Chapter Six
Laken
I was ninety-eight percent sure that the Starscale worlds didn’t need the influence of the Moonscales but they sure needed us. I couldn’t stop contemplating Sunny’s reaction to me hugging him. Maybe it was his age. Maybe it was being an alpha. Some guys acted like that was a mysterious thing I’d never understand. I don’t know what was so mysterious about it. They sometimes had a little height and weight on us. Our magic was usually stronger than theirs. They healed quicker than us because our bodies preserved energy for egg making. They didn’t have the means to carry a baby or at least they claimed they didn’t. Some of our history books claimed that some alphas did lay eggs. So, maybe that was the mystery they wanted to hide from all of us omegas. I fought off the urge to roll my eyes as I slathered my mate down in the protective lotion I used after each match in the arena. It was the good stuff too made by a wild born Starscale living on the edge of the forest not far from my house.
I had planned to take Sunny back to the after party that was every night at the arena, but I wasn’t in the mood to deal with any of the other gladiators. I almost called Frey to grab Sunny’s bag from the locker room but knew he’d be home with his mate. So, I looked up Teddy (Theodore Moonscale-Cromwell) on the flight’s app and shot him a message. He agreed to drop the bag off outside of the office door. Neither Sunny nor I were surprised when he left not only the bag but cow burgers and potato fries from a local restaurant along with several sugary drinks usually enjoyed by hatchlings.
“I forgot how much everyone said you Moonys loved sugar,” I laughed as we carried everything inside the office.
“It’s left over from how the humans used to make things on Earthside. They put it in everything on purpose to make everything taste super good. Some shifters believed it was to get the other humans addicted to it so they kept buying it. Buying is---”
“Sunny, I’m a university level educated Starscale. Any Starscale willing to put the time in can achieve that. I do know what capitalism is. I don’t believe that wild dragons lay Yule Eggs, but I know the story. Same thing with capitalism. Just because it’s an outdated system that shouldn’t have been given the time of day doesn’t mean I don’t know what it is.”
“Ouch! We still have capitalism.”
“I’ll talk to your sire when I meet him. I think being an omega there, he’ll let me keep my head after I criticize the whole bloody system. Rule number one of living in a society should always be everyone in the blasted society eats!”
“I’m not going to argue with you on that one, mate,” Sunny chuckled.
“Good, because I would argue about it.”
“He tries.”
“I’m not having that debate. There is no trying when it comes to feeding people. If you put food behind a pay wall, you’re not trying at all. End of story.”
“I wouldn’t have believed that before living here,” Sunny said and smelled like he was telling the truth.
“Good.”
“You know I’m not heir to my flight, right?”
“Yeah but you’re still their son. I’d bet some of those dragons and other shifters look up to you. I bet they watch the updates on the mission because of you. You can help them. Hell, you can bypass your parents on that. Tell them to take down that pay wall and feed each other. Teddy would help you, I bet.”
“He would. So would Fred. Fred mostly tamed a city back in the day. Then someone else really tamed it but he kept his people fed.”
“Not just your people, though. Everyone. Feed everyone. That is the golden rule of being a dragon: If bellies are empty, you have failed your flight in every way imaginable.”
“How’d we go from discussing what makes something about alphahood or manhood toxic to this?”
“Toxicity. Capitalism is toxic.”
Sunny leaned back against the sofa and took a long swallow of his sugary drink. I let what I said hang in the air. Our treaty with the Moonscale Flight didn’t cover how they had to treat their dragons but if we could help them, I figured we should. I knew not all my flight members would agree. We left Earthside for a reason after all.
“Greed is toxic,” Sunny countered a moment later.
“Same thing, mate,” I shrugged. “Let’s say someone knocked on my office door right now hungry, what would we do?”
“Think they were drunk and had the wrong place,” Sunny laughed and I shook my head.
“But your answer would change if it was one of the crew of that ship. Capitalism gives some people help but not in the way it should. Hey, I know we could talk this in circles all night and we can if you want to. For now, we can’t do a whole lot to help your flight but one day that’s gonna change. I studied lore and history at school. When seers get involved shit hits the fan. Why do you think I don’t go around shouting about the little bit of abilities I have? I don’t want to be the one to fan the shit but here you are – you fell into my arena, Sunny. For tonight, we can drop it but it’s going to come back around.”
“Our parks have fruit trees back home,” Sunny said after thinking for a minute.
“I’d hope so. Dragons eat a lot.”
“We have that in common. We have fruit trees in the parks.”
“Eh, we have them everywhere we can make them grow but if you got someone over there to start doing that and made them a flight asset it would be a start,” I said.
“Again, you think I have more power than I do.”
“No, I think you’re afraid to grab that power and wield it in a way that might piss some folks off, mate. I have your back. You can hold your own, but I have your back and so does the crew if Teddy is anyone to judge by. I almost asked your place or mine to switch the subject but I’m not sure either is optimal. Yours is far away and mine is full of my grandmother.”
“I met her on the shuttle.”
“She told me,” I nodded. “She’s great but has no concept of privacy.”
I raked my eyes over him. He wasn’t used to the rise and crash of adrenaline in his veins. I probably wasn’t getting laid tonight but I still wanted to spend the evening alone with him.
“Stay here then?” he arched a brow.
“We could. There are bedrooms. Some dormitories even. We could call and see if the inns have any openings.”
“How do inns work if everyone has a house, and no one spends money?”
“Inn workers and keepers have jobs. They get points like everyone. It’s first come, first served unless you’re on 3 and you make a reservation at a vacation hotel. Then it’s first call, first serve. We could even call around to see which inns keep suites open for newly met mates.”
“Sounds an awful lot like home.”
“Yeah, but no one needs to pay a wing and a tail to stay there and let’s drop it, okay?”
“You brought it up.”
“I didn’t know it would crawl under your scales and live from that moment forward.”
“What if I said something about how the Starscales do things,” Sunny said, meeting my gaze.
“If it had merit, I’d spend a lot of time thinking on it. You’re right I should’ve known.”
He opened his mouth and closed it again. That’s when I realized inn or not, neither of us were getting laid that night. There’d be no claiming vows or exploring each other. All the tension made me miss fighting him in the arena.