Page 2 of These Little Heirs
“That’s not an answer. You can go. Clarence isn’t the boss of anyone here. Hasn’t been for a long time.”
He didn’t leave. So I shut the door and headed back upstairs skipping the elevator because it made too much noise and I didn’t want to freak out my nephew. He was so fucking tiny. He might’ve been the smallest dragon hatchling I’d ever seen.
“Coming?” I called back to him. “Don’t worry. If the steps can hold my ass, they can hold yours. If Ambry or Indigo disembowels you, you can’t say you haven’t been warned.”
Ciro slunk up the steps beside me. His fur brushed against my fingers, and I pulled my hand away before he thought I was trying to pet him. Petting was either rude or flirty and I didn’t feel like either. There was too much to do to worry about him. Either the others let him hang out or they fucked him up. Being a guard wasn’t without risks.
Guardie was first to lift his shadow head when we walked into the nesting room. Guardie was originally a shadow hand born of Odie’s trauma. He haunted shrapnel in his butt cheek and then something about being my brother Cobalt’s mate, cleansed him and turned him into a guard. Hence the name. Now Guardie looked more and more like an Irish Water Spaniel than a blob of shadows balled up into a dog shape. He’d saved us twice now. So he earned his keep.
“Ciro?” Odie was the first to speak.
“You know this sugar cookie cat?” I whispered through the dimly lit nesting room.
“Ambry,” Odie whispered. “Ciro has come to visit.”
“Come to visit?” I asked.
“Who’s Ciro and why is he a giant cat?” Cobalt asked, opening one big sleepy eye.
“We went to school with him,” Odie yawned. “We haven’t seen you in forever. This is an odd time to drop by but there are drinks in the fridge.” Odie pressed himself upright and Cobalt sat up a moment later wanting a coffee and a cigarette. Only with a baby who might have some wolf lungs to him none of us were smoking anytime soon.
“Grandad brought him to be a guard,” I said.
Guardie wagged his tail as if he thought I was talking about him. Odie ran a hand down the length of his shadowy body and over his wagging tail. Ciro stretched out on the floor and rolled onto his back before shifting back into his human form. I’d never say it to my brothers now, but it was always a little strange watching a furry shifter become a human again. Scales could lay flat against the skin before they disappeared but where did the fur go? Did it turn into the thin body hair some of them had everywhere? Did it get sucked back into follicles? Did it get stuck sometimes? Like did they just shift back with a bald spot on their ass or something?
“Stop,” Cobalt said. “Stop before you get Indigo going. Let the man sleep. He’s with his mate and newborn.”
“Was just wondering,” I said, glancing over at a mostly naked Ciro because of course my grandsire would bring a naked man to our house.
“He’s not naked. His dick and balls are covered,” Cobalt yawned, getting up to make coffee. “They lose clothes sometimes when they shift.”
“My bag’s at the front door of the house. Clarence really wasn’t going to take no for an answer,” Ciro shrugged, looking up at me with big golden eyes from the floor. His naked skin was marked with orange lines where faint stripes were in cat form.Before Ambry and Odie, Cobalt would’ve tried to hook up with him. Hell, before I told Cobalt the truth about the warehouse, he might’ve tried to convince me to hook up with him. Clarence called him a guard, but we all knew he was a spy. Ciro may not know it but the rest of us did.
“When did you become a guard?” Odie asked, still petting Guardie.
“I finished my classes a few months ago,” Ciro said, rolling his body until he sat upright facing Odie.
I shook my head. If he wasn’t a spy, he might be attractive. He was long, lean, and muscular with a tight ass and a nice package which his underwear did zilch to hide.
“Maybe we can turn the tables if we mount him,”my dragon considered.
I ignored him. I wasn’t whipping it out just to make sure Ciro kept his mouth shut about whatever he saw while on duty. We’d just have to be careful and let him know he really wasn’t needed at all. Only Odie was already chatting with him and if the omegas liked him Indigo and Cobalt would never get rid of him.
I fought off the instinct to rub the bridge of my nose. I was too bloody young to turn into my grandparents yet.
“The baby won’t remember that he showed up in his underwear,” Dolores assured me and passed off a cup of tea. “Babies generally like people and the more people around to help out, the better. I’d duck out until you calmed down, though. Your brothers will never let you live that down.”
“What?” The word escaped my mouth before I turned on my heel and stalked out of the room. I nearly pushed the button to call the lift until I remembered Baby Robin sleeping soundly on Ambry’s chest. I was hard. Why was I fucking hard? I wasn’t Cobalt. I didn’t need to whip it out every time I met someone attractive and single to be happy.
I took the stairs as quietly as I could manage and headed back to the house. Cobalt was awake enough to fight if Ciro turned out to be a traitor instead of a spy. A shower and some sleep in my own bed would fix this. I spotted his suitcase on the porch. I squatted down to sniff it but it smelled like sugar cookies too. What the hell was he hiding?
“Some omega guards do this,”my dragon reminded me.“They spray down everything because they’re afraid the alpha guards won’t take them seriously otherwise.”
I unzipped the suitcase just enough to peek inside. Mostly clothes and books. I stuck my nose inside. More sugar cookies. What the hell was this cat trying to do? Smell like a bloody bakery? My stomach growled. That was it. He made me hungry, and my dick got confused. Maybe that was Cobalt’s issue the whole time. He needed a fucking sandwich and kept getting head instead.
Chapter Two
Ciro
