Page 8 of Matched By the Dragon

“You keep your wolf man away from my ears!” he said, half growling.

“Well, worry about working shit out with your own mat---” Bennie said but his words cut off because Raziel pinched his thigh. “Don’t you pinch me!”

“Mind where we are,” he said, glancing around the restaurant full of diners as if they were spies sent to take him out.

“Mind your business before you go minding everyone else’s then,” Bennie said, his eyes shifting to that of his tiger.

If Brad didn’t live so far out in the boonies, I’d have walked back because it looked like the dragon and the tiger might come to blows any second now.

“When I can tell you s-h-i-t, you’re going to facepaw!” Raziel rolled his eyes.

“I… Raziel, this isn’t the time to spring new things on Brad.”

“I don’t think you should speak for Brad,” Raziel said, standing up.

“No, I think Brad might agree with him,” I nodded. “Look, I’m not mad, because I’m used to stuff sucking, but Brad… He tried to beat me with a walking stick. He even got a few whacks in. So, I think for him it’s bad timing. Me? It’s whatever.”

Bennie and Raziel shared a look that made me worry. How much had Star told them about me? How much of it was just my hyper vigilant state since meeting my mate?

“You’re allowed to be mad at him,” Bennie said, looking at me. “Just because he’s Star’s son doesn’t mean anything.”

“Oof!” one of the babies growled and Raziel handed them the other half of their burgers. I looked down to see that somewhere along the way they’d both shifted into their tiger cub forms. They were big boys, but adorable as they gnawed on their burger patties.

“I’m not mad at him. I’m not mad at anyone. He was worried about Brad. I’m worried about Brad except that he seems to be doing fine on his own. It’s other people that stress him out and I’m starting to relate.”

“Hey!” Raziel said.

“There you go,” Bennie said.

I was talking about both of them and the way they bickered, but it wasn’t worth pointing out. They were Brad’s friends and I’d learn to put up with them. The guys probably weren’t as annoying as they seemed right now. I missed Brad and was more confused than ever about what to do for him.

“Food’s ready,” Bennie said, glancing at his phone. I stood up to go get it, but he was already swatting Raziel’s hand off the stroller and headed up to the pickup counter.

“He’s a good dad,” Raziel said. “Alby has a rule right now that the babies can only be alone with them or with their parents or his own grandparents. No one else has passed the test. It’s a bit out there but I get it. Plus, they’re not my babies.”

“And it’s not for any of the reasons you think either, Raz,” Bennie came back balancing a cardboard box full of takeout on the stroller’s handles. I grabbed it and headed out to the car with the other men on my heels.

“It doesn’t matter why the rule is there. If their carrier feels it’s necessary…”

“It’s not just Alby. We were making a list and we both vetoed a lot of other people from each other’s lists. So in the end, it was just us and our parents plus Clyde and Ashley,” Bennie said.

“Is that why you gave that fox a dirty look?” I asked him.

“Oh, him? No. We went to school with him. He grew into one of those people who want to touch everyone’s babies and my kids don’t know him. He’s not touching them,” Bennie said.

“Set his tail on fire,” Raziel mumbled.

“Are you coming back with us?” Bennie asked Raziel.

“No, I’m meeting Dad for lunch,” he said.

Bennie hit a button on his keys that unlocked the car and then hugged Raziel.

“Take care of my godbabies,” Raziel said.

“Take care of my best friend. He’s starting to be a bit of a self-destructive dragon,” Bennie said.

“He’s doing his best,” Raziel laughed as they let go of each other.