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His gaze flickered to Spooky and the familiar watched the hardness disappear. In that moment, he looked vulnerable. It made Spooky want to scramble over the seat and plop himself into Arden's lap until the dragon felt better.
"Ardoneous!"
Spooky's concentration was stolen by the man that jogged toward the car. He'd seen him once before at the host club. In fact, he looked a lot like Arden. They both had the same tanned skin and large builds. But where Arden had salt and pepper hair, this man’s was a stark white.
Ezra. That's Arden's brother.
Gamble snickered. “Ardoneous,” he repeated. “What the hell kinda name is that?”
Spooky grinned. “Right? You’re so fancy, Ardoneous,” he chimed in. He smiled when the vulnerability fell from Arden’s face and was replaced with irritation. “Aren’t you missing like upscale clothes and a cane and top hat and shit?”
He ran away as Arden grabbed at him.At least his mood improved.Spooky let out a sigh.Thank Goddess.
Arden climbed out of the car. "Just Arden." He let his brother hug him before he pulled back and nodded to Spooky and the others. "We'll all need rooms."
Ezra peered into the car. "Wow, alright. That can be arranged. These are your employees, right?"
Arden gazed into the car and Spooky stared back at him. There was something unreadable in his eyes and the familiar had all kinds of questions for him. What went through that man's mind was a mystery.
"Something like that," Arden said. He opened the back door and waved a hand. "Come out. Ezra, can you bring some help and some black-out curtains? We need to get Eldon in as well."
"Thanks, Arden," Eldon called from the back.
The dragon grunted. Ezra hung around for a moment before he nodded and returned to the white and gold palace. Spooky used that time to climb out of the car and look around. The air was warm and humid. He preferred the city after all his time living there, but this wasn't half bad either.
Spooky made his way to Arden's side and plastered himself against the man. Arden gazed down at him and gave another caveman-like grunt.
"Use your big words," Spooky said.
"I will end your life, Spooky."
The familiar grinned. "Nah, you won't."
Arden scoffed. "Since when did you all stop fearing me?"
"When you started fucking us," Gamble said as he patted Arden's chest and grinned. "Kind of makes the murder threats seem silly."
Spooky stifled a laugh as Arden pinched the bridge of his nose. Micha snickered. One little sound and it sent Spooky over the edge. The rest of them joined in laughing until Arden growled at them.
"Enough!" he said, but he didn’t look nearly as irritated as he sounded.
"Sorry," Gamble mumbled as Arden yanked him close and glared. "I'll shut up now."
"Thank you," Arden said before he kissed the mage and released him.
Spooky thought it was cute. Arden was always so closed off and hard, but it wasn't working for him anymore. They had all seen softer sides of him and there was no way that things could go back to the way they had in the beginning. They cared about Arden and by now they all knew he cared about them too.
He looked away from Arden finally when Ezra returned with four other people. They carried a huge amount of black fabric and stretched it out over the side of the car. Eldon slipped out and stayed underneath it as they all walked up the large, stone stairs and entered the massive double doors to the palace.
"Welcome," Ezra said once they were all inside. "I have people getting rooms ready for all of you. We didn't know when you would arrive exactly or we could have been prepared."
"Don't start," Arden warned. "Just be happy I'm here."
Ezra grinned. "I am actually." His eyes roamed over the group. "And we're always happy to have visitors to Havenwood. Things have been...quiet here lately."
"Why?" Spooky asked.
He frowned. "Dragons aren't the most outgoing people. Granted, whenever we've tried, people tend to either try to hunt us down, steal from us, or manipulate us. It's made the entire kingdom suspicious of outsiders."
