Page 7 of The Dragon’s Stormwoven Bond (Dragon Flight Academy #2)

Pep

The cabin that my mate had on the property of the academy was gorgeous.

No, not my mate— we had. This was our cabin, our first home together, and I loved that every memory made here was ours.

That was selfish of me, but I didn’t care.

He had a life long before I took my first breath, and wanting this to be just ours wasn’t asking too much.

It was secluded from the other cabins by tall pine trees. I wasn’t sure if that was by design or if they randomly put housing where the area was already flat enough that they didn’t need to bring in heavy equipment to excavate.

They had laid trails that led from the cabins to main campus, making the commute into work very scenic. I took a moment to appreciate the aerial view from my dragon’s point of view. This place might not have been large, but it was perfect.

We hadn’t shifted together, and I couldn’t help but wonder about his beast. I had not even asked about his shifted form, there hadn’t been time. I bet he was fantastically gorgeous. Given his age, it was likely he had the ability to breathe fire with such precision that I’d be blown away.

Not too far from our cabin was another one that apparently belonged to a Flight Leader named Zayne and his mate, Ash. From the air, I saw their two little ones playing in the yard. Perhaps in a few months, my mate and I would have our own little ones to join the fun.

That was one of a bazillion things my mate and I hadn’t talked about yet. If we were going to have a clutch, we would need a larger cabin. Zayne and Ash were adding on to theirs, and I half wondered if that was an option for us as well. All of this depended on if we were going to have a clutch.

It was common for mates to have their clutches early in their mating. It was the goddess’s way of blessing them, I supposed. But what if we weren’t one of those lucky ones? My mate was hardly young. Would he be okay if that wasn’t in our future? Would I be?

For the first time, I wished we’d gone slower.

No, that wasn’t exactly it. I wouldn’t change our first night for anything.

But if it had happened when my family was on an extended holiday and Valen and I could spend weeks together getting to learn everything about each other… I wouldn’t have hated that.

After landing and shifting back to my human form, I went inside. Unsure what to do with myself, I plopped on the couch. My mate was at my parents’ house without me, and I was second-guessing every decision made to that end.

Was it smart for us to hide this from my parents, even if it was just a little while?

Probably not, but I didn’t know how to bring up the subject.

My dad hadn’t talked about Valen a lot, but when he did, it didn’t sound as if he felt the man was mate material for his children…

or for anyone. He didn’t even sound like the type to be my father’s friend.

Like, what did they have in common except being old?

And then there was the massive age gap between us.

Valen had lived, really lived, way more than I had.

It wasn’t just about the years that separated us, but how he used them.

The man had been across this globe and through entire periods I read about in history books.

And me? I was barely a quarter century old and only recently decided to move away from home.

What would we possibly have in common? I was so much younger than him, and those years had been boring.

The knock on the door startled me. Who the heck would be here?

“Pep! Open up.” Rhythe.

How the heck had he found me? Did my parents know too? Probably not. This was Rhythe, after all. I’d long since given up trying to understand how it was that my twin could find me at any given time. There was something special about our bond after having shared an egg.

I barely had the door open a crack when he barged right in as if he owned the place.

“I hope your mate has beer, because I need one... or five.” He wagged his finger at me like I was an errand child. “How was it that I learned that you were mated from your mate and not from you? How? Because I’m still trying to figure out how mad I am at you.”

I sighed. “I thought you weren’t going to be at the house tonight.”

“I wasn’t, but Mom said she was making lasagna, and you know I can’t resist that.”

She’d made her best meal or at least the one we thought of as such. For someone who didn’t have the nicest things to say about my mate, she wasn’t acting like it.

I rolled my eyes. “How did you know about Valen and me? Did his scent blocker not work?”

If it didn’t, I had a whole lot more to worry about than my brother asking me for a beer.

“Oh, it worked fine. But you know that I could scent that a mile away, plus he immediately recognized me. No one can do that. Some days I think I’m you.”

I snorted. He wasn’t wrong. More than once he’d found an old picture and picked me out as him. We were so similar it was eerie.

“Well, not sure you’d necessarily want to be in my shoes right now.”

“Oh, I’d love to be mated, but not to Dad’s best friend. He’s old.” He made a face.

A growl rumbled in my throat. “Don’t talk about Valen like that.”

Rhythe shot me a look, then returned his attention to the fridge. He wouldn’t find much, we hadn’t done any grocery shopping. “Oh, I mean, he’s hot, don’t get me wrong, but he’s Dad’s age.”

I wasn’t sure which I hated more, my brother thinking my mate was old or thinking he was hot. Obviously he was hot. No one could see the man and not think so, but at the same time, he was mine. Why should anyone be looking at him at all?

“I know that. Why do you think we aren’t telling Dad?” I didn’t care about my mate’s age. He was my mate, and my dragon knew he was perfect for us, and I trusted that. It was everyone else’s reaction that gave me pause.

“Yeah, that’s going to be a mess.” He grinned then pulled me in for a long hug in which he nearly squeezed all the air from my lungs.

“What was that for?” I said.

“I’m really happy for you.” At least someone was. And not any someone, but the person who was closer to me than anyone else.

“Thank you. I’m really happy too. Surprised and worried, but happy.” And a thousand other emotions.

“Tell me everything. Was it amazing?” He shut the fridge, finally giving up on his beer hunt.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not telling you about getting mated.”

He gave an exaggerated shake like he was shaking that mere idea away. Asshat.

“No, I mean realizing you were mates. Was it instant? Did you swoon when you saw him?” Rhythe had dragged me out of the kitchen now and pulled me down on to the sofa.

“You saw when he saved me from Craig?”

He nodded.

“Well, after that, I already liked him. How could I not?”

“Yeah, yeah. That’s fabulous, but the mate part—I’ve always been so curious about it and had no one to ask. Was it instant?”

“It was for Valen, not for me.” Although looking back, I did know too, I just hadn’t been able to understand what it all meant. “We spent the entire night at the bar talking, and then finally went back to his hotel.”

My brother’s jaw dropped. I wasn’t one to even kiss a guy at a bar and here I was telling him a story that included me heading off to a virtual stranger’s hotel room hours after we met and before we verbalized that we were mates. Better telling my brother this than my father, that was for sure.

“We were on the street at two in the morning when we voiced out loud that we might be mates.”

Rhythe waggled his eyebrows. “And then you went back to his hotel to bone?”

I punched him in the shoulder. “Slightly more romantic than that, but yes, essentially that is what happened.”

“We need to go to the bar more often. Maybe I can snag me a mate too and we can raise our clutches together and drive our mates up a wall with our antics.”

“Not sure if the bar is the best place to do that, but I’m on board with you finding your happiness.” I leaned into my brother’s side. This was going to be the first time we lived apart. I was going to miss him, not that he was far away.

“I just hope Dad doesn’t kill your mate.”

“Asshat.”

“You love me.” I did, but also, I didn’t need another what-if running through my head.