“Maybe later,gullgosse. If you’re good, I’ll let you fuck our pretty little Vadim while I remind you whose mark you carry.”
Erik looked like he wanted to sink through the floorboards, and Geoffrey couldn’t blame him. Snorre was far worse than Everard had ever been, even on his most fractious day. Being in the old dragon’s presence was simultaneously gratifying and horrific.
“Wait,” Ian said. “Let’s back up for a moment. What did you mean about us being mated? We’re not. I mean, Matthieu and I are, of course, but Geoffrey—”
Snorre snorted. His eyes, swirling with pale pastel colors, seemed to glow from within. “Geoffrey, my old colleague, mated first to you, then the delectable omega there with the great ass, although it seems you weren't far behind him. Your bond is slightly newer, but nearly as strong. What naughty boys you are! Erik, I don’t believe Geoff here was earmarked for one of the omega experiments, was he?”
“He wasn’t,” Erik said flatly.
“I’m not,” Geoffrey said, “and don’t call me Geoff, Snorre. My name is Geoffrey, as you well know.”
“Ian, my boy, one day you must tell me what you did to unclench Geoffrey enough to get your cock inside him. I must know your secret.”
Geoffrey felt a wave of panic hit him, Ian froze in shock, and Erik looked like he wanted to strangle Snorre, not that he would have likely managed it. The old dragon was huge and as fit as Sebastian. Despite being nearly two millennia younger, Geoffrey had been no match for him, and Erik would pose even less of a threat.
Matthieu started to laugh. Heads swiveled in his direction. “Oh, this istrès drôle.The Pedigree never prepared me for dragons being so funny.”
“The Pedigree is an abomination,” said a stiff voice from the doorway to the study.
Geoffrey turned and there was Yinju, the youngest son of the Kangxi Emperor of China. The last time Geoffrey had seen him, the boy had been paired with Liu Wei, head of the Gold clan. Despite the passage of over three hundred years, Yinju didn’t look a day over eighteen, the age he’d been when Snorre had stolen him away from Liu Wei and then found himself removed as legal counsel for the Opal clan and banished from China. Yinju was still as beautiful as he had been back then, with long, black hair that fell in a curtain down his back, large, knowing eyes, and a Cupid’s bow mouth.
Geoffrey had often wondered about Yinju, who’d been chosen by one dragon, then mated to another. It wasn’t something dragons talked about, perhaps wishing to pretend that such things could never exist.
Yinju, Geoffrey couldn't help but notice, was heavily pregnant, obviously with a Disgrace. By his side stood a preadolescent girl who, by their resemblance, had to be his daughter. Any omega that heavily pregnant should be miserable with their failure, but Yinju didn’t look miserable in the slightest. He rested a hand on his large belly and looked only haughty and somewhat irritated.
Geoffrey could feel Matthieu’s wonder at an omega who bore his Disgrace child with such equanimity. Geoffrey sent back reassurance. Matthieu could bear any number of omega children and Geoffrey would never set him aside. There was an echo of that feeling inside Geoffrey that felt like Ian, somehow. Geoffrey wondered how it was possible, but then pushed the thought aside. All these years, he’d been mated to Ian, hadn’t he? He’d felt it in his soul, and now Snorre, with his strange, knowing eyes, had confirmed what Geoffrey had always believed to be true.
They were mated, Ian and Geoffrey.
And now they were mated to Matthieu, too.
“Well said, Qíngrén. Now, come here, poppet, and give your papa a kiss,” Snorre said in his booming voice.
The girl fled her father’s side and went running to Snorre, who gathered the girl in his arms and swung her around, missing Erik but nearly knocking over a very expensive-looking vase. She planted a huge kiss on his cheek, then she glared daggers at Geoffrey, Ian, and Matthieu.
“I won’t go with you,” she declared. “I refuse to go to the Pedigree, and Papa andFùqinsaid I don’t have to. I’ll fight you if I have to. I know karate and kenpo.”
“I likecette courageuse jeune fille,” Matthieu said with appreciation.
The girl wiggled down from her sire’s embrace, then stood before them in a fighting stance, one leg poised to strike.
“Try to take me,” she said, “and I’ll kick you in the face.”
Yinju sighed. Snorre grinned. “That’s my girl,” he said. “But no one’s here to take you away, poppet. Be aduktig flickaand gather the others, then send them to the family room. We all need to talk.”
“Yes, Papa,” she said, then ran out of the room. There was a crash from the hallway and the sound of something shattering. There was a faint cry of “Sorry!” then the patter of running footsteps.
Erik sighed. “I’ll get someone to clean that up.”
* * *
The room Erik and Snorre led them to was gigantic, which was good, because it was filled with dragons and people and quite a bit of noise.
“Shut it!” Snorre cried out, and silence fell. Even the two iridescent white dragon whelps stopped playing and sat still. “I want to introduce our visitors to you rabble, so pay attention. The tall, skinny one who looks like he's been sucking lemons is Geoff Drake, legal counsel for the Amethyst clan. The blond cutie-pie is Ian Brand, legal counsel for the Topaz clan. The tiny omega with the great ass is… actually, I haven't the faintest idea, other than you're clearly a Ruby. What's your name, child?”
Geoffrey could feel Matthieu bristle at the use of “child,” so he sent back reassurance, and felt a twin thread of emotion join his. It was Ian—it had to be. Feeling him there and knowing it was him brought tears to Geoffrey’s eyes which he quickly blinked away.
There would be time to revel in his emotion later. For now, there was business to attend to.
