* * *
Chrysander was teleported to the D’Vaire mansion after Council session by the Grand Summoner, who he thanked, then strode off to the bedroom Larissa D’Vairedraconis had lavishly decorated in black, white, and gold. Tossing his crown to the bed, he tugged the Draconis sash off and stripped out of his suit. After throwing on jeans and a T-shirt, he headed straight for the backyard to greet Ellery. This had been his routine for two months, and he was growing weary of it. The only time he had a moment of solace was when he was close to the man he loved.
All his life he’d been focused on the future and working hard to make the world around him a better place. He’d never needed a vacation to recharge his batteries; he was fueled by the job itself. But without Ellery, it was losing its meaning. Chrysander was feeling burned out by the pressure of being Emperor Draconis. There was always more to do, and it didn’t help that he didn’t trust anyone who wasn’t part of his extended family.
Running the entire Council and overseeing the dragons wasn’t easy with a limited staff. But the report back from the Sentinel Brotherhood and the Order of the Fallen Knights with Wesley’s sentence stated that there were some parties not fully convinced he had acted alone. Taking no chances with anyone in his family ever again, Chrysander had not allowed his old employees to return. They’d found new positions and had settled into them in the last eight weeks. He was fine with them at Draconis Enterprises—their families were provided for, and Damian’s security measures ensured they couldn’t pass over to get anywhere near Ellery when he returned.
Aleksander and his dukes were contributing, and that was probably the only reason why Chrysander was able to keep everything functioning. There was no easy answer to solving the workload issues. Chrysander did not want to put his faith in absolute strangers by hiring new people any more than he was willing to take in his old personnel. Shaking off his stress, Chrysander turned the doorknob in the kitchen so he could step out onto the deck. He let his smile slide into place as he waited for Ellery to come running up to him.
Damian gently shoved him over so his brothers could go outside while Chrysander searched for Ellery and couldn’t find him anywhere. His nose crinkled at the overpowering smell of Dravyn’s flowers. He couldn’t remember a day when the force of the blooms had hit his senses so hard. Chrysander crossed the deck and still didn’t see a white dragon. Seconds later, Aleksander emerged strangely enough from behind the office building. The D’Vaire King was wearing a frown.
“Where’s Ell?”
“Well, he’s hiding.”
“Hiding?”
Aleksander waved toward the building. “Yeah.”
“Ell, come here.”
“Yeah, he’s not going to.”
“What’s going on?”
“He’s rather embarrassed at the moment.”
Only because Chrysander was staring so hard at the building did he see a dragon head pop out for a few seconds. “Well, I’ve been gone for hours, and I want to be with him.”
Aleksander crossed his arms over his chest. “Good luck.”
With a perplexed glance at Aleksander, he took two steps toward Ellery when a strange sound rumbled through the air. “What was that?”
“Your mate,” Aleksander retorted.
There was a streak of white as Ellery ran several feet farther into Aleksander’s yard. “I don’t understand.”
“Noirin and Dravyn decided that since Ellery’s been eating nothing but meat since he arrived, he deserved a treat. An elven treat. So, they put together a giant bowl of different fruits.”
“Ell must have loved that.”
“Definitely, he devoured it.”
Another noise reverberated through the still air of the Arizona desert. “He’s embarrassed because he ate a lot of fruit?”
“Well, kind of. It appears that dragons don’t have the same digestive systems as elves. They can’t handle all that fruit.”
“Are you telling me that those sounds are Elf passing gas?” Damian asked.
“Yeah, and he’s terribly embarrassed. Dra’Kaedan boosted the fragrance of Dravyn’s flowers to cover the smell.”
“It’s intense,” Costas said.
“Yeah well, so was the smell Elf was producing,” Aleksander countered. “We were all ready to throw up.”
Chrysander really didn’t want to laugh at Ellery, but it was just so ridiculous. Each time a sound crashed through the backyard, Ellery would run several more feet, distancing himself from the other people outside. “I guess he only gets fruit in small doses in the future.”
“He must have a bellyache,” Damian suggested.
