“Maybe later,” Delaney said. “First…breakfast.” She cast a threatening stare around those gathered.
“Sorry D,” Rivin, one of the two white dragons in residence, said as he pushed up from the table. He was immediately joined by the other white dragon, Keighan. Except for one being a dirty blond and the other dark haired, they looked a lot alike with the ruddy complexions of their shared Russian human ancestry, arctic white-blue eyes, and similarly shaped square-jawed faces. Even in dragon form they were the same opalescent white. They shared a personality, a brain, and a few other things, too.
“We got distracted.” Keighan waggled eyebrows that matched his dirty-blond hair at Hadyn, who laughed.
“Don’t encourage the fuck twins,” Rune muttered.
“I heard that,” the two white dragons said in unison.
“Fuck twins?” Hadyn just had to go and ask that, didn’t she?
“I think they’d fuck a wall if it had a hole,” he said. “Usually together.”
Rivin posed thoughtfully with his hand at his chin. “Well let’s think about that logically. Maybe we would if that wall felt like a mouth, or a pussy…”
“Or a nice tight ass,” Keighan added.
“Breasts.” Rivin was on a roll now.
Keighan groaned.
“Well shit, Rune,” Rivin said, dark hair flopping into his eyes in his mock-annoyance. “Now you did it. Delaney, can we cook tomorrow? We need to go take care of urgent…business.”
“You are not getting out of it,” Delaney pointed at the stovetop. “I want pancakes.”
“I want eggs, too,” Lyndi said. “Scrambled hard.”
“You had to say hard?” Rivin protested on a groan.
“And wash your hands,” Kanta added from where he sat beside Hall, whatever latest book he was reading face down on the table. Coming from the soft-spoken one of the bunch, that comment set off the rest of the room in easy laughter.
Rune’s gut clenched at the sound. At the comradery.
The group was different from when they’d started. Losses had been hard. Titus was dead. Fallon was away in the clans in Europe with his mate, Maddie, acting as the Healer for the Blue Clan. Deep and Calla were out there somewhere trying to warn more dragons about the current political climate.
They’d added to their numbers as well. Lyndi and Levi of course. But now Finn had Delaney, and Drake had his new mate, Cami. Aidan had Sera and their son Blake. They’d also added several of Lyndi’s orphaned boys to the team. Kids she’d helped provide with a home and love, who had developed into fine men from what he understood.
The original five Huracán enforcers had grown into a true family while he’d been gone.
Which was how it had been intended. It’s why the mountain had twelve different apartment suites. An enforcer team was supposed to include twelve dragons in total. One from each of the clans. Eventually, the assumption was that they’d have families.
Still an ideal worth fighting for, even if he was no longer part of it. Hopefully, enough of them survived what was coming to make the scenario come true.
Which reminded him. A call to his contact within the Alliance would be a good next step, as long as the fucker didn’t hang up on him again.
…
With the entire team—minus a few of Lyndi’s boys who were at her house with her younger orphans—gathered in the kitchen, Rune had filled them in on everything since they had met. Including her own background and problem.
Which was why they were all now staring at her as though she were a specimen in a science fiction movie.
“She’s not going to shatter,” Rune growled beside her.
Every expression around the table shuttered, and she almost had to laugh. This part she was used to from the rare occasions she’d been allowed to meet dragons. “I do sprout horns and a tail every so often, though,” she teased. “Usually on a full moon.”
The ladies grinned. The men shifted uncomfortably. Except for the two white dragons, they both straightened. “That could be sexy,” one of them said. Rivin maybe? Whichever one was beating the pancake batter.
Rune shook his head. “She doesn’t mean it, dumbass.”
“Awww.” She patted his leg. “Thanks for sticking up for me, hot stuff.”
If she’d thought their expressions had been shocked earlier when she’d called him grumpy, that was nothing compared to the faces staring at the two of them now. Rune tensed beside her, though she was probably the only one who sensed it, because she was sitting so close.
Hadyn blinked and slowly removed her hand.
“I’m going with her to try to break her parents out,” Rune said in a tone that indicated he hadn’t noticed anything. “I don’t expect anyone here to help. I wouldn’t ask that of you. We’re all in deep enough shit as it stands.”
“You’ve got a fucking bounty on your head,” Finn snapped, eyes spitting blue flame. Definitely alpha. Until now he’d remained silent.
“I’ve always been under the gun,” Rune said. “That’s nothing—”
“Don’t you dare say nothing new,” Drake rumbled from the doorway he was propping up, the antisocial one, she’d labeled him.
Rune ignored him. “I would appreciate ideas, though.”
“Sorry we’re late.” Hadyn, like everyone else, turned as yet another couple joined them. This group was bigger than even her father had known about.
The newcomers were older, mated clearly, and she instantly liked them. It might have been the kindly smile the woman sent her as she greeted the room, a total mothering type. Or maybe the man’s shock of deep white hair or the twinkle in his eye reminded her of Chaghan. That twinkle belied his years. Dragons aged slowly. Given their appearances, these two were quite ancient.
Deep and Calla, she caught the names as they went around the room. When they got to Rune, the man actually allowed Calla to hug him and tolerated Deep ruffling his hair as though he were a teenager. A reaction that had her studying the two more closely. Rune must like them.
“It’s about time you came home, son,” Deep said softly to Rune.
“We’ve missed you,” Calla said, then shot a look around the other shifters, daring them to disagree. “All of us.”
Hadyn had already pieced together that Rune and his old team were still on shaky footing. Not because he was rogue, though. Not a single glance at his naked hand. Maybe they were just getting used to each other again after a long rift?