Page 172 of Gift from the Nexus

Pussies.

“What’s going on?” Keeper asks.

Ignoring him, I grip my little wanderer by the back of her neck and pull her against me so I can kiss her senselessly before we step away, giving each other room.

With perfect precision, we tilt our heads back and let the shift come over us. So many times in my life, I’ve absolutely hated shifting in front of other people, letting them gawk at me like some freak, but right now, I won’t deny the thrill. I’m eager to show my dragon off to Keeper and Tanith. I want them to see how fucking badass me and Willow are.

The only two of our kind.

Little wanderer decided to go with her twenty-foot size, and I wanted to go full fucking hundred-foot mode but thought better of it. It’d probably be overkill, but I did shift to about thirty feet so the guys have plenty of room and if Tanith or Willow needed me, I’d be big enough to assist.

Peering down, everyone is staring at Keeper, and I swallow the lump in my throat and do the same, prepared for whatever reaction I’m going to get. Bad or good.

His eyes bounce rapidly between the three of us. His mouth opens and closes countless times in the span of a few seconds, and I see the multitude of questions running through his mind. I think he’s in shock.

Little wanderer gracefully, well, as gracefully as she can, walks behind me where Tanith has taken a few steps toward us. When she approaches the smaller dragon, the energy in the air shifts as she shrinks down to her size. Together, the two of them lean in and lay their foreheads together.

“This…this is real. No illusions or trickery,” Keeper mutters.

Slowly, I lower my body down to the ground in front of him. Unlike Tanith, I won’t be bowing to him—little wanderer is the only person I’ll bow to—but I will make myself smaller for him to get a better look.

“My son…a dragon,” he mumbles as he slowly reaches his hand out before retracting it. “Can you communicate with me like Tanith can?” At the shake of my head, he looks over at his dragon and nods. “She says you can understand me, though. May I touch you?”

I don’t answer right away. I give my dragon a moment to gauge how both he and I feel about that. It’s a little personal this early on, but I don’t want to crush the light in his eyes, so I subtly nod. The moment his hand presses between my snout, something happens. Something tingles and he lets out a bolstering laugh.

“Magnifico. You are perfection, my son. I’m so honored to have this privilege.” He steps away from me, beaming. I don’t know what that was, but it was obviously something important, and his words cause emotion to rise in me rapidly.

“I’ll explain to you what that was when you are ready, but for now, let us fly,” Tanith says and she lowers her body, rumbling.

Keeper must know that’s her way of telling him to hurry his ass up because he jogs off, looking back at me a few times before he climbs on her.

Willow takes a second to shift back to her larger size and lowers herself as Oakly, Nikoli, Aria, and Lyker climb on. My laugh bursts out of me in a flurry of small roars at his petrified face. If Oakly and Aria weren’t joining them, I’d tell Willow to do some crazy shit to really scare him.

Next time.

“Lead the way, dragon,” little wanderer commands in my mind and I let out a warning roar that I’m taking off.

Beating my wings, I allow myself to float off the ground and circle the space low. Willow mimics my position as we wait for Tanith to get her bearings back.

All it takes is a couple beats of her wings, a few practice leaps, and her claws retract from the dirt, and she takes off, soaring through the air. Chasing her freedom.

Oakly’s and Aria’s cheering is loud. It can be heard over the winds as little wanderer races after her. As always, my brothers are stoic on my back and I don’t have to have eyes in the back of my head to know that they’re just staring at Willow. They’d benefit a lot by letting loose and enjoying the ride and the show.

Either Tanith isn’t a risky flyer like me and little wanderer because she levels out with no crazy acrobats, or she just wants to get the feeling of flight back first. So without encouraging any craziness, I glide between the two of them as I catch up. Thewarm air and the clouds usually calm my racing thoughts, but today’s different. Now that we’re in the sky where no one can talk to me or distract me, I can’t help but think about everything that’s happened.

Part of me really wants to just go all in with Keeper. Accept him. Accept the fact I have a father who wants to be a part of my life. I mean, since the moment little wanderer announced it, he was all in. He’s been acting like he’s known me his whole life. Then the other part of me completely rebels. I know everything he’s done has been forced on him, so I don’t hold that against him, but it’s how everything happened with my mom that throws me.

Did he know she was pregnant? Did he know she was a drug addict or was whatever happened between them what caused her to turn to the illegal elixirs? Why were they so careless? Why wasn’t she taking conception tonics? Does he have any idea how bad the first fourteen years of my life were?

So many questions come and they make my mind a war zone. My thoughts jump from being understanding to being angry every few seconds. It’s too fucking much and honestly, I can answer some for myself, like no, of course he has no clue what my life’s been like, but it’s all too overwhelming to process in one day.

“Little wanderer.”

“Yeah, dragon,” she says softly like she knew I was going to seek her out and I open the line of communication for the guys too.

“What’s the matter, brother?” Caspian asks as my silence falls heavy.

“I don’t know what to do. I have a million questions. I don’t know if I want to acknowledge this relationship yet.”

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