Page 6 of Savage (Savage Dragons #1)

While she couldn’t shift, she had all the powers of a dragon. And then some, even Kingston was impressed with all that she could do. And to her, it was a great deal more than she ever thought that she imagined in her life. She looked over at Tucker when he said her name. When he smiled at her, it was all she could do not to leap at him and take him to the ground. Or any surface that was strong enough to hold them.

“You have to keep practicing on how to blow flames before you set fire to yourself.” She pouted. It had been fun heating up a pot of water for tea. But then the heat got away from her, and she had not just boiled out all the water but she’d melted the container so badly that it had to be tossed away. They teased her about that for about ten minutes. At least until she threatened to do the same to them. Kingston joined them in the backyard. It wasn’t safe for her to practice in the house. He sat down heavily on one of the patio chairs and looked about as dejected as she’d ever seen him. She asked him what had happened.

“My parents are peppering me about how much money I have. Did I tell you that I purchased the homes surrounding theirs? Well, they are saying that whoever bought the property has been making things look good, and they want to be able to do the same. And as their child, I should want them to have the best because I have the money. I can’t wait until they find out that I purchased the houses. That will really burn their toast.” Tucker asked him what he was going to do about them. “Nothing. They’ve been told what happened to Margo. She told Cassian and Brenin that there had been money from their parents will that they could collect on. I’m helping them get it. I don’t know if I could have done what they did to her.”

“I wasn’t aware that they did anything to her? What’s happened?” Tucker explained that it had happened while she’d been resting. “Well? Tell me? First, tell me that the two of them are all right. I only meant for them to get some payback from her. Did she hurt them?”

“After she told them about the money and the will that their parents had left, they felt like they were doing her wrong. Not that they didn’t enjoy themselves while they had her around.” Kaida cocked her brow at Kingston. “Right. What happened to her. They gave her the option of going to prison for the murder of not just their parents but those of Savage—Tucker’s as well. She is the reason that you can’t kill blood relatives. They couldn’t find any evidence of their deaths, but she confessed when she told the council that she wanted to be put to death. It was that or hang out with her brothers for all of eternity.”

“Did you know that, Tucker?” He said that he’d known that his parents had been poisoned but never by who. “Well, I don’t know whether to be happy about her death or not then. I mean, do you think that you could have reconciled with your family?”

“I don’t know that I would have tried to be honest. They left me, not that I left them when they took my sister to all those competition things. They didn’t have time for me.” He shrugged. “I have always thought that if they had known that I was going to get their money, they would have made it so that it went to some charity or something. Being their only living child, I got everything they had. Honestly? I don’t think of them all that often. It’s been centuries since I was born and only a few decades less since they’ve been dead.”

She sat down with Kingston. “What do you want to do with your parents? I know that they’ve been asking for money or demanding it, I mean. What can we do to help you shed them from your life once and for all?”

“I want them out of my life. They’re going to keep at me until I give in and then they’ll go away only to come around again. I know that it would be easier to just pay them off, but what am I getting out of this? Nothing but a few decades of peace and quiet, the reason that we came here in the first place. I don’t want to pay them off but it’s the only way that I can see that will get rid of them. They’re wearing me down.” She asked if he wanted her to take care of them. “I’m almost afraid to let you do that. I know you will, but I’m afraid that you’ll get hurt, and that will be the end of me.”

“What if I promise you that I’ll make it quick if they push me too far?” Kingston asked her if she thought that she could kill them. “I don’t know why, but I do. I feel like I can take on the world and make it dance for me. Your parents have done enough to you, and it’s time that they paid for it. Or I can go the other way, like Cassian and Brenin did, and offer them a choice. Which do you think they’ll choose?”

“I think they’ll laugh in your face right up until you kill them.” He looked at Tucker and then back at her. “What does Tucker have to say about you taking on some very old dragons? I’m sure that he’d not at all happy about you maybe getting hurt.” She turned to look at him, too.

“Being newly mated or not, I have learned very quickly that if she wants something to happen, it will. If she says she can do something, she will. In the event that she gets hurt, not dead but hurt, I will retaliate the same way to whoever harms what is mine.” He grinned before speaking again. “You might say that I’ve learned the hard way what she says is truth and I will stand back until she can do no more.”

“Smart man, my husband.” She glanced down at the ring that had a band that matched his and felt her happiness all over her body. “Let’s get this done. Why don’t we? That way, I can go home and have more sex with my savage.”

“Christ.” Kaida laughed when Kingston’s cheeks pinked up. The thought of embarrassing a man as old as he was made her giggle, too. Men, she was beginning to discover, were a lot of fun when you didn’t have to work for them. Just making Tucker happy made her feel as good as when she would meet her quota at work. Like she was on top of the world.

Kingston called his parents. They had overstayed their welcome at the hotel they’d been in and had to go to Columbus, where they could stay for less money, but it was further away from their son and his money. And that seemed to be all they wanted, too. His money and, of course, for him to bow before them. She thought them a little off but didn’t say anything to Kingston. He had enough on his mind as it was.

“They’re going to meet me, not us, in the hotel lobby. I didn’t tell them that you were coming if that’s all right?” Both she and Tucker said it was probably for the best. “They also told me that they were going to eat someplace where I might have to take out a loan to eat at. Whatever floats their boats. I doubt that they’ll eat much once they see that the two of you are with me. And before you ask, yes, I want you both there. Tucker knows how they are. They’re all kinds of stubborn, too.”

“I’m not worried. Are they the type that likes to make a scene?” He said that if it was to embarrass him, then yes, they were all for it. “I just don’t understand people anymore. I’m sure that you guys have had a lot more dealings with them, but they’re so into things going their way, aren’t they? I never noticed that before.”

They arrived at the hotel right on time. Taking a limo would put them all in the same car and make it so that they wouldn’t have any choice but to ride with them. If they would even get into the car with them. Kaida didn’t think they’d give up the opportunity to embarrass Kingston as much as they could, Tucker. And she was going to bring home the fact that his name was Tucker, not Savage, too. She finally had everyone in town calling him that, and she couldn’t have been more happy.

Kingston went into the hotel to get his parents, and she looked at Tucker. He looked wonderful in a suit, and she loved the way that his eyes matched the color of not just her dress but his tie as well. The diamond sparkled over them both and made it all the more romantic, with them being stuck in the limo alone.

“Do you think that they’ll come with us?” Tucker said they’d go for just the reason she thought so that they could embarrass the lot of them. “Then we’ll have to strike first. What is the one thing that you remember about them that was wrong? You know, like they did something in the public that would embarrass them to no end?”

When he smiled at her, she knew that what he had was juicy. When Kingston came back out alone, she thought that the three of them could have a lovely dinner and maybe even invite the other two to join them. It would be like having her family around. Then she saw them coming out of the hotel.

Sofia was dressed from head to toe in black. A somber black that made William and her look like they were attending a funeral rather than a dinner with their son and his friends. She had no doubt that they weren’t ever going to be on friendly terms with the elderly couple, but it made her plans for the evening all the more special. It was going to be fun, too.

“I don’t know why you two are here.” Tucker told her that it was his limo. “It is not. Why must you tell lies all the time, Savage?”

“My name is Tucker Savage. You can call me that or nothing at all.” William asked him why he was being so uppity all of a sudden. “How would you know how I act all the time? Since you got here, that’s the first time I’ve seen you since I was being tried for the murder of my family. Oh yes, I remember you being there, egging the council on to have me killed. And all this time, you knew that Margo had done the deed. Even when Cassian and Brenin’s family were killed, you said nothing. What does it feel like to be so wronged? I can tell you, it’s not a feeling that ever fades away.”

“You would bring that up when we’re mourning the death of poor Margo. I can’t believe that you did that to her.” Kaida said she’d done it. “Really? And why should I believe that? You’re nothing but a human that should have been murdered before you were born.”

“You mean aborted. Well, lucky me I must have better parents than Kingston has. And that would mean you. But I drew first blood with Margo, and that was our deal. When I turned her over to her brothers, knowing that they’d be kinder to her than she’d ever been to anyone else, I was surprised to find out that she’d spoken to the two of you—or would that be threatened to two of you with death if you didn’t bring her along with you on this trip.” Sofia huffed. “Also, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but the parents of Cassian and his brother left them a great deal of money too. They’re getting it in the next couple of weeks.”

“We’ll see about that. Being that we’re the last of the true Savages then I think it should come to us. We’re the ones that have kept the two of them in line.” Tucker laughed, and she turned an evil eye at him. “Your parent should have dropped you so that you were never born. Christ, when I think of how lovely Lillian was and how you turned out. Even going so far as taking a human as a mate. What is the dragon world coming to?”

“A great deal better once you’re out of it.” She couldn’t read minds and not let them know she was doing it. She had Tucker do it and tell her what was on their mind. When he paused for a moment, she looked at him. He smiled but it was tight and didn’t reach his eyes.

“Don’t eat anything that I don’t hand you.” She asked if they were going to poison her. “ Yes. At least, that’s their plan. I’ve already warned Kings. He said that he’d not planned on eating anything anyway. I think that I can get on board with that. After we take care of them, the three of us can go out and have all the food we want. After they’re gone. Do you have a plan?”

“I don’t, not really. Just to do what the council asked us to do and get them to confess. I think they will. They already think that they’re untouchable. Do you suppose they had a hand in killing the other couples with Margo? I wouldn’t put it past them.” He said that he’d not either. “They’re what gives dragons a bad name if you ask me. Just pure evil.”

She was happy that they’d spoken to the council before coming here. They apparently had been trying to prove a few murders on them for some time now. Helping Margo would be hard to prove unless they confessed to helping her. But she had no doubt that they’d do more than that.

They were pulling up in front of the restaurant when William looked at her. “You think you’re so wonderful that you have a bit of magic, don’t you?” Kaida told him that she thought it was wonderful to have a man who loved her very much. “He’ll tire of you like all the others around. You’ll see. You’ll have him a couple of human children, and then he’ll kick you to the curb. I give it six months. You’ll see.”

The man’s head snapped back, and she didn’t know what had happened. Not until she noticed that Kingston was nursing his hand. He had punched his father in the face, and she thought that it had been a long time coming. Looking at her, he took her hand into his and kissed it. Smiling at her, he told her that he had wanted to be her knight in shining armor for a long time.

~*~

Kings, a new nickname that Tucker had given him, watched his parents’ every move. When the breadsticks came, he snatched them from the waiter and handed them to Kaida and Tucker after taking one for himself. If she’d not been looking right at his parents, she might well have missed the look of anger on their faces. When asked if they wanted more, Kings told the waiter that would be wonderful and could he please hand it all to him. The man looked confused but complied with the second batch of bread was brought to the table.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Kings asked his mom what she meant. “Do you think that I’m incapable of sharing the bread with you and the others?”

“No. I just think that you’d do more than share with us. It’s not that I don’t think that you’re incapable of sharing, but I don’t want any poison that you might have on you getting into my or the others’ system.” Her face paled a great deal and before she could recover, Kings asked her if she’d been the one to poison any of the other Savages with Margo’s help. “No answer? Well, that’s all right. I know that you killed them off with her help. Or you might well have coned her into thinking it was all her idea so that you could stay out of trouble when she was caught. Believe it or not, I know a great deal more about you than you do me.”

“Like what? Something that the little twit told you about? You’re going to believe a human over your own parents? I’m ashamed of you.” He laughed, drawing the attention of those around him, and Kaida loved it. “Stop that braying right now. You’re making a spectacle of yourself.”

That made him laugh all the harder. He must have seen a couple of people smiling at him and decided that she didn’t care what people thought about him laughing aloud. It was nice to be able to feel good around his parents for a change. She’d bet anything that Kings would laugh the night away at their expense. When the waiter came to take their order, she noticed that neither Kings nor Tucker had ordered anything but the salad bar. She decided that he was going to do the same.

“What are you doing?” Kings asked his father what he meant. “Ordering from the salad bar. Don’t you think you’d like a thick steak and a baked potato? That’s what I’m having.”

“Yes, you go ahead, but I doubt very much that you’d poison an entire restaurant full of people just to get at us. At least that’s what I’m hoping.” She noticed that his mother was playing with her charm. Apparently, so did Kings. “You keep playing with that mother, and you might get a bit of the poison on yourself.”

Her hand moved away from the charm so quickly that she knew that was where it was. Snatching it from her neck and breaking the chain with it, Kaida held it by the chain and looked at the council that suddenly appeared in the room. Not saying a word, the older couple were gone and so was the charm. Whatever it was, she was glad that they did what Tucker had said and ordered nothing but what they could touch themselves.

After they were gone, they reordered what they wanted. The salad bar was nice. Dragons liked a good bit of greens as much as they loved meat, she’d been told. Ordering the largest steaks they had on their menu, Kaida decided that it was as good a time as any to celebrate. Telling the waiter to bring them their best champagne, they toasted their night and enjoyed the rest of the evening, making plans for the rest of their lives.

The other two cousins joined them just as their meal came to them. Ordering for them, she was glad to see that everyone was in better spirits. She knew that she was. When Kings heard from David about his parents’ home coming up for sale, he was glad to be able to buy it as well and have it torn down. There were just too many bad memories of the place for him to want to have it renovated into something nice, he told them. Starting from scratch was the best way to go, she thought.

~*~

On the way home, Kings noticed that Kaida was asleep. She’d had a rough few days and he was glad to see that she was getting the rest that she needed. He looked at Tucker when he spoke.

“She’s nearly dragon. While she can’t shift into one, she can blow flames and other things that I can do. Even some that I couldn’t before she changed.” He asked him what he could do now. Instead of answering, he put out his hand, and a ball of fire appeared. “Christ, that’s amazing. Is there anything else?” Tucker laughed. “I’m sorry, I was just excited.”

“That’s fine. She can do the same, but her ball is smaller, and she can toss them. Once mine leaves my hand, it’s gone. She’s been able to change her clothing at will since I met her, but now she can have her hair done up and her heels on. By the way, when you meet your mate, have her wear high heels. Trust me, you’ll love it.” He felt his heart ache for that. “You’ll meet her, Kings. I know it. There is someone out there for all of us. We’ll be old dragons with mates that make you feel a thousand years younger. Also, she can speak and read dragon. I’m a little rusty on it but it’s coming back to me. It makes it nice when you don’t want anyone else to understand what it is you’re saying.”

“Do you really think there is a mate out there for all of us? I have to tell you, sometimes I’m jealous of the love between the two of you. And to think you were ready to toss her aside when you first met her.” He said he’d been an ass. “That you were. But it turned out all right.”

When they arrived home, dropping him off first, he thought about the houses that he’d seen the other day. While he could well afford to buy them all, he just wanted to settle into one home that wasn’t as large as the one he was in now. Why did he think that he needed such a big house to begin with was beyond him. But he’d find something, and he’d live happily there without a care in the world.

By the time the sun was coming up, he’d decided on three houses that he wanted to look at. One of them had a pool for which he was happy about, but the kitchen looked out of date. He could easily fix that, but for now, he was happy to have something smaller and one that he could manage. Four bedrooms wasn’t all that much but it was something that he could work with.

Calling the realtor that Tucker had used, she set him up with the three that he’d found, as well as two more that weren’t on the market just yet. He had explained to her that he wanted to sell the house that he currently had and wondered if she thought it would be on the market very long. The house with a pool had been on the market for nearly seven years before it sold.

“It’s a large house, and people with families are looking for more than they can handle nowadays. Like a status symbol. Understand?” He said that he did. “Also, you’ve kept up on the house. The kitchen is brand new. You said that you put a new roof on it. I would guess that the first day it’s on the market, you’ll have bids that double what you want for it.”

“That sounds really good to me. I don’t have a house payment. I only took out a fifteen-year loan. I’ve lived in it for nearly thirty, so anything that I make over asking will be wonderful.” He didn’t need the money, but he wasn’t going to turn down a good deal because he was stupid. “The furniture can stay or not too. I’m starting fresh.”

“I’ll come and pick you up, and the two of us can go over what stays and doesn’t. I think you’re going to be a perfect pick for the house that I have in mind. It has a pool, as you requested, and it’s ready to move into. I don’t know if you play pool or not but there is a pool table in the basement that you can have friends over with. Also, there is an overly large entertainment area down there, too, complete with wet bar and chairs.” She’d pushed all the right buttons, but the yard that he wanted to have. He’d been able to shift in his own yard here, the reason that he’d gotten the big house and was hoping that she’d only skipped over it in favor of the other things on his life. “I’ll be there in twenty minutes, Kings.”

After walking around his home for two hours, he realized how much he didn’t use of the big mansion. There were bedrooms that didn’t even have a bed in them, and the kitchen, while up to date, it didn’t have any touches that it would have had someone cooked in there all the time. He was glad to be going smaller. Simply because he wanted to know his home rather than have no idea how my bathrooms it had because he’d never ventured from the one in the master suite.

Cassian joined him on the trip to the houses. He said that it occurred to him as well that he didn’t want to be in a large place right now. Instead, like he and Tucker had done, he wanted a smaller home that he could keep up with rather than have cobwebs in the rooms that he’d not known anything about.

“It seemed that at the time, going big or going home was our motto. I’ve discovered that while it was nice for a while, I’m bored with it. And when I date someone, it’s all they can see is dollar signs. Not that I don’t have a lot of money, but I know better than just handing it out to anyone who comes along with their hands out. I’m sick of that as well.” Kings asked him when the last time he’d been on a date. “Years. It’s not fun anymore. Getting to know someone before they tell you that you need to help them out or one of their family members. That drives me insane. Mostly, I date shifters when I want to go out. They seem to understand more than most that I’m not into a long-term relationship with them just to get laid once in a while. Even that’s become boring, too. One-night stands aren’t what I want right now. Especially after seeing Kaida and Tucker together. They sort of hum with happiness.”

“I know what you mean. They seem to exude happiness. I’m sort of jealous of them too. And to think that he didn’t want anything to do with her. She’s made him a better man too. Don’t you think?” He agreed with him and then said that he didn’t know if there would be that much happiness for him in the future. “Nah, we’ll have it. I have to believe that, or I might as well end my life. I need to know that there is something out there for all of us or what’s the point?”

“I guess so.” Changing the subject, they looked over the first of all the houses. It was all right, he thought but not worth the amount that they were asking for it. When they got to the second house, one that wasn’t on the market just yet, he fell in love with it even before going into the place to see what was going to be needed. “Look out back. If you don’t buy this place, then I am. It’s perfect.”

Three bedrooms and three baths were just a little smaller than he had wanted, but Cassian was right. There was enough room to add onto the place without messing up the structure of the house. The pool in the back was nice. Large and well maintained. Even the pool house attached to the boat house made him think that he could enjoy living here alone or with a mate. But it was the house that he fell in love with, too.

It was small, yet it was as the yard was, well maintained. It looked like he could entertain in the kitchen as well as the dining room and not have anyone tripping over one another. He could almost see the addition of extra rooms in the place as there was that much room to do it with. When he entered the dining room, he was ready to make an offer. It was the perfect size for entertaining his family and some room for mates as well. He needed to believe that there was someone out there for him to make this house a home.

The two of them toured the house together. There were things that needed to be done to it to make it livable. The bathrooms needed to have showers in them as he didn’t care for baths, though he was keeping one as a tub shower combo in the event that he had little ones around the house. Smiling to himself, he was happy to make an offer on the house without seeing the others. Even if the others were better, he’d be able to rent this one out for the extra income.

By the end of the afternoon, he’d made offers on two of the houses, and Cassian had made one on the house next door to the first one they’d made an offer on. It was nice, he thought, to be so close to his family—excluding his parents—his cousins were all that he needed in the world.