My shadow, do not apologize, I just… and his voice lowered even more becoming more dragon than human. “I just wish to unwrap the rest myself. I have thought of nothing else since I saw your del
ectable body walk towards me!”
Claire lowered her eyes demurely as she breathlessly said. “Oh… Oh! I see! Well, I would hate to deprive you of something you have wanted to do.” A smile blossomed over her small face, deepening the green of her eyes as he reached out a hand and removed hers from her zip.
He moved with her towards the bed as they lowered to the mattress, he leant nearer and finally… finally, he kissed her. While one hand slipped behind her back to unsnap her serviceable bra. Which he thought they would definitely rectify, breasts like these needed to be worshiped not bound and controlled. Once his bounty was released, he lowered the zip and pushed her jeans to the floor revealing sweet pink panties. Lars almost swallowed his tongue as he hoarsely told her. “My sweet you are full of surprises!”
Barely able to form words she mumbled. “You better be too… mate!”
Which made him laugh until she dragged his mouth to hers again and they fell deeper into the plush bed, with sighs and groans of satisfaction.
CHAPTER NINE:
L ars stood in Reighn’s office as his brother paced back and forwards in front of him.
“No, I forbid it!”
“My Lord! My brother!”
“No! As your Lord and your brother. I will never allow it!”
Lars smiled as he stood in front of Reighn and his mother. His other brothers, either sat or leaned against the walls around the room. Why they were all here in Reighn’s office was purely his annoying younger brother Keepers fault. The big mouth had seen Claire and Lars together entering Lars apartment. He had coerced June, who was still new to the castle. And did not know the castle fed on gossip to tell him everything.
Some hours later when he had come from his apartment leaving his shadow asleep and well satisfied. He was ambushed.
His dragon agreed. Yes, that was the word! Brother Keeper is annoying. I bet our shadow is all warm and waiting for us. We should challenge him to a swim. Then stand on his head.
I am sure she is. But remember papa said we were not allowed to do that anymore? His dragon’s sigh was a gust of wind through his mind before he stated. We were dragonets then!
