Page 4 of The Nesting Life

“Maybe I should call Barry or Kodiak to go check him out. Isn’t Mori in the GGB?” I asked, scratching my beard with the hand that wasn’t still down my mate’s pants.

“Mori is in London,” Voron rolled his eyes, starting to pull away.

“Hey! Where are you going?” I groaned, scooting after him to keep my hand on his ass.

“Are you going to leave him alone and let him have his true-mate response in peace?” Voron asked.

“Yes, but I’m going to complain about it,” I admitted.

“Then get your hand out of my pants,” Voron said.

“Are you mad at me?” I asked, sliding my hand out of his pants because his scent had turned serious.

“Yes! Would you feel the need to check out this guy if he responded to one of our alpha sons?” Voron asked.

“I—”

I was a dumbass but to be fair the world was a cruel place. Not long ago ghosts murdered three people in the GGB territory. The whole of Earthside was always a badly placed sneeze from war. Statistics showed that alpha guys committed around sixty percent of violent crimes.

“You think he can’t defend himself?” Voron asked, picking up my thoughts over our mating link.

“He’s not a dragon,” I said because it was the only ground I had to stand on.

“No, but he’s my son and yours. It’s not like he has the blood of innocent little lambs in him.”

“Can I at least call Star?” I asked.

“Star already knows. Family link and all of that,” Voron huffed.

We hadn’t fought often over the years. We were fortunate and agreed on most things. Most of our arguments were petty squabbles that were usually over in a few hours. Once or twice, we argued over the kids like when I thought we should let them drive at fifteen and Voron wouldn’t hear of it. He was right. We let them drive the next year and by the end of the first week Anthony had wrapped his new car around a tree and survived with just a broken leg by the grace of the ancestors. No one drove until they reached their majority after that. Our only other big argument was about moving here. I always thought if we left the Mage Street area we’d go to the Nightshade Bear area. We found a compromise in having a house there too and due to the fact I wanted more kids. Voron only wanted to start the kid cycle over if he were close to his family. Out here in Star’s territory was the middle ground because originally he wanted to live on Hemlock Mountain.

“You’re not always right!” I grumbled.

“No, I’m not. I know that but neither are you. If he needed help we’d know. He didn’t shut down his family link because he was fighting this guy. He shut it down because he has every intention of getting laid and didn’t want you to go off like a threatened skunk making a stink about everything!”

“I am not a skunk! Take it back!” I growled.

“You’re acting like a big smelly skunk – spraying your cave-alpha attitude all over the place! It stinks, Simon! Your attitude stinks right now!” Voron stood up. “I know you’re worried. Am I worried? Yes – the normal amount. But I also know Ignatio will kick someone’s teeth in if he needs to. And he’d ask for help if he needed it. Don’t let whatever is going on inside your thick skull ruin this for him or us. This is a reason to celebrate!” he stopped talking for a second and I opened my mouth but he spoke again. “Don’t skunk up the nest around the eggs. They don’t need to be inside their eggs thinking the world is full of monsters because your scent smells like you want to eat their brother-in-law.”

“I am not a skunk! I’m not stinking up anything! And if I thought I could get a wink of sleep without you I’d storm off into the house right now!”

“But you can’t!” Voron huffed.

“No, I can’t! Would a cave-alpha admit that?!” I crossed my arms, scooting outside the eggs to lean against the edge of the nest.

“Maybe not. You’re not a cave-alpha but you’re acting like one right now. You’re lucky that I can’t sleep without you or I’d send you into the house straight out of my nest!” Voron said, his voice on the edge of a roar.

“I am lucky!” I growled under my breath. “But it doesn’t change the fact I’m worried. Aren’t you the one who always said emotions don’t have to make sense?”

“But actions do! I’m mad at you and that’s okay but if I walked over and kicked you in the chin that wouldn’t be okay in any universe! Or if I set your beard on fire!”

“You’d miss my beard and probably burn down the whole damn village because you’d sneeze at the smoke!” I pointed out.

“Oooohh! I swear one day I’m going to eat you!” he narrowed his beautiful mossy eyes on me.

“I eat you enough!”

“What? Is that what I gotta do? I gotta top you to make you see that omegas can take care of ourselves?” he asked and the color flooded unbidden into my face.