Page 3

Chapter Three

H e’d been seen.

Honestly, Orion was kind of shocked. He’d thought he’d cloaked himself well, and he’d picked a good hiding spot.

But that little one had seen him sure as shit.

He pondered his next move. Because while the family who was out there grilling burgers were obviously sweet and loving, they were also purple and green and silver. Not merely human…

So Orion felt honor bound to see what the hell they were… And what they wanted. And why a simple A-frame house from the fifties was now mostly a giant Victorian monstrosity with painted lady flare.

And then there was the purple guy. Skin and hair was a vibrant violet, and he was obviously an illusionist. And he’d made Orion as hard as a rock with one good look at him.

He thought that was an unreasonable reaction, and he did not improve. Well, he approved, but now he just had to get into that house and figure out what the hell was going on.

The illusion that Mr. Purple and Wonderful threw up was solid, and if he hadn’t seen him do it, he might have even missed it.

Even better was the illusion that had turned the little silver baby into a stump. Honestly though, if they were going to continue with that then they were going to have to teach the little one to stop talking.

And wiggling its limbs.

Right. Orion rolled his eyes at himself. He just needed to go find out what the hell was going on. He figured the easiest way to do that was to knock. So, he tromped up to the door and rapped on it smartly.

The house seemed to shudder a little bit, shimmer, and he thought he heard, “Take Elliot and go. Go to Cosmo. I’ll deal with this.”

Then the door opened, and he came face-to-face with what he was sure was supposed to be a wise and old man. Really what he saw was the pretty little purple guy dressed in an old man suit. “This is private property. Go away.”

“Oh, now don’t be like that.” God that was cute. Orion was simply enthralled.

That earned him a blink, and then Mr. Violet and Vivacious picked up a cane. “I wasn’t joking.”

That seemed to be considerably more serious.

“I’m not here to hurt anyone, sweet man.”

“The land has been posted with keep-out signs, private property. You’re not going to hurt anyone at all.” Now the voice was deep, damn near a growl.

He was going to explode in a giant ball of happiness. Just a joygasm. “That was really hot.”

“I’m going to count to three.”

“And then what? Are we going to wrestle?” Sparkle. Hands on that violet skin? Oh, yeah.

“No, I’m going to kick your fucking ass.”

“You’re gonna try, and I’m going to enjoy it.”

The sweet one bared his teeth. “Oh, I don’t think so.”

“Look, sweet pea, no amount of aggression from you is going to do anything but turn me on.” He winked. “So what are you? Dragon hybrid, clearly, but then what else?”

That mouth firmed into a hard line. “I am none of your damn business!” He raised the cane. “Get off our land!”

“Look, I represent a local beaver shifter. He just wants to know if his ancestral dam-building land is safe.” He held up his hands, trying not to spoil that ridiculous-sounding statement with too much humor.

Now sweet and lavender blinked hard. “A beaver shifter…”

“Yep.” Orion moved a step closer to the door. “His name is Yarrow. I intend to buy him a trucker hat up at the pass. I think it will perfect for him.”

If they weren’t impressed with charm, dazzle them with bullshit. That was his philosophy.

Of course, this one he wanted to be madly in love with him.

“I—A trucker hat.” Those lips twitched.

“On a beaver. Just imagine it. He’s a good egg, though, and he’s worried about the family who lived here.”

Sorrow passed over that mobile face. “I’m sorry. Did you know them?”

“No. No, I pass through every so often, but Yarrow was fond of them, I gather. He’s a sucker for kids.”

The purple beam of light shook off whatever he was thinking. “The kids are safe. They’re with relatives.”

The iridescent hairs all over his body stood up at attention. “But the adults… Was it vamps? Dammit, I was hoping Yarrow was full of shit.”

“He wasn’t wrong. It was?—”

“Get out of my house!” Now that roar was dead serious, and it literally shook the walls. A huge red-and-black dragon came soaring down the stairs, and Orion tilted his head.

“How did you manage to do that without knocking any pictures off the wall?”

“What?”

“This is Hawk; don’t irritate him. This. Just. I.” Pretty in Purple closed his eyes for a second. “As charming as you are, you can just tell the beaver that everything’s fine.”

Oh, the dragon chimera thought he was charming.

“We’re going to control them, the vampires, should they show back up,” purple added.

The dragon, and this one was solely a dragon, stared him down.

Orion just stood there. He wasn’t worried. He meant them no harm, so they wouldn’t harm him.

“Apparently, there’s a beaver shifter. I think this is his lawyer.”

That huge head turned so the dragon could stare at the purple one. “Cullen, what is going on?”

“I just told you, Hawk, there’s apparently a beaver shifter who has ancestral lands close by. This is his lawyer. He was making sure that we weren’t vampires.”

That head swung back to him, teeth gleaming. “Do I look like a vampire to you?”

“Well, you’re kind of pointy in the teeth area, and you’re red, which is usually, you know, associated with vampires. At this point, though I’ve never seen a vampire dragon hybrid, and… You know that that’s just kind of nauseating to think about. So let’s not do that. Think about it, I mean.” He tried a winning smile.

“See, it’s totally a lawyer.”

Orion shook his head. “I’m not a lawyer.”

“You talk like a lawyer.”

“Well, I do know quite a bit of Latin, but I’m pretty sure that I lack some of the sharkish aspects of a lawyer.” That seemed reasonable.

“Lawyers are sharks?” Hawk asked, and Cullen—it was so nice to have a name to go with the face—snorted.

“All monkeys wear pants.”

Orion blinked. “I’ve seen plenty of monkeys without pants.”

Cullen rolled his eyes. “Old TV reference.”

The big guy growled. “They have many of those.”

Orion let an eyebrow rise. “Monkeys?”

“In jokes.”

“Ah.”

“Ugh. You two are bonding?” Cullen sighed. “It figures.”

“Might as well bond with the big guardian.” Orion let his grin widen. “All the better to get to you, pretty.”

“I’d argue and say I wasn’t pretty, but it would be a lie. I’m fucking gorgeous.” Cullen snarled.

Orion nodded, happy to agree. “Fascinating. Fabulous. Fantastic.”

“I bet you’re good at Scrabble.” It was Hawk who snarled now. “Go away. We won’t bother the beaver.”

Orion wasn’t sure why that was so funny, but it was, and he snorted.

And he also wasn’t sure what that sound did for Cullen, but those eyes got huge.

“You’re a unicorn.”

Oops. “Pardon?”

“Don’t you pardon me. You’re a unicorn.” Cullen stared at him. “Hawk. This is a unicorn.”

Hawk stared at him too. “How do you know?”

Cullen tossed that lavender hair. “Hello? Half fae, I know things, and seeing past bullshit illusions is one of them. You’re a unicorn. What are you doing here? You don’t belong here. You belong where Mother is, wandering around the Land of Summer, tromping around happily and making whinnying noises. You don’t belong out here.” Cullen’s eyes went wide. “What if somebody catches you? That’s awful. We can’t make him go back out.”

“What?” Orion and Hawk managed to say that at exactly the same time.

Cullen stamped his foot. “We can’t let him go back out. If they catch him, they will hurt him, and it’s just bad. Seriously, do you know what a unicorn horn goes for in the illegal market?”

“No,” Hawk said. “Do you?”

“Well no, but?—”

“Do you even have a black market for unicorn horns?” Orion asked. He’d never seen one.

“You know there has to be one. It’s probably on the dark web. Regardless. I’m bringing him in. I. You guys!” Cullen began to just sputter, and Hawk shook his head.

“Look, if you want to take him to your side of the house, you can take him over there, but do not let him around anyone else until we get things settled.”

“It’s going to be a long time before we get things settled. He’s only just beginning to settle. We’re still in the puking part of?—”

“Shut up.”

Orion blinked some more. Then he tilted his head to look at Hawk. “Your mate is pregnant. Is that your little boy, too?”

Hawk just gave him a stony stare.

“Shit. No wonder you’re freaked. Look, I’m not here to hurt anyone. I came for the beaver, but I’ll stay because the purple deity here wants me to.”

Cullen paused. “Deity?”

“Mmmmhmm.” Sex god.

Cullen’s amethyst eyes went wide, gold flashing around the edges. “I?—”

Hawk sighed. “If you hurt my family, I will personally find out how much your horn goes for on the illegal market. Cullen, he’s all yours.” Hawk slammed the door shut, then stomped off, his whole form vibrating disapproval.

“Whatever shall we do with our time?” Orion purred, scooting closer to Cullen.

“Stop it.” Cullen poked him in the chest. “I didn’t get my burger because of you. I don’t suppose you know how to cook.”

“Sure. You got the stuff for spaghetti and sauce?”

“I do. As long as it’s scratch sauce. I’m out of Prego.”

“I am the king. And I’ll even split some out to make with meat for you, if you want.” Orion bowed, waiting for Cullen to lead the way.

After another moment of hesitation, Cullen turned in the opposite direction that Hawk had gone and took Orion into the house, tromping along hard. Orion grinned. Cullen wanted him to know he was mad. Clomp, clomp, bang, bang.

Adorbs.

He followed, drawn by that straight back, tight ass, and flowing purple hair. God, that was the prettiest thing ever. The green one was hot. The big dragon was intimidating. But Cullen he could just wallow in all day.

“Stop it.” Cullen walked into a kitchen that gleamed with gadgets and clean counters. Oh, good. He was pretty much a neat freak himself.

“Stop what?” Orion asked, opening cabinets.

“Staring at my butt. Thinking sex thoughts about me.”

“Mmm. No promises.” He pulled out a large sauce pot, a pasta pot, and then grabbed cans of Italian tomatoes and mushrooms and such.

“Hmph. So, what will you tell the beaver?”

“Yarrow? I’ll tell him the truth. That the other family who lived here is gone, but that you guys aren’t bad folks.”

Cullen tugged out the stuff to make a salad, it looked like. “Will vamps hurt a beaver shifter?”

“Yeah. Yeah, they will.” Those bloodsuckers would be almost anywhere and, wherever they showed up, it was a nightmare. They were a blight, and he just didn’t understand. Surely there was a place where they belonged, where they weren’t hurting anybody. “I guess they all think we’re their prey.” He glanced at Cullen. “What do you think?”

“I think the last time that I ended up coming face-to-face with any of them—and I have a number of times—it didn’t go well.” There was an ice-cold fury in those eyes now. “I don’t do prey particularly well.”

Okay, so hot.

“Would you stop it?”

“What? I can’t help the fact that you’re superhot.” Orion winked over, waggling his eyebrows. “Do you have any onions? And what about fresh garlic?”

“You act like I cook.”

“With this kitchen, you cook.”

No one had this kind of amazing kitchen without cooking. This house, even more than the big one that they came through, screamed with magic. Somebody’d created this home to be exactly what he wanted it to be.

“Yeah. Here are the onions.” A beautiful sweet onion was plopped in front of him. “And the garlic’s in the red container, the one marked garlic.”

It was easy to find the cutting board and the knife, and he got to work, whistling softly as he chopped.

“What are you doing here?”

Orion shrugged. “Honestly, I came because Yarrow asked me to. Now I’m here for you.” Because he’d never seen anything this wonderful, and he wanted to learn everything there was to learn about this pretty little dragon fae. Drafae? Fragon? Fragon was cool.

“Would you stop? I kind of like drafae. It’s a little bit aggressive, but so absolutely accurate.” Cullen winked at him, playing.

Orion was in love.

And they were hearing each other seamlessly. Which was super interesting and had all sorts of implications…

“Hmm. Do you still see your parents? Maybe you should ask them if there’s a name for it.”

“Oh, very nice segue into digging into my family.”

Orion raised an eyebrow now instead of waggling. “Was I unsubtle?” He slid the aromatics into the warmed oil in the pot so he could get it all fragrant.

“You’re as subtle as a jackhammer,” Cullen said, slumping down on a stool on the other side of the island, chin on his hand.

“Eh, I’m a unicorn. We’re not exactly shy and retiring.”

“Really. That seems odd. I mean, aren’t you supposed to be all sparkly and innocent and searching for virgins? If that’s what you’re into, dude, I got to tell you, I’m not it.” Cullen stared him down as he stirred onions.

“No? Are you suggesting that you might have been soiled by another?” he teased.

“No, I’m suggesting that I really like to fuck, and I’m pretty good at it.” Cullen twisted his lips. “Not that I’m suggesting that you and I ought to…”

“Oh damn, and things were going so well. I’m disappointed.” Orion made a wide-eyed face.

“I was kind of suggesting that we might…at some point. It’s not like I find you distasteful.”

Orion would take that. “You know, I find you delicious.”

“You haven’t tasted me yet, so you don’t know,” Cullen shot back. “I might just be super pretty.”

Orion shook his head. “There’s no might about that; that’s just a fact.”

“Nice.” Cullen snorted. “You are something else. A unicorn, unique in all the world.”

“And you’re not?”

“No. I’m one of three.”

As if that mattered. “Yes, but, I bet you’re still pretty unique. And you don’t look alike. At least from the one I’ve seen. I’m assuming the other one, the big dragon. He’s not your brother.”

It wasn’t really a question.

“No, that’s Hawk. He’s Cosmo’s mate. You won’t be allowed to meet Cosmo, at least for a little while. I’m sure you understand.”

“He’s about to pop?”

“Not that close, but yeah. He’s pregnant.”

“Nice.” He opened the cans of tomatoes with the opener he’d found in the island drawers. “Congrats. I get the impression from your wee stump that you like being an uncle.” Family. Such a weird concept to him, but he thought he got it. He had a good many friends, who he loved.

Cullen shrugged, and the grin that split his face made him even more stunning. “He’s amazing. Believe me when I say that I would do anything to protect him from anyone.”

“I’m not here to hurt anyone. That’s not my job.” No, in fact, he was a protector of innocence.

Now that hooked Cullen’s attention. “What is your job? What do you do? Who is it you do it for? What’s your calling?”

His calling. Well, right now, his calling was jumping this beautiful lavender bit of lusciousness.

“Be good.”

“Sorry.” How should he put this? “I’m very good at looking for things, exceptional, even, especially lost things. So that’s what I do. Consider me a bit of a hunter, but I don’t have to carry a gun, and it’s very rare that I feel the need to be aggressive.”

“All right. I can sort of buy that almost. So you’re like a private investigator? A spy? One of those psychic finders who hunts for amulets and lost children and the periodic letter of intent that’s stuck in someone’s library?”

“Why do you ask? Do you have a library? I could look for something for you.” Orion felt as if following Cullen’s train of thought might lead to a total derailment at some point. But it was so worth it.

“I don’t. I don’t feel the need for one. It’s not personal. My brothers have both have libraries that are extensive.”

“Is that what they hoard?” Orion was desperately curious.

“You tell me that you’re a spy slash PI slash psychic, and you expect me to tell you anything about my brothers? Do I look stupid?”

“No.”

One purple eyebrow winged up. “And just imagine, I’m probably smarter than I even look.”

He could play with this dragon forever. Cullen would never fail to keep him on his toes, he was certain. “But I still want to know all about you. What do you hoard?”

Cullen grabbed the opener and went to the sink to open the cans and drain them. “What do you? Or do you?”

“Oh, I do. I mean, tucked away in a vault, I have all sorts of unicorn stuff. Tapestries. Scottish coins.”

“Wait, coins?”

“Yep. The unicorn is the symbol of Scotland, after all. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, they had coins called unicorns and half unicorns.” He dumped the whole tomatoes in the pot, then set about breaking them up with a long wooden spoon.

This kitchen really did have it all.

“That’s wild. So you have some of those coins.”

Orion had to grin. “Enough to devalue them some if I ever released them for sale…”

“Wow.” Cullen actually turned to stare at him, leaning on the sink. “Quite the collector, huh?”

“I am. I don’t do ceramic unicorns from the dollar store, you know?” He grinned. “Though those have their appeal.”

“I bet. But if you bought every one you see, you wouldn’t have a hoard. You’d have an endless stream of unicorns.” Cullen pushed the drained mushrooms to him.

He dumped them into the pan with the bubbling tomatoes. He stirred, then added a bunch of herbs and spices from the spice rack. “Sometimes, I do buy a chipped or broken one just to smash it with a hammer. You got any stock? Or red wine?”

“I have both. Which would you rather?”

“Mmmm. Meatballs… Wine.”

“Cool.” Cullen went to a closet, which turned out to be a fully stocked wine storage. “Uh, chianti?”

“Perfect.” He beamed and then took the bottle to pour half the contents into the sauce. The other half stayed in the bottle, which he waved at Cullen. “Glasses?”

“Some for the pot, some for the chef?”

“Absolutely. The best way.”

“You’re kind of nuts.” Cullen got out two big-bowled red wineglasses.

“But you’re not kicking me out.”

“We’ll see how the sauce comes out,” Cullen shot back.

“Oh! Direct hit.” He put the lid on the pot just a little cock-eyed to let steam out before moving across the kitchen to crowd Cullen a little. “Now I see how you taste.”

“Oh no. Nope.” Cullen backed off, moving to the other side of the island. “If we do that, and I say if , it will be for dessert.”

“Oh, love. Dessert is a full-body contact sport. Kissing is an appetizer.”

Cullen’s pupils dilated, his breath coming faster as Orion chased him. Stunning.

He wanted that. Now.

“I’m not big on appetizers.”

“Really? Because you have all the stuff for about a million charcuterie boards.”

“Pregnant brother.” Cullen shrugged. “He likes his cheese and meat.”

“Mmmm. So do you.” He grinned. Hugely.

“Okay, but you don’t. You’re a vegetarian, and I am absolutely not made of plant matter.”

Oh, nice, that was a direct hit. “For you, I’d make an exception.”

“I have no doubt.” Cullen arched an eyebrow at him, having regained his equilibrium, which was a pure shame.

Off-balance dragon was delicious.

“What about the fae part of your parentage? Surely they’re vegetarians too.”

Cullen glared at him. “One, never talk about my mother and use sexual innuendo at the same time because that’s foul. Two, have you ever met a fae? Did they seem like vegetarians to you? Because if they do, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Fascinating. Seriously. He had met a fae once or twice, but he hadn’t spent too much time with them. “I tend to hang around shifters. Bears. Lions. Wolves. Beavers. Foxes. I even know a porcupine shifter…”

“Yes, but you’re not a porcupine shifter. I mean, you may have a little prick or two…”

“Be nice, Cullen. I am a shifter, obviously.”

Cullen snorted. “Bah. No more than I am. There’s a difference. They can pass no matter which form they’re in. We only pass if we’re in human form, and even then with some of us—” Cullen tilted his head toward Orion, eyes knowing. “—some of us have to use a little help even to do that.”

“Yes, I would have to say that you would be absolutely noticeable out and about.”

“Yeah. It’s true. Even in the circus.”

“Were you in the circus?” How fascinating was that?

Cullen nodded. “We traveled with the circus a few decades ago. That was back before cell phones and cameras on everything and people constantly trying to figure out how we did what we did. It really was entertaining—a lot of fun. But then the boss found us, and we had something else to do.”

A fission of jealousy shot through him. “The boss?”

“Yes, we have one, the three of us. He lives…elsewhere.”

“Like in another dimension?” Because he’d had a picture from Cullen of a land where it was winter right now, and where dragons flew free in the sky without worrying about being shot down. Fascinating.

Cullen shrugged, not answering, but that elaborately casual movement was an announcement in its own right, wasn’t it?

“Huh.” He pulled the pasta pot to the sink to fill it with the pull-down spout. He wouldn’t boil it yet, but he would get it on the stove. Then he would start on the accompaniments.

He’d totally make meatballs for the dragon if Cullen had the stuff.