Page 95 of Wishes and Research

But that was almost a year ago.

Stefan’s mouth opened but it took a few tries for words to come out. “I…I heard a woman…one of the mages…talk about a hike that they were supposed to do right after I got here. She said they’d canceled it at the last minute, but she said they weren’t going to tell. I think she said they were going shopping? I don’t know. It was a while ago and there was so much weird stuff going on at that point.”

That’d probably been the most normal conversation our new librarian had overheard.

“Melinda. Someone must’ve scheduled her to do the hike on the same day that pottery festival is on.” She was slightly rabid about that. “We need someone else to set up the schedule for this.”

I wasn’t even sure who was in charge anymore, but it wasn’t me, and they’d done a piss-poor job of it.

“Um, last spring someone at the diner was talking about the hike and said they got turned around.” Lorne shrugged as the details got vague. “They said they felt like they were going in circles and just gave up. I thought they were just lazy because I’d have been lazy and it’d sounded like a good excuse.”

Several other people nodded, so I knew it wasn’t just something random he’d put together.

“They probably were lazy but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t going in circles.” I wasn’t going to say they were wrong because things had gotten fucked up around that time. “Are we saying that no one has been up here to check on the portal in nearly a year?”

For fuck’s sake.

The bobbing heads around me didn’t make me feel any better.

“There was a smaller earthquake last fall after your hike.” Kenzie’s voice was soft and still filled with awe as he stared at the portal. “I think…I think it was the weekend most of you went to that teaching convention thing. It…it was small and everyone ignored it. My toys barely even wiggled.”

Clearly, something had done more than wiggle the portal.

“Is this where the bugs came from, Daddy?” Paxton didn’t seem to care that everyone could hear or that he was still being carried, but his death grip on my neck said he wasn’t going to agree to being put down anytime soon.

“I…I don’t know.” I had more questions than answers and the list just got longer as a colorful butterfly I couldn’t remember the name of slowly made its way across the meadow and then through the portal. “Great dragons above.”

“Did…” Grady took a moment and swallowed before he dragged Alick farther back from the portal. “We all saw that, right?”

“Wow.” The awe in Kenzie’s voice was understandable but the way he took a step forward was not.

“Mackenize. I’m not going to another planet.” Talon started mumbling something about fucking aliens before he got back on track. “I have work tomorrow and you have that train set to fix. We’re not going into that portal.”

He had a point but it would’ve sounded better without all the fucking aliens mixed in as he kept muttering to himself.

“It’s shiny.” Lorne hadn’t moved closer, but his mates each took an arm to keep the impulsive dragon from doing anything ridiculously impulsive. “I just want to pet it, Daddy.”

For fuck’s sake.

Paxton held me tighter. “I don’t want to touch it.”

Well, at least a few of us had common sense and self-restraint.

But that might’ve been because he had bigger things on his mind. “Daddy…you…you’re not going to leave me, right? You said…you said your people came through the portal. Will they want to go back?”

My people couldn’t be trusted to meet strangers without setting off alarm bells. No one in town should be allowed to make a decision like that.

Oh wow.

Everyone in town.

Shit.

“This isn’t just an issue for the local council.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. “This is a problem for every council.”

Paxton’s fear coming through our bond and the way he hid his face against my neck had some of my brain clearing.

My mate.

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