Page 13 of These Little Heirs (Moonscale Heirs Duet #2)

I leaned into Teal’s chest, stifling my laughter. It wasn’t funny but my dick was still in Teal’s fist, and I wasn’t sure I ever wanted him to let go of it. I was soft and had just cum but some moments weren’t meant to end so quickly.

“Until we find another cubby hole,” Teal teased and stole a kiss as he handed off the shirt for me to clean up with. Thankfully, his laundry basket was also in the closet. “I can go first and make sure they all know you’re on leave.”

“What if I don’t want to be on leave?” I asked, my cat’s fur bristling along my back.

“Well, part of meeting your true-mate is taking that leave. It’s for your sanity and mine and everyone else’s too.

Sure, you can go out there and play badass.

I’m not saying we rely on idiots to protect us.

I’m saying that if they give you any grief that you’re on leave because you’re my mate that I’m going to rearrange their expressions and I am not a plastic surgeon.

My whole life everything has been ours and I didn’t mind.

Even now, if you really wanted one of my brothers, you could have him but you’re mine. ”

I blinked and my cat’s second eyelids slid over my pupils as if he too was trying to figure out how he felt about this. Mine. His. Ours. So many possessives.

“Just so you know that works both ways,” I said, righting my fly.

“I’d gladly watch you rearrange faces,” Teal smirked and stole another kiss.

Medwin knocked on the door again and told us that the others were fine.

We knew they were fine of course. Morvan and Indigo had just gotten out of the shower and Cobalt was still with the wolves and Baby Robin.

Medwin had returned with a full snack plate and wouldn’t hear a word out of either of us until we ate.

“It’s not as bad as it probably felt when it happened.

He claims it was his shirt. He set his shirt on fire and dropped it,” Medwin rolled his eyes and glanced at the bed.

“I don’t even know if the idiot knew dragon fire could explode like that with enough anger.

Clarry is ready to off him. Eat him. Something,” Medwin sighed.

“Me too sort of. I love Moonglow. If one of you were hurt I’d kill him without asking questions.

I don’t understand why the dog didn’t get him. ”

“He tried but he was too slow. Ciro knocked him over and tranqed him. You should’ve seen him.

He was darting all around and stabbing people like he was in an action movie.

Guard training is a good place to spend money,” Teal said and I fought off the urge to elbow him.

It was a compliment, but I hated being the center of attention.

Okay, that was a lie. Usually, I didn’t mind but right then I wanted to melt into the wall and pretend I didn’t exist.

“He’s the best. That’s why I sent him,” Medwin said matter-of-factly.

“And because you’re a meddlin’ Medwin,” Teal teased him.

“I didn’t want you to feel left out,” Medwin admitted.

“I have no patience for that. You three do everything together and I didn’t like that fate decided not to keep the momentum going.

So as dragons have done since the dawn of time I said forget that and took care of things myself.

I hope one day you’ll understand why I did it. ”

“I’m over being mad,” Teal shrugged. “Well, about that. I still wish you’d have given us a head’s up but then again I wish that Ciro hadn’t hid it from me. It’s taught me a lesson, though. All the omegas around here are sneaky and should be watched closely.”

“You’ll never catch onto us,” Medwin let out a genuine laugh.

“What are you going to do with the idiot tied to the bed?” I asked once the snack plate was nearly empty.

“That depends on what he says when we talk to him. Torvan is only pretending to be asleep but I’m letting him by with it until Morvan comes back. I think he’s taking a very long detour to meet the baby.”

“Where are we going to stay in the meantime?” Teal asked.

“You three are grown. That’s really up to you,” Medwin said. “It’ll be loud here over the next few days but Torvan won’t be around to blow things up again.”

“Already planning to give him the lightning chair?” Morvan walked in with Cobalt on his heels.

The real Cobalt this time and not Indigo pretending to be him. He nodded in Teal’s direction. My mate nodded back and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I nodded hello too but didn’t look away from Torvan. He tried to sit up but he was attached firmly by his bindings.

“Calm down. They’re not executing you this time.

I don’t think,” Morvan said, trying to break the tension.

He sank onto the edge of the bed and scooped up one of the water bottles as if this was one big slumber party.

He and Teal shared a look I couldn’t read.

They’d been friends forever but there was something intimate there.

I didn’t think it was sex but who knew with the ruling family?

I never stuck around anyone long enough to get close.

Close meant losing them eventually. Teal tightened his grip on me and it took me a moment to realize he hadn’t read my brain, but my scent.

I wasn’t covered in sugar cookie pheromone blocker spray anymore after his watering the nest stunt.

“They got you arrested,” Torvan finally spoke.

“I got me arrested and I’m not apologizing for that either,” Morvan said, and I cringed. A little bit of fake remorse went a long way with dealing with those who figured they ruled the world. “I believe in what we do. Everything we do.”

“Indigo does too. Now that he’s seen the seeds firsthand and all,” Cobalt said from the doorway.

“What am I missing?” Medwin asked.

“He just wants the future to be bright for his baby,” Cobalt said. “Baby Robin sneezed out fire today. You should’ve seen—”

“Cobalt, I want to hear all about that later but in case you forgot the man tied to the bed tried to blow up Teal and Ciro and succeeded in blowing up part of Moonglow Cabin,” Medwin sighed. The older dragon was obviously familiar with all the stalling tactics employed by his grandkids.

“I was going to set something on fire so they’d listen to me. You can’t go and take away everyone’s money!” Torvan said from the bed.

“Brother,” Morvan sighed before Medwin had time to say anything. “Seriously, brother. No one is trying to make you go broke. The restaurant industry would still exist.”

“Not if food is free everywhere!” Torvan growled.

“Yes, it would. You still charge for the service of cooking it, ding dong,” Teal said, sounding more lighthearted than I expected him to.

“Seriously, that’s one we have thought through.

You wouldn’t charge for the food because you wouldn’t be charged for the food.

You could either sign up for the program we’ll start and be paid by the fund every month or get paid for cooking by whoever comes into the restaurant.

You still make a profit to pay yourself and employees for things that aren’t food.

And I’m sorry Morvan got arrested. I’m not thrilled about that either, okay?

He’s my best friend. So, cool it and you’re going to have to apologize to Ciro and Medwin and probably Clarence and maybe if you convince them you have a little remorse it’ll be community service and not---”

Cobalt looked at Teal and they fell quiet as Clarence’s scent wafted into the bedroom.

The alpha dragon was pissed. He’d sent his grandkids out here to be safe and raise their families not to be blown up by the likes of Torvan.

Cobalt shifted away from the door frame leaving plenty of room for Clarence to take up the spot.

He glared at the idiot tied to the bed. No doubt he watched him grow up in Moonscale London as much as he’d watched the rest of us grow up.

Morvan positioned himself between his brother and Clarence.

“You’re not saving him from this one, Morvan. You’re already on my shit list. My golf course didn’t do anything to you.”

“And I merely dressed it up in drag, huh?” Morvan squared his shoulders. “And let it make friends with butterflies.”

Clarence rolled his eyes, but his scent softened. It was hard not to like Morvan, and it wasn’t like the golf courses were blown up or anything.

“I’m going to make sure you have a lot of work to do in making this plan of yours and Teal’s work. Going to make you work as tirelessly as I did trying to figure out who hated me enough to attack my golf courses,” Clarence said.

“We already are, sir, ” Morvan said, drawing out the sir until Clarence rolled his eyes.

“Don’t do that. I am not the enemy.”

“No, dear. Of course, you aren’t,” Medwin said. “Just your golf courses.”

Everyone laughed except for Torvan who didn’t find all the banter all that funny.

I’d have felt bad for him except he had blown up part of the cabin and interrupted my alone time with Teal.

For all I cared we could have a seven-course feast while he watched, and his mouth watered for a single crumb.

Though, Teal would feed him because he was Teal and even evil fuckers deserved to eat.

“He’s your ex,” I whispered in Teal’s ear while Clarence and Morvan discussed golf courses and flowers.

“Morvan is not my ex,” Teal said too quickly.

“Not him. Torvan.”

“One summer. I was fifteen. By the end of summer it was clear we valued different things. He came to visit me in Heartville one weekend. I had been looking forward to giving him a tour of where we grew the food. He was not excited and made this huge ordeal that he’d taken me to his family’s five star restaurant and I took him to a field of manure to eat.

No, I took him to eat food fresh from the source.

You haven’t eaten until you can pull your food right off the plant and---” Teal paused.

“Keep going.”

“You’re drooling,” Teal laughed and wiped my mouth.

“Are you still hungry?” Medwin asked. “I can have some of the guards bring more food up.”

“He’s over here talking about fresh fruit off the vine and expects me not to drool,” I laughed and rested my forehead against Teal’s shoulder.

“That date sucked,” Torvan said, having picked up on our conversation.

“You give him a hundred hours of community service for having bad taste in date locations,” Teal said and Clarence actually laughed and so did Medwin.

“I should make him rebuild the cabin by himself but he’s more likely to blow it up than fix it,” Medwin said.

“We don’t even know that he’s not going to lockup yet,” Clarence said. “I know we’re all laughing right now but this is serious. Torvan, you know this is serious, right? I’m in the same boat as you. It’s ridiculous to seed bomb places but blowing people up isn’t the answer.”

“I wasn’t going to blow them up,” Torvan rolled his eyes.

“You were setting a fire,” Clarence nodded. “You know that fires kill, right? Sometimes they even kill dragons? So are you enraged or stupid?”

Torvan winced and for a split second I felt bad for him. Just a split second, though.

“You went to war over shinies and you’re angry that I don’t want to lose my family’s legacy so everyone can do nothing?” Torvan huffed.

“They won’t be doing nothing. People will still work,” Teal rolled his eyes. “You need more than food to survive.”

“I’ve visited those Starscale Worlds. No one---”

“That’s bullshit,” Clarence said. “I’ve visited them too.

They’re a hardworking people. They keep each other fed and housed and entertained.

We’ll never be cash free, Torvan. I can’t even wrap my head around that but this is the middle ground.

We’re strong enough as a society to feed people for free. ”

“But we don’t have to.”

“I don’t have to burn off your feet but I just might if you say something like that again,” Teal snapped and I slid into his lap afraid he might burn down the rest of Moonglow cabin otherwise. “Who made you selfish?”

“You can give away your food all you want. No one’s stopping you from running a charity but why do you expect everyone else to do it?” Torvan said.

Cobalt started toward the bed but Morvan stood up. Teal lifted me off his lap and slid in between them.

“He’s on the losing side when it comes to the food stuff,” Teal said. “He’s pissed about it. I’m glad he was the first one to speak up. Someone else might not have missed when they tried to blow up the cabin.”

“We can’t let him by with this without a punishment,” Cobalt growled.

“I know that,” Clarence said. “He’ll do time for the blowing up part but not the disagreeing with us part. We’re not fascists.”

“He might be,” Teal said and stormed out of the room.

I looked between Cobalt and Teal unsure of what to do. I wanted to race after my mate but he was fuming.

“I won’t let them just release him. I’ll eat his liver before ---” Cobalt started and Morvan drew his fist back.

I slid in between the growling dragons and sighed.

I almost lied and said I could be pregnant but figured Cobalt would know better.

The triplets were way too close. He’d know that Teal and I hadn’t made it that far yet. Hell, for all I knew, so would Morvan.

“Ciro, this isn’t your fight,” Morvan said.

“Yeah, it is. When Teal ran off to save your ass I slept on his leg. They’re my family now. I don’t want to beat you up but I think I’d win. You’re fast. I’m fierce. It would be one for the history books but while we fought he could eat Torvan’s liver and that would be that.”

“No one is eating anyone’s liver,” Medwin stood up. “That is disgusting and just asking to start a food borne illness or plague or something. How about all of you go on now? Go check on Teal and the rest of them.”

“What about Torvan?” Morvan asked.

“We’ll take him downtown. Morvan we can’t let him away with this. Things like this start wars.”

“He’s not a hate group!” Morvan tossed his hands in the air. “He’s an idiot.”

“Idiots can start hate groups,” Clarence frowned.

“I guess I’m going downtown until they give me my brother back then,” Morvan sighed.

“Indigo waited a long time to get you sprung,” Cobalt growled.

“Well, he’s my brother,” Morvan frowned. “I could fuckin’ bloody kill him right now but he’s my brother.”

“Don’t let him get you killed, Morvan,” I frowned. “You might be Teal’s best friend but if there is a fight and you end up on the wrong side of it I won’t hesitate to kill you and I won’t stop Cobalt from punching you next time.”

Cobalt glanced from Medwin to Clarence and then back to me before storming out of the room. I was on leave but not staying to help manage the criminal felt like a betrayal of my oath.