Chapter Twenty-Two

Cardian

That morning, I woke up extra early to go speak with Bobby and Liam about acquiring a matingmoon house. As long as Dakota and I were in the same house as my brother and his pregnant mate, we weren't going to get any closer to our claiming vows than we already had. It seemed overextending ourselves to help those we cared about was a trait my new mate and I shared. Sure, I had some extra hang ups about something randomly snatching him away from me, but even those lessened once we stepped inside the matingmoon house.

Getting permission to use one of the houses was a quick and painless process. Getting the house ready for Dakota took hours. The matingmoon houses were cleaned between uses, but I scrubbed down the important parts anyway and washed all the bedding and curtains inside the house. I didn't want a single whiff of a previous occupant to distract either of us. After the mundane parts of the house were finished, I set to work on the security in a combination of practical and magical.

"I think I just stepped into your head," Dakota said as I shut and locked the door behind us.

"Huh?"

"It smells like you and only you and it's buzzy like your energy when you want to do a sweep."

"Is that a problem?" I asked, wondering if I'd gone overboard.

"No, I like your energy. I've just never been completely surrounded by it like this," Dakota shook his head and turned to face me.

I took his hands in mine and then lifted them to kiss. A trail of rose petals marked the path to the master bedroom, but one whiff of him, let me know both of us were too tired and too on edge to jump into our claiming vows without a nap.

"Come on," I said, leading him to the sofa after we kicked our shoes off. "Let's get some rest."

"That sounds like a plan. I stayed up this morning when you weren't there. For a bit, I worried you'd taken off because things got too intense. You wouldn't have been the first guy to do it."

"I'm not going anywhere," I cupped Dakota's chin in my hand and met his gaze. "I'm here with you until the end of time. There isn't anywhere I'd rather be."

Smiling softly, Dakota leaned forward, taking my hand with him, to meet my lips. We shared a slow, tired kiss before we stretched out on the sofa. I lay with his head resting above my heart as I turned on the television to some old movie where non-magical non-shifters rode horses they couldn't understand and talked about how small their towns were. Apparently they just needed to build more houses and the movie might've been more interesting. Yet, boring was the perfect way for Dakota and I to drift off to sleep cuddled up together.