And so they pulled inside their minds, leaving their dragons to handle the most natural thing a mated den would ever do.
Aside from eating, that is.
Chapter Twenty-One
Leo
The alarm for the front door chirped over his phone, and he rose, Hallr leaning over him as he dislodged a few pups to stare at the notification—Frikka. Frikka carrying something over his shoulder.
“What the…” Leo squinted at his phone and roused himself, throwing a robe on from a valet as Hallr followed, carefully trying not to wake the few pups that had snuck their way in. They could get clingy in the spring after blanks passed, something instinctive about nesting or competition for resources—Leo didn’t understand all of it, but he loved his babies.
Hallr pushed ahead, waving a hand for Leo to hang back, but it was just Frikka, wasn’t it?
Through the estate they wandered, to the back of the house and out into the backyard where they found Frikka sitting, legs splayed and hunched over, holding a shovel over his shoulder. “Sorry for the waking.”
Frikka, wearing fluffy flannel pajama pants and a loose hooded sweatshirt, gave them a nod. “Go back to bed. Maybe accidentally unplug the security system?”
“Fuck that. Frikka, what’s going on?” Leo pushed Hallr aside and rested hands on his hips as he sniffed the air for an intruder. “Völur stuff?”
“I said go back to bed.” Frikka leaned forward, the tip of the shovel digging into the concrete, creating a little divot with a coarse noise that made Leo’s ears itch.
“Not happening. Völur stuff includes my baby.” Leo crossed his arms and tapped his foot, staring daggers at the chaotic Dette.
“That is no baby. That is monster. I should know. Takes one to know one.” Frikka picked at his teeth and sniffed. “For the time, I’ll get my hands dirty so his don’t get any bloodier.”
“Bloodier? As in there’s already blood on my kid’s hands?” Hallr’s voice rose in pitch to an unmanly timbre.
Frikka flinched as the creak of a window rattled out, drawing their collective attention.
A wire with a sensor and anchor taped together dangled from the sill as Cinder, in dragon form, stared out of the window and squeezed himself out, getting too big to do it.
He flitted down from the window and hit the ground with a squish, the ground still damp from a spring rain.
Frikka coughed loudly, making the Dette flinch. “You’re noisy. Fail.”
Cinder shifted into his human form and stomped over, naked as a jaybird, as he glared up at everyone. “Aww, man.”
“You’re messy.” Frikka sat up and swore under his breath.
“Gotta be quieter next time.” Cinder sighed as Frikka rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a child-size pair of shorts and shook them at him.
“Put that thing away unless you’re pissing on a corpse of the enemy.” Frikka muttered something about atisspikhanging out in the wind and cold stunting its growth,and Leo was lost. But not without ideas.
“Fine!” Cinder huffed and kicked at the ground, face twisted into a pout.
“Now, how bad is it?” Frikka stared the boy down.
Cinder shrugged.
Frikka whipped his head skyward, eyes scanning the horizon a second before the sound of flapping wings tickled Leo’s ears. Each second they grew closer, a rumble and growl low in the wind as an enormous dragon’s belly rippled the nighttime light in a streak.
“Fuuuuuck. It’s Ashwin.” Hallr bristled, scales readying up his arms until Frikka swung the shovel handle to whap him across the chest lightly.
The dragon landed in Hallr’s backyard, claws tearing up the sod needlessly as he scratched around, sniffing, eyes focused on the interspersed patches of nestblossom Hallr kept for the aesthetics. The true crops were hidden. Fields of them in two countries, a dozen greenhouses, and a dedicated laboratory. That wasn’t counting Hallr’s private study.
Ashwin took a great claw and swiped through the lawn, gathering a patch of flowers into a mutilated pile.
Cheezus, man, we just had that landscaped!Leo resisted all urge to shift and run out to stop the male, but his dragon screeched in alarm, forcing the shift as he registered that his child had strolled away from them, staring at the angry Drake tearing up their lawn.
