Page 8 of Born to Be Legends (Soulbound Universe)
Patrick got the bill paid but left the fortune cookie on the table.
They exited the restaurant, finding the jeweler waiting for them on the sidewalk.
In the sunlight, he looked even younger than Jono first thought, with thick black hair and dark brown eyes.
He still had no scent, which was incredibly off-putting.
Jono stuck close to Patrick as they followed the man to a store with a green awning above it and a banner in the window that said Under New Ownership. The jewelry displayed in the window wasn’t on the typical trays seen in other jewelers in Chinatown but on small, velvet-lined pedestals.
A bell overhead jangled when the door was pushed open. Inside the store was brightly lit, and there was a young woman with long black hair behind the counter, bent over a small worktable with a jeweler’s eyeglass on.
“Bàba!” a child shrieked, darting out from behind the counter before the woman could catch the boy.
The little toddler couldn’t be more than two, if that, and unlike his father, the boy carried a scent that was shockingly familiar. Beside him, Patrick turned his head to the side, squinting as if the lights were too bright when they weren’t.
“ Oh ,” Patrick said, blinking rapidly. “He’s a fledgling.”
The woman moved with supernatural speed, blurring around the counter to snatch up her son before the boy could reach his father.
The fear on her face washed it to whiteness, but whatever her husband said in Mandarin kept her from fleeing to the back room.
The little boy didn’t seem perturbed at all, giggling in his mother’s arms .
“My wife, Genji,” the man told them with a hesitant smile. “I am Yutao, and this is our son, Zichen.”
“You’re dragons,” Jono said, a hint of disbelief creeping into his voice. He’d only met two in his lifetime, and that was far more than anyone else ever would. Most people still believed dragons were a myth. Though in Jono’s experience, there was nothing myth-like about Wade’s appetite.
Yutao nodded. His wife said something sharply in Mandarin, to which he responded in a comforting tone before switching to English. “Yes, we are.”
“Why reveal yourselves to us?” Patrick asked curiously, no longer standing as if they were facing a threat. The shift was subtle in his body, but Jono was so tuned to the other man he saw it when no one else could.
“My wife and I were looking for a safe place to raise our son. We had heard your pack had taken in a fledgling orphan some years ago and that he is thriving.” Yutao smiled crookedly, gaze shifting back to his son, the fondness in his expression that of a proud father. “We want our son to thrive as well.”
“You couldn’t where you were?” Jono asked.
“If it was only Yutao and I, we would be okay,” Genji said haltingly. “But raising a fledgling…they cannot hide themselves.”
Years ago, they hadn’t known what Wade was until Patrick removed a god-created collar from his throat.
By dragon years, Wade was young , but at least he knew how to fight back now.
A toddler wouldn’t know how, though anyone who tried to take the fledgling from his parents was just asking to die, in Jono’s opinion.
“We were told New York City is safe for our kind. You made it safe.” Yutao turned to look at them again, an ancient weight to his gaze that would have made Jono’s hackles rise on instinct if he were in werewolf form. “So we came here. I did not think we would meet you.”
“Please don’t say it’s fate,” Patrick said with a groan.
Yutao laughed, gathering his son in his arms when Genji passed the boy over. “Fate does not drive our kind. But our paths crossed regardless, and it seems we may have something you need.”
Jono looked around the little jewelry shop with its display cases that weren’t bursting to the brim with gold jewelry like in other places.
The place smelled like metal, magic, and incense, much like the dragon family before them did now that they weren’t hiding.
It wasn’t Wade’s fiery, smoky scent but something more metallic and earthy.
“We are in the market for wedding rings.”
Both Yutao and Genji lit up at that. Genji went back behind the counter, appearing more at ease than she had been when they first stepped into the shop. “Let us show you what we have.”
Yutao set Zichen down, and the boy toddled around the store, trailing the scent of dragon behind him as his parents set out pairs of rings for Jono and Patrick to look at.
There weren’t many, and none had gemstones or diamonds inlaid in them.
But the metal—gold, rose gold, white gold, and platinum—gleamed in a way all the other rings they’d looked at that morning hadn’t.
When Jono picked up a white-gold one, it was warm to the touch but not hot enough to burn in any way.
“These—” Patrick cut himself off, turning one ring over and over again between his fingers with a contemplative look on his face. “These were made with magic.”
“They don’t carry any kind of spells in them. What you feel is just from how it was shaped by us,” Yutao promised.
Even if they didn’t, the rings would always stand out as having been made by a dragon. The satin-finish platinum band Jono held had a thin, off-center groove of 18k gold encircling it. The faint flash of the shiny gold gave it a subtle gleam he liked.
Patrick peered over at the one Jono held, a match for the ring he held. “Do you like this set?”
Jono hummed thoughtfully, staring down at the ring. It felt right to get a set of wedding rings from someone whose livelihood was in their work and not a corporate behemoth. “Yeah, I quite like it.”
“Then let’s get them.” Patrick smiled, a crooked little grin that had Jono leaning over to kiss the corner of his mouth in response .
“All right.” Jono tipped his head in the direction of Yutao and Genji. “We should bring Wade by sometime. It would be good for him to meet others of his kind.”
“Fair warning, he’s a sucker for kids,” Patrick said.
“We’d be happy to say hello,” Genji said with a half bow. “We’ll pack up your rings. And congratulations.”
The smile she gave them was a far cry from the fearful reaction of earlier.
Jono returned the smile and held out his hand so she could take the ring.
While they hadn’t made a choice at any of the appointments Sage had set up for them, Jono was happy with the spur-of-the-moment decision that had led them there.
As far as unexpected situations, it was a far cry better than the hostage one Patrick had gotten in the middle of.
“Happy?” Patrick asked quietly as they waited for the rings to be rung up.
Jono wrapped his arm around Patrick’s waist, hauling him close. He turned his head and buried his nose in dark red hair, breathing in the bitter-tinged scent of his lover. “I’m always happy when I’m with you.”
Soulbond aside, there wasn’t anything in this world or the next that could ever make Jono leave Patrick behind.