Page 7 of The Ruby Dragon’s Unconventional Mate (Oro Escondido #3)

Chapter

Seven

“ S o, are you really going to leave?”

Amber plopped down on Lars’s couch, her mug of cinnamon and cardamom tea in hand. His ferret, Slippy, hopped into her lap. She hadn’t brought Teaball with her, but she always had treats for the familiars.

“I don’t know. The upshot of the meeting was if I leave, so do Lachlan and Bryant.” Lars sighed. “And I can tell Lachlan is here for a reason. Something awful clearly happened to him.”

“Yeah. I’ve heard some tales, but I have yet to go to supper.”

Lars snorted. “I bet no one gets invited now.”

“Are you going to talk to him?” She stared at him, her eyes kind of glowing.

“Lachlan? I told you, he was very nice at the meeting.”

“No, honey. I mean his brother. The one who has you all tied up in knots.”

“I have tried. Twice. Both times were spectacular failures. I mean, he flat-out said we’re not mates.”

She waved a hand, her bangle bracelets clanking together. “How long did I deny that Mari and I were mates because I thought I might want to be a guardian someday?”

His cheeks heated. He’d thought about that, actually. What if Bryant was just too…stupid? Silly? Utterly foolish? To know or to admit that they were supposed to be doing the mate bond thing? And did Lars care?

Because he really had things to do.

“Anyway, I told Logan I would stay on. For now.” He nibbled a cookie. Simon had sent a whole bag home with him.

“Oh, good.” She beamed at him. “I want to read your tea leaves.”

“What? No. I don’t need that.” Amber’s readings could be exhausting. Edifying. Terrifying. He would rather not.

“But you do. I think you need some clarity.”

“Save that for Bryant.” He gave her a beaming smile, covering up his worry as he always did.

“I intend to give him a good talking to as well. But you first.” She winked, her fake eyelashes flipping. “You’re my favorite.”

“I thought that was Dakota.”

“Oh, he’s my doll baby. You’re my fierce defender.”

His shoulders slumped. “I don’t feel so fierce.”

“Well, maybe you should be. Go tell him what for! He’s conflicted. He never expected something to challenge his loyalty to his brother.” She blinked at him, but somehow it was like a predator trying to convince their prey they were harmless.

Hope filled his chest for a moment, but then he shook his head. “If I’m that easy to dismiss?—”

“Oh, bah. He’s here, isn’t he? If he really thought you were bad for his brother, he would have gone anywhere else. And he keeps running into you.”

“It’s a small town,” Lars deadpanned.

“Which means he could see you coming and run the other way. But he keeps trying to talk to you.”

“Stop trying to give me false hope.”

Amber blew out a gusty sigh. “Who says it’s false? Lars, I think you’re both making a huge mistake.”

“Look, I said I would stay for now. I can’t promise more than that. One thing at a time.”

“Fair enough.” She sipped her tea. “I love you and want you to be happy.”

“And I appreciate that. I do.” He did give her a heartfelt smile then. “I do adore you, you old bat.”

“I do not echo-locate.” She stroked Slippy with her free hand. “This blend is so soothing.”

“It has a great scent.” He nipped up another cookie.

“It does. The cardamom really lends a roundness to it.” She looked like a serene yogi sitting cross-legged on his couch, her quills no longer vibrating.

“Yeah.” Whatever that meant. Maybe it was that the cinnamon wasn’t so hot with the cardamom underneath it. He had no idea. She spoke far more fluent tea than he did.

Another knock came to his door, and he rolled his eyes. “I’m fairly sure that when I left the meeting I said that I was taking the rest of the day off.”

Still, he went to answer the door, because that was his goddamn job. Dakota and Samuel were standing there with all of the children. All four of them.

“We brought supper,” Dakota started.

Samuel picked up, “And banana bread.”

“And babies.”

“And wine.”

Dakota nodded. “And Pack ’n Plays so that the babies have somewhere to sleep.”

Lars grabbed said Pack ’n Plays. Amber grabbed food baskets. Everybody had a baby, so they all trooped into the house.

“Wow. Thanks, guys.” He squeezed Grant. “Hey, buddy, how are you?”

Little Grant grinned at him, bared his teeth, and went, “Rawr!”

His eyebrows went up and he put the playpen down. “Yeah? Are we feeling a little grumpy today?”

“RAWR!” Grant agreed.

“I made him promise he wouldn’t teleport around your house.” Samuel looked a little worn around the edges—not gigantically pregnant worn like Dakota, but worn.

“Excellent. I love that for me. Everybody come on in and have a seat.”

“Can I stay even though I’m not an omega?” Amber asked.

“Does everyone know?” he demanded.

“The important ones, yeah.” Dakota rolled his eyes. “Don’t be a bitch, Amber. You see how pregnant I am? You see my belly? We are supporting our favorite Lars. That’s it, and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to bite somebody.”

Rock on.

Samuel nodded. “Exactly. Also, what the hell? You’re not allowed to just decide you’re going to leave without talking to us. We love you, and we’re going to let that…that…outsider know exactly what we think.”

He arched an eyebrow at Samuel. “Outsider? You know, officially, Bryant was here before you were.”

“Yes, but I didn’t know that he even existed, and I didn’t care. And not only that, but Grant was here before he was here, and Grant is my family, so by definition, I was here first.”

All right, that was some mental gymnastics right there, not to mention an enormous amount of ‘heres’, but…

“Fair enough. Fuck the son of a bitch.”

“Exactly.”

“Fucking BITCH!” Grant yelled.

Everybody stopped, the silence huge.

That was when Ari passed gas, the sound like a shot.

Everybody cracked up. Okay, he needed that. Lars just let the laughter take him, ninety percent of his tension just pouring out of him.

“Oh, guys, I do love you.”

Samuel nodded. “We have your back.”

“Mmmm. So what do we have for food?”

Amber started unpacking the hamper. “Whipped goat cheese with honey. Oh, yum.”

“Nice. Hummus?”

“You know it,” Dakota said. “The alpha chest beaters are having lamb or something.”

“Alpha chest beaters. Seriously?” They cracked him up. Of course, it was easier now that he was a little bit out of the closet, so to speak. He could just relax and enjoy his goat cheese and hummus and—“Ooh what’s this?”

Dakota beamed at him. “French onion dip. There’s chips too. I also brought little marinated tomatoes and mozzarella, and there’s some amazing crusty bread.”

“Let me grab some plates.”

Soon they were settled together. Grant was playing with Slippy. The babies were all three drinking bottles. It was warm and quiet and happy, and this was the reason that he had decided to stay.

Logan too, because he loved Logan, and kind of because he’d been guilted into it. But really, because this was his family and his house.

His home.

“It’s going to be all right.” Samuel reached over and squeezed his hand.

“I promise. We’re going to figure it out.

It’s going to be okay. We’re going to tell him to back the fuck off.

Those alphas think they’re so goddamn strong, but they don’t know.

” Samuel’s eyes flashed, and he could hear a storm rumbling outside.

Samuel hadn’t worked through all of his pain from his parents.

“Yeah. Be careful, you’re going to have Jake calling to make sure you’re all right,” Dakota warned.

“You think that you’re not going to be called because Logan’s going to be worried that you’re not all right?” Lars teased the gigantically preggers one.

“Right. I’m the size of a house. What are we going to do? I can’t—” Dakota’s eyes filled with tears. “Seriously, Logan’s already overwhelmed with the guardianship and this nonsense and the business. I’m afraid that he’s just gonna take one look at these guys and run.”

“No.” There was no way. Logan adored Dakota and the babies. “No. If there’s something I understand about my brother, it’s that he will, absolutely, one hundred percent, have your back. And so do we.”

That was the important part, anyway. They would have Dakota’s back.

Just about then both Dakota and Samuel’s phones began to ring.

He grinned and rolled his eyes. “See?”

They rolled their eyes, but they both answered, and they both reassured their mates.

Amber winked at Lars. “You notice my phone isn’t ringing.”

“Mari isn’t worried about you at all.”

“Nope.” She popped a tomato into her mouth.

“This is because you and I are stone-cold studs.” Lars was sure about that.

Amber nodded. “Yep. There’s no question there. So, you think Dakota here’s going to have five or six babies?”

“Amber, I will kill you.” Dakota looked up from his phone and glared. “I’m serious. Dead. Like I will personally eat you alive. I will feed you to these fucking babies.”

“Dakota!” Samuel groaned, as Grant cheered at the top of his lungs.

“Fucking babies!”

Dakota winced. “Sorry. Sorry, Samuel. I forgot. I know better.”

Samuel chuckled, looking at Grant fondly. “As long as he doesn’t wink out, we’re okay.”

“Yeah.” Dakota stared at Grant too.

“Come here, baby boy,” Amber said, going to get Grant out of his Pack ’N Play. “Want a bite of banana?”

“Nana! Nana!” Grant beamed at her. “Luff you, Nana.”

Amber grinned. “Do you love a banana?”

“No. Luff you , Nana.”

“Aww…” They all said it at the same time.

“Oh, buddy. I love you too. So much.” She beamed at him. “You need to come see me and Mari this weekend, huh? All of you. Give your daddies time to be alone. We can have a slumber party.”

“I would help,” Lars said. “I think that’s a great idea.”

“Oh, that would be so nice. Four babies, three grownups. You’re still outnumbered, but you’ve got a real chance…” Dakota teased.

“Yup. We’d just pretend to manage, just so you can be grownups for a night.” At least Dakota couldn’t get more pregnant.

“We’ll also have all the familiars,” Amber said. “I’ll bring Teaball home. He can’t teleport, but he can fly.”

“Grant’s very good about keeping himself together, I promise.” Samuel nodded. “Are you my good boy, Grant?”

“Good boy!”

“We can even do it here, if you want. Keep them in the wing.” He didn’t mind.

“That would be great,” Amber said. “If you don’t mind.”

“Nope. I think it would be a hoot.”

“Good deal.” Amber bounced Grant, and they all ate, and Lars began to think it might all be okay.

As long as he could just avoid Bryant.

Which he could totally do.

Right?