Page 20 of Immortal Bonds

Creighton bit his lip and stared at the phone.

I'll try to work on it, I guess.

Oh, you absolutely will, Little Biter. I'm going to make sure of it. Together, we will show you how to embrace your skill in a way that shows pride. Humility is great, but sometimes you need to stand up for yourself.

Creighton sighed, leaning back in his chair as he stared at the device in his hand. How in the world was his Daddy going to manage this? And what did that mean he had to do? The unknown was very scary, and Creighton wasn't sure he liked it much.

CHAPTER 7

THALRIC

Thalric frowned down at his screen. He didn't like the way his boy spoke about himself, about his work. He could tell that Little Biter wasn't confident in the beautiful creations he'd made. Those were the types of things that people paid really good money for. Things that Boys and Littles everywhere would love to receive. He understood his boy was shy.

That had been proven time and time again through the months. He'd had to pry most of the facts he knew about his Little Biter out of the boy in some way or another. But this was very different.

When he'd made the promise to get his boy to understand how to be proud of his work without being an asshole, he had been speaking on the fly with no true direction of where it was going to go. And now he had to deliver.

"What are you frowning about, Uncle T?" Eden said from where he'd dropped down beside the other man.

"I just have a friend who's not really confident in themselves. I want to help them get better about it, but I'm not quite sure how to do that."

Eden chuckled. "Yeah, I know someone like that too. It’s very frustrating. I tell him all the time, you have a great skill and you're not making the most of it. But does he listen to me? Nope, not one bit. I can't complain too much though, considering his lack of trying harder to be famous means that I get to keep him to myself."

Thalric hummed, thinking of what it would mean to have his Little Biter all to himself.

Eden took a big sniff and groaned. "Come on, old man, we're supposed to be having playtime, not thinking about naughty bits time. You can do that somewhere else, not in my playroom."

Thalric pushed down all the thoughts he had of his Little Biter and instead focused on his nephew. Eden being Little made sense to anyone who came into contact with him. The moment Thalric had seen the playroom, he'd known for sure that it was Eden's doing. Every bit of it screamed the reflection of his nephew's outstanding personality.

"Ah, that's right. Where were we?"

"We were about to save the prince in the castle."

Thalric focused on Eden and the game. Keeping himself preoccupied would do him some good. Later, he could formulate a specific plan to get his Little Biter to understand just how skilled he was.

They'd been playing for a little while when a text came through on Eden's phone. The Little yanked it off the shelf where it had been sitting and pulled the device up close.

"Were you expecting someone?" Thalric asked. They'd been deep in their game, and for Eden to jump like that must have meant it was someone important.

Eden read whatever was on the screen, then squealed and did a little happy shuffle. "It's ready, it's ready. I can't believe it's ready," he sang.

Thalric put the toy in his hand down and faced his nephew. "What's ready? You sure are happy about it."

Eden looked from his phone to his uncle, biting his lip.

"Whatever you tell me will remain a secret, I promise. Unless it's something that's going to hurt you — of course, I won't allow that to continue."

Eden rolled his eyes. "It's not going to hurt me. Far from it."

He turned the screen around to reveal a stuffed dragon. A stuffed dragon that looked oddly similar to one he'd seen earlier that day. One that his Little Biter had put together.

"Where did you get this from?" Thalric asked his nephew, working hard to keep his voice even. There must have still been some type of accusation in it because Eden pulled his phone back and held it close to his chest.

"I didn't say. It's my secret, my friend. Why do you want to know?"

Thalric had to fight with his dragon to not push further with his nephew. It wasn’t Eden's fault that he was reacting the way he was. It could be a coincidence. Purely a random connection. Just because it was similar didn't mean that his Little Biter and the person who made this were the same.

"I was asking because I know someone who also makes things like that. I was shown one earlier today. It was just so similar I couldn't believe it. I had to know if it was a small-world moment or if I was imagining it."