“And we know they’re around somewhere,” Crystin explained. “I’m sure our sons are fine . . . wherever they are.”
“Don’t worry,” Crystin’s mate explained, his big hand around a pint of ale. “There’s always a male around to train them since the females have no interest.”
Braith stepped up to the table and explained to her kin, “Actually, Addolgar’s not coming with us. He’s going with Bercelak into the Northlands.”
Addolgar pulled out a chair and sat down. Braith began to do the same, but Addolgar’s arm went around her waist and he pulled her onto his lap.
“It’ll take a few weeks for Bercelak to get all the troops and supplies he’ll need together,” he told her. “Until then, I’ll be with you.”
“Oh. All right then.”
This wasn’t what Braith had expected. She’d wanted a clean ending. Not this lingering thing where she would only manage to get more and more attached until she wouldn’t ever be able to let him go.
Unsure what to do, Braith did what she always did. She sort of folded in on herself. It was how she’d always handled her father when . . . well, whenever he was around. Pretending nothing bothered her was something Braith had always been good at, and she put those years of practice to excellent use now. But as she looked around the table of amiably chatting dragons, she noticed that Addolgar’s mother was staring at her.
When she saw that Braith was looking her way, the She-dragon raised her brows. Braith frowned, confused. Shalin raised her brows again and then gestured to Addolgar with a tilt of her head. Still unclear what she was trying to tell her, Braith gave a small shake of her head.
That’s when Shalin the Innocent, Tamer of Ailean the Slag, slammed her hands down on the table and barked, “Gods-dammit, Braith, say what you’re actually thinking!”
The only time Addolgar could remember hearing his mother yell was when she’d discovered Ghleanna and Addolgar holding a screaming and crying Bercelak over a small but active volcano they’d discovered deep in her cave.
“What the bloody hells is wrong with you two?” she’d bellowed at them while holding a sobbing and recently hatched Bercelak to her chest.
This time, however, she didn’t sound mad as much as frustrated.
“Mum,” he lightly chastised.
“She’s not saying what she’s thinking, Addolgar.” Shalin wagged a finger at Braith. “Your father’s gone now, so there’s absolutely no reason to keep what you’re feeling to yourself. I can assure you from what I remember of your aunts . . . they won’t.”
Crystin nodded. “She’s right.”
“So you might as well start with my Addolgar,” Shalin pushed.
Addolgar studied the She-dragon in his lap. “Braith?”
Braith turned on his lap so she could more easily look at him and announced, “I don’t know what the hells we’re doing!” Okay, that was much more a bellow, wasn’t it?
“Well,” Addolgar explained calmly, “um, I thought we’d stay here for the night. Go back with your aunts and I’d stay there until Bercelak calls me to battle. And before I go, I’d Claim you as my own and then your aunts would train you in weapons combat. Which, when you think about it, is the perfect time, because there will be Lightnings trying to make their way over the Outer Plains’ border into the Southlands, thinking those borders are undefended. You’ll get some excellent training slaughtering that lot.”
“He’s right,” Crystin agreed while reaching over and taking one of the ribs from the platter a servant had just placed on the table. “Nothing better than those fools swarming the border only to face the Daughters of the House of Penarddun. Bloody good training for my girls. Bloody good.” Then she cleaned that rib of meat and marrow in seconds.
“So that’s the plan,” Addolgar told Braith. “Unless you want to do something else.”
Braith stared at him, her mouth open. “What?” he asked her. “What’s that look for?”
She looked over at his mother, and all Shalin could do was shake her head and say, “I know, dear. But you learn to love them despite it all.”
Confused, Addolgar began, “I don’t under—”
But before he could get his sentence out, Braith jumped off his lap, placed her travel bag over her shoulder, grabbed the neck of his chain-mail shirt, and yanked him out of the chair. Then, with a strength everyone in the universe should fear, she dragged him out of the dining hall, up the stairs, and to his room. She pushed him inside and slammed the door shut.
“Sit,” she ordered, tossing her travel bag near the bed.
“Yeah, but—”
“Sit!”
Addolgar sat on the bed.
Braith walked up to him and asked, “You want to Claim me?”
“Of course I do.” Addolgar thought a moment and then, his heart dropping, he asked, “You don’t want me to? You don’t love me?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“So you do love me?”
“I didn’t say that either.”
“Well, which is it, female?”
“Don’t bark at me!”
“Well, don’t play with my heart!”
“I’m not—”
Braith stopped, closed her eyes, took a breath.
After a few seconds, she said, her voice low, “I love you, Addolgar. And I can’t imagine anything I want more than being Claimed by you.”
Addolgar grinned. “See?”
“See?” Braith barked, glowering. “What should I see?”
“That we’re perfect together. How can you not see that?”
“You’re trying to drive me insane, aren’t you, Addolgar?”
“I don’t think so.” He thought a moment. “No. I’m pretty sure I’m not.”
Gods, what was she getting herself into with this dragon? Because he was big and ridiculous and some days just plain . . . goofy. But he was perfect for her, wasn’t he?
Addolgar suddenly grabbed Braith around the waist and again pulled her onto his lap.
“I’m so in love with you, Braith,” he told her, and she felt in her bones that he meant every word. “And do you know why?”
“I have no idea,” she replied honestly.
“Because I am such an amazing dragon that I know I richly deserve a She-dragon as wonderful as you. See?” he asked, grinning at her. “How could I not love you when you’re so clearly made for me?”
Aye, the big bastard would always be a handful. That she knew, too. But she didn’t care. Because like his mother had said, Braith would love him despite all the rest of it.
“You know I’m right, don’t you?” Addolgar guessed, winking at her and grinning. “I’m amazing. You’re amazing. And we’ll have amazing offspring. Strong and smart like their mum and able to take a good, solid head-butt like their da.”
Braith ran her hands through her hair. “We’re already having offspring?”
“Not right away. First you need to get proper battle training.”
“And why do you think that’s necessary?”
“Because you really enjoyed fighting those Lightnings, and you were really good at it. You can’t waste skill like yours, Braith. Plus, to be honest, you do have a warrior’s name. Braith of the Darkness. That’s a warrior’s name and you can’t waste a good warrior’s name.”
“I guess I didn’t understand the rules.”
“But now you know.”
Braith pushed Addolgar’s arms aside so that she could turn around and get back on his lap, her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck.
“I do love you, Addolgar,” she told him, loving how the words made his grin grow even wider. “More and more each day. It wasn’t just my kin I was missing in my life, but you. One without the other would break my heart, and I thought my heart was dead a long time ago.”
“Not dead, Braith.” Addolgar pushed her hair off her shoulders. “Just hibernating. Like a bear.”
She laughed and kissed Addolgar, the warmth of his mouth making her feel safe and loved. His hands clutched the back of her shirt as he deepened their kiss, his tongue exploring her mouth, reminding her why she enjoyed being human around Addolgar.
When the kiss ended, they were panting, Addolgar resting his forehead against hers.
“It will not be easy to leave you for the cold of the Northlands, luv.”
“But think of it this way . . . while you’re away, you won’t have to hear my aunts call you The Mountain.”
Addolgar rolled his eyes. “Is there any way we can get them to stop doing that?”
“Of course not.”
He rested his head on her shoulder. “I thought that’s what you’d say. . . .”
“No point in getting upset,” Braith said, running her hands through his hair. “Especially since I brought something just for you in my travel bag.”
Addolgar raised his head. “For me?”
“Uh-huh.”
Glancing over, Addolgar saw the bag lying on the floor. He grabbed it and, with Braith still on his lap, he dug his hand inside.
His grin went from cheerful to leering as he pulled out her aunt’s chains, cuffs, and collar.
Addolgar held them up. “And what are we going to do with all this, Braith of the Darkness?”
Pressing her hand against his chest, Braith shoved her mate flat against the bed, pinning him there, and snatched the chains from him. She grinned down into his suddenly panic-stricken face. “Guess.”
Epilogue
During the Reign of Queen Rhiannon the White
Addolgar landed on the ground and immediately shifted to human. While he put clothes on, he tried not to listen to the complaining going on a few feet away from him.
He was a general in Her Majesty’s army. A Cadwaladr. And an extremely proud father of seven Daughters of the House of Penarddun. Yet, Addolgar was being forced to listen to so much gods-damn complaining!
His eyes narrowed on the blue hair shining in the sunlight while the complaining went on and on.
For Addolgar was just one simple dragon. So it was unfair for anyone to think he could tolerate this. Or that he should tolerate this. He deserved much better for all he’d sacrificed over the years.
So, picking up his hammer, Addolgar walked up behind all that to-the-ground-length blue hair and raised his weapon. With his left eye beginning to twitch, he brought the hammer down.
But before it crashed into the head, silencing all that complaining, a strong hand caught his arm—and held it. Only one being he knew of, besides his brothers and Ghleanna, could do that.
He looked down into the smiling human face of his mate. Braith of the Darkness, Daughter of the House of Penarddun, and mother of thirteen offspring—seven perfect daughters, and six idiot sons—shook her head at him.
“I. Can’t. Stand. It. Anymore,” he told her, glaring at all that blue hair that did not belong to anyone from the House of Penarddun, but adorned the big, fat head of one of Addolgar’s many nephews.