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Striker hesitated for a moment before he slung his arm around Cassidy’s shoulders. He met Steph’s eyes steadily. “She does.”

Steph dropped his arms and pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was suddenly exhausted. “Well, that’s good, I guess.”

“It would’ve happened eventually,” Cassidy said. “We’re fated, right? So who cares if it takes a few months or a few weeks. It’s not like I’m going to change my mind.”

Mia chuckled. “I wanted to let Hawk claim me after a week.”

“What?” I squawked. “But you said?—”

She waved a hand. “I know, I know. Iwantedto let him claim me, but I made him work for it.”

Steph stiffened slightly next to me. I wondered how he felt about Striker claiming his mate before he’d claimed me. Would this finally make him go through with it even though it was risky?

“What’s going on?” Dylan scampered down the stairs, dressed in his running shorts and a T-shirt. “What are you guys talking about?”

“Boring adult stuff,” I said quickly. I definitely wasn’t ready to have the fated-mates conversation with my son. He needed to be a little older for that.

“Ready to go, Dylan?” Mia asked. “We need to get moving or else we’ll be late.”

Dylan frowned at me. I hadn’texactlybeen lying—fated mates were definitely adult stuff, but his dragon could probably tell I wasn’t fully being truthful, either. I’d have to get used to that. I tugged him to my side and kissed the top of his head. “Go have fun with your new friends, Dyl.”

“I will,” Dylan said as he followed Mia out of the house. She winked at us as she closed the door.

“And we need to go to the clubhouse,” Steph said.

“Right.” Striker’s eyes widened slightly. Clearly he’d forgotten about whatever had been planned. “Right, we do.” He didn’t let go of Cassidy.

Cassidy pouted. “Already?”

“Yes, now,” Steph said.

I chuckled and rolled my eyes. “You can stand to be apart for a few hours.”

“What if I can’t?” Cassidy whined. She snuggled closer to Striker’s side. “We only just got mated!”

“I promise I won’t be gone long,” Striker said in a low voice. He touched Cassidy’s cheek, turning her face toward his, and then caught her lips in a deep kiss. Areallydeep kiss. The kind of kiss that should be confined to private bedrooms. Jeez.

Steph snorted. He turned and caught my lips in a kiss. It wasn’t as horny as Cassidy and Striker’s, but it still felt wonderful, and I melted against him. When we broke apart, Cassidy and Striker werestilltangled up.

“Okay, lovebirds.” Steph chuckled. He grabbed Striker by the shoulder and pulled him away from Cassidy. “Time to get back to work.”

Striker looked a lot like Dylan when I told him to shut off his video games and go to bed. “All right, all right, I’m going.” Steph kept his hand on Striker’s shoulder and walked him to the door, like he was afraid Striker might bolt back to Cassidy. Honestly, from the way they were looking at each other, I was sure he would.

The door clattered closed, leaving me and Cassidy alone in the house. There were enforcers around the perimeter, but for once, there were no dragons in the house.

I picked up my mug and took a long sip.

Cassidy crossed her arms over her chest. She frowned as she met my gaze, then threw her arms up over her head. “It’s notthatcrazy!”

“It’s pretty crazy,” I said.

“It’s not like we were having sex all night,” Cassidy said. “We weretalking.”

“Sure you were,” I teased. “That’s how you got that claiming bite, right? Talking?”

She had the decency to blush. “Seriously, we talkeda lot. And it just felt… easy.”

I took another sip of my coffee. I could relate to that ease. It was like that with Steph. I could talk to him about anything.