Page 10 of The Dragon’s Stormwoven Bond (Dragon Flight Academy #2)

Valen

I loved that my old friend wanted to get together for dinner. One thing about being as old as I was, people came in and out of your life. And while that was to be expected, there was something about those that stuck with you across the years.

Part of the reason that I wanted to move back closer to the clan and work at the academy was so that I could catch up with old friends.

I’d spent too many years gallivanting around the world without building relationships.

It had been a lonely existence, even if it was by choice.

I was ready to be around friends, have family dinners, to be a part of a community again.

I just hadn’t expected Pep. He came out of nowhere and flipped my world on its head. I loved him and couldn’t imagine living without him by my side, but it did put a damper on my original intent for moving back here. At least for now.

I’d been ready for a mate, without even knowing that was why I’d changed. It had been a long time since I even hit on another omega, much less taken one home. It wasn’t until I met Pep that I understood the reason. My dragon knew before I did. Wasn’t that always the way.

Now that I had a mate, the emptiness that had been my life until I met Pep looked like a gaping cavern.

Pep wasn’t coming with me to this dinner with his mom and dad because his dad still had no idea that we were mated and oddly they hadn’t invited him like they did last time.

I assumed it was because he no longer lived at home and that he was giving him space and that his brother would be there, but that was all speculation.

I told myself that it would be just this dinner, and then tomorrow, Pep and I would sit down and figure out a way to tell his dad.

One thing was for certain, we couldn’t keep things going this way.

When we’d agreed not to tell him two weeks ago, I had never imagined that it would go on for this long.

I’d wrongly assumed it would be until he moved out or possibly until he got adjusted to the idea of having a mate.

Two weeks was just a blink of an eye to a dragon as long-lived as me, and his parents for that matter, but it had felt like an eternity when secrets were involved.

Thankfully, work had kept us busy. And other things that tended to distract mates.

But we weren’t distracted enough to not have it weighing heavily on us.

There was a last-minute change of plans, and I met Eryx and Katrina at a restaurant instead of their home.

Pep had told me how good it was when I let him know.

I wished he was with me now—always, but more so now that I knew he enjoyed the place we were dining at.

I needed to make an excuse to get a meal to go and surprise my mate.

I caught sight of my friends as I walked in. My steps faltered though when I saw they had an omega I’d never met at the table with them. It would be one thing if it had been one of their kin, but he wasn’t. He bore no family resemblance whatsoever.

It took all I had to force a smile as I approached. Nothing about this felt casual. If anything, it felt like a set-up—possibly a blind date. My mate would not be pleased at that. I wouldn’t be either.

“Eryx, Katrina, good to see you.”

“Finally, Valen, you’re here.” Eryx grinned broadly, a mischievous glint in his eye. “This is Samuel.”

I shook the omega’s hand, and he held it a second too long, his eyes raking me.

A set-up.

There was no denying it now.

I was being set up.

This omega was my date for the evening.

Fuck.

Of all the things for Eryx to do, this had been unexpected.

I’d known him for centuries and not once had he attempted something like this.

If anything, he’d tried to dissuade me from hooking up with omegas.

He was a wait until fate hooked you up kind of guy.

Of course, he didn’t think fate was planning to make his youngest son my fated at the time.

I grimaced as I sat down, keeping as far away from the omega as I could without being obviously rude. I didn’t smell like my mate right now. To everyone in this place, I was an unmated dragon. I was up for the taking—at least for the hitting on.

Had this been three weeks ago, I probably would have loved to be set up, but not now. I had Pep, and there was no one else for me. I needed to find an excuse to leave as soon as possible, and we needed to fess up to Eryx. I couldn’t allow this to happen again.

I managed to make small talk throughout most of the dinner. Eryx did his damnedest to get Samuel and me to hit it off, but there was no spark. And there never would be. How could there be when I had the perfect omega at home waiting for me.

When Samuel excused himself to go to the bathroom, Eryx gave me a stern look. He was not pleased. It wasn’t as if I’d asked to have a double date with them. Had I known that was what this was, I’d have made it clear from the get-go.

“Come on, man, I know you don’t want to settle down, but you’ve never been opposed to dating before. Give the guy a chance! You’ve been treating him like a piranha for the whole night,” Eryx said.

I bristled. “I’m not interested,” I said. “And I don’t appreciate the ambush.”

“Well, yeah, we’ve all gathered that.” Katrina put a hand on her mate’s shoulder.

I didn’t wish to be rude, but it wasn’t as if I had asked to be set up on this date.

“I told him you didn’t want to be set up,” she said to me, “but you know how he is.”

I did, and it wasn’t playing matchmaker. What had gotten into my friend and when did he stop listening to his mate? At least I knew he was going to get an earful when he got home. There was some joy in that.

“I’m seeing someone,” I said.

Both of them went still, their eyes wide with shock.

“What? Why haven’t we met them?” Eryx asked.

Oh, they had met him, all right. That wasn’t a conversation for now. Not in public. Not with a date who was as much a victim as I was about to be back at the table. Not without my mate present.

“It’s new,” I said, “and I’ll bring them by soon.”

“Valen, if you had told me that, I never would have done any of this.” Eryx was far happier than he was going to be when he discovered the truth. That was for sure. “Next time you start dating, let me know so I plan dinner better.”

“Or you can stop meddling,” Katrina said.

We managed to make it the rest of the way through dinner without any big argument, and I tried as much as I could not to treat the poor omega poorly without inadvertently leading him on. He wasn’t part of this plan any more than I was. Why should he suffer?

I went home at a decent hour, a meal in hand with not one, but two desserts. My mate was likely still up, and feeding him was the least I could do.

He tended to come home from work, unwind a bit, and then start back up working again with his laptop wherever he felt comfortable in the house—some days at the table, some days in the recliner, some days he even worked outside.

No one could ever accuse him of slacking off, that was for sure.

If anything, I feared he was working too hard.

Pep was at the dining room table when I walked in. He smiled when he saw me, but as I stepped closer, his nose wrinkled, a look of shock in his eyes.

“Valen,” he said, his face contorted—hurt, disgust, pain.

Shit. I should have showered. “Your dad had—”

“They brought an omega to dinner with you?”

I stepped closer to my mate, and he stepped back.

“Shower. Go shower.” He shooed me away, snatching the food first. “Please tell me he didn’t touch this.”

“I promise. I ordered it and waited for it after everyone left.”

He turned his head away so that he wasn’t facing me. The look of hurt on his face would haunt me forever, but maybe the fact that he accepted my gift was a good sign. I wouldn’t know until I scrubbed every inch of my skin, making sure there were no remnants of Samual’s scent to be found.

Maybe I should burn my clothes too. Anything to prevent my mate from feeling that pain ever again.