"Hungry, baby?" he asked, sounding relaxed and blissed out.
"Starving," I admitted, blushing as my stomach gurgled and growled yet again.
"How well-stocked is the kitchen?" Sergio asked, the mattress jiggling as he moved to get up. "I can make us a late lunch."
"Eh," I shrugged, "I think there's a box of mac and cheese?"
I wasn't exactly the world's best cook. I wasn't the world's best anything, really. Jack of all trades and master of none, that was how my brothers always joked about me. And they were right.
Sergio was silent for a beat. "For four-hundred-year-old men, you really do live like you've barely survived college, don't you?" I glanced up to watch as he pulled on his jeans and did up the button over the fly, a wry smirk playing at the corners of his lips. I wanted to kiss the amusement away. "Luckily," he winked, picking up his polo shirt and slipping it over his head, "I know my way around a kitchen."
My dragon purred at the idea of our mate cooking for us. Providing for us. Even though I wanted to rage against the stereotype of being a kept omega, I had to admit, I liked the idea of Serge taking care of us.
I dressed and followed him into the kitchen, ignoring Dex's whines to come back and cuddle. Eventually, he joined us as well, sitting beside me at the granite island bench while Sergio pottered around assembling a meal from ingredients I didn't even know we'd had.
"I do buy groceries, you realize," Dexter teased as I eyed a ripe-looking tomato with suspicion. He snorted when I turned to look at him in surprise, and he waved his hand over at the refrigerator. "Where did you think the food kept coming from?"
It was actually a very good question. Blushing, I shrugged. “I guess I just figured I had shopped on autopilot and forgotten about it.”
Dexter stared back at me with wide eyes, then shook his head. “Unbelievable.” He sounded amused instead of frustrated, though, so I just smiled sheepishly back at him while something that felt a lot like guilt stirred at the back of my conscience.
Dex really had been doing a lot for the pack —forme— since he had arrived, and I had taken it for granted. When he hadn’t addressed the situation that had pushed us apart and had behaved as if nothing had happened, I didn’t know how to react to him. I had loved him —still loved him— but I’d been blindsided and hurt, and then confused by the way he acted when he arrived in Shifters Sanctuary. Because of that, I overlooked his actions.
In hindsight, and knowing that he was struggling with his dragon having withdrawn, it’s obvious that he wasn’t sure where he stood with me, either. He hadn’t known how to broach the topic and he had instead worked to help my brothers and me as much as he could, without any real acknowledgement or thanks.
Then after everything we shared over the weekend and after watching him swallow his pride andtrywith my brother that morning only to be ridiculed…I had seen how hurt and downtrodden he was. It was written all over his face and in the set of his shoulders as he had fled the clinic, leaving me behind to deal with Brandt’s questions.
Of course, I hadn’t told my brother about my mates. It didn’t seem fair to do it without either of the others present. Especially not after seeing and hearing them disparage Dex right in front of me. If that was how they felt about my best friend, how would they react to hearing that he was one of my fated mates? And that our third —ouralpha— was Sergio? I didn’t think I could bear it if they cracked jokes about us. About our relationship. Or, worse, if they tried to tell me I had to be mistaken.
“Baby, it’s alright,” Dex’s voice pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts, causing me to glance up into his concerned blue eyes. He reached out and squeezed my hand as Sergio slid a plate in front of me. The sandwich he’d cut into two neat triangles made my mouth water. “I was just teasing you.”
“Oh,” I shook my head, “no. I know. I just…I was thinking.”
“About?” Sergio prodded, sliding a matching plate in front of Dex. He had his own in front of him, too.
I lifted half of my sandwich and took a bite, savoring the burst of flavors as I chewed. Swallowing, I answered, “About taking Dex for granted. About everyone being kind of…I don’t know…mean today.” I took another bite, the crunch of lettuce satisfying against the softness of the bread. “Mmm, this is good. Thank you.”
At my side, leaning against the kitchen counter and taking large bites of his own, Dex mumbled around a mouthful, “I can’tblame them.” He swallowed, clarifying, “Everyone this morning, I mean. I’ve been a right arse.”
There was no denying it, even if I did have a better context for why he’d acted the way he had. “Well, you’ve always been a bit of a wise-ass,” I teased lightly, bumping his shoulder with mine. “And I think…I think I should have realized something more was going on than just our relationship being strained. So, y’know, that’s kind of on me, too.”
He was shaking his head before I even finished speaking. “I am responsible for my own behavior, baby. And I owe your brothers —and Micah and Damon…andBeckett and Oliver— apologies, if not an explanation.”
“I’m proud of you for realizing that,” I told him softly. “But give yourself some grace, too. We all could have asked if there was something going on, and we didn’t.”
He waved me off again. “Well, I want to explain myself, anyway. If for no other reason than I believe Eric will be interested in hearing about my dragon resurfacing at the proximity of both my fated mates.”
Scrunching my nose, I blurted, “Do we have to tell him…any of them…about our relationship so soon?” Understanding that they might think I wanted to hide them from the pack, I hurried to add, “It’s just that, well, you know how Eric gets. We’ll wind up becoming his latest hyperfixation and research project and I just kind of want to enjoy our bubble for a while longer. Plus,” I tilted my head towards Sergio, who seemed content to let us talk this all out before offering his own thoughts, “Serge has to leave us for a few weeks and I don’t want Bran to be all” —I affected an exaggerated sympathetic expression— “poor Sage, you know?”
“I’m sure he’ll be distracted by his veritable herd of offspring,” Dex muttered, then yelped, “Ow!” when I smacked his bicep. Rubbing at the sting, he pouted at me. “Brandt hasfiveinfants now, Sage. Five. That’s aherd.”
I snorted. “Yeah, well, he also has Micah. And a nanny. But even if he’s distracted, Eric won’t be. You know he will want to study the effects of us being separated from our non-bonded mate, or whatever.” I made a face. “No thanks, hard pass.”
“One of those infantsisa dragon alpha,” Sergio’s smooth voice cut in thoughtfully. “You don’t think Eric will be focused on that, considering the focus of his life’s research has finally appeared right in front of him?”
I hadn’t considered that. Out of nowhere, the image of my oldest brother in dragon form curled protectively around a clutch of eggs manifested in my brain, making me chuckle at the absurdity of it.
Dragons didn’t lay eggs.
