Smitten (19 page)

“They look delicious. How did you know I liked spicy shrimp?”

“Because you like spicy everything,” the girl explained with a giggle.

“She burned the first ones,” Svetlana revealed, peeking from around Astrid’s back. “Then Papa had to eat all of them so she wouldn’t cry.”

“You weren’t supposed to tell!”

“But it was funny!”

Max laughed at the expression on Astrid’s face. Her cheeks were mottled pink and red, and her lips were pouted out. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, Astrid. There’s a reason why I don’t do my own cooking,” he told her.

“Then it’s good you’re going to have a chef.” She leaned in and lowered her voice. “Grandma doesn’t cook either. It always comes out gross.”

“I heard that.” Ēostre laughed and claimed the first shrimp skewer. “However, you speak the truth, little one. I suppose I will need to take lessons.”

For Max, dinner passed with more questions than actual feasting, but he didn’t mind a second of it. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d spent an evening surrounded by close friends and loved ones, and the more he pondered it, the more apparent the answer became. Never.

“Can I come to your office to watch you work before you leave for Washington?” Astrid asked. “I can help out with whatever you need.”

“Yes, you may, and of course once I’m inaugurated in Washington, you’ll be able to come visit there as well,” Max said. “It should be educational for you at least.”

“Sweet!” Her bright blue eyes filled with delight. “Can I see inside the manor? Is part of it still a museum?”

“It is, my sweet. I only reside in a portion of the actual governor’s mansion. The rest remains untouched as a part of history,” he explained.

Within moments, Max and Astrid had made plans to visit a variety of museums, government offices, and landmarks in the nation’s capital.

Chloe shot him an exaggerated dirty look, feigning insult. “You didn’t invite me.”

“You’re not my new grandchild,” he teased, “but you and Saul are welcome to accompany Astrid. There’s room for all of you, including Leiv, Mahasti, and Svetlana.”

Leiv, apparently startled by the invitation, inhaled a bite of steak.

“Excellent. What Leiv wishes to say is that we would be happy to visit,” his wife said for him. The bear shifter nodded a couple times and coughed into his fist, red-faced.

“Yes!” Svetlana cheered. “Hey. Do I get to call you Grandpa, too?”

Saul grunted, mock scowling at the two girls. “Neither of you ever ask to come to work with me. Don’t you love the movie studio?”

“I still love you and the studio, Daddy. Grandpa Max is just more interesting,” Astrid said.

Joining Leiv in a near-death dinner experience by choking on her wine, Chloe set the glass aside and coughed a few times into her hand. Saul’s scandalized look made it better. Shifters and children made for dangerous dinner partners.

“Oh, oh! Grandpa Max, I want see your dragon! Mom said you were going to give me lessons for my fire, and you’re the only member of the family I’ve never seen in their true form. Are you really going to give me lessons?”

“I am,” he agreed amiably, chuckling at her enthusiasm. “Your grandmother has asked me to teach you as I once taught your father and mentored him. Using one’s breath weapon requires great focus and power, but you seem to have acquired a fair amount of your grandmother’s magic, too.”

“I did?”

“Yes, my sweet. Which is why I plan to let you fight me.”

“Max,” Chloe began, “I don’t know if she’s ready to fight an adult dragon.”

Maximilian chuckled at the woman’s natural protectiveness. “It’s only practice. Astrid will have a chance to stretch her claws, so to speak. Years ago during less civilized times, she would have begun to learn to defend herself from the time of her birth. A dragon cub can slaughter a human with ease.”

Saul took Chloe’s hand and kissed her knuckles. “He’s an excellent teacher, my love. I was a bit of a slow learner when it came to my breath, but Maximilian had me up to par in weeks. I trust him with Astrid’s well-being.”

“Well. All right. It isn’t that I distrust him, it’s…” Chloe sighed and waved them off with her hand. “Give me a moment for my meal to settle. I’ll fetch my camera before you begin rampaging in the fields or whatever.”

“I’ll meet both of you outside. Come Ēostre, you should join us. Perhaps you and I should do this instead.”

Ēostre’s startled eyes darted to Max. “Oh, I don’t know—”

“C’mon,” Max insisted again, nudging her with his arm. As she began to relent, he dropped his voice to a whisper. “We’ll put on a show for Astrid, and I’ll even let you kick my ass since she’s never seen a good battle. What do you say?”

“I say I could kick your ass whether you allowed it or not.”

Max raised a brow, intrigued by her mounting display of confidence. He’d always loved that about Ēostre, admiring her spirit. “Is that a bet?”

“Do you remember what happened last time we placed a wager, Belenos?”

He grimaced at the memory. While the moments on the beach with her had been precious to him, he hadn’t forgotten the uncomfortable scrap of material tugging its way uncomfortably into the wrong places. “Then prove it,” he challenged.

“Gladly.”

Max tipped back the rest of his wine and grinned as he stood. “Thank you for this excellent meal, Chloe.”
Hopefully I haven’t enjoyed too much of it to hold my own against Ēostre,
he thought.

***

They met outdoors in a wide-open space where the ground had been razed and leveled. To reach it, Max walked briskly past the field where Brigid met her end, discovering the wound, even seventeen years later, was much too raw to look upon it.

Max and Saul chatted amicably while he stripped and set his clothes on the fence, but the latter opted to remain in his human form.

“I haven’t overstepped my bounds, have I?” Max asked him. He transitioned to his natural state, shedding the human flesh in favor of tough, ember-colored hide. His wings flexed then unfurled, spreading vibrant feathers with ruby plumage toward the sky.

Saul shook his head. “Hardly. I may have taught her to fly, but that seems to be where the line should be drawn. We haven’t had any luck, aside from a few sparks.”

Maximilian stretched out his claws and raked them over the hard-packed soil, thrilled for the chance to adopt his dragon form. The opportunities didn’t come often lately. While they waited, he enjoyed the cool November air against bare skin. No matter the time he spent in human garments, he never quite adjusted to their changing styles of clothing.

Ēostre and Astrid, both as dragons, joined them a few minutes later. As an older girl, Astrid had developed a human’s modesty and shyness, so all of the male shifters in her life always respected her privacy by vacating the area for her to shift, if she hadn’t already shifted elsewhere. Max’s eyes were for his new mate alone, however, roaming over Ēostre’s sleek, silver body in appreciation.

My Ēostre is beautiful. I must carve another sculpture of my beloved to capture her radiance as she is now.

“Grandpa Max is bigger than Daddy!” Astrid exclaimed as she bounded up, resembling an energetic pup.

Saul grumbled.

“Indeed, I am, little one. But I am also older and adult dragons do not cease growing until we near our first millennia.”

“How old are you and Grandma?”

“Very old,” he said.

Astrid sulked, dissatisfied with the vague answer. “You don’t look old.”

“We both have many years left, Astrid. Be content with that. Now, are you ready?”

“Yes!”

“Now… I wish for you to imagine you are striking a match.”

An hour later, Chloe was shivering with a shawl around her shoulders while Saul and Ēostre speculated from the sidelines.

“Perhaps she isn’t yet ready,” Saul said.

“There is always the possibility Astrid will never acquire the talent for using dragon’s breath,” Ēostre pointed out, reluctance in her voice. “We shouldn’t push her too hard when we don’t know how she’ll develop.”

“Please. If none of you will be quiet, I’ll have to ask you to leave,” Max said.

Astrid’s face scrunched in concentration, giving her a comical expression. She coughed, cleared her throat, and made a few raspy, dry noises in a desperate attempt to produce flames. When nothing happened, her expression fell.

They’ve made her nervous. It’s no wonder Saul has made little progress,
Max realized. He would have to forbid them from attending again.

“Forget them,” he told her in a low, quiet voice. “Right now it’s just you, me, and the target. Focus on the hay bale, little one. Visualize your inner spark and see it growing. What’s your favorite color?”

“Gold,” she whispered.

“Then breathe in deeply as I taught you, let the air fill your lungs, and think of only gold. The hottest, purest gold. There can be no fire without air, my sweet.” He tapped her side with one of his claws. He demonstrated, taking in a deep breath, letting it expand his ribs, and then slowly releasing it in a steady stream of white smoke and fire. Astrid watched him with awe-filled eyes.

It felt like only yesterday when Saul stood in her place, sniffling and upset. Fafnir lacked both the tolerance for failure and the time to teach his own son. Ēostre, rightfully distraught by the turn of events, had visited Shasta with her cub in tow to ask for help.

All Saul had wanted was to impress his father, so much he couldn’t surpass his own anxiety to make it happen.

“Your father will be proud of you no matter what, Astrid, because he loves you and you are the most precious thing in his entire world. He may love your mother with all of his soul, but you are the true reason his heart beats. Remember that,” he said in her ear before stepping back. “Exhale.”

Astrid’s attention darted to Saul. He smiled back at her, warm, welcoming, and with nothing but love in his eyes. Max waited beside her with his own breath held. For her, he maintained his composure, exuding nothing but patience, the direct opposite of the three observers.

All of the air compressed from the cub’s lungs at once in a single determined breath. One lightning bolt flashed amidst an explosive jet of gold flames. Chloe squealed and raised her camera.

“Oh my God, she did it!”

The hay bale they’d set up for a target remained intact, but the fence behind it didn’t fare so well. Her breath weapon blasted a large hole in the wood and sent flaming splinters flying through the air. Astrid ducked her head and sniffled.

“Don’t be discouraged. You did fine.”

“I set the fence on fire,” she sulked.

“Yes, you did. But you called on your fire — an incredibly large amount of fire, I might add — so that’s progress. Next time we’ll work on your
aim
.”

“You mean, you’ll still train me?”

Max ducked his head down and rubbed his cheek against hers in affection. “Of course I will, Astrid. I promised, didn’t I? And I always keep my promises.”

She peeked upward at him, the sadness leaving her face to be replaced with hope. “Are you still going to show me a fight?”

“Do you still want to see one?” he countered playfully.

“Yes!” she cried, the sparkle returning to her eyes.

“Go join your parents then. Ēostre! We’re up.”

The corner of Ēostre’s tooth-filled mouth raised then she prowled forward, her white talons clicking against pebbles and hard bits of rock in the barren soil. Her wings folded close as she assumed her battle stance and tilted her head to watch him, sizing him up, trying to predict his movements.

“We will be cautious with our dragon’s breath,” Max said. “I don’t want to cause you harm.”

“Nor do I want to harm you, my mate. I will pull my punches, so to speak, and tone down my assault. Your hide is too handsome to be covered in scars,” she teased.

“No magic,” he said.

“Of course. I want to play with you — not harm you. What good are you to me broken?”

Despite their agreement, it was still bound to be one exciting practice round.

Max lunged to her right side and feinted with his right claw. He snapped his teeth at the base of her wing when she writhed to the side to avoid him, only for Ēostre to roll out of the way. She sprang up again before his claws even hit the ground. She struck like a cobra and was on his back, hissing and growling before he flung her off.

Shit!
Ēostre was faster than he remembered. He exhaled a line of fire to ward off her ferocity.

It worked. She shrank back from the flames, giving Max the opportunity to steal the upper hand. He dove through them toward Ēostre and hit her with his bulk, winding her. If she’d been anyone else, they would have gone at one another for blood. Instead, they writhed and wrestled across the ground, laughing when Ēostre snuck in a thwack with her tail.

From the edge of his vision, he saw Astrid watching with rapt attention from her father’s side. The two elders separated, Ēostre scrambling to place distance between them while Max kept her in his line of sight.