Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
Hunger woke Mercury up. No, not hunger—he wasn’t hungry, he was ravenous. His eyes popped open, and he stood, intending to find the kitchen.
Talon grabbed him by his hips as he stumbled forward. “Where are you going, hailee?”
“I’m hungry,” Mercury replied. “The kitchen. I need some food. Can we have hamburgers, or meatballs, or roast?”
Talon looked so pleased. “Let’s put on some clothes, and we’ll go to the cafe. You’ve been sleeping for quite a bit, so it’s well past the dinner hour, and we’ll have the place mostly to ourselves.”
He could get dressed. How did he end up naked? “I wasn’t naked when the little girl was here, right?”
That would have been terrible.
“You were not naked. You were dressed. I brought you in here. You fell asleep. Her name is Anemone. And she’s not a little girl. She’s a young lady, but she’s an amazing healer, don’t you think?”
“She is amazing. I feel better. Hungry, but better. Why aren’t you up and dressed? I need to go have food now.”
Talon chuckled. “Yes, sir. Getting food now, sir. Let’s do this.”
They got dressed, and Mercury just threw on anything that was there, no matter the color or the pattern. He just put on a tunic and a pair of soft pants and socks. He didn’t need shoes.
Talon could carry him if he needed to be on a wet floor or an icky floor.
“Aren’t you ready yet?”
Talon’s laughter shook him, as he scooped Mercury up. “I am ready yet.”
“Good.” Mercury pointed towards the door, and Talon started walking.
“Onward. Upward. Steaks, hamburgers, meatballs, roast, all the meat!”
“All the meat!” he cried out, echoing his beloved braaken.
He swore he could hear dragons laughing as they went, but the sound warmed him, let him know he was not alone.
They marched along, and by the time they got to the cafeteria, they had a little bit of a parade going. He recognized some of the dragons who had fallen in with them, and some of them he didn’t recognize, but Reno was there. And he thought maybe Lake and Boone were too.
Talon settled him at a table and was going to have something to drink that was not fizzy, because he wanted something not fizzy, not lemon and lime. He wanted iced tea or maybe some milk.
He rubbed his tummy because it was growling, and he thought it sounded like maybe a grumpy braaken he knew.
“It’s good to see you out and about, man.” Kami slid into a seat and across from him, baby in his arms. “I hear we’re having roast, hamburgers, and all sorts of other protein-y things.”
“We are.” He pumped his fist in the air, and there was a little cheer from everybody who had come to sit at the table with him. They’d left Talon a space next to him though which was really kind.
“Cool, although I have to admit, I’m kind of craving potatoes. Is it okay if I get a big batch of fries with some ranch? Is that going to bother you?”
He beamed at Kami. “Nothing is gonna bother me today. I can tell you that right now. Unless of course somebody decides to eat fish.”
A shout went up around the table. “No fish!”
“I feel supported.”
Kami’s grin widened even more. “You should. Everybody is here for you, man.”
A couple of the shifters who worked the night shift and support crew came by to smile at him. “Mercury, it’s good to see you out and about.”
“Thank you.” He could remember one of their names because she was a mink shifter, and he always thought that was fascinating—how a full-sized human body could shrink down to a mink size and not…
Then again, a full-sized dragon like Talon shrinking down to a human-sized body was about the same thing, wasn’t it?
Still, he really liked her.
The other one he thought was maybe a marmot shifter. He couldn’t remember for sure. All he knew was that the poor guy had gotten in the way of a coyote shifter not too long ago and gotten himself gnawed on a little bit.
“Thank you, I’m glad to be out and about myself.”
A hamburger and onion rings landed in front of him, and Talon smiled at him. “They’re bringing the rest. I thought you could start with this.”
“Sounds perfect.”
“Do you want some chicken nuggets too?”
“I like fried chicken.”
He dug in, so hungry that he could barely bear it, and he thought he heard Kami ask, “Is this going to make him sick if he eats so fast?”
Talon snorted. “Anemone said to feed him, I’m feeding him.”
He wasn’t going to be sick, because that little healer had opened something up inside of him and let it, the hurt, drain away a bit to make some room.
Suddenly, food just kept coming up for all of them, and they were all laughing and eating, telling stories, and including him even as he filled the deep hunger inside of him.
“—and then there we were, me and Talon, trying to figure out how on earth we were going to get off this cliff. There wasn’t enough room for him to shift.
There was just barely enough room for me.
” Kami grinned at Mercury. “You and I are almost of a size. I’m a little bit bigger, but there was no way that, you know, I was going to be able to shoot up and carry him. ”
“So what did you do?” Lake asked with wide eyes.
Kami’s grin went wicked. “We went down.”
“You did what?”
“We just headed down toward the ground. I grabbed him and I used my wings to buffer us, so, while we both went down a little hard, at least neither one of us broke anything. Then we could run out.”
Mercury chuckled softly. “You two are troublemakers, you know that, right?”
Talon’s arm wrapped around him, warm and right, and his braaken kissed his temple. “Oh, we know, hailee.”
That felt so lovely. Just that simple bit of admiration. The inclusion.
He beamed at his mate, then moaned when the first order of food came. Post roast with gravy and potatoes. For him. All for him.
“The burgers are on the way, folks. And the meatballs. Some Swedish and some Italian.”
“Noms!” Mercury had heard that one on some child’s TV show.
Everyone chuckled at him, but he didn’t care. He was so glad to be hungry.
I’m glad you are too, hailee. And I love both kinds of meatballs, so if one doesn’t work…
I just want the meat. If they bring noodles, that’s yours.
I love noodles and sauce, my love. Never fear. I will eat anything you don’t.
We all will. Kami winked at them when he broke in, so clearly they were thinking very loud.
He scooped up a bite of roast, moaning at the taste of it on his tongue. The beefy goodness was coated in gravy, and it was melt-in-the-mouth tender. So amazing.
Oh, maybe he could get a steak. Like a filet. He’d never had one of those.
“I’ll go order one.” Talon was up again and off to get him what he craved, and tears stung his eyes at how kind and sweet his mate was.
“He’s a big softie, huh?” That was Lake, giving him an encouraging smile.
“He can be, yes. I think he can also be fierce.”
“Oh, he can be a bat out of hell,” Kami agreed. “But that’s a good thing. You’ll always be protected. That’s important when you have kids.”
“It’s important in our keep,” Boone agreed. “I mean, in all keeps, but—”
“Burgers!”
Mercury was glad those arrived before Boone got maudlin. He didn’t want to be all depressed again. He set the roast aside and grabbed the burger, tearing off the bun.
Carbs were for wimps. He did like the mayonnaise, though, and the tomato.
The feast was amazing. The food, the laughter, the companionship.
And through the whole thing, like a silver cord, there was Talon, right there. Giving him what he needed. Hell, giving him what he wanted.
Eventually the crowd dissipated and his hunger eased, and he found himself leaning against Talon, heavy and exhausted.
“Wow,” he said, looking down at his belly, which looked a little bit as if he had swallowed a sheep. “I guess I ate a lot.”
“I guess you were hungry,” Talon replied. “I also imagine pretty soon you’ll want some more.”
Mercury yawned and stretched. “Probably, but I think now I want to go watch a movie, and maybe—” He grinned, bumped shoulders with Talon. “—and maybe, have a snuggle.”
Talon looked down at him, one eyebrow arched. “A snuggle?”
Mercury nodded. “Absolutely. Snuggle snuggle.” He waggled his eyebrows in what he hoped was a seductive way.
“Mmm. Movie. Digesting. Then definitely snugglage.” Talon simply picked him up. Someone had already cleared all their dishes like magic.
“Thank you!” he called. Then he wrapped around his braaken, humming happily. “I love you, Talon. Let’s go snuggle.”
“There’s nothing I’d like more, hailee. Nothing on earth.”