Chapter 41
His tiger woke him, agitated their mate wasn’t next to them.
Rising on one elbow, Glenn glanced over at Sawyer, finding him on his stomach, asleep.
Tuning out his wolf mate’s snores, he listened to the night noises, hoping Alex was nearby.
Finally, he heard the faint breathing of his mate coming from the far corner of the bedroom.
Using his tiger’s eyesight to pierce the darkness, Glenn saw Alex asleep on the floor, his body curled around the golden statue.
Shaking his head at the sight, Glenn started to climb out of bed, intending to bring Alex back to it. But he was stopped when Sawyer’s arm grasped his tightly, preventing him from leaving. “Let me go,” he growled under his breath.
“Let him be,” Sawyer whispered. “It’s the first time his dragon has a hoard…”
“It’s just one fucking hideous statue. I hardly think that constitutes a hoard.”
“That’s where you’re wrong,” Sawyer murmured.
“The statue is very rare…and that kinda makes it priceless, so it ticks the ‘valuable’ box of things that should be in a dragon’s hoard.
And if that isn’t enough…it’s fucking, solid gold.
Something his dragon has longed for…actually needed…
during Alex’s entire life. Without a hoard, his dragon felt shunned by the dragon world.
He never received the customary hatching gifts from other dragons, leading him to believe he was inferior because he shared Alex with a fox…
which was why he felt compelled to bully the fox.
“And without gold to recharge his power, his dragon looked at himself as weak and unable to protect Alex from anyone who tried to harm him. That’s why he was always ordering Alex around…not to bully him, but to try to keep him out of trouble.”
Glenn stared at Sawyer in astonishment. “How do you know all this shit?”
“My wolf told me when I woke up and saw Alex sleeping with his hoard,” Sawyer whispered.
“How come your wolf didn’t spit this out before?”
“Alex’s dragon hid it from my wolf and, from Alex,” Sawyer murmured, glancing at his mate, asleep with his statue, a tender smile on his face.
“Finally having a hoard did wonders for Alex’s dragon…
and it helped Alex realize his brother was right…
every dragon needs a hoard.” Looking over at Glenn, he continued, “The Fates had it right…and so did you.”
“About what?” asked Glenn.
“Why Alex needed two mates,” Sawyer replied. “There’s an inherent imbalance when two animals have such different sizes: it creates a conflict between them, but your tiger is capable of standing up to Alex’s dragon…”
“Yeah…got it,” Glenn murmured, glancing back at Alex. “Does this mean we hafta sleep with Apollo in order to keep our mate in bed with us?”
Snorting softly, Sawyer shook his head. “Not if we move Apollo next to the bed.”
Emitting a low groan, Glenn hung his head, imagining Apollo’s eyes watching him all night. “For how long?”
“You asking how long you’ll have the pleasure of being watched as Alex and I fuck you?
” teased Sawyer. Then taking pity on his uptight tiger mate, added, “According to my wolf, a pile of gold coins will be an acceptable substitute…for a while. But, we must find a suitable place to hide Alex’s hoard…
and then add to it. Now that our mate knows his dragon needs a hoard, Alex won’t be satisfied until he has one. ”
Shaking his arm free of Sawyer’s grasp, Glenn climbed out of bed, grabbing the blankets and his pillow.
Then smirking at Sawyer said, “Fine. Tomorrow we’ll take Fionn up on his offer but tonight, I plan on spending the night with Alex…
and if that means sleeping on the floor, so be it. Care to join us?”
Jumping out of bed, Sawyer picked up his pillow. “I call dibs on the spot on the rug next to Alex.”
“Asshole,” Glenn mumbled.
~/~/~/~/~
After the meeting ended, Lucius rose quickly, eager to leave the Blackwood Pack house.
He wasn’t sure where he and Brady would go, but was hopeful they’d be returning to the cottage.
Even if the spell prevented them from going inside, the peacefulness he felt there was enough for now.
Looking at his mate, he saw Brady’s body stiffen.
Quickly tensing up, a fissure of fear sliced through his body at the anger in his mate’s eyes. Confused, he asked, “What’s the…”
“Lucius,” Zane called softly, “I know my brother said…”
“Zane!” growled Jackson. “Not now!”
Lucius quickly pieced together why his mate was angry and was thankful he wasn’t the reason for it.
But that feeling quickly dissipated; he was once again in unfamiliar territory without a road map to help him navigate it.
The urge to flee became powerful, but, now tempered by his promise to trust Brady, he stayed, determined to protect them from harm even though his entire body was shaking with fear.
Gazing into his mate’s eyes, Lucius gave a brief nod of his head, letting Brady know he was all right.
Then, deciding it was time to reclaim what Valerian had taken from him, Lucius swirled around to face Zane, blood dripping from his elongated fangs.
“Oh shit!” Zane cried out, stumbling back until his legs hit the chair seat, forcing him to sit down with a thump. Holding his hands up in surrender, he shouted, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I just wanted to apologize for scaring you!”
Jumping in between Zane and Lucius, Dylon braced himself for a vampire attack while trying to figure out how to deescalate the situation and stop it.
Quickly wrapping his arms around Lucius, Brady held him tight against his chest. “Leelan,” he said softly next to Lucius’ ear, “it’s okay…he wasn’t going to harm me…or you.”
Jackson wasted no time, flooding the room with his Alpha Power, forcing everyone to submit to him. Stepping around from behind the chairs where he’d been standing, he moved in to face the vampire. “Lucius, stand down. No one’s gonna harm you or Brady…please trust me.”
Frozen in place, Lucius could neither move nor speak but he saw he wasn’t alone. Everyone else in the room was in the same predicament. And while it was comforting to know Brady was safe, it reminded him of all the times Valerian forced him to do something he abhorred doing.
The fear in the vampire’s eyes was painful for Jackson to see, especially since using his Alpha power had, most likely, caused it.
But what was worse was the defeat he found in Lucius’ face and, though he was pretty sure he knew what caused it, that would have to be handled at another time.
Closing his eyes, Jackson manipulated his Alpha power until Lucius was free of it, leaving everyone else still under its control.
Then, he waited to see what the vampire would do.
Lucius blinked, once, and then several more times, just to make sure he could.
The last thing he expected was Jackson freeing him, but then, what did he know.
Maybe it had to be done before…nope, not going there.
Brady trusts Jackson so… “I wasn’t going to attack your brother,” Lucius said, feeling it was important for the Alpha to know it.
Smiling, Jackson replied, “Yeah…I figured.”
“You did?”
“Lucius, if that was your intention, no one…including me…could have stopped you.”
“No?” Lucius asked, incredulously.
“No,” Jackson replied. “Let me ask you this…did you see Valerian rush towards Zane and David?”
“Yes-s-s…” Lucius said slowly, wondering what that had to do with anything.
“But what Zane saw was one moment Valerian was standing with the other vampires and the next moment he was gone.” Then, seeing the confusion on Lucius’ face, he continued. “Vampires possess the ability to move faster than my eyes…or any other paranormal’s…can follow.”
“That can’t be right, because I clearly saw Valerian go after Zane.”
“It’s because you’re a vampire. To your eye, Valerian wasn’t moving that fast at all…
but to everyone else he had simply disappeared,” Jackson said.
“That’s why no one in this room could have stopped you from attacking Zane.
By the time our brains could process what was happening, Zane would’ve been dead. ”
Lucius’ eyes grew so big, he was sure they would pop out of his head.
“Kill? Me kill Zane? Nonononoo! Never! I can’t…
I don’t even know how to kill anyone!” Suddenly realizing what he’d confessed, Lucius slapped his hands over his mouth in an attempt to stop his frantic babbling.
If it got out he didn’t know how to protect Brady, then he was useless as a mate.
Feeling Brady’s efforts to pull free of his Alpha power, Jackson drew it back until everyone in the room was free, but kept his focus on Lucius.
“You’re lucky you don’t. Killing a person…
even one as evil as Valerian was…stays with you forever.
While you can learn to live with it…it’s always lurking, just waiting to remind you that you acted as judge, jury, and executioner by taking someone’s life. ”
“Valerian deserved it!” Lucius exclaimed.
“I agree,” Jackson replied. “He knew what could happen when he attacked Zane and his mate. But even more, he deserved it for what he did to you by turning you into a vampire. That was wrong on many levels.”
“What do you mean?” Lucius asked, confused again.
“Valerian broke the law when he bit a human for any reason other than to drink some blood,” Jackson explained.
“Once the Fates granted vampires the right to breed, the Universal Paranormal High Council passed a law forbidding any vampire from biting humans for the sole purpose of turning them into vampires.”