Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
Talon stretched up tall, rising on his toes and lifting his arms over his head.
He was in the training salle, waiting for Reno and Boone, maybe Triton, and he couldn’t stop grinning.
Once he and Mercury had started making love, they’d made it a lot.
A lot.
He was a happy damn braaken.
Mercury was surprisingly sexual and inventive and very, very enthusiastic. They’d spent a good two weeks together doing nothing but eating and making love.
Finally, Kami had thrown a bit of a fit, insisting that everyone needed to take showers and clean their damn apartment because it smelled like a cat house.
Once everything was aired out, Kami had taken Mercury to lunch and informed Talon he was not invited.
It was adorable, especially now that Mercury had been provided with clothes. It had been fun to dress his lover too.
Mercury was lean and silver, so it was fun to put him in soft shirts and pants. He wasn’t very good at wearing boots, but soft shoes he loved, and he was addicted to socks.
Triton was the first one to come into the salle, and his brother’s face was a study in unhappiness.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, worried. “Did something happen?”
“I’m married to a damn diplomat, and I’m not talking about Elowyn. What is he thinking?”
Talon assumed he was thinking that the seer had told him that he needed to work with Jack to be a diplomat and find the allies he’d suggested they needed, but it wasn’t his place to say so.
“I guess Cerran’s busy now, huh?”
Triton fastened him with a glare. “Busy. He’s nonexistent. Nonexistent. Do you know how hard it is to deal with Elowyn and the girls without him? He does this, deals with Elowyn and the girls. I’m not good at it.”
Oh, he had zero idea what to say about that. His brother was, at best, a little grumpy.
At worst, he was kind of a bitch.
Talon finally settled for, “Wanna spar?”
“Yes. You’re so damn cheery. Let me beat you to a pulp.”
“Nope. But I will let you try.”
They got into position and started moving around the mat, testing one another carefully at first and then with more strength.
They’d learned together, and so they had very similar styles, but by necessity, they had changed over the years.
Triton was a soldier, a commander, and was used to a certain rigidity in pattern to his moves, while Talon was a guerrilla fighter. He did whatever and however he needed to do things to get things accomplished, and he didn’t particularly care about following the rules one way or the other.
So they were well-matched, and when Triton lunged, Talon rolled away, huffing out a laugh. He really was in a fine mood.
Triton rumbled and swept in again, this time catching him by the shoulder and whirling him around.
He almost went down, but he caught himself, sweeping Triton’s legs out from under him.
Triton went down in a thump, but he caught Talon’s arm on the way down, so Talon landed on the floor with his brother. They both panted, laying there staring at each other.
“Thank God Boone wasn’t here, he’d fuss,” Triton groaned.
“Boone… Thank the goddess Reno wasn’t here.” Talon rolled his eyes. “Can you imagine what kind of shit we’d be given?”
“Oh, you don’t have to imagine it.” Reno’s voice sounded from the doorway. “You two are getting old and clumsy. What the fuck?”
Talon groaned. “I have mating exhaustion, and he’s all grumpy at Cerran for becoming a diplomat.”
Reno snorted. “The only good diplomat is cream…”
“Isn’t that just whipped cream?” Triton tilted his head. “I could totally go for some banana splits right now.”
Reno held out his hands like he was weighing things. “Banana splits versus working out. Working out, banana splits. Yummy goodness, getting hot and sweaty with you two. Let’s go, men. There’s ice cream and bananas and chocolate waiting for us.”
“And marshmallow,” Triton said, and Talon rolled his eyes.
“No. Pineapple.”
“It’s strawberry, marshmallow, and chocolate.”
“Strawberry, pineapple, and chocolate, and then we’re not going to argue about this anymore.” Talon had been arguing about this with Triton for years.
“I don’t give a fuck what you two put on your goddamn banana splits. Let’s go.” Reno hadn’t become any more relaxed, even with little Miranda.
Speaking of—
“Who’s got my goddaughter?”
“I just duct-taped her to the floor. I figured she’d be okay until I got back.”
He arched an eyebrow and stood up, shaking his head. “Seriously, where is she?”
Reno turned, and there she was in a little backpack situation, sound asleep on his back, snoring softly. “Kami wanted to do something with Mercury, and I told him I’d watch the sprog. She’ll wake up as soon as she smells ice cream.”
“Are you trying to suggest that you were going to work out with the baby strapped to your back?” Talon couldn’t believe this.
“Probably not.” Reno shrugged. “Or maybe. I mean, either way.”
Triton rolled his eyes. “You are a fiend, Reno. Come on.” Jostling Talon, he made for the door.
Reno strolled along after them, chuckling.
Ice cream was a huge draw, even after all the milkshakes with Mercury.
“Any idea what Kami wanted with Mercury?”
Reno shook his head. “Some bullshit about shopping for furniture and… I don’t know.
” Reno shrugged. “I have to admit that every so often he starts ranting about something, and I just sort of drift off. With my luck, Kami’s going to try to talk him into sliding into some kind of high-dollar jewelry store, rob the place, and then come home. ”
“Now, Reno…” Talon grinned at his best friend’s mate. “Kami’s not a thief,”
Reno arched my brow. “Well, not by trade.”
He stuck his tongue out at Reno, but he still reached out for Mercury. Hailee? Are you okay?
Good, I’m good. I’m getting a tour. There’s a lot of places here. Did you know there was a store, and there’s a place with catalogs?
Sure, do you need some more clothes?
No. No, but I would like a book of my own. And maybe, I think I would like something that I picked out by myself.
Oh, well of course you can have anything you want. You know that. Talon would give him literally anything.
Kami says that I’m going to have a job with you and him. That’s right. Isn’t it? I’ll have work so that I can have things that are mine too. I can help.
Uh-huh. He left it a little noncommittal because he had no idea what Kami meant by Mercury was going to have a job. If Kami thought Mercury was going to be sliding all over the world to find stones, he might have another think coming.
Then again, who knew? Kami often managed to get people to do what he wanted them to do.
Oh good, thank you, mate.
I’ll be with Reno and Triton if you need me.
I’ll call you if I do.
His hailee sounded so cheerful that he just let it go. Kami was obviously showing him a good time.
“No larceny going on?” Reno asked, raising his eyebrows.
“Apparently not.” As they headed down into the cafeteria area, they ordered rare banana splits. He’s getting the Grand Tour, and they’re shopping. He wants to buy a book.”
“I have a whole book right now, hooted. NOTE: I don’t know how to fix this??? Sooner or later, he’s going to figure out that you’re extremely well off.” Reno winked at him.
“We all are, thanks to Cain and Jack,” Triton put in.
Talon had to admit that was the truth. “Those two are sort of geniuses when it comes to making money. I have no idea where it all comes from.” He knew some of Jack’s money came from making movies and stuff.
Or people paying him to let people make movies.
He had no idea. One way or the other, he was grateful because that meant Cain paid him extremely well to do his job.
“It doesn’t matter.” Reno grinned and shook his head. “All that matters is we’re recipients of their largesse.”
“We work hard,” Triton agreed. Oh, look at that! The banana split was set down in front of Triton, and he beamed at it like it was sentient. “This is infinitely better than throwing you around the room, Talon. I approve.”
Sure enough, Reno’s baby girl started to squawk as soon as the ice cream landed, and he unstrapped her so he could pull her around on his lap. “You’re gonna have to share with me, sweetheart.”
She made grabby hands at the ice cream, and it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. He hoped soon he would have the same feeling about his own baby, because it certainly wouldn’t be for lack of trying if he and Mercury were not pregnant yet.
“I’m pretty sure I don’t want to know what that smile means.” Triton spooned up some of the icy confection, licking it off his spoon.
“I’m pretty sure I didn’t want to see you licking your ice cream,” he teased. “So we’re even.”
They settled in talking about everything and nothing and a great many dragons, as well as some of the other species, stopped by to say hello. Surprisingly, it was Jack who settled next to them with his own big dish of ice cream and peanuts and hot fudge a while later. “Afternoon, gents.”
“What are you doing here, Jack? You usually eat at your own quarters.”
Jack’s golden eyes twinkled with laughter. “I am avoiding my mate and my children. I needed some time.”
“Wow, just come right out and say it, why don’t you?” Reno laughed, shaking his head. “I brought my sprog with me.”
Jack nodded easily. “Sure, you only have one right now. Trust me, when they get to be in the double digits, you’ll start to ponder leaving everything behind. I used to have a nice, orderly, quiet, single existence. Did you know that?”
Talon had to hide his grin because he knew Jack loved everything about his mate and his children, all of them, whether they were natural or adopted.
The guy had walked away from dragon life for a long time and left his mate behind, not knowing that it would hurt him because they didn’t know they were mates then. They were just betrothed or something.
Now though, he didn’t think he’d ever seen two dragons who were more in love, not even him and Mercury.
“Anyway, I wanted to see you guys about our current situation.”
Ah, now they were getting down to brass tacks. Jack wanted to talk about alpha business without all the omegas there.
“How is it going with you and Cerran establishing contacts with other keeps?” Triton sounded very formal suddenly.
One of Jack’s eyebrows winged up. “I would think you, of all people, would know, Triton, since he’s your mate.”
“We’ve agreed not to talk about it too much right now.” Triton shrugged, his cheeks going darker. “I admit I don’t like the idea of him being in contact with some of the keeps out there.”
“It can be dangerous.” He waved his spoon. “However, we’re working very hard to establish contact first with the ones we know are safe. We’ve had some very good luck with a few of the lowland keeps on the West Coast.”
Most dragon keeps in the traditional sense were along the coastal regions of the world because that was an easier place for dragon settlements to maintain separateness from the human world.
And if they had to make a run for it, they could fly off out over the ocean and be less likely to be shot down or captured.
“I suppose that’s good.” Talon wasn’t sure. They got used to feeling like an island of their own here in the Rocky Mountains, and he didn’t like to feel afraid of things, but sometimes he feared dragon culture. So many bad things had been done in the name of tradition.
Reno shrugged. “It’s necessary, right, Jack?”
“Unfortunately, I think it is. We would love to be completely isolated here, wouldn’t we, but we can’t be.
And we do have some people here in our keep who are influential still within the dragon communities they left.
” Now Jack was the one licking a spoon, and they all looked away because it was kind of oddly attractive.
Jack really was the alpha of all alphas.
It was impossible to ignore Jack’s kind of magnetism, even for someone like him, or Triton, or Reno, who were used to being the ones who drew that kind of attention.
And that was enough of that weird thought pattern, thank you very much. Maybe he should order another banana split.