Page 6 of The Ruby Dragon’s Unconventional Mate (Oro Escondido #3)

Chapter

Six

“… S

o, in conclusion, since there is an abundance of guardians for the wing, I am tendering my resignation. Please consider this email my two-week notice.”

Bryant stared at his phone, where the email had popped up.

Lars was resigning.

He was leaving the wing.

That had been in the email too. Gods. For a long moment, he was completely numb. Like, for real. As if all his nerve endings had died. His lips wouldn’t even move to speak the last line of the email aloud.

When he snapped out of that, he immediately fell into a space of complete panic.

Of course, the next email read: “Bullshit you are.” And that was from Logan. “I do not accept your resignation. I’m calling a meeting NOW. Everyone get their asses over here.”

Well, that was clear.

Lachlan walked out of the rooms that he’d claimed as his own. “So what did you do?”

“Nothing!” Bryant felt as if he’d been hit in the breadbasket.

“I apologized. I told him the truth—it wasn’t that I didn’t trust him about me.

I didn’t trust him about you, and you’re my number one priority.

He said fine. We had a cup of coffee. We talked about absolutely nothing of any importance, and then he left. I didn’t do anything.”

And he didn’t understand what the hell was going on.

Lachlan blinked at him, his lips twisting, his scars pulling, and then he shrugged. “Well, all right then.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” That wasn’t a nothing face.

“What? What did I supposedly do now? I didn’t say anything .”

“But, man, whatever you didn’t do made him quit.”

“Logan said he wasn’t accepting his resignation.” Right?

“I don’t think that Logan can actually do that,” Lachlan pointed out, and Bryant shook his head.

“He’s the head of the wing. He can do what he wants.” He knew that wasn’t true. So did Lachlan, but it felt necessary to say it.

“Lars is a guardian. He can go where he pleases. I came to replace Jason, but he figures you replace him.”

Panic gave way to rage. “Oh, fuck no. I don’t think so.”

“Do you get to not think so?”

“Don’t fucking start with me,” he snapped. “We have to be at the guardians meeting right now. Did you see the email?”

“I did.” Was Lachlan actually grinning? “This is madly entertaining.”

“Shut the fuck up. This isn’t entertaining. He’s leaving. This is home. He’s just gonna leave. Why?” Why on earth would Lars go? He loved it here. He’d told Bryant that a thousand times. Maybe more.

“Maybe he thinks you don’t need him. Maybe he thinks nobody needs him now.

Maybe he wants to just go live his best goddamn life, I don’t know.

” Lachlan shrugged and shook his head. “Maybe he decided that there was no way the two of you were ever going to be together, and so he wanted to go see if there was somewhere he could have somebody and somebody would have him. That’s reasonable to think. ”

He was going to hit his brother with a rock. “No, it’s not reasonable. Reasonable people don’t just—leave. Reasonable dragons don’t just flee their homes and go find other wings.”

Lachlan tilted his head, stared at him. “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?”

“What?”

“Is that not exactly like one hundred percent what we did?”

“Our situation was different,” he snapped.

“Oh.” He hated when Lachlan did that. It reminded him of their dad. So smug. So uppity. So damn smart.

“Don’t make me kick your ass.”

“Okay.” Lachlan stared at him, eyebrow arched. “Wounded, still the biggest stud you’ve ever met.”

“Fuck you.”

“Ew.” Lachlan marched to the front door. “Well, come on !”

“Coming.” He was going to kick Lars’s ass, too. And probably his own. He’d caused this. Bryant knew he had. And he had to fix it, dammit.

They drove to Logan’s because Lach wasn’t confident about flying here yet. They needed to get more familiar with the territory, with the wing. But that was okay. They’d work up to it.

They unloaded and Logan’s housekeeper, Simon, let them in, smiling wryly. “Thank you for coming so quickly. Logan is rather in crisis.”

“Of course he is. That’s his brother. Where does he want us?” Lach was enjoying this. The son of a bitch was enjoying this!

“In the war room.” Winking, Simon turned to lead them in. “Which right now means the library. His office isn’t big enough for everyone.”

“Right.”

“Is Lars here?” Bryant asked.

Simon gave him a little frown. “Not yet. Jake has been sent to bring him.”

“I—” What was he supposed to say? That he was sorry? He was, but he wasn’t sure this was the appropriate time and place.

No, he needed to apologize to Lars. Personally and in private.

But he would protest in this meeting for sure. Lars needed to stay in his home where he was loved and where people knew and needed him. Not let Bryant and his stupidity run him out.

This entire fucking thing had gotten altogether out of hand, and that was on him.

It sucked, but it was true, and he had a guardian to beg forgiveness of.

They sat in Logan’s library, but the golden dragon himself wasn’t in there yet. Just his mate, Dakota, and their pair of mountain lions.

“Hey. Would you guys like a drink?” Dakota asked.

“Sure, thanks.” Lachlan smiled, his wings folded neatly so he didn’t knock anything over. “Water would be great.”

“Any lemon or lime? Juice in it?”

“Lime if you have it.”

“You got it. Bryan?” Dakota gave him a little smile, and he couldn’t decide if it was sympathy or pity in those pretty eyes.

“Uh—” It was probably bad form to ask for a whiskey, though he knew Logan had a lovely selection.

“Do you have any scotch?” Lachlan asked. “He might need a little liquid encouragement.”

“Wow, I can feel the bus wheels go round and round on my back.” He glared at his brother.

Dakota gave a soft snort of laughter. “Right. I can do that. Ice?”

“Just neat. And a cola for a chaser if you have that.”

“Always.” Dakota got up and left the room, which was like Logan’s magical cue to walk in, his own drink, and a platter of some kind of snacks, in his hands.

“Hey, thanks for coming, guys. Bea is on her way, and did Dakota tell you Jake went to retrieve Lars?”

He wanted to say, “Arf,” because that sounded like duck tolling or something, but he figured it was best not to be more of an ass than he had been. What about the McCallum brothers did this to him?

With Logan, he had a feeling it was because he looked so much like Lars, only gold rather than silver.

It was Lars who got under his skin. All the way. Like a nail more than a thorn…

“He did tell us,” Lach said. “This is wild, Logan.”

“Lars has a bee up his butt for sure.” Logan gave them a tight smile. “Cheese and crackers and shit. Help yourself.”

He looked at Logan and shook his head. “This is my fault.”

“Partially, yeah.” Logan rolled his shoulders. “And it’s partially mine. He told me how badly he’d been hurt by this situation, and I blew him off and told him to suck it up. That’s on me.”

“I didn’t--” It was just the three of them, his brother and one of his best friends, so he could admit it. “I just didn’t know what to say. Lars can be so damn open, and I was just worried about him saying something that would endanger Lachlan, our place here.”

Lachlan’s attack had left his brother vulnerable and close to death for way too long.

And now he wasn’t able to change, to shift back to his usual human form.

He was no longer free to just wander the human world like the rest of them were.

So just the travel between the West Coast and Colorado had been fraught with danger.

Bryant had gone home. He’d dealt with the things he’d found, had discovered how bad it was, and what the best-case scenarios were. Then he’d gotten Lachlan and him here to Logan’s wing where they had a place.

Lachlan shook his head. “I don’t think that’s exactly the whole situation.”

Logan nodded once. “The main situation, as far as I know, is that you were texting him up until the point that you were actually in the wing. Then you ghosted him.”

“I felt bad; I was embarrassed. I didn’t know what to say.”

Lachlan was going to hurt himself snorting like that. “How about the truth?”

“Yeah, well, I’ve said that now too. I’m not sure that helped.” That was obviously another understatement.

Logan’s head tilted. “What did you say?”

“Just the truth. That I had to help my brother, and I had to make him my priority. That he’s my twin, and he wins. Simple as that.” It had been harsh, but it was also the truth.

Logan winced a little bit and glanced at Lachlan.

“I know!” He sighed softly. “But it is what it is, right? I just want to work with him.” He just wanted things to go back to the way they’d been.

That’s not going to happen. Lachlan watched them like a hawk. That’s never going to happen. Everything is changed. Things aren’t ever going to be back the way they were. They could be worse; they could be better. But they’re never going to be the same.

Gee, thanks, bro. Not helping, really.

Logan sighed. “Well, I can see the problem clearly now.”

“With Lars?”

“With both of you. Lars wants to be his lover’s first priority. A mate. Not an afterthought.”

“We’re not mates.”

It hurt a little bit to say. Maybe it hurt a lot, but he had responsibilities—businesses, Lachlan, this new guardian position. He didn’t?—

He just didn’t have time for that nonsense.

“Well then, that’s easy, I suppose, but the simple fact is I need him here. We’re having a meeting. You can sit there and keep your mouth shut while I apologize profusely. I’m assuming that you and Lachlan are working with Jake for the long term.”

“Actually, boss, that’s me.” Bea stood there, and that woman was the closest thing to a dragon when she wasn’t shifted that he’d ever seen.

“Mickey’s good with me working swings and covering, so I’ll be able to help out and do whatever training needs to be done.

That way, Lars, Jake, and you can work days.

I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep Lars here. He’s a good guy.”

Bryant sighed. “Look, I wasn’t—I didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

“Then you shouldn’t have been an asshole.

You treat enemies like that—pretend to be their friends and then lie to them and then ghost them and then show up unannounced.

” Bea looked him up and down, lip curled in a snarl.

“You didn’t want to have any trouble. You didn’t care at all whether or not you caused it.

So let’s call a spade a spade, shall we?

We are not children. We know when what we do is offensive or when it’s not.

We know when the actions we take hurt someone else.

And when we know that and we do it, then we get what we get, and we have to own it.

” Bea pierced him with a look that felt like he was a butterfly pinned on a board.

“That’s my recommendation for you. Own it. ”

“You don’t have to be an asshole either.” Lachlan snarled. “My brother was just protecting me.”

“Goody for you. Are you sure that you’re capable of being a guardian if you need your brother to protect you?” Bea asked.

Lachlan snapped back. “Are we sure that Lars is capable of it if he needs his brother to protect him?”

Bea started to gather up energy to roar when Lars and Jake stepped in the room. “No one is protecting me. I’ve been protecting myself for a very long time now. Logan, you have something to say?”

“Yes. I deliberately misunderstood how upset you were, and I apologize. Please, I want you to stay. I need you here, brother.” Logan gave him and Lachlan a long look. “We might not have found the best fit. We may need to look for someone else.”

Ouch. Bryant rubbed his chest. That hurt. He and Logan had been friends for a while. But he got it too. Lars was Logan’s brother…

“We can do this,” Lachlan said. “Well, I can. Bryant is here to run businesses.”

Did he really need to be here? No. He couldn’t stop himself from looking at Lars, and that pale face and those flashing eyes spoke of a dragon scorned.

Yeah, he could just go.

“Call me when you need me to come back for you, Lach.” He stood, nodding at the assembled guardians.

“Running away, huh?” That was Bea.

“As you said, Lachlan doesn’t need my help to be a guardian.” And he felt—at a loss. Deflated. Totally in the wrong somehow just for trying to do something right.

And he knew he’d hurt Lars. He just didn’t know what to do about it now. He had no shovel to dig his ass out of the dirt.

So, he took a deep breath, bowed his head again, and swept past Lars and Jake, his shoulders back and his head up. He wasn’t going to beg for anything.

Not even from his damn brother.

They could all just meet without him.