Matthieu stroked his thick neck affectionately. “Merci, mon coucou,the boys love it very much.”
Ashley fanned his tail feathers and preened.
“But I can’t help but wonder where you found this beautiful trinket.” Matthieu lifted the pendant by the chain, letting the delicate metal slip between his fingers. The stone was small, but its radiance was so brilliant, Matthieu almost believed it to be fake. True diamonds, the Pedigree had taught him, were often much duller than imitation stones, and many had observable flaws which were not the fault of the stone cutter, but of nature.
This diamond, as far as Matthieu could see, had no flaws and shone brighter than it had any right to. More than likely, it was priceless, and there was no doubt in his mind that Perry missed it immensely.
Matthieu looked Ashley in the eye and raised a brow. “Did you take this from our friend, Perry?”
Ashley flung his head up in the air like he couldn’t believe Matthieu could make such vile allegations.
“If I called Perrytout de suite,would he tell me he had lost something?”
Ashley angled his head higher, his beak pointed straight at the ceiling. If he threw his head back any more, he’d loop his neck over itself.
Matthieu laughed. He reached for Ashley and drew him close, and while Ashley honked weakly in protest, he settled down next to the eggs no more than a second after.
The honk invited trouble.
One by one, the other peacocks fluttered onto the window ledge and hopped into the room. Flake brought with him several long sprigs of lavender; Killian, a marble with blue and green swirled glass contained within its transparent shell. Lucian clutched an immensely pretty envelope in his beak, its granite-gray card stock surprisingly pristine for something he’d found outside, and Bellamy—
Matthieu laughed.
Bellamy had brought with him a partially made sandwich, currently consisting of half a bun, lettuce, a slice of tomato, and several slices of cheese.
Each peacock laid their offering near the eggs and settled. Before Bellamy could place his and ruin the Siberian goose down duvet the eggs were nestled on, Matthieu accepted it directly from his beak and fed Bellamy the tomato slice. Bellamy, eyes wide and stomach bottomless, devoured the tomato like he’d never been fed in his life.
“Sweet on even a common thief—your heart is limitless,ma puce,” Geoffrey said from the doorway. Matthieu looked up to find him leaning against the frame, his arms tucked loosely over his gray suit vest. It had been a few weeks since Grimbold had decided that Sargon was equipped to act independently as legal representative of the Amethyst clan, but Geoffrey still rose early every day, showered, slicked back his hair, and dressed for work. Only now, instead of heading out to do business, he tended to things around the house. The sandwich, no doubt, had been his latest task.
“Speaking of thief—” Matthieu set the sandwich down on the bedside table and lifted the pendant. “I believe Ashley has been over to visit Perry and Sebastian recently. I can’t think of anywhere else this could have come from.”
Geoffrey paused, then entered the room and came to perch at the side of the bed. He swept Matthieu’s hair back from his forehead and placed a kiss upon it. When he spoke, he did so next to Matthieu’s skin, and his words ghosted the fine strands of Matthieu’s hairline. “I can.”
The way Geoffrey whispered those words made Matthieu shiver. He reached up to cup Geoffrey’s cheek, and Geoffrey leaned into his touch. A change had come over him since he’d left the council—while he was still the man Matthieu had fallen in love with, the prickliest part of his nature had been dethorned, and the anxiety that had wound him tight was gone. The night following Geoffrey’s last day at the office, while Matthieu made love to him from behind as Ian swallowed Geoffrey’s cock, Matthieu had felt the shift, and he noticed it now, too, in the light of Geoffrey’s eyes and the easiness of his smile.
Matthieu’s heart melted.
Perhaps there was something in the world he loved just as much as his eggs—two wonderful, loyal, loving, and, at times, infuriating somethings.
“I believe there’s an envelope on the bed,” Ian said from the doorway. The sound of his voice startled Matthieu. Ian, as the new head of the Topaz clan, had been spending most of his time tidying up the mess his father had left behind. Dragons, as Matthieu was well aware, were averse to change, and the Topaz clan had been in uproar following what they considered to be the usurpation of the Topaz council seat. Marduke Brand had assembled a resistance, and while not every Topaz dragon had joined, the number of them eager to overthrow Ian’s position was troublesome.
Luckily for Ian, the Topaz clan had gained an unexpected ally following Sigric’s resignation. Grimbold Drake and the Amethysts he led, once at ends with the Topaz clan, had offered Ian their full support, and with them, the Amethyst’s closest allies, the Sapphire clan. The last nine months had taught Matthieu that, in more than one way, there was strength in numbers.
To see it proven true within the council was a blessing.
Ian stepped into the room and came to stand next to where Geoffrey sat. “Why don’t you open it?”
“You’re not in your office,” Matthieu remarked. He carefully rolled away from their eggs so he could face his lovers, much to the disappointment of their unborn children. “Is all well?”
“All is well,” Ian promised. He bent at the waist to plant a kiss on Matthieu’s nose. “Open the envelope, kitten.”
Matthieu reached for the granite-gray envelope, carefully parting the adhesive flap from the backing. Inside was a form, its header eerily reminiscent of the council paperwork he saw from time to time on Ian’s desk. Rather than demand an explanation, Matthieu read through the text upon it, seeking its purpose. In what spare time they had, Geoffrey and Ian had been systematically teaching Matthieu what he needed to know about draconian law, and while they were both occupied with work, Matthieu had continued to read through their old textbooks while he nested with his eggs. By now, he was able to parse even the driest of English sentences. The form he held proved simple in comparison.
Matthieu read the manifest from top to bottom, then looked between Geoffrey and Ian, unsure who was responsible.
“It was both of us, although I’m not sure that will help you much, kitten,” Ian said with a smile. He put a hand on Geoffrey’s shoulder and squeezed. “Geoff put in the hours making sure that the argument was airtight, then demanded an audience with the council and delivered one of the most outstanding addresses I’ve ever seen, barring your own, of course.”
“Once it was brought before the council, Ian argued that it should pass,” Geoffrey revealed. “And our clever, persuasive lover convinced the clan heads to sign off on it. Can you believe that it was Liu Wei who broke the tie and made it law? So much is different now. So much. And all because of you, and how hard you fought for us.”
