Page 17 of These Little Heirs
Only that wasn’t Indigo outside. It was an unfamiliar black dragon. I barely heard Guardie’s warning bark before I knocked Ciro onto the sofa. He shouted something about being a guard as the world exploded around us and splinters of a treebroke through the living room window, raining down on us. I tucked him in under me, bringing out my wings and swearing. Whatever stupid motherfucker just thought he had the balls to interrupt me today had another thing coming. That was unless Guardie devoured the stupid sack of shit first.
Chapter Nine
Cobalt
It was a good thing that damn murder dog was faster than me. Odie’s voice echoed around my skull as he called my name, but I knew that look when Guardie wore it. Something was amiss and I wasn’t sure Teal and Ciro were tucked away inside the cabin yet. Lost to their new relationship, I wasn’t sure either of them would have the wherewithal to know something was up.
I locked the door to the nesting room behind me and Guardie took the steps down. Wingbeats surrounded the tower, but it was a single dragon, beating hard and fast like he was pissed off. It wasn’t Indigo. He was just pulling up to the courthouse to retrieve Morvan and bitching to me that Teal better have brought home cherries for Ambry. He had. Three different brands because he wasn’t sure which ones he liked.
The device hit the ground and a flowering tree unlucky enough to have lived over five centuries near to where it fell exploded. I’d put good money on the guy not having a vendetta against the tree. A long night was about to turn into an even longer day.
“Skin him and eat him!”Odie called out into my thoughts, but I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or Guardie. I wasn’t about to eat the jackass but as the tree’s splinters rained down, I shifted into my draconic form. Scales were the best part of being a dragon during times like these. If I told anyone back home someone was always looking for Teal to beat his ass none of them would’ve believed me but yet here we were. I had a pregnant mate in a nest and Indigo’s baby was barely in this world and someone was blowing shit up. Probably trying to blow up Teal.
The other dragon, wings still beating as if he were too worked up to stay up without expending too much effort, was still focused on the cabin. Well, what was left of the cabin with its blown out doors and windows. Medwin was going to eat this fucker if anything was left of him. I flew closer, circling around to come up behind him. Shit! It was Torvan. Yeah. His parents had the creativity of a slug naming its own ass. Torvan and Morvan were twins. Though, the pair didn’t share the sort of link I shared with Teal and Indi. Morvan had worked with Teal from the ground up and Torvan held his own very different opinions on what was good for the flight or at least on what was good for his wallet.
“GET YOUR ASS DOWN RIGHT NOW!” I roared at him.
Torvan and I ran in the same circles for a bit. The same sex parties and bathhouses. We’d never hooked up despite both of us hooking up with more than one other alpha. He always had this vibe that made me want to flog him or stomp him into the ground. Now, he’d given me a reason. Indigo and Ambry just had a baby. My mate was pregnant. Teal just met Ciro. All this had happened and now this fucker had blown off the front of Moonglow. We had assured our guys that they were safe and sound and now he’d blown that all away and Guardie was climbing the damn trees to get to him.
“THIS ISN’T ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS, INDIGO!”
“FUCK YOU! YOU KNOW GOOD AND FUCKING WELL WHO I AM!” I roared back at him.
My tongue longed to lap his blood out from under my claws, but I couldn’t risk his fat ass falling on what was left of the cabin. A tan blur passed in the corner of my eye and scurried up the tree as the murder dog shifted into the murder tendril and headed straight for the fat ass who tried to blow my brother up. It struck out as quickly as it had when it cut Reve from stem to stern. Only the tan blur leapt and sent Torvan tumbling tothe ground before the murder tendril struck him. The shadow barked and followed Ciro and Torvan to the ground, landing as a dog as I shifted back to my winged human form.
Ciro was shifted and snarling in feline. He and Teal hadn’t exchanged vows yet and I had not a single fucking clue what he was saying. Whatever it was, I was pretty sure it couldn’t be said at my grandparents’ dinner table. Torvan bucked trying to get the giant cat off his back but nine hundred well placed pounds was hard for even a dragon to shake off.
“Ciro!” Teal shouted. “That’s Morvan’s brother!”
“What? Is he the evil twin?” Ciro called out now in his human form with Torvan going limp under him.
For a moment, I thought he managed to kill him, but then the early morning sunshine glinted on the syringe. He’d jabbed him with a tranq the way Moonscale guards were trained to do. Slowly, Torvan shifted back to his human form as blonde as his brother but not nearly as angelic looking.
“He blew up the fucking cabin, Teal! If there was ever a good reason to kill him---” I started, but Ciro put himself between me and Teal, snarling in my direction now. Teal picked up his mate and set him down behind him before turning his attention back to me. “If that was one of you two and Morvan offed you, I’d never forgive him. Even if you tried to kill him first, I’d never forgive you!”
“What? Do you think he’s here about Morvan getting arrested and not because he’s worried about potentially losing money if your plan works?” I shouted.
Teal put one hand behind him, trying to keep Ciro calm. Under different circumstances, I’d shut the fuck up and let him calm his mate down but this affected all of us. This was our home now and there were babies to consider!
“It doesn’t matter,” Teal shook his head. “Family is family.”
“Does Morvan even talk to him?” I asked.
“Yes. That’s his twin. I’ll deal with this. You just go tell Odie and Ambry that everything is okay and take that damn dog with you before he fucking eats him!” Teal shouted.
“It would serve him right! Teal --- this is how wars start! This is how they both lost parents,” I growled back, pointing to the nesting tower. “This is unacceptable! If the price of feeding the world is the sanity of my mate then let the fucking world burn for all I care!”
“Cobalt, you’re angry!” Teal shouted at me. “I’m angry too! I’m beyond angry but I’m still me. I’m not saying there won’t be consequences. I’m just saying I’m not going to kill him. If Medwin shows up and kills him, fine, whatever. I’m not looking at my friend – my best friend outside of you and Indi – and telling him I killed his brother. Sure, Torvan would’ve been fine telling him he killed me but I’m not Torvan. Hell, I want Torvan to eat for free and sleep easy at night too!”
“There is such a thing as being too fucking caring, Teal!” I roared and turned away.
Ambry and Odie were curled up together worried that the world was going to fall around them any second now and there wasn’t even a bomb shelter to run to. They lay together covering the wailing Baby Robin trying to soothe him. Odie said my name again and again over our mating link and I took off toward the tower. Fucking Teal was going to be the death of all of us.
Chapter Ten
Indigo
Morvan, the giant blonde dragon who I swore was also part golden retriever, and I barely said hi before sliding into the limo. I was usually above calling limos for small affairs, but I’d flown to my grandparents instead of driving and a limo was the easiest thing to get on such short notice.
