Page 1 of The Ruby Dragon’s Unconventional Mate (Oro Escondido #3)

Chapter

One

“ I said no!”

Lars McCallum didn’t know why his brother was just blinking at him.

Maybe he’d had a stroke.

He wasn’t even sure dragons could have strokes, but it didn’t matter. He’d said no, and he meant it.

“Why not?” Had Logan just asked him that? Seriously?

“I don’t want to.” He didn’t think he could. He was damn good at avoiding things, and he was not dealing with Bryant. Not now.

Maybe not ever.

“Lars, who is the head of the Guardian Council here?”

He arched an eyebrow. “Ask me if I care. Use small words so that I understand them. I said no.” His eyes narrowed. “Then, after you’re done, you can explain to me why you would approve this and not tell me.”

Lars had thought…well, he’d thought that Bryant Markham was going to be…special to him.

He’d thought he was special to Bryant, but that had been a lie.

A lot of things had been a lie, apparently, and he wasn’t going to go train anyone; he wasn’t going to be nice to anyone; and he wasn’t going to fly with anyone either. He’d made his position on this perfectly clear, he thought. “Ask Bea. Ask Jake. Do it your own goddamn self.”

“Why are you being so stubborn?”

He didn’t bother to answer that question. He just stared at Logan over his desk and waited.

Smoke began to pour out of Logan’s nose, and he could see the golden dragon shimmering just right behind the skin, which was fine with him.

Lars didn’t care. He could dragon up just as well as anybody else.

Obviously neither Bryant nor his twin brother, Lachlan, had any respect for him, and he’d be damned if he was going to participate in this bullshit.

“You hired them. You didn’t ask anybody if they thought it was all right to bring two guardians in to replace Jason.

You didn’t bother to ask my opinion about bringing Bryant here. ”

And Bryant had let him find out when everyone else did too.

When they showed up in Oro Escondido.

“It’s my position to hire them. Jason had to be replaced! What was I supposed to do? This isn’t like hiring a new receptionist!”

Lars stood, his wings bursting through his shirt. Dammit. “I’m your goddamn brother. I deserved some warning. Get out of my house.”

Logan blinked. “What?”

“Did I stutter? Get out of my house! You’re not welcome here.”

Logan rolled his eyes, and someone was going to die. “Bullshit. I’m your brother. I’m always welcome here, and you’re always welcome at my house with my mate and the babies, so stop it. Be mad, sure. But not like this. This doesn’t work for me. You’re my brother, and I love you.”

Oh, that was not fair. That was totally cheating. Totally cheating to bring up brotherhood and babies and—“I hate you.”

Logan shook his head. “No, you don’t. You’re mad at me. Your feelings are hurt, but you don’t hate me. Bryant didn’t want me to tell you. It was part of the deal. They’re powerful alphas, even with Lachlan hurt. It was too good to turn down.”

Even for him.

Lars felt so damn insignificant.

“I hate that Dakota made you reasonable.” He sat down with a sigh, and so did Logan. “You owe me a shirt.”

“Put it on my account. I’m not sure if that was Dakota that made me reasonable-ish or if it was the babies. The twins require a huge amount of sensibility because…damn.”

Lars nodded. The girls had attitudes as long as Logan’s tail. “Yeah, how long is it going to be before the next set comes?”

“Hush. I don’t—” Logan shook his head, expression panicky. “I don’t know that I can handle another set of twins.”

“Maybe these will be boys.”

Logan’s eyes went wide. “Surely you don’t think I could end up with two girls again?”

“Only if you’re really lucky.”

“God.” Logan chuckled. “I feel all nuts just thinking about it.”

“Which is no doubt why you hired Bryant and Lachlan for the wing without warning me.”

“It was a demand, one of the few they had,” Logan pointed out.

“That doesn’t mean they’re suitable! They’re from a city wing. They lived in a high rise! And—” Lars clamped his lips together.

And he’d thought maybe Bryant would be someone he could be with, have an affair with.

“I’m not asking you to deal with Bryant. I know how stressful that would be.”

“Stressful? We were chatting not ten minutes before you introduced them to the council.” Lars held up one finger and wiggled it. “Let’s not give him that much credit. He is not honest. He was?—”

The son of a bitch obviously did not understand that just because he liked things a certain way didn’t mean that he wasn’t just as capable of being a guardian as anyone else in this keep.

More than.

Hell, he was second-in-command at this point.

“He’s just not used to dealing with dragons like you, Lars. He didn’t know how to tell you.”

His eyes went wide. “What is that supposed to mean? Seriously, what exactly are you intimating? I wasn’t fucking him, but I thought—I thought we were at least friends!”

Logan sighed and rubbed the ridge above his eyebrows, exhaling with a long, slow breath. “They didn’t have a choice but to leave, you know that. Lachlan needed a place that wasn’t so urban and?—”

“And you couldn’t choose anyone that wasn’t broken? What is the wing supposed to do, once he’s healed? Did you bring two in to replace me?”

“Lars!” Logan snapped now, which made him feel a little better. Getting a rise out of his brother was always satisfying as hell.

“Well, tell me it’s not true.” He slumped back in his chair. “I don’t like this.”

“So you’ve said. But the decision’s been made, and you have to give them a chance.”

“You give them a chance. I’m not interested in training Lachlan and his brother. If they don’t know how to do this job, maybe they shouldn’t have gotten it.”

“Lars. Goddammit. They’re going to be fine guardians.

We needed someone in the position. But you know what?

Fine. I’ll get Jake to do it. It’s not like he doesn’t have a mate and a new baby as well as little Grant or anything.

He can just fucking drop his whole life because you’re having a goddamn snit!

” Logan slapped his hands down on Lars’s desk and rose.

“Fuck you! Okay, fine. I’ll do it. I’ll just suck it up and pretend like this dragon who’s been hunting me suddenly decided I wasn’t even worth a ten-second warning.

What does it matter? After all, I don’t get to mate.

I don’t get to have babies. I get to suck it up and be the gentle uncle, and no one even cares! ” He could yell too.

“Why wouldn’t you get to mate?” Logan scowled. “That’s stupid. Of course you can. You two can date. I don’t see why it’s a big deal.”

His brother could be such a blockhead sometimes, but he did defend Lars. Even from himself.

“You—You know I’m not going to just be able to—Jesus, Logan.”

“Lars, never say never. You think people will be all up in arms, but they won’t. They love you. Why wouldn’t our wing want you to be happy?”

“They want me to be an alpha, Logan. They all—all of them—want me to be an alpha.” And Logan knew it.

Logan crossed his arms and stared. “They want you to be a guardian. And you are. A good one.”

He shook his head. Logan just didn’t get it, because he was what he was supposed to be. But Lars was an omega, and he had to hide it from the wing, and he wanted some cookies.

And a hug.

He really wanted a hug.

Logan reached out, fingers twining with his. “Does this work?”

“It’s something. I’ll take it.”

“Well, if you want a hug, come out from behind the desk, and you can have that too. And then you can come home with me, and we’ll ply you with food.”

He gave a watery chuckle. “No, I have to make an appointment with the assholes. But I’ll probably run into town and get a coffee and a cookie, anyway.”

“Sounds good, bro.” Logan squeezed his hand. “Thank you. I love you.”

“I love you too. But I am still not happy. Got it?” He winked at his brother.

“Got it. Go get ’em, tiger.”

He rolled his eyes. “Rar.”