He chuckled and wiped his forehead wearily. “Son, you’ve got to deal with that. Carla is going to feed all of us whether we like it or not.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think I’m going to set my alarm for earlier tomorrow.”
“What got her embarrassed?” Perry asked just as James asked a question of his own.
“Why are you so touchy?”
I fidgeted with a loose thread on the corner of a cushion. “The answer to those questions is sort of the same. The server at the diner at lunch gave Kara a hard time.”
Perry exchanged a glance with James. “About what?”
“Kara is tomboyish. She’s not the frilly type,” I explained.
James nodded. “I’ve known her for several years. She’s just a year or two younger than Maddox, and I know her dad. Foster dad, I mean.”
Foster dad. “She was a foster kid?” That must’ve been what Cynthia had meant about Kara’s mom.
James pursed his lips. “I’ll let her tell you about that when she’s ready. But she’s a good kid, always was. She’s just a little plain of dress. Nothing wrong with it.” He nodded once as if that settled it.
“I like it.” The words slipped out of my mouth unintentionally. Both uncles waited for further explanation. “I just mean that I’m not into high-maintenance women. Anyway, it embarrassed her. We ended up leaving the diner and eating sandwiches on the tailgate of her truck. When I went to throw our trash away, I ran into the woman that was mean to Kara, and something really strange happened.”
“What?” James asked.
I hoped they’d understand. Maybe one of their dragons had done the same at some point. “Valor… he sort of took over. He told the woman to stay away from me and Kara both, and the sound of a dragon’s voice coming out of my mouth scared the shit out of her. She almost fell trying to get away.”
James and Perry exchanged another look, this time with big grins on their faces.
“What?” I asked. “What’s so funny? I’m not smiling.”
I didn’t see much to be happy about. I’d scared Cynthia to death and learned Valor could absolutely take over if he wanted to. This was a relatively low-key situation. In something highly dramatic, who knew what he might do?
“Son,” James said. “Kara is your fated mate. Valor will do damn near anything to keep her happy.”
This is true.
I scowled at both of them and raised my voice a bit. “What the hell is it about Black Claw and fated mates?”
My attention was pulled to the doorway behind me, from the kitchen. I’d heard the back door open and shut in the kitchen a moment ago but had ignored it. Maddox and Jury walked in with big sandwiches in their hand. They looked a lot tastier than the ones I’d eaten from the grocery store. If I’d known I’d be home so early, I would’ve waited and eaten Carla’s excellent food instead.
“Yeah,” Maddox said. He grabbed one of the empty chairs nearby. “I know they say it’s a pack’s strength, but seriously? Every Kingston in town that wasn’t already married is mated.”
“Which was just you and Mom,” Jury pointed out.
James and Carla weren’t technically fated mates, but they’d been married since they were young and were more in love than most anyone I’d ever known. They didn’t seem to care one bit that they weren’t fated to be together. I found myself wishing many times that I’d been raised here. Not that I didn’t love my Uncle Perry and Gramps or anything.
“That’s all it boils down to,” James said. He leaned his elbows on his knees. “The stronger a pack, the stronger our magic. It makes our dragons able to recognize compatible mates. Otherwise, we might still have ended up with the same women, just without the added benefit of our dragons recognizing they are our most perfect match. I believe that Carla is mine.” He smiled. “And I dare any of you to disagree. I’ll tell her you did.”
The three of us burst out laughing. “We wouldn’t dream of disagreeing with that,” Jury exclaimed.
When the laughter died down, Jury plopped down beside me on the couch. “Dad, I am curious though, why did you never tell me this was a possibility? Why don’t more packs talk about it?”
James shrugged. “I didn’t see it as being likely to happen. Packs much larger than our own have not gone through this. It’s got to do with our familial bond, our trust in each other, that sort of thing.”
Perry nodded. “We haven’t seen anything like this back in Arizona, and we’re easily three times the size of the Black Claw clan.”
That was true. We had cousins everywhere back home. And even still, we weren’t the largest pack in the States. And I’d never, ever heard of this happening anywhere else. “Is it possible word will get out and other dragons will try to move here?” I asked.
Perry shook his head. “Outside of those dragons that live here, few know about it. Dragons guard their mates possessively, even when they aren’t fated. If we’re lucky, it won’t get out. If it does, we might have loner dragons trying to join up. But that’s just not how it works. They could move into the area and still not find their mate if they aren’t in tune with the pack.”
“So, I’m in tune with the Black Claw dragons?” I asked, shocked.
James nodded and a smile spread across his face. “You are, my boy. It’s why we decided to give you the ability to work for your inheritance. If you hadn’t shown personal inner growth, the kind we can’t see, you never would’ve found Kara.”
That sucked. I’d never had any intention of staying in Black Claw. The appearance of Kara hadn’t changed my mind. Valor might’ve thought she was perfect, but I very much doubted she had any interest in going up and living all alone on the mountain with me.
And no matter what happened, I
