Guardian of His Heart [Guardian 2] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (3 page)

Frederico couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “You’re human, my love? How delightful. You are too tempting for words. Will you do me the honor of accompanying me?” Frederico asked as his voice became impossibly lower. Both his human and dragon sides were in shock. His dragon should have been roaring in his ears, bellowing smoke and trumpeting at the top of his lungs, “Mate!” But the usually unruly beast simply sat, staring at their mate in amazement, after 819 years. Here before them stood their mate.
Finally
. Frederico didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The king would have dropped to his knees grabbing her, holding on for dear life. Worshipping her for all to see. He didn’t however feel that would make a good impression on his mate. So he simply held out his hand for her to take. “What is your name, little one?” Frederico inquired.

“Kelley Taylor-Jordan, enormous one,” Kelley said with a smirk.

King Frederico raised an eyebrow at the comment but decided to let it slide. Just this once. “I am Frederico Domenic Tomas Dillon Dragonovic. Please, call me Frederico or darling. Sweetheart?” The king smiled as he said it.

When their hands met, Frederico looked at the intertwined fingers and knew he had just come home. Never again would he be lonely. He had found his mate. He wanted to shout it from the rooftops. Fly through the air roaring, breathing fire, and announcing to the world he had found his mate! The king just couldn’t get over it as his heart and soul rejoiced.

As the king escorted Kelley into Saber’s home, he felt monarch butterflies flutter in his stomach. The other men of the ranch frowned and looked confused, shocked, and generally baffled at what had just taken place. Even the king’s bodyguards were looking at each other bewildered.

Saber felt conflicted. His father had just found his mate? Kelly Taylor-Jordan was now his father-in-law?
Oh my Gods
. It couldn’t be, could it? No. No way. Of
all
the people in the world for his father to mate, Kelley? Kelley, whose temper rivaled that of his father’s own legendary wrath? Strong-willed, hard-headed, stubborn Kelley? His father was so screwed!

Then a horrible realization began to creep over Saber. Saber’s world tilted to the left. He must have looked like it, too, as his mate, Ty, asked if he was all right. No, he was not all right.

King Frederico had many times over the years spoken with his son about mates and such. There was always one recurring theme his father knew absolutely down to his bones. His mate was female! Oh shit! How in the hell was Saber going to tell his king and father, he had just found his very
male
mate, especially in-your-face, completely flamboyant, gay man Kelley? As he shook his head, Saber knew he was so screwed!

The family and its newest member spent the rest of the day chatting and just enjoying each other’s company as they visited and played with the twins. Everyone retired early, as it had been a long day and Saber had a lot of thinking to do.

The next morning, Saber made the supreme effort to tactfully advise his father that Kelley was in fact a man.

Frederico just laughed, thinking his son was having a bit of fun with him.

“I don’t think so, my son. I will admit Kelley is rather flat chested for a female. But look at her. She’s a sprite. I don’t mind. I think she is perfect!” asserted Frederico. When he saw the glow on his beloved father’s face, Saber knew he was in trouble. He tried again.

“Father, I am making no attempt at humor. I am absolutely serious when I tell you Kelley is a man.” Saber felt uncomfortable when his father began to frown.

“Exactly how would you know this? You are mated. How would you be in possession of such knowledge, my son?” Frederico tried not to sound jealous, but his dragon was agitated to say the least, and it was pushing the king hard to bite and bond with their mate. They hadn’t claimed her yet. No one should see their mate disrobed but them!

“Kelley’s siblings have all been what Americans refer to as ‘skinny-dipping.’ As young ones, the children of a family will see one another in a state of undress while swimming in a pond or stream. It is a form of recreation they enjoy,” Saber continued.

“Bo and Jake have laughed about it at different times.” It seems Kelley has always been a little different from the rest of the boys. One family joke has it that Kelley is a ‘screaming queen,’ I believe they refer to him. I assure you it is said with affection and to his face. The family is very protective of him, especially his brothers. Even with that said, the brothers have stated, if they hadn’t seen ‘the equipment’ they never would have believed he was male. His sisters are all taller and heavier than Kelley. Not to mention all the brothers, except Kelley, are built like Bo and Jake. Bo said Kelley takes after his mother.”

With this news, Frederico began to look perplexed. When he paled, Saber’s dragon wanted to hide. This was not a good emotion for a king. They didn’t respond well to the experience of being confused. The next thing Saber knew, Frederico arose from the porch swing, walked directly into the house, looked at Kelley and said, “Are you man or a woman? I need to know.”

“Being Kelley,” as his family referred to it, he went right into fight mode and was more than ready for an argument.

Squinting his eyes, he said, “What do you mean by that? I’m a man just as much as you are, but you know that already. Don’t you?” Kelley rose from the couch where he and Ty had been whispering about loving on a dragon. Kelley couldn’t wait to get his hands on Frederico, but now?

Frederico looked down at his mate. “What do you mean you are a man? I never dreamed of a man. I would not know what to do with one. Are you sure? You do not appear to be a man!” the king bellowed, smoke curling out of his nose.

Frederico looked down at Kelley, who had walked to the king, looking way up at him.

Kelley placed his hands on his hips and yelled right back. “Who do you think you are bellowing at me like that, and what’s with that smoke coming out of your nose? I have to tell you that is
so
not a good look for you!”

Saber pulled his mate out of danger. The kings’ son knew what was about to happen, and he didn’t want his mate in the line of fire. He lowered his head and said, “Duck and cover.”

Saber braced himself as he knew the war was on!

What now stood in the middle of Ty and Saber’s living room were two equally outraged males screaming at each other, making the napping twins upstairs cry.

“Wait a damn minute!” Ty said to both of them after sticking his fingers in his mouth and whistling loudly to get their attention. Two faces turned to look at him, and Ty said, “Gentlemen, take it outside. You’re scaring the children!”

Saber watched as the king’s bodyguards suddenly found the limousines on the side away from the combatants fascinating.

The king and Kelley stomped outside only to take up battle positions.

The opponents took to their respective corners.

Saber just knew this was going to be good, as in one corner of the boxing ring, at three hundred pounds, stood an old-world dragon, old-school, eight-hundred-sixty-nine-year-old, extremely angry King Frederico Dragonovic, absolute ruler of Saibina.

His mate was female. He was a monarch with a monarch’s mentality. He gave orders, and they were immediately obeyed. He was a man’s man. End of story.

Saber sighed and watched as in the opposing corner stood, at one hundred twenty five pounds, a new-world human, laptop-using, twenty-eight-year-old, enraged redhead Kelley Taylor-Jordan, absolute American.

His mate was male. He was American, from a democracy. He did not know how to follow orders. He was a flamboyantly gay man. End of story.

The bell rang, and Saber felt like a referee.

Saber watched as Frederico and Kelley proceeded to get nose to nose, so they could argue better. As much as a six-foot-seven and five-foot-five man could. They faced off and started in. Kelley gave Frederico’s chest a mean finger jab.

Saber wasn’t getting any help from the peanut gallery either.

“Twenty bucks on Kelley,” Jake said quietly.

“Same here,” Bo said.

“I’ll take that bet,” said Crusty, the ranch foreman.

Kate and Jaclynn just looked at each other, shook their heads, and walked away.

In the ensuing days, Saber tried his best to talk to Frederico while Ty worked on Kelley. Then they’d swap. As Ty and Saber saw it, those two had absolutely nothing in common. Not a thing. Was this really going to work?

Saber knew Fate must be laughing her ass off at this pairing. There was no way the Gods could have intentionally put the squabbling men together on purpose. They were worse than kids, and at most times more trying and just as loud.

Frederico and Kelley fought about everything!

Kelley being a man. Frederico being totally inflexible.

What the king expected from his consort. What Kelley would do.

The king acted like a male chauvinist. Kelley acted like a redheaded, freckled demon from hell. On and on it went. Saber started to cringe every time the two were in the same room.

Saber tried to talk to Kelley but failed dismally, as the young man had it firmly entrenched in his mind that he would not be someone the king could run over. He would not be docile, didn’t know how, and never would.

On the other hand, Frederico expected his orders to be obeyed summarily and couldn’t for the life of him understand why Kelley didn’t conform to his ideas.

Frederico loved roses. Kelley thought they were too commercial. He loved wildflowers.

The opera? Not in Kelley’s lifetime.

Cocktail parties? Society events? Yeah, sure, Saber knew Kelley would never go for that one.

Frederico liked his limo. Kelley said it was a gas hog that polluted the air.

Saber just signed when they slept at different times, ate different foods. They both believed in the Gods, just different ones. They didn’t even like the same color.

The king did not like Kelley wearing his clothes so tightly. He commanded Kelley to wear looser, more appropriate clothing. Kelley couldn’t wait for the next day to arrive, so he could wear something impossibly tighter.

Kelley’s music? Not even in the same hemisphere with what the king would listen to.

Kelley didn’t understand why he should read books when he could watch the movie. Were books even made of paper anymore? All those poor dead trees. The list of their differences kept growing by leaps and bounds.

It became easier for Saber to keep a scorecard of what the king and Kelley did have in common, rather than what they didn’t.

Saber tried ever so hard not to lose his own temper when the two men fought over what to have for lunch. Saber might as well have waved a red flag in front of them.

The fight raged on for three solid weeks, only stopping when the opponents needed to recharge their batteries.

The adversaries at last went to their respective corners. It was a good thing, as everyone on the ranch, especially Saber, was pulling their hair out. The chickens even stopped laying eggs.

Saber didn’t think he had ever seen such relieved bodyguards, when at last they were advised the king was going home. Sans mate.

Only one of the royal guards appeared to hesitate when it came time to leave. One of the lady guards, Tymara, it seemed had taken up with one of the gentlemen on the ranch by the name of Crusty.

Frederico and Kelley went their separate ways, and Kelley could have sworn he heard everyone on the ranch sigh in relief. Four weeks went by with Frederico still wanting his mate by his side. The king and son were having almost daily talks on the phone about the pros and cons of male mates. Saber, of course, provided some much-needed instruction, just in case.

Kelley and Frederico were also speaking, if that’s what fighting on the phone daily was called. Kelley was still being much too difficult in the area of cooperation with the king’s idea of how a consort should behave.

The mating dreams weren’t helping, either. They were becoming almost nightly. The king would never have thought it possible to argue with someone in a dream!

Frederico was enjoying himself immensely, at last having a worthy opponent for the first time in centuries. He and his mate may not get along, but Frederico felt young and alive again!

The king, however, found that he couldn’t concentrate on anything but missing his mate. He finally decided perhaps he would bend a little, maybe an eighth of an inch. He would not give any further than that. He knew from experience it was never wise to give one’s opponent too much wiggle room. Perhaps he would dig out and dust off that olive branch his mother always said to try first.

After all, he was still sleeping alone. He had returned to Saibina, only being able to stay away for so long. He stood, walked over to a window, and looked out. He did so wish to show his mate their beautiful country. He now considered Kelley his, even if they didn’t see quite eye to eye. This was not how he saw his mating progressing, and his dragon was whining, wanting their mate. Maybe being as old as he was, he had become inflexible and set in his ways. Frederico yearned for his mate, so he decided he would learn to bend and find a way to make it work between them.