Page 22 of Meet Me in the Stars

“YOU’RE NOT HER! WHAT WITCHCRAFT IS THIS?” Fred roared again.

“Dad! DAD! Stop it!”

“She sent me!” I shouted over the growling and snarling dragons. “Lotus sent me! We met in the Other World! You were there too! If you just stop and give me two minutes to explain---”

He cut off my words with another shot of fire.

“This shit is getting old!” I roared, dodging the flame. “This isn’t how it’s supposed to work!”

“LIAR!” Fred bellowed.

“I am not a liar!” I growled and charged toward him.

He blew another line of flame, but I sunk low, meaning to headbutt him in the place his neck met his chest. If I had been lucky, it would’ve been enough to knock the air out of him. I wasn’t lucky. Fred lurched upward, dragging his son with him.

“Frost damn it!” I swore under my breath and lunged higher at his exposed belly.

He jerked to the left and breathed out more fire. Had he swallowed a damn elemental? He should’ve been out of fuel by now! No dragon has an endless fire!

“Dad!”

“Shut up, Teddy! Go back to the ship and wait for me there! As soon as I fry this liar, we’re going back to Earthside!”

I lunged again, hoping to catch him distracted. He caught the tip of my wing in his massive maw. I yelped and fought against the urge to pull away. A torn wing would send me plummeting toward the ground. Our gazes met. How did I not look like a liar when everything inside his grieving heart told him I was?

“If you know her, prove it!” He growled through the teeth clamped around my wing.

I racked my brain. Lotus had told me so much about Fred before I ever met him, but most of that stuff could be public knowledge – all stuff he might believe anyone could just look up and use against him. Poly-mateship by gland wasn’t as common as it’s counter part of just having one true-mate. I wasn’t sure why. Sometimes I thought it was just a Starscale thing, but from how Fred reacted to me, it was probably an Earthside thing too. True-mates could be poly and true. Only, most folks hadn’t wrapped their heads around that.

“Don’t make me embarrass you,” I said, my draconic words coming out in an almost-whisper.

Despite his trying to cook me alive, I didn’t want to hurt him. Not physically and certainly not emotionally. Ego was important for dragons. I’d much rather he nibbled my ear than tear off my wing, but he had the upper hand here.

“Ha!” Fred laughed.

“That’s it! You want proof? You want to know something that only she would’ve been able to tell me? You have a freckle on the back of your scrotum, Fred Moonscale.”

He let go of my wing and flapped backwards a few times. His massive head fell down onto his chest and for a second I thought he was going to cry or laugh. Then he plummeted like dead weight. Had I killed him? No, he was breathing. He’d either passed out or chosen to go into a draconic sleep.

“Help me!” Teddy roared, swooping in under his father and catching him mid-fall.

I joined and flapped upwards until we managed to get him level. Then another omega dragon joined us.

“That’s Castor. He won’t eat you,” Teddy grumbled.

“Let’s just get him down before we start a war,” the newcomer muttered.

“This isn’t the most violent true-mate reaction Starscale 1 has seen,” I said, as together we flew Fred to the ground.

As soon as his scaley belly touched what was left of the purple star grass, he shifted back into his human form. He was even more beautiful than I remembered.

“Are they going to stop us from moving him back onto the ship?” Castor asked me.

“No, my uncle is laughing his ass off over the family link. He’s such a cactus dick. I hope he laughs so hard he sits on his own nuts,” I swore under my breath.

“I don’t know what’s going on with you and Fred, but I didn’t know anything about whatever the fuck that just was,” Castor said, wiping his sweaty forehead on his shoulder.

“We true-mate responded,” I shrugged, hauling Fred’s shoulders up while Teddy grabbed his feet.

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