Years Later

Cam watched his two sons run around with the other lads and lasses their age, attempting to find the hidden treasures he’d helped bury earlier in the day. It wasn’t the first joint gathering between Lochguard and Seahaven, and wouldn’t be the last. Today, however, was special because most of Stonefire was attending as well. While there was talk of a multi-clan gathering for all the UK clans, and maybe even the Irish ones, it was taking a lot of work to put together.

His eyes found his mate, who was talking to Grace Lewis and her mate, Trahern. Even though Emily had fancied him once upon a time, as soon as Cam had met Trahern and his mate, he’d seen how the dragonman had eyes only for Grace. She was one of the few he’d make eye contact with, along with Emily. But he gazed at Emily like a sister, and from that first time meeting in person, Cam had tried his best to welcome the Lewis family whenever they came to Seahaven. Which was often, since Trahern and Emily were the top researchers for dragon-related medicines, serums, you name it.

His older son, Luca, ran toward him, holding up the old metal key. His younger son, Bran, struggled to keep up with his older brother. Once Luca reached him, he shouted, “I got it, Dad! Now I can unlock the treasure chest?”

Bran whined, “But I helped you find it, Luca. I should open it, too.”

“I have the key, which means I open the chest.”

Cam glanced from one son to the other. They looked a lot alike, except one had dark hair and the other ginger. “We’re family, and you know what that means, aye?”

Luca sighed dramatically. “Aye, we stick together.”

He nodded and looked to Bran, who replied, “And we cheer on our brother when he wins or succeeds.”

“Aye. So keeping that in mind, what do we do?”

Luca traced his toe in the dirt and muttered, “We should probably open it together and share.”

“Aye, that’s right. Now, I see the Lewis twins are waiting to open their chest together, so are you two ready to do the same?”

From behind him, he heard Emily’s voice. “Not without me! I want to see what the treasure is, too.”

She moved to his side, and he wrapped an arm around her waist. After kissing her quickly—and their sons making gagging sounds—he smiled and gestured toward the chests. “Right, let’s go.”

A set of older female twins were at the third chest. He asked Emily, “Who are they?”

“Skye and Summer MacKenzie, Fraser and Holly’s kids and Lorna MacKenzie’s granddaughters.”

Even if he didn’t know every single person on Lochguard, the female twins were famous for simply being female—it was incredibly rare for dragon-shifters to have female twins.

He whispered, “Well, our sons might not be twins, but they work well together. Most of the time.”

She smiled. “Most of the time being the key part of that sentence.”

They shared a loving glance, and he asked, “It keeps life interesting.”

“That it does.”

They reached the area with three chests, one for each age group. He nodded at the other parents, and they watched as the children dramatically opened their chests to find wee bags. When they upended them, silver coins flashed in the sunshine.

Since Lochguard was hosting the gathering, Finn stood and spoke. “Aye, those are actual coins from the buried treasure recently found by Daisy Chadwick and Freddie Atherton, not far from Lochguard. You can either keep the coins or trade them in at the Protector building for a different prize.”

Cam wondered how the children would respond, but they all decided to keep them. Luca and Bran raced back to them, shouting, “We got real dragon treasure!”

And as they showed off their coins to them and everyone else nearby, Cam shared another loving glance with his mate. His happy ending was far from over, and he couldn’t wait to see what else came their way.