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

Chapter

Three

“ W as he really as awful as all that?”

Lars stared at Samuel. “Which one are you talking about? Lachlan the guardian who won’t leave his weird-assed house or let anyone see him or his jerk of a brother?” At Samuel’s panicked wide eyes, he blew out a hard breath. “I’m sorry, just so angry. I need a baby to snuggle.”

“Grant or Gwenyth? You can have either one.”

“I’ll take Gwenyth. She’ll be quiet, snuggly. Grant is a busy little bee, and he’s playing with his new blocks.”

“He loves those things. His Uncle Lars brought them to him, you know.” Samuel picked up the snoozing infant.

“I do know. Blocks are an amazing thing.”

Samuel deposited his sweet little snuggly girl into Lars’s lap, and Lars held her, her eyes never even opening.

“Lachlan was in an accident—something supersecret and disfiguring, I guess.” Bryant had left Oro Escondido in a rush, and Lars had understood.

He knew about having a brother, taking care of things.

“I guess that’s why Logan brought them both in. I don’t think that Lachlan is okay anymore, and Bryant offered to be the guardian here alongside him.”

“And you were…friends?” Samuel asked, and Lars shrugged.

“I thought so. He had to leave before you came here. I thought we were—” He took a deep breath.

“I really thought he was interested, but how could he not tell me he was coming here? If he wanted me to not be friendly, I’m totally capable of handling that now, because he’s just a complete and total?—”

He looked for a word that wasn’t evil and didn’t start with fuck, but he couldn’t find one, so he just shrugged.

“And I tried to be nice to him today, even after all of it.”

“Oh, that’s the worst. It’s really hard when you try to be nice, and somebody’s not nice back.” Samuel should know. He and Jake had started on a rocky road.

“Right, like I bought his coffee, I was decent to him, and was he decent back? No. He insulted my house. He insulted my job, or lack thereof.” And that had hurt his feelings. Bryant knew that he worked hard.

“Lars, honey, you’re a guardian. You have a job.”

“I know I’m a guardian. I know I have a job. They’re both guardians, but obviously he assumes I don’t work as hard.”

Samuel sighed softly. “Did you talk to Logan?”

He shook his head. “No. Logan’s convinced that I’m just being terribly unfair to these poor, poor, abused alphas, these poor big men.”

“Oh yay, there’s nothing like a little alpha bias to keep you going, is there?”

“Tell me about it.” At least Samuel’s keep understood omegas could be guardians. “And of course, I’m the one who’s not got any babies. I’m the one who doesn’t have a mate, so I’m the one who gets to train them because, you know, I don’t have anything to do.”

Even if Lachlan wouldn’t leave the house.

Samuel winced. “You know that’s not true, right? We know. I mean, maybe with Logan it’s true, but we all know that you have things to do.”

“Thanks, honey.” He bounced the baby girl on his knee and smiled down at her. He did work. He dealt with the schools. The programs in their wing for the kids. He handled all their financial needs, all their disputes. He’d helped Samuel establish a library for them.

He was good at what he did, and he didn’t need Bryant freaking Markham alpha-holing all over him.

Even if he was gorgeous and Lars still missed him.

“You’re amazing at what you do. Please, don’t stress it. Maybe they’ll learn to be nice. Jake did.”

“Jake was going through an enormous amount of stress. He had a brand-new baby, his sister had just died. His sister-in-law had just died. He just got a new house, and he was a brand-new guardian. And then you showed up, and you’re amazing.

” Lars did adore Samuel, simply adored the man.

He sighed. “I just, I don’t know… I just don’t.

I’m just not comfortable in my skin right now.

I feel like I’m fighting a lot with Logan. ”

Samuel shook his head. “Well, surely they’re trained now, I mean. You all know what to do.”

Lars nodded and grinned a little bit. “I gave them to Bea.”

Samuel’s eyes went wide. “You didn’t! She might eat them!”

Good. “I did. I decided that Jake and I needed to spend more time together. And so I took Jake.”

“So Logan’s just out there on his own, is he?”

“He is. He does have more children coming, after all.”

“Children? Do they know if it’s more than one?”

Lars shrugged. “Well, they say once you’ve had more than one, it’s just easier to continue doing it.”

Samuel shook his head. “That’s a lot of babies!”

“Are you and Jake going to have any more?”

Samuel shrugged. “Maybe, but not for a little while. Grant… Grant is a little challenging right now.”

Samuel looked at him with those big, big violet eyes, and he nodded in sympathy. Grant was unlike any dragon they’d ever heard of. The little one could make things happen—doors opening, things going across the room. It was a little intense.

“Thank goodness that he’s basically a cheery little boy.

And Celeste? I would literally lose my mind without her, but honestly, Grant tends to go oh and stop doing what he’s doing when you correct him.

It’s just every so often he has…well, as you know, he’s a kid, he gets frustrated and mad.

I’m dreading adolescence. The hormones. Can you imagine? So we’re discussing it.”

Poor Samuel. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re both incredible dads.”

Samuel sighed and grinned at him. “Thank you. I think you will be an incredible dad. You’re the best uncle.”

Lars shook his head. “You know, I don’t think I want babies. I don’t think I want to mate. I’m not even sure I want to be a guardian anymore. Right now, I just want to sit in my house and read books and pretend that I’m living in a castle somewhere with a moat.”

“Would you have a human guarding it?” Samuel teased.

He shook his head. “No, I’d want something wild like…oh, I don’t know. Maybe a griffin or a giant dire bear guarding my castle.”

“A friendly giant dire bear.” Samuel began to chuckle, and Lars laughed right along.

“Yeah. You know Slipknot would hate that.” So ferrets weren’t particularly into bears, so far as he understood. He could be wrong about that, though. It had been known to happen.

His sleek little familiar had been his buddy for a long while. Lars wouldn’t want to upset him.

They grinned at each other, both of them grabbing a cookie. The white chocolate macadamia nut ones were super good.

“Anyway, I’ll get over myself, but I’m just so…”

“Tired? I think it’s hard when so much change happens at once. It’s exhausting.”

If anyone should know, it was Samuel.

“So is new alpha energy.” Samuel gave him an unreadable glance.

“Oh, no. Nope. Not still attracted at all.” No. Way.

“Are you sure?”

“Are you kidding? He obviously doesn’t trust me.

I told you that he thinks I’m stupid. He thinks I don’t work.

I don’t want anything to do with him.” He found himself close to tears.

“Besides, after all of this? We’re not even going to be friends.

I’m going to have to work with him, guard the wing with him, and it makes me furious.

The son of a bitch needs to go back to wherever the fuck he came from. ”

“Lars!”

Lars clapped his hand over his mouth. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”

Samuel shook his head. “It’s okay. That was just very intense, coming from you.”

“I’m wearing my fake-alpha pants.”

That earned him a raised eyebrow. “Maybe you should pick some that don’t have paisleys on them,” Samuel whispered, and he grinned.

“But I like these.” He was wearing them with this shiny silver shirt that made his hair look so good. “As a matter of fact, I like these a lot.”

“They do look really cute on you. I love the way that you dress. You always seem as if you’re about ready to do something amazing. Even when it’s very, very casual.”

Oh, that felt so good to hear. “At some point, we need to get a babysitter, and you should come on over to the house and we’ll have a spa day.”

Samuel’s face lit up. “I would love that. I would love that a lot. I’ll ask Jake to watch the babies. He would be happy to, especially for us to have a spa day. Can we have a soak in that hot springs pool you have in your basement?”

“You know it. That thing is magical. Don’t tell anybody though. I don’t want anybody coming and visiting.”

“I would never. That’s our little secret.”

Lars nodded and kissed the top of Gwen’s head. “Oh, I’m so glad I came over. Thank you.”

Samuel shrugged. “That’s what best friends are for. Now are we going to watch Project Runway or Top Chef ?”