Page 22 of The Dragon's Stormwoven Bond

“Do you?”

“Wish for a mate?” Emmen’s face took off a faraway look. “I don’t know that there is one out there for me. I’ve given up.”

I had too, and here I was. But giving him platitudes wouldn’t accomplish anything other than irk him. At least that had been the case for me anytime someone tried to discuss my lack of mate.

“Meeting Pep changed that for me. Eryx is going to be disappointed. I’m not the dragon he wanted for his son. He told me so the first day I was back here.” And it had stung.

“Well, there’s quite a difference between thinking about a situation hypothetically and dealing with a situation in reality. Hypothetically, sure, an old dragon who spent so long sowing his wild oats might not be his first pick for his son.”

At least he hadn’t full out called me a player.

“But that doesn’t change the fact that you’re a good man, and you love his son more than anything. He’ll see that. And also, it’s not up to him anyways. It’s up to fate. And Pep.”

“I know. I just... I’m scared. I don’t want to lose my friend.” And more than that, I didn’t want Pep to have struggles with his family. They had been close knit, and I was already driving a wedge between them. If this didn’t go well, that wedge could worsen.

“Then fight for your friendship the same way you would fight for your mate.” As if it were that easy. “Would it be helpful if me or someone like Zayne came along?”

I shook my head. “No. It’ll probably be just me and Pep. Maybe his brother.” Twin powers and all of that.

I checked my watch. Pep planned to leave work early to go to his family home later to grab a few things. After he got back, we needed to put together a plan. No matter what happened, we needed to tell his parents soon. It was eating away at both of us.

“I’m here for you if you need me.”

“Thank you, I appreciate it, Commander.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re older than me, you know.”

I laughed. “Yeah, but you’re the one who grew up and got the big-kid job, so you get the big-kid title.”

“You’re ridiculous.”

“Ridiculously in love.” I tapped on my keyboard to wake up my computer. “Now get out. I need to get a lot of work done if I’m going to have a big-kid job one day too.”

He pushed himself to stand. “Still ridiculous.” And he headed towards the door.

“Yep, still ridiculously in love.”

Chapter 13

Pep

We had never intended for the lie to my parents to go on for so long. And I say we, but Valen had never planned to lie to them at all. He only did so to appease me, and now he was neck deep in this deception.

We hadn’t taken the time to talk about how to even bring the subject up of how to fix this mess. Part of it was fear, on my side, at least. But, both Valen and I got so incredibly busy with our jobs, too. Was that partly an excuse? Maybe, but that didn’t make it less true.

And being newly mated meant that when we did have pockets of time, we tended to get lost in each other’s arms.

Luckily, I remembered to drink the tea before going to my parents’ house to pick up a few more things of mine. As far as they knew, I was living in the staff dorms, like they had originally thought, not in one of the cabins on the lake. It felt shitty doing this, but until we sat down and figured out a plan, it was a necessity. Having them come home with me already gone, but the telltale scent remaining would only result in badness.

No one was at the house when I arrived; both my parents were working, and I wasn’t sure about my brother. I only needed to get in, grab a few things, and get out. Easy peasy.

Soon, very soon, Valen and I were talking this out and getting out of the mess I threw us in. Maybe we’d even come over this evening to talk to them. If we were feeling brave, and by we, I meant me. Valen was the bravest dragon I knew, and he’d been fated to my sorry ass. Ugg.

The minute I stepped into the house, my dragon surged forward.

Instead of going there to grab the extra computer monitors that I wanted, along with the mounting setup, I found myself going to the second floor in a bedroom that wasn’t used by the family much at all. It was a guest room for when my older brothers visited with their families. I hadn’t even been in there that much.

When I stepped inside, I saw why my dragon wanted me to go in there. The family nest sat in the corner of the room. It was a largewicker-like basket, made of interwoven pine wood reeds with bits of fabric and leather. Inside there were blankets, pillows, other knickknacks that usually went to whatever family member was having a clutch at the time.

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