“Did you think simply by not using my name I wouldn’t know that you were talking about me?” Mother Nature asked sweetly.
Damn.Drake forced a smile on his face. “Gaia! How nice to see you.”
“Cut the shit, dragon.” She folded her arms and glared at him.
Heat crept up his neck, so he inserted a finger in his collar to loosen it. “Am I in trouble?”
“What do you think?”
Drake searched his recent memory for anything he may have said that would have offended her. He wasn’t sure, so he erred on the side of safety. “I’m sorry?”
“For?” she asked.
Dammit. She’s not going to give me any chance to wiggle out of this.He shrugged. “I’m not sure. Was I not supposed to tell the other dragons what happened a couple of years ago?”
Mother Nature narrowed her eyes at him until he became uncomfortable and started fidgeting.
A sly smile crept across her face. “No, it’s fine that you told them. Just don’t tell them anything else they don’t need to know.” She pointed to her eyes with two fingers and then turned those fingers on him. “I’m watching you.” And with that, she disappeared.
Drake let out a huge breath of relief. “She could have transported me to the epicenter of an earthquake or put me on a surfboard in a tsunami. She has threatened to do both of those things and more to paranormals who walked a little too close to the line.”
“Wow! Can she?” Amy exclaimed. “Would she?”
“She can, and not all of her threats are empty. Case in point—the dragon brat in Siberia. Let that be a lesson to you ladies. The all-powerful one is…”Holy crap.What could he say in case she was listening?
Gaia’s voice supplied the rest. “Touchy? Prickly? Easily pissed off? Be careful what you say next, dragon.”
Drake thought fast. “I was just going to say, ‘The all-powerful one is always right!’”
Still without showing herself, Mother Nature laughed wholeheartedly. “Nice save. Now change the subject or do something else. I have a planet to run.”
Everyone rose quickly.
“It’s nice to, um…meet you?” Amy said, her voice trembling a bit. “I should go upstairs and pack.”
“Yes, er, excuse me, I have to, um…” Kristine headed toward the downstairs bathroom.
Drake smirked. “I guess we’re done here. I’ll go home to my beautiful wife and son and count my blessings on the way.”
* * *
Amy and Kristine rode the train back to New York. With three and a half hours to sit and talk, they processed a lot of what they had learned not only about their species but also about their extended family.
“So, are you okay with possibly being related to Conlan?” Kristine whispered, hoping no one would overhear their bizarre conversation.
Amy leaned back and sighed. “You’d think I’d be extra sensitive to that, but to be honest, I really don’t care. If we are related, it’s not that close. They have an orange marking in their widow’s peaks, and ours are yellow.”
“So, if you have children, will they have orange streaks or yellow streaks or orange-yellow?”
Amy chuckled. “I don’t know. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.”
Kristine gazed at her lap. “So, I guessmyfather’s marking was yellow like ours, right?”
“I never saw it. He probably dyed his hair regularly. It was quite dark, and I don’t think that was natural. His complexion was like ours. Peaches and cream.” Amy rolled her eyes. “He used to refer to himself as tall, dark, handsome, and humble.”
“Geez, I’m kind of glad I never got to know him.”
“You and me both.”
