Page 8 of The Dragon's Stormwoven Bond

“I’m awake,” I said. “I need to go home soon… or something. I don’t actually know what the protocol is here.” I laughed nervously.

Mating was a huge-ass deal. Obviously, I wasn’t going to still be living at home. My life was with Valen, but also, I couldn’t just never go back. My parents would want to meet him, and of course my brother too. And there was my new job to think about.

Unless he needed a place, and then we’d find one together. Or maybe we would have to stay with my parents. Argg, why did real life details need to come and mess with my perfect morning?

“Your home is with me now, if you want it to be, of course,” Valen said. “I get the keys to my place this morning.”

I grinned. “If I wanted it to be there,” as if there was any place on this planet I’d rather be than by his side. This was all new to me, but that much I knew for sure.

“Then I guess we better pack up my things if you want me to move in with you. As long as you want me to.” Where was all the confidence I had last night?

“Of course I want that,” Valen said, hugging me against him. “I’m all in on this. I know that I’ve never been the type to settle down, and as you meet my friends or talk to people who’ve known me, you’re going to hear things that aren’t ideal.”

My stomach dropped. I hadn’t considered how different his past would be to mine. It had to be. I was alive for only a tiny fractionof his life, and I was very sheltered at that. But it didn’t matter, right? Everything he ever did or had ever happened to him had made him the dragon he was today… my dragon.

“But please never doubt that I want this. I want you. I’m blessed to have found you after all this time, mate.” He pressed a kiss to my shoulder.

“Thank you. I can’t say that you’re going to hear any exciting stories about me.” He’d already heard the most exciting of it, and it was less exciting than it was having an asshole ex who still thought it was fun to torment me. “I... I’ve been pretty boring. I mean, I still live with my parents.”

I’d never minded before. Why wouldn’t I live with them. We were family and got along. It wasn’t as if I was there because I was a failure at life and it was that or homelessness. It was a choice I made, and looking back, I’d have made again and again. Still… it had me feeling childish next to this alpha who’d lived centuries.

“There’s nothing boring about you, mate. But if we are going to get going and meet your parents and get you moved all today, we should probably get our day started. I’m supposed to have dinner at my friend’s house tonight. I might have to reschedule, although I’ll feel terrible about that. I haven’t seen him in years.”

“Do you still keep in touch?”

“Yeah, oddly enough, he writes letters. He’s as old as I am, but he refuses to adopt any new tech until it’s been around for a century or more.”

I stilled. Valen had to have a ton of friends that were just as long-lived as him, but I knew for a fact that most dragons had moved on to using modern technologies. It was my business to know that. We joked that only my dad was the type to still write letters.

“Valen, what’s your friend’s name?” It couldn’t be… could it?

“Eryx.”

How was this my life? I shot off the bed, pulling the sheet with me and wrapping it around my waist. “What? Seriously?”

“Pep, what’s wrong?”

“That’s my dad.” And based on comments he’d made about Valen, he wasn’t going to be pleased. It was one thing to have a friend who never settled down and lived an adventurous life, but it was quite another to want that for your son.

I’d need to set him straight. My dad would have to understand. It wasn’t like I picked him at random; fate sent him to me, which meant he was exactly the dragon I needed.

Gods, why was I biting off trouble before it existed? My dad might think this was the best news ever, right?

Valen’s brow furrowed. “No. That’s impossible. His last clutch is newly hatched. They’re still infants. They can’t be older than twenty-fiv—” Valen’s face went white as the blood drained from it. “You and Rhythe are Eryx and Katrina’s most recent clutch. But that can’t be. They just hatched.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes, I get it. I’m young. I am twenty-five. And you’re ancient compared to me, but I’m not a child, Valen.”

The look on his face was full of anguish. He’d known my father for actual centuries. This had to hit him differently, but the last thing I wanted was for my mate to think of me as a child. I wasn’t. And as one of the oldest dragons, most everyone was only alive for a blip of his lifespan. He had to be used to it.

“Your Eryx’s son.” He swallowed. “I sent you a gift for your nest.”

This could not be happening. That wasn’t what I wanted to hear from my mate.

“Dad is going to flip out,” I admitted to both of us for the first time. “He won’t handle this well.”

“No, you’re right. He won’t.” Valen sat up, keeping the blanket covering his groin, thankfully, because I was not going to be able to think with him naked in front of me. He reached for the hair tie that was on the nightstand and pulled his hair back into a messy bun.

There I went, being distracted by my mate again. Hair should not be this alluring. I didn’t even like long hair, except maybe I did… a lot. At least when it was on my alpha’s head.

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