Page 15 of The Ruby Dragon's Unconventional Mate

And he didn’t understand what the hell was going on.

Lachlan blinked at him, his lips twisting, his scars pulling, and then he shrugged. “Well, all right then.”

“What?”

“Nothing.” That wasn’t a nothing face.

“What? What did I supposedly do now? I didn’t sayanything.”

“But, man, whatever you didn’t do made him quit.”

“Logan said he wasn’t accepting his resignation.” Right?

“I don’t think that Logan can actually do that,” Lachlan pointed out, and Bryant shook his head.

“He’s the head of the wing. He can do what he wants.” He knew that wasn’t true. So did Lachlan, but it felt necessary to say it.

“Lars is a guardian. He can go where he pleases. I came to replace Jason, but he figures you replace him.”

Panic gave way to rage. “Oh, fuck no. I don’t think so.”

“Do you get to not think so?”

“Don’t fucking start with me,” he snapped. “We have to be at the guardians meeting right now. Did you see the email?”

“I did.” Was Lachlan actually grinning? “This is madly entertaining.”

“Shut the fuck up. This isn’t entertaining. He’s leaving. This is home. He’s just gonna leave. Why?” Why on earth would Lars go? He loved it here. He’d told Bryant that a thousand times. Maybe more.

“Maybe he thinks you don’t need him. Maybe he thinks nobody needs him now. Maybe he wants to just go live his best goddamn life, I don’t know.” Lachlan shrugged and shook hishead. “Maybe he decided that there was no way the two of you were ever going to be together, and so he wanted to go see if there was somewhere he could have somebody and somebody would have him. That’s reasonable to think.”

He was going to hit his brother with a rock. “No, it’s not reasonable. Reasonable people don’t just—leave. Reasonable dragons don’t just flee their homes and go find other wings.”

Lachlan tilted his head, stared at him. “Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast?”

“What?”

“Is that not exactly like one hundred percent what we did?”

“Our situation was different,” he snapped.

“Oh.” He hated when Lachlan did that. It reminded him of their dad. So smug. So uppity. So damn smart.

“Don’t make me kick your ass.”

“Okay.” Lachlan stared at him, eyebrow arched. “Wounded, still the biggest stud you’ve ever met.”

“Fuck you.”

“Ew.” Lachlan marched to the front door. “Well, comeon!”

“Coming.” He was going to kick Lars’s ass, too. And probably his own. He’d caused this. Bryant knew he had. And he had to fix it, dammit.

They drove to Logan’s because Lach wasn’t confident about flying here yet. They needed to get more familiar with the territory, with the wing. But that was okay. They’d work up to it.

They unloaded and Logan’s housekeeper, Simon, let them in, smiling wryly. “Thank you for coming so quickly. Logan is rather in crisis.”

“Of course he is. That’s his brother. Where does he want us?” Lach was enjoying this. The son of a bitch was enjoying this!

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