Well, well. How about that…
The sight of Finn slack-jawed and speechless was enough to make Rune’s whole damn year. No one, except maybe Delaney, talked back to him like that. Finn would always be his brother and his friend, at one time his best friend, but trust had been broken. He’d known there would be fallout when he’d left the team but hadn’t anticipated how bad. It had been a long time since anyone from this team, other than Hall, stood on his side. Rune didn’t know if he wanted to kiss Hadyn, add his own thoughts, or drag her away and bury his cock in her until she screamed with pleasure.
Instead, he sat there without changing his position or his expression.
Delaney, beside her mate, sneaked her hand into Finn’s and curled her fingers around his. A show of support as the alpha stared at Hadyn. Then Finn’s bright blue gaze shifted to Rune and his lips drew down. “She’s right.”
Every one of the dragon males around the fire straightened. Except Rune. He waited.
“There was a time,” Finn said, “when I trusted you implicitly. When I didn’t question you, took your advice, and even your lead when I couldn’t see the path.”
Rune still waited, trying not to let the bitterness of the loss of that trust fill his mind with the kind of emotional poison that never got anyone anywhere.
Finn got to his feet and crossed to stand in front of Rune. “You were my beta, my brother, my friend. I was wrong to ever doubt you.”
Holy. Fucking. Shit.
“Do you want a hug?” Rune asked.
Hadyn smacked him in the leg. To Finn she said, “Sarcasm is his coping mechanism, though I’m sure you know that.”
Finn grinned. The man actually cracked a grin aimed in Rune’s general direction. “Yes, I do.” Then the alpha sobered and held out a hand. “I’m sorry.”
“We’re all fucking sorry,” Drake corrected, standing as well. “Every one of us.” Something he hadn’t said when Rune had given him his protection and a place to hide recently.
Nor had anyone offered apologies when he’d helped get Sera away from the Alaz team, or when he’d helped with the attack in Yosemite. Dragons didn’t apologize. It wasn’t something that came easily to their natures, so he hadn’t ever expected it. Just got on with business as they’d forged a new, uneasy agreement to work together, this past year especially.
But…
All four men, Finn, Drake, Hall, and Kanta, moved to stand in front of him, hands held out, and Rune dropped his head, needing to gather his thoughts. He had never expected an apology. They’d been wrong, but so had he in the way he’d gone about handling things. He’d seen no other answer at the time.
With a deep breath he stood and grasped Finn by the arm. “Mistakes were made on all sides,” he said. “Mine included.”
Finn pulled him closer and actually hugged him. The other men did the same with a lot of back slapping. As he resumed his seat by Hadyn, the feeling that a massive burden had been lifted left him almost dizzy. He had no clue what to do with this moment.
“I thought you said dragons don’t apologize,” she teased in a soft whisper, leaning into him, chilly against his side.
“We don’t,” Finn said, voice tinted with irony.
He seriously doubted Finn or any of the others would’ve stepped up and owned their shit that way if she hadn’t spoken up on his behalf. Rune turned his head slowly, taking in her upturned face, lips tilted in that smile that never fully disappeared, peridot eyes twinkling. As though she were sincerely happy for him.
He leaned forward, forehead to hers, and spoke low, for her ears alone, though the others could fuck off if they listened. “Mine,” he said. “You’re mine.”
His dragon rumbled inside him in total agreement.
Amusement sparked in her eyes, which only sent the new hyperpossessive side of him into overdrive. “Please,” she corrected.
Rune ignored a cough on the other side of the fire. “What?”
She shook her head at him as though he should be getting this. “Let’s get one thing straight, Rune Abaddon. I’m a romantic girl, and I’ve got a bit of an independent streak.”
He snorted. No shit.
“So declarations and orders while…hot…aren’t going to cut it.” She flicked a glance in the direction of the others. “Especially not with an audience. Because now I want to jump your bones, and I can’t.”
Rune frowned. First, he wasn’t cutting it, then he had her hot? Which was it?
Rather than try to sort it out, he waited for her to explain.
“I want privacy.”
He nodded. That he could do.
“Discussion is not your thing. I get it, but at least pose this proposition in the form of a question.”
A question.
She must’ve recognized his confusion because she rolled her eyes. Then dropped her voice low in what he guessed was an imitation of him. “Hadyn, I really like you, and not just for your body. How about we start a relationship?”
Then she rose her voice to squeaky level. “Why thank you for asking Rune. I appreciate the effort that took. Let’s bang.”
Chortling from the others was only a vague buzz in his ears. That’s what she wanted? Words like that weren’t in him. He barely had a handle on the feelings.
“My way is faster,” he insisted. It got the job done.
She straightened away from him. “So is just fucking…but if you want more than that, you have to ask for it.”
Hadyn waited, searching his face for a long minute, then sighed and levered to her feet. She leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on his lips. “You think about it. I’m going to sleep now.”
…
Hadyn stood at the base of the tree Rune had positioned them both at, using the trunk and the cover of darkness to hide their presence as they surveyed the mountainside in front of them. Up above them was where they’d go in.
“Was it this quiet when you were here before?”
Rune had shifted part of his body and had been firing yes-no questions at her for the last ten minutes.
She shook her head no. She’d already told him about her previous visit, how it had taken days to get into the mountain itself because of the amount of activity.
“You came in the daytime?”
She nodded. He already knew that as well.
Rune’s lips flattened. She didn’t blame him. She didn’t need to be trained in stealth to know that a major change in the activity level here was not a good sign. For several reasons.