When he returned, Cameron was stretched out and looking very relaxed. Alric cleaned his lover and then tucked him under the thick blankets before joining him in the bed. Cameron automatically snuggled close, wrapping his body around Alric’s, as if he were cold even though his skin was still quite warm from his earlier exertion.
“Our bed,” Cameron repeated in a whisper against Alric’s chest.
“I figured it made the most sense, sharing a room, that is,” Alric murmured.
“And saves time. That two-minute walk from my room to your room was really getting annoying,” Cameron muttered.
Alric chuckled and pinched one of Cameron’s ass cheeks. “Ass.”
Lifting his head, Cameron stared at him with a smile. “And you love me anyway.”
“I will always love you. I would love you if you were Cameron the human or Cameron the dragon. Your soul was made for mine.”
Snuggling close again, Cameron released a long, happy sigh. “I love you too, my grumpy, snuggly, overprotective, thundering dragon. Can we just stay here for the rest of the day? I know you’ve got king duties and I need to spend more time with my family, but can we just hide here for the rest of the day? You feel so nice, and I don’t ever want to move.”
Alric released one of his own sighs. “I think that sounds like a wonderful idea. I’ll have some food brought to our room later, but we’ll stay right here. We need to regain our strength for the ceremony anyway.”
Cameron’s head immediately popped up, his brows drawn to his nose in confusion. “What ceremony? I thought we did the mate bonding ceremony already.”
“We did. The ceremony is to officially make you my consort in front of the entire clan.”
The mage’s eyes were so wide they looked as if they’d fall from his head. He swallowed hard and exhaled, “Oh shit.”
“Alright, I need a debrief.” Alric panned his head to look at the full table.
Cameron wasn’t officially Alric’s consort yet, or at least they hadn’t done the official ceremony in front of the clan yet. But because they’d bonded last night, they were for all intents and purposes married. Cameron had agreed to do this, so he sat at Alric’s right hand like he belonged there, even though it made his nerves skitter a little.
In time, he hoped he’d get used to this. For now, though, he fought the butterflies currently ping-ponging around his stomach.
They had a full table of people, what Cameron thought of as the usual suspects. Dieter, Lisette, Baldewin, Ravi, Gunter—they were a given. Cassie he hadn’t expected, but she now sat opposite him at the table.
Baldewin cleared his throat and went first. “Castle security has been doubled as of last night. We’re not taking any chances right now. We’ve also posted security around the Ordensburg to protect our mages working there.”
“And how goes the repairs?”
Cameron understood not wanting to leave any signs behind of the fight, which would only cause questions. No one actively used the Ordensburg anymore. It was a historical building that sat empty. If they were quick to do the repairs, they could smooth most of this over before the nearby residents of Sonthofen caught on.
Lisette took that question. “Quite well. I estimate in another six hours, they’ll be done. We started in on them very early this morning. I do have a glamour up around the building so that from the road, nothing looks wrong.”
“Excellent.”
Cameron felt it was time he stepped up and said something instead of letting Alric handle this meeting. “What about online? Did no one notice the fireworks display of magic and fire last night and record it? I figured someone caught something on their phones and uploaded it online.”
Cassie lifted a hand. “I’m tracking that. So far, everyone’s putting it down to fireworks and weird cloud formations. A few people insist it really is a dragon in the footage, but everything caught on camera was too grainy to see properly. It’s at a distance, the magic and smoke distorted the footage, so there’s no way to really see much. I’ll keep tabs on it, if it’s alright with you guys, but I think this is heading into urban legend territory.”
He looked to Alric, double checking this was alright with him. To Cameron, it made the most sense if Cassie took this on. She was the one with the most knowledge of computers, after all.
Alric gave her a nod. “Please do. Alright, any other issues? Any complaints from Sonthofen?”
“None.” Baldewin shook his head. “No one seems to be aware we were part of last night’s chaos. Fortunately. In the eyes of the world, we’ll have this resolved before they even realize there was an issue.”
“Good. That’s the best outcome for now. I’ve spoken to Cameron about this already, but I wish for him to repeat what he saw and heard yesterday.”