Page 23 of Bitten in the Wild

“She’d win,” Nycto said.

“Huh?” I blinked.

“He’s wondering if he could take a wild dragon in a fight. He couldn’t. Maybe a hatchling that was less than a decade old, but not one as old as my mother. She’d have him for dinner and floss with his scales.”

That got Sunny’s attention.

“Are you thinking about fighting wild dragons?”

“It was a hypothetical,” Sunny shrugged. “I’m not really going to fight his mother.”

“Townies,” Nycto swore under his breath, and I almost reconsidered inviting the rest of the crew out.

Teddy flashed Sunny a look that I couldn’t completely read, and Sunny sighed.

“I’m sorry,” Sunny said a second later.

“It’s okay,” Nycto shrugged. “There’s not really a lot of fighting out here, but we can hold our own. Maybe you should visit 2, if you want to fight. I wouldn’t recommend fighting the wild dragons there, either. Stick to the townie fights.”

Sunny opened his mouth but thought better of it. Waj waddled over and looked up at him. I left the dotter to ensure he didn’t do anything untoward and turned my attention back to my mate. I rubbed slow circles on his back as the gummies took effect.

Teddy tilted his head to the side as if speaking to someone over the flight link. Probably, Fred. His father still worried about him as if he were still a hatchling. Teddy handled it better than a lot of dragons I knew.

“OUCH!” Sunny said and leapt back from Waj. “That little fucker pinched me!”

Waj fell back with little barks that I was pretty sure meant he thought it was hilarious. Sunny rubbed his calf, glaring at him.

“Yeah, he’s protective of Mom,” Nycto laughed.

“Didn’t know it could pinch!” Sunny said and let out a long line of cuss words.

“He,” Nycto said. “Waj is a guy not an it.”

“Castor says they can fly out in a few hours if you want them to. Elio wants to come too,” Teddy said a moment later, ignoring Sunny’s bitching. “Melon will watch the babies along with her egg. Oh and her egg is healthy but still an egg.”

“It’s hard to tell how long they’ll be guarding that baby that way,” I said. “Tell Castor a few hours should be fine. We’ll be able to give him an exact location soon.”

“They can come to the house,” Nycto said a moment later.

“Are you sure?”I asked, double checking with him over our mating link.

“I mean, I don’t like new people most of the time and that one looks like a himbo, but they’re your family.”

“That they are. Himbo. Don’t let him know you called him that. He’d probably take it as a compliment,”I chuckled.

Chapter Eight

Nycto

With morning sickness still lurking on the horizon, my dragon refused to take back over. So Waj and I flew back to the nest on Izora’s back with Sunny and Teddy following us. I wasn’t thrilled about having visitors and I wouldn’t let them into the actual nesting room just yet, but they were Izora’s family. Besides, the nice one and the himbo flew all the way out here to bring me medicine and gave my mate some weird little machine too. Later, I’d ask Izora what it was.

Seeing us head home, Mom returned to her normal day-to-day activities and stopped following us around. Townies would never understand how much ‘back watching’ went on in the mushie forest. Sure, we were at the top of the food chain, but it was nice to have someone looking out for you in case you got stuck somewhere or injured in some way.

Back at the nest, I went down first with Waj. I sent him off to his play cavern to get him out of the way. I wasn’t sure how the others would take to him after he pinched the shit out of Sunny. Sure, the orange dragon deserved it, but everyone else might not see it that way. With him safely out of the way, I called for Izora to bring the other two down. I expected some snide remarks, but both of the newcomers landed at the bottom of the slide laughing. I barely pulled them out of the way before Izora came down after them.

I led the way to the kitchen with Izora bringing up the rear, keeping our guests between us so that they didn’t wander off or get lost in a side cavern. Once they were settled in the kitchen I headed to the nesting room for a quick shower. I kept my link wide open with Izora so I could hear if either of the new guyscaused him any trouble. Sure, they were part of his flight, but no one was coming into our home and insulting my mate. Mostly, Sunny wanted to know what the big secret was but Izora wasn’t budging. He’d tell the story one time but not until everyone else arrived.

I decided sandwiches were probably the safest thing to feed them. I didn’t want to risk accidentally poisoning one of them, that wouldn’t end well for anyone. By the time I arrived in the kitchen Izora had already made up sandwiches and started the coffee pot. I hoped they didn’t use as much sugar as he did, or we’d run out by the time the rest of their friends arrived.

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