Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77812 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“Well, you’re going to have to be the one to deal with her calls for a while because I’m going where no cell phone has gone before.”
Wren showed me the opening of a space show, quickly explaining the joke as Pierce just stared at us in silence. My mate seemed pleased with his actions because he smiled brighter and picked up his fork. “Have you had the waffles? I think they’re better than the pancakes.”
My mate was evil.
His laughter and the kiss he gave my cheek said he understood the praise. “Thank you, Daddy.”
Pierce blinked several times. “You’ve…you’ve got a strong bond.”
It seemed to be a move in the right direction, a saying that was odd but effective, and made my mate very pleased. He straightened and wiggled excitedly before snuggling against me. “It’s amazing. I never expected to love it so much.”
He smiled.
Maybe Pierce was not as upset about Wren mating an alien as we had expected?
****
My mate was remarkably stubborn.
“That is not what I was saying.” His drama was nearly performative…and I knew that word was accurate because of Pierce’s grumbling. Still, it seemed to be my place in the game to push back against his behavior. “I simply don’t like the way you described it as being boring and blending in. My mate is a wonderful predator and I will not let you ignore that.”
Had he been standing, my mate would’ve stomped his foot. “I get to pick and choose where I’m little and when I want to have people stare at me, Daddy. If I want to be boring and blend in, that’s my right as a pain in the ass.”
Our audience seemed to be influencing how stubborn he was being, so I kept that in mind as I gave him a stern expression.
“You are deliberately drawing attention to us, my mate.”
The tall frowning man from Canada should not have told him to put his coloring pages away.
“Yep. They have to learn I’m going to be me and no one was asking enough questions.”
My mate was smart and the pain in the ass he claimed to be.
“Thank you, Daddy.”
The Canada man was stubborn as well and continued to glare at Wren, but the man from Florida who made everyone roll their eyes was more curious than stubborn. “I have a question.”
Wren was very pleased with the direction the meeting was taking.
“This is going to be fun.”
Because the man was odd or because we were finally going to discuss something helpful?
“Yes?” Pierce looked bored but Wren’s mental chatter disagreed with his presentation. “Did you have a question about the plan before we started?”
“Yes. Um. Kind of.” The man with the confusing name frowned and didn’t back down. “I don’t mean to be rude this time, but it seems like you’ve decided you’re going through the portal. So…what do you actually do and why are you taking toys through?”
Did he understand he’d been rude other times?
It seemed like a development the diner men should be made aware of.
My Wren seemed to decide he liked the strange dinosaur man better than the mage from Canada because he smiled widely. “I’m a little and I’m the only wilderness and survival expert the council was able to find. For some reason, even dragons don’t seem to like roughing it, but we do like toys.”
And crayons.
Were crayons toys?
Laughter came from many around the room, but the dragon Kenzie nodded seriously. “Even my dragon likes pillows and toys. I think roughing it is a human quality. No offense.”
My mate frowned but his brain took off in a new direction as he processed the interesting dragon’s opinion. “None taken. I learned from a human, so you might be right. He was my first crush, so I had to do a good job.”
Yes, I could see why he found the man to be attractive, but my favorite part was his giggles as he made Pierce’s face scrunch up. “Don’t tell your mother that.”
Wren’s grin did not match the wicked thoughts in his head. “That’s why she tried to send me to that behave yourself camp.”
No.
There was nothing wrong with my mate.
Pierce didn’t seem pleased with that reminder and glared as he turned back to the man from Florida. “He’s actually an expert in his field and the best choice unless we want to bring in a full human.”
“Ha. I knew they’d hate that idea.”
“My mate, were you shocking them into accepting any behavior you performed?”
I wasn’t happy with the wording, but Wren’s mental giggle said I’d made my point.
Debate went on around us as he did his best to justify and distract me from pointing out his bad behavior. It was easy to ignore most of what was going on around us as they started to talk about who should go through the portal.
But we both shifted our attention when Pierce brought the conversation back to us. “As you can see, the council group has expanded to include Wren’s new mate. They met recently and he’s also here about the portal.”