“There are more?” I asked.
Brooklyn nodded. “About 10 in total. Each mated pair has two, one for each person, except for you. Jean Luc, Ian, Derek and Skylar also have one.”
“Mmmm,” I giggled when Daisy started to chase my finger across the length of my leg.
“Fairy dragons are so rare that they bring out the good in almost everyone,” Brooklyn explained. “They’re playful like cats and loyal like dogs.”
“What’s their story?” I asked, giggling when a neon purple dragon appeared to also chase my finger. The other one that’d been on my thigh for the whole time.
This one actually caught my hand, though, and rolled over onto her back as she kicked at me with her back legs like a cat.
“Fairy dragons grow to be about the size of a housecat,” Brooklyn explained. “But they’re so rare, that no one really knows anything about them. There are a few articles in the dragon archives, but they didn’t tell us a whole lot. What I’ve gathered is that, mostly, they’re social creatures who show up when someone worthy is brought forth. Those that can see them are worthy.”
“So I wasn’t worthy until now?” I guessed, studying Ian’s dragon who was glaring at the newcomer dragon like it was an interloper who shouldn’t be there.
“You’re worthy now because you’ve got your own dragon, which basically proves your worth,” Brooklyn grinned. “I think she showed herself to you out of jealousy because she knew you were about to be taken from her.”
“Hmm?” I asked, lifting my hand with a laugh. “My dragon?”
The dragon was clinging to my hand like a monkey, using her wings to wrap around my hand to ensure she didn’t fall.
“Your dragon,” Ian’s head moved, indicating the other dragon that was chewing on my fingernail.
My head tilted.
“I don’t understand.” I really didn’t.
I thought I couldn’t have a dragon. I wasn’t a dragon rider.
“You don’t have to be a dragon rider to have a dragon that’s bonded to you,” Ford explained.
I looked over at him, met his eyes for only a second, at most, and then couldn’t hold them any longer. I let them slip to the side of his face, studying his hair instead of his eyes.
“It’s normal,” Ian whispered. “His power is to see into one’s soul. To know their true thoughts and intentions. It takes a lot out of both him and the person whose soul he’s seeing. His dragon has taught him some natural defense mechanisms that automatically repel people from connecting gazes with him.”
My brow rose.
“Wow.”
“Did you name your dragon?” Ford pushed.
My eyes went back to his face, but this time I looked at his nose.
“No.” I shook my head.
Creepy. Something practically shouted at me.
“You didn’t say anything in your mind…” he left it hanging, waiting for me to fill in the blank.
“Uhhh,” I hesitated. “Can they talk to me in my head?”
All of the occupants in the room, sans Mattie and Macy, who apparently didn’t have dragons, nodded their heads.
“Uhhh, then yes, I named her.” I started to snicker.
“What’d you name her?” Blythe asked, a sleeping baby against her chest.
“Creepy.”
“That’s not too bad,” Keifer mumbled. “Mine’s named ‘Little Fucker’.”
At that, I lost my battle with my giggles.Chapter 26Ideas are born from a beard stroke.
-Fact of Life
Ian
I found my wayward mate outside with dragons.
Quite a few of them.
Twenty—big and small—surrounded her while she read from a book.
It’d been two weeks since the day Robert kicked the bucket.
Two weeks of much needed downtime. Although having Ford and Alaric back had a lot to do with that. With them added back into the rotation, I didn’t have to go out every night on patrol.
Now, I only went out every fourth night, which was a lot more accommodating for a newly mated dragon rider.
“You gonna come inside any time soon, beauty?” I asked Wink.
Wink, who was resting on the cool grass directly next to Daya, who was still recovering, turned her head in my direction.
“Just let me finish this chapter and then I’ll come inside,” she grinned.
I knew what that meant.
It likely wouldn’t be the end of the particular chapter she was on, but one about two hundred pages later.
Grinning, like the fool I was, I bent down and scooped her up into my arms, causing her to squeak and drop the book on the grass.
“Hey!” she snapped. “That’s book abuse!”
I rolled my eyes.
She huffed a sigh of annoyance, and then turned her head so she could look over my shoulder.
“Goodnight, dragons!” she called to the lot of them. “I have to go to bed now, because my mate thinks he knows all. I’ll see y’all in the morning! Take care of my book!”
I didn’t say anything to her as we made our way through the sanctuary. I nodded at a few of the others who were in some of the common rooms, including my sister, and headed straight for our bedroom.