Page 16 of Delivered to My Dragons

Why was that phrase so…to use Nix’s word, captivating. “Would it be terribly rude if I went up to bed? Honestly I’m not usually such a slug.”

“You aren’t usually growing a baby.” Keir continued to clear the table. “I imagine that takes a lot of energy.”

“Come on, little mama. I’ll walk you upstairs.” Nix released my hand and laid an easy arm around my waist. He guided me toward the stairs. “You’ve been under a whole lot of pressure. This house has the latest security devices and, of course, two dragons. Rest easy.” He left me at my door with a kiss on my forehead and headed downstairs. I went inside and started to close the door but left it open. Their voices carrying up to me were more reassuring than they could possibly know. I should have been able to fall asleep.

Chapter Thirteen

Phoenix

Killian needed to burn under the heat of our flames.

I wasn’t a murderous person, not even violent, but that male deserved that for all he’d done to Iris.

Physical abuse. Mental abuse. Emotional abuse. She hadn’t mentioned sexual, but it hung there too. Unspoken but true. No amount of torture had been out of range, it seemed.

“I need a drink,” Keir said, scrubbing his hand down his face none too gently. He’d already taken the stairs two at a time, on his way to the bourbon bottle if I knew my friend. I finished loading the dishwasher and joined him.

He didn’t often drink alcohol, but after hearing the terror Iris had gone through at the hands of someone who called himself her mate, I needed a drink as much as he did.

When we got to the cabinet where we kept a few bottles for occasions like these, he poured me three fingers of bourbon and slid the glass across the marble countertop. “I’m going to call Wright tomorrow and have him install three more cameras around the house and one at the end of the driveway. Now that we know his name, I’ll run a background check and get Jason to reach out to the alphas in packs and see what we can find out about him. Killian, well, there’s kill in his name. It takes a grade-A asshole to put his hands on a female.”

I agreed. “I already texted Jason. He’s already on it.” Jason had started out with little jobs. He’d once been an underground shifter fighter, punched people in the face for money. He was a dragon shifter like us and he was damned fierce when he wanted to be. Eventually, he moved to work in the office.

“Good. Another?” Keir asked. He’d already gulped down his first drink and was pouring another.

“No. I don’t want to get inebriated in case he’s already on our trail.”

Keir grunted and took a seat on one of the barstools. “We were careful.”

“Yeah, but we barely know this asshole. He might have avenues we don’t know about yet. So far, it sounds like he’s been toying with her since she left. We don’t know what lengths he will go to now that she’s gone.”

“That’s true.” He pushed the second drink aside.

I sat across from him after pulling out some chips and salsa. Because it was always time for chips and salsa, especially when drinking. Eve shifters had their limits and I feared we’d meet ours tonight. “What’s your dragon saying?” I asked, wanting to get a feel for where he was.

“He wants to avenge her.”

I snorted. “Not about him. We won’t let the bastard touch her, but what’s he saying about Iris?”

He took a chip and ate it without salsa. The animal. “I know it’s impossible but he is calling her our mate. Tell me mine isn’t the only one.”

“Mine is saying that as well. Hell, he was hinting at it on the video call. I would have agreed with you on the impossible after Rachel, but he wants Iris infinitely more than he did her.”

“Shifters don’t get more than one fated mate,” he said. He wasn’t refuting what he felt for Iris but questioning everything he understood about mating.

“We did.” Or maybe we’d been wrong about Rachel? My dragon’s reaction to Iris made what he’d felt about Rachel pale in comparison.

“Seems that way,” he answered. We snacked on more chips and salsa and talked more about Iris. How courageous she’d been to leave him. A brave mother-to-be looking out for her young despite her circumstances.

“She’ll be an amazing mother,” I blurted out.

Keir grunted. “To the babe in her belly and ours.”

We knew she was our mate, but hearing him commit to the idea surprised me. Glad I wasn’t the only one.

“We’ll raise her baby as our own. Make sure they never feel like they aren’t ours biologically. If she’s ours, then he or she is as well.”

“It’s killing me not to be next to her tonight.” Keir drummed his fingers on the countertop. My dragon could feel the ripples of unease coming from Keir’s. “We can protect her better with her between us.”

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