“Oh. My. God. It smells wonderful in here.” Ronan followed his nose into the kitchen only to get his hand slapped by Upalo when he lifted the pot lid. “Ouch!”
“That’s right. Keep your grubby paws off the meal for our mate.”
“Hey, wait, we don’t get any? So not cool.” I didn’t want to pull the it’s our house line, but damn.
“Yes, well, no?” Rory stumbled when he caught Upalo’s glare. “Sorry.”
“I see how you roll.” Kind of hard to appear formidable with two eggs strapped to your chest like boobs, but I gave it my best. “Are there even any clean pots and pans left so I can cook for my mate?”
They both glanced around, taking in the disaster they’d turned the kitchen into, and blushed. “Shit.”
“Shit is right, Upalo. Now how is my mate supposed to take care of me?” To some those words coming from their significant other may have been misinterpreted, but I loved taking care of Ronan in every sense of the words.
“Best get the kitchen cleaned up before Larkin sees how you really are. Come on, Ronan. Let’s head over to Ionus’ and mooch a meal.” We took the tunnel this time, popping up in the foyer and from the smell of it, just in time.
“What brings you two here?” Ionus asked.
“Dude, does your apron say,it takes one to know one?” I laughed so freaking hard I had to use the wall to steady myself. “What does that even mean?”
“I haven’t a clue. Alex found it funny and he bought it. We’re just about to eat.”
“Good, we’re starving and the love birds booted us out of the kitchen.”
“Rory and Upalo? I see.”
“Yes, waiting for their third mate to show up.” Ronan punched my arm. “What was that for?”
“For you sharing someone else’s story that wasn’t yours to share.”
“My bad.”
They think they have a third and it’s Larkin and invited him to dinner to tell him.
Wow, Larkin. Can’t say I wouldn’t like to see him slow down and finally mate, but I didn’t see that coming.
Neither did we.
Does it still count as telling someone else’s story if you don’t say the words aloud? Either way, Ionus was now equally enthralled in the latest episode ofAs The Dragons Turn. Our lives had become soap operas.
“By all means, join us.” Ionus kissed each egg as he passed by and returned to meal prep. “Chicken and beef kebabs, minus the kebab part for small dragons.”
“Yeah, that would be bad news, pilgrim.”
“Pilgrim?” Ionus cocked a brow. “Binging spaghetti westerns again?”
“Maybe.” I hadn’t been, but since I had no idea where that line came from, it was best to just agree. “What can I do to help?”
Ionus and I got the plates filled while Alex pinned his kids down in their toddler chairs. My mate, not the bravest of creatures, chose a seat as far away from the dragonets as he could get. While their end of the table refereed a near food fight, our end calmly inhaled our dinner. In the beginning it was hunt, char, and devour. As humans inhabited the earth, and in order to mix in amongst them, we had to retrain our brains, so to speak. Cooking, gathering staples and food. When cooking classes came to be we took as many as we could. Glad we had, considering that none of our mates, thus far, possessed the ability, or desire, to cook.
Alex was on clean up duty while the rest of us funneled into Ionus’ office for the meeting. With twice the number of dragons as seats, it was standing room only. Having the twins still strapped to my chest, I opted to be one of those who stood.
“It’s been brought to my attention that a potential necromancer sighting may have happened on compound grounds.” Ionus opening statement hushed the crowd. “Emerson, you’ve prepared some documents for us?”
“Well, it’s an ancient scroll that speaks of Kieran.” Emerson fumbled with the scroll before managing to unroll it and recite the musings. “He is said to be dead, died during the dragon war, but I got to thinking after talking to Ronan that if he has the ability to speak with the dead, see them, hear them, bring themback, temporarily, then he’d likely have the ability to disappear on a whim and reappear wherever, and whenever, he wished.”
“Is he friend or foe?” Straight to the point, that was our Ionus.
“Friend. And it would make sense that the Goddess has sent him our way now.”
