Chapter Twenty-Two

Finn stood beside Drake and watched the dragons shift and disappear over the horizon. As soon as the last one disappeared from view, he turned to Drake with an outstretched hand. “Fuck man, that pack of lies you fed to Mathai was quick thinking.”

“You knocked me out, asshole.” But no anger lined Drake’s voice, because with the way things had turned out, he couldn’t be mad.

Finn studied him closely for a second. “I had to do something to de-escalate the situation… boss.”

Damn. Would’ve been nice to forget all about that development. “I’m not answering to that. As far as I’m concerned, you are still the boss.”

Finn looked away, out over the horizon, the coming darkness looming with only a sliver of fading light still visible over the westward trees. “How long do you think we can keep this up? Spying for Rune while blaming everything on him?”

“As long as it takes.” Drake shrugged. “Might be time to find out what’s going on with the Blue and Gold Clans.”

“I think you’re right.” He clapped a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “We’ll get in touch with Fallon to start. But not today. Today we didn’t lose another team member. Today we gained a new mate. And if we’re going to stick to your story, today we need to plan a human wedding.”

“Shit. Cami’s dad will come after me with a shotgun if we don’t. Why do humans feel the need to add a lot of useless pomp and circumstance to something that should be so simple?”

Finn laughed at Drake’s expression. “Tradition is important to all cultures, even dragon shifters.”

True, but tradition was what also led dragon shifters, and more specifically his team, to where they were now. A broken system that hurt more than it helped. Time for a new set of traditions. Time to change regimes.

“Maybe the new kings have the answers.”

Together they returned to their mountain stronghold, heading to where everyone else was gathered and waiting for next steps. Drake let Finn go on ahead as he went to his room to get something. As soon as he walked into the large family room area, the people waiting went quiet.

“All hail the new man in charge.” Riven executed a complicated bow with many hand flourishes.

“Who would’ve thought he’d be the next boss,” Keighan tacked on. Then he sent Finn an apologetic grin. “Sorry, boss.”

But Drake wasn’t paying any attention to them. He was busy watching the dark-haired woman crossing the room to stand before him. He searched her face for any hint of what she was feeling. Through the connection binding them, all he got was a strange sort of contentment. But how could she be content? They were far from safe, and she still had her family to worry about.

Cami suddenly smiled, her dark eyes sparkling at him. “It worked.”

Drake raised his eyebrows, not quite sure what she was referring to.

Apparently, his mate didn’t need him to voice his questions aloud. She gave a low chuckle that skated over his nerves, leaving a trail of heat. “I am your mate. Whether or not the fates played a part in it. I survived your fire. You are no longer dying. And, somehow, we are not hiding or running.”

“It doesn’t mean we won’t have to.”

Just behind her, Hall rolled his eyes. “You sure know how to bring down a mood.”

Drake slipped an arm around Cami’s shoulders, pulling her into his side, needing the anchor that she provided. Damn he hated speaking in public, even if it was only to the team. “Yes, we should celebrate. The people we love are safe, for tonight. But this fight is far from over. Aidan and Sera are still out there. Rune is still out there. Kings are toppling. No way in hell do we have the trust of the people we are trying to infiltrate and fight against from the inside. Are you ready?”

Silent stares greeted the longest speech he’d probably ever given to this group.

“I said, are you ready?” This time he barked the words like a drill sergeant.

Cami buried her face in his chest, but the way she heaved, he could tell she was smothering laughter. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

Finn stepped up beside him. “We’ll do what we have to.”

“No matter the cost,” Delaney said as she stepped beside Finn.

Everyone in the room raised their voices, speaking the same words.

Cami sobered and slipped her hand in his. “I guess you better show me how to turn into a dragon.”

Drake brought her hand up to press a kiss to her knuckles. “And how to fight as a dragon. I have a feeling we’re gonna need every warrior we can find.”

Cami nodded.

“We should get back to your family soon,” he said. “They’re going to be wondering where we are.”

Cami frowned at him. “But it’s not safe. You were the one who told me I needed to make the bigger sacrifice and walk away.”

Drake shook his head. “If you believed everything I said, we never would’ve mated.”

“True.” Cami grinned at him, dark eyes sparkling with a faint red glow.

“Family is important.” He looked around the room at the faces of his men. His friends. Brothers and sisters forged not by blood but by something stronger than dragon steel. “I see that now. We are not going to change anything alone.”

He turned back to face her. “We’ll keep them in the dark. We’ll do our best to keep them safe. But we won’t walk away.”

Cami stared at him with a suspicious glimmer in her eyes. “I love you.”

“Just as long as you remember who said it first.”

Cami snorted. “Yeah. I did.”

Right before she’d convinced him they should mate. Drake grinned. “Best damn decision you ever made.”

“Holy shit,” Levi burst out. “I didn’t know he could smile. Did anybody else know that?”

Lyndi gave Levi a shove hard enough that the gold dragon shifter stumbled a few feet. “My brother just found his mate. Have some respect.”

Drake ignored them both. “With your family and mine…”

He went down on one knee and pulled out a ring that had once belonged to his and Lyndi’s mother. A ruby of such clarity the crimson red seemed to glow like a dragon’s eyes. “I think this is how humans do it.”

Cami’s hands flew to cover her mouth. Then she stood there staring at him with wide eyes over her fingers, sort of shaking her head. Drake glanced around but got no help from those in the room. Then he cocked his head to his mate in question.

Cami lowered her hand slowly to reveal a wide smile that made her eyes crinkle. Eyes starting to glow with a faint red flame. “You’re supposed to ask a question.”

“I am?”

Delaney bent down to whisper in his ear. “Ask her to marry you.”

The question seemed implied in his actions to Drake, but who was he to argue with human tradition. “Camilla Carrillo, you are already my mate, will you marry me and be my wife?”

He barely got the words out before Cami tumbled into his arms, practically knocking him over. She pressed a sweet kiss on his lips, then pulled back with a laugh filled with the joy that shot straight to his heart.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Why didn’t we do that?” Delaney asked Finn in what sounded like was supposed to be an aside, but everybody heard, and the room erupted into laughter.

Drake and Cami were too busy celebrating their engagement to join in.

…

“You looked adorably miserable up there,” Cami teased her mate and now new husband.

She still couldn’t believe how fast they’d been able to pull a wedding together. In Yosemite no less, just like Drake had told the Alliance. Small and simple, they’d had to hold it inside because of the weather. But all that mattered to her was that she was his, and that her family got to share in the day with them.

Drake tugged at the collar of his suit shirt. With a smile she reached up and started to undo the black silk of his tie.

“What are you doing? We still have to get through the reception.”

“I’ve got to remove my veil.” She’d worn her mother’s wedding dress that they managed to get altered in the two weeks it had taken to arrange the wedding. It had also been her grandmother’s wedding dress. Tea length, with a high neckline in the front, tiny capped sleeves, and a cowl neckline in the back, it reflected the simplicity of their wedding with luxurious raw silk overlaid with organza. “You can get comfortable too. Take off your jacket and roll up your sleeves.”

“Spoken like an Alpha,” he murmured softly. But she could still hear the pride in his voice.

Cami raised her eyebrows, doing her best to keep a serious face. “Well then snap to it, soldier.”

“Yes ma’am.” And the man she once thought could never have a playful side to him executed a salute that she could only describe as impertinent. Then he proceeded to do what she suggested.

The ting, ting, ting of a fork against the glass champagne flutes brought their attention around to her father.

Taking her mother’s hand in his, he looked over at Cami and Drake, then around the room. “Welcome, everyone. Christina and I would like to thank all of you for joining us in this celebration.” He paused and swallowed. “People say it takes a village to raise a child. Looking at the faces of Cami and Drake’s friends and family, I say it takes a village to put a wedding together this fast.”

They all joined in the laughter.

“So…what would you like to know about my daughter? For starters, Cami is a dancer.” He zeroed in on Drake. “I hope you’re ready for that.”

Cami burst out laughing at the expression of horror on her mate’s face.

Her father nodded. “You’re going to have to learn then, mijo.”

He turned to the rest of their small gathering. “This started at a young age. As a baby, the only way to soothe Cami to sleep was to put on music and dance with her. Remember, Christina?”

Her mother, already misty eyed, nodded with a fond smile.

“When she was about four, Cami got…well…obsessed with the movie The Wizard of Oz.’”

“Oh no,” Cami murmured. Of course her father would bring that up.

“Cami honestly believed she lived over the rainbow. And every day, her mother or I would have to dance with her because her sisters were not born yet. Usually I was the Scarecrow to her Dorothy. I can’t say we were too sorry to see that phase go.”

Drake leaned over to whisper in her ear. “I wouldn’t mind seeing you in ruby slippers…and nothing else.”

She elbowed him in his ribs. Good gracious. In the middle of her father’s speech. The man was incorrigible.

“When she was in high school, I went to a father-daughter dance with Cami, and am proud to say that we won the trophy for the best dancers. In fact…” He reached under the table where he stood, then came back up with a small plastic trophy that had, at some point, been gold. “I still have it.”

Silly of her, but Cami couldn’t help gripping Drake’s hand under the table. Her dad was not normally a sentimental man. But he’d kept all her trophies? Even the silly ones?

“This survived the fire. Along with all her horseback riding trophies, and awards from school. In fact, I’m looking forward to getting them out of our basement.” He looked at his watch, then at Drake. “Maybe tomorrow?”

Drake just shrugged through the laughter in the room.

Her father grinned, then grew serious, his gaze only for her now. “In a short while, you’ll have your first dance with Drake. And in that moment, you’ll have a new dance partner. I know I’m going to have to let you go.” He paused to swallow back his emotion again, then continued in a voice a bit gruff. “But I do so joyfully, and with a full heart. I knew the man who married my daughter would have to be special—strong, her equal, her partner…and damn patient.”

Cami laughed through tears that now stung her eyes.

“And through it all—whether it be near us or far from us, or over the rainbow, just remember… Put God first. Love your family. Respect the elders in your life. Be mindful of your place in this universe and never forget that it only takes a second to lose everything. So enjoy everything every day. Even when you argue about whether the knives are in the right spot, or the temperature is too hot or cold in the house, enjoy that. Every day should count. When you have children, take every moment as a magical gift, because they will leave you so fast, you won’t believe it. You were a baby in my arms only yesterday, mija.”

Her father looked at his feet, visibly keeping it together.

“And now.” He lifted his head. “You’re this amazing, kind woman of faith and strength, and I’m so proud of the man you have chosen to marry. Because I see the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him. Make it special. Make it real.”

He paused again, and she managed to take a breath. Drake squeezed her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers, his heat spreading comfort through her.

“And give us grandbabies as soon as you can,” her dad finished. Then grinned as another laugh surprised its way out of her.

“Sorry,” he said. “Just had to get that in there. Your mother and I aren’t getting any younger, you know.”

Then he held up a glass. “To Cami and Drake and your lives together.”

To the sound of clapping, Cami got up to give her parents hugs, laughing as they both pulled Drake in for one as well. Then she gasped as Drake turned her into his arms, giving a nod to the DJ they’d hired, who started a slow song.

“I thought we weren’t going to do all the dances and stuff,” she murmured.

His shoulders twitched under her hand. “I got the impression it might be important to you.” He dipped his head and brushed his lips over her cheek. “Now I’m glad I paid attention.”

Because of that link between them? More and more each day she could sense her mate and knew he could sense her as well. Not in an intrusive way, like he could read her every thought. That would be weird. More in a way where she knew he was there. Would always be there.

She opened her mouth, words on the tip of her tongue.

He beat her to it, though. “I love you, too, mate.”

She blew out a pent-up breath, though she smiled.

Drake bent and put his forehead to hers. “Make it special. Make it real. Your father is a wise man.”

“Yes, he is,” she murmured.

“We should take his advice.”

“I agree.” She lifted her head to grin at him. “Babies would be wonderful.”

Drake went all stiff in her arms, but she still caught the twinkle of laughter in his eyes and the tiny lift to the corner of his mouth. “Maybe not all his advice,” he muttered.

“Not until we can make it safe for them,” she answered.

Drake stopped dancing. “I promise you, we will.”

Cami went up on her tiptoes and kissed him, long and soft and sweet. “Yes. We will.”