Tristan: The Manning Dragons ― Paranormal Dragon Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “I’d be honored if you called me Dad. And I won’t promise you I won’t get all teared up, but I’ll do my best to be manly about it if Wynter is around. She’ll make fun of me.” Stephan smiled. “While we’re on the subject of names, are you Stephan or Steve? Susie calls you Steve. Everyone else calls you Stephan. Which do you prefer?”

  “Steve. And thank you.” He asked him for what. “Mostly for being there for us when you didn’t have to be. I know that we’re a lot to take on, with the two of us having nothing. But I’m really glad that, of all the people that we knew, you’re the ones that helped save us.”

  “I’m very glad that we were too. Now, after you work on your project for school on my computer, we’ll fix up your computer so that you can use it. If you have any trouble with anything that you have or need anything, just let us know, son. All right? We can’t help you if we don’t know what needs to be fixed.” He nodded and looked down at the keyboard. “I’ll have Tidbit bring you in some cookies as well. Supper is going to be soon, but you need to keep up your strength when working on homework.”

  Going to the kitchen, he found that Wynter had returned. She’d been working on a project for Hudson involving the children and what they’d been through. So far as the kids knew, however, she was just in town having lunch with someone. They didn’t ask, and that was all he said about it. When she smiled at him, Tristan knew that things had gone well, and he was glad.

  Supper was going to be a comfort meal for them all. They were having pot roast with all the trimmings. His favorite was the homemade bread, but he was not going to be a hog and try to eat it all himself. At least this time, he thought. There were green beans too, as well as creamy mashed potatoes. Another favorite of his.

  Tristan had gone out early this morning, before the sun was even up, and used his dragon to burn away all the snow off his driveway, as well as a few others where the homeowners were elderly and didn’t have a snow blower. Tristan hated those things. They were noisy, as well as blew the snow everywhere you didn’t want it to be.

  After Susie said that she was going to her room, Wynter and he sat down at the bar in the kitchen and she told him what they’d been able to unearth. None of it was anything that he’d wish on his worst kind of enemy.

  “Steve was sold off four times. The idiot kept records of the money he made off the kid, if you can believe that. White also made note that people didn’t care for Steve being older. They wanted younger. There are names in the book of the people that paid him for him. Hudson suggested that we get both of them into see someone about this. Just in case.” He said that he’d been looking into that today. “Good. Okay, bad news. However, we can fix it. The blood tests came back that Steve has a blood disorder. The report didn’t say AIDS, but it sounds like it. Tonight, after Susie is in bed, we’ll talk to him about it, and see about giving him some of our blood to cure it. I wanted to go to the fucking morgue and kill the man all over again.”

  “Yes, well, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve had to restrain myself several times today with Susie. After I got home today, she asked me about Christmas and the list you asked her to make. She had no idea what you were talking about, or even who Santa was.” He thought about Steve. “You think he knows?”

  “No, I hope not, but it’ll be fine. Cooper was there for a little while, just when the report came in. He said that it would more than likely only take a couple of drops of blood to cure him of it. He was pretty pissed off too.” Tristan had spoken to his brother earlier, but he’d not mentioned that. But he was pissed about White in general. “Okay, more good. Susie is doing very well in her classroom. She’s very shy about fitting in, but the teacher said that she’s very willing and able to go around the room and help the other children that aren’t catching up as quickly as she is. Steve taught her how to read too. I’m sure there was a reason for it, but right now I only want to bask in the happiness that she’s very smart. So is Steve, for that matter.”

  “He’s in my office working on my computer right now. While he does like having a computer, I think, he doesn’t have any idea how to set it up. He’s just worried about breaking something. I told him that we’d set that up later.” She nodded. “Well, are you going to tell me how smart he is?”

  “Yes, sorry, I was basking still.” She grinned. “Steve has passed the test that they gave him to place him in classes, to see how caught up he is. I guess he missed a great deal of school? Anyway, he should be in two grades higher, even going so far as taking college classes if he wishes to. But if it’s all right with you, I don’t want to push that yet. The college classes can be taken from here. The kid has been enough of a target since his mother passed away. I’d like for him to have normal for a little while. If you don’t mind.”

  “No, I think you might be right on that. They’ve been through enough right now. We’ll take care of whatever needs to be done over the summer months, when they can adjust.” Wynter told him he was brilliant. “Not too much. I just follow your lead, and that makes me look good. What else did you find out about them?”

  Wynter told him of the doctors’ visits, as well as sometimes the kids would come up missing. White called the police when he simply had no luck in tracing them. Then she talked about their mother.

  “From everything that we could find out, she was a hell of a person. Always generous with what she had. Never leaving her kids without, but she gave away what she could. Then when she became ill, White, who had not been living with them until then, took over everything. Making it so that at some point, they were asked to leave the complex they were living in.” Tristan asked if that was when she died. “Yes. It was too much on her already cancer ridden body. About two months after they were tossed out on their asses, she died in the car they were living in. It was a sad state of affairs, if you can imagine.”

  “I can’t imagine what the kids were feeling, but I understand a great deal more than I did before. I’m guessing that she was buried without much either.” She told him that Mrs. White had been cremated to save money. “This also explains why the kids were so ready to give up on their father. He had left them high and dry already. Those poor kids.”

  Wynter nodded and went to sit on his lap. “I don’t think it’s wise to spoil them just because we have money to do that. And I have to admit, that is just what I want to do. But then we’d be raising them to be overprivileged kids, and I don’t want that either. We will set limits on everything, all right?” He agreed with her. “And chores to do. They should have those too if they want money to spend on their own.”

  “Good. We’ll buy them what they need, but nothing too extravagant.” He smiled at her. “You really think that we can follow these rules, love? I mean, really?”

  “We are.” She looked at him. “We will, Tristan. I don’t want to have to deal with them when they’re older, and they expect everyone to do what they want when they want it simply because they come from a wealthy family.”

  When she walked away from him, he smiled. While they’d only been married for a little while, he knew for a fact that she wasn’t going to be able to be that tough anymore than he could. Laughing, he went to find her. Maybe he could convince her that they needed to do a little bit of Christmas shopping online tonight.

  ~*~

  The woman was dead, by a gunshot wound to the stomach. Whatever was going on with the murders, Wynter wanted to get to the bottom of it. The entire family had been informed of what they knew, so they were all on the outlook for the person who might have killed her.

  The police had arrived not long after Grace had informed them of what she’d found. Lincoln held her while she cried. It was hard on all of them, knowing that this poor woman had been so close to getting help and they’d not been able to do anything about it. Xavier asked the most obvious question that none of them had wanted to think about.

  “Do you think this is an attempt to make it so that I don’t have a mate? I mean, could there be another slayer around?” No one
had an answer for him, so they just let it go. When he stood up to leave the room, Wynter went to hug him. “I didn’t think I wanted a mate, that I could be happy with just being the only single uncle. But I’m not sure that I want that anymore. I want to have the same happiness that the rest of you do.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of this, Xavier. I promise you that we will.”

  Winnie had left them when the body was found. She said that she had some contacts that might be able to shed some light on what was going on. She had told Hudson that she might be a couple of days; she wanted to look into the other bodies too.

  “Did she have any identification on her?” All they’d been able to find, Hank told her, was a small money pouch that was full of tens and twenties. “So are we thinking that she knew she was going to be killed and took off? Or was she kidnapped and brought out here to die?”

  “Grace, were the other women…? Do you know if they were around here at all, either before they were killed or after?” Wynter had forgotten that Grace, through her paintings, had a sort of direct line to the women. “How many paintings do you have to finish yet?”

  “Three total. This woman was one of them. As to where they are from, I can tell you that one of them resided in Columbus. The picture that I have of her is in the North Market. It was her with two other people that I don’t know. Her death occurred right outside the Crew soccer field. That’s a lot of assuming, but that’s all I know. Another of the women died close to the downtown area, but I don’t have any idea where she was when she was alive. For all I know, they could just be visitors and he found them that way.” She started to cry again. “She didn’t stand a chance. She wasn’t just murdered on the land, but the mountain too. I mean, I know how much that mountain means to each of us. It’s the rock, the foundation behind our homes.”

  There was very little that they could do tonight, so after they left to go home, Wynter and Tristan went into the yard behind their home and changed into their dragons. They needed a reprieve, Tristan said. Something that was theirs and theirs alone that they could do right now. Wynter agreed with him. They’d gone from the hot pan to the boiling water since they’d been together.

  They flew around, nipping at each other, having a grand time with the feeling of freedom by being their other selves. Each time they landed on the mountain; they’d end up making love. It was quick and fun. Then they’d be in the sky again.

  By midnight they were heading back in. Tristan picked her up from the stairs and carried her all the way up. By the time they made it to the bedroom, she was panting hard and naked. Tristan seemed to have caught his second wind.

  “I want to taste all of you. From the tip of your most delicious toes to the top of that beautifully soft head of hair.” He kissed each of her toes before speaking again. “Then I’m going to start on you around your body. From the back of your legs to the front. Your lovely ass to your delicious pussy.”

  When he got to his knees she was melting with need. He had kissed each of her toes, massaged her feet and ankles until she was sure that she was nothing more than putty. Begging him to just take her did no more good this time than any other time she’d begged him. Tristan was bound and determined to take his time with her.

  He ate her hungrily, tasting every inch of her as he held her to his mouth. Even when he moaned against her, it was like having a vibrator pushed to her clit. It would send her off in so many directions that she couldn’t imagine where she’d end up.

  As he made his way up her body, with her thankful for the posts on the bed to hold her upright, he touched her with just his fingers, massaged her with the palms of his hand. Each place felt like he’d branded her. Every nip on her skin was almost as if he had taken her flesh into himself. When he touched his mouth to her, it was all she could do to hang onto him and kiss him. Letting him know with her mouth and body what he’d made her feel.

  “I’m going to take you right here.” She nodded, too overwhelmed to speak. “And when I do, I’m going to make you scream out so loudly that the house will come down upon us.”

  “Please.” He laughed a little, lifting one of her legs up so that it was wrapped over his hip. “I need you, Tristan.”

  “All in good time, my love, all in good time.” He devoured her breast when he lifted it to his mouth. Her nipple was abused by his teeth and lips. She wanted him to stop, but more of her wanted all of him. When Tristan finally slid his cock into her, she cried out loudly while biting down on his shoulder, tasting his blood. “That’s what I need, baby. I need you to know that you’re mine.”

  She did, but didn’t think she’d ever be able to tell him that. Wynter felt overwhelmed and needy. And it wasn’t until he started to move inside of her that she noticed the mirror behind him.

  Christ, it was the most erotic thing she’d ever witnessed. His back muscles tightened up when he moved inside of her. His ass, hard and tone, looked like something she’d like to nibble on, something that she’d lick the sweat from. Each time he moved, his refection would show her just how much effort he was putting into their lovemaking.

  When he came, she watched not only as he moved harder and faster, but the veins in his body were more pronounced, his muscles tight with the workout. It made her wetter still when he nuzzled her neck, telling her to come when he threw back his head and roared out a second, then a third release that had her falling so hard, so finally, that she knew that she’d never wake up from the best sex she’d ever had in her life.

  When she woke the sun was streaming into the room. Wynter decided that she wasn’t able to move. She wasn’t even sure that she ever wanted to again, as relaxed as she was right now. Moving her fingers across the bed, she felt Tristan there, his ass as nice and firm as it had been last night. Not moving any more, exhaustion taking her under once again, Wynter smiled, knowing that she’d given him something that she’d never been able to before. Tristan had slept past the morning sun coming up.

  Waking again—she didn’t know how late it was—she got up. Tristan was gone this time, his side of the bed cold. Moving so she could take a shower had her moaning hard. Her body was sore, and the muscles in her legs were tight too.

  Walking to the bathroom hurt more than she thought it should, but she smiled when she found the note and the dozen roses on the counter. She kissed the envelope the note was in before opening it.

  “My dearest love. We were insatiable last night. Anytime you wish a repeat of that, you let me know so that I can stock up on vitamins and fluids. I love you with all that I am. Love, Tristan.”

  For whatever reason the pain just flew away as she got under the spray of hot water and it sprayed over her. Scrubbing her body showed her where she was the most tender, but she muscled through it. Tomorrow was the first day of the kids’ Thanksgiving break, and she had a whole list of things that she wanted to do with them.

  For today, however, she was going to check on the progress of the murdered woman, to see if anyone had found any news about her, or even if she was being targeted because she might be Xavier’s mate. Going into the kitchen, she wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Tidbit putting bread and warm scones on the plate. What did surprise her was having Carson in the room too.

  “I came by to give you an update on what Winnie was able to find out. She’ll be coming home soon, but she has two more places that she needs to check on. The good news is she doesn’t think that it has anything to do with Xavier or his mate. There is just a madman out on the hunt for pretty redheads.” It wasn’t funny, but they both did giggle a little. “The woman that was found in the mountain is Carol Lipscomb. Thirty-five, single, no children. Winnie seems to think that even though she was a redhead, it had nothing to do with the other two murders. Grace is trying to figure out that part too. Her current drawings never showed Miss Lipscomb. I’m glad to hear that. She has a few people working on her death now.”

  “What about the others? What has been found out about them?” Carson said nothing as yet, as
they were in different states when they were killed. “So Winnie is trying to have them all put together so they can be looked into by a single department.”

  “Something like that, I guess.” Carson looked at Tidbit. “These are amazing. If you give me the recipe to take home, I’ll be beholden to you forever.”

  He handed her an index card as he put two more on each of their plates. “I love trying out new things too. But I have to say, scones have become my favorite breakfast food.”

  Carson said that they were for her as well.

  “Xavier is afraid that he’ll not have a mate when this is all finished.” Carson asked Wynter if she was serious. “Yes. He said that he’d thought that he could be all right with being the favorite uncle with the kids, but he wants the same happiness that we all have. I hope he can be.”

  “I do too, but I don’t think that’s going to be a problem. Xavier, of all the brothers, is the sweetest one. If his mate is anything like any of us, she’ll eat him alive.” Wynter said that she’d step in if it came to that. “I don’t think it will, honestly. Also, I think that Xavier can hold his own when pushed. He’s just the baby, not really very old, according to how old the rest of them were when they were changed. I don’t think he remembers his parents as well as the others either. That bothers him sometimes.”

  “I wish there were pictures of their parents that we could find. I’m sure there aren’t, but wouldn’t that be wonderful?” Carson said that she didn’t even know how to get a drawing of either of their parents made. The boys all had different parts of them that they remembered. “And I’m sure that each of them thinks that theirs is just the way she looked, too.”

  “Yes. Oh, before I forget. Foster is complaining about having nothing to do. I’ve been trying to find something, but nothing that is too taxing on him. He might be an immortal, but he’s sort of fragile, don’t you think?” Wynter told her that she thought that he was a good deal stronger than he looked. “Maybe that’s what he wants us to see. That he’s sort of old and over the hill. He wished for his immortality to be taken away. He said that he no more deserves it than he does a new set of teeth. I’m not sure where that came from, but you know him.”