Page 20

Chapter Twenty

O rion boogied around the kitchen, scrubbing counters, getting ready to make his first batch of bread from sourdough starter. The Uinta branch of the Rocky Mountain clutch had given him some. Apparently, it was like, fifty years old.

He couldn’t wait.

Tisi lay in a little rocking chair thing on the floor, and Roderick was curled up at his feet. Cullen was napping on the couch just a stone’s throw away, his belly really starting to stick up.

So cute.

“Shake it, Tisi,” he said, grooving along with Daddy Yankee. “Shake it!”

Tisi raised a little fist into the air and squealed.

He was coming out of his tiny shell every day, but they kind of had to keep him partially swaddled or he started to have lift off. Those little wings were strong.

He grinned, rocking his hips as if he was surfing, arms out, singing and fake-rapping to his heart’s content. He moved to the fridge to pull out some milk to warm up, and when he turned around, he let out a shriek, almost dropping the milk.

Cullen popped up on the couch, blinking, hand on his belly. “What is it, love?”

“There’s a woman in the kitchen. She wasn’t here moments ago.”

Cullen stood, peering into the kitchen at him, then the woman. “Ah, Arian. How are you?”

“I am well.” She gave a faint, enigmatic smile. “How is my nephew?”

He looked at Cullen, raising his eyebrows.

“We believe he is recovering, Lady. Would you like to go see him? He’s at Corbin’s.”

“Yes. But first, may I meet this little one?”

Is she safe? Orion asked his mate.

As houses. She’s one of Mother’s best friends.

Okay.

“I’m Orion. Pleased to meet you.” He held out his hand, and she took it gently.

“Unicorn.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Ah. And this little one is a pegasus.”

“Yes,” Cullen said. “His name is Tisi.”

“Well come, Tisi.” She moved her hand to his forehead, touching his tiny face, and it looked like a blessing of some kind as her hand glowed gold.

His dark limpid eyes watched her, and he giggled.

“And well met, Orion. Now, Cullen, I should like to see Evander.”

“Of course.” Cullen winked at him. “Orion is making bread.”

“Mmm. I love bread.” She followed Cullen out, and he shook his head.

Damn. That lady reminded him of his Father, Rigel. Stately, deadly, no doubt, and ancient.

He turned the music on again, as somehow Arian had turned it off, and went back to dancing and cooking, but he also made tea and grabbed cookies out of the cookie jar, because he had no doubt the Lady would be back. Should he make little finger sandwiches?

She loves cheese. That was Cullen, and he could feel his mate’s laughter.

Little cheese sammies. Got it. In fact, he had pimiento cheese he’d made yesterday. Homemade was so much better.

So he got the bread mixed up and to its first rise, then made sandwiches and steeped tea, and by the time he was done, Cullen and Arian were back.

The Lady came right to Orion and hugged him. “You saved him.”

“Well, Corbin and I?—”

“No, I mean when he bit you. You healed him. Thank you.”

“I—Hey. I just have good blood.”

“But you gave it freely rather than killing him, which you easily could. So I am grateful.” She studied his little tray. “What is this?”

“White chocolate macadamia cookies and pimiento cheese sandwiches.”

“Ah, I adore strange cheese dishes.”

“Cullen said.” Sometimes his life seemed so surreal. This fae princess was about to have tea with him and his mate and eat orange cheese goo.

Roderick scampered over to the Lady and put his front paws on her leg, chittering.

“Hello, friend,” Arian said. “Is this a good house?”

Roderick answered, really chatting away in…marten.

“I thought so too.”

Can you understand him when he talks?

Cullen arched an eyebrow at him. I knew his name, didn’t I?

Oh. Cullen had a real point there. Right. Sorry.

Tisi watched Arian, his ebony eyes sharp and focused.

“Can I hold him?” she asked, and Cullen nodded.

“He would love that. Seriously. Tisi loves a cuddle.”

As if Tisi understood, those chubby arms and legs moved as if he was swimming, the baby obviously trying to get to Arian.

“He’s absolutely beautiful, aren’t you?” She held her arms open and Tisi flew right to her. “Oh, such a brilliant boy!”

Her tinkling laughter filled the air, and it felt like home, oddly, and he relaxed.

Tisi snuggled in, the baby’s wings fluttering like a hummingbird’s.

“I don’t know how we’re going to keep him on the ground.”

Cullen rolled his eyes. “We will just have to babyproof up high. I don’t see any sense in making something born to fly stay on the ground. That’s just mean.”

Orion looked at his mate and grinned. “Okay, ouch. You have a point. I hear you, and I guess you’re right. Dragons just don’t fly until they’re older, right?”

Cullen nodded. “I flew early, though. All three of us flew early, and who knows what our little one’s going to be?”

“Perfect.” Orion had no doubt. “We call her our butterfly.”

“She’s going to be amazing. The world has never had a baby quite like her born into the world.”

“She’s going to be all right.” Cullen put his hands over his belly, nodding to Arian. “She’s going to be okay.”

“Well, I don’t see how she couldn’t be? She has you and Orion and a new brother.”

Orion just kind of snorted. A half-unicorn, one-quarter dragon, a quarter fae. So, possibly a horn. Possibly wings? Possibly weirdly magical, but then all of them were in different ways.

Stop it, she’s going to be fine. These are butterflies. She’s moving. I’m not the size of a house, so she can’t be coming out in horse form. If you’d worked harder, you could have found yourself a nice, sweet, unicorn omega to bring home, but you chose me. Oh, he needed to be careful, Orion could tell.

I absolutely did one hundred percent. I walked up to your door.

Following the smell of grilled meat, even though you don’t eat it.

Orion didn’t point out that Cullen hadn’t had a single bite of meat at this point in weeks. He hadn’t asked for it. He hadn’t craved it. They hadn’t commented on it.

“Have you spoken to Zeke in the dragonlands?” Arian asked.

“I have.” Cullen grinned at her, his eyes twinkling. “They’re having another baby. Oh, they want a boy, I think, this time, but I don’t know. They seem to be kind of girl heavy, that pair.”

“They’re well?”

“They’re very happy. I’m busy. There are very many of them, and they’re starting to integrate with the other dragons in the village. Arielle and Sebby and Nevvy, they’re all growing so quickly. Even Little Stella, who I don’t think is ever going to get very big, she’s very fierce and happy. She’s incredibly happy.”

“That’s what I like to hear. And your mother, how is she?”

“Good. A little worried about Corbin and your nephew.” They all were, Cullen most especially.

“I’ll speak to her on that behalf. Not to worry. I know that she is overjoyed to see Elliot.”

Orion nodded toward the little boy, sound asleep next to his cunkle. “They have great fun together. Elliot loves to go see her, and they play in the gardens.”

“I’m so glad. It worries me a bit. That they found this baby, you know.”

Cullen nodded. “I didn’t even know—Surely someone would have known if they’d—Where do pegasi even come from?”

“We have them in the Glade. There are a few families, more families than there are unicorns, of course, but I haven’t heard of any gone missing.” Orion held up his hands. “Not that I’ve been home a lot, but surely someone would have told me—I mean, my job is to find lost children—had there been a lost child, I would have found it.”

“You did find it,” Arian pointed out. “Perhaps they were isolated enough that no one noticed.”

“Someone would have noticed if vampires got through to the Glade. My fathers would have noticed.”

“Well then, we must figure this out, because they didn’t.”

“Exactly. So where did this one come from? My fathers saw him, too, and they didn’t recognize him.”

“I will work within my own people to see what we can find out. But I’m not going to open any of the other doorways we have and send anyone out, because the vampires were waiting for Evander somehow.”

“We’ll figure it out,” Orion said. He glanced at Cullen. “But we need to heal Evander up first, and Cullen and I want to focus on his pregnancy now.”

He could feel his mate melt. Sweet Cullen wanted to come first, and dammit, he should. At least with Orion. That was his mate, after all, and he loved Cullen so much more every day.

Every day.

Of course they had to find out about the vamps, and kind of right now, and they would. But they had to keep their house happy and safe in order to guard the other worlds.

“Of course. Guardian guard thyself.” She smiled faintly once more. “I would take Evander with me, but Corbin seems to be happy to care for him.” Then her brow furrowed maybe a quarter of an inch. “He will wake soon, I hope.”

“So do we all, Lady,” Cullen said. “But he’s far better than he was at first.”

She ate one last pimento cheese sandwich and then, completely out of character, he thought, she licked her fingers. She really did like cheese. “Well, I shall leave you now. I will come back soon to see my nephew. Bright blessing, my loves.”

“Bright blessings,” he and Cullen said, and she walked off, disappearing through a corner in the wall.

“That was wild,” Orion said.

Cullen winked at him, grabbing a sandwich. “She’s a hoot. But thank you for standing up for me and the baby. We need alone time, the four of us.”

“We do. And I need you. With all my heart.”

He leaned down and kissed Cullen, then Tisi, who was back sleeping happily in his father’s arms. “That’s all I can ask for.”