Chapter Twenty-Four
Twenty-Four
Miles
"Okay?" I asked Duckie as he glanced around at the crowd, and he nodded slowly, though his grip on my hand tightened.
"Yo! Mateo!" Cam called out from somewhere, and Mateo glanced over at us, brow raised.
"Go on," Duckie said, and Mateo smiled before racing off to find Cam.
"There's Alex," I said, sensing it would be best to start with someone Duckie knew.
Alex stood at the edge of the crowd, dressed in one of their oversized hoodies as they leaned against a tree and watched everyone mill around.
We walked over to them, and I saw them stiffen a moment before they glanced up, relaxing when they saw Duckie and me.
"Hey, Alex!" Duckie greeted with a smile that they cautiously returned. I hadn't spent all that much time with Alex, but I knew Duckie and they had grown close over the weeks.
"Hey, Duckie. Did you just get here?"
"Yup. Have you been here long?"
Alex shrugged, then glanced over at the food table where Noel, Duckie's mom, Papa, and Jai were setting up all the food. While everyone was welcome to bring some food with them, Noel, Papa, and Jai usually did most of the cooking.
"Not really. Jai came over earlier to cook, but Raph and I arrived about fifteen minutes ago."
"Jai cooked? Awesome!" Duckie enthused, making Alex smile.
As they chatted, I glanced around, and realized almost everyone had shown up.
The younger Presley siblings were missing, which made sense since it was a weekday.
Penny would be at her job, and Dean probably had classes.
Dr. Griffin and their mate weren't here either, but they rarely attended the get-togethers even when they were in town.
Raiden's announcement had to be what had drawn everyone here, but I was glad to see them all anyway.
Despite the fact that we lived in such a small town, it could be months before I saw some of them.
These parties were a way to circumvent that, and I'd always take the time to come to every one of them for as long as they took place.
After a while, we moved on from Alex, leaving them with Paxton, who'd drifted over a few minutes ago. He'd been hovering awkwardly, and I'd gotten the feeling he wanted to talk to Alex.
"Is there anyone in particular you'd like to meet or talk to?"
Duckie pursed his lips thoughtfully, scanning the crowds, then turned to me. "What about the cat shifter you told me about? Is he here?"
It didn't take me long to spot Ollie, and I led Duckie through the throng. Of course, we got stopped by more than one person on the way, and I introduced Duckie to them, then extracted us from the conversation as quickly as I could.
"Ollie," I greeted once we reached him, and he smiled, his hazel eyes going from me to Duckie.
"Hey, Miles! And you must be Duckie! It's nice to meet you."
"Hello," Duckie said with a soft smile, his eyes flicking from Ollie to his mate, Devon.
"This is Devon," Ollie said, patting his mate's chest, and Devon nodded at Duckie, shifting his long, black braid to his back.
Ollie drew Duckie into a conversation about his time as a duck, so Devon and I passed the time talking about the car he was currently restoring.
"Everyone!" Raiden called, and his magic amplified his voice so it rang out loud and clear over the many, many conversations. "If I could have a moment, please."
Since everyone knew about the announcement, a hush fell over the crowd instantly, and Raiden cleared his throat, his voice lowering as he spoke. "As you all know, our four remaining eggs hatched almost a month ago, and we now have five healthy baby dragons."
Cheers filled the air, making Raiden smile. His gaze slid to his side where William, his mate, stood, and the two men shared a look so fond it made my heart squeeze in my chest. Would Duckie and I still look at each other like that years from now too?
"Thank you, everyone," Raiden said, and the cheers went quiet. His smile slowly disappeared, and he blew out a breath. "We can't safely raise the kids in town, so William and I will be moving to my place in the Rocky Mountains with them."
Silence hung in the air, and then Uncle Raph broke it with a "What the fuck?"
"Language, Angel," Uncle Jai murmured, and someone—probably Cam—snickered.
Raiden smiled. "It won't be for long. We'll be back as soon as they learn to control their shifts and settle on a human form. While we're gone, Cam, with his mates' assistance, will take over my duties protecting Mistvale."
A long, contemplative hush fell over the crowd as they mulled over Raiden's words before Alden spoke. "What about the rain? Won't the humans get suspicious if it suddenly stops raining in Mistvale?"
"The older residents know this, but a lot of Mistvale's rain is natural," Raiden said, surprising half of the crowd.
I'd known this, of course, since my dads had settled in Mistvale about the same time Raiden did, but before he claimed Mistvale as his own.
"Yes, the rainstorms, and some of the rain is my doing, but I'll be giving Cam some of my powers that he'll be able to absorb as a void dragon, so he will continue causing the rains and the storms as usual. "
"You've thought of everything, huh?" Uncle Raphael asked, making Raiden smile.
"This wasn't an impromptu decision, Raphael. We've been thinking about it for the last year and a half. If anything goes wrong, Rhiannon will be able to portal us here in moments, so we'll never be too far away. I know this is a big change, but I promise you Mistvale will remain safe."
"We'll miss you," Noel said with a sad smile, and others chimed in. Raiden looked a touch overwhelmed as William placed a hand on his shoulder and murmured something in his ear.
"We will miss everyone as well," William said as Raiden nodded in agreement. "We plan to be back as soon as possible, because Mistvale will always be our home, and we want our kids to grow up surrounded by all of you."
Duckie
After Raiden's announcement, the party continued in full swing. Raiden and William had brought the babies with them so everyone could see them, though they were in Noel's cabin since Veron, the oldest of the bunch, had started flying, and no one wanted a four-month-old dragon on the loose.
People kept dipping into the cabin to see them, while Raiden and William took turns watching over them.
Miles and I had gone in as well, though we'd only stayed for a couple of minutes.
The babies had grown quite a bit since I'd last seen them, their dark skin already covered with a thin layer of scales in various shades.
I couldn't wait to see what they all looked like once they had all their scales and started flying like Veron.
The older baby dragon had blue eyes that were darker than the last time I'd seen them, and their scales were a soft gray color, with the wings appearing almost silver. Raiden had said their colors would evolve as they grew older, which was fascinating to me.
"Wanna grab something to eat?" Miles asked, pulling me out of my thoughts.
"Oh yeah. I'm starving."
Miles led me to the large table along one side of the clearing that was laden with food. Finger foods, pies, cupcakes—from She Bakes, She Brews—coffee, Coke, blood, veggies in gravy, naan, and a whole bunch of other foods waited to be eaten, and I was excited to try them all.
"Great minds think alike," Mateo said as he joined us, and I smiled at him, then eyed the food already on his plate. Hmm, that looked yummy…
After Miles and I had filled our plates, the three of us settled in the grass under a tree.
As we started eating, Micah and his mates joined us, then two men who introduced themselves as Finn Presley—Alex's older brother, and Jai and Raphael's oldest son—and his mate, Levi.
I couldn't quite tell what kind of supe Finn was, and it felt rude to ask, but his mate seemed like a mage, my guess confirmed when a skunk sidled up to him and he introduced her as his familiar, Greta.
Neel—who was human, and the adopted son of a clan member—and Paxton, a griffin and his stepbrother, joined us too, as did Alex, though they were somewhat reluctant until I offered them space beside me.
I mostly stayed quiet as we ate, observing everyone as they chatted among themselves. My eyes slid to Paxton, who snuck glances at Neel every once in a while, then glanced away as if he hadn't meant to do it. Curious. Could it be…
I glanced at my mates to see if they'd noticed, but they were caught up in a conversation with Cam and Kai and clueless.
Alex, on the other hand, met my gaze, then glanced at Paxton, telling me they'd noticed.
They smirked, and I watched as they brushed their finger against Paxton's elbow.
Paxton didn't react to the touch, but whatever Alex had done affected him.
His eyes went wide a moment later, and he shot to his feet and practically ran away as everyone watched him go.
"Is he okay?" Micah asked after a moment of shocked silence, and Neel sighed.
"I have no idea. He's been acting strange for months now. I've tried talking to him, but he refuses to have an honest conversation with me. I think I need to ask the dads for help."
Alex and I shared a glance, but they shook their head. Wouldn't it be better to tell Neel what we'd observed? Unless we'd come to the wrong conclusion. Yeah, if we were wrong, saying anything could cause even more problems between them. Better to let them figure things out on their own.
I turned my attention to my food as the conversation resumed, and we stayed there well after all the food was gone, chatting and enjoying the company.
As the hours passed, people started leaving, including Mom, who seemed a little overwhelmed, but in a good way.
Others hung around, and Mateo told me that a core group of them stuck around every time to help with the cleanup.
When all the food was gone, us 'kids'—none of whom were actual children—were asked to clean everything up, using Noel's kitchen to do all the dishes as Veron hopped from shoulder to shoulder as they supervised.
"Ember, how does it feel to be put in the 'kids' group as someone who is older than a lot of the people out there?" Mateo asked, glancing back at Micah's big phoenix mate.
"It makes me feel young again," Ember joked, pulling a laugh out of me.
"If you think about it, Ember never grows past a hundred years old. He resets. So technically, he's only a year old right now," Kai said with a cheeky grin, his dark brown eyes sparkling as he wiped the dish in his hand.
Ember shook his head at his selkie mate as Cam snickered, and I turned my attention back to the dish I was scrubbing as the conversation continued behind me.
The party had been more fun than I'd expected, and I'd gotten to meet a whole bunch of new people, including some I wanted to get to know better.
I'd ended up in Mistvale through a stroke of luck, but now that I was here, I felt more at home than I had in my entire life. I was ready to settle down, to build a life with Miles and Mateo.