Page 8 of The Ruby Dragon's Unconventional Mate

He shook his head. “No, I’d want something wild like…oh, I don’t know. Maybe a griffin or a giant dire bear guarding my castle.”

“A friendly giant dire bear.” Samuel began to chuckle, and Lars laughed right along.

“Yeah. You know Slipknot would hate that.” So ferrets weren’t particularly into bears, so far as he understood. He could be wrong about that, though. It had been known to happen.

His sleek little familiar had been his buddy for a long while. Lars wouldn’t want to upset him.

They grinned at each other, both of them grabbing a cookie. The white chocolate macadamia nut ones were super good.

“Anyway, I’ll get over myself, but I’m just so…”

“Tired? I think it’s hard when so much change happens at once. It’s exhausting.”

If anyone should know, it was Samuel.

“So is new alpha energy.” Samuel gave him an unreadable glance.

“Oh, no. Nope. Not still attracted at all.” No. Way.

“Are you sure?”

“Are you kidding? He obviously doesn’t trust me. I told you that he thinks I’m stupid. He thinks I don’t work. I don’t want anything to do with him.” He found himself close to tears. “Besides, after all of this? We’re not even going to be friends. I’m going to have to work with him, guard the wing with him, and it makes me furious. The son of a bitch needs to go back to wherever the fuck he came from.”

“Lars!”

Lars clapped his hand over his mouth. “Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.”

Samuel shook his head. “It’s okay. That was just very intense, coming from you.”

“I’m wearing my fake-alpha pants.”

That earned him a raised eyebrow. “Maybe you should pick some that don’t have paisleys on them,” Samuel whispered, and he grinned.

“But I like these.” He was wearing them with this shiny silver shirt that made his hair look so good. “As a matter of fact, I like these a lot.”

“They do look really cute on you. I love the way that you dress. You always seem as if you’re about ready to do something amazing. Even when it’s very, very casual.”

Oh, that felt so good to hear. “At some point, we need to get a babysitter, and you should come on over to the house and we’ll have a spa day.”

Samuel’s face lit up. “I would love that. I would love that a lot. I’ll ask Jake to watch the babies. He would be happy to, especially for us to have a spa day. Can we have a soak in that hot springs pool you have in your basement?”

“You know it. That thing is magical. Don’t tell anybody though. I don’t want anybody coming and visiting.”

“I would never. That’s our little secret.”

Lars nodded and kissed the top of Gwen’s head. “Oh, I’m so glad I came over. Thank you.”

Samuel shrugged. “That’s what best friends are for. Now are we going to watchProject RunwayorTop Chef?”

Chapter

Four

Bryant knocked at the door to Lachlan’s office, hoping his brother was in the mood for company. He held a bag of hamburgers and fries, and he needed to talk to someone.

Because he had a feeling he’d screwed up badly, again, and he wasn’t used to that.

“Lach? Can I come in?”

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