Chapter 9
Jade
The Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
We all slept in the morning that Pras left.
By the time we woke up his ceremony was well underway.
Jondi was still out cold and I lay on the floor listening to the bits and pieces of Pras Lavender’s voice booming across the farm.
He sounded like he meant what he said but nothing he said would stop an asshole from being an asshole.
I should know as Brom Valen’s grandchild.
I rubbed my forehead wishing I could lick it.
Sometimes you just needed your forehead licked by someone who didn’t mind wiping away your thoughts with their tongue.
Was Beryl there? Was he looking for the rock?
I doubted it because there was no way a dragon took this long to find a rock.
Disappointment ate at the edges of my half-awake thoughts but I wasn’t surprised.
There was a reason I hadn’t dated a lot and Eran’s willingness to show up was probably half the reason I was willing to settle down with him before he met Vatten.
The bar was so low. I just needed someone to actually show up and be a partner as much as they wanted one.
“I’ll go get the rock after breakfast,” Eran yawned, picking up on my thoughts over the group link. “I won’t be as quick as Vatten or an otter, but I’m not nursing or a kid.”
“Thanks, Eran,” I said and managed a smile for him.
“You know, he’ll come around at some point, right?” Eran yawned, counting his babies, and smoothing down their sleep messy fur. “I don’t know what’s going on with him. The few times I met him before he never seemed like an asshole.”
“The pride roughed him up pretty good, but nothing too major. I’ve gotten marks that bad from wrestling around. You don’t think he’s mad that I didn’t stop and lick his wounds or something, do you?”
“Jondi was upset,” Eran shrugged.
“The right guy would get it,” Vatten cut into our thoughts over the group link. “I thought Eran would run off when I had five babies. I really did, but he’s still here.”
“He’s still happy,” Eran added and leaned over to rub his nose against Vatten’s cold, wet dog nose.
“He was a-scared of the lions,” Jondi yawned. “Ferrick – or Not-Ferrick, he was a-scared of the lions. There were a lot of them out there. He wanted to come home with us I think.”
I quirked an eyebrow at Eran and Vatten. Beryl was a dragon. He was Diamond Moonscale’s son. I doubted there was much he was afraid of.
“Jondi, will you be alright to have breakfast with Uncle Eran while I go out for a bit?” I asked him.
“Can I sleep more?” he yawned.
“Of course, baby,” I said and kissed his forehead.
“Don’t get eaten, okay? I’d miss you.”
“I’ll always come back, kiddo. That’s one thing you can count on,” I told him before going to get dressed.
I stood on the back porch for a long moment.
Usually, the farm was pretty quiet this time of day but the chatter from Pras’s thing carried on the wind.
I was about to start off in that direction.
If Beryl was afraid of lions that was something we could work on.
I was barely off the porch when I spotted movement out by the pond.
There he was all dressed for the funeral and standing akimbo staring into the pond like the rock was going to jump out of the water and say hello.
His shoulders were broad and tense. He smelled like he was about to jump into the water and fight a monster instead of swim down and look for a rock with a face on it.
Still, he smelled delicious under all that fear.
Straight up fucking delicious. Still, I wasn’t romping with him until he proved he could do more than whip out his dick and whine about a little mud.
I stalked in his direction, and he didn’t hear me until I was about a foot behind him. He startled and turned around.
“The wind was not moving in my favor,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Are you afraid of lions?” I asked, not wasting any time.
“Huh?” he blinked. “I was thinking.”
“Are you afraid of lions?” I asked again. “Is that why you were so weird last night?”
“ME?” he asked, crossing his arms. “I wasn’t weird. I was knocked over in the mud by your pride.”
“You’re a dragon, aren’t you?” I asked.
“Acts like a gecko!” my lion cut into my thoughts.
“What? Did you expect me to fry them?” he asked, throwing his hands up in the air like I asked him to fly to the moon.
“No, but.. Never mind. I was trying to give you the benefit of the doubt, but obviously, whatever issues you have are beyond my pay grade.”
“Who said I was afraid of lions?”
“Jondi.”
“And who is that?”
“My son,” I growled.
“Oh, shit! Last night was really confusing. I didn’t catch names and stuff I was more worried that your pride of lions was going to rip me apart for trying to get to you,” he narrowed his eyes on me.
“Uh… If they wanted to rip you apart they would’ve. I’ve wrestled with those guys my whole life. Together they’re deadly. I’ve got a couple scars from our play fights as kittens. They do too,” I said, almost laughing.
“I was in a situation where if I hurt them, you’d be mad at me but now you’re mad at me because I didn’t hurt them?” he asked, his brows climbing high on his forehead as if I was speaking another language.
“I didn’t say you should’ve hurt them. I said they weren’t going to kill you. I’m mad at you because you still haven’t gotten the baby’s rock!” I growled.
“Oh my god! You have to explain this rock thing to me! I get that otters have rocks but why do you think I can get it?”
“Because you’re my mate. Sure, I have training and education but I’m also pretty damn good at getting things done when push comes to shove. I chose your ass in the Other World, didn’t I? I have decent judgement when it comes to alphas. It’s why I’m still single.”
Beryl opened his mouth and shut it again. He had beautiful blue eyes that I wanted to fall into but now wasn’t the time for all that bullshit. The only blue thing I was going to fall into was probably the pond.
“And you left me in the mud because you figured I could handle myself?” he asked me.
“Yeah. You were walking around the farm at night while all this was going on. Until he’s gone the chance Ferrick will escape is never zero,” I said. “You pushed through Evie and them to get to me. Sure, Vius and Claw caught you, but that’s because they’re twins and hunt together all the time.”
“And then you came to ask me if I was afraid of lions?” he asked, hands back on his hips.
“Yeah, because I wasn’t thinking clearly last night. I just wanted to get my baby back inside the house before something actually scary happened! Something was mentioned I wondered if you had a panic attack or something.”
“I’m not that sort of—”
“Sort of what?” I growled, squaring up my shoulders.
“Coward,” he said and I shoved him with all my might and both hands straight into the pond.
“You’re a fucking asshole! That’s what you are, Beryl Moonscale! Find the damn rock while you’re in there if you can pull your head out of your ass long enough to look for it!” I said and stalked off back to the house.
The nerve of that fucking lizard-brained, spineless, waste of an eggshell!
If he knew what shifters went through to overcome panic attacks, he’d keep his mouth shut.
I hoped there was a monster in that lake that ate him up.
I hoped that he stepped on Evie’s tail. I hoped that he accidentally set Philip’s hat on fire or---
I stopped on the back porch and took a long deep breath.
I couldn’t go back inside smelling this pissed off.
Jondi would be upset and Eran might go punch the asshole.
He’d deserve it without a doubt, but I didn’t want to pull Eran into my drama.
Besides, if I wanted him punched, I’d do it my damn self.
Unable to go back inside and unwilling to go back to the pond and talk to Beryl, I dropped down and shifted into my lion. I needed to go for a run. Jondi was safe with Eran and Vatten and I needed to blow off some steam before I blew my top.
Inside my lion, I paced as he often did.
His paws hit the grass hard, bouncing off the individual blades with each step he made.
Just when I thought perhaps I was being unfair to Beryl he had to go and be a toxic alphahole.
What had I been thinking in the Other World when I chose him?
Had I set myself up for a lifetime of bullshit?
Part of me wanted to take my baby and run somewhere else.
Except the GGB was my home, not his. Jondi and me would stay right here where our family, pride, and friends were.
Fuck Beryl and the chip on his shoulder.
The man couldn’t decide whether he was a softy who needed saving from a pair of lions or an asshole with little awareness of the world.
I lost track of space and time as I ran. It was something I did often when I needed to clear my head. My lion knew his way around the farm and the path back to town. He got to burn off some steam and I had time to figure out my thoughts and feelings.
He must’ve been headed to my parents’ place because it was my carrier’s leg that I slammed into as he came out of Sandy’s. He blinked down at me as I found my footing.
“If you wanted a sandwich you could’ve asked,” he laughed, until my scent reached his nose. “Want me to descale him?” he asked.
I sank down against the wall and shifted back into my human form.
Dad sat down next to me and waited for me to say something.
He’d gotten most of the info over the family link but he’d always been good about sitting with me while I figured out what I needed to do.
It was probably one of the reasons I didn’t bump heads with him as much as I did my sire during my teenage years.
Though, those arguments were in a strange arena of him wanting to keep me safe and my being unsure whether the danger was real or part of his anxiety.
“I just want him not to be a giant asshat. There are enough of those around,” I sighed.
“I don’t think he’s a giant asshat. That’s giving him too much credit,” Dad shrugged.
“I’ve lived with giant asshats. They do more than complain about being left alone with lions and call people cowards.
Though, knowing dragons, he probably thought you were implying he was a coward by asking if he had a panic attack. ”
“That’s some alphahole bullshit,” I groaned.
“Well, if you’re going to be with an alpha sometimes that bullshit is going to come up,” Dad said. “That doesn’t mean you have to put up with it. Call him out on it by all means but not everyone was raised by Kenny.”
“I don’t want him to be Eran,” I groaned.
“No, you just want him to be emotionally mature and developed like Eran. I’m not saying Diamond Moonscale didn’t raise him well. I’m just saying he grew up as an only child and was the center of his mother’s world. He probably still sees the world through that lens.”
“Well, he doesn’t have his own gravitational pull, so the world doesn’t actually revolve around him,” I said, snarling.
Dad opened his mouth and shut it again.
“Just say it. I don’t think there’s anything left anyone could say that would hurt my feelings after the last couple of weeks,” I sighed.
“I’ve had to stay off social media,” Dad nodded. “Because I was ready to burn every one of them to the ground. Threats on a playroom?”
“I know,” I nodded and rubbed my forehead. “What did you want to say?”
“It’s not that I want to say it. I just think maybe you need to hear it.
I was going to say Beryl’s head is just as messed up as yours right now with the true-mate response.
He’s feeling a little rejected – which is fine even if kids have to come first. He probably feels a bit teamed up on because everyone else on that damn farm would just go and get the rock out of the pond if you asked for help and they don’t see why he won’t and he probably doesn’t even know why he won’t but now I think I also need to say that you’re viewing this through the lens of someone who has been harassed online for months for trying to make the world a better place for kids. ”
“I think we all have to prove we’re not assholes every day. Most people do it by just living their lives. Why do you think the rock is such a big deal?”
“Either he’s a city dragon or he hasn’t caught up to the fact that things probably aren’t going as he planned.
Lots of alphas think they’ll meet their mates and romp right then and live happily ever after.
You come with a kid. You come with a lot of potential foster and adopted kids.
You have a big heart and want to put good out into the world.
Not everybody understands that,” Dad sighed.
“I love Jondi like he’s my own flesh and blood.
I love all your kids like that. Beryl probably will if you give him some time. ”
I opened my mouth to say I didn’t have time to wait around for him to decide he wanted to be in my life but that was unfair. He knew nothing about my life outside of the little he’d probably picked up here and there.
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s too much to ask. What we don’t know is why he thinks it is. That’s probably an important question to answer. Why don’t you take him some sandwiches and talk it out?” Dad suggested.
“Fine,” I sighed.
“Do you need money?”
“I have my wallet, but thanks,” I grinned.
He was still making sure I had everything I needed despite having been an adult for decades.
I wasn’t complaining. I’d be lost without my parents.
Having the parents I did was one of the reasons I fostered.
Between them, they had an asshole and three people who died because of assholes.
Somehow they still raised me and my siblings to turn out okay.
We weren’t the largest family around, but we were one of the happiest if you asked me.