Beshiro sighed, gave his younger brother a push, and stepped up to me, pulling me in for a quick hug. “Hey, Oak. Nice to see ya.”
“You too.” I patted his back, and we released each other.
Apparently, we were ignoring the Roman weirdness, but maybe I could ask him about it later. In private.
Maybe.
Phaeron moved up to me, and I thought it was going to be awkward for a few seconds before the vampire let out a small sigh and stepped closer. He wrapped his arms around me in the quickest hug I’d ever received, then stepped away, saying, “Hey.”
“Um, hey, Phae.”
Jed walked into the living room and plopped down on the couch without a care in the world. “So… as much as I want to ask you what the hell the two of you have been up to this whole time—and I think I know.” He sent me a wink that I pretended not to understand. “But we’re here on business, and we don’t have a lot of time to prepare. So… what have you got for us?”
I stared at him for several seconds before I gestured to the dining room that we’d turned into a recon center. “Everything’s in there. Um, let me just…” I gestured to the hall Roman had disappeared down, and Jed smirked.
“Go ahead, Oak,” Tan said. “We’ll take a look while you check on him.”
“Thanks, Tan.” I sent him a small smile, then went after Rome.
I found him in the room we’d been using as his bedroom for the last several weeks, and after knocking, I let myself in, shutting the door behind me. Roman was sitting on his bed with his head in his hands.
“Rome?”
He didn’t respond or move.
“Roman?”
Still nothing.
“Rome, you’re freaking me out. What the hell’s wrong?”
He sighed and finally lifted his head to stare at me. “Nothing’s wrong, I just…” He trailed off with a shake of his head. “Never mind. Let’s go out there and give them all the deets.”
I shook my head. “Not until I know you’re alright.”
That got me a small, soft smile. “I’m fine, promise.”
I stared at him, and I could tell he was in one of his stubborn moods, which meant that no matter what I said or did, he wouldn’t talk, the asshat. So I sighed and ran a hand down my face. “Fine. Whatever. Come on.” I waved him toward the door, but the second he stood, I turned back and stared at him for a second.
No matter what he said, I could tell something was bothering him. He looked… kind of sad.
So I stepped up to him and pulled him into a hug.
Because that was what you did when one of your… friends was sad. Right?
He was stiff for only half a second, and then he sighed and melted into me, his nose ending up against the side of my neck. I wouldn’t let just anyone that close to my neck or throat—it was too vulnerable a spot—but I trusted him implicitly. And it seemed that my dragon trusted him too because I could practically feel the damn thing curled up in a contented ball, ready to lift its neck in submission to the dragon in my arms.
Huh.That was… new. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that at all, but I brushed it away. The important part was that I trusted him.
After a few minutes, he whispered, “Thank you. I needed this.” He squeezed me.
I squeezed back. “Me too. Feel better?”
“Much.”
“We should probably go back out there.”
Neither of us moved for another minute.
