“Tirrian Drayce is with the circus? How on Earth did the Adams brothers get the dragon king to send his son as a performer?” Murphy sounds incredulous.
“Last I read in a gossip magazine, he was on the hunt for a mate. They speculated that his dragon is ready to breed, and he’s becoming increasingly more difficult. Gossip from inside the palace says he’s aggressive and cantankerous and fussy, so none of the female dragons who have been paraded before him have satisfied any urges. He’s sent them all away in tears,” Mira tells us.
“Why does that not surprise me?” I mutter under my breath.
“He volunteered actually,” Cas offers, and my mouth drops open in shock.
“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person? He doesn’t seem capable of any kind of unselfish behavior.”
“It’s weird. He’s been really nice to everyone else. He’s well liked among our troupe, and even more so than Dylan because he’s not a man whore. You are the only one I see him act aggressively toward. He was sick of the constant parade of female dragons. Yes, his dragon is pushing him to mate, but not to any of them. In fact, he said his dragon has become downright aggressive and angry, and if he didn’t leave when he did, he would have eaten one of the females.”
“So why is he so in my face all the time?” I’m annoyed and slightly hurt by it, if I have to be honest. I’ve never done anything to him.
“I think maybe because his dragon is being so fussy, he kind of feels sympathetic toward Dylan. He thinks that Dylan found his mate and you stole him, which is not the case at all. Dylan and I were never like that. We occasionally kept each other company when he didn’t have someone else and I was horny, but it was only my human side that was interested. It was all I could do not to let my kraken kill him while we were intimate, because he was vehemently against it, which is why it was only a time or two,” Cas explains, and I’m kind of surprised about how open he is in front of his parents. There would be no way I’d be talking about previous lovers in front of my grandpas.
“Didn’t I warn you it would go badly?” Mira taunts him, and he rolls his eyes.
“Yes, Mom, you did. You are always right,” he placates her, and she preens as Cas and Murphy exchange amused glances.
This, right here, is what I want. This sense of family and love and companionship. It is life goals, and I can’t wait to have it with my guys.
“How about you and I do some shopping before you head back to Skarr? I’d really like to be involved, and I bet if I called some of Cas’s sisters, they would too. Most of them have kids and will know the latest and greatest things you will need for sure.”
“That sounds amazing,” I tell Mira with gratitude. I hadn’t realized how desperate I was to have some motherly attention. I’m practically jumping at the chance to spend time with Mira. “I’m clueless. Actually, I’m less than clueless. I’ve never been around small children, and I couldn’t even keep a goldfish alive,” I say, and Murphy and Mira exchange horrified glances while Cas laughs out loud.
“Don’t look so worried. I have plenty of experience. I have lots of nieces and nephews, and she has another mate and two others she’s going to bond with after she’s given birth. Hell, the damn warlock is her mate. If he can’t keep our babies safe, no one can.”
The worry on Mira’s and Murphy’s faces clear. “Yes, of course you’re right. Wow, you have some serious power in your mating group. The warlock, General Saxon, and Link Digicon, heir to Pleasure Bot Industries. Not to mention Lila’s own family pedigree. There is nowhere in the galaxy you won’t command respect.”
“There’s also the new matriarch of Iceen’s son and his omega mate.”
It takes me a moment to compute what Cas just said. Hold up!
“Say what now?” I ask him, setting my knife and fork down and turning in my seat to look at him.
“Well, you did win the mate challenge for Maxsim, and his mother Astrea is insisting that you abide by it.”
My mouth opens and shuts like a fish out of water. I’m completely speechless. “But… He… I…”
I can’t form any sentences because my brain is completely short-circuiting. “Lila, you did realize that it was a mate challenge, didn’t you? That if you won, you would take Maxsim as your mate.” Caspian reaches for my hand and gives it a little squeeze as I look around the table hopelessly.
“I thought I was just a stand-in for Echo because he wasn’t allowed to fight her,” I say quietly, and Cas sighs.
“We should have explained this to you better. Yes, you were a stand-in, but by standing in, you were acknowledging that you were happy to take both of them as mates if you won. There hasn’t been a male omega in so long that I guess that bit of knowledge has been forgotten.”
“No, there have been male omegas, they were just held captive and abused,” I growl, my voice coming out slightly inhuman.
“But why is the matriarch insisting on it? She has the power to absolve Lila from her responsibilities, and lightning cats are usually so specist.” Murphy looks adorably confused and so much like Cas that I can’t help but smile.
“Because it turns out that Lila is also a whisperer.”
Murphy and Mira gasp at Caspian’s announcement and look at me with wide-eyed awe.
“There hasn’t been a Skarrian whisperer in years. Their families have been hunted and killed off, or they went into hiding.”
“Yes, the matriarch is thrilled at the reappearance because it’s not actually about the fact that they can control lightning cats. That power was used in the past to help their youngsters get control of their own tempers and shifts. It’s why a whisperer is compatible with both alphas and omegas. She is hoping that with Lila’s emergence, more might come out of the woodwork and inject some much-needed new blood into the race, so she is gifting her son to Lila in an act of goodwill so any other whisperers will learn that the old regime that hunted and killed them is gone, and the new one wants to welcome them with open arms.”
“And gifts of sons apparently,” I mutter. “But Maxsim hates me. Echo is cute and kind and sweet, but I can practically feel Maxsim’s jealousy waft off of him. The matriarch is delusional if she thinks he’s going to accept this.”