Leicester focused on the ceiling, blinking as tears welled. “Yeah.”

  “I don’t ever, ever want them to know, okay? They don’t need that stigma. Are they alright? Are they okay, healthy? Minds sound?”

  “I mean, they don’t speak yet, but they’re smart as a whip at projecting. The speech is probably because Gabe was all scales up there. Why?” Sacha rested a hand on Gabriel’s shoulder.

  “My Drake father sired those pups.” Leicester choked on those bitter words.

  “With his own son?” Sacha froze.

  “My father was not a kind man, but something this heinous…” Leicester shuddered, eyes tearing up. “I would love to know them, and I’m happy to contribute to their upbringing, but… Sacha, I would cry every time I looked at them and thought about how they were made. I’m only glad my father took a coward’s way out.”

  “Take a deep breath. Come on into the playroom. You remember where it is?” Sacha beckoned Leicester in and gestured Gabriel off.

  A scramble and crash came from upstairs somewhere, and baby dragon yaps of happiness dissolved into laughter from both Gabriel and Bastien. Leicester looked up.

  “Gabe made it back okay?” Leicester asked quietly.

  Sacha nodded. “Yeah.” The tension hung thick in the air and Gabriel’s cautious gaze met Sacha’s as he came out, a feisty pup struggling in his arms. It flitted its wings and stared out at Leicester, head canted.

  An image projected: fresh meat, warm sun, snuggles, full nest. Happy. Family.

  Michael, it must have been. He was a little more outgoing, leaped from Gabriel’s arms, and scrambled down the steps, yapping at the new dragon. Leicester stepped back, terrified for a moment, before Michael rolled over, exposing his little pale-green belly. Leicester must have smelled like family to the pup.

  Leicester, who’d been raising his first pups with his den for the past few years, knelt down, accepting the pup’s invitation and rubbed his belly. He chirruped happily and climbed up Leicester’s arm, flopping over his shoulder, scrambling to get to the highest point on Leicester’s body. He released a little mrawr of a noise, and Raphael bolted away from Bastien, a clean diaper stuck to his scales by the adhesive strips. Michael declared himself the king of the mountain as Raphael paused at the stairs. Raphael took the declaration as a challenge and bolted toward Leicester to fight his brother off and tumble onto the floor in a hissing, growling little play fight.

  Leicester stared at them for a moment, huffing a laugh before plucking them up and hugging them tight. “I’m so sorry, boys.”

  Gabriel gave Sacha a worried glance, gold scales prickling up his arms as his dragon grew protective over the pups.

  “You’re adored. I can tell.” Leicester squeezed the pups and nuzzled their nipping heads. “And both Dettes. I couldn’t think of a better home for you two than with Sacha and Gabriel.”

  Gabriel relaxed a little, his scales retreating. “Did they tell you how I found them?”

  Leicester shook his head. “No, just that their Dette father died.”

  “I’ll spare you the gore of it, but labor exhausted him. The egg was too large, and I tried to be the Drake. He’d never had a clutch before and was fighting the birth and didn’t survive. I tried. I gave them a good burial, and the egg bonded with me nearly immediately. Took me months to realize it was twins.” Gabriel sighed heavily.

  “My father…these pups…with my youngest Dette brother,” Leicester muttered angrily. “They deserve the best, and I’ll lay part of my horde down on their upbringing. As the oldest Drake, I have the only say in my Dette siblings’ placement. Sile is pulling the paperwork and I’ll sign guardianship and send support over for them.” Leicester shuddered a breath.

  “Support isn’t necessary, Leicester. They’ll have to have a Slang family name, but I’ll sign guardianship to Gabriel and myself. Unless you want them only in your name for insurance, Gabe?” Sacha glanced over.

  “That’s fine, and very generous. Thank you, Sacha. Also, thank you, Leicester.”

  “I have another condition!” Leicester added, bracing his jaw.

  “Name it.” Sacha raised his chin up.

  “My father did wrong and will pay for it posthumously. I’ll have his estate provide for these two, in addition to myself. The trust is solid. I’ve never touched my portion, but they’ll start their lives out near gold status. Not enough pups have been born in the last few hundred years, but don’t let them grow up knowing that they were born different. If they’re healthy and sound, just let them believe you’re their papa until they need to know differently.” Leicester stared at Gabriel with an unreadable look on his face.

  “Absolutely.” Gabriel nodded. “And so far, they’re fine. They’re only now experimenting with vocalization. I think we should get Marc to check them out. But that well could be my fault.”

  Leicester nodded and sniffled. “Alright. Thank you.”

  “Here.” Gabriel approached Leicester cautiously. He took Raphael and tugged the skin on his neck. “Skin, Raff, come on.”

  He shifted, the baby in Gabriel’s arms flailing for a moment as he gained his posture and squealed up at Gabriel. “Pa!”

  “See? They’re trying.”

  “Papa!” Raphael said again, screaming it in only the way a baby could.

  “Yeah, that’s right.” Gabriel winced, laughing as Michael shifted into skin in Leicester’s arms to join the chorus.

  Leicester didn’t let Michael go for the longest moment, sniffling as he rubbed his face down and over the pup’s head. Michael, fairly intuitive in both dragon and skin, calmed under the worried touches. He scrambled, fighting back into his scales frantically, projecting the image for a bush. Raphael joined in, and Leicester blinked with surprise.

  “Potty break, I guess,” Gabriel laughed.

  “I took them to go potty not thirty minutes ago!” Bastien cried out.

  “Did they go?” Gabriel looked up curiously.

  “I thought they did.” Bastien put his hands on his hips.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Gabriel

  Michael had to go, Raphael didn’t. Such was the way of twins that they usually did everything at the same time. They both snuffled around the bush out of solidarity though. Leicester kept swinging between wet laughter and straight-up tears.

  “I hope they’re okay. I really do,” Leicester sniffled. “I mean. You want them, right? If not, I…I can make sure they find a wonderful family. There’s plenty of the Slang clan wanting a pup. Sile said you were very attached and had hatched them yourself.”

  “I thought I’d never have pups of my own—”

  “Lords, you’ve met Leo, haven’t you?” Leicester gave Gabriel a look.

  “I’m proud to be his dam.”

  “You better be. He makes a Drake’s dragon quake while in skin.” Leicester shuddered. “He’s got the whole Loch clan eating from his hand and they have no idea what to do about it.”

  “Well, I think Bryn found himself someone, so there’s one more Leo’s lost.” Gabriel tittered.

  “Really now?”

  “We’ve got Powel off doing gods knows what, chasing Dettes and who has Bryn found?” Leicester raised a brow.

  “Suyin Long.”

  Leicester buried his head in his palms and hissed exasperatedly. “My day keeps getting better and better!”

  “Sarcasm?” Gabriel tilted his head.

  “I’m not sure anymore. I am grateful to know what became of my brother and sad to know he passed. I’m sadder that his last weeks of his life were spent like that.” Leicester blinked back a new batch of tears. “I’ve got a Dette pup of my own now! I can’t…I can’t imagine being that sick.”

  “There’s nobody left to punish and nobody to save but the pups. There’s nothing left to do but move on,” Gabriel said, staring at the pups as Raphael dug a hole, projecting something about prey. Probably a mole or something.

  Leicester swallowed hard, choking back emotion. “I…I don’t know how I’m going to face the rest of my den and say that I let this happen… I should have known, shouldn’t I? I should have looked for Fynn.”

  “Sacha didn’t know where I went, either. It took someone seeing me out in the wild to find me.”

  Raphael unearthed a very unhappy vole and promptly wrestled over its ownership with Michael. Gabriel wanted to intervene for a moment, but they needed to learn to sort their own battles. Gabriel regretted a lot of his childhood having his parents intervene between him and his Drake siblings because he was weaker.

  “You going to let them keep doing that?” Leicester frowned.

  “Let them fight their own battles.” Gabriel smiled.

  “Yeah, I applaud that, but they’re eating a wild rodent… Right. They’ve been doing that for the past six months anyway.” Leicester shook his head and sat down, staring at the playful pups. “Are they my brothers or nephews?”

  “How about nephews? We don’t have to speak of their Drake sire again. Ever.”

  “You know, just when you think you’ve gotten over all of your existential father issues! My therapist will not be pleased.” Leicester flopped back dramatically, only to find two very dirty pups crawling atop him to flop in mimicry.

  Michael grabbed onto the pocket of his formerly clean button-down shirt and started tugging the lip of it, growling until a little rip punctuated the silence. “Alright, you little scamps. Uncle Ly is going to head out. Gabriel, thank you for what you’re doing. I hope they bring you all the joy. I just… I can’t. All I can think about is how they were made and how Fynn—” Leicester sat up and shook his head as Gabriel patted over his hair. The pups really looked a lot like him in certain ways.

  “Leicester. You’re always welcome to come visit. You know, right?” Gabriel half smiled.

  Leicester stood and stretched, grinning. “Leo told me that some time ago, and I abuse the privilege.”

  Gabriel blinked a few times. “Yeah, I heard the pups quoting your novels.”

  Leicester shrugged. “Not the good parts.”

  “No, just your thinly veiled societal commentary.”

  Leicester gasped with faux offense and leaned in close to Gabriel with a sideways glance. “Yeah, but my thinly veiled societal commentary has been trying to wank some sense into Drake kind for the past four-hundred years.”

  Gabriel stared at Leicester, raising a brow.

  “I’ve always wanted to be a Dette. I envy you, being small and vulnerable, nesting. The heats. What I didn’t envy is the fact that Drakes treated you like egg factories. I saw two Dettes that I loved very much as a pup get shipped off to gods knows where because they didn’t give my father pups.” Leicester gritted his teeth. “I knew then I never wanted to enslave a Dette like that for myself.”

  “Yet you have pups of your own, I heard.”

  “Well… In the heat of the…well…heat…I cannot help it if Zane foisted himself upon me.” Leicester’s cheeks went pink.

  “Yes, well, these pups are no longer part of a nightmare. They can be my dream, okay? You go take care of your pups and hug Zane and your Dette pup extra hard for me and remind them they’re just as tough and feisty as any Drake.” Gabriel gave Leicester a quick hug and showed him to the door, catching Sacha’s eye on his way out.

  Leicester paused. “By the by. I am going over to visit Hallr and Leo. If they have questions, tell them the Dette was my brother and the sire a wild Drake. That should be enough bloodline information to keep their breeding straight, for now.”

  “Yeah.” Gabriel stared down at the pups. “Meet you there, I guess? I want to see Leo again.”

  “If he’ll let you. Hallr said he was bitey.” Leicester snapped his teeth to make the point.

  Gabriel raised a brow. “Until he went into his nest yesterday, he was perfectly fine.”

  “Leo puts on a very good face, doesn’t he?” Leicester sighed.

  “You think it’s a face?” Gabriel tilted his head curiously.

  Leicester laughed. “Spend more time with him. You’ll see the spitfire under the calm. He’s learned to keep the peace well the last few years. Leo really has brought us all together. Be proud.”

  Gabriel gave a half smile. “Everyone kept telling me he was trouble incarnate.”

  “Oh, don’t get me wrong, he is. He taught Shui how to swear.”

  Gabriel snorted so hard his eyes watered and the pups startled, jumping up on the tips of their claws, wings fluffed.

  “Reminds me of a certain Dior Dette when he was that age. Please go give Sacha that trouble he deserves. You had a reputation.” Leicester elbowed Gabriel and waved his farewell, leaving Gabriel’s heart full.

  “Bastien,” Gabriel called out as Leicester headed toward his car.

  “Yes, Master Gabriel?”

  “None of that. You’re a dragon. Why on earth would you call me master?” Gabriel bristled and stared up at the boy.

  “Keep at it, Gabe. I’ve not broken him of it. His mother ground it into him,” Sacha sighed.

  “Just Gabriel, now, dear, can you watch the pups for us for a bit? I have business with Lord Sacha before we depart. Are you coming with us to the estate?”

  Bastien shook his head. “I’m only a few days out of my heat, so it’ll bother the Drakes. It’s pretty strong.”

  “Didn’t bother Leicester,” Gabriel muttered.

  Sacha gave Gabriel a look.

  “Right. Stag.” Gabriel shook his head.

  Bastien bowed and slipped down to tend to the pups. “I put fresh blankets in the cupboard downstairs.”

  “Is he your only attendant?” Gabriel raised a brow.

  “I have some part-timers that come around, but I don’t want to risk any shifters near Bastien until he’s mated, and depending on a few factors, that could be a while.” Sacha rubbed the back of his neck. “I can smell his heat, but it doesn’t spark anything in me, not like you.”

  “Well, let’s go downstairs. Come, Drake, then ‘come’ for me.” Gabriel’s eyes hooded as he led Sacha farther down into the cellar.

  Chapter Thirty

  Sacha

  Gabriel’s eyes went hot and dark, lids hooding low over a smoldering gaze with blown-out pupils, his scent luring Sacha in like so many sirens. And he a lowly sailor brought haplessly to the rocks.

  “Firefly. What are you doing?” Sacha asked, his voice husky as he unlocked his vault, drawing Gabriel into the warm safety of its depth, into the nest he had so painstakingly made specifically for Gabriel.

  “Seducing you.”

  Sacha’s blood went warm and migrated south, stinging his groin with the fierceness with which it stirred. “Gabe.” He nearly moaned the word, a hint of his dragon in his voice.

  “Prove that I’m yours,” Gabriel said, tugging at the front of Sacha’s shirt, pushing up on his tiptoes to lock his mouth with Sacha’s.

  “I can do better.” Sacha hoisted Gabriel up against him, guiding him to wind his legs over Sacha’s hips. Gabriel’s curious eyes glanced up for a flickering moment before Sacha leaned into Gabriel’s ear and chuckled. “I can prove that I’m yours.”

  Sacha dove into the nest with Gabriel and shimmied his shirt off, exposing his slender sculpted chest. Sacha wasn’t a broad or muscular Drake, but he had a fascinating and pleasing shape to him. Gabriel ran his fingers along Sacha’s chest, taking in the dips and valleys until he recalled the mark over his heart and stared at the sigil. “Oh, Sacha.” Gabriel kissed the mark and Sacha groaned with pleasure.

  “It’s at the perfect spot for you to kiss while we make love. It feels so good when you touch it, Firefly. Does it feel good when I touch yours?” Sacha ran a hand along Gabriel’s cheek, running his fingertips over the marking.

  “Yes, yes, fuck yes,” Gabriel gasped, rolling his hips up to meet Sacha’s with an insistent pace, a dot of precum spreading over his pants until neither could take the barriers between them any longer. They struggled from the clothing until their bare cocks rubbed together.

  “Tell me exactly how you want it. If you want to be the Drake, I will gladly let you. If you want me to mff—” Sacha sank into a forced kiss, Gabriel’s hungry mouth taking over.

  “Get my slick,” Gabriel groaned, shifting his hips as Sacha slipped a hand between his cheeks and coated his fingers, toying with his entrance. “Now stroke us.” Gabriel breathed hotly into Sacha’s mouth and moaned as Sacha’s slick hand did as commanded.

  Pleasure radiated from every contact Gabriel made with Sacha. His hand moved automatically, rubbing their cocks together with tight purpose. “It’s never been like this before, after a heat. I still feel like I’m on fire inside.” Gabriel moaned into Sacha’s mouth.

  “Let’s not dwell on it, Firefly. Come what may, I am your Drake, and you are my Dette.” Sacha’s breath wavered, threatening his oncoming release with each pump of his broad hand. Gabriel drew Sacha’s face down and stilled his body, taking in the touch and tongue with soft whimpers of delight.

  “Keep promising me. Please,” Gabriel breathed.

  “You need to hear more? I can tell you how beautiful you are. I can tell you I love your body, your smell, your voice, and your dragon. You’re not mine. I am yours. Dette, you may claim me. You hold my heart in your palm and where you go, I go as well. You’ve given us a wonderful pup, a son that I couldn’t ask more from, and brought us two more. Circumstances don’t matter. You’ve done well, Firefly.”

  “So close, keep going,” Gabriel huffed, raising his hips with increasing desperation.

  Sacha gathered more slick, rocking his hips gently to keep Gabriel stimulated before bringing his hand back to pump them together. “Should I tell you how much I love you? The future I look forward to with you? There’s only you and I, our pups, our grandpups. No more Drakes. Even if your father or Felix shows up, fuck them. You’re free. You’re your own Dette. You can invest and learn and have your own treasures. You can work if you like, even. We can start your own savings, all yours. All yours, Gabe.”