Page 9 of Iced Heat

“That you two just need some time apart from each other.”

“Not while I’m trying to get this wedding together and then there will be your wedding too!” Daliah said, taking another drag.

“I’ll get married at Sandy’s and make everyone come dressed up as meatballs if you fucking get under my scales about that, Daliah!” Sequin growled and I laughed before I could stop myself.

“And here I was thinking you’d grow up when you met him,” Daliah said, jabbing her cigarette in my direction. “I came out here because Rosemary thought it’d be a good idea to offer you a chance to have a double wedding. I told her it wouldn’t fix anything! I told her!”

“So, you didn’t even want to talk to me! Rosemary made you!” Sequin growled and I rubbed the bridge of my nose again.

“No! I didn’t! I knew you’d be like this!”

“You’re in love with her and that’s great but I’m not going to make your woman my personality!” Sequin growled. “It’s like you met her and she gobbled you up and spat you out and now you only like what she likes!”

Daliah threw her hands up, thanked me for the cigarette, and stalked back into the club. Part of me thought I should’ve gone after her but that was probably more what Sequin wanted to do than what I did. Instead, I turned to face him. His eyes were misted over but he shook his head. Some things couldn’t be fixed but I didn’t count their relationship among them.

“We can go after her, if you want,” I offered.

“You don’t have to be that sort of sweet,” Sequin shook his head.

“What sort of sweet? The sort where I don’t want you upset if something can make it better?” I stepped closer to him, sliding my hands on his hips.

“The sort where it’s the first night we met and you offer to chase after my sister instead---” he blushed. “Well, instead of all the things mates normally do.”

“Well, I don’t know about Moonscales, but as for me, I want my mate happy. Romping can wait if it needs to. I want you, Sequin, but I want all of you and I want all of you happy.”

“Then you met me at a really bad time.”

“That’s fair,” I nodded. “Fair but changeable, I think.”

“Can we go for a walk?” Sequin asked and I offered him my arm.

Chapter Five

Sequin

We circled around the downtown area of the GGB over and over talking about everything under the sun, moon, and stars. Well, almost everything. I avoided anything to do with Daliah like she had the plague. Most of my recent relationships weren’t relationships at all but one night or weekend stands with guys I met on Pheromone Swap. I tended to keep my business to myself with strangers I’d never see again but something about Xav made it impossible for me to shut up. For the first time in my life, I felt heard. Okay, that wasn’t fair. For the first time in my life since Mom died and Daliah lost her mind I felt heard, and it was a feeling I didn’t want to give up any time soon. I tried a few times to draw Xav out of his shell, but he wasn’t willing to give any more info on his family or where he came from than the bit he gave me earlier. I wondered if the world he came from was some big secret because some places – maybe even Earthside – would’ve loved to exploit powers like he and his family had. Maybe his family gobbled up outsiders or froze them to death.

When he spoke of the people he was closest to it was mostly about Selt and Liatris. A little bit of Teddy and various dragons he met from the Starscale flight. I sort of lowkey envied some of the dragons he knew from the purple district. Not only did they have a whole section of their town to find exactly what they needed but they also knew more about my mate than I did. Well, maybe. Some of them knew what he liked when the lights went out and what his skin tasted like just after he came.

“Did you ever knot any of those dragons?” I asked and hated how envious the words tasted on my tongue.

“No. I didn’t. It hadn’t even crossed my mind to be honest. By the way, you say that like there were dozens. I didn’t sleep with the whole flight. A few people here and there yes but don’t let whatever the magic is doing inflate that number, okay?”

I bit my lip. I wanted to ask another too personal question.

“Spit it out,” Xav laughed, reading the uncertainty on my face.

“If you didn’t knot them, how do you know you can knot?” I asked them.

“That’s really your thing, huh?” he smirked.

“It is,” I admitted. “We’re going to be together forever. There’s no use in hiding it.”

“Do you think fate would be so cruel as to give you a mate who couldn’t partake in the only kink you’ve felt bothered to mention since we’ve met?”

“I don’t trust the universe. It thinks Rosemary belongs with my sister,” I grumbled.

“Well, I think they belong together too because I was born so far away from you that we shouldn’t have met. Even meeting Liatris was probably the hand of fate. Then we met Selt, who came at the right time to be back up against fascists, and then we’re only here because those women are getting married.”

---