Lachlan glanced around the room. "Just how much family do you have?"
Ian shrugged. "Heaps. A few distant relatives moved to Seahaven decades ago. If they were here, we'd have to hold the party outside." He motioned toward a table loaded with food. "Come, have a bite, and you can tell me a bit more about your family. I never got to interrogate you properly, what with Connor trying to kick your arse and waking up Cat's dragon."
Connor shrugged. "It turned out all right in the end, aye? That's all that matters."
Ian rolled his eyes. "One of these days, that attitude is going to bite you in the arse."
Lachlan didn't have a brother, but even if he had, he probably wouldn't have been as close as this pair. Not even he and his sister had been able to joke so freely.
Ian handed him a plate and asked, "What's your family like? We'll need to have them over. Maybe you'll have a sibling for me too."
He blinked. "What?"
Ian gave him a strange look. "I'm joking, aye? There's no dragon-shifter pattern of siblings mating siblings. Well, rarely so. Sometimes twins will hook up with twins. But that's all I've heard."
Lachlan wasn't entirely sure how to respond to Ian. The dragonman jumped from topic to topic with no clear path.
However, as he found Cat's gaze across the room, she raised her brows in question, with a silent Are you okay?
And Lachlan realized, aye, he was. This was her family, and he needed to get to know them.
Even if they were bloody mad half the time.
He decided to steer the conversation back to something more reasonable and focused back on Ian and Connor. "I only have one sister, and she's married."
Not that Lachlan knew much about Sarah’s husband. His sister didn't talk about her marriage and only ever stayed on the topic of her sons whenever they chatted during his visits with his nephews.
However, being surrounded by Cat's family, with all of them being nosey with one another, he decided he needed to fix that and get to know his sister again.
Well, once he sorted everything out with the DDA first, both for his job and permission for Sarah and her boys to visit.
Ian finished swallowing whatever was in his mouth and replied, "Pity she's married. She'd probably be older than me, but there's something to be said for that. No blushing virgin for me, thank you."
Connor snorted. "Which is exactly why you'll end up with one."
Ian shot his brother a look. "Which means you'll end up with a shy one, for sure."
Curious, Lachlan blurted, "Do true mates work like that then? Are they always opposites?"
Connor shrugged. "Sometimes. You and Cat seem to be like that—she's outgoing and sunny, whereas you're extremely reserved. No offense, but at least so far, that's my impression."
He said quietly, "I'm lucky to have your sister. She's what I never knew I needed."
The two males blinked at him a moment, unsure of how to respond to his serious statement, but then went back to ribbing each other.
Lachlan couldn't believe he'd said that, but it was the truth. And one of his top priorities going forward was to be truthful with those Cat cared about.
And especially with Cat herself.
So he tried his best to answer questions from her family. Whenever he thought it was too much, he'd seek out Cat's eyes again and recharge.
Aye, he was indeed lucky to have her. And he was going to do everything he could to try to fit into her life.
Chapter Twelve
The next morning, Cat watched as Lachlan slept and debated slipping out of bed to get a sketchpad and a pencil.
The early morning light created wonderful highlights and shadows, accentuating his jaw, his nose, and even his brow.
She didn't like the lines etched into his forehead—no doubt from worry or stress—and yet they were a part of him that she wanted to include as well.
The lines were probably something she never would've noticed so clearly if not for her artistic eye.
Her dragon's sleepy voice said, Just draw him already. He wouldn't say no, or care if you did.
She didn't think so. But with the frenzy over, the ease of their own little bubble had popped, and she was still trying to figure out how they worked together.
Sex and attraction weren't a problem. But matings and love required a lot more than that.
Her beast sighed, but before she could say anything, Lachlan spoke with his eyes still closed. "I can feel you staring at me."
She smiled. "Now who's the one with supersensitive senses?"
He blinked open his eyes and his blue gaze found her own. "Unless I was deaf, your little sighs would've let anyone know you were nearby."
She frowned. "I wasn't sighing."
His lips curled upward slightly. "Aye, you were. At least five times that I heard. Who knows how many before that, when I was still sleeping."
"Well, you snore a wee bit."
"And that doesn't embarrass me at all." Before she could think of what to say to that, he reached over and touched her cheek. "I love your wee sighs, and your growls, and even your snorts. You give your emotions so freely. Don't ever change that, lass."
And just like that, her irritation faded. "I always wished I could hide them when I was younger."
"Aye?"
She laid her head on his shoulder and snuggled against his side. "You've met my siblings. Ian was always the best at hiding things, although Connor can when he wants to as well. I love them all now, but we're really close in age, the lot of us, and when we were younger, we all tried to find weaknesses to torment each other. Needless to say, Emma and I were the easiest targets."
He played with her hair. "What about Jamie?"
"Jamie was the youngest, and even if we're all close in age, he's still a good five years younger than me. By the time he could come up with ways to get back at us, I was a teenager."
"And not long after, you couldn't be a child any longer."
Maybe it should surprise her that Lachlan pieced it all together so quickly. But her human was clever and observant, and she rather admired him for it. "Aye. Once my dad died, I couldn't think like a sister any longer. I was more a guardian, of sorts. At least until my mother finally came out of her depression, then it was more like a partnership to raise them."
He continued to stroke her hair a few seconds before asking, "What happened between you and your mother that night of the get-together in the great hall? You never did tell me."
She battled between sharing and keeping the secret. Her dragon spoke up. He's not just anyone—he's our true mate. Just tell him. I think he can keep a secret.
As she looked up at his face, she found his eyes studying her. If she was to ever want more than sex and a tentative friendship with Lachlan, she needed to trust him. And so she whispered, "I found out my mum's pregnant."
She expected him to blink in surprise, but he merely nodded. "It was one of my theories."
Propping her chin up on his chest to better see him, she asked, "One of your theories?"
"Oh, aye. I always like to think of what the cause of something is or what action comes next. It's why I'm so good at event planning." He took one of her hands and threaded his fingers through hers. "Will she be okay?"