Page 32 of The Dragon, the Bear, and Their Sugar Glider Omega

“Like breakfast in bed. Yeah,” I said. “We can eat with him.”

“We can talk to him then and find out what his needs are. Maybe he craves something special and different. I’ll do everything in my power to give it to him.”

When lunchtime came, we brought Clay a special tray with delicious food. It even had a water glass with a flower in it.

Clay had cute bed hair sticking out on one side. He wore my favorite of his boxer shorts, pink with little squirrels all over them. They rode up his lean-muscled thighs nicely as he sat up straight to accept the tray.

“Thanks. I have the best mates in the world.”

Armel sat next to him in the bed. I brought up a chair to face them both. We all dug into the hot ham and cheese sandwiches Armel had made, and crunched on fresh fruit and homemade fries, again thanks to Armel.

Clay was practically inhaling the food. “I didn’t realize I was so hungry.”

“We want to talk to you, too,” I said. “How are you feeling?”

“Just one of those tired days.”

“Right.” Armel raised his eyebrow at me. “Do you think you might be nesting?”

Clay frowned. “Not sure. I’ve never done this before. Wild sugar gliders live in multiple nests, but we keep our babies in our pouch until they’re old enough to come out.”

“But you have at least one egg,” I reminded him.

“I know.” He put his hand on his stomach.

“Dragons have nests. It would make sense that you might feel an instinct to make one.”

“If I do make a nest, can I use some of your pens?”

I sat back. It was something I’d never considered before. The only people I’d ever allowed to touch my hoard had been my mates, and of course they could utilize them however they wanted. My chest swelled, and my eyes filled with tears of joy for my family. “Yes. I’m honored that you’d want to.”

“I want the candy cane one for sure!”

We all laughed.

“That reminds me,” I said. “I have a pen I got when I first arrived here in San Diego. I got it from one of the customers at the bar. I’d forgotten but now I remember. He was an omega sugar glider and his mate was some sort of bird. The pen had his business info on it. He was an insurance salesman or something like that. I completely forgot. I’m going to go find it and see if I can find his number.”

“Why?” Clay asked.

“If he has kids with a bird, he’d know firsthand about being a sugar glider with eggs. Maybe he’d be willing to give us pointers about what we can expect and if you might have any special needs?”

Armel spoke with his mouth full. “That’s a great idea, Rome.”

As soon as lunch was over, I went into my hoard room. So many pens. Too many.

Never too many.

I spoke to my dragon aloud. “You’re right. There’s some space left on some of these shelves for more.”

I immediately spied the candy cane pen Clay had specifically requested. My dragon had no qualms about letting him have it.

I remembered the pen the sugar glider customer gave me was a clear blue one. My mates and I had actually arranged the hoard by color, so I started searching there. Many pens I had were of the swag sort—free promotional materials. One of the most popular colors was blue. And tons of them had writing on them.

Methodically, I went through every single one. About twenty minutes into my search, I found what I thought was the right pen. So many free pens had websites only on them. But much to my delight, this one had a phone number. And a name. Elias.

In seconds, I had my cell out and was calling the number.

The other end picked up right away. “Hello?”

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