Victoria was being driven in a separate car, to give her one last chance to ask questions, or even back out with only a minor penalty this early in the game.
Jose dug his nails into his thigh. She'd better not run away. Even if it was against the terms of the agreement, he would try chasing after her.
He wanted to growl but didn't want to alarm Ashley. So he went back to tapping his fingers and remembering his little human licking that cookie, showing him what she'd do with his cock.
A cock that hadn't stopped being hard since he'd first been alone with her.
Ashley snorted from the driver's side. "For someone who was so reluctant not a few hours ago, you're all but bursting to get there and be with her, aren't you?"
He looked at her askance. "Isn't that a good thing?"
After a beat, Ashley asked, "Is she your true mate? If so, you should tell her. I've been working with ADDA for nearly ten years, and if you want any chance of a future with a human, you have to tell her."
"I will."
Ashly tapped the steering wheel. "So she is, then. That's only the second time that's happened from the lotteries, that I recall."
He knew that and had rather hoped his sister would be the one to find her true mate, not him.
But now he'd seen and talked with Victoria, there was no fucking way he was going to let her go.
They finally arrived at the outer gates of the cabin—or, rather, he thought of it as a small compound—and were let inside a minute later. When Ashely finally pulled in front of the large, rustic-looking building and turned off the engine, she turned partway toward him. "I mean it, tell her before you kiss her. Otherwise, you could face the worst kind of hell. She could choose to remain on PineRock with the child and pick another dragonman to act as the father. And you could do nothing about it."
He grunted. "I get it, okay? It may be hard to believe, but most of the time, we function perfectly well without the American Department of Dragon Affairs telling us what to do. I don't need babying."
"Maybe not, but I'm just trying to be nice here. I've seen a dragonman whose true mate refused him, and he's still in pure hell, five years later. Even though I wouldn't say I love your sparkling personality, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
Jose knew who she was talking about, everyone in PineRock did. Cole lived in near isolation, taking every fucking risk he could with the rescue teams and firefighters in the area, almost as if he were hoping fate would kill him and end his misery.
"I know." He paused and muttered, "Thank you."
"See, that wasn't so hard, was it? You were nice and didn't even burst into flames."
Rolling his eyes, he opened the door. "I'm leaving now."
"And I'll be counting down the days until the frenzy is over. Maybe I'll even get my fiancé to bake you a super cute cake to celebrate fatherhood, one filled with adorable baby tokens and lots of flowers. Pink ones that sparkle? Right?"
Flipping her the bird, h
e slammed the door and entered the cabin. He had another five or ten minutes before Victoria arrived.
If she arrived.
His beast growled. She'll be here.
Since he thought so, too, Jose went to work getting everything ready. He wasn't going to waste time once his human arrived. And even if he could be a surly bastard, Jose knew a little seduction never hurt.
And so he went to work.
Victoria stood in front of the cabin, her jaw dropped, trying to even rationalize how anyone would call it such a thing.
The house was rustic, looking like a log cabin, but it was three-stories tall and bigger than the house she'd grown up in. Hell, bigger than any house on her entire street.
Did they provide a house this size so that they had room to ignore each other if they started to get on one another's nerves? Otherwise, she couldn't imagine why it wouldn't be a small cabin. It'd be cozy and romantic. The perfect place to get to know the dragonman.
Then she remembered that romance wasn't a requirement of the deal.
The ADDA employee who'd driven her to the cabin honked her horn, reminding Victoria that she wouldn't leave until she was inside.