Chapter 3

Alick

"You look like a rabbit ready to jump out of its shell." Kenzie's ridiculous description didn't get any better as I repeated it in my head, but I knew what he was trying to say as he plunked himself down across from me at the diner.

"Something's weird." My response was just as ridiculous, but he nodded like it was perfectly reasonable.

"Magic." Sighing, he leaned back against the bench and frowned at me. "I'm sorry you're having to be patient."

Well, he wasn't wrong.

"Thank you." Not sure what else to say, I shrugged. "It's been a long month."

I shouldn't have been able to feel the magic of what we'd done. I was human. But the magic didn't seem to realize that and my anxiety had been growing faster than any plant in the nursery. It was like I could feel my mate getting closer.

Or it might've been the impending doom of magic getting ready to explode.

No one was exactly sure what would happen and I'd spent weeks worrying over every ridiculous option.

I'd definitely been reading one too many of Kenzie's weird dirty books because my dreams had been full of sex during the magical apocalypse. I was hoping the end of the world nonsense was just my imagination going into overdrive…but the sex part I really wanted to be true.

Because according to my imagination, my mate was fucking built.

Trying not to be greedy and beg the universe for a mate who was that big and sexy and a Daddy, I pushed the wishful thinking out of my head.

Still looking sad and kind of thoughtful, Kenzie forced a smile onto his face. "I just didn't expect it to take this long."

"No one did." We both ignored the comment from the peanut gallery, although Kenzie did wave at someone behind me.

"I'm just not sure what it means." I wasn't sure why it'd been a month and my mate still hadn't appeared. I wasn't sure why I could feel the magic. I wasn't sure why there was now a chart on the wall of the diner that was counting the days we'd been waiting on my mate to appear.

Someone had tattled on us, but I couldn't decide who it'd been.

Carrick was mad enough that he could've easily thrown us under the bus. Lorne was still convinced he'd done the right thing, so he might've bragged about it. Kenzie liked gossiping enough that he might've accidentally told everyone what he knew.

And our little librarian friend might've just answered someone's question honestly because that was what librarians did.

Yep, there were a thousand ways the wait for my mate had turned into something like the game of watching the lottery grow bigger and bigger.

"He just had a long way to go to get here." Kenzie seemed to think that was a reasonable answer, but if my mate had been driving for a month, he must've been coming from Mars.

"He's also had to pack up his life and his work and maybe sell a house and rehome plants and cancel his gym membership and explain what he was doing to family and possibly escape the mental institution where his family put him for talking about crazy things like magical compulsions." When the ancient voice coming from behind me finally paused to take a breath, I thought I was saved.

I wasn't.

"We've started wondering if your mate is human too and everyone around him thought he'd cracked. You know, like one of those mental things that happen to humans in their twenties. That's when they go crazy. There was a show on it."

Dragons above.

"Um, I don't think two humans have ever been mates." Kenzie's response was actually helpful and logical that time. "We can make Stefan do some research, but I don't think that's a thing."

Well, that was one less thing to worry about?

As the debate started to swirl around us, I focused on Kenzie. "It's going to be fine. I'm just a bit stressed. I don't like waiting."

That was an understatement.

I liked doing things, but finding new ways to keep myself occupied while the magical apocalypse built around me was getting harder and harder.

And exhausting.

"We could go on a trip or make a list of things to do to keep you busy." Kenzie sat straighter in his seat, nearly bouncing on the bench. "You liked going to the beach last year and we didn't get in trouble…or lost or get food poisoning or drown."

His list of what could go wrong made me laugh. "You have to stop listening to everyone."

Ignoring the low grumbles about someone who seemed to have read an article about a woman who drowned because she had food poisoning, I focused on Kenzie and not the crazy around me. "Yes, we had fun, but I don't need a vacation right now. I've been working on a lot of different projects and picking up extra shifts when I can."

I'd been so busy, it was the first time in a week I'd found time to just sit at the diner and have a meal. I was at the point where I was too tired of cereal to keep going and not even stress could make me get up.

Cocking his head, Kenzie's frown shifted to looking concerned. "Are you having fun being that busy?"

Why had he asked that?

"I'm not sure that's the point here. I'm keeping occupied and not letting myself worry too much." I also wasn't sitting around pouting or making lists of everything that could go wrong.

I'd stopped that the first week when the list had started to give me nightmares.

I was at the point where I couldn't decide if my mate being pulled into a thousand pieces by magic going completely fucked was the worst thing that could happen or if my mate turning out to be a woman because we'd fucked with things we weren't supposed to would be worse.

Honestly, all the options my brain had come up with were bad.

"I think planning out what fun things you're going to do with your Daddy first would be a better use of your time." Kenzie looked confused when I just stared at him. "You need a list."

"I'm worried I might've gotten him killed or something even more terrible. I'll start thinking fun things when he actually shows up and my anxiety goes away." I'd never had it before and it was going to kill me. "I think I'm getting an ulcer from all this, Kenzie."

Going forward, I was going to make sure Lorne's Daddy knew what he was up to before agreeing to anything.

Kenzie's face scrunched up. "I guess I can understand that."

He was weird sometimes.

"You'll feel better once you can get spanked and cuddled." Kenzie just ignored the odd questions that started popping up around us.

No matter how much they read, most of the town couldn't figure out why spankings were a good thing…and the ones who got it just always ended up walking out of the room as soon as the topic came up.

Yep, there they went.

Damn.

They were too old for that kind of shenanigans…weren't they?

Ugh.

Nope. I wasn't going to let my brain go there.

She'd been my fourth-grade teacher.

"I—" Before I could finish a word, much less my whole thought, a frustrated lumberjack walked into the diner and just stood there for several seconds before shaking his head.

"If someone could please point me toward my…well, I've misplaced someone important and I'm a little tired of following them all over this stupid mountain." He raised one eyebrow and ran his gaze over the utterly silent diner.

Every fucking person tattled on me and pointed right at me.

Great.

Kenzie was helpful too. He pushed up in the booth and grinned. "Look. Your Daddy finally showed up. He's hot."

Someone needed to shoot me.

"I didn't do it."

God, I really did sound like a naughty little.

"It was Lorne's idea and I didn't realize his mate didn't know what he was doing. He's a mage. Not Lorne. Lorne's Papa is a mage." Not any better but I couldn't help myself. "I wouldn't have done anything to zap you into a thousand pieces but you weren't coming and we had too much to drink."

"I think you're making the situation worse." Mr. Kennedy patted my head as he leaned over the booth behind me. "Just try to look cute and stupid like Mackenize does."

"Hey." Kenzie frowned. "That's not nice."

"See?" I looked up to see Mr. Kennedy smiling proudly. "He does it very well and that's why his mate thinks he's adorable and doesn't punish him enough."

Mr. Kennedy had definitely learned how to use the internet better.

"You're right. Thank you." Deciding to just listen to the crazy old man, I shut my mouth and smiled at my mate.

My very confused mate.

Oh.

His lips were barely curling up at the side.

"He thinks we're cute. You're fine." Kenzie leaned over the table and patted my head as he smiled at my mate. "He really is nice and big, isn't he?"

"He's got good thrusting hips. The internet said that's very important in a Daddy." Mr. Kennedy's helpful tip had my mate finally laughing. "And he's got a nice smile too. It's good to see that Carrick didn't kill him."

Oh yeah.

Wait.

Were thrusting hips like the Dom equivalent of good birthing hips?

What the fuck had he been looking up online?

My mate was going to think we were all insane. He was right, but I'd been hoping to ease him into that fact.

Kenzie wasn't helping either.

He was very excited and was wearing an ear-to-ear grin as he waved his hands around. "Someone call Carrick and tell him that he didn't kill Alick's mate. This is so exciting. Oh, and he should probably tell Lorne too. I think he lost his phone again."

Half the diner winced.

Lorne didn't seem to think explaining why his balls always ached fell under their privacy rules.

Before anyone tried to explain that to my mate, he stepped out of the doorway and the place went silent again. It was probably weird as hell, but he didn't react to their insanity. He was just smiling as he slowly walked over, probably worried I'd freak out and run or something.

He had a lot more faith in my legs' ability to work than I did.

"Hi." When he got close enough to the table that his low tone wouldn't carry halfway across the diner, he paused and studied me. "I think we're supposed to get to know one another."

That was such a cute way of being careful, I smiled.

"We're all in the know. You don't have to be careful. Oh, but you have to be careful with some things. Our dear Alick is human. They break more easily than dragon mates." Mr. Kennedy was still being helpful, but I was going to kill him if he didn't stop.

My mate's lips twitched again, but he was brilliant and just ignored everyone else around us. "I didn't expect a human, but I'm not opposed to it."

That was good.

"He's really glad you're a man." Kenzie was still being helpful too. "He started worrying that we fucked things up and you'd end up being a woman."

How embarrassed did I have to get before the magic around us would just open up the floor and suck me under?

We clearly hadn't hit that threshold yet, but I was hoping it would be soon.

My mate chuckled. "Well, I've had similar thoughts for the past few weeks, so I don't blame him."

"Where have you been? What took you so long? Did you have to move from Mars? You're not an alien, are you? My Daddy thought we were aliens when he first moved to town." Kenzie was on a roll, probably because he was excited we hadn't killed my mate. "He still kind of thinks we're aliens, though, because of the gate and all. But I'm sure you know that. Oh, how long have you been in town? Did you say you've been following Alick all over?"

"That one." I pointed to Kenzie. "That last one. Just ignore the rest. I know you're not a Martian."

If he was, though, he should probably tell me that in private and not in the diner.

No one in the diner at the moment could keep a secret that big.

My mate was back to looking like he wanted to laugh, but he kept it to himself. "I've just been having to follow the compulsion and it finally led me here, but every time I got close, you moved."

Oops.

"He's been fidgety because you hadn't shown up yet." Kenzie gave my mate a disappointed look and shook his head. "He's been anxious. You need to fix it."

I had no idea what to say to that but my mate's brain worked faster than mine. "I think whatever happened made us both anxious, but I'm willing to help him as long as that's what he wants."

"He does."

Nearly the entire diner answered at once and I just crashed into the table. I was ready to be dead. I'd found my mate, so I could die of embarrassment a happy human with a dragon mate.

"Kenzie." Deputy Talon's voice coming from the doorway of the diner had Kenzie groaning.

"You guys shouldn't tattle so fast."

My mate made a rough noise like he was trying not to laugh, but I wasn't ready to look yet.

"Would someone like to explain why I'm supposed to punish Kenzie?"

Someone really had tattled fast this time.

"Well, the happy chattery one here…who seems to belong to you…is being very helpful, and along with most of the customers, trying to kill my mate with embarrassment. Possibly because of the spell they put on me? I'm not that vengeful, though, so I think the punishment can stop now." My mate was really good at getting to the point.

That was a skill that would definitely come in handy.

"For fuck's sake, guys. He thinks you're punishing Alick." Talon sounded offended enough that I almost looked up. "Think about that. He's saying you're not being nice to his mate."

Mumbling something about morons, Talon huffed. "Kenzie, say sorry to Alick and then ask him if he needs us to stay with him while he gets to know his mate."

"He's not a serial killer." Kenzie seemed very sure about that. "He was very polite and didn't even get too close to Alick."

Well, he was right about that part.

My mate cleared his throat, almost making me want to look up again. "I'm not a serial killer. I'm an artist from Canada."

He was quickly learning how to deal with Kenzie too.

"See, Daddy? He's Canadian. They're all weirdly polite and not allowed to kill you. The news said so." I didn't want to know what he'd been watching online either.

"I'm fine." Waving at Talon, I sighed. "Just trying to decide if dying of embarrassment is a thing."

Kenzie's Daddy scoffed. "Not around here."

Just my luck.

Magic was a pain in the ass sometimes.