Page 22 of The Alliance

It was a system that worked for us.

From across the lawn, I saw my mate walking towards us and nearly rolled my eyes. That was all we needed.

Dum – closely followed by Dee, naturally – was as likely to cause mayhem just for the fun of it as he was to saunter past without taking an interest. I kept them in my peripheral vision as they approached, keeping most of my attention on Alfie and Ant.

Only when Dum got close enough that I could hear him did he stop, and I was grateful that he was keeping away. At least, he was too far away to touch anything. Specifically, he was too far away to poke the fire spirit or pinch the golden dragon or whatever he took it into his head to do.

Being mated to Dum was like a full-time job.

Did I complain about it? Often.

Would I change it for anything? No.

Would I tell him that so he could get all smug about it? Also no.

I noticed that, when the two Hoskins dragons arrived, Alfie tensed up a bit more. His shoulders bunched and his body arched subtly. His tail curled round his mate, who was drawn closer to him and round behind his bulk, away from Dee and Dum.

Looked like we weren’t the big, happy, trusting family we were meant to be then. The Somerville’s instincts were still to see us as a threat.

That might have been mutual, actually. The Hoskins clan had been just as tense whenever they were around some of the Somervilles. Their dragons could feel the power radiating out from Alfie, and though they might not realise it, they tensed when Glimmer was nearby, though he looked so slim and slight that I’d almost believe he wasn’t a threat at all. If I couldn’t feel the deep well of magic he was drawing from, that was.

Glimmer’s mate, Kingsley, though… he was dangerous. And the Hoskins clan felt it, too. They felt it even more instinctively than I did, and theyknewthey were tense around him.

I also happened to know that Dee and Dum had spent the morning following Kingsley around, trying to talk to him, provoking him, and generally being pains in the neck. I knew because I’d given the whole Hoskins family orders to text me if they saw Dum do something dumb and my phone had been buzzing almost constantly.

So far, they seemed to think Kingsley wasn’t reacting to any of the barbs my mate and his partner-in-crime had been flinging at him, so I hadn’t had to leave Ant. I was simultaneously relieved that Dum was finally where I could keep an eye on him, and worried that he was probably going to do something to the Somerville elder.

I assume Dum wanted me to hear him, since he could have spoken much quieter and had only the dragons – or even only Dee – hear him if he’d chosen to. However, he spoke clearly and loudly.

“My mate is so sexy when he’s pissed off, don’t you think so, Dee?”

She studied me, scanning her black eyes over my body as though she was genuinely thinking about it.

“Is that why you always go out of your way to act like such a moron, Dum? Because your mate looks good when he’s about to lose it?”

Dum sniffed. “No, I don’t try to be a moron at all. I’m just naturally talented at that.”

I wanted to shake my head in despair and simultaneously burst into shocked laughter. How was it that man always did this to me?

I tried to glare him away, but it didn’t work. Dum gave an audible moan and I had to look away before I laughed or got a boner.

Instead, I turned my attention to the golden dragon. Neither Dee nor Dum had shown any surprise or interest in seeing him, despite the fact that he was a golden dragon, right there in front of them. With those two, I genuinely couldn’t tell whether they weren’t bothered or whether they’d got their shock out of their system before I’d been able to make out their expressions.

“Do you think Anthony wants one of his scales to experiment on?”

“Why don’t we ask?”

They stepped forward and Alfie’s body tensed again.

“Dum,” I snapped. They both paused, which was a relief. “If Ant wants a golden scale, he’ll ask for one.”

Both of them turned to Ant and gave him their identical grins, the ones that had too many teeth. They were trying to weird him out but Ant was immune to that kind of threat. Maybe they were trying to weird Alfie out instead.

Unfortunately, it might be working.

Ant said, “I don’t want a scale, but thank you for the offer.” He made it sound as though Alfiehad been the one offering. “But I’d like to do some tests on you.”

“They sound interesting. Will you tell me about them? I’d like to know what sort of thing you’re looking for.”

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