Page 79 of The Platinum Dragon's Courageous Mate

He knew it was greedy, but it just smelled like hot oil heaven.

“Of course you can.” Lachlan ordered for them, his voice booming over the crowd.

They also got a couple of empanadas because they were filled with the apple pie filling, which was stuffed with cinnamon.

As soon as they sat down, they were mobbed by other people and the parade of costumes made them exclaim and clap and compliment. Micah slept through it all, his earlier excitement having worn him out. Wiver curled around their feet, staying out of the way, and Kieran had to admit he was impressed by him because he had worried he’d trip people up.

Finally he groaned down to his belly and leaned back against Lachlan’s shoulder, feeling sleepy. “Oh that was so good, that was perfect, thank you.”

“You’re welcome love. Did you want to play any games or are we just going to wait for the costume contest?”

“Can we come back to that question? There might be time for games, but right now I’m so full I’m sleepy.”

Lachlan wrapped an arm around him. “If you need to have a little bit of a nap, just lean on me and doze. I promise I’ll keep you safe.”

“You always do.” He snuggled right up next to Micah, letting Lachlan hold them both, and dozed until it was time to announce the winner of the costume contest. All of the kids who had entered did a little parade for them, and he had to clap his hands and laugh.

He couldn’t remember ever being happy, feeling so connected to this place.

Somehow, finally, he was home. Home. Born, mated, and happy

Chapter

Twenty-Three

Lachlan hadn’t looked forward to the holiday season so much in decades, he thought. Definitely not over the last five or six years. Before he’d come to Oro Escondido, he had been so incredibly harried and stressed and busy all the time. He hadn’t been able to enjoy them even with his brother Bryant. After he’d come to Oro, he’d been scarred and injured and sad.

This year, he felt like he could take on the world. He had his mate to help him plan family things at their home. He had Micah to give gifts to and experience wonder with. And he had Alban, who was the perfect house dragon for them, helping them plan menus and find the Christmas decorations.

Not that they would decorate the tree until right after Thanksgiving, but it was coming and Lachlan felt anticipation welling up in his chest every day.

“We’ll have to go look for a tree soon,” he told Kieran a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Kieran’s eyes went wide. “We’re not going cut one down are we? I don’t like the idea of killing trees just for the yule.”

“Oh no of course not. We’ll go to Joe Garza’s lot. He has trees in pots and then we can plant it after Christmas.”

Kieran relaxed. “Oh, that makes me feel better. You scared me.”

“No love, on this we’re aligned. No killing trees for our decorations. Yule is supposed to be about bringing back the light.”

Kieran chuckled softly. “No wonder it’s my birthday, hmm?”

Lachlan loved that his mate was the embodiment of light, and he was excited to celebrate the holiday and Kieran all at the same time.

Kieran’s birthday was going to be a separate party, one that celebrated his sweet love and the light that he brought into Lachlan’s life.

“So what’s on the agenda today, love?” Kieran stretched, putting his hands on his lower back and bending, which sort of made his belly show that much more.

“I have to do some rounds and then I thought we would sit down with Alban and finish up the menu since we’re doing Thanksgiving at our house this year.” The menu was mostly finalized but they needed to make sure Alban had the last-minute requests from pretty much everyone, which was hysterical. Like they had to make sure they had the right kind of marshmallows to put on top of Lars’s sweet potatoes.

“That sounds like a good idea. I am looking forward to all the munchies.”

Lachlan nodded. “One of the things I want to do is make sure that there’s enough for the kids to do.” He shook his head. “We do have the ball pit, but maybe some art projects, like dough ornaments or, oh, finger painting.”

Kieran shook his head. “Let’s not do finger painting. I tried that with my classes, and no.”

“Uh-oh.” He hadn’t heard about that but sometimes Kieran didn’t tell him about all the disasters. He would cherry pick one or two funny stories. Apparently art with mostly elementaryschool age kids was… messy. “Okay well maybe we should do things that don’t involve goo.”