Greg… First Floor of the Lair

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“About time y’all came up for food,” Hildy said from a sparring mat. “We were going to start bribing you with piped in food aromas.”

“That’s not true,” Wren said. She sat at the long plastic picnic table with a magazine. “We were going to bum rush the door down.”

“Shh, don’t tell them everything.” Hildy landed a solid punch on the poor sparring dummy she attacked. “We must maintain an element of mystery to our methods.”

“True that,” the magazine reading Wren said. “There’s food in the kitchen from earlier. Eat, and then we’ll prod you for questions about your take on the raid the other night. I want to see a portal rip to one of those Las Vegas buffets.”

“Wren, can you not be so on the nose? Geez, where’s the finesse in telling them everything? But I would love a portal jump to Paris for a day of shopping if you’re up to it, Zia,” Quinn said as she came down from Lucien’s office on the mezzanine level.

“Give me a break. I blame the baby. He can be overzealous sometimes.”

“Uh-huh,” was all Quinn said to Wren as she took a seat at the table. “Did you tell the newly mated that there’s food in the kitchen?”

“I did.”

Zia spoke up, “Thanks. Let us grab the food and come back to give you our rundown of the showdown.”

Greg laughed at the theatric flair his mate put on the statement. He guided her to the state-of-the-art kitchen his brother had given his mate to find food in one of the stainless steel fridges.

After he’d loaded enough food to feed a baby elephant onto a tray, there were back at the table and eating.

His mate began to speak as they made it to the end of their feeding frenzy.

“I’m such a bad daughter. Did my parents call yet?”

Lucien walked up to the table in time to answer. “Yes, they made it back home last night. They asked that you give them a call when you came back up for air.”

Greg laughed at how his leader put the fact that they’d held up for two days downstairs without food in such a sanitized way.

“Thanks,” she said around a piece of raw broccoli. “I’ll call them back after we eat.”

The table watched as she ran a broccoli floret through a tub of peanut butter. His mate’s food choices had become an event as the crowd watched her put down the oddest food combinations.

Lucien looked away when she slathered strawberry jelly on her baked potato. Greg took in his uncomfortable avoidance as Lucien watched Zia inhale the food.

“This is so good,” she hummed through bites with gusto. “Thank you, Wren, for hitting it on the head again. We are food craving twins.”

“That you are,” Lucien said. He did a pivot to get off the subject of odd foods when he said, “Your parents and brother each said they’d like to come back for a family visit. Now that we know they can all survive the Lair, I wanted to put that to you and Greg before extending any invites.”

Zia was lost in devouring the mustard toast she’d grown to love. Greg gave her a nudge to answer.

“Oh, sorry. Could you repeat that?” she asked, mouth full.

“Sure.” It was comical how pained Lucien looked trying not to watch her eat. “Do you and Greg want to allow your parents and brother to stay here at the Lair when they come for visits?”

“Uh, not really, but that’s just me,” she said around another bite of toast. “Let me call and talk with them. I’ll handle telling them. Y’all don’t know my mother. Once she gets in, there’s no getting rid of her. This is why I told you not to show her the fifth-floor guest room.”

“I see,” was all Lucien said.

Wren piped in, “Zia, I can’t believe you’d rob your family of sharing time with you in your home.”

“I would put them up at the swankiest hotel.”

“But it's not the same,” Wren countered. “Robbery, I tell you, pure and simple. You’re robbing them of spending time with you.”

Another piece of toast went down for the count. “A fair trade ain’t never been no robbery. They get the lap of luxury, and I get peace and quiet. Fair. Trade.”

“All right, if that’s how you want to proceed, I’ll let you all handle that. Just know that if you ever decide to change your mind, like when the baby arrives, the offer still stands. Your mother is very powerful. She might bring valuable help with tending for a newborn Gryphon. I see her as a wonderful movement of maternal energy. Miss Connie likes her, too,” Lucien said, his relief clear, as Zia finished eating.

“Gotcha and thanks. I can’t make you understand what I mean. Leila isn’t a movement. She’s a force. You don’t flow with her; she requires a full reckoning to be dealt with. Lucien, I’d hate to see you about to go to Dragon jail over one of my mother’s polite southern coupes. You let her in, and she’ll turn this place inside out. I have no problem letting her watch the baby—at the hotel or in Texas. Trust me on this.”

“Enough said. As a Dragon, I’m inclined to value your insight into how your mother works. And, no, I wouldn’t like to go to jail for trying to keep her from taking over my Clan and Lair.”

“I knew you were smart and wise,” Zia said as she moved to sit in Greg’s lap.

He welcomed his mate with open arms. By the look of it, Lucien wasn’t finished with his updates. He looked at them and said, “The Sorceress has made local and national news. Once again our Seers were right.”

Quinn and Wren began to hoot and holler until Lucien cut a look for them to settle down.

“It appears that within that trunk officials found documents, drugs, ledgers, and other evidence to connect her to the elusive drug and human trafficking Kingpin we and others had been hunting for years. That condo was one of her permanent residences. They reported that she had places all over the world. You know they aren’t giving details but mentioned that the drugs found were the highest quality of a deadly strain that had taken over the market.”

“Sounds like she would have been put under the jail,” Hildy said.

“Not before the large cartels and overseas drug lords got her. Based on how far spread her empire was, Galiena had all but crippled the drug lord stalwarts on a global scale.”

Ajax jumped in, “Yeah, word on the street is that there’s a multimillion-dollar bounty on her head. They don’t want her dead; they want her to cook for them. None of them have been able to reproduce her product with any success. I for one am glad she’s gone.” He looked at Lucien and asked, “any word on what the Council plans to do with her?”

“Yes, heard from them earlier today. They have information from law enforcement here and have assured me that she will be tried for crimes to earth’s humanity as well as other alien entities. It seems a lot of the Egolars and others were here under her spell and without consent.”

“Well, damn. I never thought I’d see the day when an Egolar didn’t want to come to earth.” Ajax picked up a piece of chicken that hadn’t been eaten from the food Greg had brought out.

“Zia’s therapist might be the biggest criminal mastermind the world has ever known, besides the group. I say we change the subject.” Quinn looked at Ajax and said, “You still owe Hildy a birthday party from January. I know you didn’t think you could get away without honoring your mate’s birthday, did you?”

Ajax almost choked on the huge bite of chicken as he sat up. “A birthday party? I, uh,” he turned to look at Hildy, who patted his back from the choking. “Bae, you want a party? I thought you were cool with everything.”

Hildy didn’t say anything and only gave him a half-hearted hunch of the shoulders.

“See, pumpkin? I told you. But, never you fear, Wren and I are here to help you save the day and your mated bliss. Here, take a look,” Quinn passed over what looked like a new composition notebook.

This one had red instead of the normal black cover.

“What’s this?” he asked and opened the book.

“That is the plan for a Goddess of the Hunt themed party. We’ll have it out back, and there will be all sorts of games of skill—knife throwing, archery for Wren, whip play for me, ninja stars and all that other crap Hildy does… look, there’s even an aerial obstacle course for Hildy and the men to compete on.”

Ajax’s eyes floated over page after page as Quinn beamed with glee. Hildy snatched the book out of his hand, continued to thumb through the pages.

She looked up after a few moments. “Quinn, I love it. Yes, I want this.” Ajax’s eyes grew large as she turned and kissed him hard. “When can we do it?”

Quinn didn’t hesitate. “I’m thinking two weeks from now. We have to build the course, you know. My sister, Liesel, is finally coming for a visit. So, she’ll be here for the party. Plus, I wanted to see if you were open to us inviting some of the retired Guardian Warriors from the surrounding area.”

“What? I didn’t know they were so close.”

“Oh, yes. Lucien keeps in touch with them. One of them just got mated to a woman from Atlanta. I thought it would be nice to meet her.”

“Wow, yeah, okay, I’m down. The more, the merrier.” Hildy smiled harder than Greg ever thought she could manage. Then her sense of loyalty kicked in. “That is if Lucien and everyone are down with it.”

“Don’t worry about them,” Quinn said. “There will be food, the Triplets will be here to partake in fun with you, and we’ll be able to meet the older guard from south of here. Isn’t that right, baby?” Quinn asked Lucien.

Greg loved watching the dynamics of their changing group. He’d seen his leader go from a hardened Dragon with no patience for trivial matters of human comforts to this male of compassion and love for his mate.

Here he sat with his mate and babe in his arms and content not to be studying and obsessing over every little happening. There was time for everything. Right now, it was time for family bonding.

He spoke up to help the stunned Ajax regain his ability to function and eat. “Ajax, it would be wise to allow Quinn to take the lead on this party, don’t you?”

Ajax looked over at him. With a look of thanks, the young Dragonling said,” Yes, that is pure wisdom. Quinn, please help me out and take the lead?”

She smiled like a cat about to trap its mouse and said. “How about I do you one better? Wren and I plan the party, and you escort your mate to it on time. How does that sound?”

“Like heaven,” was all the younger male could say.

Lucien retook the floor. “Good, it’s settled. We’ll celebrate Hildy’s birthday in a few weeks.” To Zia, he added, “I have another bit of information for you. It seems Tashia Jennings from your apartment community would like to meet up with you and have lunch as a thank you for helping her find her children. Here’s her number,” Lucien passed a piece of paper down.

“I know she’s more than human,” Hildy said, “If you two hit it off, Zia, see if she’d like to come to the birthday party. She did a lot to help us with that attack with her Primal Scream. Of course, only if that’s all right with you, Lucien,” Hildy ended, remembering the order of the Clan’s leadership.

“Yes, fine with me. If we’re going to have all these males at your party, seems like the Triplets shouldn’t have all the heavy lifting of adoration and attention. From what I picked up on, Tashia is a good soul. I can grant her a one-time visit to the party. Quinn has assured me that the attendees can and will,” he stressed that last part, “go directly to the back and not into the Lair. That way I can lower the wards for the back while keeping our home safe.” He took a moment to look at Quinn and added, “Miss Connie is back to full health and will stop by to see us after she closes tonight. I want everyone to be here to show her love and appreciation. She’s our Clan mother, and I don’t want her putting herself in that predicament again. We need to be more vocal and active in taking care of her too.”

Everyone in the group nodded.

“Well, that’s about it. Oh, before I forget,” Lucien said, thinking of more points to bring up. “The regular portals are quiet. I haven’t heard any tales or rumors of Zia’s ability out there. Good job on getting those restraints of confusion on all the fighters from Galiena’s condo. We need to make sure we keep her ability to ourselves. The Group is still out there and looking for Wren and Zia. We must stay vigilant for any ploys they may hatch.”

Again, everyone nodded agreement.

Greg hugged his drowsy mate as she nodded off in his lap. Being here with his Clan family in this setting was the most natural thing. Greg had been restored to complete health, blessed with the best mate beyond his wildest dreams, and could feel his strong son’s energy and presence growing each day.

To be Goddess-blessed was the highest honor. One he prayed all his brethren would experience.

One of the double doors to the entrance of the Lair opened. Everyone turned to see Blaise and a few of the others walk in with a stunned look on his face. The brethren filed in and unloaded their surface gear.

“What’s wrong?” Quinn asked, showing great concern. “Tough night on patrol. I know how hard it is for you with the bad cases of kids.”

Blaise turned toward the group and leveled a look at Wren. When she lowered her magazine to give him her full attention, the normally gentle giant glared at her.

“What? Whatever it is, I didn’t do it,” the little woman said.

“Wren, I need your help.” He breathed hard enough for his body to heave.

“Sure, anything I can do is yours.”

“Good, because I think I just met my mate.”

Startled silence fell over the room for a moment until Ajax called out, “Way to go, my man!”

Blaise scowled at the congratulatory sentiment.

“What’s wrong, honey?” Quinn asked. “Don’t just stand there fuming, tell us what happened so we can help fix it.”

He took the necessary steps over to the table and looked at each of them. They waited the giant of a man out until he spoke.

The words came out slow and strangled.

“The problem is… the female I just met…”

It felt like pulling a watermelon through a keyhole for how long they waited for him to speak.

“Spit it out, for Goddess sake,” impatient Hildy spat out.

Blaise looked over at the woman and nodded. He turned back around and looked off into the distance. “I think I met my mate, but I can’t stand her.”

Wren sat up in attention. “That’s all right, Blaise. I’m sure you’ll come around. Sometimes it takes time. You know? Look at Greg and Zia?”

Greg wanted to keep him and Zia out of this.

Blaise leveled a clear and intelligent gaze at the Seer as he said, “I don’t know if that will work. We touched, and I think the mating thrall has begun.”

“That’s a good thing,” Quinn encouraged.

“No, it’s not,” he scratched a mop of black hair that flopped into his face like Clark Kent.

“And why not? You have to look at the glass as half full,” Quinn continued to try to encourage him.

“I don’t think that will happen this time.”

“For the love of the Goddess, why not?” Ajax blurted out. “It can’t be that bad. You’re the most likely to mate with anyone brother. Everybody loves you.” No one missed the pointed look Ajax flung Quinn’s way. “Quiet as kept, you’re my favorite brother too.”

He looked at the group, let out a frustrated sigh and said, “Nope, it’s not going to happen. I’m pretty sure she hates me too. That’s why I need Wren to let me know if it’s true. Maybe what I feel is a fluke—you know—not real?” His voice held a plead in it Greg wasn’t used to hearing from his Dragon brother. “It has to be a fluke. I can’t stand her, and I’m sure she feels the same. This will never work.”

Greg had to intervene. Blaise was stuck in a shock loop. He spoke with a gentle tone to coax the Dragon out of his internal loop. “Take your time and tell us why you don’t think you can mate with your intended.”

Blaise took in and slowly exhaled another breath. “Because I might have gotten her arrested.”

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