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)
Alick buried his face against my neck and shook as he laughed. “You’re so sneaky. I’ll never be able to do anything naughty.”
Shrugging, I couldn’t resist teasing him. “That means you’re going to have to try harder to be good at it.”
I was definitely setting myself up for trouble later, but his friends were terrible at being subtle, so I wasn’t too worried.
They’d plan something devious.
They’d talk about it in pubic.
Someone in town would accidentally tattle on them.
Yep, aside from ending up with a slightly frustrated boy, I wasn’t worried.
Well, I wasn’t worried about mischief. I was, however, worried about the swing crashing to the floor, but it seemed to be fine. I was a trust but verify kind of dragon when it came to magic, so I saw the magic reinforcing it when I finally focused on it and went searching for the specific spell.
Alick yawned, mumbling softly as I continued to swing us. “What was that?”
What had he sensed?
Could he feel it because of our mate bond?
“I was testing the magic to see if I could figure out the spell. I’m not really good at it but I do okay.” I thought the answer would make sense, but he went still and sat up, looking at me like I’d grown a second head.
“You can use magic?” His question left me confused until I remembered how weird his town was.
“Yeah, but like I said, not very well. My great-grandfather was a pretty good mage from what I’m told, but the dragon genetics run stronger.” My brain finally connected the dots and a few thoughts clicked.
Mages weren’t another type of human.
Yep, I had questions that we were going to have to come back to later, but for now, I rubbed Alick’s back as I rambled. “From what I understand, we were part of a group that went west as some of the first settlers. Probably for the space to fly and the privacy. But back then it was so hard to keep in touch I’m not surprised that we lost that part of our history.”
“Didn’t…” Another yawn caught him before he could get his thought out and he had to try again. “Didn’t you ever wonder where you were from and stuff like that?”
Thinking about the question and hoping answering it wouldn’t stress him out, I shrugged. “Honestly, growing up I was more interested in tracking kinks down online and trying to figure out which guys at school were gay. It was a small fucking school and I didn’t have that many options.”
There hadn’t been much internet either…life was hard for a queer, kinky dragon in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Giggling softly, Alick nodded. “Okay, yeah, I can see that. I guess we’ve just had different focuses here.”
Because evidently this was where we’d come from.
Shrugging off the weirdness, I kissed his head and tried to steer the conversation away from stressful things. “I think growing up in isolated communities just shifted how we did things because most of the kids I grew up with had a mix of ancestors between mages, dragons, and regular humans.”
“That sounds nice.” Voice dropping, Alick seemed to be fighting to stay awake but the rocking was definitely his weak spot when it came to naps. “I just…we had…classes in school and history…we’ve been…Lorne would be funny as a mage too…”
And then he was out.
No, Lorne would not be funny as a mix of dragon and mage. Kenzie either. Those two would be trouble if they had power and a severe lack of common sense. Some of the other people he mentioned might be able to keep themselves from doing ridiculous things, but no one I’d met so far had enough common sense.
But I wasn’t going to point that out to Alick unless I really had to.
No, he was adorable and so endlessly patient with the stupid people around him that I wasn’t going to upset him. I’d just watch after him carefully and make sure everyone knew what I’d do to them if they got him injured or hurt his feelings.
I might not be a cannibal but I could wreak havoc on people if it came down to it.
I passed the next hour coming up with good ways to fuck with everyone and browsing on my phone to see if I could find anything that looked like actual dragon history. By the time Jeff texted me, I’d decided there were way too many dirty shifter books and not enough of the authors had actually met dragons.
Or mages.
So I was ready for a less dirty distraction when his text popped up on my screen.
You dead?
It was wonderful to have such a loving and supportive family.
No such luck, dickhead.
His response had me trying not to laugh.
Damn. I was hoping to cash out your insurance. Erin says we need a trailer too.