Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77127 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
How had the conversation gotten so off track?
“I think Alick is a bit worried that his mate might not find him attractive since he’s on the more muscular side of the attractiveness scale.” Daddy Monroe winked at me and pretended to ogle me, which made Lorne giggle. “But I’m sure he has nothing to worry about.”
Fingers crossed.
“I’m fine. I just…I misunderstood Lorne.” Daddy Monroe didn’t believe me for a second and Lorne looked confused, but Carrick’s ranting started again, so it distracted everyone.
“I don’t know what to do if a dozen mates turn up like the rabbits.” Shaking his head, Carrick frowned. “What if it’s fucked with his mate’s magic? What if I fucked things up and a woman shows up?”
Great dragons above.
“No.” Shaking my head, I glared at Lorne, whose eyes had finally widened. “I get a male mate. That’s not in question here.”
There’d better not be a woman showing up.
I didn’t want a Mommy.
“I’m sure it’s going to be fine.” Lorne seemed to have realized how badly things might go and was looking around the room at everyone. “Papa is a wonderful mage and he always says intent is a big part of what makes magic work.”
“He thought he was searching for a sex toy.” How would that affect intent? “I don’t think I want to know how his intent might fuck things up.”
Daddy Monroe was trying not to laugh, but I was more focused on the way Carrick was muttering to himself and shaking his head. It didn’t look good, but most of his complaining didn’t seem to be about anything other than rabbits and sex toys, so I wasn’t sure how seriously to take him.
“No, his words were about finding something important that Alick needed and he told me to think about Alick.” Lorne said that entirely too casually and didn’t seem to understand why all of us had gone still at the same time. “What? I was thinking nice things.”
My mate was going to turn out to be a shiny rabbit covered in glitter or rhinestones.
“What kind of things were you thinking about?” Carrick finally stopped pacing and took a deep breath, probably realizing that ranting was not helping the situation or making Lorne feel bad about what he’d done.
I could’ve told him that would be impossible to accomplish, but he wasn’t my mate, so I ignored that part.
“Well.” Lorne got a thinking face that looked like he was in the middle of a cartoon and started pacing around the kitchen. He was clearly imitating Carrick, which Daddy Monroe thought was adorable. The mage in question, though, seemed to be mentally debating how he was going to torture Lorne.
But since I was on the mage’s side with this one, I just inched toward the door again.
“Okay, I was thinking about how he wanted his mate and how wonderful Alick is for a human.”
For a human?
Nope.
I wasn’t going to interrupt and risk distracting the dragon with a squirrel brain.
“I was focusing on his mate and wanting him to come find Alick.” Frowning, Lorne shrugged. “And maybe I was hoping he had a big dick? I can’t remember exactly.”
Oh fuck.
“I’m going to end up with a rabbit shifter that’s hung like an elephant…and they’re somehow going to be a woman.” I wasn’t sure if I was overreacting or not, but Lorne huffed.
“I was thinking about a man. Duh. I’m not stupid.” He seemed very confident about both of those facts, but I wasn’t sure what the right response would be, so I focused on Carrick.
He looked much more rational and less likely to zap anyone, so it felt safe for the time being. “I’m very sorry things got out of hand. Lorne said he talked to you about it and then gave me a hug and said you both respected my privacy.”
I’d just made assumptions I shouldn’t have.
Carrick’s sigh said he was thinking something along the same lines. “I’m not mad at you. This is not a hairbrained idea that you would’ve come up with.”
Nope.
My impulse control issues ran in other directions.
“Can I ask if this is going to damage my mate? Um, what will the spell do if I don’t have a mate? I’m not sure where to start worrying here.” The list in my head was growing by leaps and bounds. “Will this fuck with a regular human that wasn’t meant to be my mate? What if Lorne accidentally pictured some guy he saw in porn or in an ad? Will he just show up randomly?”
Lorne huffed and was clearly offended about something, but we all voted to ignore him for now.
Daddy Monroe was back to jumping between shock and laughter, and Carrick was looking up at the ceiling like he was praying to the ancestors for help.
They didn’t seem to be listening at the moment, but I didn’t interrupt just in case.