16. The Attack

16

THE ATTACK

Mav cursed and turned, breaking into a sprint.

Behind him, clothes rustled. Then a large green pterodactyl spread its wings, soaring over him.

“Perks of being a dinosaur,” Telos crowed, leaving Mav in the dust.

If hunters didn’t target dragons, Mav would’ve shifted too so he could fly.

Except Telos whirled back and dropped the clothes clutched in his feet. “Catch.”

Mav barely had time to catch. Then Telos grabbed the back of his shirt, and hauled Mav off the ground.

“Second perk of being a dinosaur,” Telos said. “I’m big. ”

“There are small pterodactyls, too,” Mav said. “You just happened to choose a large species.”

Telos glanced down at him in surprise. “You know that?”

Mav shrugged uncomfortably. “I did some research once.”

“Yesterday?”

“No, a few decades ago. I wanted to know if you were exaggerating the size of a pterodactyl.”

“Huh.” Delight swelled through their mental bond. “You were thinking about me.”

“You get under my skin,” Mav admitted. “I don’t know if you know that.”

Telos looked like he was smiling.

Mav tried not to focus on the view beneath them. It was one thing to fly himself, having control of his body and wings. But in his human shape, with his wings tucked inside and his feet dangling several yards above the ground, he felt horrifyingly vulnerable.

Telos’ grip was sturdy, though. He maneuvered Mav easily through the air, each beat of his great leathery wings covering more distance than Mav expected.

They were in front of the suite in moments, surveying the broken windows.

The background panic swelled into a tidal wave in Mav’s mind.

“Estie,” Telos gasped.

He dropped Mav in front of the door and shifted back into a man. Inside, sounds of fighting filled the place—crashes, thuds of flesh on flesh, creatures snarling.

Beneath all that, Mav heard the soft whimper of a baby, somewhere close. He opened the door quietly, cracking it for a visual into the room.

The alphas were engaged in fights with the invaders, four on their team against seven equally large men. The butlers were nowhere to be found.

“Let’s even out the odds first,” Mav muttered. “Keep an ear on Estie.”

Telos nodded tersely and barreled into the room after him.

The invaders were a mix of supernatural creatures. Two shadow men, one firewalker, and four silver-skinned men. Mav went immediately to the firewalker and the silver man ganging up on Crush—Crush had shifted into a large wolf, but he specialized in tracking and physical attacks. Not so much with magical defense.

The silver man melted into liquid metal when Mav threw a punch at him. Crush snapped at the man’s arm, nearly getting a mouthful of silvery liquid.

“Get away from him,” Mav snarled, knocking Crush back. That liquid metal would be fatal if it got into Crush’s body, because—

Something ripped wetly, and loudly.

From the corner of his eye, Mav glimpsed a large human body emerging from the torn throat of a shadow man. Telos landed on his feet with a grimace, blood streaking down his chest. “Ugh.”

The thing was, that exact same situation could happen to Crush, if the silver man had solidified inside Crush’s throat. Or any of their bodies.

Crush growled, refusing to back down. He didn’t have the upper hand here though. Mav would’ve felt bad, except he was too busy breathing the hottest blue flames on the silver man. Ace and Raptor were doing the same to two others.

Duke punched his fist through the other shadow person, only to have shadowy spikes shoot up his arm. The next thing Mav knew, Telos was ripping his way out of that shadow man’s chest, bloody but triumphant.

There was something inexplicably hot about him, tearing through villains so easily.

Mav’s silver man bubbled and screamed. Then the firewalker hooked his flaming arm around Mav’s throat, choking him with a headlock.

Crush snarled and leaped at the firewalker, sinking his fangs into the man’s arm even though it burned him. He tore away a large chunk of flesh, leaving the man screaming.

It was enough of an opening. Mav swung a punch at the man’s head, stunning him so his chokehold loosened. Crush leaped at the man again. This time, he tore out the firewalker’s throat.

Between the three of them, Ace, Raptor, and Duke took down the remaining silver men, leaving a melted puddle of metal on the carpeted floor.

“Status?” Duke barked.

Mav reached out with his hearing, past everyone’s thundering heartbeats and breathing.

“No one’s attacked us, if that’s what you’re asking,” came Hilly-Billy’s voice from one of the nearby closets.

“We’re so fine, we could start reading pickup lines,” Hadley added. “Estie’s unharmed.”

All of them breathed out a collective sigh of relief.

Telos rushed forward, flinging open the closet door. “Estie! My precious sweetheart!”

He scooped her out of Hilly-Billy’s arms, cradling her against his bloody chest. She giggled and kicked, then grabbed a piece of unidentified flesh off Telos and stuffed it up his nose.

Telos made a disgusted sound. But he still grinned with so much pride, he was almost hard to look at. “Aww! Such a perfect baby girl.”

Mav couldn’t tear his eyes away. Something about Telos—the savagery of all that blood on him, next to his bright smile and the baby in his arms—it made him so different from the people Mav had tried and failed to court.

It was a good sort of different. Like maybe this was what Mav was meant to have.

“What the hell just happened?” Ace asked.

“They attacked us out of nowhere.” Raptor went to the broken windows, peering out suspiciously.

“Do you think that was a random attack? Or are we being watched?” Mav asked, joining Raptor at the windows. He scanned their surroundings and squinted at every car in the parking lot, trying to find anyone suspicious.

“Could be either. We’ll be on guard, just in case.” Duke nodded at the bodies on the floor. “And we’ll have to call this in to the local authorities.”

“Where’s Blade when you need him?” Crush sighed. “It’s so much easier when we’re fighting off bad guys in Cartfalls. Where we, you know, have an in with the police.”

Duke pulled out his phone. “I’ll see if Blade knows anyone here.”

They stalked around the perimeter of the suite, checking for more threats. When a police cleanup crew showed up and no one else attacked, Mav went to stand next to Telos.

Telos had wiped the blood off his chest, and he was feeding Estie again. Mav stared shamelessly. It warmed his soul to see Telos caring for his baby; it made his instincts rumble to know that Telos had Mav’s child in his belly right now. Telos would care for their child the same way.

“Mine,” Mav growled, covering Telos’ abdomen with his hand.

Telos jerked, his gaze flying up to meet Mav’s. “You sure you want to do this here?”

“Why not?”

“Because literally everyone is watching,” Telos hissed.

When Mav looked around, he found all their teammates and butlers staring at them. He shrugged. “So?”

“Don’t—Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Something flashed through Telos’ eyes. Wariness. Uncertainty.

“I’m going to help take care of our baby,” Mav said. “Don’t doubt that.”

Telos worked his jaw, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of pink. He was hiding something else—but what?

Mav ran through the last few moments in his mind.

Mine, he’d said to Telos.

Oh.

He stroked Telos’ abdomen lightly. It was firm, muscled, tensing and relaxing under his touch. Mav wanted to know what it would look like, swelling with their child. “Everything else is none of their business,” he said loudly. “I have every right to check on my baby.”

Telos’ face turned a deeper pink.

“Because ‘checking’ on a baby involves belly rubs,” Hadley said under his breath.

“Oh, oh! I know the perfect pickup line for this,” Hilly-Billy said excitedly, pulling out his accursed pink book. He flipped through it and began reading aloud before anyone could stop him. “‘Even though I didn’t mean to knock you up, there was romance in our bed-creaking courtship. It was when my tip kissed your pucker and I spread my love inside you wetly and deeply, like applying paste in a tooth filling.’”

Mav froze. Their friends recoiled. Telos gave a slow grin, eyes gleaming.

“Yeah,” Telos purred. “Would you read that line to me, dearest?”

Mav shook his head in disbelief. “You want to be romanced with that? ”

“Maybe,” Telos said.

“ Tooth fillings? Seriously?”

Telos sniffed. “I refuse to be courted by someone who doesn’t have the balls to read something so terrible.”

“It’s not even romantic,” Mav grumbled.

“It is if your feelings for me run deeper than your discomfort.”

The thing was, Telos wasn’t wrong.

“We’ll see,” Mav said cagily.

Telos grinned. “Don’t forget, you promised me a better line than ‘Your buttcheeks are round and glorious like the moon.’”

Someone whistled. Mav flipped them off without looking.

“Don’t worry, they’re just jealous,” Telos said smugly, rubbing his face against Estie. “They want a baby like the one I have. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

Estie waved her arms around and smacked Telos in the mouth. Telos laughed, bright and carefree.

For a moment, Mav forgot to breathe. That was the Telos he remembered. The one who was all smiles, the one who kept dancing into a room, going up to Mav to tell him his ridiculous thought of the hour.

Looking back now, it was painfully obvious how often Telos had tried to flirt with him at Admiral Johnson’s castle. Mav had responded like a friend because that was all he’d thought Telos had wanted.

He felt incredibly bad now, for misreading Telos and unintentionally hurting him for so long.

But if Telos could laugh so lightly now, if the old Telos was still in there somewhere, if Mav could tease him out again... That would be worth all the terrible pickup lines he had to endure.

More so because he’d never had anyone else harbor feelings for him for three hundred years.

It was humbling, and he didn’t feel deserving of it. How was Telos still single?

“Hey,” Mav began.

“Hmm?” Telos looked up from Estie. His expression was all fondness, same as the feelings coming through their bond.

Will he also look like this, holding our baby? Mav thought suddenly. Will he be just as happy?

Mav thought the answer might be yes. And something inside him unfurled.

“Here.” Telos pressed Estie into Mav’s arms. “Since you can’t stop watching her. You should start practicing for our baby.”

Mav tore his gaze away from Telos, to look at Estie. She was all wide-eyed and innocent, yanking on his shirt. Mav’s insides melted into goop.

He lifted Estie to his face, breathing in her sweet baby scent. Would his and Telos’ baby feel the same in his arms? All small and warm and innocent? Would their child have Telos’ deep brown eyes, or Mav’s amber ones?

“Turns out that deep inside big, grumpy dragon shifters, there’s a squishy soft spot,” Telos whispered.

Mav pretended to bare his teeth. Telos raised an eyebrow.

On the other side of the room, their friends exchanged looks and typed frantically on their phones.

Mav was about to ask what the big news was, when someone knocked on the door.

“It’s Uriel,” said their visitor.

Everyone perked up.

“Our help for Date Night,” Raptor said excitedly.

Duke groaned. “Will you quit calling it Date Night?”

“We’re all going on dates,” Crush pointed out. “Don’t pretend you’re not, Duke. We’re going to save us some blind dates, and if you count Telos and Mav, it’s going to be a quintuple date.”

Mav glanced sidelong at Telos, his heart suddenly beating fast.

“It’s not going to be a date,” Telos said firmly. “At least, not for us.”