Page 22
Story: Mates and Other Obstacles to Accidentally Saving the World (The Cake Chaos Chronicles #1)
Chapter 22
Ward
M aggie puked all over Evie’s shoulder as Fallon screamed. I was not looking forward to cleaning it up. Okay, maybe I was a little looking forward to getting my mate into any bit of relaxing hot water we could find, but preferably without the vomit. I didn’t know if Maggie was aiming for Noth, but some definitely dropped on him from above as Evie wobbled through the sky—half gliding, half trying to fly. She hadn’t improved.
“Contain that wretched woman,” Noth called up to my mate.
“Let me off,” Maggie screamed as her face turned green again. “Evie, you have the sense of direction of a barn tick. I will fling myself off of you if you do not stop.”
Evie laughed, light leaking out from between her dragon’s teeth. More powerful than ever, I knew something happened to her in that broom closet. I worked hard to shut the door on my fears that it meant I was too late with the mate mark. She would tell me when she was ready. We would complete the mark. I hoped.
Already, the shifters of our brood had peeled away one by one, giving us their thanks and pledge should we need them. Not everyone had a home to go to, though. Enough of the brood watched Evie crash land in a heap of scales and laughter. Maggie tumbled right off her. Fallon still held on to Evie’s mane, cackling.
“That was the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” Fallon said. “Girl, you suck at flying.”
“Fine then! The free ride is over,” Evie said, shifting back to her human form.
“How did you survive an entire quest running around like that?” Maggie heaved after she finished her sentence.
Evie looked straight at me and warmth tingled through the mate bond. “I had lots of encouragement.”
What I wouldn’t do to get rid of this brood and have her beneath me again. If she was still too afraid of my bite, I had other ideas to bind her to me. My bear agreed. He was happy to be out more, seeing the world, but he wanted his mate settled.
Evie smiled, coming over to climb up my fur and settle behind my head. “A teddy bear adopted me and promised to keep me safe. He delivered.”
“Guess a guy can come through for you,” Fallon commented.
“Your incessant chatter makes this trip increasingly longer. Some of us have places to be,” Noth said. He had been sullen and irate the entire way back. Those that stayed with our party were tired, hurt and hungry, or some combination of all three. It was a good thing when my keep and Harrowood came into view.
Dane waited by the side of the road for our arrival with his mate, Ruby, on his lap.
“We were about to send the search party after you,” Dane called.
“Like literally. When those two bitches went missing, we worried.” Ruby smiled, taking the sting out of her words. “Anything that could kidnap them had to be nasty.”
Fallon and Maggie hugged her as they approached. The fond look on Dane’s face said they had grown on him during their stay in Harrowood. That was good because I needed to ask for a favor.
“I see you brought the elf.” Dane’s eyes tightened, but he didn’t start grumbling. Ruby really had softened him. Or maybe that’s what love looked like when you wore it all the time. Dane and Noth had never gotten along, but they could be civil for my sake when we hung out together.
Evie got down. I shifted to make the next part seem less like intimidation. “I brought a whole brood.” The shifters filtered around us.
“And a highly skilled Red Lady, some temple lads, and more shifters? Did you bring back a kitchen sink as well?”
“And her.” I pulled the corporeal crossbow bolt out of the brood and eased her toward Dane. “We named her Mór.”
Dane looked at her critically. “You named her ‘great’? What does she do?”
I patted Dane on the shoulder, leading him away a bit. I wasn’t sure how much Mór understood. “Steal souls if she’s not watched, apparently. Look, friend. I gave her a human body in the middle of a life or death battle. Finding a name for her was the least of our worries. I need someone I trust to take care of her, help her gain her voice and knowledge of the world. She’s human only in the lightest sense.”
The flat look Dane gave me was more of the old Dane I remembered—grumpy and skeptical. “I already have one female to babysit and she’s a full-time job.”
“Take her to the Grove. Let her sit with the Danu tree. I don’t have to tell you to feed and water her, right?”
Dane sighed, looking over at Ruby. “I guess since you’re mated, and we fixed the bar exactly as she wanted it. Without you, by the way. She’ll want another project.” Dane glanced at the rest of the brood. “I’m not taking everyone, though! Especially not his Highness. We already put up half of Evie’s village at the Grove and the Danu can only grow the house so much at once.” I tried not to laugh at Dane’s panicked look.
A chuckle still leaked out. “Evie’s townspeople are here?”
“We had to round them up and protect them when Maggie and Fallon went missing. We feared someone would take the rest. The elves couldn't care less about their safety as long as they stayed hidden, and I can see why. They have been an absolute pain in the ass. Gawking at everyone, startling at the slightest magic. Like having a feral flock of infernal chickens.”
“I will settle the others. But if you have some time, I have some questions about human weddings.”
Dane’s spooked expression almost made me laugh. “What do you need a ‘you-know-what’ for when you’re in mated bliss? You can’t lie and say you didn’t get the job done. I can sense the bond.”
I wouldn’t be ashamed. We were as good as mated and Evie was by my side. “We haven't actually completed the bond and I won’t pressure her. So a wedding it is!”
Dane jumped out of his skin, tackling me to cover my mouth. “Shhh. Shhh. Shhh. Why would you do that?” he growled at me.
“Wedding?” I mumbled through his hand.
Rustling sounded nearby, and Ruby appeared like she grew out of the ground. She stared at Dane with his hand still on my mouth. “Did I hear… wedding?”
Dane hustled to her. “No. No. We’re celebrating their return already. That’s what he meant. You like Ward, remember, love?”
“Our deep and abiding union was pure bliss. Everyone should have a ceremony like that,” Ruby said. “Right, husband?”
“But there was barely any ‘marrying me’ part! We almost denuded the entire forest of flowers. Give the Godds mercy to him, wife.” Dane tried to distract her with a sound kiss.
“We put the flowers back.” Despite the stars in her eyes, she pulled away and screamed, “Girls! Bring your sister.”
Dane narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re on your own after this. Come on, Mór!”
The bolt stepped forward. She at least understood her name.
Dane’s wedding had been beautiful, even if Dane might have preferred a more private ceremony. As giant as Ruby had made her wedding dress, even she couldn’t compete with the Grove’s live tree sculptures and a magic-grown meadow. The Grove loved her so much they conspired to make her wedding as unforgettable as possible. As long as Evie loved it, and she felt it binding, I didn’t care what they did.
The rest of the trip back to town filled with non-stop chatter. Everyone was excited to stop. As we wound through Harrowood, monsters came out of their homes and showered us with good cheer and rose petals. Monsters handed us gifts and food, promising to show up at the party tonight. Fresh banners waved from the keep. Townspeople cheered at the parapets. The keep looked completely different, even though I left it only a short time ago. I checked in with Evie and her eyes said the same.
My rooms seemed just as strange, but it helped that Evie entered my space without hesitation. She spent some time picking up my books and inspecting them. I surreptitiously hid some clothes I had on the floor in a basket and cleaned up my desk. I hadn’t had a female in my room for a long time, and this was Evie.
“They don’t realize how close they came to having a shifter army overrun the Harrowlands, do they? All of this is just because we came home?” Her gesture encompassed the hum still going on downstairs.
“There are too many canny monsters here for them not to know something happened. We came back alive, so they guessed we were successful, but it’s mostly for us.” I smiled down at her. She took my breath away every time.
“This won’t be like that wolf mating ceremony we skipped, is it? I’m not going down there to fight to the death, or get covered in blood, or have them watch you fuck me in public, right?”
I growled. “No one is watching us have sex. Ever. One quest will not erase a lifetime of what your village told you, but we’re really not that different, Evie. Especially in Harrowood.”
Evie set my book on algebraic magic down on my desk and clasped her hands behind her back.
“How long do you think they will wait for us?” Evie stood on her tiptoes and lightly scratched her nails through my hair.
All thoughts other than her left my mind. She was the only thing grounding me at the moment. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go back to Ward the King after I had been Evie’s travel companion and champion. Those jobs sounded much more enjoyable.
“Long enough to get you on my cock again, viper.”
She giggled, and I pushed her against the wall as she kissed me. We lost ourselves to each other for a spellbinding couple of hours. I had to say having Evie wrapped around me in an actual bed was better than the hard ground and destroyed cot. Not as good as if the bond had finished, but I refused to bring that longing between us.
Most of her awkwardness was gone as I told her where to put her knees and how to spread her legs. I was so glad she finally agreed to be mine because her orgasms ripped through the mate bond, just as she could feel mine. I fell back into the mattress and drew Evie up my chest. Petting through her hair, I relished the small, contented sounds she made as I fell asleep. Evie shook my shoulder. I would get back to loving her in a minute.
“We have to get down to the party or they will send someone up here to look for us.”
“The bed is too soft to leave. Our bed. One bed to rule them all.” I laughed at my joke.
“You can hibernate once we finish sorting out our friends.” She pulled on my hair a little mean.
“Or we can hibernate now and let our friends be mature adults and sort out their own problems.”
“Wait,” she said. “Have you met our friends? We literally scooped half of them out of eight kinds of trouble and brought them back here.”
I cracked an eye open. “Good point. I don’t want to burn down the keep—yet.”
I took time to craft a meticulous structure for a spell to layer Evie in a royal purple gown of a thousand gossamer petals. It flowed around her curves and teased me with her body. I had never been much for crowns, but I would make one for her to go with the dress. Evie was convincing me to do a lot of firsts, whether or not she knew it. I took her over to the mirror to show her the gown I created, and she blushed.
“I… I…”
I buried my face in her hair. “I hope that means you like it. Try something with me.” I held out my hand.
“I thought the adventures were over, Ward.” She took my hand anyway.
“They’re just beginning, Evie. You don’t make magic the way I do. We’ll have to learn together how you do. When you search inside yourself, what do you see?”
“The mate bond.”
I sent her a brief pulse of lust through it, and she gasped. “How are you doing that?”
A smile spread across my face. She was too adorable. Seeing her marvel over all the things I learned as a cub was refreshing. “You’re doing it too, viper. Just not on purpose.”
She crashed a wave of love through the bond in her typical fashion—an ocean that nearly drowned me. I locked my legs so they wouldn’t buckle. “A little less,” I panted, working the structure of a shield spell that would help save me from her wonderful but awkward attempts. She could dial it down enough for me to speak again.
“Next to that, or surrounding that, should be your own magic. I access mine through a mathematical structure, but yours could be different as a dragon.”
She looked down at her perfectly human hands. “I guess I have to accept I’m a dragon at this point.”
“Dane confirmed Brad was right. Everyone in your village has at least some latent magic in them from many years of mixing with the races in the Harrowlands. Since only the elves were aware of you, it had to be them. Your bloodline manifested as a shifter when you met me.”
“You mean the kidnapping?” She said it with a smile, like she was proud of me.
“You’re never letting that go, are you?” I summoned my formal wear—bear fur edging a cape that covered a doublet with a deep ‘v’. Buttery leather pants held Evie’s avid gaze.
“Why would I when I can hold it over you for the rest of our lives?” Evie giggled, and I growled into her neck, hugging her close.
“You’ve been deputized to wrangle the village humans. The dragon time will be a win, according to Dane.”
Evie laughed. “Okay. I’m definitely going to need magic wielding then. Let’s go. This can’t be harder than the snake with legs part.”
I understood we didn’t need to do this now, but I wanted to face all of Harrowood with confidence. “With your permission, I will take some of your magic first and show you how I do it. Hopefully, it’s easier to see how you’ll access it after that.”
“I… I trust you.”
I closed my eyes against the satisfaction those simple words brought me and I reached through the mate bond and out into her vast ocean of magic. I was stunned at the size of it. Thank Godds Evie’s response to guarding the Heart of Veretis was ‘it will be an excellent addition to my collection’ rather than ‘I now have ultimate power over all shifters in the Harrowlands’. No shifter would want the Heart in another’s hands, so she should be safe from most of our hunters. No one had to know they should be more worried about the fact she had enough magic to destroy us all.
I took a handful of her magic and whispered the structure of a Ferromancy spell. The crown it built on her head was light as a feather but as elaborate as any the Queen of Flesh might have made. Gold chains dripped down her long, warm, brown hair and brought out her gold highlights. The gold bear's claws gripped in dragon scales studding the sides were a nice touch. At the front, rays of otherworldly light matched her bright magic. Because it was of Evie’s magic, it suited her perfectly. I just gave the magic a way out. Still, I wanted her to love it.
“We can make something else if you want,” I told her.
Her eyes misted as she looked in the mirror. “It’s beautiful. I want you to have one, too!”
I didn’t need one, but the fact she wanted us to match was too irresistible. “Whatever you want, Evie.”
She reached into her magic with more speed than I thought possible for her first real try and used her hands to set the crown on my brow. Our images stared back from the mirror. I choked. I wouldn’t laugh.
“You hate it!” she whined.
“No. No. Evie. I love it.” I touched the dull, gold, misshapen circle that looked like a cub’s first art project. Lopsided, it almost fell off my head.
Evie reached for it. “No. No. You don’t have to wear it. It’s terrible.”
I couldn’t hold back my laughter anymore. With its tangled-together spikes sticking out in the wrong direction and the surprisingly realistic, detailed dragon curled up across the crown, it was hideous. “It is terrible, but I wouldn’t wear anything else. Thank you, Evie.”
I kissed my mate long enough that she forgot her objections. I finally had to pull away. “You convinced me we needed to be downstairs. I’m still ready to go back to bed.”
“Everyone has to see my crown and dress before I can’t face them at all!” Evie towed me out the door and we were out in the main hall in record time. The deafening cheer that sounded as we entered told me every single person in Harrowood was here. Our brood descended on us to bring us up to the head table where two large chairs commanded the space. Fallon, Maggie, Noth, and Declan sat closest to us, on either side.
“If I know Fallon, all this is hers.” Evie gestured to the giant spread of food. “I hope you were all eating without us.”
“Nice crown!” Maggie said, pushing it back up onto my head. Evie stood up in a rush. I gently removed Maggie’s hand and sent a pulse of love through the mate bond.
“Thank you!” I responded, even though I’m sure her sister meant it sarcastically.
“Toast!” Declan called in a cheery voice, raising his glass.
Evie looked at me, and I gestured for her to proceed. She twitched a smile. Tears glinted in her eyes as I let her address the crowd.
“I’m not very good at this,” Evie started and I squeezed her hand. “But thank you for helping us on our quest. I hope I never have to repeat it. Dig in!”
The music began and everyone sat down to share the roasts and pies and dizzying number of dishes before us. Wine flowed freely and the hum of voices drowned out everything but Evie’s thigh beneath my hand. It was too good to last, of course.
A collective gasp around the room followed a splash. Maggie stood across the table from a man, wiping wine off his face.
“Try it again, fish face, and I’ll have the dragon gut you,” Maggie yelled.
Evie froze next to me, anxiety tightening the bond uncomfortably.
That seemed to be the signal that dinner was over and the musicians lured most of the guests to the dance floor as Maggie lunged across the table. Noth was quicker than the human and scooped her up mid air.
“Let me go,” she said to Noth. “I know exactly where to shove this crystal for what you did.” She held up her ring on her middle finger.
The human fell back as Evie inserted herself between them and then I was breaking up the sister slap fight so she didn’t get hurt. Noth dragged Maggie away. The man was handsome for a human, black hair falling into his gray eyes. He immediately put my hackles up and my bear came into my eyes. I recognized that face. Noth showed it to us often enough in our collective nightmare.
“Evie! Thanks for curbing that bitch.” His jovial tone was at odds with his words and spoke of familiarity. Too much familiarity for my bear’s liking.
“Fish face,” Evie said. “What in the seven hells are you doing here?”
I did my best not to laugh, but my bear did chuckle in my mind, soothed a fraction that Evie looked like she had sucked a basket of lemons.
“What did you call me?” the man said.
“Oh, nothing, Abner.” Evie turned her body more firmly into mine and I roped an arm around her waist. She touched our mate bond tentatively.
I never thought I would ever have the courage to call him the name I graced him with after our breakup. You must be rubbing off on me.
Every part of me swelled with the urge to tear the man apart. I didn’t forget the way Evie was so starved for praise. A simple ‘Thank You’ brought her to tears. Or how he haunted her in our fight with Noth. I was determined not to bear out and destroy any chance I had of biting Evie.
Still, he eyed my mate for too long and my bear slammed against my mind.
“I didn’t think you liked parties,” he said.
Evie crossed her arms. “Where else would I be, Abner? This is for me.”
The man ignored her. “Isn’t this place wonderful? Much better than our dirty little village. Coming here was quite a trial, but I suppose you missed it all, as usual.”
Evie pointed to her very obvious crown.
He looked it up and down and laughed. “Did you steal it?”
Her nails dug into my forearm and I stepped forward. “Go enjoy the party, fish face.”
Evie choked on a laugh. I had to hand it to him. Abner didn’t back up. It was a mistake, but brave. The man looked me up and down as he had the crown and with even less interest. “Is this who you’re with now, Evening? He looks a little beastly for you.”
I’ll show him beastly, Evie yelled down our bond. Her dragon came into her eyes, light leaking from her mouth. The last thing we all needed was for her to shift in a crowded hall. She would crush everyone here.
Don’t shift. Don’t touch him, I warned her, stepping more firmly between them.
“Don’t be like that, Evening.” The man actually reached out to put his hand on her and I lost all control of my bear. We both lunged at him, pinning him beneath claws and fur as his high wail of terror brought a halt to the festivities.
“Shake him like a leaf, teddy bear!” Evie said.
I could hear Noth talking to Evie as he guarded my back. “Godds above the man had a death wish, or he was a complete nitwit.”
“Both, I think,” Evie responded.
Clamping the man in my jaws, I didn’t worry about the assembly for the first time in forever. It felt too right that my mate’s offense was in my teeth. Her joy at my display was the only thing keeping me from making sure he never touched her again. It surged hope in my heart that she would accept I would only ever kill those putting her in danger. This dick waffle didn’t even merit a bruise.
Everyone gave me plenty of space as I lumbered out of the hall and chucked fish face into the place where fish belonged—the moat.