“Thanks for coming to get us,” I said, ignoring Dane’s knowing smirk. “Are Wes and Elise with you?”
“No, I dropped them off at Devin’s house. Wes is going to help Sarah get dinner ready for us.” Devin had stepped out from behind me, and Dane directed his next comment to my mate. “Congratulations, from both of us, Devin,” he said warmly. “Wesley is excited to see you again. He and Anik’s mate, Mikkel, can go on about the joys of pregnancy for hours, but it’s been over five hundred years for Mikkel. I know Wesley is looking forward to hearing how you’re doing.”
Devin beamed. Despite some morning sickness, he was thrilled to be pregnant. I knew he’d been looking forward to talking with Wes about it, too. Any mention of the baby that was growing inside him made him glow, and he was so fucking beautiful that I couldn’t tear my eyes away.
Dane was still talking to my mate about his pregnancy, but I wasn’t really paying attention. I was thinking about Devin’s excitement about the baby. He’d talked to Sarah almost every day while we were in Wisconsin, but of course he hadn’t said anything to her—even though he’d grilled her about every detail of her own pregnancy.
He wanted to respect our secrets, but I knew that Sarah and Luke were like family for him, the way Dane was for me. The two of us may not have become the kind of dragons who saw humans as disposable and coldly used them for their own ends, but we’d also spent centuries keeping our secrets from the people that we lived among. Keeping our distance. But things were different now. Neither one of us was quite so alone, and I was discovering that I liked it that way.
Dane was mated, and his mate’s human brother knew about us, too. They were family, as much for me as for him, even if it wasn’t by blood. We had also met the dragons to the north, and despite the distance, had become close to them. And now I had Devin, and I didn’t want to force a distance between him and the people he cared about. I was tired of living a life so separate.
Like Wes had said to me once, I hadn’t often been alone in my life, but now that I’d found my fated mate, I realized that I’d been lonely and hadn’t even known it.
I didn’t want that for the man I loved.
“We’re going to tell them the truth,” I said out loud, interrupting the conversation I hadn’t been paying attention to.
“Tell who?” Dane asked.
Dev smiled, glowing up at me. He squeezed my hand, hearing what I meant through our bond. “Good,” he said. “Because Sarah had morning sickness, too, and I want to ask her what she did about it.”
* * *
“Where are your glasses, honey?” Sarah asked Devin after she’d finished hugging him. “And your coat? It’s cold out.”
He pushed a finger toward the bridge of his nose, a habit he still hadn’t broken, and glanced over at me with a raised eyebrow. We hadn’t exactly decided how to tell Sarah and Luke that I was a dragon and that Devin was pregnant, and the answer to her question was tied to both those things. I shrugged. I would back up whatever he wanted to do.
“Uh, I don’t need them anymore, Sare,” he said, flashing me a quick smile. “I’ll tell you about it over dinner.”
She pulled him into the kitchen, and the sound of his happy laughter mingled with her and Wes’s voices, making me smile. Ty walked out of the kitchen, holding a couple of beers. He took one look at me and started laughing.
“Dude, you’re in deep smit.” He winked and handed me one of the bottles. “What is it with you dragons and your fated mates? Turns you all soft and cuddly.”
He was right. “You’re just jealous, Ty,” I joked. “You know, Ben still isn’t mated…”
“Stop,” he said, holding up a hand with a strained laugh. “Even I know it doesn’t work that way.”
“Work what way?” Dane asked, joining us.
“You guys and your fated mates. I’ve already met Ben, and clearly I’m not it for him. You guys knew, like, the minute you fucking saw your men.”
Dane gave Ty a weird look. “Which is good,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “Since Ben is a guy. That would be awkward, straight boy.”
“I know, right?” Ty said, taking a drink. “Totally not my type. I’m gonna go check on dinner. I think Wes is making his lasagna.”
I’d had Wesley’s lasagna, and the man could cook. It used to be one of the many little things that made me jealous of what Dane had found. As we gathered around the table, though, I realized that those feelings were completely gone. I kissed the back of Devin’s neck, loving how it made his skin flush, then sat down beside him.