Chapter 9
Torrence didn’t really want to get dressed or leave the bedroom. He and Cecily had spent the afternoon making love, first in the shower and then on the bed, until his voice was hoarse from vocalizing his pleasure, and Cecily’s skin was flushed a beautiful rosy pink. He’d thought she was gorgeous before, but seeing her eyes bright with passion and her lips swollen from kisses, he knew there was never a more stunning female in all the world.
He was one damn lucky dragon to have her for his own.
He dressed in jeans and a button-down shirt, rolling the sleeves up to his elbow to reveal the bottom portion of the mating mark. His mother had left Cecily several outfits to choose from, and she picked a sleeveless dress. She came out of the bathroom in a mint green dress that fell just above her knees. The mating mark looked amazing on her skin. She’d confessed to at first being weirded out by the mark. To her, it looked like a tattoo, and she’d never planned to ink her skin. But once he’d gotten the same mark, she’d come to really appreciate the physical mark of their bond.
“You look beautiful,” he said.
She smiled. “Thanks. This dress is nicer than anything I own.”
“There’s a seamstress in the clan. She specializes in female clothing, but when I was a kid she used to make suits for me to wear for special occasions.”
“That’s adorable.” She sat on the bed to put on a pair of sandals. “I think it’s pretty neat how unmated dragons stay with their parents.”
He leaned against the dresser. “I take it that humans don’t have that arrangement?”
“Yes and no. A lot of us want to get out on our own as soon as possible, get out from under the protective wing of our parents and try life out. No curfews, no parental disapproval for choices. Some humans stay at home until they’re married, or they go away for college and come home to stay on break.”
“How old were you when you moved out of their house?”
“I moved out right after I graduated from high school, and lived with Andrea in her grandma’s tiny two-bedroom house. My parents passed away that summer, so I always wished I’d stayed there longer to spend time with them.” She gave him a sad smile. “Anyway, when I leased the donut shop, it came with the upstairs apartment, so Andrea lives in the house by herself now, and I have the apartment. For humans, I think it’s a mark of adulthood. You’re not really an adult until you’re on your own.”
“It’s an unwritten rule that unmated dragons live with their parents. I think it encourages our people to stay close.” He glanced at his watch. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She stood and smoothed her hands down the dress. He almost missed the tremble in her hands.
He closed the distance between them and grasped her hands, surprised to find them cold. “What’s wrong?”
“Why would anything be wrong?”
“You’re cold and trembling.”
Her fingers flexed slightly, and she sighed. “I’m nervous about meeting your clan.”
“Why?”
“Hello, I’m the only human on this mountain.”
“You’re my mate.” He ran his fingers up the mark on her arm. “This means that you belong with me. You have just as much right to be on this mountain as anyone here. And I want to point out that female dragons don’t shift. The only difference between you and any other clan female is that you had two human parents.”
She hummed. “I guess that does make me feel a little better.”
He chuckled and cupped her face, tilting her head and kissing her. “Cast all your worries away. I’m at your side and I’m not going anywhere.”
He watched her face for the moment when she did as he asked, her features relaxing and a smile gracing her plump lips. He didn’t want her to be upset or concerned about the get together his parents were having to celebrate their mating. He was certain if her parents were alive that he’d be nervous to meet them. Although they were mates, he would still have wanted her family to like him and be happy for their mating. His parents – the only dragons he cared about – were thankful he’d found Cecily and intent on celebrating their mating. They were treating her as if she were a female dragon and they’d met during the mating ceremony.
“Ready, my beautiful mate?” he asked, cocking his elbow toward her.
She smiled sweetly and rested her hand on his arm. “Yes. Lead the way, sexy dragon.”
He laughed and opened the bedroom door. He could hear the commotion in the kitchen, and caught a whiff of his mother’s Boston cream pie, which happened to be his favorite dessert.
“I feel weird that I never asked what you do for a living,” she said as they walked down the stairs. “We spent all our time doing…other things except talking. You know what I do because you destroyed my front door.”
“My family owns a design company. We specialize in custom stonework, from tile floors to intricately carved fireplaces and statues.”
“You’re a mason?”
“Yep. Many clan members work for the company. Mom does the bookkeeping, dad runs the front office. I handle the website and also make stone sculptures.”
She stopped and faced him on the second-floor landing. “You can carve stone?”
“Of course. Give me a hunk of stone and a tool set and I’ll make whatever you like.”
“Oh, like a fountain made of donuts?”
He snorted out a laugh. “If that’s what you’d like, I’ll make it.”
“It would look amazing in the front of the store. Oh, and a dragon? Like you? I could put him in the flower bed.”
“What flower bed?”
“The one that we’ll have around the cabin.”
“Decorating already?” he asked with a grin.
“You don’t mind, do you? I’ve never had a house house. My parents lived in a trailer, and Andrea’s grandma wouldn’t let us touch her flower beds because they had these old, thorny roses in them.”
He could already picture a flower bed around the cabin, full of colorful flowers. “I think you’ll keep me busy.”
“Will your parents be upset you won’t be working with them?”
“I can still do carving at the cabin. I actually hadn’t given much thought to what I’d do with my future.” He’d only just wanted to get away from the clan and the pitying looks of everyone who had seen him fail at a basic dragon activity. Now, with Cecily, the future felt wide open.
Cecily beamed. “I can’t wait to get home. I want to watch you carve something.”
“I can show you something I just finished up for a client after dinner.”
“All right.” She took his hand. “I had no idea I’d mated such a creative guy.”
“You’ll be my muse.”
They continued down to the first floor, following the sounds of conversation to the grand dining room, where his parents hosted dinner parties. The crowd quieted, and his parents joined them.
Benecio cleared his throat, then said, “I proudly introduce Torrence’s mate, Cecily. As is our custom, she is now a member of our clan. Let’s welcome her with open arms and hearts.”
Everyone clapped, and Vanessa hooked her arm through Cecily’s and said, “I want to introduce you to everyone, come with me.”
Cecily smiled and let go of Torrence’s arm. He hated to see her leave, but he was glad that his parents were so welcoming.
“I overheard your conversation with Cecily on the stairs,” Benecio said.
There were zero secrets in a house where everyone had great hearing. “You don’t mind me working from the cabin, right? Things happened so quickly I haven’t had a chance to talk to you about the future.”
“It’s fine with me. I was hoping you’d want to keep working, you have a client request list a mile long.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
He clapped his hand on his shoulder. “You’re welcome. Of course, as a mated male, I need to warn you to make whatever Cecily wants first. Then you can get back to the clients.”
Torrence watched as his mate was introduced to the clan. She was smiling and seemed genuinely happy, and he wanted to make sure she stayed happy, all the time. “The dragon will be easy; the donut fountain will be tricky.”
His father laughed. “You’ll have to send me pictures when it’s done. I’m sure it will be awesome.”
Staz came over with a petite redhead on his arm. “Welcome back, Torrence. This is my mate, Julep.”
“You can call me Jules,” she said, extending her hand. “It’s so nice to meet you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, too, and congratulations to you both.”
Staz kissed Jules on the temple and said, “Go and introduce yourself to Cecily, I want to talk to Torrence for a second.”
“Of course,” she said. She turned and wove her way through the crowd.
“How are you doing?” Staz asked. “And how the hell did you get a mate? I heard you showed up in your dragon form?” Staz grabbed Torrence’s arm and looked at the mating mark. “This thing is huge!”
“I know, right? I don’t know why it happened, but I believe that Cecily and I were made for each other. If I hadn’t been allergic to the mating fruit, I wouldn’t have gone to my dad’s homestead in Tomb and met Cecily.”
“That’s awesome. You look happy.”
“I am. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I’m honestly happy. I’ve got a beautiful mate and I’ve also got my dragon.”
“When do you start work on your house? I’d offer to help, but we’re building mine right now.”
“We’re not going to stay. Cecily has a business in Tomb, and I’m going to do my carvings from there.”
“Oh. I figured you’d come back here to live. Can we come visit sometime?”
Jules gave Staz a light slap on the shoulder as she joined them. “Are you inviting us to their house? You’re supposed to wait for an invitation.”
Staz grinned and shrugged. “We’re cousins who are as close as brothers. No invitations necessary. Right?”
“You got it,” Torrence said.
His dragon let out a purr of relief in his mind when Cecily joined them and took his hand. “Hi, I’m Cecily. You must be Staz.”
Staz shook her hand. “One and the same. I was just inviting myself and my mate to your house.”
“Good grief!” Jules said.
Torrence couldn’t help but laugh. Cecily said, “You’re welcome anytime.”
Benecio called them to dinner. He sat at the head of the table with Vanessa on his right. Torrence sat on his left with Cecily next to him, with Jules and Staz next to her.
“This is the biggest table I’ve ever seen,” Cecily murmured.
“It’s custom,” Torrence said. The twenty-seat table was made of light oak and had matching chairs with intricately carved dragons on the backs.
When the meal was served, Torrence was thrilled to see that Cecily was talking not only to Jules and Staz, but also the other dragons around them. She had a great sense of humor and a little bit of a sarcastic side, which he found wholly entertaining. When the meal was over, he and the males offered to clear the table, and the females sat around with coffee and dessert while they tended to things in the kitchen.
“She’s great,” Staz said. “I wish you were staying here. When we heard you found your dragon, Jules was hoping to be friends with your mate since we’re family. She’s feeling lonely because her clan lives up in Connecticut.”
“She was fine with staying here?” Torrence asked. There were no hard and fast rules when it came to matings, it was up to each mated pair where they chose to call home, either with the females’ clan or the males’. He’d never anticipated his mate not wanting to live with his clan, but it hadn’t been a hardship to agree to go to Tomb. Cecily was home for him now. The location didn’t matter as long as he got to hold her all night long.
“Yes. I offered to go to her clan, but she was fine with staying here.”
“We’ll visit, and you can come visit us,” Torrence said.
“Cool,” Staz said. “Maybe you can make us a donut fountain, too.”
The males in the kitchen snickered and Torrence shook his head with a laugh and snapped the kitchen towel in Staz’s direction. “You could at least pretend not to eavesdrop.”
“Now where’s the fun in that?”
* * *
“I can’t believe you’re leaving already,” Torrence’s mother said. “You’ll come visit soon?”
“Of course,” Torrence said.
“The males are going to escort you home,” his father said.
“Oh?” Torrence said.
“It was Staz’s idea. He said that it would be a nice idea to do that for any couples who don’t stay here. A… dragon caravan, so to speak.”
“That’s really sweet,” Cecily said. She adjusted the knapsack on her back, which contained half of a Boston cream pie, the green dress that she’d loved so much, and Torrence’s sculpting tools.
“We’re ready when you are,” Benecio said.
Torrence turned to his mate. “Ready for another ride?”
She buttoned the wool coat that the clan seamstress had given to her as a mating gift, pulled a green stocking cap on her head, and wiggled her gloved fingers at him. “Now I’m ready.”
He laughed and kissed her, then stepped away and stripped. He handed the borrowed clothes to his mate and shifted. It was only the second time he’d shifted, and he wasn’t sure what to expect. The first time had been explosive. He’d been human and then he’d been a dragon. The transformation had been unexpected and painful. But now, he just had to look at Cecily and he felt calmer and more connected to his dragon.
He finally understood why dragon shifters needed to find their perfect mate. The dragon needed someone to care for and protect.
“I’m so glad you’re mine, Cecily.”
He shifted, reaching into himself for the dragon and letting the change come. The dragon sprang forward, eager to see and hold their mate again. From one moment to the next, his body transformed – bones lengthened and reformed, muscles bulked and stretched, and green scales covered his skin. He lifted his head and breathed out a plume of smoke.
Cecily brushed at tears on her cheeks. He lowered his head and trilled a question, wondering why she was crying.
She kissed his snout and smiled. “You’re a beautiful dragon, watching you change is just…so amazing. It made me cry. But they’re happy tears, because I’m so glad you’re mine, too.”
He gave her a toothy grin, and lifted her from the ground, cradling her against his chest. Around them, the clan had shifted, waiting for him to lead them back to his new home. He let out a piercing cry and lifted into the air, the dragons echoed the sound and followed. Wheeling in the air, he took one last look at the mountain that had been his home, and then he turned toward Tomb, where he was going to build a life and a clan with his mate.
Flying with the dragons was everything he’d ever thought it would be. His father and Staz flanked him, with the other males behind them.
When Tomb mountain came into view, he let out a happy trill. Cecily patted his clawed hand and offered a cheer of her own. The entire clan circled the mountain in an enormous funnel of dragons, the sound of their wings was like the wind.
He landed in front of the cabin and lifted his head to the sky. The click in his throat that signaled the fire sounded and he blew out a stream of flame. Above them, the others answered in kind, streams of fire lighting up the sky. One by one the dragons peeled off and headed back to their mountain, until only Staz and Benecio were left. They called out to Torrence and Cecily, a happy song that echoed around them, and winged their way home.
Torrence set Cecily down and returned to his human form.
“That was so cool,” she said, her head turned up to stare at the now empty sky. “I feel like our family just left.”
“They did, sweetheart,” he said, slipping his arm over her shoulders.
“A couple days ago I thought the best thing that ever happened to me was opening my donut shop. Now, I know that you’re the best thing.”
“You are for me, too.” Scooping her up into his arms, he carried her to the cabin. “In case you couldn’t tell, I’m crazy about you.”
She whispered in his ear, “Me too.”