Page 10 of Myths and Shifts

Names usually weren’t hard for me but I’d never met anyone with their names before, so it was making it more difficult.

“Noooo…” Stretching out the word, he gave me an adorably wide-eyed frown. “I’m a good boy, Daddy. I just have to be nice. So I’m nice to the naughty people too.”

Bullshit.

“Is that it?” Nodding along with his nonsense, I let out a deep breath. “I’m glad. You look very sweet and nice.”

His snickers were not helping his image, but he was trying, so that counted.

“You look like a big strong dragon, Daddy.” His attempt at buttering me up was appreciated too, though. “And you share and you used good manners.”

Well, he’d helped me use good manners at the very least.

I hadn’t missed the way he’d been helpful every time he thought I was going to say something rude. He was very good at keeping his Daddy from offending everyone in town all at once. “You were a good helper. Thank you for that.”

I needed to get more information about what was going on before I pissed everyone off.

“I’m a good helper.” Sitting straighter, he did a little happy dance. “Mates should be good helpers.”

So it was a mate’s job to keep their mate from being a political disaster? Sounded reasonable to me. “Yes, but they can do that in different ways. I’m good with helping with cake and helping to color and taking care of my little mage.”

His shoulders shook as he snickered and forgot he was supposed to look sweet. “I’m a good helper with silly people.”

Oh yes.

“You were very good with the silly people and you were very helpful when you made a bubble for us.” That’d been amazing and incredibly easy for my fascinating little mate. He’d done it without getting out of his little headspace and it was so subtle everyone had just shifted around us without thinking about what he’d done.

Even two mages who’d walked by had shifted around the bubble without reacting to it at all. At the very least, I had an accomplished mate in several different categories without even taking into consideration how well he was managing me.

“Daddy needed a bubble.” Shrugging, he didn’t seem to realize how incredibly easy the magic was for him. “So I gave Daddy a bubble.”

“You did and I appreciate it.” It’d been exactly what I’d needed in the moment. “I think I’m used to spending more of my day alone and no one does that here.”

At work I made calls and appeared in court, but I had a lot of alone time sprinkled in my day. Hell, even when I went to the ranch to help out there was more quiet time than talking. The locals here didn’t seem to need that and were always around.

They’d even tracked me down at my hotel room to see if I needed anything and to show me around town. That was nice, but after the third round of people to come visit, it’d been exhausting.

“Hmm.” Scrunching his face up, Merritt made a thoughtful sound. “They like peopling, Daddy.”

“I would have to agree.” They liked it a lot. “They’re probably getting enough quiet time when they go home at night and don’t really think about it?”

I couldn’t find a better explanation but Merritt nodded and seemed to agree with me. “People don’t think.”

That was for damned sure.

“They don’t think about talking or making blue banana cake or doing a good job with the portal.” Merritt shook his head like they’d been very naughty.

“We’ll help them fix the portal problem, though.” I wasn’t sure there was anything we could do about the blue cake or their chattiness. “I’m thinking of suggesting that someone gets hired full time to watch over the area and the portal. Maybe two people? A mage and a dragon?”

I wasn’t sure if he was in the right headspace to have the conversation, but he didn’t give me any verbal or nonverbal pushback. He even kept wiggling excitedly as he nodded. “Oh, I like that. We need watchers. The people here get bored watching. There’s bugs. Only Paxton likes bugs. And sometimes it rains. And outside is hot and cold.”

No one had checked on the portal because the outside had bugs and it didn’t have AC or central heating?

Somehow, that didnotsurprise me.

“So we need to find people who like the outside and don’t mind bugs.” It should not be hard to find dragons who liked being outside, but maybe mages were pickier? “What else?”

Merritt seemed to like the conversation and plopped his elbows down on the table to rest his head in his hands in a very thinky manner. “They have to take notes?”

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