Just before we entered Braxton faced the sorcerer, his expression neutral. “It’s no secret that males don’t like other males around their mates, and I’m no exception with Jessa. Reality is, dragons are usually the worst of all supernaturals. We guard what is ours with a ferocity that would scare almost everyone … except you – nothing scares you.” I sensed the slightest tone of grudging admiration from Braxton. “I accept what you say is the truth. I will allow this friendship.”
Woah! He did not just say that. “Hang on just one freaking second! Allow … allow the friendship?” I poked my finger directly into Braxton’s chest. “I’ll choose my own friends and no bossy ass dragon is going to change that. You have a problem with any of my friends, you come and talk to me.”
His blue eyes darkened and as usual he enjoyed watching me lose my shit, although he didn’t back down. The next eight hundred years or so were going to be volatile to say the very least. Males were so annoying with their posturing, possessive bullshit.
Louis laughed, distracting us. We didn’t break the stare-off, but some of the tension eased. The slightest of smiles crossed Braxton’s full lips and I got a flash of dimple. I was staying strong though, I would not let his sexiness break me. If he dominated me in decisions like this, he always would. It was in his nature.
“Let’s call it a tie?” he said, mimicking back what I’d said a hundred times to him over the years. My heart swelled at the love that laced his words.
“I promise I won’t threaten your friends without running it by your first. But if I think they don’t have pure and honorable intentions, I will destroy them. Do you understand me? There is only so much I can tolerate, Jess, and you have to understand that you are it for me. You are it.” He was fierce. “There is no other, and there will be no other. So I will fight to the death and beyond to keep you.”
My legs trembled, just the slightest motion, but he saw. His words were like lava, flowing through my body and into my soul. The jump from friends to lovers had been a quick progression, but in reality, we’d been moving this way for a long time. I’d just been too pigheaded to see it. Braxton had been patiently waiting for me. I knew I never saw him with other women because he’d never wanted me to.
“How long have you loved me for?” I couldn’t hide my honest curiosity.
Louis laughed again. “You’re cute. Obtuse, but cute.”
I flipped him off. “Shut it, sorcerer, you don’t get to butt in here.”
Braxton reached out and captured my hand, his thumb rubbing over the soft, fleshy part of my palm. “I’ve loved you since we were children, but as a mate since we were about sixteen.” His eyes held me captive. “Do you remember that season we both came into our powers? We’d just learned to shift and the emotions were so overwhelming. Dealing with new energies, our animals, it was a crazy time.”
I nodded, that was not an experience I imagined I’d ever forget.
“We’d just come back from running in the forest, all of us and you. You shifted to human and were standing in the vines, naked, dirt all over you. You threw back your head and laughed at whatever moronic thing Jake had said.” Braxton’s voice was huskier now. “Seeing you there hit me like never before. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t take my eyes from you. Fuck… I was slammed by my feelings. I don’t know why it was that moment, I’d seen you that way a million times, but I knew then that you were mine.”
I stepped closer, my right hand rising to rest over his heart. “I’m sorry it took me so long to catch up.”
Every part of me was filled with emotion. I remembered what Louis had told me long ago, that without the lows you couldn’t really feel the highs. I couldn’t imagine anything higher.
Braxton shook his head, stepping even closer to me, my hand squashed between us. “It wasn’t that you had to catch up, you had to let go of your fears. And since you’re one hell of a brave supernatural, I knew it couldn’t take you long.”
It had been fear holding me back, and I was still afraid. I whispered the terror I held deep in my soul. “What if we lose this? Why the hell do I have a second mate?”
He cupped my chin, gently dragging my gaze back up to meet his. “Never going to happen. This is just another trial for us, but we will slay it as we always do.”
Our cliché romance book moment was ended by the appearance of a bunch of gray haired cloaked fey dudes. Obviously women’s liberation never reached the dragon mystics. They were a penis-heavy bunch.
“Are you ready?” asked Quale, stepping forward, no qualms about interrupting my moment.
From what I could see, below the cowl of his cloak, his expression was serious. “We do not share the secrets of the dragon lightly. Many argued against allowing any who are closely associated with the quads into the inner circle. But I will not permit us to take sides in this war. We are the council to the king, yes, but we are also part of the supernatural community.”
Most of the mystics looked unhappy by his words. But they didn’t voice any objections today. For some reason they seemed to both admire and fear Quale.
He turned to Braxton. “Where are your brothers? We need you to join together so we know what we are dealing with.”
“They’re on their way,” Braxton said.
I was guessing the mystics wanted to determine if they had to eliminate their enemies today, which is why we had the full showing of cloaked grays. I was sure this “forced joining” would have been demanded a lot earlier if not for all the disappearing into Faerie and such. Seems they had decided now was the time.