Page 7 of A Little Elfin' Around
Chapter Four
“Why again are we tearing across the sky to see a woman who was so absolutely thrilled you were back after all these years that after one glimpse of your handsome face she was shrieking like Bella the Banshee and hanging up on you faster than a cat can climb a tree with a hound dog on his ass?”
Although Mick was right, and I knew he meant well – or at the very least Ihopedhe had my best interests at heart since he was my younger brother - I couldn’t help but be pissed. I needed his support, not a commentary on the things that had gone wrong thus far in my yet-to-be relationship with the wonderful, amazing, and fantastic Ella Brown. I wanted – no, check that, Ineededall the good will, positive vibes, and shit tons of hope I could get. The rest of the day had not gone as I’d planned. My whole future was at stake. I wasn’t too proud to say that I wanted what Nate and Molly had and was willing to do whatever I had to in order to get it.
But did Mick give me a break? Offer a pep talk? Even just keep his mouth shut?
Nope. No. And hell no. Instead, he did what brothers do, and gave me a load of BS.
And what made it worse was that Mick knew damned good and well my ego was bruised, my manly pride was wounded, and my Dragon was more than a little cranky. He knew better than anyone else alive that I’d been thinking about Ella for every hour of every day that I wasn’t with her because for all those years, he’d been the one forced to listen to me prattle on and on and on about her.
Yes, it was true, Ella had been called to her cabin in the woods, the home of the Keeper of the Christmas Star to take her rightful place among the most renowned Brown Witches and light the North Star for Santa’s yearly sojourn about a month before Grandad came knocking on the door. But not even that had diminished my belief that we would be together. No, at that point, I didn’t have a clue how I was going to convince her parents, seventeen aunties, and Granny Brown to let me – a Null, or so we all thought at the time – be the Mate of their beloved Ella, but I was going to give it one helluva college try and then some.
So, when Grandad showed up, whisked us off to the Isle of Skye and announced that we were Dragon Guardsmen, the first words I uttered were,“Now, I can be with Ella and no one can stand in the way. Can I go home and tell her?”
The answer was no, and that was okay. I had a lot to learn, loads of growing up to do, and more than a little soul searching to get through to be the man Ella needed me to be.
Thank the Heavens I had the proper motivation and am a quick study. Even still, it took a good many years and I was ready to claim my Mate and even more prepared to be claimed by her.
So, there I was shooting across the sky with a sarcastic brother and a bruised ego, not to mention the Mating Call – the mystical, Magical instinct that pushed a Dragon towards his one True Fated Mate and refused to give up until the couple was one in body, mind, spirit, and soul - was riding me hard. All I could think about was Ella. I needed to see her, needed to inhale her scent, needed to tell her that she was my Mate, and then needed to woo her like no one had ever wooed their Mate in the history of all time -amen.
There would be no rest until she was wearing my scent. I wouldn’t be able to think straight until she was marked as mine and me as hers.
It was as simple as the scales on the tip of my snout, I needed Ella Brown. No other would do. She was the other half of my soul, the light to my darkness, and the hope that would keep my heart beating and my wings flapping.
I had to believe she felt it, too. Refused to contemplate any other reason for her cute-as-the-day-is-long freak out when I got on the phone just a few hours earlier.
Why hadn’t I at the very least cleared my throat or said something to give her the tiniest warning I was in the room. Just this once, I was going to trust my older brother and his very pregnant wife’s expertise in matters such as these… but only this once. I should’ve let Molly give Ella a heads-up and maybe all of this could’ve been avoided.
However, hindsight is twenty/twenty and not even a Guardsman who shares his soul with one of the oldest, strongest, and most powerful Dragon Kings to ever live can turn back time and get a Magical do-over. So, in the meantime, I was going to give Mick just as much shit as he was giving me while racing across the sky to the home of the woman – the famous Brown Witch and Keeper of the Christmas Star – that I loved with all my heart.
“Why? Did you really just ask me why?”Pausing for effect, but not long enough for Mick to interrupt, I picked up right where I left off.“Let’s see, since I told you that I have a bad feeling. That something – I don’t know what – but something has happened, and Ella needs me. I’ll make it as clear as possible. My Mate is in trouble. I can feel it in every beat of my heart, the heat of my Fire, the very center of my soul, but you keep asking me the same stupid question. So, I’m gonna change it up. I’m gonna give you the stupidest explanation I can think of and pray that it sinks into that thick skull of yours and keeps your crazy brain so busy that you can’t give me anymore grief. We left the Swamp and headed north because I like having frost weighing down my wings. The icicles hanging from my Dragon’s gangoolies add a whole new sensation to flying. And let us not forget, I enjoy listening to you bitch even more than I like hearing Nate and Molly making kissy noises or talking about babies. It’s almost as much fun as inhaling the scent of dill pickle frosted sugar cookies and flower garden tea. Hell, it’s as much fun as diving for cover when Cleo, our sister-in-law’s Familiar dressed as a demonic black cat from Hell comes flying off the top of that obscenely huge Grandfather clock that chimes every seven minutes. Any more questions, Genius?”
“Okay, so maybe I have been a bit naggy since we left the Manor.”
“A bit?”
“Yes, a bit, Asshole,”Mick sighed.“And that’s all you’re gonna get. So, tell me again how this whole Mating Bond thing works. Do you expect me to believe that it’s real and not just some mumbo-jumbo cooked by the Elders, the Ancients, or the Mage to make us less resistant to Mating? Like a propagation of the species technique?”
“Propagation? Wow, I’m impressed.”
“Shut up, Butthead. I know shit. Anyway, like I was saying, I mean, I know what happened with Nate, but he’s had the hots for Molly since they were little kids. The rest of us, well, like I said, we’re more resistant to the whole forever love, happily ever after, babies, and all that happy horse shit. We’re younger. We’ve got time.”
“Who said any of us are resistant to Mating? Where do you get your information? Did you get hit in the head with something out at the homestead? Lose your memory? Do you not remember what Grandad said? Nobody knows when the Mating Call will happen. We can be any age. The Universe created our perfect Mate and when the time is right, we will know and there will be no denying it.”
“No, I did not lose my memory or any of the other shit you just said,”Mick scoffed, his irritation just as loud as his voice in my head.“It just seems, well, ummm, look at what Nate went through and now what you’re going through. Having a Mate just seems like a pain in the ass.”
I didn’t even try to keep the groan out of my voice.“Dude, you really need to pay better attention. None of this is a pain in the ass. I love Ella with all my heart and that’s all there is to it. No trouble at all. Going without our Magic and the link to our Dragons for all those years because our parents were psychotic felons, now that was a pain in the ass. I mean, come on, have you ever seen Nate happier?”
“No, but tell me the truth, can you really feel what Ella feels? Hear her thoughts? I mean…”
“You mean you weren’t paying the slightest bit of attention to Granddad and the Elders when they were explaining all this stuff and the only books in that huge library you even bothered to crack open were about weaponry, battle strategy, and modern warfare and you’re wondering if you should be feeling what Violet’s feeling?”
“Oh, no, I read more books than that. You know I was forced. I even perused the one titled, Liam Archer is an Asshole,”my younger brother grumbled.“It was riveting but incomplete. So, I added a chapter at the end stating that not only are you a know-it-all butthead, but you tend to get as bitchy as Cupid with three arrows left on February fifteenth when anyone dares to question your judgement – especially where Ella Brown is concerned.”
A huff and a sigh and a thinly veiled growl and Mick went right back to it.“Maybe I should just turn around and go back to the house. Leave you to deal with whatever you think might be happening all on your own. Dealing with the twenty-four/seven love fest and waiting for my half-Dragon/half-Witch niece or nephew to be born has got to be better than hanging out with you when you’re worried. You remind me of Grandma Mary Belle. I miss her homemade biscuits and sausage gravy, but not the daily reminder to pay attention, never disconnect from my Dragon and always stay in mental contact with you and the others. That woman was the epitome of a mother hen.”
“She damned sure was. I can’t wait for her to meet Ella. They are gonna love one another from the get-go.”