Chapter 13
Beryl
The Guardians of Glitter Bomb Territory
By the time I washed the pond out of my crevices, Mum had already taken off. No one was happy that I showed up looking as if I planned a lifestyle change of becoming a pond monster, but luckily Nashen didn’t follow through on his threat to hose me off in the backyard.
Under the hot water my mind reeled. Jade wasn’t exactly hot and cold, but he had a way of walking away while I was in the dirt.
It was almost as if he had blinders on when Jondi was around.
Not that I begrudged him wanting to take care of his kid, but he didn’t even tell me what he was going to do or what he wanted me to do.
Maybe I should’ve followed him inside, but I didn’t want to spend the rest of the day or however long I was there damp and itchy.
Sure, some dragons lived underwater for eons to take their naps without being water dragons, but I didn’t like leaving my scales wet.
The sensation just felt like a recipe for scale rot.
So, I took the extra time to ensure I was dry and exfoliated and not going to wake up with some weird rash the next day.
The alpha gene only went so far to take care of skin irritants.
Then as loathe as I was to admit it, I got stuck in front of the mirror for a while.
I’d spent a lot of time on vacation with Sermon and Gaia over the last few years and wasn’t sure if skipping the gym was working in my favor.
Deciding what to wear was another hurdle because I wanted to look nice but not like I was trying too hard.
Also, it needed to be kid-friendly and something I didn’t care about getting destroyed.
I hadn’t brought much with me when we left for the island, and we hadn’t stopped by the house to pick anything else up.
“This is why we need to start carrying more stuff,” my dragon said. “Traveling light is for small creatures. We are not small.”
The scaley guy wasn’t wrong but right now his advice did nothing to right the situation. In the end, I settled on jeans and a band t-shirt from one concert or another. It was a steely blue and the color always looked good on me.
It wasn’t until I was downstairs that I discovered Mum had gone over without telling me she even planned to. Bree was lounging on the sofa with her bare feet up on a pillow. Her billowy yellow dress hung off her legs in every direction as if it might eat her later if she wasn’t careful.
“She’s gone over to see if she can help,” Bree yawned, looking up from her book. “Took a kiddie pool. I’m surprised the drone got it here so quickly.”
I swallowed down a groan because this had next to nothing to do with Bree. Mum had always been headstrong and charged into situations. The last thing I needed was for Jade to think I needed my ‘mummy’ crashing into our relationship to make it work.
“She means well. Besides, she already knew Jade. He’s new to you, not her. I’m surprised you never met him before.”
“I don’t think I have,” I said, pausing when I almost turned to leave. “Maybe before his first heat but all the lions sort of blended together whenever we visited GGB. I’ve never paid much attention to kids except for Sermon and Gaia’s. Speaking of, where are they?”
“Downtown for a drag show,” Bree said. “Now, go on. Go figure out life. I want to read.”
I left Bree to her book and headed over to Jade’s.
Canton Valley Farm came to life in the evenings.
Almost every house I walked by had kids playing outside or people sitting on the porch.
Everyone waved or said hello. They all knew who I was not just from my mum or our previous visits to the GGB but because the lions had tackled me.
I had never wanted to be invisible so badly.
No one said anything cross but that was almost worse.
Teasing I could handle but whatever feelings were behind those kind looks almost felt like pity.
I stood on Jade’s porch for several long minutes, wishing I would’ve grabbed flowers or something. Coming empty handed felt wrong.
“Maybe a bouquet of rocks with faces next time,” my dragon put his two cents in.
Still too late to help.
“Come in!” Jade called from further inside the house.
I stepped into chaos. Nothing was dirty, but it looked as if they lived in the living room.
I knew about the sleepover of Eran and his family, but toys, bottles, and pillows were everywhere.
Something itched inside of me to clean it up, but the dog sitting near the basket of sleeping, furry babies made me think twice about it.
His tail thumped against the floor twice and then he jabbed his snoot toward a door on the far side of the room as if he’d already had enough of my bullshit.
“Beryl?” Mum called from the kitchen. “We’re in here!”
The dog jabbed his snoot at the door again and I headed that way before he grew any more insistent.
I tried to smell less concerned than I was but I was pretty sure my mum getting involved wasn’t going to impress Jade.
When I pushed the kitchen door open I found a whole roomful of people.
Not just Jade, Jondi, and Eran. Kenny and Brock, Eran’s parents had come over with one of their teenagers whose name I couldn’t remember.
There were two other people who I vaguely recognized one of because Carmine was involved in a lot of advocacy work given who his sire was.
He sat next to a lion alpha who had his arm wrapped around his mate as if he thought I might want to steal him.
“Maybe he thinks Carmine will eat us,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts.
“You didn’t invite Bree to the party?” I asked, unsure of what else to say to all the people stuffed into the kitchen.
“This isn’t your mating feast,” Mum was first to answer.
“This is the planning meeting of your mating feast. You two were having trouble getting things going with everything else going on. So when Carmine called to see if I wanted to help plan it, what was I supposed to say? You two won’t have to worry about anything. We’ll plan it all.”
I glanced at Jade whose attention was one hundred percent on Jondi flopping around in a kiddie pool while in his otter form. I wished that I could be that oblivious to what was going on.
“Not oblivious, comfortable,” my dragon said into my thoughts.
“What?” Jade glanced at me. “It’s not like we’re supposed to plan our own mating feast. They didn’t ask me either, but it’s sort of nice to have a houseful after how crazy things have been recently.”
For a moment, I glanced from person to person unsure of what to say.
“You remember my parents, Brock and Kenny,” Eran said, filling in the silence. “You met at a drag night years ago. My sire was Kay Blossom at the time. That’s their drag persona.”
I shook both of their hands and smiled but the world was a bit surreal. The back door opened and a group of lion shifters including Vius and Claw walked in. Jade stood up and kissed a few of them. My dragon rose to his hind legs and beat his wings through the air as if he’d flog them all over.
“It’s lion culture. They’re his pride,” Mum reminded me over the family link.
I knew that but still. He was mine. He was my mate and I couldn’t even manage to get two seconds alone with him and they all got to walk in and paw all over him?
“If he didn’t kiss his contemporaries hello that’s when I’d worry,” Mum said over the family link. “That means they’re awkward about the affection and that would mean something’s probably up.”
A roar ricocheted around my throat, and I forced myself to swallow it down.
I wasn’t afraid to fight the lions but knew Jade would get pissed off.
Still, I stepped close to Jade. He didn’t take it as what it was, but instead took it as a cue that I wanted to be introduced to the pride.
There was Vius and Claw, the annoying twins.
Evie the older lioness (he hadn’t kissed her) who tried to eat me the night we met.
Brent and Jeran who were Evie’s brother and his mate, as well as the parents of the devil twins.
Plus a few others whose names went in one ear and out the other.
I almost asked if everyone needed to be here if this was just the planning stage but the delighted expression on Jade’s face kept my mouth shut.
I stood there out of place as the older generation sat around with my Mum and the other parents of adult children and the younger gathered around Jondi’s pool like it was a watering hole.
“Don’t feel bad,” the teenage brother of Eran said, slinking over to stand by me. “It’s always like this. There is never an obvious place to be. I’m Jacand.”
“Beryl,” I shook his hand as we both stood in the middle of the kitchen watching the others socialize.
“Barely seen my brother since the babies were born,” Jacand said. “Tried to sit down with them when I got here but when they started falling asleep, I got chased out of the living room. Eran says it’s up to Vatten, but aren’t they like his kids too?”
“Yeah, but believe me, you don’t want babies to miss their naps. They’ll turn into these little fussy assholes who are impossible to comfort,” I said.
“Should you say that about babies?” Jacand looked at me as if I’d stepped on his tail.
“Probably not, but it’s true.”
“So you have kids, then?” Jacand asked, and a few ears turned in our direction.
Had they sent the teenager to feel me out?
“No, but I am a godfather to several handfuls of them and it’s always that way. Have you ever seen a baby dragon pissed off that he’s tired and won’t sleep but also because his tail exists and keeps touching him?”
“Yeah, a couple of times. It’s sort of adorable,” Jacand laughed.
“Only because you’re not responsible for calming them down,” I smirked.
“Sit down. Get some pizza,” Jade said, leaning his head back from his spot on the floor to see me. “It’s serve yourself. Use the paper plates, though. I don’t like getting the good dishes out with so many people over.”