Page 48 of Mated in the Stars

“But that’s my home!” Daliah growled.

“Not anymore,” Sequin frowned. “Remember. You’re all grown up with a mate and hatchlings. Go be with them.”

“Oh, stop your jealous bullshit, Seq!”

“I am not jealous! I let her move in! I let her build a nest! I thought it might even be nice to keep living together until I was shoved aside in my own damn house!” Sequin shot back.

“I’ll enforce the deeds but you two need to realize what you do now will affect you for the rest of your lives. Once you take a sledgehammer to a relationship the pieces never fit back together properly,” I sighed. “It’s okay to want different things. It’s okay to change your life to suit your current situation. You just can’t expect someone else to change for it.”

“Why do you want my house so Frost damn much anyway?” Sequin asked his sister.

“It’s home,” she shrugged. “At least I thought it was. Sometimes I think if Rosemary was a guy, we wouldn’t be having this argument.”

“Yes, we would,” Sequin rolled his eyes. “But I might’ve popped a guy one for redecorating my living room. Mom helped us pick those things out and I want them back up and I want her out of my sewing room.”

“She’s trying so hard to be friends with you,” Daliah sighed.

“It’s not because she’s a woman,” Sequin rolled his eyes again. “Dal, in case you haven’t noticed, you’re a woman.”

“Yes, I am,” she sighed back at him.

“It’s not because I think she stole you either. Dal, I agreed to have her stay with us and she took over.”

Daliah’s eyes misted off and my memories flashed with her sprinting toward her mother’s body on the funeral pyre. I shook the memory away.

“I’m sorry I fell asleep,” I said. “Maybe if I managed not to, I’d have sorted this out for you.”

“We were really okay when we told you that, Dad,” Daliah said. “We’re still okay. This isn’t about her. Well, not only about her.”

“What about the other thing you offered me? But for them?” Sequin asked me it took me a minute to realize what he meant. “I mean, the place still has a nursery and stuff. They need it.”

I thought about it for a long moment. Was I comfortable with anyone coming in and redecorating the house I shared with Lotus? I wasn’t sure about that. For the first time, I had the impulse to grab my younger kids and mates and return to Starscale 1. Then they could do whatever they wanted with the houses.

“I’m not redecorating her house,” Daliah shook her head.

“Egg brats. I’m tired. I can’t cut a house in half. It’s not a cake,” I sighed.

“And mum can’t come decorate with us at another house either,” Daliah said.

“What about your grandparents’ house?” I asked. “What’s being done with that?”

“That’s a hotel now,” Sequin said. “We couldn’t bring ourselves to dismantle what they put together.”

“That makes sense,” I nodded. “I hate to be the one to say this but no amount of enshrining her life is gonna bring her back.”

A sob tore from Daliah’s throat and I stood up. Sequin beat me to hugging her. Neither of them looked at me for a long moment. Hell, maybe both of them needed to get away from this place for a while. I couldn’t tell them what to do beyond enforcing what we always said we would.

“I’m sorry you’re sad. We’re all sad,” Sequin said, “but that doesn’t mean you can have my house.”

Daliah pushed him away and stormed out of the office. I opened my mouth to tell Sequin that she wasn’t turning on the water works to get her way but he was already headed off in the opposite direction. I didn’t follow after either of them and instead poked at my guys over our mating link and told them to head over here. I wasn’t in the mood to attempt to sit through a meal with those two. I ordered something in from Mama Dragon’s and went to wipe down the dining table while we waited.

The dining room was spotless. The grounds keeper had kept up more than I expected anyone too. I grabbed the highchair we’d always kept in case company had kids and gave it a good wipe down. It was still in tip-top draconic shape and would hold up well for Minter.

Elio, Nelum, and the babies came through the backdoor and I called out my hellos. Elio made a b-line for me and Nelum lingered taking in the sites of the house that was his home in a past life. Minter ran ahead of his carrier and hugged my legs. Hesmelled confused at all the grown-up drama. I scooped him up and put him in his chair, promising the food would be here any time now. Then I hugged Elio. There wasn’t anything any of us could do for the grown egg brats but it was nice to have a hug.

“They’ll be okay,” Elio said. “I talked to Duke. He’ll be here tomorrow. He’s coming alone because of the drama going on. His mate is pregnant again and he doesn’t want to drag him into the drama.”

“This place is huge,” Nelum announced walking into the dining room.

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