Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
“Wayne!” I called as I walked into the jungle room. “Are you here?”
We were supposed to have our date, but I hadn’t been able to find him.
“Up here,” he responded sleepily and sat up in one of the hammocks. “Is it time for our date?”
I nodded. “Unless you’d like to postpone it so you can sleep more?”
He shook his head and dropped out of the hammock, landing lightly on his feet in front of me without even a slight stumble.
It was rather impressive. “No, sorry, I just lost track of time. I’m ready.
” He finger-brushed his hair and smiled at me, his eyes still full of sleep, but quickly focusing on me. “What are we doing on our date?”
“Actually,” I said and looked down at my hands nervously, “I wasn’t completely certain what to do on our date since we haven’t spoken much one on one.
Um, I, uh, was hoping you might maybe have a suggestion?
” I’d spent hours agonizing over what to do for our date, but no ideas had really come to mind.
He tilted his head to the side, looking at me in silence that had me worried about my appearance and wondering if I had something on my face. After a few seconds longer, he asked, “Would you like to learn to make something that females on our planet make for their intended?”
“Their intended?” I asked, uncertain of the term.
“The one who you want to mate with.” He frowned. “The man you want to make a bond with, for life, to have babies with.”
Oh!
“Yes!” I shouted a bit too loudly. “Um, yes,” I said softer. “I would like to learn to make something like that.”
He spun around and walked into the thick foliage of the plants in the jungle room. “You should go get some snacks from the kitchen because this is going to take us a while.”
“Do you want any specific snacks or drinks?” I asked as I turned towards the door.
“In the pantry, bottom left area, is a dark brown bottle with a label that says, ‘WB’, please grab that for me and two glasses. I think you’ll like it, too. Snacks can be whatever you want.”
“Be back!” I called as I hurried out of the room and towards the kitchen.
What did WB mean? Wayne’s … something? Whiskey bitch?
There could be a plethora of meanings, so I let it drop as I entered the kitchen and started grabbing snacks.
As I bent down in the pantry, reaching into the back to grab the bottle Wayne had indicated, a dark shadow fell over me.
“What’re you doing, pet?” Preston asked.
I grabbed the bottle and stood, spinning around to face him. “Getting this bottle, per Wayne’s request, for our date today.”
His eyes darkened as he looked from the bottle to me. “So, it is true that you’re doing the dates already? Well then, how about ours?”
“Our what?” I asked.
“Our date,” he responded.
“Um, well … tomorrow?” I knew what I wanted to do on our date, but I felt a little silly asking for it.
“Tomorrow works for me,” he said with a smirk. “Did you have something in mind?”
“Let’s meet in the training room at two o’clock.” Hopefully, I could wipe that smug smile off his stupidly handsome face. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to finish gathering stuff for my current date with Wayne.”
He waved his hand and stepped out of my way to exit the pantry. “I shall not intrude upon you any further. Will you be joining us for dinner or will you be taking your dessert early together like you did with Zeke?”
It was clear that he had heard what had happened during the date from Zeke, which made my cheeks heat with embarrassment.
“It’s none of your business,” I snapped as I put the bottle into the box of items I’d been gathering.
Preston leaned close, his hands gripping the island on either side of me, caging me in and whispered into my ear, “That’s where you’re wrong, pet. Everything regarding you concerns me.”
Before I could spin around and give him a piece of my mind, he strolled out of the kitchen, a weirdly shaped fruit in his hand.
Grumbling to myself, I carried the box back to the jungle room where Wayne stood at the table, a few large plant leaves in front of him.
“Here,” he said quickly when he saw me enter the room and took the box the rest of the way to the table.
I helped him take out the fruits, nuts, and crackers I’d grabbed as well as the two cups and the bottle of alcohol.
“What’s WB mean?” I asked as I inspected the handwritten label.
“Wayne’s Booze,” he answered with a smile.
“Oh, that makes sense.” I chuckled. “So, what kind of alcohol is it?”
He opened the bottle, poured a glass, and held it out to me. “Try it and let me know what you think.”
I was skeptical, but I never turned down free alcohol.
I raised the glass in a salute and gave him a gracious smile.
“Cheers.” It smelled good, fruity, and when I took a drink, my eyes widened.
It was delicious! “Oh, wow! This is so good. I’ve never had anything like it.
” It was a bit bubbly, sort of like the seltzer, but the taste was fruity and tart.
“I’m glad you like it. It took me years to perfect the recipe.”
Looking up from my glass at him, I asked, “You made this?”
He nodded. “It’s called a pear cider. The pears were hard to come by initially, but then I discovered you could can them and freeze them, too.”
“Wow, you guys are really handy,” I whispered.
“Thank you,” he said. “Now, let me show you what we’re going to do. I’m only going to show you the steps because it takes a long time to complete it.”
“How long?” I asked as he picked up one of the large leaves.
“I think I remember my sister spending two or three days making one and she had to make three, so it took her more than a week to finish them all,” he answered.
“So, it’s common for your women to mate with multiple males?” I asked.
He nodded. “We have low female births and now, we’ve been tasked with finding females who are genetically able to have dragons.”
“Wait, aren’t you guys birthed from eggs? How could a different species birth a dragon egg?” That didn’t make any sense to me. There was no way that I could lay an egg.
“Some species who are compatible with Dragonkin are able to have live births. I’m not really sure how it works, but it has something to do with the way the genetics mix. Preston knows more than me. That’s why we … you … never mind.” He dropped his head, his brows furrowed.
Once again, I’d gotten so close to more information, but they stopped. But from what he said, it sounded like they thought I might be a genetic match for them. But how did they know? I hadn’t given them a DNA sample. Had I? Had they taken it from me while I was sleeping or something?
“Why are you upset?” Wayne asked, his brows furrowed as he looked down at me. He set the leaf down and took a step closer to me. “What did I say to upset you?”
“N-Nothing,” I lied and took a deep breath to calm myself.
There was no way that Scout wouldn’t have detected them taking a DNA sample from me.
They might be able to knock me out with a gas, but Scout was immune to all of that, which was a big reason I had created him and integrated him with myself.
He ran a hand through his hair, messing it up, and said, “I don’t understand people well, but if you tell me what I did wrong, I’ll make sure I don’t do it again.”
I set my hand on his arm and smiled up at him. “You didn’t say anything wrong, Wayne. I just thought of something that was scary. It wasn’t you.”
He dropped his hand down from his hair and set it on my upper arm. “While you’re with me, I won’t let anything hurt you. I’ll destroy it, just like that ship of mercenaries.”
This Dragonkin was so unlike any other male I’d encountered before. Also, why did they sound like they were falling for me as stupidly fast as I was falling for them? I barely knew them and yet the butterflies they gave me were undeniable, especially when they said things like that.
“Thank you,” I said and stood up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Now, let’s start our project.”
His eyes widened at the kiss, but he quickly grabbed the leaf and showed me the slow and tedious process of stripping long pieces off of it.
Once all the strips were separated, we had to soak them in water for twenty minutes to make them pliable, then braid and knot them into a long strand that would become a bracelet.
You had to resoak them occasionally to keep them pliable, which was part of what took so long to complete the bracelet.
“This is actually pretty relaxing,” I commented as I continued braiding and knotting the strands. Wayne’s looked way better than mine and it was difficult to untie a knot to fix it without it having a weird crinkle or bend from the first knot or braid. “Have you made many of these?”
He shook his head. “I’ve never made one before since the tradition is for the female to make it for the males, but my mother and sister taught me how to do it, and I watched my sister making hers.”
“It sounds like you love your sisters a lot,” I commented.
He nodded. “My eldest sister is everything I’m not.
Bright, warm, and bubbly. She understands people in ways I can’t and tried to explain things to me as I grew up.
I was always tinkering with things, working on new tech gadgets and didn’t have a desire to interact with people.
Still, she made me roleplay talking to others and instructed me on proper responses or body cues to watch for.
I can’t wait to see her and hug her again, as well as my younger sisters. ”
“Are they back on your home planet?” I asked.
He nodded again. “Yes, my eldest sister and her mates live there together. She’s likely lain several eggs at this point. Her goal was to have a whole hoard of babies. My two younger sisters aren’t yet seeking mates. My family has been very lucky in terms of birth rates, we’ve had the highest yet”
“What is your plan? Do you just want to search for a mate and then return to your planet? Or is there something else you guys are doing?” Maybe if I just asked bluntly, they’d give me an answer.