"I can't... I can't do it again. With her," Cosimo panted, his body aching.
"Why not? I know you guys have this not sleeping with colleagues rule, but what about after the job is done?" Apollo tried to reason.
"If he can hold out that long without going insane," Valentine muttered.
Bas said, "Well, he needs to get his shit together because I've decided we are keeping Marcella one way or the other."
"That's not your decision," Cosimo snapped.
Bas gave him an uncharacteristic sneer. "I seem to recall it wasn't yours either when you said that we were keeping Bridget."
"That was different! I'm the head of the house for a start," he replied before adding, "and I needed a good research assistant. Anyway, she is your mate. It is different."
"Doesn't matter. I'm with Bas too. We all like Marcella. She needs people who have her back, so we are all keeping her," Apollo said stubbornly. "You just have to get with the program."
Cosimo took the water bottle that Bas was still waving at him and drank half of it. It didn't help cool the burning in his chest. Nothing did. He looked at his eldest son. "Can you tattoo a sigil on me to keep it down?"
Valentine's expression turned thunderous. "Never. You don't know what you are asking. It almost destroyed me, and I won't inflict that on you. We can try and help you shift without involving Marcella, but I won't bind your dragon because you are too fucking scared of it."
Cosimo wanted to snarl at him, but Valentine was right. He sat down on the grass and put his head in his hands.
"Dad, come on," Reeve said, kneeling down beside him. "You are allowed to be nervous, but being afraid of your dragon is like being afraid of your kidneys. It's just another part of you."
"A part of me that has no control or discipline and who would send Marcella running for the hills before we find Maria or the grimoires," Cosimo replied. He tugged at his hair. "It wants to hunt her."
Apollo grumbled. "You both want to hunt her. We have eyes, you know." He sat down beside him and put an arm around his shoulders. "It's okay to want someone this much again after so long. You were never going to end up with someone who was like Mom. You are a different person from who you were back then, and it's okay to want someone who suits who you are now."
Cosimo let out a choked laugh. "I can't believe my children are giving me dating advice."
"You had to deal with finding your mate when your dragon was barely awake. We have had to do it while ours are fully conscious," Bas explained. "In this situation, we are the experts."
Cosimo looked up at Lachlan. "Are you on my side at least?"
"Sorry, Cosimo. They are right. You might not be able to act on it yet, but you need to be honest with yourself when it comes to Marcella," Lachlan said, his dark brows drawn together. "You know, even we humans can feel the bond. Charlotte, Bridget, and I all felt the connection to our mates."
"But she's not my mate," Cosimo argued stubbornly.
Lachlan shrugged. "If she is, she will feel the bond. She might not know exactly what it is yet. Maybe she thinks it's just lust, but if it's there for you, it will be there for her too."
Cosimo's chest squeezed so tight, he felt as if he was going to have a panic attack. "I don't know what to do."
"The mates possibility aside, maybe admit to yourself that you want her, and it's okay not to feel guilty about it," Valentine suggested.
Cosimo exhaled slowly and thought of Marcella's smile, her intelligence, the way she could light him on fire with a glance.
"Idowant her," he whispered. "I also don't want to scare her off. We might all understand this because our family is so full of supernatural beings. She is a human who has been hurt deeply by a man who was meant to love her. She's not going to want anything more than a fling, and I don't blame her, but I won't be able to handle it. I'm not a 'fling' person even without the dragon awake. It will want all or nothing too."
"Then don't make it a fling," Apollo argued. "You are the most charming bastard around when you want to be. Focus some of that on her and court her properly. Make a deal with the dragon. Promise you will try after we find Auntie Maria, and it might relent in trying to tear you apart."
"It's like negotiating with a terrorist," Cosimo grumbled.
"It's negotiating with yourself," Valentine said stubbornly. "At least try to make a temporary peace with it because if we go to Forli tomorrow, we can't have it trying to tear our Marcella's ex's throat when he won't stop harassing her."
Cold fury seeped through Cosimo's veins, and he leaped to his feet. "What do you mean he is harassing her?"
"Yelena and the girls are with her now," Valentine replied, not moving as Cosimo closed in on him. "Carlo was sending her messages all night. Including one of his dick, which apparentlywasn't very big. His magic has been sleazing all over her wards, trying to get to her."
Claws burst out of Cosimo's hands, scales rose out of his skin up his arms and along his cheeks.
