Page 5 of The Dragon’s Stormwoven Bond (Dragon Flight Academy #2)

Pep

Holy fuck.

In just under eight hours, my entire life had changed. I’d walked into a bar a virgin, and now here I was eight hours later—mated and no longer a virgin.

“Are you awake now, mate?” Valen kissed my shoulder blades, trailing his hand down my back. He was the big spoon to my little spoon.

“I’m awake,” I said. “I need to go home soon… or something. I don’t actually know what the protocol is here.” I laughed nervously.

Mating was a huge-ass deal. Obviously, I wasn’t going to still be living at home. My life was with Valen, but also, I couldn’t just never go back. My parents would want to meet him, and of course my brother too. And there was my new job to think about.

Unless he needed a place, and then we’d find one together. Or maybe we would have to stay with my parents. Argg, why did real life details need to come and mess with my perfect morning?

“Your home is with me now, if you want it to be, of course,” Valen said. “I get the keys to my place this morning.”

I grinned. “If I wanted it to be there,” as if there was any place on this planet I’d rather be than by his side. This was all new to me, but that much I knew for sure.

“Then I guess we better pack up my things if you want me to move in with you. As long as you want me to.” Where was all the confidence I had last night?

“Of course I want that,” Valen said, hugging me against him. “I’m all in on this. I know that I’ve never been the type to settle down, and as you meet my friends or talk to people who’ve known me, you’re going to hear things that aren’t ideal.”

My stomach dropped. I hadn’t considered how different his past would be to mine.

It had to be. I was alive for only a tiny fraction of his life, and I was very sheltered at that.

But it didn’t matter, right? Everything he ever did or had ever happened to him had made him the dragon he was today… my dragon.

“But please never doubt that I want this. I want you. I’m blessed to have found you after all this time, mate.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder.

“Thank you. I can’t say that you’re going to hear any exciting stories about me.” He’d already heard the most exciting of it, and it was less exciting than it was having an asshole ex who still thought it was fun to torment me. “I... I’ve been pretty boring. I mean, I still live with my parents.”

I’d never minded before. Why wouldn’t I live with them.

We were family and got along. It wasn’t as if I was there because I was a failure at life and it was that or homelessness.

It was a choice I made, and looking back, I’d have made again and again.

Still… it had me feeling childish next to this alpha who’d lived centuries.

“There’s nothing boring about you, mate.

But if we are going to get going and meet your parents and get you moved all today, we should probably get our day started.

I’m supposed to have dinner at my friend’s house tonight.

I might have to reschedule, although I’ll feel terrible about that. I haven’t seen him in years.”

“Do you still keep in touch?”

“Yeah, oddly enough, he writes letters. He’s as old as I am, but he refuses to adopt any new tech until it’s been around for a century or more.”

I stilled. Valen had to have a ton of friends that were just as long-lived as him, but I knew for a fact that most dragons had moved on to using modern technologies. It was my business to know that. We joked that only my dad was the type to still write letters.

“Valen, what’s your friend’s name?” It couldn’t be… could it?

“Eryx.”

How was this my life? I shot off the bed, pulling the sheet with me and wrapping it around my waist. “What? Seriously?”

“Pep, what’s wrong?”

“That’s my dad.” And based on comments he’d made about Valen, he wasn’t going to be pleased. It was one thing to have a friend who never settled down and lived an adventurous life, but it was quite another to want that for your son.

I’d need to set him straight. My dad would have to understand. It wasn’t like I picked him at random; fate sent him to me, which meant he was exactly the dragon I needed.

Gods, why was I biting off trouble before it existed? My dad might think this was the best news ever, right?

Valen’s brow furrowed. “No. That’s impossible. His last clutch is newly hatched. They’re still infants. They can’t be older than twenty-fiv—” Valen’s face went white as the blood drained from it. “You and Rhythe are Eryx and Katrina’s most recent clutch. But that can’t be. They just hatched.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I get it. I’m young. I am twenty-five. And you’re ancient compared to me, but I’m not a child, Valen.”

The look on his face was full of anguish.

He’d known my father for actual centuries.

This had to hit him differently, but the last thing I wanted was for my mate to think of me as a child.

I wasn’t. And as one of the oldest dragons, most everyone was only alive for a blip of his lifespan. He had to be used to it.

“Your Eryx’s son.” He swallowed. “I sent you a gift for your nest.”

This could not be happening. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear from my mate.

“Dad is going to flip out,” I admitted to both of us for the first time. “He won’t handle this well.”

“No, you’re right. He won’t.” Valen sat up, keeping the blanket covering his groin, thankfully, because I was not going to be able to think with him naked in front of me. He reached for the hair tie that was on the nightstand and pulled his hair back into a messy bun.

There I went, being distracted by my mate again. Hair should not be this alluring. I didn’t even like long hair, except maybe I did… a lot. At least when it was on my alpha’s head.

“He’s just going to have to accept it,” Valen said.

Relief settled in. If he said anything respecting my father’s opinion on the matter, I’d have cried, only proving the point that I was too young for him. As it was, I was on the verge of tears.

“You’re my mate, Pep. Mine. Our age difference is vast, but it’s not unheard of.”

The very idea of going with Valen to my parents’ house and letting them know who he was to me turned my stomach.

I shook my head. There was no way around it, but I wished that we’d had more time together before discovering this truth.

Our bond was so new, and as much as I believed his words, when the time came, my father could be very forceful when he wanted to be.

“He’s not going to take it well.” How could he? I was his baby.

“I know that, but he will have to accept it. Do you want me to cancel the dinner? The minute he sees me, he’s going to know.”

Attempting to hide wasn’t the solution, but it sure was tempting.

“You could hide your scent.”

He raised a brow. “Hide my scent? You want me to lie to my friend?”

“You’re not lying. He’s not going to ask if you’re mated, and we just simply won’t say anything.” I hated every single word coming from my lips. “I didn’t plan on being at the dinner anyway.”

I often bowed out when he had friends over. They were always nice enough, but hanging out with your friend’s family changes the dynamic and it always felt more polite not to.

“You weren’t going to meet one of your dad’s oldest friends?”

I bit my lip. “Mom said that you fuck anything that walks.”

Crap. Did I really say that out loud? What was wrong with me.

Valen scoffed, but I could see the hurt on his face. How could he not be. Having someone saying bad things about you to your mate had to sting, even if they didn’t know it was your mate at the time.

“She didn’t mean it like that. She was just exaggerating.” I hoped. “My dad didn’t really say much. He just let us know that we didn’t have to be there.”

“Great. This is what my friend truly thinks of me?” He let out a long sigh. “He didn’t even want his sons to meet me.”

“You said it yourself that you were a bit of a slut.” I just kept on digging. “And I don’t think it was him not wanting us to meet you so much as thinking we might not have anything in common?”

“I’m a mated dragon now. You know that means that you’re the only one for me, right?”

I sat down next to Valen and held his hand. “I do know that. And I do think my father will accept this eventually. It’ll just take him a bit to adjust. Should we wait a few days? Does it have to be today? This is so new, and I want to enjoy our mating without his reaction hanging over our head.”

The logic was flawed. Of course it was going to hang over me now more than if I ripped it off like a band-aid, but I wasn’t ready. I couldn’t risk my father saying harsh things to my mate, not when I’d only just found him.

Valen nodded. “I agree. Let’s just get through today and then we can decide, okay? How exactly is this scent blocking going to work? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“I have an identical twin. The only way our parents have ever been able to tell us apart is through scent. We bought a scent-blocking tea years ago from a clan of witches. It’s not technically within the lines of the law…” Oh, the trouble my brother and I would’ve gotten into if we’d been caught.

Valen’s face split into a grin. “Now I’m kind of curious if I would be able to tell you apart. Either way, make me the tea.”