Unwanted Mates

Chapter 2

Everly was sitting at the kitchen island, cutting fruit for breakfast. Her purple fey dragon, Violet, sat on the stool beside her, begging for a bite. Everly giggled as she fed her a piece of peach.

Lucy, the Emery family cook, shook her head and laughed, “You are going to have that little thing so fat she can’t fly if you keep hand-feeding her everything she begs for.”

“Nope!” Everly giggled. “If that were the case, she would already be that way. You have no idea how much she eats besides what we put on her plate.”

“I can only imagine,” Lucy chuckled as she placed steaks in a sizzling pan. “How many steaks does your wolf want this morning?”

“Two, please,” Everly’s wolf said in her head.

“River would like two, and she even said please,” Everly replied as she began cutting another peach.

“Of course she did. River is one of the most polite wolves I have ever met. She is just like you,” Lucy said, smiling warmly. “She is polite and quiet and won’t say a word if something bothers her. So…, what is bothering you, Everly? I can feel it. You know you can tell me anything, and I will never say a thing to your parents unless it is something that will affect your health or safety. Tell me about it.”

“I’m worried about Logan,” Everly admitted. “And I’m wondering if the same thing will happen to me or if he will breeze into Obsidian and insist that I move wherever he is from. I don’t want to leave. I want to stay here and work for Emery Tech as a geologist.”

“Oh, Everly. The last thing you need to worry about is all that. You already know everyone in Obsidian, and not one of them is your mate. He will have to come here to find you if you don't stumble upon him accidentally in the city when your grandmothers drag you shopping with them,” Lucy assured her. “As for him forcing you to do anything, I do not see that happening. Not ever. Not only are you too headstrong and sure of yourself to let that happen, but your parents would never allow your mate to force you to do anything against your will.”

“I know. But it is still gnawing at the back of my mind that it could happen,” Everly said as she put the last of the fruit she was cutting into the bowl. “What else do you need help with?”

“Nothing,” Lucy said as she plated the last of the steaks. “Everything is done. I just need to load it on the cart and take it out to the table.”

“Let me help,” Everly said as she hopped off her stool and hurriedly put muffins in a basket.

“You stop that,” Lucy laughed as she snapped Everly with a hand towel. “You can go make coffee out in the dining room if you want to do something to help.”

“You got it,” Everly said.

She picked up Violet, tucking the little dragon under her arm before going to the dining room. Everly hurried to the dining room, placing Violet on her preferred chair, and quickly started the large coffee pot. She had not understood why her older family members always seemed to have a cup in their hands, but after finishing college, she understood. During her senior year, Everly felt like a cup had been glued to her hand.

Everly turned when she heard the skittering and clicking of toenails on the stairs leading down from the bedroom. She stepped to the side, allowing Vern to launch himself into the chair to sit with his mother, Violet. She shook her head at the pair as Logan entered the room. Everly could feel the sadness oozing out of him and, without hesitation, hugged her brother tightly. She nudged her aura out around him in an attempt to comfort him.

“That isn’t going to work, Evvs. But thank you for trying,” Logan said as he returned her hug.

“You’re welcome. I hate seeing you like this. You have always helped me cheer up; now, when I need to cheer you up, it isn’t working. It makes me sad to see you this sad,” Everly sighed as she released her brother.

“I know. I promise to do my best when it comes to controlling my aura today. It looks like Vern will be with me all day, and if I let it slip, he will bite me,” Logan grinned. “I’m starving. Let’s help Lucy bring breakfast to the table.”

“She chased me out and will have it out momentarily.”

As if on cue, Lucy came out of the kitchen, pushing the cart loaded with their breakfast. Everly and Logan quickly helped her unload the cart. Logan snagged one of the muffins to eat as they worked, setting the table.

“Are Lia, Will, and the girls coming to breakfast today and bringing Blueberry? I need to know what kind of plate to make for the fey dragon miscreants this morning,” Logan said through a mouth full of muffin.

“I asked, and Lia said they would eat at home this morning. She has an early student, and Willa is fussy today. They aren’t sure what will be involved to get her to calm down,” Everly sighed as she placed the steaks on the table.

“Get who calmed down?” Olivia asked as she and Tyson entered the dining room and took their usual seats.

“Willa. When I talked to Lia this morning, she said Willa woke up cranky, and they would not be joining us for breakfast,” Everly told her mother.

“I wonder if Lia would like me to pick up Isla so she and Will can focus on Willa,” Olivia questioned.

“You can ask. I’m not sure Lia had even thought of that. She sounded pretty frazzled this morning,” Everly shrugged.

Olivia opened the mink link with her oldest daughter, Lia, and asked, “Sweetheart, if you have your hands full with Willa, I can come over and pick up Isla. We can spend the day together. She has been asking me to take her for a walk in the forest, and it is a lovely day for it.”

“Thanks, Mom. That would be amazing if you could,” Lia sighed with relief through the link. “We know she needs her blood supplement, but she refuses to eat or drink anything.”

“Why don’t you bring her for breakfast? Lucy will make her anything she likes. She mentioned something about making some breakfast cookies with extra protein powder. Maybe you could get Willa to eat one of those with some chocolate milk you have added her supplement to.”

“That might work better than what we are doing. Will you tell Lucy we will be there soon?”

“Of course, sweetheart. Make sure to bring Blueberry with you. I think Violet and Vern are mad at him for not coming to see them yesterday,” Olivia laughed.

“If I do that, I will have to bring the others with us, too,” Amelia replied.

“Bring them. It isn’t like it could be any worse than when Blue and Violet hatched the clutch of eggs under Everly’s bed.”

“We will be there in a few minutes,” Amelia said before cutting the link.

Olivia smiled and announced, “Lia, Will, and the kids will be here in a few minutes. They will also be bringing their fey dragons, so you will need to add more to their plate.”

“I’m on it,” Logan said, adding more fruit to the plate for the fey dragons. He crumbled a muffin into a pile before cutting a steak into tiny pieces. “We should count our blessings that one of these little monsters hasn’t latched onto Willa yet. Three extra are bad enough.”

“Are Lia and the family joining us?” Lucy asked as she came from the kitchen with a second cart of food.

“They are, and Willa is having a rough morning. She does not want to eat anything or take her supplements. We are all hoping you might have a magic cure for that,” Olivia smiled as the cook who had become like family.

“I think I might have something that will work,” Lucy grinned. “I will get it ready so she can have it as soon as they arrive.”

“Thank you, Lucy,” Tyson said.

“It is my pleasure. I have taken care of at least four generations of Emerys, and I don’t plan on stopping anytime soon,” Lucy chuckled before returning to the kitchen.

Tyson put his arm around Olivia and pulled her close. He buried his face in her hair and inhaled her scent deeply to calm himself. He was worried about his son and now his daughter and her family. Tyson needed his mate’s scent to help him relax.

“Everything will be fine, my love. Give your granddaughters hugs when they arrive, and it will make you feel better,” Olivia said through their mate bond.

“I love you,” Tyson murmured, his face still pressed against her head.

Olivia pulled her head away to look into her mate’s eyes. “I love you, too.”

They heard the front door open, followed by the sound of a wolf trotting across the floor and the door closing behind it. Amelia’s wolf, Lily, came trotting into the dining room with Isla and Willa on her back. The girls were grinning as they stopped beside their grandparents and stretched their arms out to be taken from their mother’s back.

Tyson and Olivia were happy to oblige. Tyson took Isla, and Olivia grabbed Willa as she jumped onto her lap. Tyson gave the massive silver wolf a scratch on the head and a slice of bacon before she turned and took a bag of clothing from her mate William and went to the hall bathroom to dress.

“How are you this morning, William?” Olivia asked as he sat down at the table to wait for Amelia.

“A bit tired, but nothing I can’t handle as long as we can find a way to make Willa feel better,” William said with a tired smile.

“What’s going on with her?” Olivia said as she held a yawning Willa. “From the looks of it, you can all use a nap, and the day is just starting.”

“Willa awoke extremely early this morning, crying for no reason that we can find. That woke all of us, and unfortunately, that meant we did not get much sleep.”

“You should have called one of us. We might have been able to help,” Logan said as he looked around. “Um, where are Blue and the others?”

“They were chasing a bug toward the back of the house and are to come in the dog door when they are finished,” Amelia said as she joined her family at the table. “I swear, there are times when they are like having three extra children to raise.”

“Now you know how I felt raising you,” Olivia laughed.

Lucy walked into the dining room carrying a tray of chocolate cupcakes with extra frosting. She smiled at Isla and placed the cupcake on Tyson’s plate. Lucy patted Tyson on the shoulder and put one on Olivia’s plate for Willa.

“Those are special ones for the girls,” Lucy said with a wink. They understood that meant she had mixed blood into the cupcakes and frosting to ensure the girls got what they needed and did not taste it. “The rest are for anyone who wants one. I will bring them in shortly, along with breakfast cookies. It is a new recipe that I think you will all like.”

“What’s in the new cookies?” Everly asked with a grin.

Lucy laughed, “Everything but the kitchen sink. They have oatmeal, peanut butter, coconut, dark chocolate, almonds, and sea salt. There might be a few things in them that I’m forgetting.”

“Do you need any help, Lucy?” Logan asked.

“Thank you, but no. I just need to bring the plates out,” Lucy said before hurrying back to the kitchen.

Amelia sat, watching her mother as she unwrapped the cupcake and helped her granddaughter Willa eat it. The child greedily took bite after bite until it was gone, while her sister, Isla, ate hers slowly and carefully.

“How? How did you get her to calm down and eat that?” Amelia asked her mother in utter disbelief.

“Because you are an alpha, and while you are magnificent and wonderful at everything you do, it can still be felt that you are an alpha. Raine and I have no rank, so we are Mama and now Grandmother Wolf. It is nothing you can control. Most likely, Everly and Logan might have that same problem from time to time if they have children, thanks to being the children of the Dragon Lord.”

Amelia shook her head as she filled her plate. “Next time, I am calling you or bringing her over for you to help put her back to sleep.”

“You are always welcome to do that,” Olivia said as she helped Willa eat some eggs.

Tyson nodded as he wiped Isla's face. “You, William, and the children are always welcome, regardless of the reason. If you have any issues like this again, please let us know. You seem to be forgetting the many times we called other family members to come and help with you kids. It got to the point where I would link Kevin or Julian, and they would immediately ask where you were. They were and still are always ready to help with all of you.”

“You are forgetting her grandmothers,” Olivia laughed. “Lia was over a year old before we managed to wake her up and get her ready for the day for the first time. Until then, our mothers always beat us and had you pupnapped and downstairs to play before we even knew what happened.”

“You’re both forgetting about our grandpas,” Everly grinned. “They still sneak us out to go on little adventures.”

“I don’t need to know about those. You are all adults, and as long as they aren’t breaking the laws of the clan, pack, or state of Oregon, I want you to have fun and do your best to keep your grandfathers out of trouble,” Tyson said.

“We do,” Logan said as he fed Vern a bite of his eggs. “It has been a while since we’ve had to rescue them or devise a plausible alibi for them to use.”

Tyson sighed, “Those are some of the things I do not need to know.”

Everly giggled, “Lia, Darla, and I wanted to shift today and go for a walk in the forest. Would you mind if we took the girls? They can take turns riding us.”

“Please! Mommy, Daddy, can we?” Isla begged her parents from Tyson’s lap.

William smiled at Amelia and said, “I think it is a good idea. Everly and Darla will take the same care with them as you do when they ride Lilly.”

“It’s fine with me,” Amelia said with a shrug. “Just make sure to take a bag with snacks and the supplements they might need. Isla should be OK without them, but Willa has been needing them a little more often recently. Isla did the same thing at that age each time she had a growth spurt.”

“I promise we will take care of them,” Everly assured her sister as Lucy brought the cookies and cupcakes to the table. “Lucy has already promised to pack snacks for Darla and me, so I’m sure she won’t mind adding a few for Isla and Willa.”

“I will make sure they have everything they need,” Lucy said with a curt nod.

“I know you will,” Amelia said.

Amelia knew Obsidian was safe, and her sisters would protect their nieces with their lives if needed, but she was still bothered. Something felt wrong about the day. She had a bad feeling from the moment her daughter awakened her early, and she could not shake it. Amelia hoped it was only a feeling and nothing would happen that day. The last thing her family needed was something else, adding to the sadness they already felt.