Breath (Scales 'n' Spells 2)

“I guess it’s no surprise Tori finally cracked. Baldewin has been quietly courting him since the first time they spoke,” Warin said matter-of-factly.

“What?” Baldewin gasped. “I have not—”

Sasha waved a hand at him to silence his protests, only interested in the dirt Warin was willing to share. “What’s he been doing?”

“He is constantly giving Tori little gifts.”

“I have not. Food doesn’t count. We all have to eat, and the mage hasn’t been eating properly. He’s only just now started to put a little meat on his bones,” Baldewin argued.

Warin flashed him a wounded look. “You haven’t brought me any food on this trip.”

Baldewin could only roll his eyes, because Sasha was already prodding him for more.

“And then on the night Tori sweetly made the glamour spell for us, I went out first. Baldewin took him to dinner and shopping—”

“He left nearly all his possessions back with his old clan. Do you think he would feel comfortable walking into Burkhard with only a couple changes of clothes? It’s the least we could do if we’re dragging him from Helsinki to meet with our clan.”

Warin’s smile was positively smug when he uttered the last two words: “Guitar strings.”

Yeah, okay, so maybe they weren’t particularly necessary. Neither was the stop at Black Magic to try the selection of chocolates and Riga’s famous Black Balsam herbal liqueur. And maybe his hotel selection had been a little over the top, now that Tori was allowing Baldewin to care for him.

“They made him smile,” Baldewin admitted in a low voice.

He didn’t regret any of it. He cherished every one of Tori’s smiles and laughs, tucking them away the same way a magpie snatches up shiny objects to add to his ever-growing secret hoard. Or the way a dragon hoards…

Baldewin stopped that thought sharply and nearly groaned at himself. Really? Was his dragon now trying to hoard Tori’s smiles? If it meant that all of Tori’s smiles were his and not for anyone else, then yes, his dragon was definitely trying to hoard all of Tori.

“So, then the question is whether you are looking at him as a gefreogen or a pego?” Sasha prodded.

Baldewin’s head snapped up, his temper flaring. “Tori is not a pego,” he snarled, which only sent Sasha and Warin into uncontrolled peals of laughter.

Oh, he had most definitely given himself away now.

There was nothing wrong with a pego. They’d all had one occasionally over the long centuries. It was simply a dragon term for a “friends with benefits” arrangement. It wasn’t like they were all sitting around celibate while they waited for their mate to magically appear. The strings-free coupling allowed them to find release and a bit of enjoyment.

But his mind rebelled at the idea of Tori sleeping with anyone now. He hated the idea of anyone laying hands on the mage. Tori was his, and his dragon agreed with him completely. As it was, the lizard was trying to give both Sasha and Warin the stink-eye for even suggesting it.

A gefreogen, on the other hand, was courting with the intention of making this person his mate. When a mage was declared a dragon’s gefreogen, it was a way of indicating to other dragons that this mage was being actively wooed, that there was a connection being pursued—back off! Not that the mage couldn’t walk away, but such a thing had never happened before.

Did he want Tori as his gefreogen?

Yes, Baldewin was pretty damn sure he did.

“Do you think it’s too fast?” Baldewin inquired.

That only resulted in more laughter from Sasha. Warin rolled his eyes, pushed to his feet, and walked across the hotel suite to grab the room service menu.

“You are asking the wrong dragon that question,” Warin replied a bit tartly.

It was true. Sasha and Cassie had clicked almost instantaneously. He had never seen a mage and dragon perfectly match so quickly. They had barely set eyes on each other and Cassie had been practically wrapped around the dragon, ready to use her baseball bat on anyone who tried to separate them. Baldewin had been wise enough not to even try. Of course, he’d also had his hands full with Cassie’s grandmother, Ha Na.

“There is no ‘too fast.’ When you know a mage belongs to you, that their soul fits with your own, why would you wait? Why waste a single second questioning and hesitating when we’ve all waited so long already?” Sasha argued.

“What if your mage believes that dragons are evil, backstabbing monsters?” Baldewin asked, making Sasha’s nose wrinkle. Even Warin sighed as he returned with the menu in hand.

“I don’t think he believes that about us any longer.”

Baldewin rubbed a hand over his scalp. “Maybe not, but it was a belief he was raised on. He was also taught he was useless and unworthy simply because he was born male and doesn’t do magic like the rest of the clan. I don’t want to rush him into anything when he’s still trying to accept us and himself. The only thing I want is for him to be happy.”