To see her get so worked up over us? So furious at the concept of someone hurting us? It had me feeling solidified that the love I felt for Maya was possibly returned. It also made me know that this, whatever was happening between us, was so much fucking more than a mating bond. I just needed to figure out a way to tell her all of that without coming across as an obsessed fool.
“You good?” Anani’s voice was filled with a sense of sadness that didn’t surprise me, but his expression was still filled with a bit of shock and awe that I had felt radiating through our bond at what had happened back at the hotel. It didn’t surprise me in the least, his reaction to how Maya responded to the information regarding our past.
Had I wished Sai had broken the news a bit differently? Sure. But that was only because I didn’t want it to hurt Maya. I knew how strongly she felt everything, and while it felt good to see how much she cared, I never wanted to cause her pain. Still, she knew now, and that was a weight off my chest because I hadn’t known exactly how to explain why the Dreki realm was such a sore topic for my brother and I.
Especially my brother, who functioned under the pretense that no one but us cared about us. Well, until he realized he could trust our flight. But that took years, and I think to some extent, he just assumed that no one else cared. Because why would they? Especially when one of the people who was supposed to care the most had hurt us time and time again?
My jaw clenched as I ran a hand through my hair, looking down at the uniform I’d avoided wearing again for so long. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad Lucas had provided them because they not only represented the authority we very much had in the realm, but they actually fit in comparison to the ones we had at home from when we were around fourteen.
Unsurprisingly, the style of them hadn’t changed much, but the material was higher quality and the size had been adjusted for the fact that we were now massive compared to the small kids that had fled from the Dreki realm in search of something besides the constant assault of pain associated with ‘home.’
Marco hadn’t seen it that way, but I’d been so eager to get away from our life there that I couldn’t view it any other way in my mind, and for so long that was exactly what home meant to me. A place you ran from. That was until I met Maya and realized that it could be more than that. That she could take the team of us and our expensive house and turn us into a true family.
My heart squeezed with the realization that no matter how complicated things became, there was an understanding that Maya was our mate. She knew it and we knew it. She was ours, and we were very much hers. I believed her when she said she wasn’t going anywhere, and I would be damned if anyone ever tried to take her from us. Which was unfortunately what some dumb motherfuckers may try in the Dreki realm.
I think they were going to find that they were bringing far more trouble to themselves than they truly wanted. Then again, my dragon had been frustrated for a bit now, so the concept of a fight was truly pretty appealing.
“Yeah.” I nodded finally, having partly ignored his questioning gaze. “I just want to return as soon as possible. I really don’t want to run into him.”
“We won’t,” Anani insisted, his eyes flashing with a level of pain I hadn’t seen for years. “Last I heard he wasn’t even in the realm most of the time. Apparently they have been traveling.” Completely unsurprising. The ‘they’ was in reference to the woman he had married after sending us off to the academy.
“I hadn’t heard that,” I muttered, not completely surprised that Anani had been keeping tabs on them. It was how he dealt with everything. He liked to know exactly where they were, and I liked to pretend they never existed in the first place.
“Has anyone told Maya about the time gap?” my brother asked, suddenly frowning as I arched a brow, trying to recall if we had. Not that it completely mattered anymore, because we wouldn’t be missing school or anything of importance, but it could be disorienting if you weren’t expecting it.
That wasn’t including how law enforcement and the media would react when we just disappeared for several weeks. Of course, it would feel like almost no time at all in the Dreki realm, but here, far more time would have passed. It was one of the reasons that dragon shifters were so much more advanced than humans despite the amount of ‘years’ that had passed. A dragon shifter that lived thirteen years in the Dreki realm had lived far more than a human on Earth. I suppose it was a bit more inconvenient than normal considering everything going on here and the Moretti businesses, but usually those ran themselves. Still, someone should probably warn her.
“I am bringing her,” Maya insisted, drawing my attention and distracting me from asking the others if she had been informed. Her long tan fingers brushed through Bella’s fur, the kitten sitting on her shoulder letting out a content purr, looking perfectly at home despite Edmund’s glare of distaste towards the small creature. When Atlas noticed his expression, he let out a low, threatening growl as Larry scoffed and shook his head, looking away. I nearly chuckled at that because frankly, it was hilarious how protective he was over Bella. I mean, I understood it, but he took it to a bit of an extreme.
When I woke up this morning, I had found him watching a television show with her sleeping on his chest as he spoke to her about something or the other. I was almost positive it was about Maya, who he referred to as ‘her mom,’ but that would be insane, right? No. Actually, that sounded about right for Atlas.
As one of the oldest in our flight, I was actually surprised his dragon wasn’t pushing more for creating a flight of dragons with Maya. Or maybe he was and he had yet to push it. I knew Marco was keeping a tight rein on that shit, and my dragon was far more invested in getting our mating mark on her first. Although, the concept of having a real family with Maya was extremely appealing.
In some ways, Maya and I were very similar in how we viewed the concept of a future family. I knew she wanted to prove that she wasn’t the same as her mom, and I very much wanted to show that I could be a better father than my own ever had the capability of being. I wasn’t positive how my twin felt about it because until Maya, we would have never had a reason to talk about this shit. I also didn’t feel like I could ask him without being extremely transparent.
“I wish Lucas had been available,” Anani scowled. I did as well, but apparently something was going on with his flight and Heather, so outside of Anna, who Maya was very much uncomfortable around, these two would have to do. All they had to do was open up the portal, and while they weren’t being difficult per se, they were dragging their feet, and I could tell it was driving most of the flight crazy.
“You can’t bring a kitten to the Dreki realm,” Larry argued.
“She can and she will,” Marco leveled, sounding like he was close to snapping the man’s neck. Something I wouldn’t blame him for.
“This is ridiculous.” He shook his head as Edmund just kept quiet, offering the kitten another glare.
That was the one thing about Larry and Edmund I didn’t understand. They were constantly attempting to cause problems but didn’t have any of the dominance to back it up. Not that they weren’t powerful, but more powerful than our flight? Or Marco? Absolutely not. So they became repetitive, annoying assholes that just seemed like attempted roadblocks. In my mind, that was exactly how you ended up with your neck snapped. Was it obvious I was frustrated with them? I couldn’t stop imagining different ways to get rid of them.