Page 33 of Hidden Fate

Belinda beamed. “Tia, he’s nothing like the angry man we saw on the net of dragons.” She hurried toward us and threw her arms around my mate, hugging him tightly.

For a split second, Thorn stiffened, and his shock pummeled through our connection before he relaxed and wrapped his arms around the woman, giving her a small hug in return. The emotions rolling off him had tears burning my eyes. He was moved by the gesture.

Mindy snorted. “Belinda, it’s called Dragonnet. How many times do we have to tell you?”

“Eh.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Close enough.”

“Honey…” The man with short white hair chuckled as he carried their bag. “Leave the poor prince alone. You can’t just go hugging everybody. Besides, he’s young and muscular. Don’t make my dragon more jealous, especially when I know you’ll be lying next to my feeble old body tonight.” His emerald eyes twinkling, the man’s smile didn’t break as he marched to his mate. When she pulled back, he patted Thorn on the shoulder.

“Oh, please, Merlin. There is nothing feeble about that body.” She winked and nestled into his side.

Heart swelling, I didn’t want to look away from this lovely couple. Maybe having them around wouldn’t be as awkward as Thorn had feared.

“See, Tia knows better than to go hug on a young’un.” The other man laughed as he came near. He and Merlin were about the same height, coming in at around seven feet. This man had salt-and-pepper hair, though it was more salt than pepper, and a matching beard. His dark brown eyes held a similar twinkle of mischief.

Tia placed her hands on her hips. “Maybe I should just so you don’t think I’m fully trained, Ryu.”

At least now we knew their names.

“I bet when I said two older couples, you thought you’d need to behave for their sake,” Edna said. She laughed and patted Ryu on the back. “You’ll soon learn they’re worse than teenagers.” She launched into introductions.

We gave them our background and story along with why we had humans with us. They handled everything with grace and seemed genuine in their desire to share the house.

When it was clear everything would be fine, Edna left, and our group headed inside, minus Vlad and Errol.

As soon as the front door shut, Brenton called out, “Tyson, Elliott, Peter, and Saphira, come on down so you can meet our new roommates.”

“Oh, great. More dragons,” Peter ground out as they thumped downstairs.

“I take it that’s the disgruntled human we can’t trust.” Tia waggled her brows. “This will be fun. Being old gives me an excuse to run my mouth without apology.”

Elliott led the way downstairs, pouting—until he glanced at our group. His eyes bulged, and he missed a step and tumbled down the rest of the stairs. He landed at the bottom, his head smacking the floor with a sickening thud.

I rushed to him, fearing the worst.

CHAPTERELEVEN

As soon asI kneeled by Elliott, Thorn was across from me, assessing the situation. The bottom half of Elliott’s body lay on the stairs, while his torso was on the ground. He was lying face down, but I could hear his heart beating wildly.

“Elliott,” I whispered brokenly. If I lost him, I didn’t know what I’d do. I wanted to flip him over, but I had to fight the instinct. It could make his injury worse.

He groaned and groggily said, “What thefuckhappened? I saw an angel. Then all of a sudden, I was falling. I think it was for her.”

I had no clue what he was talking about. “There’s no angel here.”

Thorn snickered. “Speak for yourself.”

Cutting my eyes at Thorn, I couldn’t help but grin. Elliott wasn’t necessarily okay, but talking coherently was a good sign.

“Is he all right?” Mindy asked, and I noticed she’d pushed through the group to kneel at his head. Her forehead creased as her attention locked on Elliott.

The entire group wore similar expressions…except Peter, who shook his head with a scowl.

Wow. He was showing some real fatherly concern.

“I don’t know yet.” I touched his legs. “El, can you feel my touch?”

“Dude! That tickles.” He jerked and winced. “Stop.”

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