Page 16 of Slay All Day

“Damn straight, it won’t,” her dad agreed, giving my shoulder a tight squeeze. “I’m sure your mate appreciates the sacrifice you’re making, moving onto his territory.”

I’d thought that Denica’s parents were one-hundred percent on board with the plan, so I hadn’t been too worried about meeting them. But it seemed as though I should’ve been. “I—”

Denica elbowed me in the side. “Don’t fall for my dad’s crap. He gets that Tigerville is where we should be. He’s just giving you a hard time for the fun of it.”

“Well, hell. Why’d you have to spoil my fun?” he complained as he released my shoulder to give Denica a hug.

Her mom smacked his arm. “Because you’re supposed to be congratulating them on being mated instead of badgering the poor boy.”

“Yeah, I haven’t even had the chance to introduce you guys yet,” Denica agreed with a nod.

“Good point, sorry.” Her mom grinned and stepped close to give me a hug. “I’m Demi.”

Her dad offered me his hand, testing my strength as we shook. “And I’m Dean.”

“Nice to meet you,” I replied, squeezing back with all of my tiger’s might.

A gleam of approval shone from his green eyes, so much like his daughter’s. “Well, alright then. You just might do.”

“Enough of that macho crap. We have lots to do today.” Demi pointed her thumb over her shoulder. “That truck isn’t going to unload itself.”

“I really fucking wish that it would,” Dean grumbled as he made his way over to the back of the truck.

When he pushed up the rear door, my eyes widened in surprise. Turning to grin at my mate, I chuckled and shook my head. “Your parents seem pretty damn motivated to move you out of your house and into mine. Should I be worried about how excited they were to help you move when packing is at the bottom of pretty much everyone’s list of things they want to do?”

Denica glared at me, not appreciating my sense of humor as much as her mom, who doubled over in laughter. My gorgeous mate rolled her eyes and muttered, “Haha, funny. It’s not as though I still live with them and they’re trying to get me out of their house. I have an awesome place of my own where they can take my stuff back to if you want to keep giving me crap.”

She was so fucking beautiful with that fire in her pretty green eyes. Figuratively speaking at the moment, although she also looked hot as fuck when she had literal flames swirling in her eyes from her dragon’s fire magic. I couldn’t resist teasing her more. “So it’s your hoard they’re after then?”

Dean joined in on Demi’s laughter, but my mate just huffed in exasperation and rolled her eyes again. “I don’t have a freaking hoard.”

“Oh, really?” her dad asked as he jerked his thumb over his shoulder to point at all the stuff piled in the back of the truck. “Then why did I have to rent the twenty-six footer? This fucker is supposed to be big enough to haul everything from a four-bedroom house, and we barely fit all your shit in it.”

Denica stomped over and climbed into the back of the truck, planting her hands at her hips as she stared inside. Shaking her head, she sighed, “I didn’t ask you to bring everything I’ve ever owned.”

“Sorry, sweetie.” Demi grinned up at her. “Your dad figured this would be the perfect opportunity to clear out the attic. He wouldn’t listen to me when I told him that you didn’t need every single thing I had up there, including all the stuff I kept from when you were a baby.”

Denica tilted her head toward her dad and quirked a brow. “You got rid of all my baby stuff because you needed more room for all of your crap, didn’t you?”

“Maybe.” Dean shrugged his shoulders and flashed her a grin. “But can you really blame me? This barely made a dent in all the shit that’s up in that damn attic.”

Demi laughed even harder as they bantered back and forth. I walked the length of the truck to take in how big it was. Scrubbing my hands over my face, I turned around and headed to the back of the long-ass vehicle again. There wasn’t a chance in hell all the stuff they’d brought was going to fit in my place. Jerking my chin toward the house, I grumbled, “I guess the first step is to prioritize your hoard.”

“I already told you that I don’t have a freaking hoard,” she repeated, glaring down at me.

“Aw, give the guy a break. That’s a pretty fair assumption considering all the stuff we brought,” Demi chided.

“What’s so wrong about having a hoard?” Dean asked with a shrug. “We’re dragon shifters, after all.”

Denica jumped down and gave me a look that told me to let it drop. “Feel free to replace any of my shit with yours. I’ll let Connor know that we’re going to need to use one of the barns for storage until we can get a bigger place.”

“We already have three bedrooms,” Denica pointed out. “We should just get rid of the furniture we don’t want instead of looking for a bigger house.”

I slid my palms down my mate’s spine and pulled her close. “Nah, we’ll need more space at some point anyway. We might as well look now while we have extra stuff to fill the rooms.”

Her head tilted back, her eyes going wide. “Three bedrooms will be plenty. Dragon shifters don’t tend to have many whelps.”

“True,” I conceded, wagging my brows. “But even though I’m an only child, many tigers have plenty of cubs. We could end up with more babies than you’re expecting.”

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