Finding his mate was not the only reason he’d come to the ballroom. Gunter turned his attention to the dragon watching his child with such happiness and serenity. “I spoke briefly with King Rodrigo and Queen Ha Na this afternoon.” He paused and looked at Cameron. “She sends her love and promises to make the return trip to Burkhard a month before your child is scheduled to be born.”
“Oh good,” Cameron muttered. “Then she’ll be able to tell me how to raise our child in person rather than sending us both a dozen texts each day with parenting advice.”
Gunter wasn’t touching that one with a ten-foot pole. “The reason for the king’s call, Hoheit,” he started, and then paused.
“Really, Alric.” Cameron shook his head at the dragon. “You could at least change back into your human form while Gunter’s discussing clan business. You’ve been hiding out in here most of the day.”
The dragon huffed, but Alric did shift into his human form. He straightened his tie before wrapping his arms around his mate. “I haven’t been hiding. I’ve been protecting our child.”
Cameron said nothing. He simply smiled and wrapped his arms around his mate’s shoulders, pressing his forehead to the side of Alric’s head.
“Sorry about that, Gunter. What did Rodrigo want?”
“Not a problem. It seems the Valerii are having some troubles. He wouldn’t give me or Dieter any specifics,” Gunter relayed. He’d just happened to be in Dieter’s office, going over some reports, when Rodrigo had called. Gunter had offered to deliver the message since he was on his way to locate his own mate.
“Does he need some assistance? I can talk with Baldewin and have some dragons in the air first thing in the morning.”
Gunter swelled with pride at his king’s ready assistance. They’d come a very long way from the old days of clans barely speaking to each other. Now, they were friends as well as allies, where they would both offer ready assistance.
“Not that I’m aware of. I think he just wishes to discuss the matter with you first. He was wondering if you’d be available for a call later this evening. I think he mentioned after you had dinner.”
Alric nodded. “I’ll text him shortly. Tell him I’ll be available for him. Thank you for relaying the message.”
“Do you need anything else this evening, Hoheit?”
Alric shook his head. “No, thank you. Go spend some time with your mate.”
What an excellent-sounding idea. Gunter caught Nikki’s hand, and they smiled up at him. Was that a hint of mischief in their eyes? With that look they would be lucky if they made it back to their apartment. It was more likely they were going to end up in a broom closet again.
“Gunter, I’ve been thinking,” Nikki said as they stepped out of the ballroom hand in hand.
“You’ll understand if this concerns me.”
Nikki ignored the teasing and continued, “I really think I need my own space to grow more trees. My alder tree and I have talked about this, and there needs to be more room. I think I’ve figured out how to shape the wood for wands and such. But if I’m going to be doing that for the other mages, I’ll need more than one tree to work from.”
Gunter’s head snapped around. “Do you really think you figured it out?”
“I actually convinced the alder to give me a branch the other day. No tools, it just dropped it in my hand. So yeah, pretty sure I can do this.”
Gunter’s smile took over his face. “I knew you could figure it out. I’ll speak with Tori, see if there’s space you can expand into. Nikki, I’m so excited for this!”
Nikki’s grin stretched from ear to ear. “Me too. And the more I think of all the mages coming to us, and how they’ll need wands crafted just for them, the more excited I become.”
“The world will be filled with mages again.”
“And hope. With mages and dragons comes magic and hope.”
Gunter stopped in the middle of the hall and pulled his wonderful mate into his arms. Leaning down, he pressed a kiss to their lips, his heart swelling with a love he’d never thought he’d get to feel. Yes, the dragons—and maybe even the world—had found hope again.
And it’d all started because a man who didn’t know he was a mage went to a festival.
Burkhard Clan
Fire Dragons
Alric – King of the Fire Dragons, mate to Cameron
Baldewin – retainer, head of security, mate to Tori
Dieter – King’s advisor, mate to Lisette
Gris – head chef
Griswold – Alric’s father, killed during the Dragon War
Gunter – retainer, royal researcher, mate to Nikki
Johanna – Alric’s mother, killed during the Dragon War
Karl – mate to Melissande
Menno
Ranulf – castle handyman
Ravi – retainer, personal guard for Rodrigo, mate to Sora
Sandor
Sasha – guard, mate to Cassie
Warin – retainer, guard, mate to North