Page 11 of The Dragon’s Emberlinked Mate (Dragon Flight Academy #3)

Emmen

I stood in the middle of the ballroom, the same as I had a billion times before.

These fundraiser events were all about getting the members of the clan in the same room as our dragon flight team members, so they could shake hands and take pictures.

Once upon a time they’d tried to get fancy and do something outside the box.

That always resulted in a lot of extra work to bring in either the same money or less than this.

The flight team were like our own personal celebrities, not unlike the professional football teams the humans had. Having them be front and center was the tried and true way to success, no matter how boring I found these events to be.

The funds that we raised were for the teams themselves, but also the school’s general fund.

It wasn’t as essential as it had once been.

Being as long-lived as we were, most of the fundraising wasn’t really necessary since we had long since learned how to work the human system to earn money, lots of money.

That was how we got the reputation for having hoards of cash instead of our greatest treasures, which were often financially worthless.

It wasn’t that we hoarded away our finances, it was that we were good at replenishing them.

But regardless of that, this was a long-standing tradition, and the money was helpful.

And when we had surplus, we were able to give to charities, both dragon and human alike. It was a win-win.

Tonight was special. I had a mate at my side, for the first time ever. I couldn’t be more excited about it. I wanted to show him off.

My mate, however, seemed to be shaking with anxiety.

He wasn’t new to big events, but this was his first time attending one as someone who would be front and center.

I understood why he was stressed and hated it for him.

I even offered for him to stay home, but he insisted on coming.

He said his place was by my side, and I had to agree with him there. It was.

I held his hand as his gaze bounced between me and every other person in the room, as if constantly looking for an attack.

“Rhythe, are you sure that you are all right?” I’d leave in a second if he so much as hinted at needing me to. This was my job, nothing more. Rhythe came first… always.

“I’m fine,” he said with a big smile. “Perfect.”

Fine was always a lie, in my experience. And perfect? That was never true. I appreciated his desire not to make me worry, but it was only making me worry more.

“You seem stressed,” I whispered low and close to his ear for only him to hear.

“I’m not… I mean, I can handle this. Everything’s fine.”

I wasn’t sure if he was trying to convince himself or me. In either case, it wasn’t convincing at all.

I pulled him closer to me, tugging us so that we were on the dance floor and I could finally have him in my arms. It also allowed me to speak to him without fear of someone overhearing and give him the comfort of my scent and warmth and touch in a way that wouldn’t stand out.

The last thing he needed was attention being brought on him for being uncomfortable. That would only make matters worse.

“Can you be honest with me?” I kissed his cheek.

He relaxed at my words. “I’m very nervous.” His gaze darted around the room, and I held him tighter against me.

“Really? I couldn’t tell,” I said, and he glared. Fair. I deserved that.

“It’s not funny, Emmen. I am not used to being the center of attention. This is a lot.”

“I know, sweetheart, you’re doing wonderful.” Even if others noticed the nerves pouring off of him, he was still shining brightly. He belonged in this world, even if he hadn’t realized it yet.

I’d seen him with the math department, a group of dragons of all ages, all experts in their field, one he didn’t know anything about. He had owned that discussion and earned all of their respect. He might not see his gifts, but I did, as did those who met him.

“I’m not doing anything.”

“There’s nothing to do. We just stand around.

Everyone will get the pictures with the people they want to get their pictures with.

I’ll shake a few hands. People will ask me a few questions.

Mostly they’ll want to set up meetings.” Most of which would be canceled.

“And I will jot it down so that way Emily can put it in my calendar. It’s really not that exciting.

What is exciting is finally having you at my side. ”

I felt him relax ever so slightly. It wasn’t near enough, but I would take it.

“Everyone is in a higher class than me, everyone’s so much older than me.”

Not for the first time, I wondered how much his parents had sheltered him growing up. It wasn’t uncommon with final clutches. But he came from a family with deep roots in the community, so it was surprising how new most of this seemed to him

“Older does not always equal wiser, my love. You’ll learn that with time.” It was embarrassing how true this was.

“You mean that I won’t get wiser as I get older? Is that what happened to you?”

A joke. He made a joke. Whatever I was doing was working, thank goddess. I hated seeing him struggle.

I pinched his side, making him laugh. “Careful, there you little minx.”

He laughed again, but then got serious. “I just don’t want to embarrass you.”

“You could never.”

“Yeah. It’s not as if I’m going to get the steps wrong to this dance that we’re doing.” I’d lost track of my feet more often than not. “No, that’s definitely you. When was the last time you had a dance lesson?”

He winced as I stepped on his foot for the second time. It wasn’t even intentional. I might’ve been older than the music we were dancing to, but I had never once in all my years been graceful enough to command the dance floor.

“I’m probably ruining all of the charm and the vision you might have had of me as some suave debonair older gentleman, but I can’t dance for shit.”

“No kidding.” He rubbed his cheek against mine. “I can’t wait to see you when they do a line dance.”

“It would amuse you. That much is true.” I’d attempted the ones where the song told you what to do before and not once did I resemble the instructions.

Thankfully, the song was over, and my mate had relaxed considerably during the time I had him in my arms.

I took his hand and led him toward our table. Before we could make it there, though, we were interrupted by Tyler and Banks, two dragons who worked under me and whom I’d known for over two centuries. I shook their hands.

“So nice to see you,” I said. “This is my mate, Rhythe.”

“Nice to meet you,” Tyler said.

“Emmen, we heard that you were mated. But goodness gracious, old man, you’re robbing the egg here. He’s still got goo on him.”

I straightened. “Banks.” If he made my mate uncomfortable, he was going to discover my hidden talent right here and now.

“What?”

“Don’t mind Banks,” Tyler interrupted me. “He’s just being an alphahole. He’s had too much to drink. We really came over to talk to you about next week’s meeting.”

“Of course,” I said, not wanting to let the comment slide, but I also didn’t want to dwell on it either. “Rhythe, why don’t you go ahead and sit down. I’ll chat with these two.”

“Oh, of course, it was nice to meet you,” he said, then walked away.

The conversation was boring and quick, not something he needed to concern himself with.

I meant to go find my mate right away after I finished, but instead was interrupted by one person after another.

It seemed that as soon as my mate left my side, everyone took the opportunity to pounce.

At first, I got several questions about him, then it was more questions about schedules and events that I could come to.

“And wouldn’t it be great if we put our family name on some building with just an X dollar amount donation?” It was all politics, a part of the job that I hated. I cared about the education of our young dragons, not whose name appeared on the buildings.

Finally, a considerable amount of time later, I went in search of my mate. Thankfully, I was able to follow my bond. It was like an invisible tether that bound me to him, no matter the length we were apart.

I found my mate sitting in a library with another omega, the two of them laughing, looking at a book.

“I didn’t know this sordid history about the Emberstone clan. I’ll have to mention it to my mate,” the omega I recognized as Ollie, Lord Malric’s mate, said.

“It’s scandalous.”

“I know, I was shocked when I saw it too. Is history something you’re interested in?” Ollie asked.

“I never was before, but since meeting my mate, I kind of decided to learn a little bit more about how things were when he was younger.”

“You have quite the age gap.”

“Yes,” Rhythe said. “I do too.”

That was putting it mildly. There were centuries between our hatchings. I’d waited for him a long time. It was worth every minute.