Chapter 25

Chapter

Twenty-Five

C osmo was so happy that he could hardly bear it. He had to admit that he and Corbin and Cullen had even spent more than a couple of minutes making Hawk go in and out the door to the veil, just because. Not much. Only like ten or twelve times, just to make sure that it kept happening.

Arielle and Sebby thought it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen, their rare joint laughter filling the air. He was sure the twins would have loved to see it as well, but they were grounded.

Cosmo wasn't sure that they were even going to be allowed to come down and have pizza, and he was not going to get in the middle of that with Eagan and Ollie.

Nope.

Not his circus, only marginally his monkeys.

Besides, he had so many people to introduce Hawk to. Poor Hawk just seemed a little dazed.

Cosmo wasn't sure if it was the number of dragons he was suddenly being introduced to, the release of what had to have been a huge stressor, or possibly just a little bit of magical heartburn.

As Hawk successfully entered the dragon world again, Cosmo sidled over to his mate. "I think that's good."

"Yeah! Can we eat now?" Sebby asked.

Corbin's smile was fond. "Go take the pizzas to the table."

The kids grabbed the boxes and started heading up to the huge courtyard that the dragons had made. It was a place for the children to play, a common meeting ground, a picnic area.

It had been placed in a protected spot, but it was still far enough from Myk's garden that certain curious little ones couldn't go eat all of the tomatoes again.

Not that the thief could have been him, because he would never do that, but someone had eaten Myk's tomatoes without permission.

"How are you feeling? Are you excited? Do you want to go back? Are introductions okay?"

He wasn't sure what Hawk wanted, but he knew that he wanted his mate to feel as comfortable as he could.

"I'm fine just… I can't believe this. It's beautiful."

Cosmo nodded, looking around at the oranges and reds of the sunset, the green grass. "It is and so different. You can fly here for hours, and nobody's going to care."

"And so can our baby." Hawk's grin was huge. "I know you were worried about that."

"Yeah. It was the boss, you know, who told me that we'd better try. Because you know, you're here. You're a guardian too. A real dragon guardian. Maybe even more than me because I'm sort of a dragon slash fae guardian." Cosmo chuckled, but there was always that uncertainty lurking.

"Stop it. You're fine, you're perfect, and you're everything I need."

"Flattery will get you laid." Cosmo winked over, loving the smile on his mate's face. "So it's time for pizza and to meet everybody for real. You're gonna love the boss."

Gavin was one of the best men he knew.

Hawk nodded, the motion firm, solid. "He was determined to find you. That's enough. And we worked well together."

"I can see that." He drew Hawk to the picnic area, and they were surrounded in no time, a dizzying array of dragons vying to meet Hawk.

"Me!" That was the shout that rang out over everyone else, and they all turned to see Puck's little one, Robin, run over and grab Hawk's leg. "Up!"

"You, hmm?" Hawk bent to swing him into the air.

"Me, me," Little Robin cheered, those bright eyes just glowing, his arms held out like he was flying. Austin and Puck were watching with wide eyes. Utterly, perfectly shocked.

"Oh, will you look at that?" Cosmo breathed.

Little Robin was the shy one, and he never seemed to want to be with anyone but his dads, but look at this.

"Hawk, Robin. Robin, Hawk."

He could see Hawk's expression… just sort of melt. "Oh, he has a bird name too," Hawk said.

"He does. He so does."

God, Cosmo loved magic. He just loved how it made things happen.

He headed over to sit, his body heavy with the baby. "I can't believe how wonderful that is."

"Did you just see?" Puck chuckled. "I can't believe this."

"That's your mate, is it?" Austin asked, and he nodded.

"That's my heart. Isn't he beautiful? He's like Gavin and Zeke and Ty."

"He's huge. You know, I'm not the kind to feel insignificant, but damn." Austin shook his head.

Puck patted his mate. "You are everything. Absolutely everything."

Puck's words made Austin just beam. And he liked that, especially because he knew it worked when he did it too.

Austin was right, though. He had chosen a mate, or a mate had chosen him, who was easily as big as Gavin, possibly bigger, equal to him, and a guardian.

"And he's a guardian, and he can come back and forth."

The words just burst out of him, and everyone stopped for a moment, stared, and then began to chuckle and to congratulate him and Hawk, who was holding little Robin like he was enrapt.

Wasn't that a beautiful sight to see—Hawk holding a baby.

Soon it was going to be their baby.

He might just die right now of pure happiness.

Corbin wandered by and handed him a piece of pizza. "Eat. The baby's hungry."

"How do you know?" Cosmo asked.

"I'm your triplet. I know. Feed the baby. You know he's gonna like me best."

"I heard that," hollered Cullen.

"Now he's got a bunch of competition, too," Austin pointed out. "He could like any of us."

"Shut up." Cullen came over to sit by him. "He's going to love us all."

"Of course he is," Cosmo soothed. "He's my baby and you're my brothers."

Hawk swung Robin around again, and little scales and a tail popped up on the wee one, his wings trying to sprout. God, that was cute.

"Fwy!" Robin shouted, and he sounded like a trucker, his voice taking on a bit of a roar.

The entirety of the dragons—top to bottom—went "Aww!"

Hawk smiled and flew Robin around. "Fly, little one! Fly so fast."

Lia patted her bear, and Esther tumbled her over, batting at her playfully. Thank goodness they had grown up together. And Lia was used to a little rough handling. Of course, there wasn't anything delicate about that little girl dragon.

Puck chuckled softly. Andy and Dustin had their hands full with that girl.

Privately, Cosmo thought it wasn't going to be Andy and Dustin who had their hands full. It was going to be Arielle and Sebby because there were three alpha children. All three of them were freaking fierce, and, well, most everyone had seen Arielle kicking Sebby's butt. Yet there was something about little Seb that was stubborn and utterly relentless. Like he was just going to continue doing his thing until he was done doing his thing. And damn the consequences.

Or really, damn Arielle.

Arielle and Lia, on the other hand, might just kill each other. And Lia had a bear.

Austin winked at him. "Don't stress it. There's plenty of room. And if push came to shove, those three would learn to work together. Like Gavin, Ty, and Zeke. They're convinced that they're the heads of everything. And they're working together." Mostly.

"I'm glad I only have to really deal with mine."

"Right now. Just wait until Cullen and Corbin mate." That was Hawk, who sat down with a plate of pizza in one hand and Robin tucked under the other arm.

Cullen gave Hawk a wide-eyed look. "Oh no. Nope. I'll be the perpetual uncle."

"And all I need to grow is plants," Corbin agreed.

"Easy enough to say that, but then when your mate comes along, you end up all starry-eyed." He glanced at Hawk as the baby kicked his belly hard enough to be visible to the others. "And then look where you are."

"Covered in goofy baby dragons!" Cullen teased, sending off a wave of fireworks.

"I love it." Hawk devoured a piece of pizza, sharing a little cheese with Robin, but soon he was covered, children climbing on him like a jungle gym to peer into his face and make themselves known.

Hawk seemed to be over the moon, his face blissful, and soon Gavin and Zeke came, sitting close so that the babies could climb on them as well.

"Where's Tyson?" he asked, and Arielle's father, Devon, rolled his eyes.

"Myk's pregnant. Again. It's unreal."

Cosmo's eyes went wide. "How many is this?"

"Seven, but three are adopted. So it's pregnancy number four."

"Wow." He put his hand on his belly. "I can't even."

"I know." Devon's grin was totally conspiratorial. "Arielle and Jasper are enough, especially now. There's so much here to explore. This is a whole new way of life, and we have two more families in our little clan now. I'm actually building a store in the village with Ollie. We're remaking Marks and Reaver!"

"Oh, wow. You have such a library. And I can keep looking on the other side for you, if you want. Or Cullen can, I guess. He's better with the online sales auctions."

"That's it. We're going to be careful, though. I don't want to destroy the culture. I want to become a part of it, you know?"

"Sounds good. You just let us know what, if anything, you need."

"We will." Devon beamed at Arielle, who was passing out pizza like a little matron at an orphanage.

"So has she made any friends down in the village?" Cosmo basically remembered that there had been a girlfriend that Arielle was desperate to see back in the winter. Someone with a merman best friend if he recalled correctly.

"Oh yes, Siren. She's quite charming, even if her parents are a bit… concerned with her dating. ‘Her' being Siren, not Arielle, who would like to be known as Sparkle." Devon rolled his eyes. "Sparkle. Because that suits. At any rate, Siren's parents are very concerned about their amazing daughter dating someone who's, you know, a mountain dragon.

"A mountain dragon." He blinked, not sure what to think of that.

"A fire breather even." Devon lowered his voice. "This is where you clutch your pearls."

"Pearls. This is the one with the merman best friend named Bubbles."

"Yes."

"So the pearls is a pun?" Cosmo teased.

"Yes," Devon deadpanned.

"So how's the rest of this whole thing going?"

"Well, besides the Sparkles thing, Siren is actually quite sweet and dear and gentle, and we all adore her. We have not yet met Bubbles. We have met the parents. Not Bubbles's. Siren's."

"Is it always this confusing?" he whispered. "This is a lot of names."

"I'm assured by everyone in the village who has more experience with teenagers than we do because she's our first, and the oldest, that this is all perfectly normal, and that yes, it's always this confusing. Apparently, she's acting in a way that is appropriate for her age. And so I am trying to be Zen."

"I think they're right. I mean, Arielle's not the most humble child on earth to begin with. I think she's trying very hard." Brand sat down with a thump. "Either trying very hard or trying very hard to be trying. There was a really cool little wordplay in there, and I just missed it, but you know what I mean."

Cosmo had no idea what Brand meant, but he nodded. "Like working hard or hardly working, right?"

"Exactly. Thank you. I appreciate it. Is there more pizza?"

"Your daughter is doling it out."

"Yo, Sparkles," Brand called. "I want one with sausage."

"On it, old guy."

"I'm not going to kill her. I'm not. Not at all. Even though I'm fairly sure that she's the one who recently attempted to give J-bot a robot tattoo."

"Ouch." Hawk chuckled. "That seems extreme."

"She's always been a little extreme with her brother," Brand said with a world-weary air.

"This is what you have to look forward to," Devon put in.

Hawk just nodded down at little Robin. "I can't wait."

"Are you okay?" Arielle came over with pizza for her dad. "And I'd like to be perfectly clear, I did not try to tattoo anything on him. I was practicing making leather art. He got in the way, and he got the burning stick in his arm and it left a dot. Don't exaggerate and make me sound worse than I already am."

Brand nodded to her, face a study of patience. "You know what? You're absolutely right. I was just?—"

"Trying to be funny. I get it. I totally get it, but everybody already thinks I'm an asshole."

"You don't have to make it worse, Arielle." Devon's voice was deadly. "Your father said he was sorry."

"Right on. Does the baby want another piece of pizza?" she asked Cosmo, and he nodded eagerly.

"The baby is always into pizza. The baby is always into eating anything with tomatoes—fresh tomatoes, tomato sauce, ketchup. It doesn't matter."

"Tomato soup," Brand offered.

"Tomato juice," Devin teased, and Arielle wrinkled up her face.

"Tomato aspic."

Cosmo blinked at her. "How do you even know what an aspic is?"

She rolled her eyes. "Siren's parents invited me to supper, and they had one. Oh man, talk about nasty."

Cosmo grinned at her. "Did you eat it?"

She nodded her head. "Sort of. I mean, I poked at it a lot with my fork. It moved. I think perhaps it was a living thing, and they were trying to get me to put it in my mouth."

She looked at Brand, winked at him. "The good news is I didn't offer to set it on fire."

"That's my girl." Brand grabbed her by the waist and hugged her real quick. "Now feed your Uncle Cosmo's baby."

"Then can you give one to Hawk as well too?"

"Sure." Arielle leaned down, whispered. "What does he like?"

"He likes all the meats."

"Ah, a dragon after my own heart." She winked and headed off, which was when Sebby joined them.

Like the changing of the guard.

"Did anyone need more pizza?"

"Arielle is making rounds, kiddo."

"Ah." He gave a very cat-with-cream smile, as if he'd known that, and sat down, smiling at Hawk. "It is very nice to meet you, Sir."

"And you as well, Sebastian. I have heard a great deal about you."

"Thank you!" Sebby beamed at him, and Cosmo chuckled. Sebby never even considered that someone would say something bad about him and mean it.

There wasn't a lot bad to say, come to that. Just that he was competitive with Arielle.

They were firstborns, fierce and strong and loving.

His son would be their firstborn. How cool was that?

It's better than cool, mate. It's amazing.

He nodded at Hawk. It is. I love you.

I love you too, my own. You have given me everything.

They leaned together, noses rubbing together, and little Robin joined right in.

"Luff. Good luffs."