Mated to the Earth Dragon (Elemental Mates 2)

“Oh no, you won’t!” she said belligerently. “It’s my turn this year.”

“I’ll make the cake,” Autumn quickly offered.

When Damon turned around to give her a surprised look, he found that Autumn looked nearly as surprised by her hasty offer.

“Why not? I’d like to help out, too,” she continued after a moment. “If you’ll let me use your kitchen, of course.”

“I’d love that,” Damon said, warmth welling up in him.

When he was a tiny dragonet, his grandma had let him and his friends help her bake the grandiose cakes she came up with for the festival each year.

Of course, helping mainly meant that they got to taste-test the dough and got sticky fingerprints all over the counters—but his grandma had never minded. She’d never been a woman who liked silence. Even with a group of four excited children dusting each other’s hair with flour, she’d never lost her smile or her calm.

And her cakes had been quite something—different layers in all the colors of the rainbow, decorated with flowers she’d made of frosting and marzipan.

“Then that’s decided,” Autumn said hurriedly, before either bear or fox shifter could protest.

“Humph,” Cynthia, the matriarch of the bear clan, said. “I’ll bring a salad, then.”

“I’ll bring a salad,” Melissa the fox shifter said, narrowing her eyes.

“Wonderful!” Damon said quickly, before another argument could break out. “We can never have too many salads. Now, where’d the sheriff get to?”

It seemed the sheriff had wisely decided to step away from the cake rivalry. Instead, he’d made his way over to where Jake the otter stood with his clan, and that was where Damon and Autumn now joined him.

“I’d like a word with you later, sheriff, if you’ve got time?”

The dog shifter nodded, turning seriously. “Of course, boss.”

“Congratulations,” Jake said and boxed Damon’s arm. “It’s really about time. We were starting to wonder whether we’d end up without a dragon in this town.”

“I always knew he’d find a mate in his own time,” Clara, Jake’s wife, calmly offered. “It happens when it happens. Can’t speed it up—or you’ll end up like me.”

She winked at Autumn while Jake gave her a look of mock outrage.

“I’ll have you know that I bring my wife a nice, fresh fish right into bed every morning,” Jake said.

Autumn began to giggle.

“Yeah, imagine waking up to that first thing in the morning.” Clara crossed her arms as she looked at Autumn, shaking her head.

Then, a moment later, Clara giggled too. “Of course, he knows that it’s my favorite breakfast.”

“Otters,” Damon sighed, although he couldn’t suppress the smile tugging at his own lips.

He was filled by an overwhelming happiness all of a sudden. Not only was he finally back home, where no fire dragons would be able to harm his mate, but he was surrounded by the people who were as close as family to him.

And now, at last, he’d no longer feel like an outsider while he watched everyone in his small town grow up and find their mate.

It took half an hour until they’d made the rounds and he’d introduced Autumn to everyone. At last, he left her with Melissa and her brood. The fox cubs, who’d never left the shifter town, bombarding her with questions about what it was like to cross the ocean on dragon back.

“In here?” the sheriff asked, nodding at his house which stood in a corner of the square. “Or the office?”

“In here’s fine,” Damon said. “Shouldn’t take too long.”

The sheriff had some coffee brewing, and a moment later, they were both leaning against his kitchen counter, steaming cups in hand as they looked out at the gathering of shifters in the square.

“What’s wrong, boss?” the sheriff asked. “I can see something’s up.”