"Fuckkkkk, wait for me," he said and hurried to open the door for her.
They made it downstairs without Valentine grabbing her and carrying her back into his tower, but it was a near thing. He didn't know how he was going to get through the night without staring at her like a dumb idiot the whole time.
As Valentine had expected, Cosimo was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs, a glass of scotch in his hand.
"If you still need to have a good yell, can it wait until tomorrow?" Valentine said before Cosimo could get the first word in.
Cosimo took Yelena's hand and kissed it. "You look lovely. Welcome to the family, daughter."
Yelena pulled on his hand, yanking him toward her and into a hug. "Thank you, Cosimo. Your son makes me very happy, and I promise I will stop him from doing anything stupid again."
"Have you met any of my sons? They love to do stupid things so much," Cosimo said, but he was smiling as he said it. "Everyone is out in the garden. It's the only place in the mansion big enough to hold everyone."
"Maybe we need to build a feasting hall like Kian," Yelena replied with a bright grin.
Cosimo laughed. "No, no, we don't. Valentine is the last one of my sons to be mated, and that means no more mating parties."
"Except for yours, maybe one day," Valentine commented.
Cosimo's eyes narrowed. "I'm trying not to yell at you for endangering yourself to a mind sucking maniac. Don't make it harder."
"Yes, Dad," Valentine said, unable to hold in his smile. Cosimo muttered something in Italian about asshole sons, and it only made Valentine's grin wider. He hugged Cosimo before he could get too worked up. "I love you, Dad."
"That's not fair," Cosimo said, his arms holding him tight. He sighed. "I love you, too, Valentine."
Valentine held onto Yelena's hand as they made it outside, where someone had decorated heavily in scarlet, black, and silver. Cheers went up as soon as they were spotted, and their sprawling family crushed them into hugs and congratulations.
Valentine accepted it all with as much grace as he could muster. It was only one night, and he didn’t hate being hugged quite as much as he used to.
When it started to get too much, Yelena was there, subtly moving in to protect him from getting too overwhelmed. He had never loved her more.
"How did your punishment go?" Valentine asked Imogen. Her grin said it all. "Glad you enjoyed it after all. Thank you for the help."
"Anytime, kiddo. Well, maybe not summoning Gwyn but helping in general," she replied.
"It was a very good summoning, if that counts?"
Imogen waggled her brows at him. "I think it was the jazz hands that did it."
Valentine was still laughing when his brothers came to stand with him.
"So I'm pretty sure if Mpreg was a dragon thing, Dad would have shat an egg after he found out that stunt you pulled going to Midir," Apollo commented, making Bas's drink come out of his nose.
"That's…graphic," Reeve said, laughing at Bas and offering him the napkin he was holding. "But not untrue. We all thought he was going to shift, but no such luck."
Valentine watched his father across the gardens, talking with Oberon and Mananan as they smoked cigars. A tired-looking Taranis was standing under the trees nearby, Quinn under his arm.
Avallach had meant to be his Seneschal in the North, but since that was no longer needed, Avallach and the knights were in charge of investigating the other lords. Taranis was talking about abdicating as king, but Valentine didn't know if it was only because the betrayal of his lords had hit him so hard. Ella perched on Mananan's lap, laughed loudly at whatever Cosimo was saying.
"Maybe Dad is holding his dragon back somehow," Valentine said finally. "Do you think we should worry about him?"
"He's Dad. He has always had better control over himself than the rest of us," Bas commented.
"Oh, gods, you don't think he has bound his dragon like you did?" Apollo said, wrinkling up his nose. "That sounded so painful."
Valentine lifted his drink to his lips. "Only toward the end."
"It all seemed to work out," Bas replied with a bright smile. "I knew Yelena would get through all your prickly bullshit eventually."
