Page 22 of Marked By His Alpha Dragon's Desire

Raphael’s eyes widened, and then he broke out into a grin. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me closer to him. With my dragon as my personal heat source, I’d never need another winter coat. “I would never dream of harming Luca in any way, and I am so very glad he has a friend like you.”

“Well, then.” Theo straightened, mischief returning to his eyes. “I suppose you’ll do. But don’t you dare get in the way of our omega night, okay? We’ll watch movies until dawn and kick you out of your own house. No complaints.”

“You’ll get none from me. I suppose that’s where my three-on, three-off shifts will come in handy.”

“Oh, perfect! You could not have picked a better mate,” Theo said, linking his arm into mine. Raphael’s arms slid off my shoulder as Theo pulled me away.

I smiled at Rafael when he winked at me. I hadn’t expected my friend to do that, but then again, I wasn’t surprised.

“So how have I never noticed that there is a big gathering like this on every new moon?” I asked.

Tyler had filled us in when he had stopped by and extended the invitation for Raphael and me to attend the pack gathering. On the full moon, the pack shifted and ran together, but they used the new moon as an excuse to get together for a shared meal and just enjoy their time together.

“Oh, we’ve been having them out in the woods. Old man Fisher has a cabin out there. He wasn’t too thrilled about us invading, but when we explained that we were trying to keep it from you, he was fine with it. You won him over when you checked on him after that nasty infection he got a few months ago.”

I recalled the incident. We had been sent out by Tyler to check on Mr. Fisher who preferred to live deeper in the woods, secluded from everyone. He was reluctant to get any treatment for a cut on his hand that got infected after a fishing incident.

“We’ve also had to make the events during your shifts, so that way you wouldn’t notice when we weren’t all around.”

“Oh. Well, now I feel a little bad that you all had to hide from me.”

“I told Tyler many times that you needed to be looped in,” Theo huffed. He gripped my arm tightly like he was afraid I might run away. “That man never listens to me. I didn’t want to lose my bestest friend, and we couldn’t keep hiding forever.”

“And I told you numerous times, we can’t tell humans about us just because you like them,” Tyler said as he came up to Theo’s side and ruffled his hair.

Theo shot him a glare. “Clearly my instincts were correct and it would have been perfectly fine to tell Luca.”

Other members of the fire department came over and shook Raphael’s hand, giving me a nod and welcoming me to the pack.

“You guys really hid all of this just so I wouldn’t find out?” I asked. “Gosh, it seems like it would have been easier just to run me out of town.”

“Absolutely not,” Theo said. The horror on his face was comical. “Tyler and I had numerous conversations about that as well. That jerk was on the side of running you out of town.”

“Before I met him, Theo!” Tyler turned his sharp gaze on Theo and pinned him with a stare that would have most cowering. Theo didn’t flinch. “And it’s Alpha to you, cub.” Tyler turned back to me. “We’re happy to have you here, Luca. And we’re so very glad you and Raphael have found each other.”

“I agree,” Bernice chimed in.

All around me, everyone nodded. Tyler, who I now knew was the pack leader, Levi who had helped train me when I first started as an EMT, Michelle who made my coffee each morning, and a whole lot of other people who I’d met either in town or while on various paramedic runs.

“We like you, Luca. We wanted you to stay,” Michelle said. “We talked about it as a group and not a single person wanted to run you out once they met you. And trust me, we’ve given the cold shoulder to plenty of humans to get them to leave town.”

Thank goodness I had my mate here to hold me up, because I was about to collapse into a fit of tears—happy tears, of course.

“Remember when you first moved here, you thought it was so weird that we all referred to the town as territory?” Tyler laughed. “Theo told me about that.”

“Well, it is weird,” I said.

Raphael’s arms encircled my waist, his fingertips working their way underneath the hem of my shirt until our skin touched. I leaned into the comfort of his embrace, feeling at home not just in his arms, but also by all these wonderful people.

Theo rolled his eyes. “All mates are ridiculous. You all just can’t keep your hands off each other. Keep it PG, will you? This is a family event.”

“No promises,” Raphel said.

“Well, this is the whole event,” Tyler said. “Different events have different activities, but this is mostly just eat and enjoy yourself. I won’t be giving any particular speeches or anything here. When it comes time to officially welcome you both into the pack, we’ll schedule that right before a pack run. I have a team of people who like to make it all official, fill out the paperwork, and all that. This event is just for fun.”

“Thank you,” Raphael said, shaking Tyler’s hand again. “Thank you for including us.”

“Absolutely, man. And like Theo said, you do anything to hurt our Luca, you’ll answer to us.”

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