He silently stared at his mom, telling her not to have Victoria call her mother. Not yet, anyway.
His mom smiled back at his female. "I'm Maria. There, introductions are done. Come, I'll introduce you to my husband, Jorge, after you eat." She leaned closer. "The rest of the family will try to get some words in with you, too, but let me handle them. I'm very good at distracting them when needed."
His mother, the master manipulator.
Too bad it was true, at least when it came to their family
He moved to take Victoria's hand, but his mother came between them. "You've had her all to yourself for weeks. I can have an hour or two."
He was tempted to growl, but Victoria smiled at him. "I'll be okay for a short while. It may be easier to ask those questions you mentioned without you standing at my shoulder."
His mom looked between them. "What questions?"
He ignored her. "Are you sure?"
Victoria nodded. "I'll be fine for a little while."
Jose was torn. A dragon-shifter didn't like to leave their mate's side, especially in the early days after a frenzy. If anything went wrong and she needed a doctor, he wanted to be there to ensure she got the help she needed.
His beast grunted. But this is our family. They would never hurt her, and we'd trust them with both her life and ours.
I suppose, he muttered.
He leaned over and kissed Victoria's cheek. "I'll give you fifteen or twenty minutes, then I'm finding you again."
Before his mate could say anything else, his mother guided her away and started chattering.
His sister instantly appeared at his side, almost as if she'd been spying and waiting for him. "It's probably best this way—for Mom to take charge for introductions instead of you doing them."
He glanced at Gaby. "And will you be singing the same tune when you bring your soon-to-be guy around, after your turn with the lottery?"
His sister frowned. "If I'm that lucky."
The lottery contracts were slightly different for the female dragon candidates. They only spent time with the human males for a few days each month—during their most fertile time—and after three months, if there was no conception, the human male never had to see the female dragon-shifter again.
Jose didn't know why the rules were different, nor did he truly understand why his sister had entered in the first place. She'd made it clear for so long that she wasn't ready for children or a mate.
And yet she'd thrown her name into the lottery and nearly begged him to go along with it.
However, weeks of asking hadn't given him answers about her true motives, so he wasn't going to bring it up again. Instead, he lightly bumped his shoulder against her arm. "Well, in honor of my female's first dinner, I think tonight definitely calls for co-opting the music away from Luna, don't you think?"
His sister's eyes lit up with anticipation. "Oh, definitely. Maybe one day Luna will learn to pick something less annoying to play. It wouldn't be so bad, but she picks the same fifteen songs every damn time."
"Then lead the way, little sister. You know how Luna's mind works better than I do, which means you probably know where she keeps her phone."
"I have a few ideas, although she keeps coming up with new ones." Gaby rubbed her hands together in anticipation. "Let's do this."
As he followed his sister to find the secret location of Luna's phone—which controlled the
music via a Bluetooth connection to the speakers—his thoughts still went back to Victoria. His mate was being brave, but he hoped it didn't send her into a panic. The Santos extended family was colorful, to say the least.
His dragon huffed. Have faith in Mom.
In any other circumstance, he would in a heartbeat. However, his newfound protectiveness was hard to shake off.
Then Gaby picked up her pace and he pushed it aside temporarily. He'd find his mate soon enough. And for the moment, he could work on changing the music to something Victoria could at least understand.
Victoria kept waiting for the panic to creep up on her. She'd learned early, at her first kindergarten play in elementary school, that she didn't like being surrounded by strangers. The walls would start to close in on her, it'd get hard to breathe, and she'd eventually freeze up. Time had shown it wasn't merely stage fright, but that it happened anywhere and everywhere.