Chapter 13 #3
“He’s a lion. That’s his cub. They put the kids first all the time.
He wants us to follow him,” my dragon chimed into my thoughts.
“If we want to spend time with him I think we have to be where he is. It’s not like we have anywhere else to be.
What? Do you want to follow Sermon and Gaia around and have to keep ‘disappearing’ when they wanna fuck? ”
I didn’t. Not that I minded much most of the time.
There was always someone around to hook up with or something to do.
Now all I wanted to do was be around Jade.
I was a snake eating my own tail. I wanted to be around Jade but now that I kissed him, thinking about him made my dick hard.
My dick being hard kept me locked in the bedroom.
Someone knocked on the door. I opened up my mouth to tell Jondi that Jade had already went out and then for a half of a second, I held my breath, thinking that it was my mum.
One deep breath told me it was neither of them.
It was Gaia. I didn’t know who invited her and Sermon or if Jade would like how she waltzed into the room and flopped down on the bed next to me, but it was enough to kill my erection.
I laughed at the thought of our inebriated tryst compared to now.
“You should go out there,” she said without saying hello. “Seriously. Go out and mingle. Go out and hang on him. Go out and do something. You look so antisocial right now and that’s not you. Are you still mad about him leaving you in the field at the mercy of those pussy cats?”
“No, I---” I wasn’t about to tell Gaia that I’d moved from confused to horny.
“Ah, yeah. You want him to come in here. I don’t think that’s going to happen to be honest. He was out there eating pizza with the kid.”
I was pathetic, wasn’t I? I was pining in my mate’s bedroom because he was hanging out with his kid. What about the true-mate response had done this to me? Was it just me? Was I really that selfish? I wasn’t normally. At least, I didn’t think I was.
“Am I a horrible, pathetic person, Gaia?” I asked her.
She blinked at me and her expression slowly morphed to bemused.
“What?” she asked. “Are you the same guy who rotated in when our hatchlings had colic? Who has never missed a soccer game except for the time he wrapped his car around a tree and broke both legs? Then still tried to come to the victory pizza party afterward?”
“But…”
“Look, I’m an omega. So, I get why he wanted you to get the rock.
I do. I know how it is to be burnt out and you have every iron and your tail in the fire and still can’t get everything done.
But at the same time it’s okay for you to want attention.
That doesn’t mean he can drop everything and give it to you, but being an alpha doesn’t mean you don’t get to have needs and I’m not talking about sex.
If you want them to plan somewhere else, go say so.
If he has a problem with it, he’ll speak up. ”
“I can’t kick his parents out of his house,” I said.
“Well, I bet you’d feel less bad about it than he would,” Gaia huffed.
“Probably, but that’s not the point—”
“The point is if you’re going to have time alone with that lion, you’re going to have to use that big, stubborn draconic spine of yours and make plans and arrangements.
Sure, you’re going to have to work with Jade so that it’s when Jondi is at school or asleep or whatever but just because you met your true-mate doesn’t mean everything is easy.
Like Sermon was lowkey mad at me for days when he found out we slept together years ago. ”
“And he used to date his best friend,” I groaned.
“So what? They broke up before you two met, right? I mean, they broke up for a reason. Plus, Eran is mated to that adorable Toller and has all those babies.”
“And he kisses lions,” I groaned.
“Okay, I’m not your mate. This is all shit you have to work out with him. Plus, you have to tell him we romped years ago too,” she said.
“What? Why would I—”
“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Gaia sat up.
“Okay, out you go. Either go sit with him or start tossing people out the door. I don’t care, but I’m not letting you wallow in whatever this is.
Nope. You’re not gonna be one of those alphas who meets their true-mate and turns into a jerk and right now you’re a jerk.
Get up.” She tugged on me. “Get up before I have Sermon drag you out of here!”
“Gaia!” I growled.
“Beryl!” she said, rolling her eyes and dragging out the syllables of my name.
“Is there a problem?” Jade appeared in the door, Jondi holding onto his pants leg.
“She won’t leave me alone,” I laughed.
“He needs to go socialize,” Gaia said.
Jade’s kitty cat eyes darted between us and then he frowned.
There was definitely a question there he wasn’t willing to ask in front of his kid.
Jondi stepped forward and opened his mouth.
I thought he was going to say hi or something, but a screechy little bark escaped his lips and he charged at Gaia.
She leapt out of the way, nearly knocking over a floor lamp, and ended up standing on the dresser as Jondi continued to hiss, bark, and make other high-pitched, angry otter noises at her.
It might’ve been cute if he hadn’t started climbing the dresser to get to her with his little teeth bared.
Jade scooped him up and nodded for Gaia to leave.
After she was gone, he folded back a screen that I thought was a wall to reveal a rocking chair. He sat down and rocked his son.
“She wasn’t going to hurt Beryl. She’s his friend,” Jade cooed to the little guy who was still hissing and snarling.
“He’s ours now!” Jondi said. “Ours! No one messes with us!”
My heart melted a bit. Whatever Jade had told Jondi about us or our connection had made him go from thinking I was going to eat him to understanding I was somehow a part of their little family.
“They were playing,” Jade said.
“He smelled scared!” Jondi said as Jade felt around a table next to the chair until he found a tin of tuna.
He popped the top off with the pull tab and handed it off to the little otter who devoured it without breathing.
When he finished, he drank down the watery juice and looked at me. “What was she doing to you?”
“Trying to get me to go out there,” I said, skipping all the other bits of the conversation that weren’t appropriate for a little kid.
“No, we can stay in our bedrooms when people are over if we want to. It’s a house rule. You don’t have to talk to visitors if you don’t want to. If they get mad, they can wag their tail and get glad or go home!” Jondi waved his finger at me.
Jade grinned like the proud dad he was. I could tell it was a conversation they’d had before.
“Do you want me to tell them it’s time to go home?” Jondi asked, one hand on his hip.
I wondered if Jade had offered to do that for him before too.
He must have because Jondi took one look at my expression and nodded.
He padded out of the room with Jade on his heels.
As much as I wanted to stay in the comfy bed I really wanted to see a little otter kick out a house full of larger shifters.
“Okay,” Jondi said to get everyone’s attention.
“Thank you all for coming. Thanks for my pool and the pizza, but it’s someone’s naptime and we need to have a quiet house.
He can’t sleep if you all keep talking and chewing and stuff.
I’m sure Grandpa Carmine or Grandma Diamond will be happy to have you party at their house for a while. Thank you and goodbye.”
The adults all exchanged looks and then a few of them grinned.
“You heard him. If you’re not staying the night you gotta go home. It’s Beryl’s nap time,” Jade said.
Everyone laughed but started to collect their stuff. A few moments later, we were alone in the house except for Eran and his family who had once again settled down in the living room.
“See, it’s not so hard. You just gotta make it not a question.
I live here. So I can tell people when it’s time for them to go home,” Jondi said and Jade beamed at him.
I wondered how long he’d been working on boundaries and confidence with him.
I almost asked, but didn’t want to ruin Jondi’s moment.
“I’m going to see if there is any pizza left.
” The little otter said and walked over to the counter.
“He’s some kid,” I said, leaning one arm against the wall.
“Never know what to expect with that one,” Jade grinned.
“I’m lucky he didn’t kick me out,” I laughed, but Jondi overheard.
“You are going to live here too,” he said.
I shot Jade a questioning look, wondering how much he’d told Jondi and how much he picked up by himself.
“Is he?” Jade asked, sitting down at the table when Jondi did.
I joined them not wanting to stand in the center of the room again like an idiot.
“Well, I figured it out. Well, I think I did. He is your Vatten,” Jondi said, picking a piece of pepperoni off the pizza and putting it on his tongue. He chewed and then smiled at Jade. “Right? Like he’s the one you’ll have us some babies with?”
“Would you like having brothers or sisters?” Jade asked.
“I think so. If they’re nice. Vatten’s babies are nice,” Jondi said, picking off another slice of pepperoni and eating it.
“So when the time comes, you’ll be okay with him moving in?” Jade asked.
“He isn’t staying now?” Jondi asked, his little brows rising in concern.
“I think we have to talk some more before that,” Jade smiled.
“About what?” Jondi asked. “Does he have to ask his mummy? I think Grandma Diamond will be okay with it. He’ll have to get his own pool, though.
Maybe he could swim in the pond again. We could take turns!
” He fell quiet and then locked eyes with Jade.
“We’re still going to live here, right? We’re not moving like Uncle Eran did? Like he moves in and we move out?”
“No, this is our house. We’ll just share it with him.”