Page 42 of Destined Paranormals: Volume One

“We do fly around, yes, but most of our time has been spent here working on the cottage. It won’t be ready before the baby arrives, but when the temperature warms up, we could be here on our own. I hope you don’t mind staying with my fathers for a bit longer.”

They were building us a cottage. “Wait. You said glass. Where did you…how?” Egon had glass in his cottage windows. It was a nice addition and allowed light in from outside in the long winter, whereas the houses in my village all had to have the windows boarded up.

“The same way Da got glass for his cottage windows. When he and Father were gone for a few days last month?”

I nodded.

“They not only purchased you some clothing and the cloth for new things but ordered the glass for the windows. A stove and tub as well.”

I couldn’t believe I was going to have such luxuries in my own cottage. They had done that? For us?

“Why didn’t they say anything?”

“Because to them, it isn’t a big deal. You are family. You are my mate, and although they would be perfectly happy with us never leaving the other cottage, they understand we would like our own place.”

Aleric’s family, mine now, had been so welcoming and accepting. From the very beginning, they’d accepted me, treated me as one of their own, and did whatever they could to help me settle here.

I took several deep breaths and leaned back into my mate when he wrapped his arms around my shoulders.

“They love you, Konrad. Just as I knew they would. Hindsight being what it is, I should have already had a place of my own. We have been here many years, but I never bothered to work on my own place.”

“Why didn’t you?”

Aleric was quiet for a moment, and I knew he was collecting his thoughts. “I did not think I would stay here, to be honest.”

That shocked me. I turned and looked at my mate.

“I only came for the same reasons you experienced. There were so many people there. I knew it was best to leave. Safer. My father dreamed of a place. A mountain to the west. Here we are. But there was nobody here, and since I did not find my mate here as I’d hoped, I didn’t think it necessary.”

I looked out at the mountain through the cracks in the logs of the cottage. We were certainly on top of a mountain.

“I had a similar dream to Father’s. One that was of a gorgeous man with icy-blue eyes, and he needed my help. Even in my dream, my dragon recognized you as my mate. I dreamed of you chained to a wall. A voice, soft and feminine, called out go to him. I left as soon as I could. You already know this though.”

I did. He had shared it with me before we flew across the ocean. I had no idea who had sent him those dreams, but I was thankful they had.

“What are your plans for the house?” I asked, hoping to pull my thoughts away from the time I’d spent chained and in captivity.

Aleric looked at me. “I was thinking we could do it a lot like the other cottage. At least for starters.” Aleric turned me to the right. “I was thinking we could put our room over there.” He spun us around to face the other side. “Then we could put the baby’s room over there.”

I looked over my shoulder and raised an eyebrow at my mate. “You want the baby’s room all the way across the cottage from us?”

“No?”

“No. It would have been easier if you had put the door off to a side instead of centered in the front. But how about we put them on the side with us?”

Aleric looked at me in disbelief. “You want the children next to us?”

It was so difficult to not laugh. It really was. It would never work, and I knew it. The cottage was not deep enough to allow for two bedrooms on one side.

“Not that, then?” I asked.

“I was rather hoping we could have our own side of the house. I will love our sons, but I would like a bit of privacy with you.”

Aleric looked so downtrodden about the entire thing I could not help but laugh. I hugged my mate, then pulled away from him. I walked over to where the other bedroom would go and stood. “Baby’s room.” I walked to the front of the house on the same side. “Washroom.” I moved back to the center and gestured to the space in the middle. “Great room.” I walked to the far right side of the cottage, and facing my mate, I held my arms out to my sides. “Our space.”

Aleric smiled.

“That sounds like a good plan.”