Chapter Twenty-Five
Gatlin
Three weathered envelopes arrived in the mail, addressed to Viraj, Mahava, and Karam respectively, from a local dragon-owned law firm representing the Vritra. The corners, bent and frayed, told a story of much handling and a long time circling the machines of the gods forsaken postal service.
With the envelopes Gatlin removed from their mailbox also came another box that held a fragrance of berries and cinnamon—something smokey underneath. A gift from Leo with a little note written on the side: Pups can stink up a joint. Enjoy before they learn how to read.
Gatlin traversed their estate and strolled to the elevator and descended into their hoard, pleased to find Viraj laid out with their eggs, his siblings napping peacefully with him, each holding a few eggs to their body.
As Gatlin had discovered, the eggs tended to draw on a dragon’s magic, and their eggs were no exception. “Mail for you, lovelies.”
They all three stirred, Viraj first, batting long lashes as he yawned and patted the top of a shell. Revel, he believed.
Viraj yawned and stretched, his shirt rising to show a delicious stripe of reddish-brown skin, bronzed with lazy time in the sun that summer, letting the eggs have the time. “Calum was having a tantrum earlier.”
Another egg they needed to watch out for. The pup was sure to be a handful.
“And good afternoon, Declan, Callum, Revel, Reece, Keir, Aakash, Dasra, Taryn, and William.” The last egg Gatlin named hissed through their bond, raising a stink until Gatlin sighed heavily. “Bill.”
The pup had loved the name, but it didn’t feel very…dragony or culturally significant.
“I think Bill is a lovely name for a Dette.” Mahava patted the aforementioned shell and earned a preening songlike note through their bond. Happy pups. Happy mate. Happy attendants and a happy family.
“What brings you down here, love?” Viraj smiled, a sultry look simmering in his eyes.
“I was hoping I could bribe your siblings into going to town to get pizza while I ravished you for a while.” Gatlin grinned.
Karam and Mahava rolled their eyes and gave Viraj a Did he just really? glance. Ahh, they’d learned so well.
“We can go to our bedroom, I suppose. No need to do this near the eggs when they’re so aware.
” Viraj rose to his feet, his posture so much more graceful and confident.
As if knowing what was truly his ailment all this time, as if giving them pups, as if all of it surmounted into his first feeling of worth.
He supposed he knew how Ryan had felt upon giving his mates their first pups.
Viraj stepped to the edge of the nest, and Gatlin grabbed him around the waist, twirling him before setting him down on his narrow feet. “That can be done.”
A scrabbling noise and a sharp tap-tap-tapping drew their attention like hawks to prey, Bill’s egg falling over with an erratic wobble.
“Really?” Gatlin frowned at his son. “Can it wait thirty minutes?”
Scratch. Scrabble. Click.
Another egg fell over, wiggling against Mahava’s leg as the insides scratched and clicked.
“Teige!” Viraj bounced on his toes and pulled away, into the nest to touch Bill’s egg as Gatlin sighed heavily.
“I’ve been knotblocked!” Gatlin sighed heavily and jogged off to find Teige.
“There’ll be plenty of time for shenanigans once the little ones are here.” Mahava chastised as Gatlin stepped into the elevator, feet tapping anxiously.
He ascended to the upper floors and chased about. “Teige!”
It wasn’t a great effort to find him, slouched in his office, staring at his computer like it had more questions than answers. Such a fragile pose for someone so strong. “Hmm?”
“Hatching!” Gatlin grinned as Teige’s face whipped up, tired eyes blinking dumbly.
“What? Now?” He fumbled with something on his desk and stood, rushing up to push past Gatlin to make it to the elevator. Gatlin followed, all thoughts of hanky panky gone away.
“Yep.” Gatlin slid into the elevator with him and they rode down, the mechanism far too slow as they returned to their nest to find Mahava, Karam, and Viraj staring intently down at Bill.
“Figures he’d hatch first,” Teige said, a laugh catching in his throat as a slit appeared then another, little claws and wild motions within shredding and cracking what bits of the shell it could.
“Come, Drakes. Your little ones need to see their fathers.” Karam and Mahava retreated and stripped, methodically folding and laying their clothes to the side as they shifted into their pretty dragons, much smaller than any of theirs, features neither Dette nor Drake, spineless and hornless, but sleek and as crimson and gold as any Vritra had a right to be.
To the Vritra, it was important that dragons hatch and see other dragons, so Viraj did the same, taking the lead as he shifted and circled their eggs, watching each one intently, occasionally giving Bill’s egg a nudge.
A clawed hand broke free, and it was as they’d hoped—Bill was a Dette. Little crimson scales and tortoiseshell mottled claws swiped at the air before the entirety of the little beast fought free, sneezing the slick albumin away.
Viraj licked at him, purring loudly as the little one chirped and nuzzled back. Welcome to the world, Bill.
The little one projected back thoughts of happiness, love, and what the fuck are those two pink things staring at me. It turned its little head to Gatlin and Teige, eyes narrowing.
These are your sires, little one. Remember their hearts. Viraj nudged Bill toward them, and he stumbled forward, lips smacking as he gauged them one by one, settling on Gatlin. He crawled into the Drake’s lap and nuzzled against his chest.
He remembered. A little chirp and rumble had Gatlin in near tears as Teige reached over to stroke his head, fingertips pausing on his horn nubs. Teige’s breath hitched. “Welcome, little one.”
Bill slid from Gatlin’s lap to Teige’s, showing equal affection. He yawned too soon, though, ready to go back to Viraj’s side, nuzzling in as another egg, Revel, showed signs of hatching.
Little scrabbling claws pierced through, green and mossy as any Loch, and he slid free to flop onto Viraj for cleaning. Keir came next, a graceful little Dette slithering free with golden eyes and red scales.
It was nearly an hour before another hatched, Dasra fighting from his shell with a hiss and spit, all Dette from head to toe.
Aakash came next, a proud Drake, his hatching clumsy, requiring Viraj, Mahava, and Karam to nudge and nip at his shell to get the little one out with a huff.
Something in his too-green eyes reminded Gatlin of Teige.
The two may never know who sired what child, but they were all theirs. None would be treated differently.
Reece surprised them, hatching quietly with a delicate slither, not a peep as he joined Aakash, nobody having noticed he had fought free. The little Dette, golden-red scales and dark talons preened as Teige plucked him up to give him extra affections.
Taryn joined them after, his hatching, a perfect slit and slither, Drake as anything with brick red spines and black talons. He snorted and stomped over to snuggle Viraj, getting right up under his chin to headbutt and nuzzle.
Declan and Callum took their time, even as Mahava and Karam scratched gently at their shells until the other pups took notice and pried at them, too, urging them to hatch.
And they did, sleepily crawling out one by one, Declan a Dette and Callum a Drake, yawning and snuggling into their fathers’ arms rather than Viraj.
They seemed the type to demand personal attention.
And as they settled down for the evening, Viraj, Mahava, and Karam all shifted into their human forms and clothed themselves, adoring the new little ones with every fiber of their being.
Reece, watching the shift, did his best to attempt it, finding his human form somewhat larval and inhospitable.
He shifted back quite quickly and huffed, snuggling up with his siblings.
Gatlin would never know anything more precious.
And as if an afterthought, Gatlin distributed the letters he’d forgotten and worked to open their scented package. Amid the trappings within was a multilayered candle with a black label from the Decent Candles company that read Dragon Pussy.
Gatlin must have been making a face because everyone leaned in curiously as Gatlin held it up.
Viraj, too, made a face. “What does—”
Gatlin passed it over as Viraj sniffed. “If dragons had those, I don’t think it’d smell like that.”
Teige took it next, sniffed, and laughed. “Nope.”
Mahava and Karam took a little explaining for them to understand, and both could concur that a Dette’s business did not smell that way. How they’d know, Gatlin didn’t know, and he wasn’t about to ask.
Hell, Teige and Gatlin didn’t even know how a Dette smelled until they’d been shagging one for over a century.
Thery gave the candle a prized place on a ledge out of reach of the pups and opened their envelopes one by one.
As per a decree by the estate of Ashwin Vritra, his fortune had been seized.
His chosen heir had received the estate and had been tasked with releasing his harem, transitioning them into the dragon world to wherever they pleased, however long that took.
He’d also be responsible for raising the little ones to adulthood, each of them given a starting fortune to move into the world.
After all was said and done, Viraj, Mahava, and Karam stared at what was left for them.
They laughed.
Four hundred twenty-three dollars and sixty-nine cents.
“It says sixty-nine,” Mahava laughed heartily. But the letter within held the real prize.
All liquid assets had been split between known progeny.
Dette, Drake, and Hijada. The remaining assets were being liquidated and would be used to care for the underage and the harem.
He’d had so many children and had wasted his fortune away that all it amounted to was pennies in the dragon world.
Furthermore, the letter stated that they, as Hijada, were officially recognized as dragon, and would be considered Dettes, legally, until such time as the councils could allow them to self-identify.
Having the extra votes for the Dette council was a brilliant idea.
“I am not a Dette,” Karam said, staring at the page. “I am Hijada, and I am proud to be one.”
Viraj stared at his letter, face a mask until he glanced up with a half smile.
“I am… I am a Dette, but I am also a Drake. I am not permitted to vote on the Dette council, and I am to step down as a voting delegate of the Drake council. As I am Dette and Drake to a degree, I am an ambassador to both. My votes will stand. My word will have weight, and I will speak to both sides. I am the Intermediary Ambassador.”
Gatlin and Teige opened their arms to take him in with a hug. Gatlin spoke with a broken voice. “You’ve only ever been Viraj to us.”
“And you don’t have to be anything more or less.” Teige’s words, sweet and soft, melted between them.
“What’s your first order of business the Intermediary Ambassador?” Gatlin leaned in to kiss Viraj softly.
He twisted his lips and stared at the paper and then back up and at the others. “I vote we never open our fucking mouths and speak about what happened with Cinder and Father as long as we live.”
Silence stretched between them.
“I heard nothing,” Mahava said.
“Nope. Good little boy was at the Loch estate the entire time.” Karam nodded once.
Gatlin and Teige glanced at one another before Teige spoke. “Cinder? Ohhh, that little bitty spicy kid of Leo’s! Yeah… No, I don’t remember him doing anything.”
“Was with me the entire time.” Gatlin made a crossing-his-heart gesture.
Viraj shrugged. “Poor thing was upstairs asleep on our couch the whole night.”
History wouldn’t remember Cinder for that, but many Hijada would whisper rumors about a crossed Dette child who took his payment one silver pin at a time, giving each of them back the dragon they’d always longed for.