Page 41 of The Dragon's Stone Hearted Mate
“Or his mate could be a real piece of work, and you’d have to worry about him more,” Dern countered. “But you better get to waking up before Preston calls in every medic in Moonscale London. Stick around. You’ll end up right where you need to be.”
“Wait! You haven’t really told me anything!”
“I told you plenty!” Dern laughed as the room began to fade back to shades of blue and green. “You know it’s not the omega bear!”
Chapter Twenty-One
Morvan
Preston’s heart raced and raced as if it picked up a few extra beats every time he glanced at Mori passed out on the floor. The comatose wolf didn’t smell injured. If anything, he smelled both delighted and annoyed at the same time. Preston kept patting his twin’s face and a twinge of envy shimmied through my scales. Was I the only one who had a twin that just didn’t give the same amount of fucks about me as I did about him?
“Not the only one. I’m sure others have ran into problems too,” Rho said, picking up my thoughts from our half-opened mating link. I held back a growl of frustration that threatened to crawl out of my throat. Now that the immediate danger had passed the push-pull magic of my and Rho’s true-mate response was back in full swing. The urge to pin him up against the kitchen shelves and tear into his claiming gland was almost too much to fight against.
“Morvan, go say goodbye to your brother,” Mori croaked, opening one eye and squinting as if someone hung the sun over the tip of his nose. “Say goodbye so he can get on with what comes next. I really don’t want to have to talk him down again. He needed a therapist while he was alive or some good antianxiety meds or something.”
“Mori!” Preston pulled his brother up to hug him, smelling like the happiest bear I’d ever met.
“He’s right, dragon of mine,” Rho whispered. “I’ll be right here. You say goodbye and then we’ll find us a little place to sneak away to.”
“We need to send word to Cutter and ---” I started but Rho shook his head.
“We’ll get a message to him,” Rho said, his scent smelling a bit sadder than I liked but today wasn’t the happiest day in history. “Go on. I’ll take care of it.”
I left the others to decide the fate of the trio and to play nursemaid to Mori. He was already batting his brother’s hand away when he tried to check his pulse. Slipping into the freezer, I shut the door behind me. Torvan lay stretched out on his back on the floor. I winced as I stretched out next to him mimicking how we laid together in the grass as hatchlings.
“I’ve fucked this up,” Torvan said.
“Not gonna lie. It’s been really bad,” I nodded.
“You’re not gonna die now,” he said and nodded at an ornate teak door standing a few feet away from us. The handle looked to have been carved from diamond. “I’m still dead but I think you’ll live a long life. You better anyway. One of us has to.”
“I plan on it. I plan on living as long as I can with Rho and having enough children to make rock dragons a well-known species.”
“George was a dick,” he said. “Not that I have room to talk.”
“I didn’t mind him when he was just your boytoy,” I shrugged. “It changes nothing now, but you should’ve told me that you were in trouble. I mean, I made it my literal job to get people out of trouble.”
“You’d have been livid!” Torvan said, drawing out the last word.
“Not as livid as I was to find out you wanted me dead.”
“I don’t know what to say. It feels so far away. It changes nothing. Even if I say I’m sorry it changes nothing.”
“It changes a lot.”
“You’re only saying that because I’m dead,” Torvan rolled his eyes.
“No, I’m refraining from punching you because you’re dead,” I countered.
“My mate left to be a baby,” he sighed. “Fucking Patrica’s baby. The universe hates me.”
“I think the universe is saying if you’re a dick the next time around your mate is going to stab you instead of your mother-in-law,” I laughed and a second later he did too.
“I don’t think I know how to be dead,” he said when the laughter faded away. “I’ve thought about it since the wolf left but I don’t think I know how to do it.”
“I think we all do. It’s like living. You have to stay in the moment and plan for the future all at the same time. A piece of cake really.”
“Asshole,” he muttered under his breath. “I can’t believe I messed up so much I was almost disowned at a soul level.”
