“Well, hello there,” he said in what he hoped was a calm voice.
The dragon blinked at him, then dove down onto the blanket of leaves in front of King, using his wings to glide. He made a loud chirping sound, tilted his head slightly and continued to stare at King with blatant curiosity.
“I have no idea what you just said,” he murmured.
“King,” Ace called out from across the clearing.
He turned and felt the dragonling sidle up next to him, its wings brushing against his leg and hip.
He’d only interacted with one dragonling before, and she was a little bigger than this guy. He wasn’t even sure how he knew the dragonling was male, but he definitely was. And he was now rubbing his face against King’s hip with insistency.
Reaching out, he rubbed the baby’s head. “What is it?” he said to Ace.
Ace paused, looking at the dragonling, then shook his head and focused. “You’re going to need to see this.”
He hurried across the clearing, the dragon loping alongside him instead of flying. King shot it a surprised look but the dragonling kept up as they reached a cluster of… Oh hell. “Those are dragon eggs.” Well, the hatched shells. As in…plural.
The little dragonling moved forward and touched one of the cracked-open eggs with his wing, then pointed at himself. Then it chirped happily, as if to say, “That’s mine!”
King scrubbed a hand over his face. There were three more open shells in addition to the one the little guy had pointed at. So it looked as if Willow, the dragonling one of his friends had adopted, wasn’t the only one in the city.
This was an interesting development. He…wasn’t sure what to make of it. There was a lot he didn’t understand about real dragons—which were very different from dragon shifters.
“Everyone can meet you in an hour,” Ace said. “Unless I should tell them to push the time back?” He glanced at the shells, his eyebrows raised.
“No. The meeting is still on. But I’m going to take this guy to…” He racked his brain, thinking of all the dragons in the city. He could ask Reaper and Greer to take this dragonling in, but they were both so busy running one of the supernatural hospitals. “Mikael and his brothers. Avery will look after this little guy.” Hell, she looked after all the males in that house, dragon and human alike, whether they realized it or not. And he remembered her saying that she wanted a dragonling of her own. He liked the human female who was doing so much for the city and knew this baby would be safe with her.
“What should I do about these shells?” Ace asked.
“Transport them home. To the main compound,” he clarified. “I don’t know if dragons need them or what, but I don’t want to just abandon them here.” He couldn’t imagine why they’d need their shells, but he figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
“I’ll scout the surrounding area, looking for the other babies,” Delphine said as if reading his mind.
He nodded, then headed for the open-top Jeep he’d arrived in. The dragonling came with him and jumped in the back open seat like a puppy eager for a ride, as if he’d done it a hundred times before.
King turned around and looked at him in surprise. “Seriously? You’re riding in here?” He’d assumed the dragonling would fly, if he decided to come with him at all. He’d been hoping the dragon would so it would make the transport to Avery and the dragons easier.
The baby chirped in response, perched on the seat, its tail wiggling.
Laughing to himself, King started the engine and then took off down the dusty old road.
Two minutes later, the baby jumped from the back seat and started flying next to King, chirping animatedly as if he was having an entire conversation with himself. King just made grunts of acknowledgment, which seemed to please the dragonling.
“What the fuck is my life?” he murmured to himself even as a smile tugged at his lips. Even as he had the thought, he knew he would tell Aurora about this development as soon as possible.
Because she was the one person he wanted to tell everything to.
Chapter 4
Mikael watched from the back porch as Avery tossed another cherry at the dragonling.
The baby, roughly the size of a small horse, practically preened when he caught it in his mouth and then did a sort of bow, as if he was very proud of himself.
If Mikael was the kind of male who used the word adorable, he might say that the dragonling was just that. He was making Avery smile anyway. The pain rolling off her from only hours ago because of her asshole father had dissipated to be replaced by pure joy.
“What am I supposed to do with him?” He looked back at King, who was watching the interaction between the two with a hint of amusement. If he didn’t know that the Alpha was smitten with another female, he might have been annoyed that the male was watching Avery.
Mikael’s female.
His dragon swiped at him. Not your female yet.
Yeah, and it would never happen. He knew exactly where he stood with her. It was a thing called the friend zone. At least that was what one of her brothers had told him. He didn’t mind being her friend, and did not quite understand the phrase, and wasn’t sure why her brother had said it as if it was a bad thing. In fact, he liked it. But he wanted more than friendship. He wanted everything.
“I thought since you’re a dragon you would be more equipped to watch after the little guy before I can find a permanent housing situation for him. Unless it ends up working out and he stays here,” King said.
“What kind of housing situation are you looking at for him?” Because Mikael knew that if they took this dragonling in, Avery would never give him up.
“I’m going to reach out to Dallas and see if any of her neighbors want to house him. Dallas loves Willow and that little dragon helps out around the farm, so maybe she’ll want him.”
Mikael snorted softly. He’d seen Willow’s antics and he wasn’t so sure the dragonling actually helped out with anything…but she was sweet. And she also made Avery smile. “I know nothing about dragonlings.”
Avery turned, clearly eavesdropping even though she was in the middle of the yard, and chucked a cherry at Mikael. “We’ll learn!”
Lightning fast, he reached up, snagged it from midair and popped it into his mouth. Flavor exploded on his tongue and he wondered… Well, he wondered what he always did. If Avery would be as sweet if he ever got to taste her. Especially between her legs. She had a rich, fruity scent that made him crazy on a daily basis. He always craved peaches because of her.
Her eyes widened slightly and she grinned. “That was impressive.”
He would catch a thousand cherries for her to grin at him like that again. It was a sucker punch straight to his heart. One he thought had died a long time ago when most of his family had been murdered.
“If he wants to stay, I want to keep him,” she said as she strode across the yard, the little dragonling loping next to her instead of flying. “But he seems to have bonded with you, King. He keeps watching you, looking for approval every time he catches a cherry.”
Mikael looked between the Alpha wolf and the dragonling, who was looking up at King adoringly. Oh. “Avery is right.”