Page 38 of Distinctly Daray
“Of course I’m excited, I just don’t usually head for them at a breakneck speed.”
“Well, you should,” Evergreen retorted. “You’re wasting precious time you could be spending with them.”
Victor barely refrained from rolling his eyes. Thankfully, Evergreen dragged him through a pair of double doors, and Victor caught sight of a serious sentinel with dark eyes full of mysterious things he wanted to explore. At his side was a fallen knight with a bright smile that never failed to fill Victor and his kitty with joy.
Pulling away from Evergreen, Victor raced to the pair. He lifted to his toes and took Phillip’s cheeks in his hands. The cinnamon-scented Phillip bent and kissed Victor. It was no chaste peck. Lust punched Victor in the belly as their tongues dueled. If Victor had been anywhere else, he would’ve plastered his body to Phillip’s tall frame, but he was mindful of their audience and his form-fitting pants.
Pulling away, Victor winked at him before he took a large step to his right. To his delight, Keegan grinned and settled his mouth on Victor’s. Unlike the aggressive Phillip, Keegan waited patiently for Victor to take charge of their caress. Happy to giveKeegan what he wished, Victor cherished the smell of sunflowers as he tasted the fallen knight.
Hoping no one noticed that his dick had indeed risen to the temptation of his gorgeous mates, Victor softly ended the kiss and stepped between the two men Fate had given him. He settled a palm on each of their backs and introduced them to his closest friends.
“Which one of the fallen knights over there staring at us prefers to share unwanted statistics with people?” Evergreen asked loudly.
“Do not start trouble with the Order of the Fallen Knights,” Dudley warned.
“Excuse me?” Evergreen asked. “I didn’t start anything. The Order of the Fallen Knights did. Over at the Sentinel Brotherhood, we treat mates with respect and don’t poke our noses in other people’s business.”
“While that is true, we must maintain a professional working relationship with the Order of the Fallen Knights,” Dudley replied. “Phillip, it is a pleasure to meet you. As a sentinel, I must apologize for delaying our acquaintance. I regret that we have yet to find ourselves sparring in a gym at the sentinel complex. Evergreen would not allow me to speak to you until Victor introduced him to you and Keegan.”
“You can change the subject all you want, but I still say it’s rude to say anything negative to someone about their mate,” Evergreen remarked as he crossed his arms.
Victor shook his head and couldn’t stop his smile. “Behave yourself. We need to get some food; Keegan has class in an hour, and Phillip has dragon training with Jeremiah.”
With a glare for the fallen knights watching them silently from a nearby table, Evergreen stalked away to grab a tray.
“I like your friends,” Keegan whispered as Victor and his men followed Evergreen.
“Me too,” Phillip said. “And I hope we will have a chance to spar soon, Dudley. I have been looking forward to meeting you and Evergreen. My spell was written to tell me much about the office managers of my race, and I am grateful to finally have a chance to get to know you.”
“I will ensure you have my phone number so we can arrange it soon,” Dudley said.
Within minutes everyone had a tray, and Keegan was kind enough to introduce Evergreen, Victor, and Dudley to the other four fallen knights before everyone was settled at a nearby table. Thankfully, Evergreen was cordial, but he was not overly chatty to the men and women. Although Victor wouldn’t start a spat with anyone present, neither he nor his cat was interested in talking overmuch to the two fallen knights who’d tried to dim Keegan’s light.
“Alaric won’t admit this because he pretends not to like fallen knights, but he’s been bragging about you both,” Evergreen said. “He has a lot to be proud of. A sentinel with a dragon and two mates, and a fallen knight scoring very high in both the mental and physical tests.”
“Keegan’s accomplishments are extremely noteworthy,” Phillip commented. “Like Alaric, I am proud of him.”
“Don’t minimize your gifts,” Victor told Phillip.
Phillip’s mouth tightened. “Fate has been extremely kind to me. I am the first sentinel with a dragon. The lone one resurrected with a beast. Shortly after I was granted a second chance at life, she gave me the ultimate gift of two extraordinary men. I have accomplished nothing. It is Fate’s efforts Alaric brags of, not my own.”
“I’m so glad you said that,” Evergreen replied.
Victor’s bite of salad hung in mid-air as he stared at his best friend. “You are? Because I’m not at all. The last thing either Keegan or I want to hear is Phillip downplaying his efforts tobalance this precarious relationship he’s forced to navigate with his dragon.”
“Exactly,” Evergreen retorted. “Eat your salad and I’ll explain. Samson struggled horribly, and a lot of it was because he needed purpose. Phillip is a sentinel. What do we know about sentinels? They are hypercompetitive. As far as I know, they are the lone race who strives to be uniform. Anything that sets them apart from their brethren freaks them out. So, what is sticking poor Phillip in a room by himself for most of the damn day going to do? Make him feel like shit, which antagonizes the very relationship he’s trying to strengthen with his dragon.”
“I do not seek to anger you, but I spend some hours in the gym working on my dagger training,” Phillip said. “There are also appointments online with Jeremiah to strengthen the bond with my dragon.”
“And we all know that sentinels train because they love it. You aren’t in the gym because you need to strengthen those skills. Your resurrection spell will always push you to train. That isn’t an improvement on anything, and you know it,” Evergreen responded. “Hanging out with Jeremiah probably doesn’t take long. You need more to do with yourself. Tell Alaric that. He’ll listen to you. You’re the only person he’s going to listen to about this, okay?”
“Can Phillip tell his boss what to do?” Keegan asked.
“Explain it, Dudley,” Evergreen ordered with a wave of his fork.
“I spent a century in the former compound,” Dudley remarked. “There was no Skeleton Seven. We had Alaric but no one else. He was not the Lich Sentinel to us. While he was our leader, he had a duty with a far greater importance. He was our friend. Alaric has our best interests fully at heart and would find it odder were we to keep secrets from him than to speak to him directly about our wants and needs. I have learned we are uniquein this way, and like my brethren, I applaud that which makes us stand out from other races.”
“I did not speak to Alaric about it because until recently I worried about my dragon disrupting any task he chose for me,” Phillip ventured.
