Page 4 of Savage (Savage Dragons #1)
Kingston answered his phone without looking at it. It had to be important enough to call him, he thought, but regretted it the moment he heard his mother’s voice.
“Are you still hanging around with that savage?” He simply closed his phone without speaking to her. When she called back again, she also reached out to him. He decided that he had better things to do other than speak to his mom about his best friend and how he was such a pimple on the Savage name. “Answer the fucking phone before I have to come there. And you know what will happen if I do. I want you to hear my voice and hear how disappointed I am in you.”
“I don’t care, and if you want to come here, go for it. I’m having dinner with Savage tonight. He has a new home, and the rest of us are going to help him celebrate.” For some reason he thought it best that he didn’t mention that he’d also found his mate. She’d start in on—something occurred to him, and he smiled as he spoke to his mother. “He has a mate now. Not one that you’d want to mess with however. She’s called little dragon and sometimes scares mine and the others dragons even though she’s human.”
“Human? Christ, I knew that he was going to sully the name of Savage more someday. I’ve said this before, but I think that instead of putting him in a dark place to be hatched, his parents should have destroyed him before that time. I didn’t like them, but there was no reason for them to have left the rest of us with him.” He told her that she was going too far. “What are you going to do about it, Kingston? Come after me? I doubt you have the balls for that. And so you’re aware if you so much as think about having a human as a mate, I’ll…I’ll disown you.”
“Then I’m hoping now that she is human. Just so I don’t have to put up with these monthly calls. Mother, you couldn’t do anything about him before he became my friend, and there is very little you can do now that he is.” He took in a deep breath before continuing. “Is there anything else? I have a great deal going on here, and you’re keeping me from it.”
“I’m your mother, and you’ll give me the respect that I deserve.” He told her that she was lucky that he was giving her any respect at all for as much as he disliked her. “You’re a terrible son. Nothing like the others.”
“Good. Sucking up to you isn’t anything that I enjoy, but that’s fine too.” He wondered what others she could have been talking about since he knew he’d been an only child. “You have a good life, and know that if any harm comes to Savage or his mate, I’ll kill you. Laws or not, you will perish by my hand even if I must go to prison for it.”
He closed the connection tightly and didn’t allow her into his head again. She was a horror, his mother and his father wasn’t too much better. He also knew that in a couple of days, more than likely less, he’d be hearing from his father on his treatment of his mother. Fuck them both. If they came here, which he was thinking that they would, he’d have to deal with them face to face. Fine with him. Kingston wanted to see their faces when he told them he was out of their lives. He only hoped that before they arrived that he’d have a human mate. Just to—
Kingston didn’t care for the way his thoughts were going. It hurt him a little to think that he’d been wishing for a mate simply to piss off his parents. As far as he was concerned, especially after meeting Kaida, he couldn’t wait to meet his own mate. And hoped that she’d put him to the tests the way that Kaida did Savage. Him, too, if he was honest with himself.
Brenin was about half in love with her himself. She’d scolded him once the other day about going out in public the way that he looked. Sweat pants and a tee shirt that he was sure that was older than she was. She told him that if he didn’t have respect for himself, how would he get respect from others. Brenin went out that very day and bought him some new clothes, something that he didn’t think any of them had done since moving here. Not when they could make their own clothing appear and disappear with a thought. When his phone rang, he didn’t answer it.
Whomever it was, they’d left a message, and he listened to it. It was his attorney telling him that his parents had been inquiring about his worth. That he should call him back if he wanted more details. He did in that moment.
“I’ve spoken to your mother once and your father twice. They seem to think that you’re broke.” Kingston asked if they still thought that or did he tell them. “I told them that I couldn’t discuss it with them unless you allowed it. That was your mother. Then your father called me to tell me I was to do what she wanted or he’d have me fired. I’m not worried about them.”
“I’m thinking that they’re on their way here soon.” He said that he’d keep an eye on things here and would let him know if he saw anything. “Thank you. She is going on about Savage again. And now that he has found his mate, he’s even worse than he was before.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, Lord Savage, your mother isn’t sane.” He couldn’t help it, he laughed. “Anything else I should know?”
“Yes, I nearly forgot about what I called you about. There are four homes that are surrounding your parents’ home that have come up for sale. If you want them, say the word, and I’ll get them for you. You know as well as I do as to what sort of neighborhood they’re in. But to be honest with you, I think that the entire place is going downhill. There aren’t a great many improvements going on there, and I hate to say it, but your parents haven’t done anything to their house in over a couple of centuries. And their yards are so overgrown it’s almost jungle like. There is a company that does their lawns, but I don’t think even that is being done properly.”
“Get me the houses and make it so that the lawns are done up, and the houses are in good shape. I’m not opposed to making them rentals just to piss them off.” He laughed when he thought of his mother’s thoughts on renters. “Let me know what you find out, and I’ll go from there.”
It wasn’t twenty minutes later when he heard from Scott again. His parents had contacted a private plane service. Scott was laughing so hard that he could barely understand him.
“They wanted them to do it for free.” He told him how his friend owned a couple of private jets that he flew others around in. “Just because they are the great and—they actually said this to him, the great and powerful Savages, and he could advertise that he flew them to their son’s home for advertising. I nearly wet myself when he told me that.”
He enjoyed his laughter. “I’m assuming that they might be flying commercial then?” Scott told him that he would let him know. He had friends there as well. All right, but I should be preparing myself for them as well as the others.”
“Something that I’ve been meaning to ask you. You said that Savage has a mate. Do you know if he’s going to put her name on his homes? As I told your parents, I don’t discuss other clients with anyone, but he has a substantial amount of money he needs to talk to her about.” He said that he’d ask him. “I will tell you this. He has a great deal more than you or your cousins put together. He hasn’t done anything with it since he’s gotten it.”
“I’ll talk to him. He might not understand that he needs to keep investing.” Which he didn’t believe was true. Savage might be as mean as he was, but he wasn’t stupid either. “Are you handling his money?”
“My brother is. He asked me to say something to you so that he can work with his funds. It’s not like it’s sitting idle at all, but he could be doing so much more with it.” He thought about Kaida and her starting back at work tomorrow. “You’ll not get into hot water with him, will you? Don’t do it if you think you might.”
“I’ll think about it. Maybe with him having a mate, he’ll be a little more free with it. I know for a fact that he’s forever worrying about money. I think that’s why he works so hard, afraid of him running out of cash or something. He’s been like that all his life.” Scott said that he could well understand that, too. “I bet you can. All right. Keep me informed about my parents. I’ll let everyone on this end know that they’re coming. I don’t know how they feel about Cassian or Brenin, but they’ll need to be warned as well.”
The first person that he thought of was Savage and Kaida too. Mom would be gunning for him and it wouldn’t do well to have her causing trouble with Kaida either. He thought that she could hold her own, but she was only partially human and she would hurt her given the chance.
After contacting Savage and letting him know, he could almost feel his mind working and his temper getting the better of him. Then, almost as if someone had touched him, he calmed down. It had to be his little dragon, as he’d been calling Kaida all along. He was invited to their house for dinner along with Cassian and Brenin. That way, he could warn them all at one time and that would be just what was needed. The sooner, the better.
“Also, I talked to my investment attorney. Do you have one?” He told him that he worked with David Jameison, brother to Scott. “Good. Have you thought about what you need to have Kaida put on your deeds? I don’t know how much you need to do with that or even if you wish to do that. But she’s going to need to know what sort of money you have so that she’s not as stressed about it as you are.”
“I think that she’d kill me if I suggested that. I have been thinking that I need to do more with my inheritance, but I’ve been hard-pressed to find the time. You know, Kingston? It’s really strange having a woman around all the time. And what’s even odder is that I find that I want to be with her even if I’ve pissed her off about something.” He told him he thought he was odd, too. “True, but she’s calming to me as well. I don’t know if that’s normal or not, but just her touching my shoulder a little bit ago, it took all my anger away just like a snap to your fingers. It scared me a little too.”
Kingston and the others were going to pick up food to bring to Savage and Kaida’s home. They had ordered a table and chairs for the dining room and it had already been delivered. He wondered what he’d do about the rest of the house and decided that he’d have a good time picking things out with Kaida. She’d put her style on the rooms that he knew would please them both. He also knew that the colors would be earth tones, like most of the clothing that she wore, as well as serviceable furniture that would last a long time.
By the time he was ready to pick up the food he’d been assigned to pick up, he’d heard from Scott two more times. His parents were coming tomorrow on a private jet as well as that Savage had contacted David about several things and was putting Kaida’s name on everything. That sounded like a large undertaking, but said nothing to Savage about it.
By the time the others had shown up, he had talked to the two of them like he’d never done before. Seriously, and without joking around. Telling Savage that his parents were going to harm Kaida got him upset. Savage said that he’d protect her with all that he was from them. Kingston had no doubt that he would, too. And that Kaida would do the same for him. They were, it suddenly occurred to him, a perfectly matched couple. Both of them were no-nonsense when it came to saying just what they needed to at the perfect time. And doing what needed to be done for the family. And she was as much family as Savage was.
Dinner was wonderful. They’d not gotten together like this in a very long time. It was good for all of them, too, to know what Savage had to say about his parents and what sort of steps he was taking to guard himself and Kaida. It was no longer hurtful when Savage told him how mean his parents were. Nor saying what he was going to be doing to them when he saw them.
“But I promise you this, Kingston, I will not make a move toward them unless they do to me and mine first, and that would include you and the others.” He nodded, knowing that even before he said it. Savage was true to his word, too. More so than most men that he knew. “We’ll know how to act when they get here. Hopefully, they’ll come, say what they want, and leave.”
“Do you believe that? That they’ll just come here and tell us what they think of things and leave?” Savage asked what he thought. “I don’t know. I wouldn’t put anything past them at this point.”
“Then we’re going to be ready for them when they arrive. Whatever happens, when they do get here, will be all on them.” He agreed and decided that his parents were going to be on their own from now on. They’ll either leave on their own or not, but it was going to be entirely up to them.
~*~
Kaida watched the couple coming up the runway. For some reason Kingston’s family had asked for them all to be there at the airport. It was funny to her that they had demanded that they all be dressed in finery, whatever that meant to an older couple of dragons. And they were to be respectful. Only if they were would she be respectful.
Savage had told her enough about them that she wanted to hate them on sight. But there were Kingston’s feelings in this and she didn’t want him to be hurt if she were to be nasty to them. She didn’t want them around, not at all, but it wasn’t her call.
Yesterday all their furniture had arrived. It was just as wonderful as she’d thought it would be. Even today, while they were here, a white picket fence was being put in and she was so excited that she wanted to stay home to be the first to see it. Silly, she knew but that had been something that she’d been dreaming about for years. It was going to be epic living there with Savage. So long as he kept his temper under control.
Last night, after everyone had left, he sat her down and went over his finances. With the help of his attorney, David, she now had a good grasp on how much he was worth and how many homes he owned as well as businesses. She knew how much he was worth and, in turn, she was worth, but it was still circling around in her mind about how many zeros were in the amount. It was something that she didn’t believe there were numbers for. But she had smiled and nodded like she was some sort of simpleton. This morning, she was given a handful of credit cards, keys to a nice new car, as well as dressmakers coming tomorrow after Kingston’s parents arrived to fit her for some nicer dresses so that they could go out when they wanted.
It was nearly too much for her.
She watched as Kingston’s mother was barking orders at the people around her. They were busy carrying bags, and such with them, and to her, it looked like they were planning to stay for a long time, if not forever. As soon as she was within touching Kingston, she drew back her hand to slap him, she thought. Instead of allowing that, Kaida grabbed her hand and held it.
“We’ll be civil around here. Isn’t that what you said? And if you draw back to slap him or anyone here again, I’ll rip your arm off and beat you to death with it.” She smiled at the woman but she was far from humored. “My name is Kaida Loren Savage, mate to Tucker. I’m thinking that I’m going to be calling him by his first name from now on. He’s not a monster, no matter how many times you say that to him. And I’d keep a civil tongue in my mouth about that as well.”
“You dare touch me? You’re nothing to me. Do you hear me? Nothing.” Turning on her heel, she started to leave the airport. The men would follow her or not but she wasn’t going to be embarrassed in the local airport because some broad was having a hissy fit. “Where do you think you’re going? Kingston, get back here right now. I demand that you treat me the way that I deserve.”
“Oh, trust me on that, Mother, I’m treating you better than you deserve. Right now, you could say that I’m giving you a few feet until you calm the fuck down. And yes, I said that. Now, either you keep your trap shut, or I’m going to close it for you. I’m finished with you treating those that I love like they’re nothing beneath your feet.”
Someone touched Kaida on her shoulder, and she turned to look at Tucker.
“I have fallen in love with you. I think I might have been all along, but when you grabbed her hand and told her off, I nearly fell over. My love for you hit me so hard.” She stood there and opened her mouth, unsure as to what to say when Kingston caught up with her. He too told her that he loved her but she wasn’t sure it was the same. Catching up with Cassian and Brenin on either side of her, she was in the limo, and on her way to the home she shared with Tucker before the older couple got out of the airport proper. “Are you all right?”
“I don’t know.” Tucker nodded. “Do you care if I call you by the name that Kingston gave you? I could go back to Savage, I suppose, but I’d rather not.”
“I’d be honored if you’d call me anything other than Savage. Thank you for your help in dealing with the Savages. I don’t think that it’s finished yet, but you sure showed them what you’re going to be tolerating or not.” She said that she didn’t want her to hit her friend. “Nor did I, but you handled it a good deal better than I would have. The airport is still standing, thanks to your way.”
Just this morning, Tucker had shown her his dragon. He said that he was smaller than the others because he was a fire dragon and they were not. She’d not known there were different kinds of dragons, but the others were white dragons. They could breathe fire a little bit, but they mostly used their huge bodies to destroy rather than burn. Brenin told her that was because Tucker was more powerful than they were. Not only could he burn through almost anything, but he was bigger than other fire dragons as well.
“What are you thinking about, love?” She told him about his dragon and his fire. “I would never harm you. Not intentionally. You must be, as I said to you before we left be careful around me. My tail sometimes had a mind of his own and will whip out when it thinks to.”
“I remember it’s size.” She also remembered the spikes along it. The dark, blood-red scales that covered it to the end. She, at the time, had been intrigued; now she knew that, above anything else, he’d protect her with his dragon. No one in her life had protected her from anything or anyone as far as she knew. “He’s beautiful. I wish now that I’d taken his picture. No one would believe that you’re real, but I would know.”
“Perhaps next time.” She nodded and laughed when he pulled her closer to him. “They will fight dirty when it comes to getting what they want. I don’t know what that is other than they want Kingston to come back to their home with them but they will stop at nothing to get that. Did you notice the other woman with them?”
She looked up at him, concerned they were already causing trouble. When he told her the woman was Cassian and Brenin’s sister, Margo, she felt her hair dance on her arms and her body chill. She’d heard what sort of person she was, too, and she was by far worse than the other two.
Cassian told her that when he’d been born, she tried to pull his wings off. Kaida hadn’t known that when a dragon was born, it was a dragon no larger than a human infant. Then, when his brother had been born, she tried her best to chase him around the house with an axe, wanting him to die as well. Their parents had done nothing about it, saying that she was simply teaching them how to be better dragons when they grew up. Cassian told her that all it had done was make him more leery of his sister than most were of their worst enemy.
As she got older, her methods of trying to kill them off got more dangerous. It was why, as soon as they could, they left the nest in favor of raising themselves. It was that, or Margo was going to kill them in some way, and that would have been a great loss to her. Even in the last few years, she’d tried to kill them. Or to maim them in a way that she could take care of them. Kaida didn’t have any family, but she thought that they’d have been better than Margo was to her younger brothers.
They found out that the Savages and Margo with them were going to be staying in town at the local hotel. It wasn’t a grand one, barely called a hotel but it was quaint and close to downtown. They were perhaps only about four blocks from Cassian’s home and even closer to their own. It was yet a few more blocks to Kingston’s house and he wasn’t sure if they thought that he was closer to them. Perhaps even living in the house that Tucker and her were living in.
“What about sex?” She nearly fell over she had turned so quickly to make sure what Tucker said. After asking him, he laughed and told her what he’d said. It wasn’t that funny of a subject if he asked her. “I’d never rush you, but I was wondering if you would allow me to sleep with you from now on. I won’t harm you in any way nor take advantage of you. But I’d love to feel your warmth close to us, my dragon and myself, with the others around.”
“Is that really why you want to sleep with me?” He said that he wanted to make love with her as well, but he’d be happy with just holding her. It would make both him and his other half happy to know that she was close when something went wrong. “I suppose that’s as good a reason as any other. However, I will tell you if you get it into your head again that I belong to you, I’m going to hurt you in ways that you’ve never dreamed of.”
“Trust me when I tell you that I’m well aware of that. And that you could hurt me. But I also want you to know that you hold my heart in your hands for as much as I love you.” He got down on his knee and looked up at her. “I’ve been a fool. A cruel man who only looked at you as something and someone that I would have to care for. Never taking into consideration how much you would give me in return. With only a look or a thought, you could render me useless. Have me rethink my life choices and what I’ve been up until now.”
“Get up.” He put something in her hand and kissed it after closing it. “You don’t have to do all this Tucker. I said that you could sleep with me.”
“I didn’t do this before I asked you because I didn’t want you to think that I was blackmailing you into something. I love you, Kaida Loren Savage—I fell a bit more in love with you when you called yourself that earlier. But I have this for you that I made so long ago that I nearly forgot it.” He opened her palm and she got a look at the ring—such a mundane word for the piece of jewelry that lay there. “The base is made of my scale and will magically size to your finger when you wear it. You don’t have to worry about it breaking, either. It’s made of my other half and will not only not shatter when hit, but it will protect you from harm as well.”
He slipped it over the first knuckle, and she smiled at him. It vibrated around her, and as she watched him push it more onto her finger, she could feel the magic of it running up and over her arm to her own body. And it did fit like it had been made for her. It was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen.
The band of it was wide and so brilliantly shiny that she wanted to hold it up to the sun to see it sparkle around her. It was the blood-red color of his dragon and it too seemed to catch all the sunlight that was shining down on them and sparkle in the eyes of both her and Tucker.
The diamonds were set in a Tiffany setting that showed off the gems like it was an offering to her. Even the blue sapphires were bright. She did lift it up to the sun and laughed when it rained beautiful stars around her to the point that she was dizzy with them. It was like she was being rained upon by the most wonderful colors in the world, and she couldn’t have been happier.
“I’m glad that you like it.” She asked him if anyone else had worn it, hoping not, but didn’t know. Her trust level in the man was still new to her about him. “No one but you would wear something so beautiful as you are. It dulls in beauty when you wear it upon your finger.” He pulled out the second, much larger band. “This is for myself, as I want everyone to know that you have chosen me over all men in the world. I will forever be your one and only from this day forward.”
His words were like a branding to her heart. They were there for her to pull out and think on for all her days. This day to her would be like none other. The day that Tucker Savage had chosen to take her as his mate forever more.
“I love it, and I love you.” He kissed her hand again and stood up. “Will you kiss me and sort of seal the deal between us? I don’t care for a fancy wedding or even a small one. Just knowing that we’re together will make me the happiest woman forever. I love you so much, Tucker. But if you get all macho on me again, I will not hesitate in taking you out. I won’t be hurt by your words or actions again. Do you understand me? I won’t give you a second chance with this. You either keep your mouth shut when you want to be mean, or I’ll remind you what it’s like to have words hurt you.”
“I understand.” He pulled her into his arms and lifted her chin up. “Kaida. My little dragon, I love you so much.” Then he kissed her, making her body feel heat from the bottom of her feet to the top of her head.