Page 37 of The Fire Dragon's Mate
I laughed and pushed him away, and Cighyss flew across the open area and right for Phineas. Continuing down the stairs since I assumed they’d use the lair, I laughed again when Cighyss snatched Phineas up, making him yelp in surprise. Thetwo of them soared back this way, and I laughed again when I saw Phineas’s wide-eyed expression.
“I’ve been abducted by a horny dragon!” he hollered at me as Cighyss flew them into the lair.
“Have fun!” I yelled back and continued on my way for a cup of coffee unencumbered by horny dragons.
Since he’d probably been on his way to retrieve a cup of tea for Gilda—and because I wanted to meet my nephew—I did my best to make one for her and took it over to their chambers. “Knock, knock,” I said since the curtain was drawn.
She drew it aside and glanced behind me. “Good morning, Declan. What’s happened to Phineas?”
“He is, um…” I said upon seeing Camille looking up at me. “Cighyss needed him.” I waggled my eyebrows at her in an attempt to let her know what Cighyss needed her husband for.
She grinned and shook her head. “Too long away from his hoard I suppose?”
“Must’ve been.” I handed over the tea.
She accepted it and stepped back so I could come inside. “They’re all going to be absolutely useless today. Limping just enough to notice and dizzy as drunken ducks.”
“Drunken ducks?” I asked on a laugh. “Have you ever seen a drunk duck?” I said to Camille.
She smiled and shook her head before digging through a small pile of toys to find a wooden duck. “Quack,” she said.
“I wonder if Papa will quack when he comes back.”
They both laughed for entirely different reasons, I was sure.
Gilda had already fed little Fraser so I held him and went with her and Camille to fetch some breakfast. Everyone cooed over the baby, but I refused to give him up. He was the first I’d ever held and I found it oddly addictive. I was instantly devoted to his comfort and happiness.
I ate sausage and scrambled eggs with one hand, Frasertucked in the other, while sitting on the floor beside Camille. Gilda lounged on a large pillow, reminding her daughter to use her spoon and not her fingers. It was the single most domestic moment of my life.
“Is Uncle Declan considering what it might be like to become a father?” Gilda asked me with a grin.
I shrugged one shoulder and felt my face heating.
“Am I correct in thinking,” she asked more seriously, “that your relationship with Cighyss is different than the rest?”
I nodded. “We’re mates.”
Gilda smiled at that information. “Thought so. And you’ve no issue with the hoard, I assume?”
“Oh, no. Truly, it doesn’t concern me in the least.”
“I feel the same.”
Perhaps, out in the rest of the world, I would’ve felt differently if princes were allowed to marry men. I’d heard of plenty of relationships amongst the servants breaking over infidelity. I’d thought that I, too, would never stand for such a thing.
But here? With a magical dragon who loved and protected all of us? I felt no jealousy. I didn’t fear that his love for me would fade or shift to another. I wanted to claim something for myself alone—his dragon form—but that was all. I knew he was mine.
Phineas suddenly appeared, dropping onto a pillow beside his wife with a great sigh. His hair was disheveled and face flushed, and he definitely looked like he’d been well-fucked. I chuckled at him, and then laughed harder when Cighyss swooped by and snatched up Reynard. Oh and then grabbed Bromley as well! Gilda and I laughed with several others as the trio flew away toward the lair.
Hagen, who had been helping Tennyson get breakfast, now stepped away and began stretching. Errol and Warfield joined him, while Tennyson stood there lookingbewildered.
“Cighyss has a need,” I explained to Tennyson, “to fill his hoard with the same thing you swam in last night.”
Tennyson’s eyes went so wide, I could see the roundness of them. “All of them?” he sort of squeaked.
I nodded. “All.”
“But I’ve… Um, I’ve never…” He swallowed hard and a blush overtook his face.
